ABUSE TRACKER

FARGO (ND)
WDAY News

Sept. 11, 2019

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis announced it has been authorized to investigate the bishop of the Crookston Diocese under recently enacted policies directed by Pope Francis aimed at rooting out sex abuse crimes and the covering of those crimes within the Catholic Church.

The archdiocese posted a statement attributed to Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda regarding the investigation of Bishop Michael Hoeppner on its website Wednesday morning.

“I have been authorized by the Congregation for Bishops to commence an investigation into allegations that the Most Reverend Michael Hoeppner, the Bishop of Crookston, carried out acts or omissions intended to interfere with or avoid civil or canonical investigations of clerical sexual misconduct in the Diocese of Crookston. Law enforcement has been notified of the allegations. The allegations were reported to me under the procedures set out in Pope Francis’ recent legislation addressing bishop accountability, the motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi.”

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

BUFFALO (NY)
WIVB TV

Sept. 11, 2019

By Evan Anstey

An Elma church is calling for Bishop Richard Malone’s resignation.

The request came in the form of a letter, written by Rev. Eugene P. Ulrich, of Church of the Annunciation. The church is located on Clinton St.

“You added that you can only continue your service as Shepherd with the support of clergy and laity,” Ulrich wrote. “As pastor, I have a responsibility to our faith community and to you as our Bishop, to gauge to some degree the measure of that support and convey it to you.”

Malone has come under fire for his handling of various sex abuse allegations and lawsuits within the Catholic Diocese.

“It is difficult to see how, with continuing disclosures, that you can effectively lead the Catholic Church at Buffalo,” Ulrich wrote.

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MEMPHIS (TN)
WMC TV

Sept. 9, 2019

By Kendall Downing

A Memphis church says it is investigating “severe allegations” of sexual abuse against a former pastor dating back two decades. Woodland Presbyterian Church on Park Avenue notified its membership of the allegations and the ensuing investigation Sunday.

At this time the church is aware of four alleged victims.

WMC Action News 5 has learned the men are now adults in their late 30s and early 40s. The church is bringing in an independent firm to conduct an investigation, and they have encouraged the men to filed reports with Tennessee Department of Children’s Services.

“It’s been a devastating thing for me personally, for our whole church to understand and try to wrap our head around this,” said Matt Miller, senior pastor of Woodland Presbyterian Church.

In recent days, four men told leadership at Woodland Presbyterian Church about sexual abuse they say they suffered at the hands of a former pastor who led the church for 18 years. WMC Action News 5 is not naming that former leader, who has been identified by the church, because no criminal charges have been filed.

“We’ve made it a top priority to understand the nature of the allegations and to be as transparent as possible,” said Miller.

Miller is the church’s current pastor and he says no one currently on the church staff was there when the alleged abuse took place.

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BROOKLYN (NY)
Patch

Sept. 10, 2019

By Kathleen Culliton

The “Michael Cohen of the Brooklyn Diocese” who allegedly worked as a fixer for pedophile priests himself stands accused of child sex abuse by people deeply concerned that he continues to practice in Queens.

Thomas Davis and an anonymous accuser have filed child sex abuse suits against Monsignor Otto Garcia — accused by a Diocese nun of covering up at least three child sex abuse investigations — who currently serves as parochial vicar at the Church of St. Teresa in Woodside, according to his accuser, attorneys and reports.

“I was molested by father Otto Garcia when I was a child,” Davis said at a press conference Tuesday. “He was able to pick me out as a prime victim because my parents were very involved in the church, because I didn’t think anyone would believe me.”

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BROOKLYN (NY)
Brooklyn Reader

Sept. 10, 2019

A group of law firms on Tuesday held a joint press conference in Manhattan to announce the filing of 10 clergy sexual abuse lawsuits against the Diocese of Brooklyn.

Following the signing into law of New York’s new Child Victims Act (CVA) in February 2019, beginning August 14, victims of child sexual abuse received a one-year window to file old civil claims for child sexual abuse, no matter when the abuse occurred. Since that time, tens of thousands of New Yorkers have come forward.

The law firms of Jeff Anderson & Associates and Robins Kaplan LLP held the press conference to release what they are calling The Anderson Report on Sexual Abuse in the Diocese of Brooklyn, which contains the identities, histories, photographs and information on 200 perpetrators accused of child sexual abuse in the Diocese of Brooklyn. Most of the victims were ages 30-70.

“This is one of the most important historic and culture-changing times of child protection in America, because of the opening of the [statute of] limitations,” Anderson told BK Reader. “In the past, every time we brought actions, they were shut down. So this will be considered a massive cleanup following a massive coverup.”

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ALBANY (NY)
Times Union

Sept. 10, 2019

By Chris Bragg

The normally staid monthly meeting of the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics on Tuesday featured a first: two women dressed in red cloaks and white bonnets stationed outside the ethics agency’s offices in downtown Albany, reading a satiric children’s book detailing the panel’s alleged failings.

The small Albany protest — with costumes inspired by Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” — was organized by Kat Sullivan, an alleged rape survivor who has been extensively targeted by JCOPE since 2018 for possible lobbying violations while advocating for passage of the Child Victim’s Act.

In Manhattan, a larger protest was held in front of a building housing the law offices of Michael K. Rozen, JCOPE’s chairman. That protest was similarly theatrical, and in both cases Sullivan sought to raise questions about why Rozen has not recused himself from her case. Sullivan in recent days even took out a billboard on I-787 posting the same question.

JCOPE staff has repeatedly declined to state whether Rozen has recused himself in its dealings with Sullivan. Rozen was not in Albany on Tuesday, but teleconferenced into the meeting from a location that was not identified in the public portion of the meeting.

In an interview, Sullivan said she was planning to now take several legal steps. With the assistance of her attorney David Grandeau, the state’s outspoken former top lobbying official, she plans to file an Article 78 proceeding targeting JCOPE.

Two women dressed as characters from The Handmaid’s Tale and supporters of Kat Sullivan, a former Emma Willard student and alleged rape victim, attend a meeting of the New York State Joint Commission on Public Ethics on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2019, in Albany, N.Y. JCOPE is pursuing Sullivan for alleged violations of lobbying regulations. (Paul Buckowski/Times) Photo: Paul Buckowski, Albany Times Union / (Paul Buckowski/Times Union)
Photo: Paul Buckowski, Albany Times Union
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Two women dressed as characters from The Handmaid’s Tale and supporters of Kat Sullivan, a former Emma Willard student and alleged rape victim, attend a meeting of the New York State Joint Commission on Public … moreBuy Photo

ALBANY — The normally staid monthly meeting of the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics on Tuesday featured a first: two women dressed in red cloaks and white bonnets stationed outside the ethics agency’s offices in downtown Albany, reading a satiric children’s book detailing the panel’s alleged failings.

The small Albany protest — with costumes inspired by Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” — was organized by Kat Sullivan, an alleged rape survivor who has been extensively targeted by JCOPE since 2018 for possible lobbying violations while advocating for passage of the Child Victim’s Act.

In Manhattan, a larger protest was held in front of a building housing the law offices of Michael K. Rozen, JCOPE’s chairman. That protest was similarly theatrical, and in both cases Sullivan sought to raise questions about why Rozen has not recused himself from her case. Sullivan in recent days even took out a billboard on I-787 posting the same question.

JCOPE staff has repeatedly declined to state whether Rozen has recused himself in its dealings with Sullivan. Rozen was not in Albany on Tuesday, but teleconferenced into the meeting from a location that was not identified in the public portion of the meeting.

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.

MELBOURNE (AUSTRAIA)
The Age

September 11, 2019

By Simone Fox Koob and Benita Kolovos

Priests in Victoria will now have to report child abuse if it is revealed to them during confesssion, or face up to three years in prison, after legislation was passed by Parliament last night.

The bill passed the upper house on Tuesday night after last week getting a green light from the Legislative Assembly, with opposition support.

“Today we’ve made Victoria a safer place for children. The special treatment for churches has ended and child abuse must be reported,” Child Protection Minister Luke Donnellan said on Tuesday night.

“I thank all the abuse survivors, their families and advocates who helped us deliver these reforms. We can’t undo the harm to so many children in the past, but this will help ensure it never happens again.”

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

NEW YORK (NY)
Crux

Sept. 10, 2019

By Christopher White

The diocese of Cheyenne, Wyoming announced on Tuesday that it has substantiated three new allegations of abuse against retired Bishop Joseph Hart who could soon become the first U.S. bishop to face criminal prosecution for sexual abuse.

The diocese has previously investigated the cases of three other individuals, which were deemed credible and substantiated, bringing the total number of Cheyenne victims who have come forward to six.

“The allegations have been reported to the civil authorities, and the Diocese of Cheyenne has cooperated fully with the police,” the diocese said in a statement on Tuesday.

The diocese said Hart had declined to be interviewed in its review of the new cases, which they had been given authorization by the Holy See to conduct prior to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) passing new directives for bishop accountability measures.

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)
Sept. 10, 2019

By J.D. Flynn

Bishop Michael Hoeppner is the first sitting U.S. bishop to be investigated under new misconduct protocols introduced by Pope Francis earlier this year.

Hoeppner, Bishop of Crookston, Minnesota, will be investigated by Minneapolis’ Archbishop Bernard Hebda, on charges that Hoeppner thwarted a police or canonical investigation of clerical sexual misconduct in his diocese.

“I have been authorized by the Congregation for Bishops to commence an investigation into allegations that the Most Reverend Michael Hoeppner, the Bishop of Crookston, carried out acts or omissions intended to interfere with or avoid civil or canonical investigations of clerical sexual misconduct in the Diocese of Crookston,” Hebda told CNA Sept. 10.

“Law enforcement has been notified of the allegations. The allegations were reported to me under the procedures set out in Pope Francis’ recent legislation addressing bishop accountability, the motu proprio Vos estis lux mundi.”

Hebda did not state directly what charges he will investigate. However, Hoeppner has been accused of pressuring Ron Vasek, a former diaconal candidate in the diocese, to recant the allegation that he was molested in 1971 by a Crookston priest.

In 2015, Vasek signed a letter withdrawing the allegation. He told CNA last year that Hoeppner coerced him into signing that letter.

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.

SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle Times

Sept. 9, 2019

Despite revelations of pervasive child sexual abuse that have come to light in recent decades, the Legislature has not provided victims more time to seek justice in civil court. This makes the state a national outlier and cries out for reform.

Legislators have not since 1991 modified the law that gives victims of child rape in Washington only three years of adulthood — until their 21st birthday — to sue attackers and hold accountable an irresponsible institution, such as a church or youth group. The same law allows another three-year window when a victim realizes that childhood abuse caused a harm, such as an addiction.

Victims of child sex crimes deserve more time to grapple with trauma and contemplate a public lawsuit. The vast majority of states, including Oregon and Idaho, have laws that provide at least a few years longer. The nonprofit Child USA traces a national reform movement on this issue to 2002, the year The Boston Globe brought to light the Catholic Church’s systematic concealment of abusers.

Since then, 38 states and Washington, D.C. have expanded the time victims have to bring lawsuits. Ten states have eliminated the civil statute of limitations entirely, Because these laws are not retroactive, 16 states have given all past victims a temporary window to file child sex-abuse lawsuits. The Washington Legislature should consider both policies.

Marci Hamilton, Child USA’s chief executive officer, said extensive national coverage of sex-abuse cases against Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein and Larry Nassar, the Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics doctor, as well as the #MeToo movement, helped drive sex abuse law changes in 20 states in 2019 alone.

Washington counts in that number because the Legislature this spring eliminated statutes of limitations on criminally prosecuting those who sexually abuse children. The civil liability remained static, as it did during a 2013 expansion of prosecutors’ ability to go after child rapists.

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MADISON (WI)
WKOW TV

September 9, 2019

“No one ever knew,” a prosecutor told jurors on the opening day of the trial of a priest charged with assaulting a 12-year-old altar boy in 2006.

William Nolan is facing six counts of child sexual assault in the trial that began Monday at the Jefferson County courthouse.

Nolan has denied the allegations, and in his opening statement, Nolan’s attorney Jonas Bednarek called the accuser a self-admitted “…thief, shoplifter … compulsive liar.”

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BRIDGEPORT (CT)
Connecticut Post

September 10, 2019

By Daniel Tepfer

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport has acknowledged for the first time that a prominent cleric, who according to court documents played a major role in hiding cases of abuse by priests, was “credibly accused” of abusing a child.

Monsignor William Genuario, who died in June 2015, had been the vicar general of the diocese and reviewed accusations of sexual abuse against priests. Genuario also was a prominent priest in Greenwich for almost 20 years.

The diocese also stated that another dead priest, the Rev. Vincent Cleary, was determined to have a credible allegation of abuse against him.

“It is with deep regret that I must inform you of the inclusion of two deceased priests of the diocese on the list of those credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor,” Bishop Frank J. Caggiano stated in a letter to parishioners dated Sept. 7.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WIVB TV

Sept. 9, 2019

By Daniel Telvock

Rev. Ryszard Biernat can calmly discuss the sexual abuse complaint he filed in 2004 against a priest, but it is how he says Auxiliary Bishop Edward Grosz handled the situation that brings him to tears.

Biernat, the second whistleblower from the diocese who took a leave of absence last month as the bishop’s priest secretary, told News 4 Investigates that both Grosz and Bishop Richard Malone should be removed from their positions.

