ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

May 23, 2019

By Nicole Winfield

The Italian Catholic Church hierarchy said Thursday it had approved guidelines establishing a “moral obligation” to report cases of clergy sex abuse to police, after bishops long downplayed the problem and covered it up.

The Italian bishops’ conference didn’t immediately release the text. But the official in charge of child protection, Monsignor Lorenzo Ghizzoni, said it called for bishops to report credible accusations even though Italian law doesn’t designate clergy as mandated reporters.

The main Italian victims’ group, Rete L’Abuso, called the announcement “dishonest” as the conference in 2014 issued similar guidelines saying bishops had a “moral duty” to report. The group said the 2014 guidelines hadn’t resulted in a single church-initiated criminal complaint.

Italy’s church — of which Pope Francis is the titular head as bishop of Rome — has been well behind the curve on confronting clergy abuse, with multiple cases of abuse and high-ranking cover-ups that only recently have begun making headlines.

Just this week, the mother of a victim wrote an open letter calling for the resignation of the powerful archbishop of Milan, Mario Delpini. He admitted under oath that he transferred her son’s predator to another parish in 2011 rather than turning him in to police or keeping him away from children.

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

AUSTIN (TX)
Associated Press

May 21, 2019

The Texas Senate has passed a bill that would give child sexual abuse victims more time to sue in civil court after restoring a key provision that allows them to take on institutions.

Senate lawmakers approved the legislation unanimously on Tuesday after former Olympic and U.S. national team gymnasts urged legislators last week to include the provision House lawmakers had quietly removed.

The revised Senate version would allow victims of childhood sexual abuse to bring a civil lawsuit against their abuser and institutions up to 30 years after their 18th birthday.

A push to expand statute of limitations laws for child sex abuse victims is underway in statehouses nationwide amid lawsuits against large institutions like the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts of America and USA Gymnastics.

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DETROIT (MI)
Associated Press

May 24, 2019

By Jeff Karoub

Michigan prosecutors announced Friday that five former Catholic priests are facing sexual abuse charges as part of the state attorney general’s ongoing investigation into clergy abuse going back decades.

Attorney General Dana Nessel said the priests served in dioceses in Detroit, Lansing and Kalamazoo, and that they’ve been charged with various counts of criminal sexual conduct. Four of them were arrested this week in Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan, and the fifth awaits extradition from India.

A sixth priest faces an administrative complaint and has had his counseling license suspended by the state, officials said.

Nearly all of the charges, which involve victims who were as young as 5 years old when they were abused, came from roughly 450 calls to a tip line and were corroborated by files seized from dioceses last fall and interviews with multiple victims, Nessel said. She added that the cases are just the “tip of the iceberg,” as investigators have only gone through at most 10% of the information they have obtained. They also found many cases in which they could not bring charges because statutes of limitation had expired, priests had died or victims wouldn’t come forward.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Global Sisters Report

May. 23, 2019

By Dan Stockman

If current trends continue, within five years, the number of associates in the United States will be greater than the number of vowed women religious.

A 2016 study found more than 35,000 associates in the United States, a number Jeanne Connolly, board president of the North American Conference of Associates and Religious, or NACAR, said has likely grown since then.

While NACAR doesn’t track numbers, Connolly said communities continue to add associate programs. At the very least, she said, the number has held steady. The number of sisters, meanwhile, continues to fall.

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, or CARA, reported 44,117 sisters in 2018, down from 57,544 in 2010. A 2016 actuarial study done for the National Religious Retirement Office projects there will be fewer than 30,000 sisters in 2024.

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

DENVER (CO)
Crux

May 25, 2019

By Elise Harris

This is the second installment of a two-part interview with Cardinal Ricardo Barreto Jimeno of Huancayo, Peru, who serves as vice president of the Peruvian bishops’ conference and who sits on a committee organizing the upcoming Synod of Bishops for the Amazon. Part one can be found here.

Rome – Peruvian Cardinal Ricardo Barreto Jimeno has said recent scandals upsetting the local church, including revelations of sexual abuse within a prominent lay group and a very public case of an archbishop launching criminal complaints against two journalists, have been harmful to Catholics.

Referring to the case of Archbishop Jose Antonio Eguren Anselmi of Piura, who recently retracted complaints against two journalists after raising criminal charges of defamation against them last year, Barreto said the fiasco has been “a wound for the Church in Peru.”

Eguren Anselmi is one of the early members of the troubled Sodalitium Cristianae Vitae (SCV) lay group, whose founder, Luis Fernando Figari, was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2017 after being accused of sexually abusing minors and manipulating young men in the community.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Catholic News Service via Global Sisters Report

May 24, 2019

Catholic religious orders in Germany have set up an inquiry into sexual abuse in their monasteries and convents, following claims that abuse occurred in more than half of all monastic communities.

“We still don’t know enough about what happened and is happening in each community, since models of action and prevention are all different,” Franciscan Sr. Katharina Kluitmann, chairwoman of the German Orders Conference, said in a May 22 statement to the organization’s general meeting in Vallendar.

“Although our path has taken on a clear momentum, we haven’t reached our destination. But we have found certain landmarks — and the most important is this isn’t about us, but about those affected.”

The 55-year-old nun said the inquiry, to be published in early 2020, had been approved unanimously by 200 order leaders at the meeting. She said the inquiry would collect data on victims, prosecution reports, compensation payments and personal files.

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

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

May 23, 2019

By Melissa Davey and Australian Associated Press

Perth’s Timothy Costelloe says forcing revelations will interfere with the ‘free practice of the Catholic faith’

Perth’s Catholic archbishop, Timothy Costelloe, says forcing religious leaders in Western Australia to reveal knowledge of child sex abuse risks “interfering with the free practice of the Catholic faith” and will be ineffective – a stance that advocates say is “ignorant and pig-headed”.

The state government plans to expand mandatory reporting laws to include religious leaders such as priests, ministers, imams, rabbis, pastors and Salvation Army officers.

The laws already apply to doctors, teachers, nurses, midwives, police and school boarding supervisors.

Costelloe said plans to remove legal protections around the confidentiality of religious confessions would cause “great concern and distress” to many people of faith.

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

WHEELING (WV)
The Intelligencer

May 26, 2019

By Joselyn King

The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston has added nine additional names to the list of priests associated with the diocese accused in sexual abuse incidents since the1950s, bringing the total number to 40.

The diocese released its original list in November, and updated it this week following a visit to Wheeling by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. Morrisey called for more cooperation and transparency from the Diocese as investigations continue into sexual abuse claims made against diocese priests — including former bishop Michael Bransfield.

Phone messages left with the diocese Friday afternoon were not immediately returned.

“We are glad that the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston has updated their list of priests publicly accused of abuse,” said Judy Jones, midwest regional leader for SNAP — The Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests. “We are disappointed, however, that they did so without notifying the public.

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

DETROIT (MI)
Detroit News

May 22, 2019

By Beth LeBlanc

Law enforcement knew about an allegation of misconduct with a minor against a Diocese of Saginaw priest as early as March 2018 and the victim allegedly reported the incident to the diocese years earlier, but the priest wasn’t removed from his position until Sunday.

The Diocese of Saginaw announced Tuesday that the Rev. Dennis Kucharczyk had been placed on administrative leave after law enforcement informed diocesan officials of “an allegation of misconduct involving a minor that allegedly occurred many years ago.”

“Father Kucharczyk is to have no contact with individuals under 21, which prohibits him from going on school properties or participating in school and parish activities and functions,” the diocese’s statement said. “He also was informed that he must refrain from wearing clerical garb, refrain from the exercise of public ministry, and may not present himself publicly as a priest while the allegation is investigated by the Diocese.”

A March 2018 search warrant indicates a Midland woman informed police last year of “inappropriate touching” by Kucharczyk, behavior that started in the late 1980s when she was in first or second grade until she “ended the relationship” more than 15 years later. The woman told police she alerted the coordinate for the diocese’s Office of Child and Youth Protection about the incident “around 2010,” according to the warrant.

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LANSING (MI)
M Live

May 23, 2019

By Cole Waterman

Saginaw – A priest recently suspended by the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw due to an allegation of sexual misconduct was named more than a year ago in sealed police affidavits as a suspect in a misconduct case involving a minor, documents show.

The documents, unsealed this month, name the Rev. Dennis Kucharczyk, who the Saginaw Diocese said in press release on Tuesday, May 21, was placed administrative leave from priestly ministry on Sunday, May 19.

The diocese took the action after it said it received information from law enforcement regarding an allegation of misconduct involving a minor that occurred “many years ago.”

A 19-page affidavit authored by Saginaw Township Police Detective Scott Jackson and dated March 22, 2018, states police sought personnel records of Kucharczyk, three other priests, and one deacon as part of their investigation.

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DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Service via Crux

May 25, 2019

By Pablo Kay

[Note: The bill discussed in this article is available here.]

Los Angeles – Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said he was “deeply disappointed” by the California Senate’s passage of a bill that would force priests to disclose information about child sexual abuse that they hear in the sacrament of confession.

After legislators voted 30-2 in favor of the measure May 23, the archbishop urged the state’s Catholics “to continue to pray and make your voices heard on this issue, which is so vital to our faith and religious freedom.”

“I continue to believe we can strengthen mandated reporting laws to protect children’s safety while at the same time preserving the sanctity of penitential communications,” he stated. “My brother bishops and I will continue to work with our lawmakers in the Assembly.”

As the bill, S.B. 360, made its way through the Legislature, the California bishops urged lawmakers to strengthen and clarify mandated reporting requirements while maintaining the traditional protections for “penitential communications.”

