ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

September 21, 2020

By Carol Glatz

Given the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors met online and, for those who could, in Rome for their plenary assembly Sept. 16-18.

“It was business as usual,” Jesuit Fr. Hans Zollner, a commission member, told Catholic News Service Sept. 18. The meetings, held twice a year, give the 17 members a chance to listen to each working group’s progress report and to lay the groundwork for future action.

Everyone was in attendance, he said, including U.S. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston, commission president, who took part online.

With members on each continent, Zollner added, the challenge was finding meeting times to accommodate people in vastly different time zones; that meant signing in after midnight for one member on the Polynesian archipelago of Tonga and being up before 6 a.m. for members in the Americas.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Bucks County Courier Times

September 18, 2020

By Christopher Dornblaser

A former pastor of a church in Horsham will spend the rest of his life in prison after being sentenced Thursday in federal court for sexually abusing an infant and a young girl under 10, according to federal authorities.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release that Jerry Zweitzig, 71, who was a pastor at Horsham Bible Church during the time of the abuse, was sentenced to 200 years in prison.

Zweitzig, of Hatboro, pleaded in May in the two cases involving the sexual abuse of children.

The former pastor filmed himself sexually exploiting a young girl over a period of years, according to the release. Additionally, authorities said Zweitzig had a collection of more than 10,000 images of child pornography on hard drives found in his home.

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NEW ZEALAND
The Spinoff

September 20, 2020

By Isaac Davison

Charges have been laid over historic offending at Dilworth, but former students say it could be just the beginning, writes the NZ Herald’s Isaac Davison in this Herald Premium article.

Two years ago, a former Dilworth School student approached the school with a warning.

The old boy – a victim of alleged abuse at Dilworth – told the school it should prepare for serious allegations to emerge, several sources told the Weekend Herald.

“They were basically told to get their house in order,” said one source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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NEW ZEALAND
Radio New Zealand

September 21, 2020

By Andrew McRae

An interim report from the Abuse in Care Royal Commission would accelerate help for victims, a lawyer representing abuse survivors says.

The commission, which resumes public hearings in Auckland today, is investigating abuse in state and faith-based care between 1950 and 1999.

In November 2019 the Royal Commission held contextual hearings which gave the background of concerns leading up to its establishment and what people hoped could be achieved.

Over the next two weeks it will hear evidence from survivors who have sought redress for abuse suffered in state care and from others who have dealt with government agencies on behalf of claimants.

The state redress public hearings were to have been held in April but were delayed because of the Covid-19 lockdown.

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CANADA
The Canadian Press

September 20, 2020

By Colin Perkel

Underlying fight relates to request by former St. Anne’s survivors to have cases reopened

A bitterly fought legal battle between survivors of a brutal residential school and the federal government is slated for an appeal hearing this week over whether the case should now be moved to British Columbia from Ontario.

The underlying fight relates to a request by three survivors of St. Anne’s in Fort Albany, Ont., to have their compensation cases reopened. They argue their claims were settled before Ottawa turned over thousands of relevant documents generated by a police investigation into child abuse at the school.

They also maintain the federal government is still in breach of disclosure orders made by a judge in 2014 and 2015.

The government wants the underlying case and appeal thrown out. It argues, among other things, that a 2006 agreement that ended a class action over abuse inflicted on Indigenous students forced to attend Indian residential schools bars claimants from having their compensation hearings reopened.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Times

By James B. Stewart and Michael Cooper

September 20, 2020

The terms of the settlement between the renowned conductor and the company he shaped have not been previously disclosed.

Last summer, Peter Gelb, the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, convened the executive committee of the company’s board to announce the end of one of the highest-profile, messiest feuds in the Met’s nearly 140-year history. A bitter court battle had concluded between the company and the conductor James Levine, who had shaped the Met’s artistic identity for more than four decades before his career was engulfed by allegations of sexual improprieties.

Mr. Gelb told the committee that the resolution was advantageous to the Met. But the settlement, whose terms have not been publicly disclosed until now, called for the company and its insurer to pay Mr. Levine $3.5 million, according to two people familiar with its terms.

The Met had fired Mr. Levine in 2018 after an internal investigation uncovered what the company called credible evidence of “sexually abusive and harassing conduct toward vulnerable artists in the early stages of their careers.” Rather than going quietly, Mr. Levine sued the company for breach of contract and defamation, seeking at least $5.8 million. The Met countersued, revealing lurid details of its investigation and claiming that Mr. Levine’s misconduct had violated his duties. It sought roughly the same amount.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
The Irish News

September 21, 2020

By Connla Young

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2020/09/21/news/victim-of-malachy-finegan-to-launch-legal-action-against-pope-and-catholic-authorities-in-ireland-2072636/

A victim of Malachy Finegan is to launch legal action against Pope Francis and Catholic Church authorities in Ireland.

The priest has been accused of sexual abuse across Co Down, including at St Colman’s College in Newry where he taught from 1967 and was president for a decade.

At least 12 young boys are thought to have been sexually abused while he was at St Colman’s, while many more were physically abused.

Finegan, who died in 2002, was also a parish priest of Clonduff in Hilltown in Co Down, where it is alleged he carried out further serious sexual abuse.

Concerns have also been raised that he may have been an RUC informer.

It emerged last year that the Public Prosecution Service had decided not to prosecute in eight cases following a police investigation linked to the activities of the former cleric.

The Irish News has now learned that one of his victims is to launch legal action against the Diocese of Dromore, the Archdiocese of Armagh, the Bishop of Rome and the Holy See, arising out of allegations of abuse.

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CANADA
Times of Malta

September 21, 2020

Toronto Archdiocese points out case does not involve ‘illegal behaviour’

A Gozitan priest has been removed from his parish in Canada over “inappropriate behaviour”, the Archdiocese of Toronto has confirmed.

Fr Joseph Grima, of Blessed Frederic Ozanam Parish in Markham, was found to have been involved in “boundary violation and behaviour inconsistent with the vows of a Catholic priest”.

No details have been divulged about his situation but the Toronto Archdiocese said he had not done anything illegal.

The decision was announced on August 22 but was only reported several weeks later.

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NEW ZEALAND
Stuff.co.nz

September 21, 2020

By Edward Gay

A survivor of child abuse in state care says he believes a housemaster who abused him was allowed to “quietly slip away” and reoffend.

Survivors are giving evidence to the Royal Commission of inquiry into abuse in care about their struggles to get redress.

Keith Wiffin was made a ward of the state at the age of 11, following the death of his father.

“My mother signed the document thinking that I’d be cared and nurtured for. The complete opposite happened,” he told the commission in Auckland on Monday.

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NIGERIA
Vanguard

September 20, 2020

A Catholic cleric, Rev. Fr. Kale Francis, has advised parents to always pay attention to their male children as most of them are being sexually abused by friends and relatives.

Francis, the Parish Priest at St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Nyanya, Abuja, gave the advice during the Holy Mass on Sunday when more than 180 candidates received their first holy communion. According to him, more attention is being focused on only female children without knowing that most male children suffer the same abuse.

“Most of our male children are being sexually assaulted by their neighbours, friends, and relatives which most times go unnoticed,” he said.

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VERMONT
VTdigger.com

September 20, 2020

By Anne Galloway

Sep 20 2020, 4:10 PM

Growing up on the family farm in North Walpole, New Hampshire, Carolyn Blake Bradshaw lived on candy, scavenged apples and sandwiches from teachers. She remembers the constant, gnawing hunger.

Her mother put her into foster care, and by the time she reached the age of 10, she had lived in five different homes. At one point, Bradshaw was sent to the Weeks School, a reform school for children in Vergennes, even though she doesn’t recall having done anything wrong, except to have been born into a family with no means.

It wasn’t until she was sent to the New England Kurn Hattin Homes for Children that she ate three square meals a day.

But it was also there at the residential girls school in Saxtons River that for the first time, Bradshaw says, she was routinely abused.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

September 19, 2020

By Christopher White

As U.S. Catholics await the release of the Vatican’s report on former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who was laicized by Pope Francis for serial sexual abuse, a new podcast chronicles the scourge of clergy abuse that has plagued the Catholic Church for more than seven decades.

“Crisis,” released on Sept. 9, is produced by The Catholic Project, an initiative of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Among the more than three dozen individuals interviewed for the series — which includes firsthand testimonials from abuse survivors, priests, bishops, lawyers and accountability advocates — is Tom Roberts, longtime editor for NCR.

Roberts recounts how NCR was the first news outlet to dare to report on clergy abuse in the Catholic press, dating back to the 1980s. Now, more than 30 years later, the 2018 revelations about McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington, D.C., and the release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report that chronicled seven decades of abuse of more than 1,000 victims at the hands of 300 priests ushered in a new wave of Catholics repulsed by decades of cover-up, says Roberts.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WRNO Radio, 99.5

September 18, 2020

A federal bankruptcy judge has set a March 1 deadline for alleged victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy to make claims against the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

On Thursday, Judge Meredith Grabill ruled that anyone alleging they were abused before the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 1 must come forward in the next five months or lose the right to seek money via the judicial system.

Church attorneys initially asked Grabill to set a September 29 bar date but the seven-member creditors’ committee, which includes six purported victims of clergy abuse, turned that date down.

The bar date comes as more than 60 clergymen in the Archdiocese of New Orleans have been faced with credible claims of child sexual molestation.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo Survivors Group

September 17, 2020

By Gary Astridge, Kevin Koscielniak, Chris Szuflita, Michael Whalen, and Angelo Ervolina,

We are the five founding members of the Buffalo Survivors Group, all Survivors of sexual abuse by the hands of clergy and religious in the Diocese of Buffalo, New York.

As you know, the Diocese of Buffalo has filed for bankruptcy because of the numerous lawsuits filed against them. This legal process has now become a battle between lawyers, the ones who will reap massive financial compensation.

As Survivors, we know that no matter what financial restitution we may receive, it will be miniscule in comparison to what is rightfully deserved. Because of our legal system, money is the compensation for lives ruined and we will never be made whole by this process. It appears that the root cause is not being properly addressed and corrected, and many perpetrators are essentially going unpunished.

From the time the apostolic administrator, Edward Scharfenberger, came to Buffalo, he stated on numerous occasions his willingness to meet with any Survivor and offered the opportunity to see the files of our offenders. To this date, even with our reaching out to him, he has never personally followed through to contact any of us, making his words as a representative of the Catholic Church ring hollow. As Survivors, we are forced to relive our past experiences of sexual
abuse and being ignored retraumatizes us.

For many of us, our souls were tom out as children and our worlds went dark. Ever since, we have been going through life as the walking dead. Do you have any idea what that is like, Your Holiness?

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WELLINGTON (NEW ZEALAND)
Radio New Zealand

September 20, 2020

By David Cohen

Opinion – Nearly three years have grumbled by since the government first signed off on the Abuse in Care Royal Commission. What on earth have they been up to?

Announcing the inquiry shortly after assuming her premiership, Jacinda Ardern said it would be a historic opportunity for the nation to “confront our history and make sure we don’t make the same mistakes again”.

A little noticed omission in the fine print appears to have been that rather a lot of this historical confrontation would take place behind closed doors.

At the same time, what relatively little has gone on in the public domain since the commission finally got going late last year hasn’t always enhanced its brief to quantify the abuse that took place in many of the old state-run institutions and their faith-based counterparts.

Defections. Bickering over terms of reference. Allegations of poor management. The surprise resignation of the inaugural chair, Sir Anand Satyanand, who stepped down from the role late last year for the chancellorship of the University of Waikato.

As might be expected for any initiative in which a number of advisors have had longer rap sheets than resumes, there has been the odd controversy over the commission’s choice of advisors.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Spectrum News

September 18, 2020

A group of clergy sexual abuse survivors is ready to take its mission directly to the Vatican.

The “Buffalo Survivors Group” just sent a letter to Pope Francis asking for a meeting to talk about the problem that’s plaguing the catholic church, in the Buffalo area, and around the world.

In the letter, the group says the diocese’s apostolic administrator, Bishop Edward Scharfenberger, has said he is willing to meet with any survivor of clergy sexual abuse and even offered to show survivors the files on offenders. However, the group says Scharfenberger has never followed through on any requests for meetings. It also says this forces survivors to relive their past experiences and re-traumatizes them.

