ABUSE TRACKER

CHARLOTTE (NC)
WCNC-TV

January 17, 2020

By Nathan Morabito

[VIDEO]

Father Timothy Kelly, named in a sex abuse lawsuit out of New York last year, worked at Belmont Abbey from 1989 to 1991.

The names of more than 40 clergy members credibly accused of sexually abusing children before, during or after their time in the Diocese of Charlotte are now public, but just weeks after church leaders released that long-awaited list, we’ve learned there are still others who served in our area who were not named.

“The point is that other church entities have recognized various perpetrators, whether it’s Franciscan or other [religious orders] and they have served there,” advocate Patrick Wall said.

Wall, a former monk, worked under Father Timothy Kelly at St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota. Kelly later spent three years at Belmont Abbey in Gaston County from 1989-1991 as an administrator.

Kelly, who did not work with the Diocese of Charlotte, has faced sex abuse allegations from multiple victims in other parts of the country.

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.

CONNECTICUT
The Day

January 18, 2020

By Joe Wojtas

[PHOTO: Tim McGuire of New London protests Wednesday, July 10, 2019, outside of St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Mystic to raise awareness of the fight to bring accountability to the Diocese of Norwich for alleged sexual abuses, including his own that he alleges occurred when he was 8.]

In August of 2018, a Pennsylvania grand jury issued a report that found 301 priests had abused more than 1,000 children in the state’s Catholic dioceses. That news prompted six southeastern Connecticut men, now in their 50s, 60s and 70s, to tell The Day how they too had been sexually assaulted by priests and a nun assigned to the Diocese of Norwich when they were children.

One, Deacon Mark King, accused Gregory Mullaney, the current pastor at St. Agnes Church in Niantic, of repeatedly propositioning him and trying to sexually assault him while on a trip to Rome in 2006.

The Day also revealed how more than two dozen young men had sued the diocese alleging they were sexually assaulted as teens while attending a school for troubled boys in Deep River that was headed by former Bishop of Norwich Daniel Reilly. One alleged victim, Tim McGuire of New London, began picketing local churches and others calling for a victim compensation fund.

The Day published their stories and reported that the attorney general and chief state’s attorney had no plans to investigate the issue. The newspaper also questioned the diocese why it was not releasing lists of accused priests as the Hartford diocese and others across the country had done.

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LANSING (MI)
Associated Press

Criminal sexual conduct charges have been filed against two priests who worked in the Upper Peninsula’s Catholic diocese of Marquette, Michigan prosecutors announced Friday

The charges against Gary Allen Jacobs of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Roy Joseph were announced Friday by Attorney General Dana Nessel office’s Clergy Abuse Investigation Team.

Jacobs, 74, faces seven counts of criminal sexual conduct involving the alleged abuse of a child between the ages of 13 and 16 in Ontonagon County. The alleged conduct occurred between Jan. 1, 1981, and Dec. 31, 1984. The alleged misconduct in Dickinson County that took place between March 1, 1984, and April 30, 1984, involved a person under 13 years old.

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MADISON (WI)
Winconsin State Journal

January 17, 2020

By Emily Hamer

The Madison Diocese on Friday added a ninth priest to its growing list of clergy members who have been “credibly accused” of sexually abusing children.

The diocese determined that allegations against Rev. Patrick Doherty, 85, have the “semblance of truth,” according to a statement released Friday. The alleged victim, who did not want to be named, said the abuse happened more than forty years ago, the diocese said.

The allegation came to light after an outside review of all clergy personnel files was started in June. The diocese hired Texas-based investigations firm Defenbaugh & Associates to conduct it.

The alleged victim came forward to submit a formal allegation against Doherty after the review was launched.

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UTAH
Salt Lake City Tribune

January 17, 2020

By Kathy Stephenson
·
The Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City and the Utah House speaker have come out against a bill that would force clergy to report allegations of child abuse obtained in a religious confessional.

Sponsored by Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, HB90 specifically calls for removing the exemption that clerics now have in certain circumstances for reporting abuse.

“The motivation for the bill is understandable, to uncover and stop the abuse of children,” Jean Hill, government liaison for the diocese overseeing Utah’s more than 300,000 Catholics, wrote in a recent statement, “but HB90 will not have this intended effect.”

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KNOXVILLE (TN)
Associated Press

January 17, 2020

An East Tennessee man says the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville knew about abuse allegations against a music teacher nearly a year before it took action against him.

