ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
The Week

August 22, 2018

By Rachel Lu

American Catholics are furious. The rage has been building all summer, ever since the news broke concerning the alleged sexual predations of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Then a Pennsylvania grand jury released evidence of appallingly widespread abuse across six Pennsylvania dioceses, spanning 70 years, bolstering the argument that bishops have functioned for years as enablers, covering things up and playing things down, as known offenders are moved to fresh locations where they can find new victims.

To some, the way forward seems obvious if not easy. The Church needs better bishops. Many Catholic laymen are calling for mass resignations, pointing out that there is a precedent for this. The objective, as some see it, should not be simply to weed out the obviously-guilty-and-corrupt from the episcopacy. Rather, we need to replace our petty bureaucratic functionaries with virtuous and inspired spiritual leaders. Some would like to see the bishops in more populist garb, abandoning their oversized desks and cushy armchairs to preach on street corners and work in soup kitchens.

The appeal of this vision is obvious. But to my mind, a spate of glossy photo spreads — bishops kissing babies, hugging convicts, posing with oversized ladles — is borderline grotesque. After so many years of hypocrisy and posturing, couldn’t we all use a break from that kind of performative piety? I’d be content with uninspired bureaucrat-bishops, so long as they were decent and competent. Unfortunately, even that is starting to seem like a pretty tall order.

If the Catholic laity wish to fix the Church, I recommend three things. First, demand the removal of predatory priests and corrupt bishops. Second, reduce your expectations for those clergy that remain. Third, pick up the slack yourselves.

Catholicism will always need some priests, because it is a sacramental faith. In the 21st century though, it’s mostly going to be the task of Catholic laity to preserve and perpetuate their faith for future generations. Ordained men cannot be expected to do it all, both because they are too compromised, and because they are too few.

Catholic bishops are deeply unsympathetic figures nowadays (for good reason), but we should still appreciate that the expectations placed on them can be fairly ridiculous. In the first place, American dioceses are way too big. In some, the bishop is officially responsible for the spiritual guidance of literally millions of souls. How much oversight can we really expect under those circumstances?

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

August 17, 2018

By Heidi Schlumpf

‘No genuine … healing and reform can begin’ without a demonstration of repentance, statement says

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 9:45 p.m. Central time with comments from Susan Reynolds and an update on the number of signers. Second update at 10:15 a.m. extends the time for signing the statement.

More than 3,000 theologians, educators and lay leaders have called for all U.S. bishops to submit their resignations to Pope Francis, much like Chile’s 34 bishops did in May after revelations of sexual abuse and corruption, as a public act of penance and a “willing abdication of earthly status.”

“Today, we call on the Catholic Bishops of the United States to prayerfully and genuinely consider submitting to Pope Francis their collective resignation as a public act of repentance and lamentation before God and God’s People,” said a statement, posted in English and Spanish on the Daily Theology blog on Friday.

“Only then might the wrenching work of healing begin,” it said.

The statement was released Friday, with 140 signers, in response to Tuesday’s release of a grand jury report that detailed seven decades of sexual abuse by clergy and cover-up by church leaders in six dioceses in Pennsylvania, as well as allegations earlier this summer that former archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick, sexually abused two children and adult seminarians.

Those interested can sign the statement by midnight Wednesday, Aug. 22, when it, along with a cover letter, will be sent to the president and vice presidents of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), as well as to to the apostolic nuncio in Washington D.C. and to the Congregations of Bishops in Rome.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
ABC7

August 21, 2018

By Victoria Sanchez

A national support group for people abused by Catholic priests is calling for the immediate resignation of Cardinal Donald Wuerl.

The leader of the Washington Archdiocese is under immense scrutiny after he was named more than 200 times in a Pennsylvania grand jury report about sexual abuse and cover-up when he was the Bishop of Pittsburgh for 18 years. The report took two years, is close to 900 pages, identifies roughly 300 priests and found at least 1,000 abused children in six Pennsylvania dioceses.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) demanded change in the Catholic church as they stood in front of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on Tuesday morning. They want Wuerl to resign or for Pope Francis to strip him of his title.

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HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle

August 21, 2018

An international search for a Dallas priest accused of molesting three teenage boys is a reminder that Texas should be as concerned as other states about the child sexual abuse allegations that have shaken the Catholic Church.

Father Edmundo Paredes, pastor for 27 years of St. Cecilia Catholic Church, was reported missing Sunday and suspected of fleeing to the Philippines, his native country. The Diocese of Dallas reportedly notified police in February that Paredes was suspected of abusing children, but did not let his parishioners know until Saturday.

Such delays have led to widespread condemnation of the Catholic Church’s handling of child sexual abuse allegations. A Pennsylvania grand jury report last week documented abuse by 300 priests of more than 1,000 victims over a period of 70 years in that state. Most of the abusers were allowed to remain in the ministry as priests.

Pope Francis in a letter to Catholics expressed “shame” over the charges and vowed to punish priests guilty of crimes or covering them up: “We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them,” Francis wrote.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
PG VISUALS

August 21, 2018

A visual narrative.

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TOLEDO (OH)
The Toledo Blade

August 21, 2018

By and large, criminal complaints, affidavits and other documents prepared by law-enforcement agencies are poorly written.

They’re portentous, heavy on jargon and short on style, with one simple sentence following another monotonously. Even if rich in detail, getting through them can be a slog.

Not so the Pennsylvania grand jury report on sexual abuse of children in the Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg and Scranton dioceses. Echoing the format of a report another grand jury produced two years ago about sexual abuse in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, the 884-page document released Aug. 14 grabs readers from the very first sentence:

“We, the members of this grand jury, need you to hear this.”

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

August 22, 2018

By Danny Tran and James Oaten

Melbourne’s new Archbishop Peter Comensoli has told parishioners he is “strongly committed” to reporting sexual abuse within the Church, but also wants to “uphold the seal of confession”.

The comments come days after the Pope wrote an open letter to Catholics apologising for abuse within the church.

The letter, penned by the Supreme Pontiff and addressed to all Catholics, begged forgiveness for abandoning the vulnerable and protecting the powerful, and was written in response to devastating allegations of misconduct by the church in the United States.

“We showed no care for the little ones, we abandoned them,” Pope Francis wrote.

“The heart-wrenching pain of these victims, which cries out to heaven, was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced.”

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PITTSBURGHH (PA)
CNN/KXLF

August 18, 2018

A district attorney is lamenting his office’s inability to prosecute any sex abuse allegations against Catholic priests detailed in a Pennsylvania grand jury’s report this week.

In Tuesday’s report, the grand jury said internal documents from six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania showed that more than 300 “predator priests” were credibly accused of sexually abusing more than 1,000 child victims since 1947.

Ninety-nine of the 300 priests were in the Pittsburgh Diocese, and about a third of those 99 were in Beaver County, northwest of Pittsburgh.

But because of a variety of factors — such as the statute of limitations expiring, or the accused or accusers having died — none of those roughly 30 Beaver County cases can be prosecuted, District Attorney David Lozier said.

Often, he said, the most his office can do for victims is offer solace.

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ERIE (PA)
YourErie.com

August 21, 2018

By Syeda Abbas

The Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) wants the Diocese of Erie to continue open communication regarding sexual abuse in the Catholic church.

At first, SNAP members waited across the street from the diocese offices to meet with the news media, but they were surprised to be invited onto church property, signaling to them that Bishop Lawrence Persico was more than willing to have an open discussion.

Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest Regional Leader, says, “well, I know that victims are very excited that the report was released. I got involved with SNAP 16 years ago; my brother was sexually abused by our long-time parish priest…”

Supporters and survivors held signs against sexual abuse. Survivors shared their stories about abuse and how it affected their lives.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

August 21, 2018

Editorial Board

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley and Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt must find a way to do something incredibly difficult and absolutely necessary. They must launch the kind of full-scale grand jury investigation into the systemic cover-up of child rape and other serious crimes by Catholic priests that their counterpart in Pennsylvania just completed.

Justice requires it. And no one else can do it.

Both Hawley’s office and Schmidt’s have said they don’t have jurisdiction but would help local prosecutors if asked.

We’ve noticed, though, that where there’s a will, there’s a loophole. And if local prosecutors do have to ask them to step in, then they should by all means do that.

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ERIE (PA)
GoErie

August 21, 2018

By Ed Palattella

Demonstrators with the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests showed up outside the offices of the Catholic Diocese of Erie. ‘I am quite surprised,’ organizer says of bishop’s visit.

Judy Jones has been organizing protests for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests for 16 years.

The St. Louis resident, who helps direct S.N.A.P.’s Midwest operations, has been turned away by bishops.

She has dropped off letters at their chanceries, or administrative offices.

She has gone up against diocesan representatives.

But she has never talked to a bishop, let alone met one.

That changed on Tuesday, when Jones and five other protesters with S.N.A.P. showed up in the parking lot at St. Mark Catholic Center, the chancery for the Catholic Diocese of Erie.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

August 20, 2018

By Judy L. Thomas

Missouri and Kansas authorities need to launch grand jury-style investigations into clergy sexual abuse crimes and cover-ups in the Catholic church similar to the one conducted in Pennsylvania, a local attorney and abuse victims said Monday.

“When we received the grand jury investigation from Pennsylvania, it was shocking and it was saddening,” said Rebecca Randles, who has represented hundreds of victims in priest sexual abuse lawsuits. “And then I sat down to try to figure out, well, how many priests in the Kansas City area, the St. Louis area and KCK had been similarly abusive?”

The number, Randles said, was astounding.

“We have over 230 priests that we know of that have been sexually abusive in this area,” she said of her accounting of those who have been accused. “And our population centers are much smaller. So it details that there is an even greater issue in the Kansas City, St. Louis, Missouri areas and the Archdiocese of Kansas than what we’re seeing in the grand jury report out of Pennsylvania.”

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INDIA
The News Minute

July 29, 2018

Withdraw rape case, will give asylum Audio of Kerala Catholic priest threatening nun.

