ABUSE TRACKER

ATLANTA (GA)
Journal Constitution

May 1, 2019

By Shelia M. Poole

Peter J. Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, has one goal in the review of sex abuse allegations in the Archdiocese of Atlanta and the Savannah Diocese.

“We will follow the facts where they lead us and go from there,” said Skandalakis, a career prosecutor, who joined PAC last year after more than two decades in public office. There could be further investigation or, perhaps, prosecutions by local district attorneys.

“Our role is to make sure this is an open and transparent investigation so that the public has faith that any past errors will not be repeated and, from this point going forward, cases like this will be handled differently in accordance with the law,” Skandalakis said in a Wednesday interview.

The state Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council is a judicial branch government agency that supports Georgia prosecutors and staffs.

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.

CONCORD (NH)
Concord Monitor

May 1, 2019

By Alyssa Dandrea

A service to atone for the sexual abuse and misconduct suffered by St. Paul’s School students over decades has stirred feelings of confusion and anger for some victims and alumni, while others who helped plan the event are calling it an important step in a long-term healing process.

At the school’s Chapel of St. Peter and St. Paul this Saturday, “A Service of Repentance toward Healing: Witness, Lament, and Apology for Abuse at St. Paul’s School” will include prayer, music, moments of silence and a homily delivered by alumna Valerie Webster, an Episcopal priest and childhood sexual assault survivor. The service will be led by Dean of Chapel Alice Courtright and Bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta Robert Wright, who has served on the school’s board of trustees since 2017. All members of the St. Paul’s community, past and present, can attend; however, the service is closed to the general public.

A subcommittee of the school’s Alumni Association, known as “Alumni Doorways,” conceived of the service months ago as one way to connect with former students harmed at St. Paul’s, with the goal of meeting them wherever they’re at in their healing journey, said Alisa Barnard, the association’s executive director and member of the Class of 1994.

But not everyone is on the same page about the service’s intent and its timing.

For alumni who disclosed sexual abuse committed by their teachers long ago and were ignored, they say the service is coming too little too late. They argue the school should not be asking for forgiveness from God but from the victims who should each have a chance to be heard and to confront their abusers.

For others, plans for Saturday’s service feel years premature and ill-conceived because they say the school is only beginning to confront its history as truths emerge from the shadows.

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

SACRAMENTO (CA)
Catholic News Service

May 1, 2019

by Catholic News ServiceSacramento Bishop Jaime Soto published a list of 44 priests and two permanent deacons from the diocese that have been credibly accused of sexually abusing 130 minors or young adults, aged 25 and under.

The list, published April 30, is based on a review of the personnel records of nearly 1,500 bishops, priests and permanent deacons conducted by diocesan staff and an independent consulting firm retained by the diocese. It spans seven decades, from 1950 to the present.

“This list is heartbreaking. It is a sickening and sobering account of the history of sex abuse by clergy in our diocese,” said Soto. “It is repulsive to see the evil acts that were perpetrated upon innocent children and young people entrusted to our care.”

The bishop said: “the accounting had to be done. I need to own and atone for what happened in the church’s name. I have to be accountable to God and his people. That can only be done where there is transparency.”

The list was compiled by the diocese with the assistance of Kinsale Management Consulting headed by Kathleen McChesney, formerly the third ranking official at the FBI and the founding administrator of the Office of Child Protection at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. None of the men listed are currently in ministry with the diocese.

For the purposes of this list, “credible” represents a reasonable person’s conclusion that, based on the information at hand, the accusation is more likely to be true than not.

The list is available on line at www.scd.org/clergyabuse. It is divided into five parts: priests from the diocese; priests from religious orders; priests from other dioceses; permanent deacons; and priests who briefly served or lived in the diocese, but where the alleged incidents of abuse occurred outside the diocese.

Each name on the list is linked to a file showing the name of the priest or deacon, his status or last known location and other biographical information. It lists his diocesan assignments and provides information on the nature of the alleged abuse, when it took place and when it was reported to the diocese.

Also on April 30, Georgia’s Attorney General Chris Carr announced the start of an investigation into past sexual abuse claims within the Catholic Church in Georgia.

The state’s two bishops, Atlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory and Savannah Bishop Gregory Hartmayer, issued similar statements April 30 saying they offered “full support and cooperation” for the third-party file review and were doing so “in the spirit of continued transparency and concern over the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church in the United States.”

The bishops agreed to a memorandum of understanding concerning the process and both expressed “genuine concern for all who have been hurt directly or indirectly by abuse of any kind by anyone.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

May 1, 2019

By Julie Zauzmer

The news that Georgia’s attorney general is investigating sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta, coming just after Atlanta’s Archbishop Wilton Gregory was chosen for the top job in Washington’s Catholic church, came as yet another blow to those who had been hoping for a relief from scandal when their new archbishop arrives.

Gregory, 71, has been cast as a much-needed reformer for the Archdiocese of Washington. Within the past year, ex-archbishop Theodore McCarrick was disgraced and defrocked after accusations that he committed sexual abuse, and then his successor Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the leader of Washington’s Catholics for the past 12 years, retired early due to revelations about his own handling of abuse cases.

When Pope Francis picked Gregory last month to replace Wuerl, many Catholics hopefully heralded Gregory as someone who could clean house.

On Tuesday, Atlanta media cast a pallor over that hope, by reporting that the archdiocese that Gregory has led for the last 14 years, in Atlanta, is the latest of dozens of dioceses nationwide to be the target of a criminal investigative probe.

“Washington is both a wounded church, and a vital and diverse Catholic community. What we don’t need is PTSD [from another investigation]. Hopefully we’ll avoid that. That depends on the result,” said John Carr, who worked with Gregory at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops during the 2002 crisis and who spoke out in the past year about his own childhood abuse.

He said he still trusts that Gregory can steer Washington’s Catholics faithfully. “Let me be clear, no one did enough. But Archbishop Gregory showed courage and compassion and urgency in addressing this crisis in 2002 and since then. He has been a leader and I expect him to continue to be a leader.”

In statements, the Atlanta archdiocese and the Savannah diocese both said that they support the investigation and had entered into a “memorandum of understanding” to provide their cooperation, which seemed to mean access to previously private diocesan files on priests.

The bishops said that the investigation would eventually lead to a published report.

Joe Grace, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office, said on Wednesday that since that state completed its massive inquiry into sexual abuse by Catholic priests last summer, documenting abuse of more than 1,000 children by more than 300 clergy over a span of 70 years, Attorney General Josh Shapiro and his top staff have spoken with the attorneys general of 45 states. Following Pennsylvania’s example and acting on the belief that similar abuse took place in secret in every state, many of these attorneys general launched investigations last year. Georgia’s Chris Carr is now the latest.

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LONG ISLAND (NY)
Long Island Herald

April 11, 2019

By Anthony O’Reilly

When I see stories of sexual abuse by clergy members, I’m often angry with many people. Mostly, I’m angry with those who allowed the abuse to go on uninterrupted for years, whether they be church officials who helped cover it up, or the older generation of Catholics, who wouldn’t believe victims because they didn’t think priests would commit such heinous acts.

For years, it seemed so easy to me: Catholics are taught from an early age not to lie, and that withholding the truth is a form of lying. At Mass, we often hear of the Golden Rule preached by Jesus Christ: “Do to others what you want them to do to you.” (Matthew 7:12.) How, then, could we hear of these horrible acts and not want to expose the bad priests and bring an end to the abuse? Doesn’t our faith command us to do so?

I always thought I would speak up if I found myself in that situation. But I didn’t.

In 2011, I worked as a sacristan, setting the altar before Mass and caring for the church, at my home parish of Holy Family in Fresh Meadow, Queens. One of the priests, the Rev. Lou Aufiero, was an old family friend who had baptized my youngest brother. For months we got along well, and talked often in the rectory. But our relationship changed after what started as an innocent discussion about my ethnicity. “My father is Irish and my mother is Hungarian,” I told him.

“You know what’s the good thing about Hungarians?” he asked. I shook my head, not knowing where he was going with this. “They’re good-looking and well-hung,” he answered with a chuckle. I remember being in shock for the rest of the day, and for a few days after that, at what he had said.

From then on, I viewed Aufiero’s friendly gestures with suspicion, and tried my best to keep my distance from him, though I acted cordial when in his presence. I was 19 at the time, and never thought I was in any danger around him. Still, something about him never seemed right after that remark.

I told only a handful of people what had happened, mostly close friends and one of my brothers. But I never reported the incident, even as I heard others’ stories about what they saw as Aufiero’s suspicious behavior.

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.

DULUTH (MN)
Star Tribune

May 1, 2019

By Dan Browning

The Diocese of Duluth and its insurers have agreed to a $40 million settlement with 125 plaintiffs who said they were sexually abused as children by clergy and others in the diocese.

As part of the agreement, the diocese has agreed to relinquish secret files on 37 priests who it had determined were credibly accused of abuse. It also must develop procedures to ensure that children will be protected from such abuse going forward.

The settlement is pending approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court; the Diocese filed for protection from its creditors in December 2015. Under the agreement, the diocese must pay $10 million and the balance will be paid by its insurers.

The Diocese of Duluth’s bankruptcy claim is similar to one filed by the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, which announced its intentions in November.

The Diocese of Winona-Rochester set a deadline of April 8 for those wishing to file a claim to do so. As of last November, a total of 121 claims had been filed against the diocese, naming 17 priests. Many of them were filed as a result of the state’s Child Victims Act, which lifted the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse for three years.

Settlement negotiations are ongoing.

Jeff Anderson, who represents 120 of the claimants against the Diocese of Duluth, called the settlement “vindication and validation” for clergy sex abuse victims who he said held the Diocese and Catholic bishops accountable financially and by demanding disclosure of what was known by top Diocesan officials.

“We applaud the courage and patience of the survivors, who have handled this difficult process with grace and strength. They have accomplished so much for the protection of children and for themselves,” Anderson said. He said the settlement may bring some comfort to other survivors of clergy abuse, knowing that they were not alone.

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Get Religion blog

May 1, 2019

By Terry Mattingly

What are you supposed to think when you pick up the newspaper in your driveway and see a headline that proclaims, “Catholic Church In Crisis”?

I don’t know about you, but this question immediately jumps into my mind: OK, so which Catholic crisis are we talking about?

Thus, when I started reading the massive USA Today feature (which ran on A1 in several Gannett newspapers in Tennessee, of course) on this subject, I assumed that the “crisis” in question was the ongoing clergy sexual abuse scandal. However, I wanted to see (a) if this feature would accurately note how long this scandal has latest and (b) whether it would place the sexual-abuse crisis in the context of several other major problems in the American church (and the Western world in general). Also, if the USA Today team connected sexual abuse to any other issues, what would those issues be?

Right up front, readers learn that the “crisis” is people leaving the Catholicism or seriously thinking about doing so. That’s interesting and a valid way to approach the current state of things.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

April 30, 2019

By Claire Giangravè

Members of a global anti-clerical abuse network met with the Argentine Ambassador to the Holy See, Rogelio Francisco Emilio Pfirter, on Monday to promote initiatives in support of “zero tolerance” in Pope Francis’s native land.

“Argentina is also the land of Pope Francis, and we thought it was important to bring forward certain requests to the Argentine government,” said Francesco Zanardi, president and founder of Italy’s most prominent survivor network Rete l’abuso, in an April 29 interview with Crux.

Unlike the situation in Italy, Zanardi said, actions to promote accountability and transparency in Argentina are proceeding “very well.”

The Italian clerical abuse survivor and activist led a delegation of “Ending Clarical Abuse,” (ECA), a global network of survivors, during a meeting Monday with the ambassador in Rome only a stone’s throw from the Vatican.

From May 3-6, ECA will launch a series of initiatives in Argentina calling Francis to address the growing concerns about clerical abuse and cover-up in the country.

The pope hasn’t traveled to his native country in the six years since the beginning of his pontificate. Despite bishops from all over the world generally being required to come to the Vatican for an ad limina visit every five years, meaning “to the threshold” of the apostles, the Argentinian episcopacy will be travelling to Rome for the first time since 2009 in the coming weeks.

Some believe that the upcoming visit from Argentine bishops is meant to encourage Francis to return to his homeland.

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BAKERSFIELD (CA)
Bakersfield Californian

May 1, 2019

By Ema Sasic and Sam Morgen

A prayer vigil being held tonight in support of Monsignor Craig Harrison has received some backlash from members of the community, even calling for the cancellation of the event.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, SNAP, penned a letter to Fresno Catholic Bishop Joseph V. Brennan to cancel the vigil because it “will impede a police investigation and deter others who may have seen, suspected or suffered abuse from coming forward.”

“Backers of Msgr. Craig Harrison are no doubt well-intentioned. Still, they’ll do great harm tonight if they proceed,” the letter stated. “As their shepherd, you can — and should — guide them. You must tell them their vigil will scare and depress others, including kids who are being molested today by other predators, into staying silent.”

Joey Piscitelli, the northern California leader for SNAP, said he’s seen vigils such as the one scheduled for 6 p.m. today at St. Francis Church in the past. When a priest has a large following in the community, often their supporters “bash” the alleged victims.

“We understand that a lot of people want to support him, but the problem is that’ll scare alleged victims from coming forward,” he said. “They’ll think they’re outnumbered and that they’ll be bashed.”

Piscitelli said when he came forward after a priest abused him, supporters of the priest called him a “liar.”

“They’re not involved or know what happened,” Piscitelli said. “They’re not a party to the act, so how could they call victims liars?”

Piscitelli said he is planning on putting on a vigil for alleged victims the “early part of next week.” He and other SNAP members will pass out pamphlets with more information on next steps to take if someone is allegedly abused by a priest.

News of the vigil sparked more than 70 comments on The Californian’s Facebook page.

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LONG ISLAND (NY)
WSHU Radio

May 1, 2019

By Margaret Osborne

The Diocese of Rockville Center will not release the names of priests who were accused of abusing children.

Other dioceses have published such lists. The Archdiocese of New York released the names of 115 priests and five deacons on Friday. Connecticut’s three Catholic dioceses have also released lists.

Newsday reports that investigations are still ongoing, but none of the priests or deacons under investigation are currently active in the diocese.

A priest in Manorhaven stepped down after allegations of child abuse earlier this month.

Last year lawyers released a report naming 51 alleged child molesters who are associated with the Diocese of Rockville Center.

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NEWARK (NJ)
Star Ledger

May 1, 2019

By Kelly Heyboer

A veteran Burlington County teacher who had a baby with a 16-year-old girl while he was a Catholic priest nearly 30 years ago should not lose his job because of his past, a state arbitrator told the school district.

Cinnaminson school officials brought up tenure charges against middle school teacher Joseph DeShan earlier this year after parents learned about his history as a priest in the diocese in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

DeShan left the priesthood in 1994, four years after he impregnated a teenage girl in a church youth group he had allegedly been sexually abusing since she was 14, according to news reports in Connecticut newspapers after the relationship was revealed in 2002.

By then, DeShan was already a popular teacher in Cinnaminson. School officials removed him from the classroom for three weeks in 2002 while they investigated. But he quickly returned to teaching after some parents and students rallied to his defense.

