ABUSE TRACKER

BUFFALO (NY)
The New York Times

December 4, 2019

By Sharon Otterman

Bishop Richard J. Malone “had become the lightning rod for all that was wrong,” a lay leader said.

First, a whistle-blower revealed that Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo had kept files about abusive priests that he hid from the public. Then leaked recordings showed that he was reluctant to remove a parish priest whom he called a “sick puppy.”

On Wednesday, after months of pressure from priests and lay leaders, the Vatican said in a statement that it had accepted the resignation of Bishop Malone, effective immediately. Since the Vatican did not specify the reasons behind the resignation, it was unclear whether Bishop Malone had been forced to quit.

Bishop Malone, in a statement, described his resignation as an early retirement that had been accepted by Pope Francis. He said he had made the decision to step down “freely and voluntarily” after being made aware of the conclusions of a recent Vatican investigation into the crisis in his diocese, which has been in turmoil over his handling of clergy abuse cases.

“I have concluded, after much prayer and discernment, that the people of Buffalo will be better served by a new bishop who perhaps is better able to bring about the reconciliation, healing and renewal that is so needed,” he wrote.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Diocese of Buffalo

December 4, 2019

By The Most Reverend Richard J. Malone, bishop emeritus of Buffalo

My Sisters and Brothers in Christ –

Just this past Sunday, we entered into the Season of Advent – a season of hope, of expectation and fulfillment, and the promise of new beginning. It is in the spirit of this Holy Season now upon us that I wish to address the future of our Diocese and my own fervent hope for a new beginning.

As you are well aware, we have faced tremendous turmoil over the past year and a half. Some have attributed this to my own shortcomings, but the turmoil also reflects the culmination of systemic failings over many years in the worldwide handling of sexual abuse of minors by members of the clergy. The crisis our Church is facing relates not only to the immoral and criminal acts of those who committed unconscionable offenses toward the most vulnerable, but also to the failure to regard these violations as grave offenses that warranted the full weight of civil and ecclesiastical justice. As you know, major reforms were undertaken in this country in 2002 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and in the implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. But, of course, the injury caused by past abuse continues to bring immense suffering around the world and here in our Diocese.

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WASHINGTON D.C.
Apostolic Nunciature

December 4, 2019

The Holy See mandated an Apostolic Visitation for the Diocese of Buffalo and appointed the Most Reverend Nicholas DiMarzio to evaluate the situation of this local Church. The final report was sent to the Holy See.

Bishop Richard Malone was made aware of the results, and subsequently asked the Holy Father Pope Francis to grant him an early retirement. This request was made during the ‘Ad Limina’ visit with the Bishops of New York.

The Holy Father has granted his request and has appointed as the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Buffalo the Most Reverend Edward Scharfenberger, Bishop of Albany, to serve until the appointment of a new bishop, effective immediately.

This resignation and appointment were announced today.

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BUFFALO (NY)
CNN

December 4, 2019

By Daniel Burke, CNN Religion Editor

For more than a year, thousands of Catholics in Buffalo pleaded, protested and prayed for Bishop Richard Malone to resign. They circulated petitions, held placards at prayer vigils, even tried to meet Malone’s plane at the airport.

On Wednesday, these Buffalo Catholics finally got their wish, when the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had accepted Malone’s resignation.

Malone followed with his own statement, attributing his early retirement to turmoil caused by the Catholic Church’s clergy sexual abuse crisis, and discord over his response to it.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo, New York, who has been at the center of a sex abuse crisis in his diocese, the Vatican said on Wednesday.

The Vatican said Francis had appointed the bishop of Albany, Edward B. Scharfenberger, to administer the Buffalo diocese until a new bishop can be appointed.

Malone, 73, who has been under pressure to resign for years, is stepping down two years before the normal retirement date for bishops.

Malone, who met with the pope last month, has been accused of covering up or mishandling the abuse of dozens of minors by priests in his diocese.
He has denied the accusations and until recently said he would not be stepping down early.

In September, a poll by the local newspaper, The Buffalo News, showed that about 85 percent of Catholics or lapsed Catholics in the area said he should resign.

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VATICAN CITY
Holy See Press Office

– Resignation of bishop of Buffalo, U.S.A., and appointment of apostolic administrator sede vacante of the same diocese

– Appointment of auxiliary of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Resignation of bishop of Buffalo, U.S.A., and appointment of apostolic administrator sede vacante of the same diocese

The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Buffalo, United States of America, presented by Bishop Richard J. Malone, and has appointed Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger of Albany as apostolic administrator of the same diocese.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

Dec. 4, 2019

By Christopher Lamb

A bishop in the United States who came under intense criticism for his handling of abuse cases and governance of his diocese has resigned.

Pope Francis today accepted the resignation of the Bishop of Buffalo, Richard Malone, who has become a symbol of egregious failures among the Church hierarchy to clean up the abuse crisis.

It also reveals the weakness in a clerical governance system where a bishop can cling on in post despite having lost the confidence of his flock and even the Holy See. I was the first to reveal that the bishop would be stepping down on 13 November, after sources told me that the apostolic nuncio to the United States had agreed with Bishop Malone for him to step down. In response, the bishop, through a spokeswoman, said: “The Lamb tweet is false.” It was clear he was reluctant to go.

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CHARLESTON (WV)
WV Public Broadcasting

Dec. 3, 2019

By Glynis Board

The Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston released a “list of amends” last week for the former bishop Michael Bransfield to consider. That list comes in the wake of multiple investigations revealing sexual and financial misconduct. The diocese wants Bransfield to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars and to apologize.

Former seminarian, Wheeling resident and Morgantown native Vincent DeGeorge has spoken out about abuse, saying he was among those targeted by Bransfield. He offered these thoughts on the Diocese’s list.

Board: What was your overall reaction to that list?

DeGeorge: On the whole, I’m pleased that the Catholic Church in West Virginia is trying to make amends. And in this plan, this list proposed by Bishop Brennan is an attempt, and effort, to do that. I’m pleased. However, there are significant and concerning aspects lacking to this amends plan.

I saw the list as soon as it came out, and I read the letter and was honestly stunned. I was surprised by emotions that I didn’t realize were still there. I was surprised by how much hope I still had in the diocese without realizing it. I was really counting on these events to make a difference in a positive direction. And as I read the amends, that hope gave way to disappointment. I didn’t think I would or could let myself continue to be disappointed by the diocese.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
WGAL News 8

Dec. 3, 2019

By Anne Shannon

A Susquehanna Valley family is suing the Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg.

The Fortney sisters, Patty and Lara, say the church should have done more to protect them from a predator priest.

“Today is a momentous day for our family because we can finally move forward in our pursuit for justice,” Patty Fortney said.

Fortney and her family made an announcement Tuesday about the filing of a civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Newark and the Harrisburg diocese.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW TV

Dec. 3, 2019

By Charlie Specht

If the expected resignation of Bishop Richard J. Malone will bring healing to the Diocese of Buffalo, nowhere will that healing be more personal than in the heart of Kyle Gorlick.