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INDIA
The Indian Express

July 31, 2018

By Shaju Philip

In the voice clip, Aerthayil was heard asking the nun, that if they are ready to withdraw the complaint, they would be allowed to move to a new convent, which would be constructed somewhere under the jurisdiction of Kanjirapally diocese.

Police on Monday registered a case against a senior priest for his alleged attempt to influence the nun who has accused Jalandhar bishop Franco Mulakkal of rape. The case was lodged on a direction of the judicial first class magistrate court in Pala after the audio clip of a purported conversation between Fr Aerthayil and a nun close to the complainant came out in the media.

Catholic congregation Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI) too initiated disciplinary action against Aerthayil. Aerthayil, a former chairman of Catholic Church mouthpiece Deepika, was removed as head of the CMI monastery at Kurianad in Kottayam a day after a voice clip came out in the media.

In the voice clip, Aerthayil was heard asking the nun, who is staying with the complainant at their Kuravilangad convent in Kottayam, that if they are ready to withdraw the complaint, they would be allowed to move to a new convent, which would be constructed somewhere under the jurisdiction of Kanjirapally diocese. Aerthayil is also heard stating he was making a suggestion and the nuns should “think positively”.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

August 19, 2018

By Ted Sherman

The wide-ranging report from a Pennsylvania grand jury exposing the long-hidden secrets of predator priests is sparking calls for a similar accounting in New Jersey.

New Jersey’s Catholic bishops, in the wake of the report, said the disclosures “show a heartbreaking departure from our fundamental belief in the dignity and value of every child.”

At the same time, the head of the state’s largest Catholic diocese has announced it will hire an outside firm to conduct an audit of alleged child abuse cases, although Cardinal Joseph Tobin of the Archdiocese of Newark has not committed to a release of any findings.

Sen. Joseph Vitale, who has pushed for years to eliminate New Jersey’s limits on civil lawsuits involving child sex abuse complaints against priests, said it is time for the attorney general to act, calling on the state to conduct an investigation similar to that in Pennsylvania.

“This issue has not gone away and victims continue to suffer,” said the Middlesex County Democrat.

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ALLENTOWN (PA) and HARRISBURG (PA)
AP/WTXF

August 21 2018

A Roman Catholic priest was charged on Tuesday with groping a 17-year-old girl and sending her nude images of himself, just a week after a grand jury reported the church had covered up decades of child molestation by priests across the state.

The charges of felony corruption of minors and misdemeanor indecent assault against 30-year-old Kevin Lonergan were not a result of the landmark grand jury investigation but stemmed from a complaint filed in June, after the grand jury had finished its work, authorities said.

This is at least the second case of possible priest abuse being investigated in the Allentown Diocese since the grand jury finished its report, which identified 301 “predator priests” in a half-dozen Pennsylvania dioceses, including 37 in Allentown, going back to the 1940s.

“I think it’s horrible. I think it’s putting a dark cloud on the Catholic faith,” said parionisher Janel Herman reacting to the charges against Lonergan. “I probably wouldn’t trust my child alone with a priest. Not probably, I wouldn’t, unfortunately. But I do know of some good ones that are probably being tarnished because of it.”

The priest first met the 17-year-old girl before Mass at St. Francis of Assisi Church also in Allentown. Shortly after meeting her, Lonergan obtained her cell phone number from other members of the church. Investigators say Lonergan had used social media apps such as Snapchat to contact the victim.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KWCH12

August 21, 2018

Kansas has now joined Missouri in saying the state Attorney General’s Office will not launch grand jury investigations into abuse within the Catholic Church. It was a grand jury report that revealed more than 300 priests in Pennsylvania abused more than 1,000 children.

The call to do so came from four victims of abuse from Kansas and Missouri along with their Kansas City attorney, Rebecca Randles.

“I’m now 62 years old and I still live with the pain of what happened to me when I was in grade school,” Tim Viviano said, getting emotional, at a news conference Monday recounting what happened to him years ago.

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TOPEKA (KS)
The Topeka Capital-Journal

August 21, 2018

By Katie Moore

In the wake of a call for a statewide investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic priests, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt urged victims to contact the state’s victim assistance hotline.

The hotline can be reached at (800) 828-9745 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

“I admire and encourage those victims of childhood sexual abuse who continue to choose to come forward, sometimes after many years have passed,” Schmidt said in a statement. “The physical or sexual abuse of a child is a serious crime in Kansas.”

On Monday, attorney Rebecca Randles said her firm identified 238 priests accused of abuse from five dioceses in Kansas and Missouri. Joined by four survivors, Randles urged the attorney generals in Kansas and Missouri to convene large-scale investigations similar to the grand jury investigation in Pennsylvania which discovered more than 1,000 victims.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Associated Press

August 21, 2018

Priest sex abuse victims are demanding that Missouri and Kansas officials conduct a comprehensive investigation into clergy misconduct and cover-ups similar to the one that revealed widespread problems in Pennsylvania.

The Kansas City Star reports that Rebecca Randles, who has represented hundreds of victims in priest sexual abuse lawsuits, made the case for the investigation at a news conference Monday with four men who said they had been sexually abused.

Randles said the findings of the Pennsylvania investigation were “shocking” and led her to sit down to try to figure out how many priests in the Kansas City and St. Louis areas had been similarly abusive. She came up with 230 names. But she said only a handful of priests have been charged and one bishop punished.

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ST. LOUIS (MI)
KMOX Radio

August 20, 2018

By Mark Reardon

Sister Mary Jo Sobieck threw a perfect first pitch before a White Sox game over the weekend. She discusses her days playing softball and her love of the Cardinals. Pope Francis issues a letter to Catholics around the world condemning sex abuse and its cover up by the church. David Clohessy is the former executive director of SNAP – the Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests. William Roth is the founder of the St. Louis Actors Studio. He discusses this year’s season at the Gaslight Theater.

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ROME
ABC News

August 21, 2018

By Phoebe Natanson

When Pope Francis travels to Ireland this weekend, he is likely to meet privately with sex abuse victims, a Vatican spokesman told reporters today.

As is the custom, information about the pope’s meetings with victims would not be revealed to the public until afterwards and only if the victims agree.

Without sharing any further details about the meetings, Vatican spokesperson Greg Burke said, “The important thing for the pope is to listen.”

Burke also said the pope will pray in silence for abuse victims in a chapel at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Dublin on Saturday.

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LEXINGTON (KY)
WKYT

August 20, 2018

By Emilie Arroyo

A disturbing grand jury report out of Pennsylvania is hitting close to home for the Diocese of Lexington. The recent report involves hundreds of priests, and more than 1,000 victims of alleged sexual abuse in the Catholic church.

The former leader of the Diocese of Lexington, Bishop Ronald Gainer, surfaced in the abuse findings, and is accused of asking the Vatican to protect two accused priests.

“The efforts to protect the institution were widespread,” explained Lexington Bishop John Stowe, who says he hasn’t had recent contact with his predecessor.

“No I have not had a chance to talk to Bishop Gainer,” said Stowe, “Our first concern is for the victims. We also go around with the shame of knowing that leadership in our church has failed to respond adequately to victims and allowed abuse to go on.”

However, Stowe has reached out to Lexington parishioners, condemning both the abuse and cover-ups that followed.

“Our church is bigger than just the sins of some of its members. So, we have to focus on the good that we’re doing and hear the cries of the victims, and respond to those as best as we can,” said Stowe.

That response, and ones like it from other church leaders in Kentucky, is falling short for some in the Catholic community, like members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. A leader with the Kentucky chapter tells WKYT that if the church wants to stop the abuse,
it has to change the language used to describe it.

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ATLANTA (GA)
CNN

August 21, 2018

By Susannah Cullinane and Madison Park

For more than three decades, the Catholic Church has been rocked by sex abuse scandals spanning the globe.

And for decades, the church has been accused of protecting itself rather than the victims of child sexual abuse.
Here are some major scandals and revelations involving the Catholic Church and allegations of abuse.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KCUR

August 20, 2018

By Andrea Tudhope

A Kansas City attorney and abuse victims are calling on the attorneys general of Kansas and Missouri to launch investigations into clergy sexual abuse, similar to the grand jury investigation in Pennsylvania.

Attorney Rebecca Randles said she has hundreds of clients who allege they’ve been abused by a member of the Catholic Church.

It wasn’t until the grand jury report was released, revealing more than 1,000 young people had been abused by priests in Pennsylvania, that she took a step back to consider the breadth of the issue.

“I didn’t realize the magnitude of what’s happening here, to people in Kansas City. It’s astounding,” Randles said.

That’s why she is calling for statewide investigations into the alleged abuse, which she said — according the Archdiocese of St. Louis and a website documenting investigations filed — involves more than 200 current and former priests in Missouri and the Archdiocese of Kansas in Kansas City, Kansas.

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UNITED STATES
Elle

August 21, 2018

By Katie O’Malley

It is possible to be both alleged perpetrator and victim

Last night, the New York Times reported that actress and #MeToo campaigner Asia Argento recently settled claims that she sexually assaulted actor Jimmy Bennett in 2013, when he was a minor.

Last October, when sexual assault allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein hit international news headlines, Argento came out with her own claims of abuse by the film mogul.

In the weeks that followed, she joined a legion of male and female advocates of the #MeToo movement, which encouraged people to speak about their own experiences of assault and harassment.

Weinstein has ‘unequivocally denied’ any allegations of non-consensual sex.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KCTV

August 20, 2018

By Nick Sloan

Following a grand jury report in Pennsylvania accusing more than 300 priests of sexually abusing more than a 1,000 children, there are calls for the attorney generals in Missouri and Kansas to launch into allegations of abuse by the Catholic Church.

Four men on Monday sat down in front of the TV cameras with representatives for the hundreds of people who say they’ve been sexually abused by priests.

Today the names of more than 200 accused priests in Kansas and Missouri were released, 45 of them are in the metro.

