ABUSE TRACKER

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

August 29, 2018

Rep. Higgins on bishop’s statement: ‘You don’t need a task force, you need a strike force.’

BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

August 26, 2018

By Mark Sommer

Too little, too late.

That was the view of two leading critics of Bishop Richard J. Malone’s handling of the sex abuse scandal after he refused to resign Sunday and put forward remedies for the diocese to move forward.

“I believe the only appropriate course of action in light of the investigation, and the facts that have been revealed, is for the bishop to resign and allow a new leader to commence the reforms that need to be done,” said Paul L. Snyder III, chief executive officer of the Snyder Corp., echoing an earlier call.

“It’s an extraordinarily disappointing day in the history of our diocese,” he said.

Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, also reiterated that Malone needs to resign.

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.

Rose McGowan urges Asia Argento to ‘Do the right thing,’ believes she slept with Bennett

UNITED STATES
GMA

August 28, 2018

By George Costantino and /michael Rothman

Rose McGowan had some strong words for her #MeToo ally Asia Argento on Monday: “Do the right thing.”

In a statement sent to ABC News, McGowan described the events leading up to her discovery that Argento had allegedly paid off actor Jimmy Bennett, who has claimed the Italian actress sexually assaulted him when he was 17 and she was 37, according to a report published by The New York Times a week ago.

McGowan, 44, writes that she learned of Argento’s alleged sexual encounter with Bennett through her partner, Rain Dove, whom she’d introduced to Argento a month ago.

McGowan said that Argento, 42, revealed in a series of text messages to Dove that she had “indeed slept with” Bennett years back, and had “been receiving unsolicited nudes of Jimmy since he had been 12,” but had not taken any action to stop Bennett from sending more.

A representative for Rain Dove confirmed that everything McGowan said in the statement was “factual,” and said that Dove will soon put out a statement 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.

OPINION: By secular standards, the Catholic Church is a corrupt organization

CANADA
CBC News

August 26, 2018

By Neil Macdonald

Federal authorities should treat it like one

WARNING: This column contains disturbing details

Imagine for a moment that a big, admired multinational corporation, one selling a beloved product, was employing large numbers of male pedophiles and rapists, operating in rings all over the world, and that their crimes had been uncovered in Australia, Ireland, Canada, the Philippines, Belgium, France, Austria, New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, Britain, Germany and the United States, and, further, that senior executives had systematically covered up and suppressed evidence, transferring and enabling hundreds of predators, betraying thousands of victims.

What would happen to the company is not terribly difficult to imagine.

At a minimum, the U.S. government would likely use its Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law to go after not only the rapists and molesters, but also the company’s executives, up to and including its CEO if possible, seizing the company’s assets and seeking the harshest possible prison terms. That’s the sort of thing RICO was invented for. The company would almost certainly collapse.

But of course no company’s warranty guarantees everlasting life, and no company maintains that its CEO is chosen by God.

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.

Multi-Generational Incest in the Catholic Church

BALTIMORE (MD)
Podles.org

August 28, 2018

By Leon J. Podles

A significant portion of sexual abusers of boys in the Catholic Church – I would estimate half – fall into the pattern of multigenerational incest.

One case which I witnessed from various angles over forty years exemplifies this pattern.

In 1964 I entered Calvert Hall College High School in Baltimore, an all-boys’ school. So did Jeff (Jerome) Toohey. He was not in the advanced class, so I did not know him well, but we had many mutual acquaintances.

After high school Toohey entered the seminary for the archdiocese of Baltimore. He studied at St. Mary’s Seminary in Roland Park, near where I live. At that time Richard Sipe, a psychologist and later an expert in clerical sexual abuse, was teaching there. Years later Sipe told me that he witnessed Toohey being seduced by a member of the seminary faculty. The faculty member, whose name Sipe never told me, told Toohey that he had to get in touch with his sexuality etc. Toohey succumbed.

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.

Ex-Catholic priest David Joseph Perrett charged with 30 more historical child abuse charges by Armidale detectives

AUSTRALIA
The Northern Daily Leader

August 22, 2018

By Breanna Chillingworth

AN EX-PRIEST now faces more than 90 charges of historical sexual abuse of children in the New England after Armidale detectives laid 30 new offences.

The Leader can reveal David Joseph Perrett is now accused of molesting or abusing more than 30 alleged victims, all children over a 30-year period.

Armidale detectives – working as part of Strike Force Bennett – laid 30 new charges this month, as the now 81-year-old fronts court on Wednesday.

He now stands accused of 92 allegations upon children dating between 1960 and 1990.

The new charges include five counts of aggravated sexual assault; two counts each of sexual assault of a child category four, carnal knowledge of a girl under 10, aggravated indecent assault; 14 allegations of indecent assault on a male, three counts of buggery and two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

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.

Vatican knew of Pennsylvania sex abuse cover-up, prosecutor says

HARRISBURG (PA)
Reuters

August 28, 2018

The Vatican knew of a cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania through secret archives that bishops in the state shared with church leaders in Rome, the state’s attorney general Josh Shapiro said on Tuesday.

Though Catholic Bishops in Pennsylvania systematically denied the sexual abuse of thousands of children over a 70-year period, they secretly documented the cases and often sent information on them to the Vatican, Shapiro told two national news shows.

Shapiro first made the allegations against the Vatican during an Aug. 14 news conference to unveil a report on a two-year investigation into how Catholic clergymen in the state allegedly groomed and sexually abused children.

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.

August 28, 2018

Talca: obispado pide al Vaticano la derogación de la prescripción de presunto caso de abuso sexual contra religioso

[Diocese of Talca appeals to Vatican in sex abuse case]

CHILE
La Tercera

August 28, 2018

By Carlos Reyes

Esto luego de realizar una indagatoria previa que estableció la verosimilitud de los hechos.

La diócesis de Talca informó el fin de la investigación previa por una denuncia de abuso sexual contra un menor que pesa sobre el presbítero Luis Felipe Egaña Baraona. La indagatoria concluyó que los hechos denunciados son verosímiles. Pero también se establece que dada la fecha en que habrían ocurrido los hechos, estos estarían prescritos.

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.

Fiscal del caso Maristas e incautación de material eclesiástico: “No podemos aparecer frente al mundo no haciendo nada”

[Prosecutor of the Marist case on the confiscation of church documents: “We cannot appear before the world doing nothing”]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

August 17, 2018

By Tamara Cerna

El persecutor Raúl Guzmán también aseguró que no se descartan nuevas citaciones por el caso, las que podrían llegar a tocar a los cardenales Francisco Javier Errázuriz y Ricardo Ezzati.

A días de haber liderado una seguidilla de allanamientos en distintos recintos ligados a la Congregación de los Hermanos Maristas, el fiscal a cargo del caso, Raúl Guzmán, se refirió a las criticas por una supuesta vulneración al acuerdo de colaboración pactado entre el Ministerio Público y los enviados del Papa, Charles Scicluna y Jordi Bertomeu.

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.

Crisis en iglesia chilena: dos sacerdotes renunciados y otro suspendido por abusos sexuales en Puerto Montt

[Crisis in Chilean church: two priests resigned and another suspended for sexual abuse in Puerto Montt]

CHILE
Publimetro

August 26, 2018

By ATON [news agency]

Los casos fueron hechos públicos por el arzobispado de capital de la Región de Los Lagos.

El Arzobispado de Puerto Montt hizo públicos tres casos de abusos sexuales a menores cometidos por sacerdotes de la arquidiócesis, dos de ellos ya fuera de la iglesia tras haber renunciado, y manifestó su disposición a colaborar con la justicia después de que la Fiscalía de Los Lagos inició las investigaciones.

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.

Nuevo caso golpea a la Iglesia: sacerdote de Hualqui habría embriagado a joven para violarlo

[New case hits the Church: Hualqui priest accused of rape, forced drinking]

CHILE
BioBioChile

August 28, 2018

By Nicolás Parra and Óscar Valenzuela

Un hombre que denunció en 2015 al actual párroco de Hualqui por violación, entregó su testimonio y dijo que a la hora de llevar los antecedentes a la Iglesia Católica, fueron desestimados, por lo que acusó encubrimiento por parte de los sacerdotes a cargo de llevar adelante este tipo de casos. Actualmente el Arzobispado de Concepción le paga el tratamiento psiquiátrico al joven.

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.

En Chile toman distancia de las “luchas vaticanas”

[In Chile, they distance themselves from the Vatican struggles]

CHILE
La Tercera

By Sergio Rodríguez

“Queremos escuchar hablar más de Dios que de conflictos de poder”, dicen en Voces Católicas.

“Si bien somos mencionados como Iglesia chilena, para nosotros es un escenario difícil, porque esta carta se da dentro de una lucha vaticana de la cual somos ajenos. Sin embargo, las acusaciones son graves y se deberían investigar”. Así, con reticencia, se manifestó Juan Carlos Claret, vocero de la Agrupación Laicos de Osorno, respecto de la polvareda romana tras la misiva del arzobispo de Ulpiana, Carlo Maria Viganò, al Papa Francisco.

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.

Answers Sought About Nun Named In Sex Abuse Investigation

BALTIMORE (MD)
WJZ

August 27, 2018

New developments in WJZ’s investigation into systemic abuse at some of Baltimore’s catholic schools in the sixties and seventies.

Previously, WJZ’s investigation revealed that one nun must have known about the abuse — now the fallout from the investigation.

It’s a dark chapter for Baltimore’s catholic schools.

Father Joseph Maskell, a counselor at Seton Keough High School, is accused of molesting dozens of students.

WJZ’s investigation also revealed abuse at the hands of at least one other priest, police and a teacher at catholic community middle school, John Merzbacher.

Linda was one of Merzbacher’s victims: “I was in the 8th grade. Merzbacher kept me after school. He locked the door, he tripped me to the floor. He straddles me. He unbuttoned my shirt blouse. I was petrified and then I heard the click of the door being unlocked. In walked sister Eileen Wiseman and stood over both of us. Her comment to him was, ‘Oh John, I told you never to lock the door’. and she looked at me and said, ‘You are never to stay after school again’. (and she was a nun?) I thought this woman was going to save me when she came in the door and she did absolutely nothing.”

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.

Des Moines bishop: No justification for clergy abuse, cover-up cited in Pennsylvania report

DES MOINES (IA)
Des Moines Register

August 16, 2018

By Shelby Fleig

Des Moines Bishop Richard Pates on Thursday called the child sex abuse by hundreds of Pennsylvania priests, detailed in a 900-page report made public this week, a “great moral failure.”

“There is no way that we can justify this, neither on the behalf of those who have committed the abuse among young people, nor the failure of our leadership in trying to protect them,” he said.

Pates joined the Vatican in publicly condemning the report’s findings of systematic abuse.

