ABUSE TRACKER

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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“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.

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

WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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

WASHINGTON (DC)
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.”

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

DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

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.

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

SYDNEY (NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA)
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.

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)
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.

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

DENVER (CO)
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.”

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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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)
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.

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 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.

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 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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WOODLAND PARK (NJ)
The Record and NorthJersey.com

September 8, 2020

By Abbott Koloff and Deena Yellin

Even as Vatican officials pressured former Newark Archbishop Theodore McCarrick to sell a Sea Girt home in the late 1990s after allegations that he sexually harassed seminarians on overnight trips there, the archdiocese was securing yet another shore home for McCarrick in an even grander location — on a spit of land in Brick Township that juts out into Barnegat Bay.

The second home, never before disclosed to the public, allowed McCarrick to flout the Vatican’s efforts to restrain his lifestyle as he continued his rise through the American church hierarchy. The home came into the archdiocese’s hands after a long and tangled chain of ownership involving a local pastor who owed a large debt to his parish in the Metuchen Diocese, a demand by the diocese to have the pastor’s heir hand over the home to cover the debt, and the ultimate transfer of the home to the Newark Archdiocese.

A lengthy review of decades-old deeds, wills, death certificates and other documents by The Record and NorthJersey.com, as well as interviews with former top McCarrick aides and others familiar with the second beach house at Curtis Point on a Jersey Shore barrier island, reveals that:

• Monsignor Francis Crine, a former pastor at St. James Church in Woodbridge, who co-owned the Curtis Point house as well as a boat and a condo in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, owed a mysterious, unexplained debt totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars to the parish.

• In 1989, when Crine died, the Metuchen Diocese pressured Walter Uszenski, the parish school principal who had co-owned the home and inherited Crine’s share, to transfer the house to the parish for a sale price of $685,000 to cover the debt. No money apparently changed hands.

• The parish subsequently sold the house to the Metuchen Diocese for $1.

• A few years later, the Metuchen Diocese sold the home to the Newark Archdiocese.

• While pastor at St. James, Crine had also served in a top post under McCarrick in the Metuchen Diocese before McCarrick moved on to head the Newark Archdiocese.

• During Crine’s time as St. James pastor, priests assigned to the parish included some who were later accused of child sex abuse there and in other parishes, as well as a priest who was later charged with stealing $500,000 from a parish where he became pastor.

• One former St. James parishioner who accused a priest of abusing him said Crine had to have known that the priest was inviting boys into the rectory for overnight stays to smoke and drink beer.

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WOODLAND PARK (NJ)
The Record and NorthJersey.com

September 8, 2020

By Abbott Koloff and Deena Yellin

Below is a timeline of events involving the two Jersey Shore homes to which Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had access while he was archbishop of the Newark Archdiocese. McCarrick was named the first bishop of the Metuchen Diocese in 1981, and became Newark’s leader in 1986. He moved on to lead the Washington, D.C., Archdiocese in 2001. In 2019, he became the first American cardinal to be defrocked after allegations surfaced that he sexually abused children.

November 19, 1981 — Theodore McCarrick, an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of New York, is installed as the first bishop of the newly created Metuchen Diocese.

January 3, 1985 — The Metuchen Diocese purchases a home on Baltimore Boulevard in Sea Girt for $180,000.

July 25, 1986 — McCarrick is installed as the archbishop of Newark.

August 26, 1987 — Monsignor Francis Crine, who had worked for McCarrick as his director of personnel in the Metuchen Diocese and was pastor of St. James parish in Woodbridge, purchases a home on Curtis Point overlooking Barnegat Bay in Brick Township for $562,500. He owns two-thirds of the home, on Squan Beach Drive. The other third is owned by Walter Uszenski, the principal of the St. James parish school.

[Photo caption:] This Baltimore Boulevard home in Sea Girt was purchased by the Metuchen Diocese in 1985 and later sold to the Newark Archdiocese. It is where seminarians say that they were invited on overnight stays with former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. It was sold to a private party in 1997. Photo from July 22, 2020.

January 29, 1988 — The Metuchen Diocese sells the Sea Girt home to the Newark Archdiocese for $275,000. 

Late 1980s — At least two seminary professors raise an alarm with superiors about McCarrick after seminarians allege the prelate sexually harassed them at the Sea Girt home, watching while they undressed and sharing a bed with them.

