ABUSE TRACKER

WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

June 26, 2020

By Michelle Boorstein

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: For the first time in 13 years, since the report about the data for 2006, this new report doesn’t show the aggregate total responses to the survey. In previous years, the surveys were reproduced at the back of the report, with the total responses added for each question. See, for example last year’s report. In this this year’s report, those responses are omitted.

In last year’s report, the survey for religious orders omitted the question: “Of the total number in item 32, the number that have had one or more previous allegations reported against them prior [to the period of the report]. See that question in the report on data for 2016-2017, and see its omission in the report on data for 2017-2018. Dropping this question from the religious order survey meant that it was not possible to calculate the number of religious order priests accused for the first time during the survey period. That question was restored in this year’s report, but the number was not provided, either in the copy of the survey at the end of the report or in the text. This means that for a second year we don’t know how many religious order priests were accused for the first time in the survey period.

By contrast, it is possible to calculate that number for diocesan priests:
2017-2018: 156 diocesan priests accused for the first time (436-280=156; see the survey)
2018-2019: 598 diocesan priests accused for the first time (1,391-(1391x.57)=598; see the text)

The number of priests accused for the first time each year is significant. It allows a running total to be calculated as BA does on this page, which is being updated to include data from the new report.]

The number of allegations of Catholic clergy sex abuse of minors more than quadrupled in 2019 compared to the average in the previous five years, U.S. church officials reported this week, in part the result of new church-run compensation programs for victims as well as survivors driven to come forward by several major clerical abuse scandals.

The annual audit of nearly 200 dioceses and church entities across the country has been done since 2002, when reports of clergy abuse and coverups exploded and U.S. bishops approved reforms, including a yearly review of complaints and compliance. The reform package is often called the “Charter.”

[Photo caption: James Grein is among the men alleging sexual abuse or harassment by now-defrocked cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Here Grein shows postcards from McCarrick. The McCarrick scandal is among the reasons experts think complaints against the church went up in 2019.]

The report released Thursday by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the 2019 report — which covered July 2018 through June 2019 — counted 4,434 allegations of clergy sex abuse against minors. That number was 1,451 in 2018, 693 in 2017, 1,318 in 2016 and 903 in 2015.

Of the 4,434 allegations covered in the report, about half — 2,237 — were deemed credible by the church.

Thirty-seven of the 4,434 allegations came from people who were minors during the time period the report covered — eight of which the church-run bodies deemed substantiated, according to the report. In recent years, that’s about average for substantiated, past-year claims. There are about 37,000 diocesan and religious order priests in the country.

The complaints the church deemed credible were analyzed further by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, a church-affiliated research center on the Catholic Church. CARA found that of those whose time frame could be determined, 57 percent of credible allegations that came in 2019 happened before 1975, 41 percent between 1975 and 1999, and 2 percent since 2000, the report said.

Church officials said the fact that there remains such a small number of claims of recent abuse shows that their reforms are working and that the jump in reporting of older claims reflects confidence complaints will be taken seriously.

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Some survivor advocates saw other things in the report. SNAP, a clergy-abuse survivors’ organization, emphasized the report’s finding that the status of 863 allegations is “unknown” and another 956 are ongoing.

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 The Dialog of the Diocese of Wilmington

June 25, 2020

More than 4,400 allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy were reported during the year ending June 30, 2019, a significant jump from the previous auditing period, according to a report on diocesan and eparchial compliance with the U.S. bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

Released June 25, the 17th annual report from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection states that 4,220 child sexual abuse survivors filed 4,434 allegations. In the 2017-2018 audit period, 1,381 survivors filed 1,451 allegations.

[Photo caption: David Lorenz, holding the microphone, addresses a crowd gathered outside the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington Aug. 26. He was joined by Catholics who showed up to support sex abuse victims.]

While the number jumped, the report said only 37 allegations involved current minors. Of these, the report said, eight allegations were substantiated, seven were unsubstantiated, six were unable to be proven, 12 remained under investigation, three were referred to religious orders and one was referred to another diocese.

The report attributed 37% of the new allegations to lawsuits, the introduction of victim compensation programs by dioceses and eparchies, and bankruptcies. An additional 3% of allegations emerged after a review of clergy personnel files, according to the report.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Associated Press

June 26, 2020

By David Crary

U.S. Roman Catholic bishops said Thursday that the church tallied 4,434 sex abuse allegations against clergy in the 2018-19 audit year, triple the number seen the previous year, with much of the increase stemming from a wave of lawsuits and claims by survivors of decades-old molestation.

In the latest annual report on clerical sex abuse, dioceses and other Catholic entities reported paying out $281.6 million during the year for costs related to allegations, including payments for cases reported in previous years.

Only 37 of the new allegations were made by people who were minors in the audit year ending June 30, 2019. Of those, eight allegations were substantiated, while most of the others were either still under investigation or had been deemed unsubstantiated.

There has been a huge overall surge in allegations over the past three years as dioceses faced unprecedented pressure to address the decades-old problem of clergy sex abuse. There were 693 allegations tallied in the 2017 report, and 1,451 in the 2018 report.

The cases cited in the new report involved 2,982 priests and other church personnel. Of the allegations, 1,034 were substantiated; many other remained under investigation or were unable to be proven, it said.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
USCCB

June 25, 2020

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection has released the 2019 Annual Report – Findings and Recommendations on the Implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

The report is based on the audit findings of StoneBridge Business Partners, a specialty consulting firm headquartered in Rochester, New York, which provides forensic, internal, and compliance audit services to leading organization nation-wide. A survey on allegations conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) is also included as part of the report.

This is the seventeenth such report since 2002 when the U.S. bishops established and adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People a comprehensive set of procedures to address allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy and made a promise to protect and a pledge to heal.

The 2019 report for audit year July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2019 states that 4,220 adults came forward with 4,434 allegations. Compared to 2018, the number of allegations has increased significantly. This is in part due to the additional allegations received as a result of lawsuits, compensation programs, and bankruptcies.

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.

DAYTON (OH)
Journal-News

June 26, 2020

By Michael D. Clark and Josh Sweigart

[See the list.]

Hamilton OH – Five men appearing on a recently released list of Marianist priests and brothers who the order says sexually abused children were assigned to the former Hamilton Catholic High School at some time during their careers, according to a Journal-News review of the documents.

Leaders of the Marianists, a Catholic religious order with a 170-year history in the Greater Cincinnati and Dayton region, released a list Wednesday of 46 priests and brothers they say were found to have abused children since 1950 in the United States.

Marianist officials listed five men who spent some of their careers working at the former Hamilton Catholic High School under the category of “members found to have sexually abused a minor.”

The school, which was located at 533 Dayton Street, closed in 1966, and students transferred to the then-new Badin High School in west Hamilton.

The building has for years been the central office of the Hamilton public schools.

The five — Francis A. Russell, John J. Keegan, Julius F. May, Ralph A. Mravintz and Thomas J. Doyle — all spent some years of their careers working at the former Hamilton Catholic High School. The exact years of employment are not noted in the document.

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DAYTON (OH)
Journal-News

June 24, 2020

By Josh Sweigart

Leaders of the Marianists — a Catholic religious order with a 170-year history in Dayton — released a list Wednesday of 46 priests and brothers they say were found to have sexually abused children since 1950 in the United States.

The list includes 19 men with ties to the Dayton area and Marianist institutions such as the University of Dayton and Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School. Sixteen Marianists on the list served in the Province of Cincinnati, which was headquartered in Dayton until it merged with the other Marianist provinces in 2002.

Chaminade Julienne President Daniel Meixner said in a statement Wednesday that allegations against one of the men, Bro. Francis Russell, stemmed from his assignment to the school during the 1965-1966 school year. He said the Marianists notified the school about Russell in November 2019 and letters were sent to alumni from that year.

Russell joined the order in 1939 and died in 1991, according to information released by the order. He worked at four schools in Ohio, including in Hamilton and Cincinnati.

Meixner said 13 men on the list released Wednesday worked at Chaminade Julienne or its predecessor, Chaminade High School, all prior to 1999, including six Marianists “not previously known to our school.” Russell is the only one with a credible claim of abuse while assigned at the school, Meixner said.

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OSWEGO (NY)
Palladium-Times

June 6, 2020

By Seth Wallace

Earliest case claims abuse at St. Paul’s in 1945

A deluge of lawsuits filed against the Diocese of Syracuse under the state Child Victims Act allege a long-standing, secretive and effective system for concealing clergy sex abuse.

Hundreds of cases are pending against the diocese, which last week filed for bankruptcy in the face of the overwhelming legal battle. Multiple complaints allege sexual abuse of children by priests associated with Oswego parishes. For this story, The Palladium-Times editorial team spoke with attorneys for the alleged victims, reviewed hundreds of pages of court and diocese documents and aggregated credible information from community members who claim to have knowledge of the situation. The names of all alleged victims are being withheld with identities redacted and replaced by the terms “the victim,” “the plaintiff” or “the child” where applicable.

The cases differ in decades, institutions and individuals but many components follow the same sad pattern: an underage male, involved with the Catholic Church through schooling or worship, is sexually abused by a clergy member.

“The Diocese of Syracuse knew for decades that its priests, clergy, religious brothers, religious sisters, school administrators, teachers, employees and volunteers were using their positions within the diocese to groom and sexually abuse children,” reads the opening of one complaint alleging abuse that began more than five decades ago.

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SAVANNAH (GA)
Savannah Morning News

June 26, 2020

By Jan Skutch

By his own admission, Monsignor William Oliver O’Neill is “a person who likes mischief and excitement.”

So when the retired rector at the Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist in downtown Savannah sat down to pen his life’s stories beginning in Ireland and continuing for the past 53 years in the Catholic Diocese of Savannah, that showed through.

“Some of the stories in this collection may seem to be outlandish or hard to believe!,” he wrote in his introduction. “They are all actually true stories.”

In the recently published “Stories from Ireland and America,” available from Amazon.com, O’Neill writes 124 stories from his childhood on a farm near Tipperary in Ireland to his confrontation with an armed arsonist who tried to burn the Cathedral to the ground. The reader is presented with an entertaining saga — at times challenging to take at face value.

*
But for those who have celebrated Mass with O’Neill at the pulpit, they find a priest who sees humor in daily lives, as well as one who was dedicated to his chosen path of leading his flock to God’s message. And as a fierce critic of the church’s handling of those guilty of cleric sexual abuse.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
KQED

June 26, 2020

By Alexandra Hall

Luis said he couldn’t tell the doctor what had really happened.

It had been several days since he first noticed the blood in his urine and the bruising around his groin.

The 40-year-old native of Jalisco, Mexico, had been meeting with a popular local priest in Fresno, Jesús Antonio Castañeda Serna, who went by the name Father Antonio. His family had introduced him to Father Antonio in hope of the priest helping Luis, who had struggled with an addiction to meth, get back on his feet.

“A lot of people would come looking for him,” said Luis, which is not his real name. KQED is not using the real names of alleged sexual assault survivors in this story. “They said it was something … like a gift from God he had.”

At the time, Father Antonio was lead pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a Spanish-language congregation of the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin. The priest’s charismatic leadership drew in hundreds from Fresno’s Latino community and his rumored healing abilities had earned him the nickname “el padrecito que hace milagros” — the priest who performs miracles.

During sessions in Father Antonio’s office that Luis said took place over the course of several years, he would lie down on a bench or massage table wearing only his boxers, while Father Antonio prayed and rubbed oil onto his skin. The intensity of the massage was so forceful that the priest often left bruises, Luis later testified.

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EVANSVILLE (IN)
Courier & Press

June 26, 2020

By Abbey Doyle

Bishop Joseph M. Siegal said Friday he found claims of sexual misconduct against a now-deceased priest were “unsubstantiated” after an Evansville Diocese investigation.

In response, the family of the accuser called the announcement, and the investigation itself, “absurd and offensive.”

Testifying in front of the Indiana Senate Judiciary Committee in February 2019, Christopher Compton said the Rev. Raymond Kuper sexually abused him multiple times when Compton was 9 years old.

He accused of Kuper of “borderline brainwashing” him.

Kuper died in 2012.

Speaking to reporters at the Diocese of Evansville Catholic Center, Bishop Joseph M. Siegel, said: “On the recommendation of the Diocesan Review Board, I have found that this allegation cannot be substantiated.”

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Springfield Republican via Mass Live

June 26, 2020

By Ron Chimelis

The press conference consisted of a single person, but Robert Hoatson said he spoke for thousands of victims who have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse — and any who still may.

The former priest and president of Road to Recovery, an advocacy group for victims of church-related sexual abuse, called for the resignation of Mitchell Rozanski, the outgoing bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield. Hoatson also called on Pope Francis to rescind the bishop’s reassignment as Archbishop of the Archdiocese in St. Louis, Missouri.

Hoatson said he expects neither result, but promised to keep speaking out on behalf of victims of clergy sexual abuse. Speaking in front of diocesan headquarters in Springfield Friday, he said retired Judge Peter Velis’ findings of “unequivocally credible” sexual abuse claims against former Bishop Christopher J. Weldon — and failures in the diocese’s handling of the allegations — stood as a scathing commentary on Rozanski’s tenure in Springfield.

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OTTAWA (CABANA)
CBC

June 26, 2020

Roland Lanoie, 72, pleaded guilty earlier this month to offences dating back to 1980s

A former Roman Catholic priest who sexually abused a 15-year-old boy almost four decades ago has been sentenced to 15 months in jail.

Roland Lanoie, 72, pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault earlier this month.

His jail sentence will be followed by two years of supervised probation, during which time he must not work or volunteer in a position of trust involving children, a recommendation made by Crown attorney Dayna Queua-Guzzi.

At Lanoie’s sentencing on Thursday, provincial court Judge Ryan Rolston talked about the importance of a sentence that reflects the seriousness of the offence and the responsibility of the convicted person. The multiple sexual assaults suffered by the victim resulted in trauma, Rolston said.

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WHEELING (WV)
WTRF

June 26, 2020

By John Lynch

Steubenville OH – Pope Francis decreed that Henry Christopher Foxhoven be dismissed from the clerical state. The Pope’s decision was communicated to Diocese of Steubenville Bishop Jeffrey M. Monforton on June 3 and to Foxhoven on June 19.

Foxhoven pled guilty to three counts of sexual battery in front of Athens County Judge Patrick Lang, Nov. 27, 2018 and is serving a 12 year prison sentence.

Diocese of Steubenville Bishop Jeffrey M. Monforton said, “We must remain vigilant in assisting victims of sexual abuse. We take every accusation very seriously and we will continue to do so.”