The group says it hopes if the pope agrees to a meeting, it would cast a positive light on the church and give renewed hope to people who’ve suffered.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

September 18, 2020

By Dan Herbeck

The Buffalo Catholic Diocese will soon begin making decisions on consolidation plans for its current 161 parishes and 34 schools in Western New York, Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger told The Buffalo News on Thursday.

The first of those decisions could come “within months, if not weeks” after diocese officials reach out to Catholics throughout the diocese, the bishop said.

While not disclosing any specifics, Scharfenberger said some of the diocese’s churches and schools are likely to be consolidated to save money.

“I don’t want anyone to fear that specific churches have been earmarked, or that any decisions have been made already,” the bishop said. “But there will be some sacrifices. That is inevitable.

“Do three or four parishes that are right next to each other all have to have a 9 o’clock Mass every Sunday morning? It could be that, because of economic realities, some church buildings will have to be deactivated.”

The bishop added that he favors the “consolidation” of some parishes and schools, as opposed to “elimination.”

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SYDNEY (NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA)
ABC

September 19, 2020

By Emily Olson

Misty Griffin really wants you to know her story.

She has written a book. She’s collaborated with podcasts. She’s pitched to television producers, spoken with filmmakers and sent “more than 100 emails” to US journalists.

She has politely, quietly, diligently reached out to me at least 29 times since our first email, to see if and when I could publish this piece.

But it’s not just about telling her story. What Misty wants most of all is for you to never hear a story like hers again.

*
The trouble is, Misty’s story is not an easy one to tell.

For starters, the story begins in a slice of misunderstood space known as America’s Amish country.

The Amish are one of America’s most insular communities
The Amish, like most religions, associate piety with surrendering to a set of rules.

Unlike most religions, the rules are so at odds with modern ideals that the community is famously insular, even exempt from some US laws.

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SPRINGFIELD (MO)
Springfield News-Leader

September 16, 2020

By Gregory J. Holman

Two men from rural Seymour pleaded guilty last week to charges stemming from accusations that they had sex with a young female relative.

As part of a plea agreement, the two men, who are brothers from an Amish family, will not go to prison, according to online court records and reporting by the Webster County Citizen.

The brothers, 22-year-old Aaron C.M. Schwartz and 18-year-old Petie C.M. Schwartz, pleaded guilty to two felony counts of third-degree child molestation. Each received prison sentences totaling 15 years, which were suspended.

According to the local newspaper report published Wednesday morning, Webster County Prosecutor Ben Berkstresser said the victim — a minor who was in her very early teens when the crimes occurred — had a baby in recent weeks fathered by one of her assailants, who included two other unnamed brothers who are minors.

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FERNDALE (MI)
Church Militant

September 17, 2020

By Christine Niles

Fr. Lastiri stole $60,000, solicited sex on gay websites

Fresno, Calif. – A California bishop has quietly reinstated a priest with a decades-long track record of active homosexuality, which includes embezzling parish funds. Evidence also shows the priest may have possessed child porn.

Bishop Joseph Brennan of the Fresno diocese issued a letter Wednesday announcing he is reinstating Fr. Michael Lastiri: “After much prayer and reflection, I have restored faculties to Fr. Jean-Michael Lastiri for pastoral and priestly ministry here in the Diocese of Fresno effective today, September 16, 2020.”

The bishop clarified that his ministry will be limited only to assignments approved by the bishop and the local pastor, also hinting that all restrictions could eventually be lifted if Lastiri continues “to exhibit the same future conscientiousness and commitment to his overall wellbeing … .”

Lastiri has been a priest for more than 30 years, and was former director of worship for the diocese. Most of those years were spent as an active homosexual — including a relationship with a convicted pedophile in the 1990s.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

September 16, 2020

By Charlotte Graham-McLay

A seventh man has appeared in court over alleged offences going back decades at Dilworth school in Auckland

Wellington, New Zealand – Alleged sexual abuse at a boys’ boarding school in Auckland that reportedly spanned decades, has prompted the court appearance of a seventh man and generated more than 50 calls and emails to the police after officers appealed for more victims to come forward.

The allegations about the abuse of boys at Dilworth – a private school in an affluent area of New Zealand’s largest city – emerged at the same time as a long-running independent inquiry into abuse in state and faith-based care seeks to uncover how prevalent the problem has been in the country.

Police have identified 17 victims so far, and have charged men aged in their 60s and 70s with various sexual offences and the supply of drugs, over abuse that they say happened between the 1970s and the early 2000s.

Police said in a statement a 60-year-old man, who had previously been connected to the school, appeared in court in Auckland on Tuesday charged in relation to sexual violation, attempted sexual violation, indecency and indecent assault. It followed the court appearances of six other men a day earlier.

All have name suppression. The initial complaint about the alleged abuse was made in 2019, said Detective Senior Sergeant Geoff Baber, in a statement.

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TORONTO (ONTARIO, CANADA)
CTV News

September 15, 2020

By Omar Sachedina and Ben Cousins

[Includes video interviews with Sylvestre survivors Irene Deschenes and Joanne Morrison.]

A woman who was sexually abused by a priest as a child has taken her decades-long legal fight with the Roman Catholic Church to its front steps as she urges the London, Ont. diocese to drop its Supreme Court appeal against her.

Irene Deschenes was abused by Father Charles Sylvestre for two agonizing years that began when she was just 10 years old, at St. Ursula Catholic School in Chatham, Ont.

Deschenes said Sylvestre was friendly at first, taking her and other children for bowling outings and to the beach, but things turned sinister quickly.

“I remember a nice, caring man that was friendly, funny,” Deschenes told CTV News. “Now in hindsight, I see that was all grooming.”

In 2006 and decades after the abuse, Sylvestre pleaded guilty to sexually abusing 47 children in parishes across southern Ontario. He died in prison a year later.

Deschenes settled with the church for $66,000 after lawyer’s fees, but later found out the church knew about allegations concerning Sylvestre’s conduct for almost a decade prior to Deschenes’ abuse, without divulging this information to her.

Police reports dating back to 1962 had alleged that Sylvestre assaulted three young girls. The documents show the young girls — one of them 11 years old — alleged Sylvestre touched them inappropriately and exposed himself to them.

As a result, Deschenes is trying to reopen her case.

“Their failure to act on the statements back then is what allowed Irene to be abused in the first place,” said Deschenes’ lawyer Loretta Merritt.

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MUMBAI (INDIA)
Times of India

September 20, 2020

Coimbatore – A 60-year-old temple priest was detained on Saturday for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl near Periyanaickenpalayam in the west zone police limits, from where 296 cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012 have been reported until September 17 this year.

According to a police officer, the girl, a Class XII student of a private school, was alone at her house on Friday evening when the priest visited her residence and sexually assaulted her. “As he was leaving the minor girl’s house, her younger brother, who had gone out to play with friends, noticed him and altered his father. The girl’s parents later inquired with her and she revealed them what happened,” the officer said.

The girl’s father subsequently lodged a complaint against the priest with the Periyanaickenpalayam police on Saturday.

A team of police picked up the priest for interrogation on the day. He was later booked under various sections of Pocso Act. Further investigation is on.

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PARKERSBURG (WV)
Parkersburg News and Sentinel

September 18, 2020

By Tyler Bennett

In a lawsuit filed in Wood County, the former principal at Parkersburg Catholic High School is claiming he was wrongfully terminated for reporting complaints against a priest to the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and for firing the football coach.

John Golebiewski, represented by The Employment Law Center in Parkersburg, is suing the Diocese for wrongful termination earlier this year. The lawsuit claims he was terminated after reporting complaints of inappropriate contact to the Diocese involving Parkersburg Catholic High School Chaplain Father John Rice and for firing head football coach Lance Binegar.

“(Golebiewski’s) attempts to report wrongdoing by his subordinates to defendant Diocese was the substantial and motivating factor for defendant’s decision to place (Golebiewski) on leave and ultimately defendant’s refusal to renew his contract,” the lawsuit said. “Defendants worked together to place plaintiff on leave and to breach plaintiff’s employment contract in retaliation for his proper reports of wrongdoing toward the children under his care.

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WESTMINSTER (MD)
Carroll County Times

September 18, 2020

By Frank Batavick

I am a child of the 1960s. I was a high school freshman when the new decade clicked over. I remember Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” that created a common soundtrack for a rising youth culture and popularized dance crazes and hair fashions.

In high school at Friday night dances I twisted and strolled, Bristol Stomped, and dreamily swayed to “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley and “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers.

*

I graduated from college in 1967 and in the blink of an eye found myself in olive drab at Ft. Dix, New Jersey, shorn of my Beatles haircut and clutching orders for Vietnam. The Army canceled these when Martin Luther King was assassinated, and the cities erupted in rage and fire. I was put on riot control in Washington, D.C.

*

In a 2011 investigation commissioned by Catholic bishops, they blamed sexual abuse by priests on the 1960s and ’70s because of the era’s “drug use and crime, as well as social changes, such as an increase in premarital sex and divorce.” I’m not buying it.

I am a coreligionist of Barr’s and a proud product of 16 years of Catholic education but blaming the ’60s for all of today’s ills is misguided. I’d wager the clergy’s sexual abuse has been going on since the fourth century monastery movement, if not before. The urges and impulses of human nature have not changed over the millennia, and abuse thrives in closed, protected societies. In January we learned of patterns of abuse in the Amish community, following an exposé in “Cosmopolitan.”

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WEST PALM BEACH (FL)
WPTV

September 17, 2020

By Peter Burke

[Includes copy of the lawsuit.]

School administration favored alleged abuser over 11-year-old girl because of family’s donor status, suit says

A lawsuit has been filed against All Saints Catholic School and the Diocese of Palm Beach, alleging that the school failed to protect an 11-year-old girl from repeated sexual abuse by another student in an unsupervised classroom on campus.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Palm Beach County circuit court, also names principal Jill Broz, claiming that she not only failed to protect the student, but engaged in a campaign of victim shaming that caused the child severe emotional distress.

According to the lawsuit, the girl “was subjected to sexual abuse on multiple occasions in a classroom at All Saints Catholic School” that took place “when classes were left unattended by the teacher assigned to the classroom and while no other adults were present to monitor for, intervene in and dissuade such abuse from occurring.”

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PALM BEACH (FL)
Palm Beach Post

September 17, 2020

By Jane Musgrave

Attorney sues Diocese of Palm Beach and All Saints Catholic School in Jupiter over alleged abuse against 11-year-old girl.

An attorney who is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse and now represents other victims is accusing the Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach and a school in Jupiter of protecting the son of wealthy donors from molestation allegations.

In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, attorney Michael Dolce said the principal of All Saints Catholic School punished an 11-year-old girl — who claimed a classmate fondled her — instead of investigating her allegations.

Principal Jill Broz was “motivated out of a desire to extend undue favor to the Abusive Peer because his parents are long-time and repeated substantial financial donors to the school itself and several charities connected to the Diocese of Palm Beach,” Dolce wrote in the lawsuit.

The girl’s allegations, which prompted a Jupiter police investigation, were never addressed by Broz or others at the small K-8 school on Indian Creek Parkway, Dolce said.

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PARIS (FRANCE)
La Croix

September 18, 2020

By Robert Mickens

[See also the CDF document.]

Irish Redemptorist Tony Flannery says he’s been given the change to recant

Vatican City – One of world’s most influential cardinals recently admitted that he is “open” to the idea of ordaining women to the Catholic priesthood.

“I am not saying that women have to become priests; I just don’t know. But I’m open to it,” said Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich SJ in an interview published September 13 on the website of KNA, the German Catholic news agency.

Hollerich is a high-profile cardinal with international stature due to his position as president of the Commission of the Episcopal Conferences of the European Union (COMECE). He’s also archbishop of his native Luxembourg.

So his views matter.

But just a few days after he commented on women priests, Tony Flannery – the Irish Redemptorist who was suspended from priestly ministry in 2012, primarily for his support of women’s ordination – revealed that the Vatican had sent him a series of doctrinal proposals in July (via his superior general) to which he would have to “submit” as a first step towards “a gradual readmission” to public ministry.

One wonders if the men at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) are going to press Pope Francis to have Cardinal Hollerich recant and force him to sign a fidelity oath similar to the one placed before Father Flannery.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service/USCCB via Crux

September 18, 2020

By Michael Kelly

Dublin – A well-known Irish priest who has been in a dispute with the Vatican for several years over his controversial views has rejected a plan from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that would have restored him to public ministry.