“As we’ve seen today with the events in Pennsylvania, there is a need for accountability and true reconciliation within the church,” said Scott Goodloe, victim of abuse.

Attorney Rebecca Randles said the revelation makes the case a “bigger scandal.”

“The numbers that we have compared to the population centers we have, make this probably an even bigger scandal,” she said.

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DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Reuters

August 20, 2018

By Padraic Halpin

Andrew Madden became the first victim of clerical child sex abuse in Ireland to speak out publicly in 1995 when he detailed how, as a 12-year-old altar boy, he suffered two-and-a-half years of abuse at the hands of his parish priest.

Over the next 15 years floods of similar stories followed as harrowing state investigations unearthed endemic sexual abuse and cover-up that rocked the church’s standing in the once staunchly Roman Catholic country.

When Pope Francis makes the first papal visit to Ireland in nearly 40 years this weekend, Madden, a Dubliner, will be a long way away.

“I did not want to be here and watch a load of people flag-waving after all this church has done. To see that institution being cheered on when there are so many unanswered questions, I would find it sickening,” said Madden, who will be in Rome when the Pope addresses an expected 500,000 people in Dublin on Sunday.

“I don’t have any expectations of the pope telling the truth about what the Vatican knew and its knowledge of all that was covered up. It has had plenty of time to respond appropriately to what’s happened in this country and elsewhere.”

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BOSTON (MA)
CBS Connecticut/WBZ News 11pm

August 20, 2018

Cardinal Sean O’Malley claims his secretary never handed him a letter claiming that now ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick had engaged in sexual misconduct with seminarians decades ago

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
BRIT + CO

August 20, 2018

By Kelli Korducki

The Italian actress and director Asia Argento had been one of the most prominent voices of the #MeToo movement since she came forward with rape allegations against Harvey Weinstein in October 2017. On Sunday night, the New York Times reported that the actress herself stands accused of sexually assaulting a young man when he was a 17-year-old minor. Argento has also reportedly signed off on a $380,000 payoff to prevent further legal action against her.

The allegations against Argento have surfaced just as a different kind of celebrity #MeToo scandal is making ripples across certain corners of the internet. On August 13, the New York Timesreported that New York University had conducted an 11-month investigation into a sexual harassment complaint by a male former graduate student against Avital Ronell, a female superstar professor of German and Comparative Literature. After the university concluded that Ronell was responsible, a group of extremely influential academics signed off on a letter to NYU in Ronell’s defense; one of the most powerful feminist scholars on earth, Judith Butler, was one of them.

The two incidents are unrelated, but they raise the same important question: What does #MeToo mean when the alleged perpetrators are women? And, to take that question to its logical follow-up, how can a feminist movement come to terms with predatory behavior on the part of women who claim to be feminists, themselves?

The answer might just lie in what the two women’s cases have in common, which happens to also be what all #MeToo stories have in common: Power.

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ATLANTA (GA)
National Public Radio

August 20, 2018

Length: 5:23

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Yesterday at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in suburban Atlanta, a priest spoke to his congregation about sexual abuse. Catholics are struggling with the details of a Pennsylvania grand jury report released last week. It outlined decades of sexual abuse in six dioceses by more than 300 priests involving more than 1,000 children. His words led to a remarkable exchange during the service yesterday. Susan Reynolds was in the pews at St. Thomas More. She’s also a professor of Catholic studies at Emory University’s School of Theology. Welcome.

SUSAN REYNOLDS: Thank you.

CHANG: So can you tell us – what was the priest saying about these revelations of widespread abuse by priests in Pennsylvania?

REYNOLDS: It was a powerful homily. You know, he began by saying, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. And he went on to say what the church needs is radical structural reform led by laypeople.

CHANG: And then what happened?

REYNOLDS: Well, he turned to sit down after he was finished – and like I said, it was a powerful homily – when, all of a sudden, in about the fifth row, a dad stood up. And for those of your listeners who are Catholic, you know that you don’t just (laughter) stand up during Mass.

CHANG: This is very rare, for someone to just speak unannounced in the (laughter) middle of Mass.

REYNOLDS: I’ve been to Catholic for 31 of my 31 years, and never have I ever seen anything like this. He was shaking. He was determined. He was terrified. His shirt was matted to his (laughter) back with sweat.

CHANG: Wow.

REYNOLDS: And he simply stood up and said, how? (Laughter) How do we do that? Tell us how.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Vox

August 21, 2018

By Daniel Hemel

Why many Catholic Church accusers are legally barred from bringing their case to court.

The release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report documenting the sexual abuse of more than 1,000 child victims by hundreds of Catholic priests has revived a long-running debate about statutes of limitations.

These statutes — which create time limits after which criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits can no longer be initiated — prevent many of the Pennsylvania accusers from bringing their alleged abusers to court. It’s the same type of law that helped make it so hard for Bill Cosby’s accusers to take him to court when allegations of rape resurfaced a few years ago.

Statutes of limitations are common but controversial features of federal and state law. More than 40 states still have statutes of limitations that apply to some or all child sexual abuse crimes, and most states also apply limitations statutes to civil lawsuits.

Proponents of these laws argue that litigating a case based on events from the distant past runs the risk of lost evidence and faulty memories. Critics respond that these concerns can be adequately addressed without drawing arbitrary lines that shut victims out of court.

Pennsylvania law currently allows criminal prosecutions for child sexual abuse until the victim turns 50. Victims themselves can bring civil lawsuits (in which victims ask for compensation rather than for the perpetrator to be put in prison) until they turn 30. Calls for Pennsylvania and other states to reform these statutes have grown louder in the days since the grand jury report.

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VATICAN CITY
CBS News

August 20, 2018

By Jan Crawford

Pope Francis became the first pope to directly write to the world’s Catholics about the church’s sexual abuse scandal. In a letter published Monday, the pope said the church had abandoned its children, begged victims for forgiveness and said the church must spare no effort to root out predator priests.

The letter comes less than a week after revelations of decades of abuse in Pennsylvania and allegations that the current archbishop of Washington, D.C., was involved in a coverup.

“We showed no care for the little ones,” the pope wrote. “We abandoned them.”

Francis, however, stopped short of offering concrete steps to remove abusive priests or sanction those who took part in cover-ups.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl, now the archbishop of Washington, D.C., was accused in the report of shielding predator priests. As bishop of Pittsburgh for 18 years, he oversaw 32 of of the 99 accused. Wuerl spoke with CBS News the night before the report was released.

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VATICAN CITY
Agence France Presse

August 21, 2018

Irish abuse survivor Marie Collins said that the latest statement from the Vatican lacked a “plan of action”

“In recent days, a report was made public which detailed the experiences of at least a thousand survivors… the abuse of power and of conscience at the hands of priests,” the pope said in a letter made public by the Vatican.

“Even though it can be said that most of these cases belong to the past, nonetheless as time goes on we have come to know the pain of many of the victims,” he said.

“We have realised that these wounds never disappear and that they require us forcefully to condemn these atrocities and join forces in uprooting this culture of death,” he added.

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NEW YORK (NY)
CBS News

August 19, 2018

Sunday marked the first time many Catholics returned to church since a shocking new report about priest sex abuse came to light. Many churches in the Northeast held a “Mass of forgiveness,” including St. Patrick’s Cathedral, CBS New York reports.

Bishop Ronald Gainer with the Diocese of Harrisburg joined a list of Roman Catholic clergy to pray and ask for forgiveness. It came in reaction to a grand jury report last week in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania that alleged rampant sex abuse affecting more than 1,000 children by 300 priests in six dioceses over the past seven decades.

“In the name of our local church, I voice again my heartfelt sorrow and sincere apology to all survivors of clergy sexual abuse,” Gainer said.

Gainer, who is named in the report, is accused of reaching out to the Vatican to protect two of the priests accused of abuse.

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LINCOLN (NE)
The Associated Press

August 17, 2018

The Nebraska Attorney General’s Office and the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln are urging residents to report any allegations of abuse by clergy or others in authority.

Lincoln Bishop James Conley and the attorney general’s office said anyone who has experienced even an uncomfortable incident with a priest should report it to law enforcement or the diocese.

The move follows a Pennsylvania grand jury report released Tuesday accusing 300 priests of molesting more than 1,000 children. The grand jury also accused senior church officials of systematically covering up the complaints, according to the report.

The Lincoln Diocese recently announced it had investigated abuse allegations involving five priests, all of whom no longer work for the diocese. Two accused priests resigned, one was dismissed from his position, one retired and the fifth has been deceased for a decade.

Conley said the diocese is continuing to gather information on the allegations.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Washington Post

August 20, 2018

By Michelle Boorstein

In the week since a Pennsylvania grand jury reported on child sex abuse by Catholic priests, Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s reputation has taken a brutal hit.

Wuerl’s upcoming book has been canceled by the publisher, he abruptly pulled out of his role as keynote speaker at a major global meeting in Ireland, and officials are considering taking his name off a high school in his hometown of Pittsburgh, where Wuerl served as bishop for 18 years before becoming the archbishop of Washington in 2006. On Monday, a vandal got ahead of them – covering his name in red spray paint.

Wuerl, an outwardly mild priest and meticulous manager who picks every word carefully when he speaks, has become for the moment the face of a ballooning crisis in the Catholic Church. And unlike the quiet protests and longings for change of past decades, Catholics in 2018 are demanding accountability – and fast.

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BERKELEY (CA)
SFGate

August 20, 2018

By Cynthia Dizikes and Nanette Asimov

UC Berkeley has suspended a renowned architecture professor for three years without pay for sexually harassing a graduate student and abusing his power for personal gain, The Chronicle has learned.

Professor Nezar AlSayyad “engaged in a pattern of sexual harassment that created a hostile environment,” Vice Provost Benjamin Hermalin wrote last week to Eva Hagberg Fisher, a UC Berkeley graduate student and doctoral candidate.

