ABUSE TRACKER

SAN JOSE (CA)
Bay Area News Group

November 8, 2018

By Matthias Gafni

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced Wednesday that his office will begin collecting reports from California residents about clergy sex abuse, a likely first step in the state opening an investigation of Catholic priest abuse similar to a scathing grand jury probe in Pennsylvania earlier this year.

Becerra’s office created a website page devoted to clergy abuse, asking anyone who has been a victim of sexual abuse or has information regarding sexual misconduct by clergy members to fill out an online complaint form or email ClergyAbuse@doj.ca.gov.

“In light of the news surrounding the sexual abuse of children by members of clergy or religious organizations across the country, the Department of Justice is gathering information from the public regarding complaints of this nature in California,” according to the website.

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.

DAUPHIN COUNTY (PA)
Fox 43 News

November 8, 2018

By Cale Ahearn

The Diocese of Harrisburg has announced a victim’s compensation fund from the clergy abuse scandal.

Below is the statement from Bishop Gainer:
“As we announced in September, my Brother Bishops and I are working together to honor the commitment to provide compensation to those who have been abused by clergy. Each Diocese is working through its own process to help the survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

“To that end, I am announcing that the Diocese of Harrisburg is moving forward with developing a Survivors’ Compensation Program. The program will be operational early next year and will be led by attorney Kenneth Feinberg, along with his colleague Camille Biros. Mr. Feinberg has specialized in administering similar types of victims programs, including the successful Independent Reconciliation and Compensation fund for the Archdiocese of New York, and the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, among many other notable compensation funds across the nation. It is my sincere hope that this program will help to enhance and increase our already ongoing efforts to assist the survivors of child sexual abuse. As more details regarding our plan become finalized, we will be releasing them to the public.

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NEW DELHI (INDIA)
GCCurrentAffairs

November 8, 2018

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) – a globally recognised organisation championing the fight against sexual abuse by priests – in a tweet today shared its views on Arihan Pictures film project ‘Hail Mary’.

In tweet @SNAPnetwork stated, “Upcoming film that may be of interest to the survivor community”.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), which was featured heavily in Spotlight, 2016’s Academy Award winner for Best Picture is a global organisation working on its mission statement, “Our most powerful tool is the light of truth. Through our actions, we bring healing, prevention and justice”

The makers of Hail Mary plan on distributing printable fact sheets that will promote the film, while educating the public about the issue. Additionally, Team Hail Mary will ask its online followers to show support by putting their movie stubs in church collection baskets to send a loud message, without making much noise.

Goa-based Savio Rodrigues owned Arihan Pictures in collaboration with South Indian filmmaker R. Joseph Kennedy have started pre-production work on their ambitious project ‘Hail Mary’.

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

November 8, 2018

California’s attorney general announced today that he is soliciting complaints and information regarding incidents of sexual misconduct by clergy members. SNAP applauds this important development.

We are grateful that Attorney General Xavier Becerra has followed in the footsteps of twenty of his colleagues across the nation and taken the first step towards an investigation of clergy sexual abuse in California. We hope that Mr. Becerra’s office will also open a confidential hotline, in addition to the complaint form and email address provided.

SNAP is also delighted that, like the investigation already underway in Florida, Mr. Becerra is not limiting his information gathering to one specific faith community. While our organization may have its roots in the abuse that took place, and is still taking place, in the Catholic Church, years of experience working with survivors has shown us that no religious group is free from this scourge.

As of this writing, 19 other states and Washington D.C. have begun investigations. We hope that this action in California will encourage attorneys general who have yet to open their own investigation to consider doing so. SNAP believes that independent investigations by law enforcement are the best way to help survivors heal, promote justice, and begin developing prevention strategies for the future.

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ATHENS (OH)
Athens Post

November 7, 2018

Authorities are concerned whether or not a Catholic priest charged last week with eight counts of sexual battery was appropriately punished last November by the Diocese of Steubenville after he took a now-pregnant 17-year-old to a wedding, according to The Associated Press.

Henry Christopher Foxhoven, 45, of Glouster, was suspended from the ministry on Oct. 27, Bishop Jeffrey Monforton said in a Diocese of Steubenville news release. Foxhoven was charged on Oct. 30.

The Athens County Prosecutor’s Office received a call from an out-of-town wedding guest at the reception last year who said she witnessed Foxhoven inappropriately touching the girl, Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn said in an interview with the Associated Press.

“The case remains under investigation,” Blackburn said. “It’s possible additional charges could be presented to a grand jury.”

The Diocese of Steubenville sent a letter to Blackburn’s office this past week that said when it learned in November 2017 about the wedding incident, it suspended Foxhoven for a week and ordered the priest to receive counseling for boundary issues.

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KOREA
Korea Times

November 8, 2018

By Lee Suh-yoon

Recent allegations that a 35-year-old pastor sexually abused at least 26 teenage girls in his youth ministry group have refueled the debate over the manipulative tactics of sex offenders in the clergy.

On Tuesday, four of the alleged victims — masked and covered in black — spoke out against a pastor at their church in Incheon, claiming he “groomed” them into accommodating his sexual demands for years in their teens.

“Every time I said no, he told me he loved me, saying it was the first time he felt this way about someone,” one of the victims said at a press conference held at a Christian meeting hall in Yeonji-dong, Seoul. “I trusted the pastor, so I never thought he could lie in God’s name.”

The pastor, surnamed Kim, approached young female students in the youth ministry of his church, buying them treats and gently counseling them on family issues. As the girls started to trust him more, Kim started making sexual comments or touching them. He convinced the girls they were in loving relationships that would eventually end in marriage. Gradually, he got them to have sex with him regularly, telling them he wanted to “purify” bad memories of being raped by his uncle.

“It was hard for the victims to even register their situation as sexual abuse while they were stuck in the continuous cycle of psychological brainwashing and rape,” Chae Su-ji, head of the Christian Counseling Center for Violence Against Women, told The Korea Times, Wednesday.

“As the relationship deepens and the young person is forced to keep secrets, she is increasingly isolated from others, making it easier for the pastor to psychologically control her.”

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Channel 13 News

November 7, 2018

By Amanda Gerry

Utah legislators woke up from election night Wednesday morning to a release calling on a change in laws involving the sanctity of the communication between a clergy member and those who may seek forgiveness.

“We want all religions to be more transparent, in terms of their finances, in terms of their corporate policies and procedures, and in terms of their internal statistics on sex abuse,” said Ryan McKnight, executive director of the Truth and Transparency Foundation.

The Truth and Transparency Foundation, a non-profit organization that operates the websites MormonLeaks and FaithLeaks, sent a release to Utah legislators this morning calling on a change in state laws that exempt clergy from being forced to report instances of child abuse.

“While it may not prevent all wrong doing,” McKnight said, “it helps in trying to achieve as little wrong doing as possible.”

In the release, the organization states they have published documents that “show that clergy typically and intentionally avoid reporting abuse to law enforcement except in states where they are required to do so.”

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ATLANTA (GA)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

November 7, 2018

By Shelia M. Poole

The Archdiocese of Atlanta has released the names of 15 priests, seminarians, and those under direct authority of a religious order “credibly” accused of sexual abuse of a minor.
The list, which was released Tuesday, is available on the archdiocese’s website (archatl.com/offices/child-and-youth-protection/list/).

Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory said in the document that he released the names “in the spirit of transparency and the hope of continued healing for the survivors of abuse.”

The Roman Catholic Church has been reeling from a damning Pennsylvania grand jury report released this summer that outlined decades of sexual abuse by priests and cover-ups by church authorities.

Since then, Catholics have demanded accountability, transparency and, in some cases, resignations or criminal charges. Experts say other dioceses or archdioceses across the nation have also been releasing more information about priests accused of sexual abuse.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
San Diego Union-Tribune

November 7, 2018

By Alene Tchekmedyian

State authorities are asking people who believe they have been sexually abused by clergy members in California to come forward with information.

The plea comes after several Roman Catholic dioceses across the state released the names, in some cases for the first time, of priests accused of sexual misconduct.

“In light of the news surrounding the sexual abuse of children by members of clergy or religious organizations across the country, the Department of Justice is gathering information from the public regarding complaints of this nature in California,” state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra’s office said in a statement.

Last month, the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose released the names of 15 priests who worked in Santa Clara County and were accused of sexually abusing children. Of them, nine are dead and the rest have been banned from the ministry. Four of the men had been convicted of sex crimes.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

November 8, 2018

By Inés San Martín

Near the end of a troubling year in Pope Francis’s home country, the bishops of Argentina have expressed their support for the pontiff, claiming the Church and its leader have never been under attack, both at home and abroad as they are right now.

Bishop Oscar Ojea, president of the Argentine bishops’ conference, said these attacks even come from inside the institution. Speaking about the country’s general situation, he warned that the “social and economic crisis hitting the entire Argentine people is beginning to erode trust in political leadership, increasing a social bad mood, the anger and intolerance which makes coexistence very tough.”

“We’re closing an extremely difficult year,” Ojea said. “Many events that we’ve lived in recent months have provoked perplexity, and at the same time present us with great pastoral challenges that need to be illuminated by the light of the Gospel.”

“They’re complex and conflictual situations, that hide a message we still have to discover,” he said, before ticking off developments such as a national debate for the legalization of abortion, where even Catholic schools and communities had people supporting an abortion legalization bill that, in the end, didn’t get a greenlight in Congress.

Following that, there was an organized, en masse apostacy, with thousands of Argentinians officially renouncing their Catholic faith; allegations of clerical sexual abuse that “increase the pain at the deepest part of the Church’s heart; attacks against the person of the pope, from inside and outside the Church, which leads to a scarce transmission of his message.”

[Though Ojea didn’t specify it, he was likely referring to sensational accusations from a former papal ambassador in the U.S. that Pope Francis knew about sexual misconduct concerns regarding ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick in 2013 and covered them up.]

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
Youngstown Tribune

November 8, 2018

It is clear to us that although knowledge of “credible” accusations of sexual abuse within the Youngstown Catholic Diocese existed for decades, church leaders decided among themselves that it would be preferable to handle these issues in-house rather than calling for outside criminal investigations. They chose to settle many of the cases quietly, some with the exchange of cash. In fact, since 1943, there have been settlements totalling $500,000 paid to victims of sexual abuse.

Youngstown Diocese Bishop George Murry released the list in recent weeks of 31 clergy whom he said have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors. About 12 of those men now are deceased.