Redemptorist Father Tony Flannery has been forbidden to exercise public ministry since 2012 after he was censured for saying that he no longer believed that “the priesthood as we currently have it in the Church originated with Jesus” or that he designated “a special group of his followers as priests.”

Flannery said he believes his priestly ministry has ended.

The priest revealed on his website Sept. 16 that he had been asked by the Vatican in July to affirm church teaching on a number of areas, including the inadmissibility of women for ordination, homosexuality, same-sex relationships and gender theory.

He said he refused.

Flannery’s announcement came after an intervention by Redemptorist Superior General Father Michael Brehl, who wrote to the doctrinal congregation in February asking if he could permit Flannery, 73, to return to public ministry.

According to documents published on Flannery’s website, the Vatican congregation responded that he “should not return to public ministry prior to submitting a signed statement regarding his positions on homosexuality, civil unions between persons of the same sex, and the admission of women to the priesthood.”

The letter from the Vatican said that “the Irish Provincial should ask Father Flannery to give his assent to the statement by providing his signature in each of the places indicated (enclosure).” The letter referred to separate statements asserting church teaching in each relevant area with space for Flannery to sign his name.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW

September 18, 2020

By: Eileen Buckley

“I’m ready to be ordained a priest,” declared Chris Emminger, deacon.

Deacon Emminger of the Town of Tonawanda and Deacon Denning Achidi of Cameroon in Central Africa will be ordained into the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, Saturday.

Bishop Edward Scharfenberger, Apostolic Administrator the Diocese of Buffalo, will preside over the service, conferring the holy orders of the priesthood upon the two deacons at 9:30 a.m. at St. Joseph Cathedral in downtown Buffalo.
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The number of priests in America is on the decline. In fact, one in six Catholic priests now come from other countries.

In the Buffalo Diocese, eight priests were ordained in 2019. Only two will be ordained in Buffalo Saturday.

*
I asked Emminger, with all the adversity against the catholic church from the sex abuse scandal — why he would still want to be a priest?

“During my seven years of formation I kept having to answer that question — why do I want to be a priest? — Essentially the answer has always stayed the same — because I love the church. I’ve had wonderful priest in my life,” answered Emminger. “Why do I want to be a priest? I think our culture and our society needs to know the love of God in their life and I hope to be that vehicle for them.”

Emminger says he will try to overcome the troubles in the Catholic Church by working to help build relationships and listening to others.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service/USCCB via Crux

September 18, 2020

Cologne, Germany – Cologne Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki warned that the Synodal Path reform project could lead to a “German national church.”

“The worst outcome would be if the Synodal Path leads to a schism … with the universal church,” Woelki told Germany’s Catholic News Agency, KNA. “That would be the worst thing if something like a German national church were to be created here.”

KNA reported that Woelki also praised the most recent discussions within the Synodal Path, held in five regional conferences due to the coronavirus pandemic. Smaller groups of participants permitted a better exchange of arguments than would have been possible in the originally planned Synodal Assembly, Woelki said.

The Catholic Church in Germany launched the Synodal Path in 2019. Scheduled to run for two years, it is debating the issues of power, sexual morality, priestly existence and the role of women in the church. The aim is to restore trust lost in the clergy abuse scandal.

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PARKERSBURG (WV)
Associated Press via San Francisco Chronicle

September 18, 2020

A former principal at a West Virginia Catholic high school has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against a diocese, alleging he was let go for reporting complaints of inappropriate contact involving a priest and for firing a football coach.

Former Parkersburg Catholic High School administrator John Golebiewski recently filed the lawsuit against the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in Wood County, the Parkersburg News and Sentinel reported Friday.

The lawsuit alleged that the diocese placed Golebiewski on leave and breached his employment contract “in retaliation for his proper reports of wrongdoing toward the children under his care,” and to prevent an investigation into allegations of child abuse.

Golebiewski filed three misconduct reports with the diocese alleging Father John Rice inappropriately touched students over a yearlong period, beginning in 2018, according to the lawsuit.

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PASIG CITY (MANILA, PHILIPPINES)
The Rappler

September 18, 2020

By Vicente Rafael

‘Duterte’s obscenities feel subversive, but subversion in this context is in the service of an autocratic end, where laughter produces an intimacy between ruler and ruled’

Perhaps the most revealing instance of Duterte’s power of storytelling consists of his tale of being sexually abused at the age of 14 by an American Jesuit priest during confession. He often returns to this story as a way of casting aspersions at the Catholic Church that had been critical of his human rights abuses. Folded into this story, however, is another: his sexual abuse of their household help (which he later confesses was fabricated).

Here what we see is a double confession — Duterte to the priest and to the audience — and a double assault: the priest’s on Duterte and Duterte’s on the maid. The two acts of violation turn out to be intimately related whereby the priest’s assault of Duterte becomes a means for the latter’s domination of his audience. He has frequently told these stories on various occasions, usually in a mix of Taglish, Bisaya, and English. Below is my translation of a composite version:

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PINELLAS PARK (FL)
Legal Examiner – Saunders and Walker Attorney Blog

September 17, 2020

By Joseph H. Saunders

Chief Judge Carl L. Bucki of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of New York ruled Friday that the bar date for abuse victims to submit claims should be the same day that the extended Child Victims Act expires – Aug. 14, 2021.

In making the ruling, Judge Bucki took into consideration the fluid situation involving sexual abuse claims against the beleaguered Diocese. No one knows how many claims will eventually be filed against the Diocese of Buffalo. What is known is that it takes survivors a period of time to make the decision to come forward and file a claim after having suffered in silence for years and sometimes decades.

Bucki also ruled against a request by the diocese to push the bankruptcy proceedings into mediated settlement talks.

Bucki said in his written ruling that such negotiations among the diocese, its insurers and its creditors would be premature because the diocese doesn’t know the full nature and extent of the abuse claims being brought against it and has yet to fully investigate and document historical insurance policies that were in place and might provide coverage on the claims.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

September 17, 2020

By Nicole Hong and Benjamin Weiser

Prosecutors are relying on a theory that Ghislaine Maxwell slowly broke down the resistance of teenage girls to sexual abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein.

Annie Farmer was 16 years old when she arrived at Jeffrey Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico in 1996 to attend a program for high school students, only to learn that she was the sole participant.

There she met Mr. Epstein’s companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, who seemed friendly and asked about her classmates and her family. Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein took her shopping and lavished her with gifts, like beauty products and new cowboy boots, according to a lawsuit Ms. Farmer filed last year.

The seemingly innocuous behavior was in fact part of a process to “groom” Ms. Farmer for sexual activity, the authorities now say. Ms. Maxwell began pressuring Ms. Farmer to give Mr. Epstein a foot massage, according to the lawsuit, and the encounters escalated — until Ms. Farmer says she eventually woke up one day to find Mr. Epstein entering her room, climbing into her bed and pressing his body against hers.

Now, with Ms. Maxwell facing allegations that she helped Mr. Epstein recruit and ultimately abuse girls as young as 14, the concept of grooming is at the heart of the criminal case against her. References to grooming appear nine times in the 18-page indictment against Ms. Maxwell.

Grooming has long been part of cases involving underage victims, but the concept has become increasingly important in the #MeToo era, as prosecutors have become more willing to file sex-crime charges in cases where people are coerced into sexual relationships without physical force.

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

September 15, 2020

By James Borkowski

Two years ago, I received a forwarded voicemail from a local priest. The message had been left by a man who was extremely angry about clergy abuse and the apparent cover-up by the Church around the world. Since the man left no contact info, there was not much we could do.

A week later, one of our priests forwarded a similar message, but this one contained helpful information and an opportunity. The caller mentioned that two of his classmates from a local all-boys high school had committed suicide as a result of abuse.

The high school he referred to was my old school, and in this message the caller left a phone number. I called him back.

He immediately told me that either I was a pedophile or was covering for them. I offered a third option, detailing the work we have been doing in the archdiocese to bring about necessary change in the local Church. We worked through a fairly tense exchange and, to his credit, he agreed to meet in person to continue the discussion.

On a late afternoon at a local pub, we tentatively walked up to each other and took in the reality of how strange it was for each of us to meet someone with disparate views. We were each concerned that the other might have ulterior motives. We were also both convinced that the other would have no interest in thoughtful conversation and an openness to ideas. Thankfully, we were both wrong.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WWL 4 CBS

September 17, 2020

By David Hammer

Non-abuse claimants, such as vendors that have business with the archdiocese, have until Nov. 30, 2020, to file their claims.

A federal bankruptcy judge set a deadline of March 1, 2021, for victims of sex abuse by Catholic clergy to file compensation claims against the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

The deadline, known as a “bar date,” comes 10 months after the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 1. A bar date is a standard part of any bankruptcy, but setting this one has been controversial and contentious.

Federal Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill ended a 5-hour marathon court hearing held via teleconference Thursday by setting the March 1 bar date, saying she decided to “split the baby” between the Jan. 29 and March 31 deadlines requested by the archdiocese and a the creditors, respectively.

Non-abuse claimants, such as vendors that have business with the archdiocese, have until Nov. 30, 2020, to file their claims.

The church and its creditors have argued angrily about setting a bar date for months. The archdiocese says it has every interest in paying all legitimate claims, but creditors claim the church can’t be trusted. They say the Archdiocese of New Orleans has plenty of money and filed for bankruptcy in “bad faith” to keep further evidence of abuse from coming out in court.

The archdiocese had about three dozen sex abuse cases moved from state to federal court so they would be stopped pending the bankruptcy. That meant Archbishop Greg Aymond didn’t have to testify under oath in a deposition that was already scheduled for later in May.

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LOWELL (MA)
The Lowell Sun

September 18, 2020

By Cliff Clark
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Nearly two decades after the disclosure of widespread sexual abuse by priests in the Archdiocese of Boston that exposed a long history of that reprehensible behavior, victims of those unspeakable acts are still receiving some measure of closure and compensation.

Earlier this week, the Boston Herald reported the latest settlements of child sexual-abuse claims against three former Massachusetts priests.

Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who’s successfully represented many of these sex-abuse victims over the years, said a settlement was reached with the Archdiocese of Boston earlier this year in cases involving former priests Sylvio Ruest, John Salvucci and. T. Raymond Sullivan.

Decades ago they were assigned to churches in Bellingham, Billerica and Dracut, respectively.

*
And no amount of money — relatively modest sums in these cases — can heal the emotional scars these victims have been forced to endure throughout their entire lives.

Thankfully for these and other victims, they’ve had a champion in Mitch Garabedian. The Methuen native has seemingly dedicated his legal career to rooting out these sexual predators and making the organization that previously enabled this behavior to pay for their depraved acts.

Though these cases pale to the notoriety given his efforts to help imprison high-profile pedophile priests like Paul Shanley and John Geoghan for their despicable acts, we should all be thankful that Garabedian still brings that same sense of righteous outrage to every sexual-abuse case he takes.

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EVANSVILLE (IN)
Courier & Press

September 18, 2020

By Jon Webb

Even back then, the details were hazy.

On Sept. 10, 2018, the Diocese of Evansville issued a statement saying it was putting Father David Fleck on leave after he was accused of sexual misconduct.

Scraps of information emerged over the next few weeks.

A public records request from The Vincennes Sun-Commercial and 14 News unearthed a letter the diocese wrote to Knox County prosecutors saying Fleck had been accused of “soliciting” two males while teaching at Vincennes Rivet High School in the 1980s. A third was allegedly solicited in a separate incident. According to the letter, the accuser wasn’t one of the purported victims.

That’s still all we know.

This month marks two years since the accusations became public. The diocese has released no further details, no criminal charges have been filed and Fleck remains barred from public ministry. The diocese’s directory says he’s on “administrative leave.”

Fleck has denied the charges against him. The 71-year-old worked in several positions throughout the diocese, including at Mater Dei High School.

As it does with any sexual misconduct accusation against clergy, the church reported the allegation to civil authorities and launched an internal investigation through its Diocesan Review Board – a group of priests, diocese employees and volunteers who sometimes hire private investigators to carry out investigations.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

September 17, 2020

By Christopher Knaus

Exclusive: Brother Geoffrey ‘Coman’ Sykes’ name will be removed from a school building and scholarship program after campaigners say ‘he is not a role model’

A group of prominent Catholic schools are expected to remove the name of a brother accused of sexual abuse from a school building and scholarship program after campaigners warned he was “clearly not someone who should be honoured”.