“There is hope that I can begin to heal,” Gorlick said Tuesday. “I hope that this is the period of renewal for the diocese. I hope that this is the time that we can all heal.”

Gorlick first came forward 15 months ago to describe inappropriate sexual advances by his parish priest, Fr. Robert Yetter of St. Mary’s of Swormville.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

Dec. 3, 2019

There is a lot of press and news stories about Bishop Richard Malone’s resignation. I’m a victim of pedophile Father Joseph Friel. I’ve seen about eight other victims in the media regarding Friel as the predator. Well if 10 came forward then there are 20 that didn’t. Until about a year ago I was one of that 20, my sexual abuse took place 58 years ago when I was 10.

Now I am only speaking for myself. Malone is the last in probably 100 years of bishops in the Buffalo Diocese guilty of the cover up. There are tons of non-pedophile priests, and lay people also guilty regarding the cover up.

Life is often paradoxical which means truth and its exact opposite are correct. The entire clerical body of priests needs to come on bended knee to the victims, confess their sins and receive absolution from God, through the intercession of the victims. Of course, that would only occur in a perfect world.

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SCHENECTADY (NY)
Daily Gazette

Dec. 3, 2019

By Jeff Wilkin

Bishop Edward Scharfenberger, the spiritual leader of Albany’s Roman Catholic Diocese, may soon be tabbed to temporarily oversee the Buffalo diocese.

While there has been no official word, Vatican journalist Rocco Palmo wrote this week in his “Whispers in the Loggia” blog that his sources say Scharfenberger soon will be named apostolic administrator.

Albany’s bishop would take over for Bishop Richard Malone, who Palmo said is expected to resign the Buffalo diocese position in the wake of several scandals involving priests accused of sexual abuse.

According to the New York Times, the 73-year-old Malone, installed as the 14th bishop of Buffalo in 2012, has been criticized for the way he has handled incidents involving accused priests. Local Catholics told the newspaper that Malone promised transparency, but in several cases, appeared to be shielding priests accused of abuse.

Hundreds have filed sexual abuse claims against clergy with the Buffalo diocese, or lawsuits under New York’s new Child Victims Act, which allows lawsuits in old alleged incidents to be filed in state Supreme Court. Investigations by the FBI and state Attorney General’s Office are under way.

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EXTON (PA)
The Mercury

Dec. 3, 2019

The clock struck midnight, and thanks to a new law a slew of lawsuits against the Catholic Church have popped up in New Jersey.

That includes a case targeting the Allentown Diocese. A woman says she was repeatedly abused by a priest for more than a decade.

According to the lawsuit, a 13 year old girl started being sexually abused by later-defrocked priest Joseph Rock in 1974. It allegedly continued for 11 years.

Rock allegedly took photos and videos and threatened to share them if she ever told anyone.

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CAMDEN (NJ)
Cherry Hill Courier-Post

Dec. 3, 2019

By Jim Walsh

A former altar boy has sued the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in federal court here, alleging a parish priest sexually abused him during summer trips to the Jersey Shore.

The suit, brought by a 51-year-old Arizona man, was filed under a new law that extends the statute of limitations for civil claims alleging childhood sex abuse.

The plaintiff, identified only as John Doe, contends he was sexually assaulted “hundreds of times from 1978 to 1982” by the Rev. James Brzyski, a Pennsylvania priest who faced similar accusations from multiple accusers before his death in 2017.

The lawsuit contends the Archdiocese of Philadelphia failed to protect Doe and other children from abusers in the clergy.

The suit says Brzyski’s “sexual grooming” began when he helped the boy, then 10, change his altar boy garments at St. John the Evangelist Church in Lower Makefield, Bucks County.

It says Brzyski initially massaged the boy, then moved on to molesting him.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
NBC 4 TV

Dec. 3, 2019

By Jodie Fleischer

A new accuser has come forward alleging sexual abuse by former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who once led the Catholic Church here in Washington and beyond.

The New Jersey man spoke out for the first time Monday as the state opened a window giving sex abuse victims of any age the right to sue, regardless of the statute of limitations.

John Bellocchio, now 37, said the abuse happened around 1995 in Hackensack, New Jersey, when he was just 14 years old. McCarrick was the archbishop of Newark at the time and visiting the local parish.

Bellocchio’s lawsuit against McCarrick and the Archdiocese of Newark alleges the latter “knew or should have known that McCarrick was a danger to children before McCarrick sexually assaulted Plaintiff.”

“I want there to be real, effective change from the top down,” Bellocchio said.

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COLUMBUS (OH)
WOSU Radio

Dec. 3, 2019

By Adora Namigadde

The Catholic Diocese of Columbus announced it added a retired priest to its list of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor.

In an email, the diocese says it first received a report of abuse by Father David Schilder in 2004. The diocese says the report did not provide details, so it could not determine whether the allegation was credible. The alleged abuse happened in 1968.

The diocese says it reported the allegation to Franklin County Children Services. Schilder then retired, and the diocese barred him from engaging in public ministry as a priest.

This September, the diocese received a second accusation of Schilder sexually abusing a minor. The time period for this accusation was 1981-1983. The diocese contacted Columbus Police and commissioned a third-party investigation of the incident.

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FORT COLLINS (CO)
Associated Press

Dec. 3, 2019

A former Roman Catholic priest imprisoned for sexually assaulting a teen in Colorado is up for possible parole.

The Coloradoan reports that 57-year-old Timothy Evans told the parole board Monday that he is “absolutely” guilty of abuse but has learned to identify his triggers for abusive behavior and has created a risk management plan through the treatment he’s received in prison. If paroled, he said he would be closely watched because his case is high profile.

It was the third parole hearing for Evans since he was sentenced to 14 years to life in prison in 2007 for sexually assaulting a boy who worked at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Fort Collins, where he was the pastor.

The full parole board would have to agree to release Evans. A decision is expected to take several weeks.

Evans was one of 40 priests named last month in a report released by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office into an investigation of child sex abuse in the state’s three catholic dioceses. It found at least 166 victims.

The report said that Evans abused three children between 1995 and 1999 at Spirit of Christ Parish in Arvada, Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Lakewood and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Fort Collins. He was laicized on May 3, 2013.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Commonweal

December 3, 2019

By Paul Baumann

Speaking about the church’s sex-abuse scandal at a September conference on the “Catholic Imagination” at Loyola University in Chicago, the essayist Richard Rodriguez said a very brave thing. “What do we know about these priests? We know nothing about the burden of these fallen priests,” Rodriguez said, according to articles in the National Catholic Reporter. “We don’t know their stories. What do they think they were doing?…. We have no idea who they were, or what they suffered…. Our imaginations have gone dull.”

Evidently Rodriguez’s remarks were prompted to some extent by the 2016 death of his friend, the Notre Dame theologian Virgilio Elizondo. Elizondo had been accused of abusing a minor, and appears to have committed suicide. He had denied the charges.