Biernat said Grosz “blackmailed” him in 2004 when he filed the abuse complaint by allegedly saying to him that he needed to keep quiet about the incident if he wanted to be ordained.

When Biernat told another priest about that meeting, he said Grosz called him moments later to remind him that he must not discuss the abuse with others.

“That meeting and his phone call crushed me,” said a tearful Biernat.

“It got at me, I became like a shell of a person and I think it was not only what he said but what he stood for. Not only he was not willing to hear my hurt, was not willing to listen to what happened to me, but to threaten and blackmail me?”

The diocese, in a statement Monday, said Grosz “categorically denies the statement that he threatened to block seminarian Ryszard’s ordination as reported.”

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COLUMBUS (OH)
Associated Press

Sept. 10, 2019

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus has added eight names to the list of priests it says have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors.

Seven of the eight involve allegations against priests who served in the diocese but allegedly committed abuse elsewhere. All eight are deceased. The additions bring the list to 48 names. The Diocese is creating a task force to review its policies for handling abuse allegations. Task force members will include abuse survivors, law enforcement and mental health professionals, social workers, and both laypersons and clergy.

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COLUMBIA (MO)
Associated Press

Sept. 9, 2019

An advocacy group for people sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests is criticizing the bishop of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese for not naming more people on a list of clerics who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing children.

Bishop James Johnston Jr. released a list Friday of 19 clerics from the diocese who he said had substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of children against them. Another 11 former clerics were named in different categories.

On Monday, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said at a news conference that the bishop’s list was incomplete because it didn’t include priests who at some point lived or worked in the Kansas City area but who were accused of sexual abuse in other dioceses.

David Clohessy, Missouri director for SNAP, argued the diocese should do all it can to publicize the names of any cleric accused of abuse, even if that person was not assigned to the diocese, even if they have already been publicly named by other dioceses.

“The bishop has a simple choice,” Clohessy said. “If you want to safeguard the vulnerable, there’s absolutely no reason why you wouldn’t put these names on your list and warn the flock of every single child molester, nun, bishop, monk, seminarian, priest or even lay teachers who they should be concerned about … Bishop Johnson has had more than enough time to look at the work of his fellow bishops and say ‘I can do better’ and he hasn’t.”

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW TV

Sept. 9 2019

By Charlie Specht

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York may step in to examine the scandal-plagued Buffalo Diocese.

The news, which was first reported by the Catholic Herald , comes as Catholics across Western New York have mounted an intense campaign to remove their bishop after damaging audio recordings were published by the 7 Eyewitness News I-Team .

“Cardinal Dolan is very aware of his responsibilities as Metropolitan under Vos estis,” Joseph Zwilling, spokesman for the New York Archdiocese, confirmed to the I-Team. “Vos estis lux mundi” is the new reform law Pope Francis enacted last spring to deal with clergy sexual abuse and cover-up by the world’s bishops.

Referring to the cardinal, Zwilling said, “He has been following the situation very closely, and has been consulting extensively. I would anticipate that we will hear something within the near future regarding this matter,” he concluded.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW TV

Sept. 9 2019

By Charlie Specht

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York may step in to examine the scandal-plagued Buffalo Diocese.

The news, which was first reported by the Catholic Herald , comes as Catholics across Western New York have mounted an intense campaign to remove their bishop after damaging audio recordings were published by the 7 Eyewitness News I-Team .

“Cardinal Dolan is very aware of his responsibilities as Metropolitan under Vos estis,” Joseph Zwilling, spokesman for the New York Archdiocese, confirmed to the I-Team. “Vos estis lux mundi” is the new reform law Pope Francis enacted last spring to deal with clergy sexual abuse and cover-up by the world’s bishops.

Referring to the cardinal, Zwilling said, “He has been following the situation very closely, and has been consulting extensively. I would anticipate that we will hear something within the near future regarding this matter,” he concluded.

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)
Catholic Herald

September, 2019

By Christopher Altieri

The cardinal has been ‘consulting extensively’ regarding his duties as metropolitan as the crisis over Bishop Malone deepens

The Catholic Herald has learned that the Archdiocese of New York is closely monitoring the crisis in the Diocese of Buffalo, and that broad consultations are ongoing, with a view to possible action.

The embattled Bishop of Buffalo, Richard J. Malone, faced several new calls for his resignation last week and over the weekend, including one from a group — the Movement to Restore Trust — that had previously sought to work with the bishop, and an editorial published Saturday by The Buffalo News. Rank-and-file clergy and faithful have also begun writing letters calling on Malone to step down, and forwarding them to local news outlets for publication.

Bishop Malone inherited a diocese with serious cultural and disciplinary problems in the chancery and throughout the clergy. Though Malone defends his record of leadership, two whistle-blowers highly placed within his office have brought evidence before the public reasonably purporting to show serious failures and lapses in judgment with regard to several cases involving both minors and adults, as well as evidence Malone participated in efforts to keep information potentially damaging to his reputation from reaching the public.

Bishop Malone admits he has made mistakes, but steadfastly denies criminal wrongdoing. The clergy and faithful of Buffalo grow daily more impatient with their appointed leader.

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)
Catholic Herald

September, 2019

By Christopher Altieri

The cardinal has been ‘consulting extensively’ regarding his duties as metropolitan as the crisis over Bishop Malone deepens

The Catholic Herald has learned that the Archdiocese of New York is closely monitoring the crisis in the Diocese of Buffalo, and that broad consultations are ongoing, with a view to possible action.

The embattled Bishop of Buffalo, Richard J. Malone, faced several new calls for his resignation last week and over the weekend, including one from a group — the Movement to Restore Trust — that had previously sought to work with the bishop, and an editorial published Saturday by The Buffalo News. Rank-and-file clergy and faithful have also begun writing letters calling on Malone to step down, and forwarding them to local news outlets for publication.

Bishop Malone inherited a diocese with serious cultural and disciplinary problems in the chancery and throughout the clergy. Though Malone defends his record of leadership, two whistle-blowers highly placed within his office have brought evidence before the public reasonably purporting to show serious failures and lapses in judgment with regard to several cases involving both minors and adults, as well as evidence Malone participated in efforts to keep information potentially damaging to his reputation from reaching the public.

Bishop Malone admits he has made mistakes, but steadfastly denies criminal wrongdoing. The clergy and faithful of Buffalo grow daily more impatient with their appointed leader.

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.

SCRANTON (PA)
Abington Journal

September 9, 2019

The University of Scranton’s Task Force on Healing, Reconciliation and Hope will host two public lectures this fall, one exploring “Insights from History and Theology” and the other discussing “Prevention, Healing and Reconciliation.” Both lectures are free of charge and open to the public.

On Sept. 16, award-winning authors Massimo Faggioli, Ph.D., professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University, and Rita Ferrone, a writer and frequent speaker on issues of liturgy and church renewal, will discuss lessons that can be gleaned from history about the clergy sexual abuse crisis and how prayer and liturgy can be a source of healing and courage. The lecture will begin at 7 p.m. in the second-floor Kane Forum of Leahy Hall.

A lecture on Oct. 3 will examine structural reforms might help to end the crisis of clergy sexual abuse and the Church’s response to survivors of abuse. Michael Vanderburgh, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse and current executive director of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Dayton, Ohio, and Rev. Thomas Berg, author and vice rector and professor of moral theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary (Dunwoodie) in Yonkers, New York, will present the lecture that will begin at 7 p.m., also in the Kane Forum of Leahy Hall.

A church historian, Dr. Faggioli has written numerous articles and books during his career. His book “Catholicism and Citizenship” received a 2018 award for Faithful Citizenship/Religious Freedom from the Catholic Press Association. He is a columnist for La Croix International, a contributing writer for Commonweal magazine. He was awarded the 2019 Barry University Yves Congar Award for Theological Excellence, which recognizes the contributions of contemporary theologians in working, writing, and teaching in light of the Catholic tradition while moving that tradition forward to meet the challenges of today.

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.

SCRANTON (PA)
Abington Journal

September 9, 2019

The University of Scranton’s Task Force on Healing, Reconciliation and Hope will host two public lectures this fall, one exploring “Insights from History and Theology” and the other discussing “Prevention, Healing and Reconciliation.” Both lectures are free of charge and open to the public.

On Sept. 16, award-winning authors Massimo Faggioli, Ph.D., professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University, and Rita Ferrone, a writer and frequent speaker on issues of liturgy and church renewal, will discuss lessons that can be gleaned from history about the clergy sexual abuse crisis and how prayer and liturgy can be a source of healing and courage. The lecture will begin at 7 p.m. in the second-floor Kane Forum of Leahy Hall.

A lecture on Oct. 3 will examine structural reforms might help to end the crisis of clergy sexual abuse and the Church’s response to survivors of abuse. Michael Vanderburgh, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse and current executive director of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Dayton, Ohio, and Rev. Thomas Berg, author and vice rector and professor of moral theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary (Dunwoodie) in Yonkers, New York, will present the lecture that will begin at 7 p.m., also in the Kane Forum of Leahy Hall.

A church historian, Dr. Faggioli has written numerous articles and books during his career. His book “Catholicism and Citizenship” received a 2018 award for Faithful Citizenship/Religious Freedom from the Catholic Press Association. He is a columnist for La Croix International, a contributing writer for Commonweal magazine. He was awarded the 2019 Barry University Yves Congar Award for Theological Excellence, which recognizes the contributions of contemporary theologians in working, writing, and teaching in light of the Catholic tradition while moving that tradition forward to meet the challenges of today.

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

Sept. 9, 2019

Archbishops in Ohio & New Mexico must take active steps now to help law enforcement convict a US priest who has been arrested and is accused of molesting at least 20 Philippine children.

Fr. Pius Hendricks, a former Franciscan Brother, was arrested in the village of Talustusan on Biliran Island in the central Philippines for molesting at least twenty boys. We fear that there are likely more who are still suffering in shame and self-blame.

We hope that this arrest will give hope to his victims and will encourage other survivors in both the Philippines and in the U.S. to come forward and make a report to law enforcement. The Philippines is one of the most Catholic countries in the world and one where priests are treated with extreme deference, a notable risk factor for clergy abuse. We hope that this news will encourage more victims to come forward and find help and healing from secular, independent sources.

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

Sept. 9, 2019

Archbishops in Ohio & New Mexico must take active steps now to help law enforcement convict a US priest who has been arrested and is accused of molesting at least 20 Philippine children.

Fr. Pius Hendricks, a former Franciscan Brother, was arrested in the village of Talustusan on Biliran Island in the central Philippines for molesting at least twenty boys. We fear that there are likely more who are still suffering in shame and self-blame.

We hope that this arrest will give hope to his victims and will encourage other survivors in both the Philippines and in the U.S. to come forward and make a report to law enforcement. The Philippines is one of the most Catholic countries in the world and one where priests are treated with extreme deference, a notable risk factor for clergy abuse. We hope that this news will encourage more victims to come forward and find help and healing from secular, independent sources.

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

Sept. 9, 2019

By Jay Tokasz

Auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz denies threatening to block the Rev. Ryszard S. Biernat’s ordination, after Biernat complained to diocese administrators in 2004 that he was sexually assaulted by a priest, a Buffalo Diocese spokeswoman said.

The Buffalo News on Sunday reported the accusation by Biernat, who also said that Grosz’s treatment of his complaint was “10 times worse” than the alleged sexual abuse.

Diocese spokesman Kathy Spangler provided a written response in an email late Sunday, after the story was published online and in print.

“Bishop Grosz categorically denies the statement that he threatened to block seminarian Ryszard’s ordination as reported,” Spangler said in the email.

The News had contacted Spangler on Friday seeking comment from Grosz.

The News on Monday asked for a sit-down interview with Grosz. Through Spangler, Grosz requested a list of questions in writing, which The News declined to provide.

Biernat, 38, alleged that the Rev. Arthur J. Smith sexually abused him in the rectory of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in 2003, when Biernat was a seminary student. Smith denied abusing Biernat.

Biernat said when he reported the abuse to diocese officials in 2004, Grosz blamed him.

“He says to me, ‘Well, it’s your fault. You didn’t lock the door,’ ” said Biernat.

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

Sept. 9, 2019

By Jay Tokasz

Auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz denies threatening to block the Rev. Ryszard S. Biernat’s ordination, after Biernat complained to diocese administrators in 2004 that he was sexually assaulted by a priest, a Buffalo Diocese spokeswoman said.

The Buffalo News on Sunday reported the accusation by Biernat, who also said that Grosz’s treatment of his complaint was “10 times worse” than the alleged sexual abuse.

Diocese spokesman Kathy Spangler provided a written response in an email late Sunday, after the story was published online and in print.

“Bishop Grosz categorically denies the statement that he threatened to block seminarian Ryszard’s ordination as reported,” Spangler said in the email.

The News had contacted Spangler on Friday seeking comment from Grosz.

The News on Monday asked for a sit-down interview with Grosz. Through Spangler, Grosz requested a list of questions in writing, which The News declined to provide.

Biernat, 38, alleged that the Rev. Arthur J. Smith sexually abused him in the rectory of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in 2003, when Biernat was a seminary student. Smith denied abusing Biernat.

Biernat said when he reported the abuse to diocese officials in 2004, Grosz blamed him.