AlSayyad, who was one of Hagberg Fisher’s advisers, also attempted to isolate her from other faculty members and establish himself as her most important supporter, “thereby using his power for personal gain,” Hermalin wrote, noting that campus Chancellor Carol Christ reviewed “voluminous evidence” and concluded the violations were serious.

Through his attorney, AlSayyad denied engaging in any misconduct.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

August 21, 2018

By Joelle Casteix

It’s time for action.

You’ve read the PA Grand Jury Report and its sickening revelations.

You’ve watched child sex abuse scandals unfold in US Gymnastics, Penn State, The Boy Scouts of America, Hollywood, our public schools, and across beloved institutions we have trusted with the care of our children.

If you are a survivor, healing begins with movement. Taking that first step. DOING SOMETHING to make sure that what happened to you doesn’t happen to another child.

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UNITED STATES
CBS News

August 21, 2018

Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is reacting to a report that Italian actress Asia Argento paid off a young actor who accused her of sexual assault. Argento was one of the first women to accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct and has since become a prominent figure in the #MeToo movement.

In a New Yorker story last October, Argento accused Harvey Weinstein of rape when she was 21 years old. While none of the charges Weinstein is facing in court, including felony sexual assault, involve Argento, his attorney believes this latest development is a win for him in the court of public opinion

CBS News’ Jericka Duncan asked attorney Brafman how Weinstein reacted when he told him about the report that Argento was accused of sexual harassment.

“I don’t remember the first words. I remember the tenor of the conversation was almost relief,” Brafman said.

He says his client was not surprised by the New York Times article about Arento’s alleged payoff of the actor.

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DENVER (CO)
KDVR

August 20, 2018

Archbishop of Denver Samuel Aquila responded to the Grand Jury report of priest sex abuse in the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania over the weekend, and a tweet he sent on the issue is angering some.

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BOSTON (MA)
The Conversation

August 21, 2018

By Timothy D. Lytton

Last week, a Pennsylvania grand jury documented 70 years of concerted efforts by Catholic bishops in that state to conceal more than 1,000 cases of child sexual abuse by priests – including rape, sadomasochism and producing child pornography.

These revelations are shocking but not surprising given the history of the church’s sexual abuse scandal.

Since 1984, similar disclosures from around the country have made national headlines and brought shame to the church.

Yet the few criminal prosecutions of church officials for such cover-ups have either been dropped or resulted in small fines or, in one case, probation.

Civil lawsuits – legal claims brought by abuse victims for money damages – have consistently been the only effective way to make Catholic church officials publicly and concretely accountable for their decadeslong cover-up of unspeakable crimes. I argued this in my 2008 book, “Holding Bishops Accountable.” It is still true today.

But victims seeking justice for abuse that in many cases occurred decades ago face a significant legal impediment to mounting such lawsuits – statutes of limitation that limit the number of years that a victim has to file a lawsuit.

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UNITED STATES
AFP

August 20, 2018

Italian actress and sexual abuse campaigner Asia Argento is not under investigation over bombshell allegations that she had sex five years ago with an underage teen, police told AFP on Monday.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that Argento, a Harvey Weinstein accuser and leading figure in the #MeToo movement, had paid Jimmy Bennett $380,000 over the 2013 incident at a Los Angeles hotel.

The development prompted accusations of hypocrisy from Weinstein’s lawyer who said that the revelations undermined her claims against his client.

Bennett was 17 at the time of the alleged assault — a year younger than California’s age of consent. A spokeswoman for the LA County Sheriff’s Department said however the agency had “no open investigation.”

“Enquiries will be made. At this point, it’s just enquiring and gathering information, since we don’t have an active investigation,” Kimberly Alexander told AFP.

She said she was unaware if the department had contacted Bennett, now 22.

The actor and rock musician said Argento, 42, assaulted him in a California hotel room, according to the Times, which cited documents sent to the paper by an unidentified party.

Argento became a powerful voice for the #MeToo movement after accusing Weinstein of raping her when she was 21 in his hotel room in 1997 during the Cannes film festival.

Bennett’s legal action was launched a month after Argento’s accusations against Weinstein were made public, the Times said.

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NEW YORK
The Associated Press

August 20, 2018

Authorities said Monday that they are looking into sexual assault allegations by a young actor against Italian actress Asia Argento — one of the most prominent activists of the #MeToo movement against sexual harassment.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s Capt. Darren Harris said investigators from his department will seek to talk to Jimmy Bennett or his representatives about the alleged incident at a Southern California hotel in 2013, when Bennett was 17.

The move comes in response to a New York Times story saying Argento, 42, settled a legal notice of intent to sue filed by Bennett, who is now 22, for $380,000 shortly after she said last October that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein raped her.

Argento and Bennett co-starred in a 2004 film called “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things” in which Argento played Bennett’s prostitute mother.

Bennett says in the notice that he had sex with Argento in the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Marina del Rey, California, in 2013. The age of consent in California is 18.

The notice says the encounter traumatized Bennett and hurt his career, the Times reported.

Investigators have learned no police report was filed at the time, Harris said.

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UNITED STATES
Agence-France Presse

August 21, 2018

By Jastinder Khera

Italian actress and sexual abuse campaigner Asia Argento denied Tuesday having had a sexual relationship five years ago with an underage teen, calling the allegations part of “a long-standing persecution”.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that Argento, 42, a Harvey Weinstein accuser and leading figure in the #MeToo movement, had paid actor and rock musician Jimmy Bennett $380,000 over the alleged 2013 incident at a Los Angeles hotel.

Bennett was two months past his 17th birthday at the time of the alleged encounter, while Argento was 37. The legal age of consent in California is 18.

“I strongly deny and oppose the contents of the New York Times article… as circulated also in national and international news,” a statement issued by her agent said.

“I am deeply shocked and hurt by having read news that is absolutely false. I have never had any sexual relationship with Bennett,” it goes on.

Argento says that she was linked to Bennett “during several years by friendship only”.

The pair had acted together in the 2004 film “The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things”, in which Argento plays Bennett’s troubled mother.

Argento said the friendship “ended when, subsequent to my exposure in the Weinstein case, Bennett… unexpectedly made an exorbitant request of money from me”.

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ST. LOUIS (MI)
KSDK

August 20, 2018

By Rachel Menitoff

“What I’ve seen after three decades, is pope after pope after pope saying more sympathetic words about victims and expressing more remorse for the abuse, but never announcing real concrete steps to prevent this from happening.”

Pope Francis issued a letter to Catholics around the world Monday condemning the “crime” of priestly sexual abuse and its cover-up and demanding accountability, in response to new revelations in the United States of decades of misconduct by the Catholic Church.

David Clohessy has been the voice of countless victims of sexual abuse linked to the Catholic Church. After Monday’s message from the pope, he decided to share his personal story for the first time, and reveal how he felt about the pope’s message.

“I’ll bet you there was a tennis picture in here,” said Clohessy as he flipped through his high school yearbook.

The days of competitive tennis bring back fond memories. But, behind his year-book smile are years of repression.

“I was abused for a period of about four years,” explained Clohessy. “Age 11 or 12, through about 16, by a parish priest who ingratiated himself into our family.”

Clohessy said his priest would come over for regular family dinners.

“In that era, it was a real privilege and honor to have a priest take an interest in a family,” he said.

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DALLAS (TX)
WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth

August 20, 2018

A Dallas priest accused of molesting teens and taking at least $60,000 from his parish now is missing, Roman Catholic Church officials said.

At St. Cecilia Catholic Church, where the Rev. Edmundo Paredes had served for 27 years, parishioners said Sunday that he may have fled to his native Philippines where he has been taking annual vacations.

Bishop Edward Burns told parishioners over the weekend that the Dallas Diocese has hired two private investigators to try to track Paredes down.

“Now that we know of his criminal sexual acts, we want to get a handle on him,” Burns said.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
WPXI

August 20, 2018

The Pittsburgh Diocese is defending decisions to cut off payments for abuse victims going through counseling.

Frances Samber has spent the last eight years fighting to tell the story her brother never had the chance to share.

“Every victim who has suffered at the hands of the diocese needs their story told in the court of law,” Samber said.

Michael Unglo struggled for years after being sexually assaulted by his priest.

At one point, the diocese agreed to pay for counseling and treatment, but those payments came to an end in spring of 2010.

“We were actually alerted during a therapy session and it kind of sent him into a spiral,” Samber said.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

August 20, 2018

By Fr. Peter Daly

In late April of 2002, Pope John Paul II summoned all the American cardinals to Rome for an emergency meeting to discuss the “American problem” of the sexual abuse scandal. It was dominating news coverage in the United States, and the bishops’ meeting in Dallas that June would be covered live on national television. Nothing much happened in Rome. The pope addressed the cardinals. A statement full of platitudes about concern and condemnation was issued. But no real accountability.

When the cardinals returned home, only one, Theodore McCarrick, had the courage to make himself available to the press. I was impressed. At least he seemed to “get” the gravity of the situation. At least he was willing to take questions.

When McCarrick came back from Rome, he summoned all the priests of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., to a mandatory meeting at the Franciscan Monastery near the Catholic University of America in Washington. We were eager to go. It would be our first chance to discuss the clergy sexual abuse scandal with our archbishop. There were over 200 priests present.

The meeting lasted more than two hours. For the first hour, the press was present in the room. The cardinal made a long statement and took a few questions from the reporters. Then the press and the archdiocesan lay staff were ushered out. Only the priests remained in the room with the cardinal and our auxiliary bishops.

It was a typical hierarchical meeting. The cardinal and bishops sat up front. McCarrick came to a microphone and spent a long time discussing what would become known as the “Dallas charter” (Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People), which prescribed how priests were to be treated henceforth, when accused of sexual abuse of a minor. The charter would be discussed in the bishops’ meeting in Dallas, and McCarrick was on the committee drafting it. It set up review boards and child protection offices. It prescribed an “audit” to be carried out by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice* to determine the scope of the situation. There was a mechanism to handle accusations against priests and a “zero-tolerance” policy. But there was no oversight for bishops.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WGRZ

August 17, 2018

Will New York Follow Pennsylvania’s Lead

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UNITED STATES
Abovethelaw.com

August 17, 2018

By Kathryn Rubino

The sexual abuse allegations out of Pennsylvania have attracted a major Biglaw firm.

