ABUSE TRACKER

WASHINGTON (DC)
Governing

October 5, 2018

By Anne Thompson, Clare Duffy, Rich Gardella and Cory Dawson

Florida’s attorney general said Thursday she is launching an investigation of potential sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church, making Florida at least the 13th state with an ongoing statewide probe of the church.

“Any priest that would exploit a position of power and trust to abuse a child is a disgrace to the church and a threat to society,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi in a statement.

The Attorney General’s Office will coordinate its probe with local prosecutors and review records from all seven of Florida’s Catholic dioceses. It is also launching a tip line for victims.

During a press conference Thursday, Bondi said her office will be issuing subpoenas to the dioceses “immediately.” Bishops in Florida have pledged cooperation with the investigation, Bondi said.

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

[New accusations hit the Church: priest in Valparaíso region prohibited from public ministry]

CHILE
BioBioChile

October 4, 2018

By Nicolás Parra

El Obispado de Valparaíso anunció la prohibición del ejercicio público del ministerio sacerdotal de Mauro Ojeda, uno de los párrocos de Casablanca, región de Valparaíso, luego de que se conocieran dos nuevas denuncias en su contra. “Con fecha 3 de octubre, se inició una investigación previa contra el sacerdote Mauro Ojeda Videla tras haberse recibido dos denuncias por presuntos actos de connotación sexual a menores que habrían ocurrido los años 1990 y 1992″, detallaron desde la Iglesia Católica.

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[Protesters outside Archdiocese of Santiago demand that Ezzati speak about abuse cases]

CHILE
BioBioChile

October 4, 2018

By Yessenia Márquez and Felipe Cornejo

Durante horas de esta noche la Red de Sobrevivientes de Abusos Eclesiásticos en conjunto a la Red de Laicos, realizaron una manifestación en la comuna de Ñuñoa, región Metropolitana. Esto para demostrar su malestar ante el silencio del cardenal Ricardo Ezzati al ser citado a declarar ante la fiscalía en su calidad de imputado.

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[Prosecutor suffers first stumble in Church abuse investigation]

CHILE
La Tercera

October 5, 2018

By S. Rodríguez and L. Zapata

Corte Apelaciones de Rancagua dictó orden de no innovar respecto de lo incautado en Obispado de Valparaíso. Por ahora, ese material no se puede usar.

La Corte de Apelaciones de Rancagua dictó una orden de no innovar respecto de lo incautado por el Ministerio Público de O’Higgins, en el Obispado de Valparaíso, el pasado 13 de septiembre. El tribunal de alzada tomó aquella decisión luego de que la Iglesia porteña presentara un recurso de protección argumentando, entre otros puntos, que el allanamiento, autorizado por el juez de garantía de Rancagua Luis Barría, no cumplió con las normas de “sigilo” ni con ciertos plazos de aviso.

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FLORIDA
Bradenton Herald

October 4, 2018

By Monique O. Madan

The Florida Attorney General’s office launched a website Thursday where people can report allegations of past child sex abuse by Catholic priests.

The tip site — which is part of Attorney General Pam Bondi’s ongoing investigation into all seven Catholic dioceses in the state — provides users with an electronic form they can fill out and submit confidentially.

“Any priest that would exploit a position of power and trust to abuse a child is a disgrace to the church and a threat to society,” Bondi said in a statement. “I am calling on victims and anyone with information about potential abuse to please report it to my office. Victim information will be kept confidential in accordance with state law.”

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MECHANICSBURG (PA)
The Sentinel

October 4, 2018

By Zack Hoopes

A former Catholic priest accused of sexual misconduct in a Pennsylvania grand jury report this summer was quietly let go from a position with Mechanicsburg Area School District’s marching band program immediately after the report’s release on Aug. 14.

Accused former priest Don Cramer took leave from the church in 2012 following an investigation into child pornography and possible child sex tourism, according to the grand jury investigation.

Since then, Cramer appears to have been working as a musical instructor at several venues across the region, including the Mechanicsburg Area School District band program.

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WILMINGTON (DE)
The Dialog

October 4, 2018

By Carolyn Woo

At the opening of the Fifth National Encuentro in Grapevine, Texas, San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller said, “You are right to be heartbroken.”

Much attention by church leaders, as it should be, is directed at new promises to take abuse seriously, encourage reporting, care for victims and establish safeguards. Yet little is said of the brokenhearted laity.

Could the clergy and church leaders feel the anguish and grief of a teen who walked out after a homily when the priest made brief mention of his disappointment at the abuse and moved on to some other topic? Could he not sense the devastation that she felt?

Or the parishioner who felt that the priest totally evaded accountability when he directed them to the immense good that the church does. And in response to a banner at a campus ministry center that reads, “You are known, loved and valued,” a student ponders, by whom? The church hierarchy?

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WVUE Fox 8 TV

October 4, 2018

Tonight – more in our TV exclusive. We sat down with a former NOPD detective who helped crack an infamous pedophile ring in the late 70s that was tied to a Boy Scout troop here in New Orleans. And we have learned at the center of it all was Richard Windmann, the man who says he was raped by a Jesuit High School janitor while a priest watched.

Mason Spong had no idea that the case he worked in 1976 as a young NOPD detective would change his life. “A man saw some sexually explicit pictures of young children and he reported it,” Spong said. Spong says that tip would lead investigators to a pedophile ring connected to Boy Scout Troop 137.

“These guys moved in and were able to gain control of this Scout troop,” Spong said. “They took these kids across the lake to K Bar B Ranch and they had sexual acts over in St Tammany,…and this went on for a while, a couple of years before we even came on to these pictures that were turned over to us…

“…They were very young and very angelic children, very friendly, outgoing most of the times. The common denominator was a single parent home, basically poor.”

Spong says men traveled to New Orleans to have sex with the boys – and the children were even taken across state lines.

“These adults had money to some degree, you know, they were middle class, and those pedophiles would come in from out of town and have that sexual contact here in New Orleans in the homes of these other pedo

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Post

October 4, 2018

Chile’s Roman Catholic Church has apologized for a set of conduct guidelines for priests dealing with children that has caused outrage just as the South American country is being rocked by a widespread clerical sex abuse scandal.

The recommendations include asking priests not to “touch the area of the genitals or the chest” of minors, kiss them on the mouth, spank them on the buttocks or “lie down to sleep next to boys, girls or teenagers.” Priest are told to “avoid some behaviors,” including taking photographs of a child, teen or vulnerable person when they’re naked because it could be “misinterpreted.”

The document published on the site of the archbishopric of Santiago was signed by Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati. He is under investigation by prosecutors for allegedly covering up years of abuse, and is expected to be questioned Wednesday.

The guidelines were expected to go into effect in April 2019. But after a flurry of criticism, the Chilean church removed the document shortly after it was published Friday.

“We’ve made a mistake and we’re going to fix it,” Auxiliary Santiago Bishop Cristian Roncagliolo said. “A crime is a crime.”

The so-called “Guidelines fomenting the good treatment and healthy pastoral coexistence” do not mention sex abuse. They refer to “painful acts” or “equivocal signs.”

Jaime Coiro, spokesman for the Chilean bishops’ conference, issued a statement asking Chileans to refer to guidelines for the prevention of abuse against minors published in 2015 that he said were distributed nationwide.

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HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Public Media

October 4, 2018

By Alvaro Ortiz

A third accuser of a Conroe priest who is under investigation for child abuse has come forward.

The law firm Schiffer Hicks Johnson said in a statement they’ve been hired “to represent what is now a third victim of sexual abuse by Father Manuel La Rosa-Lopez.”

The firm detailed that the client –who wishes to remain anonymous for the time being– “was an adolescent altar boy in the mid-1990s at a church in Houston when he was subjected to several acts of inappropriate behavior by Mr. La Rosa-Lopez, who was then a seminarian studying for the priesthood.”

According to the statement, the boy “told his guardians about the abuse at the time, and they alerted a supervising priest, but no action was taken. Instead, La Rosa-Lopez was ordained.”

The third accuser decided to come forward after hearing reports of other La Rosa-Lopez victims. The statement noted he has suffered “a lasting impact.”

On behalf of the accuser, the firm criticized the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston for having turned “a blind eye to a sexual predator and buried the problem.”

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said in a statement that “this case is a reminder that anyone coming forward with allegations of abuse should immediately go to independent officials like the police or a trusted therapist, not officials at the very church where they were abused.”

“We hope that anyone else who may have been hurt by Fr. LaRosa-Lopez feels that they are able to come forward,” SNAP added on is statement.

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VENTURA (CA)
Ventura County Star

October 4, 2018

By Tom Kisken

An Oxnard clergy abuse survivor on Thursday announced a lawsuit against the Vatican aimed at an alleged cover-up of abusive priests involving the church’s leaders, including Pope Francis.

Manny Vega told a Los Angeles conference room filled with reporters that he was abused by a priest at Our Lady Of Guadalupe Church in Oxnard as a 10-year-old altar boy. He said his lawsuit filed Wednesday in a California federal court is aimed at bringing what he feels has eluded abuse survivors.

“I’m committed to getting to the truth,” he said a moment after the news conference. “I’m committed to getting to that elusive transparency the church talks about.”

The lawsuit seeks to force the Vatican to release names of accused offenders from a list that lawyer Jeff Anderson said is currently concealed.

Called unprecedented by Anderson, the lawsuit also demands the release of all files and documents kept by the church in California and across the world on priests accused of abuse. It also calls for the names Vatican officials, bishops and others who have been involved in the alleged cover-up.

Anderson said the Vatican is the target because power flows down in the Catholic Church but secrets flow up.

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TAMPA (FL)
WSTP TV

October 4, 2018

By Andrew Krietz

Florida law enforcement’s message to the public is clear: Please help us in uncovering past abuses of Catholic priests.

Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced a new website for victims and survivors to submit tips to report past allegations of child sex abuse as part of an ongoing investigation.

The website is https://www.myfloridalegal.com/stopabuse — please note the “https” at the front the URL. This makes it a secure website, limiting the risk of personal information and complaints being able to be accessed by outside sources.

“We launched a tip site to allow victims and anyone with information about priest abuse to report what they know,” Bondi said. “We cannot do this without you.”

10News was able to access an “unsecured” version of the website, starting with “http:” and contacted the attorney general’s office as a courtesy. In response, staff said the site is secure but work is being done to always prompt a browser’s “secure” notification.

The site will be used for reporting past abuse, Bondi said. Any instance of current abuse needs to be reported to 911 or by calling 1-800-96ABUSE, she said.

Information submitted to the site will be kept confidential per Florida statute.

“We’ve taken safeguards to protect the (personal) information,” Bondi said. “We will … do everything we possibly can to be sure that victims are protected.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Whispers in the Loggia

October 4, 2018

by Rocco Palmo

For the record, for all the talk you’ve heard of major in-house investigations over the scandals unearthed through recent months, only one is actually happening – the Rome-chartered probe of adult misconduct by Bishop Michael Bransfield, the initial reports of which proved enough to force the West Virginia prelate’s quick removal last month (and which, according to the inquest’s overseer, had netted some 40 additional calls as of last week).

As for the rest, as first reported in these pages’ side-feed some weeks back, two major planks of the US bishops’ intended response to the fresh crisis – an apostolic visitation, and a lay commission which would report on allegations against bishops to the Nuncio to Washington – were both rejected by the Holy See as the USCCB Executive met with the Pope in mid-September. (In addition, given the separate scoop that Francis urged the bench to take a week-long group retreat in lieu of their usual November meeting, a previously-unrelayed piece on that front bears noting: the pontiff’s rationale for the suggestion was that the exercise was necessary for the conference to begin to heal the division within its own ranks.)

