ABUSE TRACKER

FULLERTON (CA)
CBSLA

October 2, 2018

A victim of sexual abuse perpetrated by a Catholic priest has sued the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and bishops across the state, claiming the institutions concealed claims of misconduct for decades.

Thomas Emens of Camarillo alleges he was sexually assaulted by Monsignor Thomas Mohan from the ages of 10 to 12, when the priest was serving at St. Anthony Claret Church in Anaheim.

“The most important thing I could say to everybody that’s listening and watching right now is this lawsuit is really the only opportunity I have at this point in time to find justice, not just for myself, but to bring all the victims that are in the shadows out,” Emens told reporters Tuesday, appearing to become emotional.

Mohan also worked at St. Juliana’s Church in Fullerton, but Emens’ lawyers say he never appeared on any offender lists. They filed a nuisance lawsuit against all California bishops in an attempt to get the clerical bodies to release their so-called “secret lists” of molester priests.

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MALTA
The Associated Press

October 9, 2018

The pope’s summit early next year on preventing sex abuse should also address holding bishops accountable when they fail to protect their flocks from paedophile priests, the Vatican’s leading sex abuse expert said Monday.

Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna said the February summit of global church leaders is the appropriate venue for discussing “a great expectation for more accountability” among Catholic faithful worldwide.

The Vatican said last month that Pope Francis had summoned the presidents of the estimated 130 Catholic bishops’ conferences to a Feb. 21-24 meeting to discuss the “protection of minors.” The announcement was made as clergy sex abuse revelations and cover-up allegations on several continents fuelled a scandal that now threatens Francis’ papacy.

Scicluna, who for a decade was the Vatican’s sex crimes prosecutor, has long acknowledged the need for bishops to be punished if they covered up for predators.

Abuse survivors and their advocates accuse the Vatican of turning a blind eye when bishops moved priests who were suspected of or known for misconduct from parish to parish instead of reporting them to police or sanctioning them canonically.

While hundreds of priests have been defrocked over the years for raping and molesting minors, only a few bishops have faced sanctions for failing to prevent such crimes.

Francis has had a steep and difficult learning curve on the issue of complicity and culpability. He was excoriated earlier this year for having defended a Chilean bishop accused of witnessing and ignoring abuse by Chile’s most notorious predator priest.

The pope eventually did an about face and acknowledged “errors in judgment,” vowing that bishops would no longer be shielded from questions about how they responded to allegations against priests in their dioceses.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
Cincinnati Enquirer

October 8, 2018

By Sheila Vilvens and Jessie Balmert

It’s time for Ohio to investigate sex crimes by Catholic Church clergy, says a group of abuse survivors.

SNAP, short for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, protested outside Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s Cincinnati office Monday afternoon. Three SNAP protestors showed up holding pictures of children from around the country who say they were abused.

SNAP is calling on DeWine to follow the lead of other states that have recently investigated clergy sex crimes and cover-ups.

Last week, Michigan’s attorney general seized abuse records in each of that state’s seven dioceses.

But DeWine’s office says Ohio law doesn’t allow for statewide investigations and grand juries, such as the one that revealed years of abuse in Pennsylvania.

Under Ohio law, local police and prosecutors must investigate crimes – by priests or anyone else – committed in their county.

That happened in 2003 when then-Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk pleaded no contest to charges that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati failed to report child sexual abuse by priests in Hamilton County.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

October 7, 2018

By Matthew Xuereb

Curia steps in after court clears Fr Charles Fenech of sexual abuse charges

Fr Charles Fenech, the former Kerygma Movement director once accused of sexual abuse, has been prohibited from carrying out the functions of his ministry anywhere in Malta and Gozo.

Three years ago, Fr Fenech was found guilty of sexually abusing a vulnerable woman who had turned to him for help and spiritual direction. However, an appeals court last month cleared him of this charge. The judge said the woman’s vulnerability had not been sufficiently proven in court and that the sexual relations between the two had been consensual.

Over the last few days, a rumour has been circulating that Fr Fenech – who had been prevented from carrying out his duties pending the conclusion of the case – was to be reinstated.

However, Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Gozo Bishop Mario Grech have decided to prohibit him from publicly exercising his priestly ministry in the Archdiocese of Malta and Diocese of Gozo, the Curia told The Sunday Times of Malta.

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WARSAW (POLAND)
Reuters

October 1, 2018

By Marcin Goclowski

Nearly a million people have flocked to cinemas across Poland in the last three days to see a movie that depicts Catholic priests in a highly unflattering light, breaking box-office records, its distributor said on Monday.

“Kler” (“Clergy”) is a dark drama, with moments of bleak comedy, about three fictional Catholic priests who swill vodka and mock the church. One sexually abuses a blind orphan boy.

The film has fuelled debate about the church’s influence in one of Europe’s most devout nations.

Kino Swiat, the movie distributor, said 935,000 people had seen it in the three days after its launch.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

October 8, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

A top Vatican cardinal issued a scathing rebuke Sunday of the ambassador who accused Pope Francis of covering up the sexual misconduct of a prominent American cardinal, saying his allegations were a “blasphemous” political hit job.

Six weeks after Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano threw the papacy into turmoil over his claims about ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the head of the Vatican’s bishops office said there was no evidence in his files backing Vigano’s claims that Francis annulled any canonical sanctions against McCarrick.

Ouellet did confirm for the first time that McCarrick, now 88, had been subject to some form of disciplinary measures given uncorroborated “rumors” of misconduct in his past. But Ouellet said the “exhortation” to live a discreet life of prayer stopped short of binding canonical sanctions, precisely because the rumors lacked proof.

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ROME
Catholic News Service

October 7, 2018

By Cindy Wooden

The president of the U.S. bishops’ conference welcomed Pope Francis’ pledge to fight attempts to cover up cases of sexual abuse and to stop offering special treatment to bishops who have committed or covered up abuse.

“On behalf of my brother bishops in the United States, I welcome the statement of Oct. 6 from the Holy See which outlines additional steps Pope Francis is taking to ensure the faithful are protected from the evil of sexual assault,” Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo said in a statement released Oct. 7 in Rome.

The cardinal, president of the USCCB, is in Rome for the Synod of Bishops. Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, conference vice president, also is in Rome for the synod, and the two U.S. leaders were expected to meet privately with Pope Francis Oct. 8 as questions continue over the handling of years of allegations of sexual misconduct by former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington.

In a statement Oct. 6, the Vatican said Pope Francis had ordered a thorough review of the archives of Vatican offices to study how the allegations were handled.

“The Holy See is conscious that, from the examination of the facts and of the circumstances, it may emerge that choices were taken that would not be consonant with a contemporary approach to such issues. However, as Pope Francis has said: ‘We will follow the path of truth wherever it may lead,'” the Vatican statement said.

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ROME
The Wall Street Journal

October 7, 2018

By Francis X. Rocca

Pope Francis is accused of knowing about a now-disgraced cardinal’s record yet restoring him to a position of high influence

A senior Vatican official on Sunday denounced what he called the “monstrous accusation” that Pope Francis ignored reports of sexual misconduct by a favorite U.S. cardinal, but he also confirmed that the cardinal had already been under disciplinary measures when the pope took office.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, head of the Vatican’s office for bishops, called claims that the pope knew of allegations against then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick yet made him an important adviser in the U.S. church “calumny and defamation.”

He acknowledged, however, that when the pope took office in 2013 the cardinal had already been punished over widespread rumors he had been sexually active with seminarians. That is a key element in the argument that the pope must have known about his past.

An investigation later found credible evidence that the then-cardinal had sexually abused a teenager in the early 1970s, and in July he became the first man to give up the title of cardinal in nearly a century.

The accusations by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò in August have rocked the church and shaken faith in the pontiff’s credibility.

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BELLEFONTE (PA)
WJAC

October 1, 2018

One of Pennsylvania’s leading lawmakers is being urged to move forward on proposed legislation that would give child sex abuse victims more time to file lawsuits.

Democrat Ezra Nanes is running against Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman in the 34th State Senate District race.

Nanes and several supporters showed up at Corman’s Bellefonte office Friday morning to lobby for Senate approval of House legislation already approved that would allow victims to file lawsuits that would otherwise be outdated under current state law.

A spokesperson for Sen. Corman says the Senate is committed to providing further justice for victims before its upcoming recess.

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NEW YORK (NY)
JTA

October 5, 2018

By Ben Sales

UPDATE: This story has been updated to include comments from SAR Academy’s principal, Rabbi Binyamin Krauss, in an email to JTA and the statement to JTA from the attorney for Rabbi Sheldon Schwartz.

Officials at a New York Jewish day school knew of allegations against an administrator who abused at least a dozen of the school’s students, according to an investigation. He was rehired a decade later.

The report, which was published Friday, found that Stanley Rosenfeld sexually abused at least a dozen students at SAR Academy, a Modern Orthodox school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. Another teacher, Rabbi Sheldon Schwartz, was found to have acted inappropriately with at least four students.

Rosenfeld, a convicted sex offender, has admitted to molesting hundreds of boys throughout his life, including at SAR, according to the report.

JTA has reached out to Schwartz through his attorney seeking comment on the accusations against him.

T&M Protection Resources, an external firm with experience investigating sexual assault allegations, conducted the probe that examined allegations of child sex abuse by Rosenfeld, an assistant principal at SAR in the 1970s who also taught English there a decade later. The school commissioned the investigation in January, soon after learning of the allegations.

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UNITED STATES
Patheos

October 4, 2018

By Kristin du Mez

So, it turns out close to half of all white evangelicals think Brett Kavanaugh should be confirmed even if Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations of sexual assault are true. (An NPR/PBS NewHour/Marist poll conducted last week, 48% of white evangelical Christians believed he should be appointed to the highest court regardless; an additional 16% were unsure, leaving only 36% of white evangelicals who would apparently have a problem with an unrepentant perpetrator of sexual assault serving on the highest court of the land.)

To be honest, there’s nothing all that shocking here. The same white evangelicals looked the other way when the Access Hollywood tapes were released, when twenty-two women accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct, when allegations surfaced of Roy Moore preying on teenage girls, and when an alarming number of their own faith leaders have been caught up in sexual abuse scandals.

