ABUSE TRACKER

DOWNINGTOWN (PA)
Daily Local News

March 6, 2019

A priest who previously served at two Chester County churches and a Montgomery County church has been arrested on allegations that he raped a teenage girl who was a member of a church in Philadelphia where he was pastor, charges that stem from incidents that occurred after he left the local parishes, according to authorities.

The Rev. Armand D. Garcia, 49, was arrested March 5 on three counts of rape, corruption of a minor and sexual abuse of a minor, as well as recording a sex act. He served at St. Joseph’s Church in Downingtown from 2005 to 2008, and at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Tredyffrin in 2011, according to records.

He also served at St. Eleanor in Collegeville.

Ordained in 2005 and lastly a former pastor of St. Martin of Tours Parish in Northeast Philadelphia, Garcia is alleged to have committed the crimes in August 2014. He had been suspended by the archdiocese after the allegations came to light and police began their investigation.

At the time of the alleged events, he was parochial vicar at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in the city’s Roxborough section. He was assigned to the parish in 2011 after having taken a voluntary personal leave from ministry the prior year for unexplained reasons.

The year-long investigation into his conduct by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office spans from 2014 to 2017, during his term at St. Martin’s, according to a statement from the archdiocese.

The charges against Garcia “are serious and disturbing,” said Ken Gavin, a spokesman for the archdiocese.

“The archdiocese is cooperating fully with law enforcement regarding this matter and remains fervently committed to preventing child abuse as well as protecting the children and young people entrusted to its care,” said Gavin in a statement.

Details of the complaint against Garcia were sketchy, as no information was released from the District Attorney’s Office. The alleged victim was reported to be a former altar girl at Immaculate Heart church, and the sex acts between the two are alleged to have taken place at Garcia’s residence in the church.

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

INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
The Reflector

March 6, 2019

By Shayla Cabalan

The day this article is published will be Ash Wednesday, a Christian holy day of prayer and fasting that marks the beginning of the season of Lent. For those unfamiliar with traditional Christian terminology, Lent is a time intended to prepare for the return of Christ come Easter. As a result, the Lenten season is associated with repentance, fasting and above all, giving up sinful habits.

Huge emphasis is placed on this last sacrificial element. Throughout Lent, many Christians attempt to shed bad habits and inclinations. Above all else, Lent is a time of self-reflection and opening up a dialogue between oneself and God in order to improve as a person. Now is arguably a time to open up a dialogue on a plague that has disrupted the church for decades: the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

A week ago, Pope Francis wrapped up an unprecedented Vatican summit intended to address clergy sex abuse of children. The summit comes after a watershed series of revelations within the Catholic Church, chief among these being an explosive grand jury report from Pennsylvania. According to a Washington Post article titled “More than 300 accused priests listed in Pennsylvania report on Catholic Church sex abuse,” a 1,400-page grand jury report revealed that more than 300 Catholic priests across Pennsylvania had sexually abused children over the span of seven decades, identifying 1,000 victims, but suggesting there could be thousands more. Since the report, Francis has encouraged guilty clergy members to turn themselves over to the authorities, and at the closing mass of the Vatican summit, he made an appeal for an “all-out battle” on clergy sex abuse.

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

WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

March 6, 2019

By Gunther Simmermacher

In late February, the church pledged to put the victims of abuse first, to listen to them with an open heart, to root out the culture of protecting priests accused of abuse. Now a number of lay Catholics are undercutting all these good and overdue intentions by challenging the guilty verdict of Australian Cardinal George Pell.

Let’s be clear about it: Nobody can claim to know conclusively whether Cardinal Pell is guilty of the charges put against him except for the two people alive who were in that room on the day in question.

The jurors in the trial believed there was no reasonable doubt about Cardinal Pell’s guilt. It would be absurd if they all were in on a conspiracy, as some have suggested. Maybe the jurors were mistaken; maybe they got it right. Maybe Cardinal Pell’s defense was inadequate, and the prosecution made its case well. We don’t really know; less so if we did not follow the trial every day in the courtroom, as the jurors did.

So the enthusiasm with which Pell’s defenders — who include both ideological warriors and reasonable people — protest the cardinal’s innocence is misplaced. It’s one thing to wonder about whether justice was truly done in this case, but another thing altogether to protest the cardinal’s innocence (in arguments usually drawing from the defence’s case, which evidently failed to persuade the jury).

But that’s not the biggest problem with defending Cardinal Pell. What should trouble us is that in the first instance of a cardinal being convicted of abuse, so many Catholics immediately jump to his defense. They instinctively believe the accused cleric, and not the victim. And this is exactly the mindset that helped create the scandal in the first place.

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.

Patheos blog

March 6, 2019

By Melinda Selmys

It was after the birth of my sixth child, my family had taken my other children so that I could rest and recover with the baby, and my husband was binge drinking. For days he raged about the house while I tried to take care of a newborn. When he was closer to sober, he wanted to argue about Church sexual teaching. When he was drunk enough the pretext of theological discussion fell away and he stated his demands simply: “Suck my dick.”

I was seven days postpartum, still sore from giving birth, my hormones were on a roller coaster, and I was isolated and terrified. I begged him to stop drinking but he insisted that this was impossible. He was using alcohol to deal with the unbearable sexual frustration that Catholic sexual teaching was inflicting on him, and that I was forcing him to endure by my insistence on staying faithful to the teaching.

Finally, unable to deal with the rage and the drinking, I broke down and had sex with him. I chose a position that I hoped wouldn’t cause any kind of injury and I did it “naturally” in order to avoid mortal sin.

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)
Religion News Service

March 6, 2019

By Adelle M. Banks

A “Safe Churches and Ministers” video features a woman recalling how, from the first day she worked as an interim youth minister, the senior pastor of a prestigious Baptist church began making inappropriate sexual advances.

“Is her story familiar?” asks a narrator after the woman describes too-long hugs, inappropriate conversations and an offer to share a hotel room at a denominational meeting.

“Have you considered that Michelle’s story can happen in churches today?”

The eight-minute video from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is an example of how some Baptist organizations, faced with a #MeToo culture and news accounts of sexual abuse by clergy, have worked to prevent and react to allegations that arise in local churches.

As the Southern Baptist Convention grapples with how to address sex abuse allegations, three other Baptist networks that split from it over the years have already taken steps to educate and assist their congregations should they face similar situations.

Religion News Service asked 10 Baptist groups if they had any policies or procedures related to sex abuse allegations. One of those three that responded was the American Baptist Churches USA, formerly known as the Northern Baptists, from which the SBC split when the more conservative denomination began in 1845 as it defended slavery. A fourth, the historically black National Baptist Convention, USA, also responded by Wednesday (March 6).

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.

ATLANTIC CITY (NJ)
The Press of Atlantic City

March 5, 2019

By the Roman Catholic Bishops of NJ

Much attention has been given to the meeting of bishops in Rome last month called by Pope Francis to address a morally reprehensible, shameful and horrific crime — the sexual abuse of children.

For two decades, the Roman Catholic Church in New Jersey has taken firm action to address this issue, and we welcome the efforts of the Holy Father to bring the rest of the world up to our high standards for keeping our teaching, worship, and ministry spaces safe for everyone, especially children. We maintain a policy of zero tolerance. That means that any cleric who has abused even one child is to be permanently barred from engaging in any act of public ministry.

Each diocese has comprehensive policies in place to respond to and to prevent the sexual abuse of minors. These safety policies and practices are regularly verified by an external audit of each diocese. Over the last 10 years, our dioceses have trained more than 3.1 million adults, children, employees, clergy and volunteers to detect and prevent abuse. Over the past 15 years, the dioceses have completed some 385,000 criminal background checks of all clergy, staff and volunteers who have regular contact with minors.

All of our dioceses are committed to assisting victims of abuse whenever and however we can. Each diocese has a victim assistance coordinator, who facilitates the provision of counseling and other professional assistance to help those who have been abused. All victims have the opportunity to meet with the bishop in order to facilitate healing.

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SIOUX CITY (IA)
KWIT

March 5, 2019

By Mary Hartnett

The Catholic Diocese of Sioux City released a list of priests who were credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors. Some victims claim that it may be too little, too late.

Pope Francis recently lead a meeting on clerical sexual abuse. He made a call “for an all-out battle against the abuse of minors” and insisted that the church needed to protect the children “from ravenous wolves.” Despite this vow “to combat this evil that strikes at the very heart of our mission,” critics are saying the speech was short of a detailed battle plan. Catholic victims and other members of the church expressed outrage and disappointment at his failure to outline steps to address the problem.

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)
KBAK/KBFX/Eyewitness News

March 4, 2019

By Emma Goss

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno, which includes 87 parishes spanning across the Central Valley, has hired former FBI Executive Assistant Director Kathleen McChesney to review and identify past offenses of sexual misconduct.

Fr. Miguel Flores’s case from 2002 being reopened by the diocese is entirely independent of the review being conducted, but he is one of 11 priests in the Diocese of Fresno who have been publicly accused of sexual misconduct, according to Bishop Accountability, an online database.

Bishop Armando Ochoa, D.D., said at a news conference last month that “although it is labor intensive, it is essential that the current administration is fully aware of any record of sexual abuse, no matter how much time has passed.”

Among the 11 publicly accused priests identified in the online database, five have ties to Kern County.

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HONOLULU (HI)
Hawaii Catholic Herald

March 5, 2019

On Feb. 20, a joint Senate Committee of the Human Services and Judiciary passed Senate Resolution SR4 and Senate Concurrent Resolution SCR8: “urging the Hawaii State Department of the attorney general to conduct a statewide investigation of sexual abuse of minors in the state of Hawaii by clergy of the Roman Catholic Church.” Here is Bishop Larry Silva’s response:

To the Senators of the State of Hawaii
Subject: SR4-c and SCR8

Dear Senators,
Peace be with you!

I write on behalf of the Diocese of Honolulu and the thousands of dedicated men and women, clergy and lay, who unite together in service of the common good through the ministries of the Diocese. In our 66 parishes, 18 parochial schools, and dozens of other schools and agencies, we do what we can to care for the poor, educate children, heal the broken-hearted, and work towards solidarity with all in need. Thus, I was greatly disturbed to see that a Senate Committee is taking up a resolution premised on the awful canard and libel that the Diocese is some kind of criminal enterprise bent on destroying the very people she strives to serve. That anyone might actually take such a suggestion seriously is equally disturbing and offensive.

It is true that thousands of church ministers on the Mainland, in Hawaii, and elsewhere did abuse tens of thousands of children. Those horrific facts are well-documented in historical studies. Let me say at the outset that I make no excuses for the abuse of any child that occurred at the hands of any minister of this Diocese, ordained or lay, man or woman. That any abuse did occur is sinful in the eyes of God, and a crime in the eyes of the State. I am sorry that anyone was ever hurt physically, emotionally and spiritually. Abuse is wrong, and deserving of our condemnation whenever it occurs.

But the resolution, aimed as it is only at the Catholic Diocese, does not resolve any injury suffered by any child. It does not make any victims whole. It does not make all children safe. Rather it pretends that the pernicious evil that is the abuse of a child still lies in the heart of only one institution in Hawaii — the Catholic Diocese. It is that great lie that I protest here. If the Senate truly wants to have law enforcement look at the sources of abuse and misconduct in society, it needs to cast a much wider net.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

March 6, 2019

By Jamie Manson

For decades we’ve heard countless opinions of what has caused the clergy sex abuse crises in the Catholic Church: clericalism, celibacy, bad seminary formation. But on the closing day of the bishops’ summit on the protection of minors, we heard a new theory: the devil made them do it.

That’s what Pope Francis suggested multiple times and in various ways in his speech at the conclusion of the Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church.

“Consecrated persons, chosen by God to guide souls to salvation, let themselves be dominated by their human frailty or sickness and thus become tools of Satan.” Francis claimed.

It wasn’t, of course, the first time Francis’ has spoken about Satan and blamed him for personally engineering the destruction of the church.

In his book The Tweetable Pope, author Michael O’Loughlin writes that “Francis has tweeted about the devil so often that he’s had to ascribe different names in order to keep Satan and his different forms relevant within the Twittersphere.”

Francis sees cosmic battles happening all over the face of the earth and now he has made the sex abuse crisis into a metaphysical battle between Satan and the church. In his concluding speech, he mentioned Satan twice and evil 13 times. The word clericalism was uttered once.

Perhaps the pope thought overblown language and imagery would somehow express the profundity of his horror at this situation, but the speech — which may have been the most crucial of his papacy — ended up being a melodramatic avoidance of the truth.

The truth is there are some very sick men in the priesthood that need very serious help and there are some men in the priesthood who are so psychosexually immature or damaged that they have no place in ministry. And the closed, secretive, all-male power structure of the church protected these men and gravely exacerbated the situation.

Satan did not swoop in and use these men as his tools to destroy the church. These men destroyed it all by themselves by enforcing a warped view of sexuality, making the preservation of their patriarchal rule their first priority and trading in cover-ups, lies and institutional blackmail.

But while Francis set out to boldly slay metaphysical dragons, his army of prelates slouched through a four-day slog.

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ALTOONA (PA)
Altoona Mirror

March 6, 2019

Pope Francis said all the right things during the recent extraordinary conference to discuss sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests and coverups by their superiors.

But what he did not say has some observers, both inside the church and out of it, upset.

Francis summoned 190 Catholic bishops and many other high-ranking church officials to Vatican City to discuss the scandal, which dates back generations. Last Sunday, the pope vowed to confront abusers with “the wrath of God.”

For the faithful, that goes without saying and is beyond the influence of any mortal, of course. But it is earthly punishment that concerns those unsatisfied with the pope’s actions during the meeting.