“He says to me, ‘Well, it’s your fault. You didn’t lock the door,’ ” said Biernat.

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.

COLUMBUS (OH)
WCMH TV

Sept. 9, 2019

The Catholic Diocese of Columbus has confirmed a credible allegation of abuse of a minor against a priest.

The diocese says the accusation was made against Father John Gamba, who died in 2009. Gamba served in parishes across central Ohio, including Columbus, Zanesville and Lancaster, starting in the 1950s.

Most notably, he was chaplain at Ohio State University Hospital from 1961-1969.

The diocese cannot confirm the parish where the accusation was made.

Gamba served at the following parishes:
St. Ladislas, Columbus (1949-50)
St. Nicholas, Zanesville (1950-51)
St. Mary, Lancaster (1951-54)
St. Peter, Columbus (1954-58)
Sacred Heart, New Philadelphia (1958-60)
Christ the King, Columbus (1960-61)
Chaplain at Ohio State University Hospital (1961-69) with residence at St. Margaret of Cortona (1961-62)
Our Lady of Victory (1962-69)
Pastor of St. Genevieve, Calmoutier and chaplain of Apple Creek State Institute from 1970 until his retirement in 1985
The diocese also moved the name of Msgr. Robert Brown to the list of priests who were credibly accused within the diocese after their death. He was previously on a list of priests who were accused of acts outside the diocese, but served in the diocese at one point.

Seven priests were added to the list of clergy who served in the Diocese of Columbus who were accused of abuse elsewhere.

Father Stuart Campbell, OP
Father Joseph Herlihy, OP
Father James Kilkenny, OP
Father Thomas McCarthy, OP
Father Joseph McGuiness, OP
Father Robert Pelkington, OP
Father John Powers, OP

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.

COLUMBUS (OH)
WCMH TV

Sept. 9, 2019

The Catholic Diocese of Columbus has confirmed a credible allegation of abuse of a minor against a priest.

The diocese says the accusation was made against Father John Gamba, who died in 2009. Gamba served in parishes across central Ohio, including Columbus, Zanesville and Lancaster, starting in the 1950s.

Most notably, he was chaplain at Ohio State University Hospital from 1961-1969.

The diocese cannot confirm the parish where the accusation was made.

Gamba served at the following parishes:
St. Ladislas, Columbus (1949-50)
St. Nicholas, Zanesville (1950-51)
St. Mary, Lancaster (1951-54)
St. Peter, Columbus (1954-58)
Sacred Heart, New Philadelphia (1958-60)
Christ the King, Columbus (1960-61)
Chaplain at Ohio State University Hospital (1961-69) with residence at St. Margaret of Cortona (1961-62)
Our Lady of Victory (1962-69)
Pastor of St. Genevieve, Calmoutier and chaplain of Apple Creek State Institute from 1970 until his retirement in 1985
The diocese also moved the name of Msgr. Robert Brown to the list of priests who were credibly accused within the diocese after their death. He was previously on a list of priests who were accused of acts outside the diocese, but served in the diocese at one point.

Seven priests were added to the list of clergy who served in the Diocese of Columbus who were accused of abuse elsewhere.

Father Stuart Campbell, OP
Father Joseph Herlihy, OP
Father James Kilkenny, OP
Father Thomas McCarthy, OP
Father Joseph McGuiness, OP
Father Robert Pelkington, OP
Father John Powers, OP

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Catholic News Service

Sept. 9, 2019

The names of two bishops appear on a list of clergy with “substantiated abuse of minors allegations” from the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph released Sept. 6.

The bishops are retired Bishop Joseph H. Hart of Cheyenne, Wyoming, and now-deceased Bishop Joseph V. Sullivan of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

According to the list assembled by the diocese, which dates back to its founding in 1956, the abuse claims for each bishop took place within the Missouri diocese’s territory. Each bishop also had more than one abuse allegation reported.

A forthcoming Vatican trial was announced in June on charges against Hart of abuse allegations in the Cheyenne Diocese, where he served as bishop from 1978 to 2001, and as auxiliary bishop from 1976 to 1978. Hart has maintained his innocence once the Wyoming allegations surfaced.

Hart, ordained a priest in 1956, had been accused of three instances of abuse dating to the late 1960s and early 1970s in Missouri. In 2008, the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese announced a $10 million settlement with 47 victims of sexual abuse by 12 clergy and former clergy of the diocese. Attorneys for the victims said the group included Hart, although the diocese, then headed by Bishop Robert W. Finn, did not disclose any of the clerics’ names. A second financial settlement was reached by the diocese in 2014.

Sullivan, born in 1919, died in 1982 after serving eight years as bishop of Baton Rouge.

The Kansas City-St. Joseph list includes the names of 19 diocesan priests — all but six of whom are now dead — with substantiated allegations. A 20th priest was on a separate list with Hart and Sullivan because, like them, he had been incardinated for service in another diocese after the incidents of abuse are alleged to have occurred.

A third list carries the names of two religious-order priests who were accused of abuse during their time serving in Kansas City-St. Joseph.

Of those priests still living, they are either permanently removed from ministry or laicized. One is in federal prison. With the exception of the ex-priest now in prison, all abuse incidents took place before 1990.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Catholic News Service

Sept. 9, 2019

The names of two bishops appear on a list of clergy with “substantiated abuse of minors allegations” from the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph released Sept. 6.

The bishops are retired Bishop Joseph H. Hart of Cheyenne, Wyoming, and now-deceased Bishop Joseph V. Sullivan of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

According to the list assembled by the diocese, which dates back to its founding in 1956, the abuse claims for each bishop took place within the Missouri diocese’s territory. Each bishop also had more than one abuse allegation reported.

A forthcoming Vatican trial was announced in June on charges against Hart of abuse allegations in the Cheyenne Diocese, where he served as bishop from 1978 to 2001, and as auxiliary bishop from 1976 to 1978. Hart has maintained his innocence once the Wyoming allegations surfaced.

Hart, ordained a priest in 1956, had been accused of three instances of abuse dating to the late 1960s and early 1970s in Missouri. In 2008, the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese announced a $10 million settlement with 47 victims of sexual abuse by 12 clergy and former clergy of the diocese. Attorneys for the victims said the group included Hart, although the diocese, then headed by Bishop Robert W. Finn, did not disclose any of the clerics’ names. A second financial settlement was reached by the diocese in 2014.

Sullivan, born in 1919, died in 1982 after serving eight years as bishop of Baton Rouge.

The Kansas City-St. Joseph list includes the names of 19 diocesan priests — all but six of whom are now dead — with substantiated allegations. A 20th priest was on a separate list with Hart and Sullivan because, like them, he had been incardinated for service in another diocese after the incidents of abuse are alleged to have occurred.

A third list carries the names of two religious-order priests who were accused of abuse during their time serving in Kansas City-St. Joseph.

Of those priests still living, they are either permanently removed from ministry or laicized. One is in federal prison. With the exception of the ex-priest now in prison, all abuse incidents took place before 1990.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Associated Press

Sept. 9, 2019

An advocacy group for people sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests is criticizing the bishop of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese for not naming more people on a list of credibly accused clerics.

Bishop James Johnston Jr. released a list on Friday of 19 clerics who had substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of children against them. Another 11 former clerics were named in different categories.

On Monday, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said the bishop’s list was incomplete because it didn’t include priests who lived in the Kansas City area in the past but who were accused of sexual abuse in other dioceses.

A diocese spokesman said it would be impossible to research every priest who may have worked or lived in the Kansas City area but who wasn’t assigned to the diocese.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Associated Press

Sept. 9, 2019

An advocacy group for people sexually abused by Roman Catholic priests is criticizing the bishop of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese for not naming more people on a list of credibly accused clerics.

Bishop James Johnston Jr. released a list on Friday of 19 clerics who had substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of children against them. Another 11 former clerics were named in different categories.

On Monday, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests said the bishop’s list was incomplete because it didn’t include priests who lived in the Kansas City area in the past but who were accused of sexual abuse in other dioceses.

A diocese spokesman said it would be impossible to research every priest who may have worked or lived in the Kansas City area but who wasn’t assigned to the diocese.

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.

MEMPHIS (TN)
Commercial Appeal

Sept. 9, 2019

By Katherine Burgess

Memphis’ first Catholic bishop no longer appears on a mural of Memphians who stood up for others.

Instead, Bishop Carroll T. Dozier has been painted over, replaced by Jose Guerrero, a founder of Latino Memphis.

Facing History and Ourselves made the change Saturday after the publication of a Commercial Appeal article highlighting the fact that Dozier had appeared on a list of clergy “credibly accused” of the sexual abuse of a child.

“We wish to extend our sincerest wishes of comfort, healing and strength to the victims and families touched by the scourge of clergy sex abuse,” Facing History and Ourselves said in a written statement.

The list including Dozier was made by the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, where Dozier was assigned to three parishes before being appointed the first bishop of the Diocese of Memphis after it separated from the Diocese of Nashville. The allegation of abuse was made after his death, but other details were not given.

The Catholic Diocese of Memphis is currently at work on its own list of credibly accused clergy and has said it will consider Dozier’s inclusion on the Richmond list.

The mural, announced in 2016 and intended to honor people who helped others, is on a wall across from the National Civil Rights Museum.

“When we conceived of creating a mural on the outside of our building, our aim was to celebrate Memphis’ leading historical figures who have made invaluable contributions to bringing our communities together and moving forward across racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious boundaries. It was in that spirit that we included Bishop Dozier,” Facing History and Ourselves said. “Given the allegations against Bishop Dozier, we have decided that in the best interests of our students, schools, and communities, to replace Bishop Dozier with another Memphis historical figure.”

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.

MEMPHIS (TN)
Commercial Appeal

Sept. 9, 2019

By Katherine Burgess

Memphis’ first Catholic bishop no longer appears on a mural of Memphians who stood up for others.

Instead, Bishop Carroll T. Dozier has been painted over, replaced by Jose Guerrero, a founder of Latino Memphis.

Facing History and Ourselves made the change Saturday after the publication of a Commercial Appeal article highlighting the fact that Dozier had appeared on a list of clergy “credibly accused” of the sexual abuse of a child.

“We wish to extend our sincerest wishes of comfort, healing and strength to the victims and families touched by the scourge of clergy sex abuse,” Facing History and Ourselves said in a written statement.

The list including Dozier was made by the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, where Dozier was assigned to three parishes before being appointed the first bishop of the Diocese of Memphis after it separated from the Diocese of Nashville. The allegation of abuse was made after his death, but other details were not given.

The Catholic Diocese of Memphis is currently at work on its own list of credibly accused clergy and has said it will consider Dozier’s inclusion on the Richmond list.

The mural, announced in 2016 and intended to honor people who helped others, is on a wall across from the National Civil Rights Museum.

“When we conceived of creating a mural on the outside of our building, our aim was to celebrate Memphis’ leading historical figures who have made invaluable contributions to bringing our communities together and moving forward across racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious boundaries. It was in that spirit that we included Bishop Dozier,” Facing History and Ourselves said. “Given the allegations against Bishop Dozier, we have decided that in the best interests of our students, schools, and communities, to replace Bishop Dozier with another Memphis historical figure.”

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.

CHARLESTON (WV)
Herald-Mail Media

September 5, 2019

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey urged a circuit court to allow the state to proceed with allegations that the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese violated state law through its knowing employment of pedophiles and its failure to conduct adequate background checks for those working at its schools and camps.

Morrisey’s response, served Wednesday afternoon, argues that the diocese’s motion to dismiss mischaracterized the state’s intent and distorted state law.

“The diocese’s motion to dismiss is yet another attempt to duck our calls for transparency,” Morrisey said in a news release. “Our response proves the strength of our case and why it should be decided in court. The decades-long pattern of cover-up and abuse must end and public trust must be restored.”

Wednesday’s filing argues that the lawsuit doesn’t seek to dictate how the diocese can hire, teach and operate. Rather, it seeks to enforce state law that requires honesty in advertising when the diocese markets its fee-based schools and camps.

Those facts include allegations that the diocese hid its knowing employment of abusive priests and its failure to conduct the comprehensive background checks it promised.

Morrisey contends that attempts to dismiss the state’s lawsuit rely on a flawed reading of the state’s Consumer Credit and Protection Act.

The state argues that a consumer transaction occurs every time a parent or other person pays a fee for the diocese’s education and recreation services, and enforcing the law’s requirement for honest communications doesn’t intrude into any constitutionally protected area.

The state’s response also takes issue with factual disputes set forth by the diocese. While it contends such differences are irrelevant at this stage in the case, it argues that many allegations contained in the lawsuit were based on documents the diocese provided to the state describing conduct purposely hidden from public view for 44 years after the state Consumer Credit and Protection Act became law.

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.

CHARLESTON (WV)
Herald-Mail Media

September 5, 2019

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey urged a circuit court to allow the state to proceed with allegations that the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese violated state law through its knowing employment of pedophiles and its failure to conduct adequate background checks for those working at its schools and camps.

Morrisey’s response, served Wednesday afternoon, argues that the diocese’s motion to dismiss mischaracterized the state’s intent and distorted state law.

“The diocese’s motion to dismiss is yet another attempt to duck our calls for transparency,” Morrisey said in a news release. “Our response proves the strength of our case and why it should be decided in court. The decades-long pattern of cover-up and abuse must end and public trust must be restored.”