It’s not clear that evangelical Christians are more likely than others to abuse women. (Although certain factors such as gendered power differentials have been connected to patterns of abuse, and many evangelical women themselves have testified that evangelical teachings of male authority and female submission perpetuate cultures of abuse, and constrained their ability to confront that abuse). What does give one pause, however, is the unwillingness on the part of so many evangelical Christians to condemn abuse when it does occur.

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NAPA (CA)
The Napa Valley Register

October 5, 2018

By Paul Moser

Lynne Rodgers didn’t like what I wrote in my Sept. 14 letter, “The Real Housewives of Vatican City.” She was obviously upset as she penned her Sept. 29 response, claiming that my tone was “vastly Immature and unfair.”

I just want to know how she knew I wore my Mickey Mouse ears to Sunday mass until I was nearly 17. That was supposed to remain a dark secret of my past. Anyway, after reading her letter, I have to say that, personally, I will take “vastly immature and unfair” over “vastly illogical and sanctimonious” any day.

In case you missed her letter, let me give you a taste of some of her reasoning in trying to legitimize the endearingly backward and destructive Catholic traditions of clerical celibacy and male dominance.

She seems to want to conflate sex education and gender identity issues with the “corruption of youth,” which in her mind is apparently as bad as sexual molestation by clergymen. In other words, society itself is corrupting young people at an earlier and earlier age, so thank God priests are there to molest them properly before these terrible influences are felt. (Because her reasoning is so hazy, I have to take a stab at what she actually meant, you understand.)

She says reprovingly that “Pedophilia is on the march to becoming normalized.” So by all means the Church should lead the way?

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PHILIPPINES
Philippine Daily Inquirer

October 8, 2018

By Ramon Farolan

First, I was an Aglipayan. Shortly after my mother passed away, my surrogate mom who raised me as her own, had me rebaptized in the Catholic Church by Belgian missionaries. Since then, I have remained a Catholic although not the fervent, devout kind she would have wanted me to be.

Through the years, I have looked upon the Church as all-knowing, all-powerful, all-righteous, and perhaps, all-perfect. And so, whenever I went against her it was heavy on my conscience with the fires of hell very much in my thoughts as impressed on me by religious mentors in Catholic schools. As a young boy, how many times have I confessed to having impure thoughts when there was nothing else to say in the confessional?

For the past few months, the Church has been rocked by scandal involving sexual abuse in particular, of minors by members of the clergy. In the beginning, they were seen as isolated cases but as more and more news reports appeared on the subject, it has become apparent that sexual abuse by the clergy is one of the major problems of the Church. It is not only worldwide in extent but it also appears to permeate its ranks, from deacons, priests, bishops, archbishops, and even cardinals. Many are involved in the actual abuse of children but some are cases of cover-up or failure to take action by higher authorities.

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UNITED STATES
Patheos

October 4, 2018

By Mark Shea

I remember, a month and a half ago when, for a brief moment, conservative white “prolife” Catholics pretended to care about sexual assault victims because the PA report had come out. Then Vigano lied about Francis (the one man who acted against McCarrick) lifting sanctions Vigano pretended to have enforced against McCarrick. For, like, a week or two, people hungering for power in the Church and vengeance against their gay and liberal culture war enemies achieved one thing: victims vanished from sight and were replaced by a pure power struggle to destroy a pope they have hated since the instant he was elected. For his part, Vigano lobbed a huge grenade demanding Francis’ resignation and claiming that Francis–the one man who had acted against McCarrick–was unfit to be pope since he had (according to McCarrick) lifted imaginary “sanctions” against McCarrick.

Tim Busch of the EWTN board of Governors totally assured the NY Times that the editors at the Register–which broke this hatchet job–“had personally assured him that the former pope, Benedict XVI, had confirmed Archbishop Viganò’s account.”. Liesite, 1 Peter 5, Church Militant, and several other Francis-hating propaganda organs leapt into this highly coordinated palace coup and piled on–and then it all unraveled.

The pope’s personal secretary denied there was any such confirmation from Benedict. The WaPo, seeking evidence, asked Vigano for documentation and he declared it was time for “silence and prayer” and then vanished, claiming They Are Trying to Kill Me. For a while, the supporters of the palace coup absurdly demanded that Francis produce the paperwork Vigano claimed existed but did not demand Vigano produce it. It never seemed to occur to them that there might not be any paperwork to produce.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

October 8, 2018

by Michael Sean Winters

Two news stories last week gave ample justification for my repeated warnings this summer to be careful about viewing an increased role for the laity as some kind of panacea for what ails the church. Both stories indicated that there is a kind of clericalism unique to the laity that has emerged and which bodes ill and heretical. And, most worryingly, both stories demonstrated the ugly power of money that lay leadership entails, raising the question, unique to the American Church: Can the Catholic Church be bought?

The first story was Tom Roberts’ account of a meeting at the Catholic University of America to launch the “Better Church Governance Group.” The means for accomplishing improved ecclesial governance was to form a kind of posse of ex-FBI agents, academics and conservative activists to probe into the lives of all cardinal electors, compiling dossiers “in the manner of political opposition research.” That characterization was frightening enough, but as you read the rest of their literature, (some of their protestations and walk backs notwithstanding,) it seemed that Roy Cohn was their model: This is reform with an ideological agenda. How else to explain the warm citation to Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s “testimony,” which has been demonstrated to be filled with mistakes and unsubstantiated rumors, or the derogatory references to Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, to whom no whiff of scandal has attached itself.

Most of the organizers of the effort were unknown to me but Jay Richards was listed as a “research editor.” Mr. Richards is a professor at the Tim & Steph Busch School of Business at CUA and also hosts a weekly TV show on EWTN in which he spouts capitalist agitprop. I debated Richards at the Cato Institute in advance of Pope Francis’s visit to the United States. He pretends to be an aficionado of Catholic social teaching but, in fact, he and the school at which he teaches are committed to undermining that teaching. After this, why is he still on the staff? The Catholic University of America makes much of its mission and the fact that it holds a pontifical charter. But, apparently, if your ecclesiology and your politics are conservative enough, the fact you are talking breezily about influencing a conclave is no big deal. Richards should be sacked.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux Staff

October 9, 2018

As an Oct. 3-28 Synod of Bishops in Rome enters its second week, reports were released Tuesday from small working groups that provide the first real x-ray into how this gathering of prelates and other participants from around the world pondering young people, faith and vocational discernment is thinking.

Judging by the results, the child sexual abuse scandals in Catholicism are a major preoccupation, but hardly the only one.

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MADRID (SPAIN)
The New York Times

October 8, 2018

By Raphael Minder

Nearly 50 years ago, Inés Madrigal was taken from her parents, an unwitting participant in a scheme that started under Spanish dictator Francisco Franco’s regime as a way of removing infants from families that opposed him.

On Monday a Spanish court acknowledged a former gynecologist had played a role in the 1969 abduction of Ms. Madrigal, who was an infant at the time. It was the first case in which a doctor faced trial in Spain for what is known here as the scandal of the stolen babies. But Ms. Madrigal’s victory was, in her words, bittersweet.

The judges at a provincial court in Madrid found there was irrefutable evidence to show that Eduardo Vela, 85, was involved in the abduction of Ms. Madrigal. But they said that the charges brought against him fell under a statute of limitations, which required the charges to be filed within 10 years of Ms. Madrigal becoming an adult. This meant that Dr. Vela couldn’t be convicted of any of them.

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[Javier Molina recounts abuses of priest Laplagne: “He blamed me for his perversion”]

CHILE
TVN

October 7, 2018

El denunciante de Laplagne relató en ‘El Informante’ que no recibió respuesta tras realizar su denuncia al Arzobispado.

Este domingo en la nueva edición de El Informante, el ex acólito Javier Molina Huerta, denunciante del sacerdote Jorge Laplagne dio a conocer su crudo testimonio.

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[Hasbún explodes in reaction to TVN’s interview with Laplagne’s accuser]

CHILE
The Clinic

October 9, 2018

El religioso aseguró que la entrevista “fue unilateralmente empática, llena de apelaciones emocionales, lágrimas, suspiros del entrevistador. Con imágenes en las que aparecen mi rostro y mi nombre con la expresión ‘en la mira’. Esa es una expresión característica del cazador de animales y del francotirador, que dispara a hombres”. El cura Raúl Hasbún sencillamente explotó contra el programa de TVN, “El Informante”, todo esto tras la entrevista realizada al ex acólito Javier Molina, quien denunció por abusos sexuales al sacerdote Jorge Laplagne.

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[The “surprising” role of Bishop Cristián Roncagliolo in the Archdiocese of Santiago]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

October 7, 2018

By Tomás Molina J.

A poco más de un año ejerciendo como auxiliar de Santiago, ascendió al cargo de vicario general del arzobispado, es decir, la mano derecha de Ezzati.

El pasado 11 de junio llegó la primera oleada. Las renuncias de los obispos Juan Barros (Osorno), Gonzalo Duarte (Valparaíso) y Cristián Caro (Puerto Montt) fueron concretadas por el Papa Francisco. En reemplazo de los dos primeros entraron, como administradores apostólicos, Jorge Concha y Pedro Ossandón, quienes ejercían como obispos auxiliares de Santiago.

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[Alleged victim of Jorge Laplange details sex abuse that began when he was 13 and changed his life]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

October 8, 2018

By Pía Larrondo

Javier Molina, entregó detalles de la relación que tuvo con el religioso y cómo esto fue cambiando con el tiempo, cuando él apenas tenía 13 años. “Me culpaba a mí de su perversión”, sostuvo.

El ex acólito Javier Molina habló este domingo sobre los presuntos abusos sexuales que cometió el religioso Jorge Laplagne contra él cuando era menor de edad, en el año 2002. En el programa El Informante de TVN, el denunciante reveló detalles de su relación con el sacerdote, que comenzó cuando él tenía tan solo 13 años y el religioso 45. En ese momento Molina se desempeñaba como acólito de la parroquia en que Laplagne hacía misa.

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[The Jorge Laplagne case could implicate Ezzati, Errázuriz, and Hasbún in cover-up]

CHILE
Emol

October 7, 2018

By Tomás Molina J.

En julio de este año el Arzobispado de Santiago comunicó que se inició una investigación canónica en contra del presbítero por abusos a un menor. Misma causa que ya había sido indagada hace 8 años, donde no se acreditó la veracidad de los hechos.

