ABUSE TRACKER

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

July 2, 2019

By Liz Dodd

Among the most serious criticisms made in the ISI report was that the school still did not implement its safeguarding policy effectively

Ampleforth College is in crisis after an inspection report found it was failing to reach child protection standards, and its acting head is stepping down.

The Tablet can reveal that Deirdre Rowe will be leaving after just ten months in post. The announcement of her departure, which a spokesperson for Ampleforth said was decided on in March, comes after a highly critical inspection report that found the school did not meet standards for safeguarding, leadership, behaviour, bullying and complaints handling.A leading Catholic independent school, once described as the “Catholic Eton”, its former pupils include Conservative peer Julian Fellowes and actor Rupert Everett.

The inspection, a Progress Monitoring Visit, was unannounced and conducted in May at the request of the Department for Education (DfE) to check progress had been made on issues highlighted in a November visit, including safeguarding.

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Indian cardinal says Curia reform will have ‘Francis effect’

DENVER (CO)
Crux

July 6, 2019

By Inés San Martín

Rome – Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay, India, is one of Pope Francis’s closest advisers. He’s a member of the council of cardinals re-writing the Vatican’s constitution, and he was also tapped to be one of the four coordinators of a recent Church summit on the protection of minors.

Gracias told Crux said that the reorganization of the Roman Curia – the central government of the Catholic Church – will have a “Francis effect,” and have evangelization, service and charity as its three key pillars.

Crux spoke with Gracias on July 3 about the Vatican’s new constitution, a possible papal visit to India, and other issues. What follows are excerpts of that conversation.

Crux: You were in Rome last week for the meeting of the council of cardinals that advises the pope, and now you’re back. What brought you to the Eternal City this time?

Gracias: Several things, meetings … I’m participating in the anglophone meeting for the protection of minors that brings together English-speaking bishops from around the world. I also had a meeting at the Secretariat of State to follow up on the February meeting [the summit on sexual abuse.]

The pope recently issued two motu proprios that are connected to that meeting, which focused on the protection of minors. When will we see the next follow-up to that meeting?

We’ve had a few meetings already, and I hope that by the end of the year we’re going to have formalized our contributions. Some changes in canon law might still follow, and we also want to put more flesh on the pope’s motu proprio.

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IICSA: Canon Bursell renews plea to Parliament to render seal of confession obsolete

LONDON (ENGLAND)
Church Times

July 4, 2019

By Hattie Williams

If children are to be protected, Parliament “must intervene” in the debate on the future of the seal of confession in the Church of England by changing civil law to introduce mandatory reporting, a former diocesan chancellor, Canon Rupert Bursell QC, has said.

Canon Bursell, who is retired, was giving evidence on Thursday morning to the final public hearing being conducted by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) on the failures of Anglican Church to protect children from sexual abuse.

He was questioned in detail by the lead counsel to the Anglican investigation, Fiona Scolding QC, on the history of church doctrine surrounding the seal of confession since the Reformation, and the ongoing argument on whether the law should be amended to require all disclosures of abuse — by perpetrator or victim — are immediately reported to the statutory authorities. This is a subject on which he has expressed views to the inquiry before (News, 16 March 2018).

“I do believe that there should be a mandate that anything that leads to knowledge or reasonable suspicion of abuse, particularly child sexual abuse, should be outside the seal of the confessional,” Canon Bursell said.

Because of the doctrinal history of the seal, however, an amendment to the relevant canon, as the Anglican Church of Australia had done, while possible, would be “too complicated” and take “far too long” to address the urgency of child protection, he said. It had taken the General Synod “20 or 30 years” to ordain women to the priesthood and episcopate.

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Could Pope Francis deliver yet another ‘July surprise’?

DENVER (CO)
Crux

July 6, 2019

By John L. Allen Jr.

Rome – Once upon a time, Rome in July was a tranquil place for those whose professional activities unfold in and around the vacation.

Popes suspended their audiences and left town, seeking to escape the brutal summer heat, so Vatican personnel and Vatican-watchers alike could while away leisurely days catching up on reading, taking long lunches and equally long naps, and just savoring la vita dolce. (Total honesty? Right now, I’m deeply nostalgic for those days.)

Famously, St. John Paul II had a swimming pool installed at his summer retreat in Castel Gandolfo outside Rome in 1979 so he could take dips in the dog days of July and August. When Pope emeritus Benedict XVI was elected in April 2005, one of the first items on his to-do list was to organize a summer vacation to Les Combes in Valle d’Aosta, in northern Italy by the Alps, that July.

Then, Pope Francis happened.

This energizer bunny of popes has laid waste to the old days of July as a time of lethargy and repose. Just consider what the month of July has brought over the last six years.

July 2013: A papal outing to Lampedusa to signal Francis’s solidarity with immigrants; World Youth Day in Brazil, including the “Who am I to judge” mother of all soundbites; and approval of a miracle clearing Pope John Paul II’s path to sainthood.

July 2014: Francis’s first meeting with victims of clerical sexual abuse; his second interview with Eugenio Scalfari, in which the nonagenarian Italian journalist had Francis basically saying that priestly celibacy is on the way out; and the first-ever papal visit to a Pentecostal church, one located in southern Italy and pastored by a friend from Argentina.

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Priest at heart of French cardinal’s cover-up trial is defrocked

PARIS (FRANCE)
La Croix International

July 5, 2019

By Céline Hoyeau

Bernard Preynat was found guilty of committing criminal sex acts against minors under 16 years of age

Bernard Preynat is no longer a priest, according to the verdict handed down on July 4 by the Archdiocese of Lyon ecclesiastical court.

The former French Scout chaplain of Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon was accused of sexual assaults on more than 70 Scouts in the 1970s-1980s.

‘Finally’

It’s been years of waiting but the satisfaction is evident among Preynat’s victims.

The development should have been taken more than 30 years ago, said Didier Bardiau, also kown as François Devaux, “with his first confession.”

Preynat was “found guilty of committing criminal acts of a sexual nature against minors under 16 years of age” and dismissed from the clerical state.

This is “the maximum penalty provided for by Church law in such a case,” said the ecclesiastical tribunal – made up of three priests – responsible for studying his criminal case, in its verdict.

It is justified, added the statement, “in view of the facts and their recurrence, the large number of victims, the fact that Father Bernard Preynat abused the authority conferred on him by his position within the Scout group he had founded and which he had led since its creation.”

The procedure had been suspended for one year

Already suspended from all ministry and sacraments, Preynat, soon to be 75, has one month to appeal to the court of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

This decision comes after several years of twists and turns. Once the decision obtained from Rome had been lifted, the Archdiocese of Lyon had opened, at the request of the Vatican, an administrative canonical procedure.

But this one presented a double pitfall: The final decision was left to the Archbishop of Lyon, judge and party in the case; and it did not include the question of financial compensation.

For obscure reasons – the diocese claiming that it could not interfere with civil justice – the proceeding had been suspended for one year. It finally resumed in August 2018, this time with an independent ecclesiastical court and the possibility of paving the way for financial compensation.

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On the importance of the internal forum and the inviolability of the sacramental seal

VATICAN CITY
Holy See Press Office

July 1, 2019

By Cardinal Mauro Piacenza

[Note: The following is the Google translation of the first paragraphs of the original Italian document.]

“With the Incarnation the Son of God has united in a certain way with every man”[1] ; with his gestures and his words, he illuminated his highest and inviolable dignity; in himself, dead and risen, he restored fallen humanity, overcoming the darkness of sin and death; to those who believe in him he opened the relationship with his Father; with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, he consecrated the Church, a community of believers, as his true body and participated in his own prophetic, royal and priestly power, so that he would be in the world as the extension of his own presence and mission, announcing to the men of all times the truth, guiding them to the splendor of its light, allowing their life to be truly touched and transfigured.

In this time of human history so troubled, the growing techno-scientific progress does not seem to correspond to an adequate ethical and social development, but rather a real cultural and moral “involution” which, forgetting about God – if not hostile – becomes incapable to recognize and respect, in every sphere and at every level, the essential coordinates of human existence and, with them, of the very life of the Church.

“If technical progress does not correspond to progress in the ethical formation of man, in the growth of the interior man […] , then it is not progress, but a threat to man and the world”[2] . Even in the field of private and mass-media communications the “technical possibilities” grow out of proportion, but not love for the truth, commitment to research, sense of responsibility before God and men; a worrying disproportion between means and ethics is outlined. Communicative hypertrophy seems to turn against the truth and, consequently, against God and against man; against Jesus Christ, God made man, and the Church, its historical and real presence.

A certain “craving” for information has spread in recent decades, almost regardless of their real reliability and opportunity, to the point that the “world of communication” seems to want to “replace” reality, both by conditioning perception and by manipulating its understanding . From this tendency, which can take on the disturbing traits of morbidity, unfortunately the ecclesial structure itself, which lives in the world and sometimes assumes the criteria, is not immune. Even among believers, frequently, precious energies are employed in the search for “news” – or real “scandals” – suited to the sensitivity of certain public opinion, with goals and objectives that certainly do not belong to the theandric nature of the Church. All this to the grave detriment of the announcement of the Gospel to every creature and the needs of the mission.

In fact, invoking the judgment of public opinion as the last tribunal, information of all kinds is made known too often, also concerning the most private and confidential spheres, which inevitably touch the life of the Church, induce – or at least favor – rash judgments unlawfully and irreparably damage the good reputation of others, as well as the right of every person to defend their intimacy (cf. can. 220 CIC). In this scenario, the words of Saint Paul to the Galatians sound particularly current: “For you, brothers, have been called to freedom. Provided this freedom does not become a pretext for living according to the flesh […] . But if you bite and devour each other, look at least not to destroy each other completely “( Gal 5,13-15).

In this context, a certain worrying “negative prejudice” towards the Catholic Church seems to assert itself, whose existence is culturally presented and socially re-understood, on the one hand, in the light of the tensions that can occur within the same hierarchy and, on the other, starting from the recent scandals of abuse, horribly perpetrated by some members of the clergy. This prejudice, oblivious to the true nature of the Church, to its authentic history and to the real, beneficial incidence that it has always had and has in human life, sometimes translates into the unjustifiable “claim” that the Church herself, in certain matters, come to conform its own legal order to the civil systems of the states in which it finds itself living, as the only possible “guarantee of correctness and rectitude”.

In the face of all this, the Apostolic Penitentiary considered it appropriate to intervene, with this Note , to reaffirm the importance and promote a better understanding of those concepts, typical of ecclesial and social communication, which today seem to have become more foreign to public opinion and sometimes to the same civil legal systems: the sacramental seal, the confidentiality inherent in the internal extra-sacramental forum, the professional secrecy, the criteria and the limits proper to any other communication.

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Vatican says priests must defend seal of Confession ‘to the shedding of blood’

FRONT ROYAL (VA)
LifeSiteNews

July 5, 2019

By Diane Montagna

Rome – Priests are called to defend the seal of Confession even to the point of “shedding blood,” the Vatican has said amid increasing pressure from secular authorities to force clergy to reveal what they hear during the sacrament.

In a note released this week by the Apostolic Penitentiary (the tribunal of the Roman curia tasked with overseeing matters related to the internal forum), Cardinal Mauro Piacenza said “the confessor’s defense of the sacramental seal, if it were necessary usque ad sanguinis effusionem, represents not only an act of dutiful ‘loyalty’ towards the penitent, but much more: a necessary witness – a ‘martyrdom’ — given directly to the salvific uniqueness and universality of Christ and the Church,” i.e. to the sacredness of the sacrament.

Cardinal Piacenza, who serves as Major Penitentiary, said the Vatican tribunal considered it “urgent” to reaffirm the “importance” and promote “a better understanding” of the seal of confession, which today he said is “widely understood or even, in some cases, opposed.”

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R.I. Catholic Diocese is asked: Where are the names of the other accused priests?

PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal

July 2, 2019

By Katherine Gregg

The diocese on Monday did not include the names of at least 45 priests accused of sexual assault in Rhode Island.

Providence – “Where are the rest?”

That was the question priest-abuse victim Ann Hagan Webb posed Monday after looking at the 50 names on the list of accused pedophiles the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence made public that day.

A warrior in the successful fight to give Rhode Island’s sexual-abuse victims more time to sue, Webb knew the page number of the filing in a case titled Young V. Gelineau where the diocese told a court that the accusations in its files against “90-plus priests over a 35-year-period” would fill “100,000 to 130,000 pages of documents.”

The lawyers representing Bishop Thomas J. Tobin were seeking to convince the Rhode Island Supreme Court to relieve them of having to produce the “77-78 linear feet of documents” that Christopher Young’s lawyers were seeking “in the hopes of finding evidence of ‘cover-ups’ of alleged priest misconduct.”

In making the case why this would be hugely burdensome, the lawyers representing the bishop told the court: “The number of priests referenced in one way or another in the Diocese files was approximately 125,” but the number had since been “reduced to 95 by excluding priests who were not alleged to have committed sexual assaults.”

The math: The diocese on Monday did not include the names of at least 45 priests known to have been accused of sexual assault in Rhode Island.

Asked Tuesday why the Diocese did not name the 45 on the list of “credibly accused” priests, deacons and clergy the diocese published on its website Monday morning, spokeswoman Carolyn Cronin said: “In all prior instances where the Diocese has compiled lists of accused priests, it did so without regard to any assessment of credibility.”

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Cork Bishop: ‘Taoiseach needs to learn from ‘sinning priest’ comment’

CORK (IRELAND)
BreakingNews.ie

July 7, 2019

The new Bishop of Cork and Ross has said that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar needs to learn from comments he made about Fianna Fáil leader, Micheál Martin.

During a Dáil debate this week, the Taoiseach said the opposition leader reminds him of a priest who preaches then sins behind the altar.

Leo Varadkar subsequently apologised for the remarks.

Bishop Fintan Gavin said the Taoiseach needs to be respectful of victims of abuse who were also offended by his comments.

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Ottawa-area priest found guilty of sexually abusing boys in 1960s and ’70s

OTTAWA (CANADA)
CBC

July 5, 2019

By Paola Loriggio

An Ottawa-area priest preyed on vulnerable teens, luring them with sports and alcohol as he gratified his sexual desires, an Ontario court said last week in finding him guilty of sexual assault-related charges linked to incidents in the 1960s and ’70s.

In 2017, William McGrory was charged with indecent assault and gross indecency — outdated offences that no longer exist in the Criminal Code — in connection with three complainants, but court documents say one of them died, prompting two counts of the offences to be dropped.

McGrory pleaded not guilty and his lawyers argued that his accusers, identified only as J.B. and R.G., were not credible because there were inconsistencies in their accounts.