Wednesday’s filing argues that the lawsuit doesn’t seek to dictate how the diocese can hire, teach and operate. Rather, it seeks to enforce state law that requires honesty in advertising when the diocese markets its fee-based schools and camps.

Those facts include allegations that the diocese hid its knowing employment of abusive priests and its failure to conduct the comprehensive background checks it promised.

Morrisey contends that attempts to dismiss the state’s lawsuit rely on a flawed reading of the state’s Consumer Credit and Protection Act.

The state argues that a consumer transaction occurs every time a parent or other person pays a fee for the diocese’s education and recreation services, and enforcing the law’s requirement for honest communications doesn’t intrude into any constitutionally protected area.

The state’s response also takes issue with factual disputes set forth by the diocese. While it contends such differences are irrelevant at this stage in the case, it argues that many allegations contained in the lawsuit were based on documents the diocese provided to the state describing conduct purposely hidden from public view for 44 years after the state Consumer Credit and Protection Act became law.

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.

HUDSON (OH)
Beacon Journal/Ohio.com

September 7, 2019

By Amanda Garrett

Tom Randall — a former pastor at Christ Community Chapel who departed amid scandal — is trying to move on.

He and his wife put their ranch home in Stow on the market last month for $289,900 and sent a letter to their international following. In the letter, Randall said he was leaving behind his nonprofit — worth more than $3 million — with the Hudson megachurch and planned to launch a new nonprofit to independently continue his 43-year-old ministry.

But moving on may not be that simple for Randall, who was asked to resign from Christ Community Chapel (CCC) in June amid an internal review that concluded child abuse likely happened at an orphanage his ministry supported in the Philippines.

CCC — with a main campus in Hudson, and satellites in Akron’s Highland Square neighborhood and Aurora — has since told the Beacon Journal/Ohio.com that it turned over “information and documentation relevant to this situation” from its review to the FBI.

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.

HUDSON (OH)
Beacon Journal/Ohio.com

September 7, 2019

By Amanda Garrett

Tom Randall — a former pastor at Christ Community Chapel who departed amid scandal — is trying to move on.

He and his wife put their ranch home in Stow on the market last month for $289,900 and sent a letter to their international following. In the letter, Randall said he was leaving behind his nonprofit — worth more than $3 million — with the Hudson megachurch and planned to launch a new nonprofit to independently continue his 43-year-old ministry.

But moving on may not be that simple for Randall, who was asked to resign from Christ Community Chapel (CCC) in June amid an internal review that concluded child abuse likely happened at an orphanage his ministry supported in the Philippines.

CCC — with a main campus in Hudson, and satellites in Akron’s Highland Square neighborhood and Aurora — has since told the Beacon Journal/Ohio.com that it turned over “information and documentation relevant to this situation” from its review to the FBI.

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.

TALUSTUSAN (PHILIPPINES)
Associated Press

September 9, 2019

By Tim Sullivan

The American priest’s voice echoed over the phone line, his sharp Midwestern accent softened over the decades by a gentle Filipino lilt. On the other end, recording the call, was a young man battered by shame but anxious to get the priest to describe exactly what had happened in this little island village.

“I should have known better than trying to just have a life,” the priest said in the November 2018 call. “Happy days are gone. It’s all over.”

But, the young man later told The Associated Press, those days were happy only for the priest. They were years of misery for him, he said, and for the other boys who investigators say were sexually assaulted by Father Pius Hendricks.

His accusations ignited a scandal that would shake the village and reveal much about how allegations of sex crimes by priests are handled in one of the world’s most Catholic countries.

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.

TALUSTUSAN (PHILIPPINES)
Associated Press

September 9, 2019

By Tim Sullivan

The American priest’s voice echoed over the phone line, his sharp Midwestern accent softened over the decades by a gentle Filipino lilt. On the other end, recording the call, was a young man battered by shame but anxious to get the priest to describe exactly what had happened in this little island village.

“I should have known better than trying to just have a life,” the priest said in the November 2018 call. “Happy days are gone. It’s all over.”

But, the young man later told The Associated Press, those days were happy only for the priest. They were years of misery for him, he said, and for the other boys who investigators say were sexually assaulted by Father Pius Hendricks.

His accusations ignited a scandal that would shake the village and reveal much about how allegations of sex crimes by priests are handled in one of the world’s most Catholic countries.

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.

AMAZON
The Tablet

September 4, 2019

By James Roberts

‘The Catholic Church has been present in the Amazon region since the seventeenth century, concerned with evangelisation and human development’

A Cameroonian man who worked with Wycliffe Bible Translators has been murdered in his home in Cameroon during an overnight attack. Angus Abraham Fung was one of seven people killed in the village of Wum on 25 August. His wife, Eveline, had a hand cut off and is recovering in a local hospital. Wum is in the Anglophone northwest of the country, a region that has been at the heart of the conflict between Cameroon’s government and separatist guerrillas. Fung had helped to translate the New Testament into the Aghem language, and was a Literacy Coordinator on the Aghem Bible translation project. The translation was completed in 2016 and more than 3,000 copies were printed. However, the conflict in the region has prevented the New Testaments being distributed.

Wum is among several localities where youth from the nomadic Fulani herding community are being encouraged by pro-government actors to carry out attacks against local farming communities that support the separatist rebels.

Meanwhile a Catholic priest was killed across the border in neighbouring Nigeria. Fr David Tanko was murdered by armed men in Taraba State on Thursday last week. He was on his way to the village of Takum to mediate a peace agreement between Tiv and Jukun populations.

An Argentinian priest accused of rape was found dead on 26 August after going missing from a monastery in Chile. The Diocese of Valparaiso, Chile, published a press release on behalf of the Benedictine Monastery of San Benito de Lliu Lliu, stating that Guillermo Jaime Cabalín had died. The press release also said that Cabalín, 57, was the subject of a canonical investigation after a woman came forward in 2018, accusing him of raping her in 1995.

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.

AMAZON
The Tablet

September 4, 2019

By James Roberts

‘The Catholic Church has been present in the Amazon region since the seventeenth century, concerned with evangelisation and human development’

A Cameroonian man who worked with Wycliffe Bible Translators has been murdered in his home in Cameroon during an overnight attack. Angus Abraham Fung was one of seven people killed in the village of Wum on 25 August. His wife, Eveline, had a hand cut off and is recovering in a local hospital. Wum is in the Anglophone northwest of the country, a region that has been at the heart of the conflict between Cameroon’s government and separatist guerrillas. Fung had helped to translate the New Testament into the Aghem language, and was a Literacy Coordinator on the Aghem Bible translation project. The translation was completed in 2016 and more than 3,000 copies were printed. However, the conflict in the region has prevented the New Testaments being distributed.

Wum is among several localities where youth from the nomadic Fulani herding community are being encouraged by pro-government actors to carry out attacks against local farming communities that support the separatist rebels.

Meanwhile a Catholic priest was killed across the border in neighbouring Nigeria. Fr David Tanko was murdered by armed men in Taraba State on Thursday last week. He was on his way to the village of Takum to mediate a peace agreement between Tiv and Jukun populations.

An Argentinian priest accused of rape was found dead on 26 August after going missing from a monastery in Chile. The Diocese of Valparaiso, Chile, published a press release on behalf of the Benedictine Monastery of San Benito de Lliu Lliu, stating that Guillermo Jaime Cabalín had died. The press release also said that Cabalín, 57, was the subject of a canonical investigation after a woman came forward in 2018, accusing him of raping her in 1995.

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.

LEVITTOWN (PA)
The Legal Herald

September 2019

By Brian Kent

Ex-Priest Frank Trauger Charged with Corruption of Minors, Indecent Assault for Alleged Abuse of Altar Boys

Defrocked Bucks County priest Francis “Frank” Trauger has been charged with sexually abusing at least two altar boys during the decade he spent as a priest at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Levittown. The 74-year-old priest was at the church in the 1990s and 2000s.

According to a criminal complaint, the Bucks County District Attorney’s office began investigating allegations against Trauger after receiving information from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in August of 2018.

Investigators spoke with the first victim earlier in 2019. He told them that Trauger sexually assaulted him multiple times while he was a middle school student around the year 2000. According to the victim, Trauger touched his genitals and buttocks during a robing process before Mass.

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.

LEVITTOWN (PA)
The Legal Herald

September 2019

By Brian Kent

Ex-Priest Frank Trauger Charged with Corruption of Minors, Indecent Assault for Alleged Abuse of Altar Boys

Defrocked Bucks County priest Francis “Frank” Trauger has been charged with sexually abusing at least two altar boys during the decade he spent as a priest at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Levittown. The 74-year-old priest was at the church in the 1990s and 2000s.

According to a criminal complaint, the Bucks County District Attorney’s office began investigating allegations against Trauger after receiving information from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in August of 2018.

Investigators spoke with the first victim earlier in 2019. He told them that Trauger sexually assaulted him multiple times while he was a middle school student around the year 2000. According to the victim, Trauger touched his genitals and buttocks during a robing process before Mass.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

Sept. 9, 2019

He just posted new ‘accused clerics’ list
SNAP: ‘But it’s incomplete and misleading’
It names 9 publicly accused priests who are left off
And group names its “Dangerous Dozen KC Predator Priests”
“Catholics, please stop giving until the full truth is revealed,” victims beg
And in Wyandotte County KS, criminal trial against a priest starts on Monday

WHAT
Using sidewalk chalk, clergy sex abuse victims will write on a city sidewalk the names of
—their “most dangerous dozen” credibly accused KC MO child molesting clerics and
—several publicly accused clerics who’ve been left of the KC MO bishop’s new ‘accused’ list.

Holding signs and childhood photos, they will also urge
—those with information or suspicions about ANY other known or possible predator to a) call police, not church staff, and b) contact SNAP, and
—KC Catholics to “donate to institutions that expose predators, not protect them” and to “groups that prevent abuse, not conceal abuse.”

They’ll also discuss a rare criminal trial starting today against an alleged KC KS predator priest.

WHEN
Monday, Sept. 9 at 11:15 AM.

WHERE
Outside the Kansas City diocesan headquarters, 20 W. Ninth Street (at Baltimore) in KC MO

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

Sept. 9, 2019

He just posted new ‘accused clerics’ list
SNAP: ‘But it’s incomplete and misleading’
It names 9 publicly accused priests who are left off
And group names its “Dangerous Dozen KC Predator Priests”
“Catholics, please stop giving until the full truth is revealed,” victims beg
And in Wyandotte County KS, criminal trial against a priest starts on Monday

WHAT
Using sidewalk chalk, clergy sex abuse victims will write on a city sidewalk the names of
—their “most dangerous dozen” credibly accused KC MO child molesting clerics and
—several publicly accused clerics who’ve been left of the KC MO bishop’s new ‘accused’ list.

Holding signs and childhood photos, they will also urge
—those with information or suspicions about ANY other known or possible predator to a) call police, not church staff, and b) contact SNAP, and
—KC Catholics to “donate to institutions that expose predators, not protect them” and to “groups that prevent abuse, not conceal abuse.”

They’ll also discuss a rare criminal trial starting today against an alleged KC KS predator priest.

WHEN
Monday, Sept. 9 at 11:15 AM.

WHERE
Outside the Kansas City diocesan headquarters, 20 W. Ninth Street (at Baltimore) in KC MO

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

Sept. 9, 2019

(NOTE: the first three clerics are NOT on the official KC MO accused list)

1–Fr. Deusdedit (a.k.a. ‘Fr. Deo’) Mulokozi, who was expelled from the Jefferson City diocese after having been credibly accused of ‘boundary violations’ with a 15 year old Sedalia girl. But Fr. Deo’s current supervisors, a Kansas City-based religious order called the Missionaries of the Precious Blood (816 781 4344, preciousbloodkc.org), quietly moved him, first to Liberty MO, then to Houston TX, then to Tanzania where he’s working now around even more vulnerable kids.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2018/11_12/2018_12_28_MartinezKeel_FormerSedalia.htm

Fr. Deusdedit worked at three parishes: St. John the Evangelist in Bahner, Sacred Heart in Sedalia and St. Patrick in Sedalia. He is on the Jefferson City diocese’s list of clerics ‘found by the diocesan bishop to be unsuitable for ministry out of concern for the safety of our youth.’

