ABUSE TRACKER

HURON (MI)
Huron Daily Tribune

May 28, 2019

By Bradley Massman

A priest who has been temporarily removed from the ministry since 2016, and currently resides in Port Austin, has indicated he wants to sue Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.

“A lawsuit will be filed by week’s end with the finest prosecuting attorney in MI (Michigan) to sue the Catholic axe-grinding same-gender attracted AG Nessel,” Lawrence Ventline stated in an email CC’d to the Tribune on Tuesday.

Ventline, who resides in the Port Austin area, is currently facing licensing action by Nessel’s office.

Nessel, on Friday, said Ventline allegedly sexually assaulted a Michigan resident, and is still actively counseling children.

The sexual assault investigation was conducted by Oakland County Sheriff’s Office.

The Tribune contacted the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office on Friday for more information on the incident after speaking with Ventline, who continuously said his case was dismissed in Oakland.

A sergeant with the sheriff’s office told the Tribune that Ventline’s case was “still pending further investigation.”

However, on Tuesday, Oakland County Sheriff’s Lt. Dan Toth, told the Tribune that is not the case.

“If that’s an error on our part, we apologize for that,” Toth said, adding the case is closed.

“The bottom line with us is we opened up an investigation in 2016,” he added. “It was closed in early 2017, and we cannot substantiate the allegation. We can’t unsubstantiate it.”

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

PORT AUSTIN (MI)
Saginaw News

May 30, 2019

By Cole Waterman

A Catholic priest restricted from religious work by the Archdiocese of Detroit based on a sexual assault allegation said he plans to sue Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel for suspending his counseling license, a newspaper reports.

Nessel on Friday, May 24, announced she was charging five priests who once ministered throughout the state with a total of 21 counts of criminal sexual conduct. She also stated her office was suspending Lawrence M. Ventline’s license to practice as a limited-license counselor.

In a May 15 order of summary suspension, Nessel alleges Ventline sexually assaulted an 11-year-old boy during the 1989-1990 school year, when Ventline was a pastor in a parish and school within the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Kelly Rossman-McKinney, communications director for the Attorney General’s Office, told MLive/The Saginaw News Nessel could not criminally charge Ventline due to the statute of limitations running out. The case had been investigated by Oakland County Sheriff’s Office personnel.

Ventline is now 70 and lives in the Port Austin area of Huron County.

The Huron Daily Tribune reports it received a copy of an email from Ventline after Nessel’s announcement, in which he claims he will file a lawsuit to sue the “Catholic axe-grinding same-gender attracted AG Nessel.”

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

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

May 30, 2019

By Jay Tokasz

Allegations of child sexual abuse against the Rev. Michael P. Juran were substantiated by Buffalo Diocese Bishop Richard J. Malone after an investigation, and Juran will remain on administrative leave while the Vatican reviews the decision, Malone said Thursday morning.

An allegation of child sex abuse against the Rev. Robert M. Yetter was not substantiated, but Yetter will remain on administrative leave as the diocese continues to investigate allegations of adult sexual abuse by the former pastor of St. Mary Church in Swormville.

Two other priests who have been on leave since last fall due to complaints of misconduct with adults will be returned to ministry, said Malone.

A Diocesan Review Board found that improper conduct by the Rev. Joseph C. Gatto, former president-rector of Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, and the Rev. Samuel T. Giangreco Jr., associate pastor of Our Lady of Victory Basilica, did not rise to the level that would require removal from active ministry, Malone said.

Gatto, 61, who was suspended in September, said in an interview with The News at the time that he made no sexual advances on anyone, after a television station reported that a local man had accused him of improper advances in 2000.

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

BAKERSFIELD (CA)
The Californian

May 30, 2019

By Joseph Luiz

The founder and president of a national Catholic advocacy group vowed Wednesday to get to the bottom of the allegations made against Monsignor Craig Harrison.

Stephen G. Brady of the Roman Catholic Faithful — a group whose self-professed goal is to rid the church of clerical corruption — said he is in the process of going through his old files hoping to uncover information that could be useful in his investigation into Harrison’s alleged misconduct.

He said he also plans to work with local law enforcement and track down leads provided by alleged victims in the hopes that he will get to the bottom of the situation.

“I’m going to dig and I’m not going to stop digging,” he said at a press conference held at the Holiday Inn & Suites in Bakersfield. “One way or another, we’re going to prove Father Harrison’s innocence or guilt.”

Harrison’s attorney, Kyle Humphrey, said today’s press conference perpetuates unfounded allegations.

“These are the same unsubstantiated lies (he’s) been pushing since 2004. There’s no new information here,” he said. “He’s just raising his fists in protest.”

The conference was held after Brady provided The Californian and other news agencies letters from the early 2000s that he recovered detailing allegations that Harrison had sex with two high school students while he was a pastor in Firebaugh.

According to the documents, Harrison would also examine boys’ private parts every morning to check whether they were using drugs.

The accusations surfaced as part of an unrelated investigation conducted in 2004 by a retired FBI agent in Merced.

Brady said he feels Harrison’s family knows more than they’re letting on about the allegations, as two of the alleged incidents took place in the bedroom of one of Harrison’s adopted sons.

In the other case, in which Harrison allegedly had sex with a minor in the back of the priest’s Ford Explorer, the accuser specifically mentions being on a high school football team with Harrison’s son Herculano.

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

SAN JOSE (CA)
Bay Area News Group

May 30, 2019

Re: “Should California force priests to report child-molestation confessions?” (Mercurynews.com, May 26)

I support the bill that would require priests to report. This bill is under fire due to the arguments surrounding religious freedom, however, this bill does not infringe on any religious rights.

The purpose of it is purely to protect children who are being abused by people who confess the act without any repercussions. The Senate passed a bill that requires that clergy will have to report sexual abuse when they hear it in confession. Before, clergy would hear confessions and were not legally responsible for reporting it.

It is important the bill passed because, similar to teachers, church clergy are community members who victims and abusers trust and come to when they need help. And since teachers are responsible to report sexual abuse, why shouldn’t church clergy?

Madeline Glynn
San Jose

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

Patheos blog

May 30, 2019

By Libby Anne

Two stories came across my radar earlier this month. Each dealt with different aspects of what the Catholic Church is (and is not) doing on preventing child sexual abuse. The upshot is this: the Church is still dragging its heals. Preventing child sexual abuse and holding abusers accountable is simply not on the top of their priority list. Instead, they’re prioritizing things like protecting the Church from local hostility, and ensuring that penitents have access to confession and the forgiveness it brings, without having to face legal consequences for their actions.

First, there was this article:

Pope Francis issues groundbreaking law requiring priests, nuns to report sex abuse, cover-up

The law mandates that the world’s 415,000 Catholic priests and 660,000 religious sisters inform church authorities when they have “well-founded motives to believe” abuse has occurred.

This is good, right? Well, sort of. The problem is that this new regulation still does not require priests to report sexual abuse (including sexual abuse of children) to local law enforcement. No, really. Have a look:

The law doesn’t require them to report to police. The Vatican has long argued that doing so could endanger the church in places where Catholics are a persecuted minority. But it does for the first time put into universal church law that they must obey civil reporting requirements where they live, and that their obligation to report to the church in no way interferes with that.

Reporting child sexual abuse … could endanger the church? This logic seems suspect to me. Maybe don’t abuse children if you’re worried that civil authorities will be angry with you for abusing children.

The regulation says that the priests and other Catholic Church employees must obey civil reporting requirements where they’re located. Okay. However, many countries don’t have mandatory reporting laws. Additionally, it seems odd to me that one universal organization could have such different rules on something like reporting child sexual abuse. Isn’t part of the point that you can walk into any Catholic Church in the world and find the same prayers, the same rituals, the same format and structure? Why not have something universal here, as well?

Look, I’m glad that priests and nuns will now be required to report suspicions of abuse to church authorities. But I don’t for a minute trust those authorities to do the right thing with that information.

Case in point, the next article. This is an article in a Catholic newspaper. It’s written by Bishop Robert Barron of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Barron is upset about a bill before the legislature in California.

SB 360, a piece of proposed legislation currently making its way through the California state senate, should alarm not only every Catholic in the country, but indeed the adepts of any religion. In California, as in almost every other state, clergy members (along with a variety of other professionals, including physicians, social workers, teachers, and therapists) are mandated reporters — which is to say, they are legally required to report any case of suspected child abuse or neglect to law enforcement. However, California clergy who come by this knowledge in the context of “penitential communication” are currently exempted from the requirement. SB 360 would remove the exemption.

Oh lord. Seriously.

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

Friendly Atheist blog

May 30, 2019

By Hemant Mehta

It’s not just Catholic priests who molest children. Catholic nuns do it too.

Trish Cahill tells NPR’s Laura Benshoff in a piece today that she was just 15 when a nun invited her to her home — and the teenager was thrilled to have that opportunity and attention. That only lasted a short while.

… during an outing to a house at the Jersey shore, Cahill said the nun gave her tea laced with intoxicants.

“She took me into the bedroom and I passed out,” said Cahill. “I was not conscious. I was not able to make a decision.” She said this was the first time the religious sister sexually assaulted her, and the start of an abusive dynamic that would last for more than a decade.

The website Bishop Accountability says there are about 100 nuns with credible allegations of abuse against them. They may be even more difficult to prosecute, though, because in addition to all the obstacles that exist for survivors of abuse from priests, women aren’t seen as abusers in general and nuns, specifically, are usually out of the media glare that now accompanies abusive priests. And if the survivors are girls, they run the risk of being shamed for taking part in a “lesbian” relationship (even though it wasn’t a relationship or consensual).

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

May 30, 2019

The Archdiocese of Washington DC has completed a review of disgraced Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s personal correspondence and forwarded the results to Rome, according to a Catholic news source. Now we call on newly-installed DC Archbishop Wilton Gregory to immediately make this review public.

What better way to prove to his parishioners and the public that he is committed to transparency? Some of this correspondence has already been made public by Monsignor Anthony J. Figueiredo, so it should be easy for Archbishop Gregory to do the same. The Archbishop has long talked the talk of openness about abuse. Now it is time for him to walk the walk.

The sooner every person who saw, suspected or suffered wrongdoing by the former Cardinal comes forward, the closer we will be to knowing the truth about every person who ignored or hid Cardinal McCarrick’s wrongdoing. When these truths are revealed, it will help to ensure that innocent children and vulnerable adults will be safer and that future secrecy will be deterred.

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

(PARIS) FRANCE
LaCroix International

May 30, 2019

By Céline Hoyeau

The latest alleged victim of Father Tony Anatrella, a priest and psychoanalyst who has been the subject of accusations by his former patients for more than 15 years, was a minor at the time of the events in question.

Father Anatrella was well-known in Rome as an advisor to several Vatican offices. His ecclesiastical counselor, who has consistently denied any inappropriate gesture by his client, did not respond to questions from La Croix.

Anatrella, 77, was earlier accused of having practiced “body therapy” in order to “heal” homosexuality and of having been involved in sexual abuse. On the basis of information gathered during a preliminary investigation, Archbishop Michel Aupetit of Paris had ruled that “no priestly ministry will henceforth be granted to him.”

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

ROME (ITALY)
Crux

May 30, 2019

By John L. Allen Jr.

Sometimes the fates who govern the news business have a wicked sense of timing. After a long stretch of relative quiet regarding Theodore McCarrick, the ex-cardinal who was defrocked over sexual misconduct and abuse charges, Tuesday brought not one but two major new developments.

Crux, along with CBS, published correspondence from McCarrick confirming that he was placed under Vatican restrictions in 2008, claiming that Cardinal Donald Wuerl (the Archbishop of Washington at the time) was aware of those restrictions despite his denials, and also revealing that McCarrick played a major role in backchannel diplomacy with China under Pope Francis.

Roughly an hour after our story broke, a new interview with Francis by Mexican journalist Valentina Alazraki made the rounds, in which the pontiff insisted “I knew nothing, obviously, nothing, nothing,” about accusations against McCarrick.

To be clear, the two stories do not contradict one another. While the correspondence at the heart of the Crux report clearly suggests that senior officials under Pope emeritus Benedict XVI knew about the informal restrictions and did not obstruct McCarrick from gradually returning to his activities, they do not speak to what Francis or his team knew.

However, the double whammy of these two stories coming at once does neatly illustrate two of the major questions left hanging by the McCarrick case, which in turn encapsulates the meta-narrative of the entire saga.

One of those hanging questions, obviously, is what Wuerl knew and when he knew it.

One piece of the correspondence in Tuesday’s Crux piece is an August 25, 2008, letter from McCarrick to the late Italian Archbishop Pietro Sambi, at the time the Vatican’s ambassador in the U.S., referring to an earlier letter in which the Vatican restrictions were outlined. McCarrick said he wanted to discuss some points in that letter “having shared it with my Archbishop,” meaning Wuerl.

In comments to Crux, however, a spokesman for Wuerl denied that Wuerl ever knew about the restrictions. The clear implication is that McCarrick was lying in his letter to Sambi, misrepresenting the extent to which Wuerl was informed and supportive.

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

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Independent

May 30, 2019

By Maya Oppenheim

Children who suffer sexual abuse are significantly less likely to report it if it is being perpetrated in a religious institution, according to a major analysis of survivors’ experiences.

A study by the Truth Project, part of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), drew upon the experiences of 183 individuals who were abused as children in religious institutions, or by clergy or church staff in other settings.