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ALTOONA (PA)
Altoona Mirror

September 8, 2020

By Phil Ray

Local woman’s complaint claims church committed civil fraud by covering up abuse

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will hear arguments in October on an Altoona woman’s attempt to redefine the statute of limitations as it applies to her 2016 sexual abuse lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

Renee Rice, 52, has sued the diocese, contending she was a child victim of sexual abuse committed by a priest at the former St. Leo’s Catholic Church in Altoona.

The incidents of abuse, Rice alleges, occurred when she was between the ages of 9 and 14, but her lawsuit was not filed until 2016, subsequent to a statewide grand jury report that accused the diocese of intentionally covering up child sexual abuse cases for decades.

Rice’s lawsuit was dismissed by now Senior Judge Jolene G. Kopriva of Blair County, who ruled the case was governed by a two-year statute of limitations, meaning that Rice should have filed her lawsuit by 1980, when she was 20 years old.

However, Rice’s Altoona attorney, Richard Serbin, appealed the local ruling to the state Superior Court, arguing that the church had committed civil fraud by knowingly covering up cases of child sexual abuse.

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DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

September 6, 2020

The Australian bishops have provided the federal government with the Holy See’s observations on 12 recommendations of a 2017 report on child sex abuse in the country’s institutions.

In response to a recommendation regarding the seal of confession and absolution, the Holy See reiterated the inviolability of the seal and that absolution cannot be conditioned on future actions in the external forum.

“The Holy See affirms once more its resolute determination to confront and eradicate the abuse of minors and vulnerable persons, wherever it may occur in the Church,” read the Holy See’s observations, which were enclosed in a letter of Feb. 26.

The Holy See’s observations were conveyed to the Australian bishops’ conference, which in turn sent them to the Attorney-General for Australia, and referred to in a Sept. 4 statement from the conference.

“The Pope has sought to promote reform and vigilance at all levels within the Church and to encourage the efforts of local Churches in the same direction. That commitment has led to the adoption … of a wide range of measures, designed to ensure a proper response to such cases, including at the canonical level, as well as encouraging cooperation with civil authorities,” the observations note.

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VATICAN CITY
Holy See

Released September 6, 2020; dated February 26, 2020

With reference to the Response of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference and Catholic Religious Australia to the Final Report of the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, published in August 2018, the Holy See affirms once more its resolute determination to confront and eradicate the abuse of minors and vulnerable persons, wherever it may occur in the Church. The Pope has sought to promote reform and vigilance at all levels within the Church and to encourage the efforts of local Churches in the same direction. That commitment has led to the adoption, both by the Holy See and by Dioceses, Episcopal Conferences and Religious Institutes of a wide range of measures, designed to ensure a proper response to such cases, including at the canonical level, as well as encouraging cooperation with civil authorities, both domestic and international.

In that spirit, the Holy See wishes to offer the following observations on a number of recommendations of the above-mentioned Final Report. For ease of reference, each of the recommendations in question is reproduced below, followed by the relevant observations, which have been kept as concise as possible.

*

Recommendation 16.26

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference should consult with the Holy See, and make public any advice received, in order to clarify whether:

b. if a person confesses during the sacrament of reconciliation to perpetrating child sexual abuse, absolution can and should be withheld until they report themselves to civil authorities.

With its Note on the importance of the internal forum and the inviolability of the sacramental seal, published on 29 June 2019, the Apostolic Penitentiary has furnished useful indications for arriving at a considered response to the questions raised in the present recommendation. It will be recognised at once that the question of the confessional seal is one of great delicacy and that it is related intimately with a most sacred treasure of the Church’s life, that is to say, with the sacraments.

The aforementioned Note repeats the constant tradition of the Church with regard to the seal of confession, recalling that: “The confessor is never allowed, for any reason whatsoever, ‘to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner’ (can. 983, §1), just as ‘a confessor is prohibited completely from using knowledge acquired from confession to the detriment of the penitent even when any danger of revelation is excluded’ (can. 984, §1).” The Note helpfully clarifies the extent of the seal, which includes: “all the sins of both the penitent and others known from the penitent’s confession, both mortal and venial, both occult and public, as manifested with regard to absolution and therefore known to the confessor by virtue of sacramental knowledge.” The Note gives expression to the long-standing and constant teaching of the Church on the inviolability of the sacramental seal, as something demanded by the nature of the sacrament itself and thus as deriving from Divine Law. See for example: Fourth Lateran Ecumenical Council (1215), Cost. 21; Pope Clement VIII, Decr. Ad omnes superiores regulares (1593); Decr. S. Officii (1682); Pope Benedict XIV, Breve Suprema omnium ecclesiarum (1745).