El pasado 13 de julio una nueva investigación por un presunto abuso sexual cometido por un sacerdote a un menor de edad fue informada por el Arzobispado de Santiago. La acusación era en contra del párroco de las iglesias de San Crescente (Providencia) y Nuestra Señora de Luján (Ñuñoa), Jorge Laplagne Aguirre, quien también prestaba servicios en el Instituto Alonso de Ercilla, de la congregación de los Hermanos Maristas.

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[Schoenstatt Institute admits it did not react quickly enough to accusations against Bishop Cox]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

October 7, 2018

By Aton (news agency)

A través de un comunicado, la congregación explicó que en el período en que el padre vivió en la Serena tuvieron conocimiento sobre diferentes situaciones abusivas cometidas por él pero que “en ese momento no respondimos como la situación lo requería”.

El superior general del Instituto Secular Padres de Schoenstatt, Juan Pablo Cattogio, dio a conocer una declaración sobre la situación del arzobispo emérito de La Serena, Francisco José Cox, denunciado ante la justicia civil y canónica por abusos sexuales a menores.

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[Could the Church lose its sustaining status regarding schools?]

CHILE
La Tercera

October 7, 2018

By C. Said

El Arzobispado de Santiago rechaza esa posibilidad y argumenta el fuerte trabajo preventivo.

La investigadora del Centro de Estudios Públicos Sylvia Eyzaguirre planteó hace unas semanas que si se probara que la Iglesia Católica encubrió los casos de abuso, y no hizo nada por prevenirlo, se podría plantear la interrogante respecto de si debe seguir siendo sostenedora de colegios. Pero el vicario para la Educación del Arzobispado de Santiago, sacerdote Andrés Moro, rechaza esa idea.

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[Catholic schools make changes in face of clergy abuse crisis]

CHILE
La Tercera

October 7, 2018

By Carlos Said

Cuatro congregaciones y establecimientos cuentan que han modificado sus protocolos e infraestructura para prevenir nuevos casos, y muestran su visión de la crisis.

Los casos de abusos sexuales de sacerdotes contra menores, destapados en los últimos años, han remecido fuertemente a los colegios católicos: una veintena de religiosos han sido acusados de este delito dentro de establecimientos de seis congregaciones, lo que obligó a esas agrupaciones a revisar sus protocolos y aplicar cambios en la infraestructura de escuelas.

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[The peculiar story of the informant in Bishop Infanti cover-up investigation]

CHILE
La Tercera

October 7, 2018

By L. Zapata and J. Verdejo

La eventual víctima, quien lo apunta por un supuesto encubrimiento, tiene peculiares apariciones en prensa, pero no sería el único relato que maneja la fiscalía.

El pasado jueves 28 de junio, a las 22.53 horas, llegó al correo electrónico de la Fiscalía de Aysén la denuncia de una mujer, de iniciales C. V. V., quien daba cuenta de los supuestos delitos de “encubrimiento, violación, secuestro y torturas en perjuicio de mis tres hijos, exalumnos de la obra Don Guanella, internado San Luis Puerto Cisnes”.

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[Abuses in the Church: Cox dismisses complaints against him, says “they are not his problem”]

CHILE
BioBioChile

October 8, 2018

By Guido Focacci and Nicole Martínez

Sentado, se le vio tranquilo y eludió hasta el final el tema. En conversación con TVN, el sacerdote Francisco Cox, quien vive en Alemania, catalogó como un “enredo enorme” las denuncias de abuso sexual en su contra en Chile, donde tiene cuatro acusaciones y al menos dos están siendo investigadas por el Ministerio Público. Tiene una denuncia también ahí, en Alemania, pero para él estos casos “no son problema suyo”.

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[Victims and laypeople request extradition and expulsion of Cox after the priest’s TV appearance]

CHILE
BioBioChile

October 9, 2018

By Matías Vega and Nicole Martínez

Denunciantes del sacerdote Francisco Cox y laicos de La Serena pidieron la extradición del religioso desde Alemania para que enfrente denuncias de abuso sexual en su contra, luego de que reapareciera en un canal de televisión. Además le insistieron al Papa que lo expulse del sacerdocio, como ya hizo con dos exreligiosos chilenos, entre ellos Fernando Karadima.

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DOYLESTOWN (PA)
The Intelligencer

October 8, 2018

By Kyle Bagenstose

Mark Rozzi, a state representative from Berks County who was raped by a priest as a child, visited Bucks County on Monday and called on state Sens. McIlhinney and Tomlinson to support a measure that would open up a two-year window in the statute of limitations.

In 2016, before his colleagues in the state’s House of Representatives, Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, retold how he was raped in a shower by a priest at age 13. He ran from the shower, throwing on his clothing as he fled the church rectory, burying the incident until 2009 when a friend, also a victim of abuse from the priest, took his own life.

“He took the gun, and put it to his chest, and killed himself,” Rozzi said in 2016. “I have tremendous guilt that I didn’t speak up sooner. That if I did, could I have saved other lives?”

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SPRINGFIELD (MO)
Fox 22 News

October 9, 2018

The Springfield-Cape Girardeau Catholic Diocese has identified three priests accused for sexually abusing children four decades ago.

The diocese said in a news release Monday that two of the priests – the Rev. John Brath and Monsignor John Rynish – have died. Brath died in 2014 and Rynish died in 2001.

The third priest, the Rev. Fred Lutz, retired from active ministry in 2011.

The diocese says each priest is accused of committing sexual abuse sometime in the 1970s but some of the allegations were made recently.

In August, Bishop Edward Rice said the diocese would conduct a review of possible abuse cases dating back more than five decades, after an investigation in Pennsylvania uncovered more than 1,000 cases of abuse.

A diocese spokeswoman was not available late Monday afternoon to provide further information.

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[German prosecutor will not investigate Cox for sexual abuse against minor]

CHILE
La Tercera

October 8, 2018

By E. Müller and H. Basoalto

Ente persecutor de Coblenza dijo que en ese país, hasta 2008, solo se penalizaban actos contra menores de 16 años. La víctima boliviana aseguró que tenía 17 años cuando habrían ocurrido los hechos, en 2004, en Vallender.

Canónico y penal. En ambas aristas existen hoy denuncias contra el arzobispo emérito de La Serena, Francisco José Cox, quien actualmente reside en Vallender, Alemania. Se le apunta por eventuales abusos contra menores de edad, que habrían sido cometidos en diferentes períodos de tiempo. Algunos en Chile, cuando fue prelado de aquella diócesis (1990-1997), y otros en Europa, a donde se mudó en 2002.

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[Church defends legality of Precht’s expulsion]

CHILE
La Tercera

October 8, 2018

By J. Matus and L. Zapata

El exsacerdote y el Arzobispado de Santiago están a la espera de la resolución del tribunal de alzada, que mantiene la causa en acuerdo desde el 25 de septiembre.

El Arzobispado de Santiago presentó un escrito ante la 7a. Sala de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago para que sea considerado antes de resolver el recurso de protección interpuesto por el exsacerdote Cristián Precht, expulsado del estado clerical. En el documento, firmado por el abogado Rodrigo Aros, la Iglesia cuestiona la dimisión impuesta al presbítero, tras la investigación canónica por abusos sexuales, asegurándole a la corte que la medida fue una decisión del Papa Francisco, y que estas “no requieren confirmación y son inapelables, abarcan toda jurisdicción y se extienden territorial, personal y materialmente sobre toda la Iglesia”. Señala, además, que estas facultades son reconocidas en el Art. 547 del Código Civil chileno.

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ROME (ITALY)
Associated Press

October 9, 2018

The pope’s summit early next year on preventing sex abuse should also address holding bishops accountable when they fail to protect their flocks from paedophile priests, the Vatican’s leading sex abuse expert said Monday.

Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna said the February summit of global church leaders is the appropriate venue for discussing “a great expectation for more accountability” among Catholic faithful worldwide.

The Vatican said last month that Pope Francis had summoned the presidents of the estimated 130 Catholic bishops’ conferences to a Feb. 21-24 meeting to discuss the “protection of minors.” The announcement was made as clergy sex abuse revelations and cover-up allegations on several continents fuelled a scandal that now threatens Francis’ papacy.

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[Abuses in the Church: the operation to stop prosecutor Emiliano Arias]

CHILE
BioBioChile

October 5, 2018

By Leonardo Casas, Erik López, and Nicole Martínez

El pasado 13 de septiembre, el fiscal Emiliano Arias encabezó allanamientos simultáneos en cuatro ciudades del país en busca de documentos y antecedentes de arquediócesis de la Iglesia Católica, cuyos sacerdotes estarían involucrados en delitos de connotación sexual contra feligreses, varios de ellos menores de edad.

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NASHVILLE (TN)
Waiting for Salina blog

October 7, 2018

By Marci Preheim

It was a crisp fall morning in downtown Raleigh. I chose the only open table outside a bustling café, to savor my cappuccino. I concentrated on sipping without ruining the palm leaf etched in foam at the top of my cup. I was waiting for Salina.

I have been remotely acquainted with Salina for a few years, but I knew her from Twitter as Cathy. You know how Twitter is. You scroll through fragments of people’s lives and piece together a narrative. Cathy was hurt. Cathy was angry. Why? I couldn’t quite tell, but her cries on Twitter had a familiar ring.

I looked over my shoulder and saw her approaching. Her gait was slow and labored. She wore a button down cream-colored blouse, and stretchy blue slacks. She smiled sadly when she saw me, and made her way to the table. Cathy is middle-aged with short brownish-reddish hair and glasses. Her deep-set brown eyes looked weary and she wore no make-up. After a little small talk, we picked up the conversation we had been trying to have all weekend at The Courage Conference, hosted by Ashley Easter for sexual abuse victims and advocates. Like on Twitter, Cathy’s story was coming together in pieces. I had to ask a lot of questions, but I sat in stunned silence as it came into focus more than a hundred and forty characters at a time.

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TOLEDO (OH)
NBC 24

October 8, 2018

A local chapter of an abuse advocate group is calling for an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations in the Catholic church.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, otherwise known as SNAP, is sending letters of demand to Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates.