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

DES MOINES (IA)
Des Moines Register

May 25, 2019

By Shelby Fleig

Two years after The Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winningseries in 2002 that uncovered decades of abuse and cover-ups in New England parishes, Iowan John Chambers, 66, regained long-repressed memories of being sexually abused as a sophomore at Dowling High School.

Chambers, a lifelong Des Moines resident, had been in and out of therapy for decades by that point battling crippling depression. His deteriorating mental health led to substance abuse and withered his relationships, he said.

He was 52 when he remembered instances of fondling and indecent exposure by the Rev. Leonard Kenkel, in 1966 and 1967. According to Child USA, a nonprofit think-tank that studies child abuse, 52 is the average age that adults who were victims of child sex abuse first disclose their experiences.

Chambers sued the Diocese of Des Moines and Kenkel in 2004.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Atlantic

May 26, 2019

By Kerry Weber

Calls for the abolition of the Church’s clerical establishment ignore something important: the wishes of the faithful.

A few years ago, I was invited to my friend’s ordination to the priesthood. I was thrilled for him—a kind, holy man who’s passionate about justice—and honored to be included. But if I’m honest, I also expected to be a bit bored. Ordination liturgies can run several hours, and the rite requires some parts to be repeated for each candidate. With eight men up for ordination, I knew we’d be in it for the long haul. I imagined the experience as something akin to a graduation ceremony, where you root for the person you know and then tune out.

On the day of the liturgy, however, that repetition of the rite moved me deeply. As I watched this line of men I’d never met become priests in the Church I loved, I was struck by the beauty of this brief overlap in our lives, and by the way in which these men represented only a fraction of those ordained that year. We would all go our separate ways, changed by this experience and renewed in our desire to serve. I needed to root not just for my friend but for all of them.

With every new wave of stories of sexual abuse by priests, it can be much harder not to create a spiritual bunker containing the people I like and leaving out the rest. I have felt despair and frustration at the crisis of abuse and the failure of leadership that got us here. The Church needs healing. It needs a new way forward.

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

MECHANICSBURG (PA)
Penn Live

May 23, 2019

By Christine P. Bartholomew

https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2019/05/the-catholic-church-is-tightening-rules-on-reporting-sexual-abuse-but-not-swearing-off-its-legal-privilege-to-keep-secrets-opinion.html

[Note: The document discussed in this commentary is available here.]

Pope Francis recently changed the Catholic Church law, making it mandatory for clergy to report sexual abuse to church superiors. In the past, such reporting was left to the discretion of a priest or nun.

Pope Francis’ proposal is an effort to address gaps in the regulatory process of the church, which has been accused of shielding clergy sexual abuse. It provides a process to report allegations up the pipeline.

As a scholar of law I worry that it fails to address what the church will do with that information.

To date, religious organizations, such as the Catholic Church, have adopted inconsistent positions on whether, and to what degree, they should share information necessary for legal action.

Clergy across various religions, ranging from Christians to Catholics to Muslims to Jews, are willing to share evidence in cases of violent crimes, such as murders. But when the evidence pertains to clergy misconduct, namely sexual abuse, the tide changes.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

May 25, 2019

By Patrick Whittle

A Massachusetts priest who was defrocked for child sexual abuse and was portrayed in the movie ‘‘Spotlight” is going to prison for a second time — this time in Maine.

A judge on Friday ordered Ronald Paquin to serve 16 years in state prison for sexually abusing an altar boy during trips to Maine in the 1980s. Paquin, 76, already served more than 10 years in prison in Massachusetts for sexually abusing another altar boy in that state.

Justice Wayne Douglas said he didn’t detect expressions of remorse or responsibility from Paquin, who he said betrayed the ‘‘sacred trust’’ of his victims. He imposed the maximum sentence of 20 years but suspended a portion of the sentence.

One of Paquin’s victims, 45-year-old Keith Townsend, testified before the sentencing that Paquin’s abuse sent him into a spiral of depression and drug abuse, and caused him to question his faith in God. The Associated Press does not normally identify victims of sexual abuse, but Townsend identified himself as the victim and gave permission for his name to be used.

Later, Townsend said he was satisfied with the sentence, and he hopes it motivates more victims to name their abusers.

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ATLANTA (GA)
CNN

May 26, 2019

By Antonia Mortensen

[Note: The documentary described in this article may be viewed here (with subtitles).]

“Father, I wanted to look you in the eye … I wanted to ask you why?” demands Anna Misiewicz as she confronts the parish priest she says abused her when she was just seven and eight years old.

“You touched me where you were not supposed to, my private parts,” Misiewicz says, matter-of-factly, telling him that his actions “really scarred my adult life deeply.”

“I still have nightmares … I am unable to sleep at night,” she tells her alleged abuser. “I still carry it inside me.”

The elderly man she is addressing exhales and shifts in his orange and brown striped chair, as a religious service plays out on a TV nearby, in a home for retired priests in Kielce, central Poland.

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LANSING (MI)
M Live

May 24, 2019

By Malachi Barrett

[Note: The affidavits summarized in this article are available here.]

Court documents shared by the Michigan Attorney General’s office reveal shocking details of sexual misconduct allegedly committed by priests for years across the state before their arrest this week.

Five men who were priests in Michigan have been charged with 21 counts of criminal sexual conduct, Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Friday. Nessel said the priests are suspected of abusing five individuals, four who were underage at the time of the sexual assault and one adult who was taken advantage of during a confession.

Nessel shared affidavits and charging documents with reporters after a Friday press conference. The arrests are “the tip of the iceberg,” Nessel said, more will be found as state investigators review hundreds of tips and hundreds of thousands of documents uncovered from a probe into Michigan’s seven Catholic dioceses.

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

SHARON (PA)
Associated Press

May 26, 2019

By Melissa Klaric

A faith that is shaken, but not lost. Deep disappointment, but hope for the future. An overwhelming feeling that there is a lesson to be learned and a stronger church if it is taken to heart.

In the wake of the October grand jury report chronicling hundreds of cases of sexual abuse by priests around Pennsylvania, as well as testimonies of victims who say their lives have been turned upside down because of the church’s inaction, Catholics are struggling to deal with the news and the future.

Jill Stanek’s parents taught her to respect and to revere the clergy and the church. Now, the Sharon mother of five is teaching her children differently.

Stanek and others associated with the Catholic Church in the Shenango Valley and Lawrence County came together to talk about those questions – what to think about the scandals, what to believe about their faith and church and what to do next.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

May 25, 2019

By Bethany Ao

Retired Catholic Bishop Joseph Galante, 80, of Philadelphia, who led the Diocese of Camden from 2004 to 2013, died Saturday, May 25, at Shore Medical Center in Somers Point after a long illness that led to his earlier-than-anticipated retirement.

The Diocese of Camden announced his death via Facebook. A representative could not be reached for comment.

* * *

The bishop was also known for his zero-tolerance stance on sexual abuse within the church. It earned him a spot on the ad hoc committee on sex abuse of the Conference of Catholic Bishops. In 2002, when sex abuse in Boston provoked an international crisis, Bishop Galante helped draft the Charter for Protection of Children and Young People, which was overwhelmingly approved by his fellow bishops when they met that summer.

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LANSING (MI)
Office of the Attorney General

May 24, 2019

By Attorney General Dana Nessel

[Note: This announcement includes links to the criminal complaints and affidavits.]

Five men who were priests have been charged with a total of 21 counts of criminal sexual conduct, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced at a news conference this morning in Lansing. Four of the men have been arrested; one awaits extradition in India. A sixth Michigan priest is facing an administrative complaint and his license as a professional educationally limited counselor has been summarily suspended by the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA).

“In the last 30 hours, more than a dozen members of our investigative team have been in courtrooms in Washtenaw, Wayne, Genesee, Macomb and Berrien Counties while other members of our team have been working with local law enforcement in Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan – all in a carefully executed plan to take these charged defendants off the streets,” said Nessel. “Almost all of these charges came as a direct result of calls to our tip line but were then corroborated by files seized from the dioceses last fall, followed by multiple interviews with victims.

“Although we have charged these men with very serious crimes, I want to remind everyone that they are innocent until proven guilty by a court of law,” cautioned Nessel.

Charges were filed as follows:

• Timothy Michael Crowley, 69, Lansing Diocese, was charged in Washtenaw County with four felony counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct (CSC) 1, a maximum sentence of life in prison and a lifetime of electronic monitoring, and four felony counts of CSC 2 – a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Crowley, who was a priest in various parishes, including St. Thomas Rectory in Ann Arbor, was arrested Thursday in Tempe, Arizona.

• Neil Kalina, 63, 63, Archdiocese of Detroit, was charged in Macomb County with four felony counts of CSC 2, a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a lifetime of electronic monitoring. Kalina, who was a priest at St. Kiernan Catholic Church in Shelby Township, was arrested Thursday in Littlerock, California.

• Vincent DeLorenzo, 80, Lansing Diocese, was charged in Genesee County with three felony counts of CSC 1, a maximum sentence of life in prison and a lifetime of electronic monitoring, and three felony counts of CSC 2, a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. DeLorenzo, who was a priest at Holy Redeemer Church in Burton, was arrested Thursday in Marion County, Florida.

• Patrick Casey, 55, Archdiocese of Detroit, was charged in Wayne County with one felony count of CSC 3, a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Casey, who was a priest at St. Theodore of Canterbury Parish in Westland, was arrested Thursday in Oak Park, Michigan.