However, even if the priest is bound to scrupulously uphold the seal of the confessional, he certainly may, and indeed in certain cases should, encourage a victim to seek help outside the confessional or, when appropriate, to report an instance of abuse to the authorities.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

September 8, 2020

By Allyson Horn

Priests in Queensland will now be compelled to break the seal of confession to report child sexual abuse or face three years in jail.

The legislation means religious institutions and their members are no longer able to use the sanctity of confessional as a defence or excuse in child sex abuse matters.

Police Minister Mark Ryan said the laws would ensure better protection for vulnerable children.

“The requirement and quite frankly the moral obligation to report concerning behaviours towards children applies to everyone everyone in this community,” he said.

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RAPID CITY (SD)
Diocese of Rapid City

September 7, 2020

Today the Holy See announced that Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop-elect Michel Mulloy, who was appointed the Bishop of Duluth on June 19, 2020. Subsequent to that appointment, on August 7, 2020, the Diocese of Rapid City received notification of an allegation against Father Mulloy of sexual abuse of a minor in the early 1980’s. The Diocese of Rapid City has no other allegations of sexual abuse involving Father Mulloy.

Following the established procedure, Bishop Peter Muhich, Bishop of Rapid City, informed law enforcement of this development. Fr. Mulloy was directed to refrain from engaging in ministry. The Diocese then commissioned an independent investigation to determine whether the allegation warranted further investigation under Canon Law. When that investigation concluded, the results were shared with the Rapid City Diocesan Review Board, a lay-majority interdisciplinary body, in accordance with the standard of Canon Law and the policies of the Diocese of Rapid City. The Review Board agreed with the investigation’s conclusion that the accusation met the standard of Canon Law for further investigation and conclusion and the Holy See was informed by Bishop Muhich. Fr. Mulloy received a summary of the specific allegation against him and submitted his resignation as Bishop-elect of the Diocese of Duluth to the Holy Father, which has been accepted.

The Apostolic Nunciature has communicated that Msgr. James Bissonnette will continue to serve the Diocese of Duluth as Diocesan Administrator, until the appointment of a new Bishop.

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DULUTH (MN)
Associated Press

September 7, 2020

A priest recently tapped by Pope Francis to become a bishop for a northern Minnesota diocese has resigned after an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor in the 1980s surfaced before he could take up his post.

The Vatican announced Monday that Francis had accepted the resignation of Bishop-elect Michel Mulloy, whom the pope named in June to head the Duluth diocese. Mulloy was supposed to be elevated to bishop’s rank in an Oct. 1 ceremony in Duluth. The Vatican did not provide details.

At the time of his appointment, Mulloy was serving as diocesan administrator in Rapid City, South Dakota. The Diocese of Rapid City said in a statement that it received the allegation last month and that it dates back to the 1980s. It said there have been no additional allegations of abuse involving Mulloy.

The Associated Press left a message seeking comment Monday at Mulloy’s office in the Rapid City diocese.

It is highly unusual for a priest who has been selected to be a bishop to resign before that can happen. But the development underlines the pontiff’s oft-stated resolve to crack down on predator priests as well as insist that any allegation of sexual abuse be promptly investigated.

The Rapid City diocese said Bishop Peter Muhich informed law enforcement of the development and that Mulloy was “directed to refrain from engaging in ministry.”

“The diocese then commissioned an independent investigation to determine whether the allegation warranted further investigation under Cannon (church) Law,″ the Rapid City diocese statement said. The review found that ”the accusation met the standard for further investigation and conclusion and the Holy See was informed” by Muhich.

The Rapid City diocese said Mulloy received a summary of the specific allegation and submitted his resignation as bishop-elect to the pope.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

September 7, 2020

By Neil Vigdor

Father Michel J. Mulloy was chosen by Pope Francis to lead the Diocese of Duluth, Minn., but then an allegation from the 1980s surfaced, church officials said.