During a seven-day trial before a judge alone that began in April, court heard the boys, now in their 60s, had difficult family situations and grew close to McGrory, who was involved in church youth groups. The priest would play football and hockey with them, then drink alcohol with them afterward, court heard.

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Prominent Detroit priest removed from pulpit

DETROIT (MI)
Associated Press

July 7, 2019

The pastor is prohibited from representing himself as a priest or wearing clerical attire while the Vatican reviews the allegations, the archdiocese said in the written statement.

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It’s a sin to tar the good name of all priests

LONDON (ENGLAND)
Sunday Times

July 7, 2019

By David Quinn

Taoiseach’s gaffe reveals how the image of church leaders as hypocrites has been drilled into the Irish psyche without question

While I am having a pint with a couple of people in a city-centre pub one evening, a fellow comes up to me and announces: “I want you to know that you are the worst person in Ireland and I hope you have a horrible, horrible life.”

My two companions are shocked but not entirely surprised. One of the hazards of being a columnist is that from time to time you will be spotted by someone who hates your guts — and wants you to know it. The chances of this happening go up when your views are, well, unfashionable.

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Sunday Sit-Down With William Lori, Archbishop of Baltimore and Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston

WHEELING (WV)
The Intelligencer

July 7, 2019

Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. Lori led the investigation into the former bishop in West Virginia, Michael Bransfield.

Editor’s note: Fallout from the 13-year tenure of former Wheeling-Charleston Diocese bishop Michael Bransfield continues, as an investigative report leaked last month details excessive spending by the bishop and sexual harassment of priests and seminarians. Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore is currently serving as apostolic administrator in West Virginia, and was charged by Pope Francis with leading the investigation into Bransfield’s time in West Virginia.

Lori faces potential conflicts of his own with the investigation, as he was one of a number of priests to receive upward of $350,000 from Bransfield — money that then was reimbursed to the former bishop through diocesan funds. Lori sat down with the Sunday News-Register last week in Baltimore to talk about the church in West Virginia and its future, his investigation, the issues that have been raised with how the report was handled and the reforms he’s putting in place for the next bishop.

– The Catholic Church in West Virginia has had a challenging year, as fallout from the tenure of former bishop Michael Bransfield continues. There’s been a finding of excessive spending; credible allegations of sexual harassment of young priests; alleged kickbacks and overpayment of doctors at Wheeling Hospital that now has the hospital — and thus the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, which is its owner — the subject of a federal lawsuit from the U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh; the closing of diocesan schools. All of these things and others happened during Bishop Michael Bransfield’s 13 years in West Virginia. In your opinion, what is Michael Bransfield’s legacy in West Virginia?

Archbishop Lori: You mentioned a lot of very difficult things that happened under his tenure during his time as bishop of Wheeling-Charleston. Those are difficult things, and those things will unfortunately be part of his legacy. I would like to make a distinction, though, between the things that pertain to his own personal comportment and style as a bishop, which pertain to him personally, as opposed to the things that the bishop faced in trying to administer the diocese. With regard to his own person, the things that are roiling us all now are, indeed, the overspending, his own personal behavior, the lack of controls — those kinds of things are very troubling to people, and those are the things we hope the new bishop will address.

But there are other things that every bishop has to worry about, and one of them is sustaining Catholic schools when the enrollment goes down. Administering a hospital in this day and age is a very challenging business for anyone; while there is a lawsuit underway, I might mention that we have new management at the hospital, I might also mention that it’s a really great hospital. It didn’t get that way (by accident); it’s really a good hospital because there’s been a lot of care and attention given to it, and it’s a major employer there in Wheeling.

So the bishop, like every bishop, he had to face some challenges, like every bishop he did some very good things in the diocese but unfortunately I think the things that showed energy and vision have been in some sense really undermined by issues of personal behavior. That’s most regrettable.

– The legacy Michael Bransfield leaves behind — the spending, the sexual harassment allegations, let’s focus on those in particular because those issues are what prompted you now to oversee the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston as its apostolic administrator — what was the damage done to the Diocese and the faithful in West Virginia by these actions?

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Catholic priest under investigation

BARTLESVILLE (OK)
Examiner Enterprise

July 7, 2019

By Roseanne McKee

On Friday, Father John O’Neill, Pastor of St. John Before the Latin Gate, in Bartlesville alerted parishioners on the parish website’s News and Events page that a former priest, Joe Townsend, who had served at St. John Before the Latin Gate in 1995-96, has been placed on administrative leave following a report of sexual misconduct with a minor. The parish website post, which may be found online at https://www.stjohn-bartlesville.org/news-and-events, is entitled “Fr. John’s Comments About the Most Recent Statement from the Diocese.”

St. John is a Parish of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa, where Townsend, currently serves.

In his website post, O’Neill asked parishioners to report any abuse to authorities.

He wrote: “I am asking that if anyone has knowledge of abuse of a minor either in this case or by any other person affiliated with the Catholic Church, please first call the DHS statewide Abuse Hotline, 800-522-3511. They will direct you in further steps. I would ask that you report it to local law enforcement.

“To report knowledge of any abuse in this case, you should also call the Pastoral Response Hotline at 918-307-4970. If you are more comfortable reporting anything through me , you may call me at 918-336-4353 x 150 to begin the process of reporting abuse within the diocese. Please know that I am available to assist you in this.”

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Fight over ‘enormous task’ of collecting clothing donations divides a N.J. church

NEWARK (NJ)
Star Ledger

July 7, 2019

By Kelly Heyboer

A Bergen County church ministry that collected nearly 300 tons of clothing and household goods each year for the needy in New Jersey and around the world may have been too good at its mission.

Supporters say Catholic Church officials abruptly removed a clothing collection bin at St. Andrew’s Parish in Westwood last month and stripped local control of the charity from parishioners without warning in a move that has sparked a fight within the parish.

“We’ve helped millions of people around the world and they shut it down in a day,” said Greg Ryan, the longtime head of the parish’s Human Concerns Ministry.

Ryan said he arrived at the church recently to find the clothing donation bin in the parking lot, which often had to be emptied daily because of the program’s popularity in the area, had a sign saying it would no longer accept donations.

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NY priest who supports LGBT rights just got himself suspended

Patheos blog

July 7, 2019

By Barry Duke

FATHER John Duffell would certainly have had a black mark placed against him when, in 2011, he told an aspiring young priest to lie about his sexuality.

It happened at a Catholic conference on sexuality held at Fordham University, New York. Duffel told delegates that “the church is perhaps the only way of affecting change in the world”, but added: “The church is not perfect.”

To an audience member who asked, in writing, how he should deal with the feeling that he is “broken” after being told he cannot enter the priesthood because he is gay, Duffell answered:

You’re not broken, the system is broken, and therefore you deal with it as a broken system; you lie.

Then the priest, a friend of pop star Lady Gaga, attended an LGBT fundraiser in his church hall in 2017. His parish’s Gay Fellowship partnered with the Born This Way Foundation, an LGBT-rights group founded by Lady Gaga, to hold a dance at the Blessed Sacrament Church.

Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, writing for LifeSiteNews, exploded:

Under the leadership of Cardinal Dolan, the Archdiocese of New York has become ever more involved with homosexual activism that openly contradicts Catholic doctrine on human sexuality and even celebrates behavior that the Church condemns as deeply sinful and ‘intrinsically disordered.’

Well, as the saying goes, revenge is a dish best eaten cold, and Duffell has been indefinitely suspended from ministry after a canonical penal process found him guilty of serial sexual misconduct.

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Gardai probe claims of clerical sex abuse at north inner city hostel of horrors

DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Dulbin Live

July 7, 2019

By Sylvia Pownall

Gardai probing a hostel for boys which operated in the 1960s and 1970s believe they’ve uncovered a paedophile ring run by clerics.

The half-way house – which opened under the name “The Boys Club” – is the subject of an investigation by officers attached to the Sexual Crime Management Unit.

One former resident, who has come forward to give a detailed statement, outlined how “hundreds” of priests visited the hostel on Eccles Street in Dublin’s north inner city.

They included evil predator Brendan Smyth, who is suspected of abusing more than 140 children over a 40-year period.

The man, now in his 60s, says he was raped at the age of 15 by a senior cleric who frequented the hostel and later took him on a “retreat”.

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July 6, 2019

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Catholic Priest Arrested In Kerala For Sexually Abusing Minor Boys

MUMBAI (INDIA)
India Times

July 7, 2019

By Bobins Abraham

In a shocking case, the Kerala Police have arrested a Catholic priest for allegedly sexually abusing nearly half a dozen boys.

The priest, identified as Father George, alias Jerry was arrested on Sunday from Perumbadom in Ernakulam district.

According to police Fr. George was the director of boys home, which sheltered children from poor and broken families.

He was arrested on Sunday morning based on the complaint of some of the parents.

What is even more shocking is that Fr. George had been sexually abusing the boys for over six months and nobody including other victims knew about it.

It was during a conversation between a few of the boys they realized that they were not the priest’s only victim.

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Longtime friends speak out in defense of Pennsylvania priest accused of abuse

ALTOONA (PA)
Tribune Democrat

July 6, 2019

By Dave Sutor

Donald Dusza, Tony Stopka, Frank Wyland, Shari Stopka and Sam Piccioni grew up together, attended Bishop Carroll High School together, traveled together and shared life’s joys and sorrows together.

And now, the longtime friends are standing together as one of them faces a serious, life-changing, potentially damning accusation.

Dusza was pastor of Prince of Peace parish in Northern Cambria until late last month, when Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown Bishop Mark Bartchak placed him on leave from public ministry. An allegation of sexual abuse – reportedly to have taken place in the 1980s – had been made against the 63-year-old Twin Rocks native.

The Stopkas and Wyland met at Piccioni’s house in Ebensburg to talk about the allegation they say is incompatible with the person they have known for decades.

“Over 50 years, we retained a friendship,” Tony Stopka said. “That’s a friendship that’s lasted through going to separate colleges, either staying local or leaving the area for significant times.

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Another View: Government turns its back on billionaire’s sex-abuse victims

PORTLAND (ME)
Press Herald

July 6, 2019

Prosecutors broke the law when they negotiated an agreement that allowed Jeffrey Epstein to avoid a trial, and the deal should be thrown out.

Private lawyers allowed sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein to escape justice. Epstein’s new defense team works for the federal government.

Billionaire money manager Jeffrey Epstein, center, in 2008, could have faced life in prison if federal prosecutors had pursued sex-crimes charges against him. Tribune News Service/Uma Sanghvi, The Palm Beach Post

The U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia claimed last week that even though prosecutors in South Florida broke the law when they approved an outrageously light sentence for Epstein, the deal must stand. Byung Pak may not actually be on Epstein’s legal team, but he has placed the Department of Justice on Epstein’s side.

To review, Epstein is a billionaire money manager whose friends include President Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew. Between 1998 and 2006, Epstein recruited roughly three dozen underage girls – generally from poor and troubled families – to his house in Palm Beach and sexually abused them.

Epstein could have faced federal sex trafficking charges. He could have faced life in prison. Instead, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida – Alex Acosta, now Trump’s labor secretary – gave Epstein immunity on federal charges and allowed him to plead guilty to minor state charges. Then-Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer went along. Epstein served 13 months in jail – he was allowed out about half the time – and had to register with the state as a sex offender.

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Sex in God’s house

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian blog

July 5, 2019

By Bob Majiri Oghene Etemiku

Over the past six months, we experienced several embarrassing incidents related to our Christian places of worship. It is fast becoming an epidemic now. In my own place, two girls became pregnant in the choir.

Prior to that, the youth leader had impregnated someone. His punishment was a seat at the back of the church but he regained his position after he eventually married the girl he impregnated. The two girls, the one less than 18 had just completed her WAEC and had been looking for help with school fees. According to her, the fellow who impregnated her made a promise to her to send her to school even after she gives birth. We cannot at the time of writing this if she ever approached the church authorities for assistance with her school fees before she fell into the arms of that wolf. The second girl’s case is a bit odd because unlike the first girl, you would take her for a much-matured woman who would probably understand the wiles of men and would likely have the experience to deflect them. However, what is curious in both cases is that both men have bolted: both have their phones switched off. Prior to the Biodun Fatoyinbo, some tongues could not help but wag.

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We need women to serve as pastors and leaders

CAPE GIRARDEAU (MO)
Southeastern Missourian

July 6, 2019

By Tyler Tankersley

The Houston Chronicle recently featured a heartbreaking series of articles that catalogued decades of abuse and cover-up by Southern Baptist pastors across the country. In the past two decades there have been over 700 instances of sexual abuse in Southern Baptist churches. And we have heard stories that have plagued the Roman Catholic church of abusive priests who have been protected by their superiors rather than prosecuted for their crimes.

While no denominational body is immune to instances of abuse, the Roman Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention seem to be the organizations that had the most high-profile instances of abuse. Interestingly, the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention also happen to be the largest denominational organizations in the world that have something in common: Both of them prohibit women from serving as pastoral leaders. This is almost certainly a cause of correlation, but I also wonder if there is some causation at work, as well.

While it is encouraging to see both the Roman Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention beginning to take some steps toward preventing further abuse, I wonder if these actions will go far enough. These actions took place in the context of a highly male-dominated theological construct and unless that construct itself is being called into question, I fear that very little will actually change.

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Morrisey blasts Diocese for amended motion

CHARLESTON (WV)
The Inter-Mountain

July 6, 2019

By Steven Allen Adams

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey had harsh words this week for the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston after it filed an amended motion to dismiss a case Morrisey brought against it.

The diocese filed an amended motion to dismiss the civil suit filed in March in Wood County Circuit Court accusing the diocese and former bishop Michael Bransfield of knowingly hiring pedophiles and not conducting background checks on employees in diocese’ schools and summer camps.

The original lawsuit, accusing the diocese of violating the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act, said the diocese had clergy and employees accused of sexual misconduct with children in Wood, Ohio, Brooke and Hancock counties. The civil complaint also accuses the diocese of not disclosing these issues to parents.

“The diocese did not issue its list of credibly accused priests until after issuance of our first investigative subpoena in fall 2018, and continues to demonstrate a pattern of concealing information until external pressure from our office and the media forces its hand,” Morrisey said.

In May, Morrisey amended the complaint to add additional evidence and additional breaches of the Consumer Credit and Protection Act. The diocese first filed a motion to dismiss the case in April, stating Morrisey lacks legal authority under the Consumer Credit and Protection Act to sue the diocese.