Almost half said they knew of someone else being abused at the time, but more than two-thirds said they had not reported it – a figure that dropped to 54 per cent among victims in non-religious settings.

Survivors said shame and guilt had prevented them from coming forward, and called for an end to the secrecy that often surrounds religious institutions, saying it enables abusers to operate with impunity.

One survivor, Lucy*, told the inquiry that the abuse she suffered after her family became involved with the Jesus Fellowship Church – formerly known as the Jesus Army – left her with serious mental health problems she is still coping with in her forties.

She said her parents were “brainwashed” by the church, which took all her toys from her when they joined – even her comfort blanket – and made her sleep in the same room with strange adults.

“They were big, big houses with multiple rooms and they would let anyone in off the street,” she told The Independent.

“There were no safeguarding checks on anyone. Nobody was questioned. They let very vulnerable, often mentally unwell people from the streets and criminals in our environment. It meant there was never a safe space.

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

ROME (ITALY)
Crux

May 30, 2019

By Inés San Martín

After the uproar caused by his words regarding Chile’s clerical abuse scandals and the role of women in the Church, the newly appointed auxiliary bishop of Santiago apologized for his comments.

“I would like to sincerely ask for forgiveness for the pain and uncertainty my words might have caused,” Bishop-elect Carlos Irarrazaval said May 29.

The Vatican announced a week ago that Pope Francis had appointed him as an auxiliary bishop to Chile’s capital. A day later, Irarrazaval said it’s time to “look towards the future,” implying that the Church needed to put the clerical abuse crisis behind it, using the colloquialism, “stirring reheated rice is worthless.”

Chile is currently ground zero for the worldwide clerical abuse scandal. Santiago’s two living former archbishops have been subpoenaed by the local prosecutors’ office to testify on charges that they covered up cases of the abuse of minors.

But the bishop-elect had more things to say last week: In an interview with CNN Chile, he said that “since there was no woman seated at the table in the Last Supper,” women had no role in the Church. According to Irarrazaval, this was a choice Jesus made, and not “for ideological reasons.”

“Jewish culture is chauvinistic even today,” he’d said a few seconds earlier. “If you see a Jew walking down the street, the woman is 10 steps behind, but Jesus Christ breaks this dynamic; Jesus Christ speaks with women – with the adulterous woman, with the Samaritan woman – Jesus Christ allows for women to care for him. Who did he choose to announce [his] resurrection? Magdalena, a woman.”

In his apology, Irarrazaval said that he understands his comments on women and the “crisis we’re going through” were particularly painful.

“I am committed to working for the communion of the Church, knowing that in synodality we are all builders – women and men – with the richness of our differences, so that the Church becomes more welcoming and inclusive,” he wrote.

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

WARSAW, POLAND
Associated Press

May 30, 2019

By Monika Scislowska

The founder and head of a Polish organization dedicated to helping victims of clerical sex abuse has resigned after allegations surfaced that he extorted money from a victim and demanded money from the producers of a documentary about clerical abuse.

The foundation “Have No Fear” said the head of its board, Marek Lisinski, resigned and that it has opened an internal audit into the allegations reported Thursday by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

In a post on Facebook, Lisinski denied the extortion allegation and insisted that he only borrowed money and intended to return it in December.

“The good of the survivors has always been the supreme goal for me,” Lisinski wrote.

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

ROME (ITALY)
Reuters

May 29, 2019

By Philip Pullella

Pope Francis has denied he knew about sexual misconduct by former U.S. cardinal Theodore McCarrick before the start of Church investigations that found him guilty.

McCarrick, once one of the most powerful men in the U.S. Catholic hierarchy, was expelled from the Roman Catholic priesthood in February after he was found guilty of sexual crimes against minors and adults.

“I knew nothing about McCarrick, naturally nothing,” Francis said in an interview with Mexico’s Televisa broadcaster which was published in Vatican media on Tuesday. “Otherwise, I would not have remained silent.”

Last August, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano issued a bombshell statement accusing a long list of current and past Vatican and Church officials in the United States of covering up for McCarrick, 88, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C.

Vigano, a former Vatican ambassador in Washington, said he told Francis shortly after his election in 2013 that McCarrick had preyed on adult seminarians for years.

Vigano claimed that Francis disregarded the information and effectively rehabilitated McCarrick, who had been quietly sanctioned by Francis predecessor, former Pope Benedict XVI, five years before Francis’ election in 2013.

Francis says he “does not remember” Vigano ever telling him.

The interview with the pope was published on the same day that Monsignor Anthony Figueiredo, McCarrick’s former priest-secretary, posted a document on the internet with excerpts of emails and letters between him and McCarrick.

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

SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Berkshire Eagle

May 29, 2019

By Larry Parnass

When one of the longest-serving Western Massachusetts bishops was accused of child sexual abuse, a successor rose to his defense.

“I would hope that the names of good priests and bishops, who cannot defend themselves, are not being impugned for ulterior motives,” the Most Rev. Timothy A. McDonnell said of Christopher J. Weldon, the former bishop, said in a 2005 statement about a civil lawsuit.

“Nothing in our records … in any way would provide support for these allegations,” McDonnell said.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Weldon’s name did not appear on the diocese’s online list of “credibly accused clergy” — eight months after officials with the Springfield diocese came to a different conclusion about Weldon.

Last September, the Diocesan Review Board notified the Most Rev. Mitchell T. Rozanski that it found a Chicopee man’s story of his molestation by Weldon, more than half a century before, “compelling and credible.”

“We want to express our sincere sorrow for the pain and suffering you have endured,” the board wrote to the man, according to a letter obtained by The Eagle.

In addition to abuse by Weldon, the man told the board of molestation by two priests, the Rev. Edward Authier and the Rev. Clarence Forand.

“As we explained to you, the Board has no other authority except to notify the Bishop that we find your allegations credible,” the letter says.

The newspaper is withholding the man’s identity due to his wish to remain private.

As of Wednesday, the diocese also was not listing Authier as among “credibly accused” clergy. Forand’s name, though, is included under the category of “clergy who died after having been placed under the sanctions of the Essential Norms,” a reference to official Catholic Church policy on responding to abuse allegations.

That policy holds that “when even a single act of sexual abuse by a priest or deacon is admitted or is established after an appropriate process in accord with canon law, the offending priest or deacon will be removed permanently from the ecclesiastical ministry.”

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

May 30, 2019

We applaud lawmakers in Vermont, especially Rep. Martin LaLonde, for passing this important reform. This law amending the statute of limitations (SOL) is one of the strongest in the nation and the people of Vermont should be proud of their leadership on this issue.

With H.330 signed into law, Vermont is now the latest state to pass sweeping reform to their civil statute of limitations for cases of sexual violence. These changes come as more states around the country are amending their laws to reflect the realities of sexual violence: due to myriad factors such as the fear of being disbelieved or fear of retribution, the average age of a survivor coming forward is 52, and by the time most feel comfortable to come forward, they are barred by the statute of limitations.

Fortunately, that is no longer the case in Vermont.

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

WASHINGTON (DC)
National Public Radio

May 30, 2019

By Laura Benshoff

When Trish Cahill was 15, she received an unexpected request. A nun who taught at a Catholic high school near her home in Ridgewood, NJ., called her at home and invited her to perform at an upcoming ‘hootenanny’ mass.

“This was [the] 1960s, you know. Peter, Paul and Mary and all that,” said Cahill. “I didn’t really play guitar, but a nun — a nun! — asked me to.”

Cahill grew up in an Irish Catholic family and attended parochial schools. As invitations from the nun kept coming, she said she felt flattered by the attention and her family welcomed the nun into their home.

Then, during an outing to a house at the Jersey shore, Cahill said the nun gave her tea laced with intoxicants.

“She took me into the bedroom and I passed out,” said Cahill. “I was not conscious. I was not able to make a decision.” She said this was the first time the religious sister sexually assaulted her, and the start of an abusive dynamic that would last for more than a decade.

Similar sexual abuse allegations against Catholic clergy have been in the public eye for decades. In spite of this, victims of sexual misconduct by nuns, such as Cahill, say their claims have been swept aside in the larger reckoning around sexual abuse by male Catholic leaders.

That’s in part because church leadership has historically treated misconduct by diocesan priests as separate from accusations against members of religious orders, both male and female. Survivors also say the lack of awareness that nuns commit sexual abuse can make it harder to come forward.

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

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Bay Area News Group

May 29, 2019

In the May 26 East Bay Times front-page article, “State vs. Church: Senators want confessions of child abuse reported; clergy assert religious freedom,” readers learn that the California Senate resoundingly approved a bill that forces clergy who hear the confessions of child sexual abusers from another priest must report it.

The Senate bill will protect children from sexual abusers. However, the California Catholic Conference opposes the Senate bill and thinks it will dangerously weaken religious freedom.

Steven Pehanich, spokesman for the California Catholic Conference, doesn’t agree with the bill. He states it’s a slippery slope for priests to disclose a confession of sexually abusing a child.

No one wants the seal of confession to be used to protect child abusers. Are we really going to use the “confessional” and religious freedom as an excuse to hide sexual abuse of our precious children? Hopefully, we are better than that.

Jody Benkly
Walnut Creek

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

DALLAS (TX)
Morning News

May 29, 2019

By Cassandra Jaramillo

During their raid on the Dallas Catholic Diocese offices earlier this month, police said they seized previous settlement agreements, files on former bishops and records from the diocesan review board, which looked into allegations of sexual abuse by priests.

Court records — first reported by WFAA-TV (Channel 8) and obtained Wednesday by The Dallas Morning News — detailed the numerous records police now have as they continue their investigation. Police are required to return an inventory of seized items to the judge who signed the search-warrant affidavit.

Police officials declined comment Wednesday, but have previously called the raid “wholly appropriate.” A detective wrote in a search warrant affidavit that during his investigation, he uncovered new allegations against five priests and that the diocese had stonewalled or handed over incomplete records for months.

The diocese, which has been shaken by allegations of sexual abuse for more than two decades, was critical of the raid. Bishop Edward Burns called the police action “unnecessary” and said church officials were cooperative despite the search warrant affidavit that said otherwise.

Annette Gonzales Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Diocese, said on Wednesday that church officials stand by their previous statements. She said Burns had given police “all of the files” regarding the five priests with allegations.

“We were aware of that they came in and took all of our records. We were not surprised by the inventory,” Gonzales Taylor said.

According to the search warrant return, Dallas police obtained insurance claims, terminated employee records, meeting notes, personnel movement letters and review board documents. Police also seized documents related to Bishop Charles Grahmann and Thomas Tschoepe, who previously led the diocese amid several sexual abuse scandals. Both are now dead.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
National Review

By Delcan Leary

May 29, 2019

John of Nepomuk is a name not often heard these days; Wenceslaus IV, even more so. John was a Bohemian priest of the 14th century. As the story goes, he was the confessor to the queen, Wenceslaus’s wife. When John refused to reveal information divulged to him during the sacrament of confession, the king had him drowned in the river Vltava. John considered his religious obligation — the seal of the confessional, an absolute duty of confidentiality between priest and penitent — inviolable, no matter the objections of the secular authority or the punishments threatened.

Nearly 600 years later, at the height of the Cristero War in Mexico — a Catholic uprising against a militant secularist state — another priest, Mateo Correa Magallanes, was arrested while delivering communion to a woman who was unable to travel to Mass. At his captors’ request, Father Magallanes heard the confessions of a number of other prisoners. When General Eulogio Ortiz, commander of the unit that was holding him, demanded that Magallanes reveal what had been told to him in confession, the priest refused. He was shot the next morning.

The seal of the confessional is an ancient tradition of the Catholic Church. Father Pius Pietrzyk, O.P., a lawyer of both U.S. and canon law, has outlined the nature of the seal and the importance of protecting it. It has been enshrined in the law of the Church at least since the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 and in practice is even older than that — as old, in fact, as the sacrament itself. For about as long as the sacrament and its seal have existed, there has been a history of secular authorities demanding its violation. To my knowledge, none has ever succeeded.

Nevertheless, they persist. Last week, the California senate passed S.B. 360, requiring priests to violate the seal of the confessional whenever the confession pertains to sexual abuse committed by another priest or employee of the Church. The motivation is understandable — the protection of children is of paramount concern, and an area where the Church has notoriously failed time and time again. But the proposal is, for one thing, unlikely to do any good to this end, even if priests comply; responding to the passage of similar laws in Australia, the Australian Conference of Catholic Bishops observed that “perpetrators of this terrible sin very rarely seek out confession, and if mandatory reporting of confessions were required, they would certainly not confess.” This is not a practical solution to the very real problem at hand. It is a blatant attempt to assert the authority of the secular state over the Church, and a clear violation of the right to religious liberty.

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

ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Agency

May 29, 2019

By Allyson Escobar

The Vatican’s communications office has released a full transcript of Pope Francis’ interview with Televisa Mexican journalist Valentina Alazraki that revealed the pope’s more complete comments about what he knew about Theodore McCarrick, the former cardinal and archbishop of Washington, D.C., who is the highest-ranking Church clergy member in modern times to be defrocked.

Originally, the Vatican released a partial transcript of the interview in which Pope Francis denied knowing anything about McCarrick’s alleged sexual misconduct. The partial transcript left out the part of the interview in which Pope Francis said “he does not remember” what was told to him about McCarrick, according to the Associated Press.