Pope Francis on Monday accepted the resignation of a priest whom he had chosen to become the bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese in Duluth, Minn., after a nearly 40-year-old allegation of sexual abuse of a minor emerged against the clergyman, church officials said.

The priest, Father Michel J. Mulloy, 67, had been scheduled to be installed on Oct. 1 as the bishop of the diocese, which estimated that it serves about 56,000 Catholics at 92 parishes in northeastern Minnesota.

But a little more than two weeks after his June 19 appointment by the pope, the Diocese of Rapid City in South Dakota, where Father Mulloy had been serving as diocesan administrator, was alerted about a sexual abuse allegation against him from the 1980s, church officials said.

The bishop-elect’s resignation came after the Vatican in July told bishops around the world to report cases of clerical sex abuse to the civil authorities, part of an ongoing and contentious effort by Francis to confront a blight on the Catholic Church.

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SUPERIOR (WI)
KBJR 6 NBC

September 7, 2020

By Ryan Haff

Duluth – Officials with the Diocese of Duluth announced Monday morning Bishop-elect Michel Mulloy has officially resigned following an accusation of sexual abuse of a minor.

A 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.

Pope Francis originally appointed Father Mulloy to the position back in June 2020 after Bishop Paul Sirba died unexpectedly in December 2019.

Mulloy was to be ordained and installed as Bishop of Duluth on October 1.

Father James B. Bissonette, the Diocesan Administrator for the Diocese of Duluth, released the following statement Monday morning:

“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 Bissonette will continue to serve as Diocesan Administrator until Pope Francis appoints a new bishop. It is unclear how long this process will take.

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TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade

September 6, 2020

By Nicki Gorny

When the Rev. Phil Smith stepped into his role as director of the Office for Priestly Vocations in the Diocese of Toledo, he was told that “the most important work I’ll do in this position is not the men I’ll bring into the seminary, but the men I’ll keep out.”

“So the most important contribution I’ll make to the life of the church will be keeping out men who are not fit for the priesthood,” Father Smith continued.

Now in his fourth year in the role, he understands the sentiment.

“I think that’s really true,” he said.

Catholic institutions across the country employ a particular discretion as to whom they ordain as clergy, subjecting seminary applicants to psychological assessments and continuing to almost constantly evaluate their suitability through up to nine years of seminary formation. Father Smith said that’s true of the Diocese of Toledo, too, as well as the various seminaries where it enrolls its candidates for the priesthood.

While such measures offer a holistic look at would-be clergyman, who might be well or ill suited to the priesthood for any number of reasons, they’re one notable way that institutions attempt to weed out men whom they suspect could one day be sexually abusive – an issue that the faith tradition has been battling in a particular public way since at least 2002.

The Diocese of Toledo just last month saw the arrest of the Rev. Michael Zacharias, the former pastor of Findlay’s St. Michael the Archangel Parish. Federal authorities have accused him of grooming and sexually abusing two men that he met when he was a seminarian and they were students at St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Toledo in the 1990s.

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OMAHA (NE)
KMTV

September 3, 2020

[With link to lawsuit]

A former associate priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in West Point is suing the Archdiocese of Omaha for $2.1 million, claiming the church unjustly forced him to resign and tarnished his image by publicizing that he had acted improperly with young adults and minors when he says he did nothing wrong nor was ever prosecuted or convicted of any crimes.

Father Andrew Syring resigned from his position in 2018 and was never given another position within the church.

In a court filing, Syring also says the Archdiocese unjustly put him on a list of priests who committed criminal sexual misconduct.

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ALBANY (NY)
Times Union

September 7, 2020

By Edward McKinley

Diocese says addition of Daniel J. Maher to list of offenders was meant to be publicized

Three new cases alleging child abuse in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany were filed this past week – including one involving a priest who in August was put on the diocese’s list of offenders after years of allegations against him.

A lawsuit filed Wednesday says that former Albany Diocese priest Daniel J. Maher and now deceased former priest Donald Starks each abused the plaintiff when he was 11 to 13 years old from 1966 to 1968 when he was an altar boy. The two men began by touching him inappropriately and subsequently forced the young boy to have oral sex with them, the suit alleges, including in the rectory of St. Francis de Sales church in Colonie.

