ABUSE TRACKER

PITTSFIELD (MA)
The Berkshire Eagle

January 19, 2019

By Larry Parnass

It was dusk when the car reached the hotel. A priest got out and went in to register and get a room key.

Another priest waited in the car. He wasn’t alone. With him were two boys in their early teens who sported 1970s moptops. After a long drive from their homes in Pittsfield, they had no idea where they were.

Forty-six years later, one of them can close his eyes and put himself in those uncertain moments. In that car. In that hotel room. In that bed.

“The movie that I play in my head is what happened that night, with infinite detail,” said Michael Carpino, who was 13 at the time. He’s now 59 and lives in Colorado. “It doesn’t leave you. It’s a sentence for life.”

On Feb. 10, the Most Rev. Mitchell T. Rozanski, bishop of the Springfield diocese, will come to Pittsfield to hear concerns about the Catholic Church’s handling of clergy abuse, amid renewed and growing attention to the problem worldwide.

The bishop will settle into a seat blocks from the former Mount Carmel Church, where Carpino served as an altar boy for the Rev. Richard J. Ahern, a priest who spent six years in Pittsfield and was named as an abuser by multiple victims around New England.

Carpino won’t be around to tell his story to the bishop. He moved to Colorado soon after graduating from the University of Massachusetts in the 1980s and has worked there in the high-tech field.

But he detailed his abuse in phone interviews with The Eagle this past week, nearly three years after he first posted on social media about his abuse.

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Los dos últimos abades de Montserrat encubrieron los abusos de un monje denunciado en 1999

[Last two abbots of Montserrat covered up the abuses of monk accused in 1999]

MADRID (SPAIN)
El País

January 19, 2019

By Íñigo Domínguez

Un menor acusó a Andreu Soler, director de los ‘boys scout’ del monasterio durante 40 años, y recibió una compensación de 7.200 euros. La única medida fue apartar al fraile un año más tarde

Los dos últimos abades del monasterio de Montserrat, Sebastià Bardolet y el actual, Josep Maria Soler, conocieron desde 1999 la denuncia de abusos de un menor contra un monje, Andreu Soler, y no tomaron ninguna medida. Solo en 2000 el acusado fue trasladado a otro centro de la orden, El Miracle, en Lleida, pero la abadía reconoce, a través de su portavoz, Bernat Juliol, que no lo denunció a la policía, ni abrió ningún procedimiento canónico, según las reglas de la Iglesia, ni lo notificó al Vaticano. Ello a pesar de que la Santa Sede obligó desde 2001 a comunicar a Roma las denuncias de abusos. Tampoco se informó de los motivos del traslado al resto de los frailes. Este monje, fallecido en 2008, era una personalidad muy conocida en Cataluña, pues fue el fundador en 1959 del grupo scout católico de Montserrat, los Escoltes de Servei, o Els Nois de Servei, y su director durante 40 años. Tampoco se explicó a las familias y miembros de la organización los motivos de su marcha. La víctima, Miguel Hurtado, que sufrió los abusos cuando tenía 16 años y el fraile contaba con 65, ha revelado por primera vez su historia a EL PAÍS. También aparecerá en el documental Examen de conciencia, de Albert Solé, que Netflix estrenará el próximo viernes. El monasterio de Montserrat, a raíz de las preguntas de este periódico y un medio catalán, ha decidido divulgar una nota reconociendo los hechos esta tarde.

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Abuse victim launches case against pope and ‘criminal’ Catholic church

NETHERLANDS
Dutch News

January 19, 2019

A 74-year-old Dutchman has made a formal complaint against the pope and the Catholic church for the sexual abuse he suffered as a boy in a seminary in Helmond, describing the institution as a criminal organisation.

Theo Bruyns has received financial compensation from the church because of the abuse but says he still believes justice has not been done.

‘If you want to start something against this church, you have to make sure it is branded a criminal organisation,’ Bruyns told RTL Nieuws.

In his formal police complaint, Bruyns alleges that the pope and other church leaders are members of a criminal organisation which aims to ‘make it difficult to hinder or trace sexual abuse, as well as the rape of minors’. ‘

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Con agenda desconocida llegará este sábado a Puerto Montt el enviado apostólico del papa Francisco

[Pope Francis’ apostolic envoy will arrive Saturday in Puerto Montt but his agenda is unknown]

CHILE
BioBioChile

January 19, 2019

By Emilio Lara and Diego Barría

Con agenda desconocida llegará este sábado a Puerto Montt el enviado apostólico del papa Francisco, el sacerdote mexicano Jorge Carlos Patrón. Lo anterior debido a que la Iglesia Católica todavía no entrega detalles ni ha dado cuenta de las reuniones que sostendrá, tampoco con quienes se reunirá Patrón.

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‘Please forgive me’: A prominent priest’s grovelling response to a teenage sex complaint

MANCHESTER (ENGLAND)
Manchester Evening News

January 19, 2019

By Damon Wilkinson

A prominent Salford priest has pleaded for forgiveness from a woman who he had ‘sexual activity’ with when she was a teenager.

Father Peter Conniffe, formerly priest at Our Lady of Dolours in Salford, apologises to the woman in a letter seen by the M.E.N.

He was investigated by police after the woman – who met him after going to confession as a schoolgirl – made a complaint of historic sexual abuse.

The case was not pursued to criminal action, and Fr Conniffe denies ‘any accusation of sexual assault’.

However, the woman has been compensated by the religious order he belongs to, the Servite Order.

Following an investigation by the Roman Catholic church, the priest has stepped down from duties at Our Lady’s and from his role as chair of governors at St Philip’s RC Primary School.

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Felipe Berríos por acusación contra sacerdote jesuita Renato Poblete: “Estoy tremendamente impactado”

[Felipe Berríos on accusation against Jesuit priest Renato Poblete: “I am tremendously impacted”]

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Emol

January 17, 2019

By F. Fernández

El también religioso aseguró que es el momento de “tomar en serio la denuncia y dar la garantía que se va a hacer una investigación seria y abierta”.

“Tremendamente impactado”, aseguró estar el sacerdote Felipe Berríos respecto a la información que este jueves dio a conocer la Compañía de Jesús, sobre una denuncia por “delitos y situaciones abusivas” en contra del ex capellán del Hogar de Cristo, Renato Poblete. “Estoy muy golpeado. Este fue un segundo golpe fuerte, el primero fue con Cristián Precht. Le tengo mucho cariño a Renato, le tenía mucho cariño a él. Era una persona que me apoyaba mucho. Nunca viví con él, no compartí tampoco el trabajo, pero sí era una persona que me llamaba para explicarme o apoyarme”, aseguró el jesuita a CNN Chile.

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Madison Diocese considering investigation that will lead to naming clergy members accused of sexual abuse of children

GREEN BAY (WI)
Green Bay Press Gazette

January 19, 2019

By Rob Schultz

The Madison Diocese is considering an investigation to learn how many substantiated sexual abuse allegations there have been against clergy after the Green Bay Diocese announced Thursday that more than 40 clergy members had abused minors.

Madison Diocese staff members were taking steps toward launching an investigation and had begun interviewing consultants for a potential review of files but the unexpected death of Bishop Robert Morlino from a cardiac event in November put those plans on hold, spokesman Brent King said Friday.

“In recent months, and even in the days immediately preceding (Morlino’s) death, we have had numerous conversations weighing our options in this very regard,” Diocese spokesman Brent King said. “The abuse scandal is something Bishop Morlino took very seriously.”

The Madison Diocese was notified by the Green Bay Diocese ahead of its public announcement Thursday that 46 of its clergy members had substantiated allegations they sexually abused a minor, according to King. The Green Bay Diocese posted the names of the clergy on its website Thursday.

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Papa respaldó a obispos de la Iglesia chilena y provocó descontento en las víctimas de abuso

[Pope supported bishops of the Chilean Church and provoked discontent among abuse victims]

CHILE
The Clinic

January 15, 2019

En el encuentro no se tocó el tema respecto al envío del informe de Scicluna y aún es esperado por la Justicia chilena, para poder regularizar de forma concreta los casos de abusos, y según Ramos, tampoco se tocó el tema de una posible aceptación de la renuncia de Ezzati.

El Pontífice respaldó a los obispos chilenos que aún están ejerciendo cargos, luego de su reunión en el Vaticano con el Comité Permanente de la Conferencia Episcopal chilena, y las víctimas de abusos tildaron de arrogantes a los jerarcas de la Iglesia por defender la caducidad de sus renuncias.

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OUT OF THE SHADOWS: SHINING LIGHT ON THE RESPONSE TO CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Economist

January 16, 2019

KEY FINDINGS

Out of the shadows: Shining light on the response to child sexual abuse and exploitation – a 40-country benchmarking index examines how countries are responding to the threat of sexual violence against children.

It explores the environment in which the issue occurs and is addressed; the degree to which a country’s legal framework provide protections for children from sexual violence; whether government commitment and capacity is being deployed to equip institutions and personnel to respond appropriately; and the engagement of industry, civil society and media in efforts to tackle the problem.

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Cardinal Timothy Dolan Proves Once Again the Church Will Never Reform Itself

NEW YORK (NY)
Verdict

January 18, 2019

By Marci Hamilton

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced that the Child Victims Act, for which we have been fighting for 15 years, will pass this year with his full support. With both houses controlled by Democrats, the leadership of Sen. Brad Hoylman, now Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, he is surely correct. The barrier to passage until now has been Republican lawmakers kneeling to the Catholic bishops and in particular New York City Archdiocese’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan. The latter is not going down, though he is decidedly going down on this issue, without a final whining tour about justice for child sex abuse victims.

Dolan’s latest volley was an op-ed in the New York Daily News that is filled with misstatements and ugly implications. He tries two “Hail Mary” passes. First, he says that the governor’s bill will not treat public schools the same as private institutions. This is simply not true, but even if it were, there is no question the intent is to put private and public entities on the same footing and any additional language Dolan wants to further nail home this point can be easily added. The Democratic leadership in New York is 100% on board in wanting to protect children from sex abuse in every arena. Therefore, at least from Dolan’s rhetoric, he should be on board with the CVA. Not so fast.