“We showed no care for the little ones,” wrote Pope Francis in a letter Monday, almost a week after the report was released. “We abandoned them.”

The product of a two-year grand jury investigation ordered by Pennsylvania’s Attorney General, the report is one of the most comprehensive looks into such abuse by the Catholic church in history. In the report, at least 300 priests in six of the state’s eight dioceses are accused of abusing more than 1,000 children since the 1940s.

The report also says the Catholic Church engaged in a “systematic cover-up’’ by moving abusive priests from one parish to another.

Ten other state-level investigations — all on the East Coast — have documented similar abuse by clergy since 2002, according to BishopAccountability.org. Some victims’ advocates are calling for attorneys general across the country to launch their own investigations.

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.

Purging the Catholic Church’s predatory priests

NEWTON (NEW JERSEY)
New Jersey Herald

August 28, 2018

By Michael Reagan

Am I the only Catholic who thinks the church needs to consider getting rid of the old guard — all the way up to the Pope?

That may be the only way to finally purge the predatory priests who have been allowed to exist within the bowels of the Catholic Church for so long.

The church has been rocked in recent years by sexual abuse scandals in Ireland, Australia, Chile, Boston, LA …

Then two weeks ago we got the shocking results of the country’s largest investigation ever into the sex crimes of Catholic priests.

A grand jury in Pennsylvania identified more than 300 “predator priests” in six dioceses who over the course of 70 years had molested and raped nearly 1,000 children, mostly boys.

The bombshell report named the priests who had been caught abusing kids, and in graphic and sordid detail it described what they did — again and again, even after their superiors learned of their molesting.

According to the grand jury report, the priests’ serial sexual abuse was only possible because of a church-wide cover up that reached all the way to the Vatican.

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.

Why it’s so hard to hold priests accountable for sex abuse

UNITED STATES
The Conversation

August 27, 2018

By Carolyn M. Warner

A grand jury report recently found shocking levels of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church. It uncovered, in six dioceses, the sexual abuse of over 1,000 children and named 301 perpetrator priests. It also found that religious officials had turned a blind eye to the abuse.

In response, Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church, wrote a letter addressed to “the People of God,” saying,

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.

Nuns, including one aged 93, are arrested over abuse allegations at notorious orphanage where they ‘beat residents, forced them to eat vomit and ritually humiliated them for bed-wetting’

SCOTLAND
Scottish Daily Mail

August 23, 2018

By Graham Grant

– Police probing Smyllum Park in Lanark have arrested 12 people, including nuns
– More nuns reported to prosecutors amid a widening police investigation
– A further four have now been reported to the Crown Office, aged up to 93

More nuns have been reported to prosecutors amid a widening police investigation into claims of abuse at a notorious orphanage.

The Mail revealed yesterday that police probing Smyllum Park in Lanark had arrested 12 people, including nuns.

A further four have now been reported to the Crown Office, some of them nuns, with ages ranging between 71 and 93.

Police Scotland also disclosed that the 12 who have been arrested and charged consisted of 11 women and one man, aged between 62 and 85.

Yesterday a force spokesman said: ‘A further four individuals will be reported today. Inquiries are continuing.’ Claims of historic abuse at the home have come under scrutiny at the ongoing Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI).

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.

Pennsylvania Was A Start. Now We Need Grand Juries For The Catholic Church In Every State.

UNITED STATES
BuzzFeed

August 27, 2018

By Paul Mones

Every Roman Catholic diocese and archdiocese must be held publicly accountable for their complicity in the sexual abuse of generations of children.

Ever since the Boston Globe’s 2002 revelations of widespread sexual abuse in the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, a wave of lawsuits have been filed against dioceses around the nation. The goal of these cases was to get justice for the physical and emotional suffering endured by victims of abuse and to reform the child protection practices of the church.

In most states, however, the church does not need to be the least bit concerned about being sued by abuse survivors or paying even a nickel for the devastation wrought by its criminal behavior. Firstly, it knows most victims of abuse will never reveal or report it. But more importantly, even if they do come forward, in all but a handful of states the justice system unfortunately operates to protect the church from being sued in the first place.

Most states, like New York and Pennsylvania, have draconian statutes of limitations that prevent a person from suing unless they do so within a few years of being abused. This means the system has no recourse for those who summon the courage to come forward years, and often decades, after the abuse took place — and keep in mind, the majority of people never report their abuse at all. And it is not only a victim’s embarrassment, confusion, and shame that prevents them from reporting. Church leaders, aware of their liability, have been repeatedly shown deliberately failing to disclose complaints against their own clergy to law enforcement and taking actions that stymie victims from reporting.

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.

Clergy Abuse: Gut the Catholic Church’s hierarchy | Opinion

HARRISBURG (PA)
Penn Live

August 28, 2018

By James Downie

Catholic priest abused five sisters in one Harrisburg family: Grand jury report

It seemed the news couldn’t get more troubling for American Catholics, already inundated with new sexual abuse scandals ensnaring (in different ways) former Washington Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, his successor Donald Wuerl and hundreds of Pennsylvania priests.

Then, on Saturday, another hammer blow landed.

The Washington Post reports that “A former Vatican ambassador to the United States has alleged in an 11-page letter that Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis – among other top Catholic Church officials – had been aware of sexual misconduct allegations against former D.C. archbishop Cardinal Theodore McCarrick years before he resigned this summer.”

It’s the latest sign that the church likely needs nothing less than a complete overhaul of its hierarchy.

Let’s be clear: The letter’s author, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, is no fan of Francis.

Vigano “was recalled [by the Vatican] from his D.C. post in 2016 amid allegations that he’d become embroiled in the conservative American fight against same-sex marriage,” and he has criticized Francis’s papacy.

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.

‘JUST PURE EVIL’: Dozens of siblings abused by predator Pennsylvania priests, report found

HARRISBURG (PA)
The Associated Press

August 28, 2018

It took 50 years, until the release of a landmark investigative report, for sisters Mary Robb Jackson and Cynthia Carr Gardner to realize that the parish priest in the Pittsburgh-area suburb where they lived as children had molested both of them, a couple of years apart.

The sisters’ discovery — during a long-distance telephone conversation between Massachusetts and Pennsylvania — added theirs to the cases of siblings cited throughout the state grand jury report on the sexual abuse of children by clergy within six Roman Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania.

The nearly 900-page report, released Aug. 14 after a two-year investigation, cited at least two dozen sets of siblings victimized by clergy among the scores of abuse cases it documented going back to the 1940s. Two of the cases involved five siblings.

Clergy members often won the trust of parents before going on to molest siblings, sometimes in a home while parents were present, sometimes on trips with the children, the report said. The priests then parlayed that trust into leverage against children, who were afraid to say no to an authority figure trusted by their parents.

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.

Recent Missouri editorials

KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Associated Press

August 28, 2018

The Kansas City Star Aug. 24

Josh Hawley warns Catholic bishops: ‘If we get any pushback, we’ll go to the public’

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley wants victims of sex abuse by Catholic priests to know that he is determined to learn everything there is to know about such crimes and cover-ups in this state. “They need to have confidence that this isn’t a whitewash,” he said in a Friday phone interview with The Star’s editorial board.

Along with victims’ groups, we called on Hawley earlier this week to launch a thorough statewide investigation of the kind recently completed in Pennsylvania, where more than 1,000 children were found to have been sexually abused by priests over the last 70 years. For all of those 70 years, that abuse was covered up and victims treated with stunning indifference.

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.

Archdiocese opens up about damning clergy sexual abuse report, link to San Antonio priest

SAN ANTONIO (TX)
San Antonio Express-News

August 23, 2018

By Elaine Ayala

Since a Pennsylvania grand jury’s report on sexual abuses by Catholic clergy last week named a priest who later worked in San Antonio, the Archdiocese of San Antonio has received dozens of angry calls and emails.

Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller said people have registered scorn and resentment toward church leaders who knew of the abuses and systematically covered them up — but so far none have raised additional allegations against the late Father David Connell, he said.

García-Siller, in an extended interview, said he has been overwhelmed by his own sadness, anger and shame at the Pennsylvania report. Local responses to it, which the archdiocese asked for after it was released, have been difficult to take in, García-Siller said, but he has embraced the criticism because, “It’s a way for conversion and change.”

The archbishop was also emphatic this week about how such crimes must be handled.

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.

Timlin told staff to report abuse, but he didn’t

SCRANTON (PA)
The Citizen’s Voice

August 26, 2018

By Borys Krawczeniuk

In July 1985, Diocese of Scranton Bishop the Most Rev. James C. Timlin issued a memo instructing priests and diocese staff to follow a law that requires reporting child abuse to a state agency.

Timlin then repeatedly ignored his own advice, according to a statewide investigating grand jury report that exposes decades of priests’ sexual abuse of children in six Pennsylvania Roman Catholic dioceses, including Scranton. The Citizens’ Voice does not identify victims of sexual abuse.

In an eight-page written response to the grand jury, Timlin’s lawyers say he acted with his best judgment and his handling of clergy abuse cases improved as his understanding of medical science’s ability to identify and treat offenders evolved.

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.

Catholic sex abuse: Pope critic Archbishop Vigano ‘in hiding’

ITALY
BBC News

August 28, 2018

A former Vatican diplomat who accused the Pope of covering up reports of clerical sex abuse has fled Italy in fear of his life, it is claimed.

In an 11-page letter published on Sunday, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano said Pope Francis knew about allegations against a US cardinal for five years before accepting his resignation.

Italian blogger Aldo Maria Valli says the archbishop told him before the letter emerged that he had “already purchased an aeroplane ticket”.

Recounting a meeting between the pair, Valli describes what the archbishop told him, writing: “He will leave the country. He cannot tell me where he is going. I am not to look for him. His old mobile phone number will no longer work. We say goodbye for the last time.”

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Prosecutors launch statewide priest probe

ALBANY (NY)
Press-Republican

August 25, 2018

By Joe Mahoney

LAW: Action follows revelation of reports of alleged sexual abuse in Pennsylvania

The group representing county prosecutors across New York says it will assist in a statewide investigation into alleged sexual abuse of minors by Roman Catholic priests.

The move comes after a similar review in Pennsylvania identified more than 1,000 such reports dating back 60 years.

District attorneys in all 62 counties are poised to assist in the probe launched by state Attorney General Barbara Underwood and will convene grand juries to delve into allegations “when necessary,” said David Soares, president of the District Attorneys Association of New York and the top prosecutor for Albany County.

But the organization representing Catholic bishops in New York said the focus of the probe is “insufficient,” contending it should also examine allegations arising from spheres unrelated to the clergy.

“While the Catholic Church has made major changes in its handling of abuse, we continue to see modern-day stories of abuse and cover-ups in education, the state foster care system, public university athletic programs and elsewhere,” said Dennis Poust, spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference.