Rodriguez was criticized by some for showing concern and even sympathy for priests most people regard as monsters deserving nothing but condemnation and social oblivion. Such priests, and the bishops who hid their crimes, remain exhibit Number 1 in the case against a corrupt, hopelessly patriarchal, and arrogant institution. Who, after all, wants to be seen expressing interest in such people, let alone offering them comfort? Doesn’t doing so just retraumatize victims?

The wishes, well-being, and confidentiality of victims need to be placed first and foremost. But does that mean we have nothing to learn from the offending priests about the causes and consequences of the crisis? Criticism of Rodriguez seems misplaced to me. It took real courage for Jason Berry to break the sexual-abuse story in Louisiana in 1985. Early on, Thomas Doyle, OP, showed the same fearless determination in demanding that the hierarchy stop turning a blind eye to the victims and the crisis.

In 2002, the Boston Globe took risks in exposing the grotesque failure of Cardinal Bernard Law and the Boston archdiocese. But at this late date, simply damning the church is too easy, especially in light of the well-documented steps the church has since taken to protect children. Rodriguez makes an important point. Is it possible to understand the sexual abuse if the stories of priest-abusers are regarded as untouchable and irrelevant? Will such ignorance help us prevent future abuse? Don’t journalists have an obligation to pursue such stories, no matter how unpalatable?

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

Dec. 3, 2019

According to a report, Buffalo’s Catholic bishop is set to resign on Wednesday after more than a year of scandals, mostly of his own making, have plagued the diocese. We hope that this resignation will lead to true change in this see, not simply a change in personnel.

The well-respected Catholic blogger Rocco Palmo says that Bishop Richard Malone will resign this week. For the past year plus, Bishop Malone has faced scandal after scandal, from his lying about the extent of abuse in his diocese, to his being the subject of secret recordings, to his failing to remove an accused priest from ministry while allegations were investigated. Now, the Bishop of Albany, Edward Scharfenberger, will apparently be left to pick up the pieces from these months of deceit.

When the new bishop for Buffalo is selected, we hope that he will be a prelate who learns from Bishop Malone. That is, we hope that this new bishop will take the opposite action from his predecessor at every opportunity, will truly be transparent instead of secretive, and will welcome the truth with open arms instead of attempting to silence it. Parishioners in Buffalo deserve no less.

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

Dec. 3, 2019

A now-disgraced cardinal who has been accused of abuse at least a dozen times has been named in a newly filed lawsuit in New Jersey. We applaud the survivor in this case for coming forward and hope that his example will encourage other survivors to come forward and get the help and support that they need.

The now-defrocked Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been named as an abuser again, this time by a New Jersey man named John Bellocchio who alleges that McCarrick abused him while McCarrick was on a visit to his parish in the 1990s. Our hearts ache for this victim and we hope that this new allegation will lead to renewed outreach to victims by church officials in both Newark – where McCarrick was working as Archbishop at the time of the allegations – and every other diocese where McCarrick worked.

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NEWARK (NJ)
Associated Press

December 3, 2019

Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick abused a teenage boy in the 1990s when he was leader of the Archdiocese of Newark, according to a lawsuit filed under a newly enacted New Jersey law that gives accusers more time to make legal claims.

Another lawsuit filed by two of six sisters alleges that a now-deceased priest who had previously worked for the archdiocese abused them and their siblings for nearly 10 years after he was transferred to Pennsylvania.

“This is a momentous day for our family because we can finally move forward in our search for justice,” one of the sisters, Patty Fortney-Julius, said at a news conference Monday.

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NEWARK (NJ)
The Philadelphia Inquirer

December 2, 2019

By Jeremy Roebuck

Dozens of new allegations of sexual abuse against priests and scoutmasters have surfaced after New Jersey opened a two-year window granting victims a second chance to pursue court claims that had been barred by time limits.

New lawsuits filed Sunday and Monday include allegations against six priests in the Camden Diocese as well as previously undisclosed claims involving the now-defrocked cardinal Theodore McCarrick, former archbishop of Newark.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The Associated Press

December 3, 2019

At the end of another long day trying to sign up new clients accusing the Roman Catholic Church of sexual abuse, lawyer Adam Slater gazes out the window of his high-rise Manhattan office at one of the great symbols of the church, St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

“I wonder how much that’s worth?” he muses.

Across the country, attorneys like Slater are scrambling to file a new wave of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clergy, thanks to rules enacted in 15 states that extend or suspend the statute of limitations to allow claims stretching back decades. Associated Press reporting found the deluge of suits could surpass anything the nation’s clergy sexual abuse crisis has seen before, with potentially more than 5,000 new cases and payouts topping $4 billion.

It’s a financial reckoning playing out in such populous Catholic strongholds as New York, California and New Jersey, among the eight states that go the furthest with “lookback windows” that allow sex abuse claims no matter how old. Never before have so many states acted in near-unison to lift the restrictions that once shut people out if they didn’t bring claims of childhood sex abuse by a certain age, often their early 20s.

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ALLENTOWN (PA)
The Morning Call

December 2, 2019

By Emily Opilo

A woman has sued the Allentown Diocese over what she alleges was 16 years of sexual abuse by diocesan priest Joseph A. Rock, one of 300 Pennsylvania priests named in a 2018 grand jury report and the subject of numerous complaints made to the diocese.

The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court of Atlantic County, New Jersey, alleges that Rock, a priest who worked at churches in Lehigh, Northampton, Berks and Schuylkill counties between 1972 and 2001, abused the unnamed woman beginning when she was 13. She’s 58 now and living in North Carolina.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified punitive damages, was one of at least two filed Monday in New Jersey courts that involved Pennsylvania dioceses. A New Jersey law that took effect Sunday allows victims of child sex abuse to sue until they turn 55, or within seven years of their first realization the abuse caused them harm. The previous limit was two years.

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NEW JERSEY
WHYY

December 2, 2019

By Nicholas Pugliese

Lara Fortney-McKeever fought back tears on Monday as she and her sister announced a long-awaited lawsuit against the Newark Archdiocese and Harrisburg Diocese. They allege officials there protected a now-deceased priest that sexually abused them and three of their siblings in the 1980s and ‘90s.

“Who knew he was a pedophile and aided in helping to cover it up?” she asked. “Were we silenced so that certain individuals could step on our backs to rise to power?”

About an hour later, a man announced a separate lawsuit alleging that former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick abused him as a teenager when McCarrick led the Newark Archdiocese in the 1990s. It also says Vatican officials were aware of McCarrick’s behavior, yet continued to promote him to higher positions.

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KEY WEST (FL)
Crux

November 26, 2019

By Elise Harris

Two Italian bishops are making waves after issuing public statements allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments, with one apologizing for having “ignored” these couples in parish life and insisting that their decisions are in line with Pope Francis’s 2016 document on the family Amoris Laetitia.

Last week, Bishop Renato Marangoni of Belluno-Feltri in northern Italy issued an emotional apology in a Nov. 22 pastoral letter to separated, divorced, civilly married or unmarried couples, titled, “A word to share with you: I’m sorry!”