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Anti-Catholic bigotry is alive in the U.S. Senate

WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

January 18, 2019

By Michael Gerson

Those who want to understand how Democrats manage to scare the hell out of vast sections of the country need look no further than the story of Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and the Knights of Columbus.

In considering the confirmation of Brian Buescher to a federal judgeship last month, Harris and Hirono submitted written questions that raised alarms about his membership in “an all-male society comprised primarily of Catholic men.” “Were you aware,” Harris asked, “that the Knights of Columbus opposed a woman’s right to choose when you joined the organization?” And: “Have you ever, in any way, assisted with or contributed to advocacy against women’s reproductive rights?” And: “Were you aware that the Knights of Columbus opposed marriage equality when you joined the organization?”

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Chicago priest removed from ministry during review of abuse allegations

CHICAGO (IL)
National Catholic Reporter

January 18, 2019

By Heidi Schlumpf

A prominent and popular Chicago priest, who for more than three decades headed a five-campus child services organization, has been removed from ministry while the Chicago Archdiocese reviews allegations of sexual abuse of minors against him.

Allegations against Fr. John P. Smyth have been reported to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and the Cook County State’s Attorney, according to a Jan. 18 statement from the archdiocese.

Smyth, who is now retired, was superintendent of Maryville Academy from 1970 to 2003, after serving as assistant superintendent for eight years before that. The allegations date to his time at Maryville’s suburban Des Plaines campus, in 2002-2003, the archdiocese’s statement said.

Maryville was originally founded as an orphanage in 1883 and still includes some residential programs. It also provides emergency shelter, substance abuse treatment and mental health services.

Known for his fundraising prowess, Smyth often mentioned his years as an All-American basketball player at the University of Notre Dame, in his pitches. He raised millions over his tenure at Maryville, according to a profile from Notre Dame’s athletic department.

But the suicide of a 14-year-old girl and reports of physical and sexual assaults perpetrated by residents on other residents prompted the State of Illinois to call Maryville unsafe and remove the children under its care in the early 2000s, according to the archdiocesan newspaper, The New World. Smyth was ousted, and Maryville eventually reopened under new leadership.

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Breda O’Brien: The Benedict Option – or how to save Christianity

DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Times

January 18, 2019

By Breda O’Brien

Lots of Christians wonder how it will be possible to raise their children in the faith in a wider culture that often actively undermines their values. Rod Dreher, who is speaking in Dublin this coming Monday at the Newman Centre for Faith and Reason, believes he has an answer, one which he calls the Benedict Option. He is an American writer, editor and prolific blogger – his blog averages more than 1.3 million page views per month.

He is a hard man to pigeonhole. He writes for the American Conservative and thinks that Trump has been a disaster for America. He started life as a Methodist, became an agnostic and then converted to Catholicism.

Covering the abuse scandals in the American church alienated him from the Catholic Church to the extent that he felt he had to resign his membership. He eventually became an Orthodox Christian, not a very common religious journey, even for an American.

He first came to public attention with his 2006 book Crunchy Cons, which articulates a mix of social conservatism and environmentalism. It also has a healthy dose of scepticism about market capitalism, seeing it as a driver for socially corrosive cultural change.

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Papal preacher’s good news for US bishops raises doubt about reform

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

January 18, 2019

by Ken Briggs

Pope Francis’ personal preacher had good news for American bishops on retreat in preparation for the upcoming papal summit on church sex offenses: Despite the church being “overwhelmed” by the clergy sex abuse scandals, “and rightly so,” he declared that they had emerged into a “golden age” in comparison to past times when bishops placed territorial needs over pastoral care.

That success was largely due to the refining fires of the crisis itself, said Capuchin Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher to the papal household, who spoke 11 times to the retreat at Mundelein Seminary earlier this month. At the beginning of his talks, Cantalamessa suggested it was “time for taking a break” from that preoccupation, in order to ponder “root issues” which were “both different and deeper than the issues that usually come to mind.”

The ones that usually pop to mind include the continuing scourge of accusations, sanctions against hierarchical cover-up and, perhaps the toughest, a searching critique of clericalism. Cantalamessa promptly declared himself unqualified from talking about those main elements of the uproar still convulsing American Catholics. But it seems he did. Tom Roberts adroitly shows in his NCR review that all 11 messages, Cantalamessa took indirect aim, choosing to reassure bishops that nothing needed urgent repair or re-examination.

He felt their pain. The scandal had damaged their standing, reducing the bishopric from an “honor” to a “burden.” He likened their suffering to that of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, innocent victims of the world’s sins. His listeners could take comfort that their burden was inflicted by outsiders and that taking on those sins, however agonizing, served the cause of redemption.

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Smyth, one-time Maryville leader, accused of child sex abuse

CHICAGO (IL)
Daily Herald

January 18, 2019

By Christopher Placek and Steve Zalusky

The Rev. John P. Smyth, a well-known Chicago-area priest and one-time leader of Maryville Academy in Des Plaines, faces allegations of sexual abuse of minors, Archdiocese of Chicago officials said Friday.

The allegations, which pertain to the 2002-2003 span during the end of Smyth’s tenure at the academy, were received by the archdiocese’s Office for Child Abuse Investigations and Review, according to a statement from the archdiocese.

Jeanine Stevens, the attorney who represents the two men making the allegations, said one was 13 and the other was 14 when they were molested.

One of the boys came forward shortly after the molestation occurred, Stevens said.

“Nobody believed him and nobody did anything about it,” she said.

Both boys had been placed at Maryville’s Scott Nolan Center by a judge, she said.

“They were permanently harmed,” she said. “Both of these men came from unstable households. This significantly compounded issues they already had to deal with.”

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Vatican summit to help nations lagging on abuse policies, moderator says

ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Service

January 17, 2019

Only about half of the national bishops’ conferences in the world have adopted complete, Vatican-approved guidelines for handling accusations of clerical sexual abuse and promoting child protection, said the Jesuit named to moderate the Vatican’s February summit on abuse.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi said about one-quarter of the bishops’ conferences have received feedback on their proposed guidelines from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and are working on the final versions. That leaves 25 percent of conferences “behind for various reasons, among which are different cultural contexts and a scarcity of available competence.”

The doctrinal congregation in 2011 had asked every bishops’ conference in the world to develop guidelines for handling accusations of abuse and to submit them for approval by mid-2012.

Writing for the Jan. 19 edition of La Civilta Cattolica, the Jesuit journal reviewed by the Vatican before publication, Father Lombardi said the February meeting would be an important occasion for bishops to share best practices and to assist conferences that, because of a lack of funds or expertise, have not launched protection and prevention programs.

Pope Francis appointed Father Lombardi to serve as moderator of the general sessions of the meeting Feb. 21-24 of the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences, the heads of the Eastern Catholic churches and representatives of the leadership groups of men’s and women’s religious orders to address the abuse crisis.

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Vatican summit to help nations lagging on abuse policies, moderator says

ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Service

January 17, 2019

The doctrinal congregation in 2011 had asked every bishops’ conference in the world to develop guidelines for handling accusations of abuse and to submit them for approval by mid-2012.

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Retired Priest, Former Superintendent Of Maryville Academy Accused Of Sexual Abuse

CHICAGO (IL)
CBS 2 News

January 18, 2019

Father John Smyth has been accused of sexually abusing minors from 2002 to 2003 while he was superintendent at Maryville Academy.

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Retired Priest, Former Superintendent Of Maryville Academy Accused Of Sexual Abuse

CHICAGO (IL)
CBS 2 News

January 18, 2019

Father John Smyth has been accused of sexually abusing minors from 2002 to 2003 while he was superintendent at Maryville Academy.

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Advocates call for priest abuse list to also include names of those who helped with cover-ups

BATON ROUGE (LA)
WAFB TV

January 18, 2019

By Kevin Foster

In January of 2019, the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge is expected to join more than 70 dioceses and Catholic religious organizations across the country, which have released the names of priests who face credible accusations of sexual abuse involving children, including both the Archdiocese of New Orleans and the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in Louisiana. However, noticeably nonexistent lists would contain the names of leaders in the clergy who participated in “covering up” those allegations.

The first list shows a horrifying number of predatory priests operated within the clergy. The second would potentially show direct actions willfully taken by leaders within the Catholic Church contributed to systemic and systematic sexual abuse of juveniles and vulnerable adults within the church.

According to one advocacy organization, it’s important for accountability to find out who knew what, when they knew it, and what they chose to do with that information.

“[Lists] should include every single proven, admitted, or accused church employee: bishops, priests, seminarians, brothers, nuns, and lay people, no matter who supervised or ordained them and no matter where they originated,” the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said in a statement.

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Advocates call for priest abuse list to also include names of those who helped with cover-ups

BATON ROUGE (LA)
WAFB TV

January 18, 2019

By Kevin Foster

According to one advocacy organization, it’s important for accountability to find out who knew what, when they knew it, and what they chose to do with that information.

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Make it safe for abuse, assault survivors to speak out

FAIRBANKS (AK)
Daily News Miner

January 19, 2019

By Helen Renfrew

When it comes to fighting Alaska’s epidemic of child abuse and sexual assault, silence isn’t the answer. Webs of secrets trap survivors and protect perpetrators. Let me be clear: Survivors get to decide when, how and to whom they tell their stories. They went through an experience where they were unable to control what happened to their bodies, but they should be in complete control over how their story is told. As a society we are responsible for creating an environment where it is safe for survivors’ stories to be told, one that doesn’t blame them for what someone else did to them.

We need to believe them.

National and local media reported on numerous perpetrators over the last year: Bill Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Larry Nassar, Catholic Jesuit priests throughout Alaska and Peter Wilson, who has been accused in Kotzebue to name a few. All of these cases have silence, sometimes decades of silence, in common. Victims feel embarrassed, ashamed and guilty; if they don’t talk about it, they can try to pretend it didn’t happen. Quite often the surrounding community knows what’s going on, but it’s an uncomfortable topic, and no one wants to be the first to mention it. Silence allows offenders to continue assaulting and abusing victims.