“Our lawsuit chronicles the diocese’s decades-long pattern of concealing criminal behavior of priests as it relates to sexual abuse of children, while it advertised its schools and camps as safe learning environments,” Morrisey said.

In Wednesday’s filing, attorneys for the diocese wrote that Morrisey’s amended complaint doesn’t change anything. The diocese believes Morrisey has no authority to file suit and accuses Morrisey of using the Consumer Credit and Protection Act to violate the separation of church and state.

“The amended complaint does not cure the deficiencies noted in the motion to dismiss…It compounds them,” according to a memorandum filed along with the amended motion to dismiss.

“Riddled with continuing misleading and egregious factual inaccuracies, the amended complaint does not save the case from dismissal,” the memorandum stated. “Rather, it expressly demonstrates that (Morrisey) would have this court bless an erroneous use of the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act for the statutorily unauthorized purpose of regulating Catholic schools.”

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Tulsa priest placed on leave amid sexual misconduct investigation

TULSA (OK)
Tulsa World

July 5, 2019

By Andrea Eger

The Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma announced Friday that a local priest has been placed on leave amid an investigation of an allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor.

The Rev. Joe Townsend, who was ordained in May 1988 according to the diocese’s website, is under internal investigation conducted by “professional third-party investigators,” which will be reviewed by a board of lay people, the Diocesan Review Board, stated Harrison Garlick, chancellor and attorney for the Tulsa diocese.

It was unclear from a Friday afternoon press release whether any related law enforcement investigation is underway. When asked, Dave Crenshaw, a spokesman for the diocese told the Tulsa World “out of respect to both the accused and alleged victim, the press release is all we can share until the investigation is complete.”

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NY priest who raised funds for Lady Gaga non-profit accused of sexual coercion

DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

July 5, 2019

A New York priest who told a prospective seminarian to lie to Church officials about his sexuality has been removed from active ministry after allegations of coercive sexual misconduct.

“I write to share some unpleasant and somber news concerning Father John Duffell, your just retired parish administrator,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan wrote in a July 1 letter to parishioners of New York’s Blessed Sacrament Parish.

“Father Duffell has been directed not to publicly exercise his priestly ministry due to an allegation from the past that he abused his position of authority in a violation of his promise of celibacy.”

“The allegation was made first to the District Attorney, and then brought to our attention. This allegation involves an adult; it does not involve a minor. It is important that the archdiocese take such allegations seriously,” Dolan wrote.

A source close to the priest told CNA that the allegation involved serial misconduct over a period of years.

Dolan’s letter said that as the matter is being investigated, “Father Duffell’s rights under canon (church) law are being protected, and he had the opportunity to defend himself during a penal process that the archdiocese initiated. He also has the presumption of innocence of the allegation. He and his advocate had the opportunity to review all of the evidence and respond to it.”

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July 5, 2019

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Bishop Bransfield’s ‘Gifts’ to Vatican Officials: Were They Ethical?

DENVER (CO)
National Catholic Register

July 5, 2019

By Edward Pentin

As more reports emerge of donations and gifts received by several high-ranking Vatican officials from retired West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield, how licit were these gifts and what are the Vatican’s regulations on receiving donations?

Last month, The Washington Post reported that several Vatican cardinals and bishops received checks from Bishop Bransfield, former bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, who distributed $350,000 in total to 11 high-ranking Church leaders. Bishop Bransfield is currently under investigation for sexual harassment of adults and financial misconduct.

None of the checks are reported to have had conditions or favors attached, and the Vatican officials have not been accused of acting illicitly. But several of those in receipt of such donations have now pledged to return the money after Bishop Bransfield was accused of serially sexually harassing or coercing seminarians and young priests and misusing diocesan funds on a lavish lifestyle that included $2.4 million spent on travel and $4.6 million on renovations of his residence.

The Post said it was not clear — from documents it had obtained — why Bishop Bransfield gave the gifts. The funds apparently derived from a wealthy New York heiress who left a large tract of land in West Texas to the diocese in the late 1800s. Decades later, oil was discovered on the land, leading to diocesan income from mineral rights that would average nearly $15 million a year.

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Diocese paid nearly $11 million in abuse settlements, legal fees

PITTSBURGH (PA)
Post Gazette

July 5, 2019

By Peter Smith

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has spent $10.8 million on victim compensation and legal fees related to sexual abuse by clergy over nearly three decades.

It has also spent roughly $5 million more toward a minimum but livable compensation for priests suspended for abuse.

That’s according to a financial accounting released this week as pledged by Bishop David Zubik earlier this year in a pastoral letter on the sexual-abuse crisis that flared locally after the release in August of a statewide grand jury report on six dioceses, including Pittsburgh.

The grand jury alleged abuse by more than 90 Pittsburgh priests across seven decades, many of whose names had not been made public before the report.

“The ultimate impact of child sexual abuse is ongoing suffering endured by the victims-survivors — the toll taken on their faith and their capacity to trust and to love,” he said in a statement. “Catholics and the public have a right to know what the church has done to respond, and to see that we have sought for many years to provide assistance to victims.”

The total payments are low compared to those of many dioceses nationwide, some of which have paid in the nine figures and filed for bankruptcy. Catholic entities in the United States have paid an estimated $3 billion in settlements since the 1980s. The Pittsburgh diocese has a current Catholic population of more than 600,000 across six counties.

The Pittsburgh figure is likely to rise due to an ongoing out-of-court victim-compensation program set up by the diocese.

One major factor keeping Pittsburgh’s figure low has been Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations, which has largely shielded dioceses from litigation over long-ago offenses of the type that have led some in other states to file for bankruptcy.

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RI non-profit group asks Bishop Tobin to release ‘secret files’

PROVIDENCE (RI)
WJAR NBC 10 NEWS

July 2, 2019

There’s more fallout a day after the Diocese of Providence released a list of credibly accused members of the clergy.

Some are saying more needs to be done and are urging the diocese for more transparency.

“We are not satisfied with just a list,” Dr. Robert M. Hoatson, who is the co-founder and president of Road to Recovery, Inc., said. “We want the assignment histories of all of these priests and deacons listed very, very carefully.”

Road to Recovery is a non-profit group that helps victims of sexual abuse. Hoatson, who is a former priest and a sexual abuse survivor himself, is calling on Bishop Thomas J. Tobin to release all files, including the “secret” files, for every clergymen who has been credibly accused of sexually abusing of children, teenagers, or vulnerable adults.

Boston-based attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who was portrayed in the movie “Spotlight,” shared similar sentiments.

“It is time for the Diocese of Providence to practice full transparency and accountability by listing the names of all credibly accused priests and by releasing all documents in its files indicating the extent of the cover up and the complicity of supervising priests,” Garabedian noted in a statement.

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Statute of limitations removed for child sex abuse cases in Tennessee

NASHVILLE (TN)
WZTV FOX 17 News

July 2, 2019

By Nikki Junewicz

It was an emotional day inside the State Capitol as House Bill 565 was signed into law by Governor Lee. It removes the statute of limitations for child sex abuse cases in Tennessee.

Among those there to witness the historic moment were four of the survivors who fought for its passage. They say this is a day they’ve been waiting for their entire lives.

For many of us, thinking back on our childhoods is nostalgic and happy. But for victims of sexual abuse, a trip down memory lane, brings heartache, pain, confusion, resentment.

Tina Bland-Ullery, Joanna Yoder, Donna Coulter, and Amanda Cormier first met at the signing, but they share an important bond. Each has ties to Tennessee and was abused as a child.

“I was raised in a very strict Mennonite community over in Pulaski and was sexually abused from the time I was three from the time until I was 21 by five members of my community,” explained Yoder.

Coulter, who’s from La Vergne, says her assailant was her father.

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Motion to keep documents secret raises concerns with church sex abuse victims

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WVUE Fox 8

July 1, 2019

By Amanda Roberts

Every time Morris Daniels talks about the abuse he says received at the hands of defrocked deacon George Brignac, it’s clearly a painful experience.

“When you’re a victim of this, it never goes away it doesn’t fizzle away,” Daniels said.

Daniels settled with the church in March regarding the abuse at Holy Rosary in the 1980s. Part of the agreement meant keeping the settlement amount secret. But Daniels said he explicitly refused to sign a gag order.

“I told them from the beginning to have my real face, my real name, my real story. I’m not John Doe, I’m Morris Daniels and I’m a victim of Deacon Brignac,” he said.

And that’s why Daniels said a new motion filed in connection to a different case infuriates him so much.

The victim — known only as John Doe — is suing the Catholic Church and defrocked deacon George Brignac. His attorneys want to have all documents from the Archdiocese relating to settlements, compromises and/or payments of abuse claims dating back to 2002.

However, attorneys with the church claim that those documents contain confidential, private information related both to Brignac and other third parties. Now, church attorneys have filed a motion granting them the right to keep those documents secret.

Legal analyst Bobby Hjortsberg said while this is a standard legal proceeding, it doesn’t look good.

“I can see why people would think the Archdiocese is trying to hide things. The Archdiocese has made settlement agreements with other defendants, and in those agreements there’s been an agreement not to discuss terms, and some things this case is seeking is terms of those settlement agreements,” Hjortsberg said.

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Want people to leave the church? Try this.

Patheos blog

July 5, 2019

By Deacon Greg Kandra

Incredible:

Retired priest Ulrich Zurkuhlen caused consternation in the city of Münster, northwest Germany, when he dedicated his sermon to the concept of forgiving priests who had sexually abused minors.

Zurkuhlen’s remarks come at a difficult time for the Roman Catholic Church, as it grapples with continued allegations, from various parts of the world, of priests’ predatory conduct and church attempts to cover it up.

In 2018, the German Bishops’ Conference published a report revealing that 1,670 priests, roughly 4.4% of clerics, had abused 3,677 people between 1946 and 2014 in Germany.

The controversial sermon took place in the Holy Spirit Church of Münster. The internet portal Kirche-und-Leben.de (Church and Life) reported that parishioners were incensed, with some 70 members of the congregation walking out in protest.

Several parishioners reportedly interrupted the 79-year-old Zurkuhlen and tried to argue with him. A worshipper told Kirche-und-Leben that the situation became chaotic and the priest was not able to finish the sermon.

Victims of abuse were said to have been present as the priest spoke.

In an interview with Kirche-und-Leben.de, Zurkuhlen griped about the fact that even bishops refer to predator priests as “criminals,” despite the fact that these men were also good clerics in their communities.

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Pope accused of ignoring sex abuse priest’s ‘terrifying dossier’

Patheos blog

July 5, 2019

By Barry Duke

THE Vatican’s third most powerful prelate, Archbishop Peña Parra – pictured above with Pope Francis – was never subjected to an ‘open and thorough investigation’ for ‘troubling accusations’ of sex abuse that date back decades.

The accusations even suggest that he and another Catholic priest had been implicated in the death of two people in Venezuela but never faced prosecution.

The accusation was made this week by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a former papal ambassador to the US. Viganò said the high-ranking prelate was not investigated despite the existence of what he calls a “terrifying dossier” sent to Pope Francis that gives names and dates regarding his alleged misbehaviour.

Viganò states that one accusation, involving Peña Parra seducing two candidates for a seminary in 1990, was reported by the alleged victims’ parents to the police, and the veracity of the accusations were confirmed in writing to the Secretariat of State by both the rector of the major seminary and by seminary’s spiritual director.

Viganò told the Post that “I have seen these documents with my own eyes,” and that the documentation as well as that pertaining to other accusations should still be on file in the Holy See:

If it has not been destroyed.

Parra, who was installed in October of last year as the Substitute of the Secretariat of State, the second in charge of the most influential Vatican dicastery, has been under a cloud of suspicion following reports in the Italian media in 2018 of an investigation made by his bishop in the 1980s regarding accusations of homosexuality made against him anonymously.

However, the accusations mentioned by Archbishop Viganò are far more serious, including sexual predation against seminarians, adultery, and even a deadly sex game. He asserted:

This might even be a scandal surpassing that of McCarrick, and it must not be allowed to be covered by silence.

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Tulsa priest put on administrative leave after allegation of sexual misconduct with minor

TULSA (OK)
News Channel 2

July 5, 2019

A Tulsa priest has been placed on Administrative Leave by the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma.

In a statement released by Harrison Garlick, Chancellor and in-House Counsel, it was stated: As the head of the Diocese of Tulsa & Eastern Oklahoma, Bishop Konderla is fully committed to the Policies & Procedures for the Protection of Children & Young People. As part of that commitment, Bishop Konderla has placed Father Joe Townsend, a priest of the Diocese, on administrative leave due to a non-frivolous allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor.

According to the statement, Father Joe Townsend is presumed innocent. He is fully cooperating with the investigation and denies all allegations of misconduct.

The Diocese is asking anyone with knowledge or concerns to come forward at this time.

Persons are invited to contact local law enforcement and call the diocesan Pastoral Hotline at (918) 307-4970.

Callers to the hotline may leave messages anonymously, if preferred.

The Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma say that out of respect for the accused and the alleged victim, no further details will be released until the investigation is complete.

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Utah, Arizona dismiss bar complaints against LDS Church lawyer who gave advice on when to report sex abuse

SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Salt Lake Tribune

July 5, 2019

By Nate Carlisle

In a case that highlighted when lay clergy within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints might report sex abuse, the agencies that regulate attorneys in Utah, Arizona and California have dismissed complaints a prosecutor filed against a lawyer representing the Utah-based faith.

Arizona’s was the last bar association to dismiss the complaint filed against Joseph Osmond, a lawyer with the Salt Lake City firm of Kirton McConkie. In an April 29 letter, a senior counsel for the State Bar of Arizona wrote that the case had been investigated and staff determined “no probable cause exists for the filing of a formal complaint.”

“The charges have, therefore, been dismissed.”

The letter was addressed to the complainant, James Schoppmann, chief deputy of the Mohave County Attorney’s Office in Kingman, Ariz. Schoppmann, who shared the letter and similar notices from the Utah and California bars with The Salt Lake Tribune, had complained that Osmond gave legal advice in a state where he was not licensed to practice, and that advice caused a case of child sexual abuse to go unreported for a time.

Court documents allege a now-teen was sexually abused from 2006 through April 2016. In January 2018, a grand jury in Mohave County indicted one of the teen’s parents on four felony counts related to abuse. Then, in April 2018, another grand jury indicted the second parent on one felony count of child abuse and two felony counts of failure to report child abuse.

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Is Reform Possible, Within the Current Institutional Structure of the Church?