Michael Boyd said he told church officials he had been abused by William Lovelace in August 2018. But diocese spokesman Jim Wogan said the bishop only learned of the accusations when Boyd sued the diocese last July. The competing claims were first reported by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Diocese of Buffalo

January 17, 2020

The Independent Review Board of the Diocese of Buffalo announces that, based on the information available at this time and the refusal of the complainant to cooperate in an independent investigation, it is unable to substantiate the allegations of sexual abuse of a minor that were brought against Monsignor Peter Popadick and Reverend Paul Nogaro in August 2019. Consequently, both priests have been taken off administrative leave and returned to ministry. Msgr. Popadick returns to his position as pastor of St. Aloysius Parish, Cheektowaga, and Rev. Nogaro returns to ministry as a retired priest of the Diocese. Both Msgr. Popadick and Fr. Nogaro have successfully served the diocese and parishes in many capacities and for numerous years in priestly ministry. The Diocese of Buffalo maintains a rigorous process for evaluating any and all allegations of inappropriate conduct by members of the clergy and Diocesan employees, relying on the impartial expertise of the members of the Independent Review Board, as well as a third-party reporting capability, the details of which can be found on the Diocesan website at: https://www.buffalodiocese.org/report.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WBEN Radio, 930 AM

January 17, 2020

By Tom Puckett

Diocese says not enough evidence to substantiate allegations

The Buffalo Catholic Diocese says two priests accused of abuse are being returned to active duty.

The Independent Review Board of the Diocese of Buffalo says based on the information available and the refusal of the complainant to cooperate in an independent investigation, it is unable to substantiate the allegations of sexual abuse of a minor that were brought against Monsignor Peter Popadick and Reverend Paul Nogaro in August 2019. Consequently, both priests have been taken off administrative leave and returned to ministry.

Msgr. Popadick returns to his position as pastor of St. Aloysius Parish, Cheektowaga, and Rev. Nogaro returns to ministry as a retired priest of the Diocese.

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MYANMAR
Catholic News Service CatholicPhilly.com

January 17, 2020

The president of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference is the latest of the country’s senior clerics to push back against legislation to lift the seal of confession for child sexual abuse.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane made a submission to the Queensland state government opposing draft legislation that would see priests face up to three years in jail for failing to report confessions of child sexual abuse to the police; the penalty would be five years for “failure to protect.”

In his submission, Archbishop Coleridge said a confession is between the penitent and God, and the priest’s task is to enable that dialogue.

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UNITED STATES
Patheos bog

January 17, 2020

By Kristy Burmeister

“Each new revelation triggers shock waves that ripple through faith communities and through the faith of each member. Who and what can we trust? On a societal level, the word church no longer means trustworthy, not even for true believers. Churches must confront this hard reality. The trust they betrayed can never be rebuilt. Instead—and only if they address the extent of the betrayal—faith leaders can begin to build trust anew. This is a long-term and costly proposition, so buckle up.” –Ruth Everhart, The #MeToo Reckoning

My plan was to write a formal review for Ruth Everhart’s new book, The #MeToo Reckoning: Facing the Church’s Complicity in Sexual Abuse and Misconduct, but that would require a level of distance from the material that I don’t have. What I can share are my reactions to reading the book over the past three days.

As a Presbyterian pastor, Everhart weaves scripture into real-life stories of abuse within her denomination. Stepping from scripture into horrific stories of sexual assault, then back into scripture again was uncomfortable in the best sort of way. We need to be reminded of the drastic difference between what is holy and what we find in so many of our churches.

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UNITED STATES
Legal News Blog (law firm blog)

January 17, 2020

We predict that, if surveyed, 90% of US Catholics would agree with this statement: “These days, after decades of horrific scandal, bishops report suspected child sex crimes promptly to law enforcement.”

The trouble is, that’s not true. Look no further than this week’s news from Alaska.

As recently as 2016, a New York man was working there as a parish priest. He’s now in a Maryland treatment center for the sexually troubled. This week, he was ‘outed’ by his supervisors as a ‘credibly accused’ abuser, having reportedly viewed child porn on his computer.

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2020/01/16/archdiocese-accuses-14-southcentral-alaska-clergy-and-church-employees-of-sexual-abuse/

But the cleric, Fr. Robert Leising, says “no police were involved.”

What? How can that be? Haven’t bishops promised, time and time again, that they’ve ‘learned from the past’ and nowadays ‘immediately call police’ if they suspect child sex crimes?