A family member raped me when I was 10. He raped a close relative 20 years later. He was arrested five years after that. I was not his first victim. The family knew — after all, most of them had been abused by their father, my grandfather. Keeping silent was a family tradition. How many dozens of children did my uncle victimize over those 25 years? How much damage did he cause? To this day, there are still members of my family who use coercion and guilt to try to keep the secrets hidden.

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Make it safe for abuse, assault survivors to speak out

FAIRBANKS (AK)
Daily News Miner

January 19, 2019

By Helen Renfrew

We need to believe them.

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Weekend sermons will focus on abusive Catholic priests list

DOOR COUNTY (WI)
Door Co. Daily News

January 18, 2019

By Terry Kovarik

This Sunday Catholics in Door and Kewaunee counties and throughout the Diocese of Green Bay will hear more about the list naming priests involved with sexual abuse of children.

They’ll also learn what’s being done to help assault victims and their families.

The list of 46 former priests, some living and others dead, was released Thursday. Diocese Communication Director Justine Lodl says the diocese has sent out information to help pastors and church staff reach out to their parishioners.

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Weekend sermons will focus on abusive Catholic priests list

DOOR COUNTY (WI)
Door Co. Daily News

January 18, 2019

By Terry Kovarik

This Sunday Catholics in Door and Kewaunee counties and throughout the Diocese of Green Bay will hear more about the list naming priests involved with sexual abuse of children.

They’ll also learn what’s being done to help assault victims and their families.

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January 18, 2019

AbuseTracker

Metro advocacy organization calls for name change of Catholic center, names accused priests

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Fox 4 TV

January 18, 2019

By Sherae Honeycutt

A group bringing awareness to victims of priest abuse is asking for a local organization to change its name. It’s a well-known center serving the poor, named in honor of a former bishop, but critics say that bishop was in charge during a time of priest sexual abuse.

“Whenever we hear another name coming out, or another hiding of someone, that just sends another dagger into our heart,” said abuse survivor Tom Viviano.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, SNAP, is calling for the Bishop Sullivan Centers to change its name. There are three locations in the metro area. Two in KCMO and one in KCK.

“They do excellent work,” said SNAP advocate David Biersmith. “Bishop Sullivan Center is a food pantry, and basically, and that neighborhood needs it.”

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Metro advocacy organization calls for name change of Catholic center, names accused priests

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Fox 4 TV

January 18, 2019

By Sherae Honeycutt

“Whenever we hear another name coming out, or another hiding of someone, that just sends another dagger into our heart,” said abuse survivor Tom Viviano.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, SNAP, is calling for the Bishop Sullivan Centers to change its name. There are three locations in the metro area. Two in KCMO and one in KCK.

“They do excellent work,” said SNAP advocate David Biersmith. “Bishop Sullivan Center is a food pantry, and basically, and that neighborhood needs it.”

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Priest is first charged by state task force launched to investigate clergy sex abuse

NEW JERSEY
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

January 17, 2019

By Ted Sherman

In the first criminal case filed by a state task force set up to investigate allegations of clergy abuse, a well-known Phillipsburg priest has been arrested on sexual assault charges involving a teenager in Middlesex County more than two decades ago.

The Rev. Thomas P. Ganley was a priest at Saint Cecelia Church in the Iselin section of Woodbridge when the alleged assaults occurred, from 1990 through 1994, state prosecutors said in announcing the arrest late Thursday. He is currently assigned to Saint Philip & Saint James Church in Phillipsburg.

Ganley was taken into custody on Wednesday and charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault in the first degree, and two counts of sexual assault in the second degree, according to state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal. He is being held at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center in North Brunswick pending a detention hearing on Friday.

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Priest is first charged by state task force launched to investigate clergy sex abuse

NEW JERSEY
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

January 17, 2019

By Ted Sherman

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Woodbridge Priest Charged With Sexually Assaulting Teen In ’90s

WOODBRIDGE (NJ)
The Patch

January 17, 2019

By Carly Baldwin

Father Thomas Ganley was a priest at Saint Cecelia Church in Iselin. He is charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl from 1990-1994.

A priest who worked for years at a well-known Catholic parish in Iselin was arrested Thursday, Jan. 17 and charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl in the 1990s.

Father Thomas P. Ganley, 63, who now lives in Phillipsburg, N.J., was arrested today at his home and charged with multiple criminal counts; the Middlesex County prosecutor says the sexual assault happened when the girl was between the ages of 14 and 17.

Ganley was a priest at Saint Cecelia Church in the Iselin section of Woodbridge when the alleged criminal acts occurred from 1990 through 1994. He is currently assigned to Saint Philip & Saint James Church in Phillipsburg.

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Woodbridge Priest Charged With Sexually Assaulting Teen In ’90s

WOODBRIDGE (NJ)
The Patch

January 17, 2019

By Carly Baldwin

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Former Catholic priest in Woodbridge charged with sexual assault of a child

WOODBRIDGE (NJ)
Bridgewater Courier

January 17, 2019

By Susan Loyer

A priest who served at St. Cecelia Church in the Iselin section has been arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual assault of a child between the ages of 14 and 17 in the 1990s, Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey announced Thursday.

Father Thomas P. Ganley, 63, of Phillipsburg, was arrested Wednesday and charged with one count of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and two counts of second-degree sexual assault.

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Former Catholic priest in Woodbridge charged with sexual assault of a child

WOODBRIDGE (NJ)
Bridgewater Courier

January 17, 2019

By Susan Loyer

Father Thomas P. Ganley, 63, of Phillipsburg, was arrested Wednesday and charged with one count of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and two counts of second-degree sexual assault.

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PRIEST ACCUSED OF MOLESTING GIRL IS 1ST ARREST BY NJ CLERGY TASK FORCE

NEW JERSEY
New Jersey 101.5

January 17, 2019

By Erin Vogt

A Catholic priest who lives in Warren County has been arrested and charged with multiple criminal counts in the sexual assault of a teen girl over several years at his former church in Woodbridge.

Thomas P. Ganley, 63, of Phillipsburg, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with one count of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and two counts of second-degree sexual assault.

Ganley was a priest at St. Cecelia Church in the Iselin section when the criminal acts occurred from 1990 through 1994, prosecutors said.

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PRIEST ACCUSED OF MOLESTING GIRL IS 1ST ARREST BY NJ CLERGY TASK FORCE

NEW JERSEY
New Jersey 101.5

January 17, 2019

By Erin Vogt

A Catholic priest who lives in Warren County has been arrested and charged with multiple criminal counts in the sexual assault of a teen girl over several years at his former church in Woodbridge.

Thomas P. Ganley, 63, of Phillipsburg, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with one count of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and two counts of second-degree sexual assault.

Ganley was a priest at St. Cecelia Church in the Iselin section when the criminal acts occurred from 1990 through 1994, prosecutors said.

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Catholic Priests Keep Saying They Forgot About Sex Abuse

NEW YORK (NY)
Vice News

January 16, 2019

The Catholic Church might have trouble remembering, but rank-and-file Catholics don’t.

The only difficulty one might reasonably claim when it comes to remembering sex abuse by priests in America is the sheer amount there is to recollect. Close your eyes, and go back no further than 2018, perhaps the most spectacularly disastrous year—and certainly summer—for the Church in recent history. In June, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick became the highest-ranking clergyman ever removed from the Catholic ministry in the US over child sex abuse allegations.

A month later, McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington, DC, and confidant to Pope Francis, resigned from the College of Cardinals, the 224-person body that, among its other holy duties, votes on the next pope.

According to a bombshell article in the New York Times that highlighted McCarrick’s decades of alleged sexual abuse against both minors and seminarians, he declined to comment but said in a previous statement that he had no recollection of the abuse and believed in his own innocence. (Such statements have become a trope for powerful people accused of sexual violence in the era of #MeToo.)

Meanwhile, in August, a Pennsylvania grand jury reported that at least 300 priests had abused 1,000-plus children in a 70-year span in just some of that state’s dioceses. The months since have seen the Church scrambling to address allegation after allegation of abuse, cover-up, and despair.

Yet somehow, even as the Vatican has shown the occasional sign of finally taking this nightmare seriously, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, McCarrick’s successor as the archbishop of Washington, has decided to play the bad memory card, too.

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Catholic Priests Keep Saying They Forgot About Sex Abuse

NEW YORK (NY)
Vice News

January 16, 2019

The Catholic Church might have trouble remembering, but rank-and-file Catholics don’t.

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The Catholic Church needs to do more than apologize over residential schools

CANADA
The Star

January 17, 2019

By Tanya Talaga

Evelyn Korkmaz is not waiting to see if she’ll receive an official invitation from the Vatican to attend the historic Papal Summit on sexual abuse.

While Pope Francis and the world’s Catholic bishops meet inside Vatican City walls from Feb. 21 to 24, Korkmaz, a survivor of the notorious St. Anne’s Indian Residential School, will join other global survivors in Rome as they hold an alternate “Ending Clergy Abuse” event.

Now 61, Korkmaz spent the most horrific years of her life as a student at St. Anne’s, which was run by Oblate Catholic nuns. Children who attended the school, which opened in 1906, were routinely abused, beaten and malnourished. Students lived in fear of the homemade electric chair used to punish them.

Korkmaz was sexually assaulted at the school, which was one of 139 Indian Residential Schools in Canada that existed from the mid-1800s to 1996. Nearly 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were taken away from their families, homes and communities and placed in government-funded, church-run schools meant to erase their identities and to assimilate them into colonized, Christian Canada.

Pope Francis has refused to apologize for Canada’s residential school experience, even though many of the schools were Catholic. Last year, he acknowledged the abuse suffered at the hands of the clergy in Chile but still Indigenous people in Canada wait. “What have the Aboriginal people done that we don’t have the same respect as those in the other countries?” Korkmaz asks.

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The Catholic Church needs to do more than apologize over residential schools

CANADA
The Star

January 17, 2019

By Tanya Talaga

Evelyn Korkmaz is not waiting to see if she’ll receive an official invitation from the Vatican to attend the historic Papal Summit on sexual abuse.

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Defending the church from Cuomo

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Daily News

January 17, 2019

I watched Gov. Cuomo’s State of the State address, and it unfortunately confirmed what many had warned me but I was unwilling to believe.

