ABUSE TRACKER

DENVER (CO)
Crux

May 21, 2020

By John L. Allen Jr.

Rome – St. John Paul II did plenty of heavy lifting during his long papacy, from staring down the Soviet empire to battling what he saw as a metastasizing “culture of death” in the West. Perhaps it’s only fitting, then, that the leader of a new institute devoted to the Polish pope and his approach to culture invokes a weightlifting analogy to express its mission.

“If you want to be a good weightlifter, you need to find the right position for your backbone,” said Dominican Father Michal Paluch. “Otherwise, you won’t be able to handle the pressure.”

Paluch, rector of Rome’s University of St. Thomas Aquinas, said the comparison is apt to the challenges facing the Catholic Church today vis-à-vis the emerging cultures of postmodernity.

“We’re under a lot of pressure in the contemporary world, we Christians and Catholics, and it’s critical to find the right position for our backbone,” he said. “John Paul II shows us how to be in such a position, in his attitude about how to be active in culture.”

The 53-year-old Paluch, appointed to the top post at the Angelicum last June, himself knows a thing or two about engaging culture. As a young man growing up in Poland, he studied music before entering the Dominican order.

This week, Paluch presided over the launch of the “John Paul II Institute of Culture” at the Angelicum, leading a livestream ceremony just at the cusp of Italy’s gradual loosening of coronavirus restrictions. Pope Francis sent his blessings for the enterprise, saying John Paul II left the Church a “rich and multifaceted heritage” due to “the example of his open and contemplative spirit, his passion for God and man, for creation, history and art.”

For now the institute is funded by two private Polish foundations, Futura Iuventa and Saint Nicholas, though Paluch said the Angelicum is seeking other sponsors to scale up its operations.

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

DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency/EWTN

May 20, 2020

By Matt Hadro

The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) is under investigation in Kansas, amid allegations that members of the group perpetrated or covered up clerical sex abuse in the state.

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) confirmed to CNA on Monday that it is examining clergy abuse allegations made against the group, as part of its investigation into the four Kansas Catholic dioceses. The SSPX is not overseen by any diocese in Kansas, or elsewhere, because of its irregular status in the Church.

A breakaway traditionalist group, the SSPX was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970. When Lefebvre and Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer consecrated four bishops without the permission of St. John Paul II in 1988, the bishops involved were excommunicated.

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI lifted the excommunications of the surviving bishops, while noting that “doctrinal questions obviously remain and until they are clarified the Society has no canonical status in the Church and its ministers cannot legitimately exercise any ministry.”

The group has been in intermittent talks with the Vatican about returning to full communion with the Church. In 2015, Pope Francis extended the faculty to hear confession to priests of the society as part of the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

In the group’s U.S. district, however, a number of abuse allegations have surfaced in relation to the large SSPX community at St. Mary’s, Kansas, which includes the society’s K-12 school.

In its ongoing investigation of Catholic clergy abuse in Kansas, a KBI spokeswoman said the bureau has received 186 reports of abuse and had opened 112 investigations. She did not indicate how many relate directly to the SSPX.

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

SYDNEY (NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA)
Sydney Morning Herald

May 21, 2020

By Farrah Tomazin

Australia’s Catholic Church could be dramatically overhauled to give lay people more power, increase the number of women in leadership roles and force parishes to open up their finances to the public.

A secret 200-page report being considered by the nation’s bishops has called for unprecedented reform in a bid to make the church more inclusive and break down the structures that contributed to decades of clergy abuse and cover-ups.

The report is in response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse, which found that the hierarchical nature of the church, coupled with its lack of governance, had created “a culture of deferential obedience” in which the protection of paedophile priests was left unchallenged.

But in a sign of how sensitive the church is to issues of reform, the body that commissioned the report – the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference – is unlikely to publicly release or reveal how it will respond to its 86 recommendations until the end of the year.

Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, the current president of the ACBC, acknowledged that the proposals would have “far-reaching implications for the Church’s life and mission”.

“To do it justice, the bishops will now take advice, consider the report in depth, conduct discussions at a provincial level, and otherwise prepare for a full discussion at their November plenary,” he said.

The report is based on a 15-month review of church governance, which was conducted by a seven-member panel led by Justice Neville Owen, the former chair of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council.

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IRONDALE (AL)
National Catholic Register/EWTN

May 20, 2020

By Janet E. Smith

Bishops and dioceses must answer the phone calls of victims, meet with them, hear their stories and empathize with them. That is not too much to ask.

Victims of sexual abuse by clergy frequently have told me that the way they were treated by bishops has hurt them more than the abuse did.

Virtually every bishop has made the announcement that he is dedicated to helping victims who have been sexually abused by priests and that he has put considerable resources toward that effort. Unfortunately, from what I have heard from too many victims, some bishops are quite adept at virtue-signaling and at making empty promises.

Examples of the unresponsiveness of dioceses to victims are available in nearly every documentary on the sex-abuse crisis. One of the first and most devastating I watched was The Keepers on Netflix, which explores the unsolved murder of a religious sister who taught at an all-girls high school in Baltimore in the late 1960s. The series holds that the sister was killed because she suspected that the priest/principal was repeatedly abusing one of the students and was preparing a report for the archdiocese. Some 20 years later, when the woman who was abused by the priest reported it to the Archdiocese of Baltimore, officials were sympathetic but claimed that they could not verify her story. The woman’s nine siblings sent about 1,000 postcards to other women who had studied at the same high school during the tenure of the priest/principal and asked if they had anything to report about sexual abuse during their time there. Dozens came forward then, and even more came forward after the documentary. Why could not the diocese have done such an investigation? (The Archdiocese of Baltimore defends itself here.)

That event was decades ago, but the pattern of behavior remains all too common.

One reason Siobhan O’Connor of Buffalo, New York, shifted from the role of loyal secretary to Bishop Richard Malone to whistleblower who helped effect the bishop’s resignation is that she discovered the phone line on which victims were to report abuse went to an answering machine in a warehouse and was listened to by no one.

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ENGLEWOOD (CO)
Insurance Business Magazine

May 21, 2020

IBA: Before you started Poms & Associates, you focused on the issue of sexual abuse at Gallagher. Can you tell us more about that

David Poms: [When] Gallagher hired me, [they] focused on two major areas – one was Catholic dioceses and the other was public entities, so I was assigned some Catholic diocese accounts. A lot of the claims started with the priests, but it was pretty early on in the ’80s and [grew] into dramatic numbers in the ’90s. I very much got involved with the molestation claims back then, which was not only disconcerting, but you had a certain respect for priests, and finding out that they were involved in this was tough for me to manage mentally.

When these claims started to arise, [dioceses] denied that these things ever happened. They would hide some of the employees; they couldn’t testify or defend themselves, and that was an interesting way for them to manage these cases.

We had to help them change that culture in respect to handling and managing claims, so some of the accounts that we were involved in developed teams where you would have outside legal counsel, a layperson, a therapist and the diocese, and you would have a team approach to help manage the claims. You got a lot of perspectives from different disciplines to help manage the claims rather than to deny them or hide the fact that they existed. That was a big change with many of the dioceses early on, and those that implemented this team approach managed the claims much better than others.

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ANCHORAGE and BETHEL (AK)
Anchorage Daily News, KYUK, and ProPublica

May 12, 2020

By Kyle Hopkins

The principal for one of Alaska’s largest rural elementary schools, in a region with some of the highest sex crime rates in the country and a state with a history of failing to protect students, was allowed to remain on the job until the FBI got involved.

For some parents, it was the gifts from the principal to young girls and their families that gave them pause. A few too many presents that cost a little too much money. Then began the late-night Facebook messages.

Through most of it, the principal of one of the largest elementary schools in rural Alaska remained on the job and in close contact with students. Then, in December, Gladys Jung Elementary Principal Christopher Carmichael was arrested by the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force and later charged with possession of child pornography, attempted coercion of a child and sexual abuse of a minor.

In a state with a history of failing to protect children, and in a region with a sexual assault rate more than six times the national average, parents of girls are asking the same question: How was this allowed to happen?

An investigation by the Anchorage Daily News, KYUK public radio and ProPublica found that at least twice over the previous four years, parents had complained to police about Carmichael. In 2016, Carmichael admitted behavior to his supervisors that, under Alaska ethics laws for educators, could have cost him his teaching certificate.

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GRAND RAPIDS (MI)
ABC 13 WZZM

May 21, 2020

All charges involve victims who were minors at the time of the incidents.

After three days of testimony across two counties involving five victims, a former priest under the Catholic Diocese of Marquette in the Upper Peninsula is now headed to trial for 11 criminal sexual conduct charges that he reportedly committed in the 1980s.

Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Thursday, May 21 that Gary Allen Jacobs was bound over to Dickinson County Circuit Court Monday on a second-degree criminal sexual conduct charge by district court Judge Julie LaCost. Jacobs is scheduled to appear June 1 in Dickinson County Circuit Court before Judge Christopher Ninomiya

Following testimony on Tuesday and Wednesday, Ontonagon County District Court Judge Janis Burgess bound over Jacobs on a total of 10 charges Wednesday. Jacobs will face eight counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, and two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct in Ontonagon County Circuit Court before Judge Michael Pope. Jacobs’ next appearance there has not been scheduled.

Jacobs, 74, faces up to life in prison and a lifetime of electronic monitoring for each of the first-degree criminal sexual conduct charges, and up to 15 years in prison for each second-degree criminal sexual conduct charge. All charges involve victims who were minors at the time of the incidents.

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ALLENTOWN (PA)
Morning Call

May 20, 2020

By Laurie Mason Schroeder

A Texas man is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown and one of its churches, St. Catharine of Siena in Reading, claiming he was sexually abused and tortured by several priests in a church basement in the 1970s.

Timothy Paul McGettigan’s attorneys say their client learned that he was not alone in being abused by Allentown Diocese priests from the scathing 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report on unchecked sexual abuse by clergy across the state, and decided to come forward. He is seeking a jury trial and unspecified monetary damages.

In the lawsuit, filed this week in Lehigh County Court, McGettigan alleges he was sexually abused by two priests, the Rev. Joseph Grembocki and the Rev. David A. Soderlund, as well as several other priests he cannot identify.

Grembocki died in July 2016 while serving as pastor at Assumption BVM Church in Slatington. He is not named in the Pennsylvania grand jury report and no other accusation has surfaced against him.

Soderlund was defrocked in 2005 and moved to Wyoming, where he was sent to prison for exploiting children and possessing child pornography.

Soderlund was named in the grand jury report and is a registered sex offender in Wyoming.

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BINGHAMTON (NY)
Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin via USA Today

May 21, 2020

By Anthony Borrelli

After New York state extended the window for legal action under the Child Victims Act by five months, four new lawsuits in Broome County accuse a priest and three Boy Scout leaders in separate cases of alleged decades-old sex abuse.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended the deadline to file lawsuits until Jan. 14, 2021.

