ABUSE TRACKER

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Telegraph

Women claim disciplinary procedure failed them after abuse and violence at the hands of their clergymen husbands

July 10, 2020

By Daniel Foggo and Katherine Rushton

The Church of England has been accused of dismissing or ignoring serious complaints about priests’ conduct which are being made by their own wives.

An investigation by The Telegraph has identified instances where Church authorities failed to take action over allegations including sexual abuse, domestic violence and adultery, even when handed apparently compelling evidence.

On Friday evening one of the women who accused her husband of rape and marital violence said the Church was “turning a blind eye to abuse and immorality in its own ranks”.

She said: “They have absolutely been ignoring abuse. The clergy just want to protect themselves. They cover for each other and it comes from the top down.”

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

DENVER (CO)
KUSA 9 NBC

July 10, 2020

The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups.

The Archdiocese of Denver said it received a $1.9 million dollar loan and some individual Catholic parishes also got money.

A spokesperson for the Archdiocese said it used that money to keep its 4,000 workers employed and to keep soup kitchens and food pantries open.

Read the full statement below.

Houses of worship and faith-based organizations that promote religious beliefs aren’t usually eligible for money from the U.S. Small Business Administration. But as the economy plummeted and jobless rates soared, Congress let faith groups and other nonprofits tap into the Paycheck Protection Program, a $659 billion fund created to keep main street open and Americans employed.

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.

BRISBANE (QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA)
Catholic Leader – Archdiocese of Brisbane

July 10, 2020

By Mark Bowling

A group of survivors of sexual abuse have defended the Seal of Confession as a vital lifeline and aided their recovery.

Their testimonies paints the confession box as a safe place to speak and ease their trauma, and contradicts the intent of new laws across Australia aimed at compelling priests to report child sexual abuse offences disclosed during confessions.

South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory have already enacted laws that make it a criminal offence for a priest to withhold abuse disclosures.

Western Australia and Queensland are moving towards similar laws.

New South Wales has deferred any action.

A spokesman for a survivor group in Western Australia said few people realised that victims and survivors – Catholic and non-Catholic – often visited the confessional precisely because of the Seal of Confession.

“The Seal offers victims a safe, secure and watertight place where they can be listened to without cost, where they can remain anonymous, and can decide what they’re ready, and not ready, to share – and all of this in complete confidence,” spokesman James Parker said.

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

DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

July 9, 2020

The Diocese of Erie has been dropped as a defendant in a lawsuit against Bishop Donald Trautman and the Diocese of Buffalo which claims they covered up a priest’s sex abuse of a 10-year-old boy in the mid-1980s.

The suit, filed in January, concerns actions that Trautman allegedly took while serving in the curia of the Buffalo diocese. After his time in Buffalo, Trautman was Bishop of Erie.

The Erie diocese had asked to be removed from the suit, saying that the claims against Trautman concern only his time in Buffalo.

“The Erie Diocese has absolutely no relationship whatsoever to this case,” it said in a dismissal request filed May 18.

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.

WILKES-BARRE (PA)
Citizens Voice

July 8, 2020

By Michael P. Buffer

A Berks County man claims a priest sexually assaulted him in the mid-1970s when he was an altar boy between the ages of 10 and 13 at Sacred Heart Church in Luzerne Borough, according to a lawsuit that also alleges the Diocese of Scranton covered up prior incidents of the priest sexually abusing boys.

The priest named in the lawsuit is the late Rev. Robert Caparelli, an admitted and notorious child predator who is believed to have molested multiple boys during his 30 years as a diocesan priest.

In separate cases in the early 1990s, Caparelli was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting two altar boys between 1985 and 1989, in a Pike County rectory. Caparelli pleaded guilty to the abuse and died in prison in 1994.

The diocese settled at least three lawsuits filed by Caparelli’s victims. Two were filed by the parents of the Pike County boys and alleged the priest had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, when he sexually abused their sons.

The latest lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Luzerne Court Court. Daniel F. Monahan, an attorney from Exton, represents Joseph Storz, the plaintiff from Berks County. Storz, 56, is seeking punitive damages and a jury trial.

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)
Associated Press

July 10, 2020

By Reese Dunklin and Michael Rezendes

The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups.

The church’s haul may have reached — or even exceeded — $3.5 billion, making a global religious institution with more than a billion followers among the biggest winners in the U.S. government’s pandemic relief efforts, an Associated Press analysis of federal data released this week found.

Houses of worship and faith-based organizations that promote religious beliefs aren’t usually eligible for money from the U.S. Small Business Administration. But as the economy plummeted and jobless rates soared, Congress let faith groups and other nonprofits tap into the Paycheck Protection Program, a $659 billion fund created to keep main street open and Americans employed.

By aggressively promoting the payroll program and marshaling resources to help affiliates navigate its shifting rules, Catholic dioceses, parishes, schools and other ministries have so far received approval for at least 3,500 forgivable loans, AP found.

The Archdiocese of New York, for example, received 15 loans worth at least $28 million just for its top executive offices. Its iconic St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue was approved for at least $1 million.

In Orange County, California, where a sparkling glass cathedral estimated to cost over $70 million recently opened, diocesan officials working at the complex received four loans worth at least $3 million.

And elsewhere, a loan of at least $2 million went to the diocese covering Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, where a church investigation revealed last year that then-Bishop Michael Bransfield embezzled funds and made sexual advances toward young priests.

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

LANSDALE (PA)
Bucks Local News

July 9, 2020

Doylestown – A former Catholic priest who served for 10 years at a Lower Bucks church has been sentenced to state prison for the sexual abuse of two altar boys.

Francis Trauger, 74, of Brooklyn, New York, pleaded guilty Wednesday, July 8 to two counts of indecent assault of a person under 13, admitting to one first-degree misdemeanor for each victim charged.

He had been accused of molesting two altar boys, one in the mid-1990s and another in the early 2000s. The abuse occurred while Trauger, known in the church community as “Father Frank”, was a priest at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Tullytown.

– Advertisement –
Judge Jeffrey L. Finley sentenced Trauger to serve 18 to 36 months in state prison, a penalty in the aggravated range recommended by state sentencing guidelines, followed by seven years of probation.

“After evading justice for decades, this defendant is headed today to state prison for molesting two boys decades ago,” said District Attorney Matthew D. Weintraub. “I hope the message to any other victims out there is clear: It is almost never too late to come forward to speak your truth.”

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.

CAROL STREAM (IL)
Christianity Today

July 7, 2020

By Daniel Silliman

Megachurch pastor’s son named as the volunteer who confessed sexual attraction to children.

A California megachurch is defending the investigation and restoration of senior pastor John Ortberg as more information emerges about his concealment of a church volunteer’s confession of unwanted sexual attraction to children.

The pastor’s son Daniel Lavery, frustrated by what he has characterized as a lack of concern for the seriousness of sexual abuse, publicly named the volunteer on Twitter in late June: his brother and Ortberg’s youngest child, 30-year-old John Ortberg III.

Menlo Church elders first learned of the concealment when Lavery wrote them in November 2019. In the letter, Lavery said he believed there was “a credible basis for a serious and thorough investigation of every aspect of my brother’s work with children.” He said his father was choosing to take the younger Ortberg at his word that he had never acted on his sexual attractions, despite a clear pattern of seeking out opportunities to be alone with children.

“In the most charitable reading possible, my parents have acted with unconscionable disregard for their responsibilities as leaders, ministers, and parents,” Lavery wrote.

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

DENVER (CO)
Colorado Politics

July 9, 2020

By Michael Karlik

https://www.coloradopolitics.com/news/in-aurora-teacher-sex-abuse-case-court-of-appeals-dismisses-charges-against-2-employees/article_c6e726c2-c219-11ea-950f-bf4f7cc022b5.html

Two separate panels of the Colorado Court of Appeals both concluded that the statute of limitations for failing to report child abuse begins when a party who is required to report first learns of the abuse and does not immediately notify authorities.

“In the absence of clear legislative intent, we must conclude that failure to report is not a continuing offense,” wrote Judge Jaclyn Casey Brown, “and that the statute of limitations begins to run when a mandatory reporter has reason to know or suspect child abuse or neglect but willfully fails to make an immediate report.”

18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler, whose office brought the charges, said on Thursday he was frustrated that two former school employees in the Cherry Creek School District would face no legal consequences for allegedly talking a minor out of her sex assault accusation.

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.

DANBURY (CT)
News Times

July 9, 2020

By Kendra Baker

The pre-trial hearing of the former local priest accused of sexually assaulting two boys has been pushed to Sept. 4.

Jaime Marin-Cardona, 52, is charged with three counts of fourth-degree sexual assault, three counts of risk of injury to child and three counts of illegal sexual contact. He pleaded not guilty to all nine charges.

The warrant for Marin-Cardona’s arrest alleges that he groomed two boys over the course of four years, and sexually abused one of them over the same period of time.

The alleged abuse began in 2014 — the same year Marin-Cardona became a priest at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church on Golden Hill Road.

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.

ROCHESTER (NY)
Democrat & Chronicle

July 9, 2020

St. Bonaventure NY – St. Bonaventure University is pulling the name of a deceased priest off one of its buildings thanks to an article written by a Brockport High graduate and local television journalist.

Msgr. James Hopkins, the Catholic Diocese of Erie said in July 2018, was the subject of an abuse report in 1993, long after his 1957 death. His name was among those included in a grand jury’s report in August 2018 on sexual abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses including Erie.

Hopkins attended seminary at St. Bonaventure in the late 1890s and received an honorary degree in 1950, the university said. He was pastor at St. Titus Church in Titusville, and the sex abuse allegations stemmed from his time there.

Hopkins Hall has been the name of the university’s administration building. The sign in front of the building has been removed and it will be known as the Administration Building until renaming discussions start at an undetermined time.

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

SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Deseret News

July 9, 2020

By Dennis Romboy

A former Latter-day Saint bishop admitted in federal court Thursday to having child pornography on his cellphone.

Timothy James Hallows, 62, of Kaysville, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in an agreement with federal prosecutors. He admitted to having images of prepubescent children being sexually assaulted by adults on his cellphone and sending them to a woman in the Philippines last November.

Hallows faces up to 20 years in prison. A sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.

Hallows was bishop of the Wellington Ward in the Kaysville Utah Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he was arrested in October and later charged with eight counts of sexual exploitation of a minor in 2nd District Court in Davis County.

The state charges were dismissed June 29 after the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Davis County Attorney’s Office decided to pursue the case in federal court.

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

July 8, 2020

By Vinny Vella

After years of dodging allegations of abusing children, a former Catholic priest pleaded guilty Wednesday to molesting two altar boys in Bucks County decades ago.

Francis Trauger, 74, admitted his guilt to two counts of indecent assault of a minor, and Bucks County Judge Jeffrey L. Finley sentenced him to 18 to 36 months in a state prison and seven years’ probation.