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WINNIPEG (MANITOBA, CANADA)
Winnipeg Free Press

June 25, 2020

By Dean Pritchard

A retired Roman Catholic priest has been sentenced to 15 months in jail after admitting to sexually abusing a 15-year-old boy nearly 40 years ago.

Roland Lanoie, 72, pleaded guilty earlier this month to one count of sexual assault for offences dating back to 1982.

The abuse began shortly after the boy had been sent to live at St. Boniface Minor Seminary following the death of his mother.

“Mr. Lanoie was his priest and his parents all at once,” provincial court Judge Ryan Rolston said Thursday. “It is difficult to imagine a more profound and multi-layered breach of trust.”

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BURLINGTON (VT)
WCAX 3 CBS

June 25, 2020

By Ike Bendavid

Winooski VT – Three Catholic churches in Vermont are set to close within the next week– the latest sign of the times for Vermont’s largest church community. Our Ike Bendavid takes a look at what’s behind the closures and what’s next.

I’m told it’s several things. Weekly Mass attendance and access to other churches in the area make it easier to consolidate, but the main reason is not enough priests to lead the parishes in the state.

After near 90 years, St. Stephen’s Church in Winooski will ring the bells one last time this weekend.

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The number of churchgoers has also been falling for years, driven by aging demographics, a decline in religious interest among younger people and priest sex abuse scandals that have driven away some parishioners.

According to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, there were 142,000 Catholics in Vermont in 1990. In 2019, there were 112,000 statewide.

In 1990, there were 2,097 baptisms. In 2019, there were only 384.

Also in 1990, there were 1,290 Catholic funerals. Last year, there were 1,127.

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

June 25, 2020

By Judy Jones

A longtime Catholic priest in Ohio is the subject of a “credible allegation” of abuse, according to the Diocese of Columbus. We call on diocesan officials to use every tool and resource at their disposal to share this information with parishioners and the public in every community where this cleric worked and to encourage victims and witnesses to come forward to local police and prosecutors.

We hope that the findings by the diocesan review board will bring comfort and healing to the survivors of Fr. Kevin Lutz. We know that abusers rarely have only one victim, so we believe there are likely others who he hurt during his four decades as a priest. One public allegation that is found to be “credible” by Catholic officials will often bring others forward. Outreach by diocesan leaders in Columbus can help bring those who were wounded forward so they can find healing and accountability.

We call on Bishop Robert Brennan to personally visit each parish where Fr. Lutz worked and urge others who may have suffered, seen or suspected crimes to come forward to law enforcement. We also hope that prosecutors in Columbus will look closely at this case to determine if there are any chargeable offenses, so that children in Ohio will be safer and survivors will have an opportunity for justice.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

June 25, 2020

By Phyllis Zagano

The sudden appearance of new communities, linked to the personality of some preachers … can conceal the danger … of enclosing the experience of faith in protected and reassuring environments.
— Pope Francis, to participants at the Plenary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Sept. 28, 2019.

The cult of personality is a very scary thing. No matter where or how it forms, it usually crashes and burns with the death or diminishment of the individual who gained a following. What Pope Francis spoke of here, to the assembled participants at the Plenary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, was the theme of their conference: “Pentecostals, charismatics, and evangelicals: Impact on the concept of unity.” His words found their way into the final document of the Amazon synod about a year later.

The dynamics in the Amazon region are clear: The largest numbers of former Catholics there now affiliate with one or another of these groups, too often tied to a single preacher in a single village for a limited time.

Why? One would hope that the gospel is the principal attraction for the adherents to whatever Pentecostal, charismatic or evangelical preacher has won their hearts. But one must recognize the underlying circumstances causing people to gather around him or, increasingly, her.

It often has to do with language and culture. The local preacher comes from the people, or somehow is inserted into the locality, and gains a following. He, or, we must remember, she, is, or at least becomes, a known quantity whose joys, hopes and fears echo those of the followers. The preacher knows them, knows how to heal their wounds, knows how to salve their sorrows. The people hear common sense mixed with promise.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service via The Dialog of the Diocese of Wilmington

June 26, 2020

By Carol Glatz

Rome – Ignatius Press will be publishing Australian Cardinal George Pell’s prison journal and it is also appealing for donations it will give the cardinal for outstanding legal expenses incurred in defending himself against allegations of the sexual abuse of minors.

Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, editor of the U.S.-based Ignatius Press, said, “I’ve already read the first half of the journal and it is extraordinary. I think it’s going to be a spiritual classic.”

The complete journal, he said, is about 1,000 pages, “so we will print it in three or four volumes” with the first volume expected to be out in the spring of 2021.

“With your help, we can proceed with this project and offer Cardinal Pell appropriate advances on these volumes, which he can then use to remove much of the worry he now has about his legal debts,” the priest said in a message published in June on the Ignatius Press website.

The “Cardinal George Pell Donation Project,” found on Ignatius.com, said donations made through the publisher’s website or its parent company, Guadalupe Associates Inc., were tax deductible.

A jury in Australia had found Cardinal Pell guilty in December 2018 on five counts of abuse and the Victoria Court of Appeal upheld that verdict in a 2-1 decision.

The 79-year-old cardinal had served nearly 14 months out of a six-year sentence when, in April, seven judges of the High Court of Australia dismissed his conviction on charges of abusing two choirboys in 1996. He was in solitary confinement 23 hours a day for 405 days.

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GEORGETOWN (GUYANA)
Stabroek News

June 26, 2020

Deeply disturbing.

These are the words used by Mount Saint Benedict in responding to a viral Facebook video of a woman claiming she was sexually assaulted by a priest from the Mount from age seven to 12.

The Mount said the allegations in the video are currently under review.

“We shall continue to monitor our policies and controls to prevent incidents of this nature,” the Mount said in a statement on its Facebook page yesterday.

The Mount said the monk against whom the allegations were made is formerly associated with the Mount Saint Benedict Monastery and St Bede’s Vocational School.

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RICHMOND (VA)
WTVR via True CrimeDaily

June 25, 2020

A former Richmond City Public Schools elementary music teacher and minister pleaded guilty Wednesday to producing images of child sexual abuse.

Kellen Thomas Donelson, 32, was charged by Homeland Security Agents following an investigation and search warrant on his Richmond home.

The Richmond man came to the attention of law enforcement in 2019 for uploading multiple images of child pornography via Snapchat and Kik Messenger, according to court documents. In the summer of 2019, Homeland Security received tips that Donelson, under the name “love4muziq,” uploaded images of child porn to Snapchat and the messaging app Kik.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
BBC

June 18, 2020

Former Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, has had his permission to officiate as a priest revoked.

The Church of England said new evidence linking Lord Carey, 84, to a review into allegations of abuse against the late John Smyth, had emerged.

There are no claims of abuse against him, and in a statement he said he was “dismayed” by the revocation.

Mr Smyth was accused of attacking boys whom he had met at a Dorset Christian camp in the 1970s and 1980s.

The independent inquiry was launched into the Church’s handling of allegations against Mr Smyth, a barrister who died aged 77 last year.

Permission to Officiate (PTO) is required for any Church of England priest to preach or minister.

In a statement Lord Carey said: “I am bewildered and dismayed to receive the news a short time ago that due to ‘concerns’ being raised during the review of John Smyth QC I have had my PTO revoked.

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PARIS (FRANCE)
La Croix

June 24, 2020

By Céline Hoyeau and Gauthier Vaillant

Famous for their hospitality, monasteries are often asked to house criminals or priests guilty of being pedophiles

A year ago, Jean-Claude Romand traded his prison cell for the monastic cloister.

He was released on parole on June 28, 2019 after spending 26 years in jail for murdering his wife, their two children and his parents.

Romand was an impostor who pretended to be a medical doctor for 18 years prior to the murders. He converted to Catholicism while in prison and, since being paroled, he’s been living at the traditionalist Benedictine Abbey of Fontgombault in central France.

He is not the first notorious criminal to seek refuge in a monastery.

In the late 1970s, the Benedictine Abbey of Sainte-Anne de Kergonan, near the Bay of Biscay, took in the double murderer Guy Desnoyers.

There was also Michelle Martin, companion of the Belgian pedophile murderer Marc Dutroux. She spent three years in a Poor Clare monastery near Namur after being paroled in 2012.

In recent years, bishops have also begun to use monasteries as residents for priests guilty of or awaiting trial for sexual abuse.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Associated Press via The Citizen’s Voice of Wilkes-Barre PA

June 26 2020

By Jim Salter and Margaret Stafford

[See the list.]

The Marianists religious order on Wednesday released the names of 46 living and dead religious leaders who they claim sexually abused minors, the latest of several Catholic organizations to complete an investigation and publicly name the accused.

“For decades, despicable and evil acts of abuse committed by clergy and vowed religious of the Catholic Church dwelled in the shadows,” the leader of the St. Louis-based order, Oscar Vasquez, wrote in a letter posted on the Marianists’ website. “Hidden and ignored by church members and leaders, these abhorrent sins festered, stifling the light of our Church.”

Vasquez said investigators looked at files of 2,500 U.S. priests and brothers dating to 1950. Of the 46 men on the list, 33 are deceased.

Of the remaining 13 Marianists determined to have committed abuse, five who are still members of the order are on “safety plans” and eight are no longer with the order.

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ROME
Associated Press

June 25, 2020

By Nicole Winfield and Monika Scislowska

Pope Francis has ordered a Polish bishop to leave his central diocese while he is under investigation for covering up cases of sexual abuse that were featured in a second clergy abuse documentary that has rocked Poland’s Catholic Church.

Pope Francis has ordered a Polish bishop to leave his central diocese and let someone else run it while he is under investigation for covering up cases of sexual abuse that were featured in a second clergy abuse documentary that has rocked Poland’s Catholic Church.

Francis on Thursday named the archbishop of Lodz, Grzegorz Rys, to temporarily take over as head of the Kalisz diocese.

The Vatican’s ambassador, in explaining the decision, said the current Kalisz bishop, Edward Janiak, 67, retains the title of Kalish bishop for the time being. But the explanation, posted late Thursday on the Polish bishops conference website, said Janiak must leave the territory of the diocese and can’t have any form of influence on how it is run.

In May, the online documentary “Playing Hide and Seek,” exposed two cases of pedophile priests that Janiak handled, first as an auxiliary bishop of Wroclaw and then as bishop of Kalisz, which he has headed since 2012.

It featured court testimony about Janiak’s role helping transfer one priest, subsequently convicted and defrocked, from Wroclaw to another diocese even after a criminal investigation had begun. The film also documented another case of alleged cover-up of another priest during Janiak’s time as Kalisz bishop.

The film suggests Janiak didn’t follow the Vatican’s own in-house rules to report allegations against the Kalisz priest to the Holy See, and did so only after the case gained media attention. The diocese maintains no actual victims had lodged a formal complaint, though the parents of one victim did. An audiotape of their 2016 meeting, in which Janiak berates the parents, provides one of the more chilling moments of the documentary.

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)
New York Times

June 25, 2020

By Michael Powell

The new approach finds unlikely allies among some feminist scholars, who say colleges and universities were failing to sufficiently protect the rights of young men accused of sexual misconduct.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos fired a shot last month in the nation’s culture wars, overhauling how colleges handle investigations of sexual assault and ending what she called Obama-era “kangaroo courts” on campus.

The new Education Department rules give more protections to the accused, primarily young men who face discipline or expulsion as a result of allegations of sexual misconduct.

The move set off a liberal uproar, denounced by unions representing teachers and college professors, by the National Organization for Women and by an array of Democratic senators. The Trump rules, they said, constitute a radical rollback of protections for victims who seek justice after sexual assaults.

But Ms. DeVos’s actions won praise from a surprising audience: an influential group of feminist legal scholars who applauded the administration for repairing what they viewed as unconscionable breaches in the rights of the accused.

“The new system is vastly better and fairer,” said Prof. Janet Halley, who specializes in gender and sexuality at Harvard Law School. “The fact that we’re getting good things from the Trump administration is confusing, but isn’t it better than an unbroken avalanche of bad things?”

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.

NORTHAMPTON (MA)
Daily Hampshire Gazette

June 24, 2020

By Scott Merzbach

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: The Velis report was released in a 100 megabyte PDF that was not searchable. We made the PDF searchable and reduced its size by half without changing the content in any way. The link above is to the searchable and smaller PDF. This smaller PDF is still 52 megabytes and will be difficult for some readers to download. So we have also posted the reduced-size searchable report in pieces: the text, the exhibits, and the photo exhibits with appendix. The 100 megabyte report with OCR is available here.]

Springfield – Those investigating sexual abuse complaints against late bishop Christopher J. Weldon failed in their duties to report their findings to prosecutorial authorities, a reluctance likely caused by Weldon’s “prominence and revered legacy in the religious community,” retired Judge Peter A. Velis wrote in his investigative report into the allegations released to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield.

In his 373-page report, released Wednesday, Velis criticized how the Diocesan Review Board handled the initial allegations of sexual abuse against Weldon, calling the response both “weak” and “woefully deficient,” and finding that the allegations by a Chicopee man are legitimate.

“These accusations are unequivocally credible,” Velis said at a press conference at the Bishop Marshall Center Wednesday afternoon, noting that there will be a great deal of pain felt by members of the diocese for calling out the bishop’s “evil misdeeds.” Velis added that he allowed for the highest standard of proof, beyond a reasonable doubt, to be fair to the bishop, who died in 1982 and has been unable to defend himself.

Velis wrote that he was disappointed in how investigators assessed the complaint.

“In response to my charge in assessing how the diocese responded to the complainant, I conclude from the myriad of evidentiary factors expressed in my final report that from the inception of the complaint through the follow-up process, the procedure was greatly flawed,” Velis wrote.

Archbishop-designate Mitchell T. Rozanski, who appointed Velis, said he accepts the findings and as such ordered the immediate removal of Weldon’s name from the rehabilitation facility at Mercy Medical Center, that his remains be moved from its current cemetery to a less prominent location, and that all honorable mentions and photos of Weldon in churches, offices and other buildings be taken down. In addition, Weldon’s name will be placed on the diocese website alongside other priests, deacons and bishops, who have faced credible accusations of sexual abuse of children or adults.

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

June 24, 2020

By Bradley Eli

Judge: allegations ‘unequivocally credible’

Springfield, Mass. – An independent report released by the diocese of Springfield, Massachusetts is asserting that sex abuse claims against Springfield’s former Bp. Christopher Weldon are unequivocally credible” and the diocese covered for him.

In a 375-page report released by the diocese on Wednesday, retired judge Peter A. Velis removed all doubt about the credibility of the allegations against the late Bp. Weldon.