For years, I’ve disagreed with those who have observed that certain politicians are using the proposed Child Victims Act, which would extend statutes of limitation for child sex abuse, as a cudgel to attack the Catholic Church. I tried to reason that while there are sadly some who want to single out the church and weaken its ministry, most of our responsible elected officials, Cuomo included, realize the issue of abuse is hardly just a “Catholic problem.”

The governor has proven me wrong. “I am fully aware of the position of the Catholic Church and the opposition of the Catholic Church,” he said, before talking about how he had been an altar boy and how child sex abuse is an offense so dire it demands justice.

I took this as an attack on New York’s Catholic family — singling us out as opponents of legislation that others object to for many reasons.

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Defending the church from Cuomo

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Daily News

January 17, 2019

I watched Gov. Cuomo’s State of the State address, and it unfortunately confirmed what many had warned me but I was unwilling to believe.

I took this as an attack on New York’s Catholic family — singling us out as opponents of legislation that others object to for many reasons.

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Bill to Extend Limitations on Child Sex Abuse Claims Is Set to Pass in NY, But Timeline Is Unclear

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Law Journal

January 18, 2019

By Dan M. Clark

With major reforms already underway in the new session of the New York Legislature, and with both houses now controlled by the Democrats, it’s still unclear when a long-sought-after bill to change the statutes of limitations in cases of child sex abuse will be considered by lawmakers.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo, state lawmakers and advocates for the bill all agree on one thing: the legislation will pass at some point during this year’s legislative session. The question, for now, is when.

This year’s executive budget proposal, presented Tuesday by Cuomo, includes a nearly identical version of the bill pushed by state lawmakers last year.

It would raise the criminal and civil statutes of limitations in cases of child sex abuse to ages 28 and 50, respectively. It would also enact a one-year lookback window for victims over the age of 50 to bring civil claims against their alleged abusers. That window would start after the bill becomes law.

“The Child Victims Act has been too long denied,” Cuomo said. “If you believe in justice for all, then you believe in passing the Child Victims Act.”

A spokesman for Cuomo said if a bill makes it to his desk outside the state budget, which is due at the end of March, he will sign it.

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Bill to Extend Limitations on Child Sex Abuse Claims Is Set to Pass in NY, But Timeline Is Unclear

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Law Journal

January 18, 2019

By Dan M. Clark

This year’s executive budget proposal, presented Tuesday by Cuomo, includes a nearly identical version of the bill pushed by state lawmakers last year.

“The Child Victims Act has been too long denied,” Cuomo said. “If you believe in justice for all, then you believe in passing the Child Victims Act.”

A spokesman for Cuomo said if a bill makes it to his desk outside the state budget, which is due at the end of March, he will sign it.

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Dolan raps Cuomo for singling out Church over child sexual abuse

NEW YORK (NY)
Crux

January 18, 2019

In a Friday essay for the New York Daily News, Cardinal Timothy Dolan argued that Governor Andrew Cuomo, himself a Catholic, unfairly attacked the Church in his Jan. 15 “State of the State” speech with rhetoric regarding proposals to extend civil statutes of limitation for child sex abuse.

In his speech, Cuomo backed the “Child Victims Act,” which, among other things, would open up a one-time-only, one-year window for victims to file civil claims regardless of when the abuse happened. In its most recent form, the measure would also extend or eliminate the statute of limitations for future criminal cases involving a child under the age of 18, and it would extend the general time limit for victims to sue in civil court to the time they turn 50.

Since the bill was proposed, New York’s Catholic Conference has objected on the grounds that it covers only private institutions such as the Church and not public institutions such as taxpayer-financed schools, orphanages and social service providers.

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Dolan raps Cuomo for singling out Church over child sexual abuse

NEW YORK (NY)
Crux

January 18, 2019

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Judge who guided Pennsylvania grand jury investigations into abuse by priests knew impact ‘would be huge’

EBENSBURG (PA)
Tribune Democrat

January 18, 2019

By Jocelyn Brumbaugh

Judge Norman Krumenacker recalls Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro asking him what kind of attention the statewide investigation into allegations of abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic Church would bring.

“I told him to get a new tie and suit because he was going to be on ’60 Minutes,’” Krumenacker said.

Cambria County’s president judge directed the grand jury investigations into priest abuse that led to reports targeting the Altoona-Johnstown Roman Catholic Diocese in 2016, and then six more dioceses across the state in 2018.

The two reports combined found sexual abuse by 350 priests or other church officials and involved more than 1,300 children – with accounts dating back decades – and extensive efforts by church officials to cover up the abuse.

Krumenacker said that during a 2014 investigation into reported sexual abuse by a former athletic trainer at a Catholic high school in Johnstown, he began to understand the magnitude of a looming grand jury investigation for the church institution and its members.

“I realized the gravity of what was going to happen,” Krumenacker said during an interview in his chambers at the Cambria courthouse.

In his role as supervising judge of the 37th statewide investigative grand jury, Krumenacker first was tasked with deciding whether attorney-client privilege would be jeopardized if files were turned over to the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General.

That meant reading through “tens of thousands” of documents from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown concerning Bishop McCort Catholic High School and Brother Stephen Baker, a Franciscan friar from the Third Order Regular accused of violating more than 100 children.

The Cambria County District Attorney’s Office referred the Baker case to the state attorney general in early 2014, after Baker died of a reported self-inflicted knife wound to the heart.

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Judge who guided Pennsylvania grand jury investigations into abuse by priests knew impact ‘would be huge’

EBENSBURG (PA)
Tribune Democrat

January 18, 2019

By Jocelyn Brumbaugh

“I told him to get a new tie and suit because he was going to be on ’60 Minutes,’” Krumenacker said.

“I realized the gravity of what was going to happen,” Krumenacker said during an interview in his chambers at the Cambria courthouse.

The Cambria County District Attorney’s Office referred the Baker case to the state attorney general in early 2014, after Baker died of a reported self-inflicted knife wound to the heart.

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Bishop Sullivan Center should be renamed, priest victims’ advocacy groups says

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Kansas City Star

January 18, 2019

By Judy L. Thomas

A victims’ advocacy group on Friday called on the Bishop Sullivan Center to change its name, saying it honors a bishop who oversaw the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese during a period when most priest sex abuse cases occurred.

“Honoring wrongdoers makes already-suffering abuse victims suffer more, and that makes them less apt to speak up in the future, thus endangering more kids,” said David Clohessy, former director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

“It also makes witnesses and whistleblowers more apt to stay silent. ‘Why stick my neck out,’ they ask themselves, ‘when even those who are clearly guilty are still held out as model clerics by the church hierarchy?’”

The Bishop Sullivan Center indicated Friday that it had no plans to take any action.

“We are not aware of any misconduct by Bishop Sullivan,” said director Tom Turner in an email to The Star. “On the contrary, we knew him as a man committed to helping people in poverty, which was why the center was named after him. Many people we help are victims of abuse, so we are sympathetic to that pain.”

Bishop John J. Sullivan was head of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph from 1977 to 1993. He died in 2001 at 80.

In an email to The Star, the diocese said that the Bishop Sullivan Center “is an independent charity in Kansas City which serves the poor.”

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Accused of Abuse, Schools Rush to Reassure

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

January 16, 2019

By Rick Rojas

Hours after the Jesuits this week released the names of dozens of priests who faced accusations of sexual abuse, schools in the Northeast rushed to dispel any notion that they still employed suspected abusers.

Stricter policies are in place, school officials said, and the understanding of sexual misconduct had evolved. Fordham Prep in the Bronx noted that accused priests were no longer living in a nursing home nearby.

Most of the 50 men who were identified on Tuesday by the Society of Jesus, as the Jesuit order is known, are dead. Many of the rest have not worked in Jesuit-run schools for years or had been pulled from public ministry.

Still, one was teaching at the prestigious Masters School just north of New York City, prompting officials there to initiate an investigation and force him to resign. The private prep school has no religious affiliation.

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Michigan priest legal defense group ousts two officials amid AG deal

DETROIT (MI)
Detroit News

January 18, 2019

By Beth LeBlanc

The president and treasurer of a Michigan group that provides legal and moral support for accused priests across the globe are out following state concerns about the oversight of the tax-exempt nonprofit.

Former Attorney General Bill Schuette reached a settlement with Opus Bono Sacerdotii in December, five months after he filed a July cease-and-desist order against the Lapeer County group for alleged violations of Michigan’s nonprofit and charitable solicitation laws.

Prompted by a 2017 complaint from a former employee, Schuette’s 2018 cease-and-desist order came about a month before he launched a far-reaching probe into Michigan’s seven dioceses, essentially an investigation into the clergy Opus Bono assists.

Obus Bono Sacerdotii, whose Latin name means “work for the good of the priesthood,” focuses on helping priests who are “experiencing acute difficulties” and was started by founder and president Joe Maher in 2002. According to the group’s website, Maher helped fund the defense of a parish priest after he was arrested by Detroit police on a sexual abuse allegation. The priest eventually was acquitted

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SNAP calls on Diocese to release additional priest names

GREEN BAY (WI)
WBAY TV

January 18, 2019

By Tia Johnson

A national clergy abuse survivor group is urging Wisconsin’s Attorney General to investigate the Diocese of Green Bay after the church released names of 46 priests with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.

On Friday, SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) held a press conference in front of the Cathedral of St. Francis Xavier on Madison Street in Green Bay.

SNAP is urging Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul to initiate a statewide investigation of church sexual abuse and cover up.

“There are 15 states now and the US Department of Justice that have open investigations of Diocese like this one where there has been demonstrable evidence and proof that there has been a history of decades of covering up child sex crimes,” says Peter Isely, founding member of SNAP.

SNAP is asking for Bishop David Ricken to name “additional abusive priests known by church officials to have operated within his diocese.”

“That list is partial, it is biased and it is incomplete,” Isely says.

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First Female Victim Of Clergy Sex Abuse Sues Pittsburgh Diocese

PITTSBURGH (PA)
KDKA Radio

January 18, 2019

By Joe Destio

The first female survivor of clergy sex abuse has sued the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese.

