ABUSE TRACKER

[The Church did not see sexual abuse, but “sin” in the Order of the Miguelianos]

PONTEVEDRA (SPAIN)
El País

November 14, 2018

By Elisa Lois

Adoctrinamiento, anulación de la consciencia y agresiones sexuales son algunas de las prácticas de las que se acusa al líder de la organización, que afronta 66 años de cárcel

Mientras excongregados de la disuelta Orden y Mandato San Miguel Arcángel que declararon contra su fundador, Miguel Rosendo, han dejado testimonios estremecedores (alguna ocultándose tras un biombo) en el juicio que se celebra desde septiembre en la Audiencia de Pontevedra por presuntos abusos sexuales y otros 11 delitos, la postura de la Iglesia ha quedado en evidencia en este proceso al no haber denunciado los hechos ante la Justicia.

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.

[Spain’s bishops meet without pedophilia on the agenda]

MADRID (SPAIN)
El País

November 19, 2018

By Juan G. Bedoya

La Conferencia Episcopal Española celebra su ‘plenaria de otoño’ con discrepancias sobre cómo afrontar su peor crisis

Las jerarquías del catolicismo se sienten “en estado de sitio”, en palabras de uno de los obispos que esta mañana se encierra con sus colegas en la asamblea plenaria que la Conferencia Episcopal Española (CEE) celebra todos los otoños. La reunión se prolongará hasta el viernes y no incluye en su orden del día debate alguno sobre los escándalos de pederastia.

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[Blázquez: “Abuses should not be covered up or given the wrong answer”]

MADRID (SPAIN)
El País

November 19, 2018

By Juan G. Bedoya

El presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal hace suyas las conclusiones sobre pederastia del Sínodo de Obispos de octubre

El presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal Española (CEE), Ricardo Blázquez, ha leído este lunes un documento en el que dice que “la Iglesia reconoce abiertamente los abusos de diversa índole y tiene la firme decisión de erradicarlos”. Lo ha asegurado durante la sesión inaugural de la Asamblea Plenaria de los obispos, en la que ha dado las gracias a las víctimas de abusos sexuales en el seno de la Iglesia por su “valentía al denunciarlos”, porque “ayudan a la Iglesia a tomar conciencia de cuanto ha ocurrido y de la necesidad de reaccionar con decisión”.

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[Canonical sentence reveals the Church “looked the other way” in the face of abuses]

MADRID (SPAIN)
El País

November 19, 2018

By José Manuel Romero and Julio Núñez

EL PAÍS publica el fallo de un tribunal eclesiástico que expulsó a un cura por violar repetidamente a una niña y admite la tolerancia de los obispos ante casos similares

El tribunal eclesiástico de la diócesis de Mallorca dictó una sentencia canónica en marzo de 2013 sobre un caso grave de abusos a menores en la que admite la culpa de la Iglesia por encubrimiento de estas conductas. EL PAÍS hace pública esa sentencia, oculta hasta ahora como el resto de las impuestas por tribunales eclesiásticos.

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[1987 report warned of “undue pressure” by Karadima in El Bosque]

CHILE
BioBioChile

November 19, 2018

By Valentina González

“Sus nervios lo traicionan frecuentemente con explosiones de rabia, violencia con los pobres de la parroquia, a quienes amenaza con Carabineros si no se van, desprecios, hablar muy mal de la gente en público y con sus íntimos (yo he tenido esa experiencia)”.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

November 19, 2018

By Peter Smith

When Michael Norris talks with fellow survivors of sexual abuse by clergy, he finds that they have a lot in common — the betrayal by a trusted priest and the long trail of damage to family relationships, schooling and a career path.

But Mr. Norris said many victims are astonished when he gets to the part of the story in which he sat in a rural Kentucky courtroom on a November day in 2016. There, he witnessed a group of jurors come out from their deliberations and convict his perpetrator.

“It was the ultimate release,” said Mr. Norris, 55, now of Houston. “To hear the jury come back with a guilty verdict, it just overwhelmed me. Most survivors don’t get that kind of justice.”

Abused by the Rev. Joseph Hemmerle in a summer-camp cabin in 1973, Mr. Norris first came forward to the church and police in 2001, but no charges were filed and the priest returned to ministry.

More than a decade later, after a second victim came forward, Hemmerle was charged and convicted in separate court cases. As long as the wait was, such an outcome wouldn’t have been an option at all if the abuse had happened at that time in Pennsylvania or many other states.

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AUSTIN (TX)
CBS 29 TV

November 14, 2018

Six women are suing the Catholic Diocese of Austin and a priest for years of alleged sexual harassment and abuse.

The women name Father Isidore Ndagizimana in their suit. They say he made unwanted sexual advances and isolated them — holding the women against their will.

This reportedly happened while they were attending Austin’s St. Thomas More Catholic Church off FM 620 in Northwest Austin.

The suit says Ndagizimana, also known as “Father Izzy,” was transferred to a parish in Brenham after the women brought the allegations to light.

According to the suit, the women behind the lawsuit are mothers, wives and active parish volunteers.

The women claimed that they were told they didn’t need to take legal action against Father Izzy or the church and that they should trust the diocese to handle the situation.

This comes about a month after more than a dozen Catholic bishops in Texas announced they’d release the names of clergy who have been credibly accused of child sexual assault.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Patheos (blog)

November 16, 2018

By Deacon Greg Kandra

If bishops want a sense of where things stand these days, consider this:

Last weekend, a parishioner shared with me a story that offers a snapshot of what the world now thinks of the Catholic Church.

He works for a private, secular day camp on Long Island and was giving a tour to a family. The mother kept peppering him with questions about how the children were supervised. Where did they change? What sort of access did adults have? My friend politely answered the questions and concerns, and at the end of the tour the mother explained. “I’m sorry if I asked so many questions,” she said, “but with what’s happening with the Catholic Church now, you can’t be too careful…”

Mind you: she was not Catholic. The camp was not Catholic. But the festering boil that is the sex scandals of the Church has now broken wide open, and no bandage can contain it. This is how the public now perceives us.

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GET RELIGION

November 10, 2018

By Clemente Lisi

The scandals that have engulfed the Catholic Church the past few months are only intensifying.

The allegations to come out of Pennsylvania (as well as Ireland and Australia) and accusations against ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick not only revealed how much the church is hurting, but also the stark ideological split within it. These events have also seen a rise in the power of online media.

The growth of conservative Catholic outlets, for example, and their ability to break stories against “Uncle Ted” has coincided with the internal struggle contrasting what traditionalists see as inadequate news coverage from the mainstream media regarding Pope Francis’ leadership. Filling that void are conservative journalists and bloggers on a mission to expose what they see as the Vatican’s progressive hierarchy.

In 2002, an investigation by The Boston Globe unearthed decades of abuse by clergy never before reported to civil authorities (click here for links). These days, accusations of wrongdoing within the Catholic Church are being exposed by smaller news organizations. No longer are mainstream outlets setting the pace here. Depleted newsrooms and not wanting to do negative stories about the pontiff have spurred conservative Catholic media to fill the journalism void.

Indeed, it’s a small group of influential blogs and news websites that has helped to inform millions as well as drive the debate.

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The Anchoress (blog)

November 16, 2018

By Elizabeth Scalia

After the Vatican ordered US Bishops to refrain from voting on episcopal correctives to their failures on the sex abuse front (a February bishop’s gathering in Rome will now address it), American bishops left their bi-annual conference with little to show for their time beyond approving a the promotion of the excellent Sister Thea Bowman’s cause for sainthood.

The do-little gathering left plenty of American Catholics feeling short-changed and fed-up, and precipitated Melinda Henneburger’s scorching rebuke to the bishops as she declared herself “done” with the Church. Her piece is a stunningly naked and raw howl of authentic anguish from a woman who feels betrayed beyond endurance.

[USCCB President Cardinal Daniel] DiNardo recounted that it happened this way: “In our weakness,’’ he said in Baltimore, “we fell asleep.” Not so much like Peter in the garden, though. More like Rip Van Winkle, and for a century instead of 20 years.

When and if the bishops do fully rouse themselves, I won’t be in the pews to hear about it.

Read all of it.

Henneberger says she has not been able to bring herself to attend Mass since last June, when revelations concerning former-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick came to light. Having covered the Vatican for the New York Times, Henneberger thought she had a good sense of McCarrick, and so she felt particularly and personally crushed by his sins, and the evidence they gave of the man’s deep betrayal of everything he professed and preached:

After “credible and substantiated” allegations that the now former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had taken advantage of seminarians, assaulted an altar boy in 1971 and even, because evil knows no shame, abused the first child he had ever baptized, the accused was shipped off to the quiet of a Kansas friary — thanks so much for thinking of us out here on the prairie! — to pray, repent and, so far, stick to his story that he has done nothing wrong.

Far from alone
Yes, that’s one angry woman, and she is far from alone. My email is a daily font of fury being expressed by friends and Catholic media colleagues who declare their faith shaken enough to impact their prayer lives, their attendance at Mass, and even their foundational belief in the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Amid so many lies, cover-ups and assists to evil, they catch themselves wondering, is any of true?

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MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
The Catholic Spirit

November 19, 2018

Bishop Donald Kettler has added the name of Bishop Harold Dimmerling to the list of clergy likely to have abused minors, according to a Nov. 12 statement from the Diocese of St. Cloud.
Dimmerling was a priest of the Saint Cloud Diocese who later served as bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota, from 1969 until his death in 1987.

Bishop Kettler recently received an allegation that Dimmerling sexually abused a minor while serving as a priest in the Diocese of Saint Cloud, the statement said.

Bishop Kettler has spoken with the victim/survivor and, after prayer and consultation, deemed the allegation credible. The allegation has been reported to law enforcement. There has been no other report of sexual misconduct involving Dimmerling in the Diocese of Saint Cloud prior to receiving the present allegation, the statement said.

In line with past practice, Bishop Kettler will hold listening sessions in the near future in areas of the diocese where Dimmerling served. The sessions have three primary goals: to assure parishioners of the bishop’s support and assistance; to offer a process whereby sexual misconduct issues/concerns can be voiced and discussed; and to allow other potential victims the opportunity to come forward and receive assistance and healing.

Dimmerling was ordained on May 2, 1940, in the Diocese of Altoona, Pennsylvania, and was incardinated upon ordination into the Diocese of Saint Cloud. His assignments in the diocese included: assistant, Cathedral of St. Mary, St. Cloud (1940-1943); chaplain, St. Francis Hospital, Breckenridge, while also serving at St. Joseph, Brushvale (1943-1949); pastor, Sacred Heart in Glenwood and St. Bartholomew in Villard (1949-1957); pastor, St. Mary of the Presentation, Breckenridge (1957-1961); spiritual director, diocesan seminary, Collegeville (1961-1963); rector, diocesan seminary, Collegeville (1963-1969); pastor, St. Mary, Little Falls (1969).

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NEWARK (NJ)
North Jersey Record

November 19, 2018

By Hannan Adely

The Catholic Church in New Jersey will name all priests and deacons who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors early next year, Cardinal Joseph Tobin announced Monday.

The naming of the alleged abusers is part of a larger effort by the church that includes a “complete review” of abuse allegations and the establishment of a victim compensation fund and counseling program, Tobin said in a statement.

The announcement comes amid a time of turmoil in the church, following abuse controversies and alleged church cover-ups of abuse that have led some faithful to question their support of the church and its leadership over the years.

A two-year investigation in Pennsylvania found more than 1,000 victims there over 70 years and evidence of a cover up by church leaders. Some 300 Pennsylvania priests were implicated, including at least four priests had who spent part of their ministries in New Jersey.

Jim Goodness, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Newark, did not say how many priests and deacons the church has already identified in connection with credible abuse allegations.

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LACROSS (WI)
WXOW TV

November 19, 2018

The Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy by the end of the month following multiple claims of clergy sex abuse.

Chapter 11 is a specific type of bankruptcy that allows the Diocese to restructure so it can divide its assets among its creditors.

“As part of this healing, it is incumbent upon us to create a path forward that provides just compensation for the victims of abuse. This must include public acknowledgment of their pain and an apology for it as well as financial compensation,” Bishop John Quinn said in a statement released over the weekend.

The Diocese is facing 121 pending claims of clergy sex abuse by 14 priests who have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct with children from the 1960s through the 1980s.

The Diocese disclosed the names of the priests in 2013: Thomas Adamson, Sylvester Brown, Joseph Cashman, Louis Cook, William Curtis, John Feiten, Richard Hatch, Ferdinand, Leo Koppala, Jack Krough, Michael Kuisle, James Lennon, Leland Smith, and Robert Taylor.

They include a high school principal, parish priests, a hospital chaplain, and seminary instructors. All of whom have either died or been suspended from the ministry. 11 of them served in Rochester parishes.

One lawsuit includes Father Richard Hatch who sexually abused a 13-year-old boy in 1962 while serving as a priest at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church and School in Winona. The suit alleges the Diocese knew about Father Hatch being a possible sexual abuser at the time, citing a 1964 letter from then diocesan chancellor Monsignor Emmett Tighs, in which he said that Hatch was “a very disturbed man.”