The distinction is important because last August Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a former Vatican ambassador to the U.S., published documents that said Pope Francis knew about Church-imposed sanctions on then-Cardinal McCarrick, but made him a trusted aide anyway.

The Vatican press office didn’t comment on the distinction.

McCarrick, 88, was dismissed from the priesthood in February after a Church investigation confirmed his abuse of both minors and adults. McCarrick has denied that abuse.

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BALLARAT (AUSTRALIA)
The Courier

May 29, 2019

By Andrew Thomson

IN a landmark case for survivors, Catholic Church lawyers have refused to acknowledge that former Bishop of Ballarat Ronald Mulkearns knew pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale was a repeat offender.

A Ballarat diocese victim of Ridsdale is pursuing civil damages through the Victorian Supreme Court from current Bishop of Ballarat Paul Bird, on behalf of the diocese, and is currently involved in a highly adversarial court process as the church’s lawyers play tactical hardball.

The record for court judgement is about $1.25 million, although confidential settlements are understood to have reached $1.5 million.

No Catholic church abuse case has ever gone to judgement in civil court and payouts have been confidential.

The Ridsdale victim was just nine years old when he was raped in a confession box at Mortlake in April 1982.

He said today that it was a tragedy that his life, and the lives of so many other victims, had been ruined by the inaction of Bishop Mulkearns.

“I just wish that the abuse had never happened to anyone,” he said.

Victims are now extremely keen to test their cases in court.

They also want to go to court as a symbolic gesture to represent the many victims who have taken their own lives over the past 30 years.

The church’s representatives previously acknowledged during the Royal commission into Institutional Abuse that for Bishop Mulkearns to appoint Ridsdale to other parishes, after becoming aware that Ridsdale had offended while at Inglewood in 1975 and in the absence of any clearance from a psychologist or psychiatrist, was “inexcusably wrong”.

The church acknowledges there was a one-off incident involving Ridsdale at Inglewood, but denies it was ever known he had a propensity for offending.

An affidavit filed in the Supreme Court by Dr Christine Atmore, of Judy Courtin Legal, claimed former Bishop of Ballarat James O’Collins was informed in about 1963 that Ridsdale had abused a boy in North Ballarat.

The church admitted during the Royal commission that Bishop O’Collins informed Ridsdale there had been a complaint at that time, Ridsdale admitted he molested a boy and the bishop warned him if it happened again he would no longer be able to serve as a priest.

In the current court case, the church denies any knowledge of Ridsdale’s repeat offending before he went to Mortlake in the early 1980s.

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TOLEDO (OH)
The Blade

May 24, 2019

By Jay Skebba

When Patrick Murtha first came to Rossford Schools in search of a job, he told school board members that he was “looking for a change.”

It was 2004, and fresh off a stint in southern Ohio working as the Athens City Schools athletic director, Mr. Murtha said he wanted to move to another small town. Hence how he ended up before the school board in nondescript Rossford — a northwest Ohio community few outside the Toledo area could find on a map.

What he didn’t tell the school board, according to a recent investigation conducted by a district administrator, is that he was departing his former job after running into trouble for inappropriately touching members of the Athens school community.

Now Mr. Murtha again finds himself without a job, and again finds himself under scrutiny for acting inappropriately with young people he came into contact with because of his role as a school administrator and assistant principal.

Fifteen years after he was hired, school officials are under fire over how they’ve handled Mr. Murtha’s dismissal, and how he came to work in the district in the first place.

While the district’s report puts the onus on Mr. Murtha for self-reporting his own disciplinary problems, it’s unclear what steps Rossford Schools leaders independently took at the time to check on Mr. Murtha’s past transgressions because, as Superintendent Dan Creps noted in a letter to district families this week, none of the current board members were in place in 2004.

Board members and Mr. Creps largely refused to discuss with The Blade Mr. Murtha’s employment or their investigation until a board meeting Wednesday. All five board members and Mr. Creps admitted mistakes were made in handling the fallout, and offered apologies.

It’s not clear if district leaders went to the police once accusations by at least three Rossford students surfaced about Mr. Murtha’s conduct.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WBFO Radio

May 29, 2019

By Michael Mroziak

A former priest who now leads an agency advocating for victims of sexual abuse is criticizing the system by which the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo processed and compensated abuse cases.

The Diocese of Buffalo, on Tuesday, released the final results of its Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, which was introduced in March 2018 to address claims of childhood sexual abuse carried out by clergy. The diocese reports paying out an esatimated $17.6 million to date, awarding 127 people an average of $160,000. The compensation per person ranged from $2,000 to $650,000.

In all, 262 claims were filed.

“No one who reported their abuse after March 1, 2018 has been allowed to be part of this program,” said Robert Hoatson, founder and leader of the group Road to Recovery. “And according to reports, 135 cases, claims, have been rejected by the two judges who are running this program.”

Those judges are retired State Supreme Court Justices Jerome Gorski and Barbara Howe.

WBFO forwarded a message to the Diocese of Buffalo, asking for an official statement on its own behalf but as of Wednesday afternoon no reply was received.

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BOSTON (MA)
Mann & Rodgrs Funeral Home

May 29, 2019

DUSSOURD, MARYETTA (BOLAND) of Jamaica Plain, Lost her battle to cancer on May 24TH. She was a very involved activist in the community with the warmest of hearts. She leaves behind her elder brother Jack Boland and her 7 children Ralph, Daniel, Edward, Margaret, Marietta, Christopher and Alicia Dussourd. Also survived by her beloved 13 grand children.

Funeral Services from the Mann & Rodgers Funeral Home, 44 Perkins St. JAMAICA PLAIN. Visiting Hours will be Monday, June 3rd from 5-8pm.

Relatives and friends invited. In honor of Maryetta please wear a touch of yellow, as it was her favorite color and one of her last requests.

Interment will be private.

Guestbook@mannandrodgers.com

In lieu of flowers please donate in her name to www.childhelp.org, a non profit charity to help victims of child abuse or to the Jimmy Fund at www.jimmyfund.org

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ROME (ITALY)
LifeSiteNews

May 28, 2019

For what appears to be the first time, Pope Francis has openly denied that he knew anything of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s immoral activities, directly contradicting Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò’s account of their conversation on the subject.

“I didn’t know anything … nothing, nothing,” Pope Francis said in a new interview published on Tuesday in Vatican News.

In response, the former apostolic nuncio to the United States has directly accused Pope Francis of lying.

In comments to LifeSite following the release of the interview, Archbishop Viganò said: “What the Pope said about not knowing anything is a lie. […] He pretends not to remember what I told him about McCarrick, and he pretends that it wasn’t him who asked me about McCarrick in the first place.”

Both interviews coincide with the release of a leaked correspondence between Pope Francis, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, confirming that restrictions were placed on McCarrick by the Vatican in 2008, and that the former cardinal (who has now been laicized over charges of sexual abuse) travelled extensively during the Francis pontificate, playing a key diplomatic role in establishing the controversial Vatican accord with Communist China.

The new interview
In the May 28 interview with Mexican journalist Valentina Alazraki, Pope Francis sought to explain why he has never openly denied Archbishop Vigano’s original testimony, while issuing a denial seemingly for the first time.

Readers will recall that news of the former US nuncio’s testimony broke last August 25, while Pope Francis was attending the World Meeting Families in Dublin. One day later, during an inflight press conference on his return to Rome, the Pope sidestepped questions about the explosive allegations that he knew of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s abuse.

“Read the [Viganò] statement carefully yourselves and make your own judgment. I am not going to say a word about this,” the Pope told journalists aboard the papal plane (see video here).

“You all have sufficient journalistic ability to draw conclusions,” he said.

“It is an act of trust,” the Holy Father added. “When a little time goes by, and you have drawn conclusions, perhaps I will speak about it, but I would like your professional maturity to do this work. It will do you all good, really.”

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

May 28, 2019

Correspondence obtained by Crux from an ex-aide to Theodore McCarrick, the former cardinal laicized over charges of sexual misconduct and abuse, confirms that restrictions on McCarrick were imposed by the Vatican in 2008. McCarrick also claims that Cardinal Donald Wuerl, then the Archbishop of Washington, was aware of them and involved in conversations about their implementation.

Though the details of those restrictions have never been made public, the correspondence shows McCarrick promising not to travel without express Vatican permission and to resign from all roles at the Vatican and within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), while contesting an instruction to stop coming to Rome.

In one letter, McCarrick suggests the Vatican wanted to “avoid publicity” and thus kept the restrictions confidential.

The correspondence also shows that despite the restrictions, McCarrick gradually resumed traveling and playing prominent diplomatic roles under both Popes Benedict XVI and, to a greater extent, Francis, including talks with China that may have helped shape a controversial 2018 deal between Rome and Beijing over the appointment of bishops.

McCarrick’s activities were not carried on in secret, as he regularly wrote to Pope Francis between 2013 and 2017 to brief him on his trips and activities.

In the correspondence, McCarrick denies any sexual misconduct.

“I have never had sexual relations with anyone,” he wrote, but he does admit to “an unfortunate lack of judgment” in sharing his bed with seminarians in their twenties and thirties.

“As the problems of sexual abuse began to surface, I realized this was imprudent and stupid and it stopped,” he wrote in a 2008 letter to a senior Vatican official.

From an examination of the correspondence, which involves emails and private letters from McCarrick over the period 2008-2017, it appears that senior Church officials, including the Vatican’s Secretary of State under Pope Benedict XVI, the head of the Congregation for Bishops, and the pope’s ambassador in the U.S., were aware of the informal restrictions, and whatever their response may have been as McCarrick resumed his activities, it did not prevent him from doing so.

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ROME (ITALY)
CBS NEWS

May 29, 2019

By Anna Matranga and Seth Doane

The former secretary to defrocked American Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has released excerpts from private and confidential correspondence among top Vatican leaders which reveal details of restrictions placed on McCarrick by the Holy See following allegations of sexual misconduct. The communications reveal the extent to which the restrictions were known among senior church leaders – and particularly by his successor Cardinal Donald Wuerl – but not enforced.

That lack of enforcement meant McCarrick, the former Archbishop of Washington D.C., was allowed to continue traveling on behalf of the Holy See despite limitations implemented as part of the church punishment.

The personal letters and emails include correspondence between McCarrick and other senior church figures, including cardinals, the Vatican’s Secretary of State and Pope Francis.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

May 29, 2019

We are grateful to Chicago police for moving quickly to arrest Pastor Jeffery Parks. Now we call on administrators at Good Shephard Church in Chicago to reach out to their parishioners and urge anyone else who may have information on this case to come forward and make a report to police.

It is notable that the young girls in this case were able to identify their abuse following a discussion on inappropriate touching with their mother. While conversations about sexual abuse can be challenging, research and this anecdotal example show that these conversations are critical to protecting children and ending abuse.

Boys and girls are safest when parents and the public are vigilant. We hope that other parents around the country will also have this conversation with their own children, and that other adults who work with children will take the time to learn about the warning signs for child sexual abuse.

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BUFFALO (NY)
The Associated Press

May 28, 2019

By Carolyn Thompson

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo said Tuesday its clergy abuse compensation program rejected more than half the claims filed by alleged victims while offering 127 people awards ranging from $2,000 to $650,000.

The Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program was established last year amid public scrutiny of the diocese’s handling of claims of sex abuse against priests. In a summary, the diocese said that while a few awards are outstanding, the program “is substantially complete.”

Awards accepted to date total $17.6 million.

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Get Religion blog

May 29, 2019

By Julia Duin

Every time I think that we’ve heard the last bit of news about former U.S. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, another wheel falls off that wagon.

Remember when the disgruntled Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò revealed last summer that McCarrick was punished by Pope Benedict XVI around 2008 for his sexual misdeeds with major restrictions on his movements? There was more. The letter also said that Cardinal Donald Wuerl, McCarrick’s successor as archbishop of the Washington archdiocese, knew all about this?

Lots of folks — including some in the media — trashed Viganò at the time for lying.

Well, lots of journalists owe him an apology for portraying him as a conservative shill. As we’ll see in a minute, Francis did everything he could to add to that impression. I’m not holding my breath for mea culpas, though. For months, Viganò stood alone. For months, some major newsrooms have been avoiding this story, big time.

But more evidence keeps pouring out. News that broke Tuesday revealed that Viganò was telling the truth and that Wuerl was more deceptive than we thought.

The latest revelations, released simultaneously by Crux and CBS and based on allegations by a priest well known to the media, reveal McCarrick’s amazing gall in simply ignoring the restrictions under which he was placed. From Crux:

ROME — Correspondence obtained by Crux from an ex-aide to Theodore McCarrick, the former cardinal laicized over charges of sexual misconduct and abuse, confirms that restrictions on McCarrick were imposed by the Vatican in 2008. McCarrick also claims that Cardinal Donald Wuerl, then the Archbishop of Washington, was aware of them and involved in conversations about their implementation.

Though the details of those restrictions have never been made public, the correspondence shows McCarrick promising not to travel without express Vatican permission and to resign from all roles at the Vatican and within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), while contesting an instruction to stop coming to Rome. …

The correspondence also shows that despite the restrictions, McCarrick gradually resumed traveling and playing prominent diplomatic roles under both Popes Benedict XVI and, to a greater extent, Francis, including talks with China that may have helped shape a controversial 2018 deal between Rome and Beijing over the appointment of bishops.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WBFO Radio

May 29, 2019

By Marian Hetherly and Jay Moran

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo says its clergy abuse compensation program rejected more than half the claims filed by alleged victims while awarding 127 people an average of $160,000.