Speaking to people in families “that have experienced situations which led you to separation or also to divorce, and beyond this, to begin new unions for which some have chosen to remarry civilly or not to get married,” Marangoni said he wants to open “a relationship of awareness, respect and dialogue” with these couples.

“There’s an initial word to confide to you: I’m sorry,” he said, adding that “This word contains our awareness of having often ignored you in our parish communities.”

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ROME
Catholic News Service

November 26, 2019

By Paige Hanley

The Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life announced it is setting up a specialized team of young Catholic leaders as advisers.

The new international advisory body was established following a proposal in the final document of the 2018 Synod of Bishops on Young People, Faith and Vocational Discernment. The Vatican made the announcement Nov. 24, the feast of Christ the King.

The Youth Advisory Body consists of 20 young leaders who participated in the various phases of the synodal process, including the international youth forum in June, and who are active in Catholic lay movements, associations, communities or their respective dioceses.

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KABUL (AFGHANISTAN)
The New York Times

November 25, 2019

By David Zucchino and Fatima Faizi

An advocacy group says it has documented systematic sexual abuse by teachers, principals and other authorities of dozens of boys in one rural area.

The 14-year-old Afghan boy said his teacher had asked him for “a little favor” in return for not failing him on his final exams. Then the man took him to the school library, locked the door and raped him, the boy said.

At the same school, a 17-year-old boy reported similar treatment from the school’s principal. He said the man had threatened to kill him if he told anyone.

But the boys did talk, giving their accounts to a child advocacy group in their province and repeating them later in interviews with The New York Times. The advocacy group discovered that those two boys were not the only victims. From just three schools in one area of Logar Province, south of the Afghan capital, the group said it had taken statements from 165 boys who said they had been sexually abused at their schools, or by local officials they went to for help.

Now, Afghanistan is again caught up in discussion of rampant sexual abuse of children, and of a deep reluctance by many officials to deal with the issue at all.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

November 17, 2019

By Suzanne Moore

If Prince Andrew thought being grilled by Emily Maitlis was a good idea, God only knows what he thinks might be a bad one. Sadly I think I know. Still, as we now all realise, there are lots of things that the prince simply does not notice. Hordes of available teenage girls. Are they staff? Is it a railway station? Who are these people? The interview had been widely trailed, but the nation was not prepared for this level of monstrous self-pity and frankly astonishing stupidity.

Lying is the new normal for leaders: Donald Trump, another former friend of Jeffrey Epstein, lies non-stop; the current British prime minister lies and dissembles daily. So I guess we just thought Andrew would make more of an effort to at least come across as genuine and competent. We his disrespectful subjects gathered, strangely united, to see how he would justify the photographs of himself with a man who plea-bargained his way out of statutory rape charges, never mind the allegations made by Virginia Giuffre (and strongly denied by Andrew), that she was forced to have sex with the prince when she was aged 17.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Crux

November 26, 2019

By Elise Harris

After more than a year of media headlines dominated by Catholic sexual abuse scandals, NBC News in Washington has conducted a new survey with “insiders” in the Catholic Church, which shows that most believe the crisis has been handled well by their dioceses, and that abuse is no more common in the Church than in other organizations.

Conducted with priests, members of religious orders and lay employees of the Catholic Church, the survey was done by the News4 I-Team in Washington, who partnered with several NBC-owned stations throughout the country.

A 26-question survey was sent to more than 32,000 people around the country. It was conducted on Survey Monkey Oct. 18-Nov. 14, and during that time, some 2,700 people sent responses, including more than 400 priests, 240 nuns, and nearly 1,900 lay employees. Most responses were given by women who work in the Church.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Catholic News Service

November 26, 2019

Bishop Frank J. Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut, is the new chairman of the board of Catholic Relief Services following his appointment by Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Caggiano succeeds Maronite Bishop Gregory J. Mansour, whose three-year term has ended. Mansour heads the Eparchy of St. Maron of Brooklyn.

“It’s a great honor to lead an organization that is such a bright light for all of our brothers and sisters overseas who don’t have enough to eat or a place to sleep because of entrenched poverty,” Caggiano said in a statement released Nov. 25 by CRS.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
WCPO Cincinnati

December 2, 2019

By Dan Monk

Rep. Bill Seitz aims to increase public disclosure

The author of a 2006 bill that reformed Ohio’s civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse wants to revise the law again after reviewing materials uncovered in the I-Team’s three-month investigation of the Catholic Church.

Rep. Bill Seitz, a Republican from Green Township, said he would like to encourage more public disclosure in the church and correct problems a Columbus judge cited in 2010. As majority floor leader, Seitz sets the Republican agenda in the House. So, his endorsement of statute of limitations reform is significant. But just like in 2006, Seitz is approaching the topic cautiously. He doesn’t want to make it too easy for people to seek financial damages over abuse that happened decades ago.

“That will bankrupt institutions that have done and continue to do a lot of good in our community,” Seitz said. “It’s going to make a relatively small number of people very wealthy who have inordinately delayed in bringing forward their claims to the point where we cannot be certain that they are telling the truth.”

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CHARLOTTE (NC)
WFAE, 90.7 (NPR affiliate)

December 3, 2019

By Sarah Delia

[AUDIO]

Most Catholic dioceses in the country have released a list of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse. The diocese of Charlotte has not released a list, but its bishop has said he’s committed to doing so by the end of the year. In the meantime, WFAE’s Sarah Delia has been learning how such a list is compiled, what it means, and how victims of clergy continue to deal with the abuse they suffered.

She’s produced a four-part series. It’s called “The List,” which you can read and listen to it at wfae.org/thelist. Sarah joins “Morning Edition” host Lisa Worf to talk about the new series.

LISA WORF: Why hasn’t the diocese released a list of credibly accused clergy? It’s among the last to do so.

SARAH DELIA: Well, you’re right, the Charlotte Diocese is one of the last to release a list, according to BishopAccountability.org, a watchdog organization that tracks and analyzes lists released by dioceses across the country, out of 178 dioceses in the country, 146 have released lists. Charlotte is one of the last to do so, especially in the South.

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NEW JERSEY
Bridgewater Courier News

December 3, 2019

By Mike Deak

While the Catholic Church has been the focus of sexual abuse lawsuits filed with extended time limits, the Boy Scouts of America is named as a defendant in more than a dozen of them.

Though the suits were filed in Superior Court in Middlesex County because the organization’s national headquarters was once located on Route 1 in North Brunswick, the accusers are from across the state, from Camden to Bergen counties.

The allegations of Douglas Parker, who grew up in Middlesex County, are representative of the lawsuits filed by the firm of Rebenack Aronow & Mascolo with offices in New Brunswick and Somerville.

Parker alleges he was sexually abused from 1961 through 1964 by an assistant scoutmaster.