Patheos blog

July 5, 2019

By William M. Shea

Is true and sweeping reform possible under the current government structure of the church? I think not. After all, the first revelation of the spate of crimes took place in 1985, thirty-five years ago. The essential facts were set before the American bishops at the time and they declined to accept the report. They would not discuss the matter. In the Dallas charter of 2002 bishops pointed their reform efforts at priests and ignored their own crimes. For any ordained church leader, low or high, to even suggest a change in clerical authority itself is to make himself a parish. The structure has been many times made a matter of dogma, including at Vatican II. Yet the damage hasn’t ceased and that is the failure of church leaders. The Vatican’s “cone of silence” squashed even the question of any limit to ordained leadership, not to mention serious public discussion of it.

Lack of support

Despite an occasional effort, bishops have been unable or unwilling to provide communal support for priests that might sustain their efforts at moral probity and deep spiritual life. Some of this may rest on the lack of spiritual depth and maturity on the part of bishops themselves. It would seem that they do not regard themselves as ministering to priests in spite of official Church rhetoric. Priests have very little if any spiritual community, especially with their bishops. In my own experience in the priesthood I had a five minute discussion with bishops only twice in nineteen years, once to ask for a transfer from a parish (1964) and once when I was resigning (1979), and never with anyone one of the dozen New York auxiliary bishops. When I was desperate at the end of a fifteen year wrestling with celibacy I had to turn to a Jesuit spiritual director for council. I never got the impression that any New York bishop was interested in helping priests.

The tragedy of clerical life is not American alone, but is shared by the Irish church as well, and the churches in Canada, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Chili and probably the churches worldwide, over the same sins of priests and the same episcopal irresponsibility. The problems are systemic.[1] They must be met systemically.

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Dallas Catholic diocese blasted over announcement of allegations against another former priest

DALLAS (TX)
Morning News

July 5, 2019

By David Tarrant

An advocacy group for abuse survivors criticized the Dallas diocese this week for quietly adding a new name to its list of clergy accused of sexual abuse of a minor months after church leaders promised to be open and transparent in cases of clergy sex abuse.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, issued a statement Wednesday blasting the Dallas diocese for releasing incomplete information about an allegation regarding Fr. Peter Barusseau from 1960.

SNAP’s statement said the diocese should have included details about when the accusation against Barusseau surfaced and when diocesan officials decided the allegation was credible.

“Given that the Diocese of Dallas has only done the bare minimum when it comes to keeping communities informed about abusive priests, the news about Fr. Barusseau has us concerned that there are other accused priests that have been left off this list,” the statement said.

The Dallas diocese last month posted Barusseau’s name to its list of clergy with allegations of sexual abuse of a minor deemed credible by church officials. His inclusion came five months after the diocese released its initial list of 31 names of credibly accused clergy since 1950.

Dallas’ list was part of a statewide transparency effort amid public and law enforcement scrutiny on the Catholic Church worldwide over its handling of decades of sexual abuse claims against clergy members.

Combined, all Texas dioceses released lists that included nearly 300 names of clergy members who have been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of children over the past seven decades.

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Catholics Walk Out of Sermon After Priest Urges Forgiveness for Sexual Predators

Patheos blog

July 5, 2019

By Hemant Mehta

Around 70 Catholics walked out of a service after retired priest Ulrich Zurkuhlen urged everyone to practice forgiveness… for predator priests who had been found guilty of molesting children.

Zurkuhlen was trying to make the case that no one is purely evil and that the pedophiles were also “good clerics in their communities,” but the Church members, some of whom were reportedly victims of sexual abuse, weren’t having it.

When asked about the reaction his sermon caused among worshippers, Zurkuhlen said that it was “a real shock.” He lamented that he was unable to get his point across, especially the biblically important meaning of forgiveness, to what he called “the screaming mob.”

Ah, yes. That’s a good idea. Insult the people making a good point while doubling down on your bad one.

The problem isn’t his claim that bad people have their good moments. It’s that the Catholic Church’s leaders have a long history of defending predator priests and ignoring abuse victims until they’re forced to do so. Even now, Zurkuhlen seems more interested in finding a silver lining in sexual abuse than seeking justice for victims of the Catholic Church.

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UWS Priest Accused Of Molesting Boys Steps Down

UPPER WEST SIDE (NY)
Patch

July 5, 2019

By Brendan Krisel

A Catholic priest has resigned from his Upper West Side parish following multiple sexual abuse allegations, according to a letter sent by the priest to his parishioners.

Monsignor John Paddack will step down from his role as the administrator at the Church of Notre Dame on West 114th Street “for the good of you parishioners, the parish, and the church,” while the accusations against him are reviewed, Paddack wrote in the letter.

Rafael Mendoza went public with abuse allegations against Paddack in March, claiming that the priest molested him as a student at Cardinal Hayes High School in the 90s. Mendoza called on the New York Archdiocese to suspend Paddack so that he cannot have any more contact with children. Mendoza and four other unnamed victims claimed they were abused by Paddack between 1988 and 2002 when the priest taught at three different high schools, according to lawyers representing the alleged victims.

“He took advantage of me when I was at my weakest point,” Mendoza said Tuesday. “I believe he should be removed. I don’t know if he is still [abusing] anyone else or any kids out there.”

Mendoza said Paddack abused him in 1996 during his freshman year at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx when he was just 14 years old. Mendoza was new to the school and said he was abusing pills and suicidal when he reached out to Paddack, the school’s counselor, for help.

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Ex-Ann Arbor priest charged with 8 sex assault felonies

ANN ARBOR (MI)
Michigan Live

July 5, 2019

By Darcie Moran

A former Ann Arbor and Jackson priest accused of sexually assaulting an altar boy nearly 30 years ago has been formally charged.

Timothy M. Crowley, 70, was arraigned Saturday, June 29 in Washtenaw County on eight felony counts of criminal sexual conduct, court records show.

Crowley’s arrest was announced in May along with that of four other priests amid a large-scale investigation by the Michigan Attorney General’s office into sex abuses in Catholic dioceses.

Crowley faces four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct for incidents between 1986 and 1990 at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, at 530 Elizabeth St. in Ann Arbor.

Michigan’s Attorney General is investigating hundreds of complaints of clergy abuse.

Ordained in 1976, Crowley served as a parochial vicar in Brighton, Flint and at Jackson’s St. Mary, Star of the Sea.

He served in Jackson from 1982-84, according to an affidavit filed in his criminal case. There, Crowley is accused of giving a 10-year-old altar boy cigarettes and alcohol, and touching his buttocks and genitalia over his clothing.

The boy also attended St. Anthony’s in Hillsdale and St. Thomas in Ann Arbor when Crowley served as pastor at those churches from 1984-87 and 1987-93, respectively, according to court filings.

Investigators say Crowley repeatedly gave the boy cigarettes and alcohol, and forced him to watch homosexual pornography while Crowley masturbated. They also accuse him of molesting him and threatening to kill him if he told nuns or his parents of the abuse.

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Bishops Received Money and Complaints about Bransfield, Report Says

DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

July 5, 2019

Allegations of financial impropriety against former Wheeling-Charleston Bishop Michael Bransfield went unheeded for years, according to a new report. Letters from lay men and woman, and from Bransfield’s own chancery staff raised serious concerns about the bishop’s spending and that he was using diocesan resources to “purchase influence.”

On July 3, the Washington Post reported that concerns about Bransfield’s spending were raised as early as 2012 with senior Church authorities in the Unites States and Rome. Several of those to whom complaints were made were themselves recipients of gifts of money from the bishop.

Bransfield’s resignation was accepted by Pope Francis last September, eight days after he turned 75, the age at which diocesan bishops are required by canon law to submit a letter of resignation to the pope. Following allegations of sexual and financial misconduct by him over a period of years, local metropolitan Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore was ordered by Pope Francis to conduct an investigation. Lori subsequently barred Bransfield from public ministry in both Wheeling-Charleston and Baltimore.

On Wednesday, The Post reported that specific concerns had been raised years earlier about the use of financial gifts to Church authorities by Bransfield, and the role they may have played in delaying action against him.

In an August 2018 letter addressed to Lori, Bransfield’s own judicial vicar, Monsignor Kevin Quirk, said he believed the gifts bought the bishop latitude.

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German priest causes church walkout as preaches for predator priest forgiveness

BERLIN (GERMANY)
Deutsche Welle

July 5, 2019

Retired priest Ulrich Zurkuhlen caused consternation in the city of Münster, northwest Germany, when he dedicated his sermon to the concept of forgiving priests who had sexually abused minors.

In 2018, the German Bishops’ Conference published a report revealing that 1,670 priests, roughly 4.4% of clerics, had abused 3,677 people between 1946 and 2014 in Germany.

Victims of abuse were said to have been present as the priest spoke.

“Nobody is just profoundly evil,” the priest said. “Goodness and guilt are often combined with each other or stand side by side without touching,” he added.

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God, organized religion, or both

PORTSMOUTH (OH)
Daily Times

July 3, 2019

By Melissa Martin

Talking about religion can be a touchy topic—even among Christian believers.

The Most Post-Christian Cities in America: 2019 is a recent research study conducted by Barna research; an evangelical Christian polling firm. The ongoing study surveyed a random sample of 21, 378 American adults over a ten-year period. Visit their website for more detailed information. www.barna.com.

Please keep in mind that not all studies are created equal and all contain margins of error. Plus, Barna, a for-profit company, is commissioned to conduct research projects and they sell books. Nonetheless, I found the results interesting.

How did Ohio fare?

Among Ohio’s cities, Toledo was highest on the list in the number 35 spot—47 percent of residents considered themselves as post-Christian. In Columbus, 42 percent of residents qualify as post-Christian and the city ranked in the number 59 spot. Youngstown-Warren came in at 41 percent in the number 63 spot. Cleveland-Akron-Canton came in at 39 percent. Dayton and Cincinnati both tied at 38 percent.

To be identified as post-Christian, an individual had to meet nine or more of the factors: Do not believe in God. Identify as atheist or agnostic. Disagree that faith is important in their lives. Have not prayed to God (in the last week). Have never made a commitment to Jesus. Disagree the Bible is accurate. Have not donated money to a church (in the last year). Have not attended a Christian church (in the last 6 months). Agree that Jesus committed sins. Do not feel a responsibility to “share their faith.” Have not read the Bible (in the last week). Have not volunteered at church (in the last week). Have not attended Sunday school (in the last week). Have not attended religious small group (in the last week). Bible engagement scale: low (have not read the Bible in the past week and disagree strongly or somewhat that the Bible is accurate). Not Born Again.

I did not get a call from the Barna group, did you? The southern areas of Ohio are considered to be a part of the Bible Belt region—heavily influenced by socially conservative evangelical Protestantism. Results may have been different based on Belt Bible residents’ responses.

However, the larger cities in Ohio tell a story about declining Christianity.

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Ruth Krall, Looking Slant: Oppressive Ideologies and Belief Systems

LITTLE ROCK (AR)
Bilgrimage blog

July 3, 2019

By William Lindsey

The essay by Ruth Krall that follows below is the fourth in a series of essays entitled “Recapitulation: Affinity Sexual Violence in a Religious Voice,” which I’ve had the honor to publish on Bilgrimage in the past weeks. The first essay in this series appeared in two installments, here and here. The second appeared in another two installments, here and here. The third essay is here. As Ruth’s introduction to the essay below notes, it follows on her three preceding essays, which hypothesize the endemic natural of religious and spiritual leader sexual abuse of followers by asking what might be the role played by various ideologies in establishing institutional climates that faciliate abuse and then cover it up. As with some of Ruth’s previous essays in this series, I’m posting this one in two parts: part one is below.

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Bishop of Chester argued against lifetime ban for paedophile priest

CAROL STREAM (IL)
Christianity Today

July 5, 2019

The Bishop of Chester blocked a life-time ban from ministry being imposed on a minister who was jailed for child pornography, an independent inquiry has heard.

It emerged during a public hearing by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse that the Rt Rev Dr Peter Forster recommended that Rev Ian Hughes should instead receive a 20-year ban.

This was despite the Church of England’s own regulations – called the Clergy Discipline Measure – stating that a lifetime ban should be automatically imposed on ministers with child abuse convictions.

The shorter length recommended by the bishop received the approval of the President of the Tribunals after Dr Forster wrote to ask that the guidelines not be applied in this instance.

Mr Hughes was sent to prison for 12 months in 2014 over child pornography charges after he was found to have 8,200 indecent images of children in his possession.

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Analysis: Vatican calls for trust, Catholics wait for transparency

ROME (ITALY)
Catholc News Agency

July 5, 2019

By Ed Condon

This week, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary, issued a document defending the sacramental seal, as civil governments in California, Australia, and other places attempt to pass laws that would force priests to reveal what they hear in the confessional.

Piacenza also defended professional confidentiality, including the pontifical secret, and appeared to take aim at the use of leaked Vatican information in the media – suggesting leaks from the Vatican are detrimental to the public good.

“In a time of mass communication, in which all information is ‘burned’ [leaked] and with it often unfortunately also part of people’s lives, it is necessary to re-learn the strength of word, its constructive power, but also its destructive potential,” the cardinal warned.

Following a year in which scandals of episcopal misconduct and accountability have combined to create a crisis of confidence in Church leadership in some places, reaction to the application and violation of confidentiality in the Church illustrates the emerging fault lines in a debate between parts of the hierarchy and faithful, in which both sides accept the need for transparency, though often with very different understandings of the word.

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July 4, 2019

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‘Credibly accused’ are the shame of our state

NEWPORT (RI)
Newport Daily News

July 4, 2019

By Jim Gillis

We saw them this week, portraits of Catholic clergy “credibly accused” of sexually abusing children, a rogues’ gallery of grown men who preyed on youngsters.

The Diocese of Providence has a long history of denial, obfuscation and cover-up on this topic. So it’s significant Bishop Thomas J. Tobin released the names of 50 men, most now dead.

The release invites as many questions as it provides answers. It’s short on specifics, particularly how many attacks went on and what action the church took.

I think we now know the diocese here (and dioceses across the country) shifted accused priests from parish to parish, sliding them like chess pieces across the state. It amounted to a protection racket for pedophiles.

You may recognize some of the names on the list, several of whom served in Newport County. Father James Silva, for instance, assaulted one of my best friends when he as an altar boy at Jesus Saviour Church.

Maybe releasing the names provides further healing … or none at all. I was taught to respect priests as a boy, though I never had any interest in serving on the altar.

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Bishop of Chester tells IICSA that paedophile cleric was ‘penitent’

LONDON (ENGLAND)
Church Times

July 3, 2019

By Hattie Williams

A CLERIC who was convicted of possessing 8000 indecent images of children should be able to minister again because he was “penitent” at the time of his arrest, was probably “lured” into downloading the images, and would not have carried out the abuse itself, the Bishop of Chester, Dr Peter Forster, has maintained.