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

November 19, 2018

Bishop Richard J. Malone states it’s difficult to have one’s integrity questioned. He is right.

He should ask every one of the children who went to their parents about what was happening to them behind the altar. He should go to each mother who watched her broken child become depressed, anxious, perhaps in later years alcoholic or suicidal. Sexual abuse does that to kids.

Then Malone should study the word integrity, “the state of being unimpaired; perfect condition; the quality or state of being of sound moral principle, uprightness, honesty, sincerity.” What part of this word applies to him?

There is no question: Malone’s integrity is not being questioned. The answer is in. He must resign.

Lynn Sullivan

Orchard Park

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OAKLAND (MI)
Oakland Press

November 19, 2018

By Aileen Wingblad

A Chaldean Catholic church deacon has been bound over to Oakland County Circuit Court for alleged sex crimes against a teen boy.

Hurmiz Ishak, 65 of Sterling Heights, is charged with three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct – multiple variables for alleged acts at St. Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church, 2442 E. Big Beaver Rd. in Troy.

Judge Maureen McGinnis of Troy’s 52-4 District Court advanced the case to the higher court on Nov. 15. Ishak is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 29 by Judge Phyllis McMillen.

Court records indicate the alleged assaults began May 1, 2017 and Troy police say they continued over the past several months. Church officials contacted police Oct. 14 after learning about the alleged incidents from the victim’s family.

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STARKVILLE, MS
Starkville Daily News

November 19, 2018

By Ryan Philips

Few details have been revealed by the Catholic Diocese of Jackson concerning a Starkville priest at the center of a federal investigation.

But through an email exchange with the Starkville Daily News, the Diocese did provide background information on Father Lenin Vargas of St. Joseph Catholic Church as church leaders address accusations that he defrauded parishioners with a fake cancer diagnosis — a scam that investigators and some in the church believe was covered up by the Diocese to avoid negative publicity.

Diocese Communications Director Maureen Smith said Father Vargas was first ordained a priest in June 2006. Most recently the native of Mexico was the subject of a 37-page affidavit filed in federal court in Jackson last week with a search warrant for both the Starkville parish and the Diocese’s office in Jackson.

In the affidavit, as many as five confidential informants provided information to investigators, with at least one saying Vargas was diagnosed with HIV in 2014, but instead told parishioners at St. Joseph and Corpus Christi Mission in Macon that he had a rare form of cancer and began collecting donations for his supposed cancer treatment in Canada.

Informants also claim he propagated at least two fraudulent pet projects — an orphanage and a chapel on a Mexican mountain — to those in the church to raise money, which he then used for unrelated personal expenses not associated with any medical expenses.

Smith said Vargas attended Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. When he was first ordained in 2006, he served as the associate pastor at St. Francis of Assisi in Madison, Mississippi.

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ALABAMA
AL.com

November 19, 2018

By Christopher Harress

Mark Belenchia remembers the day when he first set eyes on the new Catholic priest in the small Mississippi Delta town of Shelby. It was 1968 at the time and he was 13 years-old.

“He turned up without his collar on at a baseball game I was playing in,” said Belenchia from his home in Jackson, Mississippi. “He was different from the stuffy priests we were used to. Charismatic, like a breath of fresh air.” “That was Rev. [Bernard] Haddican’s first day on the job. The day he began to groom us.”

While Belenchia’s story takes place in Mississippi, his position as an advocate for sex abuse victims has put him in touch with people from across his home state, Alabama and other parts of the country. He has heard the full scale of sexual abuse against children dating back decades. He has heard grown men cry over the phone as they, for the first time, explain what happened to them. Many of it decades before. Now, with the expected release of a list naming priests and other clergy accused of sexually abusing children over the last 50 years in parts of Alabama and Mississippi, Belenchia is preparing himself for more heartbreaking calls.

“I want to be there for people as much as I can,” said Belenchia, who is an advocate for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) . “but the sad truth is that for most of them time has run out.”

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Maryland Matters

November 18, 2018

By Frank A. DeFilippo

Back in the dark ages, around 1970, the prelates of the three Roman Catholic archdiocese and diocese that straddle Maryland – Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Wilmington, Del. – sought a meeting with Gov. Marvin Mandel (D) to discuss one of the church-bell issues of the day, aid to parochial schools.

As press secretary to Mandel (and a former altar boy), I briefed Mandel, Maryland’s first and only Jewish governor, on the proper titles and greetings for the princes of the church – your eminence for the cardinals of the Archdiocese of Baltimore and Washington and your excellency for the Bishop of Wilmington.

Concluding the conversation, I said: “And the most important thing to remember, Marvin, is that they became cardinals and bishops the same way you became governor.”

A decade before that event, when Woodstock College, in Howard County, was the intellectual center of the Catholic universe, the reigning Jesuit theologians of the era were Avery Dulles, John Courtney Murray and Gustav Weigel.

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DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Extra.ie

November 19, 2018

By Emer Scully

An Irish priest who was removed from his ministry in America over a sexual abuse allegation went on to serve for 20 years in Ireland, where new allegations of abuse emerged, Extra.ie has learned.

Fr Joe Seery fled to Ireland in 1978 while police in New Orleans were investigating the case of sexual abuse of a male minor, and was immediately appointed on special assignment to Knock, Co. Mayo, in preparation for Pope John Paul II’s visit.

New allegations of sexual abuse arose when he was moved to a small parish in Connemara, according to Fr Pat Buckley, who was ordained with Fr Seery in Waterford in 1976 – just two years before sexual abuse allegations arose in New Orleans.

He went on to serve five more parishes in Ireland over a period of 20 years before being pressured into retiring in 1997, aged just 44.

Details of his life have been uncovered for the first time after the Archdiocese of New Orleans published a file on priests who had been removed from ministry for sexual abuse allegations, as part of a new policy of openness in the American Catholic Church.

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WATERROWN (NY)
Watertown Daily Times

November 19, 2018

Many parishioners objected to a previous decision by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ogdensburg to not release the names of priests accused of sexual abuse, and officials have received their message.

On its website last week, the diocese listed the names of 28 priests removed from the ministry. This followed an announcement the previous weekend by Bishop Terry R. LaValley pledging to do so.

“I am writing to address an important matter: the release of the names of priests removed from ministry according to the provisions of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” Bishop LaValley wrote in a letter read Nov. 11 during Masses throughout parishes in the diocese. “In the past, we have declined to publicize the names of these individuals for many reasons, including due process questions. While there are strong arguments for releasing the names and strong arguments for not releasing the names, recent controversies in the church make it necessary for us to now release the names.

“The recent controversies and scandals have produced righteous anger, discouragement and frustration among the people of God. Increasingly, the faithful have called for the release of the names of those removed from ministry under the charter. I know the release of names will cause pain for those on the list, their families, former parishioners and friends. There will be a need for compassion and understanding among all of us. While our main concern is the safety of our young people and helping victims find healing and peace, we must also strive to uphold the dignity of those removed from ministry. Mercy and reconciliation are central to our mission as the church of Jesus Christ.”

Releasing these names was a good step on the part of the diocese. It shows that officials are beginning to recognize the anger and frustration felt by many members of the church.

People around the world have demanded answers over how authorities could permit incidents of sexual abuse to go on for so long. They want to know what is being done about all those who moved predator priests from parish to parish.

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ROCHESTER (MN)
FOX 47 TV

November 18, 2018

“As part of this healing, it is incumbent upon us to create a path forward that provides just compensation for the victims of abuse. This must include public acknowledgment of their pain and an apology for it as well as financial compensation,” Bishop John Quinn said in a statement released over the weekend.

The Diocese is facing 121 pending claims of clergy sex abuse by 14 priests who have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct with children from the 1960s through the 1980s.

The Diocese disclosed the names in 2013: Thomas Adamson, Sylvester Brown, Joseph Cashman, Louis Cook, William Curtis, John Feiten, Richard Hatch, Ferdinand, Leo Koppala, Jack Krough, Michael Kuisle, James Lennon, Leland Smith, and Robert Taylor.

They include a high school principal, parish priests, a hospital chaplain, and seminary instructors. All of whom have either died or been suspended from the ministry. 11 of them served in Rochester parishes.

Father Hatch sexually abused a 13-year-old boy in 1962, while serving as a priest at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church and School in Winona. The lawsuit alleges the Diocese knew about Father Hatch being a possible sexual abuser at the time, citing a 1964 letter from then diocesan chancellor Monsignor Emmett Tighs, in which he cited Hatch as being quote “A very disturbed man.”

Quinn, in his statement, said the Diocese is committed to creating an environment of healing for these victims and their families.

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ROCKFORD (IL)
Northwest Herald

November 19, 2018

By Katie Smith

The Catholic Diocese of Rockford has released the names of 15 priests accused of sexual abuse, including at least three of whom previously were assigned to churches in McHenry County.

Although the diocese previously reported some of the 15 priests named in the report, which was released Wednesday, others were not disclosed until the diocese reviewed the claims while compiling the list, according to a statement from Rockford Bishop David Malloy.

A statement attached to the release did not include details about the specific allegations, dates when church officials learned about the alleged abuse or how the claims were substantiated. A diocese spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

Three of the named men – Mark A. Campobello, John C. Holdren and William I. Joffe – each were priests in McHenry County at one point.

In 2000, Campobello was assigned to St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Crystal Lake as a priest, but he served the parish for less than a year. He pleaded guilty in 2004 to abusing two teenage girls he taught at Aurora Central Catholic High School while serving as a priest in Geneva and received a four-year prison sentence. Campobello was removed from the ministry in December 2002, and he was stripped of his religious status in 2005, according to the release.

In 2004, the Catholic Diocese of Rockford announced that it received sexual misconduct allegations against Joffe, who had been a pastor in Woodstock, Cary and Harvard. Joffe was removed from the ministry in August 1993 and died in April 2008.

Most recently, Holdren was accused in 2015 of sexually abusing a 7- to 9-year-old child while assigned to an Aurora church. He retired in 1994 from St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Johnsburg, where he spent 10 years as a priest. He also spent six years in the 1970s at St. Thomas the Apostle in Crystal Lake and St. Peter in Geneva from 1981 to 1983. Holdren was removed from the ministry for a reason not related to a child abuse allegation in July 1994, and died this past April, according to the diocese’s records.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

November 19, 2018

The Roman Catholic bishops of the United States traveled to Baltimore last week for their first meeting following an explosive grand jury report by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro detailing decades of sex abuse involving hundreds of priests across the state. They were there in part to confront this latest chapter in the scandal but left without taking any action.

The Vatican instructed the bishops to hold off voting on any reforms until next year. That’s when Pope Francis plans to hold a summit in Rome to address the sexual abuse crisis that continues to engulf the church around the world.

Survivors of clergy sex abuse are angry and disappointed by the lack of action from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. But given the woeful track record of bishops to take accountability for their role in covering up decades of bad clergy behavior, did anyone expect any substantive reforms to come from the meeting?

This is an institution that has presided over a criminal conspiracy and cover-up for more than half a century. The bishops have demonstrated they remain unable to hold abusive priests or themselves fully accountable.

There was hope Pope Francis would root out the wrongdoers and their enablers. But the scope of the scandal is entrenched and rife with coconspirators more interested in wallpapering over the horrific crimes. Not even the pope, it seems, has the fortitude to take on the powerful interests within the church who seem hell-bent on keeping a lid on the wrongdoing.

Yes, there have been sexual-abuse scandals at other institutions, including public schools, universities, other religious organizations, the media, politics, and Hollywood. But nowhere has the abuse been as widespread and accountability so disregarded. And few carry the moral weight of exploiting the authority of the Church to turn the faithful into victims.

As the recent investigation by the Inquirer and Boston Globe found, more than 130 U.S. bishops have been accused of failing to properly respond to sexual misconduct allegations, including Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, Philadelphia’s former archbishop.

Claims involving more than 50 bishops center on incidents that took place after a 2002 gathering of U.S. bishops, where they promised the church’s days of cover-up and inaction were over. At least 15 of the bishops have been accused of committing sexual abuse or harassment themselves.

The only reckoning has come through grand jury investigations and civil claims. The recent Pennsylvania grand jury report showed the same playbook has been used in diocese after diocese to cover up the abuse. The report has prompted prosecutors in other states to launch investigations.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

November 19, 2018

By Inés San Martín

A Spanish layman and member of Opus Dei was sentenced to 11 years in prison Thursday after he was found guilty of sexually abusing a minor. The ruling comes after prosecutors had asked for a 20-month sentence, saying they doubted some of the testimony of the victim.

José María Martínez Sanz, professor of the all-male school Gaztelueta in Leioa, northern Spain, was accused of abusing a student from 2008 to 2010, when the student was 12 and 13 years old. The case had been investigated by ecclesial authorities and the school, but nothing came of those probes.

The professor, who no longer works in the school, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison by a Spanish judge and has been banned from contacting the victim for the next 15 years.