Trauger did not speak during the hour-long hearing, which played out in a mostly empty courtroom, with only a few onlookers and a huddle of journalists.

His attorney, Brian McVann, said that the defrocked priest’s conduct “cannot be defended” and that Trauger felt compelled to admit his guilt and take responsibility for his actions.

“He has done great good in his life,” McVann said. “Unfortunately, it has been lost in this case.”

Finley, in handing down the sentence, told Trauger that any good he had done during his decades-long tenure with the church had been “torn down” and destroyed by these actions.

“I don’t know that you truly understood that,” the judge said. “Or at least that you truly didn’t understand that until you were arrested.”

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

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WPVI 6 ABC

July 8, 2020

Tullytown PA – A former Catholic priest pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon to sexually abusing two altar boys in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Father Francis Trauger was sentenced to 18 to 36 months in a state prison in addition to seven years probation.

Trauger served at St. Michael the Archangel in Tullytown between 1993 and 2003, when the assaults happened.

Michael McDonnell, of Bristol, was molested by Trauger in 1981. He says this is a step towards closure.

Trauger was removed from the priesthood in 2003 and two years later was named in the Philadelphia Grand Jury Report about predator priests.

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

NEWTON (NJ)
New Jersey Herald

July 8, 2020

By Abbott Koloff

A new round of lawsuits filed against the order that runs the Delbarton School in Morris Township underscores questions about how allegedly abusive monks are being dealt with even now — with one still having voicemail at a residence on school grounds after being the subject of another lawsuit settled two years ago.

Attorneys filed six lawsuits Tuesday that contain new accusations of sexual abuse allegedly committed by five men who have been monks of St. Mary’s Abbey and the Order of St. Benedict and one former Delbarton lay teacher. This was the first wave, the attorneys said, of what is expected to be more than 20 such complaints.

The accused clerics are Timothy Brennan, Justin Capato, Donal Fox, Benedict Michael Worry and Malachy Robert Flavin. Also accused is a former teacher, Giacomo Pagano. All six men have been the subjects of prior sex abuse settlements made by the order.

Capato, Fox and Worry were accused in a 2015 civil complaint settled in 2018. Last year, a Catholic directory still listed all three as priests assigned to St. Mary’s Abbey. Worry has a phone extension at the abbey.

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

July 8, 2020

By Jay Tokasz

When Catholic Charities of Buffalo officials announced in January they would seek to raise $10 million in the 2020 appeal, the big question was how much an anticipated Buffalo Diocese bankruptcy filing might hurt the human services agency’s fundraising.

But the agency faced an even bigger obstacle than the diocese’s February bankruptcy filing when the global coronavirus pandemic shut down parish life and Masses in 161 Catholic churches across Western New York for three months during the heart of the appeal effort.

Despite the pandemic, Catholic Charities ended up raising $8.4 million through the appeal, which ended June 30. It was $1.6 million short of the goal, but Deacon Steve Schumer, president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit, said he was very happy with the results, especially under the extraordinary circumstances of the past few months.

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. CLOUD (MN)
KNSI

July 7, 2020

By Jenifer Lewerenz

The Diocese of St. Cloud has announced a deadline for claims for victims and survivors of clergy sex abuse.

The United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota issued an order Tuesday saying anyone making a claim against the Diocese for sex abuse must make a claim with the bankruptcy court no later than 5:00 p.m. October 21, 2020. This is to ensure the claim is considered for compensation if the person believes the Diocese of St. Cloud is responsible for any injury or other damages to them because they claim that they were sexually abused by a priest, a clergyman, a worker, a volunteer, an employee, or other person or entity associated with the Diocese.

If you would like to get additional information, or make a claim, click here. You can also call 520-770-8712.

The deadline is part of the $22.5 million settlement framework agreed to by clergy sex abuse survivors, attorneys, and 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.

FERNDALE (MI)
Church Militant

July 8, 2020

By Bradley Eli

Rochester diocese discredits testimony

Rochester NY – Testimony from Rochester’s former bishop is confirming he routinely reassigned to ministry priests accused of pedophilia.

In testimony released on Monday, Rochester’s Bp. Emeritus Matthew Clark admits under oath that he was aware of sexual abuse allegations against priests, who he nonetheless returned to active ministry after sending them to rehabilitation centers. Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney representing 94 sexual abuse victims suing the diocese of Rochester, says Clark’s deposition, given in March, indicates Clark did shelter known pedophile priests.

“The testimony by Bp. Matthew Clark under oath in his deposition of March 3, 2020 indicates that Bp. Clark hid pedophilia from the public for decades just as clergy sexual abuse victims had suspected,” Garabedian commented.

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.

PLATSBURGH (NY)
Press-Republican

July 2, 2020

By Cara Chapman

Twenty new lawsuits were filed against the Diocese of Ogdensburg under the New York Child Victims Act Tuesday.

The suits collectively named 14 priests.

“The Diocese of Ogdensburg takes all allegations of abuse seriously, and these new allegations will be investigated,” Diocese of Ogdensburg Communications Director Darcy Fargo said.

“We hope and pray that victims of abuse are able to find healing and reconciliation, and that justice is served in these 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.

ELLSWORTH (ME)
Ellsworth American

July 8, 2020

By Jennifer Osborn

The statute of limitations for reporting sexual assaults will prevent a potential case involving a priest or pastor from being prosecuted, according to District Attorney Matt Foster.

“I tried to see if the United States Attorney’s Office would be able to prosecute, but they didn’t think they could prosecute the case either,” Foster said.

Hancock County Sheriff’s Det. Stephen McFarland last week took a complaint from a New Jersey man who reported sexual assaults were committed against him between 1978 and 1980 in Dedham.

The statute of limitations is “complex,” the detective said. “It depends on the charge, the age of victim at the time, the date of offense and laws in effect at the time.”

Foster said “basically we cannot prosecute a late report that is alleged to have occurred prior to Oct. 9, 1980 for GSA [gross sexual assault] of a child under 16.”

Whether the accused has been out of state for any period of time during the statute of limitations is another factor, Foster said. For example, any time a defendant spent out of state after the alleged crime, can be added to the statute of limitation to extend it up to an additional five years.

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

PORTSMOUTH (VA)
WAVY

July 2, 2020

By Sarah Fearing

Norfolk VA – A former teacher at Norfolk Catholic High School has been sentenced to five years in prison with two years suspended in connection with sexual abuse of a student that happened in the late 1970s.

Daniel Wolfe was arrested in March 2019 after the victim came forward alleging sexual abuse between 1978 and 1979, when Wolfe was employed as a teacher at Norfolk Catholic High School.

Wolfe pleaded guilty to one charge of crimes against nature in October 2019 in connection with the allegations.

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.

FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram

July 8, 2020

By Domingo Ramirez Jr.

Two Marianist religious order priests accused of molesting children in the United States worked in the Diocese of Fort Worth. But they aren’t on a list of clergy accused of sexual abuse of minors in the Fort Worth area because the alleged abuse didn’t occur here, according to a statement from the diocese.

The Roman Catholic religious order based in St. Louis recently released the names of its members found to have sexually abused a minor since 1950 in the United States.

That list included Father John N. Schlund and Father Daniel A. Triulzi, who both worked in the Diocese of Fort Worth at one time. Triulzi was removed from the ministry in 2006 and Schlund in 2004. Triulzi died in 2017, according to the religious order, the Marianist Province of the United States.

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.

SARASOTA (FL)
Sarasota Herald-Tribune

July 8, 2020

By Frank Fernandez

The 33-year-old man said sexual abuse took place when he was a teenager about 20 years ago.

A 33-year-old man has filed a lawsuit against a retired Catholic priest who lives in Ormond Beach, accusing the priest of sexually molesting him two decades ago when the man was a teenager being held in a juvenile detention facility.

Louis Reed, the accuser who has filed the lawsuit, agreed to have his name published for this story.

Reed’s suit is filed in Polk County Circuit Court against the Rev. Fred Ruse. An attorney for the former priest said his client did not want to discuss the lawsuit and denied the allegations in a phone interview, citing Reed’s criminal history to question his credibility.

“I already had mental health issues and someone gained my trust as a vulnerable teenager and took advantage of me,” Reed said in a phone interview.

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. BONAVENTURE (NY)
St. Bonaventure University

July 8, 2020

St. Bonaventure University has removed the name from Hopkins Hall, the university’s administration building.

Some investigative reporting this spring by Sean Mickey, a reporter for The Bona Venture student newspaper, revealed that the building was named after Msgr. James Hopkins, a diocesan priest who was credibly accused of sexual abuse.

“We didn’t realize that Hopkins was on a list of priests accused of sexual abuse, but when Sean inquired about it when he saw his name, I confirmed with the Diocese of Erie that Hopkins was on the list, and that he had more than one abuse claim,” said Tom Missel, chief communications officer. “Kudos to Sean for bringing it to the university’s attention.”

Dr. Dennis DePerro, university president, authored a resolution to have Hopkins’ name removed from the building. The university’s Board of Trustees approved the resolution at its annual summer board meeting.

“It’s reprehensible what’s been uncovered and heartbreaking for the families who’ve been victimized,” DePerro said. “It doesn’t matter that the abuses in this case might have happened a century ago. Anytime a story surfaces like this, anyone who’s been a victim of sexual abuse feels the pain.”

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.

ERIE (PA)
Erie Times-News

July 9, 2020

[See also SBU to consider renaming building after claim of sexual abuse, by Sean Mickey, Bona Venture, March 12, 2020; and the description of the Hopkins case in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report, August 14, 2018.]

St. Bonaventure NY – The name of a deceased priest who is on the Catholic Diocese of Erie’s list of credibly accused has been removed from a building on the St. Bonaventure University campus.

Msgr. James Hopkins, the Erie diocese said in July 2018, was the subject of an abuse report in 1993, long after his death in 1957. His name was among those included in a grand jury’s report in August 2018 on abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses including Erie.

Hopkins attended seminary at St. Bonaventure in the late 1890s and received an honorary degree in 1950, the university said. He was pastor at St. Titus Church in Titusville, and the allegations of abuse stemmed from his time there.

Hopkins Hall has been the name of the university’s administration building. The sign in front of the building has been removed and it will be known as the Administration Building until renaming discussions start at an undetermined time.

University President Dennis DePerro drafted a resolution to have Hopkins’ name removed from the building. The Board of Trustees approved the resolution at its annual summer 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.

ROCHESTER (NY)
WHAM

July 7, 2020

By Jane Flasch

For 32 years, Matthew Clark led the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester.

The former bishop now admits publicly that the diocese kept secret archives and priests accused of sexual abuse were allowed to continue to serve, sometimes moving from parish to parish.

The statements are contained in a three-hour deposition given in March as part of bankruptcy proceedings. The legal transcript was released to the public Monday.

“I just want to see the truth come out,” said Carol Dupre, who has filed a sexual abuse lawsuit.

She says she was just a teenager when she was first molested by her parish priest back in 1962. During his deposition Bishop Clark said he didn’t recall allegations about Rev. Stuart Hogan or some of the other 50 priests he was asked about.

