ABUSE TRACKER

ALAMOGORDO (NM)
Alamogordo Daily News

May 6, 2020

By Nicole Maxwell

[See also the lawsuit.]

A lawsuit centered on child molestation by Fr. David Holley named two Alamogordo Catholic parishes and several dioceses as defendants.

The suit, filed in the 2nd Judicial District Court in Bernalillo County, alleged the Servants of Paraclete, the Catholic Diocese of El Paso, Diocese of Worcester, Dioces of Las Cruces, the Immaculate Conception Parish and St. Jude Parish allowed Holley to prey on boys within the Alamogordo parishes during his time in New Mexico in the 1970s.

The suit was filed by “John Doe” and demanded a jury trial and restitution. The complaint alleged negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, vicarious liability, public nuisance and racketeering.

Immaculate Conception Catholic Church offered no comment on the suit.

The suit places most of the blame on Holley’s home diocese: the Diocese of Worcester, located in Massachusetts.

It gives a history of child sexual offenses that Holley was alleged to have perpetrated in Massachusetts prior to transfer to the Servants of the Paraclete in New Mexico.

The Servants of the Paraclete operated a rehabilitation center initially for priests with substance abuse issues before it admitted priests with psycho-sexual disorder, which was what Holley had, according to the complaint.

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)
New England Public Radio

May 6, 2020

By Adam Frenier

The Springfield Roman Catholic Diocese and three western Massachusetts prosecutors have reached a deal on how the church will report sexual abuse allegations.

Under the memorandum of understanding, the diocese has to turn over information about sexual abuse claims it receives to the appropriate district attorney’s office. The church also will suspend its own investigation for three months, or longer if a criminal probe is taking place.

The deal comes after Hampden District Attorney Anthony Gulluni said last year the diocese was failing to refer all cases to prosecutors. Gulluni said this latest agreement should clear up those concerns.

“We’re happy with this, that this will be in place going forward, to make sure that if any of those allegations come forward to the diocese, that they’re given to law enforcement [and] law enforcement has the appropriate opportunity to investigate cases,” Gulluni 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.

PINELLAS PARK (FL)
Legal Examiner – Saunders and Walker

May 6, 2020

By Joseph H. Saunders

The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, which has recently been hit by hundreds of child sex abuse claims, has announced it will terminate pay and health benefits for 23 priests involved in the allegations. The move comes after the diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late February.

The diocese is facing over 250 lawsuits alleging child sex abuse by its priests. That’s more than any other diocese in New York.

In a letter, Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger explained that the termination of pay was part of an agreement reached in federal bankruptcy court with the committee representing over 200 survivors suing the diocese under New York’s Child Victims Act. Enacted on August 15, 2019, the statewide Child Victims Act opened a one-year window for survivors to sue the Catholic Church for abuse they suffered as children, despite how much time has passed.

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)
Catholic Weekly – Archdiocese of Sydney

May 7, 2020

By Dr Philippa Martyr

A difficult conversation – but necessary

If we are going to do real soul-searching about clergy sexual abuse, it’s time we turned the spotlight on to the laity and their role in enabling abusers.

This is a difficult conversation to begin. We are used to seeing ourselves as the good guys, and the solution, not the problem: that if we had lay-led parishes or diocesan offices, this would rid us of clergy abuse for good.

Unfortunately, history is not on our side. Cases of clergy sexual abuse in the English-speaking world reveal any number of compromised lay people who have helped with covering up and explaining away, either directly or indirectly.

The ‘lay clericalism’ of the insiders

They are usually wealthy and influential, or employed by the Church, or in useful professions. Start with the Boston case, so admirably narrated in ‘Spotlight’- a good reminder that almost all clergy abuse has been exposed by outsider journalists, not by people inside 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.

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Associated Press

May 5, 2020

By Jm Mustian and Michael Rezendes

A bankruptcy filing by New Orleans’ Roman Catholic archdiocese freezes sexual abuse lawsuits and could help bury the details of alleged coverups of predator priests and thousands of internal emails documenting a behind-the-scenes alliance with the New Orleans Saints.

Attorneys for those suing the church attacked last week’s Chapter 11 filing as a veiled attempt to keep church records secret, scrap a long-awaited legal deposition of Archbishop Gregory Aymond and deny victims a public reckoning that had been years in the making.

“Those victims were on the path to the truth,” attorney Soren Gisleson wrote in court papers. “The rape of children is a thief that keeps on stealing.”

Among the most explosive legal fights now in disarray is a lawsuit alleging Aymond and his three predecessors systematically concealed the crimes of the Rev. Lawrence Hecker, an 88-year-old priest removed from active ministry in 2002 after accusations that he abused “countless children.”

A recent court motion drew direct parallels between the church’s handling of Hecker and John Geoghan, a serial pedophile who molested scores of children during his 30-year career as a Massachusetts clergyman.

The bankruptcy also freezes a court battle over a cache of confidential emails describing the behind-the-scenes public relations work New Orleans Saints executives did for the archdiocese in 2018 and 2019 to contain fallout from clergy abuse scandals.

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Archdiocese of Philadelphia

May 5, 2020

By Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

With the worldwide outbreak of the coronavirus, life as we understand it has temporarily changed in drastic and necessary ways for the good of public health. I know that these difficult times have brought concerns about physical and mental health, family, loved ones, and finances to the forefront of your minds. As a people of faith, we will continue to navigate these challenging waters together.

As your Shepherd it is my duty to provide for the pastoral and temporal well-being of every member of our local Church. Some of those most in need of our care and compassion are survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of Archdiocesan clergy. I deeply regret the pain and suffering of survivors and any decisions that failed to protect them. The pain and damage are profound.

In November of 2018, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia committed to creating new modes of support focused on a path toward healing and helping survivors. To supplement the Victim Assistance Program in place since 2002, the Archdiocese launched the Independent Reconciliation and Reparations Program (IRRP). It has provided an opportunity for survivors to share their experiences, identify their abusers, and receive compensation to assist them in healing and recovery. From its outset, this program included a comprehensive financial plan to provide for its funding. As the claims submission period has now passed, we are providing you with an update on the progress of this important ministerial outreach.

As of April 22, 2020, a total of 800 individuals have come forward to the IRRP. 615 of these individuals have submitted formal claims. The Archdiocese remains fully committed to funding this program and paying claims in the amounts assigned by the independent IRRP Claims Administrators. Given the claims experience to date, the Archdiocese currently estimates the total cost of the IRRP to be approximately $130 million. As of April 22, 2020, $43.8 million of total compensation had already been paid to resolve 208 claims fully.

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

May 5, 2020

By Harold Brubaker

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia said Tuesday that it expects to pay $126 million to sexual-abuse victims under a reparations program announced in 2018.

The archdiocese said its Independent Reconciliation and Reparations Program has received a total of 615 claims, and had settled 208 of them for $43.8 million as of April 22. That averages out to about $211,000 per claim, which is in line with what other dioceses have been paying under similar programs.

The archdiocese said it still has $20 million on hand to pay claims and will raise the rest of the money through loans or property sales. The diocese made the $126 million estimate as part of an audited financial statement for the year ending June 30, 2019.

“I deeply regret the pain and suffering of survivors and any decisions that failed to protect them,” Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez wrote to parishioners in a letter Tuesday. “The pain and damage are profound.”

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WPVI ABC 6

May 6, 2020

By Dann Cuellar

In a profound letter to parishioners, the newly installed Archbishop of Philadelphia, Nelson Perez, addressed claims of prior priest sex abuse of children head-on, saying the archdiocese is committed to paying about $130 million in reparations.

When new Archbishop Perez came to Philadelphia from Cleveland a few months ago, he inherited a mess stemming from the priest sex abuse scandal. But on Tuesday, he says in a letter that he deeply regrets the pain and suffering of survivors and any decisions that failed to protect them.

A victim of sex abuse and spokesman for a survivors group called SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), recently met with the archbishop.

“I found the archbishop to be compassionate. I found him to be concerning, and he expressed his own personal anger and disgust of what has happened,” said Mike McDougal.

In the letter, the archbishop says that the archdiocese remains fully committed to funding a reparations program for victims and paying claims of approximately $130 million. That’s roughly about $211,000 per claim.

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 ORLEANS (LA)
Times-Picayune / New Orleans Advocate

May 4, 2020

By Matt Sledge

A federal judge said Monday that the Archdiocese of New Orleans can keep its lights on, but she held off on other decisions as the first hearing of the archdiocese’s bankruptcy process turned into a skirmish between lawyers for alleged victims of sexual abuse and the church.

The archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday, citing the financial fallout from abuse lawsuits and the coronavirus pandemic. The move essentially kicks a multitude of lawsuits against the church out of state court and into a single federal case.

While the bankruptcy process continues, the church asked for approval to keep paying utility bills, salaries for hundreds of employees and insurance premiums.

Such requests are standard procedure at the time of a bankruptcy filing, but attorneys wrangled over them for more than two hours during a telephone hearing on Monday.

Accusers’ lawyers said the judge should order that no salary or pension payments be made to predator priests and demanded to know the archdiocese’s plan for using cash in one bank account.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith S. Grabill said she would approve requests from the church to keep making utility and insurance payments. She also approved salary payments for nearly 800 full-time and part-time employees.

However, Grabill also said the church should not make salary or pension payments to employees who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. The church in 2018 revealed a list of dozens of suspected predator priests.

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)
Australian Associated Press via The Guardian

May 5, 2020

The federal attorney general says two separate reports on abuse in the Melbourne and Ballarat dioceses can now be released in full

A royal commission’s findings about Cardinal George Pell’s knowledge of historical child sexual abuse complaints will be released within days.