The group is asking for a grand jury and panel like the recent actions that were taken in Pennsylvania, where a report alleged more than 1,000 children were molested by over 300 members of the church.

Claudia Vercellotti is the longtime director for SNAP in Toledo and made the announcement at a press conference Monday afternoon.

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[Valparaíso Diocese denies obstructing searches: “We did not have anything hidden”]

CHILE
BioBioChile

October 5, 2018

By Sebastián Asencio

Este viernes, el Obispado de Valparaíso respondió a la polémica que se ha generado en relación a los allanamientos que Fiscalía encabezó el pasado 13 de septiembre por el caso de abusos sexuales en la Iglesia y el presunto encubrimiento de sacerdotes.

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[Archbishop of Concepción confirms two new allegations of clergy sex abuse in Bío Bío region]

CHILE
BioBioChile

October 8, 2018

By Nicolás Parra and Óscar Valenzuela

El arzobispo de Concepción, Fernando Chomalí, confirmó dos nuevas denuncias de abusos sexuales de sacerdotes en la región del Bío Bío que ya se están investigando, pero que estarían prescritas frente a la justicia ordinaria. Los casos fueron informados por la autoridad eclesiástica tras la visita que realizó hace ya un par de semanas al papa Francisco, donde el obispo de Roma lo confirmó en su cargo, luego de rechazarle por tercera vez la renuncia.

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SAN BERNARDINO (CA)
Associated Press

October 8, 2018

A Southern California Roman Catholic diocese has released a list of 34 priests who were accused of sexually abusing children, including six who were convicted of criminal charges.

On its website Monday, the Diocese of San Bernardino County lists clergy it says were subject to “credible allegations” of molestation since the diocese formed in 1978.

Most were removed from the priesthood, permanently banned from ministry in the diocese or are dead. One priest left the diocese in 1993 and his whereabouts are unknown.

Bishop Gerald Barnes offered an apology to the victims and their families and urged anyone who was molested by a priest to report it.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the Diocese of Orange and the Diocese of San Diego have released similar lists.

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SPRINGFIELD (MO)
Associated Press

October 8, 2018

The Springfield-Cape Girardeau Catholic Diocese has identified three priests accused for sexually abusing children four decades ago.

The diocese said in a news release Monday that two of the priests — the Rev. John Brath and Monsignor John Rynish — have died. Brath died in 2014 and Rynish died in 2001.

The third priest, the Rev. Fred Lutz, retired from active ministry in 2011.

The diocese says each priest is accused of committing sexual abuse sometime in the 1970s but some of the allegations were made recently.

In August, Bishop Edward Rice said the diocese would conduct a review of possible abuse cases dating back more than five decades, after an investigation in Pennsylvania uncovered more than 1,000 cases of abuse.

A diocese spokeswoman was not available late Monday afternoon to provide further information.

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LANSING (MI)
Associated Press

October 8, 2018

The Catholic Diocese of Lansing has suspended a senior priest from public ministry because of what it calls a “credible allegation” of sexual assault by an adult male from decades ago.

The diocese announced Monday it had suspended the Rev. Robert Gerl (GEHR’-el), who was not assigned to a parish since he’s on senior status.

Diocesan spokesman Michael Diebold says Michigan State Police have seized Gerl’s file as part of Attorney General Bill Schuette’s (SHOO’-tee) investigation into possible sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests in Michigan.

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UNITED STATES
The American Conservative

October 8, 2018

By Rod Dreher

I am a supporter of Courage, the Catholic ministry to same-sex attracted men and women who wish to live faithful to the Catholic Church’s teaching on sexuality (that is, they seek to be chaste). So it’s a hard blow to read Crux’s report today about the role Courage’s beloved founder, the late Father John Harvey, played in advocating the restoration of abusive priests to ministry. Excerpts:

In a 1992 article in Crisis, a conservative magazine, Harvey described the arguments he had offered at the Ninth Bishops’ Workshop in Dallas in 1990. Harvey argued that priests who sexually abused minors often did so because of sexual addiction, and therefore guilt could not be imputed. On that basis, he claimed bishops could not impose canonical penalties.

In the article, he criticized bishops moving toward a zero-tolerance policy.

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LEICESTER (UNITED KINGDOM)
Crux

October 8, 2018

By Charles Collins

A Catholic priest who helped lead his county’s football team to the national championship has voluntarily and temporarily stepped aside as a pastor in Northern Ireland after “concerns” were brought to his archdiocese about an alleged incident from before his ordination.

Father Gerard McAleer is currently the parish priest of St. Patrick’s Church in Donaghmore in the Archdiocese of Armagh, and a longtime figure in the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA).

The GAA is one of the major cultural institutions on the island of Ireland, and governs traditional Irish sports, the most prominent being Gaelic football – a fifteen-a-side sport that resembles a combination of soccer and rugby – and hurling – which is similar to field hockey and lacrosse.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

October 7, 2018

By Christopher White

After a Vatican announcement Saturday that Pope Francis has ordered a “thorough study” of sex abuse allegations against ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and his rise to power, a senior Vatican official has confirmed that a delegation from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will meet Francis on Monday.

The meeting, however, was scheduled months ahead of yesterday’s announcement as a part of an annual trip to Rome by USCCB leadership, in which they typically meet the pope and other senior Vatican officials.

Speaking to Crux, the senior Vatican official insisted that the meeting was scheduled well before last month’s meeting between the pope and USCCB delegation in which they requested the pope to approve an Apostolic Visitation, meaning a Vatican investigation, to get to the bottom of the McCarrick case.

On hand for that occasion were President Cardinal Daniel DiNardo; Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, vice president of the USCCB; Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston in his role as president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors; and Monsignor Brian Bransfield, secretary-general of the USCCB.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

October 5, 2018

By Jack the Insider, Columnist

In little more than a fortnight, the federal parliament will host 800 guests, many of them victims of institutional child sex abuse.

An apology will be issued by Prime Minister Morrison and while it is long overdue, it promises to be a moment where symbolism overrides a rather bleak reality.

There are an estimated 60,000 people who suffered institutional sexual abuse as children since 1950. Our society had forgotten its children, failed to cherish them as its most valuable asset and ignored their basic right not to be subject to abuse.

Many commentators have made the mistake that as the Royal Commission examined a range of case studies, that this dark moment in our own social history is over, never to be repeated.

When we contemplate why certain adults are given to preying on children sexually, there is a clear danger of a recurrence. We could discuss the psychology of the causes of pedophilia forever and perhaps get stuck on the great myth that those offended against will one day become offenders themselves.

These sorts of ruminations are unhelpful. Let’s keep it simple. Child sexual abuse in an institutional setting is the expression of power over the vulnerable. When we understand that basic truth, we also understand that it is likely to happen again.

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[Prosecutor Arias says “there is no basis” for stopping court proceedings in clergy abuse investigation]

CHILE
El Mostrador

October 6, 2018

El persecutor comentó que “el compromiso precisamente es una vez que se efectúe la copia del material incautado se va a devolver y eso se solicita en general a la propia Fiscalía. Uno lo que puede observar son posiciones distintas de diversos obispados”.

El fiscal regional de O’Higgins, Emiliano Arias, cuestionó la decisión tomada por la Corte de Apelaciones de Rancagua luego de un recurso de protección interpuesto por el vicario judicial del Obispado de Valparaíso para recuperar un computador, hecho que mantiene paralizadas varias diligencias por los casos de abusos sexuales en la Iglesia Católica.

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[3 victims of Karadima accuse Church of putting “obstacles” into clergy abuse investigations]

CHILE
El Mostrador

October 6, 2018

A través de una carta, José Andrés Murillo, James Hamilton y Juan Carlos Cruz, aseguraron que la iglesia católica “se opone al derecho de las víctimas” al dificultar las diversas investigaciones que se mantienen en curso, dando como ejemplo el recurso de protección que el Obispado de Valparaíso interpuso, para paralizar el caso que señala a Ricardo Ezzati.

José Andrés Murillo, James Hamilton y Juan Carlos Cruz, víctimas de abusos sexuales cometidos por el sacerdote Fernando Karadima, acusaron hoy a la Iglesia católica de poner “trabas” a las investigaciones que realiza la Justicia chilena. En una carta en el diario El Mercurio, los tres recordaron que esta semana el arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, guardó silencio ante el fiscal que lo citó a declarar como imputado por el presunto encubrimiento de los abusos sexuales cometidos por el excanciller de su arzobispado Óscar Muñoz.

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[The Vatican has not found anyone to fill Ezzati’s role in the Archdiocese of Santiago]

CHILE
El Mostrador

October 8, 2018

“El Papa no ha encontrado al candidato adecuado, lo está buscando”, dijo el arzobispo de Concepción Fernando Chomalí (en la foto). El religioso, quien sonaba como una de las principales cartas para sustituir al cuestionado jefe de la Iglesia católica capitalina, confesó que en una reunión que sostuvo con el Papa Francisco en Roma, le pidió “formalmente un trabajo más sencillo y él me dijo que siguiera acá (en Concepción)”.

La salida del cardenal Ricardo Ezzati del Arzobispado de Santiago es inminente. Sin embargo, el Papa Francisco aún no ha encontrado el “candidato adecuado” para suplirlo. Esto fue ratificado por el arzobispo de Concepción, el sacerdote Fernando Chomalí, quien durante septiembre tuvo un viaje a Roma para reunirse con Francisco. “El Papa no ha encontrado al candidato adecuado, lo está buscando, eso lo dijo”, señaló el jefe de la iglesia penquista este lunes.

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[Diocese of Valparaíso denies hiding information after appeal that paralyzed investigation of clergy abuse]

CHILE
Publimetro

October 6, 2018

By Christian Monzón

Aseguraron que su intención no es obstaculizar ni menos impedir la acción de la justicia.

A través de una declaración pública, el Obispado de Valparaíso aseguró que no está ocultando ningún tipo de información y que se encuentra colaborando con la Fiscalía. “El jueves 13 de septiembre de 2018, el Obispado entregó todo lo que vino a incautar la Fiscalía el día del allanamiento. Abrió sus puertas, no tenía nada oculto y el personal colaboró amablemente con el Fiscal. Así lo haremos cada vez que seamos solicitados. Siempre ayudaremos tal como lo hicimos ese día. Y en ese sentido estamos trabajando con resultados de conocimiento público”, expresa el documento.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WHYY (NPR affiliate)

October 8, 2018

By Laura Benshoff

[Listen 4:57]

Each time there’s a new report or newspaper article about sex abuse in the Catholic Church, Chuck Gesing steels himself.