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Following Clergy Report, PA Lawmaker Proposes New Penalties For Failing To Report Abuse

KEYSTONE CROSSROADS (PA)
WSKG

August 28, 2018

By Min Xian

Following the grand jury report on the alleged widespread clergy abuse in Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic Church, state lawmakers are pushing for reforms. State Representative Scott Conklin, D-Centre, introduced two new bills on Monday, which would demand greater accountability from religious organizations.

Taking into account one of the report’s recommendations, which asks the legislature to “clarify penalties for a continuing failure to report child abuse,” Conklin’s first bill would make it a first-degree misdemeanor, or a third-degree felony, if there’s reasonable cause to believe there’s more than one victim.

“In my belief, if that individual or that organization had knowledge of it, it doesn’t matter whether it’s today or a hundred years ago,” Conklin, the Democratic chair for the House Children and Youth Committee, said in a press conference. “They’re still responsible for allowing this to go on.”

Currently, a mandated reporter is required to report suspected child abuse. Failure to do so, under varying circumstances, could result in a third-degree felony or second-degree misdemeanor.

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Sibling Sex Abuse Prevalent Among Victims of Pennsylvania Predator Priests, Grand Jury Report Finds

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

August 28, 2018

By Marc Levy

It took 50 years, until the release of a landmark investigative report, for sisters Mary Robb Jackson and Cynthia Carr Gardner to realize that the parish priest in the Pittsburgh-area suburb where they lived as children had molested both of them, a couple of years apart.

The sisters’ discovery — during a long-distance telephone conversation between Massachusetts and Pennsylvania — added theirs to the cases of siblings cited throughout the state grand jury report on the sexual abuse of children by clergy within six Roman Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania.

The nearly 900-page report, released Aug. 14 after a two-year investigation, cited at least two dozen sets of siblings victimized by clergy among the scores of abuse cases it documented going back to the 1940s. Two of the cases involved five siblings.

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.

Berks County man sues Allentown Diocese, citing sex abuse at school

READING (PA)
Reading Eagle

August 28, 2018

By Karen Shuey

The Wyomissing resident alleges in the lawsuit that he was assaulted in 1989 by the Rev. Richard J. Ford, who died in 2005.

A Berks County man is suing the Diocese of Allentown for sexual abuse he says he suffered decades ago as a student at Holy Guardian Angels Regional School in Muhlenberg Township.

Albert F. Shore of Wyomissing alleges in the lawsuit that he was assaulted in 1989 by the Rev. Richard J. Ford, who has since died.

He is suing the diocese, asserting it allowed known pedophiles to remain in their positions and failed to report sexual assault by priests to law enforcement.

“I’ve been going through therapy for this for over two decades. I felt like it’s time,” Shore said Monday by phone in explaining why he waited nearly 30 years to file suit. “I feel strong enough to really delve into the honest, brutal facts of this case, and I feel that the people I know have been affected, they too will have the strength to move forward.”

Allentown Diocese spokesman Matt Kerr said Monday that the diocese, which covers Berks, Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton and Schuylkill counties, had not yet seen the 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.

UPDATE: Victim of St. Landry priest sues Lafayette Diocese

LAFAYETTE (LA)
Lafayette Daily Advertiser

August 27, 2018

A teenager who has reported abuse by St. Landry Parish priest Michael Guidry has filed suit against the priest and the Diocese of Lafayette, a media outlet has reported.

The teenager and his parents — his father is a Diocese of Lafayette deacon — claim in the St. Landry Parish lawsuit that Guidry’s molestation of the teen has fueled the teenager’s alcohol abuse and put a strain on the family’s relationship. And although the Diocese has paid for the teen’s and family’s counseling since the allegations surfaced, the family claims a “high Diocesan official,” who’s also a priest, threatened to halt that treatment should the family sue.

The Daily Advertiser does not identify victims of sexual abuse.

Guidry, 75, served as priest of St. Peter Church in Morrow.

He surrendered in June at the St. Landry Parish jail and was charged with molestation of a juvenile or a person with a physical or mental disability and with contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.

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Split Verdict in Duluth Priest’s Lawsuit Against Abuse Accuser

DULUTH (MN)
Eyewitness News 10/13 ABC

August 24, 2018

By Baihly Warfield

A priest who sued a man accusing him of sexual abuse has an answer from a jury.

A jury decided Thursday that the accuser, who came forward Friday and identified himself as TJ Davis, did interfere with the Rev. William Graham’s employment but did not intentionally cause emotional distress for the priest.

In 2016, Graham was named in a sexual abuse lawsuit filed by “Doe 446.” The then-anonymous victim sued several parishes; Graham himself was not named as a defendant, but the Diocese of Duluth placed him on administrative leave as a result of the allegations.

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Lawsuit filed against Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese, first since release of grand jury report

PITTSBURGH (PA)
WTAE

August 28, 2018

The first lawsuit against the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese since the release of the grand jury report into child sex abuse was filed Tuesday morning.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a victim who said he was 12 years old when the abuse by John Hoehl began in 1979.

Hoehl was employed as a priest, pastor and later as a high school headmaster by the diocese.

The report shows that more than 20 complaints of abuse by Hoehl were in diocese files, most of which happened during the period the plaintiff in the suit that was filed was abused.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, Bishop David Zubik and Cardinal Donald Wuerl are all named as defendants in the lawsuit.

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Pennsylvania Considers Allowing More Victims of Sexual Abuse to Sue

HARRISBURG (PA)
The Wall Street Journal

August 27, 2018

By Jacob Gershman

Pending bill would temporarily waive civil statute of limitations for child sexual-abuse claims

The recent Pennsylvania grand-jury report detailing child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church could pave the way for granting adults who were victimized as children more opportunity to sue for damages.

Legislation pending in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives would temporarily waive the civil statute of limitations for child sexual-abuse claims, opening a two-year window for lawsuits that were previously time-barred. The House returns from vacation on Sept. 12 and it is expected to consider the measure.

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Pennsylvania reopens investigation into decades-old clergy sexual abuse claim

HARRISBURG (PA)
CBS News

August 28, 2018

CBS News has learned authorities in Pennsylvania have re-opened an investigation into a decades-old case in which sexual abuse claims were made against a Catholic priest. A grand jury report released this month identified hundreds of abusive priests and more than a thousand child victims across the state.

This comes as Pope Francis faces a call to resign over a claim he knew about alleged sex abuse by a former American cardinal and allowed him to serve unpunished.

Over the past few weeks, CBS News has spoken with many alleged victims who, as adults, came to grips with what they say happened to them as children. Almost all report they were blocked from getting justice because the statute of limitations had expired, reports CBS News correspondent Nikki Battiste.

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Pedophile priests and Servants of the Paraclete

ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
Albuquerque Journal

August 26, 2018

By Mike Gallagher

Roman Catholic bishops in Pennsylvania used a treatment center in Jemez Springs for decades as a “laundry” to recycle priests who abused more than 1,000 children so they could return to their parishes in their diocese back home, according to a Pennsylvania grand jury report released this month.

Only one of the more than 300 priests mentioned in the grand jury report stayed in New Mexico, briefly, after being sent for treatment at the Servants of the Paraclete foundation in Jemez Springs that operated from 1947 until it closed in the 1990s.

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Diocese: Priests with sexual abuse accusations were not monitored

PITTSBURGH (PA)
The Beaver County Times

August 24, 2018

By Daveen Rae Kurutz

A spokesman for the Diocese of Pittsburgh said there was no formal process for monitoring priests accused of sexual abuse prior to the release of the grand jury report earlier this month.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct church that the Rev. Ernest Paone served at in the 1960s.

Dozens of Roman Catholic priests who had credible accusations of sexual abuse against them were not monitored by the Diocese of Pittsburgh once removed from the ministry during the past 70 years, diocesan officials admitted.

After a grand jury report detailed how more than 300 Pennsylvania priests in six dioceses — including 102 from the six-county Diocese of Pittsburgh — sexually abused more than 1,000 children, Bishop David Zubik, an Ambridge native, announced plans to begin monitoring the 22 living priests who were removed from ministry since 1976.

“There was no formal process for monitoring,” the Rev. Nicholas Vaskov, executive director of communications for the Diocese of Pittsburgh said. “This is a step that needed to be taken in keeping the safety of children in mind.”

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As survivors find voice, church leaders wrestle with how to address issue

PITTSBURGH (PA)
Catholic News Service

August 27, 2018

By Chaz Muth

Pennsylvania survivors of clergy sex abuse spent the week after the release of the grand jury report finding their voice as bishops and priests in the state wrestled with how to address the growing scandal.

Several of the survivors traveled around the state to speak publicly about their victimization at the hands of predator priests, many of whom said their “coming out” is liberating them from decades of shame.

Ed Rodgers of Bradford said he found the courage to re-emerge more than 20 years after he accused a priest of molesting him as a youth.

Though Rodgers, now 45, said he was publicly shamed by the Diocese of Erie, lay Catholics in his hometown and the state legal system in the late 1990s, he said a recent scathing grand jury report inspired him to break his silence.

A Pennsylvania grand jury report released Aug. 14 detailed more than 1,000 claims of sex abuse in six dioceses in the state going back 70 years and identified 301 priests and church workers who may have committed the crimes. The report also singled out some bishops for their improper handling of accused abusers.

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A 12th catholic priest accused of sexual abuse

GUAM
Pacific News Center

August 23, 2018

By Joycelynn Atalig

Yet another priest has been accused of sexual abuse, the late Father John “Jack” Nilan, the 12th priest named out of the Archdioses of Agana.

A release out of the Archdioses of Agana states, “With sadness once again, the Archdiocese of Agana acknowledges that a new allegation and lawsuit related to clergy sexual abuse has been filed in local courts this week. In the lawsuit naming the archiocese and Capuchin Franciscan order, a person listed by the initials J.E.L said she was sexually abuse by the late Father John “Jack” Niland in 1976 when she was 10 years old.”

The late Capuchin priest of the Agat Parish has been accused of exposing himself to the then 10 year old victim J.E.L. According to court documents, the victim was plaing alone on her family beach in Agat when she was allegedly approached by a heavy set American man wearing a priest collar who identified himself as Father Jack. Niland then allegedly asked her if she wanted to see his “gun” before exposing his genitalia and then masturbating in from of the 10 year old. In addition, according to court documents, Niland allegedly stated, “its like a real gun because it can shoot.” The victim then says that the late priest asked her if she wanted to hold it and because she did not respond, he allegedly zipped up his pants and told her that he will be seeing her at Eskuelan Pale Sunday School. The victim says, the incident caused her fear and anxiety when seeing Niland and she requests 5 million dollars in damages.