If you’ve been paying attention to the news at all over the last week, you’ve surely heard about the Pennsylvania grand jury report outlining the sexual abuse of thousands of victims at Catholic dioceses across Pennsylvania. Much has been made of Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s role as the former bishop of Pittsburgh, where he allegedly failed to remove priests accused of abuse from their ministries.

Now, he’s lawyered up.

According to a report by Law.com, Wuerl has tapped Biglaw giant Jones Day to represent him on matters relating to the grand jury report:

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UNITED STATES
CNN

August 20, 2018

By Carol Costello

Editor’s Note: Carol Costello is the host of “Across America With Carol Costello” on HLN. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion articles on CNN.

Dear Pope Francis,

It is hard to be Catholic today. I know you finally spoke out to us — in a letter — about the horrific allegations of sexual abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses. I’ve been waiting for days to find comfort from Rome. And you notably began your letter by quoting St. Paul: “If one member suffers, all suffer together with.”

While I appreciate the words, I need to see action. I need to see real change.

We are suffering from disappointment so deep it is, for some of us, hard to believe in God. On Sunday, at my church, Sacred Heart Chapel on the campus of Loyola Marymount University, Father Allan Deck put it into words: “The emotional and sexual abuse and manipulation of others, especially little children, constitutes a gross rejection of the healthy and holistic love exemplified by Jesus and proposed by our Catholic tradition.” (Full disclosure: My husband is President of LMU.)

And then he cautioned, “These terrible reports are not going to stop.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

August 20, 2018

Pontiff condemns abuse and cover-up, demands accountability

Pope Francis issued a letter to Catholics around the world Monday condemning the crime of priestly sexual abuse and its cover-up and demanding accountability, in response to new revelations in the United States of decades of misconduct by the Catholic Church.

Francis begged forgiveness for the pain suffered by victims and said lay Catholics must be involved in any effort to root out abuse and cover-up. He blasted the clerical culture that has been blamed for the crisis, with church leaders more concerned for their reputation than the safety of children.

“With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives,” Francis wrote. “We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them.”

The Vatican issued the three-page letter ahead of Francis’ trip this weekend to Ireland, a once staunchly Roman Catholic country where the church’s credibility has been devastated by years of revelations that priests raped and molested children with impunity and their superiors covered up for them.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
The Associated Press

August 20, 2018

Prosecutors say a hotline set up to get information on child sexual abuse by clergy within Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses has received more than 400 calls over the past six days.

A spokesman for the attorney general’s office said Monday agents are returning all calls and assessing the facts.

Spokesman Joe Grace says the agents will have to consult with the office’s lawyers to determine whether any claims warrant investigation.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Newsradio 1020 KDKA

August 20, 2018

By Melinda Roeder

SNAP wants Bishop Zubik and Cardinal Wuerl to step down

Victims of child abuse by Catholic priests rallied downtown Monday, calling for change. SNAP (The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) gathered to call on church leaders to resign.

Victims and family members want Cardinal Wuerl and Bishop Zubik gone after the Pennsylvania grand jury report on sex abuse in the Catholic Church found evidence of a cover-up.

But during their rally Monsignor Ron Lengwin came outside to extend an offer for two of them to meet and talk with the bishop. The protestors refused unless reporters were allowed to attend, saying they are tired of all the secrecy.

Spokeswoman Judy Jones says she wants the diocese to fire any staff member who knew about allegations of sex abuse, but didn’t call police.

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ALLEGHENY (PA)
Trib Live

August 20, 2018

By Megan Guza

Members of an advocacy group for sexual assault victims group confronted a Pittsburgh priest Monday morning when they gathered Downtown outside the Diocese of Pittsburgh to demand changes to sexual abuse laws.

About a half dozen members of the Survivors Network of Abuse by Priests addressed the media with stories of abuse and calls for the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse be abolished — and the abolition be made retroactive.

The protest comes nearly a week after a damning grand jury report named hundreds of “predator priests” in six dioceses across the state, including the Diocese of Pittsburgh. The report indicated there are thousands of victims, and the abuse spanned nearly 70 years — often covered up or not reported by church officials.

It also came hours after Pope Francis addressed the abuse revelations and begged for forgiveness.

“More words,” said SNAP founder Judy Jones. “He just said more words.”

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
WPXI

August 20, 2018

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, also known as SNAP, held a protest outside the Pittsburgh Diocese and Greensburg Diocese headquarters Monday.

The protest came after Pennsylvania’s grand jury report on sexual abuse by Catholic priests was released last week.

Protesters and survivors confronted Pittsburgh Diocese officials over the handling of sex abuse allegations by the church.

They’re pushing for priests and other church leaders to held accountable for the explosive revelations in the grand jury report released last week.

The group is calling for new legislation to eliminate the statute of limitations on sex abuse cases and for the opening of a two year retroactive window allowing civil cases to move forward even if the statute has expired.

“We have several demands that we want and we’re hoping somebody’s going to listen. We don’t expect the Catholic Church to do anything but deny,” said SNAP representative Judy Jones.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
KDKA

August 20, 2018

Victims of child sex abuse in Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses are speaking out in the wake of a grand jury report.

Today brought the first public acknowledgement from Pope Francis that the Catholic Church failed to act over sexual abuse by priests.

In a letter released by the Vatican, Pope Francis writes, “Looking back to the past, no effort to beg, pardon and to seek to repair the harm done, will ever be sufficient. Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated.”

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TORONTO (CANADA)
The Real News

August 20, 2018

Pennsylvania Grand Jury report uncovers 70 years of sexual abuse of at least a thousand children by 301 priests. We speak to theologian Matthew Fox about the scandal’s causes and consequences

Story Transcript
MARC STEINER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Marc Steiner. It’s good to have you with us.

The grand jury findings in Pennsylvania that 301 Catholic priests over a period of 70 years sexually abused and molested at least 1000 young people who were in their charge shattered the world and the Roman Catholic Church. Because of these widespread charges of sexual abuse by priests, not just them, the United States, Chile, and Australia and Ireland, over these years, it’s clear that a massive coverup by bishops took place, who rule their diocese and the church. Why did it take place? First, listen to these voices; the voices of people who are now adults in Pennsylvania, who suffered unmentionable horror by priests they trusted.

SURVIVOR 1: This report is me getting my life back, saying these are the evil bastards that stole my life.

SPEAKER: How many of you believe that right now a child is being abused at the hands of a priest?

SURVIVOR 1: Why statute of limitations ended for my abuse. But to me they’re re-abusing me right now.

SURVIVOR 2: I want the right to stand in court and face my abuser.

SPEAKER: And say?

SURVIVOR 2: Just have him go through the court process, tell my story, make him listen to me. I would say to him, why did you do this to me? And I believe his answer is going to be because I can. Because I could.

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NAPLES (FL)
Naples Daily News

August 16, 2018

By Melanie Payne and Ryan Mills

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify that the Rev. Sean Kerins does not live in Naples. He lives in Erie, Pennsylvania, and has family in Southwest Florida.

Three priests with ties to Fort Myers, Naples and Port Charlotte were named in a Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing child sexual abuse by priests.

The three are among the more than 300 — including at least 16 with ties to Florida — who the report states were perpetrators, are being investigated for possible sexual misconduct or were involved in a cover-up of the scandal.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Office of Attorney General

August 20, 2018

Attorney General Josh Shapiro today issued the following statement in response to the letter from Pope Francis to Catholics around the world, addressing sex abuse in the Church everywhere, and which also focused on the grand jury’s report on child sex abuse in six Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania.

“Pope Francis’ powerful letter acknowledges the painful truth that had been hiding in the shadows in Churches throughout Pennsylvania and appropriately focuses on the survivors who have suffered for too long,” Attorney General Shapiro said.

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DENVER (CO)
FOX 31

August 20, 2018,

By Joe St. George

The Catholic Church is again in crisis over child abuse.

In the past few weeks, ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick lost his priestly abilities after an allegation he molested a child.

Now another Cardinal, Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, is facing calls for his resignation after his role in handling Pennsylvania priests accused of child abuse.

A bombshell Pennsylvania grand jury report earlier this month suggested the church in Pennsylvania covered up 70 years worth of abuse from more than 300 priests involving 1,000 children.

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CANADA
LifeSiteNews

August 20, 2018

After today’s publication of Pope Francis’ letter of apology to the People of God, Dr. Markus Büning, a German theologian, lawyer, and book author who himself was abused by a priest as a child, removed his public support of an initiative defending Pope Francis.

It was only decades after his abuse, when his mother heard that the abusive priest had been arrested and asked her son about his experiences with that priest, that Dr. Büning reveal his childhood suffering. The Catholic Church later recompensed him materially and apologized to him.

On this background of his own suffering, it is understandable that he would have a special sensitivity and attentiveness toward the question of how the Catholic Church under Pope Francis now responds to the new revelations of more child abuse by the Church’s clergymen and hierarchy.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

August 19, 2018

The archbishop of Dublin said Sunday he hopes Pope Francis will speak frankly about the “darkness” of priestly sex abuse during his upcoming visit to Ireland, which has been clouded by new revelations of misconduct in the U.S. Catholic Church.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who has spent years trying to recover the Irish church’s credibility following decades of abuse and cover-up, dedicated his Sunday homily to Francis’ Aug. 25-26 trip. He said it comes at a time of heightened anxiety over the future of the church in Ireland and beyond.