“That was disgusting,” said Gesing, of the most recent grand jury report in Pennsylvania, which alleged more than 300 priests sexually abused more than 1,000 minors. But, he called such news “not unexpected at this point.”

In August, NPR asked Catholic listeners from Pennsylvania and across the country to share their responses to the report. The survey asked whether any of the now four investigations into systematic child abuse by priests in the state have caused them to reconsider their faith or join a different denomination. More than 200 people responded.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

By Alex Marshall

October 8, 2018

“Clergy,” a new movie by the director Wojciech Smarzowski, starts with three priests drinking vodka until they can barely speak. One then drives drunk to a parishioner’s apartment and mumbles his way through the giving of last rites.

The picture of Poland’s priesthood only goes downhill from there. The priests steal money from their congregations, spy on each other, and exploit their connections with politicians, journalists and the police.

But much of “Clergy” focuses on one issue: Clerical child abuse, which the movie says the church covered up. In one scene, it incorporates accounts from real people who say they were abused.

This may not sound like the plot for a blockbuster movie — let alone one that features a heavy dose of comedy — but “Clergy” is a smash hit in Poland. It opened on Sept. 28, and more than 1.7 million people saw it during its first week, according to Kino Swiat, the movie’s distributor. That is a huge figure for a country of 38 million.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

October 8, 2018

The Vatican’s leading sex abuse expert says Pope Francis’ summit in February with global church leaders on preventing abuse should also address holding bishops accountable when they fail to protect their flocks from pedophile priests.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna told a news conference Monday that “there is a great expectation for more accountability” from Catholic faithful worldwide, and that the summit is the appropriate venue to discuss it.

Scicluna, who for a decade was the Vatican’s sex crimes prosecutor, also said the Vatican should consider whether sexual abuse of adults by people in positions of power could be prosecuted in the same stringent way that it prosecutes sexual abuse of minors.

He spoke to reporters Monday during the Vatican’s meeting on youth, which has been dominated by the abuse scandal.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Fox 8 WVUE

October 8

By Rob Masson

The head of the Louisiana chapter of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, is taking a new approach in his effort to get full disclosure of abusive clergy.

He targeted churchgoers at the city’s most prominent Catholic Church Monday.

“We would like the bishop to be more transparent with the community,” said Tim Lennon with SNAP.

Friday, Lennon was in Baton Rouge, trying to get the attorney general to launch a state wide investigation into clergy abuse. At the St. Louis Cathedral Monday, he passed out leaflets demanding that the archbishop release the names of all abusive clergy.

“Release the names, we feel this is important for survivors suffering alone and in the dark,” said Lennon.

Though some waved off the leaflet, others supported what Lennon is trying to accomplish, as a way to keep others from being abused again.

“I think anyone doing inappropriate behavior, that should be public for all persons,” said Julie Holman of New Orleans.

One Catholic from Arkansas says her parish back home in Jonesboro has already released the names.

“He published all the records, he just wanted to do it, so it would be in the open,” said Rachel Boydstun of Arkansas.

Archbishop Aymond has indicated he is getting close to releasing the names of abusive clergy but whether he does or not he says things are being handled with far more openness than in the past.

Monday afternoon, the archbishop put out this statement:

“While i understand that certain groups are requesting the immediate release of names, it is important to ensure th

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SPRINGFIELD (MO)
Springfield News-Leader

By Giacomo Bologna

October 8, 2018

The Springfield-Cape Girardeau Catholic Diocese identified three priests Monday who allegedly sexually abused children four decades ago.

Two of those priests — the Rev. John A. Brath and Monsignor John J. Rynish — have been dead for several years. The third, the Rev. Fred Lutz, retired from active ministry in 2011, the diocese said in a press release.

Brath died in 2014 and Rynish died in 2001, the release says.

Each priest allegedly sexually abused a minor sometime in the 1970s, the release says.

All three had stints in Springfield and the surrounding area during the 1970s, according to the release.

Under Missouri law, it’s almost certain that the statute of limitations to file a civil suit against these priests has passed.

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OAKLAND (CA)
Mercury News

October 8, 2018

By Matthias Gafni

Following vows from Catholic churches in the South Bay, the Diocese of Oakland said Monday it too will launch an independent investigation into clergy sex abuse and name priests credibly accused of abusing children as part of worldwide church effort to address the scandal.

Similar to the San Jose diocese effort, Oakland diocese Bishop Michael C. Barber announced that former FBI executive Assistant Director Kathleen McChesney and her firm Kinsale Management Consulting will assist his office in reviewing clergy files and audit the processes. He said the first list of predator priests would be released in about 45 days, and that McChesney’s “full review” of church files will be completed “by the first of the year.”

“This is the latest step in the ongoing commitment of the Diocese of Oakland to stop the scourge of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults,” Barber wrote in a letter to parishioners. “This public accountability will allow you and others in our community to see we are keeping our promises. We have nothing to hide. It is the right thing to do.”

Barber said his diocese would release the list of names, which would include “diocesan, religious order and extern priests.”

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LANSING (MI)
WSYM FOX 47 News

October 8, 2018

A senior priest in the Catholic Diocese of Lansing had is priestly faculties removed due to a credible allegation of sexual assault.

Rev. Robert Gerl is accused of sexually assaulting an adult male decades ago, the Diocese said in a statement.

The Diocese encourages anyone harmed by someone in the church to contact law enforcement, or Diocesan Victim Assistance Coordinator Cheryl Williams-Hecksel, LMSW, at 888-308-6252, or by email at cwilliamshecksel@dioceseoflansing.org.

Check back for updates on this story.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WVUE

October 8, 2018

By Josh Roberson

Sexual abuse survivors will meet outside of St. Louis Cathedral Monday to demand answers from the church.

Members of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests will also be in attendance to support victims and hand out leaflets to church goers urging them to join their cause.

SNAP claims there are 78 Catholic priests in Louisiana that have been formally accused of sexual abuse, many they say are in the New Orleans area.

Attorney General Jeff Landry wrote that he has not received any complaints or referrals from district attorney’s in the state.

SNAP officials recently protested in front of Landry’s office on Friday demanding a formal investigation.

SNAP is asking all 5 bishops in the state to immediately release the names of the accused to better protect children.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
Cincinnati Enquirer

October 8, 2018

By Sheila Vilvens

A group called SNAP, short for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is holding a news conference at 1 p.m. Monday in front of Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office, 411 Vine St., and 1600 Carew Tower, in Cincinnati.

SNAP is calling on DeWine to follow the lead of other states that have recently investigated clergy sex crimes and cover-ups.

Last week, Michigan’s attorney general seized abuse records in each of that state’s seven dioceses.

Four of Ohio’s six dioceses (Cleveland, Columbus, Youngstown and Steubenville) say they will release names of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics, according to SNAP. The other two dioceses say they already publish this information.

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ROME (ITALY)
Reuters

October 7, 2018

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY – The devil is alive and well and working overtime to undermine the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis says.

In fact, the pope is so convinced that Satan is to blame for the sexual abuse crisis and deep divisions racking the Church that he has asked Catholics around the world to recite a special prayer every day in October to try to beat him back.

“(The Church must be) saved from the attacks of the malign one, the great accuser and at the same time be made ever more aware of its guilt, its mistakes, and abuses committed in the present and the past,” Francis said in a message on September 29.

Since he was elected in 2013, Francis has made clear that he believes the devil to be real. In a document in April on holiness in the modern world, Francis mentioned the devil more than a dozen times.

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WARSAW (POLAND)
AFP

October 7, 2018

Some 200 people took to the streets of Warsaw on Sunday to protest child sex abuse in the Catholic Church, in the first major such rally in staunchly Catholic Poland.

The demonstrators marched through the capital waving banners reading “Bishop, protecting paedophiles is a crime” and “We are fed up with the clergy’s cowardice”.

They also carried a map of the country with black crosses to mark places where complaints about child sex abuse had been made against clerics.

There are no official statistics on the number of Polish priests convicted of child sex abuse, but a Polish association that helps victims estimates there were around 56 over nearly two decades, including clergy convicted of possessing child pornography.

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.

DAYTON (OH)
Dayton Daily News

October 08, 2018

By Ross Douthat

Let me ask you to do the impossible, tear your mind away from the Kavanaugh affair for a moment, and cast your eyes from the new Rome to the old one — from the American Empire’s judicial wars to the similar mix of scandal, polarization and intrigue in the Roman Catholic Church.

The pontificate of Francis and the presidency of Donald Trump have been odd mirrors of one another for a while — populist leaders, institutional crises, norm violations, #metoo scandals, leaks and whistleblowers and cries of “fake news” and more. And as the Trump era has moved toward its Kavanaugh crescendo, the Catholic drama has also escalated, with the church’s doctrinal conflict and its sex abuse scandal converging in a single destabilizing crisis.

This month the crux of the drama is the Synod on Young People, a meeting of bishops in Rome that like prior synods in the Francis era is a chance for the pope to prod some alteration of church teaching on sexuality through a process stage-managed to give the appearance of consensus.

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.

DENVER (CO)
Crux

October 8, 2018

By Christopher White

Amid this summer’s wave of sexual abuse scandals, the Catholic apostolate Courage lauded its founder, Father John Harvey, who died in 2010, for his work with priests who “experienced same sex attractions and were striving to live chaste celibate lives.”

Yet while Courage proclaimed Harvey a “prudent spiritual director” and “a keen student of moral theology and psychology,” a review of his writings and public speeches raises new questions about how his approach to homosexuality – his belief that one could, in fact, change his or her sexual orientation – seems to have influenced his approach to treating abusive priests, advocating, at times, for their rehabilitation and return to ministry.

Throughout his career, Harvey often had a platform to offer U.S. bishops such advice. In addition, his close association with a prominent psychologist who also argued against the permanent removal of abuser priests, and who was a sought-after expert for treatment, has also has led critics to wonder about their influence in shaping the U.S. Church’s early response to the sexual abuse crisis.