• Jacob Vellian, 84, Kalamazoo Diocese, was charged with two counts of Rape, a maximum sentence of life in prison. Vellian was a priest at St. John the Evangelist Parish, Benton Harbor, and now lives in Kerala, India.

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

DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press

May 24, 2019

By Niraj Warikoo

As part of the state’s investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Friday criminal sexual conduct charges against five priests in Michigan.

“Some of these clergy … preyed on young children,” Nessel said at a news conference about the men who were priests at the time of the alleged abuse. She said the five cases were the “tip of the iceberg” as investigators continue to track down hundreds of tips on abuse by Catholic priests.

In some of the incidents, the priests mixed their sexual activity with references to Catholic beliefs or committed the acts during Catholic rituals such as confession, according to allegations in affidavits.

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ANN ARBOR (MI)
Michigan Radio NPR

May 24, 2019

By Steve Carmody

Saginaw’s new Catholic bishop says he’s committed to “transparency and accountability” on matters concerning sexual abuse by priests.

Pope Francis appointed Bishop Robert Gruss to take over the Diocese of Saginaw earlier this month. Gruss held his introductory news conference Friday, shortly before Attorney General Dana Nessel announced charges against five Catholic priests in different parts of Michigan. The Attorney General’s office is investigating allegations of sexual abuse in all of Michigan’s Catholic dioceses.

Gruss has dealt with similar allegations in his current posting in Rapid City, South Dakota. In March, the Diocese of Rapid City released a list of 21 priests accused of sexual misconduct dating back to 1951. Twenty on the list are dead. The sole living priest on the list pleaded guilty in February to sexually touching a 13-year-old girl.

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SAGINAW (MI)
Diocese of Saginaw

May 21, 2019

A priest of the Diocese of Saginaw, Father Dennis Kucharczyk, has been placed on administrative leave from priestly ministry by Bishop Walter A. Hurley, Apostolic Administrator, while an allegation of misconduct involving a minor is investigated. Father Kucharczyk is pastor at St. John XXIII Parish, which includes St. Mary Church in Hemlock, Sacred Heart Church in Merrill and St. Patrick Church in Ryan. This leave took effect on Sunday, May 19.

The Diocese of Saginaw has received information from law enforcement regarding an allegation of misconduct involving a minor that allegedly occurred many years ago. Based on this information, the Diocese immediately removed Father Kucharczyk from active ministry.

According to the terms of the leave of absence, Father Kucharczyk is to have no contact with individuals under 21, which prohibits him from going on school properties or participating in school and parish activities and functions. He also was informed that he must refrain from wearing clerical garb, refrain from the exercise of public ministry, and may not present himself publicly as a priest while the allegation is investigated by the Diocese.

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

ATLANTA (GA)
CNN

May 24, 2019

By Jason Hanna and Elizabeth Joseph

Five former Catholic priests have been charged in Michigan with criminal sexual conduct or rape, the state attorney general said Friday, amid a months-long investigation of alleged clergy sexual abuse in the state.

Four were arrested Thursday in various locations across the country, and Michigan will seek the extradition of a fifth man from India, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said.

“In this case, some of those clergy who preyed on young children and on vulnerable adults, unfortunately those clergy were hiding in plain sight, purporting to comfort their parishioners, hearing their confessions and taking advantage of their position of faith and authority,” Nessel said in a news conference Friday in Lansing.

“And today, we begin holding those clergy accountable.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

May 24, 2019

By Julie Zauzmer

Five men who have worked as Catholic priests in Michigan now face charges for sex crimes, state Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Friday.

Nessel has conducted one of the most aggressive probes of the Catholic Church as attorneys general in numerous states across the country investigate alleged sexual abuse by priests. She said that the charges announced Friday resulted from tips called in to the state’s hotline for abuse victims, as well as documents that state investigators seized from the state’s seven Catholic dioceses.

Four of the men, ranging in age from 55 to 80, were charged with criminal sexual conduct and arrested on Thursday in their current locations — Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan. A suspect who faces the most serious charges, two counts of rape, has not yet been arrested, according to the attorney general’s office. That suspect, Jacob Vellian, lives in Kerala, India, according to the attorney general’s office, which said it will seek his extradition.

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WARSAW (POLAND)
Associated Press

May 25, 2019

By Vanessa Gera

One victim spoke out, and then another, and another. A statue of a pedophile priest was toppled in Gdansk, put back by his supporters, and finally dismantled for good. A feature film about clerical abuse was a box office hit.

Poland thought it had started confronting the problem of clerical abuse and its cover-up by church authorities. Then a bombshell came: A documentary with victim testimony so harrowing it has forced an unprecedented reckoning with pedophile priests in one of Europe’s most deeply Catholic societies.

Poland’s bishops acknowledged this week they face a crisis and made a rare admission that they have failed to protect the young. It’s also a crisis for the country’s conservative government, which is closely aligned with the Catholic Church, putting the ruling Law and Justice party on the defensive before Sunday’s European Parliament vote in Poland.

The documentary ”Tell No One ” was directed by journalist Tomasz Sekielski. Before its release on May 11, ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski had described discussion about clerical abuse as a “brutal attack” on the church and portrayed the LGBT rights movement as the key threat to children in the country. But the revelations in the documentary have pushed the party to face up to the cleric abuse crisis. It has vowed stiffer penalties for pedophilia, although its leaders have avoided pointing a finger at the church specifically.

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PORTLAND (ME)
Press-Herald

May 24, 2019

By Megan Gray

A jury convicted Ronald Paquin last year on 11 of 24 counts of gross sexual misconduct stemming from incidents in the 1980s.

A former Catholic priest will spend 16 years in prison for abusing a young boy on trips to Maine in the 1980s.

Ronald Paquin, 76, was found guilty in November on 11 of 24 counts of gross sexual misconduct. A York County jury acquitted him of similar charges related to a second boy.

Paquin was one of the priests exposed in the early 2000s by a sweeping Boston Globe investigation into clergy sex abuse. He pleaded guilty in 2002 in Massachusetts to repeatedly raping an altar boy between 1989 and 1992, beginning when the victim was 12. He spent more than decade in prison there and was defrocked in 2004.

York County Superior Court Justice Wayne Douglas sentenced Paquin on Friday to 20 years in prison with all but 16 years suspended. Upon release, Paquin will be subject to three years of probation and required to register as a sex offender.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
TV 7 NBC

May 24, 2019

By Anlleyn Venegas, Fabiola Berriozábal and Brenda Gregorio-Nieto

Two more women have come forward and claimed to be victims of child sexual abuse by a priest at the St. Jude’s Shrine of the West church in Southcrest.

They claimed it occurred more than 30 years ago in the well-known and beloved parish. The priest involved is named, Monsignor Gregory Sheridan, who has already died and the victims are asking that the church to recognize the alleged crimes.

For decades, families have nurtured their faith in the parish whose masses were also visited by St. Teresa of Calcutta and Luis Donaldo Colosio.

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

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Magazine

May 23, 2019

By Jacqueline Cain

The celebrity chef has been disgraced by a slew of sexual assault allegations, but he wasn’t facing any charges—until now.

NOTE: This post was updated Friday, May 24, after Mario Batali was arraigned in Boston.

After floodgates opened in December 2017 that shed light on a pattern of alleged sexual misconduct by Mario Batali, the celebrity chef is no longer profiting from the restaurant empire that launched him to fame. But he wasn’t facing any criminal charges—until now. The Boston Globe reports that Batali has been charged with indecent assault and battery, and plead not guilty to the charges on Friday morning in Boston Municipal Court.

Boston Police launched an investigation into an incident with Batali in Boston in August 2018, after a local woman told Eater New York that the chef assaulted her at a former Back Bay restaurant in 2017. The woman also filed a lawsuit against Batali.

The victim’s name is redacted in the new criminal charges, but according to the Globe, the account aligns with that plaintiff’s story. Police say the woman told them she was eating dinner with a friend at Towne Stove and Spirits when she spotted the recognizable Batali at the bar. She asked the chef for a photo, and Batali invited her to pose for a selfie with him. The woman told police that an apparently intoxicated Batali took the opportunity to grope her chest and groin without her consent, kiss her, and aggressively pull her face. The woman left the restaurant shortly after the incident, she told police. In the civil complaint she filed last summer, the woman’s lawyers said the uncomfortable ordeal left her badly shaken.

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

HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle

May 23, 2019

By Sarah Smith

The Southern Baptist Convention’s missionary arm knew of sexual abuse allegations against one of its former top missionaries for over 10 years before his arrest — accusations that exploded last year and forced the organization to bring in a third party to investigate its handling of abuse.

Anne Marie Miller told the International Mission Board in 2007 that Mark Aderholt, then a missionary to Central Europe, had initiated sexual contact with her as a teenager. He resigned quietly from the IMB and went on to rise in the Southern Baptist ranks until Miller reported him to police and went public with her story in 2018. No one from the IMB contacted law enforcement during the course of its 2007 investigation.

The law firm retained by the IMB in the wake of the Aderholt scandal put out a release on Wednesday recommending sweeping changes to the organization’s policies for reporting abuse to law enforcement.

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

NEW ZEALAND
Stuff.co.nz

May 23, 2019

A Catholic priest has been defrocked of his title over historical sexual offending against boys.

The Bishop of Hamilton Steve Lowe said in a statement Magnus Murray has been removed from the priesthood after the conclusion of a formal church judicial process.

Murray, known as Max, was convicted in 2003 on four historic charges of sexual offending against four boys.

He previously served as a Catholic priest of the Dioceses of Dunedin and Hamilton, and was withdrawn from ministry when he retired in 1990.