New York’s law for the Child Victims Act created a limited time period where victims could file claims against their alleged, abusers and the institutions that harbored them, regardless of how long ago the abuse took place, or whether criminal charges were ever pursued.

On Monday, in the state Supreme Court in Broome County, a lawsuit by a now 57-year-old Endicott man accused a now-deceased priest, Father Thomas Keating, of sexually abusing him over the course of three years beginning in 1973.

The victim was 11 years old when the abuse began, according to the lawsuit, which was filed against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse. It alleges the abuse happened while the victim attended St. John the Evangelist School in Binghamton.

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MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
Star-\ Tribune

May 20, 2020

By Jean Hopfensperger

Volunteer post, required by clergy abuse settlement, will be held by his wife, Victoria Newcome Johnson

Twin Cities attorney Tom Johnson, the first ombudsman for clergy abuse for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, has stepped down from the role he’s held since 2018, citing health reasons.

The former Hennepin County attorney served as an independent point person for clergy abuse survivors who were reluctant to seek help from the archdiocese.

His wife, Victoria Newcome Johnson, an attorney and educator active in the Twin Cities Catholic community, will assume the voluntary position.

“The opportunity to help victims on a personal level, often being the first person to whom they disclose their abuse, has been very powerful, far beyond what I anticipated,” Tom Johnson said. “In fact, it has been an experience which opened my heart in ways that often don’t occur, particularly in the professional experience of lawyers.”

Creating an independent ombudsman was part of the 2015 settlement agreement between the archdiocese and the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office, which had sued the archdiocese for failing to protect children. When he was appointed, Tom Johnson said he had a personal reason for assuming the unpaid post.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Fox 8 WVUE

May 20, 2020

By Rob Masson

An alleged clergy abuse victim whose lawsuit against the Catholic Church was held up by the church bankruptcy filing two weeks ago wants others to come forward.

He calls the bankruptcy filing a delay tactic, something the Church says is not true.

He says the physical and sexual abuse occurred at Madonna Manor in the mid-70s at the hands of three nuns. He says the worst abuser was 6 feet tall and weighed around 300 pounds.

“She was abusive, she programmed me to do what she wanted,” the alleged victim referred to as Jeff, said.

He claims the abuse begin when he was 11 years old, at the Westbank youth home, he said he was sent to, to deal with dyslexia.

“She started off hitting me causing me to do things,” Jeff said.

The alleged victim says one nun, abused him for four months. He says two others abused him sporadically after guitar lessons.

“Two or three nights a week every week for four months,” Jeff said.

“Madonna Manor has a deep history of abuse so deep just left for the history books,” plaintiff attorney John Denenea said.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Times Picayune / New Orleans Advocate

May 19, 2020

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

Clergy abuse claimant says she is ‘strongly opposed to any predator priest or clergy receiving any funds from the archdiocese,’ which recently declared bankruptcy

As a federal bankruptcy judge weighs whether to reverse her order halting payments from the Archdiocese of New Orleans to suspected clergy child molesters, a second priest facing abuse accusations has come forward to ask the judge not to halt the payments.

A filing Monday asking for the reinstatement of payments came from retired clergyman Paul Calamari, who was named by Archbishop Gregory Aymond on his list of credibly-accused priests. In the filing, Calamari concedes that in 1973 he had a “failing” and a “sin” involving a 17-year-old high school boy whom Calamari — then a lay teacher turning 30 — mistakenly believed was 18. An abuse claim stemming from that encounter landed Calamari on the list.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill, who has tentatively set a hearing on the matter for late Wednesday afternoon, has also received a signed declaration from a woman who said a priest molested her in 1968, when she wasn’t even 5. The petition from Linda Lee Stonebreaker, whose father Steve Stonebreaker played for the New Orleans Saints, requested that Grabill stick with her decision on halting payments.

The issue turns on a ruling from Grabill on May 4, three days after the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, that ordered the immediate halt to any payments for priests who had been credibly accused of child abuse.

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ROCHESTER (NY)
Catholic Courier – Diocese of Rochester

May 19, 2020

By Mike Latona

The deadline for filing proofs of claim in the Diocese of Rochester’s federal bankruptcy case remains Aug. 13, 2020, and is not subject to a recent extension of New York state’s Child Victims Act through January 2021.

On Feb. 25, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Paul R. Warren set the Aug. 13 deadline — known as the “bar date” — for claims to be filed against the Rochester Diocese. That date coincides with the original end of a one-year window established by the Child Victims Act for the filing of sexual-abuse claims that previously were prohibited by statutes of limitations. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the CVA into law in early 2019.

The governor announced May 8 that he was extending the one-year CVA window until Jan. 14, 2021, due to delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. He said resulting limitations in court services have hampered claimants’ abilities to file claims and effectively consult with attorneys in a timely fashion.

An attorney representing the unsecured creditors’ committee in the Rochester Diocese’s bankruptcy case cited similar concerns in an April 13 statement filed with the bankruptcy court. However, diocesan spokesman Doug Mandelaro noted that federal bankruptcy courts have remained active throughout the pandemic and that the electronic claims process has continued without interruption.

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LONGMONT (CO)
Times-Call

May 19, 2020

By Sam Tabachnik

The youth organization filed for bankruptcy in February

Attorneys for the Boy Scouts of America and lawyers representing individuals who allege they were abused as scouts agreed on Monday to a Nov. 16 deadline for victims to file bankruptcy claims against the storied youth organization.

The date was presented to a judge in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware, where the Boy Scouts have been locked in a tense battle over the future of the organization, as both sides argue over which assets may be included in a settlement and how much information the Scouts may have to divulge about their inner workings.

Details are still being worked out over what information victims may need to share on their claimant forms, and how the process will work. But at the minimum, those who wish to file claims now have a drop-dead date.

“I know what abuse survivors feel and think,” Tim Kosnoff, an attorney for Abused in Scouting, which represents 3,200 men who say they were abused as scouts. “This is their deepest, darkest secret and they don’t want to confront it. If they’re told they have to or they lose their rights forever, then they have to make a decision.”

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DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Times

May 18, 2020

By Derek Scally

Wadowice, near Krakow, birthplace of Karol Wojtyla on May 18th, 1920, draws crowds

Celebrations to mark the centenary of the birth of St John Paul II in his native Poland were overshadowed on Monday by fresh allegations of clerical sex abuse against children – and church cover-up.

Crowds gathered in the small town of Wadowice, near Krakow, where Karol Wojtyla was born on May 18th, 1920, to honour their famous son.

“Karol Wojtyla was one of the most important figures of the 20th century,” said Polish president Andrzej Duda in a letter read to worshippers at Mass. “His teaching and testimony still touch the hearts and minds of millions of people.”

In Rome, Pope Francis remembered the Polish man who served as pope from 1978 until his death in 2005. In his morning Mass, Pope Francis said that, “One hundred years ago the Lord visited his people.”

As millions remembered the Polish pontiff, a key figure in the country’s peaceful transition to democracy in 1989, nearly five million people in two days have watched the YouTube documentary Hide and Seek.

The second documentary by Polish filmmaker Tomasz Sekielski on child abuse within the Catholic Church, Hide and Seek tells of two brothers who were alleged victims of a priest who was shielded by his bishop.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

By Massimo Faggiol

May 19, 2020

There are signs that the Catholic Church’s response to the sexual abuse crisis is now getting at deeper, institutional questions. In particular, how local churches — parishes and dioceses — are governed.

In the last few years, a unique example that could bring encouraging news has come from the Australian church.

Since 2017-18, the abuse crisis has taken on a new dimension, thanks to the unveiling of cases (such as disgraced former cardinal Theodore McCarrick) and of extensive cover-ups identified and published in the reports of nationwide and regional investigations (such as in Australia, Chile and Pennsylvania).

The new phase of the crisis has focused on the direct involvement of bishops, cardinals and the Vatican. It has also identified that the crisis is not restricted to children and also involves women religious and other vulnerable persons — and has become a global crisis with huge repercussions on the relations between church and state in various countries.

The new phase in the abuse crisis has also shown much complexity: It is not just a legal and ethical crisis, but also a theological one and a crisis of models of church governance.

Pope Francis has reframed the scandal as something that must move the church to conversion. We must consider all the different levels that this conversion must reach: It is a pastoral and theological conversion as well as a conversion of ecclesial structures.

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DOVER (DE)
Associated Press

May 18, 2020

By Randall Chase

Attorneys have agreed on a November deadline for victims of child sex abuse to file claims in the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy case.

The Nov. 16 date presented to a judge Monday was worked out after attorneys for the official committee representing abuse victims objected to a proposed Oct. 6 deadline and argued that victims should have at least until Dec. 31.

“At a time when millions of Americans are unemployed and preoccupied with basic survival, sexual abuse survivors need and are entitled to a reasonable period of time after they receive notice from the bankruptcy Court to reflect seriously and make a decision whether to file a claim in this case,” attorneys for the victims committee wrote in a court filing.

After filing for bankruptcy, the Boy Scouts initially proposed a deadline of 80 days after notice of the claims process was published, drawing immediate opposition from attorneys for abuse victims. The Boy Scouts later proposed the October deadline. They argued that it allowed more time than in many Catholic diocese bankruptcy cases, and that it provided sufficient time to conduct a nationwide program of print, television, radio and online notices and allow claimants to submit claim forms.

Jessica Boelter, an attorney for the Boy Scouts, said the notification program is expected to reach more than 100 million people, including more than 95% of the primary target audience of men 50 and older. An expert for the Boy Scouts estimated that men in that age group account for more than half of former Boy Scouts and at least 71% of abuse survivors with pending claims against the BSA.

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WARSAW (POLAND)
Catholic News Service via Catholic San Francisco

May 18, 2020

By Jonathan Luxmoore

The centenary of the birth of St. John Paul II coincided with a new film, “Hide and Seek,” screened on YouTube May 16. It accused the Polish church of continuing to cover up sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

The same day, Archbishop Wojciech Polak, primate of Poland and the bishops’ delegate for child protection, said he would ask the Vatican to initiate proceedings against Bishop Edward Janiak of Kalisz for failing to discipline a priest incriminated by the film.

Archbishop Polak said the film showed required child protection standards were still not being observed in the Polish church.

“I thank the victims who talked about the harm they suffered, and I urge everyone with knowledge about the sexual abuse of a minor to remember they are obliged in conscience and by law” to notify authorities, Archbishop Polak said.

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RICHMOND (VA)
Richmond Times-Dispatch

May 19, 2020

By Dottie Klammer, SNAP Coordinator, North Chesterfield

https://www.richmond.com/opinion/letters-to-editor/letter-to-the-editor-may-19-2020-silence-wont-end-scourge-of-sexual-abuse/article_c03dc5f7-6066-5b88-8d68-285b61a280c3.html

It is unfortunate that the Rev. Mark White of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond has fallen from grace with his superior, Bishop Barry Knestout. White’s innate charisma to shepherd attracts parishioners of both the Martinsville and Rocky Mount parishes. While the church gives lip service to transparency in revealing names of sexual abusers and their accomplices, White’s blog offers validation, support and hope.