“Therefore, I find the allegations of the complainant of sexual molestation committed upon him by Bp. Christopher J. Weldon,” wrote Velis, “that included anal rape, indecent assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress are unequivocally credible.”

He added, “The allegations that were investigated and examined are not dubious, vague or ambiguous in any essentials, nor are they the product of any chimerical conception, fabrication or schematic design.”

The late Weldon, who died in 1982, was the subject of an independent investigation owing to allegations first heard by Springfield’s Diocesan Review Board in June 2018. Velis, who was tapped the following year to conduct an independent investigation, was critical of the board’s gross mishandling of 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.

SPRINGFIELD (MA)
New England Public Radio

By Nancy Eve Cohen

June 24, 2020

An independent investigation commissioned by the Springfield Roman Catholic Diocese found allegations of sexual abuse against the late bishop Christopher J. Weldon to be credible.

Retired judge Peter Velis — who led the investigation resulting in a report released Wednesday — interviewed members of the Diocesan Review Board that heard the complaint against Weldon, Archbishop-elect Mitchell Rozanski, and the individual from Chicopee who said he was abused by Weldon when he was a young altar boy.

Velis said the handling of the complaint was “woefully deficient.”

Rozanski said he wanted to apologize to the victim, and not just for the abuse.

“I want to apologize for the chronic mishandling of this case time and time again since 2014,” Rozanski said. “In almost every instance, we have failed this courageous man, who nonetheless persevered — thanks, in part, to a reliable support network, as well as to a deep desire for a just response for the terrible abuse which he endured.”

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.

CHICOPEE (MA)
WWLP

By Ariana Tourangeau and Mike Masciadrelli

June 25, 2020

Child sexual abuse claim made against former Springfield Catholic Bishop Christopher Weldon deemed credible

Springfield, Mass. – An investigation into a sexual assault claim against late Springfield Bishop Christopher J. Weldon was released Wednesday afternoon and according to the report, the claim is credible.

Judge Peter A. Velis, now retired, and Archbishop-designate Mitchell T. Rozanski held a briefing at the Bishop Marshall Center to share what the investigation revealed.

The report, which was sent to 22News states that on July 25, 2019, Judge Velis was contacted by Jeffrey Trant, director of the Office of Safe Environment and Victim Assistance of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield to conduct an “independent and outside” investigation respecting allegations made by a certain individual of sexual abuse committed by the late Bishop Christopher Weldon.

That certain individual, a man, claimed Weldon abused him when he was a child back in the 1960s.

The purpose of the investigation was to assess and determine the credibility of the individual’s allegations, to analyze how the complaint was handled by the Diocesan personnel responsible for protecting children and vulnerable adults and to help identify opportunities for improvement in how the diocese handles these matters.

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.

CHICOPEE (MA)
WWLP

June 24, 2020

By Lianne Zana

Weldon Rehabilitation Hospital in Springfield to be renamed after sexual abuse claim against Catholic bishop

Springfield, Mass. – A rehabilitation center will be renamed following a report of child sexual abuse by a Springfield Catholic Bishop, deemed ‘credible’ by the Springfield Diocese.

The Weldon Rehabilitation Hospital, part of Mercy Medical Center on 175 Carew Street, will be renamed after a newly released report from Retired Judge Peter Velis. The report contained an investigation involving sexual abuse by Springfield Catholic Bishop Christopher Weldon in the 1960s.

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)
Western Mass News WGGB/WSHM

June 25, 2020

By Morgyn Joubert

A victim advocacy group is calling for the resignation of Springfield Bishop Mitchell Rozanski.

Road To Recovery Inc., an organization based in New Jersey is also pushing for Pope Francis to rescind Bishop Rozanski’s appointment as Archbishop of Saint Louis, Missouri.

They claim that Judge Peter Velis’s validation of the sexual abuse claims made against late Bishop Christopher Weldon shows Bishop Rozanski and his diocese review board are unable to fairly and accurately handle claims of clergy sexual abuse and they must all resign immediately.

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)
Diocese of Springfield

Released June 24, 2020

By Peter A. Velis

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: This report was released in a 100 megabyte PDF that was not searchable. We made the PDF searchable and reduced its size by half without changing the content in any way. The link above is to the searchable and smaller PDF. This smaller PDF is still 52 megabytes and will be difficult for some readers to download. So we have also posted the reduced-size searchable report in pieces: the text, the exhibits, and the photo exhibits with appendix. The 100 megabyte report with OCR is available here.]

Excerpt from the Executive Summary

The processing of the complaint was replete with differing evaluations of the allegations and included conflicting analyses, opinions and conclusions. This reflected a clear lack of industry and concern for the quality of the entire process in terms of the scope of the investigation.

It was clear in my examination that the process included an inexplicable modification and manipulation of the reports received by and acted on by the Diocesan Review Board. Additionally the complaint process was compromised in that mandatory reporters failed in their duties to report the allegations to prosecutorial authorities.

Significantly, in evaluating the actions of those involved in the Weldon assessment, I found that there was a reluctance to fervently pursue an evaluation of allegations against him due to his prominence and revered legacy in the religious community.

Therefore, in response to my charge in assessing how the Diocese responded to the complainant, I conclude from the myriad of evidentiary factors expressed in my final report that from the inception of the complaint through the follow-up process, the procedure was greatly flawed.

I conducted an intensive and in-depth investigation. Concomitant with it was a haunting consciousness of Bishop Weldon’s inability to refute the complainant’s allegations. Consequently, I conducted the process in the light most favorable to him. However, notwithstanding, I still reached an informed and indisputable conclusion. I found the allegations of the complainant concerning the late Bishop Christopher J. Weldon to be unequivocally credible.

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

ST. LOUIS (MO)
The Marianists – Province of the United States

By Fr. Oscar Vasquez SM

June 24, 2020

[Note from BishopAccountability.org: This list requires that the reader click dozens of times to read the FAQs and assignment histories of each priest and brother with allegations. We have cached a copy of the list with all the FAQs and assignments expanded.

Note that the assignments for the priests and brothers do not provide start and stop years, let alone dates, and the assignments are shuffled into alphabetical order, so that even the sequence of assignments is not represented. The assignment lists also omit some assignments, and the position of the accused Marianist at each assignment is not given. The impact of these features of the list may be assessed by comparing the Marianists’ entry for Fr. Charles H. Miller SM with our assignment history for Miller].

A Journey Towards Healing

Our intent was to publish the list during the recent Lenten season. However, due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the provincial council discerned it was in the best interest of the Province and our institutions to postpone the announcement to a more prudent time. The decision was later made to publish this list in June 2020.

A Message from the Provincial

Marianist Provincial Father Oscar Vasquez along with Assistant Provincial Brother Bernard Ploeger announce the publication of a list of names of Province members found to have sexually abused a minor.

Dear Friends in Christ,

For decades, despicable and evil acts of abuse committed by clergy and vowed religious of the Catholic Church dwelled in the shadows. Hidden and ignored by church members and leaders, these abhorrent sins festered, stifling the light of our Church.

The actions of some have wounded victims, sparked righteous outrage, and severely damaged the trust of the faithful. The failure to shed light on sexual abuse in recent decades demands a contrite and transparent response from Church leadership.

Today, in a spirit of sorrow and accountability, and with a sincere desire for reconciliation and healing, we are confronting the darkness of these sins.

To those who have survived sexual abuse at the hands of a member of the Society of Mary, we profoundly regret and apologize for the serious harm you have suffered. We apologize for the betrayal and pain you and your family have endured. Words will never heal your wounds, but we pray that our actions today will help bring you some solace.

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

SAN ANTONIO (TX)
St. Mary’s University

June 24, 2020

By Thomas M. Mengler, St. Mary’s University President

Today, I share a joint statement from the Marianist Ministries in the San Antonio area with the link to the names of Marianist vowed religious members credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors. No Marianist brother or priest who is provided in the list is currently at St. Mary’s, nor will any be allowed to live in any of the Marianist residences near or on our campus or to visit the University.

Dear members of our Marianist communities:

The Catholic Church crisis regarding sexual abuse of minors by vowed religious members entrusted with the pastoral care of our children and young adults has been devastating to us and our communities. The Marianist Province of the United States has taken another step in addressing this crisis by releasing the names of Marianist brothers and priests, living and deceased, who were found to have sexually abused a minor since 1950 in the United States.

Over the past two years, the Province has reviewed approximately 2,500 personnel files of Marianists who have served since 1950 in the Province of the United States, which includes its four predecessor provinces (Cincinnati, New York, Pacific and St. Louis) before their merger in 2002. Today, to be accountable and transparent, the Province has published the names of these individuals on their website at marianist.com/healing. Some of those individuals lived and worked at one or more of our institutions in San Antonio or at Tecaboca in Mountain Home, Texas.

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)
WCBE Public Radio

June 25, 2020

By Alison Holm

The Columbus Catholic Diocese says allegations of sexual abuse by a Columbus priest have been ruled credible.

69-year old Father Kevin Lutz has been placed on administrative leave. He retired from St. Mary’s Parish last year. The allegation of abuse of a 14-year old boy in 1986 was made the day after his retirment.

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

June 24, 2020

By Jim Wilhelm

An allegation of sexual abuse of a minor by Rev. Kevin Lutz, a priest in Columbus and central Ohio for four decades who retired last year from St. Mary parish in German Village, has been found credible, the Diocese of Columbus announced Wednesday.

Bishop Robert J. Brennan has accepted a June 17 recommendation by the Diocesan Board of Review for the Protection of Children that Lutz’s name should be added to the published Diocesan list of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor.

Father Lutz, 69, continues on administrative leave pending further canonical and administrative processes, the diocese said.

The diocese emphasized that a determination of credibility is not considered proof of guilt. The public announcement of a finding of credibility is made in accordance with the Catholic Church’s Charter and practices and policies by the Diocese for prevention of sexual abuse of minors and response to such allegations.

Lutz announced his retirement last Sept. 9 from St. Mary, where he had supervised a years-long renovation of the historic building. A day later, the accusation that Lutz had sexually abused a minor during his tenure from 1983-1986 at St. Christopher Parish on the Northwest Side was reported, the diocese has said.

The diocese said it reported the allegation to Columbus police the same day it found out about it, and also told Lutz. The abuse is alleged to have occurred from 1982 to 1986.

A Columbus police report obtained by The Dispatch stated the victim was a 14-year-old male and that the incident occurred in 1984. No specific date or location was given.

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.

BOISE (ID)
Idaho Statesman via MagicValley.com

June 25, 2020

By Ruth Brown

https://magicvalley.com/news/priest-accused-of-abuse-leading-mass-at-catholic-church-in-mccall-popular-podcast-says/article_37cc2c53-3f27-5213-b2ed-dde74afbe2bf.html

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise responded Wednesday after an investigation done by Reveal, a national public radio show and podcast, outlined past abuse allegations made against a current Idaho priest.

The podcast, “Unrepentant,” was posted online June 20 and outlines the story of two priests accused of abuse and their victims’ attempts to report it. One of those priests, the Rev. Bruno Segatta, is currently assigned to McCall’s Our Lady of the Lake Parish, Cascade’s St. Katharine Drexel Station and Riggins’ St. Jerome’s Chapel.

“Father Bruno Segatta denies these allegations of an incident that allegedly occurred nearly 30 years ago while he was employed by Gonzaga University,” the Diocese of Boise said in a written statement Wednesday. “The matter was handled internally between Gonzaga University and Father Segatta.”

Segatta is also listed as visiting priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Boise. The Our Lady of the Lake’s parish website has been posting videos of mass during the coronavirus pandemic, and Segatta was last seen offering mass as recently as Sunday.

Reported by Emily Schwing, the podcast dives into the story of a woman who claims she was abused by Segatta while studying abroad in Italy. At the time, Segatta worked for Gonzaga University, a Catholic university in Spokane, and he led tours for students in Italy, according the report. The woman claimed Segatta harassed her after the abuse, and the church ignored her complaints.

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

June 25 2020

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/newry-priest-canon-francis-brown-reinstated-after-being-cleared-of-historical-abuse-allegation-39313814.html

A Newry-based priest has been reinstated to his role after being cleared of an historical abuse allegation.

Canon Francis Brown voluntarily stepped aside from his role as administrator of Newry Cathedral in May 2018 after a safeguarding allegation was made against him which dated back to 1984.

He strongly denied any wrongdoing at the time and agreed to cooperate with a police investigation.

At the time, the Diocese of Dromore was at the centre of a scandal over its handling of abuse claims made against paedophile priest Malachy Finnegan.

In August last year, the Public Prosecution Service said they were dropping the case against Canon Brown after a “thorough and robust investigation”.

An internal church probe has since concluded the claims were “unsubstantiated”.

Canon Brown’s immediate return was announced yesterday during evening mass in Newry Cathedral by the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin.

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.

AUCKLAND (NEW ZEALAND)
New Zealand Herald

June 24, 2020

By Rob Kidd

A Dunedin man posed as a priest while fantasising with others online about violating children, a court has heard.

Andrew Lee Gardner, who has his own computer repair business, was jailed for six months when he appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday — his third time in the dock on sex offences.

He was first convicted in 2007 of sexual connection with a young person, indecent assault and possessing an objectionable publication.

Gardner was ordered to attend the STOP sex offender programme in Christchurch as part of his sentence but the court heard yesterday he was evicted because of his negative attitude.

Judge Kevin Phillips noted the man thought his offending was less severe than others in the group and became disengaged.

Untreated for his sexual predilections, Gardner was again before the court in 2010 for grooming.

Yesterday, the court heard the defendant initially came to the attention of Canadian authorities for his conduct on a chat website under the username “tkoguynz”.

Gardner used the site from early 2018 to conduct “age-play”, which involves two or more users fabricating an illegal scenario with a child, then describing the sexual liaison.

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

SAN ANTONIO (TX)
Rivard Report

June 24, 2020

By Anthony J. Pogorelc

For years now, as I followed television and online news, I have seen police officers brutalize individuals. Consistently, I have asked myself: Why do they do this? As a Catholic priest who works at the diocesan seminary training future priests, I wonder: How were these officers trained or formed?

The Catholic Church certainly has its problems. The history of sexual abuse and its cover-up is a horror in which those charged with caring for people abused them. One avenue of response by the church was to examine and reform the process of formation for those who aspire to the priesthood.

As a sociologist, I know that formation socializes someone into a culture constituted by shared, socially learned behavior. Reforming a formation process requires a serious examination of the culture and its values. What are we forming aspirants to be a part of? Individual and social change goes hand in hand. Today, it is essential to do this for the institution of policing. Enabling those on the front lines to properly carry out the institutional mission is an essential investment in human resources.