This practice of settling claims without criminal prosecution apparently was common not just in our diocese, but in other Catholic dioceses nationwide.

Now the diocese is making an attempt to come clean by releasing the names of the accused clergy who have been named in credible accusations since this diocese was created in 1943. In some cases where the alleged abusers are not deceased, the statute of limitations has expired, meaning these men probably never will face judgment in a court of law.

Murry said he is not aware of any pending criminal charges relating to the sexual abuse. He attempted to justify the church’s decision not to seek prosecution by saying the victims did not want to be made public.

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NEW YORK (NY)
National Catholic Reporter

November 8, 2018

by Peter Feuerherd

What now?

Toward the end of a year marked by revelations about worldwide sex abuse, from Chile, Australia, Germany, Guam, as well as Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the question of how the church should emerge from crisis was the topic in two seminars at East Coast Jesuit universities within a week of each other.

At Fordham University here, as well as Georgetown University in Washington, experts in church life and psychology offered possible pathways out, after describing the depths of the issues which confront the church.

“We have lost trust,” Justice Anne Burke of the Illinois Supreme Court and former chair of the U.S. Bishops’ Review Board, told the Georgetown gathering Oct. 24. “There is no accountability,” she said about the bishops, noting that the 2002 Dallas Charter, which created a zero-tolerance policy for priest sex abusers, never applied to them.

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GAINESVILLE (GA)
The Gainesville Times

November 7, 2018.

A priest who worked at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Gainesville for roughly six years is on a list released by the Archdiocese of Atlanta regarding members of the clergy “credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor.”

The archdiocese released the list Tuesday, Nov. 6, and included 15 names of “priests, deacons, seminarians” and others affiliated with the Atlanta diocese since its establishment in 1956.

On the list is Jorge Cristancho, who was ordained in May 1978. Under his places of service, St. Michael’s appears from 1996-2001. In 2001, he served at St. George Catholic Church in Newnan.

Cristancho was permanently removed from the ministry in 2003.

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JALANDHAR (INDIA)
Catholic News Agency

November 8, 2018

The Diocese of Jalandhar will not pay for the criminal defense of its bishop, who is accused of serially raping a religious sister.

Bishop Agnelo Gracias, who was appointed Sept. 20 by Pope Francis as interim leader of the Indian diocese, told reporters Nov. 6 that Bishop Franco Mulakkal’s brother has been paying for the bishop’s legal expenses.

“His family back home is quite well off. So, no request has come to us from his side,” Gracias said Nov. 6, adding that the diocese would consider providing financial support to Mulakkal’s accuser if she requested it.

Mulakkal, who remains head of the Diocese of Jalandhar but was sidelined by the appointment of Gracias, was arrested Sept. 21. He is suspected of having raped a member of the Missionaries of Jesus more than a dozen times during a two year period that began May 5, 2014.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

November 7, 2018

By Clarence Williams and Julie Zauzmer

D.C. police arrested a priest from a Northwest Washington Catholic Church on Wednesday on charges that he sexually abused a teenager at the parish in 2015, officials said.

Urbano Vazquez, 46, of Northeast Washington was charged with second-degree child sexual abuse in connection with an incident at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in May of that year.

According to a D.C. police report, a 13-year-old girl told police that Vasquez put his hand down her shirt on two occasions on her bare skin. Vazquez was identified as a “pastor of that church that abuse occurred at,” the police report said.

The Shrine of the Sacred Heart is located at 3211 Sacred Heart Way NW. Vasquez is identified on the church website as Fr. Urbano Vazquez, a parochial vicar.

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NEW YORK (NY)
WNYT TV

November 7, 2018

A “blue wave” has come to the state Capitol. Democratic victories could clear the way for more liberal priorities like election reform and universal health care.

Another issue that’s been stalled in the Senate for years — giving molestation victims more time to sue their abusers.

To say that child sex abuse survivors are pleased with the outcome of Tuesday’s election is a gross understatement. Quite frankly, they are euphoric.

Abuse victims and their advocates have been crusading for more than a decade to extend the statute of limitations to report child sex abuse. Currently in New York state, they only have until they’re 23 years old. However, for many reasons they are unable to meet the deadline.

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OREGON
Spiritual Sounding Board

November 1, 2018

Being hurt at church is tough, and sometimes it’s a lonely journey. You may have experienced something that other congregants have not experienced. Some people may have good intentions, but say things that are not helpful, and in fact, may be hurtful. This can lead to more isolation as you don’t know who is safe to talk to. This can lead hurt people to stay away from church entirely.

One of the most confusing things about spiritual abuse is that not everyone is able to identify spiritual abuse. I remember dropping hints to people seeing if they would acknowledge my experiences or even add to them. Thankfully, many did, and I didn’t feel alone.

I posted an old article by Jonathan Hollingsworth, What Not to Say to Someone Who’s Been Hurt by the Church, on Twitter and the SSB Facebook page which seems to have resonated with a lot of people. I thought it might be a good idea to discuss these unhelpful statements one by one here, and give people the opportunity to share their experiences.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Times-Picayune

November 8, 2018

By Drew Broach

As the rain ceased and the skies cleared on the afternoon of Sept. 12, 1987, the world leader of Roman Catholicism stepped to the altar of a canopied pavilion at the University of New Orleans and, before 130,000 sweltering faithful, raised the body of Christ during communion. Standing just behind and to the right of Pope John Paul II was the concelebrant of the outdoor Mass, Archbishop Philip Hannan, who would later recall the pontiff’s three-day visit to his city as the apogee of his 24-year episcopate.

Hannan died in 2011, a tough, colorful prelate who not only scored the coup of a papal visit but more broadly was revered as the architect of a sprawling network of new social services for poor people, elderly people and immigrants in southeast Louisiana.

Now, however, Hannan’s legacy – and that of one of his predecessors, Joseph Rummel, the longest-serving archbishop in New Orleans history — is coming under new scrutiny, the result of changing societal values and of a belated effort by the Catholic Church, especially in the United States, to come clean about its history of pedophile priests and its institutional coverup of their misbehavior.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
NBC News 4 TV

November 7, 2018

By Gina Cook

A Catholic priest has been accused of abusing a child inside a church in Northwest D.C. and the archdiocese says it has removed another priest from the church for not taking proper actions in reporting the alleged abuse.

Urbano Vazquez, 46, was arrested Wednesday and charged with second-degree child sexual abuse. Vazquez has worked at Shrine of the Sacred Heart in D.C.’s Columbia Heights neighborhood since 2014, according to the Archdiocese of Washington.

A victim told police that Vazquez put his hand down her shirt and touched her breast two different times at Sacred Heart. She said the abuse happened in 2015, when she was 13.

“Since the initial claim to police, additional allegations against Father Vazquez were reported,” the Archdiocese of Washington said in a lengthy statement Wednesday night.

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BROWNWOOD (TX)
KTXS TV

November 5, 2018

by Nicholas Teresky

A pastor from Brownwood was indicted by a Brown County grand jury last month for the continuous sexual abuse of children.

Fernando Hernandez, 50, of Brownwood, was indicted on October 25 on a charge of continuous sexual abuse of children.

Hernandez, the pastor at the It’s A Challenge Church of Brownwood, is accused of sexually abusing four children between August of 2010 and July of 2018.

Hernandez was arrested twice in a span of less than a week for child sex offenses in late July and early August.

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WATERBURY (CT)
WFSB TV

November 7, 2018

A Connecticut priest is being accused of sexual abuse.

A New Haven attorney sent out a letter saying a complaint has been filed against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford and the Corporation of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament and Blessed Sacrament Church in Waterbury.

The paperwork names Father Walter Vichas and alleges that Kevin DiStasio and his family were parishioners of Blessed Sacrament Church.

Between 1979 and 1980, DiStasio served as an altar boy.

The suit alleges, prior to the early morning mass, while the plaintiff was putting on his altar boy vestments in the sacristy, Vichas sexually assaulted, sexually abused and sexually exploited the plaintiff.

The lawsuit claims compensation for psychological damages.

A news conference will be held on Friday at 10 a.m. about the claims.

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RAPID CITY (SD)
KFGO TV

November 7, 2018

A defense attorney for a Rapid City priest accused of sexual abuse has asked a judge to release the defendant to the supervision of Catholic diocese at Casa Maria.

But, prosecutors Tuesday objected to the release and asked the judge to continue John Praveen’s $100,000 bond. Defense attorney John Murphy says Praveen would be monitored at the diocese property near Piedmont for retired priests.

The 38-year-old priest is accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old child. KOTA-TV reports Deputy State’s Attorney Kelsey Weber says Praveen presents a flight risk because he has few ties to the community. Seventh Circuit Judge Robert Mandel did not immediately rule on the defense request.

Praveen most recently worked at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Rapid City.

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ATLANTA (GA)
WSB TV

November 7, 2018

By Tom Regan

The Catholic archbishop of Atlanta has released bombshell documents naming over a dozen priests and deacons in the Atlanta metro area accused of sexually abusing minors.

Channel 2’s Tom Regan went to the Cathedral of Christ the King, where two of the priests on the list once served.

Regan spoke to a victim, who said he was abused by one of those priests as a teenager.

The victim, who didn’t want to be identified, said the church never took his complaint seriously.

We’re hearing from a victim and getting reaction from the Catholic community in Atlanta, for Channel 2 Action News at 6 p.m.

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PARIS (FRANCE)
AlJazeera

November 7, 2018

French bishops have announced setting up an “independent” commission to “shed light on the sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic church since 1950”.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Bishops’ Conference of France (CEF) said the panel would seek “to understand the reasons which led to the way these affairs were handled” and make recommendations.

This commission also aims to evaluate the measures taken by the Conference of Bishops of France since the 2000s, and it would draw up a report within two years.

The Vatican has been shaken by a string of paedophile scandals committed by clergy in Australia, Europe, North and South America.

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CHEEKTOWAGA (NY)
Catholic News Service

November 7, 2018

Buffalo Bishop Richard J. Malone told reporters at a news conference he held Nov. 5 outside Infant of Prague Church in Cheektowaga that at a meeting earlier in the day with the diocese’s priests, two of them had asked him to resign.

The bishop acknowledged ongoing criticism over his handling of some clergy abuse complaints but said he has no plans to resign.

“I know that there may not be a high level of trust right now, but I do believe that working with others who continue to believe in me, we can steer through this storm into a calm sea,” said Bishop Malone, who has headed the Buffalo Diocese since August 2012.

