ABUSE TRACKER

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Post

August 17, 2020

By Priscilla DeGregory

Convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein is claiming New York’s Child Victims Act is unconstitutional — in a bid to get a court to toss accusations that the fallen movie mogul sexually abused a woman nearly 20 years ago when she was just 16, court papers show.

Weinstein’s right to due process was violated when Kaja Sokola — a former model and aspiring actress from Poland — filed suit against him in December under the CVA, despite the fact that her claims of abuse are from 2002 and would normally be time-barred, the film producer’s lawyers said in court papers from last week.

The 68-year-old convicted rapist vehemently denies Sokola’s claims that he sexually abused her in his Big Apple apartment and also denies that he met her when she was 16, the court documents say.

“An indisputable timeline of events, corroborated by other evidence, will refute her claims of abuse,” Weinstein’s lawyer Imran Ansari wrote in Manhattan Supreme Court papers seeking to dismiss Sokola’s case.

But Weinstein — who was sentenced to 23 years in prison for the rape and sex abuse of two women — says the suit should be tossed out anyway since “The CVA is unconstitutional,” Ansari said in the court documents.

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TOLEDO (OH)
Federal Bureau of Investigation/U.S. District Court – Northern District of Ohio

August 17, 2020

By Special Agent Brian E. Russ

7. On July 29, 2020, Victim #1 was contacted by the FBI. Victim #1 revealed that “FrZ” refers to Father Zacharias, a priest, and that Zacharias had molested and raped him as a child. Victim #1 stated that Zacharias paid him in exchange for being able to perform oral sex on Victim #1 when Victim #1 was a minor, and that Zacharias continued to pay him money for sex even after Victim #1 turned 18, including when Victim #1 was drug-addicted and needed the money for his drug habit. Victim #1 stated that they continue to communicate via phone calls and text messages.

8. On August 3, 2020, Victim #1 was interviewed in more detail. Victim #1 said that he first met Zacharias in Catholic school in Toledo when he was in the sixth grade and Zacharias was in the Seminary. With a physically abusive and largely absent father, Victim #1 viewed Zacharias as a father figure. Over the years, and into junior high and high school, Zacharias spent time with Victim #1, came over to his house, gave him money, and showed him affection, including inappropriate touching, as well as inappropriate sexual comments.

9. Affiant is aware that all of this time, attention, and money by Zacharias is consistent with grooming – a process in which the sexual abuser befriends and establishes an emotional connection with a child, and sometimes also family members, to lower the child’s inhibitions with the objective of sexual abuse. This process can occur over many weeks, months, and even years.

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TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade

August 18, 2020

By Nicki Gorny

Findlay – The Federal Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday arrested the pastor of St. Michael the Archangel Parish, alleging that he groomed and sexually assaulted minors for years, beginning in Toledo.

Special Agent in Charge Eric Smith said the Rev. Michael Zacharias, 53, is believed to have groomed and sexually assaulted minors since the late 1990s.

The Northwest Ohio Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force took the priest into custody after he presided at a 7 a.m. Mass at St. Michael the Archangel Parish. Father Zacharias faces charges of coercion and enticement, sex trafficking of a minor, and sex trafficking of an adult by force, fraud, or coercion, according to court documents.

He participated Tuesday afternoon in an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Toledo.

“This is obviously a sad day not only for the church family, for the community, but it also marks the beginning of healing for those victimized by Michael Zacharias,” Agent Smith said.

Agent Smith addressed the media at a morning news conference outside the priest’s residence on Greendale Avenue in Findlay, which abuts the parking lot of the parish grounds. He said the criminal complaint filed against the priest includes accounts from two victims, but his department believes there have been others.

Agent Smith encouraged anyone who has had unwanted sexual contact with Father Zacharias to contact the FBI at 216-622-6842.

“It’s imperative that those other individuals out there come forward,” he said on Tuesday. “Your contact with us will remain strictly confidential.”

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo announced that Father Zacharias was put on administrative leave effective immediately upon hearing word of his arrest. This means he cannot exercise public ministry, administer sacraments, or present himself as a priest. Administrative leave is a precautionary measure while an allegation is being investigated.

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MANSFIELD (OH)
Richland Source

August 18, 2020

Findlay – A former Roman Catholic priest at Mansfield St. Peter’s Church was placed on administrative leave by the Diocese of Toledo after his arrest in Findlay on Tuesday morning.

Bishop Daniel E. Thomas placed Rev. Michael Zacharias, 53, a priest of the Diocese of Toledo and pastor of St. Michael the Archangel parish in Findlay, on administrative leave after he was reportedly arrested by FBI agents on charges of sex trafficking, coercion and enticement.

According to a story in the Toledo Blade, FBI Special Agent in Charge Eric Smith said Zacharias is believed to have been grooming and engaging in sexual conduct with minors since the late 1990s.

He said there are two victims in the criminal complaint, but authorities believe there are more.

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SUNNYVALE (CA)
Yahoo News

August 18, 2020

By Kate Briquelet

A Catholic priest in Ohio was arrested Tuesday for child sex trafficking and is accused of grooming and abusing at least two victims since the ’90s.

The FBI cuffed Michael Zacharias, 53, after morning Mass at St. Michael the Archangel in Findlay. The pastor is charged with coercion and enticement, sex trafficking of a minor, and sex trafficking of an adult by force, fraud, or coercion. According to the feds, Zacharias was taken into custody without incident at his residence.

Court filings describe how Zacharias preyed on two vulnerable boys and continued abusing them after they became adults by taking advantage of their struggles with addiction. One of the victim’s drug problems “stemmed from his confusion about his sexuality based on years of inappropriate touching by Zacharias,” an FBI agent noted in an affidavit.

Some evidence in the case even includes sickening videos Zacharias created with one of the victims, who kept the footage on a USB drive. “The great thing for you is that I actually paid you to make the videos and that you will one day ruin me with them and get rich,” Zacharias texted the victim in late July, according to an FBI affidavit.

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TOLEDO (OH)
WTOL

August 19, 2020

By Roxanne Elias

https://www.wtol.com/article/news/local/following-priest-arrest-advocates-for-the-sexually-abused-share-insight-on-what-signs-to-look-for/512-9f050d09-9d4c-4e30-9037-54533bb66ff4

According to the experts, 93 percent of child sexual assault victims know the perpetrator.

Following the arrest of a Findlay priest, advocates of sexually abused victims are shedding light on how sexual abuse can happen to some of your most vulnerable loved ones.

“It’s shocking that in 2020 we’re still here with a clergy sexual abuse crisis in this country,” said Claudia Vercelloti.

For more than 20 years, Vercelloti been a spokesperson and volunteer with the Ohio Survivors Network of those abused by priests, also known as SNAP.

Vercelloti says she’s relieved to learn the FBI is spearheading an investigation following the arrest of Findlay pastor Michael Zacharias, who is facing federal sex trafficking of a minor charges.

Her organization is now helping victims on the road to recovery.

“Later it may be easier to say, ‘why didn’t you just ask for help?’ But to realize when you’re in the middle, it’s very difficult. And you’re feeling all sorts of different emotions that makes it really hard to make a rational choice to speak up,” said Dr. Victoria Kelly, the Vice Chair of Education in the Department of psychiatry at the University of Toledo.”

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WOODLAND PARK (NJ)
The Record and NorthJersey.com

August 17, 2020

By Abbott Koloff and Deena Yellin

Geoffrey Downs said he was a teenage altar boy in the 1980s when former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick abruptly pinned him to a wall and sexually abused him as they prepared for services in Metuchen.

McCarrick, who would go on to become one of the most prominent clerics in the U.S. Catholic Church, allegedly said he could arrange for the two to go to a Jersey Shore beach house where they could have “alone time.”

Downs, who sued McCarrick and the Metuchen diocese last week, said he knew about that house because he’d been there a few years earlier on a retreat with a group of altar boys. He said he had been awakened by a sound just before dawn, and witnessed a priest sexually abusing a young boy.

“I was well aware of the beach house and what it could mean,” Downs, 53, said in an interview Monday.

His lawsuit is the second civil complaint alleging child sex abuse at a Jersey Shore home used by Catholic clergy and connected to McCarrick. In a suit filed last month, a man said he was abused by the former cardinal at a beach house where the prelate allegedly shared boys with other clerics. The abuse allegedly occurred in the early 1980s, when McCarrick was the Metuchen bishop, about the same time as the activity alleged in Downs’ lawsuit.

Downs’ complaint, filed Aug. 11 in Middlesex County, alleges he was abused by McCarrick in 1982 or 1983, when he was 15 or 16 years old, at St. Francis of Assisi parish in Metuchen. He said he didn’t know the bishop but had seen him celebrating Mass at the parochial high school he attended. Downs said he was abused just the one time, and that he recoiled from McCarrick and then quit going to church altogether.

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ST. CLOUD (MN)
KNSI

August 17, 2020

By Jennifer Lewerenz

A hearing to dismiss a lawsuit against a private Catholic school in Waite Park is scheduled for later this month.

The lawsuit, filed in 2018, alleges sexual abuse at the hands of a priest and a family at Holy Innocents School. The case calls the school a “public nuisance” and says they are guilty of negligence and negligent supervision. The plaintiff, known as Doe 596 is asking for $50,000 in damages for the school to be closed.

The suit alleges the Sis family sexually abused Doe 596 from 1978 to 1984 while she was a Holy Innocents student. A priest who lived at the school, Father Lawrence Brey, is also named in the suit.

School officials say the allegations are decades old and beyond the statute of limitations.

The hearing is set for August 26th.

Holy Innocents School is not affiliated with the Diocese of St. Cloud, which has filed Chapter 11 as part of a settlement with survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

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NEW YORK (NY)
WNBC-TV

August 17, 2020

A diocesan priest in northern New Jersey is accused of allegedly groping a woman over the course of months, according to the Hudson County prosecutor.

Rev. Donato Cabardo, 56, was arrested Friday in connection with alleged sexual crimes that occurred in the rectory at St. Paul of the Cross Church in Jersey City where Cabardo is a diocesan priest, according to Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez.

Cabardo has been charged with two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual contact and one count of harassment, a petty disorderly persons offense.

Following his arrest, he was released on a summons complaint and is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 9.

Attorney information for Cabardo was not immediately known.

According to prosecutors, the alleged crimes involved an adult female victim and were first reported to the Archdiocese of Newark. The Archdiocese notified the New Jersey Clergy Abuse Task Force and the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Special Victims Unit which then investigated the allegations.

Prosecutors say that their subsequent investigation revealed that between January and July 2020 Cabardo allegedly touched the victim’s breast and buttocks for the purpose of sexually arousing or sexually gratifying himself. He also allegedly pressed his cheek against her cheek and kissed her cheek, hand, face and head.

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NEW PROVIDENCE (NJ)
TapInto

August 17, 2020

By Steve Lenox

Jersey City, NJ – A Jersey City priest has been arrested and charged in connection with alleged sexual crimes that occurred in the rectory at St. Paul of the Cross Church earlier this year, according to Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez.

In a statement Suarez announced that Donato Cabardo was arrested without incident on Saturday after surrendering himself at the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office. Cabardo has been charged with two counts of fourth-degree Criminal Sexual Contact and one count of Harassment

According to the statement, the alleged crimes involved an adult female victim and were first reported to the Archdiocese of Newark. The Archdiocese notified the New Jersey Clergy Abuse Task Force and the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Special Victims Unit which then investigated the allegations.