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/diocesan_lists/Jefferson_City/2018_11_08_Jefferson_City_Clergy_Religious_Removed.pdf

2–Fr. Martin Juarez, who attended UMKC in the 1970s. He was born in 1946 in Kansas City, KS and attended Colby Community College and seminaries in Denver and San Antonio.

https://prabook.com/web/martin.juarez/282315

In a 2017 lawsuit, he was accused of sexually abusing a nine year old at St. Matthew’s in Topeka for three years in the early 1980s. Fr. Juarez was defrocked in 2005. His name appears on the ‘credibly accused’ list put out by the Kansas City KS archdiocese a few months ago.

https://responseincrisis.archkck.org/list-substantiated-allegations/

3–Fr. Donald Redmond, who is on the Kansas City KS archdiocesan ‘credibly accused’ list and who was put on leave in 2002 after allegations surfaced that he abused at least one child in Iowa in 1960s. At least three more victims from a parish in the Kansas City KS archdiocese came forward after his suspension. Complaints involved inappropriate touching of elementary school children between 1961-1964. After the accusations, he was sent to live at St. Benedict’s Abbey in Atchison KS. But in 1964 and 1965, he worked in Kansas City MO at Bishop Lillis High School.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/ia-davenport/assignments/Redmond-Donald-Kansas-City.htm

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

Sept. 9, 2019

(NOTE: the first three clerics are NOT on the official KC MO accused list)

1–Fr. Deusdedit (a.k.a. ‘Fr. Deo’) Mulokozi, who was expelled from the Jefferson City diocese after having been credibly accused of ‘boundary violations’ with a 15 year old Sedalia girl. But Fr. Deo’s current supervisors, a Kansas City-based religious order called the Missionaries of the Precious Blood (816 781 4344, preciousbloodkc.org), quietly moved him, first to Liberty MO, then to Houston TX, then to Tanzania where he’s working now around even more vulnerable kids.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2018/11_12/2018_12_28_MartinezKeel_FormerSedalia.htm

Fr. Deusdedit worked at three parishes: St. John the Evangelist in Bahner, Sacred Heart in Sedalia and St. Patrick in Sedalia. He is on the Jefferson City diocese’s list of clerics ‘found by the diocesan bishop to be unsuitable for ministry out of concern for the safety of our youth.’

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/diocesan_lists/Jefferson_City/2018_11_08_Jefferson_City_Clergy_Religious_Removed.pdf

2–Fr. Martin Juarez, who attended UMKC in the 1970s. He was born in 1946 in Kansas City, KS and attended Colby Community College and seminaries in Denver and San Antonio.

https://prabook.com/web/martin.juarez/282315

In a 2017 lawsuit, he was accused of sexually abusing a nine year old at St. Matthew’s in Topeka for three years in the early 1980s. Fr. Juarez was defrocked in 2005. His name appears on the ‘credibly accused’ list put out by the Kansas City KS archdiocese a few months ago.

https://responseincrisis.archkck.org/list-substantiated-allegations/

3–Fr. Donald Redmond, who is on the Kansas City KS archdiocesan ‘credibly accused’ list and who was put on leave in 2002 after allegations surfaced that he abused at least one child in Iowa in 1960s. At least three more victims from a parish in the Kansas City KS archdiocese came forward after his suspension. Complaints involved inappropriate touching of elementary school children between 1961-1964. After the accusations, he was sent to live at St. Benedict’s Abbey in Atchison KS. But in 1964 and 1965, he worked in Kansas City MO at Bishop Lillis High School.

http://www.bishop-accountability.org/ia-davenport/assignments/Redmond-Donald-Kansas-City.htm

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
KSHB TV

Sept. 6, 2019

By Tom Dempsey

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph released a list on Friday of 24 priests credibly accused of sexual abuse.

The report followed an investigation organized by the diocese earlier this year involving former FBI agents who were given access to church documents dating back to 1956.

Of the 24 priests listed in the report, 19 were official members of the diocese.

The majority of the priests have since died, with many of the cases dating back decades.

For David Biersmith, one of the names brought back memories of horrors his two sons allegedly experienced back in the 1970s.

“Physically, they were raped. I don’t know how else to say it,” he told 41 Action News. “It happened when they were 9, 10 and 11.”

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
KSHB TV

Sept. 6, 2019

By Tom Dempsey

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph released a list on Friday of 24 priests credibly accused of sexual abuse.

The report followed an investigation organized by the diocese earlier this year involving former FBI agents who were given access to church documents dating back to 1956.

Of the 24 priests listed in the report, 19 were official members of the diocese.

The majority of the priests have since died, with many of the cases dating back decades.

For David Biersmith, one of the names brought back memories of horrors his two sons allegedly experienced back in the 1970s.

“Physically, they were raped. I don’t know how else to say it,” he told 41 Action News. “It happened when they were 9, 10 and 11.”

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.

TUAM (IRELAND)
CNN

Sept. 8, 2019

By Kara Fox

The day after Michael O’Flaherty was born, his mother tried to see him. But, she told him, she was stopped by a nun who told her, “Go mind your own business, your baby is gone.”

Like other women who gave birth at the Tuam mother and baby home in Ireland, the nuns didn’t forbid O’Flaherty’s mother from seeing her newborn son again, they just didn’t tell her who her baby was, or that he was in the same building. The very same home where she was required to stay for 12 months after giving birth.

“My mother could have picked me up, but she couldn’t have necessarily known,” O’Flaherty told CNN.

The boy would stay in the home for another five and a half years. He doesn’t remember his time inside; his first memory of it was from the day that he left.

Today, at 71, O’Flaherty retraces the steps he took that day with a group that’s become like family.

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.

TUAM (IRELAND)
CNN

Sept. 8, 2019

By Kara Fox

The day after Michael O’Flaherty was born, his mother tried to see him. But, she told him, she was stopped by a nun who told her, “Go mind your own business, your baby is gone.”

Like other women who gave birth at the Tuam mother and baby home in Ireland, the nuns didn’t forbid O’Flaherty’s mother from seeing her newborn son again, they just didn’t tell her who her baby was, or that he was in the same building. The very same home where she was required to stay for 12 months after giving birth.

“My mother could have picked me up, but she couldn’t have necessarily known,” O’Flaherty told CNN.

The boy would stay in the home for another five and a half years. He doesn’t remember his time inside; his first memory of it was from the day that he left.

Today, at 71, O’Flaherty retraces the steps he took that day with a group that’s become like family.

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.

TALUSTUSAN (PHILIPPINES)
Associated Press

Sept. 9, 2019

By Tim Sullivan

The American priest’s voice echoed over the phone line, his sharp Midwestern accent softened over the decades by a gentle Filipino lilt. On the other end, recording the call, was a young man battered by shame but anxious to get the priest to describe exactly what had happened in this little island village.

“I should have known better than trying to just have a life,” the priest said in the November 2018 call. “Happy days are gone. It’s all over.”

But, the young man later told the Associated Press, those days were happy only for the priest. They were years of misery for him, he said, and for the other boys who investigators say were sexually assaulted by Father Pius Hendricks.

His accusations ignited a scandal that would shake the village and reveal much about how allegations of sex crimes by priests are handled in one of the world’s most Catholic countries.

He was just 12 – a new altar boy from a family of tenant farmers anxious for the $1 or so he’d get for serving at Mass – when he says Hendricks first took him into the bathroom of Talustusan’s little rectory and sexually assaulted 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.

TALUSTUSAN (PHILIPPINES)
Associated Press

Sept. 9, 2019

By Tim Sullivan

The American priest’s voice echoed over the phone line, his sharp Midwestern accent softened over the decades by a gentle Filipino lilt. On the other end, recording the call, was a young man battered by shame but anxious to get the priest to describe exactly what had happened in this little island village.

“I should have known better than trying to just have a life,” the priest said in the November 2018 call. “Happy days are gone. It’s all over.”

But, the young man later told the Associated Press, those days were happy only for the priest. They were years of misery for him, he said, and for the other boys who investigators say were sexually assaulted by Father Pius Hendricks.

His accusations ignited a scandal that would shake the village and reveal much about how allegations of sex crimes by priests are handled in one of the world’s most Catholic countries.

He was just 12 – a new altar boy from a family of tenant farmers anxious for the $1 or so he’d get for serving at Mass – when he says Hendricks first took him into the bathroom of Talustusan’s little rectory and sexually assaulted 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.

HARRISBURG (PA)
Patriot News

Sept. 9, 2019

By Ivey DeJesus

Two priests have been convicted; one other awaits trial.

That’s about the sum total of legal action that has taken place in the wake of the Pennsylvania grand jury report on clergy sex abuse, which identified more than 300 predator priests statewide.

That narrative could be about to change.

Last week, federal prosecutors dealt the latest salvo in what is fast becoming a tide of aggressive new strategies to criminally prosecute child sex predators and their accomplices in the Catholic Church.

Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia last week filed charges against a former Archdiocese of Philadelphia priest, accusing him of lying to the FBI.

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.

MADISON (WI)
WKOW TV

Sept. 9, 2019

A former priest accused of sexual assault will head to trial on Monday. William Nolan is facing six counts of sexual assault.

One of charges is for allegedly assaulting a 12-year-old alter boy in 2006.

According to investigators, the former alter boy told them the assaults allegedly happened over five years, when Nolen was serving at the St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Fort Atkinson.

A Janesville man also accused Nolan of assualting him in 2009, but after police investigated, they didn’t find enough evidence to support that accusation.

Before being accused, Nolan served in Madison’s Queen of Peace parish

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.

ENGLAND
Irish Times

September 4, 2019

By Catherine O’Flynn

Fr Penney’s decades of abuse were already known by the Archdiocese of Birmingham when it moved him into the lives of more children

After settling in England, my dad, like many immigrants before and since, became a shopkeeper. In 1961 he took over a newsagent business in a part of inner city Birmingham called Nechells. The former owner sold him shelves of ancient, worthless stock and then disappeared fast before the tide of first slum clearances and then factory closures swept away most of the customers.

Those who remained were a mix of Brummies, West Indians and Irish. Alongside the English papers we sold the Clare Champion, the Roscommon Herald, The Irish Times, and the Echo. Upstairs in the living room we listened to scratchy 45s of the Dubliners, the Clancy Brothers, and the Ludlows. Outside lay empty factories and wasteland.

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.

ENGLAND
Irish Times

September 4, 2019

By Catherine O’Flynn

Fr Penney’s decades of abuse were already known by the Archdiocese of Birmingham when it moved him into the lives of more children

After settling in England, my dad, like many immigrants before and since, became a shopkeeper. In 1961 he took over a newsagent business in a part of inner city Birmingham called Nechells. The former owner sold him shelves of ancient, worthless stock and then disappeared fast before the tide of first slum clearances and then factory closures swept away most of the customers.

Those who remained were a mix of Brummies, West Indians and Irish. Alongside the English papers we sold the Clare Champion, the Roscommon Herald, The Irish Times, and the Echo. Upstairs in the living room we listened to scratchy 45s of the Dubliners, the Clancy Brothers, and the Ludlows. Outside lay empty factories and wasteland.

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.

LIMOGES (FRANCE)
La Croix International

September 4, 2019

By Neuville Heloise

Bishop accused of ‘muzzling’ victim but he says she is ‘very fragile’ to give a reliable account

The testimony of a former nun who was due to tell the story of her sexual assault at the hands of a priest in the French city of Limoges has been cancelled.The Catholic Association of Women (ACF) and the victim refused to accept the presence of a member of the diocese to give the other side of the story, as had been demanded by Bishop Pierre-Antoine Bozo of Limoges.Can freedom of expression within the Church flourish in all contexts?The institution is working to give a rightful place to the words of victims of sexual abuse but the bishop was overcome by his concern for a just outcome when he learned that Caroline, a former nun allegedly assaulted by a priest from the Community of the Beatitudes, was about to give her testimony in public.

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.

LIMOGES (FRANCE)
La Croix International

September 4, 2019

By Neuville Heloise

Bishop accused of ‘muzzling’ victim but he says she is ‘very fragile’ to give a reliable account

The testimony of a former nun who was due to tell the story of her sexual assault at the hands of a priest in the French city of Limoges has been cancelled.The Catholic Association of Women (ACF) and the victim refused to accept the presence of a member of the diocese to give the other side of the story, as had been demanded by Bishop Pierre-Antoine Bozo of Limoges.Can freedom of expression within the Church flourish in all contexts?The institution is working to give a rightful place to the words of victims of sexual abuse but the bishop was overcome by his concern for a just outcome when he learned that Caroline, a former nun allegedly assaulted by a priest from the Community of the Beatitudes, was about to give her testimony in public.

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)
Crux

September 6, 2019

By Christopher White

The priest secretary to Bishop Richard Malone – who earlier this week released secret audio of the bishop expressing fears that a public relations crisis within the diocese of Buffalo would result in his resignation – has accused an auxiliary bishop of silencing him when he complained of sexual assault.

Father Ryszard Biernat arrived at the diocese of Buffalo as a seminarian in 2003. The Polish native alleges that a priest of the diocese, Father Art Smith, abused him at a Christmas party that same year.

In a new interview with WKBW, Biernat says that he reported the alleged abuse to auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz. He maintains that Grosz faulted the seminarian for not locking the door to prevent drunken advances from Smith.

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)
Crux

September 6, 2019

By Christopher White

The priest secretary to Bishop Richard Malone – who earlier this week released secret audio of the bishop expressing fears that a public relations crisis within the diocese of Buffalo would result in his resignation – has accused an auxiliary bishop of silencing him when he complained of sexual assault.

Father Ryszard Biernat arrived at the diocese of Buffalo as a seminarian in 2003. The Polish native alleges that a priest of the diocese, Father Art Smith, abused him at a Christmas party that same year.

In a new interview with WKBW, Biernat says that he reported the alleged abuse to auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz. He maintains that Grosz faulted the seminarian for not locking the door to prevent drunken advances from Smith.

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.

[The monk of Montserrat, Andreu Soler. was a “sexual predator and a pederast” who had impunity for years]

BARCELONA (SPAIN)
El Pais

September 6, 2019

By Jesús García and Oriol Güell

La comissió independent que ha investigat els abusos conclou que “hi havia rumorologia suficient” per actuar contra el monjo i destapa dos casos desconeguts

[The independent commission that investigated the abuses concludes that “there was enough rumorology” to act against the monk and uncover two unknown cases]

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.