In other cases, his memory was clear.

For example, he said Rev. Eugene Emo was sent away for treatment, then reassigned to a Livingston County parish – but with no restrictions on access to 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.

ALBANY (NY)
Times-Union

July 7, 2020

By Cayla Harris

Rev. Alan Jupin, who died in 2019, allegedly molested five minors in ’70s, ’80s, ’90s

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany on Tuesday added Rev. Alan Jupin – who spent most of his tenure as a priest at Our Lady of Fatima, now St. Kateri Tekakwitha, in Schenectady – to its list of priests and clergy “credibly accused” of sexually abusing children.

Jupin, who died in January 2019, is accused of molesting five children in Schenectady and Albany in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He is the latest, and the first 2020 addition, to a list of nearly 50 priests and clergy who have substantive complaints of molestation filed against them, as determined by a diocesan review panel.

Jupin’s name was added to the list after the review board hired an investigator last year to probe a new allegation against the reverend, as well as past accusations that the panel had previously decided were unsubstantiated. Jupin had been placed on administrative leave twice – in 2003 and 2011 – for allegations of sexually abusing children, but the review board at those times found those accusations to have “no reasonable cause for action.”

The 2019 investigation, instead, did find reasonable cause to add Jupin’s name to the list, according to a release from the Albany Diocese. The review board meets privately to determine whether sexual abuse allegations are credible and typically relies on information from private investigators; ultimately, the bishop is responsible for any action against priests.

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

WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service via Crux

July 8, 2020

Regensburg, Germany – Retired Pope Benedict XVI followed the funeral of his brother, Georg Ratzinger, via live streaming, reported the German Catholic news agency KNA.

Bishop Rudolf Voderholzer of Regensburg said Pope Benedict, 93, was connected to the Mass taking place for his older brother July 8 in the Regensburg Cathedral. Msgr. Georg Ratzinger died on July 1 at age 96.

During the Mass, the Regensburg bishop recalled the surprise June 18-22 visit Benedict paid to the sickbed of his dying brother.

“This sign of humanity touched many people. So all the more do we share in your mourning,” he said in words addressed to the retired pope.

KNA reported that alongside Voderholzer at the altar was Benedict’s private secretary, Archbishop Georg Ganswein, and the papal ambassador to Germany, Archbishop Nikola Eterovic. Among other participants were the former Regensburg bishop, Cardinal Gerhard Muller, and Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx.

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.

WILKES-BARRE (PA)
Times Leader

July 7, 2020

By Patrick Kernan

Rev. Robert Caparelli had predatory history, served time

A Berks County man filed a lawsuit against the Diocese of Scranton on Tuesday, claiming the diocese conspired to cover up evidence of abuse in order to protect the alleged abuser.

The Times Leader does not identify the victims of sexual abuse, but the suit was filed through the man’s attorney, Daniel F. Monahan. According to the suit, the man was abused by the late Rev. Robert Caparelli while the plaintiff was between the ages of 10 and 13.

Caparelli was a priest at various churches throughout the Diocese for decades, until he was arrested in the early 1990s, dying while serving prison time in 1994. The plaintiff in this case claims he was abused by Caparelli during his time at Sacred Heart Church, now the site of Holy Family Parish, in Luzerne Borough.

According to the suit, Caparelli’s abuse of the plaintiff began roughly around 1974, while he was an altar server at the church and Caparelli worked as a priest. The suit says Caparelli abused the plaintiff on numerous occasions, telling the boy that “his actions were acceptable because he liked him and he was ‘special.’”

The suit says the abuse occurred in the sacristy of the church.

The suit claims the Diocese of Scranton, including its former leaders J. Carroll McCormick and Bishop John O’Connor “were familiar with Caparelli’s sexual interest in male children as early as Aug. 14, 1968, and continued to be aware through direct confirmation of that sexual interest thereafter.”

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

WARSAW (POLAND)
Agence France-Presse

July 8, 2020

Jakub Pankowiak’s story of sexual abuse by a local priest is shaking up Poland’s Catholic hierarchy, amplifying calls for full transparency after decades of cover-ups in the former communist country.

Pankowiak, an organist’s son and a young boy at the time, recalls that Father Arkadiusz Hajdasz was “friendly, open, smiley” when he arrived in the town of Pleszew.

“It started with tea and cookies… until one day he sat down and just started kissing and fondling me,” Pankowiak told AFP in a phone interview.

“I was speechless to the point of no reaction. I just waited for it to end,” said the 35-year-old who still recalls the priest’s bad breath and pimply ruddy cheeks.

Pankowiak, now a musician and lecturer, said Hajdasz molested him hundreds of times, as well as his younger brother Bartlomiej and others.

The siblings tell their story in a documentary called “Hide and Seek” by Marek and Tomasz Sekielski.

Viewed seven million times on YouTube since its May release, it has ignited debate on the issue of clerical sex abuse in Poland.

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.

FORT WORTH (TX)
KXAS 5 NBC DFW

July 8, 2020

Fr. John N. Schlund and Fr. Daniel A. Triulzi were named as abusers on the list released by the Marianist

Members of SNAP, the Survivors Network, are requesting that the names of two clerics be added to the rosters of abusive priests in the Diocese of Fort Worth and explain why they were omitted.

Fr. John N. Schlund and Fr. Daniel A. Triulzi were named as abusers on the list released by the Marianist order in late June.

According to the Marianists, Schlund worked in “Campus Ministry” in Denton, and Triulzi worked at Nolan Catholic High School in Fort Worth and at St. Mark’s in Denton.

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.

ROCHESTER (NY)
Spectrum News

July 7, 2020

By Jonathan Hunter

Former Rochester Catholic Bishop Matthew Clark admitted that he allowed priests who were sexually abusing children to continue to work. The deposition was just released to the public. This comes after he was questioned in March as part of a bankruptcy hearing for the Diocese of Rochester.

“If someone was working for a big company, he’d be fired on the spot when he was caught,” said Carol Dupré, a victim.

Dupré is just one of many victims who say they were abused by priests in the Rochester region. She says her abuse took place in the 1960s at a church in Wayne County.

“Without going into any details about it, I finally told my mother what was going on and she reported it to the dioceses and they did nothing,” said Dupré

In the 140-page deposition, Bishop Clark admitted he knew there were priests who were sexually abusing children. He says he sent them to treatment and reassigned them when they returned. Mitchell Garabedian is an attorney who represents clients who were sexually abused by clergy members.

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.

SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Deseret News

July 7, 2020

By Annie Knox

Charges have tested victim’s memory in alleged crime and the reach of statutes of limitation

West Jordan – A judge has declined to dismiss a set of criminal charges against a former youth symphony orchestra director accused of decades-old sexual misconduct with teenage boys.

Third District Judge Kristine Johnson ruled late Monday that prosecutors in Salt Lake County have met their burden of proof, a preponderance of the evidence, at the early stage in the case against Brent E. Taylor, a former longtime director of the Utah Valley Youth Symphony.

Attorneys have focused their attention on the nitty-gritty of Utah’s statutes of limitation and whether they provide Taylor a defense to allegations from a former teenage employee who worked for him in the 1980s.

No one disputes that the charges will hold up only if the boy was legally a child — age 13 or younger — at the time the alleged sexual abuse began. While the defense says the evidence fails to prove his age, prosecutors contend it strongly suggests he was not yet 14 years old.

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.

CHARLOTTE (NC)
Associated Press

July 2, 2020

A Catholic priest in North Carolina will remain on administrative leave after allegations of sexual abuse against him were revealed last year, the Charlotte diocese’s bishop said.

Bishop Peter Jugis made the announcement to St. Matthew parishioners in a letter Wednesday, writing that he had accepted the recommendation of the diocese’s Lay Review Board to keep the Rev. Patrick Hoare out of ministry, The Charlotte Observer reported.

Hoare was originally put on administrative leave in December after the diocese received “an allegation against him of child sexual abuse that was said to have occurred in Pennsylvania more than 25 years ago, before Father Hoare entered ministry” the Charlotte Observer quoted Jugis as writing.

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.

SCHENECTADY (NY)
Daily Gazette

July 7, 20200

By Brenton Blanchet

Rev. Alan Jupin died in 2019; investigation finds “reasonable cause” to accept allegations of sexual abuse against minors credible
|
Albany – The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany announced Tuesday that it’s adding Rev. Alan Jupin, who died in 2019, to its “List of Offenders” after an investigation found “reasonable cause” related to allegations of sexual abuse against minors.

The findings followed 2019 allegations which the Diocesan Review Board hired an investigator to examine.

Jupin has been accused of sexually abusing a total of five minors in Schenectady and Albany in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Previously, he was on administrative leave between 2003 and 2011, before the Diocesan Review Board found the allegations he was on leave for had “no reasonable cause for action.”

Last year, Timothy Sawicki of Schenectady joined a multi-plaintiff lawsuit, filed by the Marsh Law Firm in White Plains, and alleged Jupin groomed and sexually abused him when he was 16 and 17 years old from 1975 to 1977. Jupin worked at St. John the Baptist in Schenectady at the time and Sawicki claimed Jupin introduced him to other priests who also sexually abused 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.

NEW YORK (NY)
Associated Press

July 7, 2020

By Michael Rezendes

Last month, when former Major League All-star Torii Hunter said he’d been called the N-word “a hundred times” at Boston’s storied Fenway Park, the Red Sox were quick to back him up with a promise to fight racism.

“Torii Hunter’s experience is real,” the team said in a June 10 Twitter post, adding that there were at least seven incidents as recently as last year where fans used racial slurs. The team promised to do a better job dealing with racism: “As we identify how we can do better, please know we are listening.”

But those words rang hollow for more than a dozen Black men who have spent the last several years trying to get the Red Sox to listen to their claims that they were sexually abused by a former Red Sox clubhouse manager who died in 2005.

The former clubhouse manager, Donald “Fitzy” Fitzpatrick, pleaded guilty to criminal charges of attempted sexual battery in 2002, admitting that he used Red Sox team memorabilia to lure young, Black clubhouse workers into secluded areas of the team’s Florida spring training facility, where he abused them. Fitzpatrick did not admit to abusing young boys in other ballparks.

Since then, a growing number of men have stepped forward to allege that they, too, were abused by Fitzpatrick at Fenway Park and at major league stadiums in Baltimore and Kansas City, when the Red Sox were playing on the road. Because their claims date to the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, they are too old to be included in civil lawsuits, and the men say their requests for out-of-court settlements have fallen on deaf ears.

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

WOODBRIDGE (NJ)
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

July 8, 2020

By Joe Atmonavage

Six lawsuits alleging former employees at a prestigious Morris County Catholic school sexually abused minors were filed Tuesday and more than a dozen additional lawsuits will be added in the coming weeks, an attorney representing the victims said.