The day of the news conference the diocese added 36 names to a public list of priests with substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a child, bringing the number to 78.

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GUAM
The Associated Press

November 7, 2018

By Caleb Jones and Grace Garces Bordallo

Guam’s Catholic church will file for bankruptcy — a move that will allow the archdiocese to avoid trial in dozens of lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by priests and move toward settlements.

Archbishop Michael Byrnes announced Wednesday that mediation efforts that began in September led the church to bankruptcy.

“This path will bring the greatest measure of justice to the greatest number of victims,” Byrnes said. “That’s the heart of what we’re doing.”

Byrnes said the bankruptcy will provide “finality for victim survivors that they’ve been heard and understood.”

Attorney Leander James, who is working with alleged victims in Guam, said in a statement the move will help resolve current lawsuits from more than 180 claims of abuse through settlements.

“We welcome the announcement,” James said in a statement. “Bankruptcy provides the only realistic path to settlement of pending and future claims.”

James says the bankruptcy will create a deadline for victims to file claims.

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WATERBURY (CT)
WFSB

November 7, 2018

A Connecticut priest is being accused of sexual abuse.

A New Haven attorney sent out a letter saying a complaint has been filed against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford and the Corporation of the Church of the Blessed Sacrament and Blessed Sacrament Church in Waterbury.

The paperwork names Father Walter Vichas and alleges that Kevin DiStasio and his family were parishioners of Blessed Sacrament Church.

Between 1979 and 1980, DiStasio served as an altar boy.

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LOUISVILLE (KY)
Courier Journal

November 7, 2018

By Caitlin McGlade

Two senior Catholic officials who remained silent decades ago when priests were accused of sexually abusing Louisville children have been kept in power — and even promoted — on Archbishop Joseph Kurtz’s watch.

That’s not what many Louisville Catholics expected when Kurtz arrived in 2007 to take over the archdiocese, which was rocked by a major child sex abuse scandal a few years earlier.

Previous church leaders in Kentucky’s largest Catholic community had allowed abusive priests to remain in ministry while silencing their victims, a practice laid bare when hundreds sued the church, winning a $25.7 million settlement in 2003.

Kurtz came in as a warm and inviting man with a remarkable ability to remember everyone’s name. It was hoped he would help heal wounds in the archdiocese. Abuse survivor Cal Pfeiffer recalls thinking the new archbishop was either incredibly nice or just a great politician.

A decade later, some abuse survivors say they know which it is.

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LOUISVILLE (KY)
Louisville Courier Journal

November 7, 2018

This report was prepared using legal depositions and other documents from multiple lawsuits, as well as criminal records and news archives. Reporter Caitlin McGlade also interviewed Catholic church leaders in Louisville and Owensboro, as well as abuse survivors, activists, attorneys and lifelong Catholics.

Caitlin McGlade is a member of the Courier Journal’s investigative team. The Dayton, Ohio, native is a 2011 graduate of Ohio University.

Before joining the Courier Journal in 2017, McGlade covered one of the nation’s largest school districts for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and investigated school bus safety, water quality problems and public health issues for the Arizona Republic. Her work has been recognized by the Arizona Press Club and the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists.

Her previous work in Louisville includes an in-depth investigation of danger related to 15-passenger vans commonly used by churches.

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ATLANTA (GA)
Reporter Newspapers

November 7, 2018

By Evelyn Andrews

Four former priests who served at local churches in the 1960s through 1990s have been named in a document listing sexual abuse allegations that was released by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta Nov. 6. One of the priests has already been the subject of a lawsuit over abuse that allegedly took place in Stone Mountain.

Cases of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests and people in other church positions have been widespread across the globe and has led to many allegations. The new Atlanta list shows priests were “credibly” accused at many metro area churches, including Buckhead’s Cathedral of Christ the King, which is the archdiocese’s mother church, Brookhaven’s Our Lady of the Assumption and Dunwoody’s All Saints Catholic Church.

The list does not detail where the allegations occurred, but only shows the churches in which each priest served.

Jacob Bollmer, who served at Cathedral of Christ the King from 1968 to 1969, was accused and removed from ministry in 1987, according to the list.

Jorge Cristancho was laicized, or removed of his priesthood, after allegations in 2003. Cristancho served at Christ the King in from 1988 to 1992. He took a leave of absence from 1987 to 1988, the list said.

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TAMPA BAY (FL)
Tampa Bay Times

November 6, 2018

By Waveney Ann Moore

Just a few weeks ago, a man sued the Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg alleging that he had been abused as a child by one of its priests.

This week the diocese is being forced to respond to another allegation of priest misconduct, this time by the Rev. Nicholas McLoughlin, who served locally between 1972 and 1982 and has had some trouble at the nearby Diocese of Venice.

According to the Diocese of St. Petersburg, McLoughlin, now 76, is accused of “inappropriate physical contact with a minor” during the 1970s. The incident is alleged to have taken place while the priest was assigned to Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Temple Terrace.

McLoughlin served as pastor of Corpus Christi from 1973 to 1982 and as an associate pastor of St. John Vianney at St. Pete Beach and pastor of the now closed Bishop Barry High School and Notre Dame Academy in St. Petersburg from June 1972 to August 1973. The two schools merged to become St. Petersburg Catholic High School in the 1973-74 school year.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Commonweal

November 7, 2018

By Massimo Faggioli

One of the most important moments in the pontificate of Francis could be the publication, probably sometime in the next few months, of the apostolic constitution Praedicate evangelium, about the reform of the Roman Curia. It will be interesting to see what Francis’s reform will keep of the old Roman Curia created by Pope Sixtus V in 1588, which is still very similar to the one we have today. It will also be very interesting to see what place is accorded to new institutions, especially the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, established by Francis in March 2014. The relationship of that commission to the other congregations and dicasteries of the Vatican has, until now, been unclear and precarious.

Francis’s use of the Roman Curia—and his way of governing the church mostly without it—says a lot about his vision for the future of Catholicism. What is most remarkable is that this pontificate has caused so much opposition even though there has been so little institutional change in the five-and-a-half years since Francis became pope. The Bishops’ Synod is an exception. Otherwise, Francis has been remarkably reluctant to make changes in the curial status quo. We can see this from the kind of lay people he has appointed in the curia. On October 6 the Vatican announced new appointments to the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life. These included bishops and clergy, but also new lay members. Many of the new members come from the so-called new ecclesial movements: International Ecclesial Team of “Worldwide Marriage Encounter,” Schoenstatt, Communion and Liberation, the Catholic community Shalom (Brazil), Community of Sant’Egidio, and the Focolare movement.

These appointments raise an important question about the kind of laity that is represented in the Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life. The problem is not that these new lay members are particularly liberal or conservative; the problem is that the ecclesial movements they represent are hardly representative of the Catholic laity overall. These movements are very good at promoting themselves—witness their success in securing recognition from church authorities. But the vast majority of the Catholic laity are not affiliated with any of these movements and are represented by no one in the Vatican, unless we count the nonordained members of this dicastery who were appointed for their professional expertise.

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LOUISVILLE KY
The Courier Journal

November 7, 2018

By Caitlin McGlade

Two senior Catholic officials who remained silent decades ago when priests were accused of sexually abusing Louisville children have been kept in power — and even promoted — on Archbishop Joseph Kurtz’s watch.

That’s not what many Louisville Catholics expected when Kurtz arrived in 2007 to take over the archdiocese, which was rocked by a major child sex abuse scandal a few years earlier.

Previous church leaders in Kentucky’s largest Catholic community had allowed abusive priests to remain in ministry while silencing their victims, a practice laid bare when hundreds sued the church, winning a $25.7 million settlement in 2003.

Kurtz came in as a warm and inviting man with a remarkable ability to remember everyone’s name. It was hoped he would help heal wounds in the archdiocese. Abuse survivor Cal Pfeiffer recalls thinking the new archbishop was either incredibly nice or just a great politician

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ROME (ITALY)
National Public Radio

November 7, 2018

By Sylvia Poggioli

Every Sunday at noon, Pope Francis concludes his greeting to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square by wishing them a good Sunday meal.

But the warm cheers for the pope from the crowd in the square contrast with strident commentary that can be heard outside Vatican walls.

In America, some politically conservative Catholics have long criticized Pope Francis for being pro-migrants, anti-capitalist and less rigid on doctrine than his two predecessors.

More recently, the resurgence of clerical sex abuse scandals has further emboldened these critics of the pope who oppose his big-tent vision of the Catholic Church.

That sentiment can be heard in a video clip from Church Militant, an American website. The video was shot behind St Peter’s Square during the recent synod, a month-long bishops meeting that focused on youth.

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[Prosecutor delivers new figures for Church abuse investigations: 124 cases and 8 bishops investigated]

CHILE
La Tercera

November 7, 2018

By C. Reyes and L. Zapata

Los datos entregados son hasta el 24 de octubre del presente año. Además, se detalló que hay 222 víctimas.

Una nueva actualización de los casos vigentes relativos a presuntos delitos sexuales cometidos por miembros de la Iglesia Católica entregó la Fiscalía Nacional.

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DENVER (CO)
Denver Catholic

November 7, 2018

By George Weigel

After a month out of the country, working in Rome at Synod-2018 and helping mark the 40th anniversary of John Paul II’s election at events in Brussels and Warsaw, I came home to find Catholic anger over the latest phase of the abuse crisis unabated and intensified in some quarters. That this crisis is not acknowledged for what it is by the highest authorities in Rome is a subject for another reflection at another time. The question today is: What are the roots of today’s Catholic anger and disgust?

Part of the answer to that, surely, is exhaustion. Why must we go through this again? Wasn’t the Long Lent of 2002 enough? Weren’t things fixed then?