The federal attorney general, Christian Porter, says he has been advised that the two royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse reports can now be published in full.

Porter said that would happen within days, although he would not give a specific release date.

“The advice is that it is now okay to publish the unredacted version,” he told the ABC on Tuesday.

Porter said he would read the reports and consider the final legal advice, but did not expect there to be any problem with the release of the documents.

“They’ve only just arrived with me now that that advice has been received, so it’s just a matter of process from here and that will be a matter of days.”

The reports into the Catholic church’s response to abuse complaints and allegations in the Melbourne archdiocese and Victoria’s Ballarat diocese were released in December 2017.

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 (MO)
Religion News Service

May 4, 2020

By Christa Brown

For more than a decade, abuse survivor advocates have been asking the Southern Baptist Convention to establish a clergy predator database, and for just as long they’ve been confronted with a denomination determined to do nothing.

Now Megan and Dominique Benninger, who brought to light their former pastor’s record as a convicted child molester after the leadership of their Pennsylvania church failed to disclose it, have launched a new Baptist sex abuser database at BaptistAccountability.org.

Their work builds on the StopBaptistPredators database that I started and maintained from 2006 to 2012, containing 170 entries of convicted, admitted and credibly accused Southern Baptist clergy sex abusers and on the “Abuse of Faith” database that the Houston Chronicle published in 2019, documenting 263 criminally convicted and plea-bargained Southern Baptist sex offenders over the prior 20 years.

BaptistAccountability has incorporated the information from these prior databases and is continuing to expand through crowdsourcing. You can submit an entry here.

In explaining the purpose of their database, the Benningers focus not only on protecting kids and congregants but also on their stated desire that the site serve as “a testimony” to the fact that “it’s just not that hard” and that the SBC could do this if it wanted. “Again and again,” they say, “we’ve been told that the Southern Baptist Convention takes this issue seriously. But if you take something seriously, it causes you to ACT.”

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)
Associated Press

May 4, 2020

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo has taken legal action seeking to stop all outstanding clergy sexual abuse lawsuits while it navigates bankruptcy proceedings in federal court.

The diocese filed a motion in federal bankruptcy court on Saturday seeking an injunction on lawsuits filed under New York’s Child Victims Act. About 250 lawsuits have been filed against the diocese since August, when the act gave victims one year to pursue even decades-old allegations of abuse.

Lawsuits against the diocese were moved to bankruptcy court in February and permanently frozen, but the bankruptcy filing only temporarily halted lawsuits against individual parishes or Catholic schools. Those cases could be moved back into state supreme court unless the diocese is granted a permanent injunction.

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)
Spectrum News

May. 4, 2020

Lawyers for the Buffalo Catholic Diocese are asking for the abuse lawsuits filed under the Child Victims Act to be put on hold.

Attorneys for clergy sex abuse survivors are rallying against the latest legal move by the diocese.

Lawyers representing the diocese filed an adversary proceeding in bankruptcy court, stating the abuse lawsuits could prevent the diocese from reorganizing its debts.

A local attorney who’s filed more than 100 sex abuse claims against the diocese says this move could force those cases out of state supreme court, and limit what information the diocese would be forced to reveal.

It’s something lawyers already had to deal with in the Rochester Diocese.

“What we did in that case is we negotiated a stipulate stay with them on a temporary bases in exchange for the personnel files and in Rochester the diocese has turned over about 43,000 some pages of personnel files and other records,” said attorney Steve Boyd. “We don’t think those records are complete yet, but it’s a lot more than nothing.”

Mitchell Garabedian is another attorney representing 39 survivors who are suing the diocese.

“This legal maneuver by the Diocese of Buffalo is just another example of the Catholic Church coldly putting its needs before the needs of victims,” he said. “Instead of trying to negotiate an agreement the Diocese has chosen to litigate and accordingly once again shown how little it cares about the healing of 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.

NEW YORK (NY)
The Conversation

April 30, 2020

By Jane Barter

When Jean Vanier passed away in May 2019, the Canadian Catholic founder of the L’Arche International movement that challenged barriers between people with disabilities and able-bodied people was hailed as a “saviour to people on the margins.”

But since news of his abuse of six women broke in Feburary 2020, many who once thought him a hero have struggled to make sense of the man and his legacy.

I include myself in this group.

As a former caregiver of people with disablities, I came to see Vanier’s theology of disability as one that had the capacity to transform not only hearts and minds, but also communities and structures. But since learning of the abuse, I have come to see it otherwise.

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.

SAULT STE. MARIE (ONTARIO, CANADA)
SooToday

May 1, 2020

https://www.sootoday.com/local-news/supreme-court-says-basilian-fathers-responsible-for-25m-in-damages-to-sexual-abuse-victim-rod-macleod-2318411

Canada’s highest court upholds decision from Ontario Court of Appeals that religious order liable for damages

Rod MacLeod, the victim of a pedophile priest in the 1960s at a Sudbury high school, said he hopes his latest legal victory will inspire other sexual abuse victims to come forward and “seek justice through the court.”

MacLeod made the comments on April 30 when the Supreme Court of Canada rejected the Basilian Fathers of Toronto’s bid for a further appeal after they were held responsible when one of their priests was convicted in 2011 of abusing 17 students at schools over a 38-year period.

MacLeod was one of those students. He was abused by Father William Hodgson Marshall when he attended St. Charles College from 1963-1967.

MacLeod received $500,000 in punitive damages and more than $1.5 million for lost earnings.

“It is possible to achieve justice in Canada,” MacLeod said in a news release following the decision from the Supreme Court of Canada.

Marshall worked in Rochester, Toronto, Windsor, Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie, and was reported a total of six times over his career, but continued in his role as a priest and teacher. He died in 2014.

Instead of reporting Marshall to the police, the Basilian Fathers moved him to another school when abuse complaints emerged. The Basilians are a Roman Catholic Religious Order of priests who operate on three continents, including in Canada and the United States, with their headquarters located in Toronto, Ontario.

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)
WIVB

May 3, 2020

The Diocese of Buffalo has taken legal action to stop lawsuits filed under the Child Victims’ Act from moving forward.

The Diocese recently filed an adversary proceeding.

Currently, all of the lawsuits against the Diocese are frozen because it’s in bankruptcy. However, lawsuits that name a parish or school are only stopped temporarily because the parish or school is not in bankruptcy, meaning that they could still go to trial.

Attorney Steve Boyd told News 4 that this action is meant to freeze the cases so that they don’t reach the courtroom.

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.

BROOKLYN (NY)
Brooklyn Reader

May 2, 2020

By Albert Cooper

The Child Victims Act (CVA), which was enacted last year, is widely lauded for opening up the time frame for victims of child sexual abuse to file lawsuits over claims that were previously barred from court due to the statute of limitations.

Amid the pandemic that has nearly clogged the wheel of justice, state lawmakers are yet to decide on extending a one-year legal window that allowed survivors of child sex abuse to sue over decades-old allegations.

The legal window is set to close in August, but New York’s court system is no longer accepting CVA lawsuits. Since the state’s court system has postponed all non-essential services and the CVA lawsuits were not listed as essential under an order from Lawrence Marks, the state’s chief administrative judge, this has effectively placed a hold on new litigation under the act.

It should be noted that an executive order from Cuomo last month paused the state’s statute of limitations, tolling “any specific time limit for the commencement, filing, or service of any legal action, notice, motion, or other process or proceeding.”

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.

BRISTOL (CT)
ESPN

May 1, 2020

Detroit – A former wrestler who claims he was sexually assaulted by a University of Michigan sports doctor waited too long to file a lawsuit, the school said Friday as it asked a judge to dismiss the case.

The university said it believes Dr. Robert Anderson assaulted athletes, and it wants to compensate victims. But it added that it’s trying to avoid “drawn-out litigation” while a law firm investigates what happened during Anderson’s decades in Ann Arbor. He died in 2008.

“The university is committed to grappling with those findings, whatever they may be, to ensure that nothing like this can ever happen again,” attorneys said in a filing in U.S. District Court.

In his lawsuit, a man identified as John Doe MC-4 said he was molested by Anderson during exams approximately 16 times, from 1987 to 1991. Hundreds of others have said they too were assaulted, some as far back as the 1960s.

“The university has great sympathy for what plaintiff suffered,” attorney Cheryl Bush said of Doe.

But in Doe’s case, Bush noted that decades have passed since the last abuse, making the lawsuit untimely.

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.

ATLANTA (GA)
CNN

May 4, 2020

By Eliott C. McLaughlin

It was the snap of the doctor’s glove that spooked him right out of the exam room.

Chuck Christian is a large fellow, a 6-foot-4 former tight end for one of the most decorated college football programs in the country. He doesn’t come off as squeamish.

Yet about 15 years ago, when a physician prepared to perform a prostate exam after Christian discovered blood in his semen, the big man simply walked out of the office. He harkened back decades to his days as a Michigan Wolverine, when team Dr. Robert Anderson allegedly performed unwarranted prostate checks on athletes.

“Nobody’s going to do that again,” he thought as he escaped the urology clinic. “That’s why I didn’t go get the exam because of my fear of these digital exams that Dr. Anderson used to give me.”

Today, Christian, 60, has stage 4 prostate cancer that has spread to his spine, tailbone, hips, ribs and shoulders.
Doctors told him in 2016 he had three years to live, but he just passed the four-year mark, he said, explaining that he opted for alternative treatments over chemotherapy and radiation.