In the church we realized that formation is not only about the acquisition of skills; it is about shaping the human being. In priestly formation, we focus on four dimensions that could also be relevant to the formation of aspiring police officers:

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)
Springfield Republican via Mass Live

June 24, 2020

By Anne-Gerard Flynn

https://www.masslive.com/news/2020/06/abuse-allegations-against-former-springfield-bishop-christopher-weldon-unequivocally-credible-investigation-finds.html

A retired superior court judge’s review of sexual abuse allegations against former Bishop Christopher J. Weldon, who led the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield for more than 25 years, found the accusations to be “unequivocally credible.”

Meanwhile, mandatory reporters in the diocese who first heard the alleged victim’s account failed to report the matter to law enforcement officials, according to the executive summary for a 350-plus page report released Wednesday by the diocese. The report is the product of an investigation by retired Superior Court Judge Peter A. Velis, who was hired a year ago to investigate the matter.

In an executive summary, Velis criticized the diocesan review board that heard the alleged victim’s account in June 2018.

“It was clear in my examination that the process included an inexplicable modification and manipulation of the reports received by and acted on by the Diocesan Review Board,” Velis wrote. “Additionally the complaint process was compromised in that mandatory reporters failed in their duties to report the allegations to prosecutorial authorities.”

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.

MONTREAL (QUEBEC, CANADA)
CBC News

June 23, 2020

The men, members of Clerics of St. Viator religious order, allegedly abused boys between 1961 and 1989

Quebec provincial police have arrested five elderly members of a Catholic teaching order, the Clerics of St. Viator, for allegedly sexually abusing boys in their care over the span of almost 30 years.

The Sûreté du Québec’s major crimes unit carried out arrest warrants for the men, who are between the ages of 78 and 88, in a home in Joliette belonging to their congregation, known in French as the Clercs de Saint-Viateur.

The men are facing more than 30 charges in total, including gross indecency, sexual assault and indecent assault. The men were interviewed by investigators and arraigned Tuesday via teleconference in courthouses in Joliette, Valleyfield and Montreal.

The alleged crimes took place between 1961 and 1989, when the men were responsible for instructing minors in religious educational institutions in the Montérégie, Bas-Saint-Laurent, Gaspé and Laurentians regions, the SQ said in a statement.

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

June 24, 2020

By Soli Salgado

Ali met Catholic composer David Haas when she was 14 years old, attending his Music Ministry Alive camp for three years starting in 2002. She recalled him being a hands-on mentor, remembering names and affirming the talents of the 150-or-so music students who attended the program each summer.

It wasn’t until five years later that unwelcome sexual advances tainted the relationship, when Ali and Haas ran into each other at the Religious Education Congress in Los Angeles, Ali told NCR.

Taking her to a more secluded area with benches outside the congress, Haas surprised Ali by “aggressively” kissing her and trying to put his hands down her shirt, she said.

Ali, who was 19 at the time, pulled away and turned down his invitations to his hotel room that night. Several times throughout the years, he’d continue to seek her out when he knew they were at the same event through their professions.

Ali learned only recently that her encounter with Haas was part of a pattern of abusive and manipulative tactics that Haas allegedly deployed on dozens of young people who knew him through the Catholic music community.

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)
Washington Post

June 23, 2020

By Shibani Mahtani and Regine Cabato

[Includes video with interview of teacher.]

Cadiz City, Philippines — The girl, her long hair in a ponytail, stepped into the cramped, dimly lit courtroom, her first time in such a place. Clinging to her mother, she scanned the dozens of faces assembled before her. The girl, then 5 years old, eventually pointed to a bald man in a striped shirt, his spectacles resting on his head.

She appeared nervous and did not speak his name.

Her slight gesture in September — identifying the Rev. Aron Buenacosa as the man who sexually assaulted her — began the rare trial in the Philippines of a priest of the Roman Catholic Church. Her case, in this quiet village on a central Philippine island, will also test Pope Francis’s pledge of an “all-out battle” to confront sexual abuse in all corners of the Catholic world.

The historical reckoning over abuse and coverups has gripped the church in the West for decades. But far fewer public cases have come from other parts of the Catholic world, including Africa, Asia and the pontiff’s homeland in Latin America.

A Philippine family takes on the Catholic Church after priest is accused of molesting their daughter
In some cases, the reasons are institutional: legal systems not built to handle abuse cases, the traditional role of church leaders in politics, and prosecutors unwilling to go against the powers of the church.

How the Vatican deals with new allegations of abuse from these regions could define Francis’s papacy and reflect on his acknowledgment that the church has unfinished business in dealing with its scandals.

The trial in the Philippines — Asia’s largest Catholic-majority country — is such a moment.

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.

BINGHAMTON (NY)
Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

June 23, 2020

By Anthony Borrelli

[Updated version of June 19, 2020 story.]

A former Binghamton priest faces more decades-old sex abuse accusations in a lawsuit under New York’s Child Victims Act.

Father Edward C. Madore, who has already been implicated in at least four prior abuse lawsuits, is accused in a new complaint filed Friday in state Supreme Court of Broome County of abusing a boy who was 10 years old in 1982. It happened while Madore served at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Binghamton.

The lawsuit says Madore used his position to groom the boy to gain his trust and to “gain control over him.”

Other lawsuits previously filed under the Child Victims Act have accused Madore of sexually abusing other children during the late 1970s. He was accused, in lawsuits filed Wednesday, of sexually abusing two children at St. Catherine Church during the late 1970s.

Madore has been laicized, which, according to the Diocese of Syracuse, means he voluntarily sought to be dispensed from clerical obligations and no longer has affiliation with 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.

SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Springfield Republican via Mass Live

June 22, 2020

By Anne-Gerard Flynn

https://www.masslive.com/news/2020/06/springfield-diocese-to-release-report-wednesday-on-sexual-abuse-allegations-against-late-bishop-christopher-weldon.html

A much anticipated investigative report by retired Superior Court Judge Peter A. Velis into sexual abuse allegations against the late Bishop Christopher J. Weldon will be released Wednesday, June 24, by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield.

Mark Dupont, a spokesman for the diocese, said the report will be posted on the diocese’s website at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Velis, who was hired by the diocese last July to investigate the allegations that date back to the 1960s, will meet members of the press at the time, along with Archbishop-designate Mitchell Rozanski, and retired Superior Court Judge Daniel Ford.

Ford heads a diocesan task force that will review any recommendations contained in the report for improving outreach to alleged survivors and how their clergy sexual misconduct claims are handled.

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.

NORTHAMPTON (MA)
Daily Hampshire Gazette

June 23, 2020

By Scott Merzbach

Springfield MA – Details of an investigation into sexual abuse claims made against late Springfield Catholic Bishop Christopher J. Weldon will be released Wednesday afternoon.

Retired Judge Peter A. Velis this week delivers to the Diocese of Springfield his report, which not only documents the claims made against Weldon, some of which date to the early 1960s, but how the diocese handled the complaint and opportunities for improving how future abuse allegations are addressed.

The full report will be released Wednesday at 2 p.m. on the diocesan website www.diospringfield.org.

At that same time, Velis and Archbishop-designate Mitchell T. Rozanski will hold a press conference at the Bishop Marshall Center, located behind St. Michael’s Cathedral to respond to the report and answer questions.

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RICHMOND (VA)
WRIC via WJHL in Johnson City TN

June 23, 2020

By Dean Mirshahi

“There’s nothing I want more than to serve in peace as a parish priest. But I can’t give in to something that goes against our own principles.”

A Catholic Diocese of Richmond priest who frequently blogs criticism over the church’s handling of clergy sexual abuse had his petition to remain the pastor of two southwest Virginia parishes rejected by the Vatican.

Rev. Mark D. White was suspended from the ministry by Richmond Bishop Barry Knestout last month after being ordered in April to leave two parishes, St. Joseph’s in Martinsville and St. Francis of Assisi in Rocky Mount, and relocate to a retreat center in Abingdon, Virginia.

“As your Advocate, Mr. Podhajsky, has told you, the Congregation for Clergy has directed you leave the assignment as pastor of St. Joseph Parish, Martinsville, and St. Francis of Assisi, Rocket Mount, in accord to my original letter of April 13, 2020,” Knestout wrote in a letter dated June 17 to White.

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ROANOKE (VA)
WFXR

June 23, 2020

By Colleen Guerry and Santiago Melli-Huber

Catholic Church rejects Martinsville priest’s appeal of removal as pastor of two local parishes; ordered to take down viral blog critical of Church’s handling of sexual abuse

Martinsville VA – For months now, Father Mark White has been in a fight with the Diocese of Richmond over the Bishop’s attempts to re-assign him as a prison chaplain, a direct result of Father White continuing to maintain his viral blog.

Father White announced mid-April he had been removed from his posts in Martinsville and Rocky Mount due to concerns about his blog, which is often critical of the Catholic Church’s handling of sexual abuse of minors and calls for more transparency from the Church about who helped cover it up.

In May, Father White says the Bishop changed the locks on both of his churches and the residence in Rocky Mount. However, Father White says he was able to stop the locksmith from changing the lock at the Martinsville residence, so he still has a roof over his head.

The priest decided to submit an appeal to the Vatican regarding the Bishop’s decision to move him.

Father White sent WFXR News a copy of the letter his canonical consultant and advocate, Michael J. Podhajsky, received from the Vatican earlier this month. In that letter, Vatican officials say Father White’s petition against his removal as a pastor for the Diocese of Richmond was filed improperly and thus rejected.

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ANCHORAGE (AK)
Alaska Public Media

June 23, 2020

By Casey Grove

[Includes audio interview with Emily Schwing about her recent Reveal report.]

A Jesuit Catholic priest who visited Alaska off and on for many years is among nearly a dozen who worked at a prominent university in the Pacific Northwest and are also accused of sexual misconduct.

Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington has been home to more priests with credible accusations of sexual abuse in comparison to all other 26 Jesuit Universities in the nation.

Emily Schwing, a reporter with Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, has been investigating Jesuits and allegations of sexual abuse against them for about three years now. Schwing spoke with Alaska Public Media’s Casey Grove about her latest piece, “Unrepentant.”

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PRINCETON (NJ)
The Daily Princetonian

June 23, 2020

By Marie-Rose Sheinerman

Former University Chaplain Father Gabriel Zeis, who resigned in September 2019 amid a sexual abuse allegation dating back to 1975, was cleared of the charge on June 16 by an independent investigation, which found the allegation “not credible,” the Diocese of Trenton has announced.

According to a Sept. 11 email sent to student members of the Aquinas Institute, the University’s on-campus Catholic ministry, Zeis denied the allegation at the time but resigned immediately, both from his position as the ministry’s director and chaplain and as Diosecan Vicar for Catholic Education in the Diocese of Trenton.

The misconduct, which surfaced in August 2019, was alleged to have taken place at St. Francis Seminary in Loretto, Penn., in 1975, five years before Father Zeis’s ordination to the priesthood but shortly after his “solemn profession of vows,” according to the Diocese’s statement.

Zeis was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1980 and has since served in a variety of institutions of higher education, including as President of Saint Francis University from 2004 to 2014 and as Chaplain at Princeton University from July 2016 to September 2019.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Times-Picayune and New Orleans Advocate

June 22, 2020

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

James Adams had helped run the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ fundraising arm for years, even serving as president of its board of directors, when his lawsuit alleging sexual abuse at the hands of a Metairie priest compelled him to step down nearly two months ago.

Now, Adams leads a different board: one formed after the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections May 1, tasked with representing the interests of those who say they are owed money by the church, including fellow clergy abuse claimants.

While securing financial compensation for abuse victims and other creditors is the committee’s key aim, it also intends to fight for the disclosure of documents outlining exactly how the church handled priests and deacons faced with child molestation allegations, Adams said during an interview that marked the first time he publicly identified himself as a clergy abuse survivor.

“We want to know how this happened, how it was allowed to continue to happen, how these pedophiles ended up in the seminary to begin with,” said Adams, who recalls being a fifth-grader at the time of his abuse in 1980. “There’s a healing quality to having this information out there that really validates (the idea) that this was not your fault.”

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CASPER (WY)
Associated Press

June 22, 2020

A criminal investigation into a retired Roman Catholic bishop accused of childhood sexual abuse by more than a dozen men remains open, police in Wyoming said.

A victim advocate from the Natrona County district attorney’s office had told an alleged victim that retired Bishop Joseph Hart would not be charged, the Casper Star-Tribune reported.

Asked why he wasn’t pursuing charges, District Attorney Dan Itzen told Cheyenne police Friday that he is still pursuing charges and the case has not been officially closed, police spokesman David Inman said.

Police and Itzen realized the prosecutor misread or misunderstood details in a probable cause affidavit, Inman said.

Itzen’s office in Casper had received the case after the district attorney in Cheyenne recused herself. Part of the misunderstanding arose from a difference in how police in Cheyenne and Casper handle paperwork, Inman said.

“Basically it was, ‘Oh I didn’t know this and this is what you meant by this and this.’ That’s what’s causing the case to come back to life,” Inman said. “They’re going to convene with their guys, they’re going to call the chief, and we’re going to meet again.”

Communication between police and prosecutors had been difficult, Inman said.

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INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
Indianapolis Star

June 22, 2020

By David Lindquist

Filmmakers Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk say everyone involved in bringing down former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar — the athletes who spoke publicly about sexual abuse, their attorneys, a Michigan State University police detective and a Michigan assistant attorney general — did what was needed to stop Nassar after decades of molesting children.

If anyone faltered, it’s possible Nassar still would be treating athletes and abusing them under the guise of legitimate medical procedures.

The list of crucial participants in Nassar’s downfall includes four IndyStar journalists featured prominently in “Athlete A,” the Cohen-Shenk documentary that arrives June 24 at Netflix.

IndyStar reporters Marisa Kwiatkowski, Mark Alesia and Tim Evans worked with investigations editor Steve Berta on coverage that led to more than 500 women coming forward to accuse Nassar of sexual abuse.

The first gymnast to speak publicly about Nassar’s crimes was Rachael Denhollander, who contacted the IndyStar investigative team after it published a 2016 report about USA Gymnastics failing to alert authorities when coaches were accused of abuse.

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BINGHAMTON (NY)
NewsChanel 34

June 22, 2020

A lawsuit filed against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse alleges a gross pattern of heinous sexual crimes against a Binghamton boy by 3 priests at Saint Thomas Aquinas Church and Catholic Central High School in the 1970’s.