Those whose anger is stoked by these understandable questions might have a look at a recent and thoughtful article by Kenneth Woodward in Commonweal. Woodward understands that ripping the cover off the serial sexual predations of the former archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick, triggered a gag-reflex among the Catholic laity that seems to have been bred out of at least some Catholic clergy, both here in the United States and in Rome. But the longtime religion editor of Newsweek also identifies another factor in today’s Catholic rage that ought to cause all of us to pause and think for a moment. Writing about the Pennsylvania grand jury report that sent Catholic anger through the roof this summer, my friend Woodward made a crucial point:

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SIOUX CITY (IA)
Diocese of Sioux City

November 7, 2018

We are well aware of and understand the public, our parishioners’ and victims’ dismay at the information released in the Associated Press (AP) article dated October 31, 2018 regarding Jerry Coyle. We know that the AP reporter is now investigating all of our past and present actions at the Diocese of Sioux City, in order to create his next story. We are researching old records with the Review Board, an advisory board made up of lay people in the Diocese, including licensed therapists, a judge, nurses, police officers, and a psychiatrist, who advise the Bishop in his assessment of allegations of sexual abuse of minors and in his determination of suitability for ministry; offer advice on all aspects of these cases; and make recommendations they deem appropriate to reduce the risk to children. The issue that is most important for the public to understand is that many of the allegations made in the past, prior to the 2002 “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” were not followed up with an investigation by civil authorities. The Church often sent priests to treatment, in hopes that any actions of misconduct could be cured. We know now that is not the way to handle any allegation of sexual misconduct, and with the 2002 Charter to guide us, we have protocols in place to follow, which we do. When victims report as adults, the statute of limitations often has passed, meaning that the alleged abuser priest could not be prosecuted, even if the allegation from the past is deemed credible. This makes it very difficult to know what to do with priests that have allegations made against them, but no prosecution by civil authorities, and no incarceration for the alleged crime.

It should be noted that after the 2002 Charter we asked the Woodbury County Attorney and other county attorneys to come in and look through priest records. At that time, they declined for various reasons including: because the statute of limitations had passed, and many of the priests accused were dead.

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ARKANSAS
Bilgrimmage

November 6, 2018

By William Lindsey

US Catholic Bishops
@USCCB
During the next seven days, bishops across the U.S. will dedicate themselves to intensified prayer and fasting. We pray for victims of clergy sexual abuse, the conversion and just punishment of perpetrators and concealers of sexual abuse, and the strength to be holy shepherds.

The preceding announcement is a prelude to the gathering of the U.S. Catholic bishops that will occur next week in Baltimore. Catholic News Service editor Julie Asher tweeted the following yesterday on behalf of the bishops:

Julie Asher
@jlasher
Today is first of 7 days of “intensified” prayer, fasting, reparation all U.S. bishops called to by @USCCB president ahead of fall meeting in Baltimore where addressing abuse crisis to top agenda.

In my view, this showy announcement about prayer, fasting, reptentance, and conversion is diversionary. As I said recently, when it comes to the abuse horror show, it’s always someone else’s sin — never the sin of the bishops. It’s always someone else’s sin, when the leaders of the Catholic church address that horror show.

The statement that “we pray for … the conversion and just punishment of perpetrators and concealers of sexual abuse” does not own their responsibility for protecting and concealing sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable people by Catholic clergy. It rhetorically disguises the bishops’ responsibility.

“We pray for their conversion” is a different statement from, “We pray for our conversion.”

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ENID (OK)
Enid News & Eagle

November 7, 2018

By Mitchell Willetts

The attorney representing the Rev. James Mickus, a Catholic priest with Enid ties facing allegations of sexual abuse, said he might soon file a defamation lawsuit against the archbishop of the Oklahoma City Archdiocese.

In a letter to Archbishop Rev. Paul Coakley, Enid-based attorney Stephen Jones wrote he is investigating whether Coakley has defamed Mickus by omitting critical facts about the allegations made against his client.

Allegations of abuse first surfaced against Mickus in 2002, while he was a pastor at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Enid. The accuser said Mickus had sexually abused him nearly 20 years earlier in a former parish. Mickus subsequently was removed from ministry while an archdiocese review board investigated the claims.

Mickus was reinstated in 2003 after the review board found insufficient evidence to support the claims made against him.

In a statement released Sunday, Coakley announced allegations of sexual abuse of a minor are under review and that Mickus would be removed from ministry pending investigation.

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SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
The Salt Lake Tribune

November 7, 2018

By Peggy Fletcher Stack
·
The Truth and Transparency Foundation — the nonprofit group behind the controversial MormonLeaks website — is launching a petition drive calling on Utah legislators to drop the “clergy exemption” from laws about mandatory reporting of child abuse.

This exemption frees religious leaders from reporting abuse if they learn about it from perpetrators. It is based on a belief in the sanctity of the communication between penitent believers who confess to their spiritual leaders.

Such an exemption, though, is “an affront to the safety and well-being of abuse survivors,” the group writes in an email that went out Wednesday to all Utah legislators, “and provides an environment where predators are enabled.”

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ATLANTA (GA)
Georgia Catholic Bulletin

November 6, 2018

The Archdiocese of Atlanta is committed to the protection of minors, as well as to compliance with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. In a spirit of transparency and the hope of continued healing for the survivors of abuse, I have decided to release the list of the priests, deacons, seminarians and religious credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor. The list below was compiled from the best information available to us at this time, and covers the period from the establishment of the Diocese of Atlanta in 1956 (we became an archdiocese in 1962) until now.

The list is divided into three parts:

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NEW YORK (NY)
NBC News

November 7, 2018

Guam’s Catholic church will file for bankruptcy — a move that will allow the archdiocese to avoid trial in dozens of lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by priests and move toward settlements.

Archbishop Michael Byrnes announced Wednesday that mediation efforts that began in September led the church to bankruptcy.

“This path will bring the greatest measure of justice to the greatest number of victims,” Byrnes said. “That’s the heart of what we’re doing.”

Byrnes said the bankruptcy will provide “finality for victim survivors that they’ve been heard and understood.”

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
GoLocalProv

November 6, 2018

Democratic candidate for attorney general Peter Neronha, claimed victory tonight and replaces Peter F. Kilmartin who has been in office since 2011.

The former U.S. attorney general ran against Alan Gordon, the Compassion Party candidate, for the position and was a largely controversial figure in the race. The Rhode Island Republican party failed to run a candidate.

Last month, during a debate with Neronha at a North Kingstown high school, Gordon spelled out the n-word and he previously had also arrested with his partner Anne Armstrong for holding 48 pounds of marijuana. In September, Neronha said on GoLocal LIVE, “As a general matter, I fully support government transparency and, if elected, would ensure that the Office of Attorney General, as well as all other state government agencies, comply with the requirements of the Access to Public Records Act. Further, access to public records should not be cost prohibitive. Perhaps we should consider legislative changes to minimize the financial barriers while still providing adequate resources to public agencies responsible for responding to these records requests.”

On Neronha’s campaign website, he touts his successes in taking on the opioid crisis, bringing major cases against cartel-linked drug trafficking organizations as well as fighting for stricter gun laws. Neronha also claims that he is committed to prioritizing environmental protection, both nationally and locally.

As GoLocal reported last month, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) called upon Neronha to commit to investigating the Diocese of Providence after the U.S. Justice Department launched an investigation into alleged sexual abuse by clergy in Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic Church.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

November 7, 2018

By Claire Giangravè

As its lay leader stands accused of sexually abusing ten women, including several who were minors, a powerful lay organization in southern Italy is revealed by records from four separate court proceedings, obtained by Crux, to have had a close but complicated relationship with Church authorities.

All the witnesses brought before the court between November 2017 and June 2018 confirmed that the lay Catholic Culture and Environment Association, or “ACCA”, based in the town of Aci Bonaccorsi, Sicily, met every Sunday for Mass at a local parish, followed by a meeting at the nearby headquarters, known as the “Cenacle”, where priests would also attend.

Following accusations in August 2016 against the lay leader of ACCA, Piero Alfio Capuana, who was called the “Archangel” by his followers, the local diocese of Acireale released a statement saying that there were no ties between the lay organization and ecclesial authorities.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Advocate

November 6, 2018

By Dan Fagan

My paternal grandmother was born in 1903 in Swinford, Ireland, into a family of 11. At 16, her parents, because of poverty, put her on a ship to America to live with her older sister, knowing they’d probably never see her again.

My grandmother’s impoverished beginnings and living through the Great Depression caused her to be singularly frugal. I’m convinced she had the same ketchup bottle for years. Each time she’d add just a little more water to it. While frugal with material things, she was richly generous with her love.

My grandmother spent her final years living in the Wynhoven Apartments, a retirement high-rise run by the Catholic Church in Marrero. As a kid I loved spending the night with Grandma because she adored me. She made me feel loved, peaceful and safe.

Her apartment was at the end of the hall on the eighth floor. To her immediate right was a door leading to a balcony overlooking the Hope Haven-Madonna Manor orphanage. The view was spectacular with the Spanish-colonial architecture. It was like going back in time. We would often watch kids play at sunset from that balcony. I also remember thinking how sad it was the kids didn’t have parents or someone like my grandmother to make them feel wanted and loved.

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ST. BONAVENTURE (NY)
Olean Times Herald

November 7, 2018

By Tom Dinki

A longtime and now-deceased St. Bonaventure University friar was credibly accused of sexually abusing a minor.

The Rev. Maurice Scheier was among the additional 36 priests identified by Buffalo Bishop Richard Malone on Monday as having had substantiated claims of abuse against them. Scheier worked at St. Bonaventure from 1928 to 1986, leading the university’s math department and serving as dean of science, before his death in 1991.

SBU-TV, St. Bonaventure’s student-run news station, first reported Scheier’s connection to the university.

In a statement Tuesday, St. Bonaventure President Dr. Dennis DePerro said Monday’s announcement was the first time university officials learned of accusations against Scheier, adding their records do not indicate Scheier was ever accused of abuse while employed at St. Bonaventure.

DePerro said clergy abuse claims are investigated and adjudicated by either the bishop or the friar’s sponsoring province, which in Scheier’s case was Holy Name Province of the Franciscan Friars. DePerro said any inquiries should be directed to the provincial minister of Holy Name Province, who could not immediately be reached Tuesday.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Irish Central

November 7, 2018

A Boston Globe and Philadelphia Inquirer investigation finds that while US bishops promised reform, they not only failed to adequately respond to sexual misconduct but failed to oust other bishops guilty of abuse.

When US bishops gathered in Dallas in 2002, they promised major reform, after the clergy sex abuse scandal exploded in Boston and the Catholic Church in the United States found itself drowning in scandal.

While this historic meeting of bishops promised an end to the covering up and mishandling of allegations of clerical sex abuse, what they delivered was yet another decade and a half of misleading US Catholics and failing to adequately respond to accusations against both priests and themselves.

According to an investigation carried out by the Boston Globe and Philadelphia Inquirer, which delved into the court records, media reports, and interviews with church officials, victims, and attorneys, these bishops both enabled sexual misconduct of priests and were guilty of it themselves, even in the years following their public declaration of an end to concealment and cover-ups.