During the trial Martínez insisted on his innocence, and prosecutors acknowledged they had doubts regarding some of the allegations. However, the lawyer of the victim argued that at the beginning, the victim hadn’t told the whole story because he was ashamed. According to him, the abuse escalated from indecent touching to penetration.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Crux

November 19, 2018

By Christopher White

Cardinal Blase Cupich is firing back against claims that he sought to advance an alternative proposal for bishop accountability ahead of last week’s meeting in Baltimore, in place of the plan put forth by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

“The allegation is false,” the archbishop of Chicago told Crux on Sunday, in response to a Catholic News Agency (CNA) report Friday that he and Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington collaborated on a separate proposal.

“At no time prior to the Baltimore meeting did the two of us collaborate in developing, nor even talk about, an alternative plan,” he said.

At the start of last week’s meeting of U.S. bishops, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the USCCB, made the surprise announcement that the Vatican had requested a delay on voting until after a February summit in Rome where Pope Francis will convene the head of every bishops’ conference around the world to confront the global sex abuse crisis.

On the table was a proposal for new standards of conduct for bishops, as well as the establishment of a new lay commission that would investigate claims against bishops.

The two proposals were put forth in response to this summer’s revelations that former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick serially abused seminarians for decades while ascending the ranks of Church leadership, along with the findings of a Pennsylvania grand jury report in August chronicling seven decades of sexual abuse and cover-up.

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TRAVERSE CITY (MI)
Record Eagle

This week the Catholic Diocese of Gaylord named 10 priests in our area who faced “credible and substantiated” allegations of sexually abusing children.

The list carries names and current clerical status. Further details — like where the men served — were not available.

Eight of the 10 men on the list are dead.

None of the names have a prison record or were prosecuted in court. None of the names were ever on the sex offender registry. All of them were involved in at least one “credible incident of sexual abuse with a minor.”

Publishing and maintaining a list “may be helpful to the healing process of victims-survivors” and to the continued effort for increased transparency, a diocese statement reads.

That may be true but it’s also true that this comes after a search warrant was served two months ago by the Attorney General’s office investigating “alleged sexual abuse and assault of children and others by Catholic priests from 1950 to the present for all seven Catholic dioceses in Michigan.”

Like lists are being dropped by dioceses across the country. Like, careful wording. Like state investigations (at least a dozen, including our own) into the Catholic Church. Like headlines following.

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LITTLE ROCK (AR)
Bilgrimmage

November 17, 2018

By William Lindsey

Barry Blitt’s “Welcome to Congress” cover for New Yorker, 9 November 2018

Now if a knock-off cover could only be produced, showing all those whited-out men in suits as the Catholic bishops at their latest meeting….

My major takeaway from the recent USCCB meeting: the bishops convened it with a huge deficit of moral and pastoral authority, and they have even less moral and pastoral authority now that it’s over. Something has finally given way within American Catholicism — a willingness to tolerate the vain show any longer, to make one more excuse for Father. There’s no going back to the obediential culture the EWTN crowd wishes to cultivate — as long as the pope is not Francis.

I frankly felt a thousand miles removed as I read commentary about the USCCB meeting. In many ways, I could not care less about anything the Catholic church is now discussing — and, above all, about the stale, incestuous, airless, parochial commentary of the mostly straight, mostly white, mostly male U.S. Catholic commentariat. Here’s commentary I have found worth reading, however:

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ERIE (PA)
YourErie.com

November 16, 2018

Over the last week the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops convened in Baltimore. Among them was former Erie Bishop Donald W. Trautman.

As Bishops exchanged ideas about ending child abuse, Trautman questioned reports like the one released by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and the media.

“We should not be so Naive as to accept every government report every attorney general report as being totally accurate or honest and I wouldn’t cite the Philadelphia Inquirer or Boston Globe as sources of confident information,” said Trautman.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General August grand jury report on clergy abuse found that Trautman failed to remove an abusive priest. Current bishop Lawrence Persico has publicly been supportive of survivors and victims of sexual abuse. He was in the room when Trautman made his comments.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
KYW Newsradio

November 17, 2018

By Tony Romeo

As expected, the state legislature this past week wrapped up work in the current two-year session without resolving the fight over legislation sought by victims of child sex abuse.

The state Senate indicated it would return for one post-election day to re-elect leaders for the next session, and not to vote on legislation, and made good on that plan. Nonetheless, as members of the GOP Senate majority met behind closed doors, Cindy Leech of Johnstown stood in the hallway with a picture of her late son, a victim of clergy sex abuse and the drug abuse that followed.

“Just because they decided not to vote, we’re not going away,” Leech said. “We’re going to show them that we’re bound and determined.”

A short time later, the top-ranking state Senator, Republican Joe Scarnati, said not much had happened since the Senate had last met a month before.

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TAOS (NM)
Taos News

November 17, 2018

By Cody Hooks

Donald Naranjo had gone back to the old seminary campus in Santa Fe only once since he was a teenager, but he still knew where to turn: Make a right at the midcentury house with a double garage, go east about a mile, turn left.

Naranjo, now 70, was a sophomore in high school when he convinced his parents to let him heed a calling. He started his studies to be a priest at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary on the eastern edge of Santa Fe, a facility that now serves as a retreat. For a kid from the Española Valley, a heavily Catholic community, it was the kind of choice that makes a family proud.

“If you wanted to seek a vocation in the church, it was wonderful,” Naranjo said. “You’d be right there next to God.”

His mother, sitting behind the wheel of the family’s Ford Falcon, dropped him off at the seminary in August 1963, when he was 15.

The abuse started soon after, Naranjo said.

Known as John Doe No. 60 in a civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, Naranjo is one of scores of people who have sued the archdiocese, claiming abuse by a priest, and one of thousands nationwide.

Like many other priests from around the country, the man Naranjo accused of abuse, Earl Bierman, came to New Mexico for treatment at a Jemez Springs facility that became a dumping ground for sexual abusers. It was run by the Servants of the Paraclete, a religious order in New Mexico with close ties to both the Catholic Church’s hierarchy and local parishes.

At least two lawsuits allege Bierman abused young men at the Santa Fe seminary: one filed in 1995 and Naranjo’s in 2016.

Bierman died in prison in 2005 as he was serving out a 20-year sentence for pleading guilty to sexually abusing boys in three Kentucky counties while he was a priest there.

Naranjo, who has settled his case with the archdiocese, is one of the few claimants of Catholic clergy abuse to share their stories publicly. He told the Taos News that he hopes his story will help prevent further abuse by clergy and will prompt other victims who have remained silent about abuse to begin a path of healing.

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DULUTH (MN)
Duluth News Tribune

November 17, 2018

By David Clohessy

Duluth’s top Catholic official continues to maintain the same secrecy about accused priests that long has plagued the church. As a result, some parishioners are misinformed and feel betrayed while some alleged victims feel discouraged and intimidated.

After months of inquiry, the Catholic Diocese of Duluth said Fr. William Graham was “credibly accused” of abusing a child (“Diocese names two Duluth priests as ‘credibly accused,'” Aug. 6).

It’s true a jury made a puzzling ruling in this case, finding for both the accused and the accuser (“Split verdict in Duluth priest’s suit against accuser,” Aug. 25). But it’s also true that Duluth Diocese Bishop Paul Sirba, who could have shed much light on the situation, did not testify.

Regardless, some churchgoers continue to defend Fr. Graham. I certainly understand their feelings. One of my brothers this month was listed as a former priest credibly accused of sexual abuse in Missouri.

What should happen now with regard to Fr. Graham? The bishop should make public his file on Graham and the names of his review board. He repeatedly has pledged to be transparent in such matters. He should meet with and take questions from parishioners. And he should insist they stop making public comments that criticize Graham’s accuser. Such callousness makes the church more dangerous by deterring others from speaking up who see, suspect, or suffer misdeeds.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
WPXI TV

November 15, 2018

More than 100 local priests were named in the Pennsylvania grand jury diocese abuse report released in August.

Channel 11 has worked tirelessly going through those names to investigate the allegations against priests in our local communities. We started looking into one priest’s background in particular after we found a police report saying there was evidence to substantiate claims against him.

The Rev. Robert Moslener was placed on leave from the Greensburg diocese in 2002 after multiple allegations of sexual abuse of minors. Those allegations are all documented in the grand jury report.

According to the report, bishops William Connare and Anthony Bosco allowed Moslener to prey on children for 22 years after the first complaint.

In 1980, after the first allegation of inappropriate behavior with a 15-year-old boy, Moslener was sent for evaluation. An internal diocesan document called it “an unacceptable yet understandable waystation on his path to more adult sexual integration.”

Claims that the leaders of these dioceses knew about abuse and didn’t do enough to stop it have bothered state leaders and parishioners alike.

“What’s now the most outrageous part is clearly people in authority knew for not just a couple days, but for decades, and this is clear evidence right here,” said state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale.

During his career, Moslener was moved between 10 different parishes. In 1986, six years after the first allegation, North Huntingdon police launched an investigation into Moslener and acts involving male juveniles.

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ROCKFORD (IL)
Rockford Register Star

November 15, 2018

By Corina Curry and Kevin Haas

When the Diocese of Rockford released a list Wednesday of clergy members accused of sexual abuse, Sid Pauletto searched for the name of the priest who he said abused him more than 50 years ago.

It wasn’t there.

There are four other clergy members publicly accused of abuse who are not on the diocese’s list, including the priest Pauletto identified. Pauletto, along with advocates for survivors of sexual abuse by clergy members, have criticized the diocese’s list as incomplete and renewed calls for an independent investigation of sexual abuse by priests.

The diocese named 15 clergy members on Wednesday, covering a span from 1908 to today. The only names listed are those associated with cases in which the diocese says it found some proof of the allegations.

The list supports the diocese’s claim that those working in the diocese today have done nothing wrong, said Penny Weigert, director of communications for the diocese.

“It proves what we have said,” Weigert said. “Anyone with a credible accusation against them is not in our ministry.”

Still, Pauletto believes that his complaint was never given the attention it deserved. He said he was never questioned after coming forward and is not aware of any investigation.

“It just pisses me off that they’re pushing it off like it never happened,” said Pauletto, 67, who now lives in Roscoe.

To report an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor, the Diocese of Rockford asks that people call the police in the county in which the abuse occurred and then contact the Diocese of Rockford at its victim abuse hotline, 815-293-7540 or reportsexualabuse@rockforddiocese.org.

For more information about the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the Essential Norms, the diocese’s safe environment policies and training of children and adults in prevention, detection and reporting of sexual abuse, the diocese asks that

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholics 4 Change

November 17, 2018

By Kathy Kane

It had been a long day of travel, prayer and protest for the Mom Squad from the Philadelphia Archdiocese. A stroke of good luck had enabled us to book the very last room available at the pricey Marriott Waterfront where the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was being held. Accumulated travel points covered our one-night stay, a rate so high it would have cost the average Catholic a few months of donation basket envelopes. A very nice hotel employee upgraded us. This gave us access to the 31st floor concierge lounge where free food was available along with beautiful views of the Baltimore harbor and skyline. Somehow, on a shoe string budget we managed to live like Bishops for a night.

The first person I recognized when we walked through the Marriott lobby bar on Tuesday night was Bishop John Mcintyre, an auxiliary bishop from Philadelphia.

We hadn’t been sure we would see any clergy during our stay. A church insider told me that most clergy would be laying low, at least for optics sake. That made sense due to the prior day’s news that depicted a hierarchy reeling from the Vatican directive to delay reform along with the eyes of the world watching in the wake of the McCarrick case, PA grand jury report and PA federal investigation.

Instead, the atmosphere was what you might expect at any corporate convention. Priests and bishops circulated throughout the public areas of the hotel as well as the lay employees with their USCCCB lanyards. Everyone looked healthy and not too malnourished from all the fasting. All seemed to hold their liquor well too despite that drinking on an empty stomach can be a disaster.

There were clergy in the concierge lounge, some grabbing a bite to eat, others enjoying a glass of wine or evening cocktail. One Bishop with a booming voice and swagger of a CEO, talked loudly on his cell phone. At the dessert table a lay employee took it upon herself to loudly identify each dessert to a bishop, treating him like a helpless man child.

A Study In Contrasts

There were clergy in the main lobby throughout the day, talking and enjoying each other’s company. In contrast, protestors came in from the cold whipping winds of the waterfront to warm up for a minute or use the bathroom. Security was polite but ever present. Protest signs were forbidden and the Mom Squad had to conceal them or risk those losing their stay and accumulated travel points.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Agency

November 16, 2018

By Ed Condon

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington collaborated extensively on a recently proposed policy for handling abuse allegations against bishops, CNA has learned.

Cupich submitted the plan Tuesday to leaders of the U.S. bishops’ conference, proffering it as an alternative to a proposal that had been devised by conference officials and staffers.

The conference’s proposed plan would have established an independent lay-led commission to investigate allegations against bishops. The Cupich-Wuerl plan would instead send allegations against bishops to be investigated by their metropolitan archbishops, along with archdiocesan review boards. Metropolitans themselves would be investigated by their senior suffragan bishops.

Sources in Rome and Washington, DC told CNA that Wuerl and Cupich worked together on their alternative plan for weeks, and presented it to the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops before the U.S. bishops’ conference assembly in Baltimore. Cupich and Wuerl are both members of the Congregation for Bishops.