The sexual abuse occurred during activities sponsored by the Boy Scouts of America, including camping trips to Camp Watchung which, at that time, was in Lebanon Township near Glen Gardner, the lawsuit alleges.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WBFO-TV

December 2, 2019

A journalist who has covered the Vatican for several news agencies is reporting that, according to numerous sources, Bishop Richard Malone will resign Wednesday and a temporary administrator has already been selected.

(This story is developing and will be updated as more details become available.)

Rocco Palmo, who authors the blog Whispers in the Loggia, published the story late Monday afternoon. His report comes two and a half weeks after fellow Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb delivered a similar report of an “imminent” resignation.

Bishop Malone denied Lamb’s report, which came during the week the leader of the Diocese of Buffalo was among New York State’s other bishops in Rome for their “ad limina” visit, which happens once every five years.

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Axios

Dec. 2, 2019

By Mike Allen

17 years after the Boston Globe published its groundbreaking reporting on sexual abuse by priests, the Catholic Church faces a historic crisis of legal liability.

The big picture: The Church could be on the hook for more than $4 billion in damages, the AP estimates.

There could be at least 5,000 new cases against the church in New York, New Jersey and California alone, which are among the eight states with “lookback windows” that allow sex abuse claims no matter how old, the AP reports.

15 states and D.C. have changed their statute of limitations since 2018 to allow for these suits, since so many sexual assault allegations date back decades.

Why it matters: Never before have so many states acted in near-unison to lift the restrictions that once shut people out if they didn’t bring claims of childhood sex abuse by a certain age, often their early 20s.

The bottom line: Los Angeles lawyer Paul Mones, who has won tens of millions in sex abuse cases against the church going back to the 1980s, told the AP that “the zeitgeist is completely unfavorable to the Catholic Church.”

“The X-factor here is whether there will be trials,” he said. “If anyone starts trying these cases, the numbers could become astronomical.”

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NEWARK NJ)
Star Ledger

Dec. 2, 2019

By Blake Nelson

Three years ago Sunday, Carolyn Fortney woke up in a hospital.

She had tried to end her life, she said, because of sexual abuse she endured from a priest decades ago. Her sisters were with her then, and three were next to her Monday in Newark, when the family announced a new lawsuit against Newark’s Archdiocese.

“Did they know he was a pedophile, prior to moving him to PA?” asked Lara Fortney-McKeever, one of Carolyn’s sisters who said she was also abused in Pennsylvania by the same priest.

“This day will help me to finally get the answers,” she said.

Sunday marked the beginning of a two-year window for people to file lawsuits against their abusers and the institutions that protected them, because of a new law that vastly expands when people are allowed to sue.

Even after the two-year window ends, on Nov. 30, 2021, people who were molested as children will still be able to file lawsuits until they turn 55, or seven years after they discover that they were abused.

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SUNBURY (PA)
Daily Item

Dec 1, 2019

Pennsylvania lawmakers almost got it right. While it is difficult to say a package of bills signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf this week reforming the state’s statute of limitations laws is a bad thing, it doesn’t go far enough: There is no immediate help for adult survivors of abuse, many of whom have waited decades for accountability and closure.

State Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who oversaw the grand jury that ignited the latest statute of limitations push, said the new laws accomplish three of the four recommendations made by the grand jury that examined the decades of abuse and cover-ups within the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania.

“These reforms fundamentally change our justice system and will protect generations of children who experience abuse from this day on,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said. “While we still must address justice for those survivors who made this day possible, seeing this progress gives me hope that bravery and activism will win over entrenched interests and powerful institutions.”

According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, 66 percent of children who are sexually abused are between the ages of 12 and 16. The average age a victim comes forward is age 52.

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NEW YORK (NY)
CNN

Dec 3, 2019

By Nima Elbagir,Barbara Arvanitidis, Katie Polglase,Bryony Jones and Alex Platt

Two boys, born into deeply religious families, both sent to Catholic school, and both abused by the very priests and teachers meant to protect them.

George Stein and Joey Piscitelli grew up a decade apart, but they are connected by their abuse at the hands of priests and brothers from a Catholic order founded to help and support vulnerable children.

Their experiences reveal a pattern of abuse and cover-up going back more than half a century.

A year-long CNN investigation into the Salesians of Don Bosco discovered that for decades, abuser priests and brothers were repeatedly protected and transferred from school to school at the expense of their young victims who were pressured and threatened not to report what had happened to them.

On multiple occasions Salesian leaders withheld cases of abuse from the authorities and even from other parts of the Catholic Church.

A cluster of abusers
The oldest of eight children Stein grew up believing it was his calling to become a priest.

He was 13 in 1958 when he began studying at Don Bosco College, later renamed Salesian High School, in Richmond, California. It was there that he met Brother Bernard Dabbene.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW TV

Dec 2, 2019

By Charlie Specht

A prominent Catholic journalist is reporting that Bishop Richard J. Malone will resign on Wednesday, capping nearly 22 months of scandals and tumult in the Diocese of Buffalo centered on the bishop’s handling of sexual abuse.

Catholic journalist Rocco Palmo — who runs the influential news site “Whispers in the Loggia” — is also reporting that Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger of the Diocese of Albany will be named by the Holy See as temporary administrator of the diocese until a permanent bishop is selected by Pope Francis.

7 Eyewitness News received confirmation from an independent source that Malone would step down on Wednesday, to be replaced by Scharfenberger, but was unable to corroborate the information with multiple sources.

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WESCHESTER COUNTY (NY)
Rockland/Westchester Journal News

Dec. 2, 2019

By Frank Esposito

A former Yonkers priest, who was thrown out of the church after he committed a sex act on a teenager, was named in a child sex abuse case from a different event.

Daniel Calabrese, along with nine other defendants, were charged with abusing a then 13-year-old boy while a student at Saint Joseph’s Seminary, according to a Westchester court filing.

Calabrese was accused in the lawsuit of taking the unnamed plaintiff into the showers at Saint Joseph’s and performing a sex act on him while another unnamed defendant also attempted to sexually assault him, according to court documents.

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FORT COLLINS (CO)
Fort Collins Coloradoan

Dec. 2, 2019

By Sady Swanson

A former Fort Collins priest incarcerated for sexually assaulting a teen in 2007 presented his case for parole Monday morning.

Timothy Evans, now 57, was sentenced to 14 years to life in prison in 2007 for sexually assaulting a teen boy who worked at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church, where Evans was a pastor.

Evans was one of four priests from different parishes in Fort Collins and Loveland named in a special report from the Colorado Attorney General’s Office released last month detailing credible claims of abuse by Catholic priests and the Archdiocese of Denver’s handling of the acts. His was the only Larimer County case that led to criminal charges.

During Monday’s hearing — Evans’ third since he’s been incarcerated — he said he’s “absolutely” guilty of abuse but has learned to identify his triggers for abusive behavior and created a risk management plan through sex offender treatment he’s received while in custody at the Fremont Correctional Facility in Canon City.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Patriot News

Dec. 2, 2019

By Ivey DeJesus

Two members of a Dauphin County family of five sisters who were sexually abused as children by a trusted family priest are seeking to bring to court the two Catholic dioceses at the heart of their abuse.