The plaintiff’s attorney George Kontos tells KDKA Radio’s Joe DeStio

“Not unlike a lot of the abuse that we have already filed complains for it involves a known predator priest in this instance a Father Paul Pindel who was at St. Genevieve church in Canonsburg in addition to various other places. We believe he was transferred about 12 times,” says Kontos

Pindel is named in the Pennsylvania grand jury report.

The lawsuit alleges the abuse occurred in 1982 when the plaintiff was 15 or 16-years-old while Pindel was counseling her.

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Letter to the editor: Jesuits offer lame excuse for handling of priests accused of sex abuse

lremington January 18, 2019

PORTLAND (ME)
Press Herald

January 8, 2019

The USA Northeast Province of Jesuits released a list of 50 priests credibly accused of sexual abuse that includes seven priests who worked at Cheverus High School in Portland.

In his statement announcing the release of the names, the Northeast Jesuit provincial, the Rev. John Cecero, S.J., tries to convince us that if he and his fellow Jesuits had known better, they’d have done better.

That is, known better about not letting a pedophile rape a kid a second, third or fourth time.

Here’s what Father Cecero wrote in part in his statement: “We did not know any best practices to handle these violations many decades ago and regrettably made mistakes along the way.”

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Inician investigación contra fallecido capellán del Hogar de Cristo Renato Poblete tras denuncia

[Jesuits open abuse investigation against Renato Poblete, deceased chaplain of Hogar de Cristo]

CHILE
BioBioChile

January 17, 2019

By Alberto González and Sebastián Cáceres

La Compañía de Jesús en Chile anunció una investigación canónica previa en contra del excapellán del Hogar de Cristo, el fallecido sacerdote Renato Poblete, por una acusación de abusos sexuales, de poder y conciencia, que habrían ocurrido entre 1985 y 1993. A través de un comunicado, la organización religiosa informó que a comienzos de enero recibió una denuncia de abusos sexuales, de poder y conciencia, cometidos por el sacerdote Renato Poblete Barth, quien murió en febrero de 2010 producto de un ataque cardíaco, a los 85 años de edad.

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Jesuits release list of priests credibly accused of abuse, including 22 with Mass. ties

Anne Barrett Doyle January 18, 2019

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

January 15, 2018

By Laura Crimaldi and Michael Levenson
.
The governing body for Jesuit priests in eight Northeastern states released a list Tuesday of 50 clergy who were credibly accused of sexual abuse against children dating back to 1950, including 22 who were affiliated with high schools, hospitals, churches, and colleges in Massachusetts.

The list includes 16 Jesuits who worked at Boston College High School in Dorchester, and one priest who ministered in Fall River and Gloucester, but was only stripped of his duties in the last two weeks as officials at the USA Northeast Jesuit Province prepared to publicize his name.

All but five of the Jesuits with Massachusetts ties are listed as deceased. Among the living is James Talbot, who was defrocked in 2013 and jailed last year for sexually assaulting a boy in Freeport, Maine, during the 1990s, according to The Portland Press Herald.

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Syracuse bishop supports state law giving sex abuse victims more powers to sue

Anne Barrett Doyle January 18, 2019

SYRACUSE (NY)
Syracuse.com

January 18, 2019

By Julie McMahon

Syracuse Catholic Bishop Robert Cunningham said today he would support a proposed law in New York state giving victims of child sexual abuse more time to file lawsuits.

Cunningham publicly shared his personal views on the Child Victims Act for the first time in a letter to The Post-Standard. He is part of the New York Catholic Conference, which has historically opposed the bill. Cunningham said today it was time for the New York State Legislature to pass and strengthen the proposed law.

The law in previous years failed to pass in the Republican-controlled state Senate. With Democrats in control of both houses in New York state, the Child Victims Act is expected to pass this year. Gov. Andrew Cuomo included it in his budget proposal during his State of the State address earlier this week.

The law would expand the statute of limitation in all criminal felony sex abuse cases involving children. It would allow prosecutors to pursue charges against abusers until the victim turns 28 years old.

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Scholarships named for Jesuits with Mass. ties discontinued after order identifies clergy credibly accused of child molestation

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

January 16, 2018

By Laura Crimaldi

Scholarships were given in their names, and Catholic institutions in Massachusetts tapped them as leaders.

But after the publication this week of the names of 50 Jesuit priests who were credibly accused of molesting children since 1950, organizations statewide have stripped the men of honors bestowed upon them years earlier. Twenty-two of the Jesuits had local ties, including five who are living.

On Wednesday, Boston College High School in Dorchester said it had discontinued a scholarship named for the late Rev. Leo Pollard, a German teacher and longtime hockey coach who molested children, according to the USA Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus.

Colleen Carter, a spokeswoman for the school, said BC High suspended the scholarship on Jan. 9 when the Jesuits provided its list of accused clergy.

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SNAP accuses diocese of concealing names of additional offending priests

GREEN BAY (WI)
Green Bay Press-Gazette

January 18, 2019

By Paul Srubas

An activist group for victims of priest abuse is claiming the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay remains in cover-up mode despite Thursday’s release of suspects’ names by the diocese.

Peter Isely of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests is holding a press conference on the St. Francis Xavier Cathedral steps this morning. He plans to call for Bishop David Ricken to name additional abusive priests who he claims were omitted from the list Ricken released Tuesday.

He also will call for Attorney General Josh Kaul to launch a statewide investigation of clerical sexual abuse and cover-up and to investigate the destruction of personnel records ordered in the Green Bay diocese by its former Bishop David Zubik in 2007.

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Green Bay Diocese releases names of clergy in sex abuse investigation

GREEN BAY (WI)
WBAY

January 17, 2019

By Sarah Thomsen

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay says an investigation has found 47 clergy members with “substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.”

There are 98 victims.

The names of 46 of the 47 priests were released on the Diocese website. One name is being withheld by the Diocese pending further review.

“It is important to state that there are currently no known priests serving in active ministry in the Diocese of Green Bay who have had a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against them,” says Rev. John Girotti, Vicar for Canonical Services.

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Green Bay diocese releases list of 46 priests it knows to have sexually abused minors since 1906

GREEN BAY (WI)
Green Bay Press-Gazette

January 17, 2019

By Paul Srubas

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay on Thursday morning released 46 names of clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of minors.

At a press conference on the diocesan campus, Bishop David Ricken apologized to the 98 known victims of sexual abuse by the clergy in the diocese since 1906 and called for other victims, if any, to come forward, to help make sure no abusers remain in the clergy.

“We believe you,” Ricken said of the victims, survivors and families, whom he called “my greatest concern.”

Diocesan Chancellor Tammy Basten and the Rev. John Girotti, vicar for canonical services, also spoke about the internal investigation conducted at the diocese since September to identify the clergy members.

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Disgraced U.S. ex-cardinal could be defrocked soon: Vatican sources

VATICAN CITY
Reuters

January 16, 2019

By Philip Pullella

Disgraced former U.S. cardinal Theodore McCarrick is almost certain to be defrocked in the next few weeks over allegations against him, including sexual abuse of minors, two Vatican sources said.

Last July, McCarrick became the first Catholic prelate in nearly 100 years to lose the title of cardinal. The allegations against him date back to decades ago when he was still rising to the top of the U.S. Church hierarchy.

McCarrick, 88, has responded publicly to only one of the allegations, saying he has “absolutely no recollection” of an alleged case of sexual abuse of a 16-year-old boy more than 50 years ago.

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Diocese of Green Bay Releases List of Clerics Accused of Abuse

GREEN BAY (WI)
SNAP Network

January 17, 2019

For immediate release, January 17, 2019

Today the Diocese of Green Bay has released a list of clerics that have been accused of abuse.

It is always helpful for survivors when these lists are posted, especially for those who may be suffering in silence. Seeing that they are not alone helps victims heal and could also compel others who were abused – whether by the same person or in the same place – to come forward.

What is not helpful for survivors is when church officials carefully curate these lists, leaving off names of priests who are accused because they do not meet the diocese’s ever-changing and nebulous definition of “credible.”

There has been at least some curation in this case as the list released today contains only diocesan priests, eschewing the names of religious order priests that served in the Green Bay area. For example, Bishop Accountability lists the following order priests who have been accused of abuse and spent time in Green Bay but are not disclosed in today’s release: Fr. Angelo Feldkamp, Fr. Camillus Frigo, Fr. Eric Middlecamp, Fr. Rudolph Nocinski, Fr. Loren Nys, Fr. James Stein,

We call on Bishop David Ricken to expand the list to include any religious order priests who have spent time in Green Bay, even if they offended elsewhere. We also encourage Bishop Ricken to release the names of any nuns, deacons or other church staff who may have allegations against them, as we know that abusers can be anyone, not just priests.

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Michigan State names new interim president

DETROIT (MI)
The Associated Press Videos

January 17, 2019

Michigan State University’s board says interim president John Engler’s resignation is effective immediately. The board acted a day after Engler announced his resignation amid fallout from the case of convicted sexual abuser Larry Nassar (Jan. 17)

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Michigan State to hire interim leader after Engler resigns

DETROIT (MI)
The Associated Press

January 17, 2019

By Corey Williams and David Eggert

Michigan State University is poised to name a new interim president Thursday after the former governor who was brought in to help it recover from the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal resigned under pressure, amid backlash over his comments about some of the ex-sports doctor’s victims.

John Engler – who had resisted calls to step down in the past – quit in an 11-page letter to Dianne Byrum, chairwoman of Michigan State’s Board of Trustees, effective Jan. 23. It makes no mention of recent criticism of his recent remarks and instead lists what he considers to be his accomplishments in nearly one year of service, saying the university is a ”dramatically better, stronger institution.”

”It has been an honor to serve my beloved university,” wrote Engler, who is in Texas attending a burial service for his late father-in-law.

With his sudden reversal, Engler joins a long list of people – including his predecessor as president – who have been fired, forced out of their jobs or charged with crimes amid fallout from the school’s handling of the once-renowned sports physician stretching back decades.

The final straw for the university’s governing board came last week when Engler told The Detroit News that Nassar’s victims had been in the ”spotlight” and are ”still enjoying that moment at times, you know, the awards and recognition.”

Nassar is now serving decades-long prison sentences for sexually assaulting patients and possessing child pornography.