The Cupich-Wuerl plan was submitted to the U.S. bishops even after a Vatican directive was issued Monday barring U.S. bishops from voting on any abuse-related measures. The Vatican suspended USCCB policy-making on sexual abuse until after a February meeting involving the heads of bishops’ conferences from around the world.

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HAYWARD (WI)
Sawyer County Record

November 17, 2018

By Terrell Boettcher

In charges filed Friday, Nov. 16, the Sawyer County District Attorney’s office is accusing a former parish priest at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Winter with sexually abusing altar boys while he was stationed in Winter in 1982 and 1983.

Thomas Edward Ericksen, 71, now residing in Minneapolis, is charged with first-degree felony sexual abuse of a boy under the age of 12 from June 1, 1982, through April 1, 1983, in the village of Winter; second-degree felony sexual assault of a 14-year-old boy on Sept. 17, 1982; and second-degree felony sexual assault of an unconscious victim on Feb. 4, 1983.

The charges were filed by Assistant District Attorney Aaron Marcoux, based on an investigation by the Sawyer County Sheriff’s Office.

On Nov. 16, a Sawyer County warrant was issued for Ericksen’s arrest. A court date has not been set.

According to bishopaccountability.org, Ericksen was removed from the priesthood in 1988. The Superior Diocese settled with Ericksen’s accusers in 1989 for several million dollars.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Catholic News Service

November 18, 2018

By Carol Zimmermann

The gathering of U.S. bishops in Baltimore Nov. 12-14 on the heels of the clergy abuse scandal that hit the Catholic Church this past summer had echoes of the 2002 bishops’ meeting in Dallas, which took place just months after the Church was also reeling from a clergy sexual abuse crisis that made headlines in The Boston Globe.

But the two meetings reflected different times and also ended with different results.

Both meetings involved U.S. Church leaders facing allegations of sexual misconduct and cover-up among their own ranks and the laity’s demands for action amid feelings of strong distrust of church hierarchy.

“They were starting from scratch” in 2002, said Jesuit Father Thomas Reese, a senior analyst at Religion News Service, about the bishops’ response then to sexual abuse charges in the Church.

Standards the Church still uses to protect children and deal with abusive priests were developed at that meeting, but the bishops at that time failed to address standards of episcopal accountability, which this year they discussed but didn’t vote on.

At the Dallas meeting, Reese, who was then the editor of America magazine, was a guest anchor at a CNN desk on site, which indicates the extent of news coverage for the June 13-15 meeting.

Both meetings were the bishops’ typical twice-yearly meetings as a body. The spring meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is usually in June at different locations each year and the fall meeting in recent years has always been in Baltimore.

Both the Dallas and the Baltimore gatherings were almost entirely devoted to the Church crisis, along with time for prayer, and both years abuse victims addressed the bishops.

Typically, media coverage of bishops’ meetings is pretty sparse. Last year, about 40 reporters attended the fall meeting in Baltimore. This year, the number jumped to 160, but many of these reporters left during the first day when it was announced at the meeting’s opening that the bishops would not be voting on responses to sexual abuse as planned.

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FT. MYERS (FL)
WINK TV

November 18, 2018

The Florida Office of the Attorney General said its sex abuse hotline for victims to report crimes will stay active after the transition of office. Victims in Southwest Florida have already used their hotline and website to report abuse.

The sex abuse hotline Attorney General Pam Bondi established in October will continue as elected Attorney General Ashley Moody takes office.

WINK News spoke to attorneys who explained the difficulties of handling these types of crimes.

“It could be quite lengthy depending upon the number of people that respond,” said Bob Foley, a former FBI agent and attorney.

Foley has worked several sex abuse cases in his career. He said the active criminal investigation in the Catholic church and other institutions will take time.

“When you do a sweep and you ask for the public’s assistance, what you find from an evidentiary standpoint is the same type of information is repeated over and over again, Foley said.

Foley said those kinds of patterns are easier to prove in court.

State Prosecutor Nick Cox told WINK News they can’t comment on specifics; however, the online hotline remains active with no end date planed. The hotline and website continue to get reports from victims, which includes those form Southwest Florida.

Cox said with transition of a new attorney general in the state, worries that the hotline will end is unfounded.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
The Vindicator

November 18, 2018

By Ed Runyan and Justin Dennis

Former area clergy recently exposed for alleged child-sex crimes continue to sow turmoil in Catholic parishes across the country, as well as in the lives of their accusers.

A member of Queen of the Holy Rosary Parish in Vienna Township says the announcement that its priest, the Rev. Denis G. Bouchard, is on administrative leave over allegations of inappropriate contact with a minor is causing conflict within the parish.

Also, a Catholic diocese in Phoenix, Ariz., recently dismissed one of its retired priests, Frank Zappitelli, who was previously removed from the Youngstown Diocese after sex-abuse allegations in the mid-1970s, and who then moved to Arizona in 1983.

And, 30 years after 43-year-old Scott Cunningham alleges former Youngstown priest Jose Vazques molested him in the St. Aloysius Parish rectory, he said he and his parents are still learning to cope with the trauma and guilt.

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[Prosecutor confirms Errázuriz will be summoned to testify in possible abuse cover-up]

CHILE
La Tercera

November 14, 2018

By Claudia Soto

De acuerdo a los antecedentes entregados por el fiscal regional de O’higgins, Sergio Moya, el cardenal será citado en su mayoría, por el caso del sacerdote Jorge Laplagne.

Luego de tomar la declaración del obispo emérito de Osorno, Juan Barros, el fiscal regional de 0’Higgins, Sergio Moya, anunció que el cardenal Francisco Javier Errázuriz, será citado a declarar en una fecha que aún no ha sido definida.

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[Network of clergy abuse survivors criticizes bishops’ statement on collaborating with prosecutors]

CHILE
El Mostrador

November 16, 2018

“¿No es obvio que todos estamos obligados, máxime cuando se trata de delitos sexuales y de abuso contra la infancia?”, cuestionaron. En la declaración calificaron de “aberrante” que se hable de la firma de un documento para colaborar con la justicia pues -aseguran- “nadie que está siendo investigado como ellos actualmente puede tener la desfachatez de aparecer firmando colaboraciones cuando se trata de su deber ciudadano. ¿O acaso desean acogerse a algún tipo de beneficio delatorio? ¿Dejarán de ser encubridores para convertirse en colaboradores de la policía?”.

La Red de Sobrevivientes de Abuso Eclesiástico en Chile criticó la declaración de la Conferencia Episcopal (CECh) de formalizar un acuerdo de cooperación con la Fiscalía para investigar los casos de abuso sexual cometidos por religiosos, apuntando a que es “innecesario aplaudir” que una institución declaré que colaborará con la justicia.

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[Whistleblowers criticize the apostolic administrator of Valparaiso for not considering them as “victims”]

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Emol

November 16, 2018

Mauricio Pulgar y Sebastián del Río llegaron hasta la asamblea plenaria de la Conferencia Episcopal -que culminó hoy- y se reunieron con el obispo Fernando Ramos. Aseguraron que él tampoco los reconoció como abusados.

By Tomás Molina J.

Hasta la asamblea plenaria de la Conferencia Episcopal, desarrollada en La Florida, llegaron dos representantes de los denunciantes de abusos sexuales y de poder en la diócesis de Valparaíso, durante las administraciones de los obispos Santiago Silva y Gonzalo Duarte, respectivamente.

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[Chile’s Episcopal Conference will defend the presumption of innocence in the face of accusations against its presiding bishop]

CHILE
La Tercera

November 16, 2018

By Alejandra Jara

La Iglesia además rechazó la muerte del comunero mapuche Camilo Catrillanca ocurrida el miércoles: “Condenamos la violencia venga de donde venga, más si repercut en la dignidad de las personas”.

La Conferencia Episcopal concluyó este viernes la 117° Asamblea Plenaria que abordó, entre otros temas, la crisis que enfrenta la Iglesia por los casos de abusos sexuales contra niños, jóvenes y adultos.

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[“New and old:” the clash of styles at the bishops’ meeting]

CHILE
La Tercera

November 16, 2018

By María José Navarrete

La Conferencia Episcopal cierra hoy su 117° Asamblea Plenaria con la presencia de ocho administradores apostólicos. Su presidente, Santiago Silva, sigue en la mira.

Desde el reciente lunes 12 de noviembre hasta el mediodía de hoy, la Conferencia Episcopal de Chile (Cech) se reunió en su 117° Asamblea Plenaria, en el Centro Salesiano de Espiritualidad Lo Cañas, en La Florida, Santiago.

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[Chile’s Episcopal Conference ends its worst year without changing its hierarchy]

CHILE
La Tercera

November 16, 2018

By María José Navarrete

Obispos culminaron la 117 Asamblea Plenaria con casi el mismo comité permanente que comenzó 2018. Prelados anunciaron un importante proyecto de colaboración con la fiscalía para indagar casos de abuso.

No es ninguna novedad decir que 2018 fue un año de crisis para la Iglesia Católica chilena. En este período el Papa Francisco aceptó la renuncia de siete de los 32 obispos en ejercicio, mientras que las denuncias por abuso sexual por parte del clero, según el último informe de la Fiscalía -a octubre-, llegan a 124 causas vigentes, con 178 personas investigadas -entre ellas ocho obispos- y 222 víctimas.

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[Ex-priest Precht goes to Supreme Court to appeal rejection of protection appeal against Archdiocese]

CHILE
El Mostrador

November 16, 2018

El ex sacerdote acusa a la Iglesia de vulnerar sus garantías constitucionales en el marco de la investigación canónica que se está llevando en su contra, argumentando que esta le ordenó residir en Santiago mientras durara la indagatoria, lo que fue descartado de forma unánime por el tribunal de alzada.

La defensa del ex sacerdote Cristián Precht acudió hasta la Corte Suprema para apelar y dejar sin efecto el rechazo de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago al recurso de protección interpuesto contra el Arzobispado.

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[Chile’s Episcopal Conference keeps Santiago Silva as president despite accusations of cover-up]

CHILE
BioBioChile

November 16, 2018

By Matías Vega and Erik López

El secretario general de la Conferencia Episcopal, Fernando Ramos, aseguró que la Conferencia Episcopal discutió la condición en que se encuentra su presidente, Santiago Silva, quien es imputado por presunto encubrimiento de abusos sexuales.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
San Diego Union-Tribune

November 18, 2018

By Peter Rowe

Mary Josweg is a 21st century Catholic, but she sounds an awful lot like the 16th century Protestant reformer Martin Luther.

“The church needs to get cleansed,” said Josweg, 69, a parishioner at St. Patrick’s in Carlsbad. “I believe in Jesus as the son of God and Creator of the world — I happen to be Catholic. But the organization that I belong to is totally corrupt.”

Josweg was among the thousands of Catholics who attended eight “listening sessions” convened by San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy in October and November. He got an earful.

“People are no longer following blindly,” said Harley Noel, 85, a parishioner at St. John’s in Encinitas. “Now, the heirarchy can’t — I hate to say pull the wool over people’s eyes, but it’s hard for them to run and hide.”

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IRONDALE (AL)
National Catholic Register

November 16, 2018

By Msgr. Charles Pope

The annual Fall Meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which took place in Baltimore earlier this week, was a disappointment on many levels. Yet there were also moments of light and strength coming from a good number of bishops. They spoke with clarity, acknowledging the seriousness of the crisis both in terms of the need to bring some semblance of justice to the victims and of the faltering credibility of the Church. Some even made the forbidden connection of the crisis to active homosexuals in the priesthood. Still others lamented the collective silence on sexual morality, wondering how many bishops and clergy do not believe what the Church teaches. (The interventions of these courageous bishops were reported in detail in the National Catholic Register here and here.)

Lamentably, the vote to encourage the Holy See to release all documents related to former Cardinal McCarrick’s alleged misconduct did not pass. The debate seemed to center on canonical issues and even wordsmithing. Nonetheless, the fact that more than 80 bishops were willing to issue even a mild-mannered insistence to Rome shows that many are finding a voice that is willing to confront when and where necessary.

The greatest disappointment was Pope Francis’ decision to suppress any vote or action on the abuse scandals by the U.S. bishops. Some bishops remarked that this decision indicates that Rome is serious about reform—a gratuitous claim. To many if not most of the faithful from whom I regularly hear, this seems yet another sad example of intransigence from Rome and the Pope. There is an almost complete tone-deafness in Rome; there seems to be bewilderment as to why these American “conservatives” are so worked up. Even worse, it appears that there is intentional resistance, obfuscation, and outright refusal to grant the legitimate requests of God’s faithful for a full and prompt investigation. These requests by the faithful are intended to ensure that tolerance of sin, violations of chastity, and clerical malfeasance will end. Victims deserve a prompt and thorough investigation and the faithful are right to insist that their clergy live up to the vows they take and observe the Sixth Commandment.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Commonweal Magazine

November 15, 2018

By Griffin Oleynick

On my last night in Rome covering the Synod on Young People, I got lost in a neighborhood adjacent to Vatican City. To return to my hotel, I had to circumambulate the mura vaticane—the massive walls first erected by Pope Leo IV in the ninth century and later reinforced by Pius IV in the sixteenth. I was struck not only by their height and thickness, but also by the kind of church they represent: fearful, defensive, and opaque. Farther along, though, it’s a different story, as the walls end abruptly at St. Peter’s Square. Here, Michelangelo’s twin elliptical colonnades gracefully cradle the open space like two outstretched arms. The architecture now signals a different kind of church, one that embraces visitors and pilgrims from all around the world. How appropriate, I thought. Just before leaving the Synod, I’d stumbled on the Vatican as a kind of visual metaphor for the Roman Catholic Church: an institution at times open and loving, but just as frequently impenetrable and unwelcoming.