Earlier this year, the school district changed its mind and filed tenure charges against DeShan after the parents of current students learned about the former priest’s past and complained to the school board that a “rapist” was teaching their children at Cinnaminson Middle School.

DeShan is included on a list of current and former clergy members credibly accused of sexual abuse released by the Diocese of Bridgeport. DeShan said the sexual relationship with the teenager was consensual and he was never prosecuted in Connecticut due to the statute of limitations law on sexual abuse.

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

SACRAMENTO (CA)
Sacramento Bee

April 30, 2019

By Marcos Breton

After publishing the list of priests credibly accused of molesting children within the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento over the last 70 years, the first email I received was from a gentleman concerned with the image of the church:

“Demonizing the Catholic Church. Well it’s just wrong,” he wrote. “It sends a message that like 90 percent of priests are sexual abusers. You have to go to page 7, deep into the article to read that 3 percent are abusers. That’s 3 percent too much. But it’s shameful the need to sensationalize. To focus and unfairly categorize. Attack an institution like the Catholic Church because it sells papers?”

He then emailed me a Bee story about homeless people being evicted by the county from a camp on Stockton Boulevard and asked: “What percentage of sexual predators within this community? Do a study. Will it hit the headlines? Front page. Above the fold.”

This is a common refrain about the coverage of pedophile priests within the Catholic Church. The argument being: It’s a small percentage. It’s a few bad apples. Why are you condemning the whole church?

Well, as a cradle Catholic and a journalist for more than 30 years, I can’t categorize these complaints as anything other than denial. Yes, the names of Catholic priests that Sacramento’s Diocese made public on Tuesday – 44 in all – constituted about 3 percent of personnel files of priests, bishops and deacons who have ministered to Catholics from Vallejo to the Oregon.

And three notorious former priests – Francisco Javier, Mario Blanco and Gerardo Beltran – accounted for almost half of the 130 victims in the list of sexual abuse cases made public by the diocese.

Does that mean many wonderful priests have tended to the spiritual well being of Catholics throughout the region? It is absolutely true. My life has been enriched by knowing wonderful men such as Monsignor James Murphy, the former vicar of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament.

The late Bishop Francis Quinn was as dear a man as you would ever meet and one of the most beloved figures in Sacramento of the last half century.

The current Bishop, Jaime Soto, is a fine man who is trying to bring more transparency to a church that once shielded pedophiles and moved them around to different parishes, where they preyed on more people.

So how do we balance the good within the church with the criminals who abused children and, in too many instances, got away with it?

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

ROME (ITALY)
Crux

May 1, 2019

By Inés San Martín

There’s no such thing as a dull moment when it comes to the Catholic Church in Latin America, Pope Francis’s backyard and home to an estimated 40 percent of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics.

Tuesday was, once again, a day of revolt and protest in Venezuela, where an ongoing crisis has led a country with the world’s 10th largest oil reserve into a place where an estimated 96 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

With Juan Guaido, leader of the opposition and proclaimed president by the General Assembly leading the Operación Libertad, or Operation Freedom, hundreds of thousands took to the streets with the support of at least one military base that revolted against President Nicolas Maduro, who succeeded Hugo Chavez.

Maduro won elections last year, but the result was rejected by the opposition, the country’s General Assembly and many foreign countries and institutions, including the European Union. Guaido was sworn in as a rival temporary president in January, but Maduro never stepped down.

The bishops, who are gathered in their national assembly from April 29 to May 1, are expected to release a statement during the last day of the meeting, and at press time they hadn’t yet made any official comments on Tuesday’s revolt.

However, the Venezuelan bishops in the past have been very vocal against Maduro.

Among those who spoke is Cardinal Jorge Urosa, emeritus Archbishop of Caracas, who told the French newspaper La Croix that the bishops are “appalled.”

“The government has ruined Venezuela with the application of a totalitarian economic, political, statist, Marxist-style plan that has ruined agriculture and industry,” Urosa said.

Bishop Fernando Castro of Margarita had a reflection published by the conference on its Facebook page right before the assembly began, comparing Venezuela to Paris after the Cathedral of Notre Dame was engulfed by flames on Monday of Holy Week.

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NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

May 1, 2019

By Matt Malone, S.J.

Since last summer I have taken part in about a dozen panels and programs across this country that were organized to discuss the causes and consequences of the crisis of sexual abuse of minors by members of the Catholic clergy. I have visited several cities and met people from every walk of life—victims, survivors, bishops, priests and religious, lay leaders, moms and dads, young and old. It has been humbling, enlightening and inspiring to take part in these important conversations—the most important conversation we could ever have.

As you might imagine, there are recurring insights and themes. And not a few people have named what they believe to be the principal cause or causes of this catastrophic phenomenon. Even Benedict XVI, the pope emeritus, recently weighed in, arguing in an open letter that the cultural and sexual revolution of the 1960s created the conditions in which evils like sexual abuse could flourish. After 1968, he wrote, “there could no longer be anything that constituted an absolute good any more than anything fundamentally evil; there could be only relative value judgments.” The danger of relativism is not a new theme for Benedict. And I have expressed similar concerns about the loss of absolutes, often citing his insights about this phenomenon in this column.

But it is precisely this familiarity that troubles me. The cause of the greatest crisis facing the contemporary church just happens to be the very same thing about which Benedict has been concerned for his entire career? That seems suspicious, almost as if he might have had his answer before he had his question, the kind of inverted reasoning one usually finds in ideological and similarly circular forms of thought. Of course, even if such thinking is at work, it doesn’t necessarily follow that Benedict’s conclusion is wrong. But it does give me pause, all the more because I have discerned a similar pattern in the observations, commentaries and conclusions of many people in the U.S. church, some of whom are sympathetic to Benedict’s worldview and some of whom are not.

I have heard, for example, from a number of people who have been concerned for many years about homosexuality per se, or the presence of a large number of homosexuals among the Catholic clergy, that what caused the sexual abuse crisis in the church was homosexuality per se or the large number of homosexuals among the Catholic clergy. Similarly, I have heard from a number of people who have been concerned for many years about the lack of female ecclesiastical leaders that what caused the sexual abuse crisis in the church was the lack of female ecclesiastical leaders. I have also heard from people who have expressed deep concern over the years about the culture of clericalism in the church that what caused the sexual abuse crisis was the culture of clericalism in the church.

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

April 30, 2019

The Diocese of Sacramento has finally released its list of clergy “credibly accused” of sexually abusing children. There are 62 names on the list, including at least 25 that, as far as we can tell, have never been publicly identified before:

Fr. Thomas Allender, SJ; Deacon Alejandro Arroyo; Fr. James Casey; Fr. Robert Casper, SDS; Fr. Andrew Coffey; Fr. Malachy Conway; Fr. Pablo Cortes, SDB; Fr. John Crowley; Fr. Michael Dermody; Fr. Thomas Dermody; Fr. John Dowling; Fr. Oscar Figueroa; Fr. John Hannon; Fr. David Hernandez Cota; Fr. Joseph Hoan, Diocese of Long Xuyen, South Vietnam; Fr. Michael Lynch; Deacon Jesus Magallanes; Fr. James Mennis; Fr. Luis Michael O’Halloran, OP; Fr. Z. Enrique Perez, CO; Fr. Vernon Petrich, SDS; Fr. Michael Proulx, OSsT; Fr. William Storan; Fr. Simon Twomey; Fr. John “Casper” Watts, CP.

Eight of the 62 have not previously been associated with abuse in the Diocese of Sacramento:

Fr. David Brusky, SDS; Fr. Charles Gormley, Diocese of Cheyenne WY; Fr. Victor Marron, Diocese of Clogher, Ireland; Fr. Luis Martinez, SF; Fr. Kevin O’Brien, OCarm; Fr. James McSorley, OMI; Fr. Oliver O’Grady, Diocese of Stockton CA; Fr. Luke Zimmer, SSCC.

However, there are at least 17 others, who have been publicly identified as abusers and who worked in the Diocese of Sacramento, who are not included on the list:

Fr. Raymond Devlin; Fr. Martin Donnelly; Fr. Mark A. Falvey; Br. William C. Farrington; Fr. Michael M. Garry; Fr. Patrick Gleeson; Fr. Gunter Klingenbrunner; Fr. James F. Kuntz; Fr. Angelo C. Mariano; Michael Martis; Fr. Cornelius F. O’Connor; Fr. Charles J. Onorato; Fr. Umberto Penunuri; Fr. Jose Ribeiro; Fr. Renerio Sabuga Jr.; Fr. Stephen Speciale (Specialle); Fr. Philip Sunseri.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

May 1, 2019

By Michelle Boorstein

Georgia’s attorney general Tuesday has followed more than a dozen state prosecutors by reportedly opening a probe into sex abuse claims against the Catholic Church – this time in a region whose leader heads in a few weeks to take over the scandal-ridden Archdiocese of Washington.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News in Atlanta reported that Attorney General Chris Carr and others have been working on the case since summer, and the investigation itself is just starting, the outlets reported.

Carr told Channnel 2 that his office has been in “open dialogue” with the church and that Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory encouraged them to do the investigation. Georgia has a second Catholic diocese, based in Savannah, which is also included in the probe.

Pope Francis in early April named Gregory to replace Cardinal Donald Wuerl, a longtime administrator in Pittsburgh and Washington who resigned in the fall after coming under fire for his handling of abuse cases. Wuerl’s handling of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church was scrutinized in a grand jury report out of Pennsylvania last summer about the handling of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church. That report led multiple state prosecutors to open investigations of their own.

It wasn’t clear what specific evidence or cases, if any, led Carr to open the probe into the Atlanta and Savannah dioceses. Some of the states that recently began investigating the church said they assumed the problems and cover-ups named in Pennsylvania exist everywhere, and that they mostly want to hear from victims to be sure crimes committed are punished.

Carr told the Atlanta media that the investigation will be handled by Georgia’s Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council. If any prosecutions come out of the investigation, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, they’ll be handled on a local level, he said.

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ERIE (PA)
Erie Times-News

May 1, 2019

By Ed Palattella

In April 2018, Erie Catholic Bishop Lawrence Persico released the first version of the Catholic Diocese of Erie’s list of clergy and laypeople credibly accused of sexual abuse and other misconduct with minors.

A year later, the list continues to grow — it started with 51 names and is now at 81 — and so has the diocese’s financial exposure.

As state lawmakers extended their debate about whether to adjust the statute of limitations to allow abuse victims to sue over old cases, Persico joined other dioceses statewide and created a compensation fund to pay claims to victims outside of court.

The dioceses made their moves after the statewide grand jury’s report on the abuse crisis recommended rolling back the statute of limitations to allow more victims to sue.

The six-month claims period for the Erie diocese’s fund ends in August, and Persico said the diocese has already wrapped up six claims. And while Persico said the 13-county diocese has set aside funds to cover the payments, he also told the Erie Times-News on Tuesday that the abuse crisis has strained the diocese’s finances.

“We’re not bankrupt yet,” Persico said. “But we’re fortunate that there was good and frugal management of the finances. All of this investigation, whether with the grand jury or what we’re doing on our own, has cost us a great deal of money.

“But I think the spending is well worth it, because we really need to clean this up and try to get it right.”

Persico spoke to the Erie Times-News during a 30-minute interview that was streamed live on Facebook. The interview focused on how the Catholic Diocese of Erie has responded to the abuse crisis under Persico, 68, who started as bishop in October 2012.

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit News

April 30, 2019

By Dawud Walid and Paul Long

The socio-political discourse in society has descended to a point where elected officials are implored to lead by example and use language that helps set the tone for civility and respect for differing beliefs and opinions.

Simply stated – words are important. They can inform or inspire, but, conversely, they can also disrupt or instigate.

As leaders within our organizations which are informed by sacred principles and values, we share the common concern that those who hold office in Michigan refrain from tearing down or disrespecting others in executing the trusts given to them by residents of the state. Moreover, we hold that in the pursuit of liberty, justice and inclusion no person should be compelled to accept moral standards in their private lives that contravene the faith values to which they subscribe.

Relating to these two issues, our mutual constituents hold concerns regarding recent words – and actions –of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.

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.

DAVIS (CA)
Yolo County News

May 1, 2019

By Lauren Keene

A list of 46 Sacramento-area clergy accused of sexual abuse, released this week by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, names three priests who once served at St. James Church in Davis — including one whose conduct was the subject of a high-profile Yolo County court case.

Others on the list were assigned to Catholic churches in the neighboring Yolo County communities of Woodland, Winters, West Sacramento and Clarksburg.

“I am repulsed and heartbroken by the evil acts that were perpetrated upon the innocent by those entrusted with their care,” Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto said in a written statement accompanying the list, which was posted on the Diocese’s website shortly after midnight Tuesday.

“The pain and suffering of the victims from the betrayal and loss of innocence has continued for decades and will never go away,” Soto added. “I apologize for the sins and failures of the past. I am determined that such acts of abuse should never again occur in our diocese.”

Comprising 44 priests and two deacons, the compilation details what Soto called “credibly accused” clergy dating back to the 1950s, involving more than 130 male and female victims under the age of 25. The Sacramento Diocese covers 20 Northern California counties.

Prior to release, the list was reviewed by a team of legal professionals as well as a former executive assistant FBI director, Soto said.

For two of the former St. James priests, the reported abuse occurred while they were still assigned to the B Street church, though one incident was not relayed to authorities for several decades, records show.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Examiner

May 1, 2019

By Laura Waxmann

A lawsuit that would force the Archdiocese of San Francisco to release the names of clergy accused of sexual misconduct was allowed to proceed last week.

The Archdiocese of San Francisco is among 11 diocese across the state that, along with the California Catholic Conference (CCC), are named in the lawsuit that could force church officials to release the names of alleged abusers and provide documents on clerical offenders. The lawsuit alleges that these documents are kept in the dioceses possession, concealed from the public.

While most of the state’s diocese have made public their lists of names, San Francisco is one of two that has not done so.

Diocese officials had previously said they would produce a list last November, but on Tuesday, a spokesperson said that an “independent analysis of over 4,0000 files is not yet complete,” and that San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordilione “will communicate results when it is completed” — potentially by this summer.

In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court seeking to force the church to release a list of names, Plaintiff Tom Emens alleges that he was sexually abused by his priest, Monsignor Thomas Joseph Mohan, at age 11, and that church officials continue to conceal and fail to report systematic abuse.

In an April 17 ruling, Judge Michelle Williams dismissed part of the lawsuit filed last October, which alleges civil conspiracy, public and private nuisance, but left some of the claims open to further proceedings.

Emens is not seeking financial compensation, but is pushing for the release of names and concealed documents relating to the sexual abuse of minors.

“It’s not about me. It’s about the public. It’s about the safety of our children,” said Emens at a press conference held in Burbank, Calif. on Monday. “We have to be cautiously optimistic but [the ruling] is a victory.”

Per her ruling, Williams determined that “there is no right to conceal sexual assaults from authorities,” and that protecting abusers from criminal prosecution is “neither free speech nor petition.”

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
ABC 10 News

May 1, 2019

By Daniela Pardo

Anthony Cano, 59, says he was just 10 years old when he was abused by a Sacramento priest.

His alleged abuser, Father Mario Blanco Porras, was just named publicly Tuesday after the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento released a list of local priests and deacons who have been “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors and young adults.