In the assessment of one ranking op, the fallout of the audience seemed to indicate that Francis “has had it with us.” And these days, more than a little says the Man in White is far from alone in that.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
NBC News

October 4, 2018

by Anne Thompson, Clare Duffy, Rich Gardella and Cory Dawson

Florida’s attorney general said Thursday she is launching an investigation of potential sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church, making Florida at least the 13th state with an ongoing statewide probe of the church.

“Any priest that would exploit a position of power and trust to abuse a child is a disgrace to the church and a threat to society,” said Attorney General Pam Bondi in a statement.

The Attorney General’s Office will coordinate its probe with local prosecutors and review records from all seven of Florida’s Catholic dioceses. It is also launching a tip line for victims.

During a press conference Thursday, Bondi said her office will be issuing subpoenas to the dioceses “immediately.” Bishops in Florida have pledged cooperation with the investigation, Bondi said.

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

DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press

October 4, 2018

By Niraj Warikoo

Law enforcement officials with the Michigan Attorney General’s Office executed search warrants Wednesday for clergy files at all seven Catholic dioceses in Michigan as part of its investigation into sexual abuse of children by priests.

At about 9 a.m., law enforcement officials arrived at the Chancery office of the Archdiocese of Detroit on State Street, which is the largest of the seven dioceses, according to the Archdiocese of Detroit.

In Detroit, law enforcement also executed search warrants at the Cardinal Mooney Building, which is on the campus of Sacred Heart Major Seminary, and the St. Joan of Arc Parish office of Msgr. Michael Bugarin, the Archbishop’s Delegate for Clergy Misconduct.

State law enforcement officials also executed search warrants at Catholic dioceses in Lansing, Grand Rapids, Gaylord, Kalamazoo, Marquette and Saginaw, said Archdiocese officials.

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UNITED STATES
TIME

October 4, 2018

By Marci A. Hamilton

Hamilton is a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the CEO of CHILD USA.

For those of us who work on issues involving the sexual assault of children, the Judge Brett Kavanaugh sexual-assault discourse has been jarring. This is particularly so given that his first accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, was 15 years old and therefore underage at the time of the allegations. And it is even more so the case because of how it contrasts with what we’ve supposedly learn from the recent revelations about the trauma of clergy sexual abuse.

The recent Pennsylvania grand jury report regarding the sex abuse perpetrated six dioceses over 70 years has yielded unprecedented anger in the United States and abroad. The coverage has been nearly uniformly deferential and supportive of the victims. Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who led the investigation, rightly has been hailed as a hero for survivors, and state lawmakers are now moving forward on meaningful reform of its child sex abuse statutes of limitations to afford justice to the victims whose claims are now barred.

No one has been wringing their hands over the possibility of falsely maligning “good men,” as the details in the report leave no question that the crimes described were harrowing and supported with ample evidence. The foundation of this is the last 16 years of the developing clergy sex abuse story that started with the Boston Globe’s Spotlight report on the cover-up of child sex abuse in the Boston Archdiocese. The public has been educated to come to understand that in fact many priests (about 6%, according to bishopaccountability.org) have abused children, and that bishops concealed the crimes and “solved” the problem by moving the perpetrators from parish to parish. Early on, there was handwringing over the fate of the good priests from politicians, bishops and parishioners. But as time has worn on, it has become increasingly impossible to think that any of the clergy were ignorant of the facts. False claims have not proven to be a significant concern.

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ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
The Associated Press

October 2, 2018

By Russell Contreras

A lawyer for a former New Mexico priest who served in Santa Fe and who fled the U.S. decades ago amid allegations of child sex abuse is seeking his release from federal detention.

Defense attorney Samuel Winder filed an appeal late last week asking a federal judge to reverse a decision to detain Arthur Perrault until his trial on sexual abuse charges.

The move came days after a federal magistrate ordered the Perrault, 80, held pending trial after deeming him a flight risk.

Perrault was extradited to New Mexico last month from Morocco in connection with sexual abuse cases that are said to have taken place between 1991 and 1992 at Kirtland Air Force Base and the Santa Fe National Cemetery.

The former Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and a former Air Force chaplain has been charged in a federal indictment with seven counts of aggravated sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact.

In his appeal for Perrault’s released, Winder said a pretrial services report recommended that Perrault be sent to a third-party halfway house under strict condition with GPS monitoring.

Winder said the report also cited Perrault’s health problems, including lingering affects from a 2015 stroke, diabetes and chronic high blood pressure.

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UNITED STATES
Newsweek

October 4, 2018

By Carolyn Warner

Last week Pope Francis acknowledged that the way the Church’s leadership has handled child sex abuse was driving away those who are the future of the Church: young people. He stated, “we ourselves need to be converted…we need to change the many situations that, in the end, put you off.”

The speech came not long after a Pennsylvania grand jury report revealed that over 300 priests had sexually abused at least 1000 children over a period of 70 years, and a study in Germany found a similar pattern of abuse and the Church’s failure to address it. The pope himself has been accused of protecting the now ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who is alleged to have sexually assaulted seminarians and a child. People have rightly wondered why, for so long, the pope and his bishops, who are supposed to be shepherds over their flock, have left the wolves to the sheep.

The pope, rather than asking for forgiveness, or having the Church’s leadership undergo an unspecified “conversion,” should focus on some basic institutional reforms. The first among those is revising the Code of Canon Law—the legal rules by which the Church operates. Bishops are sworn to follow canonical procedures as well as various instructions later issued by popes to clarify the application of canon law. As Cardinal Francis George of Chicago said in a deposition, “A bishop must obey the rules of the Church. We’re all in a society of law in the Church too.” Bishops also are only responsible to the pope—they do not answer to fellow bishops or parishioners.

It’s clear that if Francis wants to start solving the problem of how the Church has mishandled child sex abuse cases, he needs to undertake a revision to the Code of Canon Law to make the first response to abuse punitive, restore to diocesan bishops the capacity to defrock priests, raise the statute of limitations, reduce the stress on secrecy about alleged cases, require reporting to local civil authorities, and implement rules for handling errant bishops.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
FOX13

October 3, 2018

By Ben Winslow

A lawsuit alleging sexual abuse and a cover up has been filed against the daughter and son-in-law of the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Salt Lake City on Wednesday by six unnamed people listed only as “Jane Doe” and “John Doe” against unnamed “Doe 1 Male Defendant” and “Doe 2 Female Defendant.” However, Brenda and Richard Miles’ attorney publicly disclosed their names after the lawsuit was filed and said they vigorously deny the allegations.

FOX 13 spoke with several of the plaintiffs on the condition that their names not be used nor their faces shown.

“Victims need to be listened and heard and have a voice. I think now there’s a chance some members of the Mormon community will believe us. I’m certain there’s some who will not because of who the defendants are,” said a woman known in the lawsuit as “Jane Doe 2,” who alleges she was sexually abused as a child.

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HUNTINGTON (IN)
OSV Newsweekly

October 3, 2018

By Gretchen R. Crowe

Every once in a while, I receive a piece of mail that stops me in my tracks. This was certainly the case when I received a recent letter from a reader not only disclosing the fact that she is the mother of four sons who were sexually abused by the same priest while growing up, but also describing the painful and lifelong ramifications of such abuse for her family.

All of her sons became addicted to alcohol, she writes, and three out of the four, to drugs. Two wanted to press charges against the abuser but ran up against the statute of limitations; and two won’t speak of the abuse at all.

Two of her children have left the Church completely — and one is no longer Christian. Of the two who remain Catholic, they only attend Mass occasionally, and they never had their children baptized.

One of her sons, she writes, remains very bitter.

“He has followed this type of news … closely over the years and calls it to my attention frequently,” she writes. “When I point out to him that for every pedophile priest there are 100 good priests, his response is that if they knew it was going on and did nothing, they’re just as guilty.”

The woman writes that this summer’s news of clergy sexual abuse made her feel “as if I’d been punched in the gut.” But, because of her experience, she said it was not unexpected.

There is much to unpack here about the long-term consequences of the scourge of clergy sexual abuse. My heart breaks for this woman and her family, and for the unnecessary and painful struggles that they have faced throughout their lives. They are members of the walking wounded.

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CHICAGO (IL)
NBC Chicago

October 2, 2018

By Mary Ann Ahern

A California lawsuit was announced Tuesday naming a priest who retired from Chicago in 1973 and moved to the West Coast and allegedly abused young men there.

The suit was announced as Cardinal Blase Cupich revealed a new audit for the Chicago Archdiocese. At the same time, the original members of the National Lay Review Board spoke out on bishop accountability.

Former federal prosecutor Bob Bennett was in Chicago, who lead the first Lay Review Board for the Catholic Church back in 2002, reacted to the current crisis surrounding how Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was promoted over the years, despite allegations of sexual misconduct.

“The layman’s voice is not heard,” Bennett said.

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MICHIGAN
CNN

October 4, 2018

By Steve Almasy and Susannah Cullinane

Michigan authorities have seized records from every Catholic diocese in the state as part of an investigation into possible sexual abuse by clergy, the dioceses said in separate statements released Wednesday.

The Archdiocese of Detroit, and dioceses in Gaylord, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Marquette and Saginaw said their offices were served search warrants Wednesday morning from Attorney General Bill Schuette.

Schuette’s office announced last month that it would be looking into possible sexual abuse by priests in the state’s seven dioceses.

CNN has reached out to Schuette’s office for comment.

A post on the attorney general’s website says the investigation will be “independent, thorough, transparent and prompt” and will “find out who knew what, and when.”

“The Michigan Department of Attorney General has determined that a full and complete investigation of what happened within the Catholic Church is required,” the post says.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Insurance Journal

October 4, 2018

By Christopher Weber

A man who says he was sexually abused decades ago by his parish priest said he is suing all Catholic bishops in California and the Archdiocese of Chicago, seeking to compel church officials to release records on clergy abuse.

The filing Tuesday in Los Angeles by Thomas Emens claims a civil conspiracy among church officials to cover up clergy sexual assault and move offending priests to other parishes.

Emens said at a news conference that he was abused for two years starting in 1978 when he was 10 years old by Monsignor Thomas Joseph Mohan. The priest, who is deceased, arrived at St. Anthony Claret Catholic Church in Anaheim in the early 1970s from Chicago, according to the lawsuit.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Daily Beast

October 3, 2018

By Pilar Melendez

In an effort to compel officials to release clergy-abuse records, a new lawsuit filed Tuesday targets dozens of priests, all California bishops, and the Archdiocese of Chicago.

A clergy-abuse survivor is putting his state on notice, suing all of California’s 12 Catholic bishops and naming more than two dozen accused sexual-predator priests in an effort to compel church officials to be more transparent.

In a complaint filed in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Thomas Emens alleged a “civil conspiracy” among clergy officials to cover up sexual assault within the church, claiming they avoided conflict by simply moving accused priests to other parishes across the country.

“This lawsuit is really the only opportunity I have at this time to find justice not just for myself to bring all the victims that are in the shadows out and to help them moving forward,” Emens said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit. “This lawsuit is also to get the clerics at the top to come clean and tell the truth.”

Emens alleged both at the news conference and lawsuit—that he was sexually abused for two years starting in 1978, when he was 10 years old, at the hands of Monsignor Thomas Joseph Mohan.

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BRIDGEPORT (CT)
The Associated Press

October 3, 2018

A Catholic diocese in Connecticut announced Wednesday that it has chosen a retired state judge to lead an investigation into sexual abuse of children by priests, a review that will look at allegations and Church records dating back to when the diocese was founded in 1953.

Robert Holzberg, who retired as a state Superior Court judge in 2012 and returned to private law practice, will be lead investigator and counsel for the Diocese of Bridgeport’s investigation, which Church officials say will begin immediately and be finished next spring.