Martin acknowledged that sex scandals had produced “deep-seated resentment” at both the abusers and the church leaders who facilitated their crimes and sought to protect themselves. In addition to clerical abuse, Martin cited Ireland’s mother and baby homes, where unwed mothers were often sent to avoid scandal and where they experienced “extraordinary harshness” by the church.

“It’s not enough to just say sorry,” Martin said. “Structures that permit or facilitate abuse must be broken down, and broken down forever.”

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Business Insider

August 19, 2018

By Kelly McLaughlin

– The Reverend Edward Ganster is among hundreds of priests named in the Pennsylvania grand jury investigation that revealed a mass child abuse scandal across six Catholic Church dioceses.
– Ganster was first accused of abusing a teenage boy in 1977 when he was a priest at St. Joseph’s Church in Easton.
– He left the church more than a decade later to get married.
– The diocese reportedly gave the priest a reference for a job at Walt Disney World, where he worked as a train driver in the Magic Kingdom for 15 years.

A Pennsylvania priest who tortured a teenage altar boy for more than a year worked at Walt Disney World after leaving the Catholic Church, according to the bombshell grand jury report released earlier this week.

The Reverend Edward Ganster is among hundreds of priests named in the grand jury investigation, which found that 1,000 children across six dioceses had been abused over 70 years as Catholic Church leaders covered up the allegations.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
The Associated Press

August 19, 2018

The bishop of Pittsburgh’s Roman Catholic diocese pushed back against a call for his resignation and said the diocese has “followed every single step” needed for responsible action after allegations of child sexual abuse.

Bishop David Zubik spoke Sunday to George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “This Week” following the Tuesday release of a landmark report detailing widespread child sexual abuse in six Pennsylvania Roman Catholic dioceses. The report accused Zubik of not reporting credible allegations.

Zubik said he can understand the rage people have reading the report and “I feel that rage too.” But he said that since he became the bishop in 2007, “we have followed every single step that we needed to follow to be responsible in our response to the victims.”

Officials have, he said, listened to victims “very carefully,” removed priests from dioceses, turned allegations over to appropriate district attorneys, let an independent review board look at whether a return to ministry is warranted and finally, informed parishioners of the diocese’s actions.

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HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle

August 18, 2018

By Ramesh Ponnuru

“I don’t think this is some massive, massive crisis,” said Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the Catholic archbishop of Washington, D.C., in a statement that could not possibly be more wrong. Speaking three weeks after revelations about his predecessor’s sexual predation against boys and young priests, Wuerl said he was aware that a harrowing Pennsylvania grand-jury report would soon document the sexual abuse of 1,000 children by Catholic clergy and criticize Wuerl’s own treatment of some abusers.

Wuerl allowed that the news about his predecessor, Theodore McCarrick, was “a terrible disappointment.” He also said that “we need to have something that would also be a mechanism for when a bishop has not been as faithful as he needs to be, even if the charges go back 40, 50 years.” In the context of discussing a predecessor who had done a lot to destroy a boy’s life — who had raped him for years — Wuerl spoke of a bishop who “has not been as faithful as he needs to be,” a comment that could more aptly be applied to someone who had neglected to say his morning prayers.

Let it not be said, however, that Wuerl is slow to appreciate all dangers. He had what can only be described as a P.R. website ready to go when the report was released. It provoked an immediate outcry and was taken down a few hours after launching.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
The New York Times

August 15, 2018

By Campbell Robertson and Sharon Otterman

John Cabon stood quietly and crossed himself before a statue of the Virgin Mary outside St. Paul’s, the mother church of the Pittsburgh Diocese.

“I keep the faith” said Mr. Cabon, 64, on the way to noon Mass. His sister, he said, had left the faith when explosive revelations of sexual abuse rocked the Roman Catholic Church in 2002. He had refused. “You don’t really believe everything, you know.”

But inside the church, there was no escaping the abuse scandal, which has entered a new chapter after monstrous revelations were released in a grand jury report on Tuesday, describing the abuse of more than 1,000 young people at the hands of hundreds of priests in Pennsylvania.

The priest at St Paul’s spoke of “horrendous and evil acts,” “moral failure” by church leaders, and the “grief, sadness, feelings of betrayal, even anger” that followed. One woman wept silently in her pew.

In Pittsburgh — site of some of the most ghastly acts in the report — and in dioceses around the country, Catholics grappled with the report’s findings.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

August 20, 2018

By Laura Larkin

Group highlights offenders as it urges Pope to reveal those disciplined by the Church

A list of all Irish clergy convicted of child sexual abuse is to be published for the first time as pressure mounts on the Vatican to release all documents relating to clerical abuse.

International organisation BishopAccountability.org – which has published similar lists of those accused of abuse in the US and South America – will publish the database today.

It includes names of priests and brothers who have been convicted or named in State enquiries and will contain more than 70 names, according to the group.

The organisation is calling on Pope Francis to release the names of all priests – including Irish ones – who have been disciplined by the Church for child sexual abuse.

The Pontiff will visit Ireland this weekend amid a deepening international scandal around its handling of child sexual abuse by clergy members.

The group will ask Ireland’s Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo, to endorse this idea to Pope Francis.

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DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Associated Press

August 20, 2018

By Danica Kirka and Pietro de Cristofaro

An international research group launched a database Monday of Irish clergy convicted or credibly accused of sexually abusing children in hopes of pressing Pope Francis to disclose the names of all the priests and brothers deemed guilty by the church.

BishopAccountability.org says the online database unveiled Monday shows the degree to which information still remains hidden in Ireland. The list was released before the pontiff’s visit to Ireland on Saturday.

BishopAccountability issued a similar report on the eve of Francis’ visit to Chile in January, identifying dozens of credibly accused clergy and the bishops who covered up for them. That trip turned disastrous for the pope when he discredited several Chilean victims, although he subsequently did an about-face and apologized to the victims and sanctioned complicit bishops.

“Hiding the names of credibly accused child molesters puts children at risk, withholds validation from survivors, and makes it nearly impossible for Catholic laypeople to protect their families or hold church leaders accountable,” co-director Anne Barrett Doyle said.

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DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Crux

August 20, 2018

By John L. Allen Jr.

In a forceful letter just ahead of his Aug. 25-26 trip to Ireland, and just after a blistering Pennsylvania Grand Jury report on sex abuse crimes and cover-ups in six dioceses, Pope Francis wrote Monday “no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated.”

Referring to the Grand Jury report, the pontiff wrote, “The heart-wrenching pain of these victims, which cries out to heaven, was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced. But their outcry was more powerful than all the measures meant to silence it, or [which] sought even to resolve it by decisions that increased its gravity by falling into complicity.”

The pope’s words came in a “Letter to the People of God,” released by the Vatican Press Office in seven languages, suggesting the Vatican wants it to have the widest possible distribution. The full text runs to just under 2,000 words.

On the subject of accountability not just for the crime but the cover-up, an issue that figured prominently in the Pennsylvania report, Francis vowed that such measures have to be part of any solution.

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DALLAS (TX)
Daily Mail

August 20, 2018

By Megan Sheets

– Rev Edmundo Paredes, 69, is believed to have fled to his native Philippines
– He was formerly a pastor at St Cecilia Catholic Church in Oak Cliff, Texas
– Bishop Edward Burns revealed Paredes’ removal from ministry at Mass Saturday
– Three men came forward accusing Paredes of sexual assault in February
– At the time he was under investigation for stealing $60K-$80K from the church

A priest has gone missing after he was accused of molesting three teenage boys and stealing money from his church, authorities say.

Officials at St Cecilia Catholic Church in the Dallas suburb of Oak Cliff reportedly believe Rev Edmundo Paredes retreated to his native Philippines to escape an investigation into the allegations.

Bishop Edward Burns broke the news that ‘Father Ed’ had been removed from ministry during Mass on Saturday, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Burns said the Diocese of Dallas was informed of the sexual misconduct allegations in February after three adult men came forward and accused Paredes of having abused them when they were in their mid-teens in incidents more than a decade ago.

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POMPANO BEACH (FL)
The Associated Press

August 20, 2018

A South Florida priest has resigned after being accused of stealing more than $200,000 from the church.

The Archdiocese of Miami said in a statement that Father Henryk Pawelec has paid the money back to St. Coleman Catholic Church in Pompano Beach. But he still could face legal action after the church reported the incident to the state attorney’s office.

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VATICAN CITY
The Telegraph

August 20, 2018

By Olivia Rudgard

There will be “no more cover ups” of sexual abuse in the Church, the Pope has vowed in a letter to all Catholics.

In the groundbreaking document, addressed to the “people of God”, Pope Francis admitted that the church had “delayed” the implementation of reforms and asked believers to “join forces in uprooting this culture of death”.

He said the church had “showed no care for the little ones” and “abandoned them”.

The Vatican said it was the first time a pope had written to all of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics about sexual abuse.

The Pope’s letter, published on Monday, responds to a report published last week by a grand jury which disclosed that more than 1,000 children had been abused by 300 Catholic priests in Pennsylvania over the past 70 years.

“Even though it can be said that most of these cases belong to the past, nonetheless as time goes on we have come to know the pain of many of the victims,” he said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS

August 19, 2018

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced two priests that were placed on administrative leave have been found unsuitable for ministry.

Father Andrew McCormick was arrested and charged with sexually abusing a child in 2012. The former pastor of Sacred Heart in Swedesburg saw two mistrials.

Monsignor Gregory Parlante is entering into a first-time offender’s program after he was charged last year with drug and theft offenses. He was a pastor at Saint Cornelius in Chadds Ford.

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POMPANO BEACH (FL)
Miami Herald

August 19, 2018

By Martin Vassolo

A Pompano Beach priest accused of stealing $236,469 in parish funds has resigned from his post at St. Coleman Catholic Church, the Archdiocese of Miami announced Sunday.

Father Henryk Pawelec, who had served at the church since 2015, stole the money for “his personal benefit,” wrote Archbishop Thomas Wenski in a letter to parishioners released on the Archdiocese website. No further details on the alleged theft were disclosed.