Cano told ABC10 that he was the youngest member in a band called Orchestra Costa Rica when Father Blanco Porras began to “take advantage of us kids.”

“He would give us alcohol and would get us drunk and on the way home,” Cano recalled. “He played little games and start touching the legs. It was hard to grow up as a kid with that in your mind.”

According to Cano, the sexual abuse went on for two years, and he didn’t open up about what happened to him till he was in his 40s.

“I couldn’t tell anyone,” he said. “My mother is a devoted Catholic, and so is my grandmother. So, it was hard for me to try to attempt to tell them. To tell you the truth, I think they would have went on the priest’s side rather than the kids. That’s how much they believe in their religion.”

While Cano said it’s still very painful talk about his childhood, he said he’s telling his story because he wants other survivors to share theirs.

“If you’re a little kid right now, don’t be afraid to tell somebody, because it’s not your fault. You were the victim, you were taken advantage of,” Cano added.

The diocese said it reviewed nearly 1,500 personnel records dating back to the 1950s and found 46 clergy members were “credibly accused” of abusing at least 130 children or young adults.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Fordham Ram

May 1, 2019

By Erica Scalise

Alumnus, two term Fordham College board member and author Paul Elie, FCRH ’87, accused Rev. Edward Zogby, S.J., the associate vice president for Lincoln Center for 10 years during the 1980’s, of sexual misconduct in an article from “The New Yorker” released on April 8. Zogby was a resident of Murray-Weigel Hall and died there in 2011.

In the article entitled “What Do The Church’s Victims Deserve,” Elie weaved together a historical summary and personal narrative recounting the Catholic Church’s history of clerical sex abuse.

The article also names Rev. Joseph Towle, S.J. whom Elie volunteered under at a Catholic community center.

According to “The New Yorker,” Towle, who was credibly accused of sexual misconduct in 1971, lived at the infirmary for elderly Jesuits on the Fordham campus and engaged in internal ministry after he was removed as principal at St. Ignatius School in the Bronx.

Towle is listed as one of the friends who surrounded Rev. Daniel Berrigan, S.J. when Berrigan died at Murray-Weigel in 2016, according to a statement by the Berrigan family in an article by Ignatian Solidarity Network.

Towle is also listed under the Northeast Province’s list of priests with credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. Zogby is not listed.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Patheos blog

April 30, 2019

By Mary Pezzulo

I have just read a deeply upsetting article about the Diocese of Buffalo. I encourage you to read it yourself– but be careful if you read the attached complete written account, as it is extremely graphic.

The article concerns a report from a group of seminarians who wish to remain nameless for fear of repercussions. These seminarians were forced to listen to extremely disgusting, sexually explicit conversation and jokes about sexual abuse made by priests at a party. These priests have been suspended for the moment, but a diocesan spokeswoman suggests that they will be allowed back into active ministry.

The priest are identified as Reverend Art Mattulke of Saints Peter and Paul Church in Hamburg, New York; Reverend Bob Orlowski; and Reverend Patrick O’Keefe. Mattulke is a designated spiritual director for the seminarians at Christ the King Seminary. They jokingly described the sounds of a man and woman having sex on a retreat; they joked that a female dentist of their acquaintance wanted to “f*** a seminarian” and repeatedly asked the young men if they wanted to have sex with her. They laughingly shared the story of a priest professor from the seminary who gave oral sex at truck stops and compared the ejaculate to Holy Communion.

Reverend Orlowski referred to a woman who had formerly worked at his parish by the c-word multiple times and bragged about “putting her in her place.” He joked about the bishop enjoying anal sex. He and Mattulke made cruel jokes about obese and incontinent parishioners. Mattulke bragged in graphic detail about a series of photos of an ejaculation that were sent to him by a parishioner. The priests even joked about the professors and formation director at Christ the King Seminary sexually harassing and abusing seminarians, even perhaps engaging in anal sex with them in the dormitories as part of an “exam.”

I don’t think it can be denied that powerful people intimidating an underling into listening to prurient talk is a form of sexual harassment. Imagine how you’d feel if the priests were talking to a laywoman that way, instead of a seminarian, and the woman reported feeling like she couldn’t just leave, that she was forced to listen, that she was repeatedly asked to have sex with someone even if the request was framed as a joke.

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
Sacramento Bee

May 1, 2019

By Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks

Sex abuse victims and advocates are unmoved by the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento’s disclosure of 46 clergy members who were accused of sexually abusing more than 100 people, arguing the release of the list Tuesday is too little, too late.

The diocese found 44 priests and two deacons in the Sacramento area had been credibly accused of sexually abusing roughly 130 children and adults in the last seven decades. Bishop Jaime Soto told The Sacramento Bee on Monday, “it speaks to the cultural pathology of how we allowed this to happen” and “there was no excuse for it.”

David Clohessy, the former executive director at the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, criticized Soto for trying to “minimize the crisis and fixate on the past while essentially ignoring the real issue which is danger in the present.”

“I just keep shaking my head and thinking, why didn’t Soto do this his first week or month on the job, and how many kids have been hurt needlessly as a result?” Clohessy said.

The diocese should have released the names of priests accused of sexual abuse as cases were corroborated, said Northern California leader for SNAP Joey Piscitelli. Doing so would have given victims more flexibility in pursuing legal action, he said.

“Today these names prove they kept names secret and hidden from the public,” Piscitelli said. “But now the statute of limitations have run out on these cases, and that’s because the diocese enabled them to.”

Advocates are also concerned that the list lacked certain information, such as the current whereabouts of those named, which Clohessy described as “incredibly irresponsible.” Some dioceses, such as the Catholic Diocese of Erie in Pennsylvania, have released the current or last known locations of living clergy accused of abuse or other inappropriate behavior.

“Soto should be taking out full-page newspaper ads in the counties where his priests are still around kids,” he said.

Clohessy hopes the release of the list will push victims and “every single person who saw abuse no matter how long ago, no matter how seemingly slight “ to call their local police department and the California attorney general’s office, which is collecting complaints of clergy abuse.

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CINNAMINSON (NJ)
New Jersey 101.5

April 30, 2019

By Sergio Bichao

A national organization representing sex-abuse survivors are calling on Catholic Church officials to help oust a defrocked priest who was once accused of impregnating an underage girl but who now works in this public school district.

New Jersey 101.5 reported on Monday that a state Department of Education arbitrator blocked the district from firing middle school English teacher Joseph DeShan after parents raised concerns with his past.

The arbitration decision this month said officials could not fire DeShan unless he was convicted of a crime or has done something wrong while employed by the district.

David Clohessy, a past president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said church officials have the “duty” to “warn people about him and beg witnesses and whistleblowers to come forward.”

“Victims aren’t inclined to break years or decades of silence unless they’re confident that somebody is really paying attention and someone will take action,” he said Tuesday.

“Bishops [need to] stand there in the pulpit and say: Please, if you have any information that might help law enforcement pursue a case against DeShan, it’s your Christian duty, it’s your civic duty to pick up the phone and call 911.”

Earlier this school year, the district suspended DeShan — the second time it has done so since 2002, when officials first learned that DeShan had impregnated a 15-year-old girl while he was a priest in the late 1990s in Connecticut. But officials in 2002 could find no cause to fire DeShan, who also had support from parents. Seventeen years later, DeShan no longer has support from a new set of administrators and parents.

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Catholic Cultur blog

April 29, 2019

By Phil Lawler

Cardinal Angelo Sodano met with Pope Francis today in a private audience. Which gives us another occasion to note that Cardinal Sodano remains the Dean of the College of Cardinals, at the age of 91.

Since the new Code of Canon Law came into effect in 1983, and with it the expectation that aging bishops would retire rather than die in office, there have been four Deans of the College of Cardinals:

Cardinal Agnelo Rossi resigned in 1993 at the age of 80.

Cardinal Bernardin Gantin resigned in 2002 at the age of 80.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had not yet reached the age of 80 when he assumed another office, from which he resigned in 2013 at the age of 85.

Cardinal Sodano—who has shown a marked penchant for hanging onto his titles, having remained in the office that he had occupied as Secretary of State even after his replacement began work—stays on.

There is no urgent reason why the Dean should resign; his role is mostly ceremonial. But if the Pope dies it is the Dean who presides at his funeral, with the world watching.

Since Cardinal Sodano has been charged with protecting prelates tarred by the sex-abuse scandal, his is not the face that the universal Church should put forward in a time of crisis. More to the point, why would Cardinal Sodano want to continue in office, aside from his well-established desire to continue wielding influence within the Vatican?

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
Fox 40

April 30, 2019

By Rowena Shaddox

Kurt Hoffman was a freshman at Jesuit High School and on the swim team when he says his coach, Brother William Farrington, sexually assaulted him.

“I was 14 years old in 1987, in the spring, when he assaulted me,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman addressed the media Tuesday, the same day the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento released a list of more than 40 priests and deacons accused of sexual abuse. Cases were dated from the 1950’s up to as recent as 2014.

Farrington does not appear on the least.

“My question is just if the diocese is really interested in transparency, full disclosure, I’m shocked that Farrington was no on this list,” Hoffman said.

Farrington was named last year, on the Jesuit West Province list of accused abusers.

In a prepared statement, Bishop Jaime Soto says they will update their list to incorporate the information on Jesuit’s list.

A spokesman for the diocese says revealing the names of accused abusers is important.

“We want people to see this,” spokesman Kevin Eckery said. “Because we need to be held accountable. and the only way is to own it and atone for it.”

Hoffman’s parents reported the assault to Jesuit. They say Farrington was gone the very next day.

But Hoffman says he later learned that Farmington was transferred to Loyola in the early 2000’s, where he served as a freshman counselor.

Once Hoffman notified the school of Farmington’s sexual abuse, Farmington was removed and placed in Los Gatos, where he remains at an enfirmery.

“It’s up to the church to make sure they get reported to civil law enforcement and not be transferred to other places where they can prey upon kids,” Hoffman said.

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LONG ISLAND (NY)
News 12

April 30, 2019

Famed Boston-based attorney Mitchell Garabedian on Tuesday released the names of two former Long Island priests who he says were credibly accused of sexually abusing minors decades ago.

Garabedian says Father Edward J. Byrne is credibly accused of sexually abusing a boy around 11 years old while he was assigned to St. Barnabas Church in Bellmore in 1971 and ’72. Garabedian also named Father Harold H. Paul, of St. Joseph’s Church in Hewlett, who he says sexually abused a 10-year-old boy in 1961.

Last week, News 12 reported on a list released by the Archdiocese of New York containing the names of 120 clergy members credibly accused of sexually abusing children. All have either died or been removed from ministry. The Diocese of Brooklyn has also released a list of accused abusers that includes more than 100 clergy members.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre, however, continues to refuse to release its list.

Garabedian says that refusal prevents alleged victims from healing and children from being safe.

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ATLANTA (GA)
Journal-Constitution

April 30, 2019

By Shelia M. Poole and Christian Boone

Georgia has become the latest state to launch an investigation into past sexual abuse claims within the Catholic Church, Attorney General Chris Carr said Tuesday.

The repercussions could be widespread. In Pennsylvania, a grand jury report identified hundreds of priests accused of molesting at least 1,000 minors over the past seven decades in that state.

“I think people should be prepared for some bad news, revelations that some people don’t want to come out,” said attorney Darren Penn, who represents an unidentified man in a lawsuit alleging abuse at the hands of former Dalton priest Douglas Edwards.

Carr said the state’s Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council will lead the probe. If any prosecutions come out of the investigation, they’ll be handled on a local level, he said.

“I heard from those that I go to church with every Sunday,” he said during an exclusive interview Tuesday with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News. “And I saw the level of anger and frustration and distrust. Both on a personal and professional level, this was important to me. I think it’s important that we hold accountable those that have done wrong but also lift the cloud of suspicion from those that may not have.”

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HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle

April 30, 2019

By Robert Downen

Citing a sexual abuse crisis revealed in a recent Houston Chronicle investigation, the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm has overhauled its 2019 national conference in Grapevine to focus on abuse.

The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission is expected to announce Tuesday that it has changed the conference’s theme to focus on “the current crisis within the SBC denomination.”

The announcement follows a February investigation by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News that found more than 700 people, mostly children, had reported being sexually abused by roughly 380 Southern Baptist church leaders or volunteers since 1998.

Southern Baptist leaders vowed sweeping changes in the wake of the “heartbreaking” report, titled “Abuse of Faith.”

In a statement, commission President Russell Moore said the change was spurred by a “realization” when planning seminars for the conference, which was previously focused on “courage.”

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
KSL TV

April 30, 2019

By Annie Knox

A former Latter-day Saint bishop was convicted Monday of inappropriately touching a teenage family friend in his congregation and being lewd with other boys.

A jury found Jeffrey Byron Head, 54, of Draper, guilty of attempted forcible sexual abuse, a third-degree felony, and two counts of lewdness, a class B misdemeanor. Jurors also found him guilty of a lesser offense of sexual battery, a class A misdemeanor, instead of a more severe count of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.

Prosecutors say Head went to one boy’s house in May 2016 and asked about a recent surgery to his genitals, then asked “to see the surgery” before the teen pulled his pants down and Head inappropriately touched him. The same boy said Head rubbed his shoulders and placed the boy’s hand on his own thigh during an outing to buy milkshakes in 2016.

At a preliminary hearing in February, the teen testified the behavior happened when he was 16 and 17. Head was his bishop and the teen sometimes attended church but was not very devout, he recalled.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said it removed Head from his position, notified police after the allegations surfaced and emphasized that abuse of any kind cannot be tolerated.

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GREENE COUNTY (VA)
WHSV TV

April 30, 2019

A Ruckersville man is facing multiple child pornography charges, as well as charges of sex with a minor.

According to the Greene County Sheriff’s office, 25-year-old Dustin J. Kramer was arrested and is being held without bond at Central Virginia Regional Jail.

Kramer is charged with five counts of possessing child pornography, three counts of computer solicitation of a minor over the age of 15, and four counts of consensual sex with a minor over the age of 15.

Virginia law distinguishes between child sex crimes involving juveniles under 15 and juveniles over 15, but the age of consent is 18.

Anyone with information connected to Kramer’s case is asked to contact Investigator J.M. Tooley (434) 985-2222.

Due to the involvement of a juvenile, no further information is being released by law enforcement.

A social media profile matching Kramer’s description lists him as a youth intern at a Charlottesville church and as having studied criminology at Christopher Newport University.

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MCHENRY COUNTY (IL)
Northwest Herald

April 30, 2019

By Katie Smith

A previously convicted sex offender remained at the McHenry County Jail Tuesday evening after police said he was present on St. Mary’s School property in Woodstock earlier this week.

Woodstock police received a complaint about 3:30 p.m. on Monday claiming that a registered sex offender, was on property at St. Mary’s School, 320 Lincoln Ave., according to a news release sent Tuesday.

The man, Michael D. Colberg, told police he was seeking “support from the church,” Woodstock Police Chief John Lieb said in an email Tuesday.

In Illinois, people convicted of sex crimes are subject to a number of restrictions, which include notifying police when they change addresses and staying away from schools and parks.

Officers arrested 30-year-old Colberg, who is homeless, and charged him with being a sex offender in a school zone.