The two Sydney Marist schools say they were never told of the allegations against Brother Geoffrey “Coman” Sykes, despite the Marist Brothers Catholic order having substantiated a complaint against him three years earlier.

Sykes worked at Marist schools across New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, including Parramatta Marist and Marist College Canberra, for decades and was honoured by senior colleagues as an “amazing man and a wonderful Marist” after his death in 2013.

A new book by investigative journalist Suzanne Smith contains allegations that Sykes abused Glen Walsh, an aspiring brother. It says the abuse occurred on an almost nightly basis at a retreat in the NSW southern highlands. When Walsh was 18, he was allegedly abused more than 100 times.

Walsh left the order, became a parish priest, and made allegations about Sykes to Marist in 1997, which the order found to be unsubstantiated.

In 2017, Marist Brothers conducted a review of its initial investigation. Marist says the review found Walsh’s allegations against Sykes were substantiated.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Religion News Service

September 16, 2020

By Claire Giangravé

Catania, Italy – The sexual abuse trial of Piero Alfio Capuana, the lay leader of the 5,000-member Catholic Culture and Environment Association, began in this small Sicilian city on Tuesday (Sept. 15), three years after the abuse allegedly took place.

Capuana, 75, known as “the Archangel” by acolytes, is accused of delegating his associates to select and organize his targets, some as young as 11 years old. The alleged victims told Religion News Service that they would be called to a back room at the Cenacle, as the association’s headquarters is known, after ceremonies in which Capuana would purportedly speak on behalf of the Holy Spirit. Behind closed doors, the young girls said, they would be instructed to bathe him and perform sexual acts.

Three of his closest associates, known as the “12 Disciples,” are also charged, accused of organizing and facilitating the abuse.

Even after accusations that their leader was sexually abusing girls first emerged, few members believed them. When parents watched Capuana kiss their underage daughters on the lips or request solo dances with them, most were not concerned.

Members of the association, still loyal to Capuana, hissed and smirked at the accusers and their families in the courtroom. The large structure, made in the austere style of the fascist dictator Mussolini, dwarfed the small frames of the girls, but even behind their masks their eyes spoke determination. Above the entrance to the courtroom a relief of King Solomon peers down at passersby, his sword drawn to spill the blood of the innocent before the two competing mothers of the famous story.

“The law is the same for everyone” is written in large letters behind the judges, while a black cross looms over the attendants.

While the trial is taking place in Catania, a small city under the shadow of the volcano Etna, it has highlighted the Catholic Church’s lack of oversight over lay Catholic movements, particularly the actions of their often charismatic leaders.

Founded 50 years ago by the Rev. Stefano Cavalli, a “spiritual son” of the revered Franciscan friar and saint Padre Pio, the association was little regulated by the local Diocese of Acireale. For years, according to the government’s detention order against Capuana, Acireale’s bishops dismissed accusations of abuse and attended ceremonies and events at the Cenacle, a word that in church circles refers to the room where Jesus and his Apostles met for the Last Supper.

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COLUMBIA (SC)
The State

September 16, 2020

Bu Noah Feit

A Catholic priest who formerly worked in Columbia was cleared to return to the ministry after charges of sexual abuse involving a minor were dropped.

Prosecutors dropped all criminal charges against Father Javier Heredia in February, according to Maria Aselage, spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston. York County court records show the charge, criminal sexual conduct with minor — commit/attempt lewd act, was disposed on Feb. 3.

In September, the diocese’s Sexual Abuse Advisory Board concluded the allegation against the priest was not credible, Aselage said in a news release issued earlier this month.

The board said the accusation against Heredia was unfounded based on information from the criminal investigation, as well as the results of a second investigation by outside private investigators, according to the release.

Now Heredia is awaiting his new assignment with the diocese.

“We welcome Father Heredia back to ministry,” the diocese said in a statement, reported by the Catholic Miscellany.

In July 2018, Heredia was arrested after he was accused of inappropriate contact outside the clothing of a girl while in a public wave pool, according to the release. The child was under 16 years old, court records show.

The church did not disclose the girl’s age, specify where the incident took place or say whether it took place during a church function.

Heredia adamantly denied the accusation, according to the release.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Springfield Republican via Mass Live

September 16, 2020

By Anne-Gerard Flynn

Boston – Mitchell Garabedian, whose law firm has obtained countless clergy sexual abuse settlements or arbitration awards on behalf of clients, has made public the names of three priests contained in a recent settlement with the Archdiocese of Boston.

The three names were posted on the firm’s website.

“Survivors want me to post the names of their perpetrators as part of the healing process,” said Garabedian in reference to the list he posts related to monetary awards in which the accused may maintain their innocence as such compensation is not an admission of guilt.

Survivors and their advocates have long called for more transparency and comprehensive from the church on clergy accused of sexual abuse, with some law firms publishing lists of accused clergy related to settlements. Some dioceses publish some data when allegations are found credible. In Massachusetts, Worcester and Fall River have no such listing, while Springfield and Boston do.

The Boston archdiocese does list the names of priests who have been sentenced or sanctioned on such charges either as the result of criminal or church proceedings, as well as those living archdiocesan clergy with such publicized cases not yet resolved.

It does not list deceased clergy who have not been publicly accused and had no church proceedings conducted or completed on sexual allegations against them even when the archdiocese gives compensation in a case involving such allegations made after their death.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

September 15, 2020

By Christa Pongratz-Lippitt

The Bavarian diocese of Eichstätt is trying to find out whether “certain homosexual activities” that allegedly took place in the Vatican between 2000 and 2006 were criminal, according to a report in the German Tagespost newspaper.

Entitled Abuse Scandal in the Apostolic Palace? the article states that a secular investigation in Ingolstadt has been examining the case for one and a half years, but a legal procedure has not yet been opened.

The first hearing of a canonical investigation began in Eichstätt on Monday 7 September according to the Tagespost. It concerns allegations made in February 2019 against a priest and prelate of the Eichstätt diocese who was then in a senior position in the Vatican Secretariat of State. The allegations were made by a subordinate priest in the same section of the Secretariat accusing the current Eichstätt priest, who was then his supervisor in Rome, of coercing him to have sex in the Apostolic Palace.

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TORONTO (ONTARIO, CANADA)
CTV News

September 15, 2020

By Bryan Bicknell

London, Ont. – Those taking part in a vigil outside St. Peter’s Basilica in downtown London on Tuesday called on the Catholic Diocese of London to drop its appeal in a decades-long legal battle with a sexual abuse survivor.

“The way that the church is treating me now through litigation is so traumatizing, and it’s much more traumatizing than the actual abuse,” said sexual abuse survivor Irene Deschenes.

Deschenes reached a settlement in 2000 for sexual abuse she suffered as a child in the early 1970s at the hands of the late Father Charles Sylvestre.

Information later came to light that the diocese had received police statements in 1962, alleging the priest had assaulted three girls.

Ontario’s highest court then granted Deschenes the right to sue the church a second time.

“When we settled, they told us they didn’t know about Sylvestre’s proclivities,” said Deschenes. “I had a gut feeling that they must have known because he had been doing it for a long time. But based on that information I did settle with the Catholic church.”

Those taking part in the vigil each took a turn standing in silence for one hour at the walkway to the church. It was a quiet appeal to the church to do what they believe is the right thing.

The action got the attention of passerby Dan Warren, who said the church needs to stop fighting victims of sexual abuse.

“If somebody is protesting a church, like that kind of says something – that something is wrong. And I’m not saying the people in this church specifically. But still, they should take a stand against the people above them. That’s what the problem has always been with them.”

The diocese declined a request from CTV News to comment on the vigil.

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JAKARTA (INDONESIA)
Jakarta Post

September 16, 2020

By Margareth S. Aritonang

The Philippines-based Catholic religious order the Blessed Sacrament Missionaries of Charity (BSMC) was largely unknown to the Indonesian public until one of its members, Lukas Lucky Ngalngola, calling himself Brother Angelo and later Geovanny, put the congregation on the map, and for all the wrong reasons.

Angelo allegedly abused orphanage boys under his care, sexually and physically. While the abuse against the boys who lived at the Kencana Bejana Rohani orphanage that Angelo set up in 2015 in Depok, West Java, was reported to the police in September last year, the crime was revealed to the public only very recently after victims and child protection activists spoke out in the media.

Collective efforts coordinated by the state-sponsored Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) are being made to prosecute Angelo after a lack of action taken against him brought state institutions in charge of child protection, including the KPAI, as well as the Catholic Church, into the spotlight. He was arrested by the Depok Police in September 2019 but was released three months later as the police failed to complete the dossiers for the prosecutor’s office to bring the case to court.

The Catholic Church, in this particular case Bogor Diocese, had washed its hands of the case, reiterating to the public that Angelo was not a Catholic brother. The diocese holds a letter dated Sept. 19, 2019 to be the basis of their claim. The letter said the BSMC was not a Catholic order and that Angelo should not wear a robe. But Angelo continues to wear the brown robe of a brother and along with other brothers from the BSMC, set up another orphanage after he walked free in December. He has continued these activities without any hindrance, collecting money from individual Catholic donors while Bogor Diocese has turned a blind eye.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

September 16, 2020

By Madeleine Davison

James Holzhauer-Chuckas is the senior director of the United Catholic Youth Ministries at four parishes in Evanston, Illinois, and a Benedictine oblate who once thought of becoming a priest. He’s a proud Catholic — the last one “standing” in his family, he told NCR, after his parents and siblings left the church amid the clergy sex abuse crisis and disagreements with the church’s stance on LGBTQ rights.

He’s also a bit of a statistical anomaly — a child of unaffiliated parents who identifies as Catholic. Among today’s teenagers, the trend usually goes in the other direction, according to new research.

A Pew Research Center study released Sept. 10 suggests that most American teens share religious identities and faith practices with their parents, but that teenagers are much less likely than their parents to say religion is very important to them.

For instance, nearly half of all teens say they hold all the same religious beliefs as their parents, and most have gone to religious services with at least one parent. But while 43% of parents said religion is “very important” to them, just 24% of teens said the same.

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KELOWNA (BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA)
Castanet

September 16, 2020

By Tereza Verenca

Vernon brothers sexually abused by priest reach settlement with Diocese of Kamloops

An out-of-court settlement has been reached between the Diocese of Kamloops and two Vernon brothers who were sexually abused as teens by a Catholic priest.

The siblings launched separate lawsuits last year. In their notice of civil claims, they allege the now-deceased Father Herbert Bourne carried out the abuse at St. James parish in Vernon in the late 1970s. The court documents, which name Bourne and the Roman Catholic Bishop of the Diocese of Kamloops, a corporate sole as defendants, say the abuse happened at the church, in Bourne’s vehicle and at the boys’ family home.

“Bourne committed such tortious act on the plaintiff when he wrongfully and intentionally sexually, emotionally and mentally abused and traumatized the plaintiff,” the notice of civil claim states.

The brothers endured feelings of shame, low self-esteem, an impaired ability to be intimate, PTSD, depression and anxiety as a result, court documents show.

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DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

September 16, 2020

By Perry West

A new podcast launched this month out of The Catholic University of America seeks to help laity and clergy better understand and address the problem of abuse within the Church.

The podcast, “Crisis: Clergy Abuse in the Catholic Church,” is produced by The Catholic Project, an initiative at CUA aimed at bringing healing and reform to the Church after the sex abuse crisis.

The first of 10 episodes was released September 9. Future episodes will be released weekly.

The podcast is hosted by Karna Lozoya, executive director of strategic communications at CUA, and Stephen White, the director of the Catholic Project. The hosts described the effort as a collaboration between clergy and laity to build up and renew the Church.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

September 16, 2020

By Peter Feuerherd

The accuser prefers the traditional Tridentine rite Latin Mass. That way she only sees the celebrant from the back and can pray in peace, she told NCR.

“That’s real separation; it doesn’t feel like the priest interacts with you,” she said.

A few thousand miles away in Sacramento, California, Jeremy Leatherby, the former pastor of Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish, excommunicated priest, and the man she accuses of sexual exploitation, is said to be living quietly with his family.

The excommunication was invoked only after Leatherby refused to acknowledge Pope Francis and Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento during the Eucharistic Prayer. While suspended, awaiting a church court’s verdict on the alleged sexual violations, Leatherby celebrated Mass in private homes in violation of his bishop’s order. During those liturgies, he proclaimed Pope Benedict XVI as the only living legitimate successor of Peter.