[The monk of Montserrat, Andreu Soler. was a “sexual predator and a pederast” who had impunity for years]

BARCELONA (SPAIN)
El Pais

September 6, 2019

By Jesús García and Oriol Güell

La comissió independent que ha investigat els abusos conclou que “hi havia rumorologia suficient” per actuar contra el monjo i destapa dos casos desconeguts

[The independent commission that investigated the abuses concludes that “there was enough rumorology” to act against the monk and uncover two unknown cases]

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.

[The abbot of Montserrat admits that “controls failed” and apologizes for the abuses]

BARCELONA (SPAIN)
El Pais

September 8, 2019

By Jesús García

[Josep Maria Soler is committed to improving protocols to protect minors]

El abad de Montserrat, Josep Maria Soler, pidió ayer públicamente perdón por los abusos sexuales a menores cometidos por religiosos en el monasterio. En su primera homilía dominical después del informe de la comisión independiente que ha ratificado la existencia de abusos, Soler admitió que “los mecanismos de prevención y control” fallaron. Un monje de la abadía abusó durante casi tres décadas de un número indeterminado de menores con total impunidad y sin que el monasterio actuase contra él, concluye el informe.

[The abbot of Montserrat, Josep Maria Soler , yesterday publicly apologized for the sexual abuse of minors committed by religious in the monastery. In his first Sunday homily after the report of the independent commission that has ratified the existence of abuse, Soler admitted that “prevention and control mechanisms” failed. A monk from the abbey abused for almost three decades an undetermined number of minors with total impunity and without the monastery acting against him, the report concludes.]

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.

[The abbot of Montserrat admits that “controls failed” and apologizes for the abuses]

BARCELONA (SPAIN)
El Pais

September 8, 2019

By Jesús García

[Josep Maria Soler is committed to improving protocols to protect minors]

El abad de Montserrat, Josep Maria Soler, pidió ayer públicamente perdón por los abusos sexuales a menores cometidos por religiosos en el monasterio. En su primera homilía dominical después del informe de la comisión independiente que ha ratificado la existencia de abusos, Soler admitió que “los mecanismos de prevención y control” fallaron. Un monje de la abadía abusó durante casi tres décadas de un número indeterminado de menores con total impunidad y sin que el monasterio actuase contra él, concluye el informe.

[The abbot of Montserrat, Josep Maria Soler , yesterday publicly apologized for the sexual abuse of minors committed by religious in the monastery. In his first Sunday homily after the report of the independent commission that has ratified the existence of abuse, Soler admitted that “prevention and control mechanisms” failed. A monk from the abbey abused for almost three decades an undetermined number of minors with total impunity and without the monastery acting against him, the report concludes.]

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.

MACOMB (MI)
Macomb Daily

September 8, 2019

By Mitch Hotts

A state licensing board has revoked a counseling license from a former Macomb County priest accused of sexually assaulting a young boy.

The Michigan Board of Counseling on Friday stripped Lawrence Ventline of the educationally limited counselor’s license for three years and issued a $5,000 fine.

The board’s action follows the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA)’s summary suspension of Ventline’s license in May after an administrative complaint concerning the alleged sexual assault was filed by state Attorney General’s Office.

Ventline failed to respond to the complaint. Under the state’s Public Health Code, when a defendant does not respond to a complaint, the board is to consider the accusations to be “undisputed and true.”

“Unfortunately, the statute of limitations bars us from prosecuting Mr. Ventline for any crimes we believe he may have committed,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a news release.

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BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

September 8, 2019

By Jay Tokasz and Dan Herbeck

The Rev. Jeffrey Nowak has been accused of violating the Catholic church’s seal of confession, sexually harassing a seminarian and trying to blackmail a fellow priest.

But his lawyer said Friday that Nowak denies all of the allegations.

“I don’t think Father Jeff has gotten a fair shake on this,” said attorney James Granville. “They had him tried, convicted and sentenced in March and he wasn’t told of any allegations against him by anyone in the diocese until April or May.”

Granville said his client’s name was dragged through the mud in media reports before all of the facts were known.

“If you’re accused of doing that and you’re not the person they’re describing, it’s tortuous,” said Granville. “He denies all of the allegations, but we’re relying, for better or worse, I guess, on the canonical and the civil justice system.”

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BALLARAT (AUSTRALIA)
The Courier

September 7, 2019

By Jolyon Attwooll

The Catholic Diocese of Ballarat has admitted liability in a civil action brought by a victim of historical sexual abuse in a potentially landmark case.

The case may ultimately have far-reaching implications for survivors in Ballarat seeking to make civil claims against the Catholic Church.

Advocates and survivors in the city, meanwhile, urged the Catholic Church to drop aggressive legal tactics and be more active in helping with the healing process

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BALLARAT (AUSTRALIA)
The Courier

September 6, 2019

The compensation floodgates for clergy victims have opened with the Catholic Church admitting liability for the sexual abuse of a nine-year-old boy in a confessional box by Ballarat prolific paedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale.

The defrocked priest is considered one of Australia’s worst paedophiles and he admitted to a family member his victims numbered in the hundreds.

Ridsdale was moved from parish to parish within the Ballarat Diocese, starting at St Alipius in Ballarat, before serving at Warrnambool, Inglewood, Apollo Bay, Edenhope and Mortlake.

A directions hearing in the Victorian Supreme Court on Friday scheduled a 10-day trial to start on January 29.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WGAZ-TV (Channel 2)

September 8, 2019

It is unclear at this time how many diocesan priests have signed the petition. However, any priest who signs it will be committing an act of disobedience.

Father Robert Zilliox of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Swormville told 2 On Your Side he is circulating a “No Confidence” petition to be delivered to the Diocese of Buffalo and Bishop Richard Malone.

Zilliox informed his parishioners about the petition on Sunday.

It is unclear at this time how many diocesan priests have signed the petition. However, any priest who signs it will be committing an act of disobedience. Diocesan priests are required to take an obedience oath to the bishop, and signing the petition would go against that.

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

BROOKLYN (NY)
The Tablet (Newspaper of the Brooklyn Diocese)

September 8, 2019

By Andrew Pugliese

PARK SLOPE — Fourteen years after the Diocese of Brooklyn began to offer programs in parishes and schools to prevent sexual abuse of minors, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed “Erin’s Law” on Aug. 29, requiring public schools in New York state to have a similar program.

Public schools will be required to provide at least one hour of instruction every school year to children in kindergarten through eighth grade about what constitutes abuse and how to report it. The law, which was passed by both the New York state senate and assembly in June, is named after Erin Merryn, a sexual abuse survivor turned advocate.

The diocese has been offering such programs since 2005 through Child Lures Prevention for children and Virtus for adults. Nationally, the training has been taking place in Catholic schools and faith formation programs since after the country’s bishops adopted the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” in 2002.

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HAMILTON (ONTARIO, CANADA)
CBC News

September 8, 2019

William O’Sullivan has filed a lawsuit against the priest who assaulted him and others

Warning: This story contains details of sexual assault.

William O’Sullivan has protested in front of St. Kevin’s Parish in Welland every Sunday for a full year, and says he is determined to do so until the Diocese of St. Catharines apologizes to the region’s survivors of sexual abuse.

O’Sullivan is one of these survivors. He was sexually assaulted when he was nine years old by Donald Grecco, who was a priest at St. Kevin’s Catholic church.

The assault continued for three years.

Now 48, O’Sullivan stands in front of the church every Sunday morning holding protest signs. He arrives at 8 a.m. and leaves in the early afternoon.

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

AUSTRALIA
CathNews (Service of the Australian Bishops’ Conference)

September 9, 2019

The Church has accepted legal responsibility for the sexual abuse of a child by paedophile Gerald Ridsdale in a significant case that could open the floodgates for survivors seeking compensation. Source: The Age.

After denying any knowledge of Ridsdale’s offending before the nine-year-old boy was raped in a confessional box at Mortlake, in western Victoria in 1982, lawyers for the Church on Friday accepted an amended statement of claim from the survivor in the Supreme Court – in effect admitting legal liability for his crimes.

A 10-day civil trial scheduled to begin on January 29 next year will now focus primarily on the amount of damages the Church will pay the survivor. A mediation hearing will be held on October 15.

The survivor, identified in court under the pseudonym JCB, is suing Ballarat Bishop Paul Bird for negligence on behalf of deceased former bishops James O’Collins and Ronald Mulkearns.

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.

TALUSTUSAN (PHILIPPINES)
Associated Press

Sept. 9, 2019

By Tim Sullivan

The American priest’s voice echoed over the phone line.

“Happy days are gone,” he said in the 2018 call, recorded by a young man whose accusations would shake this little island village and reveal how allegations of sex crimes by priests are still ignored, sometimes for decades, in one of the world’s most Catholic countries. “It’s all over.”

The young man later told The Associated Press he was 12 when Father Pius Hendricks first took him into the bathroom of the church’s little rectory and sexually assaulted him.

“‘It’s a natural thing,'” he says the priest told him, “‘It’s part of becoming an adult.'”

The abuse continued for years, he says. But he told no one until a village outsider began asking questions about the priest’s generosity with local boys, and he feared his brother would be the next victim.

In November, he went to the police.

Soon after, local authorities arrested Hendricks, 78, and charged him with child abuse.

Since then, investigators say, about 20 boys and men, one as young as 7, have reported that the priest sexually abused them. Investigators say the allegations go back well over a decade — though many believe the abuse goes back for generations — continuing until just months before the arrest.

Hendricks is from Cincinnati and regularly returned to the area, federal prosecutors said.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati previously told The Enquirer he was a Franciscan Brother at the St. Anthony Friary in Mount Airy in the 1960s and would therefore have been supervised by his religious order, rather than the archdiocese. He left the Franciscans around 1986 and was soon ordained as a priest by the local diocese.

Hendrick’s arrest was a sudden fall for a priest who had presided over the community for nearly four decades, rebuilding its chapel, pressing local officials to pave the village road, paying school fees for poor 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.

CHAMPAIGN (IL)
News Gazette

Sept. 8, 2019

By Don Follis

In late July, I was just an hour from Hoxie, Kansas, (where I was born and spent my first 10 years) when I passed the exit on Interstate 70 for Victoria, Kan., home of “The Cathedral on the Plains.” For miles you can see the twin 141-foot limestone towers of the St. Fidelis Catholic Church.

The church and school dominate the town of 1,200 distinctly German and overwhelmingly catholic residents. St. Fidelis is the only church in Victoria. German immigrants moved to the area in the late 1800s. St. Fidelis was dedicated in 1911. The building features seating for 1,100, 44-foot ceilings and a 220-foot nave.

St. Fidelis is pretty much in the middle of nowhere out on the vast High Plains, and that’s how Victoria, Kan., and the church, came to be in the national news a year ago. As Ruth Graham writes in the Sept. 3 Slate magazine, “Last fall, God brought to Victoria an unexpected visitor: Theodore McCarrick, once the most powerful Catholic priests in America.” He was the archbishop of Washington D.C. from 2001-06. He was the priest “Meet the Press” relied on to talk about the abuse crisis. At the funerals of Ted Kennedy, Beau Biden, Tim Russert and William Rehnquist, McCarrick participated.

Just over a year ago, the jet-setting priest suddenly became the country’s most well-known accused perpetrator of clerical sexual abuse. The Vatican quickly removed McCarrick from public ministry, and McCarrick resigned his position as a cardinal, the first cardinal to ever resign over sexual-abuse allegations.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW TV

Sept. 8, 2019

By Anthony Reyes

Petitions are circulating calling on Diocese of Buffalo Bishop Richard J. Malone to resign for his handling of the sex abuse scandal in the diocese.

The first petition, circulating among clergy of the diocese drafted by Rev. Robert Zilliox, of St. Mary’s Swormville, states;

“Most priests, deacons and the laity of the Diocese at Buffalo have lost trust and confidence in your ability to lead us forward. Therefore, we reiterate our demand that you resign effective immediately.”

A second petition circulating on change.org created by “The People of the Diocese of Buffalo, NY” states:

“We request the immediate resignation of Bishop Richard J. Malone as Bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo, NY. Just as clergy must resign when found guilty of sexual crimes and sins perpetrated under the guise of holiness and authority so must this Bishop resign for being a silent accomplice in these crimes and sins committed by clergy in the Diocese of Buffalo.”

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MEMPHIS (TN)
WREG TV

Sept. 8, 2019

By Nina Harrleson

Memphis’ first Catholic bishop has been replaced on a mural downtown months after he was included in a list of clergymen accused of molesting children.

The “Upstanders Mural” – on a wall across from the National Civil Rights Museum – is supposed to honor heroes, but after allegations of child sex abuse against the late Carroll Dozier surfaced earlier this year, the group that painted the mural decided he no longer belongs there.

“I would certainly say that that would be their right to change that. And I think as time changes with people, society changes, ideas change, beliefs change, and I think you have to go with that,” Bob Gray, who’s visiting Memphis from Door County, Wis., said. “If you don’t change, if you don’t continue, you’re never going to progress.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

September 8, 2019 – 5:00 AM

By Maria Panaritis

The creepy smile. In photos of defrocked archdiocesan priest Francis Trauger last week outside a Bucks County police station, the alleged child sexual predator flashed an outsized grin. He was wearing a suit jacket that flitted as he moved an arm. The pose was more fashion-catalog preen than street candid of a 74-year-old being booked for molesting children.