The investigation found that more than 130 US bishops – almost a third of those still alive – had been accused of failing to adequately deal with allegations of misconduct, with 50 of these allegations being made regarding incidents that occurred after the bishops’ 2002 gathering.

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SIOUX CITY (IA)
Associated Press

November 6, 2018

By Ryan J. Foley

An Iowa Roman Catholic diocese released a lengthy statement Tuesday about the revelation that it had covered up a priest’s sexual abuse of boys for decades and promised to identify all priests who have faced credible allegations.

The Diocese of Sioux City urged anyone who has ever been abused by one of its priests to report the misconduct. The diocese said it will use all information in its possession to create and publish a list of credibly accused priests, a step it had long resisted.

The diocese’s actions come in response to an investigation by the Associated Press, which last week broke the church’s 32-year silence on serial abuse by the Rev. Jerome Coyle.

The diocese said more disclosures of misconduct may be forthcoming.

Coyle admitted to then-Bishop Lawrence Soens in 1986 to having sexually abused 50 boys over a 20-year period. The diocese said that it should have notified parishes and asked victims to come forward back then, and apologized that its former leaders failed to do so. Instead, the diocese sent Coyle to a treatment center for accused priests in New Mexico, where he lived and worked as a civilian for decades.

The diocese said that its current leadership should have notified the public this summer when Coyle was placed at a retirement home near a Catholic school, which he moved out of last week following AP’s disclosure of his history. But the statement said that its bishop, R. Walker Nickless, “inherited many issues from the past,” including the challenge of finding housing for accused priests who were never charged and aren’t listed as sex offenders.

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GUAM
KUAM TV

November 7, 2018

By Krystal Paco

Bankruptcy — it only makes sense. The Archdiocese of Agana announcing on Wednesday plans to file a Chapter 11 reorganization proceeding in the U.S. District Court of Guam sometime between mid-December and mid-January.

Bankruptcy counsel Ford Elsaesser announced, “For many dioceses, this is the only fair way to deal with the claims of the abuse survivors and at the same time provide for the continued operation of the mission of the church, including of course the parishes and the schools.”

Archdiocese lead counsel Keith Talbot echoing those sentiments, saying, “Bankruptcy does two really good things for us: one is its finality. And finality is for the archdiocese going forward. Finality is also an option, it’s an aspect of bankruptcy that’s very helpful with insurance carriers. The other part is bankruptcy is the method to deliver the greatest measure of justice to the greatest number of victims. And it’s obviously not only an objective for the archdiocese but the other co-defendants, but certainly the plaintiffs’ counsel, as well.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

November 7, 2018

By Dennis Sadowski

The National Review Board chairman called for changes to the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” to “make it a less ambiguous document” because despite nearly every diocese meeting its standards in third-party audits, some bishops are facing scrutiny about their handling of reports of wayward priests.

Francesco Cesareo, the board’s chairman since 2013, told Catholic News Service Nov. 5 that board members have raised concerns for “a long time … that the audit instrument may not be getting at information that we need to get.”

He also expressed “frustration” that new questions have surfaced about how some bishops responded to clergy sex abuse, especially after pledging openness and transparency after the 2002 crisis exploded.

“This is much more of a crisis of a failure of leadership,” he said.

“It is frustrating because on the one hand, you know that the church has put in place all of these policies and procedures, which have definitely made a difference. All of these allegations are historic. (There are) very few new ones,” he said.

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FORT DODGE (IA)
National Catholic Reporter

November 6, 2018

By Peter Feuerherd

The Diocese of Sioux City admitted Oct. 31 that it had concealed for decades the identity of a priest who had abused dozens of Iowa boys, as reported by the Associated Press. One of the bishops during that period was Daniel DiNardo, now cardinal archbishop of Galveston-Houston and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Associated Press obtained a Feb. 12 letter written by the diocese vicar general. According to the letter, AP reports that “in 1986, Coyle reported his ‘history of sexual attraction to and contact with boys’ to Sioux City’s bishop, revealing that he had victimized approximately 50 youths over a 20-year period while serving in several Iowa parishes.”

Bishop R. Walker Nickless of the Diocese of Sioux City, Iowa, acknowledged Oct. 31, in answer to an Associated Press inquiry, that “police were not contacted when Coyle self-admitted, but policies have changed since 1986.”

The supervisors of Coyle, now 85 years old, included DiNardo, who served as bishop in Sioux City from 1998 to 2004. DiNardo, as president of the conference, has been a leading voice in the response to this year’s sex abuse revelations, including a Pennsylvania grand jury report and charges of harassment and abuse of minors by former cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington.

The Sioux City case became public as the bishops prepared to gather for their annual meeting in Baltimore Nov. 12-14, during which a response to the sex abuse crisis will be on the agenda.

DiNardo became the archbishop of Galveston-Houston in 2006, after being named coadjutor there in 2004. He was named a cardinal in 2007. DiNardo has urged the church to come forward with full transparency about the crisis.

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SIOUX CITY
Sioux City Journal

November 6, 2018

By Earl Horlyk

The Sioux City Catholic Diocese is asking members of the public to come forward if they or their child has been a victim of sexual abuse by any priest in the diocese, which encompasses more than 70 parishes in 24 northwest Iowa counties.

This is the result of parishioner and public dismay following news that the diocese concealed for decades a priest’s admission that he had sexually abused approximately 50 boys over a 20-year period.

Now 85 years old, The Rev. Jerome Coyle, was stripped of his parish assignments in the 1980s. Coyle, who started as a faculty member at Bishop Heelan High School in 1959, an assistant pastor at Cathedral of the Epiphany and Immaculate Conception in the early-to-mid-1960s and pastor at St. Cecilia Parish, in Sanborn, Iowa, from 1978 to 1986, was never defrocked despite being publicly identified by the church as an admitted pedophile.

Through an Oct. 31 investigative report by the Associated Press (AP), it was discovered that the diocese helped Coyle move into a retirement home in Fort Dodge, Iowa, without informing administrators of a Catholic school located across the street.

“We know that the AP reporter is now investigating all of our past and present actions at the Diocese of Sioux City, in order to create his next story,” the diocese said in a news release on Tuesday. “We are researching old records with the Review Board (an advisory board made such lay people as licensed therapists, nurses, police officers, a judge and a psychiatrist).”

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MANCHESTER (NH)
New Hampshire Union Leader

November 6, 2018

By Mark Hayward

A New Hampshire priest officially has been defrocked, 32 years after Catholic church officials suspended him over allegations of sexual abuse and sexual misconduct, the Diocese of Manchester announced on Tuesday.

Philip A. Petit, who was ordained in April 1980, worked at parishes in Manchester, Dover, Berlin, Merrimack, Nashua and Plaistow, as well as at Portsmouth Regional Hospital. He was removed from the ministry in 1986 and had no permission to function as a priest since then, the diocese said.

In the early 2000s, the diocese suspended the faculties of numerous priests as a priest-sexual abuse scandal exploded in Boston and New Hampshire.

But officials stressed that the suspended priests were still technically priests and could only be defrocked by the Vatican.

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VENICE (FL)
The Ledger

November 5, 2018

By Carlos R. Munoz

The Rev. Nick McLoughlin of the Diocese of Venice has been placed on administrative leave while the Diocese of St. Petersburg reviews a complaint of “inappropriate physical contact with a minor” lodged against him.

The Diocese of Venice declined to state the nature McLoughlin’s exact duties before he was suspended.

Bishop Frank Dewane told his parishioners in a letter last weekend that the allegation has “a semblance of truth.” He said the Diocese of Venice was notified by the Diocese of St. Petersburg of the allegation, which was made by a person who would have been a minor at the time McLoughlin served as pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in Temple Terrace from 1973 to 1982.

The Diocese of St. Petersburg opened an investigation to determine the facts, Dewane said.

“Because Fr. McLoughlin is now a priest of the Diocese of Venice, this Diocese was also notified and asked to take appropriate action,” Dewane stated. “In accord with the policies of the Diocese of Venice and to allow for an objective review in the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Fr. McLoughlin has been placed on administrative leave. When the Diocese of St. Petersburg has concluded its investigation, the findings will be presented to the Diocese of Venice.”

In a statement sent to the Herald-Tribune, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of St. Petersburg said that “An allegation of inappropriate physical contact with a minor has been made against Rev. Nicholas McLoughlin, a priest of the Diocese of Venice, who served as pastor of Corpus Christi Parish, Temple Terrace from 1973 to 1982. He previously served as associate pastor of St. John Vianney, St. Pete Beach and pastor of Bishop Barry and Notre Dame High Schools in St. Petersburg from June 1972 to August 1973.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Times Union/The Associated Press

November 5, 2018

The Diocese of Buffalo has added 36 names to its public list of priests with substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a child, bringing the number to 78.

Officials say they will not name an additional 66 dead priests who were the subject of a single abuse complaint.

Bishop Richard Malone released the revised list Monday and again fended off calls from some community members and other priests to resign over his handling of clergy abuse.

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OKLAHOMA CITY (OK)
KFOR

November 5, 2018

By Lili Zheng

The attorney of a Catholic priest facing an allegation of child sex abuse is sharing his side of the story.

On Sunday, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma announced Father James Mickus had been removed from ministry pending an investigation of alleged child sex abuse. Mickus, a pastor for two Catholic churches in Chandler and Stroud, has served at more than a dozen churches in Oklahoma.

We’re told the allegation does not involve Mickus’ current parishes.

His attorney, Stephen Jones, told News 4 he is confident the allegation stems from 2002, when Mickus was first accused and later exonerated. Mickus was informed of his removal by Archbishop Paul Coakley on Friday.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Medill Reports

November 6, 2018

By Karyn Simpson

Larry Antonsen wants to do everything he can to ensure no child is ever abused by a priest again. That’s why he works with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and attends events like All Survivor’s Day at Holy Name Cathedral Parish. The day is dedicated to drawing attention to sexual abuse by clergy members and demanding justice for the survivors. As a survivor of sexual abuse by a priest and a still-practicing member of the Catholic faith, Antonsen knows how hard it can be to heal from this kind of trauma. He wants to share his story in hopes it can give someone else the courage to come forward and get help.

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DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Times

November 6, 2018

By Patsy McGarry

The situation of about 200 women who had been in Magdalene laundries but have to date been excluded from a State redress scheme is expected to be resolved this week, the Department of Justice has said.

The matter is to be addressed at the Cabinet meeting and a spokesman for the department said on Monday night that it expected “to be in a position later this week to write to the women concerned and to start processing awards”.