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

CHARLESTON (WV)
WV News

May 24, 2019

By Jake Jarvis

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said his office has made three criminal referrals to local prosecutors stemming from an investigation into the Roman Catholic Diocese of West Virginia.

Morrisey, who identified himself as a practicing member of the Catholic church, addressed the lawsuit during a press conference at his office Thursday afternoon. He said he is deeply disappointed that the church diocese continues to conceal documents and is not cooperating with full disclosure.

“Obviously they cooperated a little bit up front,” Morrisey said. “After we filed the original submission, they spent a lot of time talking about how old the allegations were. We thought about that a little bit. Some of them obviously go back in time, but it’s critical to note that the reason why they’re coming to light now is because of our office.”

Morrisey’s office first filed a lawsuit against the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese and Bishop Michael Bransfield earlier this year, alleging they violated the state’s consumer protection laws by not alerting parents the accused priests were staffing its schools and camps.

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

UNITED STATES
World Religion News

May 23, 2019

By Alison Lesley

YOUNG ADULTS ARE MORE AT RISK

The Lifeway Research conducted a 2019 Sexual Misconduct and Churchgoers Study found that about 10 percent of all Protestant churchgoers below 35 years of age have abandoned their church as they harbored the perception of sexual misconduct not being taken seriously. This is twice as many as five percent of all the churchgoers who have previously done the same. When it comes to the younger demographic, about nine percent said that they have stopped attending their congregation due to feeling unsafe from misconduct.

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

ROME
Crux

May 24, 2019

By Claire Giangravè

Italian bishops are running late on several items on Pope Francis’s to-do list, from reducing the disproportionate number of dioceses on the peninsula to streamlining marriage annulments, but when it comes to the protection of minors they say they’re now getting up to speed.

During their general assembly May 20-23, the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) approved “Guidelines for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Persons,” which will focus on the prevention of abuse and will be added to their previously published 2014 guidelines.

The guidelines will be published in the coming days, but bishops already shared their main novelty, which is a “moral obligation” for clergy to report verified cases of sexual abuse to civil authorities.

“This was, I believe, the real step forward of these guidelines compared to the ones we had before,” said Archbishop Lorenzo Ghizzoni of Ravenna, who heads the commission for the protection of minors at CEI, during a news conference May 23.

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

CINCINNATI (OH)
Cincinnati Enquirer

May 23, 2019

By James Pilcher

Two Big Ten schools have paid more than $700 million to victims of sex abuse scandals linked to their athletic programs.

Ohio State appears likely to join the group, with mediation sessions scheduled next month for athletes who have sued the university, with more lawsuits likely on the way.

So, how large could a settlement for the victims of Dr. Richard Strauss be? Who will ultimately foot the bill? Since the abuse occurred at the main campus, could there be a financial penalty for the Ohio State regional campuses in Mansfield, Marion, Newark, Lima and Wooster?

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

AUSTRALIA
Australian Associated Press

May 23, 2019

Archbishop urged minister not to broaden law that would oblige priests to report information heard in confession

Religious ministers in Western Australia will be compelled to reveal knowledge of child sexual abuse – even if it is gained through the confessional – but the Catholic church is resisting.

The WA Labor government plans to expand mandatory reporting laws to include all recognised religious leaders who are authorised to conduct worship, services and ceremonies.

This includes priests, ministers, imams, rabbis, pastors and Salvation Army officers.

The laws already apply in WA to doctors, teachers, nurses, midwives, police and school boarding supervisors.

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

VATICAN CITY
Reuters

May 23, 2019

By Philip Pullella

Italy’s Roman Catholic bishops on Thursday enacted a new policy on reporting suspected cases of sexual abuse by priests, but they stopped short of making it mandatory to inform police at first instance.

Under the policy, church authorities would carry out a preliminary investigation then decide whether to refer it to police.

The measure drew a skeptical response from victims’ groups mindful of past Church cover-ups of abuses by clergymen.

The policy does however go further than that laid out by Pope Francis earlier this month which mandated the world’s one million priests and nuns to report all suspicion of sexual abuse by clerics of any level to their superiors.

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

SACRAMENTO (CA)
The Sacramento Bee

May 24, 2019

By Marcos Breton

The state Senate passed a bill on Thursday that would require Catholic priests to rat out other Catholic priests for admitting that they molested a child – even if it were made during the sacrament of confession.

Authored by Democrat Jerry Hill of the Bay Area, Senate Bill 360 is like a TV drama “ripped from the headlines.” Catholic priests have been the molesting kids for decades and getting away with it some cases. The church has been all-too-slow in responding appropriately, or in fully atoning for unspeakable complicity in the abuse of children by members of clergy. The headlines have endless.

Hill’s bill is a direct response to the outrage over the abuse of children. The fact that Hill’s bill crosses the line supposedly separating church and state seemed of little concern to the 30 state senators – including Sacramento’s Democrat Richard Pan, and Republican Jim Nielsen, whose district includes Roseville and Yuba City.

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

ROME
The Guardian

May 23, 2019

By Angela Giuffrida

Book says officials manipulated children into making abuse claims, leading to convictions, family separations and deaths

In the early hours of 7 July 1997, Federico Scotta and his wife were woken by an incessant ringing of their doorbell. Police had arrived at their home in Mirandola, a town in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, with a search warrant.

Officers found nothing incriminating, but the couple and their three-year-old daughter and baby son were escorted to the police station. The children were taken away by social workers that day and a few months later a third child was taken from the delivery room. The couple never saw the children again.

The so-called “Satanic panic” phenomenon that had swept through the US and parts of the UK earlier that decade had reached Italy. Scotta and his wife were accused of belonging to a sprawling paedophile network that worshipped the devil and sacrificed children and animals in cemeteries at night.

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

SIOUX CITY (IA)
KSCJ

May 22, 2019

By Woody Gottburg

A Sioux City man who says he was abused by priests joined the Iowa Senate’s Democratic leader today (Wednesday) in calling on Iowa lawmakers to do more for victims of child sex abuse.

Tim Lennon, who grew up in Sioux City, says he was 43 years old when he first remembered being molested by the priest in his childhood church.

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

KOCHI (INDIA)
Express News Service

May 22, 2019

Fr Tony Kallookaran, the vicar of Muringoor Sanjoe Nagar Church, was arraigned as fourth accused in the case.

The police investigation team on Monday arraigned a priest of the Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese of the Syro-Malabar Church in the case related to defaming Cardinal George Alenchery using forged documents. Fr Tony Kallookaran, the vicar of Muringoor Sanjoe Nagar Church, was arraigned as fourth accused in the case.

The police had arrested a 24-year-old researcher with IIT Madras for forging the documents. According to the police, Adithya Valvi, a native of Konthuruthi, forged the document claiming that bishops, including Alenchery, have investments with a multinational company.

The police on Monday filed a petition at the Kakkanad Judicial First Class Magistrate court stating Fr Kallookaran has been arraigned as the fourth accused. According to the police, it was based on the directions of Fr Kallookaran, Adithya created fake documents. Later, following his directions, Adithya transferred documents to Fr Paul Thelakkat, the first accused in the case.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

May 23, 2019

By Jason Steidl

Pundits criticized James Carroll’s Atlantic article, but did they try to understand him?

On May 17, The Atlantic published James Carroll’s “Abolish the Priesthood,” an overtly personal and lengthy critique of clericalism in the Roman Catholic Church. The author, a former priest, wrote of his anguished decision to take time away from the institutional Catholic Church after decades of disappointment with the hierarchy, including the last few years, which have leveled wave after wave of the sex abuse crisis.

Toward the end of the piece, which treats much more than its clickbait title suggests, Carroll proposes several ways that Catholics can reimagine their tradition to better meet their and the world’s spiritual needs. For Catholics exhausted by scandal after scandal in the church, Carroll offers hope that all is not lost. He argues that Catholic community, spirituality and service rooted in ancient tradition have much to offer the world today.

Sadly, this is not how most male Catholic pundits received Carroll’s thought. In fact, at a time when the internet-church is easily polarized through social media, the piece brought together condemnations from both the Catholic right and left. EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo immediately dismissed Carroll’s work as “unserious,” an “ahistorical, anti-biblical suggestion with zero constituency in Catholicism.” Carl Olson mocked the author as one especially unsuited to speak about the priesthood. Fordham University theologian Charles Camosy rhetorically asked, “What could be less provocative than this centuries’ old argument?”

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

BAKERSFIELD (CA)
Bakersfield.com

May 23, 2019

By John Cox

Newly disclosed letters and emails from the early 2000s detail allegations that Bakersfield priest Craig Harrison had sex with two high school students while serving as pastor of a church in Firebaugh.

In addition, an email from August 2004 alleged he would examine boys’ private parts every morning as a way of checking whether they had been using drugs.

The accusations surfaced as part of an unrelated investigation conducted in 2004 by a retired FBI agent in Merced. Summaries of his findings were contained in material provided to The Californian Thursday by Stephen Brady, a representative of Roman Catholic Faithful, an organization of church members including investigators and lawyers, whose self-professed goal is to rid the church of clerical corruption.

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

RAPID CITY (SD)
KOTA TV

May 23, 2019

By Jack Caudill

A former Rapid City Catholic priest is hit with a federal indictment.

The federal grand jury charged Marcin Garbacz with wire fraud, money laundering and transportation of stolen money.

The indictment lays out what federal prosecutors say happened; starting with his time at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Faith where he was removed in July of 2012 in part because of his financial mismanagement of the parish. Garbacz was then assigned to parishes in Rapid City.

Beginning in July of 2012, and continuing until about April of 2018, Garbacz allegedly devised a scheme to steal from the parishes and deposit the money in his own account.