Wenski said “appropriate canonical proceedings have been inititated” and that the Archdiocese had reported the incident to the State Attorney’s Office for “any possible civil action.”

Acting on a tip, the Archdiocese investigated the priest and reviewed the parish’s financial records to determine how much money was stolen. At an Aug. 15 meeting with the archbishop, Pawelec agreed to resign and pay back the money he stole, Wenski said.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Post

August 18, 2018

By Melkorka Licea

Days after a stunning report revealed rampant sexual abuse by perv priests in Pennsylvania, another accused holy man has been identified in New York, The Post has learned.

Father John T. Meehan, 81, allegedly committed “multiple incidents of sexual misconduct” against a teen victim at Cardinal Hayes HS in the early 1980s, the victim’s lawyer said.

The accuser was given a cash settlement as part of an Archdiocese of New York program to compensate victims out of court.

Meehan was a guidance counselor at the all-boys Catholic school in The Bronx when he allegedly abused the victim, who at the time was between 14 and 16 years old, lawyer Michael J. Reck said.

The payment was among $4 million in settlements, ranging from $25,000 to $500,000, recently shelled out to 24 survivors represented by Reck. Collectively, those victims named nine priests, including Meehan, he said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBC Philly

August 20, 2018

Neither has functioned publicly as a priest since being placed on administrative leave.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

August 20, 2018

Matt Petrillo reports.

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UNITED STATES
Associated Press

August 19, 2018

By Will Graves

The legal portion of the Larry Nassar scandal at USA Gymnastics may soon be over.

USA Gymnastics President Kerry Perry said representatives for both the organization and athletes who were abused by Nassar – a former national team doctor who abused hundreds of women under the guise of medical treatment – met last week. Perry called the mediation talks “not only productive but continuing to move us down the path of resolution.”

Perry made the remarks on Sunday in her first extended question-and-answer session with reporters since taking over last December. Her public silence during the first 260 days of her tenure has drawn the ire of Nassar victims, including reigning Olympic champion Simone Biles, who last week it was time for Perry to speak up. Perry said she respected Biles’s opinion and called the kind of changes the organization is making in the wake of the scandal “scary.”

“I want her and all of our athletes to know we have their best interests at heart,” Perry said. “I would hope that they know that I and all of the leaderships have their best interests in mind.”

Perry says she spent her first eight months on the job trying to get a handle on the landscape within USA Gymnastics and allowed it’s difficult to communicate with survivors on an individual level due to the ongoing legal situation. Perry added the goal in the end is to have “our survivors standing side by side with our organization.”

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IRELAND
The Independent

August 20, 2018

By Joe Sommerlad

Holy Father, 81, to give papal mass at World Meeting of Families gathering at Phoenix Park

Pope Francis will visit Ireland this weekend, the first time the head of the Catholic Church has done so since 1979.

The pontiff, 81, will touch down in Dublin to address the World Meeting of Families and find himself in a very different country to that John Paul II toured almost 40 years ago.

The prospect of his eminence’s imminence is nevertheless causing a stir, with enterprising retailers seizing the opportunity to shift merchandise to the devout and doing a roaring trade in everything from collapsible cardboard chairs to tote bags, candles, mugs, umbrellas and sticky “Lollipopes”.

Here’s everything you need to know.

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DENVER (CO)
KCNCTV/ CBS4 News Weekends

August 20, 2018

A woman who lives in Colorado is speaking out to give others hope decades after she suffered sexual abuse, allegedly at a Catholic parish.

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VANCOUVER (CANADA)
Vancouver Sun

August 20, 2018

By Denise Ryan

Vancouver’s Roman Catholic archbishop and a victims’ advocate respond to revelations of abuse of children by priests Pennsylvania.

The recent revelations that the Catholic Church covered up the abuse of close to 1,000 children by 300 priests over several decades in Pennsylvania has shaken survivors of church abuse in B.C., victims’ advocate Leona Huggins of Coquitlam said Sunday.

“I got a call from a survivor this morning,” said Huggins, who was abused by a Vancouver priest when she was a child. Huggins now volunteers with SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Vancouver Roman Catholic Archbishop J. Michael Miller released a statement Sunday saying he is “devastated by these accounts of profound evil,” and that “what the victims of sexual abuse have endured has shaken me and broken my heart.”

The statement, which was posted on the Archdiocese website and read at Lower Mainland masses, acknowledged the sexual abuse, and the poor treatment many victims received by church authorities.

Miller said he is especially upset with bishops and priests “who failed to protect the most vulnerable among us,” in particular those who knew about the abuse but did nothing about it. Miller is calling on anyone who knows about “any abuse happening now” to contact law enforcement and to alert the church through their webpage.

Huggins said Miller’s statement does not go far enough. Huggins said it’s time for full transparency from the Catholic Church “about any credible complaints, current and historical, against priests in B.C.”

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HARRISBURG (PA)
CNN

August 19, 2018

Duration: 04:13

CNN’s Jake Tapper digs into the past of Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who is at the center of a 900-page Pennsylvania grand jury report that revealed shocking accusations: More than 1,000 children had been abused by 300 Catholic priests in six Pennsylvania dioceses during the past 70 years.

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COLUMBIA (SC)
The State

August 18, 2018

By David Travis Bland

One name is connected to South Carolina within the 1,356 pages of a report on sexual abuse of children and cover-ups by Catholic church officials in Pennsylvania.

Father Robert E. Spangenberg served as pastor at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Charleston. He served at the Lowcountry church from 1990 to 1993, according to the Pennsylvania grand jury report.

In the report, two allegations of sexual abuse are levied against Spangenberg.

“The documents provided by the Diocese of Pittsburgh revealed that Spangenberg was involved with at least two children, possibly more,” the report reads.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
KDKA

August 17, 2018

By Andy Sheehan

Until three months ago, retired priest Richard Terdine, accused of molesting a 16-year-old boy in the 1980s, was still serving Mass at churches around the Pittsburgh Diocese.

It wasn’t until Bishop David Zubik found that Terdine had been cited in the 800-page grand jury report that the diocese restricted him.

“Would no longer be able to go around to other parishes to have Mass,” said Monsignor Ronald Lengwin.

Terdine is listed on the diocesan website as a having an unsubstantiated claim against him. But, in 1988, he was accused of patting a boy on his genitals, then giving him an x-rated tape and some condoms. Confronted, Terdine denied touching the boy but conceded he gave him pornography, the condoms and a back rub.

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LONG ISLAND (NY)
Newsday

August 15, 2018

By Bart Jones

The leader of the Diocese of Rockville Centre is contacting the Pennsylvania attorney general to correct the errors, a spokesman says.

Long Island’s Catholic bishop on Wednesday disputed a Pennsylvania grand jury report on how he handled the cases of two priests who were accused of sexually abusing children in his former diocese of Allentown.

Bishop John Barres said the report contained factual errors and that the Pennsylvania attorney general never reached out to him for a response.

Barres, who now leads the Diocese of Rockville Centre, is contacting Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro to correct the errors, diocesan spokesman Sean Dolan said.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

August 16, 2018

By Michael Sneed

It’s a moral catastrophe.

“I wasn’t shocked. Not at all,” said Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, a devout Catholic and mother of five responding to a Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing the sexual abuse of 1,000 young people at the hands of hundreds of Catholic priests.

“I think every state should convene a grand jury into this culture of secrecy that protected offenders at all costs,” said Burke, who was once interim chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops study on nationwide clerical sexual abuse in 2002.

“It was happening in Chicago, but we had to rely on files the bishops were willing to give us — and we knew there had to be more, but we had no subpoena powers,” said Burke. “We had no government authority!”

“We did a lot of research, but a lot was kept from us and we knew it,” she said.

“And shockingly, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops charter our National Review Board was appointed under did NOT include investigating the BISHOPS! Or even penalizing the bishops or Cardinals for transferring these priests,” she said.

“But we did report bishops were transferring priests from parish to parish and diocese to diocese knowing they had a history of abuse.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

August 17, 2018

By Heidi Schlumpf

The U.S. bishops’ call Aug. 16 for an apostolic visitation and lay-involved investigations into sexual abuse and cover-ups was praised by members of the first National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People, but at least one member called it “too little, too late.”

Any internal investigation — even a well-intentioned one — would be ineffective, because “the trust is already eroded and gone,” said Anne Burke, an Illinois Supreme Court justice who served as the review board’s interim chair until 2004.

Other former board members praised the bishops’ proposal, released by Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston on behalf of the U.S. bishops’ executive committee, as a “good start,” though they expressed caution about internal investigations and review boards.

“Only secular authorities have subpoena powers,” said Burke, urging all attorneys general and district attorneys to follow the lead of Pennsylvania, where an investigation resulted in a scathing grand jury report exposing decades of sexual abuse and cover-up in six Pennsylvania dioceses.

“That’s the only way I see something happening,” Burke said.

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ST. LOUIS (MI)
KMOX

August 17, 2018

Reaction is still coming in to the massive Grand Jury report in Pennsylvania that found more than a thousand children had been sexually abused by more than 300 priests in the state since the 1940s.

“It’s a devastating report,” says St. Louisian David Clohessy, the former national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. “On another level though, no one should be shocked by this, because these very same conclusions and findings have happened in a dozen jurisdictions around the country.”

The Vatican expresses shame and sorrow in the wake of the report, saying Pope Francis wants the victims to know he is on their side.

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ALLENTOWN (PA)
Lehigh Valley Live

August 16, 2018

By Tony Rhodin

Allentown City Council on Wednesday night fired the city solicitor a day after his controversial handling of a sexual abuse allegation came to light in a statewide grand jury report on abuse of children by clergy.

The grand jury report says Thomas Traud told the Allentown Diocese to discredit a victim and reassign an allegedly offending priest.

Councilman Courtney Robinson introduced the action to fire Traud — something that eventually happened in a unanimous vote — after speaking broadly about the report.