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

January 17, 2020

By Jay Tokasz

Auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz, who will turn 75 in February, has written to Pope Francis asking for permission to retire, according to Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger, apostolic administrator of the Buffalo Diocese.

“He told me that he sent a letter to the Holy See,” Scharfenberger said when asked recently about Grosz’s status. “It’s customary for a bishop to … put in his request for retirement at or around his birthday. So that’s what he did.”

Grosz turns 75 on Feb. 16. Catholic canon law dictates that bishops relinquish their administrative duties at that time.

Advocates for clergy sex abuse survivors increasingly have questioned what role Grosz played in helping to keep cases of abuse under wraps in his nearly 30 years as a top diocese administrator. Grosz, who was installed as auxiliary bishop in 1990, often reached out to victims on behalf of the diocese, while at the same time leading inquiries with priests into clergy misconduct complaints.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
News 5 (CBS affiliate)

January 17, 2020

By Kaylyn Hlavaty

A Cuyahoga County grand jury handed down a 21-count indictment against a Strongsville Catholic Priest who is accused of possessing child pornography.

Reverend Robert McWilliams, 39, is charged with 19 counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a matter, one count of illegal use of minor in nudity-oriented material or performance and one count of possessing criminal tools, according to court documents.

McWilliams was arrested on Dec. 5 at St. Joseph Catholic Church for allegedly possessing child porn.

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MANILA (PHILIPPINES)
UCA News

January 17, 2020

President claims he is first Filipino politician to win a war against church officials

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, known for cursing critics in public speeches, renewed his attacks on the country’s Catholic bishops this week.

Speaking to members of the Philippine Baptist Church, the president expressed wonder at the apparent silence of Catholic Church leaders despite his attacks.

“I cannot tell you why but they are now ordered to… There’s an… I cannot — it’s supposed to be in confidence. But you notice they are no longer complaining,” said Duterte.

“Even if you say b******, they don’t respond anymore. That is — that is how to win the war against the Catholic Church. All you have to say, m***** f*****. You’re a winner.”

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Patheos blog

Jan. 17, 2020

By D. G. Hart

George Weigel has lots of counsel for Roman Catholics in the New Year, especially how to endure a church going through a serious crisis on many fronts. None of his advice involves other Christian communions as an alternative:

During and after the grim martial law period in the early 1980s, many freedom-minded Poles would greet each other on January 1 with a sardonic wish: “May the new year be better than you know it’s going to be!” As 2020 opens that salutation might well be adopted by Catholics concerned about the future of the Church, for more hard news is coming. So let’s get some of that out of the way, preemptively, before considering some resolutions that might help us all deal with the year ahead in faith, hope, and charity.

Financial scandals in the Vatican will intensify. It’s been clear for some months now that the dam of secrecy, masking irresponsibility (and worse), is cracking. So expect more disturbing revelations about corrupt self-dealing, misuse of charitable funds, stupid investments, and general incompetence behind the Leonine Wall.

Aggressive and politically motivated state attorneys general will continue to issue reports on historic sexual abuse cases. The response from cowed Church leaders will be tepid, at best. And what will get lost again—as it got lost after the now-paradigmatic Pennsylvania attorney general’s report—are two realities ignored by too many media outlets, too many institutions with responsibility for the safety of the young, and too many Catholics: that the Catholic Church today is arguably the safest environment for young people in the country; and that, from bitter experience, the Catholic Church has learned some things about creating safe environments from which the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, public schools, and public school teachers’ unions could all learn.

That is not a description that should encourage Protestants to convert to Rome. It looks bad.

So what should Roman Catholics do (and those tempted to convert)? The answer is not go to confession, and go to Mass:

Resolve to be a missionary disciple at the retail level. Amid these and other troubles, concerned Catholics constantly ask me, “What can I do?” To which I always respond, “Between now and next Easter, try and bring at least five disaffected Catholics back to Sunday Mass, and try to introduce at least one unevangelized person to Christ.” Retail evangelization is essential to authentic Catholic reform; it’s also deeply satisfying. Let’s get on with it, irrespective of the troubles.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

January 17, 2020

By Philip Pullella

An imbroglio over former Pope Benedict’s involvement in a book has sparked calls by some Vatican officials for clear rules about the status of any future pontiffs who may resign rather than rule for life.

Senior official sources said they hope Pope Francis addresses the issue after the death of Benedict, who in 2013 became the first pope in 700 years to abdicate and who is now a frail 92-year-old.