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Banning Educator Accused Of Child Sex Charges Is A Priest

UNITED STATES
KGX News

August 27, 2018

By Skip Essick

A Banning school administrator who’s in jail facing child sex charges is a defrocked priest.

The Banning Unified School District says 55-year-old Charles Mayer is now on unpaid leave.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of L.A. says Mayer has not been in active ministry for nearly 20 years. Mayer was caught in a sting operation allegedly sending nude photos of himself to a person he thought was a 14-year-old boy.

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Former altar boy says he stole thousands from archdiocese as payback for abuse

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Fox News

August 27, 2018

By Ryan Gaydos

A former Pennsylvania altar boy who was molested by a priest as a child admitted in an interview Friday to stealing thousands of dollars in what he called payback for the abuse.

Mike McDonnell, now 49, said he was abused starting when he was just 10 years old. But the incident that changed him came when he was 12, McDonnell said, when he woke up to a priest molesting him in a bed he was forced to share with a clergyman, he told Reuters.

“From that day forth, I would never be that same child,” he said. “I went into shock mode and shut down. I would hold onto those secrets for 20-plus years.”

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Split verdict in Duluth priest’s suit against accuser

DULUTH (MN)
Brainerd Dispatch

August 24, 2018

By Tom Olsen

A jury’s verdict has both sides claiming victory in the lawsuit that brought a prominent Duluth priest against a man who accused him of child sexual abuse.

The eight-member Duluth jury concluded late Thursday night that T.J. Davis interfered with the contractual duties of the Rev. William Graham when he filed abuse claims in May 2016, but that he did not intentionally inflict emotional distress on the priest.

Davis, who alleges that he was abused by the priest on three occasions in the 1970s, when he was approximately 15 years old, was ordered to pay Graham $13,500 in damages.

Graham, 68, was pastor at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in the Lakeside neighborhood. He was placed on administrative leave immediately after the abuse allegations surfaced, and the Diocese of Duluth earlier this month announced that he had been removed from public ministry after an investigation determined that he was “credibly accused.”

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AT LEAST $60M PAID TO NJ VICTIMS OF CATHOLIC PRIEST SEX ABUSE

NEW JERSEY
New Jersey 101.5

August 25, 2018

By Sergio Bichao

Catholic Church officials in New Jersey have paid tens of millions of dollars in the last three decades to men and women who have accused priests and clergy of child sexual abuse.

The exact number of victims and predators is countless because legal settlements often include confidentiality agreements and many victims may never come forward.

But a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Newark last week acknowledged that the five dioceses in the state have paid at least $50 million to settle sex abuse claims in the last 10 years.

Published reports for previous years accounted for another $10 million in settlements.

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Sheriff: Former priest, current pastor among suspects accused of sex acts in Volusia parks

DAYTONA BEACH (FL)
Click Orlando

August 24, 2018

By Emilee Speck

More than 75 sex acts caught on camera since May, Chitwood says

Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood didn’t hide his disgust Friday after the arrest of eight men caught performing sex acts at two public parts in the county, including a local pastor and a former Catholic priest.

“It’s out of control,” he said of the repeated acts happening in Doris Leeper Spruce Creek Preserve and Sleepy Hollow Park.

After receiving complaints in May about men having sex in the two parks, Chitwood said his deputies set up cameras around the park, which captured more than 75 sex acts happening in the parks between May and August.

Deputies then conducted a two-day undercover operation this week during which Chitwood said some of the undercover deputies were propositioned walking on the trials at the parks and witnesses the sexual acts for themselves.

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Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee removes prominent Pensacola priest

PENSACOLA (FL)
Pensacola News Journal

August 27, 2018

By Melissa Nelson Gabriel

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee said Monday that it has removed a well-known Pensacola priest from his office.

Sharmane Adams, spokeswoman for the diocese, said Bishop William Albert Wack had asked Monsignor James Flaherty to “step away from his duties” as the diocese’s judicial vicar, director of office of the tribunal, director of the lay formation institute and director of priestly formation.

Adams said Flaherty was removed within two days after a fellow priest and two parishioners approached the bishop with “non-specific concerns.”

“The issues were not mandatory to report because they were not involving sexual abuse of a minor,” she said.

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Buffalo bishop won’t resign over handling of sex abuse

BUFFALO (NY)
The Associated Press

August 26, 2018

The Roman Catholic bishop of Buffalo, New York, on Sunday rejected calls to resign over his handling of sexual abuse allegations against priests, saying: the “shepherd does not desert the flock” in difficult times.

Bishop Richard Malone said he is appointing a task force of clergy, lay people and “an elected official or two” to review how sexual abuse claims from adults are handled.

The diocese released a list in March of 42 priests facing sex abuse allegations. A Buffalo television station reported last week that Malone allowed one accused priest to remain in his parish and gave multiple chances to another who’d been suspended by the previous bishop.

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Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley to meet with priests over abuse letter

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

August 28, 2018

By Sean Philip Cotter

O’Malley, priests to meet today amid scandal

Cardinal Sean O’Malley will be meeting behind closed doors with priests from across the archdiocese today and Catholic activists say the clergy are expected to hit him with hard questions amid a growing church sex abuse scandal.

“He has created a crisis of confidence for both priests and the laity in the archdiocese,” said Louis L. Murray, a Catholic activist and president of the board of Boston Catholic Radio, who has spoken with a number of priests in recent days.

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Family speaks of accused priest’s support, friendship

TOWN HILL (PA)
Times Leader

August 23, 2018

By Bill O’Boyle

For one area family, allegations of abuses committed by the Rev. Thomas D. Skotek stand at odds with memories of a priest who provided support and comfort during their toughest days.

In 1999, Leon and Susan Zimolzak of Town Hill, near Shickshinny, lost their son, Seth, to cancer after a five-year battle.

Skotek had been at St. Mary and Ascension in Mocanaqua from June 1999 to April 2002, where the Zimolzaks remain parishioners today.

They said Skotek got them through the loss of their son.

“If it weren’t for (Skotek) we would probably have left the church,” Leon said. “He was there for us during a very dark time in our life.”

Leon said he and Susan and their daughter, Erica Zimolzak Coe, still keep in touch with Skotek.

“We still consider him a friend,” Leon said.

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Former Northridge Priest Accused Of Molesting Children

NORTHRIDGE (CA)
California News Wire Services

August 24, 2018

Charles Patrick Mayer served as priest at Our Lady of Lourdes Church. Now he is accused of trying to lure an underaged boy.

A Banning school administrator accused of trying to lure an underage boy for sex is on “inactive leave” as a Roman Catholic priest and served for four years at a church in Northridge, according to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Charles Patrick Mayer, 55, of Menifee, is “not in ministry and living privately, since September of 2000 due to a failure to adhere to Archdiocesan policies concerning interaction with youth and young adults. The Archdiocese has no record of allegations of sexual misconduct by Charles Mayer,” according to a statement from the archdiocese.

The statement, released Thursday, was part of a bulletin to parishioners at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Northridge, which was Mayer’s first assignment as a priest after his 1996 ordination until 2000.

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‘This is not Burger King:’ Larry Nassar’s request denied by Judge Aquilina

UNITED STATES
OlympicTalk

August 28, 2018

Judge Rosemarie Aquilina denied disgraced former sports doctor Larry Nassar’s request for a new sentence in his sexual assault convictions.

“This is not Burger King,” Aquilina said Monday. “He will not have it his way.”

In denying Nassar’s request, she didn’t feel there was an error in the sentence she issued.

Before Monday’s hearing, Nassar’s attorneys asked the Court of Appeals to stop the proceeding and allow them to appeal rulings that kept Aquilina on the case. The Court of Appeals refused to intervene.

Aquilina sentenced Nassar in January to 40 to 175 years in prison on seven first-degree criminal sexual conduct charges. The sentence came after seven days of victim-impact statements from 156 women and girls.

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Indianapolis priest accused of beating his wife is sentenced to home detention

INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
Indianapolis Star

August 23, 2018

By Holly V. Hays

The first married priest in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis will spend a year under GPS monitoring following his conviction in a 2017 domestic battery case involving his wife.

Luke Reese, who in June was found guilty of criminal confinement, domestic battery and battery resulting in bodily injury, received a three-year sentence on Aug. 17, court records indicate.

Two years of his sentence are suspended, leaving him to serve a year of home detention with GPS monitoring followed by a year of probation. As part of his sentence, he also will undergo a mental health evaluation and counseling.

A message left with one of Reese’s attorneys was not immediately returned Thursday afternoon.

Reese was charged in October 2017 following a September altercation with his wife in which he was alleged to have locked her in the car and repeatedly hit her after finding his wife in a car with another man, according to court documents.

At one point, Reese is alleged to have taken her to Holy Rosary Church, where he served, and continued to strike her inside the church.

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Former Charlotte priest named in explosive letter calling for Pope Francis to resign

CHARLOTTE (NC)
The Charlotte Observer

August 26, 2018

By Tim Funk

A letter released over the weekend by the Vatican’s ex-ambassdor to the United States has identified a former Catholic priest who worked for a time in the Diocese of Charlotte as an alleged victim of sexual misconduct by a former cardinal, Theodore McCarrick.

In the 11-page letter, which is being called a bombshell and a right-wing attack on Pope Francis, Archbishop Carlo Vigano called on the current pope to resign. He charged that Pope Francis and other high-ranking officials in the Catholic Church covered up sexual harassment and abuse accusations against McCarrick long before they became public this year.

Among other things, McCarrick has been accused of sexual abuse of seminarians and priests when he was a bishop in New Jersey.

In Vigano’s letter, which was first published by conservative Catholic news sites, he said that his predecessor as apostolic nuncio to the United States had “transmitted” to the Vatican’s then-secretary of state in 2006 “an Indictment Memorandum against McCarrick by the priest Gregory Littleton of the diocese of Charlotte.”

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MAN WHO ACCUSED PRIEST DECADES AGO GETS ANOTHER CHANCE AT JUSTICE

BRADFORD (PA)
WXXV25

NBC News

August 27, 20180

Pennsylvania authorities have opened an investigation into a Catholic priest who was accused of sexually abusing a student 30 years ago but was never questioned because too much time had passed since the alleged abuse, according to the district attorney.

The priest, Monsignor H. Desmond McGee, 71, was not one of the 301 “predator priests” accused of sexual abuse who were named in a recent bombshell Pennsylvania grand jury report.

But investigators in McKean County said Monday they decided to look into McGee after his accuser, Edward Rodgers, went public following the release of the report — and repeated allegations that the monsignor molested him when he was a student at Bradford Central Christian High School in Bradford, Pennsylvania.