The married father of three wishes he would’ve realized sooner that his fear of doctors stemmed from the trauma he says he suffered as a University of Michigan student-athlete in Anderson’s exam room. He’s speaking up so other former athletes don’t make the mistake he made, of waiting too long to get checked.

No one should be ashamed of being a victim, 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.

GUAM
Guam Daily Post

May 4, 2020

By Haidee Eugenio Gilbert

A former Guam resident now living in Virginia sits on an official committee that represents the interests of potentially thousands of survivors of child sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts of America’s bankruptcy case.

Guam’s abuse claims represent more than a quarter of the approximately 275 pending civil actions asserting personal injury claims against the Boy Scouts across the nation, as of Feb. 18.

Across the United States, some 1,400 additional claims of abuse against the Boy Scouts are anticipated.

Morgan Wade Paul, a former Guam altar boy and Boy Scout, was appointed to sit on the nine-member official committee of unsecured creditors in the Boy Scouts bankruptcy.

Paul, represented by Lujan & Wolff LLP, filed a Guam lawsuit in 2017, alleging that Guam priest and Boy Scout scoutmaster Louis Brouillard had sexually abused him repeatedly for a scout swimming merit badge around 1975.

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 ORLEANS (LA)
Archdiocese of New Orleans

May 1, 2020

By Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

The past few years have been extremely trying times for us in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. The resurgence of the clergy abuse crisis has been particularly challenging, especially as it has played out regularly in the local media.Most importantly, again, I extend daily prayers to those who are victims and survivors. May God give you healing and renewed hope. This issue coupled with ongoing budget challenges has created an impossible situation.

After much prayer and consultation, we have made the difficult decision to pursue Chapter 11 reorganization. I, along with a team of advisors, believe that reorganization will create an opportunity for us to renew our commitment to the faithful and the New Orleans community by restructuring our financials, increasing our transparency and creating a path forward in hopes that we can continue and strengthen our core mission: bringing Christ to others. This reorganization will affect only the archdiocesan administrative offices.

The prospect of more abuse cases with associated prolonged and costly litigation, together with pressing ministerial needs and budget challenges, is simply not financially sustainable. Additionally, the unforeseen circumstances surrounding COVID-19 have added more financial hardships to an already difficult situation.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Daily Mail

May 3, 2020

By Australian Associated Press and Jackson Barron for Daily Mail

– Gerald Ridsdale is facing 14 more assault charges from Victoria in 1973 to 1979
– The charges will likely extend his release date and have Ridsdale die in prison
– He has been charged with 136 offences, with some victims as young as four
– Ridsdale admitted more rapes and his lawyer argued he shouldn’t get more time
– Barrister Tim Marsh said he should have been sentenced for his crimes at once

Paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale is likely to die in jail as he faces more sexual abuse charges.

The 85-year-old will be heard on May 14 for 10 indecent assault charges and four buggery charges in Victoria between 1973 and 1979 to further his time behind bars.

The charges will likely extend his time behind bars beyond 2022, his earliest release date.

Ridsdale is suffering chronic health problems including heart conditions, arthristis, bowel problems and high blood pressure.

He has been charged with 136 offences since 1994, with his barrister Tim Marsh telling The Australian he is ‘a repugnant figure to many, and for reasons that are only too understandable’.

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AUSTRALIA
Malaysia Sun

By Chris Fiel

May 3, 2020

– In the wake of Cardinal George Pell’s acquittal, commentators have asked whether the Australian national broadcaster engaged in a witch-hunt.

– I have written on Farlow previously identifying the close links with the lawyer who acted for Pell’s complainant.

In the wake of Cardinal George Pell’s acquittal, commentators have asked whether the Australian national broadcaster, the ABC, engaged in a witch-hunt.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Associated Press

May 1, 2020

By Kevin McGill

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans announced Friday that it is seeking federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection amid growing legal costs related to sexual abuse by priests.

The filing for reorganization could free the archdiocese from the threat of creditors’ lawsuits while it reorganizes its finances. The New Orleans archdiocese is the latest of more than 20 dioceses nationwide to take such action.

Friday’s statement said costs associated with preventing the spread of coronavirus also have contributed to financial pressures.

The archdiocese said the filing applies only to the administrative offices of the archdiocese. “The Archdiocese’s action will not affect individual church parishes, their schools, schools run by the various religious orders, or ministries of the church,” the statement said.

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WAUKESHA (WI)
Fox 6 TV News

May 1, 2020

The Waukesha County District Attorney will not pursue new charges against a priest accused of sexual assault of a teenage girl.

Father Charles Hanel was accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in December 2017 during confession at Queen of Apostles Church.

At trial, the judge agreed to a motion for a mistrial and dismissed the jury.

Now, in a letter obtained by FOX6 News, District Attorney Sue Opper said she will not seek new charges to avoid the strain of a new trial for all of the parties involved.

Hanel’s defense attorney said the decision is welcome news for “an innocent man who has been through a terrible ordeal.”

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 ORLEANS (LA)
Nola.com

May 1, 2020

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

Archbishop Gregory Aymond, facing the mounting financial toll of the Catholic church’s child sexual-abuse crisis and the more acute money troubles wrought by the coronavirus, filed the paperwork early Friday morning to seek bankruptcy protection for the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Aymond, the leader of the two-century old archdiocese serving half a million area Catholics, broke the news in person to dozens of mask-wearing clergy Thursday evening at a Metairie church before officially submitting the documents to federal bankruptcy court a little after midnight.

On Friday, he told the faithful that the filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition is aimed at putting the archdiocese on sounder financial footing in the wake of millions of dollars in abuse claims.

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 ORLEANS (LA)
Nola.com

May 2, 2020

By John Simerman

For the Archdiocese of New Orleans, shadow-boxing the sins of its past became a fight too risky to stomach.

Now, in the wake of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Friday, the archdiocese and its creditors — mostly sexual abuse claimants — will begin to negotiate the price for a move bound to have lasting repercussions for the archdiocese and its accusers, for better or worse.

The outcome will hinge on several factors, as clergy abuse claims move en masse from the drag-it-out halls of state court, to a single federal bankruptcy proceeding with no jury and a swifter pace, say lawyers and advocates familiar with the 26 previous bankruptcy filings by U.S. dioceses since 2004.

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RICHMOND (VA)
Martinsville Bulletin

May 2, 2020

By Bill Wyatt

The ongoing dispute between Father Mark White of Martinsville and Bishop of Richmond Barry Knestout will be decided by a Catholic court.

The boiling dispute between a Martinsville priest and a Richmond bishop could wind up spilling over the doorstep of the Vatican in Rome.

That is the intention of Michael Podhajsky, the canon lawyer retained by Father Mark White to defend against the efforts of Richmond Bishop Barry Knestout to remove White as pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Martinsville and St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Rocky Mount.

Knestout issued a decree effective April 13, the day after Easter Sunday, removing White and declaring the priest had “persistently disregarded” repeated instructions “to desist from his scurrilous and public, published attacks on His Holiness, Pope Francis and other members of the hierarchy.”

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HELENA (MT)
Independent Record

May 1, 2020

By Phoebe Tollefson

The one-year window Montana lawmakers opened to give child sex abuse survivors a chance to bring old claims is closing soon, and a flurry of lawsuits is hitting the courts.

Adults who were abused as children have until May 6 to bring claims otherwise barred by the statute of limitations. The Montana Legislature created the window in 2019, prompted by news of a lawsuit against James “Doc” Jensen, a Miles City high school athletic trainer who abused dozens of boys while working with the district between the 1970s and 1990s.

After May 6, various restrictions are reinstated on which claims can be brought. Factors include age of the victim, and whether the abuser is still alive.

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AMAZON (BRAZIL)
HuffPost.com

April 21, 2020

By Travis Waldron

Indigenous Brazilians are demanding a missionary group based in Florida with deep ties to far-right President Jair Bolsonaro stay off their lands.

The novel coronavirus outbreak has intensified a decadeslong battle between indigenous tribes and evangelical Christian missionaries in the most remote regions of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, as tribes warning of the virus’s potential to cause their “genocide” have pushed to ban controversial religious groups from entering their lands.

On Thursday, a Brazilian judge granted the tribes’ wishes, barring missionaries from entering the Javari Valley, a remote region along Brazil’s border with Peru that is home to numerous indigenous tribes and at least 16 groups of isolated peoples ― those who have no known contact with outside communities.

The ruling specifically named three missionaries, as well as New Tribes Mission of Brazil, a 67-year-old fundamentalist Christian organization that is affiliated with a larger evangelical missionary group in the United States. New Tribes also has deep ties to the right-wing government of President Jair Bolsonaro, who in February tapped Ricardo Lopes Dias, a former New Tribes missionary, to head the agency that is supposed to protect Brazil’s isolated peoples.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WVUE, Fox 8-TV

May 1, 2020

By Kimberly Curth

SNAP reacts to Archdiocese bankruptcy filing

Attorneys for alleged church sex abuse victims with pending lawsuits against the Archdiocese of New Orleans released the following statement Friday responding to the Archdiocese’s bankruptcy filing.

STATEMENT OF VICTIM-SURVIVORS’ LEGAL TEAM:

“Regarding the Archdiocese’s midnight filing for bankruptcy, Archbishop Gregory Aymond stated, “I strongly believe that this path will allow victims and survivors of clergy abuse to resolve their claims in a fair and timely manner.” Unfortunately, this is not what our client-survivors believe, and of course, Abp. Aymond made no attempt to find out what the victim-survivors believed. When he released the incomplete list of pedophile clergy on November 2, 2018, Abp. Aymond said he wanted “justice” for the victims and promised to be totally transparent. He then proceeded to spend ungodly amounts of money fighting these very same victims in court and being the exact opposite of transparent. This bankruptcy brings all pending lawsuits, including the depositions of Aymond and other Archdiocese officials, to a grinding halt. Abp. Aymond will never have to face a single victim before a jury.