The lawsuits, filed against Delbarton School, an all-boys school in Morristown, St. Mary’s Abbey and the order that runs the school, St. Benedicts of New Jersey, allege that minors dating back to the 1960s were sexually abused by former employees of the school. The suits were filed in state Superior Court in Morris County.

Greg Gianforcaro, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the new cases, said he expects additional lawsuits to be filed “soon.”

The Delbarton School has been the subject of a number of lawsuits in recent years by former students who allege they were sexually abused by clerics at the school. Gianforcaro said he has settled at least 15 cases on behalf of sexual abuse survivors against the Delbarton School since 2004.

“This institution cared more about their reputation than they did about the students in the school,” Gianforcaro said about the number of cases filed against the school.

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

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

July 4, 2020

By Christopher Lamb

Pope Francis has chosen Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti to be his next ambassador to Great Britain.

The 64-year-old Italian diplomat will move to London from Ukraine, where he has served as papal representative, known as an apostolic nuncio, since the end of 2015.

*

Born in Verona, Archbishop Gugerotti is a patristics scholar and expert on the Eastern churches who has taught at the Pontifical Oriental Institute and worked at the Congregation for Eastern Churches.

He is not a career diplomat, but in 2001 Pope John Paul II named him the papal representative to Georgia, Armenia and Arzebaijan.

The archbishop’s appointment to the complex, and delicate posting of Ukraine signalled his diplomatic expertise. He also took over that position from Archbishop Timothy Gullickson, who had been openly critical of Pope Francis.

*
As nuncio, the archbishop’s role will see him draw up shortlists for crucial leadership positions in the Church in England and Wales. Whenever a diocese needs a new bishop, the papal nuncio is responsible for drawing up a shortlist of three candidates along with a detailed report into the local church.

Later this year the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, will reach the retirement age of 75, while in 2021 the Archbishop of Cardiff, George Stack, also turns 75.

Archbishop Gugerotti is also facing the outcomes of the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse. His predecessor, Archbishop Adams, was criticised for not giving evidence to the inquiry.

As a Holy See ambassador he had diplomatic immunity and could not be compelled to give evidence. The inquiry wanted information about the apostolic nunciature’s handling of abuse at Ealing Abbey and St Benedict’s school, particularly on the case of Laurence Soper, the former abbot who skipped bail while under suspicion for abuse.

It later emerged that the Vatican financial authorities provided crucial information which led to the arrest and conviction for Soper for child abuse offences.

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

PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

July 7, 2020

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh will eliminate 11 jobs, reduce the hours for two others, and relocate its administrative offices as it tries to reduce costs while responding to the “ongoing challenges presented by the global COVID-19 pandemic,” the diocese announced Tuesday.

The reorganization plan will move diocesan headquarters from the Boulevard of the Allies in Downtown to the St. Paul Seminary campus in East Carnegie, where some of its offices are already located. The Downtown building would likely be put up for sale.

The plan was announced to staff and clergy Tuesday during two online conference calls.

In the release, the diocese did not specify which jobs were eliminated.

The diocese said a long-term decline in Mass attendance and donations “has been exacerbated by the ripple effect of COVID-19. Decreased donations to parishes directly impacts Parish Share giving, which is the primary source of funding for the diocesan budget.”

The cuts were originally expected to be higher, but the diocese was able to reduce the cuts, in part due to a $2.5 million loan through the federal Payroll Protection Program, which the diocese says helped prevent further layoffs and furloughs.

“Having to let one person go is sad enough, but we have 11,” Bishop David Zubik said. “We just try to be very responsible about using the money the best way we can.”

The cuts come on top of a previous round of cuts last year in which the diocese eliminated about 32 positions.

Long-term declines in attendance and donations have been exacerbated in the past two years, first by some parishioners upset over parish mergers and the grand jury report into sexual abuse by priests, and more recently by the pandemic. Churches were closed for several weeks, and the usual required attendance remains waived even with their reopening. Donations have been down 20% since the pandemic started.

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.

ROCHESTER (NY)
U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Western District of New York

Released July 6, 2020; taken March 3, 2020

Examination by William Gordon of the Law Offices of Mitchell Garabedian for the Creditors Committee

[Excerpt from pages 53-54.]

Q. So Father Emo had admitted to you, correct me if I’m wrong, that he had sexually abused a minor. Is that correct?

A. Uh-huh.

Q. You sent him away to treatment to some facility, correct?

A. Yes.

Q. And after he came back, you reassigned him to a position at a parish?

A. Yes.

Q. Was he assigned as a pastor or assistant pastor?

A. Assistant.

Q. And was it your understanding that as an assistant pastor, Father Emo would have access to minors?

A. Yes.

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.

ROCHESTER (NY)
WROC

July 6, 2020

A transcript of the March deposition of former bishop Matthew Clark of the Rochester Diocese was released Monday.

The Diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September of last year, less than one month after a flurry of lawsuits were filed against the Catholic organization related to the Child Victims Act.

Clark, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, answered questions about what he knew about dozens of priests and if he knew about prior allegations against them.

He did admit to knowing about prior sexual misconduct allegations against some priests. He said that some accused priests returned to the ministry after either going to get rehabilitation or seeing a psychologist.

*
Mitchell Garabedian, the attorney representing 94 sexual abuse victims in the Diocese of Rochester also released a statement concerning the deposition:

“The testimony by Bishop Matthew Clark under oath in his deposition of March 3, 2020 indicates that Bishop Clark hid pedophilia from the public for decades just as clergy sexual abuse victims had suspected. By hiding pedophilia, Bishop Clark was part of the horrible problem and not part of the solution. Given his testimony under oath, Bishop Clark had an utter disregard for the safety and well- being of 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.

ROCHESTER (NY)
Diocese of Rochester

July 6, 2020

The Diocese of Rochester appreciates Bishop Emeritus Clark’s cooperation in undergoing approximately three hours of questioning in his deposition of March 2020. While any individual would have difficulty providing accurate memory of events that occurred over a period of more than 33 years, Bishop Clark was further hindered by his struggle with early Alzheimer’s Disease.

In a January 13, 2020 letter filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in early February, prior to the deposition, Bishop Clark’s physician had forewarned of potential issues by stating that Bishop Clark’s “memory impairment limits his ability to assimilate and recall information presented in lengthy and complex questions and his ability to recall past events. His language impairment limits his ability to form clear, cogent and reliable responses to such questions.” As a result of these limitations, the deposition is in many instances imprecise and inaccurate and thus calls into question whether it is a credible addition to the bankruptcy case record.

We continue to pray for the victims of sexual abuse, that they might find the hope and healing they deserve. We pray for Bishop Clark and for all those who suffer from this debilitating and tragic disease, and for the dedicated health professionals and caregivers working to assuage the difficult challenges of Alzheimer’s Disease.

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.

ROCHESTER (NY)
WHEC 10 NBC

July 6, 2020

By Jennifer Lewke

What did he know and when did he know it?

That’s what attorneys for the victims of priest sex abuse were trying to find out from former Bishop of the Rochester Diocese, Matthew Clark during a recent deposition.

The transcript of that deposition was just filed.

News10NBC Investigative Reporter Jennifer Lewke has been reading through it.

The transcript is 145 pages long and the deposition lasted three hours. Bishop Clark was in frail health while providing it.

His doctor was there with him to monitor his condition as he answered questions as part of the diocese’s bankruptcy filing.

Bishop Clark was asked about dozens of priests by name and whether he was aware of sexual misconduct allegations against them.

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.

ROCHESTER (NY)
WHAM 13 ABC

July 6, 2020

By Ginny Ryan

For the first time, and under oath, Bishop Emeritus Matthew Clark has admitted priests accused of sex abuse continued to serve in ministry.

The bishop’s testimony came as part of bankruptcy proceedings for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester.

In his own words, he offers a rare look into how priests accused of sex abuse were handled.

“In times past, there was no accountability,” according to Jeff Anderson, an attorney for sex abuse survivors. “There was not an opportunity to take this kind of deposition and ask a broad range of questions.”

During a three-hour deposition, Bishop Clark was questioned about more than 50 priests accused of abuse. Some, he said, he did not remember.

But there are many he did, including Rev. Eugene Emo.

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.

MADRID (SPAIN)
Religión Digital / Kairos News

July 5, 2020

Santiago, Chile – The survivor is a young man who lives today in Santiago, Chile, who agreed to an exclusive interview with Kairós News.

He says that he decided to come forward when he heard the case of Barros and Karadima, while Pope Francis was in Chile. That he would like Opus to learn from what has happened in our country.

“Cociña always talks about massages. I couldn’t tell anyone, because nobody was going to believe me”

“What is Opus playing at? That sentence has sixteen pages and the sentence … five years is nothing. He has not been expelled from Opus Dei”

“Canon Law is very bad, because we are not the same as we denounce each other. Rather, it is the Catholic Church that denounces one of its own, which in this case is Manuel Cociña” [Google translation]

El sobreviviente de los abusos del cura del Opus Dei condenado por el Vaticano cuenta su conmovedora historia

El sobreviviente es un joven que vive hoy en Santiago de Chile, quien accedió a una entrevista exclusiva con Kairós News

Dice que se decidió a denunciar cuando conoció el caso de Barros y Karadima, estando el papa Francisco en Chile. Que le gustaría que el Opus aprendiera de lo que ha pasado en nuestro país.

“Cociña siempre habla de los masajes. Yo no podía decírselo a nadie, porque nadie me iba a creer”

“¿A qué está jugando el Opus? Esa sentencia tiene dieciséis páginas y la condena… cinco años es nada. No se le ha expulsado del Opus Dei”

“El Derecho Canónico está muy mal, porque no somos iguales que nos denunciamos uno al otro. Sino que es la Iglesia Católica quien denuncia a uno de los suyos, que en este caso es Manuel Cociña”

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.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Daily News / City News Service

July 6, 2020

Citing the coronavirus, a judge said Monday that trial of a case brought against an archdiocese and a diocese by plaintiffs who allege they were sexually abused by a priest more than 25 years ago will not go forward as scheduled in October and instead be delayed for five months.

“Our world is a different place than it was when we last spoke,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Sotelo told attorneys in reference to the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused all but a few civil case matters to be put on hold from early March until June 22.

Sotelo, presiding over a status conference, rescheduled the trial from Oct. 6 to March 2, 2021. By the time a jury is impaneled, the lawsuit may no longer include the accused priest, the Rev. Carlos Rene Rodriguez, as a defendant.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Anthony M. De Marco stated in a report to the court that he has been unable to locate the clergyman and that the defendant likely has little or no money, so De Marco has decided to drop him from the case.

De Marco stated in his court papers that the decision is “without prejudice,” meaning it could be reversed later if circumstances warrant.

The two plaintiffs are identified only as John R.R. Doe and John R.F. Doe. In February 2018, they sued the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Diocese of San Bernardino, as well as the Congregation of the Mission Western Province, which conducts religious education and activities.