He failed to present a detailed, concrete plan to deal with abuse in the past and prevent it in the future, critics have said.

Some church officials have taken harsh action, of course. Lists of names of priests, even bishops, “credibly accused” of misdeeds have been released. Sadly, the lists are long.

Some priests and bishops have been kicked out of the church. Law enforcement authorities will be aided, if appropriate, church officials vow.

And there will be no more coverups, the Catholic hierarchy insists.

In truth, what Francis needs to accomplish is not some new written strategy, but rather an end to the seemingly endless revelations of new outrages.

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HUTCHINSON (MN)
Crow River Media

March 6, 2019

By Jeff Horejsi

Some of us are more affected by the scandal of the many allegations of sexual abuse of children by clergy, but even if this scandal seems more distant from our church or our lives, it still affects us. Our church leaders (bishops) have apologized for the crimes that were committed in the past but continue to cause chaos in the lives of victims and survivors. Saying, “I’m sorry” is a beginning, but justice will be needed in the settling of the many lawsuits that are in the court system.

Since the news of these crimes against children has been with us for several years, we have had time to reason that the offending clergy members were flawed human beings who sinned grievously and, in many cases, repeatedly. At least as concerning to us is the fact that in most cases bishops were aware of the abuse but failed to stop it. We might say that these bishops sinned against the church in failing to protect children and that this sin has certainly affected all in the church.

While not condoning the sinful and criminal behavior, moving forward and healing requires forgiveness. In the Gospels, Jesus teaches us that we must forgive those who sin against us. If we hope to have forgiveness of our sins, we must forgive those who sin against us. This is what we pray again and again in the Lord’s Prayer, sometimes called the Our Father.

Perhaps even harder than forgiving those who abused children or failed to stop that abuse is knowing what to say to those who dismiss the church altogether. We might be asked, “How can you continue to support a church that has failed so gravely?”

One possible way to respond is to remind the questioner of Jesus’ response to the Apostle Peter’s stunning failure in denying Jesus three times the night before he was crucified. On the shore the Risen Jesus gently invited Peter to profess his love for him three times. Despite his denial of Jesus, Peter received forgiveness from Jesus and became a powerful and effective leader in the church. The Apostle Paul actively persecuted the church before being converted to the faith, and he also became a powerful and effective leader in the church.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
Sydney Morning Herald

March 6, 2019

By Jim Barber

On Sundays at 8am, you can find me at Mass about halfway along the third pew from the front.

I sit with the same small number of people every week. I don’t pretend to speak for these people, but I do speak as one of them. There are no lawyers among us, no bishops, theologians or clergy. Could I respectfully suggest that we heard quite enough from them during the five years of the royal commission? We have also heard the horrifying tales of those who endured abuse at the hands of the church.

Yes, just about everyone touched by this abuse scandal has now been heard, except for those of us who sit in the pews week in and week out. The fact is that no one has asked us what we think or how we feel about the royal commission, despite the fact we are the church, or so we are constantly told by our priests and bishops.

I’m told that rank-and-file Catholics like us can have our say at the forthcoming Australian Plenary Council in August 2020, but I find myself wondering why it’s happening so long after the royal commission, how representative the plenary will be, and how much influence it will have if it really does represent the rank and file.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

March 6, 2019

By Inés San Martín

Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati of Santiago, Chile, and the archdiocese he leads are being sued for $500,000 for covering up a case of rape that allegedly took place in a bedroom of the local cathedral.

The accused priest was said to have a “practically out of control” homosexual lifestyle and faces allegations of abusing at least one minor. He was suspended from ministry in 2016.

A 2015 preliminary report from the church of Santiago established that Father Tito Rivera had a “habitual homosexual behavior, seriously immoral and practically out of control.”

In 2015, Daniel Rojas, 40 at the time, went to the cathedral looking for financial help to buy medicine for his daughter. Instead, according to Rojas, Rivera took him upstairs, through a long corridor, into a bedroom, gave him a glass of water, and soon after, Rojas said he had no control over his body.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

Mar 6, 2019

People should pray for Catholic priests after the conviction of Cardinal George Pell for historic sexual abuse charges, according to the Prime Minister of Samoa.

Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has led the government on the Pacific island nation since 1998 and is one of its most prominent Catholics in public life.

Samoa, a Polynesian island of nearly 200,000 people near the U.S. territory of American Samoa, is highly dependent on trade with Australia.

In December, Pell was convicted of abusing two choir boys in the 1990s when he was Archbishop of Melbourne. He has strenuously denied the accusations and plans on appealing the conviction.

“It’s alleged the incident occurred when he was about 40 years old sometime ago, however to date there are records and witnesses are still around who were well aware of the malicious acts by this servant of God,” Malielegaoi said, according to the Samoa Observer.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Salt Lake Tribune

March 6, 2019

By Peggy Fletcher Stack
·
A long-standing, permanent endowment for a Utah Catholic parish still carries the name of a priest who left the state after he was “credibly” accused in 2002 of sexual misconduct with a minor.

The priest, Monsignor George Davich, was ordained at the Cathedral of the Madeleine on May 12, 1962, and served for years in various congregations, including St. Vincent de Paul Parish and School in Holladay.

In 2001, Davich gave seed money to establish the Davich Family Facilities Fund, explained the Rev. John Norman, St. Vincent de Paul’s current pastor.

A year later, Davich was “accused of sleeping in bed with a minor between 1979 and 1985,” according to a December 2018 release from the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City. It was reported to the diocese and police in 2002. He retired without faculties that year, and the Vatican ordered him to spend his life in prayer and penance.

“Without faculties” means he could not engage in public ministry, present himself as a priest in good standing or perform church ceremonies.

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MORAGA (CA)
Lamorinda Weekly

March 6, 2019

By Nick Marnell

Three Roman Catholic priests who served as associate pastors at Lamorinda parishes appeared on a list of clergy “credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors,” released Feb. 17 by the Diocese of Oakland. Two of the priests worked at the Church of Santa Maria in Orinda and one had been assigned to St. Monica Church in Moraga. Allegations of sexual abuse of minors had been charged against at least one other priest who served in a Lamorinda parish, but though named in the Oakland report as credibly accused, he was not listed as having worked in Lamorinda.

According to information provided by the diocese, Robert Freitas served at St. Monica from June of 1988 until March 1990, Gary Lagasse worked at Santa Maria in 1972 and Gary Tollner was assigned there in 1971-72. All three had been credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors.

“My first reaction in seeing the list of names of priests who have abused, is one of deep shame. These are monstrous crimes, committed by priests who are supposed to model virtue and grace, not sin and harm. By publishing this list, I am making an `Act of Contrition’ on behalf of my Church,” Bishop Michael Barber said in a statement.

Robert Ribeiro appeared in the diocese report but it made no mention of his 1971-80 tenure at St. Perpetua Church in Lafayette, where he was listed as having served in a 2018 report on clergy sexual abuse in the Bay Area. The report was compiled by the Minneapolis law firm Jeff Anderson and Associates, which represents clergy abuse victims.

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MEMPHIS (TN)
Localmemphis.com

March 5, 2019

By Brad Broders

After orders from Pope Francis at The Vatican, Tuesday was the introduction of the new leader of the Memphis area’s 62,000 Catholics. Bishop David Talley will now take over the challenged local Catholic diocese.

Several priests and parishioners Local 24 News spoke with who were critical of the last bishop at the helm, applauded Bishop Talley’s appointment. They said Bishop Talley, who was raised as a Southern Baptist, is the right person to lead a new chapter of the Memphis diocese and make the needed adjustments and improvements in local parishes.

Bishop Talley came to the Bluff City with a simple goal and a simple message.

“It’s fundamental,” Bishop Talley said. “We preach the gospel and we pay the bills. In that order.”

Bishop Talley replaces Bishop Martin Holley, who Pope Francis removed in October. Holley’s rocky two-year tenure included complaints of financial mismanagement, the re-assigning of certain priests, and his role in the closing of 11 catholic schools.

Bishop Talley promised to listen, to learn, and to lead.

“None of us can undo what we’ve done in the past,” Bishop Talley said. “What we can do is accept the present and find our way out of the path of the present.”

“The people see themselves as part of the church, so that they need to be looked at, listened to,” Retired Bishop Terry Steib said.

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ATLANTA (GA)
Journal-Constitution

March , 2019

By Shelia M. Poole

Two Georgia churches named in a series of articles in the Houston Chronicle about sexual abuse in Southern Baptist Convention churches are apparently no longer under “inquiry” by the Nashville-based denomination.

SBC President J.D. Greear had asked for a review of standing for 10 churches mentioned in the articles, including Eastside Baptist Church in Marietta and Trinity Baptist Church in Ashburn. The series found more than 700 people were victims of abuse that spanned decades at nearly a dozen churches. One church was found not to be a member of the SBC.The SBC could not be reached for comment.

The SBC Executive Committee bylaws workgroup said in a Feb. 23 statement that, based on the information provided, there was no evidence that church leaders at Eastside and six other churches, among other things, knowingly hired a convicted sex offender, allowed that person to work with minors or did not comply with mandatory child abuse reporting laws.

“We also note that, based on media reports and conversations with church leaders (at Eastside), it appears that after the events in question the church strengthened its existing policies to prevent abuse and properly respond to charges of abuse.” It said no further inquiry is warranted.

That would be good news for the Rev. John Hull, senior pastor of Eastside Baptist on Lower Roswell Road, except he said he was never officially informed that his church was among those under review by the SBC, nor has he been officially told that it is not.

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ANNAPOLIS (MD)
Capital Gazette

March 7, 2019

Legislation extending the statute of limitations for child sex abuse in Maryland faces an unlikely future in the General Assembly.

Yet the bellwether for this idea is neither the testimony last week before a legislative committee in Annapolis nor the shameful abuse of former Key School students by instructors dating back 20 to 40 years — and covered up by the school until last year.

It is the clergy sex abuse scandals that continue to rock worldwide Catholicism.

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PORTLAND (ME)
Associated Press

March 5, 2019

The sentencing of a former Massachusetts priest for sexually assaulting an altar boy in Maine has been pushed back to allow for a mental health evaluation.

Ronald Paquin was found guilty of 11 of 24 counts of gross sexual misconduct in November. The Portland Press Herald reports lawyers for Paquin filed a motion last week to request the evaluation and a judge granted it.

A man who came forward as the victim and testified against Paquin, says the delay is a violation of his own rights. He says he feels like he’s “being victimized again” by the delay in sentencing Paquin. The 44-year-old testified the abuse began decades ago.

Officials at York County Superior Court say Paquin is due back in court on March 29 for a conference.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Daily News

March 5, 2019

By Nanacy Dillon

A Catholic priest in Philadelphia has been charged with raping a teen girl, corrupting her morals and recording her in a sex act, court records and the priest’s lawyer confirm.

The Rev. Armand Garcia, 49, turned himself in for booking early Monday and posted his $250,000 bail hours later, his lawyer William J. Brennan told the Daily News.

The charges relate to offenses dating back to August 2014, court records state.

Brennan said prosecutors filed the corrupting a minor charge as a felony because they claim Garcia had an ongoing relationship with the teen.

“Obviously these are very serious charges, and we will take them seriously, but it is important to remember that Father Garcia is innocent until proven guilty,” Brennan said Tuesday.

The lawyer said the age of consent in Pennsylvania is 16.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

March 5, 2019

By Melissa Davey

A bishop has written to the director of a Catholic Schools Office that oversees 24 schools asking that principals be directed to stop asking priests for their working-with-children checks.

The bishop of Armidale, Michael Kennedy, wrote: “It has been brought to my attention that some schools may be requiring that the priests who are ex officio members of the School Advisory Council provide their working-with-children check details.”

He wrote that the diocese verified and recorded these checks and that schools should accept that all priests were required by the diocese to have a working-with-children check and therefore did not need to ask the priests for those details.

He asked the director of the Catholic Schools Office, Christopher Smyth, to “notify the schools not to ask the priests to provide their working-with-children check and if they have, they are not to register as the priest’s employer for the purposes of verifying the working-with-children check”.

Armidale is a city in the northern tablelands of New South Wales. The Catholic Schools Office Diocese of Armidale administers 24 schools, including 19 primary, two central and three secondary schools. The working-with-children check is a requirement for anyone who works or volunteers in child-related sectors, and involves a criminal history record check and a review of reportable workplace misconduct.

Schools must register with the Office of the Children’s Guardian and must verify all workers have a valid check, including those working in positions like school cleaners, who may be employed by an external company, or school volunteers.

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COLUMBUS (OH)
Columbus Dispatch

March 5, 2019

By Danae King

Victim advocates say the fact that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus considers an accuser’s reputation when determining the credibility of sexual abuse allegations against clergy is “atrocious” and comes across as victim blaming.

“That’s sickening … Who do they think they are?” asked Judy Jones, Midwest regional director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP). “So many victims, they’re struggling, they’re going through so many things.”

The Columbus Diocese said it included the accuser’s reputation as one of about eight factors when creating a list released Friday of 34 clergy members who had been “credibly accused” of sexually abusing children “because reputation for truthfulness is often considered in evaluating any claim.”

“No one factor is determinative,” the diocese said in a letter on its website attached to the list.

On Tuesday, the diocese added the names of two additional priests ­ Monsignor Robert A. Brown, who was on the Diocese of Steubenville’s list and is accused of abuse outside the Columbus diocese, and Father John J. Ryan, who was accused after his death and after the list was released Friday ­ to the list. Both are deceased.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who has no jurisdiction over criminal sexual abuse cases, said he was displeased that the diocese would use such a factor.