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Lehigh D.A. gets more information on accused priest

ALLENTOWN (PA)
Republican Herald

August 27, 2018

By Peter E. Bortner

Already charged in connection with a purported indecent assault against a teenage girl, a Roman Catholic priest who lives in Pottsville might face additional scrutiny after his diocese forwarded an additional allegation to Lehigh County prosecutors.

The Rev. Kevin M. Lonergan, 30, who has been charged with corruption of minors and indecent assault in Lehigh County, had been investigated by the Northampton County Children and Youth agency while he was while serving at St. Jane Frances de Chantal Church in Easton, the Diocese of Allentown announced this past weekend.

“Northampton County Children and Youth investigated and determined the concern to be ‘unfounded’,” according to the message from Matthew T. Kerr, the diocese’s director of communications.

Lonergan served the church in Easton from June 2014 until may 2016, and the report occurred during that period, Kerr said.

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Catholic priest accused of sexual misconduct served at multiple Utah churches

AMERICAN FORK (UT)
KUTV

August 27, 2018

By Cristina Flores

Father David R. Gaeta, the pastor of St. Peter’s Catholic Church in American Fork who is accused of sexual misconduct with children, served at several Utah Catholic parishes since the early 1980s.

The recent accusations, which were reported to the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake last week, involve Gaeta’s time at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Ogden, where he served as a new priest in the early 80s.

Gaeta served in Ogden after he was ordained. He then served at the following parishes in Utah:

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Police investigating retired priest accused of watching child pornography

ST. LOUIS (MO)
FOX2

August 27, 2018

On the heels of that letter directed at the pope, the investigation into sexual abuse claims at the St. Louis Archdiocese is developing.

We found out today a retired priest is accused of watching child pornography.

Fox 2’s Andy Banker has the story.

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Italy journalist says he helped pen bombshell against pope

ROME
The Associated Press

August 28, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

An Italian journalist who says he helped a former Vatican diplomat pen his bombshell allegation of sex abuse cover-up against Pope Francis says he persuaded the archbishop to go public after the U.S. church was thrown into turmoil by sex abuse revelations in the Pennsylvania grand jury report.

Marco Tosatti said he helped Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano write, rewrite and edit his 11-page testimony, saying the two sat side-by-side at a wooden table in Tosatti’s living room for three hours on Aug. 22.

Tosatti, a leading conservative critic of Francis, told The Associated Press that Vigano had called him a few weeks ago out of the blue asking to meet, and then proceeded to tell him the information that became the basis of the testimony.

Vigano’s document alleges that Francis knew of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sexual misconduct starting in 2013 but rehabilitated him from sanctions that Pope Benedict XVI had imposed. The claims have shaken Francis’ five-year papacy.

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Francis found a faith that is both strong and fragile in Ireland

ROME
Crux

August 28, 2018

By Inés San Martín

In the run-up to Pope Francis’s intense 32-hour visit to Ireland, the question was if a trip so short could have an impact on the mounting storm of clerical sexual abuse, both in the past two decades and in the past two weeks.

As he has before, Francis had to walk a tight rope – not because of the fear of repercussions for a community facing genocide, for instance, as in Myanmar – but because of the long history of pain caused by the Church in Ireland, the wounds of which were ripped open just before the pope arrived by revelations from Chile, the United States, and elsewhere.

Francis, however, also could not ignore the main thrust of his pastoral visit to the Emerald Isle: The Vatican-sponsored World Meeting of Families, which brought together thousands of families from over 100 countries. They too wanted to hear from the pope, and not exclusively about abuse and the Church’s response, but about family life and the challenges young couples face today.

Francis’s visit to Ireland was, in a way, two trips rolled into one, and the tone of his words and the reception he received demonstrated this, both at the events and in the streets: Thousands cheered him in a stadium on Saturday, but earlier in the morning the prime minister, Ireland’s first openly gay leader, didn’t shy away from listing the Church’s failures.

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Archdiocese of Washington denies it was warned about sanctions against cardinal

WASHINGTON (DC)
Good Morning America

August 28, 2018

By Mark Osborne

The Archdiocese of Washington emphatically refuted claims it was aware of sanctions due to abuse allegations against its former archbishop, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, after a former Vatican official penned a letter making the accusation on Sunday.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former Vatican ambassador to the U.S., alleged that both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict knew that McCarrick — who resigned as a cardinal in July after he was accused of abusing adults and minors — was a “serial predator.”

The Archdiocese of Washington released a statement on Tuesday saying Viganò’s claims were “categorically” untrue.

“Cardinal [Donald] Wuerl has categorically denied that any of this information was communicated to him,” the statement said. “Archbishop Viganò at no time provided Cardinal Wuerl any information about an alleged document from Pope Benedict XVI with directives of any sort from Rome regarding Archbishop McCarrick.”

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AG Shapiro: We have evidence Vatican knew of widespread clergy sex abuse

HARRISBURG (PA)
Penn Live

August 28, 2018

By Ivey DeJesus

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Tuesday reiterated on national TV that his office has evidence that the Vatican knew about the widespread and systemic cover-up of clergy sex abuse across the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania.

Appearing on NBC’s “Today” show, Shapiro repeated the charge he made on Aug. 14 when he released the findings of a grand jury investigation into clergy sex abuse across six dioceses in Pennsylvania: that the trail of conspiracy at times led all the way to the Vatican.

“Church leaders would lie to parishioners on Sunday, they would lie to the public, they would shield these predators from the public but they would document all of it and place it in these secret archives, feet away from the bishops,” Shapiro said.

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Catholic Church sex abuse cover-up in Pennsylvania ‘went all the way to the Vatican’, says state attorney general

HARRISBURG (PA)
The Independent

August 28, 2018

By Chris Riotta

The prosecutor is not directly implicating Pope Francis, but claims the Vatican was aware of a systematic cover up

Pennsylvania’s attorney general has claimed to have evidence that the Vatican was aware of a systematic cover up for decades of sex abuse carried out by priests in the Catholic Church.

Josh Shapiro described the abuses dating back to 1947 found by a grand jury in an interview with NBC’s Today Show, including “a systematic cover up that went all the way to the Vatican”.

“I can’t specifically speak to Pope Francis,” the attorney general said Monday about whether or not the the pontiff was aware of the abuses. But, he said: “We have evidence that the Vatican had knowledge of a cover up.”

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Cardinal Cupich one-on-one with ABC7 I-Team as church faces new clergy abuse crisis

CHICAGO (IL)
WLS

August 28, 2018

By Chuck Goudie and Ross Weidner and Barb Markoff

In a wide-ranging interview on Monday afternoon, Cardinal Blase Cupich repeatedly said he hopes authorities focus on the victims of all abuse — not just one sector — and not just priests. Cardinal Cupich, the Archbishop of Chicago, discussed a new church crisis with Eyewitness News investigative reporter Chuck Goudie.

The I-Team last week broke the news that Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan was convening a new investigation of how the Chicago Roman Catholic Archdiocese has handled priest sex investigations. This comes in the wake of a Pennsylvania grand jury report that revealed at least seven accused predator-priests with links to Illinois were among 300 clergymen called out by authorities.

Cardinal Cupich says archdiocesan officials “fully support” and are “cooperating fully” with Madigan’s inquiry.

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In a Catholic Church where even the pope covers for sexual abuse, everywhere is as bad as Boston

VATICAN CITY
USA Today

August 28, 2018

By Brett M. Decker

A damning allegation from Catholic leader charges Pope Francis of covering for Cardinal McCarrick despite knowing about his sexual abuse record.

A report released this weekend by a former Vatican ambassador to the United States charges that Pope Francis knew about sexual abuse by former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, removed a suspension placed on him by Pope Benedict, and proceeded to make the known abuser one of his most trusted advisors. Pope Francis “knew from at least June 23, 2013 that McCarrick was a serial predator, [but] he covered for him to the bitter end,” wrote Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, nuncio to Washington from 2011-2016, before demanding the pontiff resign.

The pope knew.

That is a damning allegation coming from a very senior church leader. It also corresponds to anecdotal evidence piling up against Francis. Earlier this year, Pope Francis attacked Chilean sex-abuse victims for “calumny” and defended the bishop who covered up for a pedophile priest. The pope ignored complaints about the enabling bishop before promoting him in 2015.

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Vatican in turmoil amid growing Catholic Church sex abuse crisis

UNITED STATES
TODAY

August 28, 2018

The Vatican is struggling to respond to claims that Pope Francis helped cover up allegations of sex abuse and protected American Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who resigned last month in disgrace. Bishops and members of the Catholic Church have been calling for answers since the bombshell Pennsylvania grand jury report that recently detailed decades of child sex abuse at the hands of priests. NBC News chief global correspondent Bill Neely reports for TODAY.

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Why the Catholic Church is so slow to act in sex abuse cases: 4 essential reads

BOSTON (MA)
The Conversation

August 28, 2018

By Kalpana Jain

The Vatican’s retired ambassador to the United States, Carlo Maria Vigano, has accused Pope Francis and other officials of covering up that they were aware of sex abuse allegations against Theodore McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington.

The accusation follows a grand jury report in Pennsylvania that revealed a long and shocking scale of sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Francis, who accepted McCarrick’s resignation last month, after an investigation found the allegations to be credible, has refused to comment on Vigano’s letter.

Scholars writing for The Conversation have pointed out the complex challenges facing the Catholic Church today and why, as a result, it has been hard to address the issue of clergy sexual abuse. Here are four highlights.

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Catholics lash out at church leaders with their wallets

PITTSBURGH (PA)
Market Watch

August 27, 2018

By Leslie Albrecht

After the report on systematic sexual abuse in Pennsylvania involving 1,000 children over 7 decades, some worry their donations have been enabling a culture of secrecy

Pittsburgh mom Derya Little is such a devoted Catholic that she wishes she could go to church every day.

But with four small children, she has to limit her Mass attendance to Sundays. Another key part of her faith is the $10,000 a year she and her husband give to Catholic causes. They adhere to a traditional definition of tithing and donate exactly 10% of their gross income to charity per year.

But this week she won’t be leaving a check in the collection plate at her church. In fact, none of the money she and her husband typically donate to Catholic groups will go to her local parish or diocese this year.

Little was so appalled by the Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing how 300 priests sexually abused more than 1,000 children and then bishops systematically covered it up that she can’t stomach giving anymore money to church leaders. Instead, she says, she’ll donate only to Catholic causes she trusts, like Ave Maria Radio and missionaries who work in her native Turkey.

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Seattle Catholic pastor addresses sexual abuse news in sermon

SEATTLE (WA)
KIRO Radio

August 27, 2018

By Dave Ross

In the Catholic church, priests are not supposed to use the pulpit merely to take stands on what’s happening in the news. They are directed to explain the gospel and apply it to current events, only if there’s a clear lesson there.