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List of Jesuits accused of abuse includes many with Massachusetts connections

NEW YORK (NY)
The Associated Press

January 16, 2019

By Karen Matthews

The governing body for the Jesuit order in the northeastern United States has released a list of 50 priests under its jurisdiction who have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct with minors.

All but 15 of the Roman Catholic priests on the list released Tuesday by the USA Northeast Province of the Society of Jesus are dead, and all of the alleged abuse all took place before 1997.

Two former priests are incarcerated, one for possession of child pornography and one for abuse charges.

“At the heart of this crisis is the painful, sinful and illegal harm done to children by those whom they should have been able to trust,” the Rev. John J. Cecero, the top official for the province, said in a statement, adding, “We did not know any best practices to handle these violations many decades ago and regrettably made mistakes along the way.”

The list includes priests who served in Jesuit high schools and colleges throughout New England, New York and northern New Jersey. Of the 50, 22 have Massachusetts connections.

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Top Mass. Lawmaker Accused of Groping a Female Colleague

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Magazine

January 17, 2019

By Spencer Buell

State Rep. Paul McMurtry allegedly grabbed a woman’s behind at an event.

As Beacon Hill continues to grapple with what women have described as a culture that looked the other way in the face of harassment and inappropriate behavior, a high-ranking state rep is now accused of groping a female colleague.

According to a bombshell report in the Boston Globe, a woman in state government alleges that Rep. Paul McMurtry of Dedham grabbed her behind at an orientation event. An ad hoc committee is investigating whether to pursue the allegations further, McMurtry, who served at the time of the alleged incident as head of the House Committee on Personnel and Administration and is considered part of House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s inner circle, denies the allegations, calling them “absolutely, positively, unequivocally not true” and said he would “participate in any review” of the incident.

Two lawmakers tell the Globe that the woman, who has not been identified publicly, told them McMurtry grabbed her during a cocktail reception at UMass Amherst. A third lawmaker claims she witnessed the alleged groping.

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Les Moonves to Pursue Arbitration for $120 Million Severance Denied by CBS

UNITED STATES
The Wrap

January 17, 2019

By Jennifer Maas and Tony Maglio

Former CBS chief Les Moonves will be pursuing arbitration to fight CBS for the $120 million severance pay he was denied last month when he was fired by the board of directors for cause.

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday, CBS stated that Moonves has informed the company of his plan: “On January 16, 2019, Mr. Moonves notified the Company of his election to demand binding arbitration with respect to this matter. The Company does not intend to comment further on this matter during the pendency of the arbitration proceedings.”

The investigation into Moonves — who was ousted in September, after multiple women came forward with sexual misconduct accusations — concluded Dec. 17, with the CBS board announcing at that time the former chairman and CEO “will not receive any severance payment.”

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Five reasons the pope’s clergy sex abuse meeting in Rome will fail

WASHINGTON (DC)
Religion News Service

January 18, 2019

By Thomas Reese

Next month’s meeting in Rome, called by Pope Francis to deal with the sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, may well be a failure before it even starts.

The stakes for the meeting have been ratcheted up, at least for the American church, as the Pennsylvania grand jury report on clergy sex abuse has summoned up new scrutiny of the church’s response, from the pews and from government officials; then, in November, the Vatican squelched a vote at the U.S. bishops’ fall meeting on measures designed to hold the hierarchy accountable for not dealing with abuse.

Now, more than 100 presidents of episcopal conferences from all over the world, plus a dozen or so other participants, are headed to Rome for a four-day conference beginning Feb. 21. According to the Vatican, the meeting will focus on three main themes: responsibility, accountability and transparency.

There are five reasons this meeting will fail.

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Larry Nassar’s First Known Victim Is A Mother Figure To Hundreds Of Young Survivors

NEW YORK (NY)
Huffington Post

January 17, 2019

By Alanna Vagianos

This article is part of “One Year Later: Larry Nassar And The Women Who Made Us Listen,” a seven-part series that commemorates the seven days women stood in a Lansing, Michigan, courtroom last year and faced their abuser, former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State trainer Larry Nassar. Read more here.

By all appearances, Sarah Klein leads a relatively ordinary life.

The 39-year-old lives outside Philadelphia with her 3-year-old daughter, Genevieve. A former attorney, she travels a lot for her work as a consultant for a firm based in Florida. She’s driven and passionate, but has a relaxed way about her that would make anyone feel at home.

What most don’t know is how Klein’s life has been shaped, especially in the past few years, by the scandal of Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University trainer now serving a life sentence for child sexual abuse. Klein is Nassar’s first known victim. She says he began sexually abusing her in 1988. She was only 8 years old.

Up until this past summer, Klein was only known in court documents as “Victim 125.” Her choice to keep her identity private through Nassar’s various trials and sentence hearings was a “deliberate decision” to maintain privacy while she sifted through and unpacked years of trauma.

Over three decades after the abuse began, Klein tells me these last few years have been a complicated mix of sadness, anger and exhaustion.

“It’s so sad to find out that somebody you loved so much was capable of harming so many people and breaking so many lives,” she said.

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Editorial: Reality check was missing at US bishops’ retreat

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

January 18, 2019

It was a highly unusual event when most of the bishops in the United States gathered for a weeklong retreat earlier in January at Mundelein Seminary outside of Chicago. The event was driven by a most unusual and debilitating problem, the clergy sex abuse crisis, which has bedeviled the church in the United States for nearly 34 years.

The event itself may have been the primary goal — gathering a group of men publicly divided over a host of issues for prayer and meditation away from daily pressures. Only time will tell if there are long-term benefits.

More immediately, however, the point of the gathering as it relates to the abuse scandal remains quite puzzling, particularly in light of the 11 talks delivered by Capuchin Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, official preacher of the papal household.

He began by announcing that the charge he received from Pope Francis was that he “lead a week of spiritual exercises for the bishop conference so that the bishops, far from their daily commitments, in a climate of prayer and silence and in a personal encounter with the Lord, may receive the strength and light of the Holy Spirit to find the right solution for the problems that afflict the church of the United States today.”

In that regard, he said, “I am not going to talk about pedophilia or give advice about eventual solutions. That is not my task and I would not have the competence to do it.”

It is beyond our competence and the space here to deal authoritatively with Cantalamessa’s outpouring of erudition, a river of words that took bishops through discourses on the kerygma, Christian asceticism, prayer, spirituality, conversion, the centrality of the person of Jesus, all laced through with biblical scholarship, modern-era theologians, the work of Francis, references to pop culture, and an unremittingly bleak analysis of contemporary culture.

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Attorney general: Phillipsburg priest arrested and charged with sexual assault of teen

ALLENTOWN (PA)
Morning Call

January 18, 2019

By Kayla Dwyer

A Catholic priest from Phillipsburg has been arrested and charged with multiple criminal counts in the sexual assault of an underage girl in the early 1990s, authorities announced.

Father Thomas P. Ganley, 63, of Saint Philip & Saint James Church in Phillipsburg, was arrested on Wednesday, Jan. 16 — the first criminal case filed by the New Jersey Clergy Abuse Task Force since its formation in September 2018.

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey announced the charges against him in a news release Thursday: one count of aggravated sexual assault in the first degree, and two counts of sexual assault in the second degree.

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N.J. PRIEST ARRESTED IN 1ST CRIMINAL CASE FROM STATE’S CLERGY ABUSE TASK FORCE

TRENTON (NJ)
NBC News

January 18, 2019

By Doha Madani

New Jersey authorities announced Thursday that a priest has been charged with sexual assault based on allegations stemming from the 1990s in the first criminal case by the state’s new Clergy Abuse Task Force.

Father Thomas P. Ganley, 63, of Phillipsburg, was arrested Wednesday on allegations that he sexually abused a minor between 1990 and 1994, while he worked at Saint Cecelia Church in Woodbridge, according to a press release from the state Attorney General’s Office.

The girl was between the age of 14 and 17 when the alleged assaults occurred.

Ganley, whose current assignment is Saint Philip and Saint James Church in Phillipsburg, was charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault in the first degree, and two counts of sexual assault in the second degree.

Ganley is being held at the Middlesex County Adult Corrections Center and has a court appearance scheduled for Friday.

The task force that filed charges against Ganley was announced by state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal in September 2018, weeks after a bombshell Pennsylvania grand jury report concluded that about 300 priests in the state had sexually abused more than 1,000 children, stretching back 70 years.

Ganley is the first priest to be arrested under the task force’s purview.

“This case illustrates that we are prepared to move swiftly to investigate allegations, and where there are viable criminal charges, to pursue those charges,” Grewal said in a press release.

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SNAP to hold a news conference Friday

GREEN BAY (WI)
FOX 11 News

January 18th 2019

The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, will hold a news conference Friday.

The group sent a letter to state Attorney General Josh Kaul, to launch a statewide investigation of clergy sex abuse and alleged cover-up.

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay is revealing results of its third-party investigation into its files on priests and deacons. The investigation was focused on finding any incidents of sexual abuse against minors by priests or deacons.

The news conference is at 11:30 a.m. We hope to stream it on fox11online.com.

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PD Editorial: Welcome candor and transparency from Santa Rosa’s Catholic bishop

SANTA ROSA (CA)
Press Democrat

January 18, 2019

North Coast Catholics waited a long time for their church to name all of the local priests who sexually abused children.

A list was finally released last weekend, and to his credit, Bishop Robert F. Vasa went a step further. His list of 39 priests and deacons with ties to the Diocese of Santa Rosa includes known abusers, others who were credibly accused and two former bishops who are still under review.

Vasa said about 100 children have been sexually abused since the diocese was founded in 1962, with the most recent incidents reported in 2006 and 2008.

This is unprecedented transparency for local church leaders.

Vasa followed up with a public apology for the “evil actions” and a promise to be vigilant.

“Even when I’m fairly certain that nothing untoward had occurred, I will report it to the police because that’s the route I need to take,” he said at a Monday news conference.

That is, of course, the legal standard in California.