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JOHNSTOWN (PA)
The Tribune-Democrat

October 7, 2018

By Chip Minemyer

A powerful state senator whose re-election supporters include the widow of the late Joe Paterno is a central figure in the debate over giving child sexual abuse victims an opportunity to file lawsuits years later.

Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Bellefonte, faces a defining moment as his side of the General Assembly wrestles with a bill that – as currently written – would open a two-year window of opportunity for adults who allegedly were sexually assaulted as children.

Victims have until age 30 to file civil charges, in accordance with the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse

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World Religion News

October 6, 2018

BY Nathan Glover

THE CASE INVOLVES BISHOP EMERITUS JOSEPH HART The Catholic Church, already beaten by blasts of sexual abuse allegations from around the world, will get another one. The Diocese of Cheyenne and Diocese of Green Bay have contacted local law enforcement authorities to reopen an old sexual abuse case involving a former priest, Bishop Emeritus Joseph Hart. Among the many cases against him, the police have zeroed upon one particular instance of a 14-year-old male allegedly abused by the priest in 1977.

Hart has served as Bishop of Cheyenne for a little more than two decades from 1978 to 2001. The Cheyenne victim first contacted the police in 2002. He was however hesitant to do a full interview with the police. The no-show cleared the priest of all charges. The district attorney cleared the priest, stating lack of evidence.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS 2

October 7, 2018

Father James Nowak has faced a multitude of accusations of child sex abuse. In fact, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet paid out millions of dollars to eight men who claimed Nowak abused them. CBS 2 Investigator Brad Edwards reports.

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ROME (ITALY)
The Daily Beast

October 7, 2018

By Barbie Latza Nadeau

Under a hard rain and a sea of colorful umbrellas in St. Peter’s Square on March 13, 2013, the Catholic church changed its guard with the election of the Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the first pope ever to take the name Francis.

The 77-year-old was elected as the 266th man to lead the Roman Catholic Church through secret burned ballots in an archaic, ritualistic conclave, but it was clear from the start that his election was nothing short of revolutionary. He was elected after the shocking resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, the first such living-pope transition in more than 400 years. Francis is the first pope from Latin America, the first Jesuit and the first non-European to hold the position since the 8th century.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Fox News

October 7, 2018

By Greg Norman

A Vatican official close to Pope Francis is blasting allegations that the leader of the Catholic Church helped cover up the sexual misconduct of an American cardinal, writing in a letter published Sunday that the claims are a “political set-up without a real foundation.”

The fiery rebuke from Cardinal Marc Ouellet comes six weeks after Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano named more than two dozen current and former Vatican officials and accused them of knowing about – and helping hide – the alleged misdeeds of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

“In response to your unjust and unjustified attack, dear Viganò, I conclude therefore that the accusation is a political set-up without a real foundation that can incriminate the Pope, and I reiterate that it deeply hurts the communion of the Church,” Ouellet said Sunday.

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OAKLAND (CA)
The Catholic Voice

October 7, 2018

By Most Rev. Michael C. Barber, SJ

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

In the wake of recent reports of scandal in the Catholic Church, I have decided the Diocese of Oakland will release the names of all clergy — diocesan, religious order and extern priests — who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing a minor. This is the latest step in the ongoing commitment of the Diocese of Oakland to stop the scourge of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults. This public accountability will allow you and others in our community to see we are keeping our promises. We have nothing to hide. It is the right thing to do.

Since 2002, the “No More Secrets Group”, a mutual support group for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse, has been meeting with the full support and encouragement of the Diocese of Oakland. Indeed, our support for survivors of clergy sexual abuse predates the national Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People of 2002. In 1987 the Oakland Diocesan Senate of Priests issued our first set of guidelines on how to respond to allegations of abuse. My predecessors, Bishop John S. Cummins and Bishop Allen H. Vigneron both conducted services of healing for survivors.

Over the years we have been continually revising and improving our accountability process, reinforcing our commitment to protect children, utilizing background checks and mandatory safe environment training for all church employees and volunteers. We are regularly audited by an outside firm to ensure all our Catholic Parishes and Schools are in compliance.

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OAKLAND (CA)
Catholic News Service

October 7, 2018

By Mark Pattison

WASHINGTON — With Pope Francis midway into the sixth year of his pontificate, the percentage of U.S. Catholics who view him favorably, while still strong, is noticeably down.

And, compared to a January poll by the Pew Research Center that showed Catholics being evenly split on how well Pope Francis has handled the issue of clergy sex abuse, numbers in the new poll, released Oct. 2, show that twice as many Catholics feel he is doing only a fair or poor job on the issue than say he is doing a good or excellent job.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Patheos

October 6, 2018

By M. J. Lisbeth

During his Senate confirmation hearings, Brett Kavanaugh testified about the good and great things he’s done throughout his life: He has “mentored” many female students; 21 of the 25 clerks he hired while a US attorney were women. Why, he even coaches his daughters’ basketball team!

I have no reason to doubt that he has done whatever he can to offer women opportunities in the law, politics, academia and other areas. I also am willing to believe him when he says he is committed to equality or even when he says he’s tried to live an “exemplary” life.

I would also believe such statements from any number of other men. Moreover, I have known many other men who, throughout their lives, gave of their time and resources to help women, as well as men and children, in any number of ways. In fact, I know of one in particular who gave over his life to helping and guiding other people.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

October 7, 2018

In a combative letter, a highly-placed cardinal on Sunday mounted the Vatican’s first direct response to accusations that Pope Francis knew about and covered up the alleged sexual misconduct of a U.S. prelate, describing those claims as a “political fabrication devoid of a real foundation.”

The letter, written by Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, came six weeks after a former Vatican ambassador to the United States wrote a bombshell letter of his own, charging that much of the Vatican hierarchy, including Francis, had for years protected recently-resigned cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

Ouellet’s letter is significant because it ends a period of overwhelming silence among the key Vatican officials with the standing to rebut or back up the claims of that former ambassador, Carlo Maria Viganò. That silence has tested the patience of many Catholics, who remain divided over Vigano’s credibility but say his claims have further wounded a church that is contending with multiple abuse-related crises.

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.

PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune Review

October 5, 2018

By Wes Venteicher

Four men who say they were sexually abused as children by Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh priests sued Bishop David Zubik and Cardinal Donald Wuerl on Thursday, alleging the church leaders are still covering up the abuse.

The civil lawsuits are the latest to stem from the August release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing allegations that 301 members of the clergy in six dioceses abused more than 1,000 children over several decades.

The latest lawsuit was filed on behalf of Paul Beran, of Pittsburgh; James Imhoff, of Canton, Ohio; Glenn Ostrowski, of Kensington, Maryland; and Richard Votedian, of Munhall. The lawsuits allege abuse by five priests.

Their lawsuits draw heavily from the grand jury report, including allegations that the diocese intentionally concealed abuse allegations against priests and relocated the priests rather than immediately expelling them from the church.

The suits name former priests Edward Joyce, Carl Roemele and Richard Zula, who are dead, along with former priests John Hoehl and Edward Huff.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

October 6, 2018

By Peter Smith
In its original response to an Aug. 14 Pennsylvania grand jury report, the Diocese of Pittsburgh erroneously said it withdrew an abusive priest’s authorization to do ministry at least six years before it actually did so.

The diocese has acknowledged the error and it says it’s correcting the record.

The diocese originally claimed that on Jan. 30, 1996, it sent a letter informing the Diocese of San Diego, where the Rev. Ernest Paone would be doing ministry, that he “did not possess the faculties of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.” Faculties are a priest’s authorization from his home diocese to do ministry there or elsewhere.

But the letter actually said, “Father Ernest Paone does possess the faculties of the Diocese of Pittsburgh.”

The diocese revised not just the date but its entire characterization of the case. It originally said it “acted repeatedly to keep Paone from active ministry wherever he was located” beginning in 1994, when it was alerted to allegations against him.

Now, the website of the diocesan newspaper, the Pittsburgh Catholic, acknowledges Paone retained faculties to do ministry until 2002 — a “decision that would not be made today” but that reflected “the difficulties of trying to remove a priest from ministry against his will in an era before Church law had provisions to help bishops do so.”

The grand jury accused more than 90 Pittsburgh priests of abuse over seven decades.

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WARSAW, Poland
Associated Press

October 7, 2018

A private foundation in Poland has published a map of 255 cases of sexual abuse of minors by the country’s Catholic priests — the latest development pressuring Poland’s church to admit and take responsibility for such abuse cases.

Church leaders in predominantly Catholic Poland, where the church enjoys great authority, are under growing pressure from facts being revealed and from court convictions.

The Episcopate says it’s working on a report on the scale of church pedophilia to be published later this year.

A foundation representing the victims and backed by some lawmakers published on its website Sunday an online map of documented cases in which 255 minors were abused by priests across Poland.

The foundation is holding a march in Warsaw to pressure the church to stop protecting pedophile priests.

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ROME (ITALY)
Vatican News

October 7, 2018

Dear fellow brother, Carlo Maria Viganò,

In your last message to the media in which you denounce Pope Francis and the Roman Curia, you urged me to tell the truth about the facts which you interpret as endemic corruption that has invaded the Church’s hierarchy even up to the highest levels. With due pontifical permission, I offer here my personal testimony, as the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, regarding the events concerning the Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, DC, Theodore McCarrick, and his presumed links with Pope Francis, which constitute the subject of your sensational public denunciation, as well as your demand that the Holy Father resign. I write this testimony based on my personal contacts and on archival documents of the aforementioned Congregation, which are currently the subject of a study in order to shed light on this sad case.

First of all, allow me to say to you with complete sincerity, by virtue of the good collaborative relationship that existed between us when you were the Nuncio in Washington, that your current position appears incomprehensible and extremely deplorable to me, not only because of the confusion that it sows in the People of God, but also because your public accusations seriously damage the reputation of the Successors of the Apostles. I remember the time in which I once enjoyed your esteem and confidence, but I realize that I stand to lose the dignity you recognized in me for the sole fact of having remained faithful to the guidelines of the Holy Father in the service that he entrusted to me in the Church.

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KURAVILANGAD (INDIA)
Los Angeles Times

October 5, 2018

By Shashank Bengali

For two years the nun said nothing, quietly dreading the nights that the stocky, bearded Catholic bishop would spend at her small convent in the southern Indian hills.