Between January and July 2020, the investigation found, Cabardo allegedly touched the victim’s breast and buttocks for the purpose of sexually arousing or sexually gratifying himself. He also allegedly pressed his cheek against her cheek and kissed her cheek, hand, face and head.

Cabardo, the third priest arrested by members of the Task Force since its inception in 2018, is due in court on September 9.

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LOUISVILLE (KY)
Courier Journal

August 17 2020

By Lucas Aulbach

Allegations of sexual abuse against 20 priests who served in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lexington have been substantiated or found to be credible, according to the diocese.

The list, released last week after a nearly 20-month review, is a part of an independent investigation being prepared by attorneys Allison Connelly and Andrew Sparks, according to a letter from Bishop John Stowe released in conjunction with the list. It was released Friday, with the full report to be released later.

Claims against one priest were unsubstantiated, the release said.

Of the claims against the other 20 priests on the list, 10 allegations were substantiated, four allegations were credible, six allegations were credible but involved minors outside the Diocese of Lexington. There are no pending allegations against any active priests, the report says.

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DETROIT (MI)
Associated Press

August 17, 2020

A Detroit priest who said he was defamed by a police officer in an investigation of alleged sexual abuse has settled a lawsuit against her for $125,000.

The Rev. Eduard Perrone said he doesn’t care about the money but wants to be reinstated at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish, known as Assumption Grotto, a Catholic church he had led for 25 years until he was removed by the Detroit Archdiocese in 2019.

“It’s been a long, slow wait,” Perrone told the Detroit Free Press. “I’ve been ousted from my parish for 13 months, and I’m very anxious to get back.”

A former altar boy accused Perrone of assaulting him decades ago, according to a report by Nancy LePage, a Macomb County sheriff’s detective who specializes in child sex crimes.

Perrone, 72, denied the allegation and hasn’t been charged with a crime. He filed a lawsuit against LePage, saying she defamed him.

The county recently settled it for $125,000 after a panel of lawyers reviewed the case, a common step in Detroit-area lawsuits.

County attorney John Schapka said there was no wrongdoing by LePage. He said the case was settled to avoid a larger jury verdict and other costs.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Global Sisters Report of National Catholic Reporter

August 14, 2020

By Saji Thomas News

Kottayam, India – Two years after a Catholic sister accused a bishop of rape and intimidation, the official trial started Aug. 13 as a district court judge read the charges aloud to Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar.

The rape case is the first one to involve a Catholic bishop in India. The trial will resume Sept. 16 with testimony from the victim and cross-examination.

Judge G. Gopakumar of the Additional District and Sessions Court in Kottayam, Kerala, read out a brief statement of charges that said Mulakkal had repeatedly raped the former superior general of the Missionaries of Jesus and intimidated her with the influence of his office.

The nun has accused Mulakkal of subjecting her to rape and sodomy 13 times between 2014 and 2016.

The judge also listed the dates of the alleged crimes in the congregation’s convent at Kuravilangad, a village near Kottayam, and asked Mulakkal if he would agree with the charges.

The prelate, who stood before the judge in the witness box at the back of the courtroom, loudly replied, “No.” His response was heard by those inside the court and about two dozen watching the proceedings from the corridor.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

August 14, 2020

By Inés San Martín

Rosario, Argentina – A former powerful Chilean archbishop removed from the priesthood by Pope in 2018 died Wednesday, without ever facing trial for allegation of sexually abusing minors.

The news of Francisco José Cox’s passing was announced by the Schoenstatt Fathers, his original religious order. He was 86.

Cox was first bishop of Chillan, between 1975 and 1981, and the archbishop of La Serena between 1990 and 1997. In between, he worked at the Vatican’s former Pontifical Council for the Family and in 1987 was tapped to organize the visit of St. John Paul II to Chile, which allowed him to become close to then-Archbishop Angelo Sodano, the papal representative in the country.

To this day, many observers point to Sodano, who would become the Vatican’s Secretary of State during the final years of John Paul’s papacy, as the architect of the abuse crisis that has rocked the Chilean Church.

Cox was 86 when he died early in the morning on Aug. 12, from “respiratory failure and multisystemic failure,” according to the statement by Schoenstatt.

He was buried the same day, with only his four brothers present.

The statement from Schoenstatt Chile notes that in 2018, Pope Francis removed Cox from the priesthood, after an investigation conducted by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

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SURRY HILLS (NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA]
The Australian

August 15, 2020

By Suzanne Smith

Father John Denham blighted the lives of the boys in his care – including a protégé who went on to become a high-flying journalist.

It was a normal day at the office in 1997 when ABC journalist ­Steven Alward received a phone call from his old school teacher Father John Sidney Denham. After the usual pleasantries, Denham said he needed a favour. There had been a big misunderstanding: the police had charged him with sexually abusing a former ­student. Denham said he would get off because the boy was 17 at the time, the relationship had been consensual and they’d been very much in love. According to Denham, this was an attack on a gay man and his 17-year-old lover. He wanted Steven to write him a reference on ABC letterhead.

It sounded plausible to Steven, because at the time NSW law discriminated against same-sex relationships regarding the age of ­consent: for heterosexual relationships it was 16, whereas for homosexual relationships it was 18. There was a campaign underway by the Council for Civil ­Liberties and other groups to reform the law. In this context, Denham was presenting ­himself as a victim of homophobia. The call ­worried Steven, but in the end he felt obliged to do something, so he came up with a ­compromise and wrote a ­personal reference without the ABC letterhead. He believed he was defending gay rights.

At St Pius X High School in Newcastle, ­Denham – the school’s ­Master of Discipline – had been a mentor to Steven. The teacher embodied all the traits of a bumptious, slightly camp ­academic. He talked as though he was a superior intellectual with a penchant for classical music, highbrow ­literature and fine wines. To the boys he admired, like Steven, he was the most attentive and ­encouraging teacher at the school. Even after ­Steven finished school in 1978, Denham had stayed in touch and they remained close friends.

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SYDNEY (NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA)
ABC

August 16, 2020

By Siobhan Hegarty

Sixty per cent of churchgoers in Australia are women, yet in the decision-making ranks of the Catholic Church, female voices are largely absent.

The lack of women in leadership roles is a point of contention for many theologians — not just for equity reasons.

According to Robyn Horner, from the Australian Catholic University’s school of theology, the church’s sexual abuse crisis demonstrated the failings of a male-only leadership structure.

“I think the church has protected itself for a long time with patriarchal attitudes and the exclusion of women from decision-making roles, even if they’re not ordained roles,” she says.

“This just means there’s always a temptation to involve secrecy and silence and keep it as a boys’ club.”

Associate Professor Horner views the sexual abuse crisis as a line in the sand, “which says either the church is going to change or it’s going to die”.

As of this month, changes are being made.

Last Thursday, Pope Francis appointed six women to a group overseeing the Vatican’s finances. These positions are thought to be the most senior female appointments in the Church’s leadership structure.

But reformers in the Catholic Church are pushing for greater structural change.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Spectrum News

August 13, 2020

Friday marks the one-year anniversary of New York’s Child Victims Act, which allows child sex abuse victims to file lawsuits for decades-old allegations.

The Buffalo Survivors Group met Thursday to reflect on the past year and what has been accomplished. The group, regarding the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo’s bankruptcy proceedings, says this is a David versus Goliath moment.

“We feel that when this litigious nightmare is over, survivors will be left with nothing but a stripped carcass. To us, the Diocese of Buffalo has never been sincere about their apologies. It’s all about circling the wagons and protecting their reputation, money and assets,” Gary Astridge of the Buffalo Survivor Group said.

Members of the group are planning to send a letter to Pope Francis to request an audience so that they can share their painful experiences, seek an apology, and discuss changes to protest future generations.

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READING (PA)
Reading Eagle from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

August 15, 2020

By Peter Smith

[This is a substantially different version of an article previously blogged in Abuse Tracker.]

Two years after a landmark grand jury report told a sordid history of sexual abuse by priests and its cover-up by their superiors, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh is still coming to terms with its impact.

Just this week, 28 people filed lawsuits or notices of intent to sue in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, while a local lay group issued a report sharply critical of the diocese’s response, which it said is marked by “clericalism” and a bunker mentality.

Bishop David Zubik said Friday he marked the somber anniversary with prayers at Mass for the survivors of abuse. He said he believed the diocese has taken important steps in responding to the report, even as it undergoes a vast program of parish mergers and responds to unanticipated challenges such as the pandemic.

“Over the course of the two years, we’ve worked very hard to be ever more present to victim/survivors and acknowledge their need for healing,” he said.

On Aug. 14, 2018, a statewide grand jury issued a report into sexual abuse and cover-up spanning seven decades in six of Pennsylvania’s dioceses, including Pittsburgh’s. The report made headlines worldwide and, combined with scandals elsewhere during what one Catholic journal called a “summer of shame,” triggered the most intensive wave of scrutiny in years over the scandal.

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GENESEO (NY)
Livingston County News

August 14, 2020

By Matt Leader

https://www.thelcn.com/news/police/child-victims-act-lawsuit-outlines-new-sex-abuse-accusations-against-former-avon-priest/article_eed75330-6a12-5a03-933c-552f2dc7a874.html

Another person has come forward with accusations that former Catholic priest Joseph E. Larrabee sexually abused him when he was a child.

The victim, whose name the County News is withholding to protect his privacy, is now in his 50s. In a civil complaint filed late last this month in Livingston County Supreme Court, he accused of Larrabee of sexually abusing him “on at least four occasions” in 1982 and 1983 when he was between the ages of 12 and 14. According to the filing, the abuse occurred in the St. Agnes rectory.

The alleged victim and his family were parishioners at the time the abuse occurred. He attended St. Agnes School and was an alter boy at St. Agnes Church, according to the filing.

Larrabee’s latest alleged victim is being represented by Simmons Hanly Conroy, a law firm in New York City, and the Law Office of Mitchell Garabedian, which is based in Boston. Garabedian is also representing eight other alleged victims of Larrabee in eight separate Child Victims Act suits filed in Livingston and Monroe counties since February 2020.

“The alleged sexual abuse of the nine victims spanned a period of approximately 1982 to 1993 when the victims were approximately 12 to 21 years old. The sexual abuse victims were all minors when the sexual abuse by Fr. Joseph E. Larrabee began,” said Garabedian in a statement to the County News. “The victims are now approximately 44 to 54 years old. Some victims allege that they were sexually abused by Fr. Larrabee multiple times over the course of years. Fr. Joseph E. Larrabee was assigned to either St. John The Evangelist Church in Rochester, Church of the Good Shepard in Henrietta, or St. Agnes Church in Avon at the time of the sexual abuse.”

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FERNDALE (MI)
Church Militant

August 12, 2020

By David Nussman

Washington – Joe Biden’s running mate has a history of targeting Catholics and pro-lifers.

Senator Kamala Harris is Biden’s vice-presidential candidate, the Biden campaign announced Tuesday.

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Throughout her political career, Harris has touted her record of prosecuting sex crimes in San Francisco, where she was district attorney (DA) in 2003–2011.

But victims of Catholic clerical sex abuse say Harris neglected to follow through with their abuse allegations, despite an abundance of evidence gathered by the previous DA, Terence Hallinan.

Abuse victim Joey Piscitelli, for example, says Harris “did nothing” as the district attorney of San Francisco after he wrote to her about his molestation at the hands of a local priest.

Five years later, Piscitelli wrote to Harris, again urging her to assist alleged sexual assault victims by releasing records of their abuse lawsuits that had been compiled by Hallinan.