The Synod officially concluded almost three weeks ago, with Pope Francis, delegates, and auditors all expressing mutual affection and gratitude for their time together. A cheerful atmosphere prevailed at the closing Mass held in St. Peter’s Basilica on October 28, where during his homily Francis thanked participants for their “witness” to unity and synodality. “We have worked in communion, with frankness and the desire to serve God’s people,” the pope said. Since then, delegates have explained that the Synod really isn’t over: the challenge now is bringing its collaborative spirit to dioceses and parishes all over the world. The road ahead won’t be easy. After returning to the United States in mid-October, I noticed a pointed lack of interest in (and even a certain skepticism toward) the proceedings—even from friends in the priesthood and religious life. How can the Synod overcome such indifference and realize its promise to revitalize the church for coming generations?

Whatever the Synod accomplishes in the next few months, its “first fruit”—the much anticipated Final Document—has failed to generate much enthusiasm. At more than twenty-seven thousand words, it’s both shorter and more concrete than the earlier Instrumentum laboris, but that hasn’t made it more widely read. Drafted in Italian by a small committee of delegates and approved on October 27 by a two-thirds vote in the hall, the Final Document still hasn’t been made available in English. Analysis on this side of the Atlantic has largely focused on the document’s third and final section (it’s dedicated to pressing problems and practical proposals, while the first two are theoretical). Critical reactions have emerged from different sides: progressive commentators have decried the exclusion of the term “LGBT,” calling it a “missed opportunity,” while conservatives have objected to passages on the topic of synodality. Some speculate that Po

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NEW YORK (NY)
Buffalo News

November 16, 2018

By Kathleen Janish

Bishop Richard J. Malone’s Nov. 5 press conference was unsatisfactory partly because he left most of the explanations and difficult questions to his lawyers. They repeatedly stated that most of the priest sex abuses occurred in the 1960s and 1970s before Malone’s arrival. While those abuses were a horrific betrayal, what happened since his arrival has angered many people.

Malone states he will not resign because a shepherd does not abandon his flock in a time of crisis. This is a crisis of his creation.

A good shepherd does not hide the names of predatory priests for five years and then release them only when pressured.

A good shepherd does not hide the whereabouts of the predators, thus worrying his flock about their safety.

A good shepherd does not let his flock learn from others that this was only a partial list, thus increasing their anger and anxiety, maximizing the pain of abuse victims, and putting good priests under a cloud of suspicion.

A good shepherd does not allow a staffer to present an unconvincing tale about the creation of a database to explain the delay in releasing further names.

A good shepherd protects his entire flock and does not hide the names and abuse charges of priests because they concern adults and not minors.

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AUSTRALIA
La Croix International

November 17, 2018

By Kieran Tapsell

The pontifical secret has been in the news lately because of comments by two of Pope Francis’ conservative critics. In his second statement on the McCarrick matter, Archbishop Viganó admitted to breaching the pontifical secret by revealing some of the allegations against the ex-cardinal.In a television interview, Cardinal Muller, the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith cited the pontifical secret when declining to provide details of allegations of child sexual abuse against the late Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor. Muller alleges that Pope Francis ordered him to stop the investigation.Justin Glyn SJ in his article What Canon Law is For (Eureka Street 8 August 2018) writes: ‘Rules like the Pontifical secret, for instance, should be read in such a way as to protect the rights of the innocent and avoid false accusations but should not be used to obstruct justice for victims.’

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WILKES-BARRE (PA)
Citizens Voice

November 17, 2018

Parish priests have spent the months since a devastating Pennsylvania grand jury report in August apologizing to congregants for the conduct of the hierarchy and trying to reassure the faithful that the Catholic Church has launched an era of reform.

Amid that contrition and reassurance, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, generally, and former Scranton Bishop James C. Timlin, specifically, have displayed a stunning level of tone-deafness.

The grand jury report revealed up to 70 years of child sexual abuse by hundreds of priests is six dioceses statewide and, worse, inaction and coverups by bishops. All eight Pennsylvania dioceses now are under federal investigation.

Timlin is accused in the report of not doing enough to protect young people from predatory priests, including a case in which he allegedly shielded and transferred a priest who had raped a teenaged girl and facilitated her abortion.

In response, Bishop Joseph Bambera barred Timlin from representing the diocese.

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ROCKFORD (IL)
Rock River Times

November 17, 2018

By Jim Hagerty

A former Rockford priest at the center of chilling allegations and a 2006 lawsuit appears on a list of 15 priests accused of sexual abuse.

Former priest Theodore Feely, who Rockford resident Donald Bondick claimed in a five-count lawsuit molested him and other boys, is one of the 10 men on the list released by the Diocese of Rockford Wednesday that have since died.

The list is part of a letter by Bishop David Malloy​ includes six priests, one deacon and eight priests/brothers. The accusations range from 1925 to 1991.

According the 2006 lawsuit, Feely raped Bondick in 1969, when Bondick was 13.

“Feely repeatedly molested Plaintiff to develop various psychological coping mechanisms and symptoms of psychological distress, including depression, repression and dissociation,” the complaint reads. “As a result, Plaintiff was under a disability and has only recently been able to link his severe psychological and emotional problems with the acts perpetrated by Feely.”

Bondick’s lawyers claimed the Diocese failed to take any action regarding the abuse, which the suit alleged was consistent with a decades-long practice of failing to respond to credible allegations.”

“On numerous occasions since at least 1960 the Defendants received credible allegations of sexual abuse but failed to take the actions necessary to properly investigate the allegations,” the suit continued. “On information and belief, the Defendants engaged in a pattern and practice of pedophilic behavior, to protect its reputation and avoid the scandal that would result if parishioners and the public at large were aware of the incidents of pedophilia in the church community.”

The Diocese responded to the lawsuit in a Feb. 24, 2006, statement: “We steadfastly believe that lawsuits should be resolved in a court of law, so we have no intention of attempting to try this case in the media. However, the allegations in this complaint are so sensationalized, harassing and irrelevant, justice demands that we respond.

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
Jefferson City Catholic Diocese

November 16, 2018

Bishop W. Shawn McKnight

The November General Assembly of Bishops in Baltimore was a difficult but perhaps unavoidable experience for us to move forward as a Church. I was very disappointed to learn that the Holy See found it necessary to insist that the USCCB not take action at this time on the proposals presented by our conference leadership. My frustration, shared with many other people, is this: We have known about the scandal of Archbishop McCarrick since the end of June, and our Church must take immediate, decisive and substantive action in light of the deep wound the scandal has caused.

I am not so concerned about the time it is taking to punish the perpetrator. Pope Francis immediately required the Archbishop to resign from the College of Cardinals when Cardinal Dolan announced the New York review board found a credible and substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against him. I’m okay with the fact that further penalties (which could include McCarrick’s return to the lay state) will take more time for a complete canonical process. McCarrick isn’t going anywhere and he is already living a life of imposed prayer and penance.

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YAKIMA (WA)
Yakima Herald

November 17, 2018

By Robert Fontana

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a gay man in a church that teaches homosexual behavior is sinful, has been exposed as a sexual predator who targeted males, mostly seminarians, and young boys.

According to Kenneth Woodward (former religious editor for Newsweek, Commonweal -11/9/18), McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., was not only protected by his high office but by a network of gay clerics that had secrets to keep. Woodward writes, “By network, I mean groups of gay priests, diocesan and religious, who encourage the sexual grooming of seminarians and young priests for decades, and who themselves lead double lives – breaking their vows of chastity while ministering to the laity and staffing the various bureaucracies of the church.”

These men hide behind a veneer of public ministry, celibacy and Catholic orthodoxy while living secret lives of sexual misbehavior, some of it criminal.

Readers of the Yakima Herald-Republic saw a glimpse of this in the story of Juan Jose Gonzalez Rios. Gonzalez, a former seminarian and retreat director, was arrested in the spring, 2008, for an outstanding warrant for accessing child porn. Charges were later dropped (“Former Seminarian Tells His Story,” Yakima Herald-Republic, 5/15/08). Gonzalez described how his pastor drew him into parish ministry, simultaneously introducing him to a public life of service and a private life of pornography, sex games, drinking, and gambling. This behavior continued as Gonzales entered the seminary and ended, according to Gonzalez, when the priest sexually assaulted him.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WVUE TV

November 16, 2018

By Rob Masson

A local author who helped bring church sex abuse in Louisiana to light believes it’s time for the church to do more to police itself.

Jason Berry said the future of the church could hinge on change if the Justice Department launches a nationwide investigation.

The harm is immeasurable.

Twenty-six years after author Jason Berry first wrote about Catholic Church sex abuse in the Lafayette diocese, victims are still coming forward.

“I was the canary in the coal mine before people realized there was a coal mine,” said Berry, who wrote, “Lead Us Not Into Temptation.”

With the church paying out billions in settlements worldwide, church leaders grapple with reform. Berry said bishops may have made a mistake this week when they delayed – at the request of the Vatican – a vote on setting up a bishop oversight commission.

“The optics are not good for the Vatican, at the last minute, to intervene,” Berry said.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Post Gazette

November 16, 2018

By Peter Smith

The dozen lawsuits filed this week against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh represent the opening of a second front in the effort to overcome the statute of limitations and enable victims to sue over decades-old sexual abuse, even as a similar effort remains stalled in Harrisburg.

The plaintiffs allege that the diocese engaged in a systematic effort at fraud and concealment, which the victims couldn’t have known about when they were younger because it’s only now in the open, thanks to an August grand jury report.

As a result, they claim, the statute of limitations that normally would have closed the courtroom door to them long ago should be opened wide.

It’s an argument that their attorneys tried more than a decade ago without success. But this time they are banking on the statewide grand jury report released in August to reverse their fortunes.

“Upon reading the grand jury’s report, plaintiff learned the diocese was a location rampant with child molestation for decades,” reads language in one of the lawsuits, which is echoed in others.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Catholic Review

November 16, 2018

By Christopher Gunty

While the U.S. bishops ended up taking no concrete action regarding the sexual abuse scandals in the church during their Nov. 12-14 meeting in Baltimore, Archbishop William E. Lori told the Catholic Review he would not wait for the U.S. bishops to approve a code of conduct for bishops to ensure that he and the archdiocese’s three auxiliary bishops would be held to the same standards as other clergy, seminarians, employees and volunteers.

“In almost every diocese, including the Archdiocese of Baltimore, there is a code of conduct, and so we are certainly bound … by that code of conduct,” he said. Furthermore, bishops are to be held accountable to what they pledged to do in the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and their accompanying norms, approved by the U.S. bishops in 2002.

“In the charter and the norms, we set how we would handle cases, … we enunciated the standards of behavior that we expect of other clergy. In our statement of episcopal accountability back in 2002, we pledged that we would hold ourselves to everything that is in the charter,” he said.

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NJ.com
Associated Press

November 14; 2018

At a national assembly focused on the sex-abuse crisis, numerous U.S. Roman Catholic bishops called Wednesday for a formal repudiation of Theodore McCarrick, the ex-cardinal facing allegations of sexual misconduct over a long stretch of his career.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, nearing the close of its three-day meeting in Baltimore, has been striving to show a commitment to combating clergy sex-abuse even though the Vatican ordered it to delay votes on two key anti-abuse proposals.

While the abuse scandal has affected many dioceses nationwide, the bishops appeared to be most angered and embarrassed by McCarrick, who allegedly abused and harassed youths and seminarians over many years as he rose to be archbishop of Washington and a member of the College of Cardinals until his removal by Pope Francis in July.

McCarrick, the former head of the Archdiocese of Newark and the Diocese of Metuchen, is also accused of sexual misconduct with priests and seminarians during his time in New Jersey and New York. He is awaiting a church trial.

Several investigations, including one at the Vatican, are underway to determine who might have known about and covered up McCarrick’s alleged misconduct. The U.S. bishops expressed eagerness to learn details of the Vatican probe but defeated a motion pressing for access to information uncovered in that process.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

November 15, 2018

By Tom Roberts

Editor’s note: Executive editor Tom Roberts aims to help readers understand how recent news stories fit together. NCR Connections will provide guideposts and markers to help lead readers through key issues and stories. See previous posts here.

Is this an existential crisis?

The question, to which there was no crisp answer, came at the very end of an hour and a half of a panel discussion and Q&A session about the clergy sex abuse crisis, the “this” of the question.

We need you! Support independent Catholic journalism. Become an NCR Forward member for $5 a month.