Upon conferring with the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office, a charge against Colberg was approved for unlawful presence of a child sex offender within a school zone. The alleged offense is a felony typically punishable by one to three years in prison.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

April 30, 2019

By Elizabeth A. Harris

A founder of the Sundance Film Festival is expected to go to prison for at least six years after he pleaded guilty in a Utah courtroom on Tuesday to molesting a young girl. The case came to light after he was recorded apologizing to a man he admitted having groped more than 25 years ago.

Sterling Van Wagenen, a director who helped establish what became the country’s most prestigious annual film exhibition, pleaded guilty in Utah County to one count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child. His lawyer, Steven Shapiro, said Mr. Van Wagenen planned to plead guilty to an additional count, involving the same girl, in neighboring Salt Lake County on Thursday. As part of a deal with prosecutors, Mr. Shapiro said he is expected to receive two sentences of six years-to-life in prison that he will serve concurrently.

Mr. Van Wagenen, 71, was charged with molesting the girl on two occasions between 2013 and 2015, when she was between 7 and 9 years old. But this was not the first allegation against him.

Sean Escobar, who as a boy was friends with two of Mr. Van Wagenen’s sons, said that Mr. Van Wagenen had touched his genitals during a sleepover at the director’s house in the early 1990s.

Mr. Escobar, who is now 38, told his parents the next day. They in turn reported it to a local leader in the Mormon Church, to which they belonged.

Mr. Van Wagenen eventually admitted to a Salt Lake County sheriff’s detective that he had touched the boy inappropriately, but the authorities dropped the case after Mr. Escobar’s parents said they did not want to press charges. (The Greater Salt Lake Unified Police Department, which absorbed the sheriff’s department, said its policy today is to move forward with child sexual abuse cases regardless of the parents’ wishes.)

Mr. Van Wagenen received a two-year “disfellowship” from the church, but went on to teach at Brigham Young University, which is closely affiliated with the church, and also directed movies for the church. Brigham Young said it had been unaware of the allegations when it hired him, and the Sundance Institute said he has had no role in the festival since 1993.

Last year, Mr. Escobar reached out to Mr. Van Wagenen, who agreed to meet with him. Mr. Van Wagenen apologized for what he had done, and said that nothing like it had happened before or since.

Mr. Escobar recorded the conversation on an iPhone he had hidden in a potted plant, then released the recording to the Truth & Transparency Foundation, an investigative website that focuses on religious reporting, thinking it might spur any other victims to come forward. Shortly afterward, the girl did.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

April 30, 2019

By Maria Benevento

A Los Angeles, California, superior court has ruled that a survivor of sexual abuse can sue the state’s Catholic bishops and the California Catholic Conference.

In a press conference livestreamed from Burbank, California, April 29, survivor of clergy sexual abuse Tom Emens spoke alongside attorneys with the Jeff Anderson & Associates law firm. The firm, based in Minnesota, has a decadeslong history of suing the Catholic church and other organizations over their handling of sexual abuse cases.

Emens is not seeking financial compensation in the lawsuit he filed Oct. 2, 2018, but rather the release of complete information about offenders in each diocese, as well as information regarding the bishops’ knowledge of sexual abuse and their handling of victims and abusers.

He and his legal team “seek to uncover what was known, when it was known, and how children can be made safer today,” said Mike Reck, one of Emens’ attorneys, during the press conference.

The lawsuit alleges “that there is a nuisance, a dangerous condition existing” in the California dioceses from Los Angeles to San Francisco, Reck said. By uncovering concealed information on sex abuse, they hope “to not only heal the past but to protect the future.”

A native of Anaheim, California, Emens alleges that he was assaulted at age 10 by Msgr. Thomas Joseph Mohan, who died in 2002 and whose name doesn’t appear on a list of over 300 priests accused of abuse in the Los Angeles Archdiocese that Anderson & Associates compiled from public records.

Saying he felt “cautiously optimistic” and considered the court’s ruling a “victory,” Emens stated during the press conference that his goal in bringing the lawsuit was to help other victim-survivors as well as children who could be currently at risk.

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Patheos blog

April 30, 2019

By Barry Duke

RICHARD J Malone, above, a Catholic bishop from Diocese of Buffalo, NY, is reportedly investigating three priests who allegedly made ‘pornographic’ remarks at a party in the presence of seminarians.

What the priests actually said has not been revealed, but according to this report, seminarians said they engaged in salacious and inappropriate conversation at a parish rectory party.

A statement from the diocese said that during the April 11 gathering:

Unsuitable, inappropriate and insensitive conversations occurred that were disturbing and offensive to several seminarians in attendance. The complaints did not include or infer any instance of physical sexual abuse of a minor or adult.

The Diocese of Buffalo is thankful the seminarians followed the proper protocol and the Seminary responded correctly by immediately investigating and forwarding the findings to Bishop Richard J. Malone and other diocesan officials, including the Office of Professional Responsibility.

Fr John Staak, interim rector at Buffalo’s Christ the King Seminary noted in a statement:

Our primary mission is the education of our students and the formation of our future priests, deacons, and pastoral ministers.

I am pleased the seminarians stepped forward to voice their concerns about unsuitable, inappropriate, and insensitive conversations which occurred … Several seminarians in attendance found the conversations disturbing and offensive.

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HOLLYWOOD (CA)
Hollywood Reporter

April 30, 2019

By Scott Roxborough

German-French channel Arte says it will fight to overturn a court injunction that prevents it from rebroadcasting the documentary, which accuses rogue priests of sexually abusing French nuns.
A French television documentary that accuses Catholic priests of sexually abusing nuns has been pulled from the French-German television channel Arte after a priest filed a complaint with a German court.

French director Marie-Pierre Raimbault and investigative journalist Eric Quintin shot the documentary, Sex Slaves in the Catholic Church, over three years, basing it on firsthand testimony of nuns who claim they were used as “sex slaves” by priests. The women say when they presented their allegations to church authorities at the Vatican, they were ignored and often moved elsewhere in a cover-up that stretched across four continents.

Arte first aired the film in March. Some 1.5 million French viewers caught the original broadcast, with a further 1.7 million watching on replay, making it the most-watched documentary of the year for the channel. The film has sold worldwide.

Pope Francis has publicly acknowledged the problem, noting that the Vatican had to dissolve a French order because its sisters had been reduced to “sexual slavery” at the hands of its founder and other priests.

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LAFAYETTE (LA)
Lafayette Daily Advertiser

April 30, 2019

By Ashley White

A former St. Landry Parish priest was sentenced to seven years of hard labor and three years of probation for sexually assaulting a teen boy.

Michael Guidry, 76, pleaded guilty to molesting a juvenile in March. He faced a maximum of 10 years.

Guidry was the longtime former leader of St. Peter Church in Morrow. Authorities said they opened the investigation after the victim reported he’d been given alcohol before being sexually molested by Guidry at the priest’s home.

The report was made last year, but the abuse happened several years ago when the victim was 16. He’s now 20.

Guidry confessed that he provided the victim with alcohol and admitted to the sexual assault, authorities said.

The Diocese of Lafayette placed him on leave and previously said it has not paid for Guidry’s legal expenses.

Letitia and Scott Peyton, the parents of the abused teen, also are pursuing a civil suit against Guidry and the diocese, seeking damages for pain and suffering. The suit alleges that although the diocese has paid for counseling since the allegations came to light, a senior church official threatened to halt the payments if the family sued.

Earlier this month, the Diocese of Lafayette released a list of 33 priests and four deacons credibly accused of sexual abuse. Guidry was on that list. The diocese did not offer information on what they were accused of or when the accusations

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.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Angelus

April 30, 2019

The following are statements from the California Catholic Conference (CCC) and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles from April 29 regarding comments made by attorney Jeff Anderson in a press conference held the same day.

California Catholic Conference statement:
Contrary to statements by Attorney Jeff Anderson today, the ANTI-SLAPP court ruling supported the California Catholic Conference and Dioceses of California’s position against Jeff Andersons’ claims of nuisance. The court dismissed five of the eight claims made by Jeff Anderson. The Court reaffirmed that Anderson’s client had no claim for nuisance. The California Dioceses have established broad policies and programs at parishes, schools and ministries to report allegations of abuse to law enforcement, prevent and protect against misconduct and to help support victim-survivors of abuse. The failures of the Church to address the issue of abuse in the past caused great harm and the trust in the Church has been broken. Victim-survivors such as Mr. Emmens are rightfully angry for the harm that was inflicted by members of the Church in the past. That is why the Catholic Church in California has taken responsibility not just in words but in action and will continue to take the necessary steps to support victim-survivors, cooperate with law enforcement and help make our parishes, schools and ministries safe places for all.

Archdiocese of Los Angeles statement:
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has had a long-standing commitment to supporting victims of abuse, the protection of children and the vulnerable, and the prevention of abuse and misconduct in our parishes, schools and ministries. The Archdiocese was one of the first dioceses in the nation to publish a comprehensive report about the failures of the past to address the issue of abuse which included a list of names of clergy accused of abuse, whether living or deceased.

The 2002 Report to the People of God had been updated throughout the years with the most recent update published in December 2018.

Of the 307 names that Jeff Anderson has released concerning the Archdiocese, only one was a priest of the Archdiocese who had not been disclosed in the Archdiocese’s public releases because that one priest was not accused of sexual abuse. All the other individuals listed have been disclosed, had no affiliation with the Archdiocese, or no allegation of abuse against them was known to the Archdiocese while they were affiliated with the Archdiocese.

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.

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

April 30, 2019

West Virginia Catholic officials are doing what Catholic officials have done for decades: claiming they cannot be sued for clergy sex crimes and cover ups. In a twist, this time the action was not filed by a victim, but rather the state’s top law enforcement officer.

In a new court filing, Church officials claim Attorney General Patrick Morrisey lacks proper legal authority to go after the diocese for its “long pattern of covering up and keeping secret the criminal behavior of priests as it relates to sexual abuse of children.”

While AG Morrisey has said that the motion “lacks merit,” we find it disturbing that once again Catholic officials prefer to defend themselves on technicalities rather than to address the allegations of the lawsuit in open court.

It would be reassuring – and shocking – to just hear one bishop, anywhere, say “We could battle to try to have this lawsuit thrown out of court. Or we could prove that we’re innocent. And that’s what we’re going to do, because we are indeed innocent of these charges.”

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.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survi ors Network of those A used byPriests

April 30, 2019

Last October, Pope Francis called for a “thorough study” into Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and how he was able to advance up the church hierarchy despite the allegations of serial abuse that had been made against him.

It has been six months since then. Surely it is time for at least a preliminary report.

Why such a glacial pace, especially when high ranking church staffers who knew of or suspected McCarrick’s crimes and misdeeds and ignored or hid them are very likely still on the job today (and may still be ignoring or hiding OTHER clergy sex crimes or misdeeds)?

Such a slow pace sends the wrong message. It says to those who conceal or enable powerful priests to hurt youngsters “No worries. We’ll drag our feet on our ‘investigations,’ giving you ample time to fabricate alibis, rehearse excuses, shred documents, quietly retire or whatever.”

Pope Francis defrocked McCarrick quickly. So it is clear that, when he wants to, the pontiff can move quickly on abuse and cover up. It is time he publicly disclose and discipline those who essentially helped McCarrick hurt so many.

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

ROME (ITALY)
Crux

April 30, 2019

By Claire Giangravè

Members of a global anti-clerical abuse network met with the Argentine Ambassador to the Holy See, Rogelio Francisco Emilio Pfirter, on Monday to promote initiatives in support of “zero tolerance” in Pope Francis’s native land.

“Argentina is also the land of Pope Francis, and we thought it was important to bring forward certain requests to the Argentine government,” said Francesco Zanardi, president and founder of Italy’s most prominent survivor network Rete l’abuso, in an April 29 interview with Crux.

Unlike the situation in Italy, Zanardi said, actions to promote accountability and transparency in Argentina are proceeding “very well.”

The Italian clerical abuse survivor and activist led a delegation of “Ending Clarical Abuse,” (ECA), a global network of survivors, during a meeting Monday with the ambassador in Rome only a stone’s throw from the Vatican.

From May 3-6, ECA will launch a series of initiatives in Argentina calling Francis to address the growing concerns about clerical abuse and cover-up in the country.

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.

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

April 17, 2019

The below is a copy of a letter that was sent to Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt from leaders of SNAP Missouri.

Dear Attorney General Schmitt:

We’re very confused. We need your help.

On the one hand, we want to encourage our members to cooperate with you and your probe of clergy sex crimes and cover ups. We know many victims find it stressful in the short term but healing in the long term to talk with secular authorities about their betrayal. We know that many victims feel better when they do their part to expose and deter irresponsible behavior that endangers kids.

On the other hand, the very last thing we want is for already-suffering abuse victims to suffer more. We do not want to prematurely and falsely raise hopes for possible justice and healing, only to have those hopes dashed later. We don’t want to urge them to cooperate with a probe that turns out to be a whitewash.

So we don’t know what to do about your office’s supposedly look into clergy sex crimes and cover ups.

We’re particularly puzzled and frustrated by your unwillingness to respond to us. For more than six months now, we’ve tried in various ways to reach you. We’ve sent emails. We’ve send registered “return mail requested” letters. We’ve held news conferences outside your offices. We’ve written op eds.

But we get no reply.

Would you investigate racist crimes and cover ups without talking with the NAACP?

Would you look into harm done to agricultural personnel by chemicals without talking with the Farm Bureau?

Would you claim you’re doing a probe into wage theft without talking to labor unions?

So why on earth would you say you’re delving into clergy sex crimes and cover ups in Catholic institutions without talking with the leadership of SNAP, the nation’s oldest and largest support group for clergy sex abuse victims?

Please, for the healing of victims and the safety of kids, help us understand this. Please, at this point, at least respond to our letter.

Thank you.

David G. Clohessy

314-566-9790 (cell)

davidgclohessy@gmail.com

Jim McConnell

Kansas City SNAP Leader

816-590-4752

jm0832@att.net

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle

April 30, 2019

By Gwendolyn Wu

The social services arm of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland is seeking to open a home for teenage victims of sexual trafficking, but the church’s plan to help girls who have been abused is facing opposition on multiple fronts.

Claire’s House, named after the mother of Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, plans to house up to 12 teenage sex trafficking victims at a location in Sequoyah, a forested neighborhood of the eastern Oakland hills, said Mary Kuhn, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Charities of the East Bay, which will oversee the home.

O’Malley has focused on fighting human trafficking, and when she approached the diocese and other East Bay leaders about a new initiative, the nonprofit offered to convert a former rectory into a shelter.

“If we don’t have housing or some safe place for people to be, what do we expect to happen?” said O’Malley, whose late mother had a reputation for taking in her children’s friends if they needed a place to sleep.

But the proposal has met resistance from some advocates for survivors of sex trafficking, who say the church’s stance on abortion and contraception could harm victims. Meanwhile, neighbors of the home worry that traffickers will bring crime, drugs and guns to their community.

Short-term residential therapeutic programs are usually designed for foster youth and licensed by the California Department of Social Services. Claire’s House, which is still awaiting certification from the state, would differ slightly in that it would provide a bridge to intense support for young sex trafficking victims.