Patty Fortney-Julius and Lara Fortney-McKeever on Monday filed a civil lawsuit in New Jersey against the Archdiocese of Newark and the Diocese of Harrisburg. The lawsuit takes advantage of New Jersey’s newly enacted civil window legislation.

The lawsuit outlines the sexual abuse of the members of the Fortney family at the hands of former Newark Archdiocese priest Augustine Giella, and the cover-up of his crimes by the dioceses in that city and Harrisburg.

Giella was transferred to the Harrisburg Diocese, where he met the Fortney family. He sexually abused the Fortney sisters in Pennsylvania and on trips to his New Jersey summer home.

“I‘m feeling amazing,” said Patty Fortney-Julius on Monday. “Finally our family is going to get the discovery here in New Jersey that we have needed for so long in order to put the missing pieces back into the puzzle. I feel empowered. I‘m looking forward to being able to get answers to so many questions.”

Their attorney, Benjamin Andreozzi, said discovery could take up to two years, and would require the Diocese of Harrisburg to turn over every document related to predatory priests.

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

Dec. 2, 2019

Philadelphia’s top Catholic official should suspend one of his auxiliary bishops, based on a new investigative report by the Washington Post, that shows the prelate had accepted cash gifts from a now-disgraced bishop who has been accused of abuse.

From February 2009 through last year, then-Monsignor Timothy C. Senior (promoted to bishop in later in 2009) accepted $3,750 from former Bishop Michael Bransfield. For years, Senior was responsible for helping to assess sexual abuse claims against clerics in Philadelphia under Archbishop Charles Chaput, who still heads the archdiocese.

Notably, Bransfield is accused of sexually abuse in both Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Did Senior handle the first known abuse report against Bransfield? Despite repeated pledges to be “open” about abuse and cover up cases, church officials in Philadelphia refused to say. We hope that parishioners and the public will demand answers from their prelates.

In addition, Bransfield
–once taught Senior in high school,
–“was very friendly with (Senior),” and is “a very close friend” of his, and
–said the cash gifts had no connection to the claim against him.

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CHARLOTTE (NC)
WFAE

December 2, 2019

By Sarah Delia

WFAE’s “The List” is a four-part series about the impact of the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church and the push for dioceses to release lists of credibly accused clergy. The Diocese of Charlotte is one of about 30 dioceses in the United States that, as of Dec. 1, 2019, hasn’t published such a list.

The following includes descriptions about sexual violence. Please be advised.

SARAH DELIA: I’ve been thinking a lot about lists and what they mean — why it’s helpful and important to write something down. Sometimes, lists are scribbles on a scrap piece of paper torn quickly from something larger, written in barely legible writing that make sense only to the person who wrote it: Remember to pick up dry cleaning. Remember to get milk. Remember to stop by bank. Remember. Remember. Remember.

ANTHONY: I remember him telling me, “Don’t tell anybody about this. I did this because I love you. This is how God wants us to show each other that we love each other.” 

And sometimes it’s fine if only one person understands the contents of a list. It’s fine if no one ever sees it besides that one person. Sometimes. But not all the time.

FATHER PATRICK WINSLOW: We try very hard to serve everyone involved but most especially victims. 

Sometimes lists should be public and easily accessible. Those lists should be clearly printed and detailed. They should be widely distributed. Sometimes it’s important for everyone — not just one person — to remember something, or someone.

ROBBY PRICE: It’s not about what the Catholic Church wants. It’s not about what Bishop Jugis wants. It’s about protecting kids and about protecting not only kids but any parishioner who was victimized by any member of the clergy. 

That’s the type of list sexual abuse survivors are waiting for from the Charlotte Diocese. In May 2019, the bishop of the Charlotte Diocese, Peter Jugis, announced that a list of clergy who have been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse involving minors would be released. Jugis said the diocese was “committed to finishing the investigation and publishing a list of credibly accused clergy before the end of the year.” Now it’s December, and time is running out for the Charlotte Diocese to meet that deadline. And people are waiting.

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Charlotte (NC)
WFAE

November 29, 2019

By Sarah Delia

Bishop Peter Jugis of the Charlotte, N.C. Catholic Diocese announced in May that the diocese is committed to releasing by the end of 2019 a list of clergy who are credibly accused of sexual abuse involving minors. That list and what it represents is the subject of this four-part series.

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DALLAS (TX)
WFAA

December 1, 2019

By Cynthia Izaguirre

[With video]

A former Dallas Jesuit student is stepping forward with a painful story he hopes will effect change.

Mike Pedevilla claims he was sexually abused by the school’s former president.

Sunday, he told WFAA’s Cynthia Izaguirre what happened to him in Father Patrick Koch’s office on campus many years ago changed the trajectory of his life.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
CNN via San Jose Mercury News

December 2, 2019

By Nima Elbagir,Barbara Arvanitidis, Katie Polglase,Bryony Jones and Alex Platt

Pedophile priests operated at this Bay Area school for decades. This is the Catholic order that covered up their abuse

Two boys, born into deeply religious families, both sent to Catholic school, and both abused by the very priests and teachers meant to protect them.

George Stein and Joey Piscitelli grew up a decade apart, but they are connected by their abuse at the hands of priests and brothers from a Catholic order founded to help and support vulnerable children.

Their experiences reveal a pattern of abuse and cover-up going back more than half a century.

A year-long CNN investigation into the Salesians of Don Bosco discovered that for decades, abuser priests and brothers were repeatedly protected and transferred from school to school at the expense of their young victims who were pressured and threatened not to report what had happened to them.

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

NEW YORK (NY)
Associated Press

December 2, 2019

By Bernard Condon and Jim Mustian

At the end of another long day trying to sign up new clients accusing the Roman Catholic Church of sexual abuse, lawyer Adam Slater gazes out the window of his high-rise Manhattan office at one of the great symbols of the church, St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

“I wonder how much that’s worth?” he muses.

Across the country, attorneys like Slater are scrambling to file a new wave of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by clergy, thanks to rules enacted in 15 states that extend or suspend the statute of limitations to allow claims stretching back decades. Associated Press reporting found the deluge of suits could surpass anything the nation’s clergy sexual abuse crisis has seen before, with potentially more than 5,000 new cases and payouts topping $4 billion.

It’s a financial reckoning playing out in such populous Catholic strongholds as New York, California and New Jersey, among the eight states that go the furthest with “lookback windows” that allow sex abuse claims no matter how old. Never before have so many states acted in near-unison to lift the restrictions that once shut people out if they didn’t bring claims of childhood sex abuse by a certain age, often their early 20s.

That has lawyers fighting for clients with TV ads and billboards asking, “Were you abused by the church?” And Catholic dioceses, while worrying about the difficulty of defending such old claims, are considering bankruptcy, victim compensation funds and even tapping valuable real estate to stay afloat.