“The Clergy Sex Abuse Crisis: How Did We Get Here?” was the topic of a briefing for media and NCR members (more on how to become an NCR member below or click here) held Sunday night in Baltimore before the start of the meeting there of the nation’s bishops.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Review of Books

November 22, 2018

By Alexander Stille

On August 25 Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò published an eleven-page letter in which he accused Pope Francis of ignoring and covering up evidence of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and called for his resignation. It was a declaration of civil war by the church’s conservative wing. Viganò is a former apostolic nuncio to the US, a prominent member of the Roman Curia—the central governing body of the Holy See—and one of the most skilled practitioners of brass-knuckle Vatican power politics. He was the central figure in the 2012 scandal that involved documents leaked by Pope Benedict XVI’s personal butler, including letters Viganò wrote about corruption in Vatican finances, and that contributed to Benedict’s startling decision to abdicate the following year. Angry at not having been made a cardinal and alarmed by Francis’s supposedly liberal tendencies, Viganò seems determined to take out the pope.

As a result of Viganò’s latest accusations and the release eleven days earlier of a Pennsylvania grand jury report that outlines in excruciating detail decades of sexual abuse of children by priests, as well as further revelations of sexual misconduct by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., Francis’s papacy is now in a deep, possibly fatal crisis. After two weeks of silence, Francis announced in mid-September that he would convene a large-scale gathering of the church’s bishops in February to discuss the protection of minors against sexual abuse by priests.

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ALTOONA (PA)
WTAJ TV

November 14, 2018

Senators returned to the state capitol today for one last session day.

But they were greeted by sexual abuse survivors pushing them to pass a bill on the statute of limitations.

Senators were only scheduled to vote on leadership positions today and not move any bills. Survivors were in the Senate halls throughout the day, hoping to change their minds.

“These pedophiles need to be outed. Victims need to have their day in court,” said Carolyn Fortney, victim’s advocate.

Five of the Fortney sisters were sexually abused by the same priest when they were growing up in the Harrisburg Diocese. On Wednesday, they stood in the halls of the capitol as Senators returned for their final day of session.

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RAPID CITY (SD)
Rapid City Journal

November 16, 2018

By Arielle Zionts

A priest who previously served in the Diocese of Rapid City pleaded not guilty Friday to two counts of having sexual contact with a child under the age of 16.

John Praveen, 38, served in the diocese before he was charged Oct. 2 and accused of sexually touching a 13-year-old girl over her clothes, according to court records and statements.

Before calling court to order, Judge Robert Mandel of the Seventh Circuit called a translation company to connect with a Telugu speaker who had been booked for the arraignment.

Praveen, who is from India, was originally set to be arraigned Nov. 6, but the hearing was rescheduled after Mandel wasn’t able to reach a translator.

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MANCHESTER (UK)
Catholic News Service

November 16, 2018

By Simon Caldwell

A Catholic archbishop publicly apologized to the victims of child abuse during a government-backed inquiry that shed light on allegations against priests over half a century.

Some of the allegations were made against Father John Tolkien, the son of JRR Tolkien, the best-selling author of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham, England, acknowledged failures of the church to protect children in his testimony Nov. 16 to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse in London. He assured the inquiry of his commitment to the protection of children and vulnerable adults.

The inquiry is investigating child abuse throughout various United Kingdom institutions and heard evidence of abuse in the Birmingham Archdiocese during a five-day hearing Nov. 12-16.

“I am deeply sorry. I

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

November 16, 2018

By Ken Briggs

How do you learn “clericalism”? As the Broadway show “South Pacific” said about human prejudice, “you’ve got to be carefully taught.”

It’s an attitude inculcated mostly in subtle ways, in little gestures and tainted language. It’s absorbed in behavior and habits considered normal rather than aberrant, accepted as a natural way of life.

The upheaval sparked by priests’ sex abuse and bishops’ cover-up has pointed to clericalism as a major factor. The phenomenon has long plagued Catholicism as a contrived power grab based on arrogance and superiority. Its audacious presumption was that ordination was God’s method of conveying higher status and authority on certain individuals, conferring rights to rule the church without the consent or advice of the laity. They alone were entitled to espouse what the church officially taught and exact sanctions for disobedience.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

November 16, 2018

The attorney general for New Jersey has ramped up their investigation into clergy sex abuse and has issued subpoenas to at least one of the state’s catholic dioceses. We applaud this move by Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.

The issuing of these subpoenas is a huge step forward for the investigation in New Jersey and one that will make a major difference in the effort to get to the bottom of the clergy sex abuse crisis. Subpoena power was a critical tool in Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s investigation into clergy sex abuse that revealed evidence of more than 1000 children abused by more than 300 priests. By following in the footsteps of AG Shapiro, it is clear that AG Grewal is taking this investigation seriously.

This move by AG Grewal could not come at a better time. At the end of the same week in which the Vatican prevented steps to hold bishops responsible for abuse cover-ups accountable, AG Grewal is using the power vested in him by the legal system to enforce accountability on his own. We hope that others attorneys general across the US will follow in AG Grewal’s footsteps, whether by ramping up their own investigations or taking steps to begin them in their own state.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

November 16, 2018

On Monday, the Vatican delayed a vote that would have let US bishops take small steps towards addressing the clergy sex abuse crisis. Despite that delay, some bishops around the country have already been taking positive steps in their own way.

Without permission from the Holy See or their colleagues in the USCCB, several US bishops have become leaders by example. In doing so, these bishops provide a counter-example to the myth that bishops cannot act on this crisis without Vatican approval. Three examples of bishops doing the right thing include:

Bishop Stephen Biegler of Cheyenne, Wyoming forcing an investigation – by both police and the Vatican – into his predecessor, Bishop Joseph Hart, and publicly called the abuse accusations against Hart “credible.”

Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston publicly criticizing Buffalo’s Bishop Richard Malone for his inaction on abuse while using his influence with the Pope to call for an investigation into Malone’s diocese

Bishop Shawn McKnight of Jefferson City, MO insisting that religious orders post lists of accused priests and disallowing order priests to work in his diocese if they refuse

Others are trying to do the right thing too, such as the handful of bishops from dioceses around the country who have taken the first step towards transparency by releasing and publicly posting lists of priests accused of abuse. We encourage these bishops to take the next step and urge independent investigations into their own diocese and the dioceses of their colleagues.

Yet there are some, such as Bishop Joseph Jugis of Charlotte, NC who are taking the Vatican’s move to delay Monday’s vote as confirmation that they should continue to obfuscate and push back on efforts to bring transparency to their dioceses. But as the men listed above have shown, bishops do have the power to do the right thing of their own accord.

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TOLEDO (OH)
The Blade

November 16, 2018

By Lauren Lindstrom and Nicki Gorny

Riley Kinn thought he was handling it.

Never mind the drinking, the substance abuse, the difficulty in interpersonal relationships that had intermittently plagued him since he was a teenager.

He’d been to therapy. He thought he’d managed to push down and push away the months of grooming and abuse by the Rev. Joseph Schmelzer, predatory behavior that he says culminated in sexual assault in the rectory of St. Wendelin Parish in 1980.

Then came 2015. Mr. Kinn took a new client for his information technology business — his childhood parish in Fostoria.

Once on site to run new wires for the internet and phone systems, he found himself drawn to the rectory bedroom. The memories flooded back. So did a fierce panic attack. He fled to his truck and took off.

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SCOTLAND
Daily Record

November 15, 2018

By Annie Brown

Lindsay Armstrong, 17, took her own life after being forced to hold up her underwear in court and read out the slogan ‘Little Devil’.

The mum of a rape victim who killed herself after a court case in which she was forced to hold up her underwear has backed protests over a similar scandal in Ireland.

This week, women shared pictures of their underwear on social media with the hashtag #ThisIsNotConsent after a 17-year-old girl’s “thong with a lace front” was cited as part of the defence against her allegation of rape.

The case, which has sparked demonstrations and worldwide condemnation mirrors the devastating experience of Lindsay Armstrong, 17, who wept as she was told to display her thong to the jury.

She was also told to read out the slogan on the front saying: “Little Devil”.

Lindsay, from New Cumnock in Ayrshire, took her life two weeks after the trial in 2001 found her 15-year-old attacker guilty of rape.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
The New York Times

November 12, 2018

By Laurie Goodstein

Facing a reignited crisis of credibility over child sexual abuse, the Roman Catholic bishops of the United States came to a meeting in Baltimore on Monday prepared to show that they could hold themselves accountable.

But in a last-minute surprise, the Vatican instructed the bishops to delay voting on a package of corrective measures until next year, when Pope Francis plans to hold a summit in Rome on the sexual abuse crisis for bishops from around the world.

Many of the more than 350 American bishops gathered in Baltimore appeared stunned when they learned of the change of plans in the first few minutes of the meeting.

They had come to Baltimore wanting to prove that they had heard their parishioners’ cries of despair and calls for change. Suddenly, the Vatican appeared to be standing in the way, dealing the bishops another public relations nightmare.

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FOSTORIA (OH)
The Blade

November 16, 2018

By Lauren Lindstrom and Nicki Gorny

Riley Kinn thought he was handling it.

Nevermind the drinking, the substance abuse, the difficulty in interpersonal relationships that had intermittently plagued him since he was a teenager.

He’d been to therapy. He thought he’d managed to push down and push away the months of grooming and abuse by the Rev. Joseph Schmelzer, predatory behavior that he says culminated in sexual assault in the rectory of St. Wendelin Parish in 1980.

Then came 2015. Mr. Kinn took a new client for his information technology business — his childhood parish in Fostoria.

Once on site to run new wires for the internet and phone systems, he found himself drawn to the rectory bedroom. The memories flooded back. So did a fierce panic attack. He fled to his truck and took off.

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NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

November 16, 2018

By Lea Karen Kivi

Much attention has been paid in recent years to the horrific sexual abuse of minors in the church, and rightly so. But many men and women who experienced sexual abuse by members of the clergy in adulthood have yet to receive compassionate acknowledgment of the harm they have suffered. Regardless of the age at which sexual abuse by clergy was experienced, churches of all denominations have a long distance to travel in setting up healing ministries for and with survivors.

I have great respect for the many Catholic priests who have blessed my journey of faith. I am grateful to my parish pastors, and to the Paulist, Franciscan, Jesuit and Basilian priests who have fed my faith and inspired me by their sacrificial service. Accepting a call to the priesthood at this point in history may be especially challenging, and I hope those currently in the priesthood or considering a call will persevere despite the revelations of wrongdoing in the church. This wrongdoing has always existed. The good news is that we now know about it, are talking about it and therefore can work to eliminate it. We must consider how to prevent abuse of women in the church, and how to make it easier for women (and men) to come forward should they themselves experience abuse by clergy in adulthood.

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TRENTON (NJ)
NJ.com

November 15, 2018

By Kelly Heyboer

New Jersey’s attorney general has begun issuing subpoenas to force the state’s Catholic dioceses to turn over records and files related to its clergy sexual abuse investigation, church officials said.

The Archdiocese of Newark, the state’s largest diocese that represents more than 1 million Catholics, was asked to turn over documents, said James Goodness, a spokesman for the archdiocese.

“The archdiocese has received a subpoena,” Goodness said Wednesday, declining to provide additional details. “We are cooperating with the AG task force.”

The subpoena to the Archdiocese of Newark is one part of what is expected to be a lengthy and wide-ranging investigation into potential priest sex abuse cases across all five dioceses and thousands of Catholic churches and schools.

New Jersey’s other four dioceses – Camden, Paterson, Trenton and Metuchen – are also expected to turn over documents. But none would confirm if they have received subpoenas yet.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

November 16, 2018

By Inés San Martín

Four former Chilean seminarians, all survivors of clerical sexual abuse, are coming forward at the end of the plenary meeting of the local bishops, demanding justice be done for those abused in the seminary of Valparaiso some 60 miles from Santiago.

The four are Mauricio Pulgar, Sebastian del Rio, Marcelo Soto and Marcelo Rodriguez. Father Eugenio de la Fuente, who met with Pope Francis earlier this year in Rome as part of a group of nine priests and laity abused in one form or another by former priest Fernando Karadima, also signed their public declaration and a letter to Bishop Pedro Ossandón.

Ossandón was appointed as apostolic administrator of the diocese of Valparaiso after Francis accepted the resignation, on June 11, of former Bishop Gonzalo Duarte.

Duarte, who was 75 at the time, has long been accused by the four survivors of not only cover-up but also of abuse of power and of conscience as well as sexual harassment.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
National Catholic Reporter

November 16, 2018

By Thomas Reese

As the U.S. bishops’ meeting in Baltimore ends Nov. 15, the most newsworthy happening is still Monday’s last-minute instruction from the Vatican to delay any vote on new procedures to sanction or otherwise deal with bishops who had either abused children or failed to remove abusive priests from ministry.

The instruction, in the form of a letter from the Congregation of Bishops in Rome, threw the gathering in Baltimore into chaos on its opening day.

The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, openly expressed his disappointment with the Vatican’s intervention. He and other bishops felt their house was burning down, and the Vatican was asking them to delay turning on the fire hoses.

Other bishops were secretly relieved. Some questioned the proposals for how to deal with abuse, which had been put together quickly in response to the Pennsylvania grand jury report and the scandal over ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Those who wanted the reforms to pass feared they would fail to get the necessary two-thirds vote for passage. Now both groups could buy time while blaming the Vatican for their inaction.