Clients will be able to stay up to 18 months at the facility while accessing mental health services and schooling, Kuhn said. The program will bill Medi-Cal for therapeutic services.

But the shelter will take a strict approach in facilitating access to contraception and abortions.

Catholic Charities of the East Bay will not make appointments for clients at clinics that provide contraception or abortion services, nor will it provide transportation, Kuhn said. Instead, Claire’s House will post a sign in a common area that explains the teens’ medical options.

Beyond that, Kuhn said, they will need to rely on their guardians to arrange for such services.

Ingrid Persson, a former grant manager at Catholic Charities of the East Bay, said she fears the nonprofit will run afoul of regulations that allow minors access to birth control or abortions, which the Oakland Diocese’s top official denied.

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

SACRAMENTO (CA)
KCRA TV

April 30, 2019

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento released the names of 46 priests and deacons who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse over the past seven decades.

The clergy named in the list have been credibly accused of sexually abusing 130 minors or young adults, aged 25 and under, the diocese said in a news release. The list is based on the personnel records of nearly 1,500 bishops, priests and deacons from 1950 to the present.

“This list is heartbreaking. It is a sickening and sobering account of the history of sex abuse by clergy in our diocese,” Bishop Jaime Soto said in a news release. “It is repulsive to see the evil acts that were perpetrated upon innocent children and young people entrusted to our care.”

The list was posted at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday on the diocese’s website. See the list of the 44 priests and two permanent deacons who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse here.

“We believe really strongly, and the bishop here believes really strongly, that if we’re going to recover the trust of the people, the trust of Catholics and the public, that begins with the accounting of what happened in the past,” diocese spokesperson Kevin Eckery said. “By having this accounting, by seeing, frankly, what was a catalogue of evil and failure and pain, that it’s always going to stay with us and we’re always going to be, you know, on target watching for this, to make sure it never happens again.”

The list was originally supposed to be released last fall, but it was pushed back to March after the diocese hired an outside consultant to go through the personnel files. The diocese then announced on Sunday that the list would be released this week.

The Diocese of Sacramento serves 1.3 million Catholics across 20 counties and is one of 12 dioceses in California.

Other dioceses in the state have also said they would release the names of priests facing abuse claims in the wake of revelations about priest sex abuse in Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

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

BAKERSFIELD (CA)
The Bakersfield Californian

April 29, 2019

By Stacey Shepard

A third allegation against Monsignor Craig Harrison surfaced Monday when the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno confirmed an accusation of sex abuse was reported two decades ago.

In 1998, a man reported the alleged abuse to the Firebaugh Police Department, and then later reported it in 2002 to the Fresno Diocese, according to Teresa Dominguez, communications director for the diocese. The diocese investigated and took no action.

“(The accuser) didn’t feel that it got its due attention in 1998 so he did return in 2002 to the diocese,” Dominguez said. “The diocese determined it to be unsubstantiated.”

The man said the abuse occurred at St. Joseph Church in Firebaugh, where Harrison served as pastor from July 1, 1992 to June 30, 1999.

“However, it’s our policy … if we do discover something comparable that occurred in the past we bring it into the current conversation,” Dominguez said.

Harrison’s attorney, Kyle Humphrey, said he was surprised the Diocese of Fresno had revealed the latest accusation, given the circumstances of the allegation.

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

FRESNO (CA)
KGET TV

April 29, 2019

By Jason Kotowski

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno said an allegation of abuse in 1998 against a well-known Bakersfield priest who is currently facing accusations of sexual misconduct was unsubstantiated.

Msgr. Craig Harrison, who for years has served as pastor of St. Francis Catholic Church, is facing sexual abuse allegations from two men. One is claiming sexual misconduct occurred while Harrison served as a priest in Firebaugh, the other in Merced.

Diocese officials on Monday said an allegation against Harrison in 1998 was unsubstantiated.

The current allegations surfaced Thursday and Saturday, respectively. Harrison has denied wrongdoing.

His attorney, Kyle J. Humphrey, has said, “These people are committing character assassination on a good man. We will continue to fight against these false allegations and we will restore Monsignor Craig’s good name and see him reinstated to his rightful place as pastor of Saint Francis parish.”

Harrison has been placed on leave.

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.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Associated Press

April 29, 2019

A man who says he was molested by his parish priest decades ago vows to proceed with a lawsuit targeting all Catholic bishops in California after a judge dismissed part of the suit.

The so-called “nuisance” lawsuit filed in October by Thomas Emens claims a civil conspiracy among church officials to cover up clergy assault and move offending priests to other parishes.

Last week a judge dismissed 5 of the lawsuit’s causes of action, while upholding 3 others.

Emens’ attorney, Jeff Anderson, said at a news conference Monday that the judge’s decision will still allow him to examine church documents. Anderson says the lawsuit’s goal is to force the church to reveal the names of all priests accused of molestation.

Steve Greene, a lawyer for the California Catholic Conference, says the fate of the 3 remaining causes of action remains uncertain and will be determined at a future hearing.

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.

LONG ISLAND (NY)
Newsday

April 29, 2019

By Bart Jones

The Diocese of Rockville Centre will not release a list of priests credibly accused of sexually abusing children although it may do so in the future, church officials said Monday.

The decision is in contrast with those of the Archdiocese of New York and other dioceses around the country which have published such lists.

“At this time, the diocese believes that while the investigations of claims and allegations are ongoing, it is premature to release a list of accused clergy,” though it remains under consideration, said Sean Dolan, a spokesman for the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

He added that “not a single priest or deacon of this diocese is currently in ministry who has been the subject of a credible and substantiated claim of abuse against a minor,” and that the diocese turns over to law enforcement any allegations of sexual abuse against minors by clergy.

Lawyers for sex abuse victims criticized the decision not to release the list.

“That choice is a continuation of the conspiracy of silence that that diocese and its officials including the bishops … have been perpetuating for decades,” said Michael Reck, a Manhattan-based attorney who represents clergy sex abuse victims in the diocese.

“It flies in the face of the child protection movement and it fails to provide any healing for the survivors who have already been hurt and does nothing to protect children today,” Reck said.

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

SANTA BARBARA (CA)
Pacific Standard

April 29, 2019

By Emily Moon

Last year, a California man sued bishops from every one of California’s 11 dioceses, arguing that the church’s history of concealing abusers’ identities is a threat to free speech. This month, a California judge ruled that some of the claims in the lawsuit would be allowed to proceed—a decision that could force church officials to release the names of alleged abusers in dioceses across the state.

In a press conference about the court order on Monday, Tom Emens recalled the first time he spoke about his abuse publicly, in October of 2018, and called the ruling a “small victory”:

It’s another powerful moment in time. If you’re a victim-survivor out there, this is a huge day for all of us. If you read these words here, what the judge said in the ruling, it rings true: This is a very long, difficult battle. … But it’s a moral battle, it’s a just battle, and I will stand here with these people, these victims, these survivors, these advocates, and I’ll do everything I can to hold the church accountable.

Emens, a 50-year-old Camarillo resident, has accused a now-deceased family priest who was in residence at an Anaheim, California, parish of grooming and abusing him from ages 10 to 12. While he cannot seek justice against his own abuser, Emens told Pacific Standard in a November of 2018 interview that he hopes his lawsuit will force the state’s dioceses to confront a widespread pattern of clergy sex abuse and cover-up.

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.

NASHVILLE (TN)
SBC Global

April 29, 2019

By Christa Brown

Within hours of each other, two men emailed me with harrowing stories of having been sexually violated as kids on a church trip to Glorieta Baptist Conference Center (now defunct) in New Mexico. They both told of having grown up in the same Southern Baptist church in Louisiana, and they both named the same music minister as their perpetrator.

I asked if the two of them had been in touch, but they said they hadn’t spoken in over 20 years.

This unlikely coincidence happened in 2007 when survivors were flooding my inbox with their stories of Baptist clergy sex abuse and church cover-ups. Because of the providential timing, the story of these two men has remained with me.

The saddest part of it was what they told me about their futile efforts to seek help from Southern Baptist Convention officials.

The first man, whom I’ll call Bill, was the son of an ordained Southern Baptist minister. He was 14 at the time he was abused, and he told of significant physical and psychological harm.

Years later, as an adult, he called the SBC offices, asking to speak with someone about the abuse. According to Bill, the man who returned his call “spent more time trying to show the error of my homosexuality than providing a listening ear.” He insisted that the perpetrator had “turned (Bill) gay,” and emphasized that “the SBC held no responsibility.” He did nothing to extend compassion or care to Bill or to responsibly address his allegations.

The second man, whom I’ll call Brad, was 16 at the time he was abused by his music minister. He told his parents, who informed the senior pastor, but the police were not notified.

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.

CINNAMINSON (NJ)
New Jersey 105

April 29, 2019

By Sergio Bichao

Times may have changed but a former priest accused of having a sexual affair with an underage girl in the 1980s still has his job as a middle school teacher in this district.

An arbitrator for the state Department of Education has ordered the district to return English teacher Joseph DeShan back to the classroom despite protests by parents worried about his troubling past.

The arbitrator’s April 2 decision says the district had no basis to file tenure charges against DeShan because officials provided no proof that he did anything wrong while he’s been employed in their schools.

DeShan was suspended from his position earlier this school year for the second time in his nearly 21-year career in Cinnaminson. In both cases, the suspensions were the result of the same reports of his sexual affair with an underage girl in the 1980s when he was in his late 20s and a priest in the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The woman, who first told her story when she was an adult, said the sex began when she was 14 and continued until DeShan impregnated her when she was 15 or 16.

From published reports, DeShan appears to have never publicly denied the relationship but he was never charged with a crime because the woman went public with her story after Connecticut’s statute of limitations on sex crimes had run out. The legal age of consent in both states is 16 unless the adult is in a position of authority.

DeShan could not be reached for comment for this story and New Jersey 101.5 did not know whether he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

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

WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

Apr 29, 2019

By Kevin Birnbaum

Pope Francis has named Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Anchorage to be coadjutor archbishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle, meaning he will assist and could succeed Archbishop James P. Sartain in leading the archdiocese.

Etienne, who will celebrate his 60th birthday June 15, has been in Anchorage since October 2016.

Sartain, who will turn 67 June 6, has led the Seattle Archdiocese since 2010.

Etienne was preparing for Holy Week on the morning of Saturday, April 13, when he got a call from Archbishop Christophe Pierre. the apostolic nuncio to the United States, saying Pope Francis had appointed him coadjutor archbishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle.

“To say I was caught off guard would be an understatement,” Etienne told Northwest Catholic, magazine for the Seattle Archdiocese. “You just never expect these phone calls.”

Nevertheless, he said, “My answer was immediately to say yes.”

In his nearly 27 years as a priest and 10 years as a bishop, he’s learned to trust in God’s providence when the pope asks him to take on a new responsibility, “to follow the Lord to another land.”

“My life is at the service of the church,” he said. “I’m a pastor at heart.”

Etienne’s appointment was announced by the nuncio April 29; a “rite of reception” Mass – because Sartain remains archbishop of Seattle – will be celebrated June 7 at St. James Cathedral in Seattle.

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.

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

April 29, 2019

A priest from a Chicago-based Catholic group has been arrested for molesting little girls in East Timor, one of the poorest countries on earth. We hope Catholic officials in Chicago will mount an aggressive outreach drive so that he might also be charged here.

For decades, Fr. Richard Daschbach has run an orphanage called Topu Honis Shelter Home in East Timor. Last year he allegedly admitted that hesexually abused little girls at the orphanage. As of two months ago he was reportedly refusing to leave the facility and was still saying mass, despite being defrocked. Given the access that Fr. Daschbach has had to children in this vulnerable area, we fear it is very likely that he abused dozens of little girls before finally being arrested.

Fr. Daschbach was ordained at St. Mary’s Mission Seminary in Chicago and was a member of the Chicago-based Society of the Divine Word (SVD). We call on Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich and leaders from the SVD to use every tool at their disposal to encourage officials here to investigate if any crimes were committed in the U.S. by the former priest, with the goal of having him face prosecution in this country as well.

By laicizing Fr. Daschbach but ignoring the fact that he had returned to ministry around young children, Church officials at the Vatican washed their hands of him. But leaders in the Chicago Archdiocese and SVD can show they care and want to prevent abuse by pulling out the stops. They should be appealing to governments in both countries to do everything they can to make sure that Fr. Daschbach is kept away from children for the rest of his life.

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.

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

April 29, 2019

A former New Hampshire priest has been named a credibly accused child molester by Catholic officials.

Fr. John Voglio’s name was posted Friday on the Archdiocese of New York’s list of abusers. Voglio had previously been mentioned in a 2003 New Hampshire attorney general’s report but, until last week, there was no admission by church figures anywhere that the abuse allegations against him were legitimate.

We hope Manchester Bishop Peter Libasci will disclose more details about Fr. Voglio’s time in the state and his current whereabouts. Fr. Voglio belongs or belonged to a Catholic religious order known as the Salesians.

And we hope others who may have seen, suspected or suffered abuse in New Hampshire – by Fr. Voglio or others – will find the courage to speak up, make a report to the police and attorney general, and find pathways to start healing.

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.

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

April 28, 2019

A second man has now accused Msgr. Craig Harrison of child sexual abuse. He reportedly told the Merced Police Department on Friday that the monsignor inappropriately touched him in 1988 when he was a boy. The priest had been suspended from ministry earlier in the week pending an investigation into similar allegations from another man.

While we have no firsthand information about this case, we know that false allegations are exceedingly rare. Multiple allegations are even less likely to be false.

We also know that it can take decades for a victim to find the courage to speak out. Studies show that the average age to disclose is 52, with the median age 48. So it was infuriating to read that Msgr. Harrison’s attorney, Kyle Humphrey, claimed that “When someone comes forward to allege an incident from 31 years ago, their motivation is suspect.”

It was also maddening to have Mr. Humphrey opine that “[T]hese individuals see potential financial gain.” While we understand that the attorney is only doing his job, it seems to us that his comment was beyond the pale.

As far as we know, neither of these men has filed a lawsuit for damages. Moreover, as a lawyer should know, Both are in fact most likely barred from taking that action by California’s predator friendly statutes of limitations.

Most survivors come forward to the Church and police, as these two men have, out of concern for today’s children. Considering the way victims are depicted when they do come forward, it is a wonder than any ever speak out, and certainly not surprising that it takes time to gather the strength and bravery to do so.

We hope that others who may have been abused by Msgr. Harrison or anyone else in the Diocese of Fresno, as well as anyone who witnessed or suspected abuse, will take courage from the fine example of these two men and make a report to law enforcement and to California’s Attorney General.

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

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

April 29, 2019

By Ruth Gledhill

The Vatican has confirmed that guidelines on dealing with Catholic priests who father children are sent to any episcopal conference that requests them.

Mgr Andrea Ripa, of the Congregation for the Clergy, wrote to Vincent Doyle, founder of the Coping International, which defends the rights of children of priests worldwide, confirming the policy of the Vatican concerning the document.

“Should an Episcopal Conference request the text from the Congregation, we are more than happy to send them a copy,” he wrote.

Now Mr Doyle is calling on the Vatican to publish the guidelines in full.

The existence of the document has been known since 2017, but it has never been published.