Early last year she confided in another member of her congregation: “The bishop is compelling me to lay with him.”

Soon afterward, the nun reported to church leaders that the cleric, Franco Mulakkal, had raped her 13 times between 2014 and 2016. When the leaders failed to act and the bishop filed police reports in an apparent bid to silence her, she went to authorities in June.

The investigation might have stalled – as so many sexual assault cases tend to do in India, particularly when they involve the church – were it not for the accuser’s fellow nuns, who led an unprecedented public protest that has sharply divided the country’s 20 million Catholics.

After a two-week sit-in that drew thousands of supporters, police in the southern state of Kerala arrested the 54-year-old bishop last month, making him the first high-ranking Indian clergyman to face charges of sexual misconduct. On Wednesday, a court denied the bishop bail, ruling that the evidence against him was credible.

“It’s a watershed in the history of the Indian church,” said Jose Kavi, editor of Matters India, a website that covers religious issues.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Boston Globe

October 6, 2018

By Libby Berry

The Sunday after Christine Blasey Ford testified in front the Senate Judiciary Committee, local Catholics congregated for mass in Washington. Toward the end of the service at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, parishioners recited a prayer for healing victims of clergy sexual abuse.

“Hear our cries as we agonize over the harm done to our brothers and sisters,” they said.

The prayer highlighted anguish in the Catholic church that is resonating in the Supreme Court confirmation battle.

Newly confirmed nominee Brett Kavanaugh had cited his Catholic faith when defending himself before the Senate against allegations of sexual misconduct raised by Ford and two other women. He noted his Jesuit education at Georgetown Preparatory School and said that going to church on Sundays was as routine as brushing his teeth.

But his religious credentials were not enough for some Catholics already grappling with reports of widespread abuse by priests within their own church. Despite what he may deliver from the bench on issues like abortion, members of the church find themselves just as divided on his nomination as the rest of the country.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

October 2, 2018

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.]

If there’s anyone who arguably holds the key to unlocking everything the Vatican knew about the scandals surrounding ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, that person is Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet.

Currently Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops, Ouellet sits atop a department which, according to former Vatican ambassador to the United States Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, contains a “thick” dossier on McCarrick, who lost his red hat in July after accusations went public that he had abused minors nearly 40 years ago.

Viganò published a letter Aug. 25 making a series of accusations against both current and former Vatican officials, including Pope Francis, arguing that he told the pope about McCarrick’s alleged misconduct with seminarians in 2013, and Francis ignored restrictions put into place by Benedict XVI and instead turned to McCarrick as a key advisor.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

October 6, 2018

By Ross Douthat

Let me ask you to do the impossible, tear your mind away from the Kavanaugh affair for a moment, and cast your eyes from the new Rome to the old one — from the American Empire’s judicial wars to the similar mix of scandal, polarization, and intrigue in the Roman Catholic Church.

The pontificate of Francis and the presidency of Donald Trump have been odd mirrors of one another for a while — populist leaders, institutional crises, norm violations, #metoo scandals, leaks and whistle-blowers and cries of “fake news” and more. And as the Trump era has moved toward its Kavanaugh crescendo, the Catholic drama has also escalated, with the church’s doctrinal conflict and its sex abuse scandal converging in a single destabilizing crisis.

This month the crux of the drama is the Synod on Young People, a meeting of bishops in Rome that like prior synods in the Francis era is a chance for the pope to prod some alteration of church teaching on sexuality through a process stage-managed to give the appearance of consensus.

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

UNITED STATES
Syndicated column via LaCrosse Tribune

October 5, 2018

By Terry Mattingly

The Cathedral of the Plains can be seen long before Interstate 70 reaches Victoria, with its Romanesque spires rising out of the vast West Kansas horizon.

This is a strange place to put a sanctuary the size of the Basilica of St. Fidelis, but that’s a testimony to the Catholic faith of generations of Volga-German farmers. This is also a strange place to house a disgraced ex-cardinal.

However, the friary near the basilica has one obvious virtue, as a home for 88-year-old Theodore McCarrick: It’s located 1,315 miles from the Washington Post.

Who sent this famous Beltway powerbroker to St. Fidelis to spend his days in prayer and penance?

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

October 6, 2018

By Christopher White

Bishop Robert Barron defended the U.S. bishops’ request for a Vatican-backed investigation into ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s history of sexual abuse on Thursday, saying that “it was an expression of what the bishops in this country felt was the right thing to do,” while also showing deference to the pope’s decision not to green-light it.

“We asked the pope specifically to launch an investigative process,” said Barron, who is part of the administrative committee of the United States Conference of Catholics Bishops (USCCB). “I think we just gave voice to our convictions.”

The request for what is known as an Apostolic Visitation was announced on August 16 by USCCB President Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, in an effort to understand how McCarrick rose through the ranks of Church leadership while also serially abusing seminarians and at least one minor.

On September 13, a delegation from the USCCB had a meeting with Pope Francis in which he chose not to sign off on a Vatican-led investigation, prompting the U.S. bishops to begin making their own plans for an investigation coordinated between the four dioceses in which McCarrick was in ministry.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

October 6, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis has authorized a “thorough study” of Vatican archives into how a prominent American cardinal advanced through church ranks despite allegations that he slept with seminarians and young priests, the Vatican said Saturday in its first response to explosive allegations of a cover-up that is roiling the papacy.

The Vatican said it was aware that such an investigation may produce evidence that mistakes were made, when evaluated with today’s standards. But it said Francis would “follow the path of truth, wherever it may lead.”

The statement did not address specific allegations that Francis himself knew of sexual misconduct allegations against now ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick in 2013 and rehabilitated him anyway from sanctions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI.

Francis has said he would not say a word about those allegations, lodged by a retired Vatican ambassador.

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VATICAN CITY
The New York Times

October 6, 2018

By Jason Horowitz

Pope Francis has ordered a deeper investigation into the accusations of sexual misconduct against Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick, the Vatican said Saturday, including a “thorough study” of archival documents to determine how he climbed the church hierarchy despite allegations he had slept with seminarians and young priests.

The statement came more than a month after Carlo Maria Viganò, the former Vatican ambassador to the United States, published a remarkable letter accusing the pope of having known about, and covered up, the actions of Archbishop McCarrick.

The Vatican statement did not explicitly address the accusations by Archbishop Viganò. Instead, the Vatican said, the pope’s decision was motivated generally by the “publication of the accusations” against Archbishop McCarrick, who once led the Archdiocese of Washington and was a major power in the Catholic Church in the United States.

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VATICAN CITY
Holy See Press Office

October 6, 2018

After the publication of the accusations regarding the conduct of Archbishop Theodore Edgar McCarrick, the Holy Father Pope Francis, aware of and concerned by the confusion that these accusations are causing in the conscience of the faithful, has established that the following be communicated:

In September 2017, the Archdiocese of New York notified the Holy See that a man had accused former Cardinal McCarrick of having abused him in the 1970s. The Holy Father ordered a thorough preliminary investigation into this, which was carried out by the Archdiocese of New York, at the conclusion of which the relative documentation was forwarded to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In the meantime, because grave indications emerged during the course of the investigation, the Holy Father accepted the resignation of Archbishop McCarrick from the College of Cardinals, prohibiting him by order from exercising public ministry, and obliging him to lead a life of prayer and penance.

The Holy See will, in due course, make known the conclusions of the matter regarding Archbishop McCarrick. Moreover, with reference to other accusations brought against Archbishop McCarrick, the Holy Father has decided that information gathered during the preliminary investigation be combined with a further thorough study of the entire documentation present in the Archives of the Dicasteries and Offices of the Holy See regarding the former Cardinal McCarrick, in order to ascertain all the relevant facts, to place them in their historical context and to evaluate them objectively.

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ERIE (PA)
YourErie.com

October 5, 2018

By Jackie Roberts

The Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro in Erie today, sitting down with victims of clergy sexual abuse.

Shapiro says reforming the statute of limitations is not a partisan issue; he says it’s a matter of right and wrong. “The script has been flipped. You’re the hero. That bishop is the villain.” He’s holding those accountable who allowed the abuse to continue and praising those who chose to come forward.

This visit to Erie comes on the heels of the release of the nearly 900-page grand jury report detailing cases of sexual abuse in six Catholic dioceses across the commonwealth. Shapiro is talking to victims about creating a two-year window, for survivors take their cases to court, even if the statute of limitations has already expired.

James Faluszczak, Clergy Abuse Survivor, tells us, “I had been wanting for decades to be heard. I had gone to Bishop Persico, to Bishop Trautman, to multiple diocesan officials and was never heard.”

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JACKSONVILLE (FL)
FirstCoastNews.com (Channel 6 TV)

October 5, 2018

By Juliette Dryer

An advocate for victims of abuse in religious institutions says independent investigations, like the one in Florida, are the only way to determine the size and scope of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

“It’s been clear over the years that institutions cannot police themselves,” Zach Hiner, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, told First Coast News. “So really the only way to get to the truth of the matter and find out really how deep the scandals go in each individual state are through independent investigations like this.”

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday a statewide investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic priests. Hiner said Florida is the thirteenth state to open such an investigation.

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IPSWICH (ENGLAND)
East Anglian Daily Times (England)

October 6, 2018

By Tom Bristow

A convicted paedophile was able to work unchecked as a Catholic priest for years – despite having a history of sexually abusing boys, an investigation can reveal.

Today the Diocese of East Anglia admitted making historic mistakes in allowing Father Cornelius O’Brien to work as a priest in Suffolk and Norfolk in the 1980s.

He also returned to do parish work in Norfolk in 2000, but by then authorities were aware of his past and his duties were ‘restricted’.

Abuse allegations were made about him in 1976, as well as by victims coming forward years later in 2004, 2010 and 2016. O’Brien died in Wymondham in 2012, aged 77.

O’Brien first abused boys while a priest near Christchurch, New Zealand, in the 1960s and 70s.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Times-Picayune

October 6, 2018

[Includes video]

SNAP wants Louisiana AG Jeff Landry to open a statewide investigation into clergy sex abuse

By Hanna Krueger

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, is calling on Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry to open a statewide investigation into church sex abuse, according to Fox 8 television. SNAP President Tim Lennon urged Landry in a news conference Friday (Oct. 5) to be aggressive, and disclosed that he had been sexually abused at age 12 by a priest.