The plaintiffs allege they were abused by Rodriguez when he was assigned to a Riverside parish that was part of the San Bernardino diocese, which is formally known as the Roman Catholic Bishop of San Bernardino. The parish is not identified in their suit.

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

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WWL 4 CBS

July 6, 2020

By David Hammer

The victims say the Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy to block lawsuits rather than because they are having severe money issues.

Victims of alleged child sex abuse by priests are asking a federal judge to throw out the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ bankruptcy case, saying the Church filed for the legal protection in “bad faith” as a way to block their lawsuits rather than for a legitimate financial need.

At least 34 abuse lawsuits have been halted by the local Church’s decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection May 1. Another half dozen cases filed since then are also on hold pending the bankruptcy.

Last week, the Archdiocese filed a motion in the bankruptcy case asking the court to bar any new abuse claims starting Sept. 29. A committee of attorneys representing the Church’s unsecured creditors, mostly the alleged abuse victims, came right back with a motion late Friday to dismiss the Archdiocese’s bankruptcy case completely, a move that would help pending abuse claims move forward.

In their motion to dismiss, the creditors said the bankruptcy was filed as a “litigation tactic” just as many abuse victims had asked the courts to release internal Church documents and force top archdiocesan officials to testify under oath.

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

PINELLAS PARK (FL)
Legal Examiner – Saunders & Walker

July 6, 2020

By Joseph H. Saunders

Three former priests with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse have been accused of sexually abusing a young boy in a graphically detailed lawsuit, according to Press Connects. The alleged abuse began when the victim, now 61, was in fifth grade and continued through his high school years.

The lawsuit was filed under New York’s Child Victims Act, which allows survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file claims against their abusers and any institutions that knowingly obscured or failed to prevent the abuse, regardless of how much time has passed. The Syracuse Diocese, which is now facing over 100 sexual abuse lawsuits, filed for bankruptcy on June 19.

The diocese had previously identified the three priests — Robert Kloster, David Pichette and Thomas Zedar — as having been “credibly accused” of child sexual abuse. All three were permanently removed from ministry, but not in time to stop them from abusing this plaintiff.

In the lawsuit, Kloster, Pichette and Zedar are accused of methodically grooming the young boy for the purpose of sexually abusing him. It argues the boy “felt trapped over the years by feelings of helplessness and shame,” and that each former priest committed abusive acts that “ultimately ruined his life.”

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

COLUMBIA (MO)
Religion News Service

July 6, 2020

By Bob Smietana

Megachurch pastor John Ortberg kept a family member’s attraction to children secret. Then his son blew the whistle.

In the summer of 2018, a volunteer at Menlo Church came to the Rev. John Ortberg seeking help.

The congregation member, who volunteered with youth and children at the Bay area megachurch and in the community, had been experiencing “an unwanted thought pattern of attraction to minors” and needed the pastor’s support.

After hearing this admission, Ortberg asked if the volunteer had ever acted on that attraction.

The volunteer said no.

Once Ortberg was convinced the volunteer was telling the truth and was not a danger to others, he prayed for the person and offered a referral for counseling and then allowed the volunteer to continue working with children.

In what Menlo Church’s elders would later call “poor judgment” and a betrayal of trust, the megachurch pastor did not notify the church’s staff of the volunteer’s admitted attraction to minors.

He did not notify the church’s elder board.

He did not suggest the volunteer stop working with children – in fact, the pastor and his family encouraged the volunteer in his work as a coach of an Ultimate Frisbee team for high school students.

Instead, Ortberg, the lead pastor of Menlo, kept what he had learned about the volunteer secret from his congregation.

Especially the volunteer’s name: John “Johnny” Ortberg III, the pastor’s youngest son.

But nothing in a church or in a family stays hidden forever.

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

Denver (CO)
Catholic News Agency

July 6, 2020

The Catholic Church can only rebuild trust in its handling of clerical abuse by “taking responsibility for clarifying all crimes and omissions,” the Primate of Poland said Monday.

In a statement issued July 6, Archbishop Wojciech Polak noted the steps that the Polish bishops have taken in response to a burgeoning abuse crisis in the country.

“I am convinced that only by standing in truth and taking responsibility for clarifying all crimes and omissions, we will rebuild our credibility and trust in the Church in Poland,” he said.

Polak is the Polish bishops’ delegate for the protection of children and youth. As the metropolitan archbishop of Gniezno, the Polish primatial see, he is the Primate of Poland.

His comments came a week after more than 600 people took out a full-page advertisement in the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica urging the pope to intervene in the growing abuse crisis in the country.

A Vatican spokesman said that Pope Francis had been informed of the appeal and was praying for those who sent it.

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

DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

July 6, 2020

An English bishop has said that parishes have seen “dramatic fall” in income as a result of the coronavirus lockdown.

Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury urged the government to step in to help dioceses struggling financially as a result of the pandemic.

“The weeks of the national lockdown saw a dramatic fall of about a third in parish income. This is having a serious impact on the operation of parishes,” he told CNA.

Mike Kane, a local Member of Parliament, raised the financial plight of the Diocese of Shrewsbury, in western England, in the House of Commons last month.

He noted June 25 that the diocese’s income was down by a third since the government announced a nationwide lockdown March 23. He said that this loss of around $875,000 would have a long-term impact on the diocese’s ability to maintain its buildings.

Kane, the Labour MP for Wythenshawe and Sale East, urged the government to consider introducing an “enhanced gift aid scheme” to shore up diocesan finances.

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.

BELLEVILLE (IL)
Belleville News-Democrat

July 6, 2020

By Teri Maddox

Allegations against five clergymen who worked at metro-east Catholic high schools decades ago had been made public well before June, when the Society of Mary order put them on a list of 46 priests, brothers and aspirants “found to have sexually abused a minor.”

But all of the publicity occurred in other states over the past 20 years.

“For the first time, parishioners and the public in this area are likely being made aware of these allegations and the fact that these five were in the Belleville diocese,” said David Clohessy, co-founder of the St. Louis chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “(The allegations) are now publicly and clearly deemed credible.”

The five clergymen had assignments at Cathedral Central Catholic High School in Belleville and Central Catholic High School and Assumption Catholic High School in East St. Louis, which are all closed. It’s unknown if abuse occurred at these schools.

Four of the clergymen are known to be deceased, according to the order.

The one with the most assignments was the late Eugene T. Fitzsimmons, a brother who professed his vows in 1947 and taught at Assumption, which closed in 1989. He had nine other assignments in Texas, Wisconsin, Missouri, Hawaii and California before leaving ministry in 2000. He died in 2011.

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

IRONDALE (AL)
National Catholic Register

July 2, 2020

By Edward Pentin

A range of sources agree that profound change is required to correct the flawed underlying mentality that continues to give rise to problems, and has allowed senior officials to escape taking responsibility.

Vatican City – Cardinal George Pell, the former prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy which Pope Francis created six years ago to monitor and reform Vatican finances, delivered a pointed message on June 30 about the threat that financial corruption poses to the Church’s mission.

“Undoubtedly, money is one of God’s gifts, it is also a source of temptation,” Pell said in a video message delivered June 30 to the Global Institute of Church Management at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. “To say that the Church is not a business provides no justification for us to be inefficient much less for us to be corrupt.”

He recalled being surprised to learn that St. Teresa of Calcutta had said “for the clergy there are two great challenges: one touches on sexuality and another touched on money. And she thought that the danger from money was greater and stronger than that from errant sexuality.”

Cardinal Pell’s remarks were conspicuously well-timed, coming in the wake of the arrest last month of Italian financier Gianluigi Torzi on charges of “extortion, embezzlement, aggravated fraud and money laundering,” relating to a London property deal carried out by Vatican Secretariat of State officials that went sour.

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

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

July 6, 2020

By Michael Sean Winters

George Weigel’s latest book, The Next Pope: The Office of Peter and a Church in Mission, is a thin one at only 141 pages. But it is thin, too, in the sense that what it communicates is either a repeat of Weigel’s earlier themes or a recantation of ideas — some of which are true but banal and others are misleading and given to caricature. The only real novelty is the degree to which he casts aspersions on the current pope with catty insinuations without sufficient courage to say plainly where he thinks Pope Francis has erred.

Does anyone argue against this claim of Weigel’s when he writes, early in the book: “Jesus Christ and his Gospel are the reason the Church is. And because of that, the proclamation of that Gospel and that Christ must be at the center of what the Catholic Church does.” Yes, of course this is true. Does anyone doubt it?

Weigel almost immediately descends into caricatures of the various approaches to evangelization. He writes, “At this moment in Catholic history, in which some deny that God’s revelation judges history and suggest that the flow of history and our present experience judge the truths of revelation, it is important to remember how robust the Second Vatican Council’s defense of the reality and the truth of divine revelation was.”

Who thinks history stands in judgment of revelation? To frame the contemporary debates within the church this way is not an instance of putting one’s finger on the scale, it is a misframing of the debates.

After a beautiful quote from Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum, Weigel writes, “The next pope must understand this and teach it to the entire world Church.” Is there any chance he won’t?

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.

CAPE TOWN (SOUTH AFRICA)
Cape Town Etc.

July 5, 2020

South Africa continues to be one of the most dangerous places for women to exist. Having extremely high numbers of gender-based violence and rape cases, women are living in fear every day. Now, a survivor is speaking out in the form of a protest.

Reverend June Major, an Anglican priest from the Cape Town Diocese, has gone on a hunger strike, as she continues to fight for justice for herself and other victims of rape and gender-based violence (GBV). The hunger strike began on July 1.

Major was allegedly raped by a fellow priest in 2002 at Grahamstown Seminary. Despite reporting the rape to the SAPS and to the Church authorities her rapist continues to minister to congregations and justice has not been served, according to a press release.

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

VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

July 2, 2020

By Nicole Winfield

Another founder of a 20th century lay Catholic movement has been accused of abusing his power, including sexually and spiritually, with nuns in his care.

A German researcher says she found evidence in newly released Vatican archives that the Holy See investigated the Rev. Josef Kentenich during the 1950s and because of his abuses ordered the German priest exiled from the Schoenstatt Movement.

Church historian Alexandra Von Teuffenbach said she wanted to reveal the truth about Kentenich and “demolish the many proposed reconstructions of alternative truths” since the process to get him beatified is making its way to the Vatican after more than 45 years.

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

BELFAST(NORTHERN IRELAND)
Belfast Telegraph

July 5, 2020

By Michael McHugh, PA

Judith Gillespie has been appointed independent chairwoman.

A former senior PSNI officer is to lead a Stormont-ordered investigation into clerical child abuse and mother and baby homes.

Judith Gillespie has been appointed independent chairwoman of the group tasked with the work.

Academics from Queen’s University in Belfast and Ulster University have been examining the operation of institutions such as the Magdalene Laundries between 1922 and 1999.

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.

NORTH CAROLINA
News & Record

July 5, 2020

By Michael Hewlett

The attorney for the Children’s Home is asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that a couple acting as house parents sexually abused a Winston-Salem boy in the 1970s and the agency did nothing to stop it.