On Sunday, the long-time pastor of Seattle’s St. James Cathedral, Michael Ryan, turned to the Biblical story of Jesus falling asleep in his disciples’ storm-tossed fishing boat. From that boat, he moved to the latest sexual abuse allegations against the hierarchy of the Catholic church.

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‘I am sorry beyond words’: Portland archbishop addresses sex abuse while diocese faces new lawsuit

PORTLAND (OR)
The Oregonian/OregonLive

August 27, 2018

By Fedor Zarkhin

Portland Archbishop Alexander Sample got straight to the point Sunday at a special mass for victims of sexual abuse.

“I am sorry beyond words for what priests and bishops have done to harm the children of God,” he said at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. “I am ashamed of them.”

A recent grand jury report outlined decades of abuse by hundreds of Pennsylvania priests. The report has shaken the country’s Catholic community, already facing regular revelations of sexual abuse.

Sample called for change. Incidents must be fully investigated, he said, and priests and bishops must be held accountable, “no matter how high this goes.”

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Should Pope Francis Resign Over The Church Child Sex Abuse Scandal? (Audio)

SAN ANTONIO (TX)
KTSA

August 27, 2018

By Kareem Dahab

KTSA radio host Jack Riccardi discusses how Pope Francis now faces a crisis of credibility over the cover up of child sexual abuse accusations in the church.

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Can Pennsylvania Catholics Reconcile Their Faith With The Church’s Legacy Of Abuse?

PITTSBURGH (PA)
WESA

August 27, 2018

By Mick Stinelli and Megan Harris

The faithful are still reeling from revelations unearthed a 900-page Grand Jury report implicating 300 “predator priests” across six Pennsylvania dioceses, including 99 in Pittsburgh alone.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington and his local successor, Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik, have both apologized in the wake of what Attorney General Josh Shapiro called a monumental coverup, but some wonder what concrete action will be taken to ensure the safety of children in the church.

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Cardinal Wuerl: Protector of the flock or facilitator of abuse?

WASHINGTON (DC)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

August 27, 2018

By Tracie Mauriello

He wanted to put the Pittsburgh Diocese on the map.

That’s what Donald Wuerl, now a cardinal, said when he became bishop of the diocese that baptized him and shaped his earliest views of what it meant to be faithful, to be moral, to be Roman Catholic, and to be good.

Thirty years later, everyone is talking about the diocese, but not for any of the reasons he envisioned. Pittsburgh is on the map now because of a sex scandal involving 99 priests accused of abusing hundreds of young parishioners over seven decades.

Cardinal Wuerl had become known as a gutsy but introverted leader who saved the diocese from financial disaster, elevated women in the church, created a well-read adult catechism, withstood downturns in Catholic school enrollment, held his flock together through tumultuous parish mergers, engaged with parishioners in ways predecessors had not, and handled delicate assignments.

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Confidential Vatican papers outline how Churches handle sex abuse allegations

CHARLESTON (SC)
WCIV

August 27, 2018

By Anne Emerson

Instructions from the Vatican detail how church officials should handle allegations of sexual abuse.

ABC News 4 learned more about these instructions when it was included as evidence in a new lawsuit here filed against the Catholic Diocese of Charleston.

The lawsuit accuses former Charleston Priest Fredrick Hopwood of sexually abusing a young boy.

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Church mission of evangelisation further ‘hobbled’ by abuse revelations, says London Oratory provost

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

August 28, 2018

By Edward Kendall

‘The Church has experienced a paradigm shift in which PR-speak has lost any power it might once have had to reassure’

The Provost of the London Oratory has said recent revelations of clerical sexual abuse has further “hobbled the church’s mission of evangelisation”.

Father Julian Large, former Fleet Street journalist and Provost of the London (or Brompton) Oratory writes that “the recent Grand Jury report on sexual abuse in America details events of such wickedness and depravity as to leave the most cynical tabloid reporter shaken.”

“That pastors who have been ordained to be the living image of Our Lord and Saviour on earth could deliberately do such harm to those little ones whose angels behold the face of their Father in Heaven defies words,” Father Large says in his most recent pastoral letter. He adds that the “resulting crisis of credibility which has hobbled the Church’s mission of evangelisation in recent decades can only have been exacerbated wherever the institutional response has been to issue defensive official statements crafted by expensive lawyers and spin doctors.”

“With the latest revelations, and the promise of worse to come, the Church has experienced a paradigm shift in which PR-speak has lost any power it might once have had to reassure,” he continues.

In light of such revelations the temptation for many might be to leave the Church. But Father Large reminds his readers that despite “the transgressions of Her members” the Catholic Church remains “the Mystical Body of Christ, founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of mankind. She is where we find saving truth in its fullness, and where we encounter Our Lord in the Sacraments and receive Him in His entirety in Holy Communion.”

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‘Heartbreaking and infuriating’: Conklin proposes legislation after church abuse scandal

STATE COLLEGE (PA)
Centre Daily

August 27, 2018

By Sarah Rafacz

State Rep. Scott Conklin announced at a press conference Monday that he plans to introduce two pieces of legislation in response to the grand jury report, released Aug. 14, on child sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania.

According to the grand jury report, more than 300 “predator priests” sexually abused more than 1,000 children, and “we believe that the real number — of children whose records were lost, or who were afraid ever to come forward — is in the thousands.”

The grand jury investigated abuse in six of Pennsylvania’s dioceses (the Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown dioceses were the subject of previous grand juries).

According to the grand jury report, church leaders covered up the abuse, and, as a result of that, almost all of the cases are “too old to be prosecuted.”

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At Mass In Dublin, Pope Apologizes For Clergy Sex Abuse Scandals

IRELAND
NPR

August 27, 2018

By Frank Langfitt

But his contrition was marred by a new allegation. An ex-Vatican official accused Pope Francis of ignoring for years sexual misconduct allegations against a U.S. cardinal, who has since resigned.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

While speaking at a Mass in Dublin yesterday, Pope Francis made his most abject apology yet for clerical sex abuse and the church’s mistreatment of women and children. Here he is through a translator.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

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Catholic Church faces ongoing sex abuse crisis

UNITED STATES
VOX

August 24, 2018

By Tara Isabella Burton and Daniel Hemel

Recent high-profile cases have cast a spotlight on a decades-long history of abuse, secrecy, and cover-up.

In August, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court made public one of the broadest-ever investigations into Catholic clerical sex abuse of minors in the US. The 1,400-page grand jury report, the result of an 18-month probe by Pennsylvania state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, names at least 300 priests accused of child sex abuse by more than 1,000 victims throughout the state.

Five years into Pope Francis’s papacy, the summer has been rocked by scandal for the Catholic Church. In July, former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, among the highest-ranking Vatican officials in America, was forced to resign his cardinalship after accusations of sex abuse from both adults and children. And earlier this year, the Vatican’s highest-ranking official, Cardinal George Pell, took a leave of absence to face criminal charges of child sex abuse in his native Australia. These high-profile cases have cast a wider media spotlight on an ongoing story of abuse, secrecy, and cover-up that dates back decades.

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Clergy Sex Abuse Scandal Keeps Parishioners From Mass

PITTSBURGH (PA)
NPR

August 27, 2018

By Virginia Alvino Young

Right inside the doorway of Courey and Andy Leer’s house just outside of Pittsburgh, you’re met with a golden cross, some palms, “and then we have a little Mary holy water holder,” said Courey, 31. “We got some holy water for our wedding but we never like replenish it. It just hangs out there.”

The Leers are among a number of Catholics in Pennsylvania who told NPR and its Pennsylvania stations that they opted to skip Mass this weekend, following the release of a grand jury report alleging widespread childhood sexual abuse in dioceses across the state.

The Leers were both raised Catholic, and for the past few months were increasingly active in their parish, attending more weekday Masses and even starting a new ministry. While they each said their spirituality is personal, for them, being Catholic is really more about identity and culture.

“I think for the longest time it wasn’t a matter of ‘how does this make you feel, what’s your relationship with Jesus?’ It was just ‘yeah, we’re Catholic.’ It’s what we do. It’s what our family does,” Courey said.

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Pope’s alleged cover-up pivots on when, if sanctions imposed

VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

August 27, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

The archbishop of Washington on Monday “categorically denied” ever being informed that his predecessor had been sanctioned for sexual misconduct, undercutting a key element of a bombshell allegation that Pope Francis covered up clergy abuse.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl issued a statement after the Vatican’s former ambassador to the United States accused Pope Francis of effectively freeing ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick from the sanctions in 2013 despite knowing of McCarrick’s sexual predations against seminarians.

Wuerl’s denial corresponds with the public record, which provides ample evidence that McCarrick lived a life completely devoid of ecclesiastic restriction after the sanctions were said to have been imposed in 2009 or 2010. That suggests that Pope Benedict XVI either didn’t impose sanctions or never conveyed them in any official way to the people who could enforce them – or that McCarrick simply flouted them and Benedict’s Vatican was unwilling or unable to stop him.

The claims of the former Vatican ambassador, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, have thrown Francis’ papacy into crisis, undermining once again his insistence that he is intent on ridding the church of sex abuse and cover-up.

His record has taken several hits of late, including his extraordinary misjudgment involving a Chilean bishop, for which he has apologized and taken measures to address. But the McCarrick case is something else entirely, implicating the powerful U.S. hierarchy and the Vatican itself.

The core of Vigano’s cover-up charge against Francis rests on what sanctions, if any, Benedict imposed on McCarrick and what if anything Francis did to alter them, when armed with the same knowledge of McCarrick’s misdeeds that Benedict had.

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Priest named in grand jury report worked for Youth Education in the Arts

ALLENTOWN (PA)
WFMZ

August 27, 2018

By Jaccii Farris

The Chairman of Youth Education in the Arts (YEA!) confirms that one of the 300 priests named in the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s grand jury report was a drum corps instructor for Cadets 2, a weekend-only touring branch of YEA!’s drum corps.

The board suspended Father Donald Cramer, who was a priest of the Diocese of Harrisburg, from all YEA! activities within 90 minutes, according to a letter from Chairman Doug Rutherford.

In a letter to the Corps, Rutherford said, “After verifying that Mr. Cramer was, in fact, the same person identified in the report, the board suspended him from all YEA! activities, all within 90 minutes. After reviewing the situation with the Board of Directors, staff and YEA! attorneys, we terminated Mr. Cramer’s contract on the third business day after the story broke without an investigation, as the grand jury report provided sufficient cause.”

Cramer was in an online chatroom and communicated with an individual in Connecticut who was charged criminally for possessing child pornography, according to the grand jury report. In Cramer’s online communications, he mentioned he wanted to go to Mexico where he could “rent” boys.