A Magdalene redress scheme has already paid compensation to 700 women, but awards have been withheld from those who did not live in the institutions. Though they worked in the laundries, they were accommodated elsewhere, usually in adjoining premises.

Ombudsman Peter Tyndall had warned the department that it needed to move speedily to deal with compensation for these women.

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OKLAHOMA CITY (OK)
KOCO News

November 5, 2018

An Oklahoma priest has been removed from ministry pending an investigation into an allegation of sexual abuse against a minor, according to officials with the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.

The archdiocese’s review board is looking into an allegation made against Father James Mickus, who currently serves as the pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Chandler and Saint Louis Catholic Church in Stroud. The allegation does not include Mickus’ current parishes, officials said.

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UNITED STATES
Yahoo Sports

November 5, 2018

By Jack Baer

Two years after the details of Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse started to come out, it looks like Team USA has decided it wants to tear down the entire framework of its gymnastics team.

The United States Olympic Committee released a statement from CEO Sarah Hirshland on Monday announcing that it is has filed a complaint seeking to revoke the recognition of USA Gymnastics as the national governing body for the sport.

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WALES
Wales On Line

November 5, 2018

By Marcus Hughes

An elder member of a Jehovah’s Witness congregation subjected a girl to years of sexual abuse, a court has heard.

Thomas Brian Jenkins, 74, appeared at Merthyr Crown Court on Monday charged with 20 counts of indecent assault against a girl in the 1970s.

The alleged abuse began when the girl was 12 years old and continued until she was 14.

Jenkins, of Landor Road, Redditch, Worcestershire, denies indecently assaulting the girl by touching her genitals on “dozens of occasions”.

Opening the case for the prosecution, Timothy Evans said the abuse began shortly after the girl moved to a village in Powys with her family, who were Jehovah’s Witnesses, and became involved with the local congregation.

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

November 6, 2018

Pope Francis’ US point person on abuse told the The Inquirer that he was “shocked” to learn that so many of his colleagues were hiding abuse and abusers. Frankly, we do not understand his reaction at all.

Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley is the “top dog” when it comes to clergy sex crimes and cover ups in the US. Yet he appeared surprised at the findings by the Globe/Inquirer that “130 bishops – almost one-third of all those living – have been accused during their career of failing to adequately respond to sexual misconduct in their dioceses.”

Nearly every situation and bishop mentioned in the outstanding Globe/Inquirer investigation has been reported, sometimes years ago, in other reputable news outlets. So little if any of this should have “shocked” the Cardinal. Rather, we would have assumed that he was keeping track of this information and transmitting it to the Vatican.

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ARKANSAS
Bilgrimmage

November 5, 2018

By William Lindsey

And there’s more: here’s another diptych from recent commentary that I want to offer for your consideration — about a totally different topic than the one discussed in the diptych I just provided in my previous posting:

James J. Heaney, “Our Myth, Their Lie”:

The structure [i.e., Roman Catholic clericalism] I have just described could hardly be better at catalyzing abuse. Look at Cardinals Egan and McCarrick. One was considered conservative, the other liberal, but both were notorious on abuse—and St. John Paul gave both the red hat. How about Cardinal Mahony and Cardinal Pell? Archbishops Finn, Wilson, and Bruskewitz? Or Cardinal Law, the great conservative prelate whose punishment was promotion? The same story unfolds today in Honduras, Chile, and Australia.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

November 6, 2018

By Elise Harris

In the wake of revelations surrounding scandals involving ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and accusations by a former Vatican ambassador that Pope Francis and other curial officials knew and said nothing, a leading Italian prelate has said it’s important to build a new future rather than getting stuck in the past.

“Certainly it’s a difficult moment, we must look forward, not behind,” Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Life and for the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences, said in a brief interview with Crux.

Paglia, who spoke at the Nov. 5 inauguration of the new academic year for the institute, was one of several Vatican officials named in an Aug. 25 letter published by former Vatican ambassador to the United States, Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who accused Paglia and others of belonging to a “homosexual current in favor of subverting Catholic doctrine on homosexuality” inside the Roman Curia.

Viganò also charged that several fellow prelates in the Vatican knew about allegations of misconduct against McCarrick, who has been faulted for sexual misconduct with seminarians and who was credibly accused of abusing a minor over the summer, yet McCarrick’s career advanced regardless.

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OMAHA (NB)
World-Herald

November 5, 2018

By Alia Conley

Dozens of parishioners of a church in West Point, Nebraska, are voicing their support for a Catholic priest who resigned last week after the Omaha Archdiocese reviewed clergy assignments.

The Rev. Andy Syring, 41, left St. Mary’s Catholic Church after Archbishop George Lucas’ recent promise to “hold clergy to a higher standard of ministerial conduct.”

But more than 100 people have expressed support for Syring online, some sending prayers and others asking how they can fight the “injustice.”

Charissa J. Steffensmeier wrote that the West Point community is dealing with “outrage, confusion and dismay about that decision.” In a letter to Lucas, Steffensmeier asks him to reconsider accepting the resignation and praised Syring’s compassion, empathy, love for the church and ability to connect with parishioners of all backgrounds.

In 2014, Syring was accused of “significant boundary violations with young adults and minors” when he was associate pastor of Divine Mercy parish in Schuyler.

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MINEOLA (NY)
News 12 Long Island

November 5, 2018

A Mineola priest is reportedly stepping aside amid allegations of sexual misconduct with children.

According to Newsday, Rev. Richard Kammerer had been serving as the associate pastor at the Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church.

The paper says the Nassau district attorney is investigating the allegations.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Catholic News Agency

November 5, 2018

By Jonah McKeown

The Diocese of Buffalo is adding to their public list of clergy with credible allegations of sexual abuse against a minor.

Diocesan officials, including Bishop Richard Malone, held a press conference Nov. 5 during which they fielded questions from reporters about the investigation process for allegations of sexual abuse. Malone held a meeting with priests from across western New York earlier that day to discuss the current situation.

The new list contains an additional 20 names of clergy with “substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor,” as well as 16 names of clergy who were or are members of religious orders and had served in Buffalo.

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WELLINGTON (NEW ZEALAND)
Stuff NZ

November 6, 2018

By Damian George

A Wellington priest who took down ribbons tied to the gates of his church by child sexual abuse survivors has had a change of heart.

The ribbons were tied to the gates of the St Mary of the Angels Catholic church in Boulcott St on Thursday to acknowledge historic sexual abuse of children in the Wellington Diocese, particularly at St Patrick’s College in Silverstream and Wellington City, and St Bernard’s College in Lower Hutt.

But they were removed early on Friday by parish priest Kevin Conroy, who cited the church’s policy that nothing could be placed on its grounds without permission.

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ANCHORAGE (AK)
KTVA TV

November 5, 2018

By Cassie Schirm

Anchorage’s archbishop, who has emerged as one of the few heroes in a major newspaper story on bishops’ lack of oversight regarding clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, is continuing his inquiries in Alaska.

An independent commission is currently examining church personnel files for the past half-century in Anchorage, after Archbishop Paul Etienne asked it to do so a few weeks ago.

This isn’t the first time Etienne has sought justice within the church.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WIVB TV

November 5, 2018

By Chris Horvatits

James Faluszczak referred to a press conference held by Diocese of Buffalo officials Monday as “information-overload”.

Faluszczak, a survivor of clergy abuse, has been outspoken against Bishop Richard Malone and the diocese as the sexual abuse crisis has developed.

“What are they throwing at us?” Faluszczak asked. “What are the people in the pew going to get out of this? Is this an event for the press? Is this for the people in the pew? Because I honestly cannot tell what they’re trying to accomplish.”

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COLUMBIA (MO)
Columbia Daily Tribune

November 5, 2018

By Roger McKinney

“God of justice and compassion, protect all children from abuse and deliver us from hate.”

That was part of the closing prayer delivered Monday by Shawn McKnight, bishop of the Jefferson City diocese, after a listening session at Our Lady of Lourdes Church about the Catholic sex abuse crisis.

There was raw emotion and thoughtful analysis among participants who spoke for more than an hour. McKnight will use the information he gathered Monday and at other listening sessions at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops next week.

“There are a lot of common themes,” McKnight said after the session. He said he thinks and feels the same as many of those who spoke.

“We’re all united in this one desire that this crisis would be solved as Christ would want us to,” McKnight said.

Steve Concannon, an attorney in Boonville, referred to a list of “reflection questions” in the program. One was: Do you think bishops should resign if it is found they are culpable in enabling sexual abuse?

“We talked about credibility earlier,” Concannon said. “Why is this even a question? It’s insulting that this is even a question.”

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COLUMBUS (OH)
WSYX/WTTE TV

November 4, 2018

by Seema Iyer

St. Charles Catholic School in Columbus did more than prepare boys to become men, according to some former students, it may have also been an environment that fostered bullying, bigotry, and sex abuse.

In August a former student filed a lawsuit against St Charles, as well as the Columbus Diocese, claiming Monsignor Thomas Bennett, who died in 2008, had sexually abused him in the early 2000s. The former student, Kevin Heidtman, said it started when he had detentions with Bennett alone.

“That’s when things got more physical. Originally just over clothing but then eventually underneath,” Heidtman said.

The lawsuit prompted others to come forward.

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MARYLAND
Maryland Catholics for Action

Join Maryland Catholics for Action outside the USCCB Fall General Assembly in Baltimore.

Catholics for Action will join our friends from the 5 Theses and the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) at two events in Baltimore during the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Retreat. Unlike the USCCB retreat, “all are welcome” to these two events.

An ally group invites all Catholic men and women to meet from 2-3 pm at St. Vincent de Paul Church and then do a rosary walk to the 4:30 Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine where they will tape a copy of their 5 Theses. More information as well as a copy of the 5 Theses can be found here.

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The Daily Wire

November 5, 2018

By Emily Zanotti

A shocking new report compiled by a team of journalists from both the Boston Globe and the Philadelphia Inquirer alleges that at least one in three living, American Catholic bishops has been accused of failing to respond appropriately to claims of sexual abuse brought to their attention.

The report, over the weekend, offers a disturbing look into a Church hierarchy that was supposed to have been reformed in 2002, after the Boston Globe revealed that the Archdiocese of Boston had either covered up — or simply ignored — dozens of allegations of sexual misconduct against Boston priests.

Although much has been done to alleviate the possibility of sexual misconduct at the parish level, almost nothing has been done to root out misconduct among the Church’s administration, and bishops have been allowed to escape both accountability and punishment.