“It’s like a whole new beginning for me,” said 71-year-old Nancy Holling-Lonnecker of San Diego, who plans to take advantage of an upcoming three-year window for such suits in California. Her claim dates back to the 1950s, when she says a priest repeatedly raped her in a confession booth beginning when she was 7 years old.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Associated Press

December 2, 2019

Key takeaways from Associated Press reporting showing that new laws in 15 states could clear the way for a deluge of lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Church:

— Many of the dozen-plus lawyers and clergy abuse watchdog groups interviewed by the AP expect at least 5,000 new cases, resulting in potential payouts that could surpass the $4 billion paid out since the clergy sex abuse first came to light in the 1980s.

— The legal onslaught will play out in some of the nation’s most populous Catholic strongholds. This summer, New York state opened its one-year window allowing sex abuse claims no matter how, and already hundreds of lawsuits have been filed. A two-year window in New Jersey opens this week, then a three-year window in California opens in the new year that allows triple damages if the church tried to cover up the abuse.

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MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
Star Tribune

Dec. 1, 2019

By Paul Walsh

The bishop of the Roman Catholic Church’s diocese in Duluth for the past 10 years died Sunday morning.

Paul Sirba, 59, suffered cardiac arrest at St. Rose Church in Proctor and was taken to Essentia Health St. Mary’s Medical Center in Duluth, where lifesaving measures were tried in vain, read a statement from the Rev. James Bissonette, Sirba’s vicar general.

News of Sirba’s death about 9 a.m. was disclosed to diocese staff and announced during mass at parishes around the region.

“Words do not adequately express our sorrow at this sudden loss of our Shepherd,” Bissonette’s statement continued. “We have great hope and faith in Bishop Sirba’s resurrection to new life, and have confident assurance that he will hear the words of our Lord: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, enter in the joy of your Master.’ ”

Sirba’s death comes about six weeks after a federal judge approved a nearly $40 million settlement between the diocese and survivors of clergy abuse. The settlement allows the diocese to emerge from bankruptcy after it filed for protection from its creditors in December 2015.

In addition to payouts to about 125 people who filed claims against the diocese, the church agreed to open its files on more than three dozen priests who had been credibly accused of abuse and develop procedures to ensure children will be protected from su

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HACKENSACK (NJ)
North Jersey Record

Dec. 1, 2019

By Abbott Koloff

The first wave of lawsuits was filed Sunday under a new state law that opened the way for perhaps hundreds of people to bring sex abuse claims against the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts of America and other institutions.

They included a new accuser saying in court papers that he was abused as a child growing up in Hackensack by former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, once one of the most powerful leaders in the U.S. Catholic Church. McCarrick was defrocked earlier this year amid allegations that he sexually abused minors and harassed adult seminarians.

Other lawsuits named a New Brunswick priest who had not been publicly accused before Sunday and a Paterson priest who had been investigated for alleged abuse years ago and then reinstated.

Those were the first of at least 20 accusations expected to be made against clergy members who were not on a list of nearly 200 credibly-accused clerics released by New Jersey’s five Catholic dioceses earlier this year, based on a survey of more than a half a dozen law firms.

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BUENOS AIRES (ARGENTINA)
Buenos Aires Times

Nov. 30, 2019

We will not insult the moral calibre of our readers by presuming any need to explain to them why such preying on defenceless victims is wrong and in this case at least there is closure. So (all the entirely justified indignation aside) what more remains to be said?

Plenty, because the Próvolo case is but the tip of the iceberg for literally a world of abuse – “Catholic” is derived from the Greek word for “universal” and the Church today is the one remaining empire on which the sun never sets. Countless such cases languish without closure because, among other things, there is no accountability. It is much easier to place two rogue priests in the dock than the Church. Who is the Church? Its visible head is Pope Francis and he has certainly talked a good game over the past six years, while doing very little, but it could always be pleaded that he is trapped within conservative structures against which he is helpless. Yet if we switch the blame to the Vatican, this is an entirely abstract concept which leads us nowhere.

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Patheos blog

Nov. 30, 2019

By Val Wilde

Over the course of the past week, a CNN investigation has highlighted the moral bankruptcy of the Catholic Church’s hierarchy when it comes to protecting children from pedophile priests.

The situation is all the more galling because it involves the Salesians of Don Bosco, an order whose mission focuses particularly on justice for the young:

The Lord made it clear to Don Bosco that he was to direct his mission first and foremost to the young, especially to those who are poorer. We are called to the same mission and are aware of its supreme importance… With Don Bosco we reaffirm our preference for the young who are ‘poor, abandoned, and in danger’, those who have greater need of love and evangelisation, and we work especially in areas of greatest poverty.

Yet for nearly twenty years, the Salesians have been harboring a Belgian priest who has sexually abused multiple children, promoting him to increasingly important directorial positions within the organization. The Salesians have given him cover for disobeying court orders and allowed him greater access to vulnerable children.

In spite of a recent CNN news story detailing his crimes, the Salesians continue to shelter Father Luk Delft on a Church-owned property that shares its space with a summer camp for children.

The saga of Father Delft began when he confessed to molesting two boys at a Belgian boarding school where he worked as a dormitory monitor. The Salesians removed him from the school environment… but they also strongly discouraged the victims and their families from pressing charges by emphasizing the dire psychological impact of a court case.

Meanwhile, Delft got a transfer to another school under the stipulation that he must have “no direct pedagogical contact with young people,” a requirement that was ultimately not honored as he accompanied minors on a school trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2008.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Guardian blog

Dec. 1, 2019

By Pat Okedinachi Utomi

Sons of a Priest is a book big in size, profound in content, diverse in its views and as complex as its subject– Very Rev. Fr. Nicholas Chukwuemeka Tagbo OON (1929-2016). Reading through the insightful foreword by Willie Obiano, the notes of the editor, the detailed introduction provided by Oseloka Obaze and the very personal biography carefully told by Fidelis Ezemenari and kindly titled “A Letter to Rev. Fr. Tagbo,” the reader instantly gets the feeling of being about to embark on a journey of beautiful tales by sons eager to gush with praises at a dear father. To conceive of a project like this is nothing but a show of intellectual boldness and humility at being awed by the influence of another. To follow it up to a logical conclusion, demands of courage and material muscle.

Sons of a Priest is a 286-page coffee table book printed in glorious colours –a sheer testament to the confetti of emotions suffused into its production. It has contributions from over 120 past students in its main section. It has very colourful pullout which begins with “Other CKC Greats” and cascades into a centerspread of the 1977 CKC World Students’ Soccer Cup Team. The pull out further spills into a section called “Other Sons of a Priest.” The book closes with two key areas – one of “Tributes” dedicated to the burial ceremony of Rev. Fr. Tagbo and the “Interviews” section –of the book. It finally settles with an emotional story, on page 282, told by Amaka Cypriana Uzoh, the daughter of an old boy and the granddaughter also of an old boy –who joined CKC Onitsha when it was founded in 1933. While telling the funny story of how she, all along, thought that CKC meant “Seecasey,” Amaka draws the attention of the old boys to the current physical state of Christ the King College and the need for them to act fast.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

December 1, 2019

By Jeremy Roebuck

Major institutions across New Jersey, including the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America, are bracing for what could be a torrent of lawsuits as a new law goes into effect Dec. 1 offering adult victims of childhood sexual abuse extended opportunities to sue.