Sexual abuse affects one to his or her very core. It changes what one thinks of oneself and others, usually culminating in problems with interpersonal relationships. It isn’t like having a bad day. The aftermath lurks over one’s shoulder, exhibiting itself as negativity, fear, anxiety, isolation, anger, depression and — without help — addiction and sometimes suicide. For some, it rears its ugly head on a daily basis. Others are especially affected during times when life stressors are out of their control.

White’s blog offers understanding of the heartache and devastation brought to lives of those who have been abused. Once someone is abused, the wound to one’s personhood during remains the rest of his or her life. The offering of compassion in White’s blog is solace to those who might otherwise remain alone in the aftermath of their plight, often misunderstood by family and friends. In his way, White is righting the wrong of the Catholic Church.

To those who have found safety and honesty in another church, White’s blog might be as a voice in the wind. But in the end, the scourge of the Catholic Church will not go away until it is honestly and completely addressed. The crumbs of compensation offered by the church do not compensate for the names of perpetrators who remain under lock and key.

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WELLINGTON (NEW ZEALAND)
Stuff

May 17, 2020

By Jennifer Eder

A woman whose sexual harassment complaint was brushed off by Anglican church leaders has won a landmark settlement and is embarking on another Human Rights Review Tribunal claim.

She was not a regular churchgoer until a traumatic event caused her to question the existence of heaven.

“I had a basic belief in God, but I’d never explored it,” the Blenheim woman said.

“I wanted to know, where is that? It’s a bit like losing a child in the mall, you have this need to know where they are. What is this place, is it real?”

The woman, who can’t be identified, is speaking publicly for the first time after her Human Rights Review Tribunal complaint against her local priest and church saw an unprecedented settlement, including an apology from the Anglican Church, and an acknowledgement that its priests are covered by human rights law in New Zealand.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican News

May 18, 2020

By Christopher Wells

Celebrating Mass on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Karol Wojtyla, the future St John Paul II, Pope Francis described his predecessor as a man of prayer, closeness, and justice.

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: The sermon by Pope Francis begins at 13:45 of the video and is dubbed in English.]

Pope Francis celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of St John Paul II by offering Holy Mass at the altar where the Polish Pope is buried in St Peter’s Basilica.

Joined by a very limited number of the faithful, the liturgy on Monday morning was the first Mass open to the public after almost two months of restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Lord has visited His People

Pope Francis began his homily by reminding us that God loves His People, and in times of difficulty “visits” them by sending a holy man or a prophet.

In the life of Pope John Paul II, we can see a man sent by God, prepared by Him, and made Bishop and Pope to guide God’s Church. “Today, we can say that the Lord visited His people”.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

May 18, 2020

By Elise Ann Allen

Rome – One hundred years after the birth of Saint John Paul II, Pope Francis Monday called the Polish Pope a gift to the Church and a model pastor who prays, is close to his people and who exercises both justice and mercy.

Speaking in front of St. John Paul II’s tomb in the Vatican, Francis pointed to the day’s psalm response, “The Lord loves his people,” saying that out of this love God “sent a prophet, a man of God, and the people’s reaction was, ‘The Lord has visited his people, because he loved us.’”

“Today, we can say that 100 years ago, the Lord visited his people. He sent a man, he prepared him to be a bishop, and to guide the Church. Remembering John Paul II, let us remember this: The Lord loved his people, the Lord visited his people, he sent a pastor,” the pope said.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

May 15, 2020

By Paulina Guzik

Pope emeritus Benedict XVI commemorated the centennial of the birth of Karol Wojtyła, who became Pope John Paul II, in an open letter to the Polish people addressed to Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, who was the longtime private secretary to the Polish pontiff.

A mix of emotional memoir and theological thoughts on the heritage of John Paul – who was born on May 18, 1920, and died April 2, 2005 – the letter is a call not to divide the Church within a line of pontificates, but see each pope as a continuity of his predecessor.

Benedict says John Paul marked a turning point in the history of the Church. After commenting on the turbulences that troubled both the world and the Church at the time of John Paul’s election, the pope emeritus says that “an almost impossible task was awaiting the new pope. Yet, from the first moment on, John Paul II aroused new enthusiasm for Christ and his Church.”

John Paul’s proclamation of “Do not be afraid” characterized his entire pontificate and – Benedict continues – “made him a liberating restorer of the Church.”

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WARSAW (POLAND)
Associated Press

May 18, 2020

By Vanessa Gera

St. John Paul II was honored on the centennial of his birth with special Masses at the Vatican and in his native Poland on Monday, an anniversary that comes as the Polish church finds itself shaken by new allegations of sexual abuse by clerics.

From the small town of Wadowice, Poland, where Karol Wojtya was born on May 18, 1920, to Warsaw and the Vatican, Catholic faithful gave prayers of thanks for the man who was pope from 1978 until his death in 2005.

“Today we can say that 100 years ago the Lord visited his people,” Pope Francis said in a morning Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. “Celebrating the memory of Saint John Paul II let’s remember this: the Lord loves his people, he visited his people, he sent a shepherd.”

To Poles, John Paul is best remembered for using the papacy to shake the foundations of an oppressive communist system that was toppled across Eastern Europe 11 years into his papacy.

“Karol Wojtyla was one of the most important figures of the 20th century,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said in a letter sent to worshippers at Poland’s holiest site, the Jasna Gora Monastery in Czestochowa. “His teaching and testimony still touch the hearts and minds of millions of people.”

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian from Agence France-Presse

May 16, 2020

Polish archbishop calls for Vatican to ‘launch proceedings’ after release of child abuse documentary Hide and Seek

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: The new film by Tomasz Sekielski and Marek Sekielski, Zabawa w Chowanego (Hide and Seek) is available in Polish here.

A Polish documentary on child abuse by Catholic clerics has put a damper on centenary celebrations of the late Pope John Paul II’s birth.

After the film Hide and Seek was seen by almost 80,000 people on YouTube, Polish archbishop Wojciech Polak called on the Vatican to “launch proceedings” into the cases in question.

It is the second documentary by Tomasz Sekielski on child abuse within the church, and focuses in detail on two brothers who are alleged victims of a priest who was protected by a bishop.

“The film Hide and Seek, which I have just seen, shows that protection standards for children and adolescents in the church were not respected,” Polak said in a video broadcast by the Catholic news agency KAI.

The archbishop added that he had asked the Vatican to launch proceedings under the auspices of an apostolic letter issued by Pope Francis in March 2019 on the protection of minors and vulnerable persons.

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DENVER (CO)
Holland & Hart Law Firm via JD Supra

May 14, 2020

On May 1, 2020, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Mexico ruled in favor of the Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe (Archdiocese) granting a temporary injunction against the Small Business Administration (SBA) that had rejected the Archdiocese’s application for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan under the CARES Act. The case sheds light on how courts may view other SBA rulemaking regarding eligibility for PPP Loans, including the recently announced requirement that PPP applicants and recipients first exhaust other sources of liquidity, or give back funds by May 14, 2020.

In 2018, the Archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and had been operating as a debtor-in-possession. On March 23, 2020, in response to COVID-19 pandemic the New Mexico Department of Health issued a “stay-at-home” order, prohibiting mass gatherings and requiring all non-essential businesses to cease in-person operations. Due to the stay-at-home orders, the Archdiocese was losing about $300,000 a month in revenue it otherwise would realize from normal operations.

The economic hardship brought on by COVID-19 and the stay-at-home orders led the Archdiocese to file an application for a PPP Loan on April 20, 2020. Not long after the Archdiocese filed its application, the SBA issued a second interim final rule which purported to disqualify bankruptcy debtors from a PPP Loan.

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BOARDMAN (OH)
Mahoning Matters

May 17, 2020

Three Communicator Awards were bestowed.

Canfield – The Catholic Television Network of Youngstown (CTNY) has been selected to receive three 2020 Communicator Awards.

CTNY received an Award of Excellence for for “Wineskins” and Awards of Distinction for “Promise to Protect, Pledge to Heal” and “Spotlight.”

Judging for the 26th annual Communicator Awards was by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts.

“Wineskins” is an award-winning radio program conceived, produced and assembled in a magazine format by CTNY, airing every Sunday over several local radio stations within the six-counties of the Diocese of Youngstown.

Since its beginning in August of 1981, “Wineskins” has won many awards.

“Promise to Protect, Pledge to Heal” is a two-part series produced by CTNY to highlight the issue of clergy sexual abuse. The program host is Father James Korda, president of CTNY.

His guests included Bishop George V. Murry, S.J., Bishop of the Diocese of Youngstown; Msgr. John Zuraw, diocesan Chancellor; and Detective Delphine Baldwin-Casey, investigator for Child Protection.

The “Spotlight” program featured guest, Bob Elder, who told his own personal story as a victim of clergy sexual abuse.

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PIERRE (SD)
Capital Journal

May 15, 2020

By Stephen Lee

The Rev. Peter Muhich, a priest in Duluth, Minnesota, as been named bishop-elect of the Catholic Diocese of Rapid City, which includes all of West River South Dakota. A date for his ordination as a bishop, then installation, hasn’t been set because of the COVID-19 pandemic has the church nixing most large public meetings.

About a year after Pope Francis appointed Rapid City Bishop Robert Gruss as the new bishop in Saginaw, Michigan, the pope has named the Rev. Peter Muhich (MEW-itch), a priest in the Duluth, Minnesota, diocese as bishop-elect for the bishopric that covers West River South Dakota.

Gruss was ordained a bishop and installed in Rapid City in July 2011, serving until July 2019; he was named Saginaw’s bishop-elect in May 2019 and installed there last July.

That’s the typical time frame between the announcement and the installation of a Catholic bishop.

*

Muhich described his childhood faith and interest in the priesthood as happening well before the child abuse scandals in the church that came to public attention beginning in the 1980s.

Now that reality will be part of his work in Rapid City, he said.

“It has to be part of every bishop’s ministry,” Muhich told the Capital Journal. “To make sure we are doing everything possible to prevent the abuse of children by anybody, especially by priests, for God’s sake. Making sure the church is a safe place for all, working to prevent any abuse and, if, God forbid, it should happen, to cooperate with law enforcement and let them do their job.”

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ULTIMO (NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

May 14, 2020

By Iskhandar Razak

Paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale will spend at least another three years in jail after pleading guilty to 14 new offences committed against young boys under his care.

“Your sexual abuse, at times when the child was seeking comfort, reveals your utter hypocrisy,” the sentencing Judge Gerard Mullaly said.

“They were vulnerable children and you simply used them and violated them for your perverse sexual gratification.”

Ridsdale has been in prison since 1994 and was already serving a 33-year sentence for abusing more than 60 children in Victoria, but his non-parole period was due to expire in 2022.

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[Statement: Protect and report sexual abuse against children and adolescents.]