The cleric, Ian Hughes, was found guilty in 2014 of possessing 8200 indecent images of children — 800 of the “worst kind” — and sentenced to a 12-month custodial sentence (News, 31 January 2014).

In oral evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), on Wednesday, Dr Forster confirmed that he had written to the tribunal judge of the case, Sir Andrew McFarlane, to persuade him to go against guidelines of the Clergy Discipline Measure (CDM), which stated that a lifelong ban be automatically imposed after a conviction of child abuse.

“They are guidelines, they have to be interpreted,” Dr Forster said. “I felt that in [Mr Hughes’s] case — given his relative youth, the fact that he was entirely penitent from the outset as to what had happened, and [that] his previous record of ministry was excellent — it was worth raising the possibility of a 20-year ban.

“The problem is that once you impose a lifetime ban there is no way to reverse it. . . if for 20 years he had lived out the penitence.”

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Priest assigned to Stonehill College in 1970s among ‘credibly accused’

BROCKTON (MA)
The Enterprise News

July 4, 2019

By Cody Shepard

A deceased priest who was assigned to Stonehill College in the 1970s has been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse, according to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence.

Robert Marcantonio, who died in October 1999 at the age of 56, was one of 50 priests named this week as credibly accused of sexually abusing children. The names of the priests and where they were assigned are now published on the diocese website.

Marcantonio was assigned to Stonehill College in Easton from 1975 to 1979. He served as a counseling psychologist and director of counseling services.

There are no known accusations of sexual abuse while Marcantonio was assigned to the Easton college. But a lawsuit previously filed in Des Moines, Iowa states that Chancellor Daniel P. Reilly and other church officials were notified in 1970 that Marcantonio had sexually abused more than two dozen boys while he was assigned in Rhode Island. The lawsuit stated church officials decided to send him to Iowa for graduate work and to receive psychiatric treatment.

Between 1970 and 1975, Marcantonio was assigned to various locations in Iowa, according to the list released this week by the diocese. He was at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Ames from 1970-75; Iowa State University from 1971-75; Ames High School from 1972-73; and Drake University in Des Moines in 1974.

Although the Rhode Island Diocese does not list Marcantonio as having been assigned to St. Cecilia Church in Ames, he was accused of sexually abusing at least two boys there. The Archdiocese of Dubuque in Iowa has confirmed Marcantonio was at the church.

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https://bit.ly/2JdPyCZ

KANSAS CITY (MO0
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

Vatican trial is set for KC predator priest
He abused kids, then was promoted to bishop
But victims say “No trial – just defrock him now”
SNAP also wants another KC bishop to be restricted
Under new rules, he can be banned from church gatherings
And 2 more ‘credibly accused’ clerics are exposed for first time

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will release letters to
–Pope Francis urging him to immediately defrock of a credibly accused child molesting bishop who abused at least eight KC kids, &
–KC’s current bishop urging him to deny 2 former KC bishops – both proven wrongdoers – from attending future church functions.
They will also disclose the names of and details about two more credibly accused KC predator priests for the first time.

WHEN
Friday, July 5 at 11:15 a.m.

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Frenchman accusing Vatican diplomat takes case to Rome

PARIS (FRANCE)
Associated Press

July 3, 2019

One of a half-dozen men who have accused the Vatican’s ambassador to France of groping them is taking his complaint directly to the Vatican after claiming the Holy See had invoked diplomatic immunity in a French criminal probe.

Mathieu De La Souchere met with one of Pope Francis’s sex abuse advisers on Wednesday after filing a police report in Paris earlier this year. He accused Archbishop Luigi Ventura of touching his buttocks repeatedly in public, during an official reception Jan. 17 at Paris city hall, where he is an employee.

The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into alleged sexual aggression. The Vatican said Ventura was cooperating with the investigation. But De La Souchere said the French case was essentially stalled over the immunity question.

“The French government’s request to the Vatican to lift the diplomatic immunity remained unanswered,” he told The Associated Press.

His lawyer plans to file the complaint with the Vatican City State’s criminal tribunal next week. The tribunal largely follows the Italian penal code and is separate from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles sex abuse-related crimes under the Catholic Church’s canon law.

“This new judicial step here in the Vatican we hope will be one more step toward the trial that all the victims in France are waiting for,” De La Souchere said after meeting with Father Hans Zollner, a founding member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

De La Souchere met with Zollner and another man who has accused Ventura. Crux has reported as many as a half-dozen men have accused Ventura of unwanted groping over the course of his diplomatic postings, which have included Canada and Chile.

Ventura’s whereabouts are unknown, but he attended a meeting of all the Holy See’s apostolic nuncios, or ambassadors, at the Vatican last month. His lawyer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Vatican spokesman Alessandro Gisotti said Ventura “has fully and voluntarily cooperated with French judicial authorities who are in charge of his case, and will continue to do so.”

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Former Southern Baptist official charged with sexual assault pleads guilty to lesser crime

NASHVILLE (TN)
Baptist News Global

July 3, 2019

A former Southern Baptist missionary and denominational worker on Tuesday pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault 11 years after the denomination’s International Mission Board substantiated allegations of sexual abuse against him but did not report it the police.

Mark Aderholt, who resigned as associate executive director and chief strategist for the South Carolina Baptist Convention shortly before his arrest last July on charges of sexual assault of a minor, was ordered to spend 30 days in jail and pay a $4,000 fine.

After that, if he successfully completes 24 months of deferred adjudication, a form of probation, the conviction will not remain on his criminal record. Aderholt, 47, is currently in custody at the Tarrant County Correction Center.

Anne Marie Miller, the woman who told police that Aderholt sexually abused her when she was 16 and he was a 25-year-old student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1996-1997, said many people have expressed the opinion that he deserved a stiffer sentence, but she felt vindicated by hearing his admission of guilt.

“Over the last year, I have learned how unspeakably complicated the criminal justice system is,” Miller, an author of several books, said in a statement on her website. “So many variables go into each and every case.”

“While I think we all can agree that Mr. Aderholt is not facing the criminal penalty he should be, the DA’s office asked for my input and wishes during plea negotiations,” she said. “This included taking into consideration the emotionally charged prospect of a jury trial, facing a relentless and brutal cross-examination by his defense attorney, the impact of a trial on my family and a potential verdict of not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. I fully trust the prosecuting attorney and the final outcome.”

In a victim’s impact statement she read to Aderholt in court, Miller said nine years ago she was diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder because of what he did to her.

“You sexually abused me,” Miller said. Despite that, Miller said she has forgiven Aderholt and grieves over the pain his actions have caused his family.

“I used to believe that in order for this ordeal to be over, you needed to tell the truth and ask me to forgive you. I know now that’s not the case,” she said. “This is over because I have spoken the truth. It’s over because I have forgiven you. Your lies have no more power.”

“This is over, Mark. This is the end.”

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Taoiseach apologises over ‘sinning priest’ comments

DONNYBROOK (IRELAND)
RTE – Raidió Teilifís Éireann

July 4, 2019

By Edel McAllister

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has apologised for his comments to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin where he likened him to a sinning Catholic priest.

He said: “I offended people who I never intended to offend. I want to apologise for that and withdraw it.

“I have tremendous respect for priests, for the sacrifice that they give in the lives that they lead.

“And I have tremendous respect for people of faith. You know it didn’t come out the way I intended it and sometimes these things happen.”

The Taoiseach has faced strong criticism over his comments in the Dáil yesterday.

Independent TD Mattie McGrath called on the Taoiseach to come into the house and apologise for his comments.

He described them as “outrageous” and “utterly revolting”.

Fianna Fáil TD Mary Butler said the government had committed to a eliminating discrimination on grounds of religion in the programme for government.

“Unfortunately there was no such tolerance or respect shown to the Catholic religion yesterday,” Ms Butler said.

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Aurora clergy speak out in support of Wayside Cross child sex offenders staying put

AURORA (IL)
The Beacon-News

July 3, 2019

By Megan Jones

The pastor of Warehouse Church in Aurora sees himself in a unique position – his church sits directly between Wayside Cross Ministries and McCarty Park.

As a lifelong Aurora resident, the Rev. Randy Schoof said he is deeply committed to the safety of its citizens. But the 19 convicted child sex offenders who live at Wayside Cross near the park are not a risk to safety, and if anything, it is more of a risk to let these men scatter throughout the city unsupervised, Schoof said.

Eight clergy members gathered in the chapel of Wayside Cross Wednesday to speak out and show their support for the men who were told they have to move out of the mission in downtown Aurora because they live too close to McCarty Park. Under state law, registered child sex offenders are prohibited from living within 500 feet of a school, playground or daycare facility.

Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin repeated his stance Tuesday, saying that state laws concerning child sex offenders are clear.

“Wherever they go, it can’t be within 500 feet of where children play,” Irvin said.

After the city created addresses for all of its parks in late 2018, city staff realized the mapping tool used by Aurora police was incorrectly tracking the distance from one property to another, city officials have said, including the distance from McCarty Park to Wayside. Instead of mapping from property line to property line as the law states, the tool was measuring from the middle of one property to the other, they said.

Irvin said the eviction notices sent to Wayside were not in retaliation for the mission housing infamous “Ripper Crew” member Thomas Kokoraleis beginning in the spring.

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Archbishop Vigano: key Vatican official is accused abuser

Catholic World News blog

July 4, 2019

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano has revealed that one of the most influential prelates at the Vatican has been accused of sexual abuse.

The archbishop, the former apostolic nuncio to the United States, said a “terrifying dossier” has been compiled about alleged offenses by Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the assistant Secretary of State. “This might even be a scandal surpassing that of McCarrick,” Archbishop Vigano said.

As assistant Secretary of State—known commonly as the sostituto—Archbishop Peña Parra supervises the daily flow of paperwork at the Vatican, and meets regularly with the Pope. The sostituto is commonly regarded as the third most powerful figure at the Vatican, after the Secretary of State and the Pontiff himself.

Archbishop Vigano says that evidence of Archbishop Peña Parra’s misconduct with seminarians had been submitted to the Vatican as early as 2002. A native of Venezuela, Archbishop Peña Parra had been serving in the Vatican diplomatic corps when he was chosen by Pope Francis to become sostituto last year. The appointment was announced in August, just after the explosion of the McCarrick scandal.

Archbishop Vigano made his charge in an interview, conducted by email, with the Washington Post. While the bulk of the interview was published by the Post in June, the newspaper did not include the archbishop’s most stunning charges.

Archbishop Vigano also said that sexual misconduct had been discovered in a seminary on the Vatican grounds, and the perpetrator had been ordained to the priesthood while his victims had been dismissed. He said that abuse charges are still covered up by Vatican officials.

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French priest at heart of church abuse scandal defrocked

LYON (FRANCE)
CNA

July 4, 2019

The French Catholic church has defrocked a priest charged with abusing dozens of boy scouts in a scandal that saw a cardinal convicted of a cover-up, according to a ruling seen by AFP Thursday.

The allegations against priest Bernard Preynat sparked the biggest crisis in the French church in decades, drawing in its most influential cleric, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin.

The decision was taken by the church’s ecclesiastical court.

“In light of the facts and their recurrence, the large number of victims, the fact that Bernard Preynat abused the authority vested in him within the scout group… the court has decided to impose the maximum penalty under Church law in such a case, namely, the removal of his status as a priest,” it said.

Preynat, 74, has one month to appeal the ruling.

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Clergy sex abuse survivor reacts to Diocese of Harrisburg compensation program offer

HARRISBURG (PA)
Fox 43 News

July 3, 2019

By Jack Eble

On Tuesday, a spokesperson with the Diocese of Harrisburg said administrators for its Survivor Compensation Program have made offers to all participating survivors.

As of now, no payments have been made.

“The Diocese and Bishop Gainer continue to offer our profound sorrow, prayers and assistance to all survivors of clergy abuse,” said spokesperson Rachel Bryson.

A survivor anonymously told FOX43 his story of abuse at the hands of a former Diocese of Harrisburg priest, Herbert Shank, last year.

He said he received his offer at the beginning of this week and is now weighing his options.

“They call it compensation. I’m not sure you are ever able to compensate someone for the abuse that happened to myself and to all the people that are survivors,” said the survivor, who remains anonymous.

The Survivor Compensation Program was set up by the Diocese of Harrisburg in February as a response to the Grand Jury Report on child sex abuse within six Catholic Dioceses in Pennsylvania in an attempt to make financial amends to victims.

Our source explains he and his group of attorneys submitted information regarding the abuse from Shank.

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July 3, 2019

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Saskatoon diocese updates policies to prevent abuse, misconduct in Catholic Church

OTTAWA (CANADA)
Canadian Broadcast Corporation

July 4, 2019

A man who suffered at the hands of a serially abusive priest is welcoming changes made by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon aimed at preventing future abuses.

Over the last several months, the diocese has been working to update policies around abuse and misconduct, establishing several new positions outside of the bishop’s office and the Saskatoon pastoral centre to receive and investigate claims of abuse.

The new positions include an intake officer, a serious misconduct investigator and a victim support co-ordinator.

Brenda FitzGerald, who led the committee reviewing and updating the policies, said positions such as the intake officer will be filled by people who have an academic and professional background in the field of sexual assault, abuse and trauma.

“This was a really significant move to ensure that we would have [a system] as open and as transparent and as … sensitive to concerns of someone coming forward as possible, by not having the diocese investigate themselves,” she said. “That was a major change.”

Gary Mulligan, 73, was abused by Rev. William Hodgson Marshall while he attended Saskatoon’s St.Paul’s High School in the ’60s. It’s been reported that Marshall had a two-way mirror into the boy’s locker room at the school and had abused several of his students.

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A Bristol photographer reported his sexual abuse. His priest didn’t make the list of the ‘credibly accused.’

PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal

July 3, 2019

“My report was less than credible?”

That was Bristol photographer Stephan Brigidi’s reaction to a glaring omission, to him, on the list of “credibly accused” priests that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence posted on its website on Monday.

The name that was missing was the name of the “inebriated” priest at Saint Agnes parish in Providence who, he told the diocese, had fondled his genitals and attempted to kiss him when he was a 14- or 15-year-old altar boy, in a devout Catholic family, in the mid-1960s.

Brigidi, now 68 years old, said he had not felt compelled to file a complaint until he saw a quarter-page ad the diocese place placed in The Providence Journal last Nov. 29 that said, in part:

“The Diocese urges anyone who has been the victim of sexual abuse, or with credible knowledge of such abuse, by any member of the Catholic Church, to report allegations to RI State Police, local law enforcement, the RI Attorney General’s Office, and Kevin O’Brien, Director, Diocesan Office of Compliance.”