The measure, signed by Gov. Phil Murphy in May, extends the state’s statute of limitations for sex-abuse lawsuits and opens a temporary, two-year window to file suit based on previously expired claims.

The reprieve for what in some cases are decades-old allegations could leave defendants ranging from religious institutions to public and private schools facing significant financial strain.

Already the Catholic Church is girding for the impact. Over the last year, New Jersey’s bishops have sold off property, bolstered their insurance policies, and encouraged victims to accept financial settlements from specially launched compensation funds in anticipation of the law. .

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JERSEY CITY (NJ)
Forbes

November 29, 2019

By Erin Spencer

This week, NBC News in Washington released a large survey of Catholic Church employees. The first-of-its-kind, 26-question survey was distributed via email to 32,616 members listed in the Official Catholic Directory. Of that group, 2,700 surveys were completed, with a majority of respondents identified as women. The survey touched on topics such as social issues facing the Church, women in leadership, gay marriage and the abuse crisis. Across many of these issues, a clear gender divide was evident in responses—particularly apparent between diocesan priests and nuns.

The Role of Women In The Church

There were several questions within the survey related to the role of women in the Church and whether respondents felt there was room for elevating women into the higher ranks. When asked about whether respondents believed the Church should consider ordaining women as priests, 71% of nuns indicated they believed the topic should have further study while only 24% of diocesan priests agreed.

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ATLANTA (GA)
CNN

December 1, 2019

By Ivana Kottasová

[With link to video:] CNN reveals new accusations against pedophile priest

German Catholics are meeting to debate what remain taboo subjects for many in the church — lifting celibacy policies and whether to allow women to play bigger roles in ecclesiastical life.

The German Bishops Conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics will start a two-year process of reckoning and reform on Sunday, the first day of Advent. The meeting comes in response to damning revelations of sexual abuse in the church.

They will discuss issues that experts have identified as having contributed to the scandal: “priestly life,” including celibacy; the position of women within the church; sexuality and sexual morale of the Catholic church; and the power and the control of the power within the church.

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DENVER (CO)
Colorado Public Radio

December 1, 2019

By Xandra McMahon

One of the priests named in this year’s Attorney General report on clerical sex abuse will have a parole hearing on Monday in Cañon City.

Timothy Evans, 57, abused three children from 1990 to 1995 in Jefferson and Larimer counties. He was convicted of multiple sexual assault charges in 2007 and sentenced to 14 years to life.

Evans is the only priest in Colorado to be tried and convicted of sexual assault since the scandal of widespread abuse in the Catholic Church broke in 2002.

According to the Coloradoan, the hearing is scheduled for 8 a.m. on Monday at the Fremont Correctional Facility in Cañon City.

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BERLIN (GERMANY)
The New York Times

November 29, 2019

By Liam Stack

With the German church’s global influence, a meeting of bishops and laypeople to take up hot-button topics has led to warnings of a new schism, originating in the home of the Protestant Reformation.

The Roman Catholic Church in Germany has a split identity. At home, attendance is falling and many Germans say they regard the church’s teaching on social issues as hopelessly out of touch.

But globally, the German church is one of the most powerful — and liberal — regions of the Catholic world, a player whose wealth and theological influence are now creating a challenge for the entire church.

On Dec. 1, the German church’s international influence will be on display when its bishops begin a two-year-long series of meetings with lay leaders that will allow debate on hot-button issues that in many other corners of the church would be off limits, such as whether to accept homosexuality, end clerical celibacy and ordain women as priests.

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ROME (ITALY)
The Washington Post via Daytona Beach News-Journal

By Chico Harlan, The Washington Post

November 30, 2019

Pope Francis, at age 82, has spent nearly a month on the road this year. He has visited 10 countries, and on Saturday, he is scheduled to arrive in Japan, his 11th. The pope has said he doesn’t particularly enjoy traveling, but he is a committed globe-trotter at an age when other popes eased up and stayed mostly inside the Vatican’s walls.

The trips are a testament to Francis’ physical endurance. But they also show the pope’s sense of urgency, nearly seven years into his papacy, at a time when his voice has seemed to lose ground to more nationalist sentiments around the world.

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ROME (ITALY)
LifeSite News

November 25, 2019

Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, has publicly criticized an American Catholic journalist for a recent article linking the cardinal with major financial corruption and scandal at the Vatican.

Cardinal Becciu took to Twitter yesterday to lambast Dr Ed Condon, a journalist for Catholic News Agency (CNA), for his article last week which reports that the Cardinal “attempted to disguise $200 million loans on Vatican balance sheets” including funds from a disreputable Swiss bank and that he subsequently reprimanded Cardinal George Pell, then Prefect for the Secretariat of the Economy, when he began asking questions about the balance sheets.

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ARGENTINA
National Review

November 26, 2019

By Tobias Hoonhout

Two Catholic priests were both sentenced to more than 40 years in prison in Argentina on Monday, after being found guilty of sexually abusing deaf children at a Catholic-run school.

A three-judge panel in the city of Mendoza sentenced Father Nicola Corradi to 42 years and Father Horacio Corbacho to 45 years, as well as gardener Armando Gómez to 18 years, for 20 counts of abuse from 2005 to 2016 at the Antonio Provolo Institute for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Children.

“Thank God there has been justice and peace for the victims,” Father Dante Simon, one of two priests sent by the Vatican to investigate, told The Associated Press after the ruling. Pope Francis has not commented publicly on the matter, but Simon had previously told the AP that the pontiff expressed his sadness about the case and told him that “he was very worried about this situation.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

November 26, 2019

By Ed Condon

In 2012, the Vatican agreed to comply with a set of “recommendations” from Moneyval, incorporating them into internal policies.

In December, the Holy See is due to send a report to Moneyval, the Council of Europe’s anti-money laundering watchdog, giving an update on its progress implementing the agency’s recommendations to improve Vatican financial standards.

The report is likely to make for bleak reading in Strasbourg, but even more grim writing in the Vatican.

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AUSTRALIA
Reuters via CBC.com

November 29, 2019

Clergy would not be able to use ‘confessional privilege’ to avoid giving evidence

Australia’s top attorneys-general agreed to standardize laws across the country forcing priests to report child abuse revealed to them during confessions. (Enrique Castro-Mendivil/Reuters)
Australia’s top attorneys agreed on Friday to standardize laws across the country forcing priests to report child abuse revealed to them during confessions in a move that could widen a schism between the church and the government.

Federal and state attorneys-general agreed on key principles for the laws, which fall under the responsibility of state and territory governments and which address the most contentious recommendations from a government inquiry into child abuse.

With half of the country’s population identifying themselves as Christian, Australia has faced a crisis of faith amid worldwide allegations that churches and religious leaders had protected pedophile priests and habitually covered sexual abuse.

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