EL SALVADOR
Fundación de Estudios para la Aplicación del Derecho – FESPAD.
[The Foundation for Studies for the Application of Law]

May 13, 2020

Caso de Sacerdote procesado.
[Priest case prosecuted.]

El sacerdote, José V. B. U., de 63 años de edad, ha sido acusado por la Fiscalía General de la República por el ilícito de agresión sexual en menor e incapaz, en perjuicio de tres niñas, hechos ocurridos cuando se desempeñaba como párroco en la iglesia Nuestra Señora de Lourdes del Barrio Lourdes de San Salvador.

[GOOGLE TRANSLATION: The priest, José VBU, 63 years old, has been accused by the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic for the crime of sexual assault on a minor and incapable, to the detriment of three girls, events that occurred when he served as pastor in the Nuestra Iglesia Lady of Lourdes from the Lourdes neighborhood of San Salvador.]

El sacerdote tiene abiertos dos procesos, uno que se encuentra en la etapa de instrucción en el Tribunal Quinto de Instrucción de San Salvador, donde las afectadas son dos niñas; y el otro caso se encuentra a conocimiento del Tribunal Quinto de Sentencia, a la espera de la vista pública, en perjuicio de una niña.

[GOOGLE TRANSLATION: The priest has two processes open, one that is in the investigation stage in the Fifth Court of Instruction of San Salvador, where the affected are two girls; and the other case is before the Fifth Sentencing Court, pending public hearing, to the detriment of a girl.]

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Kansas City Star

May 17, 2020

By Judy L. Thomas

KBI investigating sex abuse allegations within St. Marys, Kansas, traditionalist Catholic society

For four decades, the Society of St. Pius X has made its home in this northeast Kansas town, its followers coming from across the country to raise their children according to traditional Catholic values.

Now, with attendance at Latin Mass topping 4,000, plans are underway for the breakaway Catholic society to build a $30 million church high on its campus overlooking St. Marys. The Immaculata, the SSPX says, will become the biggest traditional Catholic church in the world.

But something else is underway that threatens to overshadow the jubilation over a new house of worship with enough room to accommodate the ever-expanding flock: A criminal investigation by the state’s top law enforcement agency into allegations of priest sexual abuse.

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NEW ZEALAND
Stuff.com

May 17, 2020

By Jennifer Eder

A woman whose sexual harassment complaint was brushed off by Anglican church leaders has won a landmark settlement and is embarking on another Human Rights Review Tribunal claim, writes Jennifer Eder.

She was not a regular churchgoer until a traumatic event caused her to question the existence of heaven.

“I had a basic belief in God, but I’d never explored it,” the Blenheim woman said.

“I wanted to know, where is that? It’s a bit like losing a child in the mall, you have this need to know where they are. What is this place, is it real?”

The woman, who can’t be identified, is speaking publicly for the first time after her Human Rights Review Tribunal complaint against her local priest and church saw an unprecedented settlement, including an apology from the Anglican Church, and an acknowledgement that its priests are covered by human rights law in New Zealand.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

May 16, 2020

By Alf McCreary

The Most Reverend Eamon Martin is the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland.

Q. Can you tell us about your background?

A. I was born on October 30, 1961 and I grew up in Derry in the Sixties and Seventies and was blessed to be a member of a large family of six boys and six girls and to have a great education at St Patrick’s Primary School, Pennyburn and St Columb’s College, where I eventually was to return as a teacher and school principal.

Q. How and when did you come to faith?

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WARSAW (POLAND)
BBC News

May 17, 2020

By Adam Easton and others

The head of Poland’s Roman Catholic Church has said he is asking the Vatican to investigate the cover-up of child sexual abuse by priests.

Archbishop Wojciech Polak called on the Church hierarchy to “launch proceedings” following the release of a documentary on the subject on Saturday.

The film tells the story of two brothers who seek to confront a priest who allegedly abused them as children.

The Vatican is expected to assign an investigator to the case.

The film – “Hide and Seek” – has been viewed more than 1.9 million times on YouTube. It is the second documentary on the subject by brothers Marek and Tomasz Sekielski.

It follows two victims as they attempt to bring to account those in the Church who were responsible for covering up their abuse.

It alleges that a senior bishop knew about the allegations for years but failed to take any action.

A new awareness in Poland

By Adam Easton, BBC Warsaw correspondent

In churches across Poland today, people are celebrating the life of their Pope, John Paul II, a day ahead of the centenary of his birth.

Numbers will be smaller than usual due to the coronavirus restrictions, but Karol Wojtyla, the first non-Italian to become pope in more than 450 years, is still revered in his homeland. In particular, for germinating the belief among people here in the 1980s that together, they could achieve the end of the communist regime, which then seemed impossible.

The Polish Catholic Church’s vital role in that victory subsequently gave it enormous influence in Polish society, including over politicians. The current Law and Justice-led government promotes traditional Catholic values.

When the Sekielski brothers’ first documentary became a subject of national debate last May, it agreed that a state commission should be set up. But it said it must not solely focus on the sexual abuse of children by priests, but also by members of other professions. The law to create the commission took effect in September, but since then, nothing has happened.

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POLAND
Crux

May 17, 2020

By Paulina Guzik

A new Polish documentary film on sexual abuse by Catholic clergy was released Saturday through the internet. Hide and Seek, produced by brothers Marek and Tomasz Sekielski, documents not only the sexual abuse of children within the Church in Poland, but also the abuse of power by the Church hierarchy.

The film is a follow-up to the Sekielski brothers’ documentary Tell No One, which was quickly referred to in the media as the “Polish Spotlight” – referring to the 2015 Oscar-winning film documenting the Boston Globe’s 2002 investigation into clerical sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston.

After the documentary aired, the Primate of Poland, Archbishop Wojciech Polak – who also serves as the Delegate of Child Protection of Polish Bishops Conference – immediately announced that he had reported the case in the documentary to the Vatican’s representative in the country.

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WARSAW (POLAND)
Reuters

May 16, 2020

By Joanna Plucinska and Alicja Ptak

The Polish Catholic Church’s most senior archbishop notified the Vatican on Saturday of a Polish bishop accused of shielding priests known to have sexually abused children.

The referral, unprecedented in the deeply religious country, will test procedures introduced by the Vatican last year to hold to account bishops accused of turning a blind eye to child sex abuse. The Vatican is now expected to assign an investigator to the case.

“I ask priests, nuns, parents and educators to not be led by the false logic of shielding the Church, effectively hiding sexual abusers,” Poland’s Primate Wojciech Polak said in a statement published on Saturday.

“There is no place among the clergy to sexually abuse minors. We do not allow for the hiding of these crimes.”

The case came to prominence after a film by brothers Tomasz and Marek Sekielski, released on Saturday, showed how bishop Edward Janiak, based in the city of Kalisz, failed to take action against priests who were known to have abused children.

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POLAND
Agence France-Presse via TRTworld.com

May 17, 2020

A Polish documentary on child abuse by Catholic clerics put a damper Saturday on centenary celebrations of the venerated late Pope John Paul II’s birth.

After the film “Hide and Seek” was seen by almost 80,000 people on YouTube, Polish archbishop Wojciech Polak called on the Vatican to “launch proceedings” into the cases in question.

It is the second documentary by Tomasz Sekielski on child abuse within the church, and focuses in detail on two brothers who are alleged victims of a priest who was protected by a bishop.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Far Out Magazine

May 16, 2020

We’re looking back at one of television’s most infamous moments. Sinéad O’Connor is a musician who has never been shy to make her opinion well known in the public eye. Nothing compares, though, to her now-legendary appearance performing on SNL back in 1992.

Saturday Night Live has had several acts break the rules and find themselves on the wrong end of Lorne Michaels’ wrath. But perhaps none were as scandalous as O’Connor’s moment of infamy.

SNL, the now-iconic late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show, has been running prolifically each week since launching in 1975.

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UNITED STATES
Irish Central

May 17, 2020

By Shane O’Brien

Robert Kolker’s ‘Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family’ is an account of the Galvin family, where six out of ten sons were diagnosed as schizophrenic.

A new biography tells the tragic tale of an American family thought to be one of the most disturbed families in American history.

‘Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family’ is an account of the Galvin family in Colorado Springs where six out of ten sons were diagnosed as schizophrenic.

Robert Kolker’s in-depth study examines how one son murdered his wife, one son raped his sister, and how one son tortured a cat to death for no reason.

The Galvin family started like many other American families in the 1940s.

An unplanned pregnancy forced Donald Galvin Sr. to marry Mimi Blayney in a shotgun wedding in Mexico in 1944.

Donald was about to shipped out to the South Pacific to fight in the US Navy during the Second World War and the couple’s story was not unlike many other wartime couples who had to rush marriages in order to avoid the stigma and dishonor that accompanied unmarried pregnancies.

Little did they know that their first-born son, Donald Jr., would be the first of 12 children.

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WEST VIRGINIA
West Virginia Record

May 15, 2020

By Chris Dickerson

A Virginia man says a priest with a history of such offenses sexually assaulted him when he was an altar boy growing up in the Northern Panhandle.

Michael Pirraglia of Fairfax, Va., filed his complaint May 15 in Hancock Circuit Court against the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

Pirraglia says his family attended St. Paul Catholic Church in Weirton when he was growing up. One of the priests assigned to the church then was Rev. Victor Frobas.

Frobas worked for the Diocese from 1965 to 1983. Before that, Frobas worked for the Diocese of Philadelphia, where there were multiple claims alleging Frobas abused minors.

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NEW YORK
National Public Radio

May 16, 2020

[AUDIO: 4-minute listen]

NPR’s Scott Simon talks with Teresa Theophano about Georgianna Glose, the Brooklyn nun who blew the whistle on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. She died from COVID-19 complications.

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RAPID CITY (SD)
SNAPNetwork.org

May 13, 2020

By SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)

A new bishop has been chosen to lead one of the smallest Catholic dioceses in the nation. We call on him to make the protection of children and the prevention of abuse his number one priority now that he is officially in charge.

Fr. Peter M. Muhich, a priest from the Diocese of Duluth, has been chosen by Pope Francis to lead the Diocese of Rapid City, SD. That diocese has a sordid history with clergy abuse, having once been headed by a bishop who was himself an abuser. Bishop-elect Muhich now has the chance to come in and make his mark by leading the diocese into a new era of openness, transparency, and protection for children and the vulnerable.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
SNAPnetwork.org

May 12, 2020

By SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)

A priest who had previously been determined to have “credible” allegations of abuse against him has suddenly removed from the diocesan list following a new investigation. We call on Catholic officials to be clear and direct in sharing the information with the public that has resulted in this change.

Fr. William Smaltz was included on the initial list of priests accused of abuse released by the Diocese of Youngstown in 2018. Despite that listing, diocesan leaders now claim that they have determined those allegations are no longer “credible,” but have released precious little information to the public.