“You don’t start with a person’s reputation” in investigating a matter, but first search for corroborating evidence and witnesses, Yost said. “When you initially screen complaints of sexual predation, it’s critical not to disbelieve the victim.”

Yost, who was Delaware County prosecutor for eight years, said he knows sexual predators may choose victims who have other issues, like mental problems or other vulnerabilities. They can be “people who might not be believed in the first instance,” he said.

Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien, who does have jurisdiction over criminal sexual abuse cases, cited state shield laws when asked about the diocese considering an accuser’s reputation, but didn’t comment directly on the diocesan process. Shield laws say other allegations of misconduct by the victim are irrelevant to an investigation or court proceeding.

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GREENVILLE (SC)
WYFF 4 TV

March 5, 2019

St. Joseph’s has confirmed the resignation of a teacher who was accused of letting a former priest abuse a former student.

St. Joseph’s headmaster Keith Kiser confirmed the resignation in a letter sent to parents and staff Tuesday afternoon.

Kiser said he accepted Neil O’Connor’s resignation after nearly 26 years of sacrificial service.

Kiser said the move came over concerns about O’Connor’s continued association with former Catholic priest Hayden Vaverek and his organization.

Former St. Joseph’s student Michael Cassabon claimed Vaverek abused him starting in 1997, during his junior year at St. Joseph’s.

The Catholic Church found the allegations credible and removed Vaverek’s powers as a priest in 2013.

Cassabon said O’Connor would drive him to Vaverek’s parish in Greenwood and had knowledge of the abuse.

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MEXICO CITY (MEXICO)
Associated Press

March 5, 2019

The head of the Mexican bishops’ conference says 101 of the 157 cases in which Roman Catholic priests have been implicated in sex abuse have been turned over to prosecutors.

The bishops’ council previously said 152 priests had been removed from the ministry over the last nine years for sex abuse offences against “youths or vulnerable adults.”

Archbishop Rogelio Cabrera said Tuesday that information on such cases has now been complied in 64 of the country’s 95 dioceses.

Cabrera said that “up to now we have not been able to estimate the total number. Let us hope it is not a plague.”

The church is considering setting up listening centres to detect new cases and to start psychological tests for aspiring priests.

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FRESNO (CA)
Fresno Bee

March 5, 2019

By Yesenia Amaro

Rev. Joseph V. Brennan will take the reins of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno in May amid a large-scale sex abuse scandal in the Catholic church and an ongoing investigation in the diocese.

Brennan will succeed Bishop Armando Ochoa, who has served in that position for seven years. Brennan will be the sixth bishop of the diocese when he takes over the day-to-day leadership duties May 2.

The diocese made an official announcement Tuesday during a news conference.

Ochoa said he turned 75 last April — retirement age for Catholic leaders — and submitted his resignation letter to Rome, as advised under the Code of Canon Law.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Associated Press

March 5, 2019

By Eva Vergara

Chile’s Roman Catholic church, already the target of Vatican sanctions, was being shaken Tuesday by yet another allegation of priestly abuse and high-level cover-up.

Daniel Rojas Alvarez, a 43-year-old indigent man, appeared on a state television broadcast Monday night saying that a priest at the Santiago Cathedral had drugged and raped him in 2015. He said Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati had given him money when told of the attack and told him not to report it.

“The case is terrible, unacceptable,” said Fernando Ramos, secretary-general of the Chilean bishop’s conference, at a news conference Tuesday ahead of his trip to the Vatican for a worldwide meeting of bishops on preventing sexual abuse.

The Santiago archbishop acknowledged in a statement that it had received a complaint against the priest, Rigoberto Rivera, in the summer of 2015 and said he had been forbidden to celebrate public Mass since last year. His attorney, Sandra Pinto, denied the allegations.

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MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
Star Tribune

March 5, 2019

By Mary Lynn Smith

As a Catholic priest, Thomas Adamson won the trust of the boys he coached and others he came to know in the parishes he served from southern Minnesota to the Twin Cities.

But by the time he was ousted from the ministry after more than 25 years, he admitted to molesting 10 boys and was accused of sexually abusing dozens more.

It was the cases against Adamson that soon exposed a sex abuse scandal involving hundreds of priests, even more victims and a coverup by the church.

Removed from ministry in 1985 and the priesthood in 2009, he lived out his final days in Rochester. He died last week at age 85.

“Even though he has passed, there’s a legacy of pain and sorrow,” said Twin Cities attorney Jeff Anderson.

Anderson began to uncover the sex abuse scandal when he filed suit on behalf of one of Adamson’s victims, “John Doe 1,” in 1983.

His parents came to Anderson in 1982 after learning their son had been raped by Adamson years before. They went to the archdiocese but were ignored, Anderson said. The parents were bewildered and heartbroken.

After Anderson filed suit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, other suits followed.

“I pulled on the string and the scandal and coverup unraveled,” he said Tuesday. “It was the beginning of a revelation of the peril that priests posed that Adamson was emblematic of — and of the practice employed by the bishops in concealing it.”

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ROCHESTER (NY)
Democrat and Chronicle

March 5, 2019

By Julie Philipp and Virginia Butler

As the Lenten season begins, Catholics are being called to reflect upon their faith at a time of horrific scandal and growing concern about the future of the church. Those observing Lent are required to make personal sacrifices, even as they gain greater understanding of the church’s own astounding hypocrisy. They are devoting themselves to prayer amid a growing chorus of pain from people victimized by church leaders.

With all of this turmoil, how does it feel like to be Catholic today?

I recently sat down with four area parishioners who remain very committed to their faith:

Ben Anderson is a software engineer who lives in Fairport, where he and his wife are raising their six children “in a Catholic environment where they live and breathe Catholicism.”
Steve Barnhoorn is from Honeoye. His Catholic roots originate in Holland, where his father’s family held on to their beliefs despite near starvation during a famine at the end of World War II.
Judy Dickinson of Irondequoit and her husband were born into the church and have spent years studying its teachings. “My whole family are Catholics, both sides of the families. Most of my friends are Catholic,” she says.
Marcia Mendola grew up going to St. Michael’s on N. Clinton Ave, but has attended St. Louis Church in her hometown of Pittsford for the past five decades. “You hear that ‘you are what you eat,'” she says of the Eucharist. “Well, I happen to eat Jesus himself so he becomes part of me, and frees me to do his work.”
With the camera rolling, they talked about being devoted Catholics and how they view the Church during these turbulent times.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

March 5, 2019

By Marc Thiessen

On Ash Wednesday, the holy season of Lent begins — and so do the annual fundraising drives by many of the nation’s Catholic bishops known as the bishops’ Lenten appeals.

My advice to my fellow Catholics? Don’t give them a dime.

Last fall, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was supposed to vote on a resolution to create a special commission, including six lay members, to investigate bishops who cover up sexual abuse. At the last minute, Pope Francis barred the bishops from holding the vote. But it’s not clear the resolution would have passed. After all, the bishops did vote on a nonbinding resolution that declared, “Be it resolved that the bishops of the USCCB encourage the Holy Father to release all the documentation that can be released consistent with canon and civil law regarding the misconduct of Archbishop [Theodore] McCarrick.” As they debated the wording, the National Catholic Register reports, “they could not even agree on the inclusion of the word ‘soon.’”

Even the watered-down resolution was rejected 137 to 83, with three bishops abstaining. Want to know how your bishop voted? You can’t. When I asked the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for the roll call vote, a spokesman replied, “Sorry, the votes are anonymous so we don’t know who voted for what.” That’s their idea of transparency.

The situation in Rome is no better. This year, Francis reportedly informed Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley that he would not authorize a full-fledged investigation into the McCarrick coverup. In 2015, O’Malley and a special Vatican advisory group Francis appointed him to lead made a simple recommendation: If any Vatican office receives a letter from an abuse survivor, it must acknowledge the letter. The pope approved the recommendation, but Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has refused to comply — with no consequences from the pope.

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MULLUMBIMBY (AUSTRALIA)
Echo Net Daily

March 5, 2019

I was raised a Catholic. I grew up going to church at least once a week. During my early years the Catholic community were an integral part of my life. My mother was widowed at just 27 and the church stepped in with a significant pastoral role in our lives. A nun who taught me as a little girl gave me a letter to tell me that of all the children she had known I was the one that she thought of most often. It was actually very beautiful loving letter written by a childless woman who had felt a strong maternal love for me. I wish I still had it.

When I was selected to play basketball for Queensland, it was the Catholic ladies who baked lamingtons and raised money so I could go to the national championships in Perth. We were poor, and without their kindness I would never have been able to go. On school holidays I would spend two weeks each year volunteering in the kitchen of the Catholic summer school where I’d peel potatoes and make tapioca pudding for the 100 or more kids who went to state schools and were interned to get their sacraments.

When I was eight I wanted to be a nun. Partly because of my faith, and partly because I wanted to be like Sally Field in the Flying Nun, meet a Greek millionaire and be able to fly. I read the Bible. I prayed regularly to my glow in the dark Jesus. Priests were regular visitors to our family home. I trusted them. With no father figure in my life, they were often the closest thing I had to contact with an adult man.

When I was 16, a priest came to our parish for a short stay, and he quickly made himself known to my mother. It was only a matter of weeks before he became a regular at our house. I was 16, my mother was 36. He would have been in his early thirties. He was charming and worldly and incredibly charismatic. He told me that in a few months when I finished school and moved to Brisbane to go to university that I should get in contact and he would show me around, as I would be a country girl on her own in the ‘big city’ with no friends.

So I did. It was nice, because being in the city was incredibly lonely at first, and the priest showed me warmth and connection. We had fun together. He took me to galleries, to restaurants, and eventually he took me to an apartment at the Gold Coast and seduced me. I had just turned 17. I was a year younger than my son, who is in year 12, is now. When I think about what happened and how young I was the adult in me is appalled.

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CHARLOTTE (NC)
WSOC TV

March 5, 2019

By Dave Faherty

There are new calls for the Charlotte Diocese to release a list of local priests who were accused of sexual abuse with children.

On Tuesday, a man filed a police report in Boone claiming two priests abused him as a teenager in the early 1990s.

Channel 9 was there as Doug Dickerson walked into police headquarters to talk with investigators about three separate allegations of sexual assaults involving two priests at St. Elizabeth of the Hill Country Catholic Church.

“He was showing me what an altar boy would be, what my responsibilities would be doing and the first assault happened on the property of St. Elizabeth’s behind the altar,” Dickerson said.

Dickerson said that assault involved Father Cornell Bradley, a Jesuit priest, who came to North Carolina in the late 1980s after working primarily in Washington, D.C. and Maryland.

In December, the Maryland Province of Jesuits included Bradley on a list of priests who have “a credible or established offense against a minor.”

“At 13 I attempted suicide after the assault with Bradley by jumping off the side of the church, and since that point forward, it’s been a revolving door in and out of psychiatric institutions trying to get treatment and discussing the assaults that took place,” Dickerson said.

The Diocese of Charlotte said it was unaware of allegations involving Bradley during his time in North Carolina.

Dickerson said he was assaulted two more times by a second priest from Boone on a trip to Carowinds and near the Catholic Campus Ministry.

The Diocese of Charlotte confirmed to Channel 9 that priest, Father Damian Lynch, was later removed from his “priestly ministry” during the 1990s after the Diocese learned of a separate allegation. Officials told us Tuesday they believe the allegations of abuse made against Lynch at the time were credible.

“The Bishop here has repeatedly expressed profound sorrow over the incident of child sexual abuse. If that’s the case here, the first thing the most important thing we can say is we’re sorry,” David Hains with the Charlotte Diocese said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS 3 Philly

March 5, 2019

A Philadelphia pastor has been arrested in connection to an allegation of rape and sexual abuse of a minor. Philadelphia police arrested 49-year-old Armand Garcia on Monday morning.

Garcia, who is a pastor at Saint Martin of Tours Parish in Philadelphia, was placed on administrative leave last March while police investigated a report of alleged misconduct with a minor, according to a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

According to the archdiocese, at the time of the allegation, Garcia had a clean criminal background and passed child abuse clearances.

The alleged crimes happened from 2014 to 2017.

Garcia has been charged with rape, sexual abuse, and corruption of minors.

Garcia was ordained in 2005. He served at the following parishes, schools, and offices: Saint Joseph, Downington (2005-2008); Saint Eleanor, Collegeville (2008-2009); Saint Katherine of Siena, Philadelphia (2009-2010); personal leave (2010-2011); Our Lady of the Assumption, Strafford (2011); Immaculate Heart of Mary, Philadelphia (2011-2017); and Saint Martin of Tours, Philadelphia (2017-2018).

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MEMPHIS (TN)
Commercial Appeal

March 5, 2019

By Katherine Burgess

Pope Francis has appointed Bishop David P. Talley of Alexandria, Louisiana, the new bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Memphis, according to an announcement from the Vatican.

Talley’s appointment follows the removal of Bishop Martin Holley in October. Since then, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville has been apostolic administrator for Memphis.

Here’s what people are saying about Talley, who was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Atlanta in 1989 and became bishop of Alexandria in 2017.

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, apostolic administrator for Memphis:

“(Talley) has served well as a diocesan bishop of Alexandria in Louisiana and as a canon lawyer,” Kurtz said in a written statement Tuesday. “Most importantly, he brings the heart of a pastor and a sterling reputation as a good shepherd devoted to Jesus Christ and His Church, deeply concerned for those he serves, humble, and wise.

“I’m glad that Bishop David accepted to come, because he brings a lot of good qualities and talents with him that he has,” Steib said. “In particular, he’s very pastoral, very listening and knows how to work with people. I think that’s going to be his best feature.”