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MARIETTA (OH)
Marietta Times

November 6, 2018

The Diocese of Steubenville did the right thing last week when it released the names of priests who had been “credibly accused” of at least one act of sexual abuse of a minor. Some of the names were of men who are now deceased — that is important to those who have held their secrets for many years and may now quietly be receiving some small comfort from that validation.

Parishioners should be grateful to the diocese for its emphasis on the need to protect victims of abuse — and prevent future abuse — rather than to protect those who have used their positions of influence to inflict such damage.

In fact, according to Dino Orsatti, director of communications for the diocese, “we want to encourage anyone who has experienced abuse to come forward and to find healing and comfort,” even if the name of the accused is not on the current list.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

November 5, 2018

By Jay Tokasz and Lou Michel

Buffalo Diocese officials, acknowledging a recent “tsunami” of new claims of child sex abuse, said Monday they added 36 priest’s names to a list released in March that identified clergy who had been credibly accused of abuse.

The diocese’s list of credibly accused priests now stands at 78 priests – and includes 16 priests who are members of religious orders, a category the diocese excluded in an original list of 42 priests.

Diocese officials said they counted a total of 176 diocesan and religious order priests against whom child sex abuse allegations were made, but they chose not to identify deceased priests who had a single allegation against them.

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CHEEKTOWAGA (NY)
WKBW TV

November 5, 2018

By Josh Bazan

Bishop Richard Malone gathered all the priests in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo for a meeting to discuss the clergy sex abuse scandal Monday afternoon. This, is the wake of explosive reporting by the 7 Eyewitness News I-Team in recent months that has shed light on the extent of Bishop Malone’s involvement in the crisis.

“It’s going to be a long road,” Father Jack Ledwon of St. Joseph University Parish in Buffalo said. “This is a marathon. This crisis developed over decades and it’s not going to be healed with a week or a new program or a new hire or something like that. It’s going to take a lot of effort on a lot of people’s parts and it’s going to be a long road back.”

Father Ledwon spoke to reporters after exiting the meeting with Bishop Malone at Infant of Prague Parish in Cheektowaga. Reverend Paul Seil of St. Bernadette’s Church in Orchard Park also shared his thoughts on the meeting.

“I would call the mood somber,” Reverend Seil said. “I would say that you could hear a pin drop for most of the parts. We got a lot of information. But, there were also some wonderful priests who spoke up about their own personal feelings about the crisis and how it’s being handled.”

According to priests in attendance, one member of the clergy called on Bishop Malone to resign and was met with applause from some fellow priests. However, the majority of priests still seem to support Bishop Malone, according to Reverend Seil.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WVUE TV

November 5, 2018

By Rob Masson

The Archdiocese of New Orleans list of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse highlighted one particularly dark time at a Marrero orphanage.

One local attorney said more victims may come forward in the weeks and months ahead.

For 86 years, Hope Haven-Madonna Manor has served as a gateway to the west bank, but behind the orphanage’s ornate façade existed one of the Catholic church’s darkest secrets.

“Some of the abusers weren’t employed by the church. They were volunteers who were allowed to roam at will on the campus,” said attorney Roger Stetter, who sued the Archdiocese of New Orleans on behalf of sex abuse victims.

On the list of 57 abusive clergy members released by the archdiocese last week, eight – nearly one in seven – were credibly accused of abuse, and at one point spent time at Hope Haven.

“We’re telling the truth, and the truth will set you free,” Archbishop Gregory Aymond said Friday.

The list includes priests and clergy, many from the Salesian order, who served at Hope Haven, with one case dating back to the 1940s. The list includes Patrick Brady, Stanislaus Ceglar, Paul Csik, Anthony Esposito, Joseph Pankowski, Ernest Fagione and August Kita, who, the church said, were all credibly accused of abusing dozens of teens.

“In 2008 we filed a massive lawsuit with 59 named plaintiffs,” said Stetter.

Stetter would ultimately collect more than $5 million on behalf of those 59 plaintiffs, who began coming forward with their tales of abuse in 2005.

“Insurance companies picked up 50 percent of the tab to pay off these cases. …None of them went to trial,” said Stett

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MEMPHIS (TN)
Commercial Appeal

November 5, 2018

By Ron Maxey

The director of a Memphis-based Catholic organization has sent an open letter to Bishop J. Mark Spalding of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville questioning last week’s name release of 13 former priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

Patrick Benedict, a layperson and director of the Saint Michael the Archangel Organization, raises various concerns in the letter dated Nov. 5. Among the points raised are the fact that some of the priests were not accused until after they died and therefore had no chance to respond and the omission of any background information about the accusers.

More: Nashville diocese releases names of 13 former priests accused of sexually abusing minors

Benedict said no one should regard his letter to Spalding as in any way questioning the bishop’s sincerity.

“I do hope,” Benedict added, “you will respond to each of the questions raised in this letter.”

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ROME (ITALY)
La Croix International

October 19, 2018

A Vatican tribunal has ruled against transmitting a summons to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prefect Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer to appear before a French court.The Holy See sent a diplomatic note to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sept. 17 confirming its refusal to notify Cardinal Ladaria of a summons to appear in a French court over the Cardinal Barbarin affair.Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon and other diocesan leaders have been accused of having failed…

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ROME (ITALY)
La Croix International

October 19, 2018

A Vatican tribunal has ruled against transmitting a summons to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prefect Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer to appear before a French court.The Holy See sent a diplomatic note to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sept. 17 confirming its refusal to notify Cardinal Ladaria of a summons to appear in a French court over the Cardinal Barbarin affair.Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon and other diocesan leaders have been accused of having failed…

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MEMPHIS (TN)
Commercial Appeal

November 5, 2018

By Ron Maxey

The director of a Memphis-based Catholic organization has sent an open letter to Bishop J. Mark Spalding of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville questioning last week’s name release of 13 former priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

Patrick Benedict, a layperson and director of the Saint Michael the Archangel Organization, raises various concerns in the letter dated Nov. 5. Among the points raised are the fact that some of the priests were not accused until after they died and therefore had no chance to respond and the omission of any background information about the accusers.

More: Nashville diocese releases names of 13 former priests accused of sexually abusing minors

Benedict said no one should regard his letter to Spalding as in any way questioning the bishop’s sincerity.

“I do hope,” Benedict added, “you will respond to each of the questions raised in this letter.”

Benedict, who says he lives within the Catholic Diocese of Memphis, said by email Monday afternoon that he had no comment beyond what was in his letter.

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GET RELIGION

November 5, 2018

By Terry Mattingly

I’m not sure that we’re talking about a true sequel to the massive 2002 Boston Globe “Spotlight” series about sexual abuse of children and teens by Catholic priests.

Still, there’s no question that journalists at The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Globe have — working together — produced a disturbing report documenting the efforts of many U.S. Catholic bishops to hide abusive priests or, at the very least, to avoid investigations of their own sins and crimes during these scandals.

The dramatic double-decker headline at the Inquirer says a lot, pointing readers to the key fact — that U.S. bishops keep stressing that only Rome’s powers that be can discipline bishops, archbishops and cardinals::

America’s Catholic bishops vowed to remove abusive priests in 2002. In the years that followed, they failed to police themselves.

For the most part, this report avoids pinning simplistic political and doctrinal labels on Catholic shepherds who are, to varying degrees, involved in this story.

If you know any of the players mentioned in this report, you will recognize that it offers more evidence — as if it was needed — that this scandal is too big to be described in terms of “left” and “right.”.

I am sure that critics more qualified than me will find some holes and stereotypes. Experts will be able to connect the dots and see the networks that protected abusers or even produced them. Informed readers can do this, because the Globe-Inquirer team consistently names names. We will come back to one interesting exception to that rule.

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MEMPHIS (TN)
Daily Memphian

November 5, 2018

By Bill Dries

Three of eight former Roman Catholic priests connected to the Catholic Diocese of Nashville accused of child sexual abuse and dismissed from the priesthood had church assignments in Memphis.

They are included in a longer list released Friday in Nashville of 13 priests accused of child sexual abuse. Until the establishment of the separate Diocese of Memphis in 1971, the Nashville Diocese covered the entire state of Tennessee.

The list includes Paul W. St. Charles, who was the first director of the Catholic Youth Office for the new Memphis Diocese. St. Charles, ordained in 1966, had six civil lawsuits filed against him in Shelby County Circuit Court alleging child sexual abuse while he was a priest in Memphis. The lawsuits followed St. Charles’ suspension from all priestly duties in 2004 by then-Memphis Bishop J. Terry Steib.

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PEORIA (IL)
Herald & Review

November 2, 2018

By Maria Nagle

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests wants to know what prompted the Peoria Catholic Diocese to order three retired priests to step down now from public ministry when they face credible allegations of sexual abuse from decades ago.

“The big question is, Why now? What they are doing now, it seems, is unloading these secret crimes from decades ago that they swept under the rug,” SNAP spokesman Kate Bochte said. “It’s possibly because they know the attorney general is investigating these crimes now.

“I’ve heard from many survivors and their No. 1 concern is that this stops — that not another child is violated by any priest,” said Bochte, speaking from Chicago on Friday. “A big part of that is also holding perpetrators accountable and exposing the crimes.”

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Loyola Maroon

November 2, 2018

By Rose Wagner

Two priests who previously worked for Loyola were among the 57 clergy members who the Archdiocese of New Orleans identified as being taken out of ministry due to accusations of sexual abuse of minors.

The list was released Nov. 2, and included six people identified as Jesuits.

Among the Loyola-related priests was Bernard Knoth, who served as president of Loyola from 1995 to 2003, when he resigned amid a sexual abuse complaint regarding an allegation from 1986. The allegation involved a former student at Brebeuf Preparatory School in Indianapolis, Indiana where Knoth served as the principal at the time, according to a 2003 article in The Maroon.

According to the Archdiocese, Knoth was taken out of ministry in 2002. He resigned from his position at Loyola in 2003.

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SPRINGFIELD (IL)
The State Journal-Register

November 3, 2018

An attorney filed a lawsuit claiming Catholic clergy sexual abuse against every Catholic diocese in Illinois to “force each diocese to make public the names of all priests, living and dead, accused of child molestation.” It accuses two dead priests who can neither admit guilt nor claim innocence.

Catholic spokespersons refuted the suit’s claims with legal records and websites.