There are many unanswered questions about this situation, chief among them being who was in charge of this new investigation? Similarly, what facts have emerged that made previously “credible” claims suddenly unsubstantiated? Catholic officials in Youngstown are saying little about this case which does a disservice to parishioners, parents, and the public.

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Catholic Herald

May 15, 2020

By Natasha Marsh

There has been only one topic in Australia that has broken through the Covid-19 eclipse, and that is the exoneration of Cardinal George Pell by the High Court on Tuesday, April 7. By a unanimous decision, 7-0, the court acquitted the cardinal of all charges, saying there should have been “sufficient doubt” in the minds of the jury when they condemned him over a year ago.

This could have marked the end of a bitter episode, yet many Australians – in a mirrored unanimity – voted to ignore the High Court’s decision: in their own minds, the Cardinal remains a guilty man.

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UNITED STATES
Stand Up Speak Up (blog)

May 8, 2020

By Tim Lennon

At age 12, I was raped and sexually abused for months. I froze. Now I fight back. The radio interview covers my steps from victim to advocate.

Also, I detail my journey of recovering memories from previous decades. As a result of substantial investigation, I discovered that the sexual predator who raped me got caught three times previous to his assignment to my parish and elementary school.

[How to Research an Abuser]

Radio interview with National Association of Adult Survivors of Child Abuse, NAASCA.org.

See more of my story, narrative, photos, and documents on My Story.

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UNITED STATES
America

May 15, 2020

Tara Reade was interviewed by the journalist Megyn Kelly on May 8 regarding Ms. Reade’s allegations of sexual harassment and assault by Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee for president. Ms. Reade alleges that Mr. Biden assaulted her in 1993, when he was serving as a U.S. senator and Ms. Reade was a member of his staff.

As Doreen St. Felix wrote in The New Yorker, “the interview yielded little new information, offering viewers a chance to put a face to a name and to decide for themselves, based on not much more than a feeling in the gut, whether they would grant Reade their sympathy.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican News

May 13, 2020

By Andrea Torniello

The Vatican is not at risk of default, says the Prefect of the Holy See’s Secretariat for the Economy. “We are not a company. Everything can be measured in terms of deficit. We live thanks to the help of the faithful and we pay 17 million Euros a year in taxes to Italy. We work for a transparent system and for the centralization of investments.”

Father Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves was appointed just a few months ago as Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy. Pope Francis himself called on him to carry out a reform that aims at the economic transparency of the Holy See and an ever more efficient use of the goods and resources at the service of its evangelizing mission. Fr Alves now finds himself having to deal with the crisis caused by Covid-19. Not wanting to grant this interview, he explained that he thinks “there are other more important things in the Church. I would also have liked to wait longer before speaking. However, this moment is challenging for everyone – for us as well. It also requires clarity.”

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ROME (ITALY)
National Catholic Register

May 13, 2020

By Edward Pentin

Jesuit Father Antonio Guerrero Alves told Vatican News that he anticipates a steep drop in annual revenues, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Vatican is not at risk of default but has “difficult years ahead” and could lose nearly a half of its annual revenue due to the coronavirus, the head of Vatican finances has said.

In a May 13 Vatican News interview with Andrea Tornielli, the editorial director of the Dicastery for Communications, Jesuit Father Antonio Guerrero Alves, who last year succeeded Cardinal George Pell as prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, said the “most optimistic calculate a decrease in revenue of around 25%, the most pessimistic, around 45%.”

The Spanish Jesuit added that his optimistic and pessimistic forecasts depend on “external factors” and how much the Vatican can reduce costs.

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ROME (ITALY)
Catholic Herald

May 13, 2020

By Christopher Altieri

The Italian daily, Il Mesaggero, published a piece earlier this week by their Vaticanologist, Franca Giansoldati, detailing a financial outlook that is very grim, indeed.

Internal Vatican documents obtained by Il Messaggero – a paper Pope Francis reads regularly – show that curial heads are contemplating drops in revenue between 30% and 80% in 2020, and a resulting deficit between 28% and 175%, depending on how successful cost-controlling measures – some of which are already in place – prove to be.

The documents, which came from the Secretariat for the Economy, detail best-case, middle-case, and worst-case scenarios.

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ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Service

May 15, 2020

By Carol Glatz

The postulator and the commission involved in investigating the life of Pope John Paul II for sainthood cause found no evidence that the pope knowingly neglected or covered up abuse scandals, the postulator said.

Msgr. Slawomir Oder, the promoter of the cause, told reporters in Rome during an online meeting May 15 that he and investigators saw nothing “that could possibly be claimed as (being) a shadow of guilt in regard to John Paul II.”

However, Msgr. Oder also explained that the investigators did not have direct access to the relevant Vatican archives but had to send the topics they wanted to explore and questions to the Secretariat of State.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

May 16, 2020

By Elise Ann Allen

Official in John Paul II’s sainthood cause says no cover-up on sex abuse

Facing suggestions that Saint John Paul II’s reputation has been stained by the Church’s child sexual abuse scandals, including perceptions that John Paul turned a blind eye to accusations against certain leading churchmen, the official responsible of the Polish Pope’s sainthood cause insisted Friday his record was thoroughly investigated and no evidence of wrongdoing was found.

“No, John Paul II didn’t cover [up] for any pedophile,” Monsignor Slawomir Oder told journalists May 15.

The judicial vicar of the ordinary tribunal of the Diocese of Rome and postulator of the cause of canonization of Saint John Paul II, Oder spoke during a May 15 virtual press roundtable marking the centenary of John Paul II’s birth May 18.

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ROME (ITALY)
Associated Press

May 15, 2020

By Nicole Winfield

Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI has honored St. John Paul II on the centenary of his birth and floated the idea that he should be called “the Great,” as only two other popes have been.

John Paul’s longtime secretary, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, held a press conference in Krakow, Poland, on Friday to present a letter by Benedict, which was released to the media in a half-dozen languages. The fanfare suggested that Dziwisz wanted to draw attention to the praise of his beloved John Paul, who was born 100 years ago this coming Monday.

The four-page letter covers territory long of concern to Benedict, but is also heavy on Polish history and John Paul’s personal background, suggesting that the 92-year-old Benedict didn’t write it alone. The letter traces John Paul’s quarter-century pontificate, his encyclicals, devotions and foreign trips, as well as the final moments of his life and the chants of “Santo Subito” or “Sainthood Now” that erupted soon thereafter.

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ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
LI Herald

May 15, 2020

By Briana Bonfiglio

A state judge in Nassau County has dismissed the Diocese of Rockville Centre’s motion challenging the New York Child Victims Act (CVA).

Signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Feb. 14, 2019, the CVA allows a one-year period for victims of childhood sexual abuse to bring claims against individual abusers or institutions responsible for those abusers, forgoing the statute of limitations for victims 23 and older.

The Diocese had filed a motion to dismiss the CVA on Nov. 12, 2019, citing that changing the statute of limitation infringed on its right to due process. In addition, by dismissing dozens of lawsuits brought to the institution through the CVA, the Diocese had hoped to maintain funding to compensate victims through its own Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

May 14, 2020

By Javonte Anderson and Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas

The Archdiocese of Chicago and other Catholic dioceses throughout the state announced phased plans to begin reopening Catholic churches, starting in Chicago with small gatherings for baptisms, weddings, funerals and confession as early as May 23.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been under increasing pressure in recent days as smaller churches have sued the state, trying to lift the almost two-month-old stay-at-home order’s application to religious gatherings. The governor added “free exercise of religion” as an essential activity to his revised stay-at-home order late April 30, after a rural church filed suit against the plan, and Catholic leaders soon after said they were working on a plan to reopen churches. The Catholic bishops reached an agreement with the state Wednesday, according to letters posted on their dioceses’ websites.

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ORANGE (CT)
Patch

May 15, 2020

By Alfred Branch

The lawsuit argues that a March 16 order by the Orange Health Department​ went beyond an order issued by Gov. Ned Lamont.

A Catholic church in Orange is suing the town’s health director for canceling religious services during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, writes the New Haven Register.

Our Lady of Sorrows Church on Spring Street claims in a federal lawsuit that Dr. Amir Mohammad discriminated against the church by ordering the cancellation of its services. Bridgeport attorney C. Christian Young filed the lawsuit in United States District Court on behalf of the Rev. Bernard Champagne, the church’s 87-year-old priest.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
Diocese of Youngstown

May 11, 2020

By Matthew Pecchia

William Smaltz was included in a list of Clergy of the Diocese of Youngstown against whom credible, substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor have been made. Upon further inquiry and consideration of additional and new information, the allegations are not deemed credible and substantiated. Accordingly, William Smaltz’s name has been removed from the foregoing list.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
CantonRep.com

May 12, 2020

By Charita Goshay

A former priest included on a 2018 list of clergy under investigation for improper conduct has been cleared by the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown.

In a statement from the diocese, an investigation found no credible evidence to support accusations made against the former Rev. William Smaltz involving the sexual abuse of a minor.

A native of Youngstown, Smaltz, 89, was ordained in the 1950s. He served at St. Mary’s Parish in Massillon, St. Edward parish in Youngstown, Our Lady of Lourdes in East Palestine and St. Mary’s in Conneaut.

Smaltz left the priesthood in the 1970s and later married.

According to a report published by the Vindicator, Smaltz and his attorney presented the diocese with evidence disputing the accusation, which resulted in the investigation being dropped.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

May 15, 2020

By Jack Power

Scouting bodies protected each other and their reputations while facilitating sex abuse

Child sexual abuse was “tolerated” at the highest levels of former scouting organisations, with the crimes of those who preyed on children covered up to protect the reputation of the movement, a damning report has concluded.

There is evidence that groups of sex offenders operated at the top of Scouting Ireland’s legacy organisations to protect each other and “facilitate” child abuse, a report by child protection expert Ian Elliott found.

The Government is to consider the findings of the report and decide whether a statutory inquiry into the historic abuse may be required. However, there are concerns over whether such an inquiry would be able to uncover substantially more information, according to sources.

Scouting Ireland made a full organisational apology on foot of the report’s publication on Thursday. The historic abuse relates to the Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland (CBSI) and the Scout Association of Ireland, which merged to form Scouting Ireland in 2004.

The report said one of the legacy bodies was a “seriously dysfunctional organisation”, with “sex offenders dominating the leadership for decades”.

The culture of the former organisations were defined by “cronyism” and poor governance, which led to a consistent failure to report child abuse to authorities, it said. There was an “almost complete absence of any concern for the young people who were abused”, the report found.

Scouting Ireland has now identified 356 alleged victims of historic abuse, and 275 alleged perpetrators, who primarily operated between the 1960s and 1990s

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CARTAGENA (SPAIN)
The Leader

May 15, 2020

The Diocese of Cartagena intends to investigate the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable people that has been committed within the Catholic Church between 1950 and 2010.

To do this, a special episcopal delegation has been created, detail of which were announced on Thursday by the bishop of Cartagena, José Manuel Lorca Planes, and his episcopal delegate, Gil José Sáez Martínez.