“The Archdiocese sought to keep internal documents of decades of sexual abuse hidden from the public. The Archdiocese sought to keep the victims from understanding the full weight and scope of its intentional, conscious scheme to protect, promote, and pay child rapists. Its bankruptcy filing is more of the same. …”

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ENGLAND
Times of London

May 2, 2020

By Marc Horne

An English-based paedophile had connections with Celtic Boys Club it has emerged, strengthening claims of collusion between a network of abusers.

Father Michael Spencer, a priest, teacher and football coach, used his position at Preston Catholic College, Lancashire, to abuse dozens of adolescent boys in the 1970s.

Now evidence has emerged which shows that Spencer, who died in 2000, forged a relationship with Celtic FC’s feeder club and brought young players to Glasgow. Four men who held senior roles with Celtic Boys Club have been convicted of sexual abuse, spanning four decades, in recent years.

Police Scotland is investigating claims that known abusers worked together to molest young footballers.

It came after an independent review — commissioned by the Scottish FA — received “substantive” new evidence of an organised abuse ring operated by paedophile coaches in Scotland and England.

Celtic View, Celtic FC’s official magazine, carried an article praising Spencer in August, 1975. It said he had been invited to Glasgow for a “friendly” match between Celtic Boys Club and his Preston Schoolboys under 15 team.

In 2012 Patrick Raggett, a former lawyer, was awarded £55,000 in damages for the years of abuse Spencer inflicted on him during his schooldays.

Lady Justice Swift at the High Court in London ruled Mr Raggett had been the victim of “insidious” abuse, stating: “Father Spencer took every opportunity to observe naked young boys and film them. He exploited his position to touch and fondle the boys for his own sexual satisfaction.”

Mr Raggett told The Times: “It seems inconceivable to me that Spencer and those responsible for abuse at Celtic Boys Club weren’t in collusion.”

His abuser filmed and photographed him naked on numerous occasions as well as taking shots of him in his football kit and swimming trunks.

Mr Ragget said: “Spencer was a Celtic fanatic and had an obsession with photography and filming. He used to wear a black tracksuit with a Celtic badge and would show cine footage of the Celtic Boys Club playing, which would bore us rigid. I also believe he was sharing naked footage of me with others.”

In 2004 John Cullen, who worked as the official photographer for Celtic View for almost 30 years, admitted taking indecent photographs of boys as young as 10. Cleaners found a black bag containing bundles of black and white images of naked and semi-naked boys in a store room at Celtic Park.

Glasgow sheriff court heard the cache had been hidden there for almost 20 years before the management was alerted, called in the police and sacked Cullen, who was given three years probation.

In 1976 Spencer’s conduct was deemed to be “unsatisfactory”, but he remained at the college until it closed in 1978 before being sent to Orkney.

The review into abuse in Scottish football, due to be published within weeks, is expected to name Gordon Neely, a former Rangers and Hibernian youth coach, as a prolific abuser who worked with other paedophiles in northwest England. Neely died of cancer in 2014.

Celtic FC has said that it is sorry that abuse took place but continues to insist that it was a separate entity to its feeder club.

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MEDELLÍN (COLOMBIA)
Explica

May 1, 2020

Yepes was denounced in recent years by three men who, they say, were victims of sexual abuse by the priest when they were minors

The Colombian priest Carlos Arturo Yepes has been provisionally suspended from the exercise of all priestly ministry by order of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of The Vatican for allegations of alleged sexual abuse.

This was confirmed by the vicar general of the Archdiocese of Medellín, Father Óscar Augusto Álvarez, who assured Caracol Radio that “the Congregation has just ordered the carrying out of a canonical criminal judicial process and has been suspended ad cautelam.”

The Archdiocese of Medellín In 2018, he opened a formal investigation to Yepes for the complaint of a 36-year-old man who claimed to have been abused, when he was still a child, by the religious in 1995.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Catholic News Agency

May 1, 2020

By Matt Hadro

The Diocese of Buffalo clarified on Friday that priests accused of sexual abuse cannot be left “destitute,” even as the diocese acts to withdraw financial support payments.

The diocese had announced earlier this week that 23 priests “with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse” would no longer receive financial assistance or health benefits from the Diocese of Buffalo as of May 1. However, the diocese said that pension plans would not be affected by the decision.

Interim communications director for the diocese Greg Tucker told CNA on Friday that “the diocese recognizes that there are certain canonical obligations to ensure that these individuals are not left destitute and is addressing this.”

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UNITED STATES
Eurasia Review

May 1, 2020

By William Donohue

If Joe Biden were a priest, he would have been removed from ministry pending a more thorough investigation. Instead, he is holed up in his basement talking to the media. Until May 1, no one from the media asked him one question about sexually assaulting Tara Reade.

On April 29, the Free Beacon reported that in 19 interviews he granted over a 5-week period, he fielded 142 questions, but not one was about Reade. In fact, when Biden was interviewed on April 28, even though he teed it up for reporters by discussing domestic violence and challenges that women face, none asked him about his accuser. That changed when Biden was questioned by Mika Brzezinski on the MSNBC show, “Morning Joe.”

Five people have corroborated at least some parts of Reade’s account. She says Biden, then a senator, digitally penetrated her against her will in 1993. She says she reported the assault to three of his staffers. She also filed a Senate complaint. What happened? She was subject to reprisal. She said her assignments were downgraded, and she was moved to an isolated workstation. She was also told she had 12 months to find another job

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TORONTO (CANADA)
Windsor Star

Mary 2, 2020

By Trevor Wilhelm

The Supreme Court of Canada has shot down the appeal of a $2.5 million judgment against the Basilian Fathers of Toronto for sexual abuse inflicted by Rev. William “Hod” Hodgson Marshall.

The country’s highest court handed down its decision against the Basilians, a Roman Catholic Religious Order of priests, on Thursday.

“I hope this final victory will give hope to other sexual abuse victims to come forward and seek justice through the courts,” said abuse survivor Rod MacLeod, who sued the Basilians for the abuse he suffered at the hands of Marshall. “It is possible to achieve justice in Canada.”

On April 26, 2018, a Toronto jury awarded a judgment of $2,570,181, including $500,000 in punitive damages, against the Basilians for abuse Hodgson inflicted against MacLeod.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Washington Times

May 1, 2020

By James Varney

Hobbled by waves of sexual abuse lawsuits against clergy members and unable to hold services during the coronavirus emergency, the 227-year-old Archdiocese of New Orleans filed for bankruptcy protection Friday.

The announcement leaked Thursday evening after Archbishop Gregory Aymond met with more than 100 Roman Catholic clergy members in Metairie, just outside of New Orleans, and delivered the grim news, according to nola.com.

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New Orleans (LA)
WWL

May 1, 2020

By Kenny Kuhn

Aymond: Church parishes and schools not affected

The Archdiocese of New Orleans announced Friday that it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond said in a statement that the filing only affects the Archdiocese’s administrative offices at Walmsley Avenue and the offices on Howard Avenue. Aymond says the action will not affect individual church parishes or their schools.

“The move was necessitated by the growing financial strain caused by litigation stemming from decades-old incidents of clergy abuse as well as ongoing budget challenges,” Aymond said. “The unforeseen circumstances surrounding COVID-19 have added more financial hardships to an already difficult situation.”

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JACKSON COUNTY (OR)
KTVL

April 30, 2020

By Shelby Reilly

With children and their guardians stuck at home due to school shutdowns and a statewide ‘stay at home order’, advocates worry that child abuse may be going undetected and unreported.

Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Jackson County says it is now bracing for the influx of cases it expects to see as the state prepares to reopen.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus

May 1, 2020

By Aidan Barlow

A “RAGING” vicar who previously served in the SAS has been banned from the Church of England over abuse and threats to kill his wife.

Reverend Paul Parks had been working as the vicar for St Helen’s with St Barnabas Church in Ore, Hastings.

But he admitted being in breach of Clergy Discipline Measures by a sustained pattern of abuse and assault on his wife Lois, whom he married in 2003.

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NELIGH (NE)
Norfolk Daily News

May 1, 2020

Christofer Carstens, 21, of Oakdale was sentenced to 30 to 40 years in the Nebraska Department of Corrections for child abuse on Wednesday.

Carstens was convicted of injuring his infant daughter in May 2019.

He pleaded no contest to the charges in March, in exchange for an agreement with Antelope County Attorney Joe Abler that no further charges would be filed in the case.

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NORTHERN ONTARIO (CANADA)
CTV News

May 1, 2020

By Darren MacDonald

Canada’s top court is refusing to hear an appeal of a $2.5 million judgement for a Sudbury man who was a survivor of historic sexual assaults by a Catholic priest.

Rod McLeod, a student at St. Charles College in the 1960s, was one of several victims of Father Hodgson Marshall, a priest with the Basilian Fathers. As complaints emerged about Marshall in the 1960s and 1970s, the Basilians moved him to different schools, where he victimized more children.

Marshall was convicted of abusing 17 young people in his 38-year career.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

May 1, 2020

By Joshua J. McElwee

Q & A with Bishop Vincent Long of the Parramatta Diocese

Like many Catholics in Australia, Bishop Vincent Long speaks about the upcoming plenary council as something of a final chance for the national church to show it has both reformed on clergy sexual abuse and can still be culturally relevant in the 21st century.