Listen Listening…4:06 WBFO’s Jay Moran talks with attorney Kevin Stocker, who is representing local clergy abuse survivors
The diocese Tuesday released final results of the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program established last year amid scrutiny of the diocese’s handling of claims of sex abuse against priests. To date, it has paid out $17.6 million.

The program was administered by two retired judges tasked with considering only previously reported claims and setting award amounts.

The diocese says it filed numerous objections to claims that hadn’t been reported prior to the program’s March 2018 start.

In all, 262 claims were filed before the June 1, 2018, deadline and 135 were rejected as ineligible. Award amounts ranged from $2,000 to $650,000.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who is representing hundreds of clergy abuse victims, including some in the Buffalo Catholic Diocese, was critical of the report results.

“The report of the Diocese of Buffalo fails to take into account the hundreds of clergy sexual victims who were not eligible for the program because of the early reporting deadline of before March 1, 2018, the realization that clergy sexual abuse victims who were sexually abused in the 2000s will not come forward for years to come, and that history has taught us that the Diocese of Buffalo cannot successfully self-police,” Garabedian said in a statement. “The Diocese of Buffalo has issued a report that tries to give the impression clergy sexual abuse crisis has been taken care of to a great extent when nothing can be further from the truth. Instead of promoting healing the report, through deception, adds salt to the wounds of many clergy sexual abuse victims.”

Attorney Kevin Stocker is representing two “whistleblowers,” who he said were punished by the diocese for bringing a complaint, plus nearly 20 local survivors. He told WBFO only three of his clients have settled.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
WLNE Radio

May 29, 2019

For Jim Scanlan, it wasn’t easy to go public about the abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of a priest.

“There’s this shame, fear, guilt,” said Scanlan, of Providence. Lots of different feelings.”

But Scanlan is glad he did come forward to testify in favor of a bill that would extend the statute of limitations from seven years to 35 years, after the victim turns 18.

The House Judiciary Committee gave it unanimous approval.

Representative Carol Hagan McEntee, whose own sister came forward as a victim of clergy abuse, sponsored the bill.

“This is the people’s bill,” said McEntee, (D) South Kingstown. “This is Annie’s bill. This will make a difference for Rhode Island children into the future, and Rhode Island victims right now.”

There have been some changes to the bill since it came before the committee last year, including a seven year discovery period to gather evidence.

If the bill passes, anyone under the age of 53 can bring forward allegations — even if the alleged abuse occurred before the bill goes into effect.

“What this will do is open the floodgates for so many people to come forward and seek some justice, to seek some retribution, and to seek the support and the acknowledgment that this horrible experience happened to them,” said Peg Laghammer, Executive Director of the Day One organization.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Times

May 28, 2019

By Christopher Vondracek

Catholic priests in California would be legally obligated to report to police sexual abuse confessions brought to them by fellow priests and other church employees if a bill quickly moving through the state legislature becomes law.

Religious liberty advocates, including representatives of Catholic dioceses in California, challenge the legislation, saying it would invade a sacred space and direct priests to violate the “seal of confession.”

“Sometimes the best intentions can lead to bad legislation,” Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez said in a statement on California’s Senate Bill 360, which was approved by wide margins last week and now heads to the state Assembly.

Under Roman Catholic teachings, the sins confessed by a parishioner to a priest in the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation are secret to all but God, who absolves the sins through the instrument of the priest.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
KDKA Radio

May 28, 2019

By Marty Griffin and Wendy Bell

Attorney Alan Perer tells Marty and Wendy what effect, if any, today’s news that Cardinal Wuerl lied about knowing of clergy sexual misconduct has on his cases.

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CHARLESTON (WV)
Associated Press

May 29, 2019

By John Raby

West Virginia’s only Catholic diocese has released the names of two more priests who it says have been credibly accused of child sexual abuse in the state.

The priests are accused of committing the abuse while working at the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. Both are deceased.

One of them, Father Raymond Waldruff, previously was accused of abuse in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in the 1960s. Complaints of decades-old abuse were made against him in March in the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and in April in the Diocese of Owensboro, Kentucky.

Waldruff served at two churches in north-central West Virginia in the 1970s.

The other priest, Father Andrew F. Lukas, was accusing of abusing a minor in the 1960s. The allegation was reported to the diocese in January.

Eight other priests added to the latest list had claims against them in other regions or dioceses but not in West Virginia. None are in active ministry.

The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register first reported on the updated list, which brings to 40 the number of accused priests or deacons who served in West Virginia.

The diocese posted the list on its website last week. The original list was posted in November.

Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston spokesman Tim Bishop said in a statement Tuesday that the updated list shows “the Diocese’s commitment to transparency and accountability.”

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ULTIMO (AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting

May 29, 2019

By Rebecca Turner and David Weber

A former teacher at a prestigious Perth Catholic boys’ school plans to fight a charge of failing to report the alleged sexual assault of a boy by his fellow students on an overseas trip.

Ian Francis Hailes and his former colleague at Trinity College, Anthony Paul Webb, were each charged under mandatory reporting laws which were introduced in Western Australia in 2008.

Their charges relate to the alleged sexual assault of a young man by his fellow students while they were on an overseas rugby trip in 2017.

The alleged victim’s mother told the ABC that it took five months for the incident to be reported to the school principal.

But she said the school took another six days to tell her that her son had been sexually assaulted.

Do you know more about this story? Email turner.rebecca@abc.net.au
Mr Hailes did not attend the Perth Magistrates Court today but his lawyer, Michael Tudori, said he wanted to change his endorsed plea of guilty, entered several weeks ago, to not guilty.

Outside court, Mr Tudori said Mr Hailes had changed his plea due to new information from the prosecution.

“As a result of that, he clearly has a defence now,” he said.

Mr Webb has not entered a plea to the charge of failing to report suspected child sexual abuse and is scheduled to appear before the Perth Magistrates Court next month.

No other charges have been laid as a result of the alleged incident.

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BOSTON (MA)
The Associated Press

May 27, 2019

A Roman Catholic diocese in Massachusetts says a longtime priest has been suspended amid an allegation of sexual misconduct.

The Herald News reports that Fall River Bishop Edgar Moreira da Cunha said in an email Sunday that Father Bruce Neylon, pastor of Holy Trinity Church, was removed from active ministry.

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Da Cunha said an individual claimed Neylon had sexual contact with him on numerous occasions in the early 1980s, when the victim was aged 14 or 15. He said the victim was not a member of the parish to which Neylon was assigned at the time and the alleged abuse did not occur on church property.

Neylon has denied the allegation.

Da Cunha called the allegation “credible” and said the case was referred to the Bristol County District Attorney’s office.

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CHARLESTON (WV)
The Intelligencer

May 29, 2019

By Jess Mancini

The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston responded Tuesday to claims that it should be announcing the names of priests that are added to its lists of priests who are credibly accused of abuse, saying the names are readily available online.

The diocese added nine priests to the list, first reported on Saturday by the Catholic Committee of Appalachia, which said the diocese added the priests without an announcement. The story broke in the Sunday News-Register.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who earlier this year sued the diocese asserting it violated the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act in advertising failing to disclose it employed accused priests and did inadequate background investigations, cited the News-Register report.

“The diocese does not rely upon the news media and its parishioners to stumble upon its responses to our lawsuit — they shout it from the roof tops, and in the same manner, the diocese has an obligation to make robust announcements to potential victims anytime they update their list of credibly accused priests,” Morrisey said in a statement. “Instead, the diocese appears fixated upon its goal of minimizing this scandal with limited publicity about wrong doing and maximum publicity of its public relations campaign to protect the church.”

The Catholic Committee, which calls itself a social justice network, said the diocese added to the list of priests who served in the diocese but were accused of abuse outside of the diocese, and to the list of priests accused of abuse while in the diocese.https://bit.ly/2I4MRlf

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ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Agency

May 28, 2019

By Ed Condon

A former priest-secretary to Theodore McCarrick has issued a report that claims to contain excerpted quotes from correspondence between the disgraced former cardinal McCarrick and various church officials.

The quotes seem to contain admissions of wrongdoing from McCarrick, and to confirm subsequent reports about the Vatican’s response to the former cardinal’s behavior. But some Vatican officials have said Figueiredo’s report does not fully explain the ways in which McCarrick operated in the Vatican.

Msgr. Anthony Figueiredo of the Archdiocese of Newark published a website, “The Figueiredo Report,” May 28 which contains apparent excerpts from private correspondence between McCarrick, the priest, and various other Church officials.

News of the priest’s report was first reported by CBS News and news site Crux.

Neither the full text of the correspondence nor images of the letters have been published on Figueiredo’s site.

“I present facts from correspondence that I hold relevant to questions still surrounding McCarrick.”

“These facts show clearly that high-ranking prelates likely had knowledge of McCarrick’s actions and of restrictions imposed upon him during the pontificate of Benedict XVI. They also clearly show that these restrictions were not enforced even before the pontificate of Francis,” Figueiredo’s report claims.

“It is not my place to judge to what extent the fault lies with the failure to impose canonical penalties, instead of mere restrictions, at the start, or with other Church leaders who later failed to expose McCarrick’s behavior and the impropriety of his continued public activity, and indeed may have encouraged it,” the priest writes.

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Newark (NJ)
The Figueriredo Report

May 28, 2019

By Monsignor Anthony Figueiredo

The former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick ordained me to the priesthood 25 years ago today.
I served as his personal secretary in the Archdiocese of Newark (September 1994 – June 1995)
and also assisted him in a secretarial capacity during his many visits to Rome in my 19 years of
ministry there.

After long consideration, I have made the decision to place in the public domain some of the
correspondence and other information related to McCarrick that I possess in my many years of
service to him. I have spent time in prayer and discernment about the moral basis for revealing
these. My decision follows attempts since September 2018 to share and discuss these with the Holy See and other Church leaders.

Realizing full well that the debate about McCarrick has become highly politicized, I wish only to
present facts that will help the Church to know the truth. From the outset of this report, I pledge
my unswerving affection, loyalty and support for Pope Francis and his Magisterium in his tireless
ministry as the Successor of Peter, as I manifested also to Pope Benedict XVI, grateful for their
paternal solicitude and efforts to address the scourge of abuse. Indeed, my actions in releasing this report at this time are encouraged by the Holy Father’s motu proprio “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” (“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” Mt 5:14), based on the overriding principle that it is imperative to place in the public domain, at the right time and prudently, information that has yet to come to light and impacts directly on allegations of criminal activity, the restrictions imposed on my now laicized former Archbishop, and who knew what and when.

It is my firm hope that this information will help the Church as she further endeavors to create a
culture of transparency. This report, which may form the first of others, is a contribution to the
wish of Pope Francis and the Holy See “to follow the path of truth wherever it may lead” in terms
of the ongoing McCarrick investigation (Pope Francis, Philadelphia, USA, September 27, 2015;
Press Statement of the Holy See, October 6, 2018).

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

May 24, 2019

We are glad that a jury has sentenced Fr. Ronald H. Paquin to sixteen years in prison. Hopefully this sentence will keep a serial predator away from vulnerable children for the rest of his life.

Now that Fr. Paquin has been sentenced, we hope that police and prosecutors will turn their attention to those who enabled Fr. Paquin’s crimes. The only way that we can ensure that institutions like the church are safer for children and vulnerable adults is by exposing and prosecuting everyone who had a hand in child sex crimes.

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VANCOUVER (CANADA)
Angus Reid Institute

May 28, 2019

In the popular imagination, the story of the Catholic Church over the last two decades has been one of scandal, attempted reform, and further scandal. Decades of allegations of sexual abuse by clergy – combined with opaque policies for addressing them – have eroded public trust in the Church around the world.

A new public opinion poll from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds Canada is not immune to this trend. And yet, though most Canadians – including practicing Catholics – say the Church has done a poor job of handling this issue, the general public in this country seems to differentiate between the Church as an institution and people of faith more generally.

Scandal in the Catholic Church has not caused a broader crisis of faith in Canada today, though it has done notable damage to Canadian Catholics’ opinions of their Church.

While some of this damage is almost certainly the result of concerns Canadians have about incidents of abuse that took place elsewhere in the world, it’s notable that one-in-three practicing Catholics say their local Church community has had problems with clerical sexual abuse over the years.

Ultimately, this is an issue that the Catholic Church in Canada will need to effectively address and move on from if it hopes to recover. Most Canadians, and many practicing Catholics, say they expect the Church to emerge from this issue weakened as an institution.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Newsweek

May 27, 2019

By Katherine Hignett

A Chicago pastor was arrested Friday after allegedly abusing twin12-year-old girls he had tutored at home. His arrest was announced by police Sunday, after the clergyman attended a bond hearing.

Jeffery Parks, 51—a pastor at Good Shepherd Church—is accused of inappropriately touching the girls on multiple occasions since 2017. He tutored the twin girls for three years before he was reported to police, according to The Chicago Tribune.

Law enforcement charged him with one felony count of aggravated criminal abuse and one of predatory criminal assault, both against victims below the age of 13. He is being held on a bond of $100,000.