Garbacz is accused — starting in July of 2012 — of stealing cash donations before they were counted. He reportedly did this by entering the parish at night or in the morning when no one else where there or awake.

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

SAGINAW (MI)
9&10 News

May 22, 2019

By Ryan Cole

A priest in the Diocese of Saginaw has been put on administrative leave as the church looks into allegations of misconduct with a minor.

Father Dennis Kucharczyk was the pastor of St. John XXIII Parish and served churches in Hemlock, Merrill and Ryan.

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

SAGINAW (MI)
The Associated Press

May 22, 2019

A priest with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saginaw is on administrative leave while church officials investigate an allegation of misconduct with a minor.

The decision regarding the Rev. Dennis Kucharczyk was announced Tuesday. The diocese says the alleged misconduct “occurred many years ago,” and he was placed on leave Sunday after church officials received information from law enforcement.

The Associated Press sent an email to Kucharczyk Wednesday seeking comment.
A release says Kucharczyk cannot have contact with anyone under 21 or serve in priestly capacities during the investigation.

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

EVANSVILLE (IN)
Evansville Courier & Press

May 23, 2019

By Jon Webb

In September, the Evansville Catholic diocese put the Rev. David Fleck on administrative leave.

He’d been accused of sexual misconduct. That’s about all we knew. And eight months later, not much has changed.

Diocese spokesman Tim Lilley confirmed this week that Fleck is still barred from public ministry.

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

FRESNO (CA)
KFSN

May 22, 2019

By Jason Oliveira

A small, tight-knit community is reeling after news in Dinuba broke of a police investigation centered around Roman Catholic priest Father Raul Diaz.

The longtime pastor at Saint Catherine’s Catholic Church is on leave after being accused of inappropriate behavior.

The Diocese of Fresno released a statement from Bishop Joseph Brennan regarding Father Raul:

“It is my responsibility as your Bishop to inform you that I have placed Father Raul Diaz, Pastor of St. Catherine Siena, on “Paid Administrative Leave” effective as of May 17, 2019. This action follows notification that law enforcement has received a report alleging Father Diaz has engaged in inappropriate behavior that may include inappropriate contact with minors.

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

RAPID CITY (SD)
NewsCenter1

May 23, 2019

A federal indictment was filed this week against a former Rapid City priest accused of stealing over $150,000 from the Diocese of Rapid City.

Marcin Garbacz is accused of wire fraud, money laundering and transportation of stolen money.

Court documents indicate that from around July 2012 and April 2018, Garbacz allegedly began stealing cash donations from the plate collections passed around during worship services.

At the time, the cash donated during plate collections wasn’t immediately counted after services. Garbacz had access to where the donations were stored and prosecutors say he would enter the parish at night or in the early morning hours to steal some of the cash.

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

SAGINAW (MI)
25 News

May 23, 2019

By Bria Brown

There are new details about an allegation of sexual abuse against Father Dennis Kucharczyk in the Saginaw Diocese.

Kucharczyk was removed from ministry this past weekend after the diocese learned of the allegations.

NBC25/FOX66 talked to Bishop Walter Hurley who told us the diocese first learned about the allegations against father Dennis Kucharczyk this past Saturday from law enforcement.

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

WASHINGTON (DC)
LifeSiteNews

May 22, 2019

By Lisa Bourne

The installation Tuesday of Archbishop Wilton Gregory as the seventh archbishop of Washington, D.C. Tuesday conveyed the status quo in clergy sex abuse mishandling by Church hierarchy in having a cardinal who personifies that mishandling on the altar with Gregory.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, the retired archbishop of Los Angeles, took part in the installation Mass despite his controversial history of cover-up in abuse cases and his having been pulled from public duties in his archdiocese several years ago by his successor.

Catholics remain angry over Church leaders’ handling of the abuse scandal, and family advocate groups and victim advocates consider public appearances by the cardinal a slap in the face for victims of clergy sex abuse.

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

SANTA BARBARA (CA)
Newsmakers

May 23, 2019

By Jerry Roberts

A nationally prominent law firm that represents victims of sexual abuse confirmed on Wednesday they have been contracted in connection with allegations of improper conduct by leaders of Santa Barbara High School’s Multimedia Arts & Design Academy.

“We have been retained,” attorney Stu Mollrich told Newsmakers, speaking for the Irvine-based firm of Manly, Stewart and Finaldi. “We have not yet filed an action.”

Their entry into the local controversy now swirling around the acclaimed MAD Academy raises the stakes in the affair, which escalated last week,when parents of a former student publicly accused Pablo Sweeney, the program’s ousted operations director, of sexual “predation” towards their son, as another parent released a social media video showing Dan Williams, the soon-to-be-retired longtime director, partying with students.

In public comments to the school board, the parents charged that Santa Barbara Unified School District officials turned a blind eye to improprieties and failed to report them as required to law enforcement or child welfare agencies.

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

LEWISTON (NY)
WIVB

May 22, 2019

By Daniel Telvock and Chris Horvatits

The priest who Bishop Richard Malone appointed to President-Rector of Christ the King Seminary on Tuesday is accused of leaving a woman “surprised and disillusioned” by his lack of support over a sexual assault complaint in June 2016.

Malone spoke highly of The Rev. Kevin G. Creagh in a press release to announce the appointment.

“I have come to know Father Creagh as a faithful, gifted and committed priest and educator,” Malone said when he appointed Creagh to the post.

“He will provide inspiring leadership as president-rector of Christ the King Seminary. Most importantly, he understands the heart and mind of Christ. We’re excited to have him guide us in forming missionary disciples with that same heart and mind, ready to proclaim the Good News.”

But News 4 Investigates has learned that Creagh is described much differently in a lawsuit filed May 8 by Niagara University professor Edna Leticia Hernandez De Hahn.

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

SIOUX CITY (IA)
Sioux Land News

May 23, 2019

By Cynthia Monroy

More than 100 dioceses across the country have released lists of clergy members accused of sexual abuse including here in Sioux City.

“What happened to me is horrific and damaging,” said Tim Lennon, President of SNAP.

At 12-years-old, Tim Lennon was sexually abused by a priest in Sioux City.

He was one of more than 100 victims that Diocese of Sioux City determined to have a credible allegation.

“I was raped and abused when I was 12 now I’m 72 and every day that I wake up, it’s there,” said Lennon.

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

UNITED STATES
ENews

May. 24, 2019

By McKenna Aiello

Harvey Weinstein has tentatively reached a $44 million civil agreement with his sexual misconduct accusers, former business partners and other entities, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.

Attorney Adam Harris, who is representing his former film studio’s board members, was in bankruptcy court Thursday to discuss the matter with a judge presiding over the case. “For the first time, as of yesterday,” the WSJ reports he said, “we now have an economic agreement in principle that is supported by the plaintiffs, the [New York attorney general’s] office, the defendants and all of the insurers.”

The settlement, which is not yet finalized, would reportedly provide approximately $30 million to plaintiffs in the wide-ranging civil suit, which include Weinstein’s alleged victims, Weinstein Co. employees and creditors who loaned the film studio money before filing for bankruptcy. The remaining $14 million would cover the legal fees of Weinstein’s former business associates, according to the WSJ.

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

TAOS (NM)
The Taos News

May 23, 2019

By Cody Hooks

Two men who were parishioners of Questa’s St. Anthony Church in the late 1960s have named a former priest as a sexual abuser in a lawsuit filed last week, marking another instance of alleged abuse by clergy associated with the beleaguered Catholic Church in New Mexico.

The lawsuit alleges Leo Courcy sexually abused the two boys on an overnight stay at the church rectory in the summer of 1969. One boy was raped and the other molested, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday (May 16) in the 2nd Judicial District Court in Albuquerque.

The lawsuit was filed against the Servants of the Paraclete, a largely inactive religious order that was founded in New Mexico in the 1940s, and its private foundation.

Aside from the sexual abuse allegations, the lawsuit also lays blame on the higher-ups of the Servants of the Paraclete for negligently putting known abusers into positions of power in underserved parishes across rural New Mexico.

The Servants ran a facility in Jemez Springs that became known as a dumping ground for sexually abusive priests from other dioceses. The religious order would assign priests to ministerial work as part of a “graduated program of rehabilitation,” according to the lawsuit.

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

MONTEREY (CA)
90.3 KAZU

May 24, 2019

By Erika Mahoney

Advocates of those sexually abused by priests spoke out in Monterey this week. They want the Catholic Diocese of Monterey to expand its list of accused clerics.

Standing on Church Street in front of the Diocese of Monterey, advocate David Clohessy called for more transparency.

“If you’re going to claim to come clean, then for heaven’s sake, come fully clean and tell the flock. Tell the parents, the parishioners, the public, the police,” Clohessy said.

Clohessy is with the support group SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. He says as dioceses across the country have released lists of clerics accused of sexual abuse, many are incomplete.

“Tell them about each and every proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting cleric. And that’s how kids will be safe,” said Clohessy.

Clohessy says at least three clerics have been left off the local list, but he says they found them on other lists of accused clerics.

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

MONTEREY (CA)
Monterey Herald

May 23, 2019

By James Herrera

Duo decry alleged incomplete accused clerics list, victim pay-out programs

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

SIOUX FALLS (SD)
Survivor’s Network for those Abused by Priests

May 23, 2019

Victims’ group finds the Diocese of Sioux Falls list of abusers short

SNAP says that victims in SD need a “Window to Justice”

WHAT

At a sidewalk news conference child sex abuse survivors will urge the Diocese of Sioux Falls to add 25 additional names to its list of clergy with “substantiated allegations” of abuse. The group will also call attention to the sexual abuse of Native Americans in Catholic boarding schools, as well as the need for statute of limitations reform in South Dakota.