In an emailed NCR interview focused on how the quashing of Cardinal George Pell’s convictions might affect the gathering, which has been in preparation for two years, Long called the assembly “the last throw of the dice.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Times

May 1, 2020

By Emma Yeomans

A former soldier who became a vicar has been defrocked for abusing his wife, whom he called “Jezebel”, for 14 years.

The Rev Paul Parks, 60, formerly rector of St Helen’s Ore and St Barnabas in Hastings, was arrested in 2017 after his wife revealed the abuse, which included beating her and threatening to stab her with a letter opener.

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LINCOLN (NE)
KMTV

April 30, 2020

By Jon Kipper

The Diocese of Lincoln announced the results of an investigation into a priest stationed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus, one that showed vast misbehavior from a priest entrusted to help college students with their Catholic faith.

Archbishop of Omaha George Lucas, who is currently the active bishop of the Diocese of Lincoln, which includes much of southern Nebraska, says the diocese is remorseful, and committed to serving the people respectively and appropriately going forward.

Monsignor Leonard Kalin was Chaplain of the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1970 to 1998.

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LINCOLN (NE)
Diocese of Lincoln

April 29, 2020

By Most Reverend George J. Lucas

(leer la carta del obispo en español)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Last April, Bishop Conley shared with all of you a plan to “Build a Culture of Vigilance” and released the names of clergy who had substantiated allegations of sexual abuse against minors and young adults.

The purpose of my letter is to update you on the diocese’s efforts and share the findings related to an investi­gation into the actions of Monsignor Leonard Kalin while he was diocesan vocation director and chaplain at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Newman Center. It also includes a brief update on our safe environment policies, and on the priests who are on leave.

This is an important next step in strengthening trust with all of you. While Bishop Conley is on medical leave, I believe it is important to provide this update now. I have spoken to Bishop Conley and he is aware of this update. I am committed to continued communication about all this work in the hope of healing wounds and strengthening our faith as we move forward together.

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LINCOLN (NE)
Associated Press

April 29, 2020

The longtime pastor of the Newman Center on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln made “occasional” sexual advances to students and seminarians, the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln announced Wednesday.

Monsignor Leonard Kalin, who died in 2008, led the Newman Center from 1970 to 1998.

The report said the leadership of the diocese was aware of the socializing, frequent trips to casinos, alcohol and cigarette use by Kalin but said evidence did not support allegations that church leaders knew of sexual impropriety by the priest, The Omaha World-Herald reported.

The diocese began investigating Kalin’s conduct in April 2018 after two former seminarians alleged in that he had made sexual advances toward them in 1998.

In a letter to church members Wednesday, Archbishop George Lucas said the investigation by an independent private investigator focused on Kalin’s leadership style and the culture he promoted at the Newman Center .

“The investigation did not find there was a culture of homosexuality at the Newman Center,” Lucas’ letter said. “The investigation did reveal that Msgr. Kalin did on occasion make sexual advances toward some seminarians and college students.”

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UNITED STATES
StandUpSpeakUp.org (blog)

April 26, 2020

By Tim Lennon

We have seen the recent articles concerning former Vice President Joseph Biden allegedly sexually attacking one of his aides over twenty-five years ago. The recent articles in The Guardian, The Nation Magazine, Salon, and Huffington Post provide a variety of analyses. The articles have raised a storm of wrangling in the comment section.

The Apologists

The apologists for Biden say Trump sexually abused more, so, in comparison, Biden is OK. Advocates for survivors call out the hypocrisy of Democratic Party hierarchy and their double standard. Joining in the mix are the partisan and Russian trolls who muddy every exchange.

The powerful do not get a pass. Why doesn’t the Democratic Party throw Biden out like they did Sen. Franklin? How can those who viciously attacked Justice Kavanaugh for sexual abuse and then turn around and say Joe Biden should get a free pass? Because he is better than Trump? Not only is this argument hypocritical, it is also insulting and disturbing.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

May 1, 2020

By Joshua J. McElwee

Originally to begin in October, council sessions being rescheduled due to pandemic
May 1, 2020

A number of influential Catholic figures across Australia are expressing concern that the divisive atmosphere stoked by the recent quashing of Cardinal George Pell’s sexual abuse convictions could frustrate hopes for an upcoming once-in-a-generation assembly of the nation’s church.

The assembly, a plenary council in preparation for two years and involving the direct input of some 222,000 people across the continent, is intended to address issues of church reform and to consider the difficult questions confronting the country’s largest faith community in the 21st century.

But in a series of interviews conducted over the month since Australia’s highest court released Pell from prison, senior Catholic leaders worried that the passions inflamed by the case could provoke a sort of fortress mentality, in which Pell’s now-scuppered prosecution is just one example of a church unfairly under siege.

Robert Fitzgerald, a widely respected lawyer and former member of the 2013-17 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, said there is “genuine concern” among Australian Catholics that opponents to discussing church reform “will seek to leverage this recent decision to undermine the plenary council.”

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
NOLA.com

April 30, 2020

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

Filing could be as soon as Friday, May 1

The Archdiocese of New Orleans is preparing to file for bankruptcy, a source familiar with the matter said Thursday evening, as the mounting cost of unresolved clergy-abuse lawsuits and the shutdown of church services due to the coronavirus deliver crushing blows to church finances.

The 227-year-old local institution serving half a million New Orleans-area Catholics will join 26 other American dioceses and Catholic religious orders that have sought financial protection from creditors and claimants since the clergy-abuse scandal reached a fever pitch in 2002.

Despite filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which could occur as early as Friday, the archdiocese is expected to continue ministering to its parishioners and operate in relatively normal fashion. As in other recent diocesan bankruptcies, churches will still hold Mass and schools and various ministries will likely continue to teach students and perform their duties to the community whenever restrictions associated with the pandemic are lifted.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal

April 30, 2020

By Brian Amaral

The state attorney general is stepping into a civil battle between men who say they were abused when they were boys by Rhode Island priests and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence.

Attorney General Peter Neronha’s office said it would defend the constitutionality of a state law passed last year giving sexual abuse victims more time to sue perpetrators even if the deadline had passed under the old law. The diocese has argued the new law is unconstitutional.

The move is an about-face for the state’s top lawyer, who previously told the court that the office wouldn’t get involved in the litigation. It signals that the constitutionality of the statute will be a threshold question for the lawsuits filed in the wake of the legislation.

“We typically decline to intervene because these cases are usually resolved short of reaching the constitutional issue,” Kristy dosReis, a spokeswoman for Neronha’s office, said in an email Wednesday. “In this case, we initially advised the court that we would not immediately intervene, but left open the possibility of doing so in the future. We continued to closely follow the litigation and, when it became clear that the Superior Court was likely to reach the constitutional issue, we advised the court of our intention to file an amicus (friend of the court) brief.”

Three men — Philip Edwardo, Peter Cummings and Robert Houllahan — allege they were abused when they were boys by different Rhode Island priests. They are represented by Timothy J. Conlon, an attorney who has spent years representing priest abuse victims. They sued after the state last year passed legislation extending the deadline for sexual abuse lawsuits from seven years to 35 years after a victim’s 18th birthday.

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BOSTON (MA)
WBUR Radio (NPR affiliate)

April 30, 2020

By Leigh Gilmore

Tara Reade’s allegations about Joe Biden could not come at a worse time.

As the nation grapples with the twin emergencies of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Trump presidency, voters are now split over whether to demand a hearing for Reade’s decades-old claim or close ranks and defend Biden. As many of us struggle to focus on anything more than the virus and Trump’s massive mismanagement of it, the stakes feel impossibly high: silence a survivor or weaken Trump’s challenger.

Reade alleges that Biden sexually assaulted her almost 30 years ago when she worked for him. Biden denies the allegations. She did not file a police report at the time, but has, through the years, told a changing story of a disturbing sexual experience with an unnamed senator. Last year, Reade joined a group of women who said they had been inappropriately touched by Biden.

While the story has failed to gain traction during the pandemic, a new supporting account by Reade’s neighbor at the time of the assault has prompted many, including MeToo founder Tarana Burke, to make statements that survivors deserve a hearing. Reade’s allegations resurface as Biden rolls out a series of high-level endorsements, including an online town hall with Hillary Clinton on Tuesday addressing how women, and especially victims of domestic violence, are impacted by COVID-19.

What we have to do is listen — not only when it serves a political agenda, but precisely when it seems too costly politically to do so.

But we should be clear: As long as there are no fair processes for reporting — not 25 years ago for Tara Reade and not now — survivors will always interrupt the main story. They dredge up the past, dragging us with them into the complexity of trauma and injustice. But bad timing is not survivors’ fault and no one should demand they wait for a better time before speaking out.

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CANADA
CBC News

April 30, 2020

‘I hope this final victory will give hope to other sexual abuse victims to come forward and seek justice’

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from the Catholic Church concerning damages awarded to a former Sudbury high school student.

Lawyer Rob Talach says Father Hodgson Marshall was convicted of sexually abusing his client, Rod MacLeod, who was a student at St. Charles College from 1963-1967.

In 2011, Marshall was ultimately convicted of abusing 17 young people over his 38-year career. He served two years in federal prison and died in 2014.

Talach said today’s Supreme Court decision puts a definitive end to the long legal battle, and upholds the judgement on damages of more than $2.5 million dollars, including $500,000 in punitive damages.