The diocese, which includes more than 460,000 Catholics in 82 parishes in Fairfield County, has faced at least three dozen lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of children by priests since the early 1990s, leading to more than $35 million in settlements, the Connecticut Post has reported. Five more men sued the diocese last month, saying priests abused them when they were children in the late 1980s to the early 2000s.

Twenty-nine priests in the diocese – living and dead – have been credibly accused of sexual abuse, according to the diocese.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

October 4, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis urged Catholic bishops to dream of a future free of the mistakes of the past as he opened a global church leadership meeting Wednesday amid renewed anger over the priestly sex abuse and cover-up scandal.

Yet down the block from the Vatican’s synod hall, about two dozen abuse survivors staged a sit-in, demanding that their cause be taken up at the meeting and voicing anger that some of the delegates had covered up for abusive priests.

“Make ‘Zero Tolerance’ Real,” read one protest sign.

Francis welcomed more than 250 priests, bishops and cardinals — as well as 34 young Catholics — to a monthlong meeting on ministering to future generations, urging young and old to listen to one another without prejudice.

He prayed for God’s help to ensure the church “does not allow itself, from one generation to the next, to be extinguished or crushed by the prophets of doom and misfortune, by our own shortcomings, mistakes and sins.”

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BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

October 3, 2018

News Editorial Board

The mother of an alleged molestation victim called it “a covered-up mess.” A Catholic priest who was accused of sexually abusing a teenage boy was allowed to remain in ministry for several decades, on the watch of six bishops or auxiliary bishops in the Buffalo Diocese.

Her mistake, she realized too late, was that she reported the crime not to police, but to the church, which was all too eager to cover it up. In her pain is a lesson for others.

Monica Lesniak, of Cheektowaga, shared her story with The News’ Jay Tokasz last week. Lesniak said the incident took place in the early 1980s. Her son went to see a movie with the Rev. Brian M. Hatrick, who was assistant pastor at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Church in Depew, the family’s parish. Afterward, Lesniak says, the priest fondled and kissed the teenager inside a car.

Lesniak reported the incident to her pastor at the time, Monsignor Joseph Coughlin, she says. After Lesniak told Coughlin about the assault, he said he would take care of things. Hatrick was moved out of the Depew parish and sent to other assignments, apparently suffering no consequences. He worked for decades in other Buffalo parishes.

The mom, now in her 70s, says she regrets not going to the police. When children are sexually abused by adults, that is a crime, no matter who the adults happen to be. Reporting it to law enforcement is a necessity.

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RAPID CITY (SD)
KOTA TV

October 2, 2018

Rapid City police arrested and charged a local Catholic priest with sexual contact with a minor.

Fr. John Praveen is charged Tuesday with two counts of sexual contact with a person under the age of 16.

Rapid City Police and the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office conducted a joint investigation after a juvenile victim reported the incident on Sept. 30. They believe Praveen made sexual contact with the child on two different times.

The 38-year-old was taken into custody on Tuesday.

Diocese of Rapid City Bishop Robert Gruss says he learned of the charged from police.

“I was surprised,” Gruss said. “We are fully cooperating with the on going police investigation.”

After learning of the charges, Gruss said he removed Praveen from his duties.

“I have suspended him from the ministry,” Gruss said. “I’m deeply saddened that a family has to endure something like this from one of my priests and so my sympathies and prayers go out to this family but also to all families who have been affected by sexual abuse by clergy or anyone else.

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YORK (PA)
The York Daily Record

October 3, 2018

By Brandie Kessler

For 76 of her 77 years, Sally Sneeringer has lived in the same house, in view of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Conewago Chapel in Adams County.

That is where she attended Mass every week, until last year.

“I had back surgery in ’72 which left me with a brace on both legs,” Sneeringer said. “At one time, I did not need any other assistance, just the braces.”

As her mobility deteriorated, Sneeringer used a cane and eventually, a walker. These days she doesn’t get out much. Now, she said, her minister comes to her home to give her communion.

To help her tackle all the other tasks and errands in her life, Sneeringer has her lifelong family friend, Herbert Shank, to help.

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CAPE TOWN (SOUTH AFRICA)
Eyewitness News

October 4, 2018

By Monique Mortlock

Catholic Archbishop of Cape Town Stephen Brislin says the church has reviewed the way in which it handles claims of sexual abuse by clergy.

The Catholic Church in Cape Town says it has implemented tighter measures to prevent sexual abuse by its clergy.

It has welcomed the Anglican Church of Southern Africa’s approach to stopping sex predators from entering its pews.

The church held a meeting last week discussing incidents of sexual abuse in Anglican parishes that made headlines earlier in 2018.

“What has happened in the church is absolutely shameful, but we know it’s also happening in society and we have to try to get as many people on board. So, that’s the big challenge.”

Catholic Archbishop of Cape Town Stephen Brislin says the church has reviewed the way in which it handles claims of sexual abuse by clergy over the last few years.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

October 4, 2018

By Junno Arocho Esteves

At a court hearing to answer to allegations of covering up sexual abuse by members of the clergy, Chilean Cardinal Riccardo Ezzati invoked his right against self-incrimination.

In a statement released by the Archdiocese of Santiago Oct. 3, Ezzati said that at the suggestion of his lawyers, “I will use, for the time being, my right to remain silent” until authorities “issue a ruling on the request for a definitive dismissal” of the charges against him.

The Chilean prosecutor’s office in Rancagua, led by Emiliano Arias, issued a subpoena July 24 after conducting several raids of diocesan offices in Rancagua and Santiago.

Arias confirmed his office was investigating an alleged sex-abuse ring in Rancagua as well as possible cover-ups of abuse cases by senior members of the clergy, including Ezzati and his predecessor, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz.

The subpoena is believed to be related to the case of Fr. Oscar Munoz Toledo, the former chancellor of the Archdiocese of Santiago, who was arrested July 12 following allegations that he abused seven minors in Santiago and Rancagua since 2002.

Although Cardinal Ezzati had said that he would cooperate with authorities in their investigation, his decision to remain silent caused outrage among survivors of clergy sexual abuse in the country.

Juan Carlos Cruz, who along with James Hamilton and Jose Andres Murillo met with Pope Francis in May to discuss their suffering, said the cardinal’s use of his right against self-incrimination “was a lack of respect” for survivors.

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ROME
Crux

October 4, 2018

By Elise Harris

[Editor’s note: Crux is publishing an occasional series of brief profiles in the ongoing drama surrounding clerical sexual abuse, ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, and accusations of cover-up against various Church officials including Pope Francis.]

As a Synod of Bishops on young people begins this week despite calls for the gathering to be either postponed or overhauled due to recent clerical abuse scandals, several key players in the drama are beginning to come into clearer focus.

One such figure is Argentinian Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, who reportedly knew about misconduct allegations against ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick as early as 2000.

Currently prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Oriental Churches, Sandri came in for mention in a letter penned last month by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the Vatican’s former ambassador to the United States, who charged that several Holy See officials, including Pope Francis, knew about McCarrick’s alleged sexual misconduct with seminarians yet did nothing.

McCarrick had been a celebrated figure in American Catholicism, but he was removed from the College of Cardinals in July following accusations that he had abused minors some 40 years ago. As the U.S. bishops prepare to launch investigations in four dioceses where the McCarrick drama is centered, more questions have been raised than answered.

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YORK (PA)
Penn Live

October 3, 2018

By Ivey DeJesus

Kristen Pfautz Woolley was 10 years old when a friend of the family began to sexually molest her.

Afraid and confused, Woolley told no one. Her predator continued to molest her for two years.

By the time Woolley entered young adulthood and realized what had happened to her, the statute of limitations had expired for her. Woolley’s life was ravaged by anxiety, panic attacks and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Years of therapy have allowed Woolley to heal and move on.

Now 48, she devotes herself to helping victims of child sexual abuse heal and regain control of their lives. Woolley is founder and clinical director of Turning Point Women’s Counseling and Advocacy Center in York.

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UNITED STATES
Get Religion

October 3, 2018

By Terry Mattingly

For weeks now, your GetReligionistas have carefully followed news coverage of the spectacular fall of ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a key player for decades in countless trends and media storms in American Catholic life. His media-friendly career began in the New York City area and he ended up as a cardinal in Washington, D.C.

Most of the coverage of the “Uncle Ted” scandals this summer focused on his links to the latest developments in decades of horror stories about priests abusing young boys and teens. Also, efforts to promote and protect him was a major plot point in the blunt late-August document released by the Vatican’s former U.S. ambassador, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano.

But those two themes tended to mask, in lots of stories (click here for background), two other crucial parts of the McCarrick drama. For example, most of his abuse focused on young men, seminarians to be specific. Also, the former D.C. cardinal has emerged as the iconic symbol of a larger problem — bishops and cardinals hiding the sins of their colleagues.

These latter elements of the McCarrick story seemed, for weeks, to have slipped onto a back burner in many crucial newsrooms. However, it was hard to know what has happening — behind the scenes — since even elite newsrooms are not as well staffed as they used to be and, well, there simply aren’t enough religion-beat pros out there (since many editors just don’t “get” the importance of this topic).

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ROME (ITALY)
Associated Press

October 4, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis urged Catholic bishops to dream of a future free of the mistakes of the past as he opened a global church leadership meeting Wednesday amid renewed outrage over the priestly sex abuse and cover-up scandal.

Yet down the block from the Vatican’s synod hall, about two dozen abuse survivors staged a sit-in, demanding their cause be taken up at the meeting and voicing outrage that some of the delegates had covered up for abusive priests.

“Make ‘Zero Tolerance’ Real,” read one protest sign.

Francis welcomed more than 250 priests, bishops and cardinals — as well as 34 young Catholics — to a monthlong meeting on ministering to future generations, urging young and old to listen to one another without prejudice.

He prayed for God’s help to ensure the church “does not allow itself, from one generation to the next, to be extinguished or crushed by the prophets of doom and misfortune, by our own shortcomings, mistakes and sins.”

The Oct. 3-28 synod comes amid new revelations about decades of sexual misconduct by priests and cover-ups in the U.S., Chile, Germany and elsewhere. That has sent confidence in Francis’ leadership to all-time lows among the American faithful.

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HYDERABAD (INDIA)
The Siaset Daily

October 4, 2018

A similar disgusting incident of a 5-year-old minor’s gang-rape by two temple priest in temple premises is reported from Datia district on Tuesday, HT reports.

The Police has arrested both the priests identified as Raju Pandit (55) and Batoli Prajapati (45) late this Tuesday night.

The accused have now been booked under Section 376 (rape) of Indian Penal Code and Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO).

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

October 3, 2018

By Luke Wilusz

A former English teacher at Loyola Academy high school in north suburban Wilmette is under investigation for “alleged internet crimes against children.”

In an email sent to Loyola Academy alumni, school administrators said they were notified Sept. 19 about a Glenview Police Department investigation into the man, who taught English at the school from 2011 to 2014.

Glenview police said the department was “investigating an adult male for possible charges related to internet crimes against children” but did not provide further information about the investigation. No arrests had been made as of Wednesday afternoon.

School officials noted that no charges had been filed, but said they were notifying alumni as a precaution and cooperating with law enforcement.

Anyone with information that could be relevant to the investigation was asked to call Det. Jamie Medina at (847) 901-6145.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Springfield News Republic

October 3, 2018

By Jane Eastwood

I’ve just finished reading “Death of an Alter Boy: The Unsolved Murder of Danny Croteau and the Culture of Abuse in the Catholic Church” by E.J. Fleming. This is a heart wrenching story for anyone to read, but extremely painful for me because Richard Lavigne was a priest in my parish, St. Mary’s. I knew him well. I was subjected to one of his rages as an acolyte at Ursuline Academy in 1968. It was terrifying to hear him scream at me while raising his fists in uncontrollable anger. I never forgot that encounter. Reading the book brought back that memory in full force as the abused boys recounted their experiences with Richard Lavigne’s rages and physical abuse.