From any vantage, the Vatican intervention was extremely disappointing. It contradicts everything Francis has said about empowering bishops’ conferences and decentralizing decision-making in the church. It was also a public-relations disaster for the pope, who is already losing the confidence of Catholics on the abuse issue, according to a September poll from the Pew Research Center: Only 31 percent of Catholics thought the pope was doing a good or excellent job handling the sex abuse scandal, down from 55 percent three years ago.

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MUMBAI (INDIA)
Crux

November 16, 2018

By Nirmala Carvalho

Over 500 people held a demonstration demanding the cancellation of bail for Indian Bishop Frank Mulakkal, who has been accused of raping a nun on multiple occasions.

The Save Our Sisters (SoS) Action Council held the rally on Wednesday in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of the southern Indian state of Kerala.

Mulakkal was arrested on Sept. 21 after a months-long investigation into the accusations of a nun claiming he raped her 13 times between 2014 and 2016. The nun is a member of the Punjab-based Missionaries of Jesus congregation, but said the attacks happened in Kuravilangad, the location of one of the order’s convents in Kerala.

Mulakkal vehemently denies the charges, and claims the nun is retaliating because he initiated an investigation against her for an affair she allegedly had with a married man.

The bishop was released on bail on Oct. 15, despite the objections of the police and the family of the nun making the accusations.

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KEYSTONE CROSSROADS (PA)
WHYY Radio

November 16, 2018

By Bobby Allyn

Two people who have accused priests of molestation in Philadelphia have filed a lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and all of the state’s dioceses demanding that additional church secrets be exposed.

The suit filed on Thursday in Common Pleas Court marks the latest civil action following this summer’s grand jury report implicating more than 300 so-called predator priests who allegedly abused minors and covered up decades of crime.

Plaintiff Daniel Hillanbrand, 48, a warehouse manager who now lives in North Carolina, said in the early 1980s he was abused in Philadelphia by Rev. James Dux, who has been accused of numerous instances of sexual misconduct by other minors.

The cases of Hillanbrand and the other plaintiff in the suit, LeeAnne Natali, 57, who says she was abused by a Philadelphia priest in the 1970s, were not involved in the scathing state grand jury report released in August because previous grand juries had already investigated clergy sex abuse in Philadelphia.

Both claims in the suit are too old under the law to be pursued for monetary damages, but lawyers for the plaintiffs say this legal challenge has a different aim: to reveal the names of additional clergy members involved in enabling abusers across the state.

“They’re all engaged in the same practice in concert and they are continuing to cause peril for minors,” said Minnesota-based lawyer Jeffrey Anderson, who is the lead attorney on the suit. “The grand jury report this summer named the problem, and we’re trying to do something about it to make communities safer.”

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BELLEVILLE (IL)
Belleville News Democrat

By Mary Cooley

November 15, 2018

The Vatican has asked U.S. Bishops to delay their votes on two items regarding clergy abuse to ensure worldwide consistency, Bishop Edward Braxton says.

The proposals in response to the sex-abuse crises were to be voted on at the United State Conference of Catholic Bishops, which Braxton is part of. Braxton provided a statement on Wednesday afternoon that “most of the bishops were surprised and disappointed” initially by the instruction to delay the votes.

However, he said, the delay will allow issues discovered or proposals made by Bishops in other countries to have the same approval and provide worldwide consistency in the Catholic Church.

“The reason for the Holy See’s request for the delay was not because of any expressed objection to the contents of these proposed documents,” Braxton said. “Rather, it was because the Holy Father wanted the Bishops of the United States to wait until after the February meeting that h

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MOBILE (AL)
Lagniappi Weekly

November 14, 2018

By Rob Holbert

So is the Archdiocese of Mobile finally coming clean about the history of sexual abuse of minors, or is the announcement last week that they will release the names of priests since who, since 1950, were removed from ministry due to such accusations just a way of avoiding the bigger issue?

The answer to that depends a lot on perspective and whether one believes the Catholic Church is really going to be totally transparent without being legally forced. The record thus far certainly would not lean favorably in the church’s direction.

Last week Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi announced the archdiocese will “publish the names of clergy and religious who were removed from ministry due to an accusation of abuse of a minor.” This will cover both Catholic dioceses in Alabama and Mississippi — four in total.

The only such accounting the Archdiocese of Mobile has offered up to this point was released in 2004 and included the names of 13 priests and admitted to 18 victims. It’s not yet known if more names will be added to the total from Mobile’s diocese, but presumably more new information may come from the other three.

Rodi’s announcement offered no timeframe for the release of the names and even seemed to temper any expectations a list would be produced soon.

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IRAQ
World Tribune

November 1, 2018

News that Yazidi sex slave survivor Nadia Murad has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war barely registered on the American media radar screen.

Murad was abducted in northern Iraq in August 2014, when Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists took over her village.

“At just 21 years old, she was kidnapped alongside an estimated 3,000 other Yazidi women and girls, traded as sex slaves from one ISIS fighter to another. She was forced to pray, dress up, and apply makeup in preparation for her rape, which was often committed by gangs,” Kelsey Harkness wrote for The Daily Signal on Oct. 12.

Murad said: “My hope is that all women who speak about their stories of sexual violence are heard and accepted, that their voices are heard so they feel safe.”

But, Harkness wrote, “Nadia’s story is falling on deaf ears. Because being ‘heard’ requires others to listen. Imagine the difference ‘feminists’ could make if, in addition to banging on the doors of the U.S. Supreme Court, they also took a few minutes to bang at the doors of the United Nations.”

“While any comparison between Nadia’s story and the accusations leveled against newly minted Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh would be completely unfair,” Harkness continued, “it is fair to wonder how news of uncorroborated allegations of gang rape brought by porn lawyer Michael Avenatti can overshadow a gang rape survivor-turned-women’s advocate being honored with the most prestigious award in the world.”

When her village was overrun by ISIS, Murad said the Yazidi people – a Kurdish and Arabic-speaking religious minority – were given two choices: Convert to Islam or die. Refusing to give in, Nadia said she watched men get massacred and family members march to their graves.

Thousands of Yazidis remain missing, including at least 1,300 women and children.

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ST. BONAVENTURE (NY)
Olean Times Herald

November 15, 2018

By Tom Dinki

St. Bonaventure University says that the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo should not have publicly named a deceased university friar as being credibly accused of child sexual abuse given diocesan criteria for identifying accused priests.

The Rev. Maurice Scheier, who worked at St. Bonaventure for nearly 60 years prior to his death in 1991, was among the 36 additional priests that the Buffalo Diocese announced last week had substantiated claims of child sex abuse made against them.

The Buffalo Diocese states on its website that the 36 priests identified Nov. 5 — as well as the original list of 42 priests released in March — do not include priests “who received a single allegation after their death.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

November 16, 2018

To the editor: Kudos for covering the mixed message from the Vatican, which wants to prevent sexual abuse by predator priests and bishops but delays action until all the bishops “throughout the world” can address the issue.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wanted to take care of their own backyard and address this urgent issue, but the Vatican advocated delay. It’s too bad that some archbishop from Rome felt “offended” because the church leaders in the U.S. wanted to create a commission of laypeople to review complaints against bishops.

This archbishop’s attitude is a reflection of what Pope Francis denounced last month as the “scourge of clericalism.” Francis stated that clericalism “arises from an elitist and exclusivist vision of vocation, that interprets the ministry received as a power to be exercised rather than as a free and generous service to be given.”

Now is the time for the Vatican to practice what it preaches by establishing a lay commission to review complaints against bishops, because a church that does not listen cannot be credible.

Tom Kaminski, Manhattan Beach

To the editor: You criticize the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for delaying action on abuse that you say is overdue. As a harsh critic of the church on these matters and others, I think the L.A. Times has failed to see that these problems are not exclusively American ones, but also world problems.

Pope Francis has called for a world bishops conference in three months to resolve this cancer within our holy church. This conference will consider the U.S. bishops’ proposal as well as opinions of bishops and laypeople around the world — as it should.

George Dufresne, La Habra

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FOSTORIA (OH)
The News-Messenger

November 16, 2018

By David Yonke

At their meeting in Baltimore this week, America’s Catholic bishops decided to delay a proposed vote on dealing with clerical sexual abuse.

The delay did not surprise Riley Kinn, a 51-year-old Fostoria man who said he has been trying for two years to talk to Toledo Bishop Daniel Thomas about allegations that a priest sexually abused him when he was a child.

“All I am asking is for Bishop Thomas to sit down with me for a short while and listen,” said Kinn. “This is bigger than just one child being victimized. They say they want other victims to come forward, but why would they come forward if no one in the church will even listen to them?”

Thomas oversees the Toledo Catholic Diocese, which has more than 320,000 members in 19 counties across Northwest Ohio including Sandusky and Ottawa counties.

Seeks review board meeting
In addition to seeking a meeting with Thomas, Kinn has repeatedly asked for an opportunity to present his case in person before the Diocesan Review Board, a panel that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops established in all American dioceses after the clerical sexual abuse scandal erupted in Boston in 2002 and then spread across the nation and world.

The review boards are tasked with evaluating allegations of abuse by priests and determining whether the charges are credible.

“I call them a few times every week and ask for a meeting,” Kinn said. “I leave messages saying the same thing on their voicemail and they never return my calls. I say, ‘I’d like you to call me back. I’d like to ask some questions. I’d like to meet with you or at least talk to you by telephone’. They never return my calls.”

The voicemail routine has almost become a joke, Kinn said with a shrug, but he is deadly serious about his allegations that a priest in the Toledo diocese, the Rev. Joseph Schmelzer, molested and raped him when Kinn was 13 years old.

Schmelzer was removed from public ministry on Feb. 19, 2007 by then-Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair, after the review board deemed that allegations of abuse made by other accusers were credible.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

November 15, 2018

By Paula Reed Ward

Twelve lawsuits filed Thursday in Allegheny County against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh include accusations of sexual abuse against four priests not previously named.

The four priests, who were not listed in the statewide investigating grand jury report released in August, are the Revs. Peter Pilarski, John Unger, George Leech and Joseph Feltz. They are not among those the Diocese of Pittsburgh lists on its website as having been credibly accused of abuse.

The complaints, filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, name as defendants Pittsburgh Bishop David A. Zubik and Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl, who was formerly bishop in Pittsburgh. They allege that the church and officials there knew about abusive priests but did nothing to stop them.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

November 16, 2018

By Claire Giangravè

Italian bishops have concluded their Nov. 12-14 extraordinary assembly. New guidelines on the question of clerical sexual abuse were discussed and presented, with the creation of a National Advisory Center to aid bishops and the promise to make a “more radical evangelical choice” in terms of prevention.

“Woe to whoever touches children!” said Italian Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, President of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), during a press conference Nov. 15, adding that clerical sexual abuse “is a problem that the Italian Church intends to resolve in radical terms.”

At Pope Francis’s request, the Italian episcopacy was asked to create new guidelines on clerical sexual abuse to be added to the already existing ones published in 2014 and focusing primarily on prevention, information and education.

Italian bishops were presented with the new guidelines, which were created by an ad hoc commission, and will take them back to their dioceses to evaluate them until the next episcopal gathering in May 2019.

The guidelines will not be made public until the bishops approve them by vote, though Bassetti said that he intends to bring some of its content to the February 21-24 summit of representatives from episcopal conferences from around the world that will focus solely on the clerical sexual abuse crisis.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Wall Street Journal

November 15, 2018

By Mene Ukueberuwa

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops met urgently this week to address the most recent revelations of sex abuse by clergy. If public anger about past coverups wasn’t enough to spur church leaders into action, the pressure of more than a dozen state investigations presents an ultimatum, forcing bishops to prove they are able to police their own affairs. Yet on the eve of the conference in Baltimore, the Vatican forbade the bishops to adopt practical reforms. The move tears the U.S. church between the authority of Rome and the trust of its followers.

Two abuse stories have battered the American church since the summer: the uninhibited rise of a serial sexual predator, Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, and the Pennsylvania grand-jury report, which unveiled sex-crime accusations against more than 300 priests. The bishops’ lack of accountability connects the two stories. Equal among themselves under Catholic law, bishops can’t discipline each other without Vatican intervention. This enables them to cover up abuse in their own jurisdictions—and gives them an excuse to keep quiet about others.

Ahead of the conference, the bishops coalesced around two proposals to impose accountability. The first is a simple code of conduct extending to bishops the zero-tolerance policy for sex abuse enacted for priests in 2002. The second is an independent review board to investigate claims against bishops and refer credible cases directly to the Vatican. “Each bishop would have to agree to allow himself to be investigated by the committee,” San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone told me last week. He described the bishops’ shedding of immunity as “a covenantal sort of relationship” that would allow them to police each other better.

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PHOENIX (AZ)
3TV/CBS 5

November 15, 2018

By Nicole Crites

Accountability for sex abuse in the Catholic Church has really come to a head this week. Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted and his national brother bishops were just about to vote on new proposals to end the crisis at a conference in Baltimore.

The Vatican stepped in and stopped the vote.

The church ambassador to the U.S. also suggested they do not need to work with any lay councils or law enforcement.

And Wednesday, Jesuits West just announced they are getting ready to release a new list of priests accused of sexual abuse going back to the 1950s here.