“I have warned all priests of the importance of this investigation,” stressed the Bishop, “and that anyone standing in the way of possible victims will be committing a truly criminal act .”

Sáez Martínez said that the new delegation has already attended eight alleged victims adding that that they will receive comprehensive care. “The problem is that we are attending to the victims, but only on the legal level. This is a situation that also needs psychological and spiritual support.”

The new episcopal delegate explained that the investigation of possible cases registered in the Region, in those six decades “requires time and investigation.

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Other/Wise, the Online Journal of the International Forum for Psychoanalytic Education

May 2020

by Peter Gajdics

I was born in 1964 in Vancouver, Canada, the youngest of five children to Catholic immigrant parents. My mother, an ethnic German, was born in the former Yugoslavia, and escaped three years in a communist concentration camp post World War II; my father, born in Hungary, was raised an orphan, and at about the same time, he also fled the rising communist regime and made his way to Canada, where my parents met and married, in 1956.

Religion and family all meant a great deal to my parents when my siblings and I were children. By most people’s standards, we were a close family: dinners together every night; piano lessons; Christmases with all the decorations; homemade European baking; Catholic schools for all us kids; and, of course, church every Sunday.

It was in my Catholic elementary school, when I was six years old, that a stranger molested me in the boy’s bathroom during a church gathering. I never talked about that abuse with anyone—already at the age of six, I’d learned to hide my shame and to silence myself. But there were cracks in my silence; soon after, I began experiencing night terrors, deep depression, and high anxiety.

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VICTORIA (AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

May 15, 2020

By Kellie Lazzaro

Key points:
— McNamara indecently assaulted more than 15 young boys between 1970 and 1975
— He will serve seven months in prison after pleading guilty to four charges of indecent assault and one count of common assault
— McNamara worked as headmaster and sports master at St Paul’s Catholic College in Traralgon, Victoria where students nicknamed him The Rat

Marist brother Gerard Joseph McNamara, 82, has begun his second stint in prison after pleading guilty to indecently assaulting Traralgon school boys in the 1970s.

McNamara was working at St Paul’s Catholic College in Traralgon when he indecently assaulted more than 15 students between 1970 and 1975.

He abused his victims while giving them massages in the monastery, his office and a sports equipment shed, and many were targeted multiple times.

Many of the abused boys were known as victims and ridiculed by their peers.

McNamara was sentenced in the Victorian County Court today to 35 months in prison, with 28 months suspended, after pleading guilty to four charges of indecent assault and one count of common assault.

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ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Agency

May 4, 2020

Modern society is formulating an “anti-Christian creed” and punishing those who resist it with “social excommunication,” Benedict XVI has said in a new biography, published in Germany May 4.

In a wide-ranging interview at the end of the 1,184-page book, written by German author Peter Seewald, the pope emeritus said the greatest threat facing the Church was a “worldwide dictatorship of seemingly humanistic ideologies.”

Benedict XVI, who resigned as pope in 2013, made the comment in response to a question about what he had meant at his 2005 inauguration, when he urged Catholics to pray for him “that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.”

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BIRMINGHAM (AL)
Church Militant

May 14, 2020

By Martina Moyski

The newly named bishop-designate of Birmingham, Alabama, who will serve as spiritual advisor to EWTN, is coming to his new position with unresolved allegations of cover-up on his back.

Bishop Steven J. Raica has been accused of “maintaining the ministry of priests who abuse kids,” according to a press release issued May 12 by St. Mary MacKillop Coalition for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults.

The Coalition issued the statement “to help spread the word” of Bp. Raica’s cover-ups before he steps into the sphere of the world’s largest Catholic network.

E-mails, letters and news reports that circulated throughout the diocese of Gaylord, Michigan — Bp. Raica’s previous location — show that the bishop promised the community that a priest credibly accused of sexual misconduct who was to have been permanently removed from ministry in 2002, may never have been removed from ministry at all, St. Mary MacKillop Coalition president Nadja Tirrell said.

Emails in the possession of the coalition show Fr. Jim Holtz was back in ministry in May of 2019, despite Bp. Raica’s reassurances to the contrary to the diocese.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
NOLA.com

May 14, 2020

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

In a remarkable letter filed in federal court Thursday, a priest suspected of molesting children while tending to the deaf reveals that he has continued receiving financial support from the Archdiocese of New Orleans since his 1980 removal from the ministry — and complains he’s on the brink of homelessness because the archdiocese’s recent bankruptcy filing put a stop to the payments.

The letter’s author is Gerard Howell, who served at several New Orleans-area churches, established a center for the deaf in Baton Rouge, and was removed from the ministry 16 years after his ordination over what the missive characterizes as “serious mistakes in the past.”

Howell, 80, was not named in the archdiocese’s most recent listing of retired priests who are entitled to benefits such as a monthly pension, insurance coverage and archdiocese-owned housing. Nonetheless, Howell’s emailed letter notes that in 1995, then-Archbishop Francis Schulte “promised to fully provide” for him, citing a directive from the Congregation for the Clergy, an entity in Rome that oversees diocesan priests.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

May 14, 2020

By Jay Tokasz

A Williamsville attorney is asking Pope Francis to intervene and reinstate the pay and benefits of a priest who was suspended from ministry due to substantiated allegations of child sex abuse.

The lawyer, Michael S. Taheri, said in a letter to the pontiff that there was no “legal or canonical basis” for Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger to terminate pay and benefits for the Rev. Samuel Venne.

Scharfenberger on May 1 cut off monthly pay and benefits for Venne and 22 other priests accused of abuse or misconduct. The move was part of negotiations in federal bankruptcy court with a creditor’s committee representing more than 200 plaintiffs who alleged child sex abuse by priests and sued the diocese under the Child Victims Act.

But according to church law, Scharfenberger is obligated to provide financial support for all Buffalo Diocese priests, even those who have been removed from ministry due to substantiated allegations of child sex abuse.

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ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Catholic News Agency via Catholic World Report

May 14, 2020

A judge ruled Wednesday that New York’s Child Victims Act is constitutional, rejecting a suit filed by the Diocese of Rockville Centre that claimed the law is barred by the due process clause in the state constitution.

The act opened a one-year window for adults in the state who were sexually abused as children to file lawsuits against their abusers. It also adjusted the statute of limitations for both pursuing criminal charges and civil suits against sexual abusers or institutions where the abuse took place.

“The court finds the Child Victims Act is a reasonable response to remedy the injustice of past child sexual abuse,” Justice Steven Jaeger of the New York Supreme Court in Nassau County wrote in his May 13 decision. “Accordingly, it does not violate defendant diocese’s right to due process under the New York State Constitution.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Associated Press

May 13, 2020

A federal judge is giving most claimants until Nov. 13 to seek compensation over child sexual abuse from the Harrisburg Roman Catholic Diocese, which sought bankruptcy protection earlier this year.

The order signed last week by Chief Bankruptcy Judge Henry Van Eck also gave governmental entities until Dec. 11 to file proofs of claims for debts.

The diocese issued a statement on Wednesday that encouraged anyone with a claim involving “any actual or alleged sexual offense” by its clergy, teachers, employees or volunteers to submit a claims form.

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ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
New York Law Journal

May 13, 2020

By Ryan Tarinelli

The law opened up a legal “look-back” window for survivors of child sex abuse, giving them the opportunity to file lawsuits over older claims typically barred by statutes of limitation.

The Child Victims Act does not violate the Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre’s due process right under New York’s constitution, a Nassau County Supreme Court justice has ruled.

“Based on this legislative history, the court finds the Child Victims Act is a reasonable response to remedy the injustice of past child sexual abuse,” wrote Justice Steven Jaeger in a ruling filed Wednesday.

The law opened up a legal “look-back” window for survivors of child sex abuse, giving them the opportunity to file lawsuits over older claims typically barred by statutes of limitation.

Sean Dolan, a spokesperson for the diocese, said they disagree with the court’s ruling in regard to the due process challenge to the act.

“We are analyzing our options with respect to appeal of this and other issues,” he said in the statement.

The ruling was lauded by advocates for the survivors of child sex abuse.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

May 13, 2020

By Jack Power

Child protection expert Ian Elliott’s awaited report into past child sex abuse completed

Scouting Ireland is to publish a final report on Thursday into historic child sex abuse that took place in legacy scouting organisations, completed by child protection expert Ian Elliott.

The report is understood to be around 50 pages in length and makes 12 recommendations, as well as detailing several case studies. Scouting Ireland is to make an “organisational apology” to all survivors of past abuse in response to the report’s publication.

Mr Elliott, who also acted as Scouting Ireland’s interim safeguarding manager for several months, has been investigating the historic abuse for over a year.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
NOLA.com

May 14, 2020

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

One served as the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ in-house attorney. Another was on the board of the archdiocese’s seminary and earned an award for organizing monthly Masses for special-needs parishioners. A third is married to an attorney who is representing the archdiocese as it seeks bankruptcy protection. Yet another serves on an archdiocesan charity’s board.

Respectively, U.S. District Judges Wendy Vitter, Jay Zainey, Sarah Vance and Ivan Lemelle are four members of the federal bench in New Orleans who have recused themselves from clergy abuse lawsuits that were transferred to their courthouse after the church filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 1.

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SAGINAW (MI)
MLive

May 12, 2020

By Cole Waterman

A man who says his job with the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw was impacted after he reported a sex-abuse complaint against a priest has filed a lawsuit against the diocese.

In the suit, Gabriel Villarreal alleges he was retaliated against by the diocese and its agents for reporting a relative had been assaulted by the Rev. Robert J. DeLand. A jury acquitted DeLand of charges related to the relative, but DeLand was convicted of sexual assaulting a different person in a separate case.

Villarreal is a maintenance worker for the diocese.

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ROCHESTER (NY)
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

May 12, 2020

By Steve Orr

The one-year window for filing lawsuits over past acts of child sexual abuse has been extended by five months — except for claims against the Rochester diocese for misconduct by its priests.

New York’s Child Victims Act, approved by the state Legislature in early 2019, carved out a one-year period for reviving old child sexual abuse claims that had been barred the statute of limitations. That one-year window was to close Aug. 13.

But in an executive order prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Friday extended the window for five months, to Jan. 13. The pandemic forced closure of the state’s courts in late March and ended filing of new lawsuits. It is not yet known when state courts will reopen.

The extension does not apply, however, to legal claims alleging past child sexual abuse by Catholic priests, brothers, deacons, nuns and other leaders in the Rochester diocese.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Jewish Exponent

May 13, 2020

By Sophie Panzer

Lynne Abraham doesn’t quit.

In the midst of a global pandemic, the 79-year-old former Philadelphia District Attorney has commandeered her dining room table so that she can work from home. Social distancing has limited interviews to phone calls and email, but she paints a picture with her words.

“My dining room table is a dog’s breakfast — the same as any desk I’ve ever sat behind,” she noted.