The priests told the boy that the abuse was “’our secret,’ or something ‘between us and God,’ which would be ‘wrong to tell anybody,’” the lawsuit says.

From 2003 to 2007, multiple people came forward with stories of child abuse at the hands of Maher, the lawsuit notes, but the diocese threw out the allegations after an internal investigation through their Diocesan Review Board process and allowed Maher to continue as an active priest.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

September 5, 2020

By Matthew Xuereb

Teen says she has been in relationship with 40-year-old since she was 15

A priest who appeared in court last Thursday over a sexual relationship he was allegedly having with a teenage girl has been suspended from his duties, according to a spokesman for the church.

The priest must refrain from public ministry while criminal process against him is ongoing, the spokesman for the church’s Safeguarding Commission told Times of Malta.

This means that he cannot celebrate Mass or administer any of the sacraments in the community.

“The Safeguarding Commission will continue to follow the case to ensure that the necessary action is taken, as it has been doing, to safeguard all parties,” he said.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

September 5, 2020

By Charles Collins

Although reaffirming the principle that the seal of confession can never be violated, the Vatican has told Church leaders in Australia that victims of sexual abuse should be encouraged to report abuse to the proper authorities.

Recognizing the question of the seal of confession “is one of great delicacy and that it is related intimately with a most sacred treasure of the Church’s life, that is to say, with the sacraments,” the Vatican said “the confessional provides an opportunity – perhaps the only one – for those who have committed sexual abuse to admit to the fact.”

The comments came in a series of “observations” to the August 2018 response of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference and Catholic Religious Australia to the Final Report of the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, published in December 2017.

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ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
Albuquerque Journal

September 5, 2020

By Colleen Heild

Survivors of clergy sexual abuse are seeking permission from a federal bankruptcy judge to file lawsuits alleging the Archdiocese of Santa Fe engaged in a “massive and fraudulent” scheme to divert up to $246 million in assets to avoid bigger payouts to hundreds of victims.

The request comes as efforts to mediate a resolution have stalled in the 18-month-old Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization of the state’s largest Catholic archdiocese.

“Rather than fulfilling its fiduciary duty to maximize the assets of the estate for the benefit of creditors, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe’s primary goal is to protect the asset protection scheme it designed and implemented to put its assets out of the reach of the Survivors,” victims’ lawyers said in a court filing.

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MADISON (WI)
Madison.com

September 5, 2020

By Tamia Fowlkes

https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/madison-catholic-diocese-criticized-for-response-to-misconduct-allegations-against-composer/article_1ab98108-b829-5408-9ca4-bd82c323dd91.html

The Catholic Diocese of Madison is facing criticism for its response to accusations of sexual abuse against David Haas, a prominent Minneapolis-based Catholic composer, best known for songs such as “You Are Mine” and “Blest Are They.”

Nearly 40 women from across the country have accused Haas of sexual misconduct, including forced kissing, unwanted touching and online messaging during large public events in which he led youth education.

Haas is accused of repeatedly harassing young women, some as young as 13, at events such as Music Ministry Alive and Religious Education Congress. Allegations against Haas have been collected and continue to emerge through a system where victims can report abuse by Catholic leaders called IntoAccount.

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IRELAND
BBC News

September 6, 2020

John Boland was 45 years old, married with grown up children, when a “dark secret” he had kept for almost four decades was suddenly exposed.

His name had been found on a 1960s attendance register from a school where many young boys were abused on a daily basis by their teenage teacher.

John was among 19 known victims at Creagh Lane school in Limerick.

But he had told no-one of the abuse he suffered, not even his wife, until Gardaí (Irish police) contacted him out of the blue, asking for a statement.

John says his wife was “shocked” by the revelation.

“We went though a terrible time,” he says, recalling how he had to tell his family he was regularly molested between the ages of six and seven.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

September 6, 2020

Pope Francis said Sunday that gossiping is a “plague worse than COVID” that is seeking to divide the Catholic Church.

Francis strayed from his prepared text to double down on his frequent complaint about gossiping within church communities and even within the Vatican bureaucracy. Francis didn’t give specifics during his weekly blessing, but went on at some length to say the devil is the “biggest gossiper” who is seeking to divide the church with his lies.

“Please brothers and sisters, let’s try to not gossip,” he said. “Gossip is a plague worse than COVID. Worse. Let’s make a big effort: No gossiping!”