So what does that do to the progress we saw in transparency?

The Justice Department and 18 states are now investigating the Catholic church.

The Valley had one of the first task forces in the country and we got to sit down with their key witness.

Joe Ladensack helped take down a bishop and a half-dozen priests here in Phoenix 15 years ago.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Washington Post

November 14, 2018

In the first meeting of U.S. bishops since a national sexual abuse crisis hit the Catholic Church in June, no name came up more than that of an ex-cardinal shut away in a remote Kansas friary: Theodore Mc­Carrick.

In debate and comments over the three-day conference in Baltimore, the now-resigned former Washington archbishop became a proxy for excessive clericalism, corruption and for those who see homosexuality as the core sin for which the church is being punished.

And then in the final hours on Wednesday, the bishops representing 196 American archdiocese and dioceses took a vote on a measure to simply “encourage” the Vatican to share documents related to its investigation of McCarrick.

It was shot down, 137 to 83.

And thus closed the gathering of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which opened dramatically with the Vatican’s insistence that the body delay a vote on reform measures until a major Vatican synod in the winter and wound down with an almost complete lack of the kind of contrition and decisive action parishioners have been demanding since summer.

Terry McKiernan, co-director of the research site and advocacy group BishopAccountability.org, said Wednesday evening that he hopes the “deference to the Vatican and the paralysis seen at this meeting raise the stakes for the U.S. bishops in the months ahead.”

“It’s even more urgent that they demonstrate some resolve and act,” rather than just wait docilely for the synod, he said.

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WASHINGTON (D.C.)
Washington Post

November 15, 2018

By Bill McCormick

On Sunday, the Vatican ordered U.S. bishops to stop considering proposals about how to respond when bishops are accused of sexual abuses. Those proposals were on this week’s agenda at the fall gathering of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore.

Why were the bishops considering action now? For several reasons. This summer, the Vatican removed retired Archbishop Theodore McCarrick from ministry after finding that allegations that he had sexually abused young men were credible. In August, the Pennsylvania attorney general released a grand jury report revealing extensive clerical sex abuse in the state, prompting several other state attorneys general to investigate church abuse records. The resulting public outcry put tremendous pressure on the bishops to act decisively.

What were the bishops going to do?

On Monday, the bishops planned to address a key gap in their response to clerical sex abuse: how to deal with allegations against bishops. The U.S. Roman Catholic Church had, in 2002, released a directive on best practices for reporting and responding to sex abuse, called the “Dallas Charter.” But it did not include rules for bishops.

The bishops’ Baltimore agenda, according to the Jesuit magazine America, included:

Approving new “Standards of Episcopal Conduct” for bishops, the creation of a new commission to handle allegations of abuse against bishops, and new protocols for bishops who are removed or who resign from office due to sexual misconduct with adults or minors.

Why did the Vatican halt the vote?

The many possible reasons all arise from the complicated dynamics of Catholic Church governance. For one, the church has come to see clerical sex abuse as a global issue, not a problem isolated in a few countries such as Ireland or the United States. The church has thus increasingly seen the need for a global solution. The Vatican might be hoping that a more united front will emerge from a February 2019 meeting of bishops that it has called on this issue.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
LifeSiteNews

November 14, 2018

A cardinal barred from public ministry since 2013 as a result of his systematic cover-up of sex abuse spoke at the U.S. Bishops’ General Assembly in Baltimore Tuesday, telling the bishops they “need to lead by witness.”

In remarks lasting a little more than five minutes during the open mic portion of the afternoon session (full remarks below), retired Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony, 82, urged bishops to adopt what he called an “affective collegiality” where they would grow in devotion to and in association with one another.

“We are not bishops alone or separate. We belong to a college and we have a responsibility to the college,” he said, quoting St. Charles Borromeo. We must have “devotion to each other as members of the [USCCB] and the College of Bishops.”

Mahony, no friend to the pro-life cause, was censured in January 2013 by current Archbishop of Los Angeles Jose Gomez, two years after retiring in 2011. Gomez’s decision was motivated by a court order that forced the LA Archdiocese to release documents more than 12,000 pages long that proved Mahony, appointed in 1985, purposely concealed from the public his knowledge of priests who committed sex crimes with youth and then transferred them after they received counseling only to have them sexually abuse again and again.

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OGDENSBURG (NY)
Syracuse.com

November 15, 2018

By Julie McMahon

The Diocese of Ogdensburg this week released the names of priests accused of child sex abuse, joining a trend nationwide.

The diocese named 28 priests, 16 of whom have died. Officials said all of the living priests had been removed or left ministry.

Those named were the subject of a finding “of reasonable grounds” that they had engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor or vulnerable adult, according to the diocese.

The Ogdensburg diocese joins 75 other dioceses across the country that have released the names of abusive priests, according to a count by the law firm Anderson & Associates, which represents victims nationwide.

A quick Google search shows that new dioceses every day are releasing names.

That leaves 120 dioceses or archdioceses in the U.S. that have refused to list the identities of sexually abusive priests.

With Ogdensburg’s latest release, three dioceses in New York state continue to refuse to release the names.

In Syracuse, Bishop Robert Cunningham has said he will not release a list. Cunningham’s policy is to confirm the names once a victim makes it public.

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GAYLORD (MI)
Channel 9 & 10

November 15, 2018

By David Lyden, Jeff Blakeman

We’re diving deeper into the clergy sex abuse investigation across the state by taking a look at where some of those priests used to work.

We were the first to report that the Diocese of Gaylord had released a list of all the priests credibly accused of sexual misconduct involving minors.

That list includes ten priests but does not include a record of where they spent time.

Father Ronald Gronowski was serving as pastor of parishes in Lake City and Manton when he was removed from the ministry back in 2002.

It came after a 1995 allegation surfaced accusing Gronowski of sexual misconduct back in the 1970’s.

We also know Gronowski spent time in Indian River.

Father Jim Holtz was pastor in Fife Lake and Kalkaska when he was removed from ministry in 2002.

He’s accused of sexually abusing a minor while drunk in the 1980’s.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Catholic News Service

November 15, 2018

By Mark Pattison

As the U.S. bishops, individually and collectively, pursue “best practices” in their dioceses and for the country on how to deal with another clerical sexual abuse scandal in their midst, Bishop Oscar Cantu of San Jose, California, said best practices are simply “what is best for victims.”

And, despite listening to victims of abuse tell their stories, determining what’s best may not be so clear cut.

“When the victim sees the name of their abuser on the list publicly, that helps them,” Bishop Cantu told Catholic News Service in a Nov. 14 interview following that day’s general session of the U.S. bishops’ meeting in Baltimore.

Further, when an abuse victim still holding on privately to the memory of past abuse sees the name of the abuser published in a list, “it emboldens them to come forward,” Bishop Cantu said.

Now, however, a new strain of thought has emerged that seeing the list of names, including that of a victim’s own abuser, is “another wounding. They’re retraumatized by listening to this horrible reality of abuse over and over,” he added. “It’s one of the things we’ve been told by professionals — so I assume that it’s correct — every time that we released a new list of names people feel retraumatized.”

This was one of the issues California’s bishops were wrestling with when the met jointly a couple of weeks prior to the U.S. bishops’ Nov. 12-14 meeting in Baltimore. “Can we agree on one single day for the release of names? It’s hard to do,” Bishop Cantu said.

In San Jose, he has released the names of credibly accused clergy. And “the list is live,” he said, meaning if a priest or deacon not already on the list is credibly accused, his name will be added.

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TAOS (NM)
Taos News

November 15, 2018

by Cody Hooks

Donald Naranjo had gone back to the seminary campus in Santa Fe only once since he was a teenager, but driving through the city, he still knew where to turn: make a right at the midcentury house with a double garage, go east about a mile, turn left.

Naranjo, now 70, was a sophomore in high school when he convinced his parents to let him heed a calling. He started his studies to be a priest at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary on the eastern edge of the city near the foothills. For a kid from the Española Valley, a devoutly Catholic and mostly Hispanic community about an hour north of the seminary, it was the kind of choice that makes a family proud.

“If you wanted to seek a vocation in the church, it was wonderful,” Naranjo said. “You’d be right there next to God.”

Naranjo’s mom, sitting behind the wheel of the family’s Ford Falcon, dropped her son off at the seminary in August 1963.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WLS TV

November 14, 2018

By Chuck Goudie and Ross Weidner and Barb Markoff

A top official of a downstate diocese, who coordinates assistance to victims of priest sex abuse, on Wednesday castigated the Roman Catholic Church for the way misconduct cases are handled.

“At times it seems that protecting the institution is a higher goal than caring for victims” said Deacon Robert Sondag. “Bishops, you are ordained to lead the church. Years of prolonged mishandling of sexual abuse victims continues to plague the Catholic church. The checks and balances put in place in 2002 through the Dallas charter have been compromised” Deacon Sondag said.

Sondag, recently a diocesan chancellor as well, was speaking in Baltimore where the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrapped up its fall meeting.

“We are here today to call for a deeper reckoning and transparent reporting of the past and present mishandling of victims and their perpetrators” he said. “This can only be accomplished by the use of a truly independent auditor beholden to the good of the public, not to the Catholic Church as a client.”

His call for independent, outside administration of the church crisis is unusual for two reasons: it comes from a current diocesan employee and it was unfurled at the announcement of a new lawsuit against the bishop’s conference by six alleged victims of priest sexual abuse. The lawsuit alleges that church officials covered up the crimes of predator priests.

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DUBLIN (IRELAND)
The Irish Catholic

November 15, 2018

Following Monday’s shock announcement that the Vatican has requested the US Catholic Bishops to delay voting on new standards for bishop accountability, survivors of sexual abuse and bishop accountability activists decried the move as “totally unacceptable”.

Terence McKiernan, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, called the move a “pre-emptive strike” by the Vatican against US bishops as they seek to respond to the current crisis of sexual abuse and its cover-up “in a modest way”.

Peter Isley, a survivor of clerical sexual abuse who now works with the organisation Ending Clergy Abuse, said the decision from the Vatican effectively means: “We care more about our organisation and our princely titles and positions” than enacting measures of accountability.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is gathered in Baltimore this week for its General Assembly, in which they were expected to enact new standards of conduct and accountability for bishops engaged in sexual abuse or its cover-up. At the start of Monday’s meeting, however, USCCB president Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, announced that he had received a request on Sunday afternoon to postpone the vote until after a global summit on the crisis at the Vatican in February.

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BELLEVILLE (IL)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

“Sexually violent predator” worked in diocese

Few knew of his time in southern IL until recently

Two more accused abusers missing from church site

Catholic officials should hire outside firm to look through its files

This recommendation just made by church’s top abuse lay leader

WHAT

Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will disclose, for the first time, that a convicted child molesting cleric who was deemed “sexually violent” worked in Belleville.

They will also call on local Catholic officials to

–update the diocesan website and add names of all three publicly accused clerics who are missing, and

— use lay church members and an outside firm to review all abuse records to see if there are old cases that should be revisited and/or other proven, admitted or credibly accused child molesting clerics who are being hidden.

WHEN

Thursday, Nov. 15 at 2:00 p.m.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
End Clergy Abuse

November 14, 2018

The US bishops came to Baltimore this week assuring Catholics and the public that they would act with “intense urgency” to implement comprehensive and tough reforms to hold themselves accountable for the decades long cover up of child sex crimes across the United States.

Not only are they leaving Baltimore without implementing one concrete change, this afternoon they even voted down a feeble amendment to send to Pope Francis a short message “suggesting” that he should release the documents concerning Archbishop Theodore McCarrick.

McCarrick, once a Cardinal, had abused seminarians for decades and at least two minors. His conduct was known about by several of his brother bishops and senior Vatican officials. It is the most egregious case of cover up yet revealed in the American church. The bishop’s response to the McCarrick case, the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report, and other revelations that have been cascading down upon them already demonstrated their utter lack of credibility.

Now, they leave Baltimore telling us they cannot act on what they promised. That they have no actual authority over themselves or the actions they take in the United States.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Agency/EWTN News

November 15, 2018

The U.S. bishops’ conference and the Holy See face a class action lawsuit filed by six men who claim they were sexually abused by Catholic clergy during their childhoods. They are seeking financial damages as well as public contrition and reparation from the Church.

The 80-page suit filed Nov. 13 claims that the Vatican and the bishops knew about – and covered up for – the “endemic, systemic, rampant, and pervasive rape and sexual abuse” of the plaintiffs and others at the hands of active members of the clergy, religious orders, and other Church representatives.

The suit opens by invoking two passages of Scripture: “(B)ut people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed,” and: “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather, expose them.”

Rather than protect the plaintiffs, the lawsuit says Church leaders protected and – “incredibly” – promoted the offenders.

These kinds of “wrongful actions, inaction, omissions, cover-up, deception, and concealment” create a “conspiracy of silence to their financial and reputational benefit and to Plaintiffs’ and Class Members’ personal, mental, psychological, and financial detriment.” These actions are “ongoing and continuous” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. by four attorneys representing six individuals who lived in six different states at the time the abuse occurred – Iowa, California, Mississippi, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. It does not specifically detail the cases of abuse reportedly suffered by the individuals.

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.