Then again, Trauger had evaded justice since at least 1981. So that megawatt grin? Maybe it was just that of a septuagenarian who knew that he’d mostly dodged the system.

His arrest after so many decades was itself as startling as the images shot by an Inquirer photographer. But there soon was more to fuel a sense of unease.

Two days after Trauger’s arrest on assault charges out of Bristol, another disgraced priest’s face was blasted into the news, that of defrocked Archdiocese of Philadelphia cleric Robert L. Brennan. The feds snapped up the octogenarian in Maryland on charges that he lied to the FBI in Philadelphia about his relationship with the family of a young victim, Sean McIlmail. Sean died the last time Brennan faced charges. His death had made the case fall apart a few years ago.

No victim, no crime.

Trauger. Brennan. Names and faces I had never forgotten.

I’d spent many months 17 years ago trying to chase allegations that these then-active priests were abusers. Their arrests by state and federal prosecutors now, nearly two decades later, are a testament to the perseverance of prosecutors and victims. Even against long odds and a statute of limitations too short to allow most prosecutions, they have refused to dim the spotlight on these horrors that the church helped go undetected and, as a tragic result, unprosecuted.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

September 7, 2019

By News Editorial Board

Child-abuse lawsuits involving the Catholic Church dominated the initial headlines when the Child Victims Act opened a window for filings on Aug. 14, but it was always clear that the problem was much more widespread.

The accusations brought against a former social studies teacher in the Kenmore Tonawanda School District are not only especially loathsome, but hint at a possible wave of future suits against teachers in schools of every kind.

The case of Arthur F. Werner, a former social studies teacher at Herbert Hoover Elementary School, is particularly unusual. Rather than assaulting young boys in a secluded place, the victims — then fifth- and sixth-graders — accuse Werner of calling them up to the front of the classroom and groping or fondling them through their clothes, in view of the other students.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

September 8, 2019

A tribute to a bishop accused of mishandling the case around paedophile priest Malachy Finegan is to be removed from Newry Cathedral.

Head of the Catholic Church in Ireland Archbishop Eamon Martin has confirmed that the floor mosaic in honour of Bishop Francis Brooks will be removed.

The Irish News has reported that Archbishop Martin wrote to a solicitor for victims, Claire McKeegan of Phoenix Law, to confirm it would be removed at the request of victims.

In February 2018 it was revealed that Finegan had abused a number of boys for over 20 years at St Colman’s College, Newry.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

September 8, 2019

By Kevin McKenna

Its errors run from toting a saint’s relics around Scotland to an invitation to a reactionary priest

Agrim little vaudeville act is currently touring some of Scotland’s Catholic parishes, featuring the remains of Thérèse of Lisieux, a long-dead French nun. Thérèse died of tuberculosis at the age of 24 in 1897 and was canonised in 1925, becoming Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. By all accounts, this young woman developed an exemplary devotion to her faith and was the author of some beautiful (if slightly ripe) spiritual tracts. I’m not sure she deserved the fate of having some of her remains bumped in and out of cars and through the hills of South Lanarkshire and Paisley for the devoted titillation of the faithful.

These relics of Saint Thérèse are considered to be “first class”, this being the ultimate seal of Vatican authentication. To be accorded this distinction, they must be parts of the bodies of the saints, such as fragments of bone, skin, blood, hair or ash. Apparently, poor dead Thérèse (or parts thereof) has been getting ferried like this throughout the Catholic world since 1994. Is there no one to call a halt to this unedifying distortion of faith? Can we not let this blameless lassie rest in peace?

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

September 8, 2019

By John L. Allen Jr.

Notre Dame is basically the Texas of the American Catholic Church, meaning it tends to operate on the principle of “go big or go home.” They don’t do anything small under the Golden Dome, and that’s certainly true of a major series of events this academic year developed by Father John Jenkins, ND’s president, on the clerical sexual abuse crisis.

The series kicks off Wednesday, Sept. 25, with a panel titled “The Church Crisis: Where Are We Now?” to be held on the ND campus and livestreamed on the university web site as well as on Crux. The guiding idea is to pivot the conversation about the scandals away from rage and toward recovery.

To headline the event, Notre Dame easily could have relied on Peter Steinfels, a veteran Catholic journalist and thinker who’s covered the abuse crisis from the beginning and who penned a brilliant dissection in January of the bombshell Pennsylvania grand jury report.

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LOCKPORT (NY)
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

September 8, 2019

In recent months, Richard Malone, the embattled bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, continued to receive support from members of the Movement to Restore Trust, an advisory group of local Catholics that was formed in response to a recent rash of sexual abuse allegations facing members of the clergy.

On Thursday, that all changed.

The group of lay Catholics who had been working with Malone to develop reforms in hopes of moving the diocese forward joined a chorus of critics who have been calling on the bishop to resign. In a statement issued to the media this week, members of the Movement to Restore Trust members determined that Malone’s actions in response to the sex abuse scandal threaten to set the diocese “back several decades.” In the opinion of the group, Malone has failed to handle the situation in such a manner as to pose “substantial risk of harm to the diocese and the good works that the church does in this region.”

The Movement to Restore Trust’s position amounts to a vote of no confidence in Bishop Malone and it is one Catholics across Western New York should seriously consider as they form opinions on diocesan leadership.

This select group of Catholics was chosen to assist in the process of developing much-needed reforms within the diocese. For them to conclude Malone has mishandled diocesan affairs should be proof enough that new leadership is needed.

As has now been widely reported, Malone’s latest round of missteps were laid bare for the public to hear when a once-trusted secretary released secretly recorded audio tapes on which Malone can be heard talking about his fear of losing his position amid the crisis and his thoughts on potentially embarrassing matters, including a priest’s alleged sexual harassment of a seminarian.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

September 8, 2019

By Jay Tokasz and Dan Herbeck

Auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz allegedly threatened to halt the Rev. Ryszard S. Biernat’s ordination as a priest and have him deported to Poland after Biernat complained in 2004 to Buffalo Diocese administrators that he was sexually assaulted by a priest.

“He said, ‘Ryszard, if you don’t stop talking about this, you will not be ordained. Do you hear me? Do you hear me?’ ” recalled Biernat.

Biernat said Grosz’s treatment of his complaint was “10 times worse” than the actual abuse he alleges the Rev. Arthur J. Smith inflicted on him inside the rectory of St. Thomas Aquinas Church.

“If you turn for help to the bishop of the diocese, they’re going to blame you and they’re going to say it was your fault,” said Biernat.

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TORONTO (CANADA)
Catholic Register

Sept. 6, 2019

By Gerry Turcotte

Recently I read a wonderful LinkedIn entry by Aron Laxton about the U.S. Navy’s efforts to study and reinforce aircraft based on planes that had been damaged from the front. Engineers studied and mapped the bullet holes that peppered the “wounded” planes and determined that additional armour needed to be added to the wingtips and to the central body of the aircraft.

The bullet holes were proof of where the aircraft was vulnerable. Or so they thought.

A statistician on staff, Abraham Wald, however, deeply disagreed. He proposed, instead, that additional armour be added to the nose, engines and mid-body. His colleagues thought he was crazy. None of the planes had showed any such evidence of damage.

As Laxton explained, though, “Wald realized what the others didn’t. The planes were getting shot there too, but they weren’t making it home. What the Navy thought it had done was analyze where aircraft were suffering the most damage. What they had actually done was analyze where aircraft could suffer the most damage without catastrophic failure. … They weren’t looking at the whole sample set, only the survivors.”

It’s a wonderful example of misperception — or of studying a question from the wrong point of view and missing the obvious. In one of the many comments to this post, a respondent connected this to customer service. “We get input from customers on where our products/services don’t meet their requirements and then use that input to improve our processes. Unfortunately this is biased information. It’s ‘survivor bias.’ What about getting input from the ones who left — the ones who gave up on doing business with us?”

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BLUE SPRINGS (MO)
The Examiner

Sept. 6, 2019

By Mike Genet

Twelve of the 19 priests on a new list of clerics who officials say have substantiated allegations of child sex abuse against them served churches in Eastern Jackson County at some point in their ministry.

The list, released Friday by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, included no current priests. With the exception of federal prison inmate Shawn Ratigan, all allegations are from before 1990. Thirteen of the 19 have died, two have been permanently removed from ministry, and four including Ratigan have been laicized, or removed from the clerical state.

The diocese also released the names of 11 clerics in other categories. Three had substantiated allegations while in the diocese but are now under the control of other dioceses, Two religious-order priests have been removed from ministry. Three former diocesan priests were found “unsuitable for ministry out of concern for the safety of our youth.” Three clergy are part of legal settlements but their cases have not been substantiated in court or by the church. One of the accused priests in another diocese and all three found unsuitable for ministry served in Eastern Jackson County.

Of the 12 accused priests who served in the area, four reportedly had allegations stemming from their local tenures, according to the website bishopaccountability.org – Francis McGlynn (St. Mary, Independence, 1970-74), Hugh Monahan (St. Robert Bellarmine, Blue Springs, 1983-87), Thomas O’Brien (Nativity of Mary, Independence, 1981-83) and Stephen Wise (Our Lady of Presentation, Lee’s Summit, 1981-85). Monahan and Wise have been laicized, and McGlynn and O’Brien died earlier in the decade. Also, Mark Honhart (Nativity, 1980-81) was serving in the Scranton, Pennsylvania Diocese when he was permanently removed from ministry. All had more than one allegation against them, according to the report.

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DETROIT (MI)
Channel 4

Sept. 6, 2019

By Jermont Terry & Kayla Clarke

A local woman is speaking out after she said a priest accused of sexual abuse is trying to silence her.

That priest was removed from public ministry as investigators look into allegations of sexual abuse involving a minor. A young Metro Detroit woman, Rose Maher, said she was abused by the priest, not sexually.

“I had this experience with Father Perrone where I drank underage in the rectory. It started at 12 and went past 18. At the time I didn’t know it was wrong. I thought it was a privilege,” Maher said.

As an adult, she recently started speaking publicly on podcasts and online about the abuse she said she endured along with male altar servers.

That priest was removed from public ministry as investigators look into allegations of sexual abuse involving a minor.

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Patheos blog

Sept. 7, 2019

By Mary Pezzulo

It’s now September. the time of year when I’ll start re-sharing my posts on the Satanic Panic and Halloween. And in the news we have the story of Father Reehill, the eccentric priest who banned Harry Potter because he thought the spells were real– and, of course, the news is now coming out that this is not the first time Father Reehill has acted irrationally. Concerned parents have met with the diocese about him on three separate occasions because he is allegedly emotionally abusive of students, and has driven several of them to need psychotherapy. This is in addition to the stunning corruption we’re seeing coming out of the Diocese of Buffalo, which I want to write about separately later, and in the Church in general.

It’s time to talk again about spiritual abuse.

I often talk about spiritual abuse on this blog. But it occurs to me that I’ve never taken an entire post just to describe the phenomenon, why it’s so damaging, and why it needs to be identified and condemned quickly and loudly whenever it occurs.

Some people, including some of my regular readers, think of all religious practice as inherently abusive. They often have good reason to think this way, based on what they’ve seen and experienced in practicing religion themselves and what they’ve witnessed happen to others. I respect those people, but I do disagree with their conclusion that all religion is abusive. I find my relationship with Christ to be a positive and healthy thing, even though my relationships with fellow Catholics have at times been abusive disasters and I do suffer from trauma because of that. I believe that non-toxic organized religion exists. That’s why spiritual abuse is so personally offensive to me. We can do better, and we must.

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O’FALLON (MO)
Post-Dispatch

Sept. 7, 2019

By Jesse Bogan, Erin Heffernan and Nassim Benchaabane

Athletico Physical Therapy, which has hundreds of storefronts across the Midwest, offers personalized treatment plans for anything from back pain to male pelvic health to gymnastics and cheerleading rehabilitation.

One of its locations in a strip mall off Highway K in O’Fallon buzzed with activity on a recent afternoon. A young woman in black tights and a Mizzou T-shirt stretched near a half dozen other clients trying to work through the pain of lingering injuries.

Dennis J. McClintock, 72, a rehabilitation aide, sat at the edge of the workout floor, sporting an orange Hawaiian shirt, a stark contrast to the white clerical collar he used to wear as a Roman Catholic priest.

On July 26, the Archdiocese of St. Louis made a long-awaited splash by releasing a list of former clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. Some names were already widely known; their abuse had been the subject of lawsuits and news stories. Others, including McClintock’s, were being made public for the first time.

Who these priests and deacons were and what they had done was largely hidden — and still is. More than a month after the list was released, neighbors, co-workers and victims are in the dark.

Unlike similar lists released by Catholic organizations from around the country, the archdiocese didn’t say where the men served. Nor did it include the number of alleged victims and what happened to them.

Decades after leaving the archdiocese, they have lived second lives. They’ve counseled high school students, owned appliance stores and helped young athletes rehabilitate their bodies. Two left their pasts in St. Louis and moved away.

Another has been working at a Baptist church. Contacted by the Post-Dispatch, he admitted abuse and prayed it hadn’t scarred the victims. Others said the archdiocese smeared them without a chance to defend themselves. One said he hadn’t even heard he was on the list until a reporter called.