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Hamburg clergy rape victim’s powerful Facebook post: ‘The Church didn’t really care’

BUFFAO (NY)
Buffalo News

January 17, 2019

By Jay Tokasz

Harry King, 55, first told a Buffalo Diocese administrator in 2002 that the Rev. Donald Becker sexually abused him when King was a teenager in the late 1970s. He spoke to The Buffalo News this past spring, on the condition that his name be kept out of the story.

Now, King is telling the world, with his name attached.

King posted on Facebook this week a raw and powerful 3,800-word essay about the alleged abuse and its effect on his life. In the essay, King reveals his battles with depression and his multiple attempts to kill himself. He discusses what it was like to meet with two retired judges who are determining how much clergy sex abuse victims receive under a diocesan program to compensate victims.

In March, Becker told The News he had not molested any children, although Buffalo Diocese officials said Becker had been removed from ministry in 2003 because of abuse allegations. Days later the diocese said the allegations against Becker were credible.

Please be warned: King’s story is disturbing and includes graphic accounts of the rape of a teenager. We publish King’s story because it gives a rare look at how sexual abuse — and the church’s response — wounded one person, as a teen and for decades.

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January 17, 2019

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New Jersey priest arrested in first criminal case from state’s clergy abuse task force

NEW YORK (NY)
NBC News

January 17, 2019

By Doha Madani

The girl was between the age of 14 and 17 when the alleged assaults occurred.

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SNAP wants Archbishop to name credibly accused priests

LOUISVILLE (KY)
WAVE 3 News

January 17, 2019

By Connie Leonard

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, in Louisville and across the country, called on the Louisville Archbishop Thursday to protect children and release all names of priests who are credibly accused, as he has pledged, ASAP.

“Secrecy is the same,” said St. Louis SNAP volunteer David Clohessy, “the pattern of doing nothing until forced is the same.”

From Chicago to St. Louis, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, is asking Archbishop Kurtz to add the names of priests, who they said were shuffled into Louisville after being accused–and in some cases, admitted to abuse in other cities.

Some of the priests have already passed away, but SNAP believes if the Archbishop puts the names out there, victims may come forward and parents will at least know about those still around.

“At least one of them is accused of molesting five Louisville kids, and all of them spent some time in this area,” Clohessy said.

Five priests, SNAP contends, who deserve to be outed.

“If you asked 100 Louisville Catholics about these five names, 98 or 99 of them would not know who they are,” Clohessy said.

They said the accused priests are quietly moved around from other areas.

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SNAP demonstrators push Archdiocese of Louisville to release list of accused priests

LOUISVILLE (KY)
WDRB TV

January 17, 2019

By Chris Sutter

Armed with signs, umbrellas and a message, a group from Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests refused to allow rain to dampen the passion behind the reason they posted up outside the headquarters for the Archdiocese of Louisville.

“We’re here today to draw attention to five credibly accused child molesting priests,” SNAP volunteer leader David Clohessy said.

Some members of the group are survivors of priest abuse in Kentucky and elsewhere.

“I was abused, and we need to get the word out,” Larry Anthonsen said.

Each name the group wrote on their signs, they said, is an abusive member of the clergy that spent time in Louisville. They want Archbishop Joseph Kurtz to put out his list of credibly accused priests.

“Every single day that he hides these names, he’s putting kids at risk,” Clohessy said.

They also want detailed information on those that are still alive, like where the priests are now, their work histories and photos. Similar lists have been shared across the country but not everywhere.

“Bishops never like to acknowledge this crisis,” Clohessy said. “They want victims and whistleblowers to stay trapped in silence and shame and self-blame.”

SNAP members said that has to change for the survivors, some of whom have overcome what they describe as one of the worst moments of their lives, to advocate for those still suffering the same pain.

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Sexual abuse survivors call for list of Louisville priests accused of assault to be released now

LOUISVILLE (KY)
WLKY TV

January 17, 2019

By Caray Grace

A group of sexual abuse survivors with the group SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) stood outside the Archdiocese of Louisville with one message, release their names.

“It should have happened a long time ago. It should happen tomorrow. There’s no reason why you can’t release a partial list today,” said David Clohessy, volunteer director of SNAP.

Four survivors are calling for Archbishop Joseph Kurtz to release the list of priests who have been accused of sexual assault in Louisville. They want him to go a step further, by adding the names of those who didn’t always work in Louisville.

“These are five priests who mostly were ordained elsewhere, mostly worked elsewhere, mostly accused of abusing elsewhere but they all were in Louisville,” said Clohessy.

We sat down with Archbishop Kurtz in November. He told us they would release a full list of priests in December, but according to a recent leadership briefing, the expected publication date is now late January. In a statement from the Archdiocese regarding SNAP’s demands they said:

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SNAP survivors call for list, transparency from Archdiocese of Louisville

LOUISVILLE (KY)
WHAS

January 17, 2019

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) are calling on the Archdiocese of Louisville to release a list of the names of clergy and others affiliated with the archdiocese who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

“Their world has been shattered because their spirituality and their soul has been shattered,” Jeanette Westbrook, a volunteer with SNAP, said.

“If my standing here and somebody hearing my story helps someone else come up with a memory or bring back a memory, then that makes it worthwhile for me because we can’t live with this and keep it inside of us forever,” Larry Anthonsen with SNAP said.

Anthonsen and other survivors have been traveling around the Midwest to cities like St. Louis and Evansville to call on the local archdioceses to be more transparent by releasing names.

“I was abused and we need to get the word out,” Anthonsen said. “It doesn’t matter where it happened.”

Members of SNAP held a demonstration outside the Archdiocese of Louisville’s pastoral building on Poplar Level Road Thursday morning, calling on Archbishop Joseph Kurtz and the archdiocese to follow in the steps of other archdioceses in cities like Indianapolis and Philadelphia.

“Archbishop Kurtz’s very first moral duty is to tell parents and parishioners and police, ‘Here are all the names of the dangerous men. Don’t let them babysit your kids. Don’t hire them to be substitute teachers,'” SNAP volunteer Daniel Clohessy said.

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Two Days After Asking for “Understanding,” Cardinal Wuerl Offers an Apology

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

January 16, 2019

Two days after asking for understanding for his role in covering up abuse allegations, Cardinal Donald Wuerl is finally “apologizing.”

We cannot help but feel that this apology is little more than a lame justification for his actions. To attempt to excuse himself by saying he “forgot” about the allegations against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is neither believable nor a sign that Cardinal Wuerl feels real shame for his role in covering up allegations of sexual abuse. Rather, it is yet another example of a high-ranking church official minimizing his role in cover-ups and excusing his lack of action.

In his letter, the Cardinal states that it is “important for [him] to accept personal responsibility.” We agree. If Cardinal Wuerl is truly sorry, he should offer a genuine apology, one that is free of excuses and is backed up by a plan to make amends for his wrongdoing.

For example, Cardinal Wuerl should use his influence to encourage his brother bishops and cardinals to come forward and publish lists of accused priests, nuns, deacons, brothers, bishops, or any other church employees who may have hurt a child or a vulnerable adult. He should petition Pope Francis to ensure that survivor voices and experiences are front and center at next month’s papal abuse summit. He should work with other summit attendees to determine new protocols for prevention of future sex crimes and cover-ups, as well as punishments for any current or future prelate who is accused of doing so.

As administrator of the DC Archdiocese, Cardinal Wuerl should immediately turn over all documents and personnel files to the D.C. attorney general, who has opened an investigation into clergy abuse. By turning over these files and laying his history bare, the Cardinal can begin to show that his apology is sincere.

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Bronxville priest accused of inappropriate behavior returns to court

BRONXVILLE (NY)
Rockland/Westchester Journal News

January 17, 2019

By Frank Esposito

A Bronxville priest returned to court on Wednesday night on allegations that he inappropriately touched a young girl.

Rev. Thomas Kreiser was serving at St. Joseph’s Parish during the time of the alleged incident.

His next court date is set for February 6, 2019.

Kreiser previously worked at St. Patrick’s Church in Yorktown and St. Gregory Barbarigo Church in Garnerville.

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Women strive for larger roles in male-dominated religions

NEW YORK (NY)
Associated Press

January 17, 2019

By David Crary

Women have been elected heads of national governments on six continents. They have flown into space, served in elite combat units and won every category of Nobel Prize. The global #MeToo movement, in 15 months, has toppled a multitude of powerful men linked to sexual misconduct.

Yet in most of the world’s major religions, women remain relegated to a second-tier status. Women in several faiths are still barred from ordination. Some are banned from praying alongside men and forbidden from stepping foot in some houses of worship altogether. Their attire, from headwear down to the length of their skirts in church, is often restricted.

But women around the world in recent months have been finding new ways to chip away at centuries of male-dominated traditions and barriers, with many of them emboldened by the surge of social media activism that’s spread globally in the #MeToo era.

Millions of women in India this month formed a human wall nearly 400 miles long in support of women who defied conservative Hindu leaders and entered an important temple that has long been off-limits to women and girls between the ages of 10 and 50.

In Israel, where Orthodox Judaism has long restricted women’s roles, one Jerusalem congregation has allowed women to lead Friday evening prayers. Roman Catholic bishops, under pressure from women’s-rights activists, concluded a recent Vatican meeting by declaring that women, as an urgent “duty of justice,” should have a greater role in church decision-making.

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Green Bay diocese releases list of priests it knows to have sexually abused minors

GREEN BAY (WI)
Green Bay Press-Gazette

January 17, 2019

By Paul Srubas

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay this morning is publicly releasing the names of clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of minors.

A press conference is happening now at Bona Hall on the diocesan campus, with Bishop David Ricken, Diocesan Chancellor Tammy Basten, and Rev. John Girotti, vicar for canonical services, set to speak.

Ricken said the names would be posted on the diocese’s website at noon. The website appeared to have crashed less than a minute after noon.