The suit, filed by attorneys at Hinman, Howard and Kattel under the state’s Child Victims Act look-back window, accuses the priest at Saint Thomas and a teacher and an administrator at Catholic Central of repeatedly raping, sodomizing and sexually abusing the boy from the time he was 10 until he graduated at age 18.

Attorneys say the victim, who is now 61 years-old, suffered severe physical and psychological abuse leading to PTSD, anxiety, severe depression and chronic migraines.

NewsChannel 34 does not identify victims of sexual abuse.

The accused are former priests Robert Kloster who was the rector at Saint Thomas, David Pichette, who was a teacher at Catholic Central, and Thomas Zedar who served as the school’s principal and later the Superintendent of Catholic Schools in Broome County.

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MUNICH (GERMANY)
Süddeutsche Zeitung

June 10, 2020

By Bernd Kastner

[Google translation: Former students from the St. Michael church boarding school report abuse and ill-treatment. The focus is on a director who has since passed away

The Archbishop’s Study Seminar St. Michael in Traunstein is a special facility within the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising. It is a boarding school for boys, they attend classes in nearby schools. For decades, the church has been investing a lot of money in homes and students in order to attract young people. The cadermaker on the Wartberghöhe is proud of one of her former pupils: Joseph Ratzinger visited her from 1939. He was young at the time for twelve years. From 1977 to 1982 he was archbishop of Munich, later he spent many winter holidays in St. Michael until he was elected pope. There is a permanent exhibition about Ratzinger, a “Benedict bell” rings in the church tower of the seminar.

From 1976 to 1985, beyond Ratzinger’s time as an archbishop, Engelbert Siebler was the director of the study seminar. Siebler became auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese in 1986, and for many years he headed the Education and School Commission at the German Bishops’ Conference. In 2018 he died at the age of 81. The name Siebler always comes up when you speak to ex-schoolchildren who lived in the seminar in the 1970s and ’70s, he was the dominant man at the top. So far, the past of the seminar is not a public issue. The diocese has been aware of serious allegations for at least four years.

In January 2016, Leon Härtl (name changed) called the abuse officer of the archdiocese. Härtl, who had come to boarding school at the end of the 1970s, accused Siebler of drastically saying that he “consistently exposed him, tortured him sadly and massively beat him” at the boarding school. His “specialty” was to “pull the sideburns with massive force”. The abuse officer noted it in a memo. When asked whether Siebler had also committed sexual abuse, Härtl said: “There had been strange physical advances. Nothing had actually happened, however. “]

Frühere Schüler des kirchlichen Internats St. Michael berichten über Missbrauch und Misshandlungen. Ein inzwischen verstorbener Direktor steht im Mittelpunkt

Das Erzbischöfliche Studienseminar St. Michael in Traunstein ist eine besondere Einrichtung innerhalb der Erzdiözese München und Freising. Es ist ein Internat für Jungen, den Unterricht besuchen sie in Schulen der Umgebung. Seit Jahrzehnten investiert die Kirche viel Geld in Haus und Schüler, um Nachwuchs zu gewinnen. Die Kaderschmiede auf der Wartberghöhe ist stolz auf einen ihrer früheren Zöglinge: Joseph Ratzinger besuchte sie von 1939 an. Zwölf Jahre war er damals jung. Von 1977 bis 1982 war er Münchner Erzbischof, später verbrachte er, bis zu seiner Wahl zum Papst, viele Winterurlaube in St. Michael. Es gibt dort eine Dauerausstellung über Ratzinger, imKirchturmdes Seminars läutet eine „Benediktglocke“.

Von 1976 bis 1985, also über Ratzingers Zeit als Erzbischof hinaus, war Engelbert SieblerDirektor imStudienseminar. Siebler wurde 1986Weihbischof der Erzdiözese, in der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz leitete er über Jahre die Kommission für Erziehung und Schule. 2018 starb er im Alter von 81 Jahren. Der Name Siebler fällt immer wieder, wenn man mit Ex-Schülern spricht, die in den Siebziger- und schtzigerjahren im Seminar lebten, er war der dominanteMannan der Spitze. Bislang ist die Vergangenheit des Seminars öffentlich kein Thema. Dabei sind der Diözese seit mindestens vier Jahren schwere Vorwürfe bekannt.

Im Januar 2016 rief Leon Härtl (Name geändert) den Missbrauchsbeauftragten derErzdiözese an. Härtl, derEndeder Siebzigerahre ins Internat gekommenwar, beschuldigte Siebler mit drastischen Worten: Dieser habe ihn im Internat „konsequent bloßgestellt, sadistisch gequält und massiv geschlagen“. Seine „Spezialität“ sei es gewesen, „mit massiverKraft an den Koteletten zu ziehen“. So hielt es derMissbrauchsbeauftragte in einem Gesprächsvermerk fest. Auf seine Nachfrage, ob es auch zu sexuellemMissbrauch durch Siebler gekommen sei, habe Härtl gesagt: „Es habe komische körperliche Annäherungsversuche gegeben. Konkret sei allerdings nichts geschehen.“

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NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

June 22, 2020

By John W. Miller

In the 1990s, Steve Hurley was a police officer in Ocean City, Md., chasing down speeding teenagers and locking up beach bums driving drunk. At 34, he traded the badge for a collar, and he is now a monsignor in the Diocese of Wilmington, Del. “People see a 180-degree turn, but in both jobs the primary responsibility is care for souls,” he says.

The Catholic Church and the U.S. law-enforcement system have something else in common: They are both powerful institutions with fiercely loyal agents who have covered up misdeeds—clergy sex abuse and police brutality—and have been in need of reform.

The outcry over the killing of 46-year-old George Floyd, an African-American man, in Minneapolis on May 25 has forced a reckoning with the philosophy and culture of U.S. policing. Across the country, demonstrators have marched to demand an end to police brutality and a change in the tasks assigned to the roughly 18,000 police departments and agencies across the country.

The Catholic Church and the U.S. law-enforcement system have something else in common: They are both powerful institutions with fiercely loyal agents who have covered up misdeeds.
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Local, state and federal agencies from Phoenix to New York are now considering efforts to revamp policing and police culture. Already President Trump has ordered the creation of a database that tracks violent officers and has approved guidelines restricting the use of chokeholds, although critics said his proposals are not serious about tackling bigger issues of systemic racism.

In that conversation, is there anything to be gained by looking at the Catholic Church and how it has tried to better train and manage its priesthood, if not always successfully?

The parallels are not perfect, but they abound. Priests and police both wear iconic uniforms and perform service work for their communities. Both have at times commanded immense public trust that has now been eroded. Both are fiercely loyal to their “professional” communities with good and bad consequences: Catholic priests struggle with clericalism and U.S. police are reluctant to cross the thin blue line.

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

June 22, 2020

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone decries the toppling of a statue of St. Junipero Serra and suggests that the Catholic Church is the victim of oppression by today’s protesters for social justice. However, he admits there may be “historical wrongs” committed by the saint and that those wrongs, perhaps, deserve discussion.

But what about current wrongs caused by the Archbishop’s actions? Oppression comes when facts are suppressed and people are prevented from knowing about dangers in their community and protecting their children from them. Archbishop Cordileone may eloquently argue to defend a saint, but we at SNAP want him to eloquently support current survivors of sexual abuse by clergy.

The Archbishop still has not published a list of abusers from the San Francisco Archdiocese. As such, his Archdiocese is only one of about two dozen dioceses nationwide that have failed in this basic outreach to survivors.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

June 22, 2020

By Sanne Gerrits

Last year, 55-year-old Father Pierre Valkering published an autobiographical book in honor of his 25th anniversary as a priest. In the book he talks openly and in detail about his homosexuality, his sexual relationships and also says he visits gay saunas and “dark rooms,” and likes to watch porn.

As a result now-retired Bishop Jos Punt of Haarlem-Amsterdam, asked Valkering to lay down his priestly duties and enter into a period of reflection. According to the diocese, Valkering refused to do so and was therefore removed from his parish in Amsterdam.

Valkering decided to lodge an appeal to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy. The priest also appealed directly to Pope Francis. Both have now ruled that Punt’s decision to remove Valkering was valid.

On June 1 Punt was succeeded by Bishop Jan Hendriks.

Hendriks expressed his respect for Valkering as a person and as a priest. According to the diocese, the bishop also said it’s very important to him to find a satisfactory solution for Valkering, so that he might return to work in another parish after a period of reflection and guidance.

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BINGHAMTON (NY)
Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

June 23, 2020

By Anthony Borrelli

A former Binghamton priest faces more decades-old sex abuse accusations in a lawsuit under New York’s Child Victims Act.

Father Edward C. Madore, who has already been implicated in at least four prior abuse lawsuits, is accused in a new complaint filed Friday in state Supreme Court of Broome County of abusing a boy who was 10 years old in 1982. It happened while Madore served at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Binghamton.

The lawsuit says Madore used his position to groom the boy to gain his trust and to “gain control over him.”

Other lawsuits previously filed under the Child Victims Act have accused Madore of sexually abusing other children during the late 1970s. He was accused, in lawsuits filed Wednesday, of sexually abusing two children at St. Catherine Church during the late 1970s.

Madore has been laicized, which, according to the Diocese of Syracuse, means he voluntarily sought to be dispensed from clerical obligations and no longer has affiliation with the diocese.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

June 20, 2020

By Kathleen Sprows Cummings

The Catholic Church may soon name another American saint. In late May, Pope Francis, affirming the verdict of medical and theological experts, credited the Connecticut priest Michael McGivney for the 2015 healing of a pregnant woman. This paves the way for his beatification, tentatively slated for next fall. McGivney, who died in 1890, is best known for founding the Knights of Columbus, the fraternal organization that has sponsored McGivney’s cause.

*
In a dramatic turn, it is now Sheen’s stint as Rochester’s bishop that has stalled his cause for canonization, perhaps permanently. After the body question was settled by protracted legal proceedings (he’s back in his home town after all), Sheen’s beatification was scheduled for last December. Preparations for an elaborate celebration in Peoria were in place when the Vatican abruptly cancelled the event, reportedly because of concerns that Sheen’s name might surface in a state attorney general’s investigation into clerical sexual abuse in New York.

Whether or not there are specific allegations that Sheen covered up abuse is unknown and largely beside the point. Allowing Sheen’s cause to languish would be a tacit admission of a horrific truth many Catholics are just beginning to grasp. Levels of complicity surely vary, but no man who has held high office in the Catholic church over the last half century should be presumed to be blameless in this ongoing crisis. None of them are the models of heroic virtue we need today.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Springfield Republican via Mass Live

June 21, 2020

By Anne-Gerard Flynn

https://www.masslive.com/news/2020/06/report-on-sexual-abuse-allegations-against-late-springfield-bishop-christopher-weldon-could-prove-pivotal.html

A soon-to-be-released report nearly a year in the making could shed light on decades of sexual abuse by clergy in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield and forever change how one of its most influential bishops is viewed.

Last July, retired Superior Court Judge Peter A. Velis was asked by Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct made against the late Bishop Christopher J. Weldon dating back to the early 1960s. The report is expected to be released before Rozanski is installed as Archbishop of St. Louis on Aug. 25.

The findings will impact not only the alleged victim — who reiterated to Rozanski a year ago his claim that he was sexually abused as a boy by Weldon and two diocesan priests — but also questions that continue to linger around how early in time the diocesan hierarchy may have participated in, covered up and enabled clergy sexual abuse of minors. It could either encourage or discourage other alleged survivors of clergy sex abuse to continue to come forward.

Weldon’s 27 years as Springfield’s fourth bishop, starting in 1950, were influential ones in the growth of the diocese. However, they also have emerged as ones during which many allegations of sexual abuse by clergy occurred — as well as the murder of an altar boy in which a former priest, Richard R. Lavigne, remains the only publicly identified suspect.

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DENVER (CO)
Colorado Sun

June 20, 2020

By Mark Crawford

I read with great disappointment the failure of Colorado state lawmakers to once again take action which would have granted access to our legal system for child victims of sexual abuse.

It was right for victims and advocates to pull support from House Bill 1296, eliminating the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse only going forward. The bill as proposed, failed to address the needs of past child sexual abuse victims.

Some legislators expressed concerns any retroactive provision would violate the Colorado constitution. The lawmakers could have advanced two separate bills simultaneously if they feared a “look back” provision of the bill would later be ruled unconstitutional by the courts.

Many other states have in fact passed such “look back” provisions that have survived constitutional challenges. I do understand laws differ from state to state, but where there is a will, there is a way!

Mental health professionals have told us one in four girls and one in six boys will be the victim of unwanted sexual contact by the age of 18. The average age a child of sexual abuse reports such crimes is 52 years of age. Astonishing facts, some may ask, why did these child victims wait so long?

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BINGHAMTON (NY)
WBNG 12 News

June 19, 2020

By Anne Sparaco

As the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, more survivors are coming forward with decades-old accusations against a local former priest and a former Catholic school teacher.

The Diocese of Syracuse announced in a press conference on Friday it is declaring bankruptcy in wake of dozens of recent lawsuits and pandemic-related financial struggles.

Many of the victims are just now coming forward because the Child Victims Act signed into law by Governor Cuomo in 2019 opens a “one year look back window” in which anyone who was under the age of 18 when sexually abused can file a civil suit.

Former priest of St. Catherine of Siena in Binghamton, Father Edward C. Madore, has five cases against him, accusing him of years-worth of sexual abuse. He was ordained back in 1970 and stayed until 1987 when he left priesthood and disappeared from church records. Madore is believed to be somewhere in Upstate New York, but his specific whereabouts are unknown.

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SYDNEY (NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA)
Sydney Morning Herald

June 21, 2020

By Caitlin Fitzsimmons

Large Christian churches and other major religions have applied for the JobKeeper scheme to fund clergy salaries, after the government belatedly opened it up to religious practitioners.

The Catholic, Anglican and Uniting churches, as well as the Great Synagogue in Sydney, have confirmed hundreds of religious ministers across NSW are receiving the JobKeeper Payment of $1500 a fortnight, to plug a “dramatic” shortfall in income caused by the pandemic lockdown.

The suspension of religious services meant no collection plates or other donations connected to a service, while public health orders also shut down community hire of church property for events.

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MANCHESTER (ENGLAND)
Catholic Universe

June 22, 2020

By Nick Benson

The US Diocese of Syracuse has filed for reorganisation under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code, citing the financial implications of more than 100 lawsuits alleging past child sexual abuse as well as the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

‘From the start of my ministry among you, it has been my intent to make reparation to all of the victims of sexual abuse for acts perpetrated against them by clergy, employees or volunteers of the Diocese of Syracuse,’ Bishop Douglas J. Lucia wrote in a recent letter to the faithful.