But Harris again failed to respond. Her refusal to release the records was seen as significant, as Hallinan’s team was gathering evidence as part of a wider investigation into clerical sex abuse. His inquiry lapsed when Harris became the new DA.

In June 2019, the Intercept released a graphic video detailing Harris’ dubious record on clerical sex abuse.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Post

August 15, 2020

By Kathianne Boniello

A beloved Bronx priest intentionally steered a boy to a known molester in the 1980s, leading to months of sexual abuse, according to a new lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court.

It claims Bishop John Jenik was allegedly abusing children himself when he “trafficked” a then-14-year-old Shawn Ganley to ex-con counselor Paul Gruber, whom Jenik knew was abusing other minor students at Our Lady of Refuge School, Ganley claims in court papers.

Gruber was convicted of sexual abuse charges in the mid 1980s after another victim’s parents complained, sparking a police investigation that Jenik allegedly tried to derail by intimidating kids into silence, Ganley has charged.

“It was terrifying,” Ganley told The Post, adding, “He was really leaning on me, telling me, ‘You don’t want to do this, you don’t want to give a statement.’”

Jenik, who oversaw the Our Lady of Refuge after-school program where Gruber volunteered, allegedly knew exactly what would happen when he suggested Gruber give Ganley an IQ test, claims Ganley.

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BEAUMONT (TX)
Beaumont Enterprise

August 16, 2020

By Monique Batson

Many would say the work of God brought Bishop-elect David L. Toups to Southeast Texas.

But it was the word of God that confirmed the move for the Gulf Coast native set to be ordained Friday as the sixth bishop to lead the Diocese of Beaumont.

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“I’ve been all over,” he said. “I’ve had a varied experience as a priest — a broadening experience working for a national church, a regional church and working on the ground level training future priests.”

It’s that experience, he believes that will help him handle issues faced in recent years by the Catholic Church.

In early 2019, the denomination was rocked by scandal when it released a list of priests credibly accused of having been involved in the molestation of children and young adults.

Of the 286 living and deceased priests named in Texas, 13 were with the Diocese of Beaumont.

“My job in the church has been on the proactive side,” Toups said. “I want to continue to reach out to anyone who has been hurt in any way. That’s not the message of Jesus Christ. Caring for persons that have been hurt remains a priority for me.

“I have been training the next generation of priests. I’ve had this wonderful opportunity to ensure the goodness, soundness and holiness of the next generation of priests. I see the beauty and joy and vision and wholehearted dedication of these young men.”

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press

August 17, 2020

By Tresa Baldas

Father Eduard Perrone says he’s been vindicated in a sex abuse case against him, and he wants his job back.

The embattled priest found absolution in the justice system after suing a detective for defamation, alleging she fabricated the rape claim that got him suspended. The year-old lawsuit ended last week with a $125,000 settlement for Perrone — a rare win for an accused Catholic priest who convinced a three-person court advisory panel that he deserved compensation for being defamed.

Specifically, Perrone argued that the church built its case around a detective’s “fabricated” report that he had sodomized an altar boy 40 years earlier, though the now-grown man has said that didn’t happen, according to church and police records. He said the detective also tried to corroborate the sodomy claim by pressuring another former altar boy into making accusations against him, though that now-grown man has said he never saw Perrone harm a child and that the detective was trying to twist his words.

Meanwhile, Perrone still doesn’t have his job, and still no word from the church.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
KDKA-TV

August 14, 2020

By Andy Sheehan

Today marks two years since the release of the grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse.

Out of shock and shame that was the grand jury report, Bishop Zubik says the diocese emerged with one clear obligation — to compensate and care for victims of clergy sexual abuse — no matter the cost.

“First and foremost to people who are the victim/survivors to help them in every way we can possibly help them,” he said

To that end, the diocese established the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program — a fund to compensate all victims of clergy sexual abuse. Some 369 people have made claims and to date, most have received compensation including Paul Dorsch.

“How do you put a dollar value on that?” He said.

For Dorsch, it’s been a long road. He and others told me two decades ago about the sexual abuse they suffered as teenagers at the hands of Father Jack Hoehl, the former headmaster of Quigley High School, who as named in the report.

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TROY (NY)
WNYT-TV

August 15, 2020

Pastor Dominick Brignola is speaking out on the sexual abuse lawsuit against him, Victorious Life Christian Church and Deacon Mark Rhodes.

The lawsuit, filed by Albany woman Abigail Barker, claims that Deacon Rhodes sexually molested her in 1998. Brignola and the church are being sued for alleged negligence and cover-up.

“There’s no excuse to be kept in the dark about people in their church in their community that are predators,” says Barker.

Brignola claims he played no role in the alleged incident, saying the complaint states it happened in Barker’s own home.

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MASSACHUSETTS
MetroWest Daily News

August 15, 2020

By Arthur McCaffrey/Guest Columnist

We are in the midst of a global pandemic which has changed everybody’s lives, perhaps for ever. And yet here we have a Vatican pronouncement that things have not changed, that the priest is still the parish boss, that we should all get back to playing our traditional passive PPO (‘pray, pay, obey’) roles.

Between 2004 and 2016, dozens of parishes and hundreds of parishioners in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston (RCAB) protested Archbishop Sean O’Malley’s (SOM) attempts to close and sell off their parish churches in order to pay off a huge pile of debt incurred from paying out financial settlements to victims of clergy abuse.

In 2004, the newly arrived Archbishop slated over 80 diocesan parishes for closure, including many that were vibrant, viable, financially and religiously sound communities of faith. In response, a grassroots resistance movement spontaneously erupted. Many parishes actively challenged O’Malley’s decision, and several (including my own) went into full-time vigil, occupying their churches 24/7, so as not to be locked out. These became known as “Vigil” parishes, quickly spawning imitators all around the country as other bishops and other parishes disagreed about how best to honor heritage and keep their beloved churches open.

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SCRANTON (PA)
The Citizens’ Voice

August 14, 2020

By Frank Wilkes Lesnefsky and Terrie Morgan-Besecker

Attorneys filed more than two dozen lawsuits against the Diocese of Scranton this week, just days before the second anniversary of the 2018 state grand jury report that revealed widespread sexual abuse and cover ups among Roman Catholic clergy.

Of the 30 lawsuits, nearly all of which were filed between Monday and Thursday, Times-Shamrock Newspapers confirmed at least 24 pertain to sexual abuse. Although the remaining six suits appear to relate to sexual abuse, attempts to reach the attorneys to confirm were unsuccessful.

Twenty-eight of the lawsuits were writs of summons that put defendants on notice they are being sued but do not contain information about the allegations, which will be filed later. Attorneys filed two full complaints naming alleged abusers and outlining allegations.

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UNITED STATES
The Nation

August 14, 2020

By Hélène Barthélemy

E-mails shared with The Nation reveal a deep collaboration between the Department of Education and organizations that believe in a crisis of false rape allegations.

In July 2017, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos held a summit on Title IX, the 1972 federal statute that bans discrimination on the basis of sex at universities. Inside the Department of Education building, she met with the National Coalition for Men Carolinas (NCFMC), Families Advocating for Campus Equality (FACE), and Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE), three organizations that claim there is a crisis of false rape allegations against male college students. Outside, despite the sweltering heat in Washington, D.C., more than a 100 people rallied, hoping to prevent the department from rolling back protections for students who are victims of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment. “Dear Betsy,” one sign read. “Help end rape culture, don’t perpetuate it.”

Nearly 3,000 pages of e-mails obtained by the anti-corruption organization Democracy Forward through a Freedom of Information Act request and shared with The Nation reveal that the July 2017 meeting was part of a much deeper collaboration between the DOE and these men’s rights groups. From May to September 2017, the DOE’s Office of Civil Rights partnered with NCFMC, FACE, and SAVE to develop regulations on campus sexual assault. E-mails make clear that staffers from these organizations participated in conference calls, offered legal advice, and met with high-level employees at the Department of Education. The DOE even hired the main funder of SAVE to help draft new regulations and teamed up with FACE to try to produce supportive op-eds.

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PITTSBURGH
Crux

August 15, 2020

By Charles Collins

On the second anniversary of the publication of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report into sexual abuse in several of the state’s Catholic dioceses, a grassroots organization in Pittsburgh has given the Church a barely passing grade in its handling of the report’s fallout.

Pittsburgh was one of six dioceses covered in the 2018 report, which documented over 1,000 allegations of the sexual abuse of minors against over 300 priests since the 1940s.

The grand jury report – coupled with the revelations that then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been accused of child abuse and the sexual harassment of seminarians over decades – highlighted how much still needed to be done to combat sex abuse since it first hit the front pages after the Spotlight report in the Boston Globe in 2002.

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UNITED STATES
America

August 14, 2020

By Colleen Dulle

It has been two years since the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report was published on Aug. 14, 2018, documenting in at times disturbing detail at least 1,000 cases of abuse by 300 predator priests spanning seven decades. Within two months, 13 more states and the District of Columbia had launched similar investigations, and Pope Francis had accepted the resignation of Cardinal Donald Wuerl, then-archbishop of Washington, who was named in the report as failing to deal adequately with abuse when he was bishop of Pittsburgh.

The Pennsylvania report came in the middle of what became known as the Catholic Church’s “summer of shame,” which began with the surfacing of accusations of abuse of minors by the now-laicized former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and ended with the release of Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano’s bombshell letter accusing church leaders, including Pope Francis, of knowing about Mr. McCarrick’s actions and failing to take action.

Two years later, the church has taken actions on local and global levels toward greater transparency regarding abuse accusations and investigations, closed loopholes that had allowed bishops who covered up abuse not to face consequences and created universal guidelines for abuse reporting systems to be established in every diocese in the world.

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INDIANA
The Indiana Gazette

August 15, 2020

By Patrick Cloonan

Lawsuits have been filed against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg by a Pittsburgh attorney on behalf of alleged victims of two priests, one deceased, the other defrocked by the diocese but perhaps still living in Indiana County.

Alan H. Perer of the law firm of Swensen & Perer filed those actions this week in Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas against the diocese and Bishop Edward C. Malesic on behalf of a former Blairsville resident now living in White Oak, Allegheny County; and a former Mount Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, resident now living in Pittsburgh.

He is asking for a jury trial in each case. Those filings coincided with 25 cases filed by Perer in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas for clients in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

The former Blairsville resident claims he was sexually abused beginning at age 12 in 1968 by a maternal uncle, the late Rev. Giles L. Nealen, a Benedictine priest born in Nicktown, Cambria County, whose assignments included an old St. Benedict parish in Marguerit, Unity Township, Westmoreland County.

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ERIE (PA)
GoErie.com

August 16, 2020

By Ed Palattella

A total of 21 suits filed over claims of abuse cover-up as grand jury report, Superior Court ruling create options.

The Catholic Diocese of Erie is facing the potential of massive legal fallout two years after the release of the state grand jury report on clergy sex abuse statewide.

Prompted by the 884-page report’s allegations, 21 lawsuits had been filed in Erie County Court against the diocese, churches and related entities throughout the 13-county diocese as of the end of the day on Friday, according to an Erie Times-News’ review of the docket.

Statewide, Pennsylvania’s eight Roman Catholic dioceses had been hit with about 150 suits, according to the Associated Press.

As the Erie Times-News first reported in July, Friday was the deadline for plaintiffs to meet the two-year statute of limitations for filing fraud- and cover-up-related suits in connection with the release of the grand jury report. Attorney General Josh Shapiro issued the report on Aug. 14, 2018.