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Fact Sheet: Accused Louisville Priests ‘Under the Radar’

LOUISVILLE (KY)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
January 16, 2019

— Fr. Michael (a.k.a. “Miguel”) Baca
He was included in the Gallup diocese’s 12/14 list of clergy having credible allegations of sexual misconduct made against them. The diocese provided a partial list of assignments for Fr. Baca, which showed him at St Joseph the Worker in San Fidel NM in 1961. But the Official Catholic Directory lists him as assigned there as Retreat Director for the decade 1961-1970. Baca’s 18 years of missionary work took him throughout the US, and he also worked among the Otomi Indians of central Mexico. Besides Gallup, Fr. Baca worked in at least one other diocese (Peoria) and two archdioceses (Louisville and Santa Fe). He also worked at Immaculate Conception Parish in Cuba NM in 1953 and Our Lady of Fatima Parish inChinle AZ in 1978. For 12 years, Fr. Baca wrote the “Life Is for Living” column for the national magazine St Anthony Messenger. He is deceased.

http://bishop-accountability.org/priestdb/PriestDBbylastName-B.html

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2017/05_06/2017_05_10_Donald_Beacon_Former_Added.htm

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2014/11_12/2014_12_16_Gallup_Credibly_Accused.htm

— Fr. Crispin Butz
He was named among Franciscan alleged clergy perpetrators of sexual abuse in a 12/14 court documents related to Gallup NM diocese’s bankruptcy case. Early in his career, he worked in Batesville, IN and Louisville, KY, then was moved to Sacred Heart Parish in Gallup NM. He reportedly abused during 1960-63 when he was at St. Francis of Assisi parish in Gallup. Other assignments included the Basilica Cathedral of St. Francis in Santa Fe where he was rector in 1984-94. He also pastored parishes in Albuquerque, Bloomfield, Cuba and Grants NM.

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Visitador apostólico llegará a Puerto Montt ante graves denuncias contra el clero

[Apostolic visitor will go to Puerto Montt due to serious allegations against clergy]

CHILE
BioBioChile

January 17, 2019

By Alberto González, Jonathan Flores and Nicole Martínez.

El papa Francisco enviará un visitador apostólico a Puerto Montt, para informar al Vaticano sobre la situación de la iglesia local, tras denuncias de abuso, tráfico y apropiación indebida. Acogiendo una solicitud del administrador apostólico Ricardo Morales, este sábado llegará hasta Puerto Montt el obispo mexicano Jorge Patrón, quien permanecerá en la capital de la región de Los Lagos hasta el 24 de enero, por instrucción del Papa.

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Papa Francisco determina enviar un visitador apostólico a Puerto Montt

[Pope Francis will send an apostolic visitor to Puerto Montt]

CHILE
La Tercera

January 16, 2019

By Carlos Reyes

“El objetivo del visitador -agregan- será valorar e informar a la Santa Sede sobre el estado de la vida, el ministerio y la disciplina del clero, animará la pastoral de los presbíteros y sugerirá iniciativas para el acompañamiento de los sacerdotes”, informó la diócesis mediante un comunicado.

A través de un comunicado, el arzobispado de Puerto Montt informó que el Papa Francisco decidió enviar a la ciudad un visitador apostólico. “El Papa Francisco ha nombrado como visitador apostólico a monseñor Jorge Carlos Patrón Wong, secretario de seminarios de la Congregación para el Clero, quien propiciará un espacio de encuentro y escucha, en que puedan expresarse con libertad todos los sacerdotes, miembros representativos de la vida consagrada y del laicado de Puerto Montt”, indica el texto de la diócesis.

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[VIDEO] Rector Sánchez evalúa las medidas y avances en medio de crisis de la iglesia católica

[VIDEO: Rector Sánchez evaluates the measures and advances in the midst of the Catholic Church crisis]

CHILE
Emol TV

January 16, 2019

El rector de la Universidad Católica, Ignacio Sánchez, analizó los avances tras los abusos cometidos por sacerdotes. Reiteró que hay que “escuchar a las víctimas”. La entrevista completa la puedes revisar en el siguiente link.

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El “puzle maldito” de la diócesis de Arica

[The “damn puzzle” of the diocese of Arica]

CHILE
The Clinic

January 16, 2019

By Camila Magnet and Jonás Romero

Abusos a menores, relaciones amorosas entre sacerdotes, protección de obispos prófugos y hasta curas en fuga. La llegada de Julio Barahona a Arica en 1991 es sólo uno de los ejemplos de lo que sobrevivientes han descrito como una “zona de penitencia”. “Arica siempre ha sido el lugar donde algunos van a pagar sus castigos, o a esconderse”, explica el teólogo Paul Endre, quien tuvo un breve paso como seminarista en la zona. Aquí, un vistazo de la desconcertada diócesis nortina.

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Another alarm sounds on clergy sex abuse: Will Southern Baptist leaders just hit snooze again?

WINSTON-SALEM (NC)
Baptist News Global

January 17, 2019

By Crista Brown

An exposé by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on clergy sex abuse in Independent Fundamentalist Baptist churches blared yet another wake-up call to America’s religious leaders, including those of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Baptist News Global columnist Bill Leonard rightly observed that the IFB cases “sound strikingly like predatory acts committed against children by Catholic priests.” They also sound a lot like clergy sex abuse and church cover-up cases in the SBC.

I know because between 2006 and 2012 I maintained a website on which I logged hundreds of news articles about sexual abuse in all types of Baptist churches. The articles implicated 167 pastors, deacons, denominational officials and missionaries affiliated with the SBC.

If I had plotted these cases on a map (they covered 29 states), it would have looked much like the map published by the Star-Telegram in its series on clergy sexual abuse in IFB churches.

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Abuse victims want Louisville accused cleric list ASAP

LOUISVILLE (KY)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

January 17, 2019

Abuse victims want Louisville accused cleric list ASAP
Archbishop should make it “thorough & detailed,” group says
Five clerics who largely abused elsewhere should be added, victims claim
SNAP: They’re almost completely ‘under the radar’ and may have hurt local kids”
Group wants victims, witnesses and witnesses to call KY state attorney general”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, a clergy sex abuse victim and advocate will
–publicly disclose for the first time that five credibly accused predator priests worked in the Louisville ar but have attracted no public attention there, and
–prod Louisville’s Catholic archbishop to add their names to his “accused” clergy list, and
–beg anyone who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups in Kentucky to contact the attorney general who is conducting a statewide investigation into this crisis.

WHEN
Thursday, January 17 at 11:00 a.m.

WHERE
Outside the Louisville archdiocesan headquarters (aka the chancery or “pastoral center”), 3940 Poplar Level Rd. in Louisville KY

WHO
Two abuse victims: a Missouri man who is the St. Louis volunteer leader of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (and the organization’s former long time executive director) and an Illinois man who is the group’s Chicago volunteer leader, and at least two KY area victims

WHY
1) These publicly accused priests worked in Louisville, abused mostly outside of Kentucky, but have attracted virtually no local attention. They should be put on the archdiocesan list of alleged predators that Archbishop Joseph Kurtz has pledged to release, SNAP says.

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Italian bishops refine anti-abuse guidelines without victim input

ROME (ITALY)
Crux

January 17, 2019

By Claire Giangravè

As the Vatican prepares to host an international summit of bishops in February on clerical sex abuse, the Italian bishops are preparing by fine-tuning new guidelines for the protection of minors.

“It’s an initial suggestion to imagine a future course of action,” said Father Stefano Russo, Secretary General of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) during a press event Jan. 16.

“We want to promote attention toward the protection of the most vulnerable,” he added.

Russo spoke at the conclusion of the January meeting of the permanent council of CEI, Jan. 14-16, which took place under the direction of its president, Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia.

During the meeting, “ample space,” an official communique reads, was dedicated to addressing and discussing guidelines for the protection of minors requested by Pope Francis.

While the guidelines won’t be made public until May, the bishops approved the creation of a national framework to advise clergy and bishops on best practices regarding sexual abuse and nominated Bishop Lorenzo Ghizzoni, president of CEI’s commission for the protection of minors, as its head.

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The scandals that brought down the Bakkers, once among US’s most famous televangelists

NEW YORK (NY)
ABC News

January 17, 2019

By Lauren Effron, Andres Paparella and Jeca Taudte

Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker were among the most famous televangelists in America, living a life of luxury with multiple houses, expensive cars and more money than God, when their empire all came crashing down amid sex and financial scandals.

But in the years following the demise of their ministry, the Bakkers didn’t let a prison sentence, the loss of their massively popular multimillion-dollar TV network, the closure of their “Christian version of Disneyland” theme park, financial ruin, a divorce and being the butt of many “Saturday Night Live” jokes keep them down – or away from the spotlight.

Watch the full story on “20/20” FRIDAY, Jan. 18 at 10 p.m. ET on ABC

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Looking to Rome won’t provide all the answers

NEW YORK (NY)
Irish Central

January 17, 2019

BY Michael Kelly

All eyes will be in Rome next month for an unprecedented meeting of bishops to discuss the devastating issues of clerical abuse scandals in the universal Church. While the Church in Ireland has been grappling with such revelations for some 25 years, fresh controversy in the US, Australia and Poland have focused attention on the Vatican and the need for a comprehensive response from the universal Church.

Just this week, prominent abuse campaigner Marie Collins told a meeting in Dublin that she was not optimistic.

“My fear is that what we will hear is that there has been a great deal of prayer, reflection, and ‘fruitful discussion,’” she said.

“We will be assured that things are moving forward and there will be promises for the future, but we will see little in the way of on-paper, concrete, committed action plans,” she said.

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Pewaukee priest accused of groping teen in confessional pleads not guilty

MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

January 16, 2019

By Steven Martinez

he 61-year-old Pewaukee priest accused of groping a teenage congregant while she was in a confessional with him has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting the girl.

The Rev. Chuck Hanel entered his plea Jan. 15 during his arraignment in Waukesha County Circuit Court, court records show. He stands accused of second-degree sexual assault of a child.

A 14-year-old girl reported to police in April that Hanel touched her breast and leg in a confessional at Queen of Apostles Church in December 2017, when she was 13.

She also said in a criminal complaint that when she entered the confessional, Hanel closed the door behind her — something she said he did not do with anyone else, including her father, who entered the confessional before her.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee placed Hanel on administrative leave earlier this year after the girl’s accusation surfaced. He will remain on administrative leave until the charge is resolved.

If convicted, Hanel could face up to 40 years in prison and $100,000 in fines.

Top Headlines Around the Comm

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Survivor network criticizes Evansville Bishop