‘However, the growing number of CVA (Child Victims Act) lawsuits against the diocese,’ he wrote, ‘presents a risk that those claimants who filed suits first or pursued their claims more aggressively would receive a much greater portion of the funds available to pay victims, leaving other claimants (potentially, even some who have suffered more) with little or nothing.

‘In order to ensure that victim claims are treated justly and equitably, I feel it is necessary to enter into Chapter 11 where available funds will be allocated fairly among all victims in accordance with the harm each suffered.’

Filing for Chapter 11 is a voluntary action taken by an entity to reorganise financially with the goals of being able to respond to financial claims and to emerge with its operations intact, the diocese explained in an FAQ; this filing also immediately stops all efforts at debt collection and legal actions against the entity.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
Post-Standard

June 17, 2020

By Marnie Eisenstadt

Nearly 40 new lawsuits have been filed against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse, alleging child sex abuse by priests and a teacher.

The suits filed today alleged allegations of abuse that happened at the hands of priests in parishes across Central New York, spanning more than 50 years.

The lawsuits were filed under the New York State Child Victims Act, and join 40 suits already filed against the diocese under the act.

Four priests named in today’s filings are being sued by multiple people, according to lawyers from Jeff Anderson & Associates and LaFave, Wein & Frament, which together filed 32 suits. Lawyers from Marsh Law also filed six new cases.

The claims include …

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EMERYVILLE (CA)
Reveal – Center for Investigative Reporting

June 20, 2020

By Emily Schwing

Despite revelations of clergy sex abuse and promises of transparency, a prominent Jesuit university is doing little to punish priests who cross the line.

In this follow-up investigation about the Jesuit order in the Pacific Northwest, reporter Emily Schwing has two stories about Gonzaga University, which among Jesuit schools has the highest number of predatory priests who worked as staff and faculty. The first story takes us to a remote Alaska Native village where a prominent priest was accused of sex abuse by four young men.

Then Schwing tells the story of a former Gonzaga student who’s been trying for almost three decades to convince the university to investigate the priest who she says behaved inappropriately when she spent a year abroad in Italy.

We end with a story about a creative response to the pandemic that’s spreading throughout Native American communities. COVID-19 has prompted many of them to cancel powwows and other summer gatherings. So culture bearers are taking their songs and dances online, creating a virtual powwow movement that is keeping traditions alive while maintaining social distancing.

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ROME (ITALY)
Associated Press

June 21, 2020

By Nicole Winfield

Cardinal George Pell, the former Vatican finance minister who was convicted and then acquitted of sexual abuse in his native Australia, is set to publish his prison diary musing on life in solitary confinement, the Catholic Church, politics and sports.

Catholic publisher Ignatius Press told The Associated Press on Saturday the first installment of the 1,000-page diary would likely be published in Spring 2021.

“I’ve read half so far, and it is wonderful reading,” Ignatius’ editor, the Rev. Joseph Fessio, said.

Fessio sent a letter to Ignatius’ email list asking for donations, saying Ignatius wanted to give Pell “appropriate advances” for the diary to help offset his legal debts. The publisher envisages putting out three to four volumes and the diary becoming a “spiritual classic.”

Pell served 13 months in prison before Australia’s High Court in April acquitted him of molesting two choirboys in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne while he was archbishop of Australia’s second-largest city during the 1990s.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

June 20, 2020

By Carolina A. Miranda

It began with a prayer and ended with a loud clunk.

On Saturday afternoon, a group of about five dozen indigenous activists of all ages — children and elders included — gathered at Father Serra Park in downtown Los Angeles, just south of Olvera Street. As Tataviam/Chumash elder Alan Salazar burned sage and invoked the spirit of his ancestors, a group of young activists bound the nearby statue of Father Junipero Serra with ropes and tore him off his pedestal to chants of “Take it down! Take it down!”

After the statue flew off its pedestal, the crowd erupted with shouts and drumming.

Statues of Serra, the 18th century Franciscan friar who served as principal architect of the California mission system during the era of Spanish colonization, have long been a flashpoint among indigenous activists. The mission system was designed to convert and acculturate the Native population to Catholicism and European culture, and this was done by confining them to missions up and down the coast. Natives who tried to escape were captured. Those who disobeyed were beaten. Indigenous beliefs and customs were banned.

Nonetheless, the Catholic Church — quite controversially — canonized Serra in 2015.

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WAUSAU (WI)
WSAW 7 CBS

June 20, 2020

Richmond served as an Associate Pastor at St. Bronislava in Plover from 2017 to 2019.

Chippewa Falls WI – Father Charlie Richmond, a Catholic priest facing charges related to sexual assault of a child in Chippewa Falls served as an Associate Pastor at St. Bronislava Parish in Plover from July of 2017 to July 2019.

Richmond served as the former chaplain for the Notre Dame Middle and McDonell Area Catholic High Schools in Chippewa Falls. He was also Associate Pastor at St. Charles Borromeo and St. Peter the Apostle Parishes. He currently lives in Viroqua.

NewsChannel 7’s sister-station in Eau Claire reported on Wednesday that Richmond is facing charges related to contact he had with a student at McDonell, including touching her back, shoulders and butt.

The alleged incidents happened between September 2016 and May 2017.

The student said that Father Richmond would have her sit on his lap and give him hugs, as well as being in constant communication with the student over social media apps.

In May, Richmond was interviewed by investigators and admitted to three to four incidents of sexual contact, according to the criminal complaint.

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MUNICH (GERMANY)
Süddeutsche Zeitung

June 13, 2020

By Bernd Kastner

[ As a student, Franz Kurz seeks help from a monk – but he abuses him. The order later vows to keep the priest away from young people – but it breaks its promise. Now the head of the Minor Franciscans admits fundamental mistakes

Franz Kurz is a level-headed man. He reports in a differentiated and analyzing manner, and when he no longer remembers, he says so. He sits at the dining table in his house; calmly and factually he tells of his school days. “The whole thing is somewhere in the closet,” he says, “and every now and then the door opens”. Suddenly he cries.

Franz Kurz, whose real name is not mentioned by SZ to protect his personal rights, is one of the countless people who have been abused by clerics of the Catholic Church. Kurz’ history with the Church consists of four chapters. The first two are about how he was disregarded and abused; the third, how he feels taunted; Chapter four tells what he had only feared so far, but now knows that the man who abused him had been in contact with young people for years – despite all the promises to stop him.

Kurz grew up in a Catholic parental home in the country, where a pastor was considered the “moral authority” and “half God” as he describes it today. At ten he moved to the Archbishop’s seminary in St. Michael in Traunstein. The Diocese of Munich and Freising endeavored to recruit young priests from their boarding school. Kurz describes his time there until he graduated from high school in the mid-1980s in a three-page letter. “What triggers this deep anger in me today when I think about my time in Traunstein is the presumptuous negligence with which we were managed as adolescents. I lacked a minimum of interest in myself, that someone would have asked me how I really am, what moves me, what touches me, what is currently bothering me.” ]

Als Schüler sucht Franz Kurz Hilfe bei einem Mönch – doch der missbraucht ihn. Später gelobt der Orden, den Pater von Jugendlichen fernzuhalten – doch er bricht sein Versprechen. Jetzt räumt der Oberste der Franziskaner-Minoriten fundamentale Fehler ein

Franz Kurz ist ein besonnener Mann. Differenziert und analysierend berichtet er, undwenn er sich nicht mehr erinnert, sagt er das.Er istAnfang 50, lebt mit seiner Familie an einem sehr schönen Fleckchen in Oberbayern. Er sitzt am Esstisch seinesHauses, erzählt ganz ruhigundsachlich von früher, aus der Schulzeit. „Das Ganze steckt irgendwo im Schrank“, sagt er, „und ab und zu geht die Tür auf“. Plötzlich weint er.

Franz Kurz, dessen echten Namen die SZzumSchutz seinerPersönlichkeitsrechte nicht nennt, ist einer der unzähligen Menschen, die von Klerikern der katholischen Kirche missbraucht wurden. Kurz‘ Geschichtemit der Kirche besteht aus vier Kapiteln. Die ersten beiden handeln davon, wie er missachtet und missbraucht wurde; das dritte, wie er sich verhöhnt fühlt; Kapitel vier erzählt, was er bislang nur befürchtet hat, jetzt aber weiß: Der Mann, der ihn missbrauchte, hatte über JahreweiterKontakt zu Jugendlichen – allen Versprechen zum Trotz, ihn zu stoppen.

Kurz ist in einem katholischen Elternhaus auf dem Land aufgewachsen, wo ein Pfarrer als „moralische Autorität“ und als „halber Gott“ galt, wie er es heute beschreibt. Mit zehn zog er ins Erzbischöfliche Studienseminar St. Michael in Traunstein. Die Diözese München und Freising war bestrebt, in ihrem Jungeninternat Priesternachwuchs zu rekrutieren. Seine Zeit dort bis zum AbiturMitte der 1980er- Jahre beschreibt Kurz in einem dreiseitigen Brief. „Was in mir heute diese tiefe Wut auslöst,wenn ich an die Zeit in Traunsteindenke, ist die anmaßendeFahrlässigkeit, mit der wir als Heranwachsende verwaltet wurden. Mir fehlte ein Minimum an Interesse an meiner Person, dass jemand einmal nach mir gefragt hätte, wie es mir denn wirklich geht, was mich bewegt, berührt, wasmich gerade beschäftigt.“

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EAU CLAIRE (WI)
WEAU 14 NBC

June 17 2020

Chippewa Falls WI – A former chaplain for the Notre Dame Middle and McDonell Area Catholic High Schools in Chippewa Falls is facing charges related to sexual assault of a child.​

This week, 30-year-old Father Charlie Richmond was charged in Chippewa County Court with repeated sexual assault of a child.​

He was also the Associate Pastor at St. Charles Borromeo and St. Peter the Apostle Parishes. Richmond currently lives in Viroqua.

According to the criminal complaint, the alleged incidents happened between September 2016 and May 2017.​

An officer with the Chippewa Falls Police Department interviewed the victim on March 5 of this year.​

She told the officer that Father Richmond inappropriately touched her while at McDonell Area Catholic School, including touching her back, shoulders, and butt.​

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Kansas City Star

June 19, 2020

By Judy L. Thomas

A bizarre twist surfaced Friday in what was thought to be the closed criminal sexual abuse case of a former Kansas City priest who later became a Wyoming bishop.

The prosecutor, whose office last week informed one of the alleged victims that no charges would be filed against retired Bishop Joseph Hart, is now going to re-examine the case, according to Cheyenne police, who conducted the investigation.

Police spokesman David Inman said Friday that Natrona County District Attorney Dan Itzen in Casper, who was serving as special prosecutor on the case, had “misinterpreted” part of the probable cause statement that police had sent him. The document recommended that charges be filed against Hart, who retired as Bishop of Cheyenne in 2001.

“Basically, some new information came to light during our meeting,” Inman said, “and now they’re going to re-examine what they have.”

Inman said Cheyenne police spoke with Itzen in a conference call Friday.

“It was something that we brought to his attention in the PC (probable cause) affidavit,” he said. “Upon reviewing all the paperwork, they looked at something and they’d misinterpreted what was said. So now, there’s an understanding of what we were trying to get across.”

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

June 16, 2020

By Inés San Martín

Rosario, Argentina – An Argentinian bishop suspended over allegations of sexual misconduct with seminarians went back to work in his Vatican post after the restrictions due to COVID-19 coronavirus were lifted. His lawyer told Crux that the Church process against him is “almost over” and that he’s confident the bishop’s name will be “cleared.”

Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta was sent by Francis to the diocese of Oran, in northern Argentina, in 2013, making it one of his first episcopal appointments. However, in 2017 the bishop resigned, alleging health reasons. A few months later, the pontiff appointed him to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), which functions as the central bank for Vatican City and which administers the Vatican’s financial portfolio.

In APSA Zanchetta works as an “assessor,” a position created for him. However, on Jan. 4, 2019, the bishop was suspended from the post pending an investigation into the allegations of sexual misconduct with seminarians dating to his time as a diocesan bishop.

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BINGHAMTON (NY)
Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

June 19, 2020

By Anthony Borrelli

A former Binghamton priest faces more decades-old sexual abuse accusations in two lawsuits filed Wednesday under the New York Child Victims Act.

Father Edward C. Madore, who has already been implicated in at least three prior abuse lawsuits, is accused in the new complaints of sexually abusing two children during the late 1970’s while he served at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Binghamton.

One lawsuit alleges Madore committed sexual abuse beginning when the victim was 8 years old, between 1978 and 1980. The second lawsuit claims he abused a child beginning when the victim was 9 years old, from 1977 to 1980.

The lawsuits, which do not name the victims, were among 32 Child Victims Act complaints filed in courts Wednesday by the Albany-area law firms of Jeff Anderson & Associates and LaFave Wein & Frament. As with similar lawsuits, these complaints name the institutions as defendants — in this case, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse.

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ISELIN (NJ)
NJ.com

June 19, 2020

By Chris Sheldon

An allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor leveled against Princeton University chaplain Father Gabriel Zeis last year was found not to be credible, the Third Order Regular Franciscans announced Thursday.

The Third Order Regular Franciscans notified the Diocese of Trenton in August about the allegation against Zeis, who was employed by diocese and also served as the diocese’s vicar for catholic education, officials said.

He resigned his positions with the diocese and was placed on leave pending the outcome of an investigation of the accusation.

The sexual misconduct was alleged to have occurred in 1975 at St. Francis Seminary in Loretto, Pennsylvania, five years prior to his ordination to the priesthood, the order said in a statement.

The allegation was reported to Office of the District Attorney for Cambria County (PA) in September 2019 and on Dec. 16, 2019, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General’s office called into question the credibility and accuracy of the allegation and announced the case closed, officials said.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
Post-Standard

June 19, 2020

By Julie McMahon

The Roman Catholic Diocese has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, just days after 38 people filed Child Victims Act lawsuits against the church.

Since last year, the diocese has faced dozens of claims that its priests sexually abused children and that officials covered up the abuse for decades. Wednesday, 38 more victims filed lawsuits, including a Central New York grandmother.

Bishop Douglas Lucia, who was installed last year, in court records said diocese officials filed for bankruptcy in order to respond to the Child Victims Act claims, while continuing the church’s ministry.

The diocese has not yet commented on the bankruptcy filing. It has scheduled a news conference for 12:30 p.m. today.