WHEN

Friday, May 24th, 11 am

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GENESEE COUNTY (MI)
MLive

May 24, 2019

By Roberto Acosta

A former Flint-area Catholic priest is facing six felony charges dating back to his time in Genesee County.

Criminal charges were filed against Vincent DeLorenzo on Thursday, May 23, including three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and three counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, according to 67th District Court records.

The Diocese of Lansing issued a statement Thursday evening in response to an inquiry about DeLorenzo. The statement says, in part, that DeLorenzo is in the process of being defrocked for sexual misconduct.

The 80-year-old is listed as a Lantana, Florida resident in the court records. He has not yet been arraigned, but the diocese spelled out the former priest’s past troubles in its statement.

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

WASHINGTON (DC)
Crux

May 21, 2019

By Christopher White

In his opening words as the new leader of Catholics in the nation’s capital, Archbishop Wilton Gregory acknowledged the tempests facing the Church, telling the 3,000 people on hand for his installation that faith in Christ, “not any single minister,” will calm the Church’s storms.

Although he never uttered the phrase “sexual abuse,” Gregory referenced the “waves of unsettling revelations” which he said has “caused even the hardiest among us to grow fearful and perhaps even, at times, to want to panic.”

“We have been tossed about by an unusually turbulent moment in our own faith journeys recently and for far too long,” he said during his homily on Tuesday, before noting that, “Our recent sorrow and shame do not define us; rather, they serve to chasten and strengthen us to face tomorrow with spirits undeterred.”

Gregory succeeds Cardinal Donald Wuerl as the seventh archbishop of Washington. Wuerl’s resignation was accepted by Pope Francis in October following scrutiny of his handling of sex abuse cases earlier in his career.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

May 22, 2019

By Tom Roberts

Hierarchy and vulnerability are seemingly incompatible ideas. Hierarchy (in the Catholic imagination) signals status, power, privilege and the ability to control. Vulnerability, on the other hand, signals weakness, a flaw of some sort. It is to be avoided.

But vulnerability, properly understood, is precisely what members of the Roman Catholic hierarchy need to embrace as a strength, argues Fr. James Keenan, a Jesuit theologian. If it is ever to understand an essential interior element at the core of our humanity, the absence of which lies at the core of the sex abuse crisis, the hierarchy must develop a culture of vulnerability.

Keenan, Canisius Professor and director of the Jesuit Institute at Boston College, is developing an important and fascinating insight into the abuse crisis, elevating the discussion about clerical and hierarchical culture well beyond the changes in law and protocols and institutional structure that the scandal has forced upon the church. So I’m going to stick to one subject this week, with connections to past columns on the same and a hope that the discussion continues in the future.

Two months ago, in a segment of this column, I made extended reference to an insightful piece by Fr. Mark Slatter, associate professor of theological ethics at St. Paul University, Ottawa, Ontario, on clerical culture. He generally described culture as “a network of personal meaning and valuing.” In the clerical world, that means a psychology that “engenders webs of kinship among priests, bishops and similarly disposed lay groups, bishops and cardinals, wealthy lay Catholics and think tanks.”

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UNITED STATES
Relevant Magazine

May 22, 2019

A new study finds that ten percent of young Christians say they’ve left a church because they felt it didn’t take sex abuse seriously enough, former megachurch pastor James MacDonald is being investigated for murder-for-hire allegations and a new movie that premiered at Cannes is being hailed as a “Christian movie classic.”

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SAGINAW (MI)
MLive

May 23, 209

By Cole Waterman

Another priest in the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw is accused of sexual misconduct, adding to those previously named by the diocese.

The Rev. Dennis Kucharczyk is the 22nd clergyman the diocese has named as having had credible allegations of misconduct made against them. Many of those previously named are deceased.

Kucharczyk does not face any criminal charges and law enforcement officials have not said if they are specifically investigating him.

Representatives from both the Michigan State Police and Saginaw County Sheriff’s Office told MLive their agencies were not involved in the Kucharczyk matter. The Saginaw County Prosecutor’s Office referred all inquiries to the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, which is conducting a review of sex-abuse allegations dating back decades in all Michigan Catholic dioceses.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Get Religion

May 22, 2019

By Terry Mattingly

Journalists who have covered decades worth of stories linked to the sexual abuse of children and teens by Catholic clergy know that there are church leaders and laity who believe all or most discussions of this topic are fueled by some form of anti-Catholicism.

Yes, these in-denial Catholics are out there. Editors will hear from them.

But, in my experience, most Catholics who complain about news coverage of this hellish subject do not attempt to deny the size or the severe nature of this crisis and, especially, they want more digging into topics linked to the sinful and illegal cover-ups of these crimes.

So what angers these Catholics?

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DOTHAN (AL)
WDHN

May 22, 2019

By Sarah Drake

A former youth pastor for Mt. Gilead Baptist Church accused of sexually abusing children has been acquitted after a jury deliberation Wednesday.

William Wesley Williamson disputed the four counts of sexual abuse of a child less than 12 charges against him Wednesday afternoon in a Houston County courtroom.

The allegations said the abuse took place in the summer of 2017, during a church function known as Wired and also during a summer church event known as Royal Ambassadors

When asked by the defense attorney, if he intentionally or specifically touched any child inappropriately, Williamson responded by saying “I did not intentionally or specifically touch any child inappropriately.”

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NASHVILLE (TN)
WTVF

May 23, 2019

By Hannah McDonald

The actual heart of Catholic Saint John Vianney stopped in Nashville Wednesday.

In Catholic tradition, a relic, such as a heart, can be saved after a saint or holy person passes away for Catholics to view and pray with. The object is meant to draw a person closer to God and not for worshiping.

Saint Vianney lived in the 19th Century in France. He is the patron saint of priests. Many members of the clergy consider him to be a model for holiness.

“He was such a hero,” said Father Ed Steiner, pastor of the Cathedral of the Incarnation.

Fr. Steiner is hopeful that St. Vianney’s story can bring people back to the church.

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HOLLAND (MI)
Holland Sentinel

May 23, 2019

By Mary Johnson

Steve Lenzo (“Letter: Unbelievably light sentence for sexual criminal assault,” Sentinel, May 21) was outraged that the sentence a child predator who served on the West Ottawa School Board was so light and for good reason. But it is more than just a breach of public trust. There is a victim involved. Any sexual crime against a child is abominable, and judges should mete out a sentence that will keep such a person out of society for a long time. It is a well known fact that child sexual predators are rarely rehabilitated and will abuse again.

What about the life sentence the victims suffer? It happened to me when I was a little girl, but nothing was done to the perpetrator because he was a member of my parents’ church and the council did not want to deal with the “embarrassment” since the man had apologized to the council and to my parents. (I learned that much later.)

I remember hating to go to church because I had to see him sitting there in the back seat. I was told to “just try to forget it,” that I should forgive him and never talk about it. Years later, I found out he had molested other girls as well and they were basically told the same thing. Forget it? Not possible. It ruins something deep inside a child, rewires the sexual part of the brain, and the consequences affect forever — even 50 years later.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican News

May 23, 2019

By Christopher Wells

The Permanent Council of the Polish Bishops’ Conference is meeting this week to confront the problem of the clerical abuse of minors.

In a letter to be read in churches throughout the country this coming weekend, Poland’s Bishops admit that “as shepherds of the Church, we did not do everything to prevent harm.”

“There are no words to express our shame at the sexual scandals involving priests”, the Bishops say. “They are a cause of great scandal and demand total condemnation, as well as severe consequences for the perpetrators, and for those who conceal such acts.”

The Permanent Council for the Polish Bishops’ Conference was convened this week by the President of the Conference, Archbishop Stanisław Gądecki in response to recent public revelations of the extent of abuse and cover-up in the Polish Church.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

May 23, 2019

By Thomas Reese

In an article in The Atlantic’s June issue titled “Abolish the Priesthood,” James Carroll provides thought-provoking analysis of the state of the Catholic Church, recounting the history of the sex abuse crisis in the church with special focus on Boston, Ireland, the Pennsylvania grand jury report and Theodore McCarrick.

None of this is new, of course, but seeing it all together depresses and angers the reader that such things were possible in the church.

Also not new is the culprit, in Carroll’s eyes. He points to clericalism as “both the underlying cause and the ongoing enabler of the present Catholic catastrophe.”

“Clericalism, with its cult of secrecy, its theological misogyny, its sexual repressiveness, and its hierarchical power based on threats of a doom-laden afterlife, is at the root of Roman Catholic dysfunction,” according to Carroll. “The clerical system’s obsession with status thwarts even the merits of otherwise good priests and distorts the Gospels’ message of selfless love, which the Church was established to proclaim.”

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ROME
CRUX

May 23, 2019

By Inés San Martín

A doctor has been condemned in Argentina for refusing to perform an abortion in the fifth month of a pregnancy causing uproar among Catholics, Evangelicals and pro-life groups; Pope Francis has appointed two new auxiliary bishops to the troubled Archdiocese of Santiago, Chile; and an apology from a Chilean Jesuit who “saw nothing and knew nothing,” but says he is now convinced his late friend Father Renato Poblete is guilty of abusing many women.

Here’s the rundown of Catholic news from Latin America this week.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Times

May 23, 2019

By Valeriya Safronova and Rebecca Halleck

As more women come forward to report sexual assault, some say law enforcement has failed them. ‘There was no collection of evidence,’ one victim said. ‘Except off my body.’