Police spokesman Michael Carroll said in a news release: “The victims relayed that beginning in 2017, the offender tutored the victims and during those tutoring sessions, the offender would inappropriately place his hands on the victims’ bodies.”

The girls told their mother about the alleged abuse after a discussion on inappropriate touching, The Tribune noted.

Chicago has been dogged by sexual abuse scandals involving religious leaders for years. USA Today recently noted that almost 400 Catholic clergy members have been accused of sexual misconduct in Illinois, according to a list compiled by lawyers.

Other Christian denominations in the U.S. have been rocked by sexual abuse scandals in recent months. Over the past two decades, some 380 Southern Baptist leaders and volunteers have been accused of sexual misconduct, according to reporting by The Houston Chronicle and The San Antonio Express-News.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal

May 28, 2019

By Katherine Gregg

A key legislative committee is scheduled to vote Tuesday night on a bill to give the victims of childhood sexual abuse more time to sue their abusers, and the institutions that failed to protect the victims.

At its most basic, the legislation unveiled over the holiday weekend extends from seven to 35 years the statute of limitations on the pursuit of legal claims by adults against priests, Boy Scout leaders, teachers, coaches and others who sexually abused them as children.

There is, also an opportunity for people — unaware until even later in life of the harm they suffered — to file claims within seven years of making the connection, or more specifically: “seven years from the time the victim discovered or reasonably should have discovered that the injury or condition was caused by the act.”

Victims of child sexual abuse who missed deadlines for filing civil claims against their abusers would have had a three-year window to bring old cases to court under the original version of the legislation that Rep. Carol McEntee, D-South Kingstown, introduced this year.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence and the insurance industry fought the proposed “revival window″ behind the scenes. Key lawmakers also voiced concern about the constitutionality of the window. They hung their arguments on a 1996 decision in a case known as Kelly v. Marcantonio “rising out of the alleged sexual molestation of minors by priests of the Catholic Church.”

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TAMPA (FL)
WUSF Radio

May 28, 2019

By Carrie Pinkard

The Catholic Church has been under public scrutiny since 2002, when the Boston Globe published stories showing how leadership covered up a series of sexual abuse cases. Almost two decades have passed, but the church hasn’t been able to shake its tarnished reputation.

A poll released earlier this month by the Saint Leo University Polling Institute revealed that Americans are not happy with the way the Catholic Church handled sexual abuse cases. 81.3% of those surveyed felt that the Catholic Church was slow to identify and act on sexual abuse involving clergy.

When respondents were asked why they think the Church was slow to act, the number one response was that the church wanted to “preserve and protect its influence and reputation at all cost.”

74% of the general population and 84.8% of Catholics listed this as the number one reason.

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ROME (ITALY)
Associated Press

May 28, 2019

Email correspondence shows disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was placed under Vatican travel restrictions in 2008 for sleeping with seminarians, but regularly flouted those rules with the apparent knowledge of Vatican officials under Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

The email excerpts, released Tuesday by a former aide, make it clear that retired Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl knew about the restrictions, despite claims of ignorance after the McCarrick scandal exploded last year.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priest

May 25, 2019

A support group for clergy abuse victims are calling on district attorneys in California’s Central Valley to use their offices to reach out to survivors directly and to denounce actions by a Bakersfield attorney that make it less likely for victims of sexual abuse to come forward.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing to the District Attorneys of Madera, Fresno, Kern, Merced, Mariposa, Tulare, and Inyo Counties following an announcement that these seven DAs will be auditing the Diocese of Fresno. They are asking for special attention to be paid to the case of Msgr. Craig Harrison, who has gone on the attack following multiple accusations of sexual abuse.

“We know from our work that substantiating firsthand accounts of child sex abuse is very difficult for law enforcement under the best of circumstances,” wrote SNAP in its letter. “We fear that the tactics being used by Msgr. Harrison and his lawyer are intended to frighten not only his accusers, but also to prevent witnesses from coming forward.”

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ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Service

May 28, 2019

By Cindy Wooden

Pope Benedict XVI had imposed restrictions on the public ministry of former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick in 2008, but they were not formal sanctions and were not followed strictly, even during the papacy of Pope Benedict himself, McCarrick’s former secretary said.

Msgr. Anthony J. Figueiredo, who was the former cardinal’s secretary for nine months in 1994-1995, but continued to assist him from Rome, released extracts from correspondence May 28, saying he wanted the truth out about what was known about McCarrick, when and by whom.

Besides knowing about the restrictions himself, the monsignor also said he had evidence that recently retired Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington knew about them, as did Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, then-prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, then-Vatican secretary of state, and Archbishop Pietro Sambi, who was nuncio to the United States at the time.

Msgr. Figueiredo said he decided to publish online excerpts of correspondence in his possession — available at http://thefigueiredoreport.com/ — after attempting “since September 2018 to share and discuss these with the Holy See and other church leaders.” He did not publish the full texts of any of the correspondence or emails he quoted online.

The monsignor, who in October was suspended from driving in England for 18 months after pleading guilty for drunk driving and hitting a car driven by a pregnant woman, said in his online report that “the hierarchy’s abuse of authority and cover-up, in their various and serious manifestations, have inflicted consequences upon me,” including by “seeking consolation in alcohol.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

May 28, 2019

We are grateful to Monsignor Anthony Figueiredo for having the courage to release these communications and to show to the public that the “restrictions” placed on former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick were not taken at all seriously by his colleagues.

While Cardinal McCarrick has been defrocked by the Church, this correspondence not only illustrates that many other high-ranking Catholic officials were aware of the restrictions that bound the Cardinal, but also that they did nothing to enforce them. To us, this demonstrates that cases of clergy sex abuse are still not being handled properly.

It is very troubling to learn of the lax attitude with which Cardinal McCarrick’s discipline was treated by his fellow prelates. This fact becomes all the more troubling now that Pope Francis has mandated that all Church staff report cases of clergy abuse internally to those same prelates. It is difficult to imagine that any reports will be treated with the care they deserve when the officials who receive them have shown a willingness to ignore the punishments imposed by the Vatican.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch

May 28, 2019

By Nassim Benchaabane

A letter Chris Boisaubin received in 2012 from his high school was both a blessing and a curse.

Boisaubin, now 65, was one of about 1,600 former students of Chaminade College Preparatory School to receive the letter from the Marianists, the Roman Catholic order that runs the boys boarding and day school in Creve Coeur.

A graduate had accused two Marianists of sexually abusing him while he was enrolled in the 1970s. The victim asked the Rev. Martin Solma to send the letter to students who had graduated while the two men had worked at the school.

Several alumni wrote back with allegations of abuse by the men and other clergy there. They filed lawsuits, saying the letter had triggered repressed memories of abuse.

Boisaubin sued the Marianists in 2014 alleging John Woulfe, a member of the Marianist order who is now dead, had abused him when he was a minor and that officials knew he had abused two other boys previously.

The order is willing to pay $50,000 to settle Bouisaubin’s case, but he would get none of the money and the Marianists wouldn’t have to admit wrongdoing of any form, said Ken Chackes, Boisaubin’s attorney.

That’s because for the last two years, Boisaubin’s case hasn’t legally been his to pursue. It’s been property of the bankruptcy court in St. Louis.

Boisaubin, a longtime IT worker, has filed for bankruptcy twice in his life and was discharged from both cases; the most recent case, in St. Louis, ended in 2009.

When he sued the Marianists in 2014, they argued that the damages he sought were an asset, like his car or home or anything else he owned, and became the property of the bankruptcy court, to be surrendered to a trustee overseeing the sale of his estate to pay his creditors.

In December, the Marianists struck an agreement with the bankruptcy trustee; the order would pay $50,000 to Boisaubin’s creditors in exchange for the trustee dropping the sex abuse case. They’re now trying to override Boisaubin’s appeal and enforce the agreement in court.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
Boston Channel 25

May 28, 2019

A Roman Catholic diocese in Massachusetts says a longtime priest has been suspended amid an allegation of sexual misconduct.

The Herald News reports that Fall River Bishop Edgar Moreira da Cunha said in an email Sunday that Father Bruce Neylon, pastor of Holy Trinity Church, was removed from active ministry.

Da Cunha said an individual claimed Neylon had sexual contact with him on numerous occasions in the early 1980s, when the victim was aged 14 or 15. He said the victim was not a member of the parish to which Neylon was assigned at the time and the alleged abuse did not occur on church property.

Neylon has denied the allegation.

Da Cunha called the allegation “credible” and said the case was referred to the Bristol County District Attorney’s office.

A statement posted on the Fall River Diocese’s website said Neylon was ordained in 1975 and listed his past assignments as parochial vicar (or assistant), Holy Name Parish, Fall River (1975); parochial vicar, St. Patrick Parish, Wareham (1982); pastoral care, Sturdy Memorial Hospital, Attleboro (1985); pastor, St. Mary Parish, Seekonk (1983); pastor, St. Stanislaus Parish, Fall River (2002); pastor, Holy Trinity Parish, Fall River (2012).

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of thoe Abused by Priests

May 28, 2019

Chris Boisaubin is appealing an agreement the Marianists struck with the trustee in his previously discharged bankruptcy where the religious order would pay $50,000 to Mr. Boisaubin’s creditors in exchange for the trustee dropping the sex abuse case.

We deplore this move by the Marianists to deny a victim his day in court and to ensure the full truth about sex crimes that occurred at Chaminade College Preparatory School in St. Louis is concealed. What other possible motive could they have but to protect themselves, their secrets, their reputations and their incomes?

We stand in support of this survivor as he moves to get the justice and recognition he deserves from the Marianist Order and Church officials in St. Louis.

By playing legal hardball against a victim of a known abusive priest, we can only assume that Catholic officials hope this move will prevent others from coming forward. Instead, we hope that their strategy backfires and that even more people who were hurt at Chaminade will find the courage to speak up.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
Mercury News

May 27, 2019

By John Woolfolk

The law has long treated confession of sin to a priest as sacred. Even clergy who hear a fellow priest’s confession to sexually abusing a child generally can’t be compelled to report it to authorities.

But should they be?

California lawmakers are considering that fundamental question amid heightened scrutiny of the child sex abuse scandal roiling the Catholic Church. The state Senate resoundingly approved a bill last week that would force clergy who hear confessions of child sex abuse from another priest to report it. Church leaders say it is an unconstitutional government intrusion and violation of religious freedom.

“Faith leaders have been the only exception to this rule,” the bill’s author, Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, said, adding that even doctors and spouses must report suspected child abuse reported to them in confidence. “Instead of protecting children, some have been shielding abusers. It is time for California to put children first.”

The California Catholic Conference opposes Hill’s bill, SB360, arguing it will not help protect children and dangerously weaken religious freedom by “interjecting the government into the confessional.”

“The ‘seal of confession’ is one of the most sacrosanct of Catholic beliefs and penitents rely on this unbreakable guarantee to freely confess and seek reconciliation with God,” the California Catholic Conference said. A priest who “breaks the seal,” the group added, “is automatically excommunicated.”

“We are dealing here with an egregious violation of the principle of religious liberty,” Robert Barron, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles said in a statement.

However, the bill comes at a time when the Roman Catholic Church is under fire over priests who sexually abused children. Reporting of widespread abuse in the Boston diocese prompted U.S. bishops in 2002 to adopt a Charter for the Protection of Children, known as the Dallas Charter, to prevent child abuse within the church.

But more recent revelations like a bombshell Pennsylvania investigation in August that found widespread child sex abuse and cover-ups over decades in six dioceses has sparked fresh outrage. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra is now investigating the Golden State’s dioceses.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post Dispatch

May 27, 2019

For months now, the St. Louis Archdiocese has been saying it intends to follow the lead of its counterparts around the nation and publicly identify its clergy who have been credibly accused of the sexual abuse of children. Since last year, the Missouri Attorney General’s office, under two consecutive office-holders, has said it will complete and release an independent investigation of the issue statewide. To date, neither promise has been fulfilled.

Officials of both the archdiocese and the attorney general’s office told us last week that they remain committed to completing and releasing their respective investigations. But neither office could even hint at a timeline nor justify why the final reports have to be completed before the release of the information confirmed so far can begin.

Why the hurry? Because, with the continued veil of mystery over this issue, there’s no way for the public to be sure that some of those accused aren’t still in positions to commit further abuse. Assurances that the church has already purged any current threats don’t inspire much confidence when they’re accompanied by the same vague vows of sometime-in-the-future disclosure that we’ve been hearing for months.

After an August 2018 grand jury report alleging more than 300 Catholic clergy in Pennsylvania had sexually abused more than 1,000 children over decades, legal authorities in various states have stepped up to assess the situations in their own jurisdictions. In Illinois alone, then-Attorney General Lisa Madigan last year reported accusations against some 500 priests, far more than church officials had acknowledged.

Many bishops around the country have also provided public disclosure, to varying degrees. Two of Missouri’s four dioceses — Jefferson City and Springfield-Cape Girardeau — have already released lists of priests facing substantiated allegations.

Some activists say that information lacked adequate detail, but at least they released it. Missouri’s remaining two dioceses, in St. Louis and Kansas City, both say they are awaiting results of internal inquiries by hired investigators before releasing anything. With so many other jurisdictions having already done this, why does the St. Louis Archdiocese keep insisting it needs more time?

Given the church’s circle-the-wagons history on this issue, it may not be too cynical to suggest, as has David Clohessy of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, that they’re running out the clock. “Delays help those who commit abuse, and those who cover it up,” says Clohessy. “With every passing day, one more victim dies or gives up … or one more witness dies or moves away.”