Abraham is a partner at the law firm Archer & Greiner, P.C. This might come as a surprise to the firms who refused to hire women in 1965, the year she graduated from Temple Law School as one of two women in her class and had difficulty finding work. Even more surprising might be her four terms as the city’s DA and her 2015 mayoral campaign.

She knew the odds were against her in many of her professional endeavors. It never stopped her from trying.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Catholic News Service

May 13, 2020

By Dennis Sadowski

Advocates fighting human traffickers are alerting children, parents and vulnerable adults that the coronavirus pandemic has pushed traffickers into new venues, potentially endangering more people to being exploited.

Seemingly innocent online venues are becoming popular places for sex traffickers to groom unwitting children and entice adults facing financial turmoil because of the pandemic. The danger is leading the advocates to call for funding of anti-trafficking programs in any new federal legislation in response to the public health crisis.

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NASSAU COUNTY (NY)
JAA

May 13, 2020

(Nassau County, NY) – A Nassau County Court has denied the Diocese of Rockville Centre’s callous attempt to throw out 44 lawsuits filed by sexual abuse survivors under New York’s Child Victims Act.

Yesterday, Nassau County Supreme Court Judge Steven M. Jaeger issued an order denying the dozens of motions to dismiss filed by the diocese. Judge Jaeger rejected the diocese’s argument that the Child Victims Act was unconstitutional and violated its right to due process. Referencing the intent and actions of the New York legislature, Judge Jaeger concluded that the “Child Victims Act was a reasonable response to remedy the injustice of past sexual abuse.”

“This decision is huge in assuring survivors’ voices can be heard and children can be better protected,” said Attorney Jeff Anderson. “It’s time for reckoning in New York.”

Contact:
Jeff Anderson: 646.499.3364 (c), 646.759.2551 (o)
Mike Finnegan: 612.205.5531 (c), 646.759.2551 (o)
Trusha Goffe: 646.995.0616 (c), 646.759.2551 (o)

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ST. LOUIS
St. Louis Post Dispatch

May 12, 2020

By Steven Spaner

Regarding “Chaminade clergy abuse case challenges First Amendment protection for church officials accused of negligence” (May 6): In the United States, you can believe anything you want, but you can’t do anything you want. Religious freedom protects all belief, not all actions.

That’s why a case before the Missouri Supreme Court involving Chaminade College Preparatory School is so important. If the alleged victim in that case prevails, our state would help prevent and punish child sex crimes and cover-ups without infringing on spiritual beliefs.

A man alleges that Brother John Woulfe molested him at the school and that administrators knew or suspected Woulfe had hurt other youngsters before. In any other private school setting, such a case would move forward. But Catholic officials say no court can touch these allegations without infringing on the church’s First Amendment rights. That’s baloney.

Church figures can believe that child molesters should be forgiven. They can believe that predators can reform. But they can’t negligently put kids in harm’s way by ignoring or concealing known or suspected molesters and stop every judge or jury from even questioning their actions.

For the safety of our children, I hope our state’s highest court soon makes the church’s limitations crystal clear.

Steven Spaner • Marthasville

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
St. Louis Post Dispatch

May 6, 2020

By Nassim Benchaabane

The Missouri Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments in a sex abuse case that asks the court to break with a previous ruling protecting church officials from negligent supervision claims because courts deciding such claims could violate separation of church and state.

The lawsuit before the state’s top court claims now-deceased Marianist Brother John Woulfe sexually abused a Chaminade College Preparatory School student in 1971 while working as a guidance counselor at the school. The suit, first filed in 2015 in St. Louis County Circuit Court, alleges Marianist and Chaminade officials knew of the abuse and failed to stop it and that Woulfe previously had sexually assaulted at least one other boy at Chaminade.

Information in Woulfe’s file, the suit says, contained coded language indicating the Marianist Province knew Woulfe had abused minors before transferring him to Chaminade and also while he worked there, and that other students in the early 1970s reported Woulfe had sexually abused them.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW-TV

May 12, 2020

7 Eyewitness News has been honored with a 2020 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for its investigative series that looked into decades of sexual abuse cover-ups within the Diocese of Buffalo.

The award winning entry, “The Malone Recordings: The Tapes That Brought Down a Bishop,” was the result of months of investigative reporting by I-Team Chief Investigator Charlie Specht. The multiple stories were shot and edited by photojournalists Jeff Wick, Rob Neves and Patrick Merritt.

A 22-month investigation of the diocese revealed ongoing cover-ups of sexual abuse that led to state and federal investigations, spurred changes in New York State law, gave voices to survivors of abuse, and ultimately resulted in the resignation of Bishop Richard Malone.

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AUSTRALIA
Church Times (independent lay Anglican newspaper)

May 11, 2020

By Muriel Porter

CARDINAL George Pell had known of clergy paedophile activity at least as early as 1982 and possibly earlier, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse said in findings released this week. The findings concerning Cardinal Pell, who was last month acquitted of charges of child sexual abuse by the Australian High Court (News, 9 April), had been redacted until Pell’s court processes had run their course.

The findings relate to Cardinal Pell’s conduct as priest in the Victorian diocese of Ballarat, where numerous cases of paedophile activity by Roman Catholic clergy occurred in the 1970s and ’80s. The Commission rejected Cardinal Pell’s evidence that he had not been told that the paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale was being moved from his parish because of child sexual-abuse complaints. The Commission said that it was “implausible” that the then Bishop of Ballarat did not tell Pell and others in a meeting the real reason for Ridsdale’s move. The failure of Pell and others to advise the Bishop in relation to Ridsdale was unacceptable, the Commission said.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic News Agency

May 6, 2020

By JD Flynn

Well into the pandemic’s grip on American public life, parishes and dioceses are preparing a return to some new kind of normal.

Masses are resuming, albeit for small numbers in limited circumstances. Catholic schools and universities are making plans to reopen in the fall. Regrettably, even the ordinary fault lines and debates among Catholics, somewhat muted in recent months, are beginning to be revived.

But while some acute effects of the pandemic will still shape the Church in the months to come, the collapsing global economy will have a far more enduring and dramatic impact on parishes, chanceries, and other Catholic ministries.

In other words, barring some kind of miraculous economic recovery, the Church, at least in the U.S., ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian via CathNews(news outlet of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference)

May 13, 2020

By John Ferguson, The Australian

The operation of the Victorian justice system should face a full review in the wake of the botched proceedings against Cardinal George Pell, according to the state’s Opposition. Source: The Australian.

Coalition legal affairs spokesman Edward O’Donohue said he had been inundated with complaints from Cardinal Pell supporters, opponents, victim groups and people shocked at the “unedifying ordeal”.

He said while the unanimous High Court decision was “clearly an embarrassment” for the majority on the Victorian Court of Appeal, he was not reflecting on it or decisions by the other courts. But he was concerned about key aspects of Cardinal Pell’s case and whether the justice system in Victoria had done its job.

This included the decision by police to advertise for, and encourage, complainants to come forward.

Mr O’Donohue said the decision to proceed with the investigation and lay char

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AUSTRALIA
Newsweekly (blog)

May 13, 2020

by Peter Westmore

Listen here to Peter Westmore in conversation with Australian Family Association national president Terri M. Kelleher on the release of the previously redacted parts of Cardinal George Pell’s answers to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Findings by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that Cardinal George Pell covered up allegations of child abuse in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s are totally unsupported by the evidence, and constitute an abuse of power by the Commission. They could more accurately be described as accusations.

Nevertheless, the ABC and other sections of the media that for years have been running a vendetta against Cardinal Pell and were clearly unhappy that his conviction for child sex abuse had been overturned in a unanimous judgement of the High Court of Australia, reported the sensational claims at great length.

In doing so, they further trashed the reputation of the first Australian church leader seriously to deal with the problem of child sexual abuse, and the first to set up a redress scheme for victims over 20 years before the Royal Commission recommended such a body.

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NEW YORK
Catholic News Agency

May 13, 2020

In addition to providing a legal window, The Child Victims Act also adjusted the statute of limitations for pursuing criminal charges and civil suits against sexual abusers or institutions.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has issued an executive order to extend for five months the legal window for victims of childhood sex abuse to file civil claims, due to court delays caused by the coronavirus epidemic.

Victims of sex abuse may now file by Jan. 14, 2021 instead of August 13 of this year. Cuomo said May 8 the extension is needed “because people need access to the courts to make their claim, because justice too long delayed is justice denied,” the New York Daily News reports.

On March 22 non-essential court filings were frozen as part of New York’s efforts to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The court system is preparing to allow new filings under the state’s Child Victims Act.

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YORK (PA)
York Daily Record

May 13, 2020

By Candy Woodall

— Pediatricians and child protection advocates say lawmakers need to take immediate action to stop the abuse and save lives.

— Anyone who suspects a child is being abused or neglected should contact ChildLine at 1-800-932-0313

Pennsylvania hospitals are treating more children with severe child abuse injuries, indicating the state’s most vulnerable kids are not safe at home during the coronavirus outbreak.

Several advocates and pediatricians who specialize in child abuse say they are seeing an increase in the number of abused children who need to be hospitalized.

And in perhaps the most grim outlook, a Penn State pediatrician says “the worst is yet to come.”

“We’re worried we’re at the beginning of an onslaught of cases,” said Dr. Lori Frasier, chief of the child abuse pediatrics division at Penn State Children’s Hospital.

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SAGINAW (MI)
Catholic News Agency via Catholic World Report

May 12, 2020

An employee of the Diocese of Saginaw, Michigan is suing the diocese, alleging that his fellow employees retaliated against him after he reported that a Saginaw priest sexually abused his son.

Gabriel Villarreal, who had worked as a maintenance man for the diocese for over two decades, in March filed a lawsuit against the diocese alleging that Father Robert DeLand had molested his son during February 2018, which Villarreal reported.

The lawsuit alleges that after Villarreal reported the abuse, diocesan employees began to harass him, referring to him as “the mole [spy,]” cutting his hours and benefits, and taking away his master key.

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SAGINAW (MI)
Church Militant

May 12, 2020

by Christine Niles

An employee of the diocese of Saginaw, Michigan is suing after suffering retaliation for blowing the whistle on sex abuse.

Gabriel Villarreal has worked maintenance for the diocese for 26 years. In February 2018, his teenaged son informed him that Fr. Robert DeLand tried to sexually assault him at St. Agnes parish, where DeLand was pastor at the time.

DeLand is currently serving prison time for sexually abusing another young male victim. He was convicted in Sept. 2018 and is serving up to 15 years for his crimes.

Villarreal immediately reported DeLand’s attempted sexual assault to the diocese, but suffered retaliation from his superiors, according to a lawsuit filed March 16 this year.

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SAGINAW (MI)
MLive.com

May 12, 2020

By Cole Waterman

A man who says his job with the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw was impacted after he reported a sex-abuse complaint against a priest has filed a lawsuit against the diocese.