Evidence so neglected it grew mold. Calls to the authorities for help that went unanswered. Witnesses and victims who were never interviewed. These are just a handful of the claims that sexual assault survivors are making against law enforcement in courts around the country.

In at least seven places in recent years — Austin; San Francisco; Memphis; Houston; Baltimore; Greenwich, Conn.; and the Village of Robbins, Ill. — women have filed lawsuits in an attempt to force the police and prosecutors to improve their practices.

The unconnected lawsuits are adding a set of novel legal arguments to the search for solutions in the wake of the #MeToo movement, which exposed failures to recognize and pursue sex offenders. The lawsuits argue that sexual assault victims do not receive equal treatment compared with victims of other violent crimes, and that failure to test physical evidence collected from their bodies amounts to unreasonable search and seizure.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

May 23, 2019

Ministers of religion in Western Australia will soon have to report child sexual abuse — even if the information is gained under confession — under planned changes to the state’s laws.

Key points:
– Mandatory child sexual abuse reporting laws already apply to WA doctors, teachers and police
– The legislation will require religious leaders to report child sex abuse or face a $6,000 fine
-Child Protection Minister Simone McGurk said it’s reasonable to expect ministers of religion to report abuse

The WA Government said it expected to introduce the necessary amendments in the second half of this year.

Mandatory reporting laws in WA already apply to doctors, teachers, nurses, midwives, police and school boarding supervisors.

Anyone convicted of failing to report child sexual abuse faces a $6,000 fine.

The new requirements would apply to “recognised leaders within faith communities who are authorised to conduct, religious worship”, the WA Government said.

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IOWA
Radio Iowa

May 22, 2019

By O. Kay Henderson

Two men who say they were abused by priests joined the Iowa Senate’s Democratic leader today in calling on Iowa lawmakers to do more for victims of child sex abuse.

Senator Janet Petersen, a Democrat from Des Moines, said the state’s attorney general should investigate the Catholic Church. Petersen also said Iowa’s criminal and civil laws for child sex abuse cases are the most restrictive in the nation.

“Our laws do not protect our communities from sexual predators and I think we cannot continue to ignore this,” Petersen said during a news conference at the Iowa capitol. “There is case after case across this country.”

The time frame for filing criminal charges for child sex abuse is too short, according to Petersen. Child sex abuse victims have until they’re 33 years old to file a civil lawsuit. Sixty-seven-year-old John Chambers of Des Moines said studies show 52 is the average age when a victim reveals they were abused as a child.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Times

May 23, 2019

By Jacey Fortin

The celebrity chef Mario Batali, who built a formidable restaurant empire before retreating amid accusations of sexual harassment by several women, is now facing a criminal assault charge that he groped and kissed a woman at a Boston restaurant in 2017.

Mr. Batali, 58, has been charged with indecent assault and battery and is to be arraigned in Boston on Friday, The Associated Press reported.

The criminal complaint was filed last month, The Boston Globe reported, and it said that a woman had told the police that Mr. Batali kissed her and groped her chest and groin at a Boston restaurant two years ago.

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NEW JERSEY
North Jersey Record

May 23, 2019

By Deena Yellin

Weeks after NorthJersey.com/The Record detailed the alleged abuse of a former Newark altar boy in 1991 by a visiting priest, a Catholic bishop in Brazil is defending the priest, who is now serving in his diocese, according to a report.

Bishop Edmilson Amador Caetano implied that the priest, the Rev. Rene Cavalcanti de Lima, is no longer a threat.

“He is a 74-year-old man who is recovering from prostate cancer. What risk can he be for the children of Guarulhos?” Caetano said in a May 1 article in a Brazilian newspaper, Guarulhos HOJE.

He was responding to an April 4 article by NorthJersey.com about Lima’s alleged abuse of Newark native Johnrocco Sibilia when Sibilia was an altar boy at the Immaculate Conception Church in Newark in 1991.

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VISALIA (CA)
Visalia Times-Delta

May 22, 2019

By James Ward

A Dinuba priest has been put on leave by The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno after the church learned of an investigation involving allegations of sexual abuse of minors.

But the case may not be so cut and dry.

On May 19, Bishop Joseph V. Brennan notified the parishioners of St. Catherine’s Catholic Church in Dinuba that Rev. Raul Diaz was put on paid administrative leave in a statement.

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DES MOINES (IA)
WHOtv

May 22, 2019

By Laura Barczewski

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests held a press conference at the Iowa Capitol with Iowa State Senate Minority Leader Janet Petersen on Wednesday to call on legislators and the attorney general to do more for victims of child sexual abuse.

SNAP President Tim Lennon shared his story of being sexually abused when he was 12-years-old by a Catholic priest.

“When I was about 43 I remembered some of the abuse. This priest would molest me in movies, at the park. He would pick me up at home. He was a friend of the family,” Lennon said.

Lennon said he suppressed the memories until they came up again when he was 43 and by then it was too late to pursue any type of justice.

“My viewpoint personally and from the viewpoint of my organization the survivors network of those abused by priests is there should be no statute of limitations.”

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DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

May 22, 2019

By Andrea Gagliarducci

No doubt that the scandal of sex abuse by clergy has shocked the Church. No doubt that the Church is called to put measures in action to eradicate the scandal because even one abuse is too much. There is no doubt, indeed, that the contrary is possible. That is, that media report on alleged abuse taking only the side of those who say have been abused.

There have been many stories of “character assassination” of this kind. The latest one is that of Fr. Herman Geissler. Fr. Geissler resigned by the position of head of office of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Jan. 28, following allegations of harassment advanced against him by Mrs. Doris Wagner-Reisinger.

Mrs. Reisinger has been a nun, and from 2003 to 2011, she was a member of the Spiritual Family The Work. Also Fr. Geissler is a member of the same Congregation.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

May 22, 2019

By Michael Sean Winters

Every sentence of James Carroll’s recent article in The Atlantic, “Abolish the Priesthood,” is theologically inept, historically anachronistic, self-referential, or all three. None of it is a surprise.

Carroll’s embrace of theology is thoroughly opportunistic. At one point, he yearns for the pre-Constantinian church of Jesus’ early followers, but later he states, “When the Catholic imagination, swayed by Augustine, demonized the sexual restlessness built into the human condition, self-denial was put forward as the way to happiness. But sexual renunciation as an ethical standard has collapsed among Catholics, not because of pressures from a hedonistic ‘secular’ modernity but because of its inhumane and irrational weight.” But it is in the Gospels themselves that Jesus advocates self-denial, encourages the unmarried to remain celibate, and tells his followers to take up their cross and follow him. Following Jesus can lead down many different paths, but none of them have to do with sexual liberationism.

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ROME
La Croix International

May 22, 2019

By Cathleen Kaveny

This implacable defender of the existence of intrinsically evil acts refuses to call these acts by their most basic moral name: child rape

The debate about Benedict XVI’s recent intervention on the sex abuse crisis has focused on his account of its root causes. To the delight of conservatives and the consternation of progressives, he blames the lax sexual morality of the 1960s rather than the enduring phenomenon of clericalism.

In my view, the problem with Benedict’s letter is far more fundamental. It also transcends the American progressive-conservative divide. He gets the basic moral description of the acts of sex abuse wrong. He frames them as acts of sacrilege rather than grave injustice.

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UNITES STATES
EthicsDaily

May 22, 2019

U.S. Protestants offered mixed views when LifeWay Research inquired about the extent of sexual abuse by clergy in local congregations.

When asked if they “believe many more Protestant pastors have sexually abused children or teens than we have heard about,” 37% somewhat or strongly disagreed, 32% somewhat or strongly agreed and 31% were unsure.

Similar numbers resulted when respondents were asked about clergy sexually abusing adults, with 41% somewhat or strongly disagreeing, 30% unsure and 29% somewhat or strongly agreeing that it happens more than they know about.

Respondents had high views of their church’s ability to respond appropriately to allegations and to help in the healing process of abuse victims.

When asked if church leaders would try to cover up abuse claims, only 7% agreed that they would do so, while 83% disagreed.

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BISMARK (ND)
Kxnet

May 21, 2019

By Robert Suhr

In what’s being called a revolutionary and landmark announcement by some, Pope Francis recently announced sweeping changes that hold bishops accountable for sexual abuse or covering it up.

So how does the news impact us here in Bismarck?

With the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal a worldwide problem, reporting abuse claims was often a disorganized mess…now Pope Francis is hoping to change that.

“I’m stunned that any priest or anyone representing the church, would ever do this to a child,” said David Kagan, the Bishop of the Diocese of Bismarck.

Facing perhaps the largest scandal in the church’s history, Pope Francis recently issued what’s called a papal decree, forcing every diocese, worldwide, to create an office within the next year to handle the abuse claims confidentially.

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ST. PAUL and MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
Brinkwire

May 22, 2019

Three brothers who were sexually abused by a priest from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the Vatican.

They claim that the Holy See bears responsibility because the case was mishandled by former Archbishop John Nienstedt and the Vatican’s former ambassador to the United States.

The lawsuit, that includes two other accusers as plaintiffs, attempts to trace a direct line from clergy sex abuse victims to the Vatican, through Minnesota church officials.

Luke, Stephen and Ben Hoffman were abused by former priest Curtis Wehmeyer, roughly between 2009 and 2012. They want the names of agents involved in the cover-up, including priests, revealed and for the Vatican to stop internally reviewing cases.

The new lawsuit seeks monetary damages, but the plaintiffs said truth is the goal.