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WHY WE OPPOSE THE SELECTION OF DAVID BOSHART AS PRESIDENT OF ANABAPTIST MENNONITE BIBLICAL SEMINARY

In Account blog

June 27, 2019

By Lisa Pierce, Stephanie Krehbiel and Hilary Jerome Scarsella

Several weeks ago, we published two narratives on our survivor story blog Our Stories Untold, both written by our Director of Theological Integrity Hilary Jerome Scarsella. In the first narrative, Hilary tells her experience of being raped in 2009 by a fellow student at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, and the subsequent failure of the school to respond to that assault as a sexual assault. In the second narrative, Hilary describes the successful restitution process she went through with AMBS this year, a process made possible in large part because AMBS’s outgoing president, Sara Wenger Shenk, set the tone with her respectful and trauma-informed treatment of Hilary and of myself as Hilary’s advocate.

Many of you reading know just how rare this is. Higher education administrators are not, as a group, known for handing it well when survivors make demands. And to be clear: there are no just outcomes without demands. Hilary made demands; this was not a successful process because she was in any way compliant. Survivors frequently walk away from processes like these having been essentially branded as an enemy of the institution. That didn’t happen here, and it’s largely to Sara’s credit, because Sara demonstrated an understanding that restitution isn’t just window dressing.

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New information revealed about West Virginia Catholic Church

CHARLESTON (WV)
WTRF TV

July 3, 2019

The Survivors Network says a deeper dive by journalists into the West Virginia Catholic church sex and finances scandal reveals even more corruption than previously known.

SNAP officials are reacting to a new article published by the Washington Post.

The Post reports that a number of church members and employees wrote high ranking church officials warning them about Bishop Bransfield’s improper conduct, but were essentially ignored.

The Post also reports that “Bransfield wrote more than 500 checks to other clerics during his 13 years in West Virginia.

SNAP officials released a statement on the article saying

“In light of this new and disturbing information, we call on every one of the 500 clerics who got checks from West Virginia’s bishop to return that money to West Virginia Catholics, and we call on law enforcement officials – in the state and elsewhere – to look more vigorously and skeptically at church funds.”

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Estate of suicide victim wants Maryknolls to disclose former priest’s records

WESTCHESTER (NY)
Daily Voice Plus

July 3, 2019

By Bill Heltzel

The estate of an Ulster County man who killed himself earlier this year is asking a court to compel the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers to identify and preserve records of a priest who allegedly sexually assaulted the decedent for eight years when he was a boy.

Catherine Gallagher, the sister of Ralph “Chip” Gallagher, petitioned Westchester Supreme Court on June 7 to appoint a neutral party to preserve records, identify potential witnesses and notify others who may have come into contact with the priest when they were children.

“The Maryknolls take these claims very seriously,” attorney John P. Hannigan, of Bleakley Platt responded, “and we’re looking into assembling the facts.”

He later characterized the demands as a “thinly veiled effort” by Catherine Gallagher’s attorney, Barbara Hart of Lowey Dannenberg in White Plains, “to identify potential clients.” That would be an improper use of legal procedure, he stated in a court filing.

The Maryknolls, a Roman Catholic religious order based in Ossining, is primarily a missionary organization that combats poverty, provides health care, runs orphanages and schools, and advances social justice issues in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Ralph Gallagher was born in Mount Kisco and grew up in Chappaqua. When he died in January, he was living in Phoenicia, where he was a self-employed carpenter.

The petition concerns Edward Flanagan, who joined the Maryknolls 1956 as a religious brother, was ordained as a priest in 1964, voluntarily withdrew from the order in 1971 and died in 2016.

In the 1960s, he was assigned to the Church of St. John and St. Mary in Chappaqua.

Flanagan had been a guest in the Gallagher’s Chappaqua home over the years and family members attended his ordination into the priesthood.

Gallagher was first assaulted in 1962, according to the petition, when he was 4 years old. The alleged assaults continued through 1970, when he was 11, and included an incident in the Bahamas.

Flanagan had received significant psychological counseling, the petition states, yet the religious order moved him from position to position and allowed him to continue working with families and children.

The petition does not explain how it is known that Flanagan assaulted Gallagher.
BishopAccountability.org, does not list Flanagan on its database of U.S. Catholic clergy accused of sexually abusing children.

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Another Name Added to Diocese of Dallas’ List of Accused Priests

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

July 3, 2019

The Diocese of Dallas has added another name to its list of clerics accused of child sexual abuse. We call on church officials in Dallas to explain two key facts to the public about this case: first, when did the accusations against Fr. Peter Barusseau surface, and when were they deemed “credible” by church officials?

The list put out by Dallas church officials in January was already woefully incomplete as it left off key details such as the work histories of the accused priests, when the allegations against them were received, and what church officials did in response to those allegations. Such information is critical to understanding what went wrong in the past, who was involved in the wrongdoing, and what must be done to prevent cases of abuse in the future.

Given that the Diocese of Dallas has only done the bare minimum when it comes to keeping communities informed about abusive priests, the news about Fr. Barusseau has us concerned that there are other accused priests that have been left off this list. Considering that the Diocese of Dallas was raided by police in May, it would appear that the Dallas Police Department shares our concerns.

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Warnings about West Virginia bishop went unheeded as he doled out cash gifts to Catholic leaders

WASHINGTON (DC)
The Washington Post

July 3, 2019

By Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Shawn Boburg

Senior Catholic leaders in the United States and the Vatican began receiving warnings about West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield as far back as 2012. In letters and emails, parishioners claimed that Bransfield was abusing his power and misspending church money on luxuries such as a personal chef, a chauffeur, first-class travel abroad and more than $1 million in renovations to his residence.

“I beg of you to please look into this situation,” Linda Abrahamian, a parishioner from Martinsburg, West Virginia, wrote in 2013 to the pope’s ambassador to the United States.

But Bransfield’s conduct went unchecked for five more years. He resigned in September 2018 after one of his closest aides came forward with an incendiary inside account of years of sexual and financial misconduct, including the claim that Bransfield sought to “purchase influence” by giving hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash gifts to senior Catholic leaders.

“It is my own opinion that His Excellency makes use of monetary gifts, such as those noted above, to higher ranking ecclesiastics and gifts to subordinates to purchase influence from the former and compliance or loyalty from the latter,” Monsignor Kevin Quirk wrote to William Lori, the archbishop of Baltimore, in a letter obtained by The Washington Post.

At least four senior clerics outside West Virginia who received parishioner complaints about Bransfield also accepted cash gifts from him, more than $32,000 in all, according to an analysis of letters and other documents obtained by The Post.

The previously unreported Quirk letter and the complaints from parishioners raise questions about when Catholic leaders first knew of Bransfield’s conduct and why they took no action for years. They also reveal the roots of a church financial scandal that exploded into public view in June with a Washington Post account of the findings of a Vatican-ordered investigation of Bransfield.

Five lay investigators concluded early this year that Bransfield abused his authority by sexually harassing young priests and spending church money on personal luxuries, according to their final report and other documents obtained by The Post. Bransfield spent $2.4 million on travel, often flying in private jets, as well as $4.6 million in all to renovate his church residence, church records show. His cash gifts to fellow clergymen totaled $350,000, the records show.

Bransfield drew on a little-known source of money for the diocese: millions of dollars in annual revenue from oil wells in west Texas, on land that was donated to the diocese a century ago. The wells have yielded an average of about $15 million annually in recent years.

Bransfield wrote more than 500 checks to other clerics during his 13 years in West Virginia, gifts for which he was reimbursed by the diocese. The recipients who also received parishioner complaints include Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, then the nuncio, the pope’s ambassador to the United States; Cardinal Raymond Burke, then the leader of the church’s judicial authority in Rome; Archbishop Peter Wells, then a senior administrator in the pope’s Secretariat of State at the Vatican; and Lori, the archbishop in Baltimore who later oversaw the Vatican investigation launched after Quirk’s account.

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109 or 43? Attorney Says Number of Accused Abusers in Phoenix Diocese Matters

PHOENIX (AZ)
New Times

July 3, 2019

By Michael Clancy

Did the Diocese of Phoenix provide a home to 109 clergymen accused of sexual abuse?

A new report compiled by one of the nation’s leading law firms on clergy sexual abuse identified that many, saying they lived, worked, retired or visited in the territory of the diocese.

Many of the accused have been convicted of their crimes. Others were the subjects of civil lawsuits, and quite a few died before the accusations were revealed. Some were “credibly accused,” as the church says, in other dioceses and came to the Phoenix diocese later, sometimes no longer allowed to work as priests.

According to the diocese, none are working here now.

The latest compilation of perpetrators comes from Jeff Anderson and Associates, which has been involved in clergy abuse cases since the early 2000s.

About 50 priests, other clergy, and church staffers were identified 16 years ago, when Bishop Thomas O’Brien was still in office. Some of the identities were released by the diocese, others through the court system, and direct contact between abuse victims and the media.

On its website, the diocese now lists only 43, but it has not been updated to reflect religious communities, such as Jesuits and the like, that have ministries in the diocese.

It’s confusing.

The additional numbers in the Anderson report come from the inclusion of names released by religious orders that have ministries in the Phoenix area, and by adding in priests who were ordained in other dioceses, then came to Phoenix to vacation, work, or retire. The final group would be listed as accused abusers in their home dioceses.

Several on the Anderson list worked for other dioceses in the area now covered by the Phoenix diocese, which was carved out of the dioceses of Gallup, New Mexico, and Tucson in 1969. The diocese covers Maricopa, Yavapai, Mohave, and Coconino counties, as well as the Gila Indian Reservation. Navajo and Apache counties remain part of the Gallup Diocese, as well as the entire Navajo Reservation. The remainder of the state is part of the Diocese of Tucson.

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IICSA: Bishop of Buckingham criticises ‘unhealthy’ level of bishops’ power

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Church Times

July 3, 2019

By Hattie Williams

THE “unhealthy and excessive” centralisation of power in bishops in the Church of England means that they are not being held accountable for safeguarding decisions which should not be theirs to make in the first place, the Area Bishop of Buckingham, Dr Alan Wilson, has said.

He was giving evidence on Tuesday to the final hearing being conducted by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) to investigate safeguarding in the Anglican Church.

“The centralisation of all sort of things on bishops is unhealthy and excessive, and that raises the question of the accountability of bishops,” he said.

Asked by the chair of the Inquiry, Professor Alexis Jay, whether he thought that diocesan bishops should play a part in decision-making in cases of alleged abuse, Dr Wilson said: “No. Emphatically no. And that’s one of the fundamental problems with where we are right now.”

He called for an independent safeguarding body to hold bishops and dioceses to account. It was unreasonable to expect diocesan safeguarding advisers to do this.

“You cannot expect somebody who is a mid-range employee of the bishop to hold the bishop to account. It simply doesn’t work that way. . . Advice is just advice. If they [the bishop] respond badly, who is to hold them to account on that advice?”

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Marquette University seeks to ‘help people heal’ from trauma

MILWAUKEE (WISCONSIN)
Crux

July 3, 2019

By Christopher White

Responding to trauma has become something of a vocation for Dr. Mike Lovell, an engineer turned university president, who in recent years has unexpectedly made trauma care a centerpiece of his professional life, despite having no background in it.

What began as a Marquette University campus wide focus on health inequities and disparities has turned out not only to have ramifications for the surrounding city of Milwaukee, but also the entire Catholic Church, which has once again found itself plagued by the clergy sexual abuse crisis this past year.

“We must first recognize that people have been harmed and the first thing we can do as an institution is to help people heal,” Lovell told Crux in an interview from his office that overlooks Milwaukee and is directly across from the Church of the Gesu – one of the Midwest’s most iconic Catholic monuments.

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PRIEST WITH A SWASTIKA” WAS SUSPECTED OF CHILD MOLESTATION

LAVAL (CANADA)
The Gal Post

June 27, 2019

By Lilly Nice

In Belarus opened a new criminal case against the priest from the village of Gatovo (Minsk region) Konstantin Burykina, better known as “the priest with the swastika.” About this informed the official representative of the Investigative Committee, Yulia hancharova, writes TUT.BY.

According to her, we are talking about a crime against sexual integrity of a minor. “Any details on ethical considerations will not be disclosed” — said the interlocutor of the edition.

A criminal case under part 3 of article 167 of the criminal code (“Violent actions of sexual character”). The perpetrator could face imprisonment of eight to 15 years.

Burykina detained in 2016 after, according to relatives, he “moved someone the way” led by Belarusian powerlifting Federation (BFP). During the investigation, information surfaced that the priest kept the house file with the military chronicle of the Third Reich, was worn on the hand (according to others, on the breast) tattooed with symbols of fascism, and in his office hung a chandelier in the shape of a swastika.

During interrogation he said that in 2000, he was appointed spiritual head of the Russian neo-Nazi paramilitary organization “Russian national unity” (RNU), which aims at the restoration of historical Russia — great, little and White Russia — as a nation-state. “Hold them spiritual conversations, meetings, baptized and married. (…) Nothing wrong just did not see, and then it seemed to me that they have become destructive. (…) We are with them ceased contact” — recalled the priest. As a result, in 2017 Burykina was convicted of illegal possession of weapons and ammunition and sentenced to three years in prison.

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Court tells police to cease ‘coercive’ activity against Indian cardinal in cover-up case

MUMBAI (INDIA)
Crux

July 3, 2019

By Nirmala Carvalho

A court in India has told police not to take any further action against Cardinal Oswald Gracias of the Archdiocese of Bombay and two of his auxiliary bishops in a case where they are accused of not informing the authorities of an abuse accusation against a priest.

Father Lawrence Johnson was arrested in 2016 on allegations of the sexual abuse of a child, but the family of a boy abused by the priest met with Gracias on November 30, 2015, just hours before the cardinal was scheduled to leave for Rome.

Gracias maintains that when he arrived in Rome, he asked his Auxiliary Bishop John Rodrigues to inform the authorities in conformity of the 2012 Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, but the family had already done so.

Another auxiliary bishop, Savio Dominic Fernandes, is named in the complaint, even though he was outside the city at the time.

Records show the family went to the police on Nov. 30, 2015, made the official First Incident Report shortly thereafter, and Father Lawrence Johnson was arrested Dec. 2.

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July 2, 2019

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Fake News About Brebeuf Jesuit School

DENVER (CO)
National Catholic Register

July 2, 2019

By Patrick Reilly

According to secular news reports about Brebeuf Jesuit High School in Indianapolis, which Archbishop Charles Thompson declared to be no longer Catholic, you’d think the decision was all about the Church’s eagerness to fire a “gay” teacher.