In court papers filed late last month, the attorney, G. Gray Wilson, says that a state law making it easier for accusers in child sexual abuse cases to file claims in civil court is unconstitutional and denies the Children’s Home due process.

A 59-year-old man filed the lawsuit in Mecklenburg Superior Court in April against the Children’s Home, which is now known as Crossnore School & Children’s Home, and the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, which ran the Children’s Home at the time of the alleged abuse.

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

VERMONT
Brattleboro Reformer

July 5, 2020

By Bob Audette

WESTMINSTER — A group of seven men who were sexually assaulted during the 1980s while at Kurn Hattin Homes for Children want to have their stories heard — and they want an apology.

“No client every comes to us and says this about money,” said Nate Foote, of Andreozzi and Foote in Harrisburg, Penn. In this case, Foote said, they want the school to acknowledge what happened to them at the hands of Mark W. Davis, who pleaded no contest in 1990 to charges of lewd and lascivious behavior with students at the residential school.

“They want the school, through words and actions, to say ‘We are sorry. We brought you here to make your lives better and it turned out the opposite,'” Foote said.

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

IRELAND
Irish Times

July 5, 2020

By Barry Roche

Both Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar promised to deliver on pledge

Children’s rights campaigner Louise O’Keeffe has called on both Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar to deliver on promises to compensate children sexually abused while attending schools.

Ms O’Keeffe has called on both men to honour commitments they gave in the Dáil last July that they would re-open an ex-gratia payment scheme for those sexually abused while attending Irish primary and secondary schools pre-1992.

“Both Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar must honour commitments they made in Dáil Éireann a year ago that they would ensure the victims of child sex abuse in Irish schools were no longer wronged,” Ms O’Keeffe told The Irish Times.

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

SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Berkshire Eagle

July 4, 2020

By Caroline White

[PHOTO: The Springfield diocese plans to move the gravesite of the late Most Rev. Christopher J. Weldon, after an independent inquiry found cause to believe that Weldon, who oversaw the diocese from 1950 to 1977 and died in 1982, sexually abused an altar boy in Chicopee.]

Upon entering the Gate of Heaven Cemetery, visitors find themselves face-to-face with Jesus.

The religious figure’s nearly human-sized granite figure sits atop a 15-foot stone pillar above a sloping grass landscape, the dominant presence amid hundreds of gravestones in the Springfield cemetery.

Soon, that figure will disappear from its vaunted position at the cemetery, along with the remains of the man who lies below.

The monument was erected to honor the Most Rev. Christopher J. Weldon after his death in 1982. Late last month, a report commissioned by the diocese found that child sex abuse allegations against Weldon to be “unequivocally credible.”

Following the report, the current Springfield bishop, the Most Rev. Mitchell T. Rozanski, ordered the monument to be taken down and Weldon’s remains to be moved and “marked with a simple gravestone.”

Diocese spokesperson Mark Dupont said that given the findings detailed in the report by former Springfield Superior Court Judge Peter A. Velis, it was no longer appropriate for Weldon’s remains to be placed in “a high profile area that gives honor to him.” Velis was hired last July to prepare “an independent and outside” probe, with help from a chief investigator, Dennis O’Connor.

That step came years after the victim first reported his abuse, which occurred in the early 1960s, and after a former church insider claimed the diocese was attempted to cover up the assaults to protect Weldon’s reputation. The church did not list Weldon as “credibly accused” even though the diocese’s internal review board told the man it found his claim believable.

The Velis report confirmed that the diocese mishandled the allegations, leading former Berkshire Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Ford, who now leads a task force on the issue, to conclude that the incidents examined by Velis “were nothing short of disgraceful.”

“Those who have failed to live up to their obligations or to carry out their responsibilities properly have been named, exposed and shamed,” Ford said.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Catholic Weekly

July 5, 2020

By Dr Philippa Martyr

Francis Sullivan’s passion is undoubted. His grasp of the real issues facing the Church isn’t.

Francis Sullivan recently expressed concerns in the US National Catholic Reporter that fallout from the Pell case would derail the Plenary Council.

The Plenary Council has little authority to make changes

I suppose my first concern is that Francis believes the Plenary Council is important enough to make changes to the Church in Australia. Really it has very little authority, and its report has to go to Rome for final ratification. The suggestion that it could be derailed by an unrelated High Court decision seems over-dramatic.

Much more interesting is that it’s currently rumoured that the Plenary Council is costing the Church in Australia millions of dollars.

I’m surprised that Francis hasn’t demanded instead that the Plenary Council’s full financials be published and asked why this largely cosmetic exercise is absorbing money that could be used to compensate clergy abuse survivors.

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.

WYOMING
Casper Star Tribune

July 4, 2020

By Seth Klamann

Joseph Hart became a priest in 1955, and over his 46-year career in Kansas City and Wyoming, he developed a reputation for ingratiating himself with families in his flock, especially brothers.

Hart would walk into the Hunter family’s Kansas City home without ringing the doorbell. They never locked their doors — the whole neighborhood was like that. Hart, who in the late ‘50s was just starting out as a priest, was like family to the Hunters; his photo hung in the living room. Mrs. Hunter worked in the cafeteria of Guardian Angels, Hart’s first parish. Darrel, her son, worked at the church after school and over the summer.

John’s father died when he was young. His brother did housework around the Kansas City rectory where Hart lived in the 1960s, when Hart worked at the attached Catholic school. John remembers all the soda Hart had, so much that John would sneak Pepsi to his friends. His mother had Hart over for dinner, happy to have an adult male presence in the lives of her seven children.

The church gave Martin’s mother a job at a Cheyenne elementary school, one of three jobs she worked after his father abandoned the family. The church gave them food, and Martin and his brother did chores for Hart, who arrived in Wyoming in the mid-1970s to become bishop, the highest-ranking Catholic in the state. As such, he commanded significant authority and respect from the tens of thousands of Catholics in Wyoming.

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.

OHIO
Christian Post

July 4, 2020

By Brandon Showalter

Former Ohio Catholic priest Robert McWilliams was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday on several charges of child sexual abuse.

McWilliams, 40, a Strongsville priest and former seminarian at St. Helen’s Catholic Church in Newbury Township, allegedly pretended to be a woman on his social media accounts, including Grinder, to lure male victims into exploitation and has been charged with juvenile sex trafficking, sexual exploitation of children, and transportation of child porn, among other charges, according to a news release from the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

“Posing as a female, McWilliams allegedly enticed the minor male victims to send sexually explicit photographs and videos, sometimes threatening to expose embarrassing information McWilliams already knew about the victims if they did not send such images,” the news release adds.

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
Expressiveinfo.com

July 4, 2020

A priest, Rev. John Anthony Clohosey, accused of raping a woman more than 30 years ago will now stand trial next year according to reports.

Rev. Clohosey was priest at Our Lady Immaculate and St Cuthbert’s RC Church in Crook, County Durham until he was suspended last year when he was accused by a woman of raping her more than 30 years.

The 71-year-old priest is alleged to have sexually attacked the woman in Gateshead in 1986.

He did not appear before Newcastle Crown Court on Friday due to the coronavirus pandemic, but his lawyer indicated he would have pleaded not guilty if he had been at the hearing. His trial will now take place at Newcastle Crown Court on May 17, 2021.

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.

BERLIN (GERMANY)
Newsylist.com

July 5, 2020

The controversial pope brother Georg Ratzinger has died. For 30 years he was head of the Regensburger Domspatzen – and tolerated a system of violence.

There is a photo of Georg Ratzinger that has become almost historically relevant. It shows the later director of the world-famous Regensburger Domspatzen on June 29, 1951 in Freising Cathedral during the priestly ordination with his three years younger brother Joseph, later Pope Benedict XVI.

The two black-haired Bavarian men are festively dressed in baroque-style choir shirts and have stretched out their arms in blessing. The 27-year-old Georg, who survived the war as a Wehrmacht soldier, is beaming. His younger brother was only an anti-aircraft helper, he is concentrated and serious – and it is as if the future of the two Ratzingers is already hinted at in this black and white photo.

While Georg Ratzinger devoted his life to the cheerful muse and aspired to a musical career (in the seminary he was nicknamed “Organ Ratz”), Joseph Ratzinger became something of the deepest child prodigy of theology in Germany. After studying church music at the University of Music in Munich, Georg Ratzinger found his life’s work in 1964: he became “cathedral band master” and thus de facto head of the Regensburger Domspatzen for 30 years, which have a 1,000-year tradition.

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.

ERIE (PA)
GoErie.com

July 5, 2020

By Ed Palattella

Retired Erie bishop still a defendant; all claims now over his tenure as a top official in Catholic Diocese of Buffalo.

A lawsuit in Buffalo against retired Erie Catholic Bishop Donald Trautman no longer includes the Catholic Diocese of Erie.

The lawyers in the case agreed to drop the Catholic Diocese of Erie as a defendant, as the diocese had requested.

The suit, filed at the start of the year, tried to connect the Catholic Diocese of Erie to claims that Trautman covered up clergy sex abuse of a minor when he was a top official in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo in the 1980s.

The Erie diocese argued that Trautman was working for the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo at the time and that the claims relate only to the Buffalo 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.

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

July 5, 2020

By Jay Tokasz

The Boy Scouts of America’s bankruptcy filing in February stopped hundreds of child sexual abuse lawsuits, including more than a dozen in Western New York, from moving forward as the national organization attempts to reach a settlement with victims.

But the bankruptcy doesn’t prevent regional Boy Scouts councils, which are separately incorporated, from being sued. In the past month, the Greater Niagara Frontier Council, which has 7,000 Scouts in Erie and Niagara counties, was named as a defendant in seven Child Victims Act cases filed in Erie County State Supreme Court.

In one of the new lawsuits, Scott Miller of Hamburg accused the council of allowing a Scout leader to repeatedly molest him from 1974 to 1977, starting when was Miller was 11 years old. The lawsuit identified Hal Wright as the leader, although it does not name Wright as a defendant.

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.

JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
Fulton Sun

July 5, 2020

By Joe Gamm

Two men who are on the Diocese of Jefferson City’s list of priests who were credibly accused of clergy abuse have been laicized, or dismissed from being priests.

Robert Duesdieker was ordained in 1980 and Mel Lahr in 1972. The changes came at the conclusion of a canonical process that included an independent internal review of diocese files, consultation of the Diocesan Review Board and an appeal to the Holy See for a formal decision, Bishop W. Shawn McKnight said in a statement.

“These changes are the direct result of the responses to the initial publication of a list of credibly accused clergy in November 2018,” McKnight said. “Because of this transparency, survivors of clerical abuse and their families felt safe to come forward and share their pain, several for the first time in decades.”

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.

TEXAS
Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette

July 3, 2020

By Lynn Larowe

A Texarkana pastor was sentenced to five life sentences and 11 20-year terms by a Bowie County jury Thursday for the sexual abuse of three women he molested when they were children.