Francis’ comments came as he elaborated on a Gospel passage about the need to correct others privately when they do something wrong. The Catholic hierarchy has long relied on this “fraternal correction” among priests and bishops to correct them when they err without airing problems in public.

Survivors of sexual abuse have said this form of private reprimand has allowed abuse to fester in the church and let both predator priests and superiors who covered up for them escape punishment.

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[Appeal rejected in ecclesiastical sexual abuse case]

CATAMARCA (ARGENTINA)
El Ancasti

September 6, 2020

La Causa Contra Juan De Dios Gutiérrez, Más Cerca Del Juicio

[The Case Against Juan De Dios Gutiérrez, Closer To The Trial]

La defensa había presentado un recurso extraordinario. La Corte de Justicia no le hizo lugar.

[The defense had filed an extraordinary appeal. The Court of Justice did not allow it.]

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[They ask that a priest reported for sexual abuse not leave the country]

LA PLATA (ARGENTINA)
Ellitoral.co

September 3, 2020

ACUSADO POR EXALUMNA [Accused by former students]

La denuncia contra un cura por presuntos abusos en un colegio de La Plata avanzó los primeros pasos en los tribunales. El fiscal Alvaro Garganta pidió una prohibición de abandono del país para el sacerdote, reclamó al Arzobispado platense una copia del legajo del hombre bajo sospecha y puso fecha a la audiencia para que la víctima aporte su testimonio en la causa.

[GOOGLE TRANSLATION: The complaint against a priest for alleged abuses in a La Plata school advanced the first steps in the courts. Prosecutor Alvaro Garganta asked for a ban on leaving the country for the priest, demanded a copy of the file of the man under suspicion from the Archdiocese of La Plata and set a date for the hearing for the victim to provide his testimony in the case.]

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[Sexual abuse among priests in the Vatican: On Monday the first hearing in a German diocesan court on the “gay lobby”]

VATICAN CITY
Il Messaggero

September 4, 2020

By Franca Giansoldati

https://www.ilmessaggero.it/vaticano/gay_lobby_vaticano_chiesa_germania_ratzinger_processo_vittima_violenza_omosessuale_curia-5442965.html

Un monsignore tedesco che lavorava in Segreteria di Stato e alloggiava, fino a qualche anno fa a Santa Marta, considerato vicino alla cerchia dell’allora Benedetto XVI è accusato di violenza sessuale da un ex sacerdote (anch’egli tedesco).

[GOOGLE TRANSLATION: A German monsignor who worked in the Secretariat of State and stayed, until a few years ago in Santa Marta, considered close to the circle of the then Benedict XVI, is accused of sexual violence by a former priest (also German).]

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LOUISIANA
The Daily Advertiser

September 4, 2020

By Dan Copp

A group that advocates for Catholic Church sex abuse victims is asking the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux to add a new name to its list of “credibly accused” priests.

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.

Now, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, is asking local Bishop Shelton Fabre to do the same.

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.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican News

September 4, 2020

Australia’s bishops comment on the observations made by the Holy See on recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to the Australian government.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has looked into the Holy See’s response to recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

A media release, published on their website, explains “the Royal Commission proposed that the Bishops Conference engage with the Holy See on those recommendations because they relate to universal Church law or practice”.

80 recommendations

Of the 80 recommendations proposed by the Royal Commission, 47 were accepted, 1 was not accepted, 13 were passed on to the Holy See, 1 is being taken into further consideration, 5 were accepted in principle, 12 are supported, and 1 is supported in principle. In response to all the accepted or supported recommendations, the response also states how they are already being implemented, that Church institutions will comply with any future legislation, or that standards are in development by Catholic Professional Standards Ltd.

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DALLAS (TX)
Christianity Daily

September 4, 2020

By Scott Kang

On August 27, the Dallas County District Attorney’s office moved to drop It’s case against Matthew Tonne, a former associate children’s minister at The Village Church.