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ARKANSAS
Arkansas Democrat Gazette

August 16, 2020

By Tony Holt

They are among 13,000 men seeking restitution for leaders’ sexual abuses

A 13-year-old boy was given a choice for how his next moment in the Boy Scouts would unfold.

Both choices — about how to sexually pleasure the man standing in front of him, staring — were horrifying.

Lee Keeton Jr. was that boy, and the man was a Boy Scout leader. The sexual abuse occurred 60 years ago in a cabin near Texarkana.

Keeton, now 72, is among more than 13,000 men who have stepped forward this year seeking restitution from the Boy Scouts of America for sexual abuse.

More than half of the men, 7,000 of them, are being represented by attorneys for Abused in Scouting.

In February, the Boy Scouts of America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. It did so, the organization stated, to “create a trust that would provide equitable compensation to victims.”

Abused in Scouting was created for men to confront the abuses they endured while in the Boy Scouts. The lead attorney for the group is Andrew Van Arsdale of San Diego.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Radio National

August 15, 2020

By Siobhan Hegarty

Sixty per cent of churchgoers in Australia are women, yet in the decision-making ranks of the Catholic Church, female voices are largely absent.

The lack of women in leadership roles is a point of contention for many theologians — not just for equity reasons.

According to Robyn Horner, from the Australian Catholic University’s school of theology, the church’s sexual abuse crisis demonstrated the failings of a male-only leadership structure.

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WEST VIRGINIA
Catholic News Agency

August 15, 2020

By Kevin J. Jones

Bishop Michael Bransfield, who headed West Virginia’s only Catholic diocese before retiring amid scandal, has not communicated with his successor in months. A plan to ensure he makes some reparation for financial and sexual misconduct has still not been implemented.

“I have not heard from him in many months and I would not expect to,” Bishop Mark Brennan of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston told the MetroNews call-in radio show Talkline Aug. 4. “Whatever he is doing, he is doing and is in a dark hole. We do not know exactly what he is up to, we have not been in communication.”

Brennan said the apostolic nuncio in Washington, D.C. has not heard from Bransfield either.

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LEXINGTON (KY)
Lexington Herald Leader

August 15, 2020

By Karla Ward

The Catholic Diocese of Lexington on Friday released a list of priests who served in Kentucky who have been accused of sexually abusing minors.

The list names 10 priests against whom allegations of abuse were substantiated; four priests who had “credible” allegations against them, indicating that the allegations were more than likely true; six priests who served in the Lexington diocese but were credibly accused of abuse in another diocese; and one priest against whom allegations were found to be unsubstantiated.

“I, along with every priest in the Diocese of Lexington, am very sorry for what this report describes and apologize to every person who has ever been abused or injured in any way by one who was ordained to represent Christ,” Lexington Bishop John Stowe wrote in a letter that accompanies the report.

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UNITED STATES
WCBE (radio)

August 15, 2020

By John DeSando

A knockout performance and tragic story make for seriously entertaining cinema.

Retaliation. Grade: A-. Director: Ludwig Shammasian (The Pyramid Texts), Paul Shammasian (The Pyramid Texts). Screenplay: Geoff Thompson

Cast: Orlando Bloom (The Outpost), Janet Montgomery (Black Swan)

“Be not carried away to revenge and retaliation (Romans, 12,V 19) by evil which is committed against you, but overcome the evil by the good which you show to your enemy (V20), put to shame by your noble spirit, ceases to act malignantly against you . . . .” Paul

Retaliation, starring a surprisingly brilliant Orlando Bloom as Malky, is about a demolition worker trying to demolish the memory of abuse by a priest when Malky was 12. The plot is simple, a thriller at the least, encouraging the audience to guess whether he will exorcise his demon or take Christ’s advice (see above).

The film focuses almost exclusively on Malky, whose growing torture about the abuse bleeds out into everything he encounters, be it his Mum (Anne Reed), his best friend, Jo (Alex Ferns), or, most lamentably, girlfriend Emma (Janet Montgomery). His rage is palpable, and because he shares its reason with no one, it is quietly volcanic.

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UNITED STATES
Vail Daily

August 15, 2020

By Jack Van Ens

A century ago, on August 18, 1920, Tennessee was the 38th state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. This vote fulfilled the requirement that for an amendment to be added to the Constitution, it needed approval from three-fourths of the states.

The 19th Amendment intended to even the judicial scales tipped against women. It guaranteed them the right to vote, have financial independence from male domination, and shielded women from paternalistic indignities.

Judging by how Baptist Jerry Falwell, Jr. embarrassed a pregnant woman whose cut-offs were unzipped and midriff exposed, he is not fazed by the 19th Amendment’s guarantee to treat women as equals in voting booths. It was more fun for Falwell to post a suggestive lecherous photo on his Instagram account.

This inappropriate photo features Falwell with his arm around the pregnant woman he identified as his “wife’s assistant.” He, too, has his pants unzipped. The low-brow picture was snapped when this twosome enjoyed a summer outing on a yacht. Falwell sorely offended tee-totaling Baptist supporters of Liberty University by holding a glass of dark-colored liquid, which could be mistaken for shots of Jack Daniels whiskey.

**

Falwell lamely offered a sexist excuse, saying he commiserated with this woman’s plight. “She’s pregnant, so she couldn’t get her pants on,” he told a snickering host on Lynchburg, Virginia’s radio station WLNI. “And I had on a pair of jeans that I hadn’t worn in a long time, so I couldn’t get mine zipped, either. And so, I just put my belly out like hers.”

Contrite or feigning remorse, Falwell purred, “She’s a sweetheart, and I should never have put it up and embarrassed her.”

Merely an innocent guy horsing around in clean fun with a woman unzipped, some say. No, gender power imbalances tilt this playful interlude against women. What hampers the full implementation of the 19th Amendment a century after its passage are abusive sexual relationships OK’d by some Christians.

For instance, the Southern Baptist Convention ranks as the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. with approximately 15 million members in 47,000 churches. “A six-part Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News report a few years ago found more than 250 SBC officials and volunteers who were convicted of sex-abuse crimes over the past 20 years, and some 700 victims. It also revealed cases in which church members and leaders scorned victims and masked accusations of misconduct against popular pastors,” reported The Wall Street Journal’s assistant editorial page writer Nicole Ault.

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AUSTRALIA
Catholic Weekly

August 16, 2020

By Peter Rosengren

The Truth, Justice and Healing Council set up by the Church in Australia at the beginning of the Royal Commission into institutional abuse in 2013 failed seriously to highlight the Church’s decisive record in combatting abuse in this country beginning a quarter of a century ago, Cardinal George Pell said this week.

His criticism came in a wide-ranging pre-recorded interview aired at a Catholic conference in the US on 16 August.

During the interview Cardinal Pell discussed his prayer life in prison and how he had been able to remain spiritually focused despite knowing his own innocence, the support he had received via correspondence from ordinary Catholics around the world, the Vatican’s financial situation and the associated problem of corruption within key institutions.

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CAPE TOWN (SOUTH AFRICA)
Cape Talk

August 15, 2020

Reverend June Dolley-Major says the Anglican Church has not been impartial in its attempts to investigate the priest who allegedly raped her.

The reverend has accused the clergy of covering up her rape ordeal, allegedly at the hands of a fellow priest, back in 2002 at the Grahamstown Seminary.

Last month, Reverend Major went on a hunger strike, outside the home of Archbishop Thabo Makgoba in Bishop’s Court, to push the church to take action.

This week, a group of women also staged a Women’s Day protest outside Makgoba’s residence in support of Reverend June Dolley-Major.

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ROME (ITALY)
The New York Times

August 14, 2020

By Elisabetta Povoledo and Anatol Magdziarz

Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Archbishop Slawoj Leszek Glodz of Poland, a move seen as a subtle rebuke. But far more is needed to address the abuse of children by priests, advocates say.

Pope Francis this week accepted the resignation of the archbishop of Gdansk, Poland, who has been accused of protecting priests facing allegations of child abuse, a step seen as a subtle rebuke but also criticized as inadequate.

The archbishop, Slawoj Leszek Glodz, had offered his resignation upon reaching the retirement age of 75, as protocol demands, but bishops are typically allowed to keep their positions past that time.

The pope’s decision to accept Archbishop Glodz’s resignation on his birthday was interpreted by many as an admonishment of the church hierarchy in Poland, which has long been accused of putting the institution’s image above the rights of abuse victims.

For some critics, the perceived rebuke was too little, too late.

“It was an insufficient move,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of BishopAccountability.org, a group that tracks abuse in the church. “The Pope has promised accountability for bishops who cover up. He has also talked about proportionality of punishment for accused priests, but this is the mildest of sanctions.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
WFMZ-TV

August 14, 2020

Roman Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania have been hit with a slew of sexual abuse lawsuits.

The Associated Press reports that about 150 lawsuits were filed against dioceses across the state, and many of the new cases are against the Allentown Diocese, as well as Scranton, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh.

Lawyers involved in the litigation say they were notified Thursday about new cases and expect dozens more.

Friday marks two years since the release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report on child sexual abuse by priests and clergy members

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ST. CLOUD (MN)
St. Cloud Times

August 14, 2020

By Clairissa Baker

A judge will hear arguments later this month regarding a motion to dismiss a lawsuit that alleges sexual abuse and neglect against Holy Innocents School.

The case alleges the school is a “public nuisance” and committed negligence, negligent supervision and negligent retention. The lawsuit is seeking at least $50,000 in damages and the closure of the school.

Representation for the Waite Park school filed a motion asking a judge to dismiss all counts with prejudice. Parties are scheduled to present arguments remotely Aug. 26.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
NOLA.com

August 14, 2020

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

A federal judge has turned down a Catholic clergy sex abuse plaintiff who wanted his lawsuit, halted by the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ bankruptcy filing, moved back into state court so that he could continue pursuing damages.

In a nine-page ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier said remanding the suit to Orleans Parish Civil District Court was “inappropriate at this time” because an automatic, indefinite halt to such cases which went into effect after the local bankruptcy church’s filing had not been lifted.

Barbier said that stay prevented the case from progressing “regardless of the forum.” And he also said he sided with the archdiocese’s arguments that it was appropriate to keep numerous unresolved clergy abuse claims against the local church in a single courthouse rather than split them into multiple ones.

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LEXINGTON (KY)
Diocese of Lexington

August 14, 2020

Diocese Releases Names of Priests Accused of Sexual Abuse of Minors

The Catholic Diocese of Lexington has released a list of priests accused of sexual abuse of minors. The list, released Aug. 14., a day after the diocese received it, was compiled by attorneys who had unlimited access to the diocese’s priest personnel files and the files of any reports of abuse made to the diocese. The review team also conducted interviews, talked with the diocesan Victims’ Assistance Coordinator and met with the Diocesan Review Board.

“I, along with every priest in the Diocese of Lexington, am very sorry for what this report describes and apologize to every person who has ever been abused or injured in any way by one who was ordained to represent Christ,” wrote Lexington Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv., in a letter accompanying the report, which he commissioned in December 2018.

The list, compiled by Lexington attorneys Allison Connelly and Andrew Sparks, is divided into categories of those with substantiated allegations against them (reasonable certainty that the allegation is true) and credible allegations (more likely true than not). The list also names those who served in the territory of the diocese but were listed by another diocese or religious congregation and one allegation that was found to be unsubstantiated.