It is not known how many children of priests there are, but Coping International’s website has 50,000 users.

In a recent interview with Vatican News, Cardinal Beniamino Stella, Prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, said: “The Dicastery follows the longstanding practices from the time when Cardinal Claudio Hummes was prefect — about ten years — who first brought to the attention of the Holy Father (at the time, Benedict XVI) the cases of priests under the age of 40 with children, proposing that they obtain the dispensation [from clerical state] without waiting for the age of 40, as provided for in the norms [in force] at the time.

“Such a decision had, and has, as its principle objective, the safeguarding of the good of the child, that is, the right of the child to have at his side a father as well as a mother.”

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.

ALFRED (ME)
Associated Press

April 29, 2019

The delayed sentencing of a defrocked Massachusetts priest convicted of sexually abusing an altar boy is scheduled for late May.

Officials at York County Superior Court in Maine say 76-year-old Ronald Paquin will be sentenced on May 24. A pair of men testified they were altar boys when he invited them on trips in the 1980s and assaulted them repeatedly. The jury returned guilty verdicts on 11 of 24 gross sexual misconduct charges, involving one of the men.

Paquin had been slated for sentencing in early March, but his attorney filed a motion requesting a mental health evaluation.

He spent more than a decade in a Massachusetts prison for sexually abusing another altar boy in that state and was released in 2015 before being taken into custody in Maine.

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

April 29, 2019

Earlier this month, parents of children in a charter school in Arizona found out that the school’s recently hired curriculum consultant had been accused of sexually abusing a minor in his former job. John F. Meyers just last year was removed from his position as rector at St. Joseph’s-in-the-Hills Retreat House in Malvern after an investigation substantiated claims of child sexual abuse. One of his early victims and a team of investigators found him through social media and informed the school.

It is unclear if the charter’s operator knew about the accusations and ignored them, or if Meyers managed to keep them a secret. One reason Meyers could have kept his secret was that he was protected by Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations.

Under current Pennsylvania law, criminal charges for child sexual abuse can only be brought before the victim is 30 and a civil lawsuit before the victim is 50. That became an issue most recently in the case of Catholic priests in Pennsylvania, more than 300 of whom were named in last summer’s grand jury report detailing decades of child sexual abuse. Charges were brought against only two of the predator priests because of the statute of limitations.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro and others have pushed to reform the law since the report came out, but Republicans in Harrisburg have consistently delayed the effort, arguing that a constitutional amendment is needed to extend the window of time to sue . A bill to eliminate the statute of limitations for future child abuse passed the House last week.

The opportunity to take legal action is important, because it creates a public record. Far too often, those accused of abuse and harassment settle their cases under conditions of secrecy. If they have behaved badly, they are not held to account.

This secrecy is becoming increasingly problematic. An Inquirer investigation last week found that Bloomsburg University President Bashar Hanna was quietly ousted from two other Pa. universities for mistreating female employees. Now he is facing similar allegations in Bloomsburg. Had either institution taken legal action, Hanna would have not been able to move on so easily. His actions would have been part of the public record.

Settlements wrapped in secrecy prevent a public record. In January, the city settled a lawsuit against Sheriff Jewel Williams for $127,500, one of two settled on his behalf. Williams claims he is innocent. The taxpayers who paid for his representation, and who are expected to vote for a sheriff in the upcoming primary, would not need to speculate had the case gone to a trial and a judge and jury would have convicted or vindicated Williams.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Daily Mail

April 29, 2019

By Rory Tingle

Church of England leaders allegedly ‘turned a blind eye’ to child abuse claims against a teacher who was allowed to move to an Anglican school in Papua New Guinea despite facing child sex assault claims, an investigation has revealed.

Roy Griffiths, a deputy head teacher at Lincoln Cathedral School, was accused of indecently assaulting a pupil in 1969, but remained employed until 1970 when another boy made abuse claims against him.

He stayed at the school for at least two further months and was able to move to a job at an Anglican school in Papua New Guinea. The late Rt Revd Kenneth Riches, former Bishop of Lincoln, knew about the case from the first complaint.

Neither Lincoln Cathedral School nor Lincoln Diocese informed the police at the time and they only heard 45 years later, BBC Panorama found.

Griffiths admitted abusing six boys at Lincoln Cathedral School last year, and was sentenced to six years and seven months in prison.

One of Roy Griffiths’ victims, who now lives in Canada, told Panorama: ‘It should have been dealt with right away, and the Church should have instructed the police… and they didn’t. They just turned a blind eye and moved on.’

Lincolnshire Police and Lincoln Diocese investigated 25 people over alleged abuse, from a list of 53 names which were passed to officers, with three cases leading to convictions.

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
KCRA TV

April 29, 2019

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento will publish a list of priests and deacons this week that it said have been credibly accused of sexual abuse against minors over the past seven decades.

Bishop Jaime Soto released a letter Sunday acknowledging the pain this will cause members of the Sacramento community.

“I am repulsed and heartbroken by the evil acts that were perpetrated upon the innocent by those entrusted with their care. When you read the list you will experience your own feelings of shock, anger and disgust. This undoubtedly will reopen wounds for some,” Soto wrote in a letter. “I apologize for the sins and failures of the past. I am determined that such acts of abuse should never again occur in our diocese.”

The diocese hired an outside consultant to go through hundreds of files and determine which cases were credible. This comes as dioceses across the country are releasing the names of priests accused of sexual abuse.

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BARCELONA (SPAIN)
Agence France-Presse

April 29, 2019

A Barcelona court sentenced Monday a former gym teacher at a Catholic school to over 20 years in jail for sexually assaulting students, in the latest abuse scandal rocking the church in Spain.

Joaquin Benitez, who taught for nearly three decades at a Barcelona school run by the Marist community, a Roman Catholic order at the centre of a clerical abuse scandal in Chile, got a jail term of 21 years and nine months for assaulting four students.

The court also ordered Benitez to pay the victims a total of 120,000 euros ($134,000). This is the first sentence since public accusations of abuse against Benitez in 2016 triggered a cascade of other complaints at two other Marist schools in Barcelona.

The ruling comes amid sustained criticism of the Vatican’s response to a decades-long sexual abuse crisis. The court said Benitez had an office with a bed “where he took students to give massages and treat injuries.”

His victims described behind closed doors at the trial in March how Benitez would summon them to his office and sexually abuse them. Benitez apologised to his victims as he left the court after the first day of the proceedings, justifying his behaviour by the fact that he himself had suffered sexual abuse as a student at Catholic boarding school.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Christian Post

April 29, 2019

By David Closson

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI recently surprised church observers by weighing in on the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal. In an almost 6,000-word article published in Germany, Benedict argued that clerical sexual abuse could be traced to the moral transformation that transpired during the sexual revolution of the 1960s. The rejection of biblical morality and absolute truth, Benedict said, has led to the “dissolution of the Christian concept of morality.”

The public comments represent a rare move for the former pontiff, who, in 2013, became the first pope in nearly 600 years to resign. At the time, Benedict pledged to live out his remaining years in quiet contemplation. Thus, his public letter, which was approved by Pope Francis, is a notable change for the former leader of the world’s largest church.

Initial reaction to Benedict’s letter was mixed. Whereas conservatives praised the former pope’s analysis, those on the theological left immediately criticized the letter for its “thin analysis” of the situation. Critics, such as church historian Christopher Bellitto, attacked Benedict’s letter for omitting conclusions that were reached during a February summit in Rome, such as the claims that “abusers were priests along the ideological spectrum, that the abuse predated the 1960s, that it is a global and not simply Western problem, [and] that homosexuality is not the issue in pedophilia.”

As far as the contents of the letter, it is divided into three parts.

The first section outlines the “wider social context” of the clerical sexual abuse scandal. In scathing language, Benedict attacks the 1960s as a time when the “previously normative standards regarding sexuality collapsed entirely.”

Specifically, Benedict points to the loss of objective truth as a major turning point for the church.

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KALAMAZOO (MI)
M Live

April 29, 2019

By Julie Mack and Scott Levin

The Catholic Church has loomed large over Gloria Emmons’ life.

Growing up in metro Detroit in the 1950s and ’60s, her devout Catholic family was surrounded by other devout Catholics. Everybody went to church on Sundays. Nobody ate meat on Fridays. Almost every home had a statue of Mary.

Emmons attended Catholic schools through college. She married in the church, sent her two sons through Catholic schools and the family attended weekly Mass for years.

But today, Emmons describes herself as an “ambivalent” Catholic.

“There are lots of conflicts” between Catholic doctrine and contemporary values such as equality for gays and women, said Emmons, 65, who lives near Kalamazoo. “As we move forward as a society, they stare you in the face.”

Emmons still considers herself Catholic. “I still love the Mass,” she said.

But she no longer belongs to a local parish, and when she attends Mass nowadays, it’s typically to accompany her 93-year-old father to his church in Oakland County.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

April 28, 2019

Regarding the April 25 Metro article “Baltimore Archdiocese names more priests accused of abuse, all deceased”:

My uncle’s name appeared on the list of priests accused of sexual abuse issued last week by the Archdiocese of Baltimore. I would like to call him and ask him what I should think about this, but he died in 1981. Where is the fairness in publicly defaming men who are not here to defend themselves?

The law says a dead person cannot be defamed. But the damage to his reputation and to his memory is very real. The American Catholic Church failed miserably in its handling of this scandal, in its secrecy and its blind allegiance to the priest abusers. But it is no less a failure to throw out to the public the names of people who were not proved to have committed these crimes and who have no chance to be heard.

I am trying to be the voice my uncle was denied. To those who knew and loved the Rev. Regis F. Larkin, I urge you not to be influenced by this list. Remember the easygoing guy with the great sense of humor and brilliant way with words. Those are the memories he deserves.

And to the people who participated in the decision to list my uncle, I hope you understand that you have just increased the length of the list of people who are victims of this scandal.

Maureen Loftus Hogel, Pittsburgh

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

April 28, 2019

By Dennis Sadowski

More than 90 percent of Catholics said they believe that Catholic organizations should invest church funds in ways that are consistent with church teaching and values, according to results of a new survey.

In addition, about 31 percent of respondents to the survey conducted by Boston-based Catholic Investment Services said that news of clergy sexual abuse and the church’s handling of such allegations has caused them to give less to their parish. Still, 7 percent of respondents said they have given more to their parish.

However, 41 percent of respondents said they either plan to donate less to their parish or are considering giving less in the future.

Peter Jeton, the firm’s CEO, said the findings would help Catholic institutions understand the thinking of individual donors in planning future investments to fund church-based operations. The survey results were released April 24.

“My sense is that this (awareness of socially responsible investing) increasingly is a personal issue that people in the pews feel,” Jeton told Catholic News Service.

“There is increasing talk of the notion of donating financial resources and to what kind of causes and there is an implied stewardship that needs to be played there,” he explained. “If you are a parish or a diocese receiving this kind of funding, what kind of obligation is there to invest in a way that could be considered consistent with the church in a whole group of things.”

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SPOKANE (WA)
Spokesman-Review

April 28, 2019

By Shawn Vestal

In recent months, a refrain has arisen from many people who live, teach and study at Gonzaga University: There’s no way Thayne couldn’t have known.

That response touches on the insistence by GU President Thayne McCulloh that he was not aware that the Jesuits were sending priests who had sexually abused children to retire on campus, before and during his presidency.

Starting in the 1970s, the leaders of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus sent 24 priests who had “credible claims” of abuse lodged against them to live in Cardinal Bea House – a retirement home owned by the Jesuits and located on the GU campus – or in the GU-owned Jesuit House, which has been replaced by the Della Strada Jesuit Community.

The men sent there included several notorious Jesuits with long and publicly documented histories of abuse, many of them in Native communities in Alaska and the West – histories that were reported in the news media and revealed in lawsuits and bankruptcy actions over more than a decade. A report by Reveal, aired on radio and as a podcast in December, landed like a bomb on campus; while the report was in many ways a compendium of previously reported information, it detailed for the first time the extent of the practice of housing abusive priests on the GU campus.

In a statement after the report, McCulloh offered a seemingly contradictory series of assertions about what he knew and didn’t know. The bottom line: He said he was never notified that Jesuits who were on supervised “safety plans” over abuse allegations were living at Bea House or on campus while they were there.

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DILI (TIMOR-LESTE)
Rappler

April 28, 2019

The police in Timor-Leste have arrested a former priest who has been accused of sexually abusing young girls in his orphanage in the country’s enclave Oecusse.

“R.D.” was brought before the judge on Friday, April 26, and is now in custody, sources confirmed. Meanwhile the director of the shelter was arrested too on Sunday, April 28, after she organized an attack against a former resident of the orphanage whom she suspected of having given a statement against the priest.

Last November the Vatican dismissed R.D. from his clergy status punishing him for the crimes he allegedly committed when he was a priest. (READ: Vatican defrocks former U.S. cardinal over sex abuse claims) It is the first time that a case of sexual violence against minors by a member of the Catholic clergy has become public in Timor-Leste.

R.D. is an 82-year-old American who was a member of the congregation Society of the Divine Word (Societas Verbi Divini, SVD).

After his ordination in 1964 he went to Indonesia. Later he settled in Oecusse, Timor-Leste’s western enclave, where he established in 1992 Topu Honis Shelter Home, which presented itself as “a safe haven” for orphans, poor children, disabled adults and abused women.

Over the years it served hundreds of children. The sexual abuse took place in Topu Honis’ orphanage for young girls and boys, located in the isolated mountainous hamlet of Kutet. A second location in the coastal village Mahata accommodates the teenagers. R.D. was a respected priest and seen as a savior, who provided food, clothes, and education to the most deprived people in the area. His community called him “father” and “God.” But there was a dark side to him and the shelter.

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BAKERSFIELD (CA)
Bakersfield.com

April 27, 2019

By Stacey Shapard

When a celebrity priest is accused of sexual misconduct, where does the line between defending a beloved pillar of the community end and intimidation of an accuser begin?

The question came up this week after Monsignor Craig Harrison of St. Francis Church was placed on paid leave by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno after it received an allegation earlier this month that Harrison inappropriately touched an altar boy when he served at a church in Firebaugh, northwest of Fresno, years ago. That same day the diocese received a second report of alleged abuse by Harrison, diocesan officials said Saturday, this time at a church in Merced in the 1980s.

The initial allegations reverberated throughout the St. Francis congregation and the greater community — where Harrison has long been a fixture of goodwill, faith and homegrown pride. Immediately, hundreds posted messages of support for Harrison on social media.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Voice of America

April 26, 2019

[Audio of 25-minute interview]

Stephen White, Executive Director of The Catholic Project at the Catholic University of America, and Msgr. Stephen Rossetti, Research Associate Professor also at Catholic University, join host Carol Castiel to examine the latest developments in the worldwide Catholic Church sexual abuse crisis and their ramifications for the papacy of Pope Francis and the future of the Catholic Church.

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VANCOUVER (BRITISH COLUMBIA)
B.C. Catholic, Archdiocese of Vancouver

April 25, 2019

By Kasey Kimball

A cradle Anglican, Kasey Kimball grew up in Newburyport, Mass., moving to Vancouver in 2014 to attend Regent College. In 2018, she graduated with her MA in doctrinal theology and was received into the Catholic Church this Easter. She shared her story of conversion at St. Mark’s College April 7 with the talk “The Body of Christ Suffers Together: Reflections from a Convert to a Church in Crisis.” This is a shortened version of that testimony.