What was most disheartening was how the diocese of Springfield knew from Lavigne’s first posting that he was sexually abusing children, mostly boys. I knew the priests who did nothing to stop him. Those who caught Lavigne in acts of sexual abuse and walked away from the child being abused. These men heard my confession, gave me Holy Communion at Mass and sermonized on morality.

As a Catholic I am appalled and yet broken-hearted by what I read. Curiosity was the impulse that got me to order and read the book. I had no idea how truly horrible and pervasive the abuse was in the Springfield Diocese. The Springfield Republican has done an outstanding job of reporting on this story. But reading it all at once drives home the ugly truth of a systematic culture of abuse throughout the Catholic Church. The Vatican has done nothing to change this culture. The Vatican will do nothing because change would require tearing down the patriarchal hierarchy, destroying the old boys network that rewards abusers and allow lay men and women more power within the Church.

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MALTA
Reuters via Times of Malta

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

The Polish court of appeal upheld on Tuesday a landmark ruling granting a million zloty (€230,000) in compensation to a victim of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest, accepting that the Church in Poland was responsible for its priest’s crimes.

The Catholic Church worldwide is reeling from crises involving sexual abuse of minors, deeply damaging confidence in the Church in Chile, the United States, Australia and Ireland among other countries.

In January, a court ordered the Catholic Church to pay compensation to a woman who had been sexually abused by a priest as a child.

“The verdict of the Court of Appeal legally decides to award one million zloty compensation … and an annuity of 800 zloty (€187) a month,” the court statement said.

State news agency PAP reported last year that a priest had abused a 13-year-old girl during his tenure in northwestern Poland.

The man, who imprisoned and raped the girl for more than 10 months, was arrested in 2008 and sentenced in 2010 to four years in prison, Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported.

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YORK (PA)
York Daily Record

October 4, 2018

By Sam Ruland

Kevin Hoover doesn’t exactly remember the day he was told Brian was dead.

The minute details of where he was and what he was doing don’t seem to come to mind. But, the one thing he does remember is that he knew how Brian died before anyone told him.

“I knew he had killed himself,” Hoover said, recalling the death of his former classmate Brian Gergely. Both boys were exposed to the abuse of Father Francis McCaa while attending Holy Name Elementary School in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, during the 1980s.

“I just thought,” Hoover paused, taking a breath before speaking his next words. “McCaa claims another one.” It sounded like defeat as it rolled off his tongue.

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ROME (ITALY)
Daily Beast

October 4, 2018

By Barbie Latza Nadeau

At a time when systematic child sex abuse at the hands of Catholic priests has scandalized the global church, it may seem like warning priests not to get naked with children would go without saying. But that’s clearly not the case in Chile, where there are more than 120 active investigations into clerical sex abuse and where all of the country’s bishops offered their resignations en masse to Pope Francis.

Because of such demonstrable problems, but obviously with little thought for appearances, Santiago Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati released detailed guidelines this week for local priests that suggests more than a few recurrent issues. Among them, priests should not “give hugs that are too tight, slap the buttocks, touch the area of the genitals or the breast, or recline or sleep with children or adolescents.”

The document also urges priests not to take pictures of children who are nude or in the shower, and not to “fight or play games that involve touching yourself in an inappropriate way.” The authors add that clergy should not to “give massages, hug from behind, kiss the mouth of children, adolescents, or vulnerable people” and to avoid all behaviors that can be “misinterpreted.”

The nine-page Instrumentum Laboris, or working document, which was released in Spanish on the archdiocese website and called “Guidelines Promoting Good Treatment and Healthy Pastoral Coexistence,” was immediately criticized by support groups for those who were abused by priests as tone-deaf and indicative of an utter lack of understanding when it comes to the root causes of clerical sex abuse and its widespread cover-up.

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NOTTINGHAM (UK)
Nottinghamshire Post

October 4, 2018

By David Whitfield

The fourth day of hearings in the inquiry looking into historic child sexual abuse in Nottinghamshire takes place today, Wednesday – and the first witness who is giving evidence about foster care will be heard.

Three weeks of hearings are taking place at the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), with the first week being held at Trent Bridge.

The first day gave the background to the inquiry, including some of the concerns about abuse of children which were raised.

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
Jefferson City News Tribune

October 4, 2018

Gov. Mike Parson should add teeth to Attorney General Josh Hawley’s investigation into the Catholic Church by authorizing Hawley to use subpoena powers in his probe.

The request was made recently by SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which has crusaded for the last three decades to support victims and hold offenders in the church accountable.

Hawley announced Aug. 23 he was starting an independent investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy in the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis. As we recently reported, Hawley asked that other dioceses in the state voluntarily allow his office to examine them.

Credit Bishop W. Shawn McKnight of the Jefferson City Diocese: Hours after Hawley’s announcement, McKnight invited the AG’s office to review the local diocese.

McKnight seems to want to confront the problem head-on, and we appreciate his openness and his willingness to cooperate. Not all past church officials throughout the U.S. have been as transparent.

The Missouri probe comes in the wake of a Pennsylvania grand jury report showing bishops and other Catholic leaders in that state covered up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests over a period of 70 years.

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[Church: the four cases that cornered ex-Bishop Francisco Cox]

CHILE
La Tercera

October 3, 2018

By S. Rodríguez, J. Castellón, and H. Basoalto

Dos denuncias están en la justicia civil, ambas de eventuales víctimas chilenas, por abusos sexuales. Nuevo caso que analiza el Vaticano ocurrió hace más de una década en Alemania y habría sido denunciado en EE.UU.

“Sería ideal que empezara un proceso y Cox enfrentara, por fin, a la justicia. A lo mejor no va a ir a la cárcel, pero al menos me deja tranquilo que esto se sepa, que me hayan tomado declaración y se lo conozca como una persona depravada”. Así se manifestó Hernán Godoy (46) respecto de los presuntos abusos sexuales cometidos en su contra por Francisco José Cox, exarzobispo de La Serena y quien actualmente reside en Vallendar, Alemania.

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[Karadima’s victims criticize Ezzati’s silence in court: “Where is the ‘I will collaborate with justice?'”]

CHILE
La Tercera

October 3, 2018

By Claudia Soto

El Arzobispo de Santiago se acogió a su derecho de guardar silencio y no declaró ante el fiscal Emiliano Arias.

Hasta la Fiscalía de Rancagua llegó esta mañana el arzobispo de Santiago Ricardo Ezzati, tras ser citado a declarar como imputado por el presunto encubrimiento al ex canciller de la Iglesia Óscar Muñoz, quien está siendo investigado por los delitos de violación, abuso sexual y estupro.

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[Ezzati’s lawyer insists on his innocence: “An accused person can be a victim”]

CHILE
La Tercera

October 3, 2018

By Angélica Baeza

El arzobispo de Santiago no declaró ante el fiscal Emiliano Arias, acogiéndose a su derecho a guardar silencio. Esto porque la defensa insiste en la realización de una audiencia de sobreseimiento.

Hugo Rivera, abogado del arzobispo de Santiago Ricardo Ezzati, aclaró los motivos por los cuales el prelado se acogió a su derecho a guardar silencio y no declarar frente al fiscal de O’Higgins Emiliano Arias.

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[Victim of sexual abuse: “Bernardino Piñera is the accessory to Bishop Cox”]

CHILE
El Mostrador

October 3, 2018

By Alejandra Carmona and José Olavarría

Abel Soto es una de las víctimas de abuso sexual por parte del obispo emérito Francisco José Cox, en Chillán como en La Serena. El religioso cuenta con un historial de larga data de abusos y se encuentra en Alemania desde 2002, dedicado a una “vida de silencio, la oración y la penitencia”, según la información oficial de la iglesia chilena. En ese país fue presentada una demanda en su contra, que se suma a otras dos judicializadas en Chile. Una de ellas es la que presentó Soto ante el fiscal Arias.

En conversación con El Mostrador, Abel Soto, de 49 años, cuenta el detalle de lo que fueron los abusos a los que fue sometido por parte del obispo emérito de La Serena, Francisco José Cox, y apunta a Bernardino Piñera, arzobispo de La Serena entre 1983 y 1990, como el principal encubridor.

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[The first priest to denounce Karadima, Hans Kast, is the one that now implicates Ezzati]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

October 3, 2018

By Consuelo Ferrer

Hermano mayor de José Antonio Kast, el párroco escribió correos al arzobispo de Santiago en 2010 y 2011 dando cuenta de testimonios de abuso contra otro presbítero. Sugirió abrir investigaciones previas y “medidas pastorales o cautelares”, pero no se hicieron efectivas.

“La verdad es la que nos hará libres”. Fue la escueta respuesta que entregó en septiembre el arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, al referirse a la investigación que busca esclarecer si encubrió abusos sexuales. La frase, que es en realidad un pasaje del evangelio de Juan, ya había sido citada por otro sacerdote siete años atrás: Hans Kast, que la emitió un día de mayo de 2011, cuando ratificó ante fiscalía su testimonio en contra de Fernando Karadima.

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[Another headache for the Church: Sexual abuse case of the former Chancellor of the Archdiocese will be transferred to Santiago]

CHILE
El Mostrador

October 2, 2018

La investigación contra Óscar Muñoz Toledo salpica al arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, quien debe presentarse a declarar mañana ante el fiscal Emiliano Arias. El cardenal se encuentra imputado por encubrimiento en esta causa. Otro flanco que lo complica son las nuevas revelaciones sobre el caso del sacerdote Jorge Laplagne Aguirre, donde también se le acusa de no tomar en cuenta las denuncias.

Luego que el Tribunal de Garantía de Rancagua se declarara incompetente en la causa del ex canciller del Arzobispado de Santiago Óscar Muñoz Toledo, el caso será trasladado a Santiago. El Ministerio Público tomó la determinación de no perseverar en el “hecho uno”, el primero de los 5 imputados a Muñoz, quien fue detenido en julio pasado por el Fiscal Regional de Rancagua, Emiliano Arias por diversos casos de abuso sexual.

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[Ezzati did not speak to prosecutor Arias despite assurances he would cooperate]

CHILE
Publimetro

October 3, 2018

By Consuelo Rehbein

El arzobispo de Santiago había sido citado a declarar esta mañana, como imputado por encubrimiento de eventuales delitos sexuales por parte del ex canciller de la Iglesia de Santiago, Óscar Muñoz. Sin embargo, la autoridad eclesiástica no habló y estuvo menos de media hora en el lugar.

En horas de esta mañana no se tenía claridad sobre la asistencia de Monseñor Ezzati a declarar. Había sido citado como imputado por encubrimiento de supuestos delitos sexuales cometidos por el ex canciller de la iglesia de Santiago, Óscar Muñoz.

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MACOMB (MI)
Macomb Daily

October 3, 2018

By Jeff Payne

Roman Catholic dioceses across Michigan have turned over documents in a state investigation of sexual abuse by priests.

Investigators with search warrants collected records Wednesday, about two weeks after Attorney General Bill Schuette said his office was leading a probe. The new emphasis comes after a Pennsylvania grand jury said more than 1,000 children have been molested there since the 1940s.

The Detroit Archdiocese says it “cooperated fully.” The Saginaw Diocese says investigators were at headquarters throughout the day. Schuette spokeswoman Andrea Bitely declined to comment.

A priest in the Saginaw area, the Rev. Robert DeLand, recently withdrew his no-contest plea to criminal sexual conduct after the judge disagreed with a one-year jail sentence. He’ll now go to trial.