The filings in court show the diocese has assets of more than $10 million but less than $50 million. Lawyers for the diocese from Syracuse firm Bond, Schoeneck & King estimated the diocese has between 100 and 200 creditors and up to $100 million in liabilities.

The filings also revealed the diocese received a $1.3 million federal Paycheck Protection Program loan to help cover expenses during the coronavirus pandemic.

Other Catholic dioceses across the country have filed for bankruptcy as the church has faced an onslaught of sex abuse cases.

The dioceses in Rochester and Buffalo have filed for bankruptcy, and the Rockville Centre diocese on Long Island has signaled it will likely file. There are eight Catholic diocese in New York state.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
Post-Standard

June 19, 2020

By Marnie Eisenstadt

More than 100 alleged victims of priest sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse will no longer get their day in state court.

Instead, their cases will end up as part of the diocese’s bankruptcy case. The diocese filed for bankruptcy Friday after 38 more victims, including a grandmother, came forward with allegations of priest sex abuse under the Child Victims Act this week.

In bankruptcy court, those victims become “creditors” who have to prove they are owed something by the diocese.

Bishop Douglas Lucia said Friday he decided to file for bankruptcy to ensure that all of the victims could get something for the pain while also making sure that the diocese would not be destroyed by the onslaught of claims.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

June 19, 2020

By Elise Ann Allen

Rome – In a webinar on child protection, a top Catholic expert warned that the risks of online child sexual abuse or exploitation has increased significantly during the coronavirus pandemic, yet attention to the issue has faded.

“I believe honestly that safeguarding and safeguarding minors in the Church, in the States, in the (other) countries, has suffered a severe blow in terms of public attention and in terms of public funding and other funding,” German Jesuit Father Hans Zollner said June 18.

Speaking to more than 300 people representing religious orders and Catholic institutions during a webinar on “Safeguarding online in times of lockdown,” Zollner said natural disasters, war, health crises and economic instability combined with the coronavirus pandemic might make it harder to double down on safeguarding efforts.

“It may be very difficult for society and the Church to focus on the safeguarding of minors, because there are such pressing needs, there are such heavy burdens on people that they think safeguarding minors is an extra and you cannot afford to think about that because we need to survive first,” he said.

“Yes, that is true, the need to survive is first, but there is also the need to respect and protect the dignity of all people, especially the most vulnerable,” he said, urging participants to “stick together to bring safeguarding up the ladder of priorities.”

Zollner said he believes this will be a difficult task not only because of the current pandemic and its aftermath, but also because “this is such a challenging and such a nasty topic, that people don’t want to engage or commit easily to it.”

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BINGHAMTON (NY)
Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

June 19, 2020

By Anthony Borrelli

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse filed for bankruptcy protection Friday, as it faces more than 100 lawsuits under New York’s Child Victims Act for past sex abuse by priests and clergy members mount in the courts.

The Diocese, which filed its petition for Chapter 11 reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of New York’s Northern District, estimated its assets as $10 million to $50 million. Its financial liabilities were estimated as $50 million to $100 million.

A document included in federal bankruptcy court said Friday’s filing was “in order to respond to claims stemming from the Child Victims Act in an equitable and comprehensive manner, and to reorganize the financial affairs of the Diocese in order to permit it to continue to fulfill its ministries to the Catholic faithful of the Diocese.”

Without a reorganization, the Diocese and claimants will face a slow, unpredictable and costly process that would require years of court involvement.

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FARGO (ND)
790 KFG

June 18, 2020

By Jim Monk

The Diocese of Fargo says an investigation of abuse claims against a retired Fargo priest has been completed.

In a 2019 interview with KFGO News, a woman reported that she was sexually abused as a teenager by Father Jack Herron. The woman said the abuse happened over the course of three months in the 1970’s in the rectory at St. Anthony of Padua Church.

“He pulled me to his lap, smoking his cigar, holding me and all that kind of stuff and before you know it, there’s kissing and hugging and touching. Inside, I was having a battle in my mind, thinking ‘Oh God, I’m dirty, I’m dirty, I’m dirty. No one knows this secret. I’m dirty. I’m dirty.”

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
The Republican via Mass Live

June 18, 2020

By Anne-Gerard Flynn

The Rev. Thomas Lisowski has been cleared to resume his full duties as a priest in Northfield after being placed on administrative leave in November in connection with an allegation of “inappropriate behavior involving a vulnerable adult.”

According to an announcement from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, the recommendation to lift the temporary suspension was made to Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski by the diocesan review board after receiving a report from its investigative services.

Lisowski, ordained in 1986, has ministered for the last decade at St. Patrick’s Parish, a small parish of about 110 members near the Vermont border.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

June 18, 2020

By Emily K. Coleman

The former head of a Waukegan church, who was sentenced to four years under Illinois Department of Corrections supervision in the 1990s for sexually abusing children, is the subject of a lawsuit filed in Cook County late last month.

The anonymous plaintiff accuses Richard Kearney, who was the head pastor at Annunciation of Our Lady Episcopal Church — now in Gurnee but at the time located in Waukegan — of abusing him in the 1980s when he was between the ages of 5 and 11, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit also names the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago and the church itself, arguing that church officials knew, or should have known, Kearney had a history of abusing children.

“We are saddened that (the plaintiff’s) attorney has found it necessary to file suit against the diocese,” the Rev. Courtney Reid, the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago’s director of operations, said in a statement.

Reid said the diocese has been “in conversations with him for more than a year in an effort to determine the facts in this case” and, eight months ago, had been “promised the opportunity to examine records that might help us to determine whether (the plaintiff) was sexually abused in the early 1980s by Richard D. Kearney, a former priest of the diocese.

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DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency via National Catholic Register

June 18, 2020

In November 2019 the Catholic bishops of France approved plans to offer financial compensation to victims of sexual abuse by clergy.

Paris – Over the last seven decades at least 3,000 children were sexually abused by Catholic clergy or officials in France, according to the latest statements from an investigating commission, with many more feared to have been abused.

About 1,500 clergy and Church officials are believed to have perpetrated the abuse, according to the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church, making an average number of victims 40 per year, Newsweek reports.

“We must remember this suffering, we must account for it. We are confronted with the shock of the suffering of the victims,” commission head Jean-Marc Sauvé said. “We can only be touched and transformed by meeting these victims.”

The commission was established in June 2019 to examine abuse claims dating back to the 1950s. A hotline resulted in 5,000 phone calls. The commission does not yet know how to consolidate cases from its own inquiries and from the hotline, Sauvé said.

About 30% of the victims are over 70 years old, and about 50% are between 50 and 70 years old.

“I am profoundly convinced that there are many more victims,” said Sauvé, who is a longtime civil servant, former vice-president of the French State Council, and president of the French Institute of Administrative Sciences.

The commission has asked for victims to come forward through the end of October. Reviews of Church archives have now resumed after being suspended due to the coronavirus epidemic, but its final report is delayed, Agence France Presse reports. It is expected to be released in September or October 2021.

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FRANKFURT (GERMANY)
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

June 13, 2020

By Tobias Rosmann

[See the report and implementation plan.]

[ An “indescribably great amount of misery and suffering”

In almost a year of work, 70 experts have developed 61 specific measures to prevent sexual abuse of children and adolescents in the diocese of Limburg in the future. The 420-page summary of the project “Hearing those affected – preventing abuse” was handed over to the client, the Bishop of Limburg Georg Bätzing and the president of the Limburg diocesan assembly, Ingeborg Schillai, on Saturday in the Paulskirche .

Bätzing promised: “We will implement the measures.” Not always exactly according to the expert suggestion, but always according to its spirit, intention and direction. “We owe that to those affected.”

Because Bätzing has also been chairman of the German Bishops’ Conference since March , his handling of such a critical study is considered important for the other 26 German dioceses. Schillai said: “The results of the study cry out that we can finally take effective action against sexual abuse in the church and its cover-up.” ]

Dem Bistum Limburg werden in einer Studie Fehler im Umgang mit Betroffenen und Tätern attestiert. Der Bischof verspricht, den Änderungsvorschlägen der Experten zu folgen.

In knapp ein Jahr währender Arbeit haben 70 Experten 61 konkrete Maßnahmen erarbeitet, um sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen im Bistum Limburg künftig zu verhindern. Die 420 Seiten dicke Zusammenfassung des Projekts „Betroffene hören – Missbrauch verhindern“ wurde am Samstag in der Paulskirche an die Auftraggeber, den Limburger Bischof Georg Bätzing und die Präsidentin der Limburger Diözesanversammlung, Ingeborg Schillai, übergeben.

Bätzing versprach: „Wir werden die Maßnahmen umsetzen.“ Nicht immer exakt nach dem Expertenvorschlag, aber stets nach dessen Geist, Intention und Richtung. „Das sind wir den Betroffenen schuldig.“

Weil Bätzing seit März auch Vorsitzender der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz ist, gilt sein Umgang mit einer solch kritischen Studie als wichtig für die anderen 26 deutschen Diözesen. Schillai sagte: „Die Ergebnisse der Studie schreien danach, dass wir endlich wirksam gegen sexuellen Missbrauch in der Kirche und gegen seine Vertuschung vorgehen.“

Ein „unbeschreiblich großes Maß an Elend und Leid“

Zu den Maßnahmen, die von Wissenschaftlern, Kirchenvertretern und Betroffenen erarbeitet worden sind, gehören eine Reform der Priesterausbildung, eine Doppelspitze in der Gemeindeleitung aus einem Priester und einer hauptamtlich beim Bistum beschäftigten Theologin, anders strukturierte Entscheidungsgremien, eine professionelle Aktenführung, eine intensive Prävention, eine Kommunikation, die sich den Betroffenen zuwendet und deren Perspektive in den Fokus nimmt sowie eine wirksame Disziplinarordnung für Kleriker. Die einzelnen Punkte wurden in neun Teilprojekten erarbeitet. Das Limburger Projekt vertieft die Erkenntnisse aus der MHG-Studie zum Missbrauch in der katholischen Kirche von Herbst 2018. Auch andere Bistümer haben mit einer eigenen weitergehenden Aufarbeitung begonnen.

Die von vielen Betroffenen gewünschte öffentliche Nennung der Täter und Vertuscher könne es „aus juristischen Gründen“ nicht geben, sagte Josef Bill, ehemals Vorsitzender Richter am Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt. Seine Teilprojektgruppe hatte sich mit der Aufklärung von 46 erfassten Missbrauchsfällen beschäftigt. Die Klarnamen der Kleriker könnten daher nur den Auftraggebern des Projekts genannt werden.

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LUBBOCK (TX)
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

June 18, 2020

By Gabriel Monte

Religious groups are decrying a Texas appellate court ruling that allows a former deacon to sue the Catholic diocese in Lubbock saying the decision could infringe upon religious liberty protected by the First Amendment.

The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, The Baptist General Convention of Texas, The Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty, and the Texas Legislature have filed amicus curiae briefs in the Texas Supreme Court supporting the Catholic Diocese of Lubbock in its quest to dismiss a former deacon’s defamation lawsuit.

The briefs are in response to the January 2019 defamation lawsuit filed in the 237th District Court by Jesus Guerrero, a former deacon at Our Lady of Grace, after the Lubbock Catholic Diocese included him in a list of five clergymen deemed to have a credible allegation of sexual abuse against minors.

Along with posting the list online, the Catholic diocese issued a news release to local news media, including the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, that stated the decision to release the names was part of an ongoing effort to protect children from sexual abuse.

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PARIS (FRANCE)
France Info

June 17, 2020

[Sexual violence in the Church: more than 5,000 testimonies collected, the Sauvé commission extends its call to testify

The Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church (Ciase) or Sauvé Commission reveals this Wednesday, June 17, having identified several thousand victims in a few months. La Ciase has decided to extend its call for testimony until October 31, 2020.]

https://www.francetvinfo.fr/economie/emploi/metiers/droit-et-justice/violences-sexuelles-dans-l-eglise-plus-de-5-000-temoignages-recueillis-la-commission-sauve-prolonge-son-appel-a-temoigner_4011411.html

Plus de 5 000 témoignages recueillis, la commission Sauvé prolonge son appel à témoigner

La Commission indépendante sur les abus sexuels dans l’Église (Ciase) ou commission Sauvé révèle ce mercredi 17 juin avoir recensé plusieurs milliers de victimes en quelques mois. La Ciase a décidé de prolonger son appel à témoignages jusqu’au 31 octobre 2020.

Il y a un an, la Commission Sauvé lançait un appel à témoignages auprès des victimes. Mercredi 17 juin, elle révèle avoir reçu plus de 5 300 appels et dévoile quelques chiffres alors que le recueil des témoignages – ralenti pendant le confinement – est prolongé de cinq mois.

Parmi ces coups de fils, il n’y a pas que des victimes, il peut y avoir également des témoins. Mais la commission le précise, la grande majorité de ces appels proviennent bien de personnes – des enfants à l’époque des faits – qui ont été agressés sexuellement par des hommes d’Église.

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FARGO (ND)
Fargo Forum / Inforum

June 18, 2020

By Thomas Evanella

A retired priest accused of sexually abusing a teen in the 1970s has been banned from public ministry following an internal investigation by the Diocese of Fargo, a spokesman said Thursday, June 18.

The victim, who spoke to The Forum anonymously in June of 2019, alleged that Father Jack Herron groped her and made inappropriate advances in the rectory of Saint Anthony of Padua, located south of downtown Fargo. She was about 15 or 16 years old at the time, she said.

After she reported the allegations to the diocese in March 2018, a diocese advocate accompanied her to report the claims to the police.

“When the allegation was first received, it was referred to law enforcement. The canonical investigation and review by the diocesan review board is complete,” the Diocese said in a news release. “It was determined that Father Herron would not have faculties to engage in public ministry,” the release continued.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

June 18, 2020

By Tom Heneghan

Paris – More than 3,000 people have been sexually abused by about 1,500 priests and employees of the French Catholic Church since 1950, the head of the most extensive study into the scandal said in a preliminary balance of its work.

Jean-Marc Sauvé, a retired senior judge due to deliver his final report in autumn 2021, said his commission would continue seeking out and interviewing victims until October and scouring judicial archives. This phase was supposed to end this month but was prolonged due to a delay during the cornavirus lockdown.

The commission’s hotline has received 5,300 calls so far but some were victims calling several times. This was the first such overall estimate made for France, Sauvé said, adding he was “deeply convinced” there are many more victims.

“The number of calls is impressive, but we are convinced that still not all victims have come forward because their suffering is too great or they doubt any use in speaking out,” he told a videoconference on Wednesday.