Soto responded in an announcement made public Aug. 7.

“Fr. Jeremy Leatherby has placed himself and others in a state of schism with the Roman Catholic Church. By his words and actions, Fr. Leatherby has incurred a latae sententiae (automatic) excommunication. This means that by his own volition he has separated himself from communion with the Roman Pontiff, Pope Francis, and other members of the Catholic Church,” wrote Soto.

That, according to canon law, took care of the theological dispute.

But on the issue of alleged sexual exploitation, the accuser awaits church justice. Leatherby, in a letter addressed to his former priest colleagues and posted Aug. 8 on the St. Joseph’s Battalion Sacramento blog, said he awaits exoneration.

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SYDNEY (NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA)
Catholic Weekly

September 16, 2020

By Marilyn Rodrigues

Both major parties to support law affecting sacrament

A push to force priests to report information on child sexual abuse gained during confession looks likely to continue in Western Australia despite a parliamentary committee’s recommendation that it would be an ineffective measure against abuse.

The recommendation was made in a report by the Standing Committee on Legislation on the Children and Community Services Amendment Bill 2019, which passed the state’s Legislative Assembly in May and will be considered by the upper house.

In its current form, the bill is in line with WA’s Premier Mark McGowan and Minister for Child Protection Simone McGurk’s commitment to require priests to break the sacrament’s absolute confidentiality in known or suspected cases of child sexual abuse.

The five-member WA committee recommended last week that “ministers of religion be excused from criminal responsibility [of mandatory reporting] only when the grounds of their belief is based solely on information disclosed during religious confession.”

But Liberal Opposition Leader Liza Harvey said on 15 September that her party had decided against supporting the recommendation.

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HOUMA (LA)
Houma Daily Courier via Houma Today

September 15, 2020

By Dan Copp

A priest accused of sexual abuse who served in Houma 45 years ago will not be added to the local diocese’s list of “credibly accused” priests, church officials said.

On Aug. 18, Archbishop Gregory P. Aymond added the Rev. Henry Brian Highfill to the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ list of priests with credible accusations of child sexual abuse.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, asked local Bishop Shelton Fabre to also include Highfill on the local list.

Highfill, who now lives in Las Vegas, served at St. Frances de Sales in Houma in 1975, according to New Orleans SNAP leader Kevin Bourgeois. The 78-year-old priest has been accused of abusing children from 1975 to 1981.

Because the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux was formed two years after Highfill left, Fabre said he decided not to include his name on the list.

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FRAMINGHAM (MA)
MetroWest Daily News

September 15, 2020

By Alison Bosma

https://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/20200915/former-priest-who-worked-in-bellingham-and-hudson-in-1950s-and-1970s-was-named-in-child-sex-abuse-settlement

Three former priests associated with the Archdiocese of Boston, including one who worked in churches in Hudson and Bellingham, were named in child sexual abuse settlements reached earlier this year.

“Our clients want to know why the supervisors were not properly supervising,” said Boston-based attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who announced the settlements this week, “and why those supervisors have not been held accountable for allowing innocent children to be sexually abused.”

All three are accused of molesting children who were parishioners, on church property, in the late 1950s, and late 1970s. At least two of them are dead, according to documents provided by Garabedian, but all three continued to work under the Archdiocese of Boston after the alleged abuse.

The Rev. Sylvio Ruest was accused of molesting a 13- or 14-year-old boy while assigned to Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Bellingham between 1957 and 1958. He previously worked in three other Massachusetts churches, including St. Ann’s Church in Salem; St. Louis Church in Lowell; and Christ the King Church in Hudson, according to documents provided by Garbedian.

A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Boston said the organization makes it a practice not to comment on legal proceedings, but that settlements are included in annual reports, published on the Archdiocese’s website.

“It takes a lot of courage for clergy sexual abuse victims to come forward,” Garabedian said. “In doing so, clergy sexual abuse victims are making the world a safer place for children, and empowering themselves and other victims.”

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JACKSON (MI)
Associated Press via U.S. News and World Report

September 14, 2020

A 66-year-old former Michigan Catholic school teacher sexual abuse allegations stretching back more than four decades.

A former Catholic school teacher in Michigan faces sex abuse allegations stretching back more than four decades.

Charges against Joseph Comperchio are part of the state’s ongoing investigation into clergy abuse, Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office announced Monday.

Comperchio, 66, was arrested Monday in Fort Myers, Florida. He was expected to be arraigned Tuesday in Florida on two counts of first-degree and four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Two people have told authorities they were between 9 and 11 years old when abused between 1974 and 1977, Nessel’s office said.

At the time, Comperchio taught drama and music at St. John Catholic School in Jackson, 80 miles (128 kilometers) west of Detroit.

As part of a broader investigation into the Catholic dioceses in Michigan, about 1.5 million paper documents and 3.5 million electronic documents have been seized through search warrants executed in October 2018, Nessel’s office said.

Ten people connected to the Catholic Church have been charged.

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HALIFAX (NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA)
McKiggan Hebert Law Firm

September 14, 2020

[Includes link to class action pleadings.]

McKiggan Hebert Lawyers in Halifax has filed a class action against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth on behalf of persons who allege they were sexually abused by priests from the Archdiocese from 1960 to date.

The class action, filed by Douglas Champagne on behalf of other sexual abuse survivors, claims that the Roman Catholic Episcopal Corporation of Halifax-Yarmouth, more commonly known as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth, had a decades long policy of secrecy of any allegations of sexual abuse against a priest.

Several priests from the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth have been criminally convicted of sexually abusing children within the Archdiocese.

Champagne alleges he was sexually abused by Father George Epoch, a notorious sexual abuser, while Epoch was working as a priest at Canadian Martyrs Church in Halifax. Champagne claims that the sexual abuse had lasting and permanent effects on his life.

The lawsuit claims that the Archdiocese sent priests accused of sexual misconduct to Southdown Institute, a treatment facility in Ontario, and then placed the priests back into parishes without any notice or warning to parishioners.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

September 14, 2020

By Mark Pattison

A new podcast series, “Crisis,” has debuted, which examines the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the U.S. church.

Produced by the Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America, Washington, its 10 episodes plan to recount the history of the crisis and church leaders’ responses to it.

“Catholic University really found itself in a unique position to offer a response to the sexual abuse crisis,” said Karna Lozoya, executive director of strategic communications in the president’s office at the university, and narrator of “Crisis.”

With its ties to a papally chartered university, “Crisis” examines the responses of popes, including Pope Francis and St. John Paul II. Because of its location in Washington, the archbishop of Washington serves as chancellor of the university and is a member of the board of trustees. The current archbishop is Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory.

A previous Washington archbishop and university chancellor, former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, was himself accused of sexual misconduct dating back several decades; the allegation resulted in his forced laicization. McCarrick still maintains his innocence.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

September 14, 2020

By Rick Sobey

The priests were in Bellingham, Billerica and Dracut

Clergy child sexual abuse claims against three former Massachusetts priests have been settled, the victims’ lawyer announced on Monday.

Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who specializes in sexual abuse cases, said he settled the clergy sexual abuse claims with the Archdiocese of Boston earlier this year.

The former priests were Fr. Sylvio Ruest, Fr. John Salvucci and Fr. T. Raymond Sullivan, according to the lawyer.

The priests decades ago were assigned to churches in Bellingham, Billerica and Dracut, respectively.

Ruest, who was assigned to Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Bellingham, was accused of sexually abusing a boy at least five times in the 1950s. The boy, a parishioner at the church, was about 13 to 14 years old at the time.

The sexual abuse took place inside the church and in the nearby rectory affiliated with the church, Garabedian said. The claim was settled in February in the “high five figures,” Garabedian said.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
BBC

September 15, 2020

A former primary school deputy head teacher has admitted possessing indecent images of children including videos of rape.

Richard Swinnerton, 30, admitted three charges when he appeared at Teesside Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
Swinnerton previously resigned his post at St Clare’s Catholic Primary School in Middlesbrough. His offending was unrelated to his work there.

He was granted conditional bail to be sentenced at Teesside Crown Court.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Swinnerton had been viewing indecent images for two years before his arrest at his home on 15 May.

A spokeswoman said officers found no evidence to suggest that any of the images were made at the school and there is no allegation of physical abuse.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Post-Gazette

September 14, 2020

By Peter Smith

Former Greensburg Bishop Edward Malesic was formally installed Monday as the new Catholic bishop of Cleveland at a worship service whose typical grandeur was trimmed by the social distancing and other exigencies of the pandemic.

Bishop Malesic, who led the Greensburg diocese from 2015 to 2020, was formally installed in his new role at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Cleveland. He entered in a procession with fellow bishops — wearing red masks due to the pandemic, matching the red chasubles worn in commemoration of the feast day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross — followed by priests and acolytes.

Attendance was limited due to the pandemic, with priests and others attendees sitting at socially distant intervals on the pews in the large sanctuary.

Bishop Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s apostolic nuncio or diplomatic representative to the United States, read aloud Pope Francis’ formal letter appointing Bishop Malesic as leader of the Cleveland diocese.

His installation completes a Keystone-Buckeye state exchange, with Bishop Malesic filling the seat left vacant when former Cleveland Bishop Nelson Perez was installed earlier this year as archbishop of Philadelphia.

*
“We also have the cross of abuse in our church,” he said, apologizing to victims of sexual abuse by clergy. “We will carry that cross of shame by helping our victims.” Bishop Malesic led the Diocese of Greensburg when a grand jury reported in 2018 on its history of abuse and that of five other Pennsylvania dioceses.

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TORONTO (ONTARIO, CANADA)
Globe and Mail

September 14, 2020

By Kelly Bennett

A woman whose sister was sexually abused as a child by a Roman Catholic priest has reached a settlement with the Diocese of St. Catharines for abuse she witnessed in a case that expands the common understanding of who is a victim.

The woman said that for years she saw her older sister as the sole victim of the abuse, which took place over three years in the 1970s at the rectory of St. Kevin’s Catholic Church in Welland, Ont., and in his car. The priest would bring her along in the backseat, her dolls beside her, and make her stand outside as a lookout while he raped her sister or forced her to masturbate him.

The woman, whom The Globe and Mail is not identifying to protect the identity of her sister as a child victim of sex abuse, said she wants to share her story with others who may not have recognized abuse in their own lives.

It was only six years ago that she realized she was also a victim.

“I have never really looked at it in light of, ‘Hey, maybe it affected me,’” she said.

That awareness dawned when she sought counselling to confront a pattern of broken relationships. She started to examine the effects of abuse that had reverberated for decades, through five marriages and sometimes-fraught relationships with her two children.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

September 14, 2020

By Junno Arocho Esteves

Vatican City – The Vatican’s doctrinal chief dismissed accusations that some Vatican officials are resisting recommendations on best practices for protecting children and vulnerable adults from clergy sex abuse.

“I think this cliche must be put to an end: the idea that the pope, who wants the reform, is on one side and, on the other, a group of resisters who want to block it,” said Cardinal Gerhard Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The congregation is charged with carrying out canonical trials and seeking justice for victims of clerical abuse, while local bishops and heads of religious orders must care for their pastoral needs, he said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, published March 5.

Cardinal Muller responded to complaints made by Marie Collins, who resigned her post on the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors March 1, citing what she described as resistance coming from Vatican offices against implementing recommendations.

In an editorial published online March 1 by National Catholic Reporter, Collins said an unnamed dicastery not only refused to cooperate on the commission’s safeguarding guidelines, but also refused to respond to letters from victims.

Collins said the refusal “to implement one of the simplest recommendations the commission has put forward to date” was the last straw that led to her resignation.

While acknowledging that personal care of victims is important, Cardinal Muller said Collins’ accusations “are based on a misunderstanding” and that bishops and religious superiors “who are closer” to victims of clergy sex abuse are charged with their pastoral care.

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LANSING (MI)
WILX

September 14, 2020

By Jeffrey Zide

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that multiple felony charges have been filed against a man with ties to the Catholic Church in the Jackson area as an investigation into clergy abuse has identified yet another suspect accused of sexually assaulting minors.

Two individuals came forward to report they had been victims of abuse at the hands of Joseph – or Josef – Comperchio who is 66.

He is facing a total of six charges:

– Two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, a felony charge punishable by up to life in prison; and
– Four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, a 15-year felony.