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BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

May 28, 2019

By Jay Tokasz

The Catholic Diocese of Buffalo has paid $17.5 million to 106 childhood victims of clergy sexual abuse, while rejecting 135 applicants it deemed ineligible for its voluntary compensation program.

A total of 127 settlements were offered to the accusers, ranging from $2,000 to $650,000, with an average award of $158,622. Seventeen people turned down the offers. Three people have yet to decide on offers totaling $425,000, and one person who accepted a $60,000 offer has yet to be paid, which means the diocese’s total cost could end up at more than $18 million.

Despite its large price tag, the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program payments could turn out to be a bargain for the diocese. Dioceses that settled claims brought through litigation ended up paying much more. In 2016, the Buffalo Diocese settled for $1.5 million a single abuse claim brought in a federal court in Hawaii.

By comparison, the largest compensation award offer was $650,000 and went to a man who accused the Rev. Michael R. Freeman of aiming a revolver at his head and repeatedly molesting him when he was a child in the 1980s. The man was one of the 17 people who rejected offers, according to his attorney, Steve Boyd.

Those who took the payments agreed not to sue, so the Buffalo Diocese avoided more than 100 potential lawsuits under a Child Victims Act signed into law in February that will allow previously time-barred abuse cases to be heard in state courts.

It’s unclear how many of the 135 applicants deemed ineligible for the compensation program will now sue, though some of them have told The Buffalo News they plan to file complaints in court when a one-year window to do so opens Aug. 14. It’s also unclear how many people who did not apply to the diocese program will sue.

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VATICAN CITY
Christian Today

May 28, 2019

By Christine P. Bartholomew

Pope Francis recently changed the Catholic Church law, making it mandatory for clergy to report sexual abuse to church superiors. In the past, such reporting was left to the discretion of a priest or nun.

Pope Francis’ proposal is an effort to address gaps in the regulatory process of the church, which has been accused of shielding clergy sexual abuse. It provides a process to report allegations up the pipeline.

As a scholar of law I worry that it fails to address what the church will do with that information.

To date, religious organizations, such as the Catholic Church, have adopted inconsistent positions on whether, and to what degree, they should share information necessary for legal action.

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ARIZONA
Capitol Media Services

May 27, 2019

By Daniel Perle and Howard Fischer

The arrest of a priest in Arizona on sex abuse charges out of Michigan could lend fuel to legislative efforts to expand the time that victims in this state have to sue their assailants.

Timothy Crowley, 69, was one of five former Catholic priests who Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said are charged with various counts of criminal sexual conduct. She said all five are part of an investigation by her office into reports of clergy abuse which go back decades.

The news comes as Sen. Paul Boyer, R-Phoenix, is trying to convince colleagues to scrap existing Arizona laws which say that victims here have only until they turn 20 to file civil suits.

Boyer told Capitol Media Services he can’t say whether Crowley and other priests accused of incidents of sexual abuse were purposely moved to Arizona because of what he sees as the limited ability of those who are abused and assaulted here to file civil actions.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

May 28, 2019

By Kelly Heyboer

When a law firm released a report earlier this month naming 311 Catholic clergy members from New Jersey accused of sexual misconduct there was something striking about the list– it included women.

Three nuns from New Jersey were among the priests, monks, deacons and other clergy members listed in the report compiled by New Jersey attorney Greg Gianforcaro and Jeff Anderson & Associates, a Minnesota-based law firm that specialized in representing victims of abuse.

The law firm said it used lawsuits, settlements and news accounts to come up with its list of 311 clergy members — far more than the 188 priests and deacons that were on a list from New Jersey’s five dioceses released in February.

None of the lists from New Jersey’s dioceses — Newark, Metuchen, Camden, Trenton and Paterson — have included nuns. Most nuns are overseen by their individual orders, which would probably have handled any accusations of abuse in the past.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
Associated Press

May 27, 2019

By Trevor Marshallsea

Disgraced Australian Catholic cardinal George Pell will not fight for a reduced jail sentence if he fails in his appeal of his conviction for molesting two choirboys in the 1990s, a court spokesman said Monday.

The 77-year-old Pell — the most senior Catholic convicted of sex abuse — was sentenced in a Melbourne court in March to six years in prison. He must serve at least three years and eight months of the term.

Pell will appeal his conviction next month. His lawyers have filed an application arguing it should be overturned on three grounds.

But the application does not include an appeal of the length of the sentence, Andre Awadalla, a spokesman for the Court of Appeal in Victoria state, told the Associated Press.

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SIOUX FALLS (SD)
Argus Leader

May 25, 2019

Two months ago, the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls released the names of 11 priests who faced substantiated accusations of abusing minors between 1958 and 1992 while serving in eastern South Dakota.

The action came on the crest of a recent wave of such disclosures by Catholic leaders across the country. It began in Pennsylvania last year, when a grand jury in that state accused several dioceses of attempting to cover up abuse by 300 former priests.

As such, the public statement from Sioux Falls Bishop Paul Swain seemed a step in the right direction. Swain apologized to victims “as a sign of my and our faith community’s accepting responsibility for failings over the years.”

He urged those who had suffered abuse at the hands of any of the 11 priests named in the statement to come forward, so that “assistance might be offered and justice accomplished.” He acknowledged that many victims “remain silent for fear they will not be believed.”

But Swain’s statement fell short of the level of disclosure from the Rapid City Diocese several weeks earlier. The Rapid City statement listed the assignments, including dates, of the priests with credible claims of abuse against them.

Matt Althoff, chancellor of the Sioux Falls Diocese, defended the absence of that kind of information. Swain’s letter was addressed to victims who “know where the abuse happened,” Althoff said. “Really it is out of a profound sensitivity for the deserved confidentiality of a victim of clergy sexual abuse that all those details, the bishop chose not to include in his letter.”

Priests who had been permanently assigned to the Rapid City Diocese were not the only names disclosed in the Rapid City statement. Also included on their list were credibly-accused members of the Jesuit religious order who had been assigned to missions and mission schools on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations.

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WARSAW (POLAND)
Catholic News Service via National Catholic Reporter

May 22, 2019

By Jonathan Luxmoore

The Polish bishops’ administrative council met in emergency session May 22 and later admitted the church failed to act against clerical sexual abuse.

The meeting came amid outrage over a two-hour documentary, “Just Don’t Tell Anyone,” that included drastic accounts of cover-up of clerical sex abuse in Poland. The film had more than 19 million views within six days of its May 11 YouTube posting.

“The whole church community in Poland has been shaken by the latest painful information — these crimes have caused deep suffering for harmed people,” the bishops said in a pastoral letter to be read in parishes nationwide May 26.

“There are no words to express our shame at the sexual scandals clergy have participated in. They are a source of great evil and demand total condemnation, as well as severe consequences for the criminals and for those who concealed such acts.”

The bishops said they had been “deeply affected” by “shocking testimonies” in the film, as well as by its portrayal of a “lack of sympathy, sinful neglect and myopia” shown toward abuse victims.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

May 24, 2019

By Elizabeth Dias

Michigan law enforcement officials made their first arrests in a statewide investigation into Roman Catholic clergy sexual abuse, the state’s attorney general announced on Friday.

Five former Catholic priests have been charged with criminal sexual conduct, Attorney General Dana Nessel said at a news conference. But hundreds, or even thousands, of alleged victims could still remain across the state, she said.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” she said. “We anticipate many more charges and arrests.”

The charges were the latest effort by law enforcement nationwide to hold Catholic officials accountable for sexual abuse in the church. Since Thursday, four of the former priests were arrested in Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan. The fifth faces possible extradition from India.

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ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Service via Crux

May 24, 2019

By Carol Glatz

Pope Francis’s latest effort to help the Catholic Church safeguard its members from abuse and hold its leaders accountable came in the form of a new universal law, Vos estis lux mundi (“You are the light of the world”), which takes effect June 1.

Like all universal legislation, the papal document had to factor in the vast diversity of cultures and traditions of the more than 200 countries where the Church is present, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s top abuse investigator, told reporters the day the document was released in May.

It had to strike a balance of being clear and precise, but not so narrow that “it would be inoperative. You need something that can be flexible enough to work,” the archbishop said.

But as Jesuit Father Arturo Sosa, the order’s superior, warned during the safeguarding summit at the Vatican in February, the Church also must never use its “multicultural reality” to justify, excuse or ignore abuse. No matter the culture or local attitudes, the fundamental principle guiding everyone must be to follow the Gospel message, always and everywhere, bringing to light the truth that sets everyone free, he said.

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WARSAW (POLAND)
Associated Press

May 26, 2019

By Monika Scislowska

Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party has emerged as the big winner in the country’s European Parliament election, taking over 45% of the votes following an aggressive campaign against a united opposition in a year of key elections.

Preliminary results from more than 99% of voting stations announced Monday by the State Electoral Commission suggest that the right-wing ruling party has a good chance of winning crucial elections to the national parliament in the fall and continuing its policy of social conservatism and euroskepticism.

It was the first ever win for the right-wing, nationalist party in European balloting and its best showing in any election ever.

Analysts said the intensive campaign, with the participation of party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski and quick containment of crises — from leaders’ business dealings to revelations of child sex abuse by priests — mobilized its voters and defenders of the Catholic Church, and contributed to the party’s showing.

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WARSAW (POLAND)
Associated Press

May 22, 2019

By Vanessa Gera

Poland’s bishops acknowledged on Wednesday that they have not done enough to prevent clerical abuse of minors and said there are “no words” to describe their shame about sex scandals involving priests.

The acknowledgement came as Poland, where Catholic traditions and faith remain strong, is grappling with the problem of abuse in the church. Massive soul searching was triggered by a documentary, “Tell No One,” that includes testimony by victims, priests who admit their wrongdoing and evidence that the church — even recently — moved abusers from parish to parish and let them have contact with children.

“There are no words to express our shame because of sexual scandals involving clerics,” the Polish Bishops’ Conference said in a statement, a message that is to be read out in all churches on Sunday.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post Gazette

May 20, 2019

By Shelly Bradbury, Peter Smith, and Stephanie Strasburg

Part 1 in a 6-part series

Mennonites, Amish face growing recognition of widespread sexual abuse in their communities

Huntington, Pa. – Martha Peight stood in the first row of the courtroom, shaking yet resolute, as she held the printout of her victim-impact statement.

In the benches behind her sat members of area Mennonite churches, wearing the traditional plain clothing of a separatist culture she had left behind — the bearded men in work clothes or dark suits, the women in long dresses and head coverings.

Some had come to lend moral support to her father, Daniel R. Hostetler, who sat with bowed head at the defense table, where he awaited his sentencing for sexually violating Ms. Peight years earlier when she was a young teen.

Others had shown up to support Ms. Peight as she sought justice that had been long delayed, in part due to actions of the former minister of the family’s Mennonite church, who was also there in the courtroom Nov. 29 in this central Pennsylvania county seat.

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

PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post Gazette

May 22, 2019

By Shelly Bradbury, Peter Smith, and Stephanie Strasburg

Part 2 in a 6-part series

Plain community sexual abuse victims sometimes pressured to take offenders back

The Old Order Mennonite bishop leveled a finger at the unwed, pregnant teenager who stood before him and jabbed it toward her.

“You,” she remembered him saying, “can’t be a church member until after the baby is born.”

Diane Snyder stood silently beside her boyfriend as the bishop made his declaration. She did not protest when her boyfriend escaped the punishment she was to suffer for the baby growing inside her.

And she stayed silent during the ensuing months, keeping to herself the gnawing fear that she’d die before the baby was born — die and go to hell because she wasn’t a church member.

She married her boyfriend, Jim Burkholder, and for years she never protested when he demanded sex, even when she was pregnant with one child, nursing another. It was her duty to satisfy him, and she couldn’t say no. This was what married women had to do, she believed.

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

PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post Gazette

May 28, 2019

By Shelly Bradbury, Peter Smith, and Stephanie Strasburg

Part 3 in a 6-part series

Plain community sexual abuse victims sometimes pressured to take offenders back

Church leaders pulled Kay aside one Sunday and told her she was excommunicated for failing to forgive her husband.

Her conservative Mennonite church demanded that she take a registered sex offender back into her home, that she forgive and forget what he had done to their 1-month-old baby and her sibling who followed.

But Kay had tried that blind forgiveness before, and she couldn’t do it again.

She’d gone to counseling with him, brought the kids to him for supervised visits, eaten meals with him. But this time, he needed to prove to her that he was trustworthy, and in the year since he’d been off probation, he’d ignored her rules and pushed the boundaries and pointed fingers at her for breaking up the marriage.

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

AUSTIN (TX)
Texas Tribune

May 24, 2019

By Cassandra Pollock

The House initially exempted churches and nonprofits from the extended statute of limitations, but the chamber agreed to include them Friday after sex assault victims pushed back.

A proposal at the Texas Legislature that would give victims of child sexual abuse more time to sue their abusers and the organizations they were affiliated with is headed to the governor’s desk.

House Bill 3809, filed by state Rep. Craig Goldman, R-Fort Worth, would let people file civil lawsuits against alleged abusers 30 years after the victims turn 18. Current law only allows for a 15-year threshold to sue. That lengthened statute of limitations would apply to culpable entities, a provision the Senate added back into the legislation after the House stripped language related to those institutions from the bill.