“I am a practicing Catholic and I am disgusted and I am appalled at what was done in the name of my faith,” he said, according to a recording of the meeting posted by council. “As a Catholic and an elected official I feel it necessary to apologize to every victim of this and to state the unimaginable pain and sorrow that you’re going through was only compounded from this.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Press Office

August 20, 2018

By Pope Francis

“If one member suffers, all suffer together with it” (1 Cor 12:26). These words of Saint Paul forcefully echo in my heart as I acknowledge once more the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons. Crimes that inflict deep wounds of pain and powerlessness, primarily among the victims, but also in their family members and in the larger community of believers and nonbelievers alike. Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient. Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated. The pain of the victims and their families is also our pain, and so it is urgent that we once more reaffirm our commitment to ensure the protection of minors and of vulnerable adults.

1. If one member suffers…

In recent days, a report was made public which detailed the experiences of at least a thousand survivors, victims of sexual abuse, the abuse of power and of conscience at the hands of priests over a period of approximately seventy years. Even though it can be said that most of these cases belong to the past, nonetheless as time goes on we have come to know the pain of many of the victims. We have realized that these wounds never disappear and that they require us forcefully to condemn these atrocities and join forces in uprooting this culture of death; these wounds never go away. The heart-wrenching pain of these victims, which cries out to heaven, was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced. But their outcry was more powerful than all the measures meant to silence it, or sought even to resolve it by decisions that increased its gravity by falling into complicity. The Lord heard that cry and once again showed us on which side he stands. Mary’s song is not mistaken and continues quietly to echo throughout history. For the Lord remembers the promise he made to our fathers: “he has scattered the proud in their conceit; he has cast down the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty” (Lk 1:51-53). We feel shame when we realize that our style of life has denied, and continues to deny, the words we recite.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Advocate

August 16, 2018

By Marianne Duddy-Burke

What the church’s horrific child abuse scandal means for lawmakers and LGBTQ Catholics.

No official in the Catholic Church has any credibility when speaking on issues of sexuality, gender, or relationships.

If that was not already obvious, it became compellingly clear with the release of the Pennsylvania attorney general’s report on a grand jury investigation into more than 1,000 cases of sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in six dioceses across that state. The horrific details of repeated abuse, networks of abusers, and systemic cover-up by church leaders make it painfully clear that care for children and families came nowhere close to concerns about protecting the institution of the church, and even abusers, in the minds of Catholic leaders. From children being raped in hospital beds to serial abuse of siblings, marking targets with “gifts” of gold crosses, and making pornography later shared among groups of abusive priests, what these young girls and boys were subjected to is almost beyond imagining. The after-effects of the abuse impact people to this day, long after the statute of limitations has made criminal accountability for perpetrators and their enablers impossible. Bishops and cardinals repeatedly kept perpetrators out of the reach of law enforcement until they could no longer be prosecuted, through a series of steps the Pennsylvania attorney general called “a playbook for concealing the truth.”

This devastating report follows close on the heels of the resignation of one of the most powerful U.S. clerics, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C. He was forced to resign from the College of Cardinals for alleged abuse of an altar boy decades ago and after dozens of reports became public that he abused seminarians under his authority. High-ranking church officials from Australia, Chile, and Honduras have also been recently ousted for sexual abuse. Following numerous reports of abuse of their members, the leaders of Catholic women’s religious communities from two continents have called on the Vatican to end the “culture of silence” that enabled decades of exploitation. All of this comes more than 15 years after The Boston Globe broke the story of rampant child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston, and amid the persistent drum of stories that has emerged from across the country and internationally since.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
The Berkshire Eagle

August 18, 2018

By Haven Orecchio-Egresitz

In response to this week’s allegations of the sexual abuse of more than 1,000 children by clergy in Pennsylvania, the bishop of the Springfield Diocese has condemned “past failures” of the Catholic church and urged local victims to continue to reach out to his Office of Child and Youth Protection.

The strongly worded letter from Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski, which was issued from his office Friday, outlined counseling and other services available through the diocese for victims of child sexual abuse.

“Since arriving as your bishop four years ago, I have had the somber task of meeting with victims of abuse and their family members,” Rozanski said. “While I cannot undo the great harm done to them, I can promise victims, their loved ones and the entire community that I remain firmly committed to rooting out this evil in our midst. The failure by any member of the clergy, religious or laity to strictly implement, as well as adhere to, our policies and guidelines will result in removal from ministry.”

A nearly 900-page Pennsylvania grand jury report released this week said that more than 300 predator priests had abused more than 1,000 children in six dioceses in the state. Forty-five of the priests named served in the Harrisburg Diocese.

The first paragraph of the nearly 900-page report said the grand jury knows the truth: that child sex abuse within the Catholic church happened everywhere.

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UNITED STATES
Yahoo Style UK

August 20, 2018

By Marie Claire Dorking

Olympic gymnastics champion Simone Biles has won praise for not only winning her fifth all-round title, but doing so in a leotard that honoured the survivors of sexual abuse.

The 21-year-old donned the specially designed leotard on Sunday as she became the first woman in 24 years to be awarded the top score in every single event of a national championship.

The leotard, which was reportedly eight months in the planning, was a beautiful teal colour, chosen specifically because teal is the designated colour for survivors of sexual abuse.

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DUBLIN (IRELAND)
The Washington Post

August 20, 2018

By Chico Harlan

Pope Francis said in a letter released Monday by the Vatican that the Catholic Church has not dealt properly with “crimes” against children and needs to prevent sexual abuses from being “covered up and perpetuated.”

“We showed no care for the little ones; we abandoned them,” Francis wrote.

The 2,000-word letter addressed to the “People of God” marks one of Francis’s most direct attempts to address the painful abuse cases that have eroded the Roman Catholic Church’s credibility and prompted sharp calls from inside and outside the church for improved accountability.

Francis did not lay out any concrete steps the Vatican would take, but he acknowledged that systemic change is needed.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly.com

August 15, 2018

By David Gambacorta

George said he never discussed the nude Polaroids, or the twisted, secret gifts he and the other kids had been given decades ago by the men who preyed on them. These weren’t the kinds of things you could share without feeling humiliated, especially if you grew up tough, like he did on the South Side of Pittsburgh.

But you can’t outrun your nightmares forever. So on Dec. 17 — a week before Roman Catholics around the world celebrated Christmas — George met with a Pennsylvania grand jury and told it about the Rev. George Zirwas, a friendly young priest who once took him to a rectory in Munhall, a borough about 25 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh, and introduced him to some friends: The Revs. Francis Pucci, Richard Zula, and Francis Luddy.

During a conversation about religious statues, the priests told George to get onto a bed and remove his shirt, and strike a pose like Jesus on the cross. Then they instructed him to strip off his pants and underwear, according to a grand jury report released Tuesday by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

In the unnerving moments that followed, George claimed that Zula or Pucci began taking photos of him on a Polaroid camera. All of the priests giggled — and then added the photos of George to a collection of photos of other teen boys. According to the grand jury, these men and another priest, the Rev. Robert Wolk, were part of a “ring of predatory priests” who raped children, shared intelligence on potential victims, and manufactured child pornography in parishes and rectories.

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UNITED STATES
CultureWatch

August 19, 2018

By Bill Muehlenberg

At the moment the public spotlight is on the Catholic Church, with revelations of what has transpired in Pennsylvania. In this latest case some 300 priests are said to have abused some 1,000 children over many decades. Before looking at the details, let me say a few necessary things first. All child sex abuse is evil, end of story.

And when it happens in churches, it is even more evil. Child sexual abuse of course can and does happen in non-religious places, such as schools, etc., so we are amiss to single out the church. And Protestants have had their fair share of cases of this as well, so we are amiss to single out the Catholic Church.

I will not engage in any excuse-making here. I hate to see the name of Christ tarnished, regardless of where it is happening, be it Orthodox, Protestant or Catholic. Here I want to let a number of others speak, most of them Catholics, but a few Protestants as well.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

August 19, 2018

By Tim Morris

More than 30 years after horrific crimes against children in the Louisiana Diocese of Lafayette first exposed a culture of sexual abuse and systematic cover-up within the Catholic Church, the tragedy continues.

The latest evidence comes in a scathing report issued Tuesday (Aug. 14) by a Pennsylvania grand jury that found bishops and other leaders of the church had concealed sexual abuse of children by more than 300 priests over a period of 70 years.

The grand jury said there were more than 1,000 identifiable victims and likely thousands more whose records were lost or who were too afraid to come forward.

Heartbreaking examples in the 1,400-page report included a priest who raped a young girl in a hospital visit after she had her tonsils out; another priest who was allowed to stay in ministry after impregnating a young girl and arranging for her to have an abortion; a 7-year-old boy who was sexually abused by a priest and then told to go and confess his “sins” — to that same priest; another priest who forced a 9-year-old boy to perform oral sex, “then rinsed out the boy’s mouth with holy water to purify him.”

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
WTAE

August 15, 2018

By Bob Mayo

The Pennsylvania grand jury report on child sex abuse by clergy is about to trigger a new lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 has learned. It could be filed in the next two weeks.

Attorney Alan Perer has represented dozens of alleged victims in lawsuits against the Pittsburgh diocese and other dioceses over the years. Perer said he will argue that revelations in the grand jury report show the civil statute of limitations shouldn’t apply for victims suing the diocese.

“We anticipate filing very soon. I’m already talking to some of the victims,” Perer said. “And our theory is, under the law, if a person couldn’t discover or couldn’t find out information to implicate the diocese — not the priest, the diocese — that there is a way to expand the statute of limitations until the person could have discovered the involvement of the diocese. And we say it’s not until now. Now is when the grand jury, for the first time, has opened up these secret archives

Perer said he’s already making that argument on behalf of alleged victims suing the diocese in the Johnstown-Altoona area. That case is on appeal with oral arguments expected before Superior Court. Perer thinks this fight over extending the civil statute of limitation in these cases could end up before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

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