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Cardinal O’Malley meeting with Boston-area priests to discuss church sex abuse scandal

BOSTON (MA)
WHDH

August 28, 2018

By John Cuoco

Cardinal Sean O’Malley will meet with Boston-area priests Tuesday to discuss the re-emerging international scandal of child sex abuse in the church and reports detailing decades of apparent cover-ups.

The meeting is set to take place at St. Julia’s Catholic Church in Weston, where protesters are expected to gather.

This comes after Pope Francis visited Ireland over the weekend and addressed the crisis.

“We ask forgiveness for the times that, as a church, we did not show the survivors of whatever kind of abuse compassion,” he said.

Former Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has since called for the Pope’s resignation, saying he told Pope Francis about sexual abuse allegations made against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and he did nothing about it.

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BISHOP MORLINO STATEMENT ON ARCHBISHOP VIGANO AND POPE FRANCIS

MADISON (WI)
Roman Catholic Man

August 27, 2018

Fr Richard Heilman

Statement from Bishop Robert C. Morlino of August 27, 2018, regarding ongoing sexual abuse crisis in the Church

In the first place, I would like to affirm my solidarity with Cardinal DiNardo and his statement on behalf of the USCCB, particularly in two respects: 1) In his statement, Cardinal DiNardo indicates that the recent letter of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganó, former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, “brings particular focus and urgency” to the examination by the USCCB of the grave moral failings of bishops. “The questions raised,” Card. DiNardo says, “deserve answers that are conclusive and based on evidence. Without those answers, innocent men may be tainted by false accusations and the guilty may be left to repeat the sins of the past.” 2) And, Card. DiNardo continues, “we renew our fraternal affection for the Holy Father in these difficult days.”

With those convictions and sentiments, I find myself completely in solidarity.

However, I must confess my disappointment that in his remarks on the return flight from Dublin to Rome, the Holy Father chose a course of “no comment,” regarding any conclusions that might be drawn from Archbishop Viganò’s allegations. Pope Francis further said expressly that such conclusions should be left to the “professional maturity” of journalists. In the United States and elsewhere, in fact, very little is more questionable than the professional maturity of journalists. The bias in the mainstream media could not be clearer and is recognized almost universally. I would never ascribe professional maturity to the journalism of the National Catholic Reporter, for example. (And, predictably, they are leading the charge in a campaign of vilification against Archbishop Viganò.)

Having renewed my expression of respect and filial affection for the Holy Father, I must add that during his tenure as our Apostolic Nuncio, I came to know Archbishop Viganò both professionally and personally, and I remain deeply convinced of his honesty, loyalty to and love for the Church, and impeccable integrity. In fact, Arch. Viganò has offered a number of concrete, real allegations in his recent document, giving names, dates, places, and the location of supporting documentation – either at the Secretariat of State or at the Apostolic Nunciature. Thus, the criteria for credible allegations are more than fulfilled, and an investigation, according to proper canonical procedures, is certainly in order.

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Catholic Church Clergy Sex Scandal: Even the Pope Can’t Stop the Bleeding Now

ROME
The Daily Beast

August 27, 2018

By Barbie Latza Nadeau

On his way home from Ireland last night, Francis was stunningly silent about what he knew about new allegations of past criminal sex abuse at the top of the U.S. Catholic Church.

Pope Francis has officially lost control of the American clerical sex-abuse scandal.

On the heels of the damning Pennsylvania grand jury report out this month, he now finds himself facing calls for his resignation over allegations that he was complicit in the cover-up of a different sex-abusing cardinal, this time Washington, D.C.’s Theodore McCarrick, whose abuse was apparently so well known that he once advertised in a church bulletin that young seminarians should seek him out. And now, a BuzzFeed News exposé published Monday about murderous nuns at St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Vermont is sure to feed the fire, or at least prove once and for all—lest anyone doubted—that clerical sex abuse in the Catholic Church is endemic.

Francis may actually be making things even worse by refusing to comment. He was widely criticized for his “no comment” remarks in the days after the Pennsylvania case. And last night on the flight back to Rome from Ireland, he did not deny claims of a cover-up involving McCarrick. Instead, he refused to comment once again.

“I read the statement this morning, and I must tell you sincerely that, I must say this, to you and all those who are interested: Read the statement carefully and make your own judgment,” the pontiff said, according to a transcript of the in-flight Sunday night press conference published on the Catholic News Agency’s website. “I will not say a single word about this. I believe the statement speaks for itself.”

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Despite his assertions, Hochul and Higgins call on Bishop Malone to resign

BUFFALO (NY)
Spectrum Local News

August 28, 2018

By Mike Arena

Add Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul to the list of elected leaders calling for Bishop Richard Malone’s resignation.

She joins Congressman Brian Higgins, who was one of the first to do so. Higgins watched Bishop Malone deliver a statement Sunday, announcing he will establish a task force to review the handling of sexual abuse claims.

The congressman says Malone’s comments only confirm he needs to step aside. Higgins says Malone waited too long to act, and has not properly protected children.

Hochul and Higgins are now calling for an external investigation of the Buffalo Catholic Diocese.

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Road to Recovery, Inc. – P.O. Box 279, Livingston, New Jersey 07039 – 862-368-2800

Cardinal Sean O’Malley to meet with Archdiocesan priests in a parish, St. Julia’s in Weston, MA, where Cardinal Law sent Fr. John J. Geoghan, a serial pedophile priest, after Cardinal Law knew about Fr. Geoghan’s sexual abuse of children and where Fr. Geoghan continued to sexually abuse children – how insensitive to the Weston sexual abuse victims

Media Release – August 27, 2018

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who blamed his priest secretary, Fr. Robert Kickham, for supposedly not showing him an explosive letter regarding allegations of sexual abuse against Cardinal Theodore E. Mc Carrick, will hold a meeting with Archdiocesan priests allegedly to discuss the growing clergy sexual abuse crisis and other matters

A recent explosive report from former Papal Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, indicates that Pope Francis and many American Cardinals, including Cardinal Sean O’Malley, and Archbishops/Bishops were fully aware of the allegations against and disciplining of Cardinal Theodore E. Mc Carrick

After decades as a bishop in Florida and Massachusetts, Cardinal O’Malley has called for United States dioceses to work with local law enforcement officials in conducting grand jury investigations. Where has he been? It’s too little, too late

What

A demonstration and press conference calling on Cardinal Sean O’Malley to explain:

1) why he chose St. Julia’s Parish in Weston, MA as the location of his meeting with priests, particularly since the meeting will allegedly deal with the topic of sexual abuse by clergy, and since St. Julia’s Parish in Weston, MA was an epicenter of the scandalous sexual abuse of children by Fr. John J. Geoghan

2) what he knew and when he knew about Cardinal Mc Carrick’s sexual abuse of seminarians, especially since the recent revelations by a former Papal Nuncio that “everybody” in the Church hierarchy from the United States to the Vatican knew about Cardinal Theodore Mc Carrick.

3) why he is now calling on dioceses in the United States to cooperate with law enforcement officials in conducting grand jury investigations of those dioceses when he has not done so for decades. He must agree to release all files in the Archdiocese of Boston to law enforcement and abide by a grand jury’s findings.

When

Tuesday, August 28, 2018 from Noon until 1:30 pm (Press conference at 1:00 pm)

Meeting of priests (1:00 pm – 2:30 pm)

Where

On the public sidewalk outside St. Julia’s Parish, Weston, MA, 374 Boston Post Road, Weston, MA 02495

Who

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., former priest of the Archdiocese of Newark who was ordained by Cardinal Mc Carrick in 1997 when he was Archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, and who founded Road to Recovery, Inc. to help victims of sexual abuse and their families; and members of STTOP, Speak Truth to Power, who have demonstrated in front of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston every Sunday since 2002 to support victim/survivors of clergy sexual abuse and their families

Why

See above

Contacts

Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800 – roberthoatson@gmail.com

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‘If there’s a God, why was my uncle abused by a priest?’: Ireland struggles to keep faith in the Church

IRELAND
Yahoo News UK

August 27, 2018

Christopher Lamb watches a new Ireland try to come to terms with a Church beset by a child abuse scandal

Rising at the crack of dawn and braving pelting rain and driving winds, Irish Catholics made their way for a Mass with Pope Francis in Dublin on Sunday.

The hundreds of thousands of believers who turned out in Phoenix Park must have felt disconnected from a papal visit that was dominated by the sexual abuse scandal inside the Church.

Francis’ two-day visit to Ireland saw him come face-to-face with the rawness of the abuse crisis in the country that has become the Ground Zero for what is arguably the gravest crisis facing the Church in almost 500 years.

It was striking that when John Paul II visited Ireland 39 years ago, more than a million people turned out in Phoenix Park for the papal mass in what was the biggest gathering of people in Irish history. While organisers predicted 500,000 would attend Francis’ Mass, estimates put it the attendance figure at just 200,000.

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Retired priest investigated for watching suspected child porn

ST. LOUIS (MO)
KSDK5

August 27, 2018

By Rachel Menitoff

Investigators confiscated the retired priest’s computer.

An investigation is underway after a retired priest was discovered watching what might have been child pornography, the Archdiocese of St. Louis said Monday.

The archdiocese was notified about the incident on Friday, Aug. 24 and reported the incident to police.

Investigators confiscated the retired priest’s computer.

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Archdiocese of LA Under Fire for Past Abuse Allegations by Priest

LOS ANGELES (CA)
KNX 1070

August 27, 2018

A Manhattan Beach woman who says she was sexually abused by a priest is calling out the Los Angeles Archdiocese for allowing him to keep ministering.

KNX reporter Margaret Carrero:

Several years ago, Kate Bergin sued the Archdiocese for allowing Father Nicholas Assi to remain in the ministry at different parishes after he allegedly touched her inappropriately while she was setting up Mass.

Today, he’s at St. Luke’s in Temple City.

Despite settling her lawsuit for about $100,000, Bergin felt a need to speak out because she believes there are probably other victims.

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Investigation underway after retired priest found with suspected child porn

ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOV

August 27, 2018

By Stephanie Baumer

The Archdiocese of St. Louis says a retired priest was discovered viewing what was believed to be child pornography.

The Archdiocese says the situation, which they were first notified about on August 24, was immediately reported to law enforcement, who then seized the retired priest’s computer. The incident was also reported to the Missouri Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis says they are cooperating with authorities in the investigation.

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Priest convicted of molesting 17 children permitted by Maltese church to say mass “on special occasions”

MALTA
manueldelia.com

August 27, 2018

Felix Cini, convicted in 2004 in Italy for molesting 17 children and caught downloading child-porn on his computers by the police, has been permitted by the Maltese Curia to say mass at Bormla parish “on special occasions”.

These photos are from the mass and procession of this year’s Pentecost where Felix Cini and other priests led children who had participated for the first time in the communion ritual. The photographs carry the watermark of the parish church.