Goldman moved to concur with the Senate’s version of the bill Friday, with members signing off on it unanimously.

Goldman’s bill first surfaced in April, when Becky Leach, wife of state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, shared her story of child sexual abuse before the House committee chaired by her husband. At that hearing, Becky Leach, who testified for the bill, said she wanted to use her experience to help others who haven’t yet come forward.

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

LANSING (MI)
Associated Press via New York Times

May 24, 2019

A Catholic priest who admitted when he resigned from a Flint-area parish that he had sexually abused a child has been charged with several counts of sexual assault dating back decades.

The Detroit News and The Flint Journal report that prosecutors charged 80-year-old Vincent DeLorenzo on Thursday with six counts of both first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

The Diocese of Lansing says eight people have accused DeLorenzo of sexual abuse and that he’s being defrocked.

Court records list DeLorenzo as a Lantana, Florida, resident, but The Associated Press couldn’t find a listed phone number for him in that area and wasn’t able to reach him for comment.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

May 23, 2019

By Nicole Winfield

The Italian Catholic Church hierarchy said Thursday it had approved guidelines establishing a “moral obligation” to report cases of clergy sex abuse to police, after bishops long downplayed the problem and covered it up.

The Italian bishops’ conference didn’t immediately release the text. But the official in charge of child protection, Monsignor Lorenzo Ghizzoni, said it called for bishops to report credible accusations even though Italian law doesn’t designate clergy as mandated reporters.

The main Italian victims’ group, Rete L’Abuso, called the announcement “dishonest” as the conference in 2014 issued similar guidelines saying bishops had a “moral duty” to report. The group said the 2014 guidelines hadn’t resulted in a single church-initiated criminal complaint.

Italy’s church — of which Pope Francis is the titular head as bishop of Rome — has been well behind the curve on confronting clergy abuse, with multiple cases of abuse and high-ranking cover-ups that only recently have begun making headlines.

Just this week, the mother of a victim wrote an open letter calling for the resignation of the powerful archbishop of Milan, Mario Delpini. He admitted under oath that he transferred her son’s predator to another parish in 2011 rather than turning him in to police or keeping him away from children.

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

AUSTIN (TX)
Associated Press

May 21, 2019

The Texas Senate has passed a bill that would give child sexual abuse victims more time to sue in civil court after restoring a key provision that allows them to take on institutions.

Senate lawmakers approved the legislation unanimously on Tuesday after former Olympic and U.S. national team gymnasts urged legislators last week to include the provision House lawmakers had quietly removed.

The revised Senate version would allow victims of childhood sexual abuse to bring a civil lawsuit against their abuser and institutions up to 30 years after their 18th birthday.

A push to expand statute of limitations laws for child sex abuse victims is underway in statehouses nationwide amid lawsuits against large institutions like the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts of America and USA Gymnastics.

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DETROIT (MI)
Associated Press

May 24, 2019

By Jeff Karoub

Michigan prosecutors announced Friday that five former Catholic priests are facing sexual abuse charges as part of the state attorney general’s ongoing investigation into clergy abuse going back decades.

Attorney General Dana Nessel said the priests served in dioceses in Detroit, Lansing and Kalamazoo, and that they’ve been charged with various counts of criminal sexual conduct. Four of them were arrested this week in Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan, and the fifth awaits extradition from India.

A sixth priest faces an administrative complaint and has had his counseling license suspended by the state, officials said.

Nearly all of the charges, which involve victims who were as young as 5 years old when they were abused, came from roughly 450 calls to a tip line and were corroborated by files seized from dioceses last fall and interviews with multiple victims, Nessel said. She added that the cases are just the “tip of the iceberg,” as investigators have only gone through at most 10% of the information they have obtained. They also found many cases in which they could not bring charges because statutes of limitation had expired, priests had died or victims wouldn’t come forward.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Global Sisters Report

May. 23, 2019

By Dan Stockman

If current trends continue, within five years, the number of associates in the United States will be greater than the number of vowed women religious.

A 2016 study found more than 35,000 associates in the United States, a number Jeanne Connolly, board president of the North American Conference of Associates and Religious, or NACAR, said has likely grown since then.

While NACAR doesn’t track numbers, Connolly said communities continue to add associate programs. At the very least, she said, the number has held steady. The number of sisters, meanwhile, continues to fall.

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, or CARA, reported 44,117 sisters in 2018, down from 57,544 in 2010. A 2016 actuarial study done for the National Religious Retirement Office projects there will be fewer than 30,000 sisters in 2024.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

May 25, 2019

By Elise Harris

This is the second installment of a two-part interview with Cardinal Ricardo Barreto Jimeno of Huancayo, Peru, who serves as vice president of the Peruvian bishops’ conference and who sits on a committee organizing the upcoming Synod of Bishops for the Amazon. Part one can be found here.

Rome – Peruvian Cardinal Ricardo Barreto Jimeno has said recent scandals upsetting the local church, including revelations of sexual abuse within a prominent lay group and a very public case of an archbishop launching criminal complaints against two journalists, have been harmful to Catholics.

Referring to the case of Archbishop Jose Antonio Eguren Anselmi of Piura, who recently retracted complaints against two journalists after raising criminal charges of defamation against them last year, Barreto said the fiasco has been “a wound for the Church in Peru.”

Eguren Anselmi is one of the early members of the troubled Sodalitium Cristianae Vitae (SCV) lay group, whose founder, Luis Fernando Figari, was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2017 after being accused of sexually abusing minors and manipulating young men in the community.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Catholic News Service via Global Sisters Report

May 24, 2019

Catholic religious orders in Germany have set up an inquiry into sexual abuse in their monasteries and convents, following claims that abuse occurred in more than half of all monastic communities.

“We still don’t know enough about what happened and is happening in each community, since models of action and prevention are all different,” Franciscan Sr. Katharina Kluitmann, chairwoman of the German Orders Conference, said in a May 22 statement to the organization’s general meeting in Vallendar.

“Although our path has taken on a clear momentum, we haven’t reached our destination. But we have found certain landmarks — and the most important is this isn’t about us, but about those affected.”

The 55-year-old nun said the inquiry, to be published in early 2020, had been approved unanimously by 200 order leaders at the meeting. She said the inquiry would collect data on victims, prosecution reports, compensation payments and personal files.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

May 23, 2019

By Melissa Davey and Australian Associated Press

Perth’s Timothy Costelloe says forcing revelations will interfere with the ‘free practice of the Catholic faith’

Perth’s Catholic archbishop, Timothy Costelloe, says forcing religious leaders in Western Australia to reveal knowledge of child sex abuse risks “interfering with the free practice of the Catholic faith” and will be ineffective – a stance that advocates say is “ignorant and pig-headed”.

The state government plans to expand mandatory reporting laws to include religious leaders such as priests, ministers, imams, rabbis, pastors and Salvation Army officers.

The laws already apply to doctors, teachers, nurses, midwives, police and school boarding supervisors.

Costelloe said plans to remove legal protections around the confidentiality of religious confessions would cause “great concern and distress” to many people of faith.

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

WHEELING (WV)
The Intelligencer

May 26, 2019

By Joselyn King

The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston has added nine additional names to the list of priests associated with the diocese accused in sexual abuse incidents since the1950s, bringing the total number to 40.

The diocese released its original list in November, and updated it this week following a visit to Wheeling by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. Morrisey called for more cooperation and transparency from the Diocese as investigations continue into sexual abuse claims made against diocese priests — including former bishop Michael Bransfield.

Phone messages left with the diocese Friday afternoon were not immediately returned.

“We are glad that the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston has updated their list of priests publicly accused of abuse,” said Judy Jones, midwest regional leader for SNAP — The Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests. “We are disappointed, however, that they did so without notifying the public.

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit News

May 22, 2019

By Beth LeBlanc

Law enforcement knew about an allegation of misconduct with a minor against a Diocese of Saginaw priest as early as March 2018 and the victim allegedly reported the incident to the diocese years earlier, but the priest wasn’t removed from his position until Sunday.

The Diocese of Saginaw announced Tuesday that the Rev. Dennis Kucharczyk had been placed on administrative leave after law enforcement informed diocesan officials of “an allegation of misconduct involving a minor that allegedly occurred many years ago.”

“Father Kucharczyk is to have no contact with individuals under 21, which prohibits him from going on school properties or participating in school and parish activities and functions,” the diocese’s statement said. “He also was informed that he must refrain from wearing clerical garb, refrain from the exercise of public ministry, and may not present himself publicly as a priest while the allegation is investigated by the Diocese.”

A March 2018 search warrant indicates a Midland woman informed police last year of “inappropriate touching” by Kucharczyk, behavior that started in the late 1980s when she was in first or second grade until she “ended the relationship” more than 15 years later. The woman told police she alerted the coordinate for the diocese’s Office of Child and Youth Protection about the incident “around 2010,” according to the warrant.

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LANSING (MI)
M Live

May 23, 2019

By Cole Waterman

Saginaw – A priest recently suspended by the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw due to an allegation of sexual misconduct was named more than a year ago in sealed police affidavits as a suspect in a misconduct case involving a minor, documents show.

The documents, unsealed this month, name the Rev. Dennis Kucharczyk, who the Saginaw Diocese said in press release on Tuesday, May 21, was placed administrative leave from priestly ministry on Sunday, May 19.

The diocese took the action after it said it received information from law enforcement regarding an allegation of misconduct involving a minor that occurred “many years ago.”

A 19-page affidavit authored by Saginaw Township Police Detective Scott Jackson and dated March 22, 2018, states police sought personnel records of Kucharczyk, three other priests, and one deacon as part of their investigation.

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DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Service via Crux

May 25, 2019

By Pablo Kay

[Note: The bill discussed in this article is available here.]

Los Angeles – Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said he was “deeply disappointed” by the California Senate’s passage of a bill that would force priests to disclose information about child sexual abuse that they hear in the sacrament of confession.

After legislators voted 30-2 in favor of the measure May 23, the archbishop urged the state’s Catholics “to continue to pray and make your voices heard on this issue, which is so vital to our faith and religious freedom.”

“I continue to believe we can strengthen mandated reporting laws to protect children’s safety while at the same time preserving the sanctity of penitential communications,” he stated. “My brother bishops and I will continue to work with our lawmakers in the Assembly.”

As the bill, S.B. 360, made its way through the Legislature, the California bishops urged lawmakers to strengthen and clarify mandated reporting requirements while maintaining the traditional protections for “penitential communications.”

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DES MOINES (IA)
Des Moines Register

May 25, 2019

By Shelby Fleig

Two years after The Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winningseries in 2002 that uncovered decades of abuse and cover-ups in New England parishes, Iowan John Chambers, 66, regained long-repressed memories of being sexually abused as a sophomore at Dowling High School.

Chambers, a lifelong Des Moines resident, had been in and out of therapy for decades by that point battling crippling depression. His deteriorating mental health led to substance abuse and withered his relationships, he said.

He was 52 when he remembered instances of fondling and indecent exposure by the Rev. Leonard Kenkel, in 1966 and 1967. According to Child USA, a nonprofit think-tank that studies child abuse, 52 is the average age that adults who were victims of child sex abuse first disclose their experiences.

Chambers sued the Diocese of Des Moines and Kenkel in 2004.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Atlantic

May 26, 2019

By Kerry Weber

Calls for the abolition of the Church’s clerical establishment ignore something important: the wishes of the faithful.

A few years ago, I was invited to my friend’s ordination to the priesthood. I was thrilled for him—a kind, holy man who’s passionate about justice—and honored to be included. But if I’m honest, I also expected to be a bit bored. Ordination liturgies can run several hours, and the rite requires some parts to be repeated for each candidate. With eight men up for ordination, I knew we’d be in it for the long haul. I imagined the experience as something akin to a graduation ceremony, where you root for the person you know and then tune out.

On the day of the liturgy, however, that repetition of the rite moved me deeply. As I watched this line of men I’d never met become priests in the Church I loved, I was struck by the beauty of this brief overlap in our lives, and by the way in which these men represented only a fraction of those ordained that year. We would all go our separate ways, changed by this experience and renewed in our desire to serve. I needed to root not just for my friend but for all of them.

With every new wave of stories of sexual abuse by priests, it can be much harder not to create a spiritual bunker containing the people I like and leaving out the rest. I have felt despair and frustration at the crisis of abuse and the failure of leadership that got us here. The Church needs healing. It needs a new way forward.

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MECHANICSBURG (PA)
Penn Live

May 23, 2019

By Christine P. Bartholomew

https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2019/05/the-catholic-church-is-tightening-rules-on-reporting-sexual-abuse-but-not-swearing-off-its-legal-privilege-to-keep-secrets-opinion.html

[Note: The document discussed in this commentary is available here.]

Pope Francis recently changed the Catholic Church law, making it mandatory for clergy to report sexual abuse to church superiors. In the past, such reporting was left to the discretion of a priest or nun.

Pope Francis’ proposal is an effort to address gaps in the regulatory process of the church, which has been accused of shielding clergy sexual abuse. It provides a process to report allegations up the pipeline.

As a scholar of law I worry that it fails to address what the church will do with that information.

To date, religious organizations, such as the Catholic Church, have adopted inconsistent positions on whether, and to what degree, they should share information necessary for legal action.