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UNITED STATES
HuffPost

August 14, 2020

By Carol Kuruvilla

Thirty-eight women have accused musician David Haas of inappropriate behavior ranging from forced kissing to cyberstalking.

U.S. Roman Catholic churches have been severing ties with a prominent religious composer facing accusations of sexual misconduct and harassment from dozens of women.

About one-third of American archdioceses have pledged to stop playing liturgical music written by David Haas, a 63-year-old composer whose pieces have been sung in parishes across America for decades, The New York Times reported.

Thirty-eight women have come forward with accusations against Haas that include cyberstalking, forced kissing and groping, the Times reported. The allegations have been compiled by Into Account, a Kansas-based advocacy group that supports survivors of sex abuse in Christian contexts.

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ALBANY (NY)
CNS

August 14, 2020

By Mike Matvey

A fifth lawsuit has accused retired Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany of alleged sexual abuse.

The lawsuit — filed the week of Aug. 10 in the state Supreme Court in Albany on behalf of a 55-year-old man currently living in South Carolina — alleges that Bishop Hubbard sexually abused the man when he was 10 on a church bus trip from St. James Parish, which is now St. Francis of Assisi Parish, to West Point in 1975.

The lawsuit also alleges abuse by Bishop Hubbard from 1974-76 when the boy was an altar boy at St. James.

It also alleges that Father Cabell B. Marbury abused the boy between 1974-76. Father Marbury taught at Cardinal McCloskey High School — now Bishop Maginn High School — and ministered at St. James at the time, as well as other parishes. Father Marbury died in 2014 at age 81.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

August 13, 2020

By Peter Smith

Twenty-eight people initiated legal actions against the Diocese of Pittsburgh on Thursday, cresting a wave of recent claims filed across the state against Roman Catholic dioceses in advance of Friday’s two-year anniversary of a landmark grand jury report into sexual abuse by priests.

Pittsburgh attorney Alan Perer said he was filing Thursday on behalf of numerous plaintiffs to get their claims in court before the two-year mark, which, under a legal theory being tested before the commonwealth’s top court, would be the deadline under the statute of limitations.

Fourteen plaintiffs filed full complaints in lawsuits in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas by mid-afternoon on Thursday, while 14 others filed praecipes for writs of summons ­ short notices of intent to sue, which gets a foot in the courthouse door before the deadline. Mr. Perer represents most of those plaintiffs, but other attorneys filed on behalf of three of the plaintiffs.

Numerous other plaintiffs also have filed court claims in recent weeks against the Pittsburgh Diocese and other Catholic dioceses in the state.

Six dioceses were subjects of an Aug. 14, 2018, report by a statewide grand jury that investigated seven decades of sexual abuse that, the report said, was often abetted by cover-ups by bishops and other church officials.

Harrisburg attorney Nathaniel Foote ­ whose firm Andreozzi & Foote filed lawsuits and praecipes earlier this year naming the Pittsburgh Diocese ­ said his firm has filed about 60 cases statewide against various dioceses. He estimated there are more than 100 total pending cases against the dioceses named by the grand jury filed by various attorneys.

While details of most of Thursday’s filings were not immediately available, those that were posted Thursday on the court website allege abuses dating back decades. Priests named in the available lawsuits either had been identified as abusers in the grand jury report or on the diocesan website, which says they were removed from ministry and reported to authorities years ago.

But one lawsuit, echoing the language in numerous others, says the diocese “had an accumulation of knowledge of the sexual abuse by their servants which they kept from the plaintiff and the public, and the resulting dire lifetime effects of this abuse.”

The statute of limitations would normally prohibit lawsuits alleging long-ago abuse. However, the recent wave of lawsuits is based on a legal theory: that the dioceses are liable for an ongoing conspiracy and fraud that continued right up until the release of the grand jury report ­ which, the plaintiffs claim, was the first they were made aware of the dioceses’ alleged pattern of covering up for abusers and enabling them to continue working with children.

The Diocese of Pittsburgh said in a statement: “We understand that some plaintiffs’ lawyers believe that they have two years from the issuance of the grand jury report in order to file a lawsuit. We do not believe that to be the case, but that might explain why there has been an increase in cases filed recently. These cases do not pertain to any new allegations, but are cases related to former allegations, dating back decades.”

Whether the plaintiffs even get a day in court will depend on the fate of a precedent-setting case now before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The high court has agreed to review a similar lawsuit against the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, which was the subject of a separate grand jury report in 2016.

Attorneys for the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese argue that the plaintiff, Renee Rice, had enough information to file her claim decades earlier, without need for a grand jury to uncover new information. But Ms. Rice’s attorneys argue that the diocese’s alleged conspiracy and fraud, which they contend included maintaining the allegedly abusive priest in ministry and presenting itself as taking a strong stance against abuse, was uncovered only by the grand jury.

Mr. Perer, one of Ms. Rice’s attorneys, is making a similar case against the Pittsburgh Diocese.

“Our theory is that until the grand jury came out, nobody knew about the concealment and all that information about the diocese protecting all these priests,” Mr. Perer said.

Mr. Perer said of the clients filing on Thursday, some had their claims rejected or deemed unqualified for the diocese’s program of compensation for victims of abuse, while others received offers they deemed unacceptably low. Attorneys have said the amounts offered by the diocese dropped significantly in the later parts of the process in comparison to earlier offers and to offers from other dioceses.

Mr. Perer said he has about 10 other pending cases already filed against the diocese.

He also filed two claims on Thursday against the Diocese of Greensburg in Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas, alleging abuse by priests there.

Attorneys have filed various claims in recent weeks against the dioceses of Pittsburgh, Greensburg, Erie, Scranton and Allentown. Mr. Foote said that because the Diocese of Harrisburg filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, any claims have to be filed through that process.

So far the Diocese of Pittsburgh has said it hopes to avoid bankruptcy, though one of its attorneys has raised that possibility.

Peter Smith: petersmith@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1416; Twitter @PG_PeterSmith.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

August 13, 2020

By Rodrigo Torrejon

Two former students of a Bergen County Catholic school are accusing a hockey coach of sexually abusing them when they were minors and church and school officials of covering it all up, according to dual lawsuits.

In two lawsuits filed in Superior Court Aug. 6, two former students of Paramus Catholic High School allege years of sexual abuse by former hockey coach Bernard Garris in the late 1980s, claiming that the high school, Archdiocese of Newark and New Jersey Catholic Conference hid his rampant abuse and protected Garris.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
AP

August 14, 2020

The Kansas Bureau of Investigation has received 205 reports of clergy sexual abuse and opened 120 cases since it began investigating the state’s Catholic dioceses nearly two years ago, the agency said Friday.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt asked the KBI in November 2018 to investigate Catholic clergy abuse in Kansas. A task force of six agents has been investigating reports of abuse from the public and is reviewing church documents.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Associated Press

August 14, 2020

By Mark Scolforo

Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses have been hit with about 150 lawsuits from people who say they were sexually abused as children by priests and hope a state court decision last year has shown a way around time limits for legal claims.

Lawyers involved in the litigation say they were still getting notified about new cases on Thursday and expect dozens more.

The rush to the courthouse is tied to a landmark grand jury report issued exactly two years ago that documented seven decades of child molestation within the Catholic church in Pennsylvania. State civil litigation rules generally require legal action to be initiated within two years from when someone realizes they’ve been harmed.

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POLAND
Associated Press

August 13, 2020

By Nicole Winfield and Vanessa Gera

Pope Francis continued cleaning house in Poland on Thursday following revelations of clergy sexual abuse and cover-up, replacing the powerful archbishop of Gdansk on his 75th birthday.

While all Catholic bishops must offer to retire when they turn 75, it is highly unusual for the pope to accept such a resignation on a prelate’s actual birthday. Doing so suggests that Francis was keen to send a signal showing his seriousness about ending the culture of concealment within the Polish church hierarchy.

The pope named a temporary administrator to run the Gdansk archdiocese after accepting the resignation of Archbishop Slawoj Leszek Glodz.

Glodz was featured in one of the devastating recent documentaries about priestly sex abuse and cover-up in Poland that have sparked a reckoning in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country.

In the 2019 film “Tell No One,” Glodz is shown eulogizing a known pedophile priest, the Rev. Franciszek Cybula, the personal chaplain to Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, at his funeral despite knowing of his abuse.

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HOUSTON (TX)
KTRK-TV, Ch. 13

August 14, 2020

By Ted Oberg and Sarah Rafique

[VIDEO]

13 Investigates Ted Oberg followed the money from the feds to thousands of churches.

Hours after SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) criticized the Catholic church for accepting PPP loans Thursday, 13 Investigates looked into the program finding tens of thousands of churches accepting cash in the job saving program.

Our team also found the feds changed their own rules to do so.

The Personal Protection loans were created to help struggling businesses make ends meet.

Thursday SNAP members gathered outside the archdiocese to express their anger over how much of that money was given to the Catholic church. The group is upset that taxpayer dollars meant for coronavirus relief is being given to dioceses that have battled sexual abuse claims and allegations of cover-ups.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Associated Press via 7News.com

By Gus McCubbing

August 13, 2020

A former Sydney Catholic college principal who preyed upon boys at his school in the 1970s has been handed a three-year community corrections order.

Peter Nicholas Lennox pleaded guilty in July to indecently assaulting two boys at St Paul’s Catholic College in Manly.

The 81-year-old, who has a pacemaker and is diagnosed with depression and diabetes, appeared at the Downing Centre District Court on Friday with a walking stick in hand.

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TRENTON (NJ)
Trentonian

August 13, 2020

By Sulaiman Abdur-Rahman

https://www.trentonian.com/news/diocese-of-trenton-faces-more-lawsuits-in-childhood-sex-abuse-scandal/article_92101672-ddb5-11ea-8ce5-e79f0a33d2cb.html

Already embroiled in litigation, the Diocese of Trenton has been freshly accused of negligence for its failure to prevent childhood sex abuse.

Three lawsuits filed in Mercer County Superior Court on Thursday allege the diocese had “negligently retained” child-molesting priests who “posed a dangerous condition” toward youthful parishioners on church property.

These priests include former clergy members Ronald R. Becker, Douglas U. Hermansen and Joseph F. McHugh, men previously identified by the Diocese of Trenton as sexual predators.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
KDKA-TV

August 13, 2020

https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/video/4665348-group-of-parishioners-disappointed-in-catholic-diocese-of-pittsburghs-plan-for-change-following-clergy-sexual-abuse/

[VIDEO]

Tomorrow will mark two years since the grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse. After several listening sessions, Bishop David Zubik outlined a plan for change, but a group of parishioners say the diocese has fallen short; KDKA’s Andy Sheehan reports.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

August 13, 2020

Few, if any, vice presidential candidates have had as much exposure to the world’s religions as U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, the 55-year-old from California whom Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden named Tuesday as his running mate.

Sen. Harris’ ethnic, racial and cultural biography represents a slice of the U.S. population that is becoming ascendant but that has never been represented in the nation’s second highest office.

Here are five faith facts about Sen. Harris:

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PENNSYLVANIA
Erie News Now

August 13, 2020

https://www.erienewsnow.com/story/42494285/bradford-man-files-lawsuit-against-erie-catholic-diocese-charges-diocese-of-covering-up-sexual-abuse-case

He was a student at Bradford Christian High School from 1987 to 1990.

A Bradford man has filed a civil lawsuit against the Erie Catholic Diocese, charging the diocese and bishops covered up sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of two priests.

According to the Bradford Era, attorneys for Ed Rodgers filed the suit in McKean County alleging fraud, conspiracy and negligence.