The Diocese of Alexandria, Louisiana

“In all things Bishop Talley fostered a spirit of unity and hope in planning for the future of the diocese while building on its long history,” according to a statement from Talley’s curent diocese. “As a diocese we wish him well in his new appointment as we give heartfelt thanks to God for his time and work among us here in Central Louisiana.”

SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) of Tennessee:

SNAP of Tennessee issued a statement Tuesday saying they are “encouraged” that Talley has been a caseworker for abused and neglected children, but are “also cautious,” particularly since Talley’s diocese of Alexandria, Louisiana, did not attach work histories to a list of clergy accused of abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Ballarat

March 4, 2019

By Charlotte King

Days after he led a prayer for Cardinal George Pell from inside the city’s prison, an Ararat cleric has delivered a stirring homily calling for urgent reform in the Catholic Church.

Ararat’s Father Andrew Hayes told a congregation of about 50 parishioners: “This weekend, as we begin our mass, our Cardinal is in jail”.

“I am so sorry for what the church has done to you … the lifetimes of torment and loss of life,” he said.

“Thank you for coming to mass today, it would have been reasonable to stay home — I am also ashamed, and embarrassed.”

Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic cleric, was last year convicted of sexually abusing two choirboys in 1996. He will be sentenced on March 13. An appeal against the conviction has been lodged.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Atlantic

March 4, 2019

By David I. Kertzer

After decades of controversy, Pope Francis has announced that he will open the records of Pius XII’s papacy to researchers—along with other restricted Church holdings.

On Monday, 80 years after Pius XII’s election to the papacy, Pope Francis announced that the archives of the controversial wartime pontiff would be opened to scholars next March. The decision follows more than half a century of pressure. Pius XII—a hero of Catholic conservatives, who eagerly await his canonization as a saint, while denounced by his detractors for failing to condemn the Nazis’ genocidal campaign against Europe’s Jews—might well be the most controversial pope in Church history.

Less noticed in initial accounts of the announcement is the fact that Francis’s opening of the Pius XII archives makes available not only the 17 million pages of documents in the central Vatican archives, but many other materials in other Church archives. Not least of these are the archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (formerly known as the Holy Office of the Inquisition) and the central archives of the Jesuit order. They, too, are likely to have much that is new to tell us.

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COLUMBUS (OH)
The Columbus Dispatch

March 4, 2019

By Danae King

Several local survivors and victims advocates are calling a “token measure” the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus’ release Friday of a list of 34 clergy members who have been “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors, saying it was “too little, too late.”

“It makes me angry,” Ken Wilcox said Monday.

The 55-year-old Olde Towne East resident says he was molested by the late Monsignor Thomas Bennett as a teenager at St. Charles Preparatory School in Bexley in the early 1980s.

“What I see is what’s missing,” he said of the list. “It’s monumentally maddening for a survivor.”

The most-recent abuse case on the list occurred more than 25 years ago, according to the diocese.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

February 27, 2019

[Video Length: 1:59]

ABC radio presenter Jon Faine says the overwhelming response on talkback radio to George Pell’s conviction has been one of disgust. He also cast doubt on Cardinal Pell’s chances of a successful appeal, saying the Catholic Church had already spent significant resources on the case.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
USA TODAY Opinion

March 4, 2019

By Elisabeth Treadway

I spent only 10 minutes with George Tyndall during my sophomore year in 1999 — an accused sexual predator employed by the University of Southern California as the sole gynecologist at the student health center. That short, seemingly insignificant amount of time would prove detrimental to my self-esteem and self-worth for the next 20 years of my life.

But those 10 minutes will not ruin the next two decades of my life.

No amount of money will ever change our past or heal our pain, but the settlement USC has agreed to is an important step in holding the university accountable. By finally acknowledging the hundreds of survivors, this settlement has allowed me to find purpose in my pain — to promote healing and to prevent this from ever happening again.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

March 4, 2019

By Natasha Johnson

As an award-winning journalist on Australia’s premier current affairs program, Louise Milligan is used to tackling difficult stories and upsetting people in power, but her three-year investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse against George Pell, the country’s most senior Catholic, was daunting.

“Without a doubt this is the toughest story I have ever done,” Milligan said.

“This is a person who had immense political and cultural power so taking that on is enormous and very, very stressful.

“Being at the centre of this storm, it doesn’t get any harder than that as a journalist.

“Having said that, it pales into comparison with what this ordeal has been like for the people who made complaints about George Pell, and their families.”

On Four Corners, Milligan secured exclusive interviews with the family of a choirboy, (who died of a heroin overdose), that Pell has been convicted of abusing on one occasion at St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996.

Pell has denied the offence took place and is appealing his conviction.

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NEW JERSEY
North Jersey Record

March 1, 2019

By Mike Kelly

When she talks about the Catholic Church, you can hear the sound of Phyllis Hanratty’s breaking heart.

Hanratty’s son, Edward Jr., said he was abused by a Catholic priest for several years in the late 1980s when the family lived in Ridgefield Park and were loyal members of St. Francis of Assisi parish.

Edward Jr., now 42 and living in West Milford with his wife, kept his secret to himself until last summer. And when he finally told his parents — and the world, in an NBC news interview — Phyllis felt her faith crumble.

“My church lied to me,” she said in a recent interview at the apartment in Lyndhurst that she shares with her husband. “I’ve been robbed of my faith in the Catholic Church.”

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

March 4, 2019

By Frances D’Emilio

Declaring that the church “isn’t afraid of history,” Pope Francis said Monday he has decided to open up the Vatican archives on World War II-era Pope Pius XII, who has been criticized by Jews of staying silent on the Holocaust and not doing enough to save lives.

Describing that criticism as fruit of “some prejudice or exaggeration,” Francis told officials and personnel of the Vatican Secret Archives that the documentation would be open to researchers starting March 2, 2020.

The move could speed up Pius’ path to possible sainthood, a complex process that in Pius’ case bore the weight of questions of what he knew and did about Nazi Germany’s systematic killing of Europe’s Jews.

Pius was elected pope on March 2, 1939, six months before World War II erupted in Europe. He died on Oct. 9, 1958, at the Vatican summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, near Rome.

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LITTLE ROCK (AR)
Arkansas On Line

March 4, 2019

Was the Vatican’s just-completed summit on child sex abuse, convened by Pope Francis amid a crisis of credibility that has crippled the Catholic Church’s moral authority, really intended simply to pre- pare the way for genuine reforms in the indefinite future?

Victims’ groups had hoped for much more, as had many of the faithful in the United States and elsewhere. They were heartened, briefly, when the pope opened the unprecedented four-day conference by demanding what he called “concrete” measures to deliver something real that would uproot the scourge of clerical sex abuse and hierarchical coverup.

In the end, those concrete mea- sures were a chimera—widely debated, held up to intense canonical scrutiny, but ultimately put off to some future date. The contrast with the pope’s own more disappointing.

A meaningful and, yes, concrete agenda for the U.S. bishops would start with taking up measures they were on the verge of adopting last November when the Holy See intervened to stop them. That would include establishing

a code of conduct for bishops, who have been instrumental in covering up the church’s crimes, as well as a commis- sion of lay Catholics to review allegations of misconduct by bishops. In addition, it would mean reversing the church’s steadfast opposition to chang-

es in state laws that prohibit survivors of pedophile priests from filing lawsuits years after the abuse took place. More- over, it would mean a shift in rheto- ric that would recognize not only the church’s obligation to root out abuse but also its unique history as a safe haven for abusers

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PRATO (ITALY)
ANSA

March 5, 2019

An Italian paedophile priest got a jail term of four years and four months in Prato on Tuesday.

Father Paolo Glaentzer was convicted of sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl.

The court also ordered damages of 50,000 euros for the girl.

Her parents were refused damages.

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NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

March 5, 2019

By Michael J. O’Loughlin

A group of nearly 200 Catholic leaders including cardinals, lay experts and philanthropists, who met in Washington last month to discuss the church’s ongoing sexual abuse crisis, released a report with dozens of recommendations just days after a global summit of bishops in Rome concluded their gathering about the same topic.

Kim Smolik, the head of the church reform group Leadership Roundtable, said in a March 1 statement that the recommendations “demonstrate how the church can create a new culture of leadership, as well as a new culture of how to respond to abuse.” The report, which included ideas for bishops and laypeople, called for “Catholic leaders to take swift and bold action.” When it comes to the role of the laity, the report’s authors said women, theologians and philanthropists must be utilized more by church leaders in order to create cultural change.

The Leadership Roundtable’s suggestions include developing a “code of conduct” for bishops and other ministers that “recognize[s] abuse of power not only against children, but also adults.” The report includes a call for greater transparency in a number of areas, including church finance—especially when it comes to donations and sexual abuse settlements—and in the process for selecting bishops. It suggests including laity in that process, empowering laypeople to assess how a potential bishop has handled allegations of abuse by priests.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

March 4, 2019

By Louise Milligan

The family of one of the boys sexually abused by George Pell have revealed their sadness and anger at watching their son’s life spiral out of control in the wake of his abuse.

The boy was one of two 13-year-old choirboys molested by Pell in the priests’ sacristy at St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996.

His father has told Four Corners how they watched their son change from a cheerful young kid — with no idea why.

“He went from being this lovely boy, who used to come to the football with me, who used to go and help his grandparents and helped around the house, to this boy wanting to go out all the time,” he said.

“His schoolwork, I noticed that it started slipping. His whole attitude changed. His whole being just, he was a different boy.”

Andrew La Greca was a member of the choir at the time the boys were abused and he also noticed the change in one of the victims.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Hawk

March 5, 2019

By Megan Piasecki

The world of Catholicism was turned on its head when Cardinal George Pell was convicted of sexual abuse against minors this past week and was refused bail.

This is just the latest account in the string of abuse charges against Catholic Church officials. Pell’s case is particularly jarring being that he is the highest ranked figure within the Church to be charged for sex abuse crimes towards minors.

Although the topic of abuse is deeply saddening, I think that it is incredibly important to see these men brought to justice and their victims speak out about the heinous crimes committed against them.

And Catholicism has taken a huge blow from these scandals.

As a devout Catholic, I do not believe every priest is a pedophile, however this stereotype does force me to look at the bigger issue at hand; this abuse has gone on for too long.

Although the issue is deeply rooted, we can work to combat the problem. A few ways to do so can be through supporting the victims so they can share their stories, as well as better vetting of our priests to prevent abuse like this from happening again.

The fact that it has taken this long for Church officials to be held accountable for their actions is despicable.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Rockland/Westchester Journal News

March 5, 2019

By Frank Esposito

A Westchester Country grand jury today indicted the Rev. Thomas Kreiser, a former Bronxville priest, on charges of sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

Kreiser was accused of inappropriately touching a young girl while.serving at St. Joseph’s parish.

He’s charged with three counts of first-degree sexual abuse, a felony, and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.

Bruce Bendish, Kreiser’s attorney, entered a not guilty plea on Kreiser’s behalf.

Kreiser previously worked at St. Patrick’s Church in Yorktown and St. Gregory Barbarigo Church in Garnerville, where he ran into legal troubles.

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

March 5, 2019

Victims blast Mississippi bishop
“He should disclose accused priests’ names,” they say
SNAP: “And he should include their photos & whereabouts”
Group ‘outs’ two alleged abusive clerics; one lives here now

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will disclose the names of two publicly accused priests who are or were in the Jackson diocese but have largely been ‘under the radar.’

They will also prod Jackson Catholic officials to
–reveal the names of ALL priests who have proven, admitted or ‘credible’ allegations of child sexual abuse,
–permanently and prominently post their photos, whereabouts and work histories on church websites, and
–‘aggressively reach out’ to anyone who may have been hurt by church staff.

WHEN
Tuesday, March 5 at 3:00 PM

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Jackson Catholic diocese headquarters, 237 E Amite St, Jackson, MS 39201

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

March 5, 2019

Reports are that Bishop David Talley of Alexandria, Louisiana, will be annouced today to be the new bishop of Memphis, Tennessee. What can Memphians expect from Bishop Talley? SNAP of Tennessee (Survivors Network of those Abuse by Priests) has the following observations.

In the wake of the revelation that the first bishop of Memphis, Carroll T. Dozier, was a pedophile listed on the “credibly accused” list of pedophile priests recently released in the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, SNAP of Tennessee certainly hopes there will be a better track record than has been seen in the past in Memphis.”

Do the prospects of this happening look promising given Talley’s recent stand on release of names in his own diocese in Louisiana? We’re not sure.

We’re encouraged that Bishop David P. Talley has worked as a caseworker for abused and neglected children.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

March 5, 2019

By Christopher Lamb

The Church is grappling to come to terms with Cardinal George Pell’s conviction for sexually abusing two 13-year-old choirboys, with a febrile atmosphere in Australia seeing heavy criticism of the Archbishop of Sydney and a university vice-chancellor for their responses to the verdict.

The former Vatican financial tsar, who was charged by police in 2017 with multiple sex abuse allegations spanning decades, is currently spending 23-hours-a-day in solitary confinement in a Melbourne prison as he waits for a 13 March hearing where he will be handed down a sentence for his crimes.

Pell, 77, never took the stand during his trial but has strenuously maintained his innocence telling police the claims against him were “deranged nonsense” and is appealing the verdict.

Nevertheless, the man who was once the public face of Australian Catholicism and a dominant figure in the Church scene globally is expected to be sent to prison for somewhere between ten and 14 years and is already facing a civil claim for sexual abuse from another complainant.

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MARION (OHIO)
Marion Star

March 5, 2019

By Sarah Volpenhein

At least five of the 34 clergy on a list of clergy credibly accused of sexually abusing minors released by the Diocese of Columbus Friday were pastors or Catholic school teachers in Marion.