The bishops’ conference, under pressure amid mounting evidence of abuse scandals – especially in Lyon – that sapped its image and authority, gave Sauvé a free hand to choose the 21 doctors, lawyers, sociologists and theologians serving in the commission.

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MANILA (PHILIPPINES)
Manila Bulletin

June 10, 2020

By Gemma Cruz Araneta

Who was Padre Damaso? He was the biological father of Maria Clara, the sweetheart of Crisostomo Ibarra, but she was the last to know. You can imagine how tormented she must have felt when she found out; she fell ill with anguish and was compelled to betray her beloved Ibarra by turning over his letters to Padre Salvi, in exchange for his silence. Padre Salvi had stumbled upon her deceased mother’s letters to Padre Damaso and had threatened to expose her true paternity, if she did not surrender Ibarra’s letters, which he was sure were incriminating. Padre Salvi was blackmailing the hapless maiden who felt duty-bound to protect the honor of her late mother and the public image of her putative father, Capitan Tiago, who loved her dearly. Needless to say, if that had happened today, Maria Clara, Ibarra and their relatives and friends would have laughed it off. The lovers would have gotten married royally at the Manila Cathedral and lived happily ever after. Ibarra may have gotten entangled with the Anti-terrorism Law for teaching socialism in his school, but that would have been a minor glitch that Capitan Tiago, an influential man, could have smoothened out with expensive gifts to the powers that be.

Last February, Pope Francis dared to speak about the unspeakable—sexual abuse of nuns by priests of the Catholic clergy. In recent times, he may not be the first pontiff to be aware of the crimes committed by men of the cloth; nor is he the first one to try to do something about it. In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI very quietly closed a contemplative order of nuns somewhere in France, because its very founder, a Catholic priest, had turned the convent into a pitiful den of sexual slavery. We do not know if the guilty priest or priests ever faced an ecclesiastical or a civil court; neither do we know what happened to those nuns and the children of rape, if any. No one wants to touch the elephant in the basilica.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Times-Picayune and New Orleans Advocate

June 18, 2020

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

In its first move to raise funds through selling land since filing for bankruptcy protection, the Archdiocese of New Orleans is set to auction off a campus that St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School moved out of last year, a church attorney said at a federal court hearing Thursday.

The former owner of New Orleans’ Fair Grounds race course, residential developer Bryan Krantz, offered to buy the vacant complex at 4119 St. Elizabeth Drive in Kenner for $1.8 million on May 26, according to court documents. But a committee of unsecured creditors in the bankruptcy case — which includes clergy abuse claimants — objected, saying there was no sign the property’s market value had been appraised before the archdiocese agreed to sell to Krantz.

“One concern we had was what basis was there (for the price), what marketing had been done, is there an appraisal?” committee attorney Davin Boldissar said during Thursday’s phone-in hearing.

Archdiocese attorney Mark Mintz told U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Meredith Grabill that his clients now planned to auction the facility through a process allowing for the possibility of higher bids. Mintz said he would file the details surrounding that auction ahead of a hearing which Grabill tentatively set for June 25.

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GARDEN CITY (NY)
Long Island Herald

June 18, 2020

By Jill Nossa

The Diocese of Rockville Centre could face bankruptcy if the nearly 100 child sex-abuse lawsuits filed against it are not put on hold, according to court papers.

Last month, the Diocese filed a motion in Nassau County Supreme Court for a stay pending an appeal, claiming it is straining under the legal defense costs and that it has lost income due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In its motion, the Diocese said, “These litigation expenditures—that are only going to increase on a monthly basis, absent a stay—are placing a very significant stress on the diocese’s finances, which are also being decimated by the COVID-19’s pandemic.”

When the parishes closed in late March, donations declined by 77 percent, according to the filing, no payments were received between March 23 and April 3, and during April – which included Holy Week, a normally significant source of revenue, donations were down 60 percent, according to the diocese.

The diocese, under the leadership of Bishop John Barres, has spent $3.7 million in its defense against 94 lawsuits filed against it under New York’s Child Victims Act, which provides a legal window to revive decades old abuse claims.

The diocese said bankruptcy is “a last resort” that is “not an attempt to turn its back on victims or shield predators from any punishment they deserve.”

In April, the diocese lost its challenge to the law’s constitutionality when Nassau Supreme Court Justice Steven Jaeger ruled the law “a reasonable response to remedy the injustice of past child sexual abuse.”

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FERNDALE (MI)
Church Militant

June 18, 2020

By Kristine Christlieb

Rockville Centre diocese’s legal hardball with sex abuse victims

Rockville Centre, N.Y. – The diocese of Rockville Centre — comprising Long Island, New York — is begging a judge for a timeout from the tsunami of nearly 100 pending clergy sexual abuse cases, saying otherwise it will have to declare bankruptcy.

Rockville Centre is one of the largest dioceses in the nation, serving approximately 1.4 million Catholics. It is the latest New York diocese to be in, or close to, bankruptcy. Within the last year, both the dioceses of Rochester and Buffalo have become Chapter 11 debtors, and now Rockville Centre appears to be not far behind.

The dioceses of New York feared this legal and financial reckoning would one day arrive, which is why they fought to defeat the state’s Child Victims Act (CVA). The New York State Catholic Conference (NYSCC) never supported the CVA, but the group did ultimately drop its opposition in January 2019.

The organization refused to endorse the legislation because it did not want New York’s statute of limitations extended, allowing abuse cases from the more-distant past to proceed. Plus, it favored legislation with a preference for mediation over litigation. According to reporting in the Daily News, the bishops’ chief fear was having to provide records as part of a lawsuit’s discovery process, a requirement that could potentially be avoided in mediation.

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ATLANTA (GA)
CNN

June 17 2020

By Jean Casarez and David Shortell

More than 120 alleged sexual abuse victims of Larry Nassar, the disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor, sent a letter to the Justice Department requesting a copy of a report on the FBI’s handling of its investigation into Nassar.

The letter, sent Wednesday to Inspector General Michael Horowitz, says the alleged victims don’t want the report “withheld and then have authorities claim they cannot indict and prosecute the people involved in criminal conduct because the statute of limitations has expired.”

“It is important for our healing for all the facts to come out and for wrongdoers to be held accountable. It is also important to maintain public confidence in our federal law enforcement agencies by exposing the truth and initiating reforms so that this never happens again,” the signers, including Olympic athletes Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, and Jordyn Wieber, say in the letter.

The DOJ Inspector General’s office is “investigating allegations concerning the FBI’s handling of the Nassar investigation, and the victims and the public should rest assured our findings will be made public at the end of our investigation,” Stephanie Logan, the office’s spokeswoman told CNN when asked for comment.

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GLENS FALLS (NY)
Post-Star

June 15, 2020

By Michael Goot

https://poststar.com/news/local/late-priest-from-lake-luzerne-parish-among-those-named-in-child-sex-abuse-lawsuits/article_12bb280b-e5b2-58f6-8ae8-613c41fc4c6f.html

Lake Luzerne – A late priest that served at a church in Lake Luzerne was named in one of 52 sex abuse lawsuits filed Monday against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany.

The Rev. Charles A. Gaffigan, who retired from Holy Mother and Child Parish in 2011, is accused of sexually abusing a minor from 1992 to about 1994 at what was then Holy Infancy Church in Lake Luzerne, according to a news release from Jeff Anderson & Associates. The law firm has filed a total of 74 lawsuits against the diocese.

Gaffigan died in 2015 after battling cancer.

Gaffigan was appointed to serve as pastor of what was then Holy Infancy Church in Lake Luzerne in 1991, according to his obituary. In 2003, he picked up the responsibility for Immaculate Conception Church in Corinth. The churches ultimately merged in 2009 to form Holy Mother and Child Parish. He retired as pastor in 2011, but continued to fill in throughout the diocese.

Gaffigan died on April 19, 2015, at the age of 79 at the Gateway House of Peace in Ballston Spa.

He also served as associate pastor in St. Michael’s in South Glens Falls in the 1970s and at St. Mary’s in Glens Falls in the early 1980s.

Three new lawsuits were also brought against Gary Mercure, who was sentenced to more than 25 years in prison in Massachusetts on child sex abuse charges. Mercure served at Our Lady of Annunciation Church in Queensbury and St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Glens Falls.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

June 17, 2020

By Paulina Guzik

A bishop at the center of a documentary on sex abuse in the Catholic Church in Poland has tried to defend himself, but has only generated more controversy.

The film “Hide and Seek” documented a dramatic case of abuse of power by Bishop Edward Janiak of Kalisz in central Poland. In 2016, when a family visited him to report that their son was abused by their parish priest, Janiak expelled them from his office and didn’t report the case to the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith, as the law required.

The documentary was released on May 16, and on the same day Archbishop Wojciech Polak, the Primate of Poland and Delegate of Child Protection at the Polish Bishops Conference, reported the case to the Holy See through the Vatican embassy, using the procedure outlined in a new Vatican law – Vos Estis Lux Mundi – which was promulgated by Pope Francis on June 1, 2019. It was the first time the law had been utilized in Poland.

Janiak responded with a June 13 letter to the Polish bishops rejecting the accusations and attacking Polak for reporting him.

Now Janiak has two problems: The letter was leaked to the media, and was filled with factual errors.

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ALAMOGORDO (NM)
Alamogordo Daily News

June 17, 2020

By Nicole Maxwell

https://www.alamogordonews.com/story/news/local/community/2020/06/17/catholic-priest-abuse-servants-paraclete-seek-lawsuit-dismissal-david-holley/5170809002/

The Servants of the Paraclete, named in a lawsuit over child sexual abuse by Catholic priests, asked a New Mexico court to dismiss the case in a June 10 response.

The Servants of the Paraclete is one of several defendants, including two Alamogordo Catholic parishes, named in the case filed in the 2nd Judicial District Court in Bernalillo County. The suit was filed by “John Doe” and alleged negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, vicarious liability, public nuisance and racketeering.

The Servants of the Paraclete denied the allegations in the original complaint, admitting only that, acting as a nonprofit corporation, it ran a facility in Albuquerque and Jemez Springs in 1971. The Servants of the Paraclete was originally founded as a recovery and rehabilitation facility for alcoholic and drug addicted clergy before they started receiving priests with pedophilic tendencies.

“The complaint fails to state claims, in whole or in part, upon which relief can be granted as a matter of law,” the response states.

Fr. David Holley was a patient at Servants of the Paraclete in the early 1970s before he was sent to Alamogordo to what was then St. Jude Mission Church. It is St. Jude Catholic Parish now.

The Servants of the Paraclete’s response states that many of the allegations are “completely irrelevant and immaterial to this action and/or because they constitute argument, not alleged facts.”

While the name of the victim in New Mexico who filed the suit remains anonymous, one of Holley’s Worcester Diocese victims remained vocal about his experience.

Holley abuse victim shares story

Phil Saviano was 11 years old when he first met the late Fr. David Holley in March 1964.

Saviano spoke to the Alamogordo Daily News via phone on May 11.

Saviano was in a catechism class in Holley’s second parish assignment at St. Denis Church in Douglas, Massachusetts. Holley was assigned to St. Denis for 18 months before being reassigned to another church within the Worcester Diocese, Saviano said.

“I was one of his earliest victims,” Saviano said. “My family lived just up the street from the church and the rectory. I was not an altar boy but I was Catholic.”

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HALIFAX (NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA)
Chronicle Herald via Saltwire

June 17, 2020

By Francis Campbell

Hundreds of Nova Scotians who say they were sexuallly abused by Roman Catholic priests dating back to 1960 are likely to be part of a lawsuit launched against the Halifax-Yarmouth Archdiocese and its archbishop.

A notice appeared recently on the websites of both the archdiocese and the McKiggan-Hebert law firm in Halifax, who filed the class action with the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in August 2018 on behalf of Douglas Champagne and other sexual abuse survivors.

“There is a court order in place that has established the steps that need to be taken to notify potential class members of the claim and this is one of the steps,” said lawyer John McKiggan.

“One of the requirements is to provide notice to potential class members telling them there is a class action out here and you can participate if you want to.”

Champagne, according to the court filing, suffered lasting and permanent effects from sexual abuse at the hands of Father George Epoch while Epoch worked as a priest at the Canadian Martyrs Church in Halifax and Champagne was an altar boy.

The class action says priests employed by the archdiocese, which amalgamated the former dioceses of Halifax and Yarmouth in 2011, had for decades “sexually assaulted and battered Catholic worshippers who attended their parishes.”

Responsible for the spiritual guidance and care of the claimants, the lawsuit says priests developed a relationship of psychological intimacy with their victims that provided them the opportunity to “engage in acts of sexual assault and battery.”

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SYRACUSE (NY)
Post-Standard

June 18, 2020

By Marnie Eisenstadt

https://www.syracuse.com/news/2020/06/grandmother-accuses-cny-school-priest-of-molesting-her-when-she-was-a-girl-they-cant-get-away-with-this.html

Whitesboro, N.Y. — It was always old Frankenstein movies. Or ghost stories.

“Any little thing where he got you alone in the dark,” Mary McLoughlin recalled. Then the priest at her family’s church would sexually abuse her, she said.

She was 11; the abuse happened numerous times, according to a lawsuit McLoughlin filed against the Syracuse Roman Catholic Diocese Wednesday.

McLoughlin’s suit was one of 38 filed against the diocese this week, a new wave of complaints under the New York Child Victims Act.

McLoughlin’s is one of the few filed against the diocese by women; most of the accusers have been men who alleged the abuse happened when they were boys.

McLoughlin, 66, says her abuser was the Rev. Conrad Somerville. At the time, he was in his 30s at St. Joseph’s school and parish in Utica.

Somerville has not been named in the diocese’s list of known offenders. He died in 2013 at 85; his last post was at the Franciscan Place at Destiny USA.

A spokeswoman for the diocese said they have not seen the new cases yet, but they take seriously all allegations of sexual abuse.

“We continue to pray for the healing of those who have been harmed in the past and continue to be vigilant in our safe environment protocols in order that this very dark chapter in the Church will never happen again,” said Danielle Cummings.

The priest was trusted by McLoughlin’s family and that of the other girls in her school, according to the lawsuit. The sexual abuse happened in movie theaters, church youth outings and in Somerville’s car, according to the lawsuit.

Somerville used his position at the school and church to groom McLoughlin and other girls so he could molest them, according to the suit. The allegations outlined in the lawsuit happened between 1964 and 1965.

“I hope it makes people like Father Conrad realize they can’t get away with this. For over 50 years, I’ve been wondering who else, or how many other kids did he hurt,” said McLoughlin, who lives in Troy now and is a funeral director.

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