He’s alleging abuse while he was a student at Bradford Christian High School from 1987 to 1990 and he says the diocese covered up the actions of the two priests to protect its reputation and financial interests.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW-TV

August 13, 2020

By Charlie Specht

It has been quite a journey since abuse survivor Angelo Ervolina and four fellow survivors of Buffalo Diocese priests filed the first Child Victims Act lawsuits in New York State one year ago.

“There’s been some up and downs, there’s been some bumps,” Ervolina said Thursday. “You know, there’s been some good times, too, as far as good things that have come out of all this.”

The high point was taking back the power from their abusers, speaking out publicly on the Buffalo Diocese controversy and gaining a friendship through their shared experience as survivors.

They also helped push for the eventual resignation of Bishop Richard J. Malone.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

August 14, 2020

By Karen Cyson

“There are rapists in many occupations.”

That was the response I got when I forwarded an article from the New York Times to a friend concerning an alleged serial predator in the Twin Cities. She then reminded me of a time when she felt a doctor squeezed her knee inappropriately.

OK. Sure. There are “bad guys” everywhere.

But that is not the same as having a systemic problem with men who assault for decades and do so in a hierarchy of power that enables, covers up and makes excuses for their behavior.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Tribune Review

August 13, 2020

By Rich Cholodofsky

https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/dozens-of-clergy-sex-abuse-lawsuits-filed-in-allegheny-westmoreland-courts-as-possible-deadline-looms-2-years-after-report/

More than two dozen lawsuits that allege sexual abuses by priests were filed Thursday ahead of what lawyers suggest could be a deadline to file legal action two years after the release of a grand jury report that detailed claims involving Catholic dioceses throughout Pennsylvania.

Pittsburgh lawyer Alan Perer filed 25 cases Thursday against the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh and two that alleged misconduct by the Greensburg diocese.

“Our theory is that until the grand jury report that came out on Aug. 14, 2018, all of this stuff was hidden and people didn’t hear about this before. Theoretically, it’s not a statutory barrier, but as a precaution we’re making sure we get these (lawsuits) filed within two years,” Perer said.

A legal ruling by the state’s Superior Court last year reset the bar to file lawsuits against the church over sexual misconduct claims.

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POLAND
Politiko

August 13, 2020

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of the Archbishop of Gdansk, the Holy See said on Thursday, following accusations he had bullied priests and remained silent on alleged sex abuse.

Priests in the 75-year-old’s archdiocese claimed in a letter to the Vatican last year that Bishop Glodz had subjected them to psychological harassment.

The bishop, who denies the bullying, has also been criticised for keeping silent about the alleged actions of several priests accused by Polish prosecutors of sexual abuse against children.

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LOUISIANA
WWL

August 13, 2020

Eyewitness Investigator David Hammer has been following the Church sex abuse scandal with a number of investigative reports that are still ongoing.

Here is a list of the stories that he has reported so far. There are more to come soon.

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CAPE TOWN
Eyewitness News

August 13, 2020

By Kaylynn Palm

This after a Women’s Day protest outside the residence of Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba in Bishopscourt in support of Reverend June Dolley-Major.

The Anglican Church Commission said it was open and willing to support a priest who has accused another priest of raping her in 2002.

This after a Women’s Day protest outside the residence of Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba in Bishopscourt in support of Reverend June Dolley-Major.

The church’s Safe and Inclusive Church Commission, set up to support victims of sexual and other abuse, was established by the church’s governing Provincial Synod last year.

The commission said it was deeply saddened by the pain and experience reported to it by Reverend Dolley-Major last month.

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GENEVA (NY)
Finger Lakes Times

August 12, 2020

By Cameron Miller

I have a confession to make. I am a priest.

To say so wasn’t always a confession. Forty years ago it was still a respected occupation. Granted, widespread clergy leadership and involvement in the Civil Rights and Anti-War Movements had already diminished its credibility with a wide swath of the population, particularly white conservatives who would eventually begin flocking away from Roman Catholic and Mainline Protestant churches. While that exodus took place for many reasons, clergy political activism in the 1960s and 1970s got the ball rolling.

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ALBANY (NY)
ChurchMilitant

August 12, 2020

By William Mahoney, Ph.D.

Howard Hubbard hit by yet another scandal

Homosexual child rape is the latest accusation against a former bishop of Albany, New York, now facing at least five cases of sexually abusing minors.

Adding his voice to a growing list of sexual abuse allegations, Charles Carr is suing former bishop of Albany Howard Hubbard for raping him as a young altar boy in the 1970s.

“Hubbard sexually assaulted plaintiff, molesting him, including penetration,” alleges the complaint.

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ILLINOIS
Belleville News Democrat

August 12, 2020

By Teri Maddox

It’s been more than five months since a former Mascoutah priest died while serving time in prison for possession of child pornography and methamphetamine, and his family still doesn’t know the cause of death or other details.

Officials have told Gerald Hechenberger’s brother and two sisters that the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed a state investigation, but the siblings are getting impatient.

“I want to know what happened,” his sister, Nancy Rueter, said this week.

Hechenberger, 56, had just started serving a nine-year sentence at Pinckneyville Correctional Center when he died on March 6. Officials have declined to say whether it happened at the prison or Pinckneyville Community Hospital.

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UNITED STATES
Fox News

August 13, 2020

By Charles Creitz

‘It’s a massive cover-up,’ Peter Schweizer tells ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’

Presumptive Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ handling of cases involving alleged child sex abuse by Catholic priests while she was San Francisco District Attorney should receive more scrutiny, investigative journalist and author Peter Schweizer told “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Wednesday.

Schweizer told host Tucker Carlson that when Harris took office in 2004, her predecessor, Democrat Terence Hallinan, left her with “hundreds of pages” of internal Catholic Church documents that included names of 40 accused clergy.

“Hallinan was using those documents to build criminal cases and he was also planning to release them after redacting the names of victims,” he said. “Kamala Harris actually deep-sixed … those documents, and those documents disappeared, much to the chagrin of victims’ groups.

“So it’s a massive cover-up and a lot of the people that financed her campaign to beat Hallinan were law firms and lawyers and people connected to the church hierarchy who did not want those documents to come out.”

In June 2019, the Associated Press published a report headlined, “Victims’ question Kamala Harris’ record on clergy abuse” in which survivors of clergy abuse and their attorneys claimed Harris was consistently silent on the Catholic Church’s abuse scandal — first as district attorney in San Francisco and later as California’s attorney general.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Ellwood City Ledger

August 12, 2020

By Chrissy Suttles

A Pennsylvania man is suing the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh decades after he and his sister were allegedly assaulted by a priest in Lawrence County.

A Pennsylvania man is suing the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh decades after he says he and his sister were sexually assaulted by a priest in Lawrence County.

The complaint filed in Allegheny County Court by Altoona-based attorney Richard Serbin claims William Schneider, 65, of Cumberland County, was 8 years old when the Rev. James Somma’s sexual abuse began at the former Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church, now Holy Redeemer.

The abuse reportedly continued for two or three years in the 1960s. Schneider was forced to expose himself and perform sexual acts on himself in the presence of Somma, who died in 2004, the lawsuit claims.

The Diocese of Pittsburgh was aware of Somma’s “deviant sexual acts and continued to allow him to remain in the priesthood without consequence,” Schneider’s lawyer said, adding that Somma groomed the siblings and their parents over time, often taking the youngsters out for treats and purchasing expensive gifts their family could not afford.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Bradford Era

August 12, 2020

By Marcie Schellhammer

For 30 years, Bradford’s Ed Rodgers has been waiting to see justice for the sexual abuse he says he suffered while attending school at Bradford Central Christian.

Thanks to a recent change in Pennsylvania law, on Tuesday, Rodgers was able to file suit against the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Erie Diocese and Bishops Donald Trautman and Lawrence Persico.

A spokesperson for the diocese on Wednesday said only, “The Diocese of Erie does not comment on litigation.”

The suit, filed in McKean County Court, alleges fraud, conspiracy, constructive fraud and negligence on the parts of the diocese and its bishops for covering up sexual abuse — like that which Rodgers says he suffered from 1987 to 1990 by two priests, Michael Amy and Desmond McGee — and for moving predator priests around to different churches instead of intervening to protect children.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

August 13, 2020

By Kate Hedley

A former deputy principal who lost his job at a Catholic school in Perth after being accused of raping a student more than 20 years ago has failed in his bid to have his employment reinstated.

While Donald Andrew Parnell never faced criminal charges over the abuse claim, Catholic Education Western Australia conducted a formal investigation and found the allegations substantiated “on the balance of probabilities”, and recommended his employment be terminated.

On August 20 last year, Mr Parnell was dismissed for misconduct from Lumen Christi College.

An unfair dismissal application filed by the former deputy principal to WA’s Industrial Relations Commission was heard earlier this year, with Mr Parnell’s application dismissed.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic News Service via America

August 12, 2020

Ten U.S. dioceses, including Boston and St. Louis, have banned popular hymns by composer David Haas following accusations by several women of “spiritual manipulation” and “sexual offenses,” according to The New York Times.

The Archdioceses of St. Paul and Minneapolis and Los Angeles have also banned Mr. Haas, famous for songs like “Blest Are They” and “You Are Mine,” from performing.

Tim O’Malley, archdiocesan director of ministerial standards for the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul, said in a July statement the archdiocese has received new, independent reports from women in different parts of the United States alleging that Haas “engaged in inappropriate conduct” with them when they were young adults in the 1980s. The reports are “similar in nature to the conduct described in previous allegations,” Mr. O’Malley said.

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ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times-Union

August 12, 2020

By Brendan Lyons

A fifth lawsuit accusing former Albany Roman Catholic Diocese Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of child sexual abuse was filed this week in state Supreme Court in Albany.

The lawsuit also alleges a second priest, Cabell B. Marbury, also sexually abused the boy. The case was filed on behalf of a 55-year-old South Carolina man who alleges he was 10 when Hubbard sexually abused him in 1975. The lawsuit claims the boy became ill during a church-sponsored bus trip to West Point and Hubbard, who was on the trip, brought him back to the empty bus and sexually molested him.

The complaint alleges Hubbard also sexually abused the boy in 1974 and 1976 at his family’s church, then-St. James on Delaware Avenue in Albany. The church is now named St. Francis of Assisi.

“During this time period, altar boys, including plaintiff, were directed to bring brandy from a wet bar located behind the altar to a reading room located behind the altar,” the complaint states. “On multiple occasions, plaintiff served Hubbard in the reading room at which time, Hubbard had plaintiff sit on Hubbard’s lap which was followed by inappropriate touching and ultimately anal sex.”

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INDIA
Hindu Post

August 13, 2020

By Dr. Nandini Murali

“My fight is not a fight against the Christian faith; but a fight against the institution. Raping nuns and children is not what my religion stands for! The institution of the Catholic Church, has diluted the message of the faith and that needs to be addressed,” says Savio Rodrigues, journalist, Founder and Editor-in-chief, Goa Chronicle, entrepreneur and activist. In a telephonic interview, he talks about the global phenomenon of sexual abuse by clergy in the Catholic Church and the need to address it pragmatically and sensitively with informed perspectives and zero-tolerance.

Q 1.) As a practising Christian, you’ve also been an outspoken champion about the need to pragmatically address the serious issue of sexual abuse and corruption by the clergy of the Catholic Church. How and why do you do what you do?