While three of those priests had been publicly named and defrocked, the other two were not publicly known.

Both Bernard J. McClory, who was a pastor at St. Mary Catholic Church at least from 1983 to 1991, and Alan M. Sprenger, assistant pastor at St. Mary from 1960 to 1962, were revealed in the diocese’s release to have been credibly accused of sexually abusing a minor. Sprenger also taught at Marion Catholic High School, according to his obituary.

The Star could not find any prior public accusations against McClory or Sprenger. Both priests have since died.

The remaining three priests on the list who had been stationed in Marion were R. Michael Ellifritz, Michael F. Hanrahan and Thomas L. McLaughlin, all of whom have been defrocked.

Both Hanrahan and McLaughlin were criminally charged in connection to sexual abuse of children and spent time in prison.

The list of clergy released by the Catholic Diocese of Columbus Friday did not include the parishes where the accused clergy worked. But in searching its archives, the Star was able to identify five priests who had worked as pastors or Catholic school teachers in Marion.

The list also did not include any details on the allegations, such as where the abuse was alleged to have occurred or when.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting Company

March 5, 2019

By Damian McIver

Top barrister, Robert Richter QC, will no longer represent Cardinal George Pell in court for his sentence and appeal, saying he is too emotional and angry about the guilty verdict handed down by the jury.

Richter says he will be available to help Pell’s team and is angry and upset at the outcome

He denies his decision is linked to an apology he made after describing Pell’s offending as “plain vanilla”

The senior barrister says he continues to have every faith in Pell’s case

Pell was convicted of sexually abusing two choirboys while he was the archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s.

He is due to be sentenced on March 13 but has already lodged an appeal.

“I’m too angry and upset at the outcome to bring the objectivity that an appeal requires,” he said.

Mr Richter said he will still be available to help Pell’s legal team and is convinced he had a strong case in overturning what he called “a questionable conviction”.

“I will not be arguing the appeal myself simply because I believe the Cardinal deserves someone who can be dispassionate enough to present the case to the Court of Appeal,” he said.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal

March 4, 2019

“Gay currents in the Church?” Did Bishop Thomas Tobin’s tweet about rampant clericalism (“Bishop Tobin uses Twitter to weigh in on church sex-abuse summit,” news, Feb. 22) refer to pedophile priests?

Tobin speaks of “occasion of sin.” It has been reported that sexual abuse has existed in the Catholic Church since at least as far back as the 11th century. That’s quite a lengthy occasion!

Let’s get up to speed on the fact that the abused include mostly boys but also girls, some as young as 3 years old, with the majority between 11 and 14. Gays have been the whipping party for many religions, especially the Catholic Church.

Almost everyone will applaud “spiritual renewal of the Church,” provided it includes full disclosure of past “occasions of sin,” transparency going forward and where necessary compensation to include payment for counseling to those abused by priests and church hierarchy.

The Rev. John R. Warner
Cranston

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Current

March 5, 2019

By Sue Kerr

Lent is arriving in Pittsburgh and that means fish fry season is upon us.

A mainstay of Catholic culture in Pittsburgh, this is the first fish fry season since the release of the Grand Jury Report in August 2018 describing sexual violence by nearly 100 priests in the Diocese of Pittsburgh and the complicity of Diocesan officials in covering up that abuse.

For decades, fish fries have been important fundraisers for parishes throughout the region, staffed by stalwart volunteers of all ages.

Fish fries have also expanded to fire halls and local restaurants and the sheer volume of events that have cropped up in recent years has led to many media outlets to launch bracket challenges, Facebook groups, and a Google map. You can find fish fries with hipster themes, locally sourced fries, and everything from fish tacos to fish pizza to help meet the Lenten obligation when you tire of a 29-inch piece of fried cod on a hamburger bun.

For the past several years, I’ve featured a blog series called Fish Fry Fridays, essentially my reviews of assorted fish fries throughout the region. I dive into the food quality, portions, and price, but I also consider the accessibility of the venue, the friendliness and welcoming attitudes of the community, any evidence of recycling, and more. Examining the tension between my personal experience of Catholic culture and our shared experiences at the fish fries has been a useful starting point for some of my reviews.

But the whole time I wrote these, I knew about the sexual violence occurring in the Church. I was one of the kids who grew up knowing that most of the priests in our parish (Holy Spirit in West Mifflin) were just terrible. That was proven true when I discovered that the parish was staffed by child predators for at least 23 consecutive years. My friends were preyed upon and still deal with those scars today. I have never been unaware of the magnitude of sexual violence in the Catholic Church or Christianity writ large. It has shaped my life in ways that are difficult and painful to describe.

I read accounts of local parishes struggling to reconcile the realities of the grand jury report and hear very little acknowledgement of how these remaining parishioners were complicit in these events. Instead, people focus on what they will lose — their church buildings might close, their schools might be consolidated, their losses are potentially catastrophic. But very few people take that next step of considering that all of these things were built on a culture that has been skewed toward violence, abuse, and power hoarding for the past several millenia. Christianity, and Catholicism in particular, have violent histories.

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Patheos blog

March 4, 2019

By Bob Seidensticker

Nonprofit organizations in the U.S. make a contract: society allows donations to be tax deductible, and in return those organizations make their financial records public to show that they used that income wisely. Every nonprofit fills out an annual IRS 990 form to make its cash flow public—every nonprofit, that is, except churches.

Not only is this exemption unfair, it makes churches look like they have something to hide. Given past financial scandals, some do, but this secrecy makes most churches look undeservedly bad. Christians should demand that this exemption be removed. This change would improve the reputation of American churches at a time when a little reputation polishing would be welcome.

This article has four sections: a brief overview of the problem enabled by the exemption, arguments against removing the exemption, arguments for removing it, and a conclusion.

Church scandals
This isn’t an indictment of all churches, just the bad actors hiding behind the good ones.

One problem enabled by secrecy is fraud. “In 2000, an estimated $7 billion was embezzled by leaders of churches and religious organizations in the United States. Several other studies have suggested that about fifteen percent of all individual churches will suffer embezzlement.”[1] Worldwide, the estimate of fraud is $35 billion annually.[2]

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KINGSTON (JAMAICA)
Jamaica Observer

March 4, 2019

Another Jamaican claiming sexual abuse, allegedly at the hands of a local Roman Catholic priest, has come forward.

This was disclosed on the weekend to the Jamaica Observer by Denise Buchanan, the 57-year-old Jamaican who insists she was raped at the age of 17 by a then novitiate, although Archbishop of Kingston, Most Rev Kenneth Richards has said the priest in question, Father Paul Collier, said the relationship was consensual.

Buchanan is also a founding member of the international advocacy group Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), which is on a mission to compel the Roman Catholic Church to end abuse by clerics, especially child sexual abuse. The group is now calling on the archbishop of Kingston to apologise to victims of clerical abuse after comments made in a letter to the Observer last week.

The other victim, according to Buchanan, reached out to the ECA after reading the Jamaica Observer front page story last Friday, which reported on the archbishop’s response to an Agence France Presse (AFP) article published by the newspaper, in which Buchanan said she was raped, impregnated and had to do two abortions due to her alleged abuse at the hands of Father Paul.

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LYON (FRANCE)
Agence France Presse

March 5, 2019

A French court on Thursday will deliver its verdict in the case of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, accused of covering up sexual abuse of minors by one of his priests.

The 68-year-old archbishop and five former aides went on trial in Lyon at a time when the Catholic Church has been hit by abuse scandals in countries as far afield as Australia, Brazil, Chile and the United States.

The outcome of the trial, which began in January, has been long awaited in France where Barbarin is the highest-profile Catholic cleric to be caught up in a paedophile scandal.

“I cannot see what I am guilty of,” Barbarin told the court. “I never tried to hide, let alone cover up these horrible facts.”

The case broke three years ago and lawyers for nine adult plaintiffs – former boy scouts allegedly abused by priest Bernard Preynat – took legal action.

Since the abuse relates to acts committed before 1991, prosecutors had declined to press charges because of the statue of limitations.

The trial went ahead only because alleged victims went around the prosecutor’s office and insisted, as they are entitled, to put their case before a court.

Under French law, the court can still convict and even jail the suspect, regardless of the prosecutor’s position.

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NEWBURYPORT (MA)
Daily News

March 5, 2019

To the editor:

“We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low,” Desmond Tutu once said.

God’s mercy is uniform, constant and unwaveringly applied to all who seek it. Justice, however, is a flawed mimicry of it because it is a human invention and therefore subject to discretion.

The fabric of the Catholic Church is torn and there’s no repair in progress. Once again after a cacophony of recent news of abuse by high-ranking clergy, at the conclusion of a summit of bishops in Rome to address the issue, the pope disappoints.

In a faux response, the church announced through The Associated Press that it would issue a “new law” creating a child protection policy that covers the internal bureaucracy at Vatican City. Perhaps, the pope and the hierarchy missed the proverbial memo.

Criminal sexual abuse of children has become institutionalized throughout the world for decades by the church as well as its cover-up. There is neither nothing new about this condition, nor are the crimes localized within the walls of Vatican City. Certainly, the application of the law directed at “bureaucracy” provides a “line in the sand” whereby high-ranking officials are now finally at risk of being held materially accountable. Certainly, this is a novel approach.

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Above the Law blog

March 4, 2019

By Toni Messina

Every time I force myself to read more of the 1,356-page grand jury report detailing sex abuse in the priesthood in the state of Pennsylvania, I wonder anew: How did the church get away with this for so long?

The cover-up lasted for decades. It was initially not in the church’s interest to let the world know just how deep and wide the sex abuse went, but now, due to a confluence of factors, they can’t deny it further. As the Pope himself said at the recent conference of bishops called to discuss the scandal, what’s gone on “is utterly incompatible with [the church’s] moral authority and ethical credibility.”

There were high hopes that the recent summit would thrust a new set of initiatives, guidelines, and mea culpas before the public; that the church might get ahead of this crisis and salvage its credibility. The Pope opened the meeting acknowledging that “the People of God were expecting concrete, effective measures” to combat clerical abuse and not just the repetition of “simple and predictable condemnations.”

But in reality, the meeting produced nothing concrete, no future agenda, no timetable. The church’s decision to hold the conference dedicated to sex abuse, while remarkable because there was a meeting at all, produced much of the same — promises and a recognition of a need for rules on how to deal with misconduct, but no rules themselves.

Why not agree to form study groups on why men with predatory interests are attracted to the priesthood? Why not mandate that priests accused of sex crimes, when the source is credible and corroborated, be immediately defrocked? Why not rethink the very nature of celibacy itself and permit priests to marry? Why not begin a discussion on permitting women to become priests?

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HUNTINGTON (WV)
Herald Dispatch

March 5, 2019

By John Patrick Grace

Full disclosure: I have been a longtime fan of Pope Francis. The first pope from Latin America, the first pope who is a Jesuit, and yet, curiously, someone who took his papal name from St. Francis of Assisi, the barefoot troubadour who founded the Franciscan order in the hills of Umbria.

The images are endearing: Francis asking the throng at St. Peter’s Square to “pray for me” before he delivered from the balcony his first discourse as pope. Francis hefting his own luggage from his hotel room as a limousine waited below to ferry him to his new quarters in the Vatican. And Francis riding around Rome in a modest black sedan, an ordinary car, not a limo, sometimes right in the front passenger seat next to the driver.

I have had the personal privilege of meeting two popes: Pope John XXIII, while I was spending my college junior year abroad in Rome, and Pope Paul VI, whom I covered as a journalist working for The Associated Press. I see in Francis personality pieces that remind me of John XXIII, “the peasant pope from Bergamo.” Humility, plain and simple.

Thus I had sky-high hopes for the recent summit of 100 bishops convoked to the Vatican by Pope Francis to debate the worldwide clerical sexual abuse scandals that have ravaged Catholic communities.

I’d told more than one friend that Francis “would do more than Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI combined” to cleanse the church from the stench of thousands of cases of priests, and sometimes even bishops, committing acts of predatory sexual abuse on minors, predominantly young male children.

Serious — not partisan left or right types — Catholic commentators who followed the summit between Francis and the bishops have, however, scored the event as “a letdown” that fell far short of expectations, especially those of survivors of clerical sexual abuse. Two of these commentators are veteran Vatican watcher John Allen, who writes for a variety of Catholic media outlets, and Monsignor Charles Pope, a regular columnist for the weekly Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.

Allen credited Francis for issuing a heartfelt call for the church to heed “the silent, choked cry” of abuse victims, and for his remark that “in people’s justified anger, the Church sees the reflection of the wrath of God.”

The American journalist then went negative, quoting Bishop Accountability, a watchdog group, as suggesting that Pope Francis’ final remarks at the summit did not indicate the hoped-for zero-tolerance crackdown on offending clerics and bishops.

Nonetheless, the Vatican vowed to issue a new anti-abuse guideline book for bishops, conferences and dioceses, and follow up with other gatherings to take stock of progress, Allen allowed.

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COLUMBUS (OH)
Columbus Dispatch

March 4, 2019

By Theodore Decker

My favorite time was right after Mass, when the church emptied, and I was free to move about the altar and sacristy with a confidence born of routine. I extinguished the candles, readied everything for the next Mass and often engaged in an easy banter with the priest.

That in particular felt like a tremendous secret: that priests could be funny and spoke of regular things, such as baseball.

When I picture my childhood parish, St. Christopher in Parsippany, New Jersey, it is always summer. I see the stained-glass windows angled open to draw in cooler air, a futile gesture on the hottest days. Once every summer, Father Al treated the altar boys to a day down at the shore, on the boardwalk at Seaside Heights.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus released a list on Friday of 34 priests who had been “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors. The news prompted me to look for similar lists in New Jersey and upstate New York, where I continued as an altar server through high school. I prayed I wouldn’t see the names from my childhood — Father Cassidy, Father McGinley, and Father Al, a priest so familiar to me that I remember only his first name.