Even though an archdiocesan spokesman said in July the church had “found nothing new that alarmed us,” those on the outside who have closely monitored allegations of clergy sex abuse have been startled by the latest revelations.

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

Sept. 6, 2019

Buffalo’s bishop will not resign, he says. However new tapes show that he is still trying to hide the truth, and church officials in New York and the Vatican are doing nothing.

To us, the remedy is simple:

First, Catholics must be more outspoken and critical, especially directly to Bishop Richard Malone himself, about how he continues to evade the truth and endanger the vulnerable. This has started with a call for the bishop’s resignation coming from the local Movement to Restore Trust. That call must be amplified by other local Catholics who have seen their diocese become the poster child for the continuing abuse crisis.

Second, more diocesan whistleblowers must step forward. If the bishop will not act to protect the vulnerable and tell the truth, then current and former church staffers and members must do so. No matter what you know or suspect – even if it is second hand or old or seemingly insignificant, now is the time to speak up. Last year, Siobhan O’Connor stepped out as a powerful voice for prevention and doing the right thing. We hope others will learn from her courage, follow in her footsteps and display similar courage in coming forward. If you need help to do so, you can contact our group for support.

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

Sept. 6, 2019

West Virginia’s attorney general is fighting to keep his creative lawsuit against church officials alive. We support his efforts and hope that his lawsuit will not be dismissed.

We applaud West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey who is fighting back against Catholic officials who want to continue concealing clergy sex crimes and cover ups. We hope his creative approach of using consumer protections in order to force church staff into greater transparency will encourage others in law enforcement to take similar steps and think outside the box for ways to get to the bottom of cases of clergy sex abuse and cover-ups.

There are far too many secrets within West Virginia that are still not being exposed. For example, church officials from the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston are still not turning over the results of their internal investigation into now-disgraced Bishop Michael Bransfield to the AG’s office, despite AG Morrisey’s request.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW TV

Sept. 6, 2019

By Charlie Specht

Where are all the “good priests” in the Diocese of Buffalo? And at a time of unprecedented crisis, why aren’t they speaking out against Bishop Richard J. Malone like so many of their parishioners wish they would?

Those are two questions at the front of Kevin Koscielniak’s mind. The Buffalo native is a survivor of child sexual abuse by a Buffalo priest.

“Is the right thing to do to be silent and protect those predators?” Koscielniak asked. “Or is the right thing to do, to stand up and do something about it?”

Koscielniak knows not all Catholic priests are bad. But he says the so-called “good priests” of the diocese must stand up to the bishop for his handling of sexual abuse.

“Every priest out there who doesn’t say a word, your credibility is zero,” Koscielniak said. “You can’t go out there every single week and talk about doing the right thing and then support this.”

Bishop Malone made it clear at his emergency news conference Wednesday that no matter how many people call for his resignation, it’s the opinion of his clergy that matters most.

“If I felt like a majority of my clergy felt like I could no longer lead the diocese with them — because a bishop does not lead by himself or he’s a poor leader — then I’d have to re-think my commitment,” Malone said.

The bishop insisted that “the ones who would like to see me move on are truly the minority,” but that’s not what a priest told 7 Eyewitness News earlier this week by phone. The priest said the majority of priests he talks to want the bishop to resign. But he wouldn’t speak publicly and he asked not to be identified, for fear of retribution by the bishop.

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CLARENCE (NY)
WIVB TV

Sept. 6, 2019

By Chris Horvatits

The pastor of a Catholic parish in Clarence is spear-heading a new effort to force Bishop Richard Malone to resign as the head of the Diocese of Buffalo.

Malone has resisted calls for his resignation over his handling of sexual abuse and harassment claims. Now, Rev. Bob Zilliox, pastor of St. Mary’s in the Clarence community of Swormville has drafted a “no confidence” letter for Malone. Zilliox plans to spend the next five days gathering as many signatures from priests and deacons in the diocese as he can. He intends to share it with Malone and the public on Wednesday.

“It’s time for my brothers in the clergy to step up,” Zilliox said, “to truly examine their conscious, make a decision, and make a choice that we can no longer allow this to continue.

“Malone doesn’t really care about the people of God. He cares about himself. He cares about his office.”

Zilliox first spoke about the issue last year, taking part in a 60 Minutes interview on the crisis.

“I gave (Malone) a year,” Zilliox said. “I gave him a year to show the Diocese of Buffalo and our local community that he was serious about restoring trust, reforming this, making a difference, and approach things in a whole new light. Obviously the events of the last few weeks and months indicate that’s not the case.”

Most recently, Malone has come under fire for his handling of a sexual harassment complaint by Matthew Bojanowski, a former Christ the King seminarian. Bojanowski accused Rev. Jeffrey Nowak, pastor of Our Lady Help of Christians in Cheektowaga, of violating the seal of his confession as well.

The official complaint against Nowak was filed in January. However Nowak wasn’t put on administrative leave until August, only after he refused to undergo a behavioral assessment, diocesan officials said.

The Nowak issue was also the last straw for the Movement to Restore Trust, a group of lay Catholics created in 2018 as the crisis was unfolding. On Thursday, the group joined in the chorus calling for Malone to resign.

“It was with a fair degree of sadness and humility that we came to that decision,” said Maureen Hurley, a co-founding member of the group.

“(The clergy needs) to stand up and we need to be the voice of reason, the voice of the Good Shepherd, shepherding our people in helping the diocese heal by joining the Movement to Restore Trust and all the laity of the diocese to demand Bishop Malone resign immediately,” Zilliox said.

Zilliox is not the first member of the clergy to call for Malone’s resignation. In October 2018, Rev. Paul Seil, pastor of St. Bernadette Church in Orchard Park, said the bishop should step down.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

Sept. 6, 2019

Give this much to Bishop Richard J. Malone: The problems roiling Buffalo’s Catholic diocese long predated his arrival and permeate the church, not just here, but around the world. Yet it is obvious that Malone’s management of the crisis swirling around him is insufficient to the need.

For evidence, one need look no further than the fact that two of his closest aides have seen fit to leak information to the news media. Malone’s former administrative assistant, Siobhan O’Connor, provided pages of copied documents to WKBW-TV reporter Charlie Specht last year. Those documents opened the curtains on how Malone had handled — or mishandled — allegations of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior against two priests.

And last month, Malone’s secretary of six years, the Rev. Ryszard Biernat, provided a secretly recorded conversation with Malone to the same station. It dealt with what Malone described as a love triangle that, in a bizarre twist, involved Biernat.

Both impugn Malone’s leadership. We believed last year that he should resign. This new episode does nothing to change our view. Nor, unfortunately, has it changed that of Malone, who repeated Wednesday that he would not step down.

As to the episode itself, it’s a mess, but one whose roots are plain. It sprouts from the church’s culture of secrecy, its complicated and inconsistent ideas about homosexuality and its celibacy requirement. The bar against women in the priesthood also likely plays a role.

Was it a love triangle? A lawyer in the case rejects the notion, but it’s easy to see how Malone reached that conclusion. In brief, a seminarian, Matthew Bojanowski, had complained to the diocese about what he said was inappropriate conduct by the Rev. Jeffrey Nowak. Bojanowski claimed sexual harassment by Nowak and a violation of the seal of confession. Nowak was, at one time, both a mentor and friend of Bojanowski, according to Malone.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

Sept. 6, 2019

By Dan Herbeck

The pressure is building on Bishop Richard J. Malone, leader of Buffalo’s Catholic Diocese.

Over the past 13 months, two of his most trusted confidants — people who worked side-by-side with him for years — have turned against Malone, publicly demanding that he resign from the job he has held since 2012 over his handling of sexual abuse allegations involving priests.

In recent months, some local priests and deacons took the extremely rare action of calling for him to leave office. So did a congressman, Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo.

Another painful blow to the bishop came Thursday afternoon, when a group of prominent, influential and wealthy Catholics — the Movement To Restore Trust — also abandoned its support.

Soon after that, the diocese announced that a Sept. 11 “listening session” at Niagara University has been canceled because the university no longer wants to host the event. Malone also canceled his annual appearance at a Catholic Charities dinner Friday night, saying he did not want protesters to tarnish an event meant to honor volunteers and donors.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KMBC 9 News

Sept. 6, 2019

On Friday, the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph published a list of area clerics who have been found to have substantiated allegations of sexual abuse against a minor.

“In releasing this list my first hope is that it will acknowledge the survivors of clergy sexual abuse and their wounds,” said Rev. James V. Johnson Jr., bishop of Kansas City – St. Joseph. “The release of these names cannot change the past. It is merely a step forward in hope, but a necessary step.”

The diocese said the list was compiled after a review of diocese files by a forensic research firm.

“Their findings confirmed there are no clerics in active ministry in the Diocese of Kansas City – St. Joseph with substantiated allegations of abusing minors,” Johnson said.

However, SNAP, or the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said this release was long overdue and incomplete.

The list released by the diocese names 19 area diocesan clergy with substantiated abuse allegations, as well as clerics not incardinated in the KCSJ diocese but who were within the area at the time of the abuse.

Officials with SNAP called the bishop’s release Friday “reckless and callous” and said the information the list contained was incomplete.

“It is reckless and callous for Bishop Johnston to have hidden these names for so long, releasing them when it’s convenient for him, instead of immediately when the allegations are made or deemed ‘credible’ by church officials,” a SNAP release said. “And it is notable to us that the list is missing several names and key details about others.”

SNAP identified six clerics the organization identified as having spent time with KCSJ: Fr. Deusdedit Mulokozi, Fr. James V. McCormick, Fr. Richard C. Colbert, Fr. Donald Redmond, Fr. Thomas A. Conway and Fr. Edgar Probstfield.

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LANSING (MI)
Huron Daily Tribune

Sept. 6, 2019

By Bradley Massman

State officials, today, announced a counseling license was revoked from a former priest who now resides in the Port Austin area.

The state’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) revoked the educationally limited counselor’s license of Lawrence Ventline, a former priest with the Archdiocese of Detroit accused of sexually assaulting a young boy. However, he was never criminally charged or found guilty of sexual assault.

Also today, Ventline was fined $5,000.

The board’s action follows LARA’s summary suspension of Ventline’s license in May after an administrative complaint was filed by the Michigan Attorney General’s Office with LARA for allegations of sexual assault.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW TV

Sept. 5, 2019

By Keith Radford

As many Western New Yorkers know, on Wednesday the Buffalo Catholic Diocese selected the reporters it allowed to attend Bishop Richard Malone’s news conference. Our I-Team Chief Investigator Charlie Specht, whose investigative story led to that news conference, was not allowed in the building to ask a question on behalf of the public.

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NASHVILLE (TN)
Baptist News Global

Sept. 6, 2019

By Bob Allen

A lineup of speakers for the 2020 Together for the Gospel conference announced Sept. 3 excludes a number of familiar faces from past gatherings, suggesting possible rifts in the Neo-Calvinist preaching club sometimes called the young, restless and Reformed.

The conference, scheduled April 14-16 in Louisville, Kentucky, has been held every other year since 2006. According to the T4G website, it attracts pastors and church leaders from more than 25 denominations in all 50 states as well as 62 foreign nations.

It all began as a friendship between four pastors with differing opinions on matters such as baptism and charismatic gifts but in agreement that the gospel was being “misrepresented, misunderstood and marginalized” in many churches advertising themselves as Christian.

Photo of notable absences at the 2020 Together for the Gospel confab posted on Twitter by blogger Todd Wilhelm, former member of a 9Marks church and longtime critic of T4G co-founder C.J. Mahaney.

Next year’s roster does include mainstays like author John Piper; T4G co-founders Mark Dever, Ligon Duncan and Albert Mohler, and David Platt, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board.

But conspicuously missing are past speakers such as Thabiti Anyabwile, Matt Chandler and John MacArthur, all names that recently appeared in media coverage of controversies regarding sexual abuse, the Social Gospel and a social science concept known as Critical Race Theory.

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CHARLESTON (WV)
Weirton Daily Times

Sept. 6, 2019

By Steven Allen Adams

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced Thursday that his office filed a response to the Diocese of Wheeling Charleston’s motion to dismiss a civil case calling for more transparency regarding abuse of children.

The Attorney General’s Office filed their response to the diocese’s motion to dismiss in Wood County Circuit Court Wednesday. A hearing on the motion to dismiss was scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“The diocese’s motion to dismiss is yet another attempt to duck our calls for transparency,” Morrisey said in a statement Thursday. “Our response proves the strength of our case and why it should be decided in court. The decades-long pattern of cover-up and abuse must end and public trust must be restored.”

The original lawsuit, filed in March in Wood County, accuses the diocese of violating the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act by not disclosing incidents of sexual misconduct involving school and camp employees with minors to parents. The suit alleges that the diocese and former Bishop Michael J. Bransfield knowingly hired pedophiles and did not conduct background checks on employees for schools and camps operated by the diocese.

The diocese filed an amended motion to dismiss the civil suit in July, arguing that Morrisey has no authority to file a civil suit and accuses Morrisey of using the Consumer Credit and Protection Act to violate the separation of church and state.

In Wednesday’s filing, Assistant Attorney General Douglas Davis said the state is in no way trying to violate the diocese’s religious beliefs and practices but force it to comply with state consumer protection laws for the paid services the church provides, such as education.

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