The incidents in both cases reportedly occurred while the victims were between the ages of 9 and 11, and between 1974 and 1977 while Comperchio was employed as the drama/music teacher at St. John Catholic School in Jackson.

Comperchio was arrested Monday in Fort Myers, Florida.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Associated Press via San Francisco Chronicle

September 14, 2020

Cleveland’s nearly 700,000 Roman Catholics on Monday were welcoming a new bishop from Pennsylvania during an installation Mass at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.

Bishop Edward Malesic, 60, served five years as bishop of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, until Pope Francis in July named him to succeed Nelson Perez, who became archbishop of Philadelphia.

The installation has been scaled down due to the coronavirus pandemic and will be livestreamed.

The Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, native was ordained to the priesthood in 1987.

When he was introduced to the Cleveland Diocese in July, Malesic said he hoped to draw younger people back to the church.

He said he thought the church has become more transparent in protecting children from sexual abuse among priests and he said the church does not tolerate such abuse.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

September 13, 2020

By Ainslie Cromar

“He is to live in contemplation of his sins and pray for all of those affected by his conduct.”

A former longtime pastor for a Lynn parish, who had been accused in 2012 of sexually abusing a child, has been found guilty by a Roman Catholic judicial court and sentenced to “a life of Prayer and Penance,” the Archdiocese of Boston announced in a statement Thursday.

Rev. James Gaudreau, former pastor of St. Joseph Parish, has been banned from exercising “any public ministry” or celebrating public mass, the archdiocese said.

“He may not provide spiritual direction, may not wear clerical attire and cannot function in any manner as a priest,” the statement read. “He is to live in contemplation of his sins and pray for all of those affected by his conduct.”

Allegations against Gaudreau, who’s in his 70s, first surfaced in 2012 when the cleric was accused of molesting a child in 2006. Pending an investigation at the time, he was placed on paid administrative leave.

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STATEN ISLAND (NEW YORK)
SI Live

September 13, 2020

By Frank Donnelly

In the latest of a string of lawsuits, another former resident of the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin at Mount Loretto alleges he was repeatedly sexually abused by clergy and staff members there.

New Jersey resident Francisco Pamias was molested by a priest, the late Rev. Eugene Mangan, as well as a religious brother, and was physically abused by two lay counselors while at the Pleasant Plains shelter for homeless and destitute children, a civil complaint alleges.

Pamias, 65, resided at Mount Loretto between 1963 and 1974, said the complaint.

Orphaned at a young age, Pamias “had no safe haven to go to and no one to talk to about the abuse that he was suffering inasmuch as the individuals with power and authority at Mount Loretto were the same people who were inflicting the abuse,” the complaint alleges.

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TORONTO (ONTARIO, CANADA)
Catholic Register

September 12, 2020

By Francis Campbell

The scourge of Catholic priests sexually abusing innocent children is never far from mind in Nova Scotia.

In the shadow of the recurring crisis, it is almost refreshing to hear a Church leader speak plainly about the overwhelming pain suffered by the victims of sexual abuse and the enormity of the breach of responsibility and trust perpetrated by offending priests.

Archbishop Anthony Mancini did that in a recent letter to the people of the Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth, where a class action is in the works that will have hundreds seeking financial compensation for alleged sexual abuse by priests dating back to 1960.

Mancini said experience has shown that every time the sexual abuse crisis has been highlighted, it has been hard to face “because such crimes and the devastation which sexual abuse has had on the victims cannot and must not be ignored or swept under the carpet.”

Sweeping it under the rug is what the archdiocese is accused of.

The website of McKiggan Hebert law firm in Halifax stated that the class action was filed to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia in August 2018 by Douglas Champagne on behalf of other abuse survivors and claims the archdiocese or its previous incarnations of the Halifax and Yarmouth dioceses held a decades-long policy of secrecy regarding allegations of sexual abuse.

Champagne alleges he was sexually abused by Fr. George Epoch, a Halifax priest, resulting in lasting and permanent effects on his life. The lawsuit claims the archdiocese sent priests accused of sexual misconduct to a treatment facility in Ontario, then placed them back into parishes without any notice or warning to parishioners.

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VERNON (BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA)
iNFOnews.ca

September 12, 2020

By Ben Bulmer

Kamloops BC – Two brothers who were sexually abused by a Catholic priest in Vernon during the 1970s have come to an out of court settlement with the Archdiocese of Kamloops.

The brothers filed separate civil claims last year, both alleging they had been sexually abused by Father Herbert Bourne when they were teenagers while the now-deceased priest was working at the St. James Catholic Church in Vernon.

The brothers’ lawyer Bill Dick told iNFOnews.ca the case was settled out of court a couple of weeks ago.

“What was ultimately important in the process was the Archdiocese through its legal counsel put forward an offer that included an apology and an acknowledgement of wrongdoing,” Dick said. “It was the right decision from the Archdiocese to say we acknowledge that what happened was horrific, we acknowledge that what Father Bourne did should never have happened and it was a horrific breach of abuse and trust from someone that should be providing moral and spiritual guidance.”

The lawyer said the Archdiocese of Kamloops Bishop Joseph Phuong Nguyen met with the brothers and their families to give a formal apology and an acknowledgement that what happened was a horrific breach of trust.

*

The abuse took place in the church, at the priest’s home, and his vehicle, and also at the men’s home. The notice of claim states the Diocese “failed to act when it knew or ought to have known” about the abuse.

The lawyer wouldn’t disclose the amount of compensation awarded but said confidentiality was not part of the settlement.

*

The announcement of the settlement comes days after a Supreme Court Justice awarded almost $850,000 to a former teacher after the judge ruled the Archdiocese of Kamloops had failed to protect the teacher from the “predatory instincts” of a “playboy” priest.

The priest, Father Erlindo Molon, had initiated an unwanted sexual relationship with Rosemary Anderson in 1976. In the judgement, Aug. 25, the judge found Bishop Adam Exner failed to act although he was well aware of Father Molon’s conduct.

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WOODBRIDGE(NJ)
Patch

September 11, 2020

By Carly Baldwin

Father Patrick Barrett is accused of sexually abusing a child at St. Anthony of Padua church in Port Reading from 1983 to 1984.

New accusations of child sex abuse have been made against a Catholic priest who worked in Woodbridge in the mid-80s, as well as against a teacher at Saint Joseph, an elite boys’ Catholic prep school in Metuchen.

The Woodbridge priest is Father Patrick Barrett, who worked at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic church in Port Reading. The St. Joe’s teacher is Brother Regis Moccia, accused of abusing a student who attended the school in the mid ’90s.

Both were named in lawsuits filed this week against the Diocese of Metuchen. This is the first time either man has been accused of such a crime.

Barrett is accused of sexually abusing a child who attended St. Anthony’s from approximately 1983 to 1984. The victim was 9 to 10 years old at the time.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

Septemer 11, 2020

By Jay Tokasz

Sexual abuse victims will have until next August to file a claim against the Buffalo Diocese in federal bankruptcy proceedings.

Chief Judge Carl L. Bucki of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of New York ruled Friday that the bar date for abuse victims to submit claims should be the same day that the extended Child Victims Act expires – Aug. 14, 2021.

Bucki also ruled against a request by the diocese to push the bankruptcy proceedings into mediated settlement talks.

Bucki said in his written ruling that such negotiations among the diocese, its insurers and its creditors would be premature because the diocese doesn’t know the full nature and extent of the abuse claims being brought against it and has yet to fully investigate and document historical insurance policies that were in place and might provide coverage on the claims.

The diocese earlier had sued eight insurance carriers in bankruptcy court, and Bucki’s decision means the litigation will move forward. The judge said he aimed to “advance essential exchanges of information” by ordering discovery to proceed, and he warned both parties that “now is not the time to procrastinate in working for a just and fair resolution of rights.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Catholic Thing

September 12, 2020

By Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas

David Pierre of Media Report has published an illuminating new book, The Greatest Fraud Never Told: False Accusations, Phony Grand Jury Reports, and the Assault on the Catholic Church. Pierre and his work are often ignored because he is unjustly accused of dismissing accusations of clergy sex abuse, en masse. That charge is not true. Instead, Pierre stresses an often-forgotten truth: “a false accusation is truly an affront to those who genuinely suffered as the result of their horrendous abuse.”

When the first hints of clergy sexual abuse began to surface in the late-80s, I served as an advisor to many of the good, new bishops being appointed. On this topic, I counseled the bishops:

First, do not call this pedophilia – because, for the most part, it is same-sex activity between a cleric and a post-pubescent young man; that’s the truth and, the truth always sets us free. “Pedophilia” conjures up images of five- and six-year-old boys. Further, if the sinful activity had been properly labeled, ironically, the secular media wouldn’t have given it much coverage, since they always promote same-sex relations.

Second, never settle any case out of court for a variety of reasons, not least that while a pastoral plea demands a pastoral response, a legal challenge demands a legal response. Moreover, when a financial settlement is made, that more than suggests guilt, thus damaging irreparably an innocent priest’s reputation. Regrettably, most bishops listened, instead, to diocesan attorneys and insurance companies.

Owing to the Dallas Charter of 2002, the heavy-handed treatment of accused priests by bishops has resulted in an adversarial relationship, which Cardinal Avery Dulles foretold in 2004.

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WHEELING (WV)
The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register

September 12, 2020

By Alan Olson

A letter addressed to the Most Rev. Mark Brennan, bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, from two groups representing lay Catholics seeks further action taken in the wake of disgraced former bishop Michael Bransfield’s ignoble resignation.

The letter, which was sent Sept. 3 to Brennan, comes from Morgantown-based Lay Catholic Voices for Change, and ACT: A Church Together, which lists a Wheeling address, which represent lay, or non-clergy, members of the Roman Catholic Church.

“We speak for countless members of the Catholic Church in West Virginia when we say: ‘Our faith has not been destroyed but our trust in our church leaders has been devastated,’” the letter states.

The letter outlines several requests of Brennan and the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

First, an apology from Brennan, on behalf of the diocese, is sought.

The letter states that while Brennan did not oversee Bransfield’s actions — which allegedly include a decades-long pattern of sexual harassment and abuse of men under his authority and wildly extravagant spending of church funds for the personal use of Brandfield and his friends — Brennan is now responsible for the actions and response of the diocese to his actions.

The letter cites embarrassment on the part of young Catholics to embrace their faith, due to Bransfield’s actions, the damage to the faith community due to his actions, and the decline of Wheeling University — formerly Wheeling Jesuit University — along with Mount de Chantal Academy, and Bishop Donahue High School, all of which suffered under Bransfield’s administration.

It also calls for the Revs. Frederick Annie, Kevin Quirk and Anthony Cincinnati to be removed from their posts throughout the diocese.

The three clerics were identified in an internal report as serving as Bransfield’s henchmen, recruiting young priests and seminarians to serve and suffer under Bransfield, dismissing reports and concerns about his abuses, and doing nothing while observing the man’s behavior.

The letter also calls for an inquiry into a potential pattern of child sexual abuse Bransfield may have undertaken. According to the internal investigation, Bransfield was allegedly described as acting in a predatory manner to altar servers at the Cathedral of St. Joseph. Quirk allegedly told investigators that he actively attempted to ensure Bransfield wasn’t left alone with the boys; despite this, the report indicates that no evidence existed to support the allegations, although there was “significant reason for concern that this occurred.”

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DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

September 12, 2020

Religious ministers should not be required to violate the seal of confession to report child sex abuse, a committee of the upper house of Western Australia’s parliament recommended Thursday.

The Legislation Committee of the Legislative Council recommended that “Ministers of religion be excused from criminal responsibility [of mandatory reporting] only when the grounds of their belief is based solely on information disclosed during religious confession.”

It also recommend that the state government “consult with ministers of religion on non-statutory provisions that would facilitate the effective use of information received during religious confession.”

The recommendation, made by a narrow majority of the committee, came in its report on the Children and Community Services Amendment Bill 2019. In its current form, the bill would require priests to break the confessional seal to report known or suspected child sex abuse.

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SYDNEY (NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA)
ABC

September 11, 2020

By Jemima Burt and Paul Culliver

A Queensland bishop says priests in his diocese will not break the “seal of confession” and report known or suspected cases of sexual abuse to police, despite State Parliament passing legislation this week that requires them to do so.

Bishop Michael McCarthy, who leads the Diocese of Rockhampton, says his priests are bound to keep the seal of confession, even if sexual abuse is discussed.