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit News

October 3, 2018

By Beth LeBlanc

Police seized clergy misconduct records from all of Michigan’s Catholic dioceses after serving several search warrants across the state within an hour of each other Wednesday morning.

Diocesan officials in Lansing, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Saginaw, Marquette, Kalamazoo and Gaylord confirmed the searches took place Wednesday as part of the Attorney General’s Office investigation into the dioceses’ handling of clergy sexual abuse of minors. The dioceses said they cooperated fully with authorities.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
Catholic News Service

October 3, 2018

By Katherine Long

In the coming weeks and months, spiritual and physical support will be offered to those in need thanks to a man who as a child was abused by a priest of the Diocese of Syracuse.

The man is a participant in the diocese’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program for those abused by clergy. Rather than keep his $5,000 settlement, he has used the money to have special Masses offered in every parish of the diocese and to stock two Catholic Charities food pantries in Binghamton and Endicott.

“Before I even was offered anything, I saw this as a possible opportunity to cooperate with God in trying to bring good from a situation that was not good for a number of people, both victims and priests alike,” the man told The Catholic Sun, Syracuse’s diocesan newspaper.

“I saw this as a chance to try to bring peace and comfort and good news from decades of strife and anger and sadness,” he said.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

October 3, 2018

By Jay Tokasz

Bishop Richard J. Malone on Tuesday suspended another retired priest accused of sexual abuse from serving in parishes, bringing to 15 the number of Buffalo Diocese priests who have been put on administrative leave since March.

The diocese announced late Tuesday afternoon on its website that the Rev. Louis S. Dolinic has been placed on administrative leave as the complaint is investigated.

Dolinic, 77, lives in a Depew residence for retired priests. He spent most of his priesthood in North Tonawanda and was pastor of Our Lady of Czestochowa Church when he retired in 2010.

The diocese provided no details about when the abuse was alleged to have happened or where Dolinic was assigned at the time.

Dolinic was ordained in 1966 and served as an assistant pastor at St. Barbara Church in Lackawanna and at St. Andrew Church in Sloan in his early priesthood.

He was then assigned as an assistant pastor of St. Joseph Church in North Tonawanda in the 1970s. He served at St. John Kanty Church in Buffalo in the 1980s, before being assigned to North Tonawanda again in the late 1980s, this time as pastor of Our Lady of Czestochowa.

In 1995, he was appointed pastor of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament in Depew.

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RAPID CITY (SD)
Raid City Journal

October 3, 2018

By Arielle Zionts

The priest accused of sexually abusing a 13 year old had his bond set Wednesday at $100,000 cash only at his initial court appearance.

John Praveen, also known as John Praveen Kumar Itukulapat, 38, appeared before Magistrate Judge Scott Bogue from the Pennington County Jail via a video and audio stream.

Bogue said the high bond was set due the seriousness of the charges and Praveen’s flight risk given he has few ties to the community.

Praveen, who most recently worked at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, a church in Rapid City, is charged with two counts of sexual contact with a child under 16. The class 3 felonies, which allegedly occurred on Sept. 3 and 28, carry a punishment of up to 15 years in prison and/or a maximum fine of $30,000, court records say.

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CHILE
Reuters

October 2, 2018

By Aislinn Laing and Natalia A. Ramos Miranda

Chilean President Sebastian Pinera will meet Pope Francis in Rome later this month during a tour of Europe, as the Roman Catholic Church in Chile faces a crisis over claims of sexual abuse and cover-ups.

A spokesman for Pinera said he will meet the pontiff at the Vatican during a tour of France, Spain, Germany and Belgium that begins on Friday. A Vatican spokesman confirmed the meeting would take place on Saturday morning.

The spokesman for Pinera declined to discuss who had requested the meeting or what would be discussed but said the president would visit Italy only for the purpose of seeing the pope.

Pinera, a Catholic who presides over a right-wing party with traditionally close ties to the Church, has remained largely silent on Chile’s abuse crisis. His uncle is Bernardino Pinera, 102, a retired cleric who is the oldest living Catholic bishop.

So far the pope has accepted the resignations of seven of Chile’s 34 bishops and Chilean civil justice has investigated 119 allegations of sexual abuse or cover-ups involving 167 church workers including Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, the archbishop of Santiago.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Associated Press

October 3, 2018

By John Seewer

Ohio’s largest Roman Catholic diocese will join three other dioceses in the state and release a list of priests who have been removed from their posts because of sexual abuse and misconduct allegations.

The Diocese of Cleveland’s list will include the names of abusive priests, even if they are now dead, church officials said Tuesday.

The diocese since 2002 has been announcing the names of clerics removed from ministry because of sex abuse allegations, said diocesan spokesman Jim Armstrong. Its website includes 29 names, with some of the allegations going back decades.

“It would be wrong to suggest that the Diocese of Cleveland has not committed to release the names of clerics accused of sexually abusing a minor or that it desires to keep secret the names of such clerics,” Armstrong said.

The new names to be added will go back as far as the diocese’s records permit, Cleveland.com reported. The diocese hopes to release an updated list very soon, Armstrong said.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
cleveland.com

October 2, 2018

By Cory Shaffer

Sixteen years before the public release of a groundbreaking grand jury report that detailed decades of sexual abuse at the hands of Pennsylvania’s priests, Cleveland’s top prosecutor launched his own inquest that uncovered allegations against more than 140 priests in the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland spanning decades.

Unlike residents in Pennsylvania, Ohioans never got to see the vast majority of the allegations or learn the names of priests named as abusers and still had access to children.

A Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court judge ruled in 2004 that the state’s laws that cloak the work of grand juries in secrecy outweigh the public’s interest in learning the body’s findings, after then-Cuyahoga County Prosecutor William Mason reversed his earlier stance that he would support a full release of the report.

In the wake of the release of Pennsylvania’s case, Cuyahoga County’s current prosecutor, Michael O’Malley, said his hands remain tied by the ruling and does not see a way to secure the report’s release.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Kansas City Star

October 2, 2018

Why are Missouri Republican politicians playing hot potato with the inquiry into alleged sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests? (Sept. 29, 4A, “Missouri AG’s power in abuse inquiry debated”)

Attorney General Josh Hawley claims he can’t investigate more thoroughly unless asked to do so by Gov. Mike Parson. But Parson claims he can’t act unless asked to do so by a local prosecutor.

There are 115 local prosecutors across the state, many of whom presumably are Republicans. Yet they are staying silent during this process.

GOP politicians like to talk tough about crime. Now they have a chance to back up their words with actions, but they seem to be passing the buck instead of protecting our kids.

Robert Bates

Kansas City

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FARGO (ND)
In Forum

October 1, 2018
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A former Catholic priest was sentenced Monday, Oct. 1, in Cass County District Court on charges that he sexually abused two boys in the 1990s while assigned to churches in Fargo and West Fargo.

Fernando Sayasaya will serve 20 years in prison for his conviction on two charges of gross sexual imposition. He pleaded guilty in May to those charges, after originally entering not guilty pleas in February.

Sayasaya will be required to register as a sex offender. He was given credit for 360 days spent in jail.

Sayasaya served as associate pastor at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Fargo and Blessed Sacrament in West Fargo. He was removed from his duties in the Fargo Diocese in August 1998 after two brothers accused him of sexually abusing them.

The criminal charges said Sayasaya sexually touched two boys under the age of 15 on more than one occasion.

Victims told police Sayasaya would touch or attempt to touch their penises and other private parts when they visited his apartment, and one of the boys told police that the man showed pornographic movies and served him alcohol.

Sayasaya was charged in Cass County District Court in 2002. A federal indictment was returned in 2003 after he failed to return to the United States following a 1998 visit to the Philippines.

He was brought back to Fargo in December 2017.

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YORK (PA)
York Daily Record

October 2, 2018

By Brandie Kessler

For 76 of her 77 years, Sally Sneeringer has lived in the same house, in view of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Conewago Chapel in Adams County.

That is where she attended Mass every week, until last year.

“I had back surgery in ‘72 which left me with a brace on both legs,” Sneeringer said. “At one time, I did not need any other assistance, just the braces.”

As her mobility deteriorated, Sneeringer used a cane and eventually, a walker. These days she doesn’t get out much. Now, she said, her minister comes to her home to give her communion.

To help her tackle all the other tasks and errands in her life, Sneeringer has her lifelong family friend, Herbert Shank, to help.

Shank is among 301 priests accused of sexual abuse of children in a grand jury report released by the Pennsylvania Attorney General last month. He has lived with Sneeringer for more than 20 years.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

October 3, 2018

By Chico Harlan
·
By age 9 or 10, she had her first doubts about the faith, and not long after, she felt confident telling her parents: The Catholic Church, Agata Leoniddi said, seemed “outdated and backwards.”

The language at Mass was archaic. The teaching was rigid and unwelcoming. And some of the issues most important to her — including gender equality — were not discussed in church, where the leaders were entirely male. Leoniddi had spent her childhood within the church, but more and more, she was reaching the conclusion of so many young people in the developed world who’ve abandoned organized religion and, in particular, the scandal-riddled Catholic faith.

“I don’t think the church understands my generation,” said Leoniddi, now 12, who lives in a village among rolling hills 50 miles outside of Rome. “We are not like our grandfathers.”

The failure to attract and retain young people has become a central focus this month as the Vatican holds a major summit on the topic of youths within the faith. Among the pressing questions is whether an institution often criticized as out of touch can regain relevance for a younger generation — and whether the church’s power brokers are willing to listen to what those people have to say.

At a particularly divided moment within the church, the discussion doubles as an ideological debate over the church’s future, particularly on the extent to which Catholicism should modernize its teachings on sexuality and gender under a pope who has been pushing to adopt a more inclusive tone.

The other key issue is whether the carefully stage-managed event — more than a year and a half in the making — will address clerical sexual abuse within the church. Some outsiders say the discussion can be meaningful only if bishops take on the topic,

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Springfield News Republican

October 3, 2018

By Anne-Gerard Flynn

A representative from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops will talk with Springfield diocese clergy on the church’s sexual abuse crisis in the wake of several high profile recent investigations.

Francesco Cesareo, who chairs the National Review Board that advises the USCCB on preventing such abuse, will meet with clergy Tuesday, Oct. 9 at 6 p.m. at Pope Francis Preparatory School, 99 Wendover Road.

A recently released Pennsylvania grand jury report found that more than 1,000 children were victimized by some 300 Catholic priests over seven decades and that their sexual abuse was covered up by church hierarchy.

Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington, was suspended from ministry in June after the New York archdiocese deemed credible an accusation that he had molested a 16-year-old boy there 50 years ago.

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HARTFORD (CT)
Hartford Courant

October 3, 2018
By Dave Altimari

The Diocese of Bridgeport announced Wednesday that it has hired former Judge Robert L. Holzberg to do a comprehensive review of all the priest sexual-abuse claims made against or settled by the diocese over the last 55 years.

Bishop Frank J. Caggiano said in a press release that Holzberg “will have complete and unrestricted access to all Diocesan files, records and archives dating from 1953.” All clergy still under the diocese’s controal and all church administrators will be made available for Holzberg to interview.

Documents Reveal Former Connecticut Bishop Allowed Priests Facing Sex Abuse Allegations To Continue Working »

The Bridgeport announcement comes weeks after a Pennsylvania grand jury report was released that detailed horrific claims of priest sexual abuse cases in that diocese.

In Pennsylvania the attorney general’s office did an 18-month investigation that covered six of the state’s dioceses — Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton. The grand jury reviewed more than 2 million documents, including from the “secret archives” — files that church leaders held from the public for decades.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

October 3, 2018

By Philip Pullella

Pope Francis opened a gathering of bishops on Wednesday with the Catholic Church in a swirling state of crisis over sex abuse, urging its leaders not to let the next generation’s faith be snuffed out “by our own shortcomings, mistakes and sins”.