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TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade

April 29, 2020

By Nicki Gorny

The Diocese of Toledo on Wednesday released the names of seven deceased clerics who are credibly accused of sexual abuse.

In each case an accuser had come forward after the cleric had died.

The Diocesan Review Board considered their cases this year and last year. The diocese for years declined to name or consider allegations against clerics in such cases “as they can neither defend themselves against the accusation nor possibly be a future threat to anyone if the allegation were true,” according to an explanation the diocese provided for years on its website. But in April, 2019, the diocese announced that it would begin to put this category of cases before the Diocesan Review Board.

That process is now complete, the diocese announced on Wednesday.

“Bishop Daniel Thomas determined that it was critical to be completely transparent in our dealing with cases of sexual abuse of minors, and to assist victims who are searching for their abuser by providing the most complete information available,” Kelly Donaghy, senior communications director for the diocese, said in an email.

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BERLIN (GERMANY)
Catholic News Service

April 30, 2020

The Catholic Church has become Germany’s first institution to agree to fixed and binding rules for investigating sexual abuse cases.

The agreement, described as historic by the German government’s abuse commissioner, could become a blueprint for other institutions in the fight against abuse. The Protestant Church in Germany and churches in many other countries have yet to take that step, reported KNA, the German Catholic news agency.

The eight-page agreement, drafted by the bishops and Johannes-Wilhelm Rorig, the German government’s independent commissioner for sexual abuse issues, obliges the bishops to appraise abuse in their diocese according to fixed and transparent rules.

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WHITEHORSE, YUKON (CANADA)
Yukon News

April 29, 2020

By Jackie Hong

The man alleges he was sexually abused following his confirmation ceremony at a church in 1985

A Teslin man is suing the Catholic diocese of Whitehorse as well as a national Catholic organization for $4.25 million in damages over sexual abuse he alleges he suffered at the hands of a now-deceased bishop when he was a teenager.

The man filed a statement of claim to the Yukon Supreme Court on April 9, naming the Catholic Episcopal Corporation of Whitehorse, Les Oblats de Marie Immaculee du Manitoba and OMI Lacombe Canada Inc. as defendants.

The News is choosing to not identify the plaintiff.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Post

April 29, 2020

By Lee Brown

A pedophile priest who was defrocked in New Jersey after admitting abusing a dozen children has died in a nursing home, the diocese confirmed to The Post.

James Hanley — who abused young parishioners in Mendham and Pompton Plains over the course of 14 years — died last week, the diocese’s attorney, Kenneth Mullaney, confirmed.

Relatives of the disgraced former priest alerted church officials last week to the death. The nursing home was not identified.

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UNITED STATES
SCOTUS Blog

April 30, 2020

By Amy Howe

Eight years ago, in a case called Hosanna-Tabor Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC, the Supreme Court recognized a “ministerial exception” to employment discrimination laws, reflecting the idea that religious institutions normally have the sole right to determine who can act as their ministers. The justices ruled in that case that the exception barred a lawsuit brought by a teacher and ordained minister at a Lutheran school who challenged the school’s decision to fire her. However, they declined to “adopt a rigid formula for deciding when an employee qualifies as a min However, they declined to “adopt a rigid formula for deciding when an employee qualifies as a minister” in future cases. Next week, in a pair of cases involving teachers at Catholic elementary schools in California, the Supreme Court will consider how courts should determine when an employee is a “minister” for purposes of the exception.

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

May 1, 2020

By Haidee Eugenio Gilbert

A former Barrigada altar boy said he’s still suffering from mental and emotional injury from a priest’s multiple sexual abuses that happened more than 40 years ago, according to documents filed in bankruptcy court.

The latest clergy sex abuse claimant stated in court filings that the late Father Louis Brouillard abused him multiple times from around 1978 to 1979 on the grounds of the Barrigada church and during Boy Scouts of America outings at Lonfit River.

The former altar boy is represented by attorney Michael Berman.

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LINCOLN (NE)
Lincoln Journal Star

April 30, 2020

By Margaret Reist

An investigation into Monsignor Leonard Kalin, longtime pastor at the Newman Center on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus, confirmed his use of alcohol and cigarettes, frequent casino visits and “occasional” sexual advances toward students, according to the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln.

In a letter to church members Wednesday, Archbishop George Lucas summarized the results of the investigation into allegations against Kalin, who died in 2008, which focused on his leadership style and the culture he promoted at the Newman Center.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
WCPO

April 29, 2020

By Paula Christian

Reports of child abuse and neglect plunged throughout Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky almost immediately after governors closed schools and urged people to stay home in mid-March to stem COVID-19 from spreading.

Now, more than six weeks into the quarantine, calls to all three states’ child abuse hotlines are down by nearly 50 percent.

That isn’t good news, child advocates warn.

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LINCOLN (NE)
1011 NOW

April 29, 2020

The Catholic Diocese of Lincoln released the findings of an external investigation into a deceased priest accused of making sexual advances against college students and seminarians.

A letter from Archbishop George Lucas on Wednesday included the findings of an investigation into misconduct allegations of deceased priest Monsignor Leonard Kalin.

Kalin was the diocesan vocation director and chaplain of the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1970 to 1998. The allegations against him centered on his leadership style and the culture he promoted at the Newman Center, as well as accusations of sexual advances.

The Diocese of Lincoln hired an independent private investigator to investigate the allegations, who reviewed personnel files and conducted more than 35 in-person interviews, according to the Diocese.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Philadelphia Inquirer

April 30, 2020

By Tim Tai

It was just after the Thanksgiving Day parade in 1986. Throngs of shrieking children had lined Center City streets to catch a glimpse of Santa, as he ushered in the Christmas season. Photographing the cavalcade — less than a month into his new job at The Inquirer — was Michael Bryant.

As he walked past City Hall to return to the newsroom, he overheard a woman talking to her son, six years old or so, who needed to use the bathroom. The mother told the boy to relieve himself on City Hall.

“That was my welcome-to-Philadelphia moment,” Bryant recalled.

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LEICESTER (UNITED KINGDOM)
CRUX

April 29, 2020

By Charles Collins

England’s bishops are urging parish communities to be on the lookout for domestic abuse, after a spike in cases has been reported by a leading charity.

Refuge, which runs the UK’s National Domestic Abuse helpline, reports that calls have increased 49 percent over the past three weeks, the period since the country went into lockdown to stop the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the Counting Dead Women Project this week told members of Parliament at least 14 women and two children have been killed in domestic violence during the lockdown.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Church Times

April 30, 2020

By Hattie Williams

PARENTS should not be allowed to remove children from age-appropriate sex-education classes on religious grounds, a survivor of child sexual abuse in a church context has said. A lack of sex education when he was a boy had prevented his understanding that what was happening to him was wrong, he said.

On Tuesday, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) published a further 80 experiences of abuse which had been disclosed through its Truth Project. It was launched in 2016 to help the Inquiry with its investigations.

One survivor, Paraic, told the project that as a child, shortly after the Second World War, he had been repeatedly raped by a Sunday-school teacher who had told him that the abuse was “God’s work”. When he had told another teacher about the abuse, he had been caned, he said. He had attempted to take his own life at school.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

April 27, 2020

Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter says he has sought final advice from his department on the release of unpublished documents relating to Cardinal George Pell’s handling of child sexual abuse complaints.

Victoria’s Attorney General, Jill Hennessy, yesterday wrote to Mr Porter, saying there were no legal impediments to prevent the release of unredacted portions of the findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
The Catholic Register

April 30, 2020

By Cindy Wooden

The Church must “radically change” how priests interact with women, starting by injecting more female voices into priestly formation at seminaries, said Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet.

For more than 125 years, The Register has been a trusted source of faith-based journalism. By making even a small donation you help ensure our future as an important voice in the Catholic Church. If you support the mission of Catholic journalism, please donate today. Thank you.

For some priests and seminarians, “women represent danger, but in reality, the true danger are those men who do not have a balanced relationship with women,” said Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

The cardinal was interviewed about the role of women in seminaries and seminary formation for the May issue of the women’s supplement to the Vatican newspaper. The interview was published April 24 by Vatican News.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Batavia News

April 29, 2020

By Matt Surtel

ABUSE SCANDAL: Decision made amid ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings

The Diocese of Buffalo is ending its support of priests with substantiated reports of sexual abuse.

The decision was announced Tuesday. It ends all financial support and health benefits for the priests involved.

“In some cases, a few priests were still receiving a monthly salary, based on the last monthly amount they were receiving prior to having their faculties suspended,” said interim Communications Director Greg Tucker, via email. “The other support was in the form of health and dental insurance, and in some cases, car insurance.”

The measure will take effect Friday. It was done as part of the diocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy process.

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OMAHA (NE)
KMTV

April 29, 2020

Diocese of Lincoln: Sexual advances made by former priest

The Catholic Diocese of Lincoln has released the findings of an independent investigation into a former priest who was accused of instances of abuse.

The abuse allegations centered around Msgr. Kalin, a priest who ran the Newman Center from 1970-1998, which is the place where UNL students go to practice their faith in college.

The Catholic Diocese of Lincoln said, “The investigator’s report indicates that Msgr. Kalin’s leadership style was demanding and authoritarian, and his use of alcohol, cigarettes and frequent visits to casinos was confirmed. The investigation also revealed that Msgr. Kalin did, on occasion, make sexual advances against some college students and seminarians. Kalin died in 2008.”

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

April 30, 2020

By Sarah Farnsworth

For years, questions have been asked about what Cardinal George Pell might have known about clerical abuse during his long career within the Catholic Church.