“The injury, the harm I deal with every day — depression, self-esteem, social anxiety — I fight every day, and working with SNAP is a way for me to fight back,” Lennon said. “So when we talk about statute of limitations and reasonable expectation of the predators after 30 years to be free is wrong, because survivors of sexual abuse are never free. It’s a life-long injury.”

Landry said he shared victims’ “passionate cry to bring child predators to justice” but that Louisiana law does not let him open a statewide investigation. That echoes his office’s statement in September, when it said the attorney general does not have the authority to launch a broad, multi-parish investigation into Roman Catholic Church sex abuse allegations. A handful of attorneys general in other states are pursuing such inquiries.

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TALLAHASSEE (FL)
Capitol News Service via WJHG-TV, Channel 7

October 6, 2018

Victims are already coming forward just 24 hours after Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the state’s investigation into sexual abuse of children by the Catholic church.

A Pennsylvania grand jury report released in August identified 301 Catholic priests, including at least 14 with ties to Florida, who sexually abused what is believed to be more than 1,000 children spanning decades.

“I couldn’t sleep that night,” said Bondi in a press conference Thursday.

Now, Attorney General Bondi says the state is investigating Florida’s seven dioceses.

“We have reason to believe there are similar stories in Florida,” said Bondi.

More than 15 victims had come forward before the investigation was announced.

The state says more have come forward since, but aren’t releasing specific numbers.

“We cannot comment on the specifics of our ongoing criminal investigation, but I am pleased with the response from the public so far, and the growing number of reports from victims,” Bondi said in a statement. “Based on these confidential reports, I believe the tip site is providing us the information we need to conduct a successful investigation and protect children.”

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ROME (Italy)
Crux

October 6, 2018

By John L. Allen Jr.

Charles Dickens famously described the French Revolution as the “best of times, the worst of times.” Catholicism too seems to be experiencing a revolutionary moment fueled by the clerical sexual abuse scandals, and the opening week of this month’s Synod of Bishops in Rome has, in that sense, seemed a highly Dickensian experience.

On Friday, the Centre for Child Protection (CCP) at Rome’s Jesuit-run Gregorian University formally launched a new master’s program in child protection, a significant expansion of its efforts to raise up a new global cohort of experts.

“Our aim is to build a network of skilled and committed personnel, safeguarders for the Church,” said German Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, direct of the CCP and a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

The CCP was founded in 2012, originally in Munich as a response to the abuse scandals that exploded in Germany in 2010 and 2011. It later relocated to Rome and has become the primary beachhead in the Eternal City for abuse survivors, advocates and experts committed to the cause of reform.

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ROME (ITALY)
By Associated Press

October 6, 2018

Pope Francis has authorized a “thorough study” of Vatican archives into how a prominent American cardinal advanced through church ranks despite allegations that he slept with seminarians and young priests.

The Vatican issued a statement Saturday saying it was aware that such an investigation may produce evidence “that choices were taken that would not be consonant with a contemporary approach to such issues.”

However, it said the Vatican would “follow the path of truth wherever it may lead.”

The statement did not address allegations that Francis himself knew of sexual misconduct allegations against now ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick in 2013 and rehabilitated him anyway. Francis has said he would not say a word about those allegations.

The Vatican knew as early as 2000 that seminarians reported McCarrick pressured them to sleep with him.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune Review

October 5, 2018

By Dillon Carr

Figurines of Jesus and notable saints adorn the small lobby in Monroeville’s St. Bernadette Catholic Church on a sunny late summer morning. As they always do, church bells ring nearby signifying the end of daily Mass as parishioners file out to go on with daily life.

But for many of them, that day’s worship carried a weight not typically present in the sacred space of their sanctuary. A few days prior, a grand jury report was released detailing how 300 “predator priests” sexually abused at least 1,000 children over seven decades and how a hierarchy of clergy leaders conspired to cover it up.

Two of the disgraced priests served at St. Bernadette during their tenures.

At the same time the roughly 7,500 parishioners of the church wrestle with that reality, they also are saying goodbye to a trusted priest of nine years.

Effective Oct. 15, the diocese’s 188 parishes will be placed in 57 groupings that will become new parishes between 2020 and 2023 as part of a strategic planning initiative that’s been in the works for five years. Religious leaders — some who have been in their current churches for many years, including the Rev. Tony Gargotta of St. Bernadette — will be reassigned to other parishes, hospitals, nursing homes, schools and correctional institutions.

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ST. JOSEPH (MO)
St. Joseph News Press

October 6, 2018

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley has promised a thorough investigation of sexual abuse allegations lodged against priests and clergy in the Catholic Church.

Missourians should expect such an investigation, comparable to the recent investigation in Pennsylvania that exposed decades of abuse and maltreatment by priests.

If Hawley needs the power to subpoena church records, he should seek it — and get it.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests held a news conference Wednesday imploring Gov. Mike Parson to provide Hawley with such authority.

The group thinks a full investigation should not rely on the voluntary cooperation of the institutions being investigated.

Church officials have promised to cooperate with Hawley, who announced his investigation in August. All four Catholic dioceses in Missouri, including the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese, have agreed to an independent review by the attorney general.

If criminal charges are warranted, they should be pursued.

The time for obfuscation and misdirection by prosecutors and government officials is over. Missourians want to know the facts, and their government should provide those facts as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch

October 5, 2018

By Steven Spaner

Pundits, journalists and law enforcement personnel were quick to downplay the likely outcome of the FBI inquiry into the Brett Kavanaugh/Christine Blasey Ford controversy. It was unlikely to lead to the truth, they point out, because there would just be voluntary interviews, without subpoenas or sworn testimony.

That sounds familiar. It’s the very critique we keep hearing about Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley’s so-called investigation into four Catholic dioceses and their predator priest cases.

If police and prosecutors have real powers to compel possible wrongdoers to turn over evidence and explain themselves under oath, why aren’t these powers being used?

Steven Spaner • Marthasville

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LONDON (UK)
National Catholic Register

October 5, 2018

By Ed Condon

Amid a British investigation into sexual abuse, Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster is expected to face questions regarding the way his archdiocese handled allegations of misconduct made against his predecessor, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor.

Cardinal Nichols is scheduled to testify in November before the Independent Inquiry in Child Sexual Abuse, a panel established by the British government in 2014 and charged with reviewing sexual abuse and institutional response in the country’s Catholic dioceses, the Anglican Church and other British institutions.

In his most recent letter, released to media Sept. 27, former papal nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò alleged that Pope Francis was responsible for halting “the investigation of sex-abuse allegations against Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor.”

Sources close to the case have told CNA the investigation was marked by procedural irregularities long before it reached Rome and before the election of Pope Francis.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
SNAP

October 5, 2018

By David Clohessy

September 20, 2018

Dear Attorney General Hawley:

We’re concerned about your inquiry into abuse and cover up in Missouri catholic dioceses. We desperately want it to be helpful. Based on our nearly 30 years of experience with this crisis, here are some of our recommendations:

1) Don’t play politics and rush it.
You’ve already said that a cursory overview of Archdiocesan files show that they are ‘voluminous.’ You’ve also publicly committed to hearing from victims. To do this right, it will take months, not weeks.

A doctor’s first duty is to do no harm. That should be yours as well. A hasty, inadequate review, rushed to completion before Nov. 7 for seemingly partisan purposes will only rub more salt into the already deep and often still fresh wounds of hundreds of victims of chlld molesting clerics. It’s far more responsible to take a careful, thorough approach than leave victims, parents, police, prosecutors and parishioners feeling betrayed by a hurried inquiry apparently timed to meet an electoral deadline.

2) Team up with a local prosecutor or two.

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MADISON (WI)
One Wisconsin Now

October 5, 2018

Ron Johnson, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, today announced he would be voting in favor of Donald Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to a lifetime seat on the United States Supreme Court.

Johnson’s support comes despite multiple, credible reports that Kavanaugh committed multiple sexual assaults, serially engaged in boorish, drunken behavior and after an angry, intemperate and borderline unhinged performance in which he tried to deny his behavior and save his nomination.

The following are the statements of One Wisconsin Now Research Director Joanna Beilman-Dulin: “Ron Johnson has shown time and again he does not take sexual harassment or sexual assault seriously.

“Ron Johnson has defended pedophile priests. Ron Johnson has voted against the Violence Against Women Act. Ron Johnson has discounted reports of sexual harassment in his workplace because he said he’s never seen any. Ron Johnson did not inform law enforcement or Republican leaders of the Wisconsin State Assembly when a member of their caucus sexually assaulted a member of his staff.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
National Catholic Register

October 5, 2018

By Joan Frawley Desmond

The start of the 2018-2019 academic year has proved to be more challenging than expected for the Washington metro area’s Catholic school community, as the furor over Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation of sexual assault against Judge Brett Kavanaugh stirs media scrutiny and internal debates about institutional culture.

Kavanaugh’s alma mater, Georgetown Preparatory School, founded by the Society of Jesus in 1789, is at the eye of the storm, though other Catholic high schools have also faced intense scrutiny, along with a flood of concerns from parents, students and alumni.

More than 30 years after Kavanaugh’s graduation, “the elite, privileged high school world that Judge Kavanaugh inhabited is the focus of international attention,” stated an Oct. 3 New York Times article, one of many news stories that sought to provide additional context for Ford’s allegations.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Fatherly

October 4, 2018

By Patrick A. Coleman

South Park, which is two episodes into its 22nd season, is on a scorched earth campaign against those that aid or abet perpetrators of harm to children. The show’s premiere, which dealt with school shootings, was followed this week by an episode about the Catholic church’s long history of covering up (if not facilitating) sexual abuse. The episode features the perpetually maligned Butters befriending the town’s priest and delivers on South Park’s reputation for shock and controversy. But the most brutal aspect of the episode is not a constant flow of pedophile priest jokes — though that’s there — it was in which the local priest is portrayed as both a hero and a representative of a morally dubious enterprise.

The big spoiler here is that Butters is not molested by the priest. And the fact that this constitutes a spoiler is the most damning indictment of the Catholic Church possible. It’s unexpectedly transgressive and unexpectedly kind. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, fathers both, remain unpredictable two decades later.

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