In signs of the extraordinary pressure the Church has come under from the worldwide abuse scandal, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia had called for the “youth synod” to be canceled so the Vatican could concentrate on preparing another bishops’ meeting on preventing sex abuse.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, New Jersey stayed home to deal with the scandal’s fallout, and a Dutch bishop, Robert Mutsaerts of Den Bosch, boycotted, saying the synod lacked credibility.

More than 250 other bishops from around the world will attend the month-long meeting with about 40 young people invited to take part as observers.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Associated Press

October 3, 2018

By Christopher Weber

A man who says he was sexually abused decades ago by his parish priest said Tuesday he is suing all Catholic bishops in California and the Archdiocese of Chicago, seeking to compel church officials to release records on clergy abuse.

The filing Tuesday in Los Angeles by Thomas Emens claims a civil conspiracy among church officials to cover up clergy sexual assault and move offending priests to other parishes.

Emens said at a news conference that he was abused for two years starting in 1978 when he was 10 years old by Monsignor Thomas Joseph Mohan. The priest, who is deceased, arrived at St. Anthony Claret Catholic Church in Anaheim in the early 1970s from Chicago, according to the lawsuit.

“This lawsuit is to find justice – to get the clerics at the top to come clean and tell the truth,” Emens said.

Attorney Jeff Anderson said the goal of the so-called nuisance lawsuit is to force the church to reveal the names of all priests accused of child molestation. He said church documents would reveal a playbook among bishops and other officials to protect offending clergy by keeping files under wraps and moving the priests across the country and, in some cases, out of the United States.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Associated Press

October 2, 2018

A man who claims he was sexually abused decades ago by his parish priest said Tuesday he is suing all Catholic bishops in California and the Archdiocese of Chicago, seeking to compel church officials to release records on clergy abuse.

The filing Monday in Los Angeles by Thomas Emens claims a civil conspiracy among church officials to cover up clergy sexual assault and move offending priests to other parishes.

Emens said at a news conference that he was abused for two years starting in 1978 when he was 10 years old by Monsignor Thomas Joseph Mohan. The priest, who is deceased, arrived at St. Anthony Claret Catholic Church in Anaheim in the early 1970s from Chicago, according to the lawsuit.

Attorney Jeff Anderson said the goal of the so-called “nuisance” lawsuit is to force the church to reveal the names of all priests accused of child molestation. He said church documents would reveal a “playbook” among bishops and other officials to protect offending clergy by keeping files under wraps and moving the priests across the country and, in some cases, out of the U.S.

The lawsuit asks a judge “to abate the continuing nuisance” of abuse by ordering each diocese to name all accused priests, detail their history of alleged assault and identify their last known addresses.

A call seeking comment from officials at the California Catholic Conference of Bishops, which oversees the state’s 12 dioceses, was not immediately returned. A call to the Archdiocese of Chicago was also not returned Tuesday.

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LAFAYETTE (LA)
Lafayette Daily Advertiser

October 1, 2018

Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel of the Diocese of Lafayette issued a statement Monday in response to a vow from an anonymous group of Acadiana Catholics to expose “corruption” in the church.

“The Diocese of Lafayette remains firmly committed to its Safe Environment Program for the protection of minors and vulnerable adults. Protocols have been in place since 2002 to make every Church entity in the Diocese a safe place for minors and vulnerable adults. These are openly posted on the Diocesan website,” Deshotel said in an emailed statement.

“The Diocese will not respond to deadlines, bullying and ultimatums issued by any non-Diocesan, anonymous group. I also remind such groups that slander, detraction and defamation of character are mortally sinful. Those who commit them must receive sacramental absolution in Confession and in justice restore the good name of those offended or risk losing everlasting life at the final judgment.”

The group, The Society of Peter Damien, made the letter public Friday on Twitter, after, they said, the bishop hadn’t responded within a week.

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OWENSBORO (KY)
The Owensboro Times

October 1, 2018

By Katie Pickens

Gerald Baker, a priest of the Diocese of Owensboro, was accused of sexual abuse in 2016 by three minors. Law enforcement and the Diocesan Review Board began investigations regarding the allegations in 2016.

While investigating, the Diocesan Review Board found the minors’ allegations to be substantiated. Because of the results, Bishop William F. Medley has permanently suspended Baker from public ministry.

At the time of the allegations Baker was pastor at St. Mary of the Woods in Whitesville and St. John the Baptist in Fordsville, although location and details of the abuse have not been released.

The Kentucky State Police (KSP) investigated the allegations in 2016, but Trooper Corey King, Public Affairs Officer for KSP said the case was closed after a former detective determined there was no criminal act that required the investigation of KSP.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

October 1, 2018

California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a measure Sept. 30 that would have extended the state’s statute of limitations for decades for childhood sexual abuse survivors.

The proposed measure would have allowed victims to file abuse claims until they are 40 years old. It also would have allowed those who have repressed memories of abuse to sue within five years of realizing the cause of their trauma.

In his Sept. 30 letter to the members of the California State Assembly, Brown said he vetoed a similar bill in 2013 and said his views on this have not changed.

He said the current measure is even broader than the one he opposed five years ago and “does not fully address the inequity between the state defendants and others and provides a longer revival period for otherwise barred claims.”

David Clohessy, until 2016 the longtime director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, and now a volunteer with the group, was disappointed by Brown’s veto.

“The civil window would have enabled thousands of suffering survivors to expose hundreds of wrongdoers who committed and concealed child sex crimes,” Clohessy said in a statement. “Instead, horrors will remain hidden and kids will remain at risk of more harm.”

“Governor Jerry Brown has again sided with the powerful against the powerless, with the guilty against the innocent, and with the oppressors over the oppressed,” Clohessy said.

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ITALY
Daily Mail Online

October 1, 2018

By Miranda Aldersley

– ‘Giuseppe’ was abused as a child by priests at the Antonio Provolo Institute
– He described how he was unable to communicate what was happening to others, even via sign-language, because the signs were invented by priests
– 67 boys are named in documents Verona prosecutors say they will bring to trial

A deaf and mute victim of the historic sex abuse inside the Catholic church has revealed how he and his friends were taught secret signs for oral sex and sodomy at a learning institute inItaly.

The victim, identified only as ‘Giuseppe’, told The Daily Beast how the priests and monks at the Antonio Provolo Institute in Verona had started teaching him a string of sickening signs for things such as masturbation, fellatio, penis, and anus, when he was just 11 years old.

The signs were designed to be incomprehensible to others, even those who could understand sign language, making it impossible for the children to accurately explain what was happening to them to their parents or the authorities.

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VATICAN
Evangelical Focus

October 2, 2018

By Leonardo De Chirico

The sexual abuse crisis has been on the table in a dramatically growing way since the years of Benedict XVI. The problem is systemic and pervasive.

The public image of the Roman Catholic Church emerging out of the sexual abuse scandals is that of a disrupted institution going through a season of internal turmoil.

Having several top leaders (cardinals, bishops, priests) and institutions (seminaries, schools, the Vatican curia itself) incriminated for either abusing children or covering up abuse undermines the moral, spiritual, and institutional credibility of Rome.

Over the last ten years, horrible things have come out: first in Ireland, then Australia, then Chile, and more recently in the USA (where a Pennsylvania Grand Jury report exposed systemic abuses committed by priests) and Germany (with a recent report saying that 3,677 children have been abused by Catholic priests since the 1940s). These are just five regions where exposure of the traumatic evidence meant that the scandals could no longer be covered up. The impression is that we have not yet reached the peak. The vast echo of these scandals reached the Vatican headquarters when former nuncio Carlo Maria Viganò accused vast sectors of the Roman Curia of covering them up and called for Francis’ resignation due to his inability to properly deal with the abuses.

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ST. LOUIS (MI)
St. Louis Public Radio

October 1, 2018

By Rachel Lippmann

Updated Oct. 1 at 4:30 p.m. with comments from the St. Louis Police Department — Police in Missouri do not know the whereabouts of nearly 1,200 sex offenders who are required by law to register with law enforcement — or nearly 8 percent of the total population who are supposed to be tracked.

An audit released Monday by state Auditor Nicole Galloway found that nearly 800 of those individuals have committed the most serious crimes, such as rape or child molestation in the first degree.

“I find this disturbing and alarming,” Galloway said during an appearance in St. Louis. “Because local law enforcement officials don’t know where these offenders are, that means citizens don’t know where they are either.”

The 7.9 percent noncompliance rate was higher than the 7.1 percent rate found during the last audit in 2010, Galloway said, and more than half of the nonregistered offenders had exceeded their scheduled dates to register by more than a year.

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LOS ANGELES
Los Angeles Times

October 3, 2018

By Laura Newberry

Over the last two decades, Roman Catholic dioceses across California have paid out massive settlements to parishioners who say they were molested by priests; acknowledged institutional breakdowns that facilitated abuse; and wrestled with followers who said they had lost faith in church leaders.

Now, after a Pennsylvania grand jury detailed rampant sexual abuse committed by Catholic clergy there, some dioceses have moved toward even greater transparency by releasing the names — in some cases for the first time — of priests accused of such crimes.

San Diego’s diocese updated its public list in mid-September. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Diocese of Orange are reviewing their lists of credibly accused priests — which were last updated in 2008 and 2016, respectively — to see whether any names should be added. And bishops of the San Bernardino and San Jose dioceses say they plan to publish names in the coming weeks.

The decision to disclose has been made across the U.S. — by bishops in places like Youngstown, Ohio; Fort Wayne, Ind.; and Little Rock, Ark. — following the Pennsylvania report that revealed a decades-long cover-up of child sex abuse involving more than 1,000 victims and hundreds of priests.

Attorneys general in at least eight states also have launched investigations into alleged clerical sexual misconduct, requesting or subpoenaing diocese records. California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra’s office declined to say whether it had an examination underway.

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ERIE (PA)
The Gannon Knight

October 3, 2018

Gannon University’s Board of Trustees has voted to rescind all awards and honors given to Bishop Emeritus Donald W. Trautman in the wake of his role in a sexual abuse scandal that dates back decades.

University President Keith Taylor, Ph. D., announced the decision Friday in a brief statement.

Taylor was not available for further comment.

“Each of us in our own way continues to reflect on the report of the grand jury investigation of decades of sexual abuse by clergy in the Diocese of Erie as well as attending to the surrounding events and discussions in the community and beyond,” Taylor said in his statement.

“Gannon’s Board of Trustees met last week in thoughtful dialogue to consider a University response and necessary actions to be taken.”

Taylor then said that the board voted to rescind all awards and honors bestowed upon Trautman, including the naming of the Catholic House and lecture series created in his honor.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Associated Press

October 2, 2018

By Luis Andres Henao and Patricia Luna

Chile’s Roman Catholic Church has apologized for a set of conduct guidelines for priests dealing with children that has caused outrage just as the South American country is being rocked by a widespread clerical sex abuse scandal.

The recommendations include asking priests not to “touch the area of the genitals or the chest” of minors, kiss them on the mouth, spank them on the buttocks or “lie down to sleep next to boys, girls or teenagers.” Priests are told to “avoid some behaviors,” including taking photographs of a child, teen or vulnerable person when they’re naked because it could be “misinterpreted.”

The document published on the site of the archbishopric of Santiago was signed by Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati. He is under investigation by prosecutors for allegedly covering up years of abuse, and is expected to be questioned on Wednesday.

The guidelines were expected to come into effect in April 2019. But after a flurry of criticism, the Chilean church removed the document shortly after it was published Friday.

“We’ve made a mistake and we’re going to fix it,” Auxiliary Santiago Bishop Cristian Roncagliolo said. “A crime is a crime.”