The new legislation means religious institutions and their members will be compelled to break the seal of confession to report child sexual abuse or face three years in jail.

Priests will no longer be able to use the sanctity of the confessional as a defence or an excuse in child sex abuse matters.

But Bishop McCarthy said Rome had not changed its view.

“Within the Catholic Church, a priest is not allowed to break the seal of confession. That is what we have all promised and what we have all signed up to do,” he said.

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BOSTON (MA)
WBZ 4 CBS

September 11, 2020

The Archdiocese of Boston announced on Friday that a Massachusetts priest accused 18 years ago of sexually abusing a minor has been dismissed by the Vatican.

In May 2002, John P. Lyons was removed from public ministry after an allegation of sexual abuse towards a minor. Lyons, who was ordained in 1955, will now no longer be allowed to function as a priest in any capacity.

“We are grateful to the victims who had the strength to come forward,” said a statement from the Archdiocese of Boston. “Their courage assisted the Church in seeking justice. We pray for all of those affected by this matter.”

According to the Boston Globe, the former Rochester priest was accused of sexually abusing young boys during the 1970s and 1980s.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

September 11, 2020

By Elise Ann Allen

Rome – Australia’s new ambassador to the Holy See has said that when it comes to nuanced issues such as religious freedom in the country’s fight for child protection, her government’s evaluation would be that if it’s necessary to choose between the two, safety comes first.

Chiara Porro, the newly minted Australian ambassador to the Holy See, told Crux in a sit-down interview that the question of the seal of confession is “a very difficult issue,” with several factors at play.

At 36, Porro, who is a mother of two, is currently the youngest ambassador to be accredited to the Holy See, and is the youngest in Australia’s own diplomatic corps.

“The sacrament of confession is an integral part of the Catholic Church, and there are reasons which the Holy See detailed in its response as to why the seal of confession exists as it does,” she said referring to the Vatican’s recent response to a series of recommendations from Australia’s Royal Commission into Institution Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

However, from the perspective of the federal government, “I think ultimately child protection is really the paramount concern.”

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.

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

September 11, 2020

By Jeremy C. Fox

[Note: The description of Fr. James E. Gaudreau in this article is incorrect. He was ordered to live a life a prayer and penance, not defrocked.]

A former Massachusetts priest accused of sexually abusing young boys during the 1970s and 1980s has been defrocked by the Vatican, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston said Friday.

John P. Lyons was “dismissed … from the clerical state” and “may no longer function in any capacity as a priest,” the archdiocese said in a statement.

“We are grateful to the victims who had the strength to come forward,” the archdiocese said. “Their courage assisted the Church in seeking justice. We pray for all those affected by this matter.”

Lyons was ordained in 1955 and removed from public ministry and the pastorate of St. Rose of Lima Church in Rochester in May 2002, the archdiocese said.

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DUBLIN (IRELAND)
The Echo

September 9, 2020

By Maurice Garvey

Tributes have poured in this week for Fr David Lumsden – a former priest in the parishes of Ballyfermot and Clondalkin who passed away on Sunday.

Many residents have spoken in glowing terms about the impact ‘Fr Dave’ had on their lives.

Fr Lumsden served in St Matthews Ballyfermot from 1988 to 1998 before moving to the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Clondalkin, then Cabra, and was parish priest in Edenmore and Grange Park.

He responded to many requests from residents to concelebrate special moments, even after moving to the other side of the city.

Ken Larkin, from Ballyfermot Heritage Group said Fr Dave played a big part in “helping open doors” for the late and great activist Angela Copley when she was working on clerical abuse in Ballyfermot.

Fr Lumsden celebrated Ms Copley’s funeral at St Matthews Church from a wheelchair in 2018, praising the work Angela did “for people in this parish who had been abused as children by priests of the parish.”

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NEWMARKET (ONTARIO, CANADA)
Metroland News/YorkRegion.com

September 9, 2020

By Jeremy Grimaldi

Father Joseph Grima no longer at Markham’s Blessed Federic Ozanam Parish

A Markham priest has been ousted from his role for undisclosed behaviour.

On Aug. 22, Father Joseph Grima was removed as pastor of Blessed Frederic Ozanam Parish, near Highway 7 and Ninth Line, for “boundary violations” and behaviour inconsistent with the vows and expectations of a Catholic priest.

The media release was clear to say the behaviour was not illegal.

And although the Archdiocese of Toronto would not say much more, Neil MacCarthy, director of communications, said the complaint does not involve a child.

He added that priests can be removed for a number of reasons, including alcohol, drugs, gambling addictions, anger or mental health issues.

Other issues include having a physical relationship with someone, considering all priests must take a vow of celibacy at the outset.

MacCarthy said despite many individuals’ minds turning directly to abuse, he insisted that this instance was not a criminal code matter.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Catholic New York – Archdiocese of New York

September 9, 2020

By Christie L. Chicoine

A contingent of young adult Catholics gathered for Mass and to share communion and camaraderie among one another Friday evening of Labor Day weekend at Most Holy Redeemer Church in Manhattan’s East Village.

The Sept. 4 gathering was the inaugural event of Goretti Group New York at Most Holy Redeemer, geared to those aged 18-42, singles or married. The first Manhattan chapter at Most Holy Redeemer will continue to meet on the first Friday of each month there.

*
Father Jeffry Dillon, a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn, served as celebrant and homilist of the 7 p.m. Mass Sept. 4. A survivor of clerical sexual abuse as a child, Father Dillon was the featured speaker of the evening’s talk, which included a question-and-answer session.

An NYPD police officer from 1967 to 1975, he was ordained a priest in 1981 and is presently the pastor of Our Lady of Light parish in St. Albans, Queens.

Father Dillon, in his talk, said, “For all those people in the pews who have not experienced sexual abuse, they’re victims also, they’re survivors also. They also have to deal with this. And they have a right to answers.”

While recognizing these realities, he said he was not condemning the Church.

Throughout the talk, Father Dillon quelled common misperceptions about victims of abuse. “Most victims,” he said, “don’t come forward because they don’t want to relive the pain.”

He recalled that when he first told his story to someone, the response was: “When did it happen? How did it happen? Where did it happen?”

To that line of questioning, Father Dillon shared that he replied: “Who cares? It happened.”

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RAPID CITY (SD)
KOTA

September 9, 2020

By Jack Caudill

A state investigation is underway into an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor against a priest in the Rapid City Catholic Diocese. That’s according to the Meade County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Meade County State’s Attorney Michele Bordewyk says her office received a complaint against Father Michel Mulloy and says that investigation is now being handled by the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation.

The Rapid City Diocese announced the complaint on Monday, saying the incident allegedly happened in the early 80′s Father Mulloy was stationed in Faith, which is in Meade County, from 1983 to 1989.

The South Dakota Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday they had received the complaint from the diocese but said it is their policy to not comment further on investigations.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
WHTM 27 ABC

September 10, 2020

By Mark Hall

Members of the Pennsylvania Senate are pushing for the qualifications of the state Victim Advocate to include a law degree.

Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman said it’s important to consider going forward.

“This is not about the person who is currently holding the position,” Corman said. “Most of the victims at some point will be in court, and may need legal guidance.”

Jennifer Storm is the current PA Victim Advocate, and she says a law degree is unneeded.

“The victim advocate is a navigator of the justice system,” she said. “We don’t give legal advice and we don’t legally represent victims.”

Some Republican lawmakers criticized Storm for her support to change the statute of limitations during the clergy child sex abuse scandal, while some Democrats were upset she didn’t support a bill that would give convicted murderers eligibility for parole, after serving 15 years.

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IRONDALE (AL)
National Catholic Register/EWTN

September 10, 2020

By Courtney Mares

In a prologue for a new book on clergy sex abuse, Pope Francis thanks the contributors as they have invited the faithful to “delve into this painful evil of sexual abuse that has occurred in our Catholic Church.”

Vatican City – Pope Francis has written a prologue to a recently published book on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church entitled “Theology and Prevention.”

“Fighting against abuse means fostering and empowering communities capable of watching over and announcing that all life deserves to be respected and valued, especially that of the most defenseless who do not have the resources to make their voices heard,” Pope Francis wrote in the introduction to the book, obtained by CNA.

“In this most recent time in the Church we were challenged to face this conflict, accept it and suffer it together with the victims, their families and the entire community to find ways that make us say: never again to the culture of abuse,” the pope said.

The book, “Theology and Prevention: A Study on Sexual Abuse in the Church,” was published in Spanish this month by Sal Terrae and edited by Fr. Daniel Portillo Trevizo.

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BOSTON (MA)
Archdiocese of Boston

September 10, 2020

The Archdiocese of Boston announced today that Rev. James Gaudreau, former pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Lynn, Ma, has been found guilty of child abuse and his sentence has been affirmed by the Vatican to live a life of Prayer and Penance. He is not permitted to exercise any public ministry, including not being allowed to celebrate public Mass. He may not provide spiritual direction, may not wear clerical attire and cannot function in any manner as a priest. He is to live in contemplation of his sins and pray for all of those affected by his conduct. Fr. Gaudreau was placed on administrative leave on September 23, 2012 for an allegation that was reported to have occurred in 2006 with a minor.

Having been found guilty he is forbidden from all public ministry and from otherwise presenting himself as a priest. He is expected to dedicate his life to praying for victims and repenting of his past offenses. In this way, the Church seeks even here to prevent any future abuse and to repair the injustice that has already taken place. (source USCCB).

Through its Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach, the Archdiocese continues to make counseling and other services available to survivors, their families and parishes impacted by clergy sexual abuse and by allegations of abuse by members of the clergy. Cardinal Seán encourages any person in need of pastoral assistance or support to contact the Archdiocese’s Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach by calling 617-746-5985.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

September 10, 2020

By Marie Szaniszlo

The former pastor of a Lynn parish has been found guilty of child abuse by a Roman Catholic judicial court and sentenced to “a life of prayer and penance,” the Boston Archdiocese said Thursday.

The Rev. James Gaudreau, former pastor of St. Joseph parish, is not permitted to exercise any public ministry or celebrate public Mass. He may not provide spiritual direction, may not wear clerical attire and cannot function in any manner as a priest, according to the archdiocese.

“He is to live in contemplation of his sins and pray for all of those affected by his conduct,” said Terrence Donilon, a spokesman for the archdiocese.

Gaudreau, 77, was placed on administrative leave on Sept. 23, 2012, for an allegation that was reported to have occurred in 2006 with a minor.

The Archdiocese immediately notified police, Donilon said, but there was no prosecution, and no civil lawsuits were filed.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

September 10, 2020

By Travis Andersen

A former longtime priest at a Catholic church in Lynn who’d been accused in 2012 of sexually abusing a child has been banned from exercising “any public ministry” and sentenced by church authorities to a life of prayer and penance, according to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.

In a statement, the archdiocese identified the priest as Rev. James E. Gaudreau and said he’s “not permitted to exercise any public ministry, including not being allowed to celebrate public Mass. He may not provide spiritual direction, may not wear clerical attire and cannot function in any manner as a priest. He is to live in contemplation of his sins and pray for all of those affected by his conduct.”

The allegations against Gaudreau had surfaced in 2012, when the cleric was accused of molesting a child in 2006. But the following year, the Essex district attorney’s office declined to file criminal charges.

Gaudreau had said in a statement shortly after that decision that his “conscience was always clear.” He said he “knew that I was innocent of any wrongdoing. I was also confident that, in time, I would be thoroughly exonerated.”

The district attorney’s office didn’t comment at the time on the reason for declining to file charges. The archdiocese continued its own probe.

On Thursday, Terry Donilon, a spokesman for the Boston archdiocese, said Gaudreau’s case was ultimately heard and adjudicated by the Diocese of Brooklyn. The Vatican decides where such cases will be heard for a variety of reasons such as conflicts of interest or caseloads, Donilon said.

He wrote in an email that Gaudreau’s appeal was “heard and denied by the Vatican Dicastery of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith who oversee sexual abuse of minor matters.”

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian from Australian Associated Press

September 9, 2020

Queensland priests now face jail for failing to report cases of child sexual abuse as other Australian states debate similar proposals

A new law in Queensland stipulates priest must report to police cases of child sexual abuse revealed during confession.

Priests in Queensland will no longer be protected by the seal of confession and must report cases of child abuse or face criminal charges.