Clergy across various religions, ranging from Christians to Catholics to Muslims to Jews, are willing to share evidence in cases of violent crimes, such as murders. But when the evidence pertains to clergy misconduct, namely sexual abuse, the tide changes.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

May 25, 2019

By Patrick Whittle

A Massachusetts priest who was defrocked for child sexual abuse and was portrayed in the movie ‘‘Spotlight” is going to prison for a second time — this time in Maine.

A judge on Friday ordered Ronald Paquin to serve 16 years in state prison for sexually abusing an altar boy during trips to Maine in the 1980s. Paquin, 76, already served more than 10 years in prison in Massachusetts for sexually abusing another altar boy in that state.

Justice Wayne Douglas said he didn’t detect expressions of remorse or responsibility from Paquin, who he said betrayed the ‘‘sacred trust’’ of his victims. He imposed the maximum sentence of 20 years but suspended a portion of the sentence.

One of Paquin’s victims, 45-year-old Keith Townsend, testified before the sentencing that Paquin’s abuse sent him into a spiral of depression and drug abuse, and caused him to question his faith in God. The Associated Press does not normally identify victims of sexual abuse, but Townsend identified himself as the victim and gave permission for his name to be used.

Later, Townsend said he was satisfied with the sentence, and he hopes it motivates more victims to name their abusers.

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ATLANTA (GA)
CNN

May 26, 2019

By Antonia Mortensen

[Note: The documentary described in this article may be viewed here (with subtitles).]

“Father, I wanted to look you in the eye … I wanted to ask you why?” demands Anna Misiewicz as she confronts the parish priest she says abused her when she was just seven and eight years old.

“You touched me where you were not supposed to, my private parts,” Misiewicz says, matter-of-factly, telling him that his actions “really scarred my adult life deeply.”

“I still have nightmares … I am unable to sleep at night,” she tells her alleged abuser. “I still carry it inside me.”

The elderly man she is addressing exhales and shifts in his orange and brown striped chair, as a religious service plays out on a TV nearby, in a home for retired priests in Kielce, central Poland.

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LANSING (MI)
M Live

May 24, 2019

By Malachi Barrett

[Note: The affidavits summarized in this article are available here.]

Court documents shared by the Michigan Attorney General’s office reveal shocking details of sexual misconduct allegedly committed by priests for years across the state before their arrest this week.

Five men who were priests in Michigan have been charged with 21 counts of criminal sexual conduct, Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Friday. Nessel said the priests are suspected of abusing five individuals, four who were underage at the time of the sexual assault and one adult who was taken advantage of during a confession.

Nessel shared affidavits and charging documents with reporters after a Friday press conference. The arrests are “the tip of the iceberg,” Nessel said, more will be found as state investigators review hundreds of tips and hundreds of thousands of documents uncovered from a probe into Michigan’s seven Catholic dioceses.

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

SHARON (PA)
Associated Press

May 26, 2019

By Melissa Klaric

A faith that is shaken, but not lost. Deep disappointment, but hope for the future. An overwhelming feeling that there is a lesson to be learned and a stronger church if it is taken to heart.

In the wake of the October grand jury report chronicling hundreds of cases of sexual abuse by priests around Pennsylvania, as well as testimonies of victims who say their lives have been turned upside down because of the church’s inaction, Catholics are struggling to deal with the news and the future.

Jill Stanek’s parents taught her to respect and to revere the clergy and the church. Now, the Sharon mother of five is teaching her children differently.

Stanek and others associated with the Catholic Church in the Shenango Valley and Lawrence County came together to talk about those questions – what to think about the scandals, what to believe about their faith and church and what to do next.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

May 25, 2019

By Bethany Ao

Retired Catholic Bishop Joseph Galante, 80, of Philadelphia, who led the Diocese of Camden from 2004 to 2013, died Saturday, May 25, at Shore Medical Center in Somers Point after a long illness that led to his earlier-than-anticipated retirement.

The Diocese of Camden announced his death via Facebook. A representative could not be reached for comment.

* * *

The bishop was also known for his zero-tolerance stance on sexual abuse within the church. It earned him a spot on the ad hoc committee on sex abuse of the Conference of Catholic Bishops. In 2002, when sex abuse in Boston provoked an international crisis, Bishop Galante helped draft the Charter for Protection of Children and Young People, which was overwhelmingly approved by his fellow bishops when they met that summer.

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LANSING (MI)
Office of the Attorney General

May 24, 2019

By Attorney General Dana Nessel

[Note: This announcement includes links to the criminal complaints and affidavits.]

Five men who were priests have been charged with a total of 21 counts of criminal sexual conduct, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced at a news conference this morning in Lansing. Four of the men have been arrested; one awaits extradition in India. A sixth Michigan priest is facing an administrative complaint and his license as a professional educationally limited counselor has been summarily suspended by the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA).

“In the last 30 hours, more than a dozen members of our investigative team have been in courtrooms in Washtenaw, Wayne, Genesee, Macomb and Berrien Counties while other members of our team have been working with local law enforcement in Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan – all in a carefully executed plan to take these charged defendants off the streets,” said Nessel. “Almost all of these charges came as a direct result of calls to our tip line but were then corroborated by files seized from the dioceses last fall, followed by multiple interviews with victims.

“Although we have charged these men with very serious crimes, I want to remind everyone that they are innocent until proven guilty by a court of law,” cautioned Nessel.

Charges were filed as follows:

• Timothy Michael Crowley, 69, Lansing Diocese, was charged in Washtenaw County with four felony counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct (CSC) 1, a maximum sentence of life in prison and a lifetime of electronic monitoring, and four felony counts of CSC 2 – a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Crowley, who was a priest in various parishes, including St. Thomas Rectory in Ann Arbor, was arrested Thursday in Tempe, Arizona.

• Neil Kalina, 63, 63, Archdiocese of Detroit, was charged in Macomb County with four felony counts of CSC 2, a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a lifetime of electronic monitoring. Kalina, who was a priest at St. Kiernan Catholic Church in Shelby Township, was arrested Thursday in Littlerock, California.

• Vincent DeLorenzo, 80, Lansing Diocese, was charged in Genesee County with three felony counts of CSC 1, a maximum sentence of life in prison and a lifetime of electronic monitoring, and three felony counts of CSC 2, a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. DeLorenzo, who was a priest at Holy Redeemer Church in Burton, was arrested Thursday in Marion County, Florida.

• Patrick Casey, 55, Archdiocese of Detroit, was charged in Wayne County with one felony count of CSC 3, a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Casey, who was a priest at St. Theodore of Canterbury Parish in Westland, was arrested Thursday in Oak Park, Michigan.

• Jacob Vellian, 84, Kalamazoo Diocese, was charged with two counts of Rape, a maximum sentence of life in prison. Vellian was a priest at St. John the Evangelist Parish, Benton Harbor, and now lives in Kerala, India.

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press

May 24, 2019

By Niraj Warikoo

As part of the state’s investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Friday criminal sexual conduct charges against five priests in Michigan.

“Some of these clergy … preyed on young children,” Nessel said at a news conference about the men who were priests at the time of the alleged abuse. She said the five cases were the “tip of the iceberg” as investigators continue to track down hundreds of tips on abuse by Catholic priests.

In some of the incidents, the priests mixed their sexual activity with references to Catholic beliefs or committed the acts during Catholic rituals such as confession, according to allegations in affidavits.

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ANN ARBOR (MI)
Michigan Radio NPR

May 24, 2019

By Steve Carmody

Saginaw’s new Catholic bishop says he’s committed to “transparency and accountability” on matters concerning sexual abuse by priests.

Pope Francis appointed Bishop Robert Gruss to take over the Diocese of Saginaw earlier this month. Gruss held his introductory news conference Friday, shortly before Attorney General Dana Nessel announced charges against five Catholic priests in different parts of Michigan. The Attorney General’s office is investigating allegations of sexual abuse in all of Michigan’s Catholic dioceses.

Gruss has dealt with similar allegations in his current posting in Rapid City, South Dakota. In March, the Diocese of Rapid City released a list of 21 priests accused of sexual misconduct dating back to 1951. Twenty on the list are dead. The sole living priest on the list pleaded guilty in February to sexually touching a 13-year-old girl.

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

SAGINAW (MI)
Diocese of Saginaw

May 21, 2019

A priest of the Diocese of Saginaw, Father Dennis Kucharczyk, has been placed on administrative leave from priestly ministry by Bishop Walter A. Hurley, Apostolic Administrator, while an allegation of misconduct involving a minor is investigated. Father Kucharczyk is pastor at St. John XXIII Parish, which includes St. Mary Church in Hemlock, Sacred Heart Church in Merrill and St. Patrick Church in Ryan. This leave took effect on Sunday, May 19.

The Diocese of Saginaw has received information from law enforcement regarding an allegation of misconduct involving a minor that allegedly occurred many years ago. Based on this information, the Diocese immediately removed Father Kucharczyk from active ministry.

According to the terms of the leave of absence, Father Kucharczyk is to have no contact with individuals under 21, which prohibits him from going on school properties or participating in school and parish activities and functions. He also was informed that he must refrain from wearing clerical garb, refrain from the exercise of public ministry, and may not present himself publicly as a priest while the allegation is investigated by the Diocese.

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ATLANTA (GA)
CNN

May 24, 2019

By Jason Hanna and Elizabeth Joseph

Five former Catholic priests have been charged in Michigan with criminal sexual conduct or rape, the state attorney general said Friday, amid a months-long investigation of alleged clergy sexual abuse in the state.

Four were arrested Thursday in various locations across the country, and Michigan will seek the extradition of a fifth man from India, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said.

“In this case, some of those clergy who preyed on young children and on vulnerable adults, unfortunately those clergy were hiding in plain sight, purporting to comfort their parishioners, hearing their confessions and taking advantage of their position of faith and authority,” Nessel said in a news conference Friday in Lansing.

“And today, we begin holding those clergy accountable.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

May 24, 2019

By Julie Zauzmer

Five men who have worked as Catholic priests in Michigan now face charges for sex crimes, state Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Friday.

Nessel has conducted one of the most aggressive probes of the Catholic Church as attorneys general in numerous states across the country investigate alleged sexual abuse by priests. She said that the charges announced Friday resulted from tips called in to the state’s hotline for abuse victims, as well as documents that state investigators seized from the state’s seven Catholic dioceses.

Four of the men, ranging in age from 55 to 80, were charged with criminal sexual conduct and arrested on Thursday in their current locations — Arizona, California, Florida and Michigan. A suspect who faces the most serious charges, two counts of rape, has not yet been arrested, according to the attorney general’s office. That suspect, Jacob Vellian, lives in Kerala, India, according to the attorney general’s office, which said it will seek his extradition.

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WARSAW (POLAND)
Associated Press

May 25, 2019

By Vanessa Gera

One victim spoke out, and then another, and another. A statue of a pedophile priest was toppled in Gdansk, put back by his supporters, and finally dismantled for good. A feature film about clerical abuse was a box office hit.

Poland thought it had started confronting the problem of clerical abuse and its cover-up by church authorities. Then a bombshell came: A documentary with victim testimony so harrowing it has forced an unprecedented reckoning with pedophile priests in one of Europe’s most deeply Catholic societies.

Poland’s bishops acknowledged this week they face a crisis and made a rare admission that they have failed to protect the young. It’s also a crisis for the country’s conservative government, which is closely aligned with the Catholic Church, putting the ruling Law and Justice party on the defensive before Sunday’s European Parliament vote in Poland.

The documentary ”Tell No One ” was directed by journalist Tomasz Sekielski. Before its release on May 11, ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski had described discussion about clerical abuse as a “brutal attack” on the church and portrayed the LGBT rights movement as the key threat to children in the country. But the revelations in the documentary have pushed the party to face up to the cleric abuse crisis. It has vowed stiffer penalties for pedophilia, although its leaders have avoided pointing a finger at the church specifically.

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PORTLAND (ME)
Press-Herald

May 24, 2019

By Megan Gray

A jury convicted Ronald Paquin last year on 11 of 24 counts of gross sexual misconduct stemming from incidents in the 1980s.

A former Catholic priest will spend 16 years in prison for abusing a young boy on trips to Maine in the 1980s.

Ronald Paquin, 76, was found guilty in November on 11 of 24 counts of gross sexual misconduct. A York County jury acquitted him of similar charges related to a second boy.

Paquin was one of the priests exposed in the early 2000s by a sweeping Boston Globe investigation into clergy sex abuse. He pleaded guilty in 2002 in Massachusetts to repeatedly raping an altar boy between 1989 and 1992, beginning when the victim was 12. He spent more than decade in prison there and was defrocked in 2004.

York County Superior Court Justice Wayne Douglas sentenced Paquin on Friday to 20 years in prison with all but 16 years suspended. Upon release, Paquin will be subject to three years of probation and required to register as a sex offender.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
TV 7 NBC

May 24, 2019

By Anlleyn Venegas, Fabiola Berriozábal and Brenda Gregorio-Nieto

Two more women have come forward and claimed to be victims of child sexual abuse by a priest at the St. Jude’s Shrine of the West church in Southcrest.

They claimed it occurred more than 30 years ago in the well-known and beloved parish. The priest involved is named, Monsignor Gregory Sheridan, who has already died and the victims are asking that the church to recognize the alleged crimes.

For decades, families have nurtured their faith in the parish whose masses were also visited by St. Teresa of Calcutta and Luis Donaldo Colosio.

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