Giving evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Sydney in 2014, and again via video link from Rome in 2016, Cardinal Pell was questioned at length about his knowledge of paedophile priests in both Ballarat and Melbourne.

The Cardinal was taken painstakingly through evidence and asked to cast his mind back to the 1970s and what he knew about paedophile priests including Gerald Ridsdale, who later admitted to abusing hundreds of children.

By the end of the exhaustive inquiry in 2017, the counsel assisting the royal commission submitted Cardinal Pell did come to know of abuse carried out by one notorious paedophile priest and had missed an opportunity to deal with another priest also suspected of molestation.

But the commissioners’ ultimate findings into what Pell may — or may not have — known has never been made public.

By the time the final report was published in December 2017, the Cardinal himself was facing child sexual abuse charges.

The findings into what were called case studies 28 (Ballarat) and 35 (Melbourne) were heavily redacted so as not to prejudice Cardinal Pell’s case.

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
KCRA-TV

April 29, 2020

By David Manoucheri

Joseph C. George, Sr., was a man who changed trajectories.

The description is apt not just of his own life, but the lives of the staff, clients and the many people who faced the Philadelphia native in court. Most of those were with organizations who knowingly covered up abuse and tried to make it go away.

George didn’t start as a lawyer. He held a doctorate in psychology while working for the military. It was while working at Travis Air Force Base that his trajectory changed. George decided to also get a law degree in an effort to go after and stop the abuse of patients by their therapists. It would open the door to a practice he never suspected he would start.

By the time of his death on April 22, 2020, at 1:17 a.m., Joseph George had garnered not only respect of those around him, he had changed the trajectory of how sexual abuse was handled across the country.

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SPRINGFIELD (MO)
Springfield News-Leader

April 29, 2020

By Harrison Keegan

The local Catholic diocese announced this week a former Springfield priest was recently accused of sexually abusing a child in a different jurisdiction.

Father Gary Carr, 66, was accused of sexually abusing a boy in southeast Missouri nearly 30 years ago when the boy was between the ages of 10 and 13, according to a news release from the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau.

The release says Carr, who worked in Springfield early in his career and lived here as recently as 2004, officially retired in November, but he had been restricted in ministry with no priestly faculties since 2008.

According to the release, the allegation against Father Carr is that he sexually abused a boy in Stoddard County, and the Diocesan Safe Environment Review Board determined the case met the diocese’s standard of “semblance of truth” so it was publicized.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW

April 29, 2020

By Charlie Specht

Survivors forced action through bankruptcy

The Diocese of Buffalo is kicking these 23 priests off of its payroll through an agreement it reached with survivors this week in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

Becker, Donald W.
Bialkowski, David M.
Dolinic, Louis S.
Fafinski, Donald S.
Faraci, Douglas F.
Friel, Mark
Fronczak, Dennis A.
Gresock, Thomas
Hajduk, John P.
Hatrick, Brian M.
Ingalls, Fred D.
Ipolito, Pascal D.
Juran, Michael
Maryanski, Fabian J.
McCarthy, Thomas J.
Mierzwa, Ronald
Orsolits, Norbert F.
Palys, Daniel J.
Pavlock, Martin L.
Smith, Arthur J.
Spielman, James A.
Venne, Samuel J.
Wolski, Mark J.

The Diocese of Buffalo announced Tuesday it would cease all financial support and health benefits for priests with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse beginning May 1 as part of the bankruptcy process.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW

April 28, 2020

By Anthony Reyes

The Diocese of Buffalo announced Tuesday it will cease all financial support and health benefits for priests with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse beginning May 1 as part of the bankruptcy process.

A spokesperson released the following statement:

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CEDARVILLE (OH)
RNS

April 28, 2020

By Russell L. Meek

The headlines that ran last week (April 24) announced a new sexual abuse scandal to roil the Southern Baptist Convention: “Cedarville professor fired over allegations of misconduct.”

That’s true, to be sure. But that’s not the headline. The headline is that Cedarville University, a Baptist school near Dayton, Ohio, knowingly hired a man its president knew to be an alleged sexual offender as a student recruiter, then gave him a job coaching men’s basketball, teaching in the theology department and as a “special adviser” to the president.

In a statement published on his personal blog, Cedarville President Thomas White admitted to hiring Anthony Moore, who had been fired by the Village Church in Fort Worth, Texas, despite White’s knowing that Moore was let go from his post as campus pastor for filming “two videos … over a short period of time” of a man showering, without that man’s knowledge or consent. Most strikingly, White implicated Cedarville’s board of trustees, basketball coaches, administrators and faculty in Moore’s hiring, to the point of claiming that Moore “told his story to the entire faculty in the School of Biblical and Theological Studies during a meeting and entertained questions.”

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FORT LAUDERDALE (FL)
Horowitz Law

April 29, 2020

Brace yourselves. Some grim numbers about child sexual abuse have surfaced recently that remind us of how hard it is to stop predators.

—During this pandemic, what was feared has now been proven: Child sexual abuse is on the rise in recent weeks.

A national abuse hotline reports “a 22% increase in calls from people younger than 18,” according to National Public Radio. The network also reports:

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MISSOURI
SNAP

April 28, 2020

A retired cleric from the Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau has been determined by a diocesan review board to have engaged in “inappropriate physical/sexual misconduct” with a minor. We call on Catholic officials to release more detail about this case so that parents and parishioners can ensure vulnerable children are protected and so other survivors or witnesses are encouraged to come forward and get help.

A news release from Diocesan leaders in Springfield – Cape Girardeau reported that Fr. Gary Carr was “credibly accused” of abusing a child approximately thirty years ago when the boy was between the ages of 10 and 13. According to Catholic officials, Fr. Carr was placed on “Administrative Leave and restricted in his priestly ministry” in 2008 by Bishop James Johnston, yet no information was made public at that time about the actions that led to Fr. Carr’s restrictions. We strongly suspect that this means Diocesan leaders have known that Fr. Carr was an abuser for at least twelve years without saying anything to parishioners or to the public, a dramatic failure to live up the USCCB’s promise to be “open and transparent” in cases of clergy sexual abuse.

We applaud the victim who came forward to report Fr. Carr. Now we call on Catholic officials to be more forthcoming in this case and to share details about when they first received reports about the priest, and what actions were taken in response to those reports. They should also be clear about the number of accusers that have identified the cleric as their abuser, and where those abuses were said to have taken place. The more information that is made known, the better communities will be able to protect children and do outreach to still-suffering survivors.

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FORT LAUDERDALE (FL)
Horowitz Law

April 28, 2020

SEXUAL ABUSE LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST RETIRED CATHOLIC PRIEST FRED RUSE

On Monday, April 27, 2020 sex abuse attorney Adam Horowitz filed a lawsuit in Polk County Circuit Court against Catholic priest Father Fred Ruse, who in 2018, suddenly retired from the active ministry. The suit, filed on behalf of a Sarasota County man, alleges that in 2001 and 2002, he was sexually abused multiple times by Father Ruse in a classroom and in the chaplain’s office at the Demilly Correctional Institution in Polk City, Florida when the plaintiff was approximately 14 and 15 years old.

The lawsuit claims that Father Ruse of the Diocese of Orlando, then pastor of St. Matthews in Winter Haven, Florida, used his status as a clergyman to meet privately with the plaintiff. He actively groomed the boy and gained his trust by showering him with attention and giving him gifts such as Harry Potter books according to the lawsuit. As their relationship developed Father Ruse allegedly began to fondle the plaintiff’s genitals and masturbate himself to ejaculation. The Complaint states that the sexual contact progressed to Father Ruse giving oral sex to the boy and receiving oral sex from him.

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ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
The Associated Press

April 29, 2020

New Mexico’s largest Catholic diocese has filed a complaint against the U.S. Small Business Administration over its inability to apply for federal aid meant to help businesses affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe claims the low-interest loan applications that entities must complete state those businesses involved in bankruptcy proceedings will not be approved. The archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in 2018 in the wake of clergy sex abuse lawsuits that began decades earlier.

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
The Sacramento Bee

April 29, 2020

By Marcos Breton

Joe George died last week and if you don’t know who Joe George was, you should.

For more than 30 years in Sacramento, George was a fierce lawyer who had the intellect to make obscene amounts of money in corporate law but chose instead to represent clients who had been sexually abused by people they trusted.

George’s opponents in court were often powerful individuals from powerful institutions who had the community standing and popularity to sweep their unspeakable transgressions under the rug until Joe George intervened.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ.com

April 28, 2020

By Chris Sheldon

A former Morris County priest who was defrocked in 2003 after he admitted abusing a dozen child parishioners in Mendham and Pompton Plains over the course of 14 years, died last week, officials said.

James T. Hanley died at a nursing home, Paterson Diocese attorney, Kenneth Mullaney, confirmed, adding that the diocese was informed of his death last week.

Mullaney did not say which nursing home Hanley was at at the time of his death or if he died from coronavirus as so many others across the state have over the last few months.

Hanley had been receiving a stipend from the church, Mullaney said.

The former priest, who served as a pastor at St. Joseph’s Church in Mendham for 10 years, had been accused of victimizing several more children and in 2004, the Diocese of Paterson settled lawsuits with 21 of Hanley’s accusers for nearly $5 million.

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OPELOUSAS (LA)
Associated Press

April 29, 2020

A former Louisiana priest convicted of molesting an altar boy was released from jail on bond over coronavirus safety concerns.

Michael Guidry, 77, was released Friday nearly a year after he pleaded guilty to molesting a 16-year old boy after giving him alcohol in Guidry’s home, The Advertiser reported. The victim said in a civil lawsuit that he woke up one day in 2015 after doing chores in Guidry’s home and found the former priest molesting him, The Advocate reported. The victim told authorities about the molestation when he was an adult, four years after it happened.