In the suit, Gabriel Villarreal alleges he was retaliated against by the diocese and its agents for reporting a relative had been assaulted by the Rev. Robert J. DeLand. A jury acquitted DeLand of charges related to the relative, but DeLand was convicted of sexual assaulting a different person in a separate case.

Villarreal is a maintenance worker for the diocese.

Detroit attorney Jonathan R. Marko in March filed the suit in Saginaw County Circuit Court on behalf of Villarreal. The suit is seeking at least $25,000, plus interest, attorney fees, and exemplary damages.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Times

May 12, 2020

By Andrea Elliott

Sister Glose, who died from complications of the novel coronavirus, ran a nonprofit in Brooklyn and was a whistle-blower in a sex abuse scandal.

This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others here.

If you passed Georgianna Glose on the streets of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, you might have known her as that renegade nun, the one who left her convent to live among the poor and then blew a whistle on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

She was a sister with movie-star looks who roller-skated to work, having shed the nun’s habit in 1972 for the curler-coiffed hairdo then in vogue (a look she stubbornly kept).

But if you were homeless, you probably knew her as Dr. Glose, the nun with a doctorate who, until last month, ran a nonprofit on Myrtle Avenue. It was there, for 24 years, that the downtrodden found an anchor in a gentrifying neighborhood.

Mothers on welfare, fathers on parole, grandparents struggling to raise their children’s children — they all had a haven with Sister Glose, taking her computer literacy classes, joining her support groups, feasting on her Thanksgiving turkey.

“She was able to live in both worlds: the world of making a difference for individual families and the world of making policy changes,” said Steven Banks, the city’s commissioner of social services.

Sister Glose died on April 28 at Brooklyn Hospital Center from complications of the new coronavirus, said her sister, Kathrine Dawson. She was 73.

Authority neither impressed nor deterred her. “If someone was misbehaving, especially a man in a position of power, she would say calmly and completely accurately, ‘That man is a horse’s ass,’” said Teresa Theophano, a social worker who interned with Sister Glose at her nonprofit, Fort Greene Strategic Neighborhood Action Partnership.

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NASHVILLE (TN)
Fox17

May 11, 2020

By Rachel Tiede

For the first time, minors are making up half of the victims receiving help from the National Sexual Assault Hotline.

According to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), this is directly related to COVID-19.

The Sexual Assault Center in Nashville said it expects Middle Tennessee to see a similar trend. Right now, SAC said kids make up 35 percent of the population it serves.

Lorraine McGuire, the vice president of development and marketing at SAC, said there’s been fewer reports of sexual abuse. But she said that’s bad news.

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AUSTRALIA
Counterpunch

May 12, 2020

By Kenneth Good

In the long and still unfinished search for justice, two agencies have been outstanding. The Victorian Police performed dogged investigatory work, and the Royal Commission over five years compiled damning evidence. On 12 November 2012, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox called for the establishment of a Royal Commission. He was a 30-year veteran in Newcastle, and wrote an open letter to the NSW Premier: “I can testify from my own experience that the church covers-up, silencing victims, hinders police investigations, alerts offenders, destroys evidence and moves priests.” None of that stops at the Victorian border. “The whole system needs to be exposed; the clergy covering up these crimes must be brought to justice and the network protecting paedophile priests dismantled” (quoted in David Marr, The Prince). Backed by many Labour party backbenchers, and federal centrist politicians, PM Julia Gillard, the country’s first woman leader, moved to establish a Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Gillard faced constant misogynist attack from conservative figures, but did not flinch (Tony Abbott was ready to be photographed beside a huge poster, ‘Ditch the Bitch’). It was perhaps her ‘most lasting legacy’ (Louise Milligan, Cardinal). “It will change the nation”, Gillard claimed, as she left office.

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SILVER SPRING (MD)
Adventist Review

May 12, 2020

By Marcos Paseggi

Church region leaders work on developing protocols for supporting victims, dealing with perpetrators

Time and again, experts in sexual abuse remind us that one of the worst fears of victims is being ignored when seeking help. It is something, experts say, that can lead to extremely harmful and long-term health consequences.

In the context of church life and faith-based organizations, that breach of trust can be outright devastating.

Against this backdrop, leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church recently provided evidence that church regions (or divisions) are taking concrete steps to make sure church organizations and institutions will work unapologetically to prevent sexual abuse. At the same time, regional leaders pledged to keep working to craft detailed protocols to prevent or respond to any complaint of sexual abuse in the church.

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ROME (ITALY)
Catholic Herald

May 10, 2020

By Christopher Altieri

Conflicting claims have emerged over the way an investigation into a former auxiliary bishop in the US Archdiocese of Cincinnati was handled, casting further doubt over Church leaders’ commitment to the “responsibility, accountability, and transparency” supposed to be the watchwords of ecclesiastical efforts to combat abuse and coverup in the Francis era.

Pope Francis accepted Bishop Joseph Binzer’s resignation on Thursday, more than nine months after an investigation was opened into claims Binzer negligently handled allegations against a Cincinnati priest, of inappropriate behaviour with teenaged boys.

There are, in short, at least two different versions of how Church authorities handled the investigation. One version is from the Archbishop of Cincinnati, the other is from Rome. The two stories do not match.

The question the apparent discrepancy raises, is whether the Vatican used Pope Francis’s signature reform law, Vos estis lux mundi, designed to combat clerical abuse and especially abuse coverup, in order to investigate Bishop Binzer, on whose case the law seems tailor-made for use. For that reason, alone, question speaks directly to responsibility and accountability in hierarchical leadership culture.

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ABILENE (TX)
KTXS-TV

May 12, 2020

By Daniela Ibarra

Hours after former Abilene youth pastor Jeffrey Forrest was booked into the Taylor County Jail on Saturday, a mother who claims her son was assaulted by Forrest in the 90’s made the decision to come to Abilene.

“I don’t feel like the bars are big enough and the walls are tight enough for him,” said Patrice, who asked KTXS not to use her last name to protect her son.

Patrice said she felt compelled to make the four hour trip from Amarillo after learning the man she believes stole her son’s innocence was caught after a four year long manhunt.

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MARTINSVILE (VA)
WFXRtv.com

May 11, 2020

Father Mark White — a local priest who has been openly critical of the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church and was recently suspended — announced on his blog on Sunday that the locks were changed on two parishes and one residence to which he was assigned.

Back in February, Father White told reporters that he was ordered into silence by the Richmond Diocese Bishop Barry Knestout after he expressed criticism online of the church’s handling of sexual abuse cases.

However, by April, Father White announced the Richmond Diocese removed him as pastor from St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Rocky Mount and St. Joseph Parish in Martinsville. Father White’s parishioners stepped up to show their support for the priest amid his ongoing legal battle with the Richmond Diocese.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Newschain

May 11, 2020

Child sexual abuse is going widely unreported among the UK’s Heredi Jewish community because victims need the permission of a rabbi before they can go to the police, an inquiry has heard.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) heard that the insular nature of strict orthodox Jews mean that children do not have “the language or the resources” to access help.

Yehudis Goldsobel, founder of charity Migdal Emunah – which provides sexual abuse advice and education to all Jews, told Haredi rabbis tend to learn about child safeguarding “on the job”.

Ms Goldsobel told the inquiry victims are shunned for speaking out, while perpetrators can usually return to the heart of their communities even after serving a prison sentence.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
The Vindicator

May 12, 2020

By Bob Coupland and Guy Vogrin

A former Youngstown priest who had served at St. Edward Parish has been removed from a list of clergy members accused of sexual abuse.

The Catholic Diocese of Youngstown on Monday announced former Rev. William Smaltz was being removed from the list after further investigation and new information that allegations made earlier against him “are no longer deemed to be credible and substantiated.”

The former priest’s adult son, reached Monday night, said the alleged incident never happened, and the allegations have left his father distraught and under severe mental stress.

The diocese previously had compiled a list of names of clergy who were subject to credible allegations of sexual abuse against a minor. Smaltz’s name was first released as part of that list in October 2018.

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May 9, 2020

By Anne Barrett Doyle, Co-Director, BishopAccountability.org

A year ago, Pope Francis enacted new procedures for investigating bishops accused of abuse or of covering up clergy sex crimes.

Last Thursday, on May 7, one year to the day since Vos Estis Lux Mundi was promulgated, we learned of what appears to be its first removal of a complicit bishop.

A two-line announcement in the Vatican’s daily bulletin noted that the Pope had accepted the resignation of Bishop Joseph R. Binzer from the office of the auxiliary of the Cincinnati archdiocese. Lay Catholic media are reporting that Bishop Binzer was found guilty under Vos Estis, meaning that he was found guilty of intentionally interfering with or avoiding an investigation of an abusive cleric. We don’t know this for sure, however; neither the Pope nor his proxies have made any comment.

Some might point to Binzer’s resignation as a sign that Vos Estis is working. Seen differently, it reveals serious flaws in the Pope’s plan.

Despite repeatedly concealing allegations against a priest now slated to be tried for child rape, Binzer remains not only an archdiocesan priest, but a bishop, with the prestige and financial benefits that status entails.

Is this what passes for ‘accountability’ under the Pope’s new law? An opaque process, Vatican control, papal silence, and the softest of landings for an official who twice ignored allegations against a priest?

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
NOLA.com

May 11, 2020

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

In a clear sign that he’s concerned about the potential of being criminally prosecuted, a retired New Orleans priest who is accused in a lawsuit of sexually molesting “countless” children invoked his constitutional rights against self-incrimination shortly before his deposition.

Lawrence Hecker, through his attorney, served notice March 13 — during the early days of New Orleans’ coronavirus pandemic — that he would essentially exercise his right to remain silent “from this point forward” in a lawsuit filed against him and the Archdiocese of New Orleans in April 2019, according to court records.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Times

May 6, 2020

By Erica L. Green

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos released final regulations for schools dealing with sexual misconduct, giving them the force of law for the first time and bolstering due-process rights.

WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Wednesday issued final regulations on sexual misconduct in education, delivering colleges and schools firm new rules on how they must deal with one of the biggest issues that have roiled their campuses for decades.

The rules fulfill one of the Trump administration’s major policy goals for Title IX, the 48-year-old federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in programs that receive federal funding, bolstering due-process protections for accused students while relieving schools of some legal liabilities. But Ms. DeVos extended the reach of the law in other ways, establishing dating violence as a sexual misconduct category that must be addressed and mandating supportive measures for alleged victims of assault.

Title IX had become a flash point in recent years after sexual assault cases rocked high-profile universities like Stanford and Duke, and serial sex abuse by staff at the University of Southern California, Michigan State and Ohio State demonstrated how schools had failed to properly investigate complaints.

But enforcement of the law has also grown contentious, especially since the Obama administration issued guidance documents in 2011 and 2014 that advised schools to ramp up investigations of misconduct and warned that their failure to do so could bring serious consequences. Critics said schools felt pressured to side with accusers without extending sufficient rights to the accused. And dozens of students have won court cases against their colleges for violating their rights under the Obama-era rules.

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