The so-called “Guidelines fomenting the good treatment and healthy pastoral coexistence” do not mention sex abuse. They refer to “painful acts” or “equivocal signs.”

Jaime Coiro, the spokesman for the Chilean bishops’ conference, issued a statement asking Chileans to refer to guidelines for the prevention of abuse against minors published in 2015 that he said were distributed nationwide.

But some victims and activists say they’re still shocked by the lack of sensitivity in a country where Pope Francis has acknowledged that he had underestimated the pervasiveness of pedophile priests and other church abuse.

“This is a bizarre and frightening document. It reveals the dangerous mindset of the Chilean bishops,” said Anne Barrett Doyle of the online abuse database BishopAccountability.org.

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BRIDGEPORT (CT)
Patheos

October 2, 2018

By Fr. Matthew Schneider

Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport, CT is a delegate at the youth synod. He recently spoke about what we need to do in order to reach young people. As the National Catholic Reporter stated:

As the Synod of Bishops on youth and young adults prepares to open, one of the American delegate bishops said that for any efforts to minister to young people today to bear fruit, the church must first reclaim credibility by addressing the clergy sexual abuse scandal head on.

“I am going to advocate that the synod needs to make that a major topic now, without a doubt,” said Bishop Frank Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who spoke to NCR in an interview Sept. 27. “If you’re going to speak relevantly to young people, you cannot but do that.”

He added that he hopes the synod will produce “not just words but some significant initiatives in that regard.”

The 59-year-old bishop said such a move is “essential,” a word he repeated several times, for the Catholic Church to be seen as credible in its outreach to young people. He described the present abuse scandal now in a second phase “all about authenticity. It’s about leadership being accountable. It’s about transparency. I think the greatest scandal is when, you know, things are not accounted for, or hidden or not transparent. That shakes people’s faith.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Slate

October 1, 2018

By Ruth Graham

The culture war brewing within the American Catholic Church is about to get uglier.

A group of wealthy American Roman Catholics have banded together to fund what they describe as a public investigation into every member of the church’s College of Cardinals. As the Catholic news site Crux reported on Monday, the group has assembled almost 100 academics, investigators, journalists, and former FBI agents to produce what it’s calling the “Red Hat Report.” The watchdog group plans to spend more than $1 million in its first year, with the goal of naming “those credibly accused in scandal, abuse, or cover-ups” and influencing the selection of the next pope.

The group is responding to an obvious crisis: The Catholic Church is in the throes of multiple overlapping clerical abuse scandals, including the resignation in disgrace of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick this summer. Meanwhile, a Pennsylvania grand jury found that more than 300 priests in the state had abused more than 1,000 children over the course of decades. By mid-September, eight other states had announced similar investigations. (That’s to say nothing of recent church scandals in other countries, including Chile and Germany.) And the Vatican, including the institution under Pope Francis, has been accused of ignoring or even covering up the rot.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press (via USA Today)

October 2, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis opens a monthlong meeting of bishops Wednesday on engaging young Catholics as his church is again under fire for the way it covered up for priests who raped and molested young people.

One American bishop suggested postponing or cancelling the synod, given the poor optics of assembling the church hierarchy to discuss a demographic harmed by the culture of concealment the same hierarchy has been accused of fostering.

A Dutch bishop, outraged that the Vatican hasn’t responded to claims that Francis himself rehabilitated a predator American cardinal, announced he was boycotting the meeting altogether. Another American bishop asked Francis to let him stay home to cope with the scandal’s fallout in his diocese.

Despite the dark cloud hanging over the synod, organizers said they thought the rebirth of the scandal could still give the Vatican an opportunity to show that the Catholic Church isn’t just about sex abuse and cover-ups.

“The church isn’t represented by those who make mistakes. The church is more important and fundamental than that,” said Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, who is organizing the Oct. 3-28 meeting.

The synod is bringing together 266 bishops from five continents for talks on helping young people find their vocations in life – be it lay or religious – at a time when church marriages and religious vocations are plummeting in much of the West.

It’s a follow-on synod to the meetings Francis organized in 2014 and 2015 on family life that inspired his controversial opening to letting divorced and civilly remarried Catholics receive Communion.

No single pressing issue is facing bishops this time around, although the way they address homosexuality will be the most closely watched topic. The Vatican’s preparatory document made what is believed to be the first-ever reference in an official Vatican text to “LGBT.”

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MONTEREY (CA)
KSBW

October 2, 2018

By Amy Larson

A former Monterey Catholic bishop is among several bishops named in a newly-filed lawsuit alleging that a sex abuse cover up was carried out in California to keep “predator priests” unrevealed.

The lawsuit filed by Thomas Emens names former Monterey Bishop Richard Garcia, who died three months ago, as well as every other bishop in California.

Emens says he was abused by a priest for two years when he was 10 and 11 years old in the 1970s.

The suit states that bishops and archbishops allowed more than 35 sex abuse perpetrators to flee the jurisdiction after reports of abuse arose. It demands that “all California bishops immediately release the names and documented histories on all clerical offenders in each diocese secretly kept in their possession.”

On Tuesday attorney Jeff Anderson called for all California bishops to “come clean with the secrets they know” about “predator priests.”

“The Catholic bishops have engaged in dangerous practices. There is, and has been, a grave peril to children in communities across the state,” Anderson said. “The problem is everywhere.”

The nuisance lawsuit names the archdioceses of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange, San Bernardino, San Diego, Fresno, Sacramento, Oakland, San Jose, Monterey, and Santa Rosa.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WOIO

October 2, 2018

By John Deike

Trapped in the midst of a global public relations nightmare, the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland is drastically expanding its effort to publicly identify clerics who were removed from their positions because of credible sexual assault allegations.

The diocese has already released the names of accused clergy from 2002 to the present, but now, local religious officials will compile a list that dates back through the 1900s.

The diocese plans to publish the list in the near term, according to Deacon Jim Armstrong.

A handful of other Ohio dioceses, including Columbus, Youngstown and Steubenville, have taken similar steps, after a Pennsylvania grand jury revealed in August that 300 priests were named in a sexual assault probe dating back to the 1940s.

It’s not yet clear how many names the Cleveland diocese will release.

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NEW YORK (NY)
CBS NEWS

October 3, 2018

A month-long meeting of Catholic bishops from around the world gets underway Wednesday at the Vatican. Pope Francis opened the meeting Wednesday morning, which is designed to attract the young back to the church. Even before it began, the meeting faced criticism from some church leaders because clerical sex abuse is not officially on the docket — though it certainly looms large over the gathering.

Pope Francis told bishops Wednesday morning, youth should have a future free of the mistakes and sins of the past. The synod, or meeting, brings together nearly 300 church leaders from almost 125 countries. The Vatican has recognized young people’s “lack of harmony” with the church. So these — mostly old — people have surveyed Catholic youth and will discuss topics that sound like a teenagers’ Google history: video games, migration, LGBT issues, war, friendship, porn and corruption.

Survivors of sex abuse are taking advantage of this unusual concentration of bishops to speak up. Four hearing-impaired survivors of clerical sexual abuse pointed out the priests who’d abused them at the Antonio Provolo Institute for the Deaf in Verona, Italy. They plan to protest at the Vatican Wednesday.

“I was naked and confused,” Gianni Bisoli told CBS News correspondent Seth Doane. His abuse started at age nine.

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SOUTH AFRICA
Sunday Times

October 3, 2018

By Dave Chambers

Six months after sex abuse claims rocked the Anglican Church of Southern Africa‚ it has adopted new measures to deal with the issue.

With immediate effect‚ anyone wanting to be ordained to the Anglican clergy will have to provide a police clearance certificate‚ Archbishop Thabo Makgoba said on Wednesday.

From January‚ the same rule would be progressively introduced for lay ministers‚ especially those involved in youth ministry and Sunday school teaching.

The church has also set up an e-mail address to make it easier to report allegations of abuse.

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BURLINGTON (VT)
WCAX

October 2, 2018

By Darren Perron

A task force looking into allegations of decades-old abuse — and possible murder — at a Burlington orphanage continues its investigation. It may be decades-old, but that and other new allegations of sex abuse against priests in other states are triggering memories for Vermont victims who suffer ongoing emotional torment. And one of those victims is speaking exclusively with Channel 3 News in his first television interview.

“My parents were proud of me for being an altar boy,” said Mike Gay.

He says he was excited as his family waited in the congregation at Christ the King Church in Burlington to witness his first day as an altar boy. The then 11-year-old rushed down a set of stairs to find Father Edward Paquette just before Sunday service. That’s when it all began. “There he was, fully exposed, with his pants around his ankles,” Gay said.

Paquette pretended it was a mistake and that Gay arrived too soon. The little boy was embarrassed at what he saw and never said a word. “Everyday I had to serve I was sick,” Gay said.

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UNITED STATES
Patheos

October 2, 2018

By Melissa Hill

I certainly have my own tales of #metoo. But I don’t feel the need to share my stories today. My guess is that your Facebook feed has already been filled with people referencing #metoo and the Kavanaugh hearing. The pagan community has had scandals like Kenny Klein and Issac Bonewits. We all know local scandals too. Those are smaller and less publicized, but no less horrible in scope for those involved. I’ve had to help people get away from abusers. I’ve done magic to keep them safe. I’ve confronted people and told them to get out of my community. I’ve accepted that we cannot count on our justice system to help us when it comes to sexual abuse and assault. We need to watch out for our own.

We cannot afford to ignore these issues and we need to take action within our own local communities. My own local pagan community and international community of druids have struggled with these issues in a very real way. Last year much of the ADF leadership and priesthood took the Pagan Consent Course from the Cherry Hill Seminary, and since then I’ve been giving consent workshops and continuing to deepen my own knowledge.

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MONTEREY (CA)
KSBW.com

October 2, 2018

By Amy Larson

A former Monterey Catholic bishop is among several bishops named in a newly-filed lawsuit alleging that a sex abuse cover up was carried out in several California Archdioceses.

The lawsuit filed by Jeff Anderson & Associates names former Monterey Bishop Richard Garcia, who died three months ago.

The suit states that bishops and archbishops allowed more than 35 sex abuse perpetrators to flee the jurisdiction after reports of abuse arose. It demands that “all California bishops immediately release the names and documented histories on all clerical offenders in each diocese secretly kept in their possession.”

On Tuesday attorney Jeff Anderson called for all California bishops to “come clean with the secrets they know” about “predator priests.”

“The Catholic bishops have engaged in dangerous practices. There is, and has been, a grave peril to children in communities across the state,” Anderson said. “The problem is everywhere.”

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OTTAWA (ONTARIO)
Catholic News Service (via Crux)

By Deborah Gyapong

October 2, 2018

OTTAWA, Ontario – New sexual abuse policies that Canada’s bishops have vowed to implement will focus on prevention but will not include a mechanism to censure a bishop who commits or covers up an offense.

More than 80 bishops and eparchs from across Canada pledged unanimously to implement the sexual abuse document that has been six years in the making and is now set to be released. Previous documents established guidelines but required no commitment from bishops to implement them. Now bishops across the country have pledged to enforce these new national standards.

“What we want is for the Catholic Church to be the safest place for young people,” said Bishop Lionel Gendron, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, speaking Sept. 28 after the close of the bishops’ annual plenary in Cornwall, Ontario.

Titled “Protecting Minors from Sexual Abuse: A Call to the Catholic Faithful in Canada for Healing, Reconciliation, and Transformation,” the document has been under construction since 2011. It builds on the 1992 document “From Pain to Hope,” which was updated in 2007, Gendron said.

Work on the document was essentially finished before the Church was rocked by recent sex-abuse scandals and cover-ups in the United States and other countries. In June, retired Washington Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick resigned as a cardinal amid allegations of sexual misconduct. In August, a Pennsylvania grand jury report exposed decades of alleged abuse involving more than 300 priests and other church workers.