State parliament rejected protests from the Catholic church to pass new laws on Tuesday.

Other states continue to debate similar proposals, and in several jurisdictions clergy remain exempt from prosecution for failing to report child sexual abuse.

“[The Queensland laws] create a new offence of failing to report and failing to protect a child from institutional child sexual abuse,” Queensland justice minister, Yvette D’Ath, said.

“The new laws also clarify that priests will not be able to rely on the seal of confession to avoid the reporting of abuse.”

Brisbane’s Catholic Archbishop, Mark Coleridge, had protested that the laws would fail to make children safer.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Religion News Service

September 9, 2020

By Claire Giangravé

Vatican City – In a world marked by religious persecution and mounting secularism, being a missionary priest has never been easy.

Add closed frontiers and social distancing caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and the already tough job may seem impossible. But according to one missionary, Salesian priest Martin Lasarte, there is opportunity beyond the challenges.

“Being a missionary priest has always been hard, and it will forever be,” Lasarte told reporters during an online meeting Monday (Sept. 7).

“But in the various dark moments in history, the Lord always found a way,” he added.

*
Like many priests coming to terms with the declining state of religion in the west, Lasarte finds comfort in the “few, but good” approach.

This is the not the first time the Catholic priest attempted to switch the narrative amid a global crisis. In 2017, he wrote a letter to The New York Times that, while commending the publication for shedding light on the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, asked that reporters also take an interest in the positive work done by priests and laypeople.

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DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

September 9, 2020

Months before officials in the Archdiocese of Newark sold a beach house used by former cardinal Theodore McCarrick for sexual abuse and coercion, the archdiocese bought a second beach house on the Jersey Shore, at which McCarrick reportedly hosted friends and courted donors.

The second beach house, according to an investigative report from northjersey.com, was purchased in 1997 by the Newark archdiocese from the neighboring Diocese of Metuchen. The house was located in Brick, New Jersey, on Barnegat Bay.

The archdiocese bought that home four months before it sold the Sea Girt, New Jersey beach house which McCarrick was alleged to have used for sexual abuse and coercion since the 1980s.

Both homes were owned by the Diocese of Metuchen, which McCarrick led as a bishop from 1981 to 1986, before they were purchased by the Archdiocese of Newark, which McCarrick led from 1986 to 2000.

The Sea Girt house was purchased by the Metuchen diocese in 1985, and sold to the Newark archdiocese in 1988.

The Brick house was purchased in 1987 by a Metuchen priest, Msgr. Francis Crine, and Walter Uzenski, principal of the school at Crine’s parish. Crine died in 1989, and Uzenski gave the house to St. James Parish in Woodbridge, NJ, to settle an unspecified debt of Crine’s. In 1994, the parish transferred the property to the diocese, northjersey.com reported.

It is not clear what debt Crine owed to the parish.

Crine was a Metuchen chancery official during McCarrick’s tenure in Newark. He was also pastor of St. James Parish during a period in which at least three priests were assigned to the parish who eventually faced allegations of sexual abuse, misconduct, and theft.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

September 9, 2020

By Vanessa Friedman

For the last five years, the name Gucci has been synonymous with success, with a fashion reinvention that has helped redirect the luxury industry toward inclusivity, emotion and the importance of creativity. The family that created the brand has a more complicated, darker past, one involving tax evasion, generational feuds and murder. This week, another charge will be added to that list.

On Tuesday, Alexandra Zarini, the 35-year-old granddaughter of Aldo Gucci, the man responsible for transforming an artisanal leather goods house into a global behemoth, filed suit in the California Superior Court in Los Angeles. In it, she describes years of sexual abuse from her former stepfather, Joseph Ruffalo, and complicity and a cover-up on the part of her mother, Patricia Gucci, and grandmother, Bruna Palombo.

According to the court documents, Mr. Ruffalo, a music manager who worked with Prince and Earth, Wind & Fire, began abusing Ms. Zarini when she was about six years old and continued until she was about 22. In her lawsuit she describes him regularly climbing naked into bed with her when she was a child and teenager and fondling her breasts and genitals; flashing his genitals at her; and rubbing his penis against her body.

The lawsuit also claims that her mother, Patricia Gucci, and her grandmother knew of the abuse for years and that her mother not only helped groom her for Mr. Ruffalo’s advances by allowing him to videotape her naked in the bath but also regularly hit her. In addition, the suit states that both women threatened her so that she would remain quiet.

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MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
Star Tribune

September 9, 2020

By Jean Hopfensperger

Fallout continues from abuse reports against renowned composer David Haas.

Isaac Henson was monitoring recent reports of sexual misconduct by Twin Cities Catholic music composer David Haas when he ran across disturbing information about an adult leader at the summer music program run by Haas at St. Catherine University.

A retired priest who was a regular at the weeklong program, George DeCosta, had been sued by at least six men for alleged child sexual abuse in his home state of Hawaii, Henson learned, with the first lawsuit filed in 2012. An attorney for the men said five of the cases have been settled.

“I distinctly remember [DeCosta] at morning prayer, evening prayer, sitting up front,” said Henson, who attended the Music Ministry Alive (MMA) program as a high school student from 2015 to 2017. “How was that allowed to happen?”

Henson is among 113 former MMA participants, parents and team leaders who have sent a petition to St. Catherine’s, seeking “transparency and accountability” for Haas’ alleged behavior and DeCosta’s presence in the program held on its campus in St. Paul. They’re also seeking explanations from Music Ministry Alive, which drew more than 2,200 students from 1999 to 2017.

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BRIDGEWATER (NJ)
Bridgewater Courier News

September 9, 2020

By Nick Muscavage

Two lawsuits filed against the Catholic Church on Wednesday include allegations of sexual abuse against two clerics — including a brother who worked at St. Joseph High School in Metuchen.

The suits, brought under the New Jersey Child Sexual Abuse Act and New Jersey Victims’ Rights Bill, allege abuse by Brother Regis Moccia and the Rev. Patrick H. Barrett, both who had not been publicly accused of abuse before Wednesday.

One lawsuit alleges that Moccia, a member of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, sexually abused a 13- to 14-year-old from approximately 1994 to 1995 while the plaintiff was a student at St. Joseph High School in Metuchen, a school in the Diocese of Metuchen staffed by the religious order.

The other lawsuit alleges that Barrett sexually abused a minor parishioner at St. Anthony of Padua Church in the Port Reading section of Woodbridge from approximately 1983 to 1984 when the plaintiff was 9 to 10 years old.

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RAPID CITY (SD)
Rapid City Journal

September 9, 2020

By Arielle Zionts

The South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating an allegation that a Rapid City-based priest sexually abused a child in Faith in the early 1980s, according to the Meade County State’s Attorney.

States’s Attorney Michele Bordewyk said the Diocese of Rapid City contacted her office about the allegation against Father Michel Mulloy when he was working in Faith. She said she referred the case to DCI, which is under the Office of the Attorney General.

Bordewyk said her office would handle the prosecution if DCI discovered evidence of a crime within the statute of limitations.

Bishop Peter Muhich said he referred the allegation to the Office of the Attorney General. That office confirmed it received the allegation but would not comment on whether DCI opened an investigation.

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CANBERRA (AUSTRALIA)
Canberra Times

September 9, 2020

By Peter Brewer

It was purely coincidence but the timing of National Child Protection Week and a warm spring day couldn’t be more appropriate for tireless campaigner Damian De Marco to be conferred with his Member of the Order of Australia.

The AM award presented on Tuesday by Governor General David Hurley is the latest of many which have been delivered to Mr De Marco for his unstinting efforts over decades to expose the sexual abuse of children under the care of the Catholic Church.

The former Marist College Canberra student and the 2015 ACT Local Hero bravely faced the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse six years ago, eschewing anonymity in doing so.

It was his crucial evidence which helped build the compelling case against former Canberra Marist Brother and proven paedophile Kostka Chute.

Last year 87-year-old Chute faced 16 charges, including 14 counts of indecent assault of a minor, one charge of buggery without consent and one charge of an act of indecency with a minor.

Chute was found unfit to plead on medical grounds and escaped imprisonment.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service via Catholic San Francisco

September 8, 2020

Brisbane, Australia – A new law requires priests in the state of Queensland to break the seal of confession to report child sex abuse to police or face three years in jail.

The law was passed by Queensland Parliament Sept. 8. It had support from both major parties and was opposed by the Catholic Church.

One Queensland prelate, Bishop Tim Harris of Townsville, tweeted a link to a story on the passage of the new law and said, “Catholic priests cannot break the seal of confession.”

The new law was a response to recommendations from the Royal Commission Into Child Sexual Abuse, which uncovered and documented the tragic history of abuses in religious and secular organizations, including Catholic-run schools and orphanages across the country. South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory have already enacted similar laws.

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DULUTH (MN)
Diocese of Duluth

September 7, 2020

By Fr. James B. Bissonette

Father James B. Bissonette, diocesan administrator for the Diocese of Duluth, has issued the following statement:

I have learned that our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has accepted the resignation of Bishop-elect Michel Mulloy. Sadly, that notification was accompanied by an announcement from the Diocese of Rapid City of an accusation of sexual abuse of a minor made against Father Mulloy as a priest of that diocese. We grieve with all who have suffered sexual abuse and their loved ones. I ask you to pray for the person who has come forward with this accusation, for Father Mulloy, for the faithful of our diocese, and for all affected. We place our hope and trust in God’s providence as we await, again, the appointment of our next bishop.

Father Mulloy was to be ordained and installed as Bishop of Duluth on Oct. 1. Father Bissonette will continue to serve as diocesan administrator until the Holy Father appoints a new bishop for the diocese.

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NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

September 7, 2020

By Gerard O’Connell

Pope Francis has today accepted the resignation of Michel Mulloy, the bishop elect of Duluth following an allegation of the sexual abuse of a minor and a subsequent investigation.

The Vatican announced the resignation at midday today without mentioning the abuse allegation.

The explanation for the allegation came soon after in a statement issued by Bishop Peter Muhich of Rapid City, the diocese where Father Mulloy had been a priest at the time of his episcopal appointment on June 19. Before his recent appointment as bishop of Rapid City, Bishop Muhich had worked as a pastor in Duluth.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service via Crux

September 7, 2020

By Carol Zimmermann

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Father Michel J. Mulloy — who had been appointed but not installed as bishop of Duluth, Minnesota — after an allegation of sexual abuse was raised against him from the 1980s when he was a priest in South Dakota.

The installation, which was announced June 19, was scheduled to take place Oct. 1.

The resignation was announced in Washington Sept. 7 by Msgr. Dennis Kuruppassery, representing Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Father James Bissonette, diocesan administrator for the Diocese of Duluth — who will continue this role until the appointment of a new bishop — said the resignation announcement was accompanied by a notification from the Diocese of Rapid City of “an accusation of sexual abuse of a minor made against Father Mulloy as a priest of that diocese.”

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press

September 8, 2020

By Tresa Baldas

To clear his name, Father Eduard Perrone is treading on sacred ground in the Catholic Church: he’s suing a fellow priest.

Perrone maintains he has no choice.

The 72-year-old priest says he lost his job temporarily over false molestation claims. And the man behind it all, he alleges, is Monsignor G. Michael Bugarin, the latest target in Perrone’s 14-month-old legal battle to get his job back at Detroit’s Assumption Grotto, where he was removed last year over allegations he molested an altar boy 40 years ago.

In what is believed to be a first for the Archdiocese of Detroit, Perrone is suing Bugarin for defamation, alleging his “removal and public humiliation were orchestrated” by Bugarin, who, he claims, fabricated a rape claim against him in 2019 that led to his temporary ouster.

“He was very reluctant to do that. It was very hard. In many ways, this is a band of brothers that are expected to stand through trials and tribulations together in the world,” said Christopher Kolomjec, one of Perrone’s lawyers in the case. “For one priest to sue a monsignor, who is supposed to be a higher level priest, is unprecedented.”

“But there is something worse than suing a brother priest,” Kolomjec added, “and that’s framing a brother priest for a sex crime.”

Bugarin, also pastor at St. Joan of Arc in St. Clair Shores, is the person in charge of overseeing clergy abuse complaints for the Detroit archdiocese. Perrone’s lawsuit against him comes two weeks after Perrone settled another defamation lawsuit against a Macomb County detective who investigated him in the abuse case — a lawsuit that ended last month with a $125,000 cash settlement for Perrone.

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