Likewise, articles about Cathedral High School in northeast Indianapolis, which upheld its Catholic identity by dismissing one of its teachers, also emphasize the teacher’s sexuality.

Such is “fake news”—it’s rooted in some fact, but not in truth. In fact, the Indianapolis situation is primarily about a Catholic school’s obligations to teach the faith clearly and without contradiction.

The Indianapolis Star proclaimed, “Indianapolis Archdiocese Cuts Ties with Jesuit School Over Refusal to Fire Gay Teacher.” FOX News claimed Brebeuf was “Stripped of ‘Catholic’ Label Over Gay Teacher.” Newsweek announced that Cathedral “Fires Gay Teacher,” and the USA Today headline likewise reported that Cathedral “Is Firing a Gay Teacher.”

And now, a New York Times contributor has lectured the bishops on the need to defend our “L.G.B.T.Q. brothers and sisters.” The article is titled, “How to Defy the Catholic Church.”

To be sure, at both Brebeuf and Cathedral the teachers under scrutiny are identified as “gay”—but what caused the controversy is not that directly, but instead their public actions contradicting what they are supposed to be teaching in a Catholic school. Both entered into civilly approved same-sex marriages. Such public scandal makes someone ineligible to teach in a genuinely Catholic school, and this would be true of scandal leading children into any type of grave sin, whether homosexual or otherwise.

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Please don’t let this issue die

VICTORIA (AUSTRALIA)
The Advocate

July 2, 2019

By Carol Oliver

Thank heavens, I am not religious. Which is not to say that I don’t respect those people who are. We are all entitled to our beliefs, and many religions have played a huge and positive part in the lives of individuals and societies for centuries.

But right now – despite news fading rapidly into the ether – I remain scandalised by the widespread abuse and cover up by religious figures around the world.

It’s bad enough to hear about one abuser in a family or community, but the depth and breadth of abuse in the Catholic Church is unforgivable. So when the Pope says he’s ashamed of the church’s failure to adequately address “repellent crimes”, I go into a giant cringe because it appears to be too little … and way too late.

Of course, he is not personally to blame and I am sure he’s probably a good bloke. But because the institution of the church created and covered up these crimes, and because he is the leader at this time, I find his responses too polite and vague. It seems to me he had the chance to re-energise respect and allegiance for believers by rooting out perpetrators so that, by example, the church could uphold its own laws as well as those of society.

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Reaction pours in after Diocese releases clergy abuse report

PROVIDENCE (RI)
ABC 6 News

July 2, 2019

By Daniel Keith

One day after the Diocese of Providence released its bombshell report naming 50 priests and deacons credibly accused of abuse against minors, reaction is pouring in from lawmakers, lawyers, and even former priests.

The investigations were conducted by a former State Police detective who was able to investigate each account independently, according to the Diocese website.

After the report was released, Bishop Tobin said the church is being as transparent as possible, but some believe the church is hiding something.

Robert Hoatson is a former priest and now president of the New Jersey-based victim advocacy group Road to Recovery. As a victim of clergy abuse himself, and with knowledge of the workings of the church, he claims that Bishop Tobin is hiding some crucial information from the public.

He calls this information “the secret files”, claiming that each Bishop has access to complete files related to claims of abuse, in accordance with church law, Hoatson said.

“Bishop Tobin did not publish any of the information that we need. The files, the details, the names and information of each and every priest named in that list [Monday] is crucial,” Hoatson said, as he donned signs outside the Diocese. “We are not satisfied with the list that was published [Monday].”

The report names 50 priests and deacons, with 17 that are still alive. But in court documents from 2007, the church said they were aware of 125 allegations of priests within the jurisdiction.

The list was released just hours before Gov. Raimondo signed a bill into law that extends the statute of limitations for victims.

That law’s sponsor is Carol Hagan McEntee (D-Narragansett, South Kingstown) who said that the report does not say how many victims each priest had, as well as leaving out information that she calls a safety issue.

“Unless they’re dead, it really doesn’t tell you where they [live] now. So I think that’s important information, especially for parents to have,” McEntee said.

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Diocese of Harrisburg: Payment offers made to all child sex abuse victims who participated in compensation program

HARRISBURG (PA)
Fox 43 News

July 2, 2019

By Sean Naylor

Administrators of the Diocese of Harrisburg Survivor Compensation Program have made payment offers to all victims of child sex abuse who participated in the program, according to a statement from the diocese.

“The administrators for our independent compensation program have made offers to all survivors who participated in the program,” the statement said.

It added that as of Tuesday, July 2, no payments have been made.

“The Diocese and Bishop Gainer continue to offer our profound sorrow, prayers and assistance to all survivors of clergy abuse,” the statement concluded.

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Public schools can learn from Catholics in handling sex abuse

DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

July 2, 2019

After an investigative series by the Chicago Tribune uncovered numerous cases of sexual abuse and cover-up in the city’s public schools, a local commentator is looking to the Archdiocese of Chicago as an example of putting safeguards for children into practice.

In an article last week, Kristen McQueary, a columnist and member of the Chicago Tribune editorial board, highlighted the scandal surrounding Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and the need for greater transparency regarding sexual abuse there.

Police investigated 523 reports that children were sexually assaulted or abused inside city public schools from 2008 to 2017, or an average of one report each week, McQueary reported.

“Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools officials for months fought records requests from Tribune reporters on sexual assaults within schools,” she said.

“CPS only relented under threat of a lawsuit…It was not an exercise in protecting students.”

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For Margaret McKenna, past clergy abuse is haunting her anew

PROVIDENCE (RI)
Boston Globe

July 2, 2019

By Amanda Milkovits

Margaret A. McKenna says she was around 12 or 13 when a young priest in the rectory across from her home in Central Falls took her for a drive to Lincoln Woods State Park and fondled her in the car.

She remembers him saying that no one would believe her if she told, but she could confess her sins to him. He sought her out for months, touching her in the school, in his car, at the rectory.

McKenna, who would go on to become the president of two Boston universities, has shared her story many times — with a priest when she was young, with the Rhode Island State Police, with Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence, with Rhode Island legislators in March — and yet she said she felt invisible when the Providence diocese released a list Monday of nearly 50 clergy accused of child molestation.

The late Rev. Peter Tedeschi — the priest she’d accused of molesting her in the 1960s — was listed as “publicly accused.” He and the late Monsignor Anthony Deangelis were separated from those the diocese deemed “credibly accused.”

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RI lawmakers spurn AG’s request to use grand jury for report on clergy abuse

PROVIDENCE (RI)
WPRI Target 10 News

July 2, 2019

Attorney General Peter Neronha says Rhode Islanders may learn less about sex abuse in the Catholic Church because lawmakers decided to bury a bill that would have allowed grand jury reports to be made public even without indictments.

Neronha’s bill — which failed to get a vote before the General Assembly recessed Friday — is garnering new attention this week after the Diocese of Providence released a list of 50 clergymen “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors. It’s unclear how many additional accusations were not deemed credible by church officials.

Neronha, who is conducting his own investigation into past claims of sexual abuse in the church, said publishing information gathered by a grand jury could provide greater transparency surrounding a historically opaque issue. Pennsylvania’s attorney general took that route in compiling an explosive report on abuse in the church that came out last year.

“While our legislation would have no impact on our ability investigate clergy sex abuse, it could have a profound impact on what the public eventually learns about the investigation,” Neronha said in a statement.

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Priests owe it to God not to report abuse confessions

Patheos blog

July 2, 2019

By Barry Duke

AN intransigent Vatican is digging its heels in over pressure to have priests report sexual abuse confessions to the authorities, and is complaining of anti-Catholic bias.

According to this report, a document issued by the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary, which deals with issues of the sacrament of confession, said no government or law could force clergy to violate the seal:

Because this duty comes directly from God.

The document, which did not mention any countries or the sexual abuse crisis, complained of:

A worrying negative prejudice against the Catholic Church.

Most countries’ legal systems respect the religious right of a Catholic priest not to reveal what he has learnt in confession, similar to attorney-client privilege.

But the sexual abuse crisis that has embroiled the Catholic Church around the world has seen this right challenged more frequently.

In Australia, an inquiry into child abuse recommended that the country introduce a law forcing religious leaders to report child abuse, including priests told of it during confession.

So far, two of Australia’s eight states have introduced laws making it a crime for priests to withhold information about abuse heard in confession. Others are still considering their response.

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Editorial: Long-overdue list from the Diocese

PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal

July 2, 2019

Sunlight is the best disinfectant. It was right of Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin to release a list of 50 clergy members who had been “credibly accused” of sexually abusing children.

We saw the faces of some of the accused spread across the front page of The Providence Journal Tuesday — many of them surely guilty of monstrous acts of cruelty and betrayal. Readers no doubt scanned the list for clergy that had worked in their churches. Only 19 of the 50 are still alive, and none still serve the diocese.

In a letter that Mr. Tobin read in a video, the bishop said that publishing the list “is a difficult but necessary moment in the moment in the life of our Diocesan church.”

He said “our thoughts and prayers turn first of all to those who have been harmed by the grave sin of sexual misconduct by clerics — priests and deacons — over the years.” He offered to the victims, their families and faithful Catholics who have been “rightly scandalized by these disgraceful events … the profound apology of the Church and the Diocese of Providence. We pray fervently that God will give you the grace of healing and peace.”

The list was released as Gov. Gina Raimondo signed into law a new measure extending from seven years to 35 the time limit for victims to file suits against their molesters. The legislation generally looks forward. Institutions through which molesters acted are protected from further lawsuits if the seven-year statute of limitations has already passed, except in cases of recovered memory.

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Nun Faces Court, Accused Of Helping Priests Rape Deaf Children

AUSTRALIA
10 Daily News

July 2, 2019

By Katie Hill

A Roman Catholic nun is due face court tomorrow, after a new request for ‘preventative detention’ was made following a new accusation of abuse. Kosaka Kumiko allegedly helped priests cover up rape at an institution for deaf students in Argentina. The abuse allegedly took place in bathrooms, dorms, a garden and a basement at the school north west of Buenos Aires. Five priests were arrested following raids in November 2017, Kumiko was taken into custody in April 2017. The accused, who was released on bail of $2 million, claims she is innocent and will fight to clear her name.

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Upper West Side priest steps down amid sexual abuse allegations

NEW YORK (NY)
Daily News

July 2, 2019

By Michael Gartland

A priest at an Upper West Side church is stepping down amid accusations that he sexually abused a number of children, a New York Archdiocese spokesman said.

Eight accusers have claimed they are victims of Monsignor John Paddack, who on Tuesday told parishioners at the Church of Notre Dame on W. 114th St. that he will be resigning his post there.

“Msgr. Paddack has written to his parishioners to tell them that, although he denies the allegations against him, for the good of the parish and the people, he has decided to step aside while the investigation into the allegation proceeds,” Archdiocese spokesman Joe Zwilling told the Daily News.

Paddack’s accusers claim he abused them at various postings throughout the city, including Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, St. Joseph by the Sea High School on Staten Island and the Church of the Incarnation in Upper Manhattan.

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De Pere-based St. Norbert Abbey plans to publicize list of priests accused of molesting children

GREEN BAY (WI)
Press-Gazette

July 2, 2019

By Haley BeMiller

The names of priests at St. Norbert Abbey accused of molesting children could be made public this summer.

The abbey is in the final stages of reviewing sexual assault allegations against Norbertines over the years, the Green Bay Press-Gazette has learned. Montie Chavez, a spokesperson for St. Norbert, said the abbey aims to release the names of those priests by the end of summer.

Chavez declined to identify the independent agency handling the investigation, but the Right Rev. Dane Radecki, abbot of St. Norbert Abbey, told the Press-Gazette earlier this year that Praesidium was assisting with it. Praesidium is an organization that works with Catholic dioceses on their responses to clergy abuse.

Norbertines, sometimes known as Premonstratensians, differ from diocesan priests in the vows they take, according to St. Norbert’s website. Locally, the order is based at an abbey in De Pere and serves Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church and Holy Cross, among other parishes. Their priests also work at four Catholic schools, including St. Norbert College.

St. Norbert’s findings would follow the release of a list by the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay earlier this year of 48 priests with “substantial allegations” of sexual abuse of a minor against them. The diocese initially released 46 names but added two more as additional survivors came forward.

The abbey’s investigation also comes amid heightened scrutiny of the Catholic church as survivors and their advocates call for greater transparency worldwide. Pressure is coming from the Vatican, too, as Pope Francis recently issued a decree requiring clergy to report abuse to church officials.

Meanwhile, at least 14 state attorneys general in the U.S. have launched their own investigations into clergy abuse.

Allegations against Norbertine priests have surfaced throughout the years. Perhaps the most well-known is former priest James Stein, who was convicted in 2004 of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in a hot tub at the abbey.

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Another priest added to Dallas Catholic diocese’s ‘credibly accused’ list for 1960 sexual abuse allegation

DALLAS (TX)
Morning News

July, 2, 2019

By David Tarrant

The Dallas Catholic Diocese has added a new name to its list of clergy members credibly accused of sexual abuse of children.

The diocese, embroiled in scrutiny over its handling of past sexual abuse allegations, posted on its website over the weekend that Peter Barusseau was accused of abusing a minor while serving in North Texas. The diocese’s short news item says the alleged abuse occurred in 1960. Diocese leaders did not release any further details about the alleged abuse.

According to church records, from 1960-61, Barusseau substituted for other priests at Immaculate Conception in Denton, St. Anthony in Dallas and St. Mary in Sherman.

Born in 1909, Barusseau is believed to be dead, but the diocese is attempting to confirm his date of death with his home diocese in France.

The diocese first released its list of 31 credibly accused clergy — both living and dead — on Jan. 31. The list was part of a joint transparency effort by all Texas dioceses. Combined, those lists included nearly 300 names of clergy members who have been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of children since 1950.

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Catholic Charities appeal ends far short of $11 million target

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

July 2, 2019

By Jay Tokasz

The 2019 Catholic Charities appeal finished more than $1.5 million short of an $11 million goal, as the Buffalo Diocese struggled to overcome dismay over its handling of clergy sexual abuse claims.

The Catholic human service agency did not have a final tally of the amount raised, said spokeswoman Rose Caldwell, adding that a full announcement would happen in mid-July.

But, she said, “To my knowledge, there hasn’t been any major significant change that would put it over goal.”

Sunday was the final day of the annual appeal. A progress tracker at the Catholic Charities website shows the appeal raised $9,251,843. The final tally might end up being more, but Caldwell she was not aware of any large last-minute gifts that would have closed the gap.