Their names didn’t appear, but I found the names of three other priests with connections to St. Christopher.

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BALLYSHANNON (IRELAND)
Donegal Democrat

March 5, 2019

The notorious paedophile priest Father Eugene Greene has died.

Father Eugene Greene was jailed for 12 years at Donegal Circuit Court in 2000 when he pleaded guilty to 41 sample charges of sexual assault against 26 children in Donegal parishes between 1965 and 1982.

He had been charged on over 100 counts. The trial heard that many of his victims were altar boys, who suffered repeated assault and buggery.

Sentencing him, Judge Matthew Deery noted some of his victims had turned to drink to try to erase the pain of their childhood abuse which he described as “horrific”.

It has not been confirmed when Father Eugene Greene passed away.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
Morning Herald

March 5, 2019

I appreciate Reverend Michael Jensen’s sincerity in responding to the pain of victims of abuse and the distress of church members (‘‘Only hope for institutional Christianity lies in truth’’, March 5).
As one who has spent many hours with depressed and traumatised victims not only of church abuse, but also the more subtle and strangling experiences of the tendrils of church power, I suggest that the church could respond in a more constructive manner by examining how its institutional practices perpetuate the problems so decried. While you have only men in leadership positions claiming this is the created order for relationships between men and women, you have the potential for abuses of power to increase exponentially. – Josie McSkimming, Coogee

For all the doubters and defenders of Cardinal Pell I quote the remarks of his barrister, Robert Richter (who was actually present for the whole trial), in his apology for his inappropriate remark: ‘‘The seriousness of the crime was acknowledged at the outset by the concession that it merited imprisonment. In seeking to mitigate the sentence I used a wholly inappropriate phrase.’’ People who have difficulty with plain English should consult their dictionary. – Jan Carroll, Potts Point

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BATHURST (AUSTRALIA)
Western Advocate

March 4, 2019

By Joanne McCarthy
.
THE Vincentian Catholic order has denied liability for notorious child sex offender priest Brian Spillane’s abuse of a Bathurst school student despite Spillane’s conviction for the crime, and despite Pope Francis’s vow at a Vatican summit that the church would give survivors “all the support they need”.

Spillane was “on a frolic of his own” when he indecently assaulted Damien Sheridan, 13, at St Stanislaus’ College in 1985 after the homesick boy sought help from the school chaplain, the Vincentians said in response to Mr Sheridan’s 2018 civil suit.

In the same response, the Vincentians did not admit the abuse occurred despite Spillane’s conviction the previous year.

The order is also yet to join the National Redress Scheme, after avoiding Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse scrutiny because of the number of outstanding prosecutions against the Vincentian boarding school’s former priests, brothers, teachers and lay workers.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Newsweek

March 4, 2019

Bt Christina Zhao

A priest from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland fled the country last month after he was accused of sexually abusing a male minor.

On January 31, the diocese placed father Alex Castillo on administrative leave upon receiving an allegation against him for inappropriate behavior from a child male victim.

Church officials were able to contact Castillo up until February 21, but after that date, several people were unsuccessful in their attempts to reach the embattled priest, diocese spokesperson Helen Osman told SFGate. The diocese then searched for Castillo in every jail and hospital in the area before they finally reported him missing to authorities two days later, on February 23.

Last Friday, Oakland police told church officials that Castillo had been “found,” although they did not reveal his current whereabouts, according to Osman.

“They would not provide us with information on his whereabouts, except that he has left the country,” she said. “They also informed us they have completed their criminal investigation.”

The investigation, handled by the Alameda County district attorney’s office, has not yet been made public. “It should be noted during this investigation so far, it has not been determined any crimes have been committed in the City of Oakland,” Johnna Watson, an Oakland Police spokeswoman, said.

Meanwhile, a diocesan review board is reevaluating whether Castillo is eligible to return to the church. The group, which includes mental health advocates, two diocese officials and criminal justice experts, will then present their evaluation to Bishop Michael Barber, who will make the final decision.

The Diocese of Oakland in February released a list of clergymen and religious brothers who were “credibly accused” of sexually abusing minors.

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VANCOUVER (CANADA)
CTV News

March 3, 2019

A Coquitlam woman has returned home from a trip to Vatican City, calling it intensely emotional.

Leona Huggins was there last month to meet fellow survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of the Catholic Church.

“It’s always empowering when we share our stories together and recognize that we are not alone,” Huggins said.

At the same time, bishops from around the world were called in by Pope Francis for a landmark summit on sexual abuse.

“The power of an organization versus the vulnerability of a little child; I’m here for the little children,” Huggins told CTV News while she was marching through the streets of Rome.

She and fellow advocates demanded a zero tolerance approach towards priests abusing children and church officials covering it up.

Huggins said she was abused in 1973 by a Catholic priest in New Westminster who was convicted decades later.

“He was a predator looking for prey and I fit the definition of prey,” she said. “I was 13 when he began.”

That priest served a jail term but continued working as a priest in Alberta and Ontario before his death last year.

Pope Francis ended the summit vowing to confront the problem head on – promising to change the culture within the Catholic Church.

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Patheos blog

March 4, 2019

By J. H. McKenna

Can a Pope sin?

Anyone with even a fragmentary knowledge of the history of the papacy is compelled to answer ‘yes.’ Vatican intrigues, illegitimate children, mistresses, murders—a few Popes went as far as all this.

Nowhere but in an official enunciation of Church dogma is a Pope considered infallible. It is assumed that any Pope is hobbled by the aboriginal injury of Eve’s choice, making a Pope susceptible to sinning.

And a Pope must participate in the sacraments, one of which is Reconciliation—again, thus presuming that a Pope has either sins of omission or sins commission on his conscience.

Every Pope has a Confessor, a priest to whom the Pope confesses sins.

The question on everyone’s mind is, Did the current Pope admit to his Confessor a sin of omission regarding priestly pedophiles?

Did the Pope acknowledge to his Confessor that he the Pope failed to alert secular authorities to the sexual criminality of Catholic priests?

Or did the Pope divulge to his Confessor a sin of commission in suppressing evidence of misconduct among Catholic priests?

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HONOLULU (HI)
Honolulu Civic Beat

March 5, 019

By Anita Hofschneider

Last summer, a Minnesota law firm published a 50-page booklet listing Hawaii priests accused of child sex abuse.

The alphabetical list started with Marc Alexander, who is currently serving as Honolulu’s housing director and has denied 2016 allegations by a minor in Kailua. It ended with Douglas Zlatis, who was accused by two students at Father Damien Memorial School and died in 2009.

Overall, the compilation names nearly 60 members of the clergy who have been accused of molesting children in the islands.

But advocates for survivors believe there may be a lot more. That’s why some are backing a Hawaii Senate resolution that calls on the attorney general’s office to investigate Hawaii’s Catholic clergy.

The Diocese of Honolulu opposes a resolution calling for the attorney general to investigate claims of child sexual abuse within the church in Hawaii.

The proposal comes in the wake of a Pennsylvania grand jury report that found at least 1,000 children were abused by more than 300 priests over several decades in that state. The Washington Post reported that the 1,400-page report prompted attorneys general in 14 states and Washington, D.C., to launch similar inquiries.

Hawaii wasn’t among them.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

March 4, 2019

By Jessica Heslam

When the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal broke, the pressing question was “how did this happen?”

There were so many signs missed. I got a similar feeling watching the latest, disturbing Michael Jackson documentary “Leaving Neverland,” which aired on HBO Sunday and Monday nights.

When the late King of Pop was parading around the world, always with a young boy by his side, it’s shocking to me why no one questioned what was going on. Looking back, and after watching this haunting footage, it’s even more shocking.

Just as the Catholic Church protected pedophile priests, it’s pretty clear that Jackson had a system in place to facilitate his relationships with young boys. His handlers made sure that Jackson had hotel suites to sexually abuse these young boys that were located far away from their families. There were protocols in place that made sure Jackson had a lot of time alone with these young boys at hotels and Neverland, his ranch north of Los Angeles.

The documentary focuses on two men who say Jackson befriended them when they were boys and molested them for years.

Wade Robson, 36, met Jackson when he was 5 years old, after winning a dance contest in Australia. Jackson, he claims, began molesting him two years later and the sexual abuse lasted for seven years.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

March 4, 2019

By Paul Collins

Tuesday, February 26, 2019, will go down as probably the worst day yet in the entire 231 year-long history of Australian Catholicism. We thought we’d seen it all during the four years of Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse, especially as terrible stories of mistreatment of children by clergy and in Catholic institutions were recounted. But George Pell’s conviction leaves that shame for dead. Australian Catholics are stunned, outraged and angry at the lack of accountability and betrayal as we are left utterly leaderless by bishops who seem to have run for deep cover from faithful Catholics and everyone else.

First, the facts of Pell’s conviction. There were two sets of charges. The first concerned two incidents in December 1996 and early 1997 in Melbourne’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral soon after Pell was appointed archbishop there. After a three-week trial, he was found guilty on December 11, 2018, of sexually penetrating a 13-year-old choirboy, as well as four charges of indecent acts with the same choirboy and another choirboy.

However, there was another set of charges of indecent assault of boys in a swimming pool in Pell’s hometown of Ballarat in the 1970s when he was a priest. These charges had not come to trial, so Judge Peter Kidd imposed a media gag order so that potential jurors would not know and be influenced by the cathedral convictions. But in the social media age, such gags are useless and when the Ballarat charges were dropped by prosecutors last Tuesday, the order was lifted and the firestorm began.

Pell strongly maintains his innocence and has appealed; it will probably be several months before the appeal is heard. Some Catholics, among them progressives, think the appeal is based on strong grounds and that Pell will be found innocent. They see him as a scapegoat for all of the failures and mistakes of Catholic leadership. Other Catholics accept the guilty verdict and feel the appeal is based on flimsy grounds.

There is seething anger within the wider Australian community, much of it fanned by social media, about sexual abuse and church cover-ups. Following Pell’s conviction this has exploded. “Catholicism” is now a dirty word in Australia, and as in most Anglophone countries there’s deep-seated sectarian bigotry against Catholics which surfaces in times like these.

Beyond anger and outrage, what is really going on here?

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VISALIA (CA)
Visalia Times-Delta

March 4, 2019

By James Ward

A Roman Catholic priest who once served in Visalia was put on leave after new allegations surfaced about a Kings County sexual assault he was acquited of in 2002.

Bishop Armando Ochoa announced the news Sunday to parishioners about the Rev. Miguel Flores of east Bakersfield’s St. Joseph Catholic Church.

“The current allegation relates to a previous allegation of sexual abuse of a minor that was litigated in 2002, at which time Fr. Flores was acquitted,” Diocese spokeswoman Teresa Dominguez wrote in a press release. “The current disclosure is considered credible which gave cause to reopen a diocesan investigation into the matter.”

In 2002, Flores was found not guilty of three counts of rape, two counts of witness intimidation and one charge of criminal threats for allegedly sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Hanford.

The girl, who was hired by Flores to do clerical work, told police the priest assaulted her Feb. 16, 2002 in his living quarters at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church.

Flores has been a Catholic priest since 1995.

He has been at St. Joseph Church since 2007. Before that, he had also worked at churches in Arvin, Fresno, Tranquility, Orange Cove and Squaw Valley.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

March 4, 2019

By Peter Smith

Bishop David Zubik is pledging to provide additional support for victims of sexual abuse by priests, to put more eyes on how the Diocese of Pittsburgh handles abuse allegations and to provide a full accounting of how much it has paid to victims, lawyers and accused priests.

Those are some of the highlights of a pastoral letter released Monday by Bishop Zubik in response to “listening sessions” held late last year at various Roman Catholic parishes in response to a 2018 grand jury report into the history of sexual abuse in the diocese.

“Our wounds are still open,” Bishop Zubik said in the letter, dated March 6 for Ash Wednesday, the start of penitential season of Lent. “It is impossible to undo the heinous actions committed in the past. So we must turn to God and, with His divine love and guidance, do everything possible to foster healing and to restore trust.”

In his letter, Bishop Zubik is pledging that by July, the diocese will publish the total sum of payments made to victims of sexual abuse since 1991, without naming the recipients. Bishop Zubik said that’s the earliest date of such a settlement.

He also pledged to account for legal fees related to abuse as well as the subsistence salaries and other compensation the diocese has paid, as dictated by church law, to priests removed from ministry due to abuse.

By 2020, the diocese will also account for a current, ongoing round of compensation payments.

Bishop Zubik, who held four listening sessions around the diocese, acknowledged the anguished and angry statements by many, which included some calls for his resignation and others for him to stay and “continue to lead with a pastoral heart”. While he did not directly respond to such calls in the letter, Bishop Zubik said in an interview he has prayed about the matter and is staying on the job.

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

March 4, 2019

A bill has been introduced in the California Assembly that would help protect children and support survivors by amending the state’s statutes of limitations on felony child sex crimes.

AB-218, introduced by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, is a great step forward for survivors and advocates in California. Among others, the most critical reforms in AB-218 will allow survivors of sexual violence to bring their cases forward until they are 40 years old, a massive increase from the current age of 26 and a serious help to survivors who have been suffering silence. The bill will also open a three-year “window” that would allow claims that have been previously barred by statutes of limitation to be heard.

These are major steps forward that reflect the realities of sexual violence. Survivors often take decades to come forward about their abuse – the average age of a survivor coming forward is 52 – and are often barred from seeking justice by statutes like those that AB 218 seeks to amend.