The suit appears based on a presumption of guilt until proven innocent of a never-ending series of charges, a strategy used by progressives to discredit conservatives. The real goal appears to be to silence pro-life Catholic voices like Bishop Thomas Paprocki locally and Pastor Frank Pavone of Priests for Life at the national level. In 1994 Pastor Pavone met with Mother Teresa, who subsequently wrote “I hope that many priests and deacons will join the Priests for Life.”

The attorney falsely claimed Bishop Paprocki “ascribed survivors coming forward to be devils.” The bishop said the “force behind (sex-abuse lawsuits) is … the devil” for burdening whole congregations and charitable organizations. The bishop attacked the suits’ motivation, not the survivors.

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NEW YORK (NY)
National Review

November 3, 2018

By Nicholas Frankovich

Diocesan review boards are not criminal court — and shouldn’t be.

Most people who allege that they were sexually abused by Catholic priests are telling the truth. The record that has accrued over decades of investigation by the Church itself is clear on that point, though only if you accept an evidentiary standard that’s too low for most cases to result in conviction or make it to trial at all in a criminal or even civil court. So what does William McSwain hope to accomplish?

McSwain, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, last month asked the U.S. bishops to preserve their files on sex-abuse complaints. On the same day, October 9, he sent to each of Pennsylvania’s eight dioceses a subpoena for any records that might shed light on alleged sexual abuse by clergy or on efforts by diocesan officials to cover it up.

He seeks records dating back only to 2001, even though the great bulk of cases for which the Church is still under the spotlight relate to sexual misconduct that is alleged to have occurred well before then, mostly in the 1960s through the 1980s. Moreover, for federal prosecution of the sexual abuse of anyone under 18, no statute of limitations applies during the victim’s lifetime. Why then did McSwain not subpoena relevant records from the 20th century as well?

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Catholic News Agency

November 2, 2018

They are accusing the cardinal of perjury

Three victims of former Chilean priest Fernando Karadima filed a complaint last week against Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, accusing him of perjury in the civil suit for compensation for damages filed against the Archdiocese of Santiago.

The complaint was filed in a Santiago court Oct. 25 by attorney Juan Pablo Hermosilla, representing Juan Carlos Cruz, José Andrés Murillo, and James Hamilton.

The legal action states that in September 2015 Cardinal Errázuriz, Archbishop Emeritus of Santiago, gave a statement as a witness under oath which “in the light of subsequent facts constitutes the crime of perjury.”

In his statement, the cardinal said that when he was Achbishop of Santiago, “in June 2006, I did not close the process (against Karadima) but put it on hold; the resignation of the priest from the parish is for them to decide.”

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TWIN CITIES (MN)
The Catholic Spirit

November 2, 2018

By Maria Wiering

Archbishop Emeritus John Nienstedt defended himself Oct. 24 from renewed allegations that he has engaged in sexual misconduct and that his judgment in the case of a former priest who sexually abused three boys was influenced by an “unusual social relationship” with him.

The allegations are part of a lawsuit filed against the Vatican Oct. 24 by Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul attorney. Its two plaintiffs include Jim Keenan, a sexual abuse survivor from the Twin Cities. Filed in U.S. District Court-Northern District of California, Anderson’s lawsuit is the third he’s filed against the Vatican. Courts have dismissed both of the two previous suits.

The lawsuit seeks the release of Vatican-held documents in its archives pertaining to clergy sex abuse.

The lawsuit cites the internal investigation commissioned in 2014 by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis into allegations that Archbishop Nienstedt engaged in sexual misconduct with adults prior to being named Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis. That investigation produced affidavits alleging that Archbishop Nienstedt had sexually harassed and propositioned adult males and frequented gay establishments in Canada and Detroit.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Trib Live

October 31, 2018

By Deb Erdley

Clergy sexual abuse survivors say they have the votes to pass a state bill establishing a window for older victims to sue their abusers, and they’re challenging the Pennsylvania Senate to return to Harrisburg for a vote.

“We have the votes. The votes are there to pass SB 261 as it stands,” said Ryan O’Connor. “We just need the majority to allow it to come to a vote.”

O’Connor, 47, of Verona, who has written of his abuse as a child at the hands of a parish priest in Johnstown, is traveling the state with Jim Van Sickle, another survivor who serves as Survivor Advocacy Coordinator for Stop Child Predator, a national nonprofit group.

“There is a lot of support in the Senate for this bill, and we’re asking that they return and vote on it,” Van sickle said.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Palm Springs Desert Sun

November 1, 2018

By Christopher Damien

Two brothers claim in a civil suit that Carlos Rene Rodriguez, a former Roman Catholic priest who spent time in prison from 2004 to 2008 for child sexual assault, abused them as children in the early 1990s, while he was ministering at churches in Riverside.

The lawsuit includes documents that show the church had already known Rodriguez had a past of sexual abuse. Church leaders had sent Rodriguez to a treatment center for troubled priests and stripped Rodriguez of his religious order. The lawsuit also accuses Rodriguez of violating church orders not to minister, due to his previous sexual abuse.

The lawsuit comes just three weeks after Bishop Gerald Barnes’ Oct. 8 release of a list of credible child sexual abuse claims against priests who were part of the Diocese of San Bernardino. The detailed court filings allege that Rodriguez’s pattern of horrific abuse extended into churches in Riverside County.

Anthony DeMarco, the lawyer representing the two plaintiffs identified only as John Does, questions why the Diocese of San Bernardino failed to see that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles had documented evidence of Rodriguez’s sexual abuse before he began ministering in Riverside.

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MARRERO (LA)
The Advocate

November 3, 2018

By Matt Sledge

The grand Spanish Colonial Revival buildings of Madonna Manor and Hope Haven that stand on opposite sides of Barataria Boulevard in Marrero are largely vacant now, empty but still-imposing monuments of Catholicism in the New Orleans area.

For decades, they housed orphans and children from troubled families, all placed into the care of the church. But their ornate facades concealed a grotesque pattern of physical and sexual abuse perpetrated by priests, brothers and nuns.

While the scandal there cost the Archdiocese of New Orleans and other entities $5.2 million in 2009, Friday was the first time the archdiocese named alleged abusers there, along with dozens of priests and other clergy that church officials determined were credibly accused of the sexual abuse of minors.

At least 65 people have alleged that as children, they suffered abuse, including whipping, molestation or worse, while confined to the 10-acre campus of Hope Haven and Madonna Manor between the 1940s and 1970s.

One of them, 66-year-old Louis Cantero, still gets a chill whenever he drives past the complex.

“I didn’t realize how much damage that did to me until later in life,” he said.

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SPRINGFIELD (MO)
Springfield News-Leader

November 3, 2018

By Giacomo Bologna

It was cold and windy on Saturday morning as Gail Herbert stood outside the Catholic Center in Springfield, the place where she says she was sexually abused by a top diocesan official.

Gail Herbert and her husband, Jon, no longer want to be anonymous.

As the Herberts spoke about their “Jane Doe” lawsuit and the abuse allegedly perpetrated by the former director of family ministry for the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Catholic Diocese, Bishop Edward Rice came outside.

Rice appeared to record them with his cellphone.

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[In Lourdes, victims of pedophilia testify in front of Catholic bishops]

FRANCE
Le Monde

November 4, 2018

By Cécile Chambraud

Huit personnes ayant subi des violences sexuelles de la part de clercs ont témoigné lors de l’assemblée plénière d’automne des évêques de France.

A Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées), cette année, ils sont « les invités » des évêques catholiques. C’est de cette manière que Mgr Luc Crépy, président de la Cellule permanente de lutte contre la pédophilie (CPLP), a présenté les victimes de violences sexuelles de la part de clercs. Huit d’entre elles, hommes et femmes, étaient conviées à témoigner devant les 118 prélats, répartis en quatre groupes, à l’occasion de l’assemblée plénière d’automne des évêques de France, samedi 3 novembre.

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[Pedophilia: French Church tallies 211 testimonies of victims claiming abuse since 2017]

FRANCE
Le Monde

October 31, 2018

By Louise Couvelaire

Selon un rapport de l’épiscopat publié mardi, 129 prêtres ou diacres ont été mis en cause par un témoignage, dont dix ont été mis en examen et quatre incarcérés.

L’Eglise catholique française poursuit son opération de transparence. A quelques jours de la Conférence des évêques de France (CEF), à Lourdes, au cours de laquelle des victimes d’abus sexuels seront pour la première fois invitées à témoigner, l’épiscopat a publié, mardi 30 octobre, un second rapport sur la lutte contre la pédophilie dans l’Eglise.

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[National prosecutor suspends head of sex crimes for sexual harassment complaint]

CHILE
El Mostrador

November 5, 2018

El fiscal nacional encargó una investigación administrativa al jefe de la unidad de Lavado de dinero, Delitos Económicos y Crimen Organizado, Mauricio Fernández.

El fiscal nacional Jorge Abbott suspendió al director de la Unidad Especializada en Derechos Humanos, Violencia de Género y Delitos Sexuales de la Fiscalía Nacional, Luis Torres González, luego que una estudiante en práctica presentara una denuncia en su contra por acoso sexual.

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[Priest victim of Karadima speaks of “spiritual dictatorship” and says abuses continue in the Church]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

November 4, 2018

By Leonardo Vallejos

El presbitero Eugenio de la Fuente se declara como un “sobreviviente de graves abusos de poder y conciencia”.

El presbitero Eugenio de la Fuente, una de las víctimas religiosas de Fernando Karadima, insistió en sus críticas contra el ex sacerdote. En una carta enviada a El Mercurio hace un resumen histórico con todos los hitos que han tenido las denuncias contra el otrora párroco de El Bosque y aprovecha de cuestionar el rol de la Iglesia.

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FRANCE
La Croix International

November 5, 2018

By Céline Hoyeau

Participants hope for a deep change in awareness and in the practice of the Church to prevent and deal with assaults and sexual crimes

French bishops collectively met with victims of clerical sexual abuse for the first time for a session of testimony and discussion that participants later described as of “rare quality.”

Véronique Garnier, who was abused by a priest for two years from the age of 13, says she survived for years in what she described as “deadly silence” because “no one wanted to listen to us.”

Now, she says that she was impressed by the “totally different kind of silence, a great silence” that reigned during her meeting with 30 French bishops gathered in a circle around her at the beginning of their Plenary Assembly in Lourdes on Saturday Nov. 3.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
WKBN

November 1, 2018

The Youngstown Diocese released the assignments for those accused of sex abuse

On Tuesday, Bishop George Murry released the names of 34 religious leaders removed due to sexual misconduct within the Youngstown Diocese since 1943.

The diocese has now released the parishes where each served.

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