Guidry, who served as the priest of St. Peter’s Church in Morrow, was then sentenced to 10 years in prison in April 2019, KATC-TV reported.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive.com

April 28, 2020

By Ivey DeJesus

The Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg on Tuesday cited continued financial stress and decreasing enrollment as key factors in the decision to close two schools.

Holy Family Consolidated Catholic School in Berwick and Lebanon Catholic are slated for closure at the end of this school year, officials said in a written press statement.

Both schools have been facing enrollment and financial challenges for years and their continued operation is no longer sustainable by the area parishes, the press release said.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

April 28, 2020

The capitulation is complete.

Without a whimper from any of his fellow bishops, the cardinal archbishop of New York has inextricably linked the Catholic Church in the United States to the Republican Party and, particularly, President Donald Trump.

It was bad enough that Cardinals Timothy Dolan of New York and Sean O’Malley of Boston, joined by Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez, currently also president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, participated in Trump’s phone version of a campaign rally on April 25. With hundreds of others on the call, including Catholic educators, the bishops were once again masterfully manipulated. They previously gave Trump certain campaign footage when they delivered Catholics to his speech at the March for Life rally in Washington early in the year.

Now Trump will have Dolan’s language from the call, telling everyone that he considers himself a “great friend” of Trump, for whom he expressed mutual admiration as “a great gentleman.” The cardinal went on to say that he was “honored” to lead off the comments on the call.

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LEICESTER (UK)
Crux

April 29, 2020

By Charles Collins

Whatever your opinion of Pope Francis, everyone can agree the term “disruptor” is accurate.

In his new book, Outsider: Pope Francis and His Battle to Reform the Church, Christopher Lamb argues that many people within the Vatican itself are resisting the pope’s efforts to change how the Church functions.

Lamb, who is the Rome correspondent for the English Catholic weekly The Tablet, says many of Francis’s critics “perceive him as too political and moving the Church away from defending certain moral teachings.”

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

April 28, 2020

By Jay Tokasz

The Buffalo Diocese, as part of bankruptcy negotiations, will no longer pay or provide health care for priests suspended due to substantiated sex abuse allegations.

Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger informed 23 Buffalo priests who are on leave because of abuse claims that their regular checks from the diocese would stop on Friday, May 1.

Scharfenberger wrote a letter to the priests dated last Thursday, explaining that the termination of pay was part of negotiations in bankruptcy with a creditor’s committee representing more than 200 plaintiffs who alleged child sex abuse by priests and sued the diocese under the Child Victims Act.

The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Feb. 28.

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NEW JERSEY
Fox News

April 29, 2020

By David Aaro

A former New Jersey priest, who admitted abusing more than a dozen children in the state, died in a nursing home last week, according to multiple reports.

It wasn’t clear whether the death of James T. Hanley, who was one of the first priests to be defrocked in 2003 for sexually abusing children, was related to the coroniavirus outbreak, NJ.com reported.

Hanley was at the center of the 2002 Roman Catholic Church scandal in New Jersey in relation to an alleged cover-up of sex abuse by some bishops.

“Now remember, Mark,” the priest allegedly told Mark Serrano, who was 9 years old at the time he was allegedly abused in the 1970s, according to Rolling Stone. “This is our secret. This is something special that you and I share. Best not to share it with Mom and Dad.”

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[Reports 24: 10 years after denouncing Fernando Karadima, was it worth it?]

CHILE
Reportajes 24

2020

Hace 10 años se cumplió un hito en la historia de la televisión pública. No sin esfuerzos por acallar a los denunciantes y al equipo periodístico, Informe Especial emitió un reportaje que denunció a uno de los sacerdotes más poderosos de la Iglesia Católica nacional. A una década de aquel trabajo, los sobrevivientes revisan la lucha dada, lo logrado, y lo que a su juicio no se ha hecho para renovar las estructuras y proteger a las víctimas de abuso sexual y de conciencia. Los arzobispos eméritos de Santiago, Franciso Javier Errázuriz y Ricardo Ezzati, y el actual arzobispo, Celestino Aós, se restaron de entregar sus conclusiones.

[Google Translation: 10 years ago, a milestone in the history of public television was met. Not without efforts to silence the complainants and the journalistic team, Special Report issued a report that denounced one of the most powerful priests of the national Catholic Church. A decade after that work, survivors review the struggle, what has been achieved, and what, in their opinion, has not been done to renew the structures and protect victims of sexual abuse and conscience. The archbishops emeritus of Santiago, Franciso Javier Errázuriz and Ricardo Ezzati, and the current archbishop, Celestino Aós, declined to deliver their conclusions.]

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BATON ROUGE (LA)
The Acadiana Advocate

April 27, 2020

By Ben Myers

A 77-year-old former Lafayette Diocese priest who pleaded guilty to molesting a teenage altar boy in St. Landry Parish five years ago has been released from prison while he appeals his sentence.

Michael Guidry’s lawyer, Jane Hogan, filed a bail motion this month, and court records show that he is no longer in custody. Guidry received the maximum 10-year jail term — with three years suspended — after pleading guilty in 2018.

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NSW (AUSTRALIA)
Eternity News

April 28, 2020

By John Sandeman

Survivors of clergy abuse were genuinely shocked at the High Court overturning the convictions of Cardinal George Pell. It took them by surprise. The legal fraternity had worked out the odds – but not the survivors and their support groups.

Having sat through the two days of the the High Court hearing, and seen the prosecution case collapse, it did not shock me – although I had not predicted the outcome.

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VATICAN CITY
TRT World

April 27, 2020

While the church has a vast body of members, the pandemic is leaving one of the oldest religious institutions in financial limbo.

The Catholic Church has survived many things, including the Protestant Reformation of the 16th Century, capitalism and secularism.

As the world’s oldest religious institution, with nearly 1.3 billion followers, the Catholic Church is the largest continuously operating international organisation, and the faithful would also like it to survive this deadly pandemic.

But no one can deny that the Vatican’s finances are in disarray.

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NEW ZEALAND
NZCatholic

April 28, 2020

By Michael Otto

The royal commission investigation of sexual abuse in care in New Zealand is likely to highlight systemic problems in the Church that will prompt calls for reform.

This is what has happened in other countries and reform processes have started in places like Australia and Germany, said Dr Myriam Wijlens at a lecture in Auckland on March 11.

Dr Wijlens, who is a theologian, canon law professor and member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, stressed that reform has to address issues at their roots, touching and impacting the whole body of the faithful.

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EDWARDSVILLE (IL)
The Alestle

April 28, 2020

By Damian Morris

Rates for domestic violence and child abuse are rising with COVID-19, but there are still resources out there.

According to Sheriff of Cherokee County, South Carolina, Steve Mueller in an NBC News article, the rates of domestic violence have increased by 35 percent in March compared to February due to COVID-19.

Prevention Education and Advocacy Center Coordinator Samantha Dickens said increasing rates of domestic violence and child abuse are occuring from families being stuck in close quarters.

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ROCKY MOUNT (VA)
WFXR News

April 27, 2020

By Eric Pointer

Congregation members of two Catholic churches are showing their support for a priest who was removed by Richmond Diocese Bishop. The priest has appealed his removal and is still in place at both churches while the process unfolds.

Father Mark White presides over St. Joseph in Martinsville and St. Francis of Assisi in Rocky Mount.

Originally Father Mark White was told to stop his blog, which at times was critical of the church’s handling of sexual abuse cases. He shut the blog down for some time, but once the pandemic hit and he wasn’t able to meet with his members face to face, he started it up again and he was removed shortly after.

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CAROL STREAM (IL)
Christian Today

April 28, 2020

By Kate Shellnutt

Victims’ advocates caution institutions against plans to “restore” fallen leaders.

Another case of a leader with an abusive past moving from one evangelical institution to another has intensified scrutiny on Christian hiring practices and responses to abuse.

In ministry contexts, the desire to keep fallen leaders out of positions where they might again abuse their authority is sometimes met with another perspective—a hope that a redemptive and forgiving God would allow people to be restored to leadership. Both victims’ advocates and community members worry that administrators weighing those considerations at Cedarville University made the wrong call.

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MERRILL (WI)
BUSINESS WIRE

April 27, 2020

Nearly half of parents surveyed said they were more concerned about potential abuse and bullying at overnight camps than the cost or activities offered; As camps move virtual, cyber safety also emerges as a concern

Summer camp has long been a cherished rite of passage for generations of kids. And even if the sun sets to the sound of crickets across campgrounds this summer – and camps become virtual for the season – there’s sure to be a rush of eager new campers next year, post-pandemic. According to the American Camp Association, about 7,000 overnight camps and 5,000 day camps in the United States offer children enriching experiences, from educational activities to overnight wilderness trips and travel-based adventures.

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AUSTRALIA
The Standard

April 28, 2020

By Andrew Thomson

Up to 20 more Mortlake victims of notorious pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale are considering coming forward after being abused in the early 1980s.

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AUSTRALIA
AAP

April 28, 2020

Unpublished findings relating to Cardinal George Pell’s handling of child sexual abuse complaints have been cleared for release by the Victorian government.

The federal attorney-general is now seeking final approval after receiving clearance on the royal commission documents from his Victorian counterpart.

“Now that this response has been received I have sought final advice from my department on the release of the documents and will proceed upon receipt of that advice, which I expect as soon as possible,” Christian Porter told AAP.

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.