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Legal Reader blog

March 4, 2019

By Ryan Farrick

Petitioning lawmakers last week, the Diocese of Providence admitted to hundreds of sex abuse claims for tens of millions of dollars.

Trying to ward off Rhode Island lawmakers, officials from the Catholic Diocese of Providence have acknowledged settling more than $21 million in clergy sex abuse claims.

The total amount, writes the Providence Journal, includes $21 million set aside for “legal settlements” and another $2.3 million reserved for counseling. In total, the archdiocese has attempted to resolve some 130 claims of abuse in its church-run schools and parishes.

The Journal notes that the diocese reported the payouts in written testimony submitted to the Rhode Island Catholic Conference and filed with the House Judiciary Committee for presentation at last Tuesday’s hearing on impending legislation.

Survivors also shared their stories, some in graphic detail.

Ann Hagan Webb, a 66-year old psychologist and sister of the Rhode Island lawmaker who introduced the legislation, identified the late Monsignor Anthony DeAngelis as a prolific and brutal predator.

“Usually we save ourselves, and you, the pain by using generalities like ‘child abuse’ or ‘molestation’ and leave it at that,” Webb said. “It’s time to rip the scab off.”

Crosses. Some states are contemplating changes to their statute of limitations for child sex abuse as a consequence of church scandals. Image via PxHere. Public domain.
Her testimony included claims of DeAngelis raping her with a crucifix and forcing her to perform oral sex. She says the abuse took place repeatedly and over a seven-year period, beginning when she was kindergarten.

Sponsored by Webb’s sister and co-sponsored by most of the state’s House representatives, the bill extends the time victims of child sex abuse have to file lawsuits against predators and perpetrators’ employers. Previously granted seven years of leniency, the proposal would boost the cap to thirty-five.

Despite the church’s attempts at transparency, the Providence Journal notes its reports’ shortcomings. While the Conference acknowledged its settlements, it didn’t specify when or within which time period the alleged abuse occurred. Neither did it indicate the extent of victimization or name the priests accused.

Nevertheless, the archdiocese has taken aim at the legislation, recommending amendments and extensive rewrites. Among the “serious” flaws identified by the group and reported by the Providence Journal are a lack of distinction between “actual perpetrators” and “non-perpetrators who are alleged to have committed unintentional negligence”; an “unconstitutional” look-back period for the filing of claims; and an inappropriate emphasis on extracting financial settlements from the Church rather than abusers or abuse in the abstract.

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TORONTO (CANADA)
National Post

March 4, 2019

By Philip Mathias

The governance of the Catholic Church has to change — that’s the real lesson arising from the priest pedophile scandal. For a thousand years, the Church has been run like a medieval monarchy with a “king” at the top — the Pope — who is surrounded by princes (the Cardinals and bishops), all of whom are guided by God. The pedophile scandal deflates that model, making it more wishful thinking than reality, by revealing the Church’s leaders as very ordinary men, who have buried harm to children by priests to cover the Church’s failures. A new model must be developed, one that makes the oh-so-fallible rulers of the Church accountable to the faithful, as much as to their monarch, the Pope.

The heart of the scandal is not that perhaps as many as 10 per cent of Catholic priests have molested children. There are pedophiles in other churches, other institutions, and in all walks of life. The scandal is that bishops all over the world have left the wicked priests in ministry, and moved them to new parishes where they could commit their crimes all over again, and then tried to browbeat their little victims into silence. This vile conduct appears to have been universal and may have been secretly ordered by the Vatican to avoid scandal. If that is the case, the “Bride of Christ” has promoted an evil practice. If not, that evil practice was endemic in a Church that teaches others the highest morality.

Now, civil authorities in the United States (and elsewhere) are trying to identify more pedophile priests. Clearly, this scandal will continue, perhaps for decades. Meanwhile, the recent Vatican conference to address child abuse produced little in the way of concrete, enforceable measures. Pope Francis tried to take pressure off the Church by saying that child abuse is widespread in society, with 69 per cent of it within families, according to one study. He said the Church must confront this evil throughout society, as well as within the Church, which will employ unspecified “disciplinary … processes.” But he condemned those who constantly attack the Church (presumably the unrequited victims) as friends of “the Devil.”

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[Priests say key witness against Francisco Cox is feeling pressured by Ezzati and others]

CHILE
BioBioChile

March 3, 2019

By Manuel Stuardo and Estefanía Bustamante

Curas cercanos al sacerdote Manuel Hervia, acusan presiones de altos cargos de la Iglesia Católica por ser testigo clave de abusos sexuales a menores cometidos por sacerdotes como Francisco José Cox, exarzobispo de La Serena, actualmente investigado por la justicia.

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[Expert on new abuse case: “It’s time for some to leave the Chilean Catholic Church and Ezzati is one”]

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Emol

March 4, 2019

By Fernanda Villalobos D.

Marcial Sánchez se refirió al caso de violación al que está acusado Tito Rivera, ex rector de la Iglesia Las Agustinas y nombrado por el cardenal de Santiago, quien se enteró de los hechos.

Un nuevo caso de abuso en la Iglesia Católica se reveló este domingo: Tito Rivera, ex rector de la Iglesia Las Agustinas y nombrado por el cardenal Ricardo Ezzati, fue acusado de drogar y violar a un hombre de 40 años que fue a pedir ayuda porque tenía a su hija enferma en 2015. Según informó Radio Bío Bío, la Fiscalía de Rancagua está investigando una demanda por indemnización de perjuicios por $350 millones en contra del Arzobispado de Santiago, dado que Ezzati conoció el hecho de boca de la víctima y, según la acción judicial, sólo lo abrazó, lo conminó a rezar por su victimario y le entregó $30.000.

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[Rape in the cathedral: The dark sexual plot of the priest Tito Rivera implicates Ricardo Ezzati]

CHILE
BioBioChile

March 4, 2019

By Jorge Molina Sanhueza

Una investigación de la Fiscalía de Rancagua reveló uno de los secretos mejor guardados del Arzobispado de Santiago desde 2015: habitaciones en el principal templo religioso de Chile, donde se se cometió una violación y abusos con jóvenes de clase media baja que fungían como acólitos. El autor es el presbítero Tito Rivera, exrector de la iglesia Las Agustinas, nombrado por el cardenal Ricardo Ezzati. Este último conoció los hechos de boca de una de las víctimas, cuando el caso estaba plenamente aclarado por la “investigación previa” que otorgó verosimilitud a los relatos y solo un año y medio después -en noviembre de 2016- inició el proceso canónico penal, sin enviar los antecedentes al Ministerio Público ni darlos a conocer a la ciudadanía. Al afectado que le relató cómo fue violado, Ezzati solo lo abrazó, lo conminó a rezar por su victimario y le entregó 30 mil pesos.

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[Laity and abuse survivors call for Ezzati’s removal after case of rape in the cathedral]

CHILE
BioBioChile

March 4, 2019

By María José Villarroel and Nicole Martínez

Un reportaje de La Radio reveló uno de los casos que hasta ahora se mantenía en reserva: una violación a un mayor de edad dentro de la Catedral Metropolitana, cometida por el presbítero Tito Rivera. El denunciante, que llevó el caso a la justicia, dijo haberle contado sobre el caso al cardenal Ricardo Ezzati, quien según su testimonio pidió rezar por el sacerdote y le dio $30 mil en efectivo. Sobrevivientes de abusos y laicos consideran que esto amerita sacar lo antes posible a Ezzati como arzobispo de Santiago.

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VICE News

March 4, 2019

By Hind Hassan and Sean Stephens

The Catholic Church’s recent summit on protecting children was supposed to be a significant event for an institution that’s long grappled with its much criticized response to a litany of clerical sex abuse scandals.

But from the outset, the Vatican stressed that there wasn’t going to be any magic solution to the problem. And many young Catholics are afraid for the future of the Church.

Almost 200 cardinals and bishops traveled from around the globe to the Vatican for the four-day event, designed to show the world the Church was committed to tackling the decades-long, systemic abuse of children.

Pope Francis was keen to play down expectations ahead of the event but spoke passionately to delegates. “I make a heartfelt appeal for an all-out battle against the abuse of minors, for we are dealing with abominable crimes that must be erased from the face of the earth,” he said.

During the summit, a list of 21 guidelines for bishops was distributed, but as a response to the crisis, it seemed surprisingly basic. Suggestions included creating a handbook for members of the clergy on what to do when a sex abuse case emerges, and instructing all clergy to tell law enforcement about accusations.

Church leaders insisted the point of the meeting wasn’t to do damage control on their brand.

“I do believe that we cannot make decision solely based on self-interest, in terms of increasing the numbers of people coming to church,” one of the key organizers of the summit, Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago , told VICE News. “The pathway forward is not to do things simply to make us more palatable to people, but our first job is to make sure that children are safe. I believe that if we get that right, things will fall into place.”

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

March 4, 2019

By Christopher White

A new report by one of the nation’s leading organizations promoting best practices in leadership within the Catholic Church chronicles the “twin crises” within the Catholic Church, that of sexual abuse and its cover-up.

The report, released on Friday by Leadership Roundtable, comes just days after Pope Francis’s historic meeting with the heads of bishops’ conferences around the world in which he pledged an all out war on sexual abuse.

The forty-page report serves as a compilation of recommendations that emerged from the organization’s Catholic Partnership Summit, which took place in February in the nation’s capital, and brought together a mix of clergy and lay Catholic leaders, and seeks to promote a way forward with a “preferential option for abuse victims and families.”

Participants in the Catholic Partnership Summit included Cardinals Blase Cupich of Chicago, Sean O’Malley of Boston, Joseph Tobin of Newark; Father Hans Zollner of the Center for Child Protection in Rome; Kathleen McChesney, a retired FBI agent who established the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Office of Child Protection; John Carr, the USCCB’s former point man on Capitol Hill and current director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University; and a range of academics, theologians, and leaders from 43 dioceses in the United States.

Since the clergy sexual abuse crisis reemerged in the summer of June 2018, Leadership Roundtable notes that more than 50 dioceses throughout the country have sought their assistance in responding to the crisis.

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WAUSAU (WI)
Wausau Daily Herald

March 4, 2019

By Laura Schulte

A former Wisconsin priest accused of molesting several boys in the 1980s has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

According to online court records, Thomas Ericksen entered pleas of not guilty in the four open cases against him in Sawyer County. He is facing two charges of second-degree sexual assault of an unconscious victim, one count of first-degree sexual assault of a child and one count of second-degree sexual assault of a child.

Ryan Reid, Ericksen’s defense attorney, did not return a phone call from USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin on Friday, requesting comment on the pleas.

Ericksen, 71, is being held in the Sawyer County Jail in Hayward on a combined $510,000 bond in all four cases. The charges stem from his time at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in the town of Winter, Wisconsin, where he served as a priest from 1982 until 1983. Victims went to investigators in 2010 and 2011, alleging that they were abused by the former priest. Charges were filed against him in November 2018, two weeks after USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin filed open records requests with the Sawyer County district attorney seeking investigative documents.

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BINGHAMTON (NY)
WSKG TV

March 4, 2019

By Gabe Altieri

A priest who served at Ithaca College and Cornell University has been accused of sexual abuse of a minor. That’s according to the Ithaca Journal.

Reverend Carsten Martensen has served in campus ministry at both schools since 2007.

The abuse allegedly occurred in the 1970’s. Martensen has stepped down from all current assignments and public ministry until an investigation by the USA Northeast Province of Jesuits wraps up.

He was not on a list of Jesuit priests with credible accusations released by that group in January.

Full disclosure: Cornell University is a WSKG Underwriter.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

March 4, 2019

By Patrick McCafferty

Along with Fr Joe McDonald, I am also a survivor of clerical sexual abuse and a priest.

Fr McDonald argues that sexual offenders should not be dismissed from the priesthood and he cites “practical”, “theological” and “pastoral” reasons.

I reject those reasons given by Fr McDonald. The penalty of dismissal from the priesthood is entirely fitting and appropriate, for those who are guilty of these egregious crimes.

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BAKERSFIELD (CA)
The Bakersfield Californian

March 4, 2019

The Rev. Miguel Flores of east Bakersfield’s St. Joseph Catholic Church has been placed on administrative leave while senior officials take another look at 17-year-old sexual misconduct allegations involving him and a then-16-year-old girl, the Fresno Diocese told The Californian Monday.

During Mass Sunday afternoon, Bishop Armando Ochoa, from the affiliated Fresno archdiocese, informed parishioners that Flores had been placed on leave while officials reopen an investigation into the accusation — for which Flores was tried and acquitted.

“There has been ongoing communication with law enforcement since the third party report was received,” Diocese spokeswoman Teresa Dominguez told The Californian in an email.

“The current allegation relates to a previous allegation of sexual abuse of a minor that was litigated in 2002, at which time Fr. Flores was acquitted. The current disclosure is considered credible which gave cause to reopen a diocesan investigation into the matter.”

Flores was cleared of three counts of forcible rape, three counts of sex with a minor and single charges of making threats and intimidating a witness in 2002, after it was alleged that he raped a San Joaquin girl who worked as his office assistant at churches in Tranquillity and Hanford. He was found not guilty of all charges.

Flores’ suspension is presumably part of a review of possible sexual transgressions involving clergy that the Fresno Diocese announced last month it would undertake. Ochoa made that announcement at diocese headquarters in Fresno on Feb. 2.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
KDKA TV

March 4, 2019

Bishop David Zubik has released his “Pastoral Letter of Response” following several listening sessions about the church sexual abuse scandal.

“The Church Healing” was expected prior to the church’s observance of Ash Wednesday.