In November 2018, Tonne was arrested and charged with having indecent sexual contact with an 11-year-old child. The office of the District Attorney claimed there was “a lack of probable cause,” as the victim could not properly identify Tonne as the offender. J. Mitchell Little, the complainant’s attorney and partner with Scheef & Stone LLP, stated, “Our client and her family are shocked and disgusted.” Little made clear that the state was “sufficiently satisfied” with the identification of Tonne previously and that his client is “ready to identify” him. He will proceed with a civil lawsuit against The Village Church, demanding $1 million for emotional distress and gross negligenc

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

September 5, 2020

By Airlie Ward

At 54, Steve Fisher thought he was finally about to realise his dream of home ownership when hackers robbed him of $90,000.

Mr Fisher had long thought he may not be able to buy a home in his lifetime.

After being abused as a young boy by an Anglican priest, the quest for justice took a toll

Mr Fisher faces a daily battle with PTSD, anxiety and depression.

This year, he reached a compensation settlement with the Anglican Church and planned to use that money to purchase a home in Tasmania’s north-west.

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TEXARKANA (AK)
Texarkana Gazette

September 3, 2020

By Lynn LaRowe
.
Three women have filed a lawsuit stemming from abuse they suffered at the hands of a Texarkana, Arkansas, pastor who is now serving multiple life sentences for child sexual assault.

Aftesha Cooper, Deangela Lang and Stacy Jackson testified in late June and early July that Logan Wesley III, pastor of Trinity Temple Church of God in Christ in Texarkana, Arkansas, sexually abused them for years. At the end of Wesley’s trial in Bowie County, Texas, a jury convicted him of all counts. He is currently serving five consecutive life sentences plus 220 years.

Texarkana lawyer David Carter and Dallas lawyer Neil Smith filed a civil lawsuit Thursday on behalf of Cooper, Lang and Jackson in Miller County, Arkansas, circuit court. Named as defendants in the suit are COGIC Inc. headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., Trinity Temple Church of God in Christ in Texarkana, Arkansas, local missionary Barbara Stuckey of Texarkana, Arkansas, and Logan Wesley’s wife, Cynthia Wesley, of Texarkana, Texas.

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UNITED STATES
America

September 4, 2020

By Kathleen McChesney

The nation was shocked this past spring by the video of a police officer in Minneapolis killing George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for several minutes. This accumulation of similar incidents of police misconduct have prompted calls for criminal justice reform and even “defunding” the police.

Shortly after the Floyd case, America’s John W. Miller identified “Six lessons for police reform from the Catholic Church.” Mr. Miller asked, “Is there anything to be gained by looking at the Catholic Church and how it has tried to better train and manage its priesthood, if not always successfully?”

The answer is a yes, but with some qualifications. The church has had some notable success in reducing the incidence of clerical misconduct. The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate reports that the number of new allegations of sexual abuse against minors and vulnerable adults has dropped significantly since the 1970s. Much of this reduction can be attributed to the implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. Developed and approved by the members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2002 at the height of the sexual abuse crisis, the “Dallas Charter” provides bishops and religious superiors with guidelines to prevent abuse, to respond to persons who have reported acts of abuse and to establish methods of accountability and transparency.

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ISRAEL/AUSTRALIA
Jewish News

September 3, 2020

‘It has been clear to practically everyone following this case that Malka Leifer has taken the Israeli judicial system for a major ride’, said campaigner Manny Waks

Campaigners against child sexual abuse have called for a major review of how a Jewish former headteacher in Australia charged with 74 counts of indecent assault and rape had evaded extradition for more than a decade.

It follows a decision this week from the Supreme Court of Israel rejecting an appeal from Malka Leifer not to be expedited.

Leifer fled to Israel from Australia in 2008 just hours before she was due to be arrested for sexually assaulting students at her Orthodox Adass Israel girls’ school.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

September 3, 2020

By Matthew Xuereb

Claims he was blackmailed by girl, aged 15

A priest has claimed blackmail as he was charged with defiling a 15-year-old girl with whom he was having a sexual relationship for the past four years.

The 40-year-old priest, whose name cannot be published by court order, pleaded not guilty to engaging in sexual activities with the woman when she was still a minor. The sexual activities allegedly took place in June 2017 when the girl was still 15.

As he stood in court wearing a black suit and the priesthood’s white collar, the priest pleaded not guilty to defiling the girl and to participating in sexual activities with her.

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WEST POINT (NE)
Norfolk Daily News

September 3, 2020

By Jerry Guenther

A Catholic priest who resigned from the Archdiocese of Omaha while in West Point after he was accused of misconduct with young adults and minors in Schuyler has sued the archdiocese.