It was the first time since 2010 that the appeal fell short of goal.

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NY church officials sue insurers over future abuse claims

NEW YORK (NY)
Associated Press

July 2, 2019

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York has filed a lawsuit against more than two dozen insurance companies seeking to compel the firms to cover claims filed by people who say they were abused by clergy members.

Church officials anticipate that numerous alleged abuse victims will file lawsuits under New York’s Child Victims Act. The new state law gives victims a one-year window to file claims alleging sex abuse that were previously barred by the statute of limitations.

The archdiocese says in its lawsuit filed Friday in Manhattan state Supreme Court that many of its insurers “intend to dispute, limit, or deny coverage” for abuse.

Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the Child Victims Act into law in February. The one-year window to file claims starts in August.

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Priests accused of sex abuse served in almost every RI city and town

PROVIDENCE (RI)
WPRI Target 12 News

July 2, 2019

By Eli Sherman, Ted Nesi, Darren Soens, Kim Kalunian

When the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence gave the late Rev. Robert Marcantonio his 16th and final pastoral assignment in 1989, he’d already been accused of sexually abusing minors multiple times over the previous two decades.

Marcantonio, who died in 1999, started out at Sacred Heart Church in West Warwick in 1967. Within three years diocesan leaders were alerted that he had molested multiple boys, according to documents compiled by the group BishopAccountability.org.

Rather than remove Marcantonio from ministry, however, the diocese sent him to Iowa. He returned to Rhode Island in 1975 and resumed active ministry, spending four years at St. John Vianney Church in Cumberland and then a decade at Rhode Island College, along with overlapping assignments at the University of Rhode Island, Bryant College and the U.S. Navy Reserve. More abuse allegations followed.

The Providence Diocese finally removed Marcantonio from ministry in 1989, according to a list of “credibly accused” priests released Monday by Bishop Thomas Tobin. His alleged misconduct was hardly a secret: a year after his removal, Marcantonio was the subject of an explosive investigative report on WPRI 12 that led then-Bishop Louis Gelineau to revoke the station’s right to televise Thanksgiving and Christmas Masses.

Over the 22 years leading up to his removal, Marcantonio served as a pastor at five parishes, six colleges, a high school and a seminary, spanning three states. Survivor advocates say such frequent reassignments were a common trend for abusive priests.

“Moving around predators was typical,” said Tim Lennon, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP.

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Pampanga archdiocese relieves priest accused of abuse

By CBCP News

July 1, 2019

Manila, Philippines

A Catholic priest has been accused of sexual abuse and was relieved of his duties, a church leader said Sunday.

The alleged victim, a 17-year-old girl, was not identified. She accused Fr. Daniel Baul of abuse that happened at a church-based center for women and children in Pampanga.

A formal complaint was made by the alleged victim to the authorities which resulted in the issuance of a warrant of arrest.

The Archdiocese of San Fernando said it is cooperating with officials investigating the case, but provided no other information.

Archbishop Florencio Lavarias said they would exert all efforts “so that truth and justice may be served for both parties”.

“As a matter or protocol, the accused, though innocent until proven guilty, has been relieved from his assignment,” Lavarias said.

He also said that “pastoral care” is being extended to the alleged victim, while the archdiocese is conducting its own investigation.

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Woman Speaks Out Against Fordham Alum Who Sexually Assaulted Her

NEW YORK (NY)
The Observer

July 2, 2019

By Sophie Partridge-Hicks

Nine years ago, Esther Harber was sexually assaulted by a Fordham Alumnus. After years of attempting to resolve the issue within the Catholic Church, Harber has decided to make her story public with the goal of protecting others in the future. She hopes that, by sharing her story, necessary change will be made to the Catholic Church and the way it supports victims of sexual assault.

Harber says she was raped by the Reverend Edwin Erhimeyoma in 2010. At the time of the assault, Rev. Erhimeyoma was pursuing a doctoral degree at Fordham’s Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education, which he completed in 2015. According to Bob Howe, assistant vice president for communications at Fordham University, Fordham was never informed of the allegations against Erhimeyoma.

Harber shared in an interview with the Catholic News Agency (CNA) that she had met Erhimeyoma while she was working as a lay missionary serving women and children in New York CIty. Erhimeyoma was a priest at Holy Rosary Parish, a church in Edgewater, New Jersey, which Harber often visited. Over the next two years, the two engaged in what Harber calls an abusive relationship.

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Pope Francis on path to healing wounds of abuse scandal, says nuncio

OTTAWA (CANADA)
Canadian Catholic News

July 2, 2019

By Deborah Gyapong

Pope Francis is leading efforts to heal the wounds of the sexual abuse scandals so the Church can fulfill her mission, says Canada’s apostolic nuncio.

“Pope Francis sees the Church as a community of men and women who live for others, who care for those in need, for those who are injured, for those who find themselves on the margins of life,” Archbishop Luigi Bonazzi told a gathering of about 300 people, including diplomats, bishops, church officials, lay leaders and friends at a June 27 reception at his Ottawa residence honouring the sixth anniversary of Pope Francis’ election. “But in order to heal others, we need to be cared for and healed ourselves.”

Bonazzi, the Vatican’s representative in Canada, spoke of Pope Francis’ “unique image” of the Church as a “field hospital,” based on the story of the Good Samaritan.

“Precisely to help and ensure the good health of the Church, which in recent times has found itself sick and wounded by the serious scandals of sexual abuse, Pope Francis is leading a serious and ongoing process of healing and reconciliation, a process which had one of its most significant moments in the convocation last February, of bishops and religious Superiors from around the world on The Protection of Minors in the Church.”

The nuncio called it an open and transparent process, noting Pope Francis is not asking the Church to “hide or ignore” her wounds, but to instead put Christ at the centre since He is the One who can heal them.

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Tommy: The seal of confession should be broken if it means saving kids

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WWL Radio

July 2, 2019

By Tommy Tucker

“The defense of the sacramental seal and the sanctity of confession can never constitute some form of connivance with evil, on the contrary, they represent the only true antidote to evil that threatens man and the whole world,” states the note signed by the head of the penitentiary, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza on July 1.

What all of the above means, simply stated, is that if you’re a priest hearing the confession of a pedophile who says he’s molesting a child, you can’t tell anyone. You can’t tell the police. You can’t tell the Bishop. You can’t tell parents to keep their kids away the pedophile. In other words, you forgive the offender and send him on his way. Most experts will tell you a pedophile cannot be cured; so odds are you’re sending him off, cleansed of his sins, to victimize more children.

I’m a cradle Catholic, but, I gotta tell ya, that’s the most un-like Christian thing I can imagine. Do you REALLY think, in your heart of hearts, that Jesus would approve of that? My heart tells me that CHILDREN ALWAYS COME FIRST! If there’s only food for one, they eat FIRST. If there’s only shelter for one, THEY SLEEP INSIDE. If only one person can be protected it is, WITHOUT DOUBT, THE CHILD.

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https://www.star-telegram.com/living/religion/article232168802.html

FORT WORTH (TX)
Star Telegram

July 1, 2019

By Nichole Manna

The June 2018 resignation of the Rev. Richard Kirkham, of Prosper, is valid, according to the Diocese of Fort Worth, which received a decree on the matter from the Congregations for Clergy at the Vatican.

Under Catholic Canon law, Father Kirkham remains a priest of the Diocese but must vacate the parish rectory, the Diocese of Fort Worth said in a statement.

“The Congregation has lifted the suspension of Father Kirkham, but he is without assignment. Bishop (Michael) Olson will assess how to proceed after meeting with Father Kirkham; however, he will not return as pastor of St. Martin de Porres,” the statement from the Diocese said.

Olson asked Kirkham to resign after a letter Kirkham wrote to another priest in Dallas was deemed intimidating, manipulative and inappropriate by the bishop.

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Armed with new lawyers, man appeals dismissed lawsuit alleging abuse by former SBC leader

NASHVILLE (TN)
Baptist News Global

July 1, 2019

By Bob Allen

One of Houston’s leading law firms is handling the appeal of a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by former Southern Baptist Convention leader Paul Pressler.

A district judge recently signed final orders dismissing the three remaining claims in a lawsuit filed by Gareld Duane Rollins Jr., a 54-year-old man who says sexual abuse that began when he was a teenager sent him on a downward spiral of substance abuse and multiple arrests that continued until he made an outcry statement to a prison psychologist in 2015.

Last year Houston Judge Ravi K. Sandill dismissed counts of abuse alleged prior to 2004, saying the claims are too old to litigate due to the state’s statute of limitations.

Rollins filed a notice of appeal June 18 represented by attorneys with Baker Botts, a firm with history dating back to the Republic of Texas in 1840 that now employs about 725 lawyers in 14 cities around the globe.

Rollins discharged his former lawyer, Daniel Shea, in April. Shea previously represented Rollins in a lawsuit against Pressler settled in a confidential agreement in 2004.

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Catholic Diocese of Richmond announces third-party hotline for reporting ethical misconduct

RICHMOND (VA)
Richmond Times-Dispatch

July 2, 2019

By C. Suarez Rojas

Parishioners, employees, volunteers and clergy in the Catholic Diocese of Richmond have a new way to report suspected misconduct that isn’t sexual abuse.

As of Monday, the diocese has a third-party company, EthicsPoint, managing an anonymous hotline intended for people to report financial mismanagement or administrative issues in local churches, offices and schools in the diocese’s jurisdiction. The diocese covers most of the state.

The implementation of the new ethics hotline comes as the diocese is reckoning with its admission that approximately 50 of its priests have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children in incidents that took place between the 1950s and 2000s.

In a video announcing the hotline, Richmond Bishop Barry Knestout said the diocese hopes more people will feel encouraged to report misconduct, but that sexual abuse allegations should continue to be reported to law enforcement authorities and child protective service agencies before a caller contacts the diocese’s confidential sexual abuse hotline.

“We must uphold the commitments we have made and the legacy we have been handed in a fair and honorable manner. This includes reviewing existing policies and procedures and revising them in order to ensure that the diocese is providing the tools and environment needed to strengthen our Church, our communities and one another,” Knestout said in a letter to the church community.

A report from the National Catholic Reporter about fraud in churches published earlier this year quotes a Diocese of Richmond officer who said all of the diocese’s parishes are regularly audited and mandated to have procedures for money collection and accounting.

The article also mentions recent major embezzlement cases in the archdioceses of Philadelphia and Miami, and the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Missouri.

Knestout has declined to be interviewed by the Richmond Times-Dispatch at least four times since August, but has said in communications with parishioners that the diocese is committed to improving transparency.

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Protecting seal of confession called essential for civilized society

WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

July 1, 2019

By Chaz Muth

When Ethan K. Alano walks into the reconciliation room at Queen of Peace Catholic Church in Salem, he bares his soul before God and goes into detail about his sins during confession. Alano’s trust in the priest is solid.

He is certain that anything he says in the confessional is confidential, allowing him to air his sins in complete specificity so that he may receive a just penance, reaffirming his relationship with the Lord.

That penitential confidence is a centuries-old rite in Catholicism and protecting it from governmental intrusion goes beyond tradition, religious freedom and church law, said Auxiliary Bishop Peter L. Smith of Portland, who also is a canon lawyer.

It disenfranchises the sacrament if the faithful believe there is the slightest possibility that civil authorities could compel a priest to reveal what they have shared in the confessional, Bishop Smith told Catholic News Service in a May interview.

In the confessional, “people encounter the mercy of God,” he said. “They encounter God’s forgiveness of them, but they also encounter the Lord helping them to live their lives more fully as he calls them to. So, that’s what we should experience in the sacrament of reconciliation.”

It’s the humanitarian benefit for the individual and society that has motivated the church in making the priest-penitent privilege absolute.

So much so that the Code of Canon Law states the penalty for a priest who violates the seal of confession is automatic excommunication, which can only be lifted by the pope himself.

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Sacramento Catholic Diocese lists new victims of alleged clergy abuse

SACRAMENTO (C)
ABC 10 News

July 1, 2019

There is new fallout following ABC10’s exclusive discussion with Bishop of the Sacramento Catholic Diocese Jaime Soto. Now the Sacramento Diocese has identified five new victims, bringing the total of known survivors to 135.

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San Fernando diocese cooperating with probe on priest accused of sex abuse

MANILA (PHILIPPINES)
Manila Bulletin

July 2, 2019

By Leslie Aquino

The Archdiocese of San Fernando in Pampanga said it was cooperating with officials investigating the case of Father Daniel Baul, who has been accused of sexual abuse.

Pampanga Archbishop Florencio Lavarias said they would exert all efforts “so that truth and justice may be served for both parties”.

He also revealed that the concerned priest has already been relieved from his assignment as a matter of “protocol”.

“As a matter of protocol, the accused, though innocent until proven guilty, has been relieved from his assignment,” Lavarias said in a CBCP News post.

He also said that “pastoral care” was being extended to the alleged victim, while the archdiocese is conducting its own investigation.

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Former Charlotte priest listed among credibly-accused clergy in the Diocese of Providence

CHARLOTTE (NC)
WBTV News

July 2, 2019

A former Catholic priest in Charlotte was listed among credibly-accused clergy in the Diocese of Providence in Rhode Island.

William Tanguay served the Diocese of Charlotte from 1995 to 2002, and worked with the Hmong Ministry.

Tanguay’s name was listed by the Diocese of Providence in Rhode Island where he also served for years.

He’s served in the church since 1969 and was removed from the ministry in 2002. The church did not detail any of the allegations, or if they’re based in Charlotte.

The Diocese of Providence released the list Monday and provided the following statement on its website.

At the direction of the Bishop, the Director of Compliance was tasked with conducting an independent, thorough and objective review of files dating back to 1950, a year used by many other dioceses as a benchmark. Many files were several decades old, and the Director was not the initial investigator. The Director reviewed all diocesan files compiled over seventy years, and employed his training and expertise as a twenty-three year State Police detective to make assessments and judgments regarding the available and developed evidence within the files. In some instances, the Director made additional inquiries to corroborate and bolster certain allegations. In some cases of his own choosing, the Director of Compliance consulted the Director of Outreach and Prevention and/or the Diocesan Review Board for further advice. In all instances, however, the Director of Compliance ultimately exercised his own independent, expert judgment in determining whether to place particular clergy on the list.

The Catholic Diocese of Charlotte has not yet released a full list of names of credibly-accused clergy, but the Diocese says they plan to release that list by the end of the year.

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Survivors Label Providence Roman Catholic Diocese List Of Credible Priest Abusers Incomplete