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WARSAW (POLAND)
Voice of America

October 2, 2018

An appeals court in Poland ruled Tuesday that a Roman Catholic order should pay damages to a woman who was abducted and sexually abused by one of its priests when she was 13.

The court in the western city of Poznan said the Society of Christ Fathers must pay damages of 1 million zlotys ($270,000) and a monthly compensation of 800 zlotys ($190) to the woman, identified by her lawyer only as Katarzyna.

The priest, identified only as 42-year-old Roman B., was arrested in 2008 and convicted of pedophilia. He has served four years in prison, and was removed from the religious order last year.

Lawyers for the Catholic order indicated they will appeal the verdict to Poland’s Supreme Court, and lawyers acting for the woman also want to seek a higher compensation amount. If they do, it will be a major test for the court, which recently had some of its judges replaced under a reform carried out by the conservative ruling party, which supports the church.

Poland’s Catholic Church is working on a report on the scale of abuse of minors. Archbishop Wojciech Polak, the primate of Poland, has said the church needs to be more sensitive and open in discussing the problem.

“There must be zero tolerance for the sins and crimes of pedophilia,” Poland said on private TVN24. “We are facing a long-term struggle.”

Poland’s bishops are working on a document to be published this year that will assess the scale of pedophilia among priests and will have guidance for preventing it.

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HOUSTON (TX)
SNAP Network

October 2, 2018

For immediate release, October 2 2018

A Houston-area priest was recently arrested for sexual abusing a child. Reports from the AP and other news outlets show that the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston had been specifically warned about Fr. Manuel LaRosa-Lopez. Unfortunately, those warnings went unheeded.

According to reports, when they were first contacted about Fr. LaRosa-Lopez by one of LaRosa’s victims, the church told her that he would be removed from active ministry. Instead, they moved him to another parish, 70 miles away. Despite knowing about credible allegations of abuse against him, no parishioners, staff, or others were warned.

Ten months ago, the church was contacted again about Fr. LaRosa-Lopez, this time by a different victim. Archbishop DiNardo met with the victim personally but only removed Fr. LaRosa-Lopez a week before his arrest. When he finally was removed from ministry, rather than be upfront about the reasons, parishioners were told that their priest was away on a retreat. Today, prosecutors are publicly saying that there may be more victims and they are in the process of researching new information.

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[Archdiocese of Santiago considers plausible allegations against Laplagne and sends them to the Vatican]

CHILE
BioBioChile

September 28, 2018

By María José Villarroel and Nicole Martínez

El Arzobispado de Santiago remitió las denuncias en contra del sacerdote Jorge Laplagne al Vaticano, luego de que se diera verosimilitud a estas acusaciones. En julio de este año, la Iglesia indicó que el 27 de junio de 2018 se presentó una denuncia en contra del religioso por parte de una persona que aseguró haber sido menor de edad cuando la agresión tuvo lugar, hace 13 años.

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[José Andrés Murillo talks about the catharsis of Karadima’s expulsion]

CHILE
La Tercera

October 2, 2018

By Tamy Palma

“Errázuriz y Ezzati fueron cómplices y por eso amerita que les den la sanción más enérgica”, dice el director de la Fundación para la Confianza.

Cuando José Andrés Murillo (43) supo que el Papa Francisco decidió expulsar del sacerdocio al ex párroco titular de la parroquia El Bosque, Fernando Karadima, estaba en Providencia, en la casa que aloja la Fundación para la Confianza, la misma que fundó junto a Juan Carlos Cruz y James Hamilton en 2010, y que nació, precisamente, a raíz de la denuncia que oficializaron en 2004 ante las autoridades eclesiásticas contra Karadima.

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[Secret letters implicate Ezzati, contain warnings about Laplagne’s abuse]

CHILE
La Tercera

October 2, 2018

By Ivonne Toro

El 30 de marzo de 2011, el entonces canciller Hans Kast le escribió a Ezzati un correo en que le adjuntó un testimonio contra Laplagne y le pidió iniciar una investigación previa y tomar alguna medida pastoral y/o cautelar contra el religioso. El cardenal no tomó en consideración las sugerencias y cuatro años después permitió que se cerrara la indagatoria desformalizada.

Está previsto que mañana el cardenal Ricardo Ezzati declare en calidad de imputado por encubrimiento en la causa por abusos sexuales en contra del ex canciller del Arzobispado de Santiago, Óscar Muñoz. El rol que se le imputa a Ezzati en este caso es no haber efectuado, al tomar conocimiento de los hechos que involucraron a menores de edad, las denuncias respectivas al Ministerio Público. Sin embargo, a través de esta hebra, el fiscal que investiga la causa, Emiliano Arias, ha logrado acceder a una serie de documentos que muestran eventuales omisiones del cardenal Ezzati, y de su antecesor en la arquidiócesis de Santiago, Francisco Javier Errázuriz, en otro caso: el del sacerdote Jorge Laplagne, quien estaba a cargo de las parroquias San Crescente de Providencia y Nuestra Señora de Luján de Ñuñoa, y que además prestaba servicios en el Instituto Alonso de Ercilla, de los Hermanos Maristas.

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LONG ISLAND (NY)
LongIsland.com

October 2, 2018

By Chris Boyle

Two Long Island-based Catholic priests recently agreed to step down from their posts and away from the ministry after both were revealed to be under investigation for alleged sex abuse incidents, according to reports.

Reverend Monsignor William Breslawski, a former pastor at Church of Saint Anthony of Padua in Rocky Point, received complaints issued to both the Nassau and Suffolk County District Attorney Offices in June that he had allegedly sexually abused a middle school child in 1980, in addition to having “inappropriate interactions” with two adults in 1984.

In addition, the complaint was also later presented to Diocese of Rockville Centre, which has launched an investigation of their own into the allegations against Breslawski and released a statement, in which they expressed a desire to get to the bottom of what happened.

“We are saddened by these allegations,” the Diocese said. “We will do everything we can to ensure that a fair and just determination is made.”

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NEW MEXICO
The Associated Press

October 2, 2018

By Russell Contreras

A lawyer for a former New Mexico priest who fled the U.S. decades ago amid allegations of child sex abuse is seeking his release from federal prison.

Defense attorney Samuel Winder filed an appeal late last week asking a federal judge to reverse a decision to detain Arthur Perrault until his trial on sexual abuse.

A federal magistrate ordered the 80-year-old Perrault held pending trial after deeming him a flight risk.

Court documents say Perrault vanished in 1992, just days before an attorney filed two lawsuits against the archdiocese alleging Perrault had sexually assaulted seven children at his parish. He was located last year in Morocco.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KYW AM

October 1, 2018

The Philadelphia Archdiocese is fighting legislation now before the state Senate that would open a window allowing adult victims of clergy sexual abuse, which occurred when they were children, to sue….KYW Newsradio’s Mark Abrams reports.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Spectrum News

October 1, 2018

By Mark Goshgarian

The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo opened its Office of Professional Responsibility Monday, lead by former long-time FBI agent Steven Halter.

The Diocese says Halter will, in-part, investigate clergy abuse complaints, as protesters Sunday were not satisfied with the creation of the new post.

He’ll also serve as a resource for pastors, pastoral administrators, principals and other church leaders throughout the diocese. Halter was a bureau agent for almost 30 years and will also investigate any financial mismanagement within the diocese.

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THOMPSON FALLS (MT)
KPVI

September 30, 2018

By Seaborn Larson

Perhaps the largest jury award ever to a single person claiming the Jehovah’s Witnesses church failed to protect her from a sexual predator came Wednesday in Thompson Falls, a 1,300-person town peeking out from the pines along Highway 200 in northwest Montana.

The jury’s award, $35 million in punitive and compensatory damages to one woman, is more than financial relief, the woman’s attorneys say. It’s a message to the church: If leadership won’t amend their policies in handling child sex abuse, they’re going to pay for it.

In 2012, a California jury awarded one woman $28 million for her own claims against the Witnesses. Her attorney said it was the largest jury verdict for a single victim in a religious abuse case in the entire country at that time. The payout is a direct reflection of the church’s enormous and — most importantly — centralized wealth at the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, located in Pennsylvania and New York.

The Montana case is the most recent in a global reckoning for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, not unlike the ones seen with the Catholic Church and Boy Scouts of America. The number of cases filed against the church has accelerated in local and federal courts across the United States, alleging that church leadership stifled child sexual abuse allegations and returned known predators to congregations without warning other Witnesses.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Verdict

October 1, 2018

By Marci A. Hamilton

With Pennsylvania’s legislative session days running out, there is reason to fear that the furious forward momentum for statute of limitations reform for child sex abuse victims (and in particular a 2-year window) could be derailed. The ball is now in the senate’s court and it has only seven days left: October 1, 2, 3, 15, 16, 17, and November 14.

The assembly passed a great SOL bill as compared to Pennsylvania’s current SOLs: it eliminates the criminal SOL, extends the civil SOL to age 50, includes the Rozzi Amendment, which has a two-year window, and eliminates sovereign immunity in public school cases (prior to now, a victim in a public school could not sue for child sex abuse at all). That is the bill the senate has on its plate now. Pennsylvania will not displace Delaware as the leading state on SOL reform, but the current bill would be strong progress.

It is natural for the public to be enraged in response to systemic child sex abuse, and there has been reason for Pennsylvanians to be appalled as nine grand jury reports have detailed abuse in every diocese, Penn State, the Solebury School, and public schools. Citizens naturally assume that their outrage will be translated into proper action, but history tells us there is no straight line from public disgust to good policy. At each moment so far in the state, lawmakers have caved to the bishops and insurance lobbyists, which translates into nine grand jury reports over horrific sex abuse and callous coverups and the only change so far is the 2007 extension of the criminal SOL from age 30 to age 50.

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LAFAYETTE (LA)
Lafayette Journal & Courier

October 1, 2018

By Ron Wilkins

Twelve priests in the Diocese of Lafayette’s 74-year history likely sexually abused minors, according to a special edition of “The Catholic Moment” published online on Friday.

The publication of the priests’ names, date of ordination, action taken and current status comes eight days after a man using the pseudonym John Doe filed a civil lawsuit, claiming that Father James Grear sexually abused him in 1982 at a Catholic youth rally at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Carmel, Indiana.

Grear is one of the 12 named in the list, which Bishop Timothy L. Doherty, in the Sept. 16 edition of “The Catholic Moment,” said was committed to releasing.

Grear was ordained on May 30, 1970. He was removed from public ministry and his priestly faculties removed in October 2001, according to Friday’s publication. However, lawsuits filed last month and in 2011 accused Grear of sexual misconduct in 1982 and 1975, respectively.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

September 28, 2018

By Peter Smith

More than two decades ago, Pittsburgh Bishop Donald Wuerl made a fateful trip to Rome where he challenged the highest court in the Catholic Church over its poorly informed order to lift a suspension on a sexually abusive priest. The trip helped seal his reputation as an early, bold proponent of zero-tolerance toward sexual abusers.

With that reputation now under siege, now-Cardinal Wuerl is making an equally momentous trip to Rome. A photo from the Vatican showed Cardinal Wuerl with the pope on Friday. Cardinal Wuerl previously said he would go to Rome to ask Pope Francis to immediately accept his resignation as archbishop of Washington, D.C.

Cardinal Wuerl says he is stepping down for the good of the church after a Pennsylvania grand jury assailed his record. It cited cases in which known abusers stayed in ministry under his watch and accused the cardinal of presiding over administrative actions that “showed no concern for public safety or the victims of child sexual abuse.”

Now those who worked with Cardinal Wuerl in Pittsburgh when he was bishop here from 1988 to 2006 are processing the shock of the imminent halt to his clerical career.

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