My family and I are devout Catholic Christians based in Goa. My parents, wife and the extended family are very supportive of my crusade against the corruption and sexual abuse by the clergy in the Catholic church because of the immense confidence and faith they have in me that I would crusade for what is morally and ethically right.

My fight is not a fight against the Christian faith; but a fight against the institution. Raping nuns and children is not what my religion stands for! Over the years, the institution of the Catholic Church, has diluted the message of the faith and that needs to be addressed. As a qualified journalist, isn’t it my job as a whistle-blower to expose these scandals and make society a safer place for all of us? As a Practising Catholic, am I not primarily responsible for calling out my dharma?

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JAKARTA (INDONESIA)
The Jakarta Post

August 13, 2020

By Ivany Atina Arbi

Two more victims of childhood sexual abuse at a Catholic school have spoken up following collaborative reports between The Jakarta Post and Tirto.id on abuse in the Catholic Church, as the Church continues to remain passive in dealing with sexual assault allegations.

Now grown women, the victims, Anna and Vivian, who chose pseudonyms to protect their privacy, said they read the reports of Sisca and Ellen, also pseudonyms, and found similarities between their experiences.

Anna and Vivian reached out to the collaboration team shortly after the reports were published last month in the hopes of bringing broader awareness to the case and “ending the perpetrator’s years of lies”.

Vivian said a priest at the Maria Bunda Karmel (MBK) parish still texted her from time to time, asking personal questions such as whether she was married. He also asked her to send him pictures of her. The last message sent was in May.

Anna said she experienced abuse – allegedly from the same priest – about 15 years ago when she was a student at Sang Timur Catholic Junior High School, which is located next to the MBK parish.

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ENGLAND
The Guardian

August 12, 2020

By Harriet Sherwood

Clergy and abuse survivors sign letter highlighting problems in handling complaints

The Charity Commission has been asked to intervene in the Church of England’s investigations of senior figures embroiled in abuse complaints.

A letter to the commission has complained of the “impaired transparency and intermittent accountability” of the church’s main safeguarding body. Dozens of signatories include survivors, clergy, lawyers, academics and a serving bishop.

They say church leaders have failed to devise a “safe, consistent and fair system of redress to all parties engaged in safeguarding complaints”.

The letter adds: “The continuing flow of cases of injustice leads us to seek early intervention from the Charity Commission. We do this with reluctance, having tried and failed to secure redress through multiple complaints across the structure.”

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
The Sacramento Bee

August 12, 2020

By Ryan Sabalow and Dale Kasler

The priest excommunicated last week for refusing to acknowledge Pope Francis as his church’s rightful leader might not be well known outside the community of more than 1 million Catholics who belong to the Diocese of Sacramento.

But his last name certainly is familiar in the region.

Father Jeremy Leatherby, 41, is the grandson of the founders of Leatherby’s Family Creamery, a small but popular chain of ice cream parlors.

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NEW YORK
The Daily Gazette

August 12, 2020

By Zachary Matson

Latest claims accuse Most Rev. Howard J. Hubbard of child rape

A 55-year-old South Carolina man has accused former Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of raping him while he served as a young altar boy in an Albany Catholic church in the mid-1970s, the latest in a string of lawsuits accusing the former longtime bishop of child sexual abuse.

The latest claims come in a Child Victims Act lawsuit filed in Albany County court Monday by Charles Carr which alleged Hubbard repeatedly abused him when he was an altar boy at St. James Church in Albany between 9- and 11-years-old, abuse that allegedly included instances of anal rape.

Carr accused Hubbard of multiple instances of abuse.

When Carr was around 10, according to the complaint, he joined a church trip to West Point. During the trip Carr felt sick, so he and Hubbard went back to the bus, where Hubbard allegedly sexually assaulted him.

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UNITED STATES
USA TODAY

August 12, 2020

By David Gibson

The Catholic Church always saw child abuse as a sin and a scandal. Police abuse is seen as lamentable but acceptable, even heroic, to keep the peace.

The mantra invoked when episodes of police brutality or corruption come to light, as they do with gut-wrenching regularity these days, is that it’s just a matter of “a few bad apples.” It’s an all-too familiar refrain to those of us who have covered sex abuse in religion for so many years, especially the high-profile and well-documented cases of the abuse of minors by Catholic clergy.

It’s also the wrong way to think about the problem. The Catholic Church is learning that lesson, but too many law enforcement agencies are not. And there’s no reason that police departments shouldn’t be doing at least as much, and as well, as the Catholic Church when it comes to ending abuses given that the two cultures are so similar.

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LOWVILLE (NY)
NNY360

August 11, 2020

By Sydney Schefer

https://www.nny360.com/news/crime/second-sexual-abuse-suit-brought-against-lowville-school-former-teacher-named-as-defendant/article_3921eea3-0948-5cd6-ac25-a72a9e999e26.html

A second lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by a former Lowville school teacher was filed Tuesday, and this time, the former teacher is named as a defendant in the suit.

A. Ronald Johnson, 75, formerly of Lowville, now of Cooperstown, is accused of sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy in and around 1976 — more than 40 years ago.

Tuesday’s suit filing in state Supreme Court comes just over a week after an initial suit was filed, against Lowville Academy and Central School District, its Board of Education, Lowville United Methodist Church and three other church entities which had authority over the Lowville church at the time. Mr. Johnson was not named as a defendant in the first suit.

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ENGLAND
Times of London

August 12, 2020

By Andrew Brown

The Church of England has been reported to the Charity Commission for its “incompetent and unjust” handling of investigations into senior figures.

Lord Carlile of Berriew, QC, and a serving bishop are among dozens of signatories to a letter accusing the church of operating a secretive and unfair disciplinary system.

Four of the past five archbishops of Canterbury and York had been the subjects of formal complaints about their alleged failures to act against clergy accused of sexual abuse.

Lord Carey of Clifton, who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002, has been prevented from performing his religious duties while the church’s national safeguarding team investigates his past conduct.

The Bishop of Lincoln, the Right Rev Christopher Lowson, has been suspended for more than a year. He has been accused of failing to respond “appropriately” to safeguarding allegations. He has said that he is bewildered by the accusations. The Archbishop of York, the Most Rev Stephen Cottrell, had apologised for failing to respond correctly when he was told about domestic violence by one of his priests when he was Bishop of Reading.

The church has “the most incompetent and unjust form of investigation I have ever seen”, Lord Carlile said.

He is one of the signatories to a letter demanding that the Charity Commission take action. “They just don’t understand how the rule of law operates”, he said.

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CAPE TOWN (SOUTH AFRICA)
Cape Times

August 12, 2020

By Yolisa Tswanya

Theologian, lawyer and human rights activist Barney Pityana stands by his comments that Reverend June Dolley-Major’s campaign for justice after allegedly being raped by a pastor in the Anglican Church 18 years ago was “diabolical and satanic”.

At the weekend, Dolley-Major and a number of supporters hung panties outside Archbishop Thabo Makgoba’s home in protest at the church’s handling of her allegations.

In a message to one of Dolley-Major’s supporters, posted on social media, Pityana said he noted the campaign and that nothing gave the protesters the right to abuse the archbishop and violate the privacy of his home.

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UNITED STATES
Legal Examiner (law firm blog)

August 11, 2020

By Joseph H. Saunders

In a recent 2019 summary of changes in statutes of limitation for child sex abuse, written by CHILDUSA, 41 states had either changed their statutes of limitations or had bills pending to do so. In the past two years 15 states have extended or suspended statute of limitations to allow child sex abuse claims stretching back decades, unleashing potentially thousands of new lawsuits against the U.S. Roman Catholic Church.

More importantly “lookback windows” have been established by eight states and the District of Columbia. These “windows” allow victims of sexual abuse to sue no matter how long ago the alleged abuse took place. Victims can file civil suits against both their alleged abusers such as priests and the church or other institutions where they worked.

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CALIFORNIA
Catholic News Agency

August 11, 2020

A Sacramento priest excommunicated last week says he stands by his claim that Pope emeritus Benedict XVI is the true pope. In addition to charges of schism, the priest is suspected of misconduct and improper relationships with at least two adult women; he confessed his love to one of them in a video message circulating online.

“I continue to regard Benedict as retaining the Office of Peter, as mysterious as that might be. Therefore, I do not regard Bergoglio as the Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church,” Fr. Jeremy Leatherby wrote this week in an open letter to the Sacramento diocese.

Leatherby added that although he was already prohibited from public ministry, he had been celebrating Masses in recent months in private homes, offered “in union with Pope Benedict, not with Pope Francis. Many who have joined me hold, like I do, that Benedict remains the one true Pope.”

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW-YV

August 11, 2020

By Charlie Specht

Most recent claim of abuse on record

It’s the most recent case of alleged pedophilia in the Buffalo Diocese on record and it involves Fr. Lynn Shumway, a Grand Island pastor who allegedly abused a child in 2009.

From the beginning of the scandal, the Diocese of Buffalo has tried to describe child sex abuse by priests as a problem of the past.

“There have been only three diocesan priests against whom there have been substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse since the year 2000,” the diocese writes on its website. “There have been no substantiated claims of child sexual abuse against any diocesan priest ordained in the past 30 years.”

But a lawsuit recently filed in State Supreme Court now threatens to render that statement false.

It’s the most recent case of alleged pedophilia in the Buffalo Diocese on record and it involves Fr. Lynn Shumway, a Grand Island pastor who allegedly abused a child in 2009.

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NEW JERSEY
NorthJersey.com

August 12, 2020

By Tom Nobile

Two former students at Paramus Catholic High School have come forward with sexual abuse allegations against a prominent hockey coach from the 1980s, saying the school shielded him from similar accusations for years.

In a lawsuit filed in state Superior Court, the two unnamed alumni say Paramus Catholic, the Archdiocese of Newark and its archbishop either were aware or should have known that coach Bernard Garris had “sexually inappropriate and/or sexually abusive relationships with many minor children.”

Garris molested both boys numerous times on school grounds and while on school-sanctioned athletic trips between 1986 and 1988, when the students were 14 or 15, says the suit, filed last week. Gerald McCarthy, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said more may come forward.

“It’s our strong opinion in doing our initial investigation, after being contacted by several former students, that there may have been quite a few,” he said.

To protect their privacy, McCarthy did not disclose where the former students lived or what years they graduated, he said. The lawsuit says one plaintiff currently lives in New Jersey. The other is a Massachusetts resident.

Paramus Catholic did not return calls seeking comment, and the archdiocese said it would not discuss pending litigation.

“The Archdiocese of Newark remains fully committed to transparency and to our long-standing programs to protect the faithful and will continue to work with victims, their legal representatives and law enforcement authorities in an ongoing effort to resolve allegations and bring closure to victims,” said Maria Margiotta, a spokesperson for the archdiocese.

The suit is the latest among dozens of complaints filed against the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts and other institutions since Dec. 1, when a new state law waived the statue of limitation for decades-old abuse claims in New Jersey.

Garris was named to the Bergen County Coaches Association’s Century Victory Club for amassing 100 wins as a coach by 1985. But he was terminated from his position around 1986 due to abuse allegations from students and later died, in 2016, according to the lawsuit.

The school and the archdiocese, however, breached their duties to inform families of the alleged victims about the accusations, the lawsuit states.

“Despite this duty, defendants have for decades adopted policies and practices of covering up criminal activity committed by its agents and employees,” the complaint says.

A 2019 law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy greatly expanded the ability of alleged victims of sexual assault to sue attackers and eased restrictions on seeking damages from defendants, such as churches, that may have shielded the abuse. Whereas the previous law allowed only a two-year statute of limitations, alleged victims can now sue their abusers until they turn 55, or within seven years of their realization that the abuse caused them harm.