Presiding 202nd District Judge John Tidwell ordered that Logan Wesley III, 56, serve the terms consecutively for a total of five life sentences plus 220 years. The jury also assessed three $10,000 fines for a total of $30,000.

The three victims — now 38, 34 and 32 — testified that Wesley used his position as pastor of Trinity Temple Church of God In Christ on Washington Street in Texarkana, Ark., to prey on them and to conceal his misdeeds. One of the woman is a close relative of Wesley’s who came to live with him when she was 13. She said Wesley continued to sexually assault her until she was about 20.

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.

GERMANY
Catholic News Agency

July 2, 2020

The Schoenstatt Movement has rejected a researcher’s claims that its founder engaged in sexual abuse, saying that any past allegations against him would have already been considered in the Vatican’s review of his proposed beatification.

“We firmly reject the accusation that Joseph Kentenich was guilty of sexual abuse of members of the Institute of the Schoenstatt Sisters of Mary,” Juan Pablo Catoggio, International President of the Schoenstatt Work, said in a July 2 statement.

“His behavior toward other persons – especially women – was always marked by a pronounced reverence and esteem, as well as by the principle of physical integrity, which he also impressed upon his communities.”

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.

FRESNO (CA)
Valley Public Radio News

July 3, 2020

By Kathleen Schock

[AUDIO]

KQED’s Central Valley reporter Alexandra Hall spent more than a year investigating an Anglican priest in Fresno who some say is a miracle worker and others say is a sexual predator. The audio documentary that came from her reporting was produced for The California Report Magazine. Valley Edition Host Kathleen Schock spoke with Hall about how she gained the trust of the alleged victims, and the reaction from the congregation now that the report is out.

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
Patheos

July 2, 2020

By Hemant Mehta

In 2013, the Australian government set up the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to look into the very serious issue. Rabbis were implicated alongside Catholic priests. Secular organizations weren’t immune from wrongdoing.

One of the recommendations from that Commission was the creation of the National Redress Scheme, a formal way to literally pay back victims of child sex abuse for all they had suffered. It’s not a perfect system by any means — could anything be? — but the idea behind it is that victims can fill out paperwork explaining what they went through, officials will calculate what that trauma is worth, and victims will receive a check.

Among the many criticisms is that the NRS pushes a hierarchy of abuse; penetration is deemed more damaging than any other kind of abuse, for example. That’s a discussion for another thread.

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.

TEXAS
Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette

July 4, 2020

By Lynn Larowe

They say sexual assaults spanned years, started when they were children

The child sex abuse trial of a local pastor resume Thursday in Bowie County.

Logan Wesley III is accused of using his position to prey on girls, including a family member.

Wesley reportedly founded the Trinity Temple Church of God in Christ in 1997 in Texarkana, Ark. “Elder Logan Wesley III — pastor” remains on the bottom of a sign affixed above the doors of the church, a modest building on Washington Street.

Three indictments, each related to a different girl, accuse Wesley of 18 felony child sex abuse charges, some of which are punishable by five to 99 years or life in prison.

The three girls, now women in their 30s, testified Monday and Tuesday that they were sexually abused by Wesley for years.

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

CANADA
Canadian Mennonite

July 3, 2020

By Aaron Epp

Evidence of Wilmer Martin’s misconduct ‘sufficiently compelling and credible,’ leadership finds

Mennonite Church Eastern Canada has terminated Waterloo resident Wilmer Martin’s ministerial credentials, citing ministerial misconduct and ministerial sexual misconduct. (Facebook photo)
Mennonite Church Eastern Canada has terminated a retired pastor’s ministerial credential after investigating him for ministerial misconduct and ministerial sexual misconduct. The regional church made the announcement about Wilmer Martin, 75, of Waterloo, Ont., on June 16.

Martin served pastorates at Tavistock (Ont.) Mennonite Church and Erb Street Mennonite Church in Waterloo from 1968 to 1991 before becoming the president and CEO of Habitat for Humanity Canada from 1991 to 2000. He was then president of TourMagination, a Mennonite-oriented travel company, from 2000 until his retirement in 2016.

The complaints against Martin stem from his tenure at Erb Street Mennonite. According to MC Eastern Canada policy, there is no statute of limitations for ministerial misconduct.

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.

COLORADO
Colorado Politics

July 3, 2020

By Kathryn Robb

If something doesn’t feel right, it likely isn’t. Kids know this. In the name of justice children raise their voices, often kicking and screaming. In fact, most will complain even when the imbalance is in their favor.

Cognitive scientists report that children have a sharp sense of fairness; the pleas from their internal scales of justice, balancing right and wrong, fair and unfair, are active at an early age. Every parent has heard he thunderous protest “that’s not fair!”

Unless the child is silenced.

As I was for years, every time my abuser slithered out my childhood bedroom in the dark of the night. Even at age 10, my sense of justice knew this was terribly, horribly — wrong. As it is for so many survivors, my fear and shame sucked the oxygen out of the room and swallowed my voice. As the walls closed in on me, the clamp tightened on the secret. Suffocating, that little girl folded inward, again and again, until she became so small that the only sound that could be heard was the silence of shame.

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

CLEVELAND (OH)
Associated Press

July 2, 2020

An Ohio Roman Catholic priest has been accused in a federal indictment of posing online as a female to persuade boys to send him sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves and threatening to tell their parents if they did not send more images, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Cleveland alleged Thursday.

Robert McWilliams, 40, followed through on his threats and sent some mothers images of their sons, prosecutors alleged. Some boys McWilliams targeted belonged to parishes where he served, prosecutors said.

McWilliams was indicted Wednesday on two counts of sex trafficking of a minor, three counts of sexual exploitation of children, one count of transportation of child pornography, one count of receiving and distributing depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and one count of possession of child pornography.

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.

UNITED STATES
Independent (U.K.)

July 4, 2020

By James Crump

US attorney’s office said that Robert D McWilliams knew some of his alleged victims through his work

An Ohio priest has been indicted on child pornography and juvenile sex trafficking charges for allegedly enticing young boys to send explicit images of themselves.

Reverend Robert D McWilliams, from Strongsville, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, was initially arrested in December 2019 for possession of child pornography, but was indicted by a Federal Grand Jury on Thursday on several different charges.

The 40-year-old is now facing two counts of sex trafficking of a minor, three counts of sexual exploitation of children and three counts of pornography offences involving 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.

IRELAND
The Independent

July 4, 2020

By Allison Bray

In her debut work of non-fiction, Irish Independent journalist Ellen Coyne (29) explores these issues in ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Ellen’

Is it ok to be an à la carte Catholic?

That is the central theme in a new book by a young Irish Catholic journalist who explores her own misgivings about wanting to retain her faith amid darker aspects of the Church that have emerged over the years, including child-sex abuse within clergy and how it was handled by the Church, as well as its controversial stances on abortion and homosexuality.

In her debut work of non-fiction, Irish Independent journalist Ellen Coyne (29) explores these issues in ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Ellen’.

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 KIMBERLEY (AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

July 4, 2020

By Erin Parke

Key points:
– Documents show the Catholic Church was told of sexual misconduct allegations against Broome Bishop Christopher Saunders as early as April 2019
– The Bishop voluntarily stood aside in March this year, with separate investigations by WA Police and the Vatican still ongoing
– The Bishop’s continued presence in the Kimberley has sparked a further complaint to Church authorities

The Catholic Church was told of sexual misconduct allegations against a Western Australian bishop nearly a year before it took action, according to new documents obtained by the ABC.

Bishop Christopher Saunders, who has overseen the vast Diocese of Broome for 25 years, remains voluntarily stood aside amidst an ongoing WA Police investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.

No charges have been laid and Bishop Saunders has previously denied all accusations of inappropriate behaviour.

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

July 4, 2020

By Jay Tokasz

Afederal bankruptcy judge is giving the Buffalo Diocese two months to sort out a tangled web of historical insurance coverage and determine how those policies might be affected by Child Victims Act lawsuits against the diocese and parishes, schools and other Catholic entities.

A Chapter 11 filing in February immediately stopped lawsuits in state courts against the diocese from advancing as it goes through a reorganization. That same protection does not apply to parishes, which are separately incorporated and not part of the bankruptcy.

But the diocese in May asked Chief Judge Carl Bucki of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District to shield parishes, schools and other entities that also have been named as defendants in Child Victims Act 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.

JAKARTA (INDONESIA)
The Jakarta Post

July 4, 2020

By Hengky Ola Sura

Award winning author, Felix K. Nesi, was detained by the Insana Police in Timor Tengah Utara regency, East Nusa Tenggara, on Friday night after allegedly vandalizing a Catholic parish clergy house.

He admitted to The Jakarta Post on Saturday that he had damaged the property, claiming to have done so because he was angry that the parish had let a priest, whom he accused of “mistreating a woman”, to remain at the church.

Felix, who won a literary award from the Jakarta Arts Council in 2018, said on the phone that he had been released from detention on Saturday. He wrote in a public Facebook post that he had used his motorcycle helmet to damage the windows of the SMK Bitauni vocational school parish clergy house and had thrown chairs.

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

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
NOLA.com

July 3, 2020

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

Another man has come forward and added to claims of child molestation decades ago by janitors at Jesuit High School’s Mid-City campus.

The plaintiff, under a pseudonym, filed a lawsuit Thursday at Civil District Court demanding damages from Jesuit and the religious order that runs the school over abuse that he claims to have suffered at the hands of Gary Sanchez and the late Peter Modica.

The case comes about five months after the school and the order reached financial settlements with two other plaintiffs, one who claimed abuse by Modica and the other who alleged that both Modica and Sanchez molested 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.

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WVUE-TV, Channel 8

July 3, 2020

Attorneys for the Archdiocese of New Orleans filed new documents in their bankruptcy proceedings.

They are asking Judge Meredith Grabill for a September 29 bar date which would require anyone seeking compensation for clergy abuse to come forward by that date.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans filed for bankruptcy two months ago in the face of what it described as mounting church abuse litigation.

Attorneys for alleged sex abuse victims are expected to ask that the bar date be set later to allow claimants more time to come forward.

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

MOSCOW (RUSSIA)
The Telegraph

The court chairman says they have received reports of child abuse at the monastery that need to be investigated

July 3, 2020

By Nataliya Vasilyeva

A religious court in Russia has defrocked a controversial monk who has sabotaged coronavirus lockdown restrictions, with the chairman of the court also saying it had reports of child abuse at his monastery.

Father Sergei Romanov, abbot of the Sredneuralsk monastery outside the city of Yekaterinburg in the Urals mountains, has for years been running what many scholars described a religious cult worshiping the family of Russia’s last czar Nicholas II who were killed by the Bolsheviks in 1918.

As the coronavirus epidemic struck Russia, Father Sergei, previously known for hate speech, publicly cursed those closing down the churches in line with lockdown orders and urged believers to disobey the restrictions….

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.