The Rev. Andy Syring, who was a 41-year-old priest who had been assigned to St. Mary Catholic Church in West Point when he resigned in 2018, denied the allegations at the time and continues to do so.

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CAPE TOWN (SOUTH AFRICA)
IOL

September 1, 2020

By Robin-Lee Francke

The Anglican Church’s Safe and Inclusive Church Commission’s offer to assist the female priest who has been vocal about her alleged rape by a fellow member of the cloth has been accepted.

The commission, known as Safe Church, was established in 2019 and includes gender activists who have been campaigning to root out abuse.

Reverend June Major, 51, has alleged that she was raped in 2002 at the Grahamstown seminary by a fellow priest and has accused the clergy of doing nothing about the crime.

On Tuesday she released a statement stating she would be accepting the help of Safe Church extended last month.

“I have decided to accept your invitation to participate in the Safe Church’s process to investigate my allegations of rape and the Anglican Church’s role in protecting my rapist, who still ministers in the Diocese of Cape Town, resulting in my isolation and further traumatisation as a victim,” Major said.

She stated her reason for accepting the assistance was for justice to be served within the church, which operates in a country where rape and violence are prevalent.

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St. Louis (MO)
SNAP Network

September 2, 2020

A former Franciscan brother whose sexual abuse of impoverished black children in Mississippi made national news last year has been arrested and charged in two states on multiple charges of child sex assault. According to the AP, West was first charged in Appleton, Wisconsin last month and was extradited Wednesday to Mississippi where he faces additional charges.

According to the criminal complaints and at least three of his victims, after sexually abusing them in Mississippi, West brought them to Wisconsin and New York state where he further assaulted them. Both West and his religious order, the Franciscan Friars of the Assumption, who are headquartered in Franklin, Wisconsin are also subject to a civil case filed in New York state. All the victims were students at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic grade school in the 1990’s, also known as a Catholic “mission school”, where West was principle when they were abused.

The arrest is particularly noteworthy for the disturbing evidence of racial bias in how the Franciscan Friars treated his victims when they reported him to church authorities. According to the AP, the current Provincial, Fr. James Gannon, not only required the victims to sign secrecy agreements in exchange for compensation – a clear violation of the US Bishops policy since 2002 – two of the victims were offered a paltry $15,000 each, far below the average compensation for non-black survivors. One victim was first offered $10,000 towards a used car. Gannon also appears to have deliberately misled victims as to the criminal statute of limitations, telling them that West could no longer be prosecuted for his crimes. During these conversations, none of the victims were represented by legal counsel.

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ALASKA
SNAP Network

September 3, 2020

Dear Senator Murkowski:

We are leaders of SNAP, the Survivors’ Network of those Abused by Priests, an international non-profit organization that has spent the past thirty years advocating for survivors of clergy sexual abuse, working to prevent future cases of sexual violence, and exposing cases of institutional abuse. We are writing to you today regarding a concerning situation that involves your hometown and a serially abusive Catholic priest who was quietly sent there.

Fr. Gary Carr was sent to Ketchikan from Missouri and over the course of his career he also was shuffled at various times to New Mexico and Arizona. He is accused in multiple lawsuits in Missouri of sexually abusing children, and the diocese that he originally worked in has identified him as a credibly accused child abuser. In Ketchikan, Fr. Carr worked as the principal at Holy Name Catholic School, a position he held despite already having been accused of sexual abuse in the early 1990s.

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HOUSTON (TX)
SNAP Network

September 3, 2020

An employee at a Catholic school in the Archdiocese of Houston has been arrested on child sexual assault charges. We now call on Catholic officials in Houston to do outreach to parents and parishioners and to update their list of the credibly accused to include this staffer and all other lay employees in Houston that have hurt children or vulnerable adults.

Ronald See, an IT staffer at St. Anthony Padua Catholic Church and School in The Woodlands Township, TX, has been arrested for grooming and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl who was a family friend. While See did not find the victim through his position at St. Anthony Padua, it is possible that he could have had access to other children while working in the school and parish. It is critical that Cardinal Daniel DiNardo use every resource at his disposal to ensure parents and parishioners at St. Anthony’s are made aware of the story and that anyone who may have seen or suspected crimes by See or any other church employees are encouraged to come forward to law enforcement.

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