In early 2019, New Jersey’s five Catholic dioceses began releasing lists of priests who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children. The list included two now-deceased priests who had served at Paramus Catholic: Dennis Cocozza, who was ordained in 1975, and Robert Morel, ordained in 1969.

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
CBS13

August 9, 2020

By Richie Ramos

The Diocese of Sacramento excommunicated a priest from the Roman Catholic Church after he continued, while suspended, to hold Mass and questioned the legitimacy of Pope Francis, according to a letter from Bishop Jaime Soto.

In his letter, Soto said Father Jeremy Leatherby was exiled by his own volition, refusing the bishop’s instructions to refrain from offering public Mass to parishioners.

“He has instructed them against the legitimacy of His Holiness, Pope Francis,” Soto said. “He has substituted the Holy Father’s name with the name of his predecessor, and omitted my name during the recitation of the Eucharistic Prayer while offering Mass.”

Soto said he attempted to reach Leatherby in a number of ways but did not get any response.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Times

August 10, 2020

By Marie Fazio

David Haas, a composer known for “Blest Are They,” “We Are Called,” “You Are Mine” and other favorites, has been accused of sexual abuse and harassment by multiple women, an advocacy group says.

Several Roman Catholic archdioceses have banned a well-known liturgical composer from performing in their churches and many others have stopped playing his music after dozens of women accused him of sexual misconduct and harassment over more than 40 years.

The allegations against the composer, David Haas, 63, include harassment and cyberstalking, lewd propositions, forced kissing and groping, and other unwanted sexual behavior, according to accusations from 38 women compiled by Into Account, a survivor advocacy group. The New York Times interviewed six of the women.

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National Catholic Reporter

August 11, 2020

By NCR Editorial Staff

As we publish this, it has been one year, 10 months, and six days since Pope Francis ordered a report on the Vatican’s documentation about how Theodore McCarrick was promoted through the ranks of the Catholic hierarchy for decades, despite multiple, then-secret reports of his sexual misconduct with seminarians.

And it has been six months and six days since a Vatican official last gave a public update on the status of the report, when Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin told the Reuters news agency that work on the text was done, awaiting only a final “go” order for publication from Francis.

Certainly, the world has changed in drastic ways since the pontiff first ordered the report on Oct. 6, 2018, and even since Parolin gave the last progress update on Feb. 6.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic News Agency

August 11, 2020

Archbishop-designate Mitchell Rozanski, who will take over the Archdiocese of St. Louis this month, oversaw an investigation into the late Bishop Christopher J. Weldon of Springfield, Mass, a bishop credibly accused of sexually abusing an altar boy in the 1960s. Rozanski has faced criticism for some aspects of his handling of the case, which the bishop said had been mishandled for years.

In 2018 an alleged victim, known under the pseudonym John Doe, told the Springfield diocesan review board that Bishop Christopher J. Weldon, who retired in 1977 and died in 1982, had abused him when he was an altar boy in the 1960s. Two priests also abused him, he said.

However, Bishop Weldon was not listed on the Springfield diocese’s list of clergy credibly accused of abuse. Although at least three witnesses and a letter to Doe from the review board supported Doe’s claim that he told the review board about Weldon, the review board only acknowledged Doe’s claim that the two priests had abused him. When the matter became controversial in 2019, then-Bishop Mitchell Rozanski commissioned an independent investigation.

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POUGHKEEPSIE (NEW YORK)
Poughkeepsie Journal

August 11, 2020

By Saba Ali

Gregory Kane won the lottery four decades ago.

The 10-year-old Queens resident was chosen by the Fresh Air Fund via a lottery system to attend its summer camp in Fishkill.

Part of the “Deer Trail 13” group, he and three other campers were assigned to a cabin. Each cabin had a counselor who would supervise the campers in the evenings.

One evening, Kane says he woke to find the counselor with one hand on his throat and the other on his penis.

Kane is suing the Fresh Air Fund for the sexual abuse he said he endured the summer of 1980. His story, outlined in graphic detail in his lawsuit against the Fresh Air Fund, is not unique.

The civil action lawsuit is one of thousands filed under the Child Victims Act against individuals, schools, churches and youth organizations. Last August, the law allowed survivors of child sexual abuse one year to file claims against those responsible for abuse regardless of how long ago the incident took place.

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UNITED STATES
Church Militant

August 11, 2020

By Christine Niles

A whistleblower on clergy corruption is fighting attempts to silence him.

Stephen Brady, president of Roman Catholic Faithful (RCF), an organization dedicated to exposing corruption and sex abuse in the Catholic clergy, has had to spend many thousands of dollars — even mortgaging his home and spending his life savings — to defend himself against a defamation lawsuit brought by Msgr. Craig Harrison. A priest of the diocese of Fresno, California, Harrison was placed on leave in May 2019 after at least half a dozen men stepped forward accusing him of abuse when they were teens.

“This is an action brought by a powerful public figure, using all of his extensive resources and connections in his local community, to engage in a pattern of rank intimidation against those who speak against him,” argue Brady’s attorneys in his latest court appeal. “He’s sued a victim, an investigator and his own diocese — and enlisted his brother to engage in a campaign of harassment.

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MINNESOTA
Minneapolis Star Tribune

August 11, 2020

By Jean Hopfensperger

He taught and worked in St. Louis Park, St. Paul.

Twin Cities musician David Haas, one of the best-known music composers in the Catholic Church nationally, has been accused of sexual misconduct toward multiple young women who studied with him over the years.

Composer, performer and teacher, Haas taught at Benilde-St. Margaret’s school in St. Louis Park, was composer-in-residence at the St. Paul Seminary, and ran a Music Ministry Alive program for years at St. Catherine University. He’s also traveled the nation and the world giving workshops and performing.

The stellar career ground to a halt earlier this year when a Kansas-based victim’s advocacy group publicized several allegations of abuse of young women under his tutelage. The organization, called Into Account, notified a network of liturgical music groups about the allegations, and organizations such as the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and St. Paul halted the use of his music at archdiocese events; longtime music publisher GIA Publications in Chicago suspended its ties. Haas has not been charged with any offense.

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UNITED STATES
Open Tabernacle (blog)

August 11, 2020

By Betty Clermont

“Vatican prosecutors, working with Italian authorities, executed a search and seizure warrant” on July 15. Cell phones and iPads belonging to London financier Raffaele Mincione were seized at a hotel in Rome.

Mincione, former fiancé of Paul McCartney’s ex-wife Heather Mills, had filed two civil lawsuits in the UK’s High Court of Justice against the Vatican on June 20. Both lawsuits are related to a deal brokered by Mincione for the Vatican in 2014 – their purchase of a 45% interest, through his holding company the Athena Global Opportunities Fund, in a London building to be converted into luxury apartments.

That deal “raised questions about the Vatican’s murky finances and poor investment strategies in the past decade and sparked fresh speculation about its Machiavellian turf battles, power struggles and score-settling,” the Associated Press reported.

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CANADA
The Lawyer’s Daily, Lexis-Nexis

August 10, 2020

By Terry Davidson

A Newfoundland court’s finding that the Archdiocese of St. John’s is vicariously liable for historical sexual abuse at the former Mount Cashel orphanage should be a warning to entities controlling lower institutions that there is a “continuing legal responsibility” to protect others, says a lawyer involved.

The landmark July 28 decision by the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal in John Doe (G.E.B. #25) v. Roman Catholic Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s 2020 NLCA 27 is the latest chapter involving four male plaintiffs who as child residents of the Mount Cashel orphanage suffered sexual abuse at the hands of five members of the Christian Brothers during the 1940s and 1950s.

The Christian Brothers, a group of Irish laymen brought to Newfoundland in the 1870s to teach in Roman Catholic Schools, operated the orphanage.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic World Report

August 4, 2020

By Thomas J. Nash

“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:5-6)

Jesus’ sober words about scandalizing young Catholics should be imprinted on the hearts of all Church employees, clerical or lay, who have anything to do with the oversight of children in the universal Church (see CCC 2284-87). The grave damage done to many victims and their families has been far-reaching, striking a severe blow to the Church in advancing her God-given Great Commission (see Mt. 28:18-20). While things have undoubtedly improved overall since the Long Lent of 2002, we still await Pope Francis’ reckoning regarding Theodore McCarrick, two years after he resigned from the College of Cardinals.

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KERALA (INDIA)
UCA News

August 11, 2020

By Saji Thomas

Another clerical sex abuse case shocks the Christian community in the southern Indian state

An Orthodox church in southern India has suspended a priest and initiated an internal probe after an allegation that he raped a woman who sought his help to settle her dispute with her husband.

The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church based in Kerala suspended Father Babu Varghese Pookkottil after state police arrested him on Aug. 8 based on the woman’s complaint.
The priest of Sultan Bathery Diocese has been “suspended from all his priestly duties. We have also initiated a probe into the alleged incident,” diocesan secretary Father T.N. Kuriakose told UCA News.

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[Stories from former students about an abusive priest at the San Vicente de Paul de La Plata school]

LA PLATA (ARGENTINA)
Prensa Obrera

July 31, 2020

Raúl Sidders fue trasladado a principios de año a Iguazú, Misiones, donde sigue en contacto con menores y es capellán de Gendarmería.

[GOOGLE TRANSLATION: Raúl Sidders was transferred at the beginning of the year to Iguazú, Misiones, where he continues to be in contact with minors and is a chaplain of the Gendarmerie.]

“Ustedes, las mujeres, lo único que saben es comer, dormir y coger” dijo el “padre Raúl” entre risas, mientras se presentaba a una de las divisiones del secundario en ausencia de la profesora. “Eso fue en el primer día de clases. Quedé impactada”, recuerda Antonia, exalumna del Colegio San Vicente de Paul de La Plata. Los exalumnos varones recuerdan al sacerdote del colegio como “Frasquito”, el cura que les hacía preguntas fuera de lugar durante la confesión y los obligaba a masturbarse para guardarse su semen en frascos.

[GOOGLE TRANSLATION: “You women, the only thing you know is to eat, sleep and fuck,” said “Father Raúl” with a laugh, as he presented himself to one of the secondary school divisions in the absence of the teacher. “That was on the first day of school. I was shocked, ”recalls Antonia, a former student of the Colegio San Vicente de Paul de La Plata. Male alumni remember the school priest as “Frasquito”, the priest who asked them inappropriate questions during confession and forced them to masturbate to keep their semen in jars.]

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

August 10, 2020

By Haidee Eugenio Gilbert

Nearly 90 properties of the Archdiocese of Agana, excluding any Catholic parish or school, have been discussed between the church and survivors of clergy sex abuse as assets to fund a potential settlement.

A federal judge vacated Friday’s scheduling conference on the archdiocese’s bankruptcy, after the parties reported “considerable progress” in their ongoing mediation.

Some 300 Guam clergy sex abuse cases could go to trial if there is no settlement outside the court.

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HOUSTON (TX)
KHOU

August 7, 2020

By Doug Delony

Jose Abel Mena, 60, sexually abused the 9-year-old boy for more than a year according to court records.

Houston police have announced charges against a church leader accused of sexually abusing a 9-year-old boy, and they say there may be more victims who have yet to come forward.

Jose Abel Mena, 60, is charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child for crimes dating back to January 2019. Police believe he began sexually assaulting the little boy in January 2019 and continued until April 2020.

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