SOUTH BEND (IN)
The Observer

July 3, 3030

By Natalie Weber and Mary Steurer

Mark Fuller, class of 1977, came forward with his experience of priest abuse in 2002. Notre Dame offered little more than an apology.

[Editor’s note: This story includes descriptions of sexual abuse and violence. A list of sexual assault reporting options and on-campus resources can be found on the Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross websites.]

The first two times Mark Fuller visited Fr. William Presley, then rector of St. Edward’s Hall, they just talked.

It was 1974, and Fuller vividly remembers sitting in an orange lounge chair in the front of Presley’s rectory while the priest asked him questions about his classes, his family and his personal life. Fuller remembers Presley offering him a soda.

Then, in their third or fourth meeting, Fuller said, things changed. Presley told Fuller to wait while he went into the bedroom. When Presley called him in, he was in bed under the covers. He told Fuller to disrobe.

Fuller said this was the first time Presley raped 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.

TRINIDAD (WEST INDIES)
Loop News

July 3, 2020

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Port of Spain says it has noted with grave concern, videos recently published on social media in which two young women made allegations against a monk formerly associated with the Mount Saint Benedict Monastery and St Bede’s Vocational School.

In a statement, it said “the loss of innocence of any child through any form of abuse is a tragedy, a deep and lasting wound for the victim as well as a serious crime.”

The Church said its prayers and support go out to the young women and Mount Saint Benedict community at this time.

It said the allegations raised in the videos are under review by the Trustees of Mount Saint Benedict and the brother in question left the monastic life some years ago and is no longer a member of the community of Mount St Benedict.

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.

MISSOURI
SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)

July 1, 2020

A Catholic priest accused of abuse in the Diocese of Jefferson City has resigned his position following a determination that the allegation was “credible” but not able to be corroborated. We are disturbed that diocesan officials are speaking out of both sides of their mouth in this situation and hope that others who may have knowledge in this case will come forward to police and prosecutors.

There are rarely witnesses or video evidence for sex crimes, so we are not surprised that the allegation against Fr. Mark Porterfield was not corroborated. But the fact that the claim was determined to be “credible” by Catholic officials is enough to demand action and we are glad that Fr. Porterfield is no longer leading a parish.

Victims of sexual abuse have long been disbelieved and marginalized, especially by the institutions they have accused, and we are disappointed that diocesan officials are playing both sides in this situation. Rather than continue to cast doubt on allegations by referring to them as “not corroborated,” Bishop Shawn McKnight should be using every resource at his disposal to encourage other victims and witnesses to come forward and make a report to police.

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.

CANADA
CBC News

July 2, 2020

By Jorge Barrera

The B.C. RCMP investigation into First Nations day school abuse allegations against John Furlong, the former 2010 Vancouver Olympics CEO, was tainted by “bias” and “discrimination,” according to a recent filing with the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.

The filing by six members of the Lake Babine Nation itemized the failures of the RCMP investigation, ranging from limited questioning of alleged victims, to a failure to follow leads or to obtain additional information through production orders.

“The case demonstrates the inequality that Indigenous communities experience in accessing justice,” said the Complainant’s Statement of Particulars, submitted with the tribunal on Monday.

“It reveals the biased attitudes and systemic discrimination that exists in police investigative methods, and shows how Indigenous victims of abuse suffer adverse impacts, such as being disbelieved and/or dehumanized. Bias in favour of powerful non-Indigenous individuals, even if unconsciously held, results in harmful treatment to Indigenous complainants of abuse.”

All six Lake Babine Nation members attended the Catholic-run Immaculata elementary school when Furlong taught physical education there in 1969. The institution was a day school in the First Nation, about 220 kilometres northwest of Prince George, B.C. The school closed in the 1980s.

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

NEW DELHI (INDIA)
Goa Chronicle

July 3, 2020

[VIDEO]

New Delhi: The Founder & Editor-in-Chief of GoaChronicle.com, Savio Rodrigues in a discussion with Sanjay Dixit on Jaipur Dialogues exposed the evil of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in India, highlighted corruption cases in Christian institutions and mooted a need for an Indian Church without Vatican interference.

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.

CHARLOTTE (NC)
WFAE TV

July 2, 2020

By Sarah Delia and Marshall Terry

The pastor of Charlotte’s St. Matthew Catholic Church will remain away from ministry following an investigation into a decades-old allegation of sexual abuse.

In a letter to St. Matthew parishioners this week, Bishop Peter Jugis, the head of the Charlotte Diocese, said he accepted the recommendation of the diocese’s independent Lay Review Board that Father Patrick Hoare remain away from active ministry at this time.

Hoare had been placed on administrative leave last December after someone told the diocese they’d been sexually abused by Hoare about 25 years ago in Pennsylvania.

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

CLEVELAND (OH)
Cleveland.com

July 2, 2020

By John Caniglia, The Plain Dealer

A Catholic priest was indicted Thursday on federal charges involving child pornography and the exploitation of children.

A grand jury charged the Rev. Robert McWilliams, 40, with two counts of sex trafficking of a minor, three counts of sexual exploitation of children and three counts of pornography-related charges involving children.

McWilliams had served at St. Joseph Catholic Church on Pearl Road in Strongsville at the time of his arrest Dec. 5. He is being held without bond.

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.

UNITED STATES
Catholic News Agency

July 2, 2020

By Jonah McKeown

In late May, allegations surfaced against contemporary Catholic musician and composer David Haas, which claimed that Haas had subjected multiple adult women to serial spiritual manipulation and sexual misconduct.

A former music and youth minister, who alleges that Haas aggressively kissed and groped her when she was 19, spoke to CNA this week about her experience. And one expert told CNA that the allegations against Haas point to the difficulties of ensuring that laity working in Church contexts are trustworthy, and beyond reproach.

Sidney

Sidney*, a California native, told CNA that she has worked in close proximity to the Church for more than 15 years, primarily in religious education, as a youth minister, and as a music minister.

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.

PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster County Online

July 3, 2020

By Dan Nephin

A western Pennsylvania man who served at three Lancaster County churches in the 1990s and early 2000s has been charged with repeatedly sexually abusing a teenage girl and exposing himself to two other children where he now lives.

William J. Stonebraker, 50, of Altoona, was charged June 22 in Blair County with two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and 96 counts each of unlawful contact with a minor, aggravated indecent assault, child endangerment and corruption of minors — all felonies. He’s also charged with 96 counts each of indecent exposure and indecent assault, which are misdemeanors.

Stonebraker’s attorney, Thomas M. Dickey, said Thursday that Stonebraker has pleaded not guilty to all charges and they’re awaiting details of the accusations.

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.

TEXAS
TXKToday

July 2, 2020

By Field Walsh

A Texarkana pastor was sentenced Thursday to five life sentences plus 220 years for 16 counts of child sexual abuse.

Logan Wesley III, 56, was found guilty by a jury in Bowie County of five counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and sentenced to life on each count. The jury also found Wesley guilty of nine counts of sexual assault of a child and two counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact and sentenced to the 20-year maximum on each count.

202nd District Judge John Tidwell ordered all of the sentences to run consecutively. The jury also ordered three $10,000 fines for a total of $30,000.

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.

UNITED STATES
NewsLagoon

July 2, 2020

Danny Masterson, who is best known for ‘The 70s Show’ has been charged with rape of three women. The allegations against him were filed on Tuesday (June 16) by three women who claimed that the actor had forcibly raped them. The incidents reportedly took place between 2001 and 2003. Masterson was arrested shortly after the charges were made public.

If convicted, he could face up to 45 years in prison, as reported by Yahoo Entertainment. While the news about Masterson becomes nationwide news, many people pointed out how the actor, a Scientologist, was previously accused of the same a couple of years ago but it was gagged by Scientology.

In a shocking article that was published by The Daily Beast in 2019, the media outlet had detailed how the Church of Scientology might be helping Masterson bury the crimes under the rug. The outlet stated that the church had received two letters from one of the victims asking the church to speak up on the matter. However, they had remained mum on the matter.

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

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
NOLA.com

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

July 2, 2020

The Archdiocese of New Orleans asked a federal judge late Wednesday to require anyone with clergy abuse claims against the local church to come forward by Sept. 29, almost certainly setting up the next legal dispute in the church’s two-month-old bankruptcy case.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill did not immediately rule on whether to make Sept. 29 the so-called “bar date,” which is expected to prompt many more remaining claimants to file complaints of abuse and demands for compensation. That date would also stand as the deadline for other entities to claim debts from the church that predate its May 1 filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections, except for government agencies, for whom the church requested a couple of extra months.

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.

VATICAN CITY
Sight

July 2, 2020

By CLAIRE GIANGRAVÉ

Cardinal George Pell, the former Vatican treasurer who was recently cleared of historic sex abuse charges in his native country of Australia, spoke about his experience in prison, Pope Francis’ financial reform and the need to avoid corruption in a video released on Tuesday.

“In jail, of course, I was there as a Christian, inspired by the teachings of Christ,” Pell said, adding that his time in prison offered plenty of opportunity to pray every day. “And that I did,” he said.

The cardinal was sentenced to six years in prison by the County Court of Victoria, Australia, in late 2018 for the sexual abuse of minors when he was bishop in Melbourne between 1996 and 1997. Pell had vehemently denied all charges against him and, in April, the highest court in Australia dropped all charges for lack of sufficient proof.

The newly released video is the cardinal’s first public appearance since he was acquitted. In it he said that though prison was “an adventure I would not have chosen,” he had “survived it.”

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

LOUISIANA
The Advocate

July 1, 2020

By Jacqueline DeRobertis

A deceased Catholic priest formerly accused of abuse in Ascension Parish has two new credible allegations added in the latest Baton Rouge Diocese report.

The list now includes more information regarding The Rev. George Gensler, who is accused of abuse in the late 1970s and between 1984 and 1998, said Diocese of Baton Rouge Communications Secretary Dan Borné.

Reports of abuse were received in February 1994 and October 2018, but two new credible allegations were reported days apart in February 2020, he said.

Past abuse was reported at St. Anthony of Padua in Darrow, where Gensler served from 1979 to 1994; he was placed on administrative leave and permanently removed from ministry during his last year at the church.

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

COLUMBUS (OH)
Columbus Dispatch

July 2, 2020

By Danae King

The Columbus Diocese was one of three in the country that had a priest working with survivors of clergy sexual abuse to take their reports. On July 2, 2020, the diocese announced it had hired a counselor to take the reports.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus has hired a licensed clinical counselor to work with victims of sexual abuse by priests, replacing the priest who has been in the position since 1997.

Laura Lewis, a local counselor, will begin work as the interim Victims’ Assistance Coordinator on July 15, replacing Monsignor Stephan Moloney, the diocese announced Thursday.

The change comes after The Dispatch reported in March 2019 that Moloney was one of three diocesan victims’ assistance coordinators in the country who were also priests. Victim advocates and survivors have said such an arrangement makes it harder for victims to come forward to report abuse, and can even retraumatize them.

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.