Bishop Zubik said, with the report, he wants those who attended listening sessions to know he heard their concerns, and is responding with actions.

The letter lays out a five-point plan, including:

Healing and Enhanced Support for Victims/Survivors, Their Families and Loved Ones
Greater Financial Transparency
Increased Accountability
Ongoing Spiritual and Human Formation for Clergy and Seminarians
Continued Listening to Seek Truth and Reconciliation

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ANNAPOLIS (MD)
Maryland Matters

March 4, 2019

By Bruce DePuyt

Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) should be doing much more to publicize his investigation of the Baltimore Archdiocese, a leading advocate for clergy sex abuse victims said on Sunday.

And a legislator who has questioned the way Frosh has tackled the investigation has raised new concerns about the resources the state has marshaled to locate victims and prosecute both the priests who committed the abuse and the bishops who covered it up.

Frosh has consistently refused to confirm that he launched an investigation in the wake of a damning report by Pennsylvania’s attorney general in 2018 on sexual abuse by priests, though he did concede in an interview on Thursday the gist of a recent Maryland Matters report about his office’s work.

“It’s not a secret. You know all of this stuff,” Frosh said. “I think the word is out.”

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TUCSON (AZ)
KOLD News 13

March 3, 2019

By Heather Janssen

As he held a photo of his 12-year-old self on Sunday afternoon, Tim Lennon, recounted the memories of violent rape and abuse by his priest in Iowa.

The Tucson man is a survivor.

“The priest that abused me used to take me to baseball games, to the park, to a movie, and molestation was always a part of that,” he explained.

Lennon repressed the memories for decades. The alleged abuse happened when he was 12-years-old. But one day the memories of trauma came flooding back.

“I basically froze. I didn’t say anything, didn’t do anything, and the memories were buried for 30 years,” he said. “When at twelve … I couldn’t fight back. Now I can.”

He’s turned the anger he felt over the abuse into a passion for helping survivors everywhere.

He now leads the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

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CHICAGO ( IL)
The DePaulia

March 4, 2019

By Brian O’Connell

Pope Francis and some of the world’s most influential leaders in the church gathered at the Vatican Feb. 21-24 for an unprecedented summit on counteracting clerical sexual abuse of minors.

Pope Francis convened the historic summit to further address the same issue that has dampened the church’s reputation for decades.

The church has been facing immense pressure because of the lack of concrete solutions it has put into place to address the problem, as well as the slow pace of reforms.

Judy Jones, the Midwest regional leader at Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said victims are not pleased with the actions that took place at the summit.

“Victims are very disappointed with Pope Francis and the papal summit; it ended with just more words and not decisive actions,” she said.

At the summit, the pope encouraged bishops to take stern action against abusive clergy members and to embrace accountability in protecting faithful Catholics in their respective dioceses.

But Jones believes that abuse should be immediately reported to law enforcement instead of being dealt with internally by the church.

“SNAP calls for the pope to compel bishops around the world to turn their files over to law enforcement for independent investigations into their handling of clergy sex abuse cases,” she said.

While victims and their advocates generally remained dissatisfied with the outcome of the event, some say momentous strides were made last weekend in Vatican City. William Cavanaugh, a professor of Catholic studies at DePaul, said the summit proved that the problem of clergy sex abuse needs to be dealt with on a global stage.

“There are parts of the world where people in the church are denying that it is a problem. The summit showed that this is something that needs to be dealt with in a worldwide manner,” he said.

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

March 4, 2019

An Oakland Diocese priest, Alexander Castillo, fled the United States after Oakland, California police opened a criminal investigation into allegations that he sexually abused at least one minor male.

Castillo was a “rising star” within the diocese. He last job was as a lead outreach coordinator for the Hispanic community diocese-wide. He operated at the right hand of Bishop Barber for much of the past five years. Among his duties was to evangelize among Spanish speaking populations in the Bay Area and in his native Costa Rica.

We hope that Bishop Barber cooperates with law enforcement to locate Castillo so that a full reckoning of what he did can be discerned.

Bishop Barber published a woefully inadequate list of “credibly accused” priests on February 18th, 2019. Despite the active criminal investigation focused on Castillo, Castillo was left off the list. Now that he has fled, Bishop Barber should, at a bare minimum, do the following:

• Add Castillo to the list, delineate his work assignments and overview his personal relationship with Castillo; SNAP has heard that Barber has mentored Castillo since Castillo’s time in seminary at St. Patrick’s, Menlo Park.

• Personally visit each parish Castillo served (Our Lady Guadalupe in Fremont, St. Anthony’s in Oakley) and beg all witnesses or other victims of this priest to come forward to law enforcement.

• Freeze Castillo’s paycheck and use the money to buy full page ads in major Bay Area newspapers asking victims and witnesses to come forward. The ads should be in Spanish and English and should emphasize that if victims are undocumented, they can obtain “U Visas” in connection with reporting any crimes committed against them.

At least 132 priests credibly accused of abusing minors have ties to the Oakland Diocese, including about half a dozen who still are working at the diocese despite’s the bishop’s “zero tolerance” pledge. SNAP provided that list of 132 to Barber on February 23rd. To make kids safer and to help survivors heal, we believe Bishop Barber should prominently display that list on the diocese website and provide law enforcement phone numbers for reporting abuse. In addition, SNAP believes Bishop Barber should publish the Attorney General’s website for reporting clergy abuse and beg witnesses and victims to register their concerns with the Attorney General.

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

March 4, 2019

Over the weekend, HBO aired the first part of a powerful documentary on the topic of child sexual abuse, renowned abusers, and the reactions that victims experience when they come forward.

In Leaving Neverland, Wade Robson and James Safechuck discuss the grooming and abuse they say they experienced at the hand of international superstar Michael Jackson. While these allegations have bubbled up and simmered back down over the past several decades, one thing has stayed constant: the disbelief that survivors experience.

Whenever allegations are made against powerful and beloved men, those allegations are instantly disbelieved by their followers. Whether it was Barbara Blaine in 1985 or Anita Hill in 1991, survivors who bring forward allegations do so bravely and in the face of fierce opposition. Whether it was Fr. Chester John “Chet” Warren in 1985, or Michael Jackson in 1993 or Michael Jackson in 2019, there are usually those who cannot believe that the person who stood behind the pulpit or whose music they loved could also be the cause of so much pain to someone else.

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MASSACHUSETTS
CNN

March 4, 2019

By Eliott C. McLaughlin

Kevin Spacey’s sex abuse case returns to a Massachusetts court Monday, as his defense team works to obtain cell phone records and other evidence from the actor’s accuser.

A judge previously ruled that Spacey, who has pleaded not guilty to battery and indecent assault, does not have to attend the pretrial hearing, but he must be reachable by phone.

Charges against the 59-year-old stem from a July 2016 night at The Club Car, a restaurant and bar on the island of Nantucket, during which a busboy alleges Spacey bought him drinks and groped him.

The busboy, 18 at the time of the alleged assault, came forward to report Spacey more than a year later, telling police he did not want Spacey to victimize others, according to a criminal complaint. CNN does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.

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ROME (ITALY)
National Catholic Reporter

March 1, 2019

By NCR Editorial Staff

Just inside St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, to the right, is Michelangelo’s arresting sculpture, the Pietà. Layers upon layers present themselves for pondering. The wonder, initially, is that a piece of Carrara marble could yield such a luminous rendering of maternal agony. The young woman is resolute. She appears utterly exhausted in this moment of dismal uncertainty. The bloodied head of a son whose unpredictable, itinerant life ended on a hill of horrors, droops beyond her right arm. Her worry and anxiety are spent. Her burden now is death, a moment of emptiness.

It is from this raw instant of humiliation, of futility and apparent abandonment — the joke in the legend proclaiming “King of the Jews” — that our hope springs. No Resurrection occurs without it.

Throughout the church in the United States, in varying degrees, people are wondering some version of: “What do we do next? What can we do?”

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KOCHI (INDIA)
National Catholic Reporter

February 28, 2019

By Saji Thomas

As the Vatican grapples to devise stronger protocols and responses following a historic summit focused on clergy sex abuse of minors, five nuns in India complain of church repression for their support of a former superior general who was allegedly raped by a bishop.

“The Catholic Church leadership has been treating us as outcasts after we went public against Bishop Franco Mulakkal [of Jalandhar]. Even the Vatican has not bothered to acknowledge our complaints,” says Sr. Anupama Kelamangalathuveli, the spokesperson for five Missionaries of Jesus nuns who in September last year staged a sit-in for the bishop’s arrest.

The sisters seek attention from the Vatican to the plight of women religious abused by clergy, with clearer protocols and more protection. For now, the five sisters are living with the victim in a convent in Kerala, refusing orders to return to their own communities while the case is ongoing. They are caught in a wrangle between a bishop who supports their refusal and their congregational leadership. Meanwhile, they endure the rancor of sisters in their community who ridicule them and discount the victim’s allegations.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Register

March 1, 2019

By Father Raymond J. de Souza

Cardinal George Pell was exactly where he should have been Wednesday night in Melbourne: in jail.

Let Henry David Thoreau explain: “Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison” (Civil Disobedience).

Now that the peculiar “suppression order” in Australia has been lifted, we are free to state what has been evident for several years now. The prosecution of Cardinal Pell has been a monstrous miscarriage of justice, a religious persecution carried out by prosecutorial means.

Cardinal Pell was convicted last December for sexually assaulting two 13-year-old boys in 1996. The process that led to the convictions was, from the start, a sustained and calculated strategy to corrupt the criminal-justice system toward politically motivated ends.

And now Cardinal Pell is in jail, awaiting his sentencing next month. There is no shame that Cardinal Pell is in jail; the shame is sufficiently abundant to be worn by all those who put him there

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

March 4, 2019

By Melissa Davey

Counsellors say defence of cardinal in the media has been distressing for people affected by child sexual abuse

A specialist counselling service that supports victims of childhood sexual abuse has been inundated with calls since the conviction of Cardinal George Pell, with many survivors saying they have been traumatised by high-profile support for the disgraced prelate.

The president of the Blue Knot Foundation, Cathy Kezelman, said demand for the childhood trauma service spiked when a suppression order lifted on 26 February, revealing Pell was guilty of five charges, including sexually penetrating a 13-year-old choirboy.

“It’s been so challenging, as we’ve had double the normal amount of calls since then,” Kezelman said. “Some people are acutely distressed. The story is playing out in public in such a way that it’s impossible, almost, to avoid it.”

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MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
Wall Street Journal

February 27, 2019

By Robb M. Stewart

Vatican’s former finance chief was found guilty of sexually abusing two choirboys in Australia decades ago

Prosecutors sought a lengthy prison term for the Vatican’s former finance chief, Cardinal George Pell, who was taken into custody Wednesday to await sentencing after he was found guilty of sexually abusing two choirboys in Australia decades ago.

Later in the day, the Vatican announced the start of a process that could lead to the cardinal’s dismissal from the priesthood.

At a Melbourne hearing, Chief Judge Peter Kidd revoked Cardinal Pell’s bail following a conviction in December on five counts of sex abuse and said sentencing would take place in two weeks. After bowing to the judge, Cardinal Pell was escorted from the courtroom to be taken to Melbourne Assessment Prison.

Each of the charges carries a maximum sentence of a decade in prison. Prosecutors have argued against each sentence being served concurrently, despite Cardinal Pell’s advanced age of 77 years. Cardinal Pell, the most senior Vatican official ever to stand trial on sex-abuse charges, continues to maintain his innocence and is appealing the conviction.

On Wednesday, defense attorney Robert Richter urged the judge to take Cardinal Pell’s age into account, along with his history of cardiac problems. He also said Cardinal Pell’s position as Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic in a church enveloped in years of abuse scandals would make him a target in prison.

Judge Kidd rejected a defense argument that Cardinal Pell’s offenses amounted to lesser examples of sexual abuse. “I see this as callous, brazen offending…[involving] a degree of impunity,” he said.

A jury of 12 men and women in December found Cardinal Pell guilty of four counts of an indecent act with or in front of a child under 16 and one count of sexual penetration of a minor. His accuser said the attack occurred in late 1996, just months after the priest became Archbishop of Melbourne, in the city’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

On Wednesday, the Vatican spokesman said the Vatican’s doctrinal office, which has responsibility for disciplining clergy guilty of sex abuse, would “now handle the case following the procedure and within the time established by canonical norm.”

According to church law, reports of sex abuse trigger a preliminary investigation to determine if a church trial is warranted. Cardinal Pell could eventually be punished by dismissal from the priesthood, commonly known as defrocking.

Earlier this month, former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington became the first U.S. cardinal in history—and possibly the first cardinal globally—to be defrocked, after a church trial found him guilty of sexual abuse of minors and sexual misconduct with adults.

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AUSTRALIA
Daily Beast

March 4, 2019

One of the alleged victims in a clerical sex-abuse case that was thrown out against Australian Cardinal George Pell has filed a civil lawsuit against the former Vatican No. 3. The 50-year-old man says Pell and a nun abused him when he lived at the St. Joseph’s School for Boys in Ballarat, Australia, in the 1970s. Pell was convicted in December 2108 in a separate case involving abuse that was allegedly carried out in a cathedral. The second trial, in which the alleged abuse was carried out in a swimming pool, was dismissed by the prosecutor in the case. Lawyers for the plaintiff say they are now seeking damages against the cardinal for psychiatric injury, loss of wages, and medical expenses. “David [not his real name], was one of the four complainants dubbed the ‘swimmers,’ and alleges he was sexually assaulted by Pell in a swimming pool in Ballarat,” the lawsuit states. “He was devastated when the prosecution decided not to proceed with his case.

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