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Bishop Schneider: ‘no reasonable…cause to doubt truth’ of Vigano revelations about Pope

CANADA
LifeSiteNews

August 27, 2018

By John-Henry Westen

Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Astana Kazakhstan, one of the most outspoken bishops in the world concerning the crisis of faith in the Catholic Church under Pope Francis, has written a document responding to the testimony of Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano.

Bishop Schneider says there is “no reasonable and plausible cause to doubt the truth content of the document of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.”

Archbishop Vigano, who served as apostolic nuncio in Washington D.C. from 2011-2016, detailed in an 11-page letter last week that Pope Francis covered up now ex-Cardinal McCarrick’s abuse.

Bishop Schneider acknowledges that it is extremely grave and rare that a bishop would publicly accuse a reigning pope, but points out that “Archbishop Viganò confirmed his statement by a sacred oath invoking the name of God.”

Bishop Schneider’s document is published in full below.

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WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM A 20-YEAR-OLD DALLAS PRIEST SEX ABUSE TRIAL [with audio]

AUSTIN (TX)
Texas Standard

August 27, 2018

By Joy Diaz

Plaintiffs in the case against priest Rudy Kos didn’t settle or sign nondisclosure agreements. That paved the way for more priest sex-abuse victims to come forward and seek justice.

Last week, a priest went missing from his Texas parish, and a U.S. cardinal missed his trip to Ireland with Pope Francis. Both have something to do with the latest revelations of pedophilia that continue to plague the Catholic Church. Over the years, some cases have gone to court but none has been as pivotal as the case that was tried in Dallas two decades ago.

Lawyer Windle Turley represented eight of the 11 plaintiffs in the case against priest Rudolph “Rudy” Kos.

Turley says Kos was allowed to go into the priesthood despite objections from the priest who ran his seminary. Kos went on to sexually abuse boys in several parishes in the Dallas area. His crimes included “grooming” boys from as young as age seven, and coercing them into performing various sexual acts. His abuse also involved plying the boys with alcohol and drugs. One boy committed suicide before the trial. Turley says he didn’t realize how damaging sexual abuse could be for a person, before he worked on this case.

“I wasn’t totally aware of how injurious sexual abuse is to an adolescent. It lasts, in most instances…for the rest of their life,” Turley says.

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‘Tired of apologies’, abuse victims demand action, not words, from Pope Francis

IRELAND
France 24

August 25, 2018

Irish victims of child sex abuse by the clergy say Pope Francis will need to come up with more than an apology this weekend if he is to restore faith in a deeply tarnished Catholic Church.
Once a bastion of Catholicism, Ireland has changed dramatically since the last time a pontiff visited back in 1979 – when divorce and contraception were banned, gay marriage was unheard-of, and the Church’s grip on a deeply conservative society was near total.

As Pope Francis arrives Saturday in Dublin for a two-day visit, he’s seeing a country led by a gay prime minister, where same-sex marriage was adopted by popular ballot, and in which a large majority of voters chose to revoke one of the world’s most restrictive abortion regimes earlier this year.

Tellingly, such sweeping social change took place despite stiff opposition from the Church.

The Pope’s visit, timed to coincide with the World Meeting of Families (WMOF), a global Catholic gathering, comes at a critical time for the Church in both Ireland and the wider world, with the Vatican mired in a string of abuse scandals that threaten to reshape Francis’s legacy.

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Another Twist in a Complex Story

NEW YORK (NY)
Commonweal Magazine

August 27, 2018

By Paul Moses

What Matters Most in the Viganò Letter

Much of the coverage of the letter from Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò concerning the cover-up of sexual misconduct allegations against Theodore McCarrick is focusing on Pope Francis’s potential role in it. That’s just the spin Viganò and conservative critics of the pope were hoping for. But in looking more closely at everything that Viganò alleges, Francis’s immediate predecessors don’t fare very well either: he depicts John Paul II as at best oblivious to the facts of the McCarrick case because of health reasons, and Benedict XVI as so ineffectual that the Curia didn’t bother enforcing the restrictions he allegedly placed on the cardinal.

Viganò’s charge against Pope Francis is not that he created the problem but that he failed to clean it up once he knew. Keep in mind, though, that McCarrick’s situation was one strand in a complex web of curial deceit that Francis inherited when he became pope. Many of the same people now seizing on Viganò’s claims against Francis had criticized the pope for being unfair, in their view, to curial officials his predecessors appointed.

Francis told the Curia about its fifteen “diseases” in a pre-Christmas greeting in 2014, a diagnosis that included “spiritual Alzheimer’s disease,” “rivalry and vainglory,” gossip and back-biting, hoarding material goods, and “the disease of persons who insatiably try to accumulate power and to this end are ready to slander, defame and discredit others, even in newspapers and magazines.” The problem with Francis has not been the diagnosis, but following through on a treatment plan.

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Pennsylvania man, inspired by grand jury unmasking of pedophile priests, gets another shot at justice

BRADFORD (PA)
NBC News

August 27, 2018

By Corky Siemaszko

The 45-year-old said he was treated as a pariah when he accused a priest of abuse in 1997.

Pennsylvania authorities have opened an investigation into a Catholic priest who was accused of sexually abusing a student 30 years ago but was never questioned because too much time had passed since the alleged abuse, according to the district attorney.

The priest, Monsignor H. Desmond McGee, 71, was not one of the 301 “predator priests” accused of sexual abuse who were named in a recent bombshell Pennsylvania grand jury report.

But investigators in McKean County said Monday that they decided to look into McGee after his accuser, Edward Rodgers, went public following the release of the report — and repeated allegations that the monsignor molested him when he was a student at Bradford Central Christian High School in Bradford, Pennsylvania.

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Archbishop Carlo Vigano claims Pope Francis knew about sex abuse allegations

VATICAN CITY
Yahoo View

August 27, 2018

Pope Francis faced a stunning accusation from a former Vatican official over the weekend. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who served as Vatican ambassador to the U.S., said in a statement that the pope knew about allegations of sexual abuse.

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Questions raised about pope’s alleged cover-up

VATICAN
Associated Press Videos

August 27, 2018

A letter written by the former Vatican ambassador to the U.S. is raising questions about whether the pope knew about sexual misconduct allegations against the former archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick, but rehabilitated him anyway. (Aug. 27)

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Letters to the Editor 8/26/2018

SCRANTON (PA)
The Times-Tribune

August 26, 2018

Editor: The recent Pennsylvania grand jury report documents clergy sexual abuse and a related cover-up by bishops in six Catholic dioceses.

The similarity in cover-up behavior found in each diocese is shocking and obviously systemic. Most parents would never allow a child to be near a person who is a known sexual abuser or even suspected of being one. But, these bishops didn’t hesitate to do so.

Is Pennsylvania the only place where the Catholic Church has behaved so horrifically? Hardly. However, convincing documentation does not exist as clearly as it now does in Pennsylvania. Civil governments must take the lead, as was done in Pennsylvania, and do what the church won’t do. Many more grand juries need to be impaneled and empowered to find and declare the truth because without truth there can be no justice and without justice there will be no healing.

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Readers Write: The case for a N.Y. state grand jury investigation into Catholic Church clergy sex abuse cover-ups.

NEW YORK (NY)
The Island Now

August 23, 2018

By Brian Toale

The recent Pennsylvania grand jury report that covers six of the eight Catholic dioceses in the State of Pennsylvania names 301 “Predator priests” and over 1,000 victims.

The jurors themselves state that in their belief, they have not identified even half of the actual number of victims.

All around the globe for the past half-century, wherever an investigation of the Catholic Church has been undertaken, the same pattern of sexual abuse and cover-up is exposed, and the lengths that the Church’s hierarchy will go to to protect their own reputation and financial holdings is revealed, yet again.

This should come as no surprise.

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California diocese buys $2.3M home for retiring bishop

SAN JOSE (CA)
Associated Press

August 27, 2018

The Catholic Diocese of San Jose has purchased a five-bedroom, $2.3 million home in Silicon Valley for its retiring bishop despite the 640,000-member diocese’s mission of charity and serving the poor.

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August 27, 2018

La carta de Ezzati en la que pide llevar a la fiscalía caso de excanciller del Arzobispado

[Documents seized in raid include Ezzati’s letters about accused priest Óscar Muñoz Toledo]

CHILE
La Tercera

August 25, 2018

By Leyla Zapata

El documento sobre el excanciller del arzobispado fue incautado en un allanamiento dirigido por el fiscal Arias.

El pasado 13 de junio, el fiscal Emiliano Arias, en conjunto con el OS-9 de Carabineros, incautaron una serie de documentos en el Arzobispado de Santiago. La inédita diligencia se enmarcaba dentro de la investigación que el Ministerio Público lleva contra el excanciller de la arquidiócesis, Óscar Muñoz Toledo, quien se autodenunció eclesialmente, ante la Oficina Pastoral de Denuncias (Opade), por supuestos abusos. El sacerdote actualmente está formalizado y en prisión preventiva, en la cárcel de Rancagua.

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Suspenden declaración de cardenal Ricardo Ezzati

[Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati’s court hearing delayed]

CHILE
T13

August 20, 2018

La diligencia estaba planeada para el martes 21 de agosto, pero finalmente la Fiscalía accedió a una petición de la defensa.

El cardenal Ricardo Ezzati finalmente no declarará este martes 21 de agosto en la causa que lleva la Fiscalía de Rancagua por una serie de denuncias por abusos sexuales al interior de la iglesia chilena.

Aunque la audiencia estaba agendada para la tarde de mañana, el Ministerio Público —liderado por el fiscal Emiliano Arias— accedió a una petición de la defensa, que requirió revisar los antecedentes de la investigación.

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Fiscal Arias fija en más de 100 las víctimas abusadas por religiosos y cuestiona eficacia de las investigaciones canónicas

[Prosecutor Arias says there are more than 100 victims of clergy sex abuse, questions effectiveness of canonical investigations]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

August 27, 2018

By Leonardo Núñez

El persecutor abordó los avances de la indagación sobre abusos cometido por miembros de la Iglesia Católica y los antecedentes surgidos tras la incautación de documentos en los obispados.

El fiscal regional de O’Higgins, Emiliano Arias, se refirió esta noche a los avances de la investigación que dirige en contra de miembros de la Iglesia Católica chilena por abusos sexuales de menores, indicando que la incautación de documentos, producto de tres allanamientos a obispados, ha permitido no sólo identificar a víctimas, sino que también recopilar importantes antecedentes para las causas. En ese sentido, señaló que a la fecha hay 56 causas abiertas con más de 100 víctimas y 60 imputados, pero que estas cifras podrían ir aumentando, ello porque de forma espontánea se han acercado más personas para hacer denuncias.

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