Trying to tell one’s own conversion story is a bit like trying to express the ineffable. Yes, there are important moments, important revelations, and important books to mention, but the work of grace is also inherently mysterious. Every time I tell this story, I get more insight into that work of grace, and am newly amazed by it.

Last August, I attended Mass at a small outdoor chapel in Lake Tahoe, Calif. At that time, I was deep in ecclesiastical no-man’s land. I’d flunked out of RCIA a few months earlier (by that, I mean I attended all the classes and went through all the rites but could not in good conscience become a Catholic at Easter).

* * *

When the priest came out, he spoke directly about the McCarrick scandal which had broken that week. He acknowledged the horrors of the abuse, the need for accountability and reform. I appreciated his directness, the refusal to maintain a chain of silence.

I also found myself feeling unexpectedly drawn to the Church. The impression I had in that moment was that if the Catholic Church was the body of Christ in a particular way (and that was still a big if), then I needed to move close to her in this time of crisis. If you find this a strange reaction to the revelation of yet another instance of clergy sexual abuse and cover-up, I did too.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
USC Annenberg Media

April 23, 2019

By Mia Speier

When USC students discuss Catholicism with one another, all too often the first thing that comes to people’s mind is the sexual abuse scandal in the church. That’s what David de la Cruz has experienced during his time on the Caruso Catholic Center Student Advisory Board.

“I think there is a lot of misunderstanding because I know that sometimes when I say that I am Catholic, the punchline eventually gets to, ‘Oh, how many pedophile priests do you know?’” said de la Cruz, a sophomore majoring in classics and informatics. “That is very reductionist, and a hurtful sentiment to hold.”

The topic of sexual abuse in the church goes beyond everyday conversations with Catholics, and has been thrust into the national spotlight.

Pope Francis convened an unprecedented summit in late February to discuss the global crisis of clergy sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Leaders from across the world joined in conversation with one another at the Vatican following revelations of thousands of cases of abuse in countries like Japan, Australia, Germany and the United States.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

April 25, 2019

By Inés San Martín

Rome – Though far away from the center of the action in Rome, Bishop Celestino Aos, the temporary head of the embattled Archdiocese of Santiago, Chile, has a tough job. He’s replacing a cardinal being investigated for cover-up of clerical sexual abuse, whose predecessor is also being questioned by local prosecutors.

During the Easter season, Aos might have made his own job even harder when on Holy Thursday during the Chrism Mass he was filmed denying communion to at least two faithful who were kneeling down.

Crux received two different videos showing Aos refusing the sacrament to kneelers in a celebration that made several Mass-goers uncomfortable from the beginning. The Chrism Mass is one of the most solemn liturgies of the year, and is often the largest annual gathering of clergy and faithful held in most dioceses. Among other things, it’s during this liturgy that the oils that will be used for various sacraments throughout the year are blessed.

The entrance procession included Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, who’s being investigated by civil authorities for cover-up and who’s been named in a complaint for failing to report a rape of an adult man that allegedly took place in Santiago’s cathedral. This led to several priests walking out of the service, with Crux identifying at least two.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

April 23, 2019

By Inés San Martín

Rome – On the Catholic calendar, Holy Week is a period of meditation on Jesus’ death and resurrection, a time for mea culpas and healing wounds. Yet in Chile, a country deeply scarred by clerical abuse scandals, several bishops being investigated for either abuse or cover-up chose Holy Week to reopen wounds instead.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of eight Chilean bishops over the past year, after all of them offered to step down last May. The country’s bishops find themselves engulfed in scandal due to decades of mismanagement, cover-up and, in some cases, personally having committed abuses. The pontiff also accused them of committing crimes connected to the abuse of minors, including destroying evidence.

Five of those bishops nonetheless showed up at Holy Week celebrations, in some cases discreetly, in others as concelebrants to the apostolic administrators Francis has appointed to replace them. That includes Bishop Gonzalo Duarte, who’s been accused not only of covering up cases of abuse but of abuse of power with sexual connotations against seminarians.

As Father Eugenio de la Fuente summarized on Twitter, during the Holy Thursday Chrism Masses celebrated in five Chilean dioceses, five bishops belonging to the “Pandora’s box” described by Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the lead Vatican investigator in Chile, showed up to either to preside or concelebrate.

“It hurts, disappoints [and] wounds,” de la Fuente wrote.

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ATLANTA (GA)
CNN

April 27, 2019

By Ray Sanchez

The Archdiocese of New York, the second-largest diocese in the nation, has identified 120 priests and deacons accused of sexually abusing a child or having child pornography in the latest revelations in the Catholic Church’s long-running sex abuse epidemic.

The list, which includes Theodore McCarrick, the defrocked and once-powerful US cardinal, comes as the church — both in the United States and around the world — wrestles a wave of scandals that have spurred criminal investigations, roiled the faithful and damaged the institution’s moral credibility.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan said in a letter released with the list Friday that he realizes “the shame that has come upon our church due to the sexual abuse of minors.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
NPR

April 27, 2019

By Gabriela Saldivia

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York released the names on Friday of 115 priests and five deacons who have been “credibly accused” of sexually abusing children.

In a letter to members and family of the archdiocese, New York’s archbishop, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, asked forgiveness “for the failings of those clergy and bishops who should have provided for the safety of our young people but instead betrayed the trust placed in them by God and by the faithful.”

The disclosure from one of the largest archdioceses in the nation follows similar revelations in recent months that further exposed the depth of a decades-long abuse crisis in Catholic communities across the United States. Last August, for example, a grand jury investigation revealed widespread sexual abuse by more than 300 priests in Pennsylvania. In February, Roman Catholic bishops in New Jersey and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn also provided lists totaling nearly 300 clergy members who faced accusations of sexual assault.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Archdiocese of New York

April 26, 2019

Set forth below is a list of clergy of the Archdiocese of New York who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing a minor or possessing child pornography, or who were the subject of a claim made to the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (IRCP) that was deemed eligible for compensation. This list includes only archdiocesan clergy, which consists of bishops, priests, and deacons who were incardinated in the Archdiocese of New York. It does not include priests belonging to religious orders or institutes, many of which have already released their own lists of accused priests, nor “extern” priests who were ordained in other dioceses.

The inclusion of a cleric’s name on the list does not state or imply that he is guilty of a crime or liable for any civil claim. The criminal justice system presumes that a person who has been indicted by a grand jury, or otherwise accused of or charged with a crime, is innocent until proven guilty. Similarly, a defendant in a civil action is not liable unless a plaintiff proves otherwise. Where an allegation involving an archdiocesan cleric resulted in a civil settlement, there was not a finding of liability against the archdiocese or the cleric, as is typically the case with civil settlements.

The archdiocese has created a Review Board to assist it in determining whether allegations of sexual abuse of a minor are credible and substantiated, and whether or not accused clergy should be removed from ministry as a result. A determination by the Review Board that an allegation is credible and substantiated, however, is not equivalent to a finding by a judge or jury that a cleric is liable or guilty for sexual abuse of a minor under civil or criminal law. Likewise, the IRCP is a compensatory program and not an adjudicatory body. As such, it is not required to adhere to the same standards as a court of law.

This list, its categorization, and the additional information provided herein is accurate to the best of current archdiocesan officials’ knowledge, as of April 26, 2019. The Archdiocese of New York intends to update this list in the event that additional information is discovered or brought to its attention, or if additional allegations of sexual abuse of a minor are determined to be credible within the parameters set forth above. In the event that any changes are made to the list(s), the revised, modified or updated list(s) will be posted on the archdiocesan website.

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McLEAN (VA)
USA Today

April 28, 2019

By Pius Pietrzyk

The Bill of Rights is supposed to protect people from having to choose between the most sacrosanct part of their religious beliefs and imprisonment.

California is considering a proposed law that is nothing less than an attempt to jail innocent priests. California Senate Bill 360 seeks to change its law to force a priest, when he hears of sins in the confessional regarding sexual abuse, to make a choice. He must choose to either maintain the confidentiality of the sacrament and face possible imprisonment or to betray that confidentiality and violate his deepest conscience and the laws of God and the Roman Catholic Church. No priest I know would choose the latter.

In 1813, the New York Court of General Sessions commented on the Catholic sacrament of confession and the government’s proper role in respecting the secrecy of the confessional as a part of its constitutional duty to protect religious freedom. It said: “To decide that the minister shall promulgate what he receives in confession, is to declare that there shall be no penance; and this important branch of the Roman Catholic religion would be thus annihilated.”

If this bill is passed into law, California will commit precisely such an annihilation.

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SIOUX FALLS (SD)
Argus Leader

April 27, 2019

By Patrick Anderson

When Bill Walsh left behind the priesthood it was because he saw a problem with the old ways and wanted to move on with his life as much as he had once wanted to be a leader in the Catholic Church.

Walsh served in small towns in South Dakota, in Salem for a year and then in Sioux Falls for the larger part of a decade.

He left because he didn’t think joining the clergy was a lifetime commitment – he chose to value the function of priesthood and leading a church over the form of priesthood emphasized by the old ways, Walsh said.

As Catholic dioceses in South Dakota and other states release the names of priests accused of child sex abuse, it’s time for Walsh and other lay people to again re-asses how they think about the priesthood, he said: Either take charge in protecting the future of the church, or continue to leave that responsibility to clergy.

“I don’t want anybody to leave the Catholic Church because of these accusations,” Walsh said. “You’re just feeding into this clerical culture that puts these guys on pedestals.”

More Catholics are considering leaving the church years after years of revelations about child sex abuse by clergy. Dioceses in Sioux Falls and Rapid City joined other church leaders across the country this year in naming accused priests, a movement that started after a grand jury in Pennsylvania accused dioceses there of covering up abuse by more than 300 priests.

About 22 percent of adults in South Dakota are Catholic, according to Pew Research Center.

Being a priest should be more about the functions of priesthood, not about the old beliefs that granted so much power and responsibility to members of the clergy.

That’s exactly why Walsh left.

Walsh was ordained in 1965 in Mitchell.

He compared his membership in the Catholic clergy to the military. Between seminary and priesthood, Walsh spent 20 years training and serving as a religious leader in the church. That was enough, he said.

“I really feel that very strongly, that a young man or a young woman can put in 20 years, which I did,” Walsh said. “And move on.”

The future of the Catholic Church depends on its followers’ willingness to leave behind ideas that members of the clergy are infallible representations of the church and instead focus on the roles and responsibilities of the entire church community, Walsh said.

In fact, every Catholic who leaves only lends strength to the same culture that assigns too much power and responsibility to the clergy, Walsh said.

“In so doing they just feed into the clerical culture of the church, where they think the bishop or the priest is somehow the church.”

Priests are human, Walsh said.

“With all the frailties of human beings,” he said.

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DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Service via Crux

April 27, 2019

By Carol Zimmermann

Washington DC – In introductory remarks during a conference examining the laity’s role in helping the Church move forward from the clergy abuse crisis, a speaker pointed out that what has happened impacts, and continues to affect, the whole Church.

“We can’t fix the Church by our own efforts,” but Catholics, like Simon of Cyrene who helped Jesus carry the cross, “can carry some of the weight,” said Stephen White, executive director of The Catholic Project, a group sponsored by The Catholic University of America in response to the Church abuse crisis.

The group, which organized the April 25 conference at Catholic University, looks at root causes of abuse and ways for the Church to move forward with conferences and consultation with theologians, sociologists, canonists, social workers and historians.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

April 26, 2019

By John L. Allen Jr.

Rome – Over the last ten days, four major milestones have been marked in the U.S. and elsewhere:

– The 20th anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings (April 20)
– The 25th anniversary of the death of former U.S. President Richard Nixon (April 22)
– The 130th anniversary of the birth of Adolph Hitler (April 20)
– The 92nd birthday of Pope emeritus Benedict XVI (April 16)

At first glance, putting those four things together almost seems a classic SAT question about “which item does not belong in this list?” The first three seem reminders of a world gone mad – National Socialism, the Watergate scandal, and the scourge of school violence.

Benedict, on the other hand, is one of the most celebrated theological minds in contemporary Catholicism, a figure who inspires intense devotion among a wide swath of the Catholic population.

Yet there’s a scarlet thread running through all four, because one of the cornerstones of Benedict’s thought over the years has been precisely a deep reflection on how such social evil is possible, and how the Church can best resist it. It’s a controversial diagnosis, and, for exactly that reason, it points to one of those deep tectonic fault lines in Catholicism that underlie a host of surface debates.

* * *

In a sense, it’s also the same point Benedict tried to make in his recent essay on the clerical sexual abuse crisis that caused such a tempest. While the hubbub focused on his line about “homosexual cliques” in seminaries and whether he was blaming gays, his ultimate diagnosis was that the real culprits are a loss of faith in God and a collapse of confidence in objective truth.

Once again, his central idea is that only truth – clearly defined, robustly proclaimed, and, when necessary, unabashedly defended, as he suggests John Paul II did with his 1993 encyclical Veritatis splendor – sets limits to the evils sinful human beings are capable of inflicting on one another.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Daily News

April 27, 2019

Why did it have to be so difficult?

Cardinal Timothy Dolan struck a blow for transparency and accountability Friday by releasing a list of 120 priests who had served in the New York archdiocese and been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The list is the result of the archdiocese’s Independent Reconciliation & Compensation Program, administered by attorneys Ken Feinberg and Camille Biros.

Under the program, survivors shared their experiences with the church. If proven credible, a private settlement was created and survivors agreed to forego further legal action. None of the priests named are still in ministry. Many have since passed — as have their victims.

The sharing of the list brings a certain comfort to other survivors and family members.

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FERNDALE (MI)
Church Militant

April 26, 2019

By Christine Niles

New York – The archdiocese of New York has published a list of clergy credibly accused of abuse of minors, but missing from the list are names of several notorious clergy. Sources confirm Cdl. Timothy Dolan is hiding out in a mansion in Sloatsburg during the list’s release.

Published Friday, the list of 120 priests only includes archdiocesan clergy and “does not include priests belonging to religious orders or institutes [or] ‘extern’ priests who were ordained in other dioceses.”

All named clergy have either been removed from ministry or are deceased.

The name of Fr. Thomas Kreiser does not appear on the list, indicted by a grand jury for molesting a minor.

Kreiser, arrested in September for abusing a 10-year-old girl and now facing trial, had reportedly been recommended last year for a pastorship by chancery officials — in spite of the fact that he’d been caught in 2011 embezzling $25,000 from his parish to spend on personal expenses, including online gambling.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

April 28, 2019

By Catherine Pepinster

Author’s eldest child, a priest himself accused of abuse in 2001, talks of assault in recording made by his own victim

Lord of the Rings fans who settle down to watch the film Tolkien this week will be told the story of love and young friendships that later inspired the author to write his tales of Middle-earth. What the biopic won’t show, however, is the dark scandal of abuse that continues to haunt JRR Tolkien’s family more than 45 years after his death.

Last year the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) heard evidence of how the eldest son of The Hobbit’s author, Father John Tolkien, abused young boys during his time as a Catholic priest in Birmingham and Stoke-on-Trent.