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ALBANY (NY)
WRGB

May 21, 2019

By Lynzi DeLuccia

A trio of sexual abuse survivors took a stand on Tuesday as lawyers released a report with the names of more than 80 Albany Diocese clergy members accused of sexual abuse.

One woman her story about how she was raped and exploited by a man who was a teacher and a counselor at Notre Dame Bishop Gibbons High School in the 70s. One thing she and the other victims had in common was the feeling that they were alone in their experiences.

“Many of us were told when we were being abused that we were the only one,” Mark Lyman said.

This isn’t the first time Lyman has spoken out about the abuse he says he suffered as a child growing up at his church in Troy.

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ST. PAUL (MN)
Catholic News Service

May 21, 2019

By Maria Wiering

St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson announced May 14 that he is representing five sexual abuse survivors suing the Holy See for names of clergy sexual abuse offenders worldwide and the names of church leaders who have been involved in abuse cover-up.

The lawsuit’s defendants include Ben, Luke and Stephen Hoffman, brothers abused by then-Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer while he was at Blessed Sacrament in St. Paul from 2006 to 2012. He was removed from ministry in 2012, when the abuse was first reported to civil and church authorities, and then laicized in 2015. He is serving a prison sentence in Wisconsin for his abuse of Ben Hoffman there in 2011.

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IRELAND
Euronews

May 21, 2019

By Eoin Drea

I’m one of the Pope’s Children – a generation of Irish children born in the late 1970s and early 1980s – that have come to symbolise Ireland’s deep relationship with the Catholic Church. Pope John Paul’s II visit to Ireland in 1979 saw over 50% of the Irish population attend his events and reaffirm Ireland’s devotion to the Catholic cause. Ireland was poor then, with high unemployment, rampant emigration, a closed and rather isolated society unworried by the issues of immigration or race (we were all white with an excess of people, not jobs). For us, a ‘Protestant’ was exotic and reaching America (or at least England) was, for many, the ultimate objective. Ireland was, as The Economist noted in 1988, “the poorest of the rich.”

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WARSAW (POLAND)
The Associated Press

May 18, 2019

Poland’s ruling conservative party leader said Friday it does not tolerate “pathology” in the Catholic Church and will back a commission to investigate sex abuse of minors in church but also in other circles.

It was the first reaction by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a practicing Catholic, to a documentary film, “Tell No One,” that contains testimony by men and women that they were molested or raped by priests when they were children. Aired Saturday, it has provoked a heated public debate and soul-searching in the Church, which traditionally enjoys respect in predominantly Catholic Poland.

Also, the pro-church ruling Law and Justice party has rushed through parliament a law toughening punishment for pedophilia.

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MUMBAI (INDIA)
CRUX

May 21, 2019

By Nirmala Carvalho

A Jesuit priest convicted of participating in a gang rape in India is “totally innocent,” according to the local archbishop.

Jesuit Father Alphonse Aind and five other people were sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in the eastern state of Jharkhand on May 17 for raping five women who were part of an NGO advocating for the rights of India’s marginalized Tribal community.

On June 19, 2018, the victims were performing a street play In the remote village of Kochang to spread awareness of human trafficking in the region.

They were from “Asha Kiran” (“Ray of Hope”), a rehabilitation center managed by the Ursuline Sisters, located about 10 miles south of Ranchi, the state capital.

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SAO PAULO (BRAZIL)
Catholic News Service

May 21, 2019

Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop Vilson Dias de Oliveira of Limeira.

The bishop is being investigated by authorities for extortion of priests, mismanagement of the diocese’s funds and covering up alleged cases of abuse against minors by area priests. His resignation was announced May 17.

“I request my resignation for the sake of the church of Christ and for the good of this diocese,” said the bishop in a statement read to parishioners.

“I take with me in my heart this learning, in the confidence and assurance that this work is from God, and I place myself at the disposal of the Holy Mother church to serve her no matter the place and ministry entrusted to me by God from now on,” the bishop said.

According to the Sao Paulo state police, Oliveira took $975 from a local parish to build an artesian well in his beach house in Itanhaem. When faced with the accusation, the bishop confessed he obtained a “donation” from the parish and alleged he was facing financial problems.

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DENVER (CO)
9News

May 21, 2019

By Kevin Vaughan

Neil Hewitt, a Catholic priest who was assigned to Leadville’s Church of Annunciation, is accused of sexually abusing at two teenage boys in the 1960s.

Donna Ballentine was sorting through a box of her late mother’s papers when she came upon a two-page, handwritten letter.

She recognized the handwriting immediately – it was that of a cousin, Stuart Saucke, who’d taken his own life a decade earlier.

“Dear Neil,” the letter began. “It’s been 24 years since you sexually molested me. I also have been an alcoholic for 24 years.”

The letter wasn’t dated or signed, but Donna immediately knew it was meant for Neil Hewitt, a Catholic priest who married her and baptized two of her children at Leadville’s Church of the Annunciation.

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BAKERSFIELD (CA)
The Californian

May 20, 2019

By Jose Gaspar

While separate criminal investigations are carried out by police in Firebaugh and Merced into allegations that Monsignor Craig Harrison sexually molested minors, there’s another internal investigation being done by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno. This one is based on a set of rules adopted by the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops in June 2002 aimed to “repair the breach” with those sexually abused by church ministers.

Article 2 of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People states that “Dioceses are to have policies and procedures in place to respond promptly to any allegations where there is reason to believe that sexual abuse of a minor occurred.” And perhaps the most controversial requirement states, “Any credible allegations (against a priest or deacon) of sexual misconduct with a minor will result in immediate administrative leave” while an internal investigation is completed. Some priests find a problem with that.

“It’s like martial law,” said Monsignor Stephen Frost of Christ the King Church in Oildale. Under this process, Frost says due process goes out the window and the accused is accorded none or very little information about the allegations or who the accuser might be. Further, by removing the priest from his parish leaves the perception the priest is guilty before an investigation is begun.

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SAGINAW (MI)
Midland Daily News

May 21, 2019

By Lori Qualls

A Diocese of Saginaw priest who served several area parishes, including Blessed Sacrament in Midland, has been placed on administrative leave from priestly ministry because of an allegation of misconduct involving a minor that occurred years ago, the diocese announced late Tuesday afternoon.

The Rev. Father Kucharczyk was most recently pastor at St. John XXIII Parish, which includes St. Mary Church in Hemlock, Sacred Heart Church in Merrill and St. Patrick Church in Ryan, according to a diocese press release. He was removed from his post on Sunday by Bishop Walter A. Hurley, apostolic administrator.

The diocese received information from law enforcement regarding an allegation of misconduct involving a minor that allegedly occurred many years ago, the diocese stated in a press release. Based on this information, the diocese said it immediately removed Kucharczyk from active ministry.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
NBC

May 21, 2019

A Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing two children and a woman involved in his D.C. parish wants the cases to be tried separately.

The priest, Urbano Vazquez, was arrested in November and accused of second-degree child sexual abuse. Police say Vazquez was 42 when, in May 2015, he inappropriately touched a 13-year-old female member of his church on two occasions.

Vazquez was arrested again in December on new allegations. A police report and a release from the District’s U.S. Attorney’s Office said Vazquez was accused of sexually touching a 9-year-old and a woman.

A lawyer for Vazquez says a single trial would be unfair, WTOP-FM reports. Attorney Robert Bonsib says that if jurors hear about the alleged child abuse, they may assume his client is guilty of assaulting the woman.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
National Catholic Register

May 21, 2019

By Lauretta Brown

In his homily, the successor to Cardinal Donald Wuerl and former cardinal Theodore McCarrick acknowledged that ‘we clerics and hierarchs have irrefutably been the source of the current tempest.’

Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory was installed as the seventh archbishop of Washington Tuesday in a ceremony that comes at a turbulent time for the local Church under the cloud of his predecessors’ sexual abuse and cover-up scandals.

The newly-installed archbishop addressed the issue head-on in his homily, promising those gathered that he would be committed to transparency about his failings.

“I want to be a welcoming shepherd who laughs with you whenever we can, who cries with you whenever we must, and who honestly confesses his faults and failings before you when I commit them, not when they are revealed,” he said to loud applause from those gathered.

Archbishop Gregory’s appointment follows Cardinal Donald Wuerl’s resignation, which was accepted by Pope Francis last year after he came under scrutiny in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report for his handling of sexual abuse allegations when he served as bishop of Pittsburgh from 1988 to 2006. Wuerl also faced criticism for initially denying that he knew of any sexual abuse claims against his predecessor Theodore McCarrick before later admitting that he had known of McCarrick’s sexual behavior with seminarians.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

May 21, 2019

By Msgr. Charles Pope

As the U.S. Bishops’ June meeting draws near, it’s time for faithful Catholics to regain our focus

Bishop Robert Barron recently published Letter to a Suffering Church: A Bishop Speaks on the Sexual Abuse Crisis. It is an excellent book — a meditation, really. It gives a sobering summary of the sexual-abuse crisis and a historical perspective and offers encouragement to believers in the aftermath of the recent and horrific events.

It also comes at an opportune time. I say this because my concerns that the issue would eventually fade from the focus of Catholics have largely come to pass. Mention of the topic is somewhat rare lately, and mentioned more often in passing. This is problematic for at least two reasons.

First, our diverted attention is precisely what the evil one desires and uses. True reform is going to happen only if we remain steadfast and insist upon it. Bishop Barron calls attention to something that I have also suspected — namely, that this crisis is more devious than clerical malfeasance, cover-up and mismanagement. It is far more: It is diabolical. Bishop Barron, an auxiliary of Los Angeles, writes:

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