Now it has emerged that the cleric said that he himself was abused as a boy, and that he was assaulted in the family home by at least one of his father’s learned Oxford friends.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Catholic News Service via National Catholic Reporter

April 25, 2019

By Christopher Gunty

Baltimore – The Archdiocese of Baltimore has published an additional 23 names of priests who had been accused of child sexual abuse after they were deceased.

All the allegations have been previously reported to law enforcement, in most cases more than a decade ago. Released April 24, the 23 additional names join 103 other clergy and religious brothers whose names had already been published by the archdiocese.

In 2002, the Archdiocese of Baltimore was one of the first in the country to publish names of those credibly accused of child sexual abuse. At that time, 57 men were named. Other names have been added in the intervening years as allegations became known. More were added in 2018 after a Pennsylvania grand jury report detailed allegations that included some priests who had served in Maryland or cases where the alleged abuse occurred within the boundaries of the archdiocese.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

April 24, 2019

By Julie Zauzmer

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/04/24/baltimore-archdiocese-names-more-priests-accused-abuse-all-whom-are-deceased/

When the Archdiocese of Baltimore first voluntarily published a list of its priests who had been accused of abusing children, shortly after the Boston Globe’s 2002 exposé of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, it was one of the first dioceses in the world to come forward with such a list.

But the list published in 2002, of 57 clergymen, left out many priests alleged to have abused children. In part, that was due to a decision made at the time to leave out the name of any priest who had died before his accuser came forward — amid the concern that the priest never had a chance to defend his name.

On Wednesday, the archdiocese reversed that decision, publishing the names of 23 deceased priests who had been “credibly accused” of abusing children. With other additions over the years, the list now includes 126 clergy members.

“For victims, having that name out there, it’s a public sign that they’ve been believed,” said Sean Caine, a spokesman for the archdiocese and a member of the committee that combed through files to identify the men who had not been previously named.

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SPOKANE (WA)
Spokesman-Review

April 28, 2019

By Shawn Vestal

In recent months, a refrain has arisen from many people who live, teach and study at Gonzaga University: There’s no way Thayne couldn’t have known.

That response touches on the insistence by GU President Thayne McCulloh that he was not aware that the Jesuits were sending priests who had sexually abused children to retire on campus, before and during his presidency.

Starting in the 1970s, the leaders of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus sent 24 priests who had “credible claims” of abuse lodged against them to live in Cardinal Bea House – a retirement home owned by the Jesuits and located on the GU campus – or in the GU-owned Jesuit House, which has been replaced by the Della Strada Jesuit Community.

The men sent there included several notorious Jesuits with long and publicly documented histories of abuse, many of them in Native communities in Alaska and the West – histories that were reported in the news media and revealed in lawsuits and bankruptcy actions over more than a decade. A report by Reveal, aired on radio and as a podcast in December, landed like a bomb on campus; while the report was in many ways a compendium of previously reported information, it detailed for the first time the extent of the practice of housing abusive priests on the GU campus.

In a statement after the report, McCulloh offered a seemingly contradictory series of assertions about what he knew and didn’t know. The bottom line: He said he was never notified that Jesuits who were on supervised “safety plans” over abuse allegations were living at Bea House or on campus while they were there.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Daily Mail

April 25, 2019

By Stephen Gibbs

Qantas has cut Cardinal George Pell from its Chairman’s Lounge – described as ‘the most exclusive club in Australia’ – as he laungishes in jail for molesting choirboys.

For years Pell had been able to hobnob with movie stars, prime ministers and captains of industry while enjoying fine dining and expensive wines on the airline.

The Chairman’s Lounge is an invitation-only club for favoured Qantas customers who are treated to pre-flight massages, seat upgrades and personal service at all times.

Members, who do not pay any fees, simply call it ‘CL’.

It is so exclusive that Qantas will not confirm who is a member, how they are chosen or even how many members there are.

Pell was jailed in March for three years and eight months after being found guilty of one charge of sexual penetration of a child under 16 years and four charges of committing an indecent act with or in the presence of a child.

The offences were committed against two 13-year-old choirboys in the sacristy of St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996 when Pell was the newly-ordained Archbishop of Melbourne.

Pell, the third most senior cleric in the Catholic Church, has always denied the offences and has appealed against the convictions.

Qantas would not comment on the 77-year-old’s Chairman’s Lounge status but it was confirmed to Daily Mail Australia by independent sources he is no longer a member.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch

April 26, 2019

By Erin Heffernan

A clergyman with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville was charged Friday with sexually assaulting an adult woman on March 1.

Deacon Robert J. Lanter, 68, of Swansea, was charged with felony criminal sexual assault, and is accused of assaulting a 29-year-old woman who was unable to give consent.

Prosecutors did not specify the reason the woman was unable to give consent.

Lanter was ordained in 1997 as a deacon, an member of clergy who can perform many of the same duties as a priest.

Lanter resigned from all his positions with the diocese Thursday, including roles directing the Office of the Permanent Diaconate and providing ministry at St. Teresa of the Child Jesus Parish and St. Luke Parish in Belleville.

“I know that this information will come to you as a surprise and be a source of sadness and concern,” Bishop Edward Braxton said in a letter Thursday to the diocese community. “At this juncture, the most important thing for us to do is to pray for Deacon Lanter, his family, and all those who may have been harmed by this development.”

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests released a statement Friday criticizing the diocese and encouraging any other possible victims to come forward to law enforcement.

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STATEN ISLAND (NY)
Staten Island Advance

April 26, 2019

By Joseph Ostapiuk

Advance research has confirmed that 15 deceased priests who have served on Staten Island are among the 120 bishops, priests and deacons found by the Archdiocese of New York to have been credibly accused of sex abuse.

The Advance has previously reported on prominent Island clergy who were brought before the Archdiocese’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation program and found to have been credibly accused.

Through the process of cross-referencing in Advance archives, utilizing Archdiocese data, other media outlets and accessing databases of accused priests, the Advance confirmed that 16 of the deceased priests had served on Staten Island at some point in their career.

Fifteen of the 16 clergy who were credibly accused of abuse were never previously connected to a sex scandal, according to Advance archives.

Names on the list include archdiocesan bishops, priests and deacons who have been “credibly accused of sexually abusing a minor or possessing child pornography, or who were the subject of a claim made to the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (IRCP) that was deemed eligible for compensation,” according to a statement by the Archdiocese.

The deceased clergy on this list had already died or left ministry when claims about them were made to the IRCP; however, the program’s independent administrators determined that claims against them were eligible for compensation, the Archdiocese said in the statement.

The compensatory program is not an adjudicatory body, and therefore is not required to adhere to the same standards as a court of law, the statement explained.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Associated Press

April 26, 2019

By Jennifer Peltz

At least 120 priests accused of sexually abusing a child or having child pornography have worked in the Archdiocese of New York, the archdiocese said Friday in releasing a list of names that includes bishops, high school teachers, a scouting chaplain and a notorious cardinal.

The release, from the nation’s second-largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, follows more than 120 such disclosures from other dioceses around the country as the church reckons with demands for transparency about sex abuse by clergy.

In a letter to church members, Cardinal Timothy Dolan said he realizes “the shame that has come upon our church due to the sexual abuse of minors.” He asked forgiveness “for the failings of those clergy” who betrayed the trust invested in them to protect young people.

“It is my heartfelt prayer that together we as a family of faith may be healed,” Dolan added.

Church abuse watchdogs and lawyers for abuse accusers said the release of the list was a positive step, but some of them saw it as incomplete.

It doesn’t include accused members of religious orders who worked in the archdiocese’s churches and schools, though some orders have released their own lists. Nor does it list priests who were ordained elsewhere and later served in New York.

And there are no details on accused priests’ past assignments or the allegations against them, although some have emerged in news accounts, lawsuits and criminal cases.

“It’s certainly a good thing that they’ve come out with the list,” said Terry McKiernan of Bishop Accountability, a watchdog group. But “do they still not see that this very, very reluctant way of offering information about the crisis is the wrong way for them?”

Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling said that “the important thing is that we have released all of the names of priests that have a credible and substantiated charge brought against them,” plus those awaiting a church determination on allegations, and those newly accused through an archdiocese-run compensation process.

The program has paid out $65 million to over 350 people in the past three years.

The list includes priests ordained between 1908 and 1988. Many have died, and the archdiocese said none is currently working in the ministry.

Most of the alleged abuse happened in the 1970s, ’80s and early ’90s, but there have been two credible allegations of sex abuse by active clergy since 2002, according to the archdiocese. It said authorities were alerted about both those cases.

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WASHIINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

April 26, 2019

By Michelle Boorstein and Marisa Iati

The Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore this week made a major revision to its list of priests deemed credibly accused of abusing minors – upping the number by 22%, to 126, by adding for the first time some who were accused after their deaths.

The increase highlights the wide range of standards that dioceses are using to compile the lists and has raised new questions about the U.S. church’s response to the clergy abuse crisis.

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The church has been promoting the release of accused priest lists – which have grown from 35 in 2018 to more than 120 as of this month, according to BishopAccountability.org – as evidence of a cultural move toward transparency. But even as they represent a significant shift from the aftermath of the 2002 crisis, they are coming under fire from some survivors and advocates for their inconsistent criteria, which in many cases lead to lists that omit names for unclear reasons or fall short on information about priests that are named.

Advocates point to cases such as that of George Stallings, a former priest who wasn’t on the list Washington’s archdiocese put out in the fall, despite it paying $125,000 in 2009 to a man who said Stallings and a seminarian sexually abused him as a teen. Or that of the Rev. Terry Specht, the longtime director of Child Protection and Safety in Arlington, Virginia, whose name wasn’t on Arlington’s February list, despite that officials permanently removed his right to act as a priest after he was accused of teen abuse.

Many dioceses don’t include on their lists priests who are believed to have abused in their jurisdictions but are technically affiliated with religious orders (such as the Jesuits or Franciscans) or with another diocese. Some dioceses exclude people who are dead or who have only one accuser. Lists often include sparse information about priests’ work history or details of the allegations or evidence.

“All of the forces that were at work in keeping this under wraps, those forces haven’t gone away; it’s just that there are now countervailing forces,” such as the media, said Terry McKiernan, president of Bishop Accountability, a leading site that tracks abuse in the U.S. church. “By really reducing the news to a list of names whose stories we really don’t know, they take a really negative story and turn it into a positive one.”

The lists now being released by many of the country’s 178 dioceses were mandated by courts or by settlements with victims, or were initiated by a “new generation of bishops who understand the importance of putting victims first,” said Kathleen McChesney, a former FBI agent who in 2002 established and then led the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ child protection office and now consults dioceses on topics including misconduct.

“Previous generations were so concerned about scandal and protecting the name of the church they’d never consider” putting out such lists, she said. McChesney believes the lists will be improved over time. They “are a good starting point,” she said.

Generally, when lists are announced, victims’ praise is faint at best and advocates are fast to point out the holes. Some survivors are fed up that it took so many years for their release and that the lists, even now, are skimpy. Many victims have been and remain silent.

To many victims, the lists are a public affirmation that they told the truth and, in many cases, are not alone in being abused by a specific priest. That’s why some feel angry when lists are incomplete or hard to access on diocesan websites.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Advocate

April 26, 2019

By ClaireTaylor

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Lake Charles and the Diocese of Lafayette have many things in common.

Until January 1980, five civil parishes that make up the Lake Charles diocese were part of the Lafayette diocese. Bishop Glen Provost, who was installed as bishop of the Lake Charles diocese in 2007, was born in Lafayette. He was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Lafayette by Pope Paul VI in 1975.

Many priests have served in both dioceses.

But when it came to joining in the national trend of releasing the names of priests with credible accusations of child sex abuse, the Lake Charles and Lafayette dioceses had very different approaches.

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BELLEVILLE (IL)
KSDK TV 5

April 26, 2019

A deacon with the Belleville Catholic Diocese was arraigned on Friday on accusations that he sexually assaulted a 29-year-old woman in March.

68-year-old Deacon Robert J. Lanter of Swansea, is charged with the felony criminal sex assault of a woman who, according to charging documents, was unable to give consent at the time.

Lanter was indicted by a grand jury on April 12 and entered a plea of not guilty. He is free after posting a $100,000 bail.

Reverend Monsignor John T. Myler, spokesman for the Belleville Diocese, confirmed that Lanter was the Diocesan Deacon Coordinator at St. Luke Roman Catholic Church in Belleville. Lanter had been a permanent deacon with the St. Luke parish since 1997.

Myler said the parish received Lanter’s resignation on Thursday. He also said the victim was not a parishioner.

The Belleville Bishop’s Office released a statement to members of the Diocese on Thursday. “I know that this information will come to you as a surprise and be a source of sadness and concern,” the release said. “At this juncture, the most important thing for us to do is to pray for Deacon Lanter, his family, and all those who may have been harmed by this development.”

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) also released a statement on Friday. It read, in part: “We beg law enforcement to look beyond Lanter himself. We strongly suspect, based on 30 years of experience, that others in the diocesan hierarchy knew of or suspected wrongdoing but kept silent or hid it. We hope police and prosecutors investigate whether others in the church might be prosecuted as well.”

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Patheos blog

April 25, 2019

By MJ Lisbeth

It is difficult to confront the past: Victims are made to relive their pain; victimizers are forced to face the truth. That, of course, is the reason why histories, whether writ large or in one’s own life, are too often unresolved: The victim’s suffering may just be too much to bear, and the victimizer’s guilt causes him or her to lie, evade or flee.

The unfinished business, if you will, doesn’t go away. It is carried across generations, through history and between families and cultures. As an example, many of the difficulties faced by African-Americans today are direct consequences of their country’s inability or unwillingness to deal honestly with slavery and its aftermath, as well as other aspects of their nation’s history.

There comes a day, however, when there is no choice but to deal with the crimes committed by individuals and institutions that had, and sometimes still have, power. Those crimes are like bubbles that could have been submerged only for so long: Eventually, they must rise from the depths to the light of day.

Just as those bubbles rise, whether they are in oceans or puddles, abuses must find expression by the individuals who experienced them or the societies in which they occur. Such expression might be in works of art, organizing communities, or simply in telling one’s story and someone else listening to it, without an agenda. Otherwise, those bubbles explode, and the people, their communities and cultures do not survive—or, at least, are tainted.

I am one of the people who could have been blown apart, if you will. Less than two years ago, I named the abuse I experience and my abuser—a priest who, half a century earlier, took advantage of my availability and vulnerability. I have, on a number of occasions, come close to destroying myself: whether consciously, through what people readily identify as “suicide attempts”, or unconsciously, through addictive and reckless behavior.

What seems odd to me now is that some might see recounting my abuse and remembering my abuser as the most difficult thing I’ve done, just as some people thought my “coming out” as a transgender woman was a “big step” for me. Yes, it took a lot of emotional and mental work to be able to take the reins away from the abuser and to stop the emotional blackmail he generated. But I realize now that the difficulty, the pain, of “coming out” as an abuse survivor is temporal, if not momentary. At least I know that, whether or not that pain has an end, it at least is something that I can use to forge new paths in my life and, possibly, help someone else do something similar.

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