The idea of such rules, which is being discussed informally, is important because, as people live longer than they did in the past, it may become the new normal for popes to step down, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Francis, 83, has said he too would resign if ill health prevented him from properly running the 1.3 billion-member Catholic Church, as Benedict did.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

January 16, 2020

By Joshua J. McElwee

Pope Francis has completed work on his highly anticipated response to last year’s Vatican gathering of Catholic bishops from the Amazon that may allow for the ordination of married men as Catholic priests in the nine-nation region, NCR can reveal.

Catholic bishops around the world are receiving a letter from the Vatican this week, advising them that the document, which is also expected to lament devastating environmental destruction in the region and may detail new ministries for women in the church, is nearing publication.

“The draft is currently being reviewed and corrected and then needs to be translated,” states the letter, which is signed by retired Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes and was obtained by NCR.

“Pope Francis hopes to promulgate it by the end of this month or in early February,” writes Hummes, who served as the synod’s lead organizer.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UTAH)
Intermountain Catholic

January 15, 2020

By Jean Hill, Director, Diocese of Salt Lake City Peace and Justice Commission

Anyone who has ever confessed to something they were utterly embarrassed and/or ashamed of doing knows just how difficult it can be to walk into the confessional to face a priest. Knowing the priest is serving as Christ in his role of confessor does not make the task any easier. What does help is remembering that incredible feeling after confession when you know God has forgiven you and the priest provides a penance that puts you back on the right path.

A proposed state law would interrupt that sacred moment in a manner that could permanently destroy the relationship between our priests and ourselves in the confessional, without furthering the stated goal of the legislation.

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UTAH
Catholic News Agency

January 16, 2020

By Kevin J. Jones

A Utah legislator’s proposal to remove protections for priests and other clergy who hear confessions of the sexual abuse of minors has drawn significant criticism from Catholics and other commentators.

“The motivation for the bill is understandable, to uncover and stop the abuse of children, but H.B. 90 will not have this intended effect,” said Jean Hill, director of the Diocese of Salt Lake City’s Peace and Justice Commission.

Removing the clergy exemption would be “making it a crime for the priest to maintain the Seal of Confession,” Hill said in a column for the Jan. 17, 2020 edition of the Intermountain Catholic, the diocesan newspaper. The proposal “could permanently destroy the relationship between our priests and ourselves in the confessional, without furthering the stated goal of the legislation.”

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ANCHORAGE (ALASKA)
KTVA-TV (Channel 11)

January 16, 2020

By Elizabeth Roman

More than a dozen people in Alaska have been accused of sexual misconduct while serving in the Catholic Church, an independent commission review found. The allegations span nearly 60 years, with the latest abuse happening in 2015.

The review began in 2018 when the commission was tasked with combing through sexual misconduct files in the possession of the Archdiocese of Anchorage since its creation in 1966. The commission included a former police chief and two former prosecutors.

According to the findings released Thursday by a church leader, the commission found credible evidence of sexual misconduct involving minors and vulnerable adults against 14 people who served in the Archdiocese of Anchorage at one point in their careers.

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ANCHORAGE (ALASKA)
Associated Press

January 16, 2020

By Becky Bohrer

A review commissioned by the Archdiocese of Anchorage found credible evidence of sexual misconduct by 14 people who served in the archdiocese dating to 1966, a church leader announced Thursday.

The findings were made by a commission that the archdiocese said included a former police chief and two former prosecutors, one of whom is also a retired judge. The commission was charged with reviewing personnel files of “clerics and religious men and women” who served in the archdiocese dating to 1966, as well as reviewing allegations of sexual misconduct of lay volunteers and employees reported to the archdiocese.

Half of those identified as credibly accused are now dead, the report states.

The report, which had limited details, included allegations of sexual misconduct involving vulnerable adults or those younger than 18 and viewing child pornography. Allegations against four of the 14 individuals identified came while serving in another diocese, according to the report.

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TENNESSEE
Chattanooga Free Press

January 16, 2020

By Wyatt Massey

After months of publicly discrediting and denying sexual abuse allegations against prominent priests and a diocesan employee, documents obtained by the Times Free Press suggest the Diocese of Knoxville may have known about those allegations for almost a year before suspending the accused employee.

In December, the diocese settled a July lawsuit by East Tennessee resident Michael Boyd alleging he was repeatedly sexually abused by Monsignor Francis Xavier Mankel, Bishop Anthony O’Connell, visiting priests and diocesan employee William Michael Lovelace. The abuse allegedly occurred between 1991 and 1995 when Boyd was a preteen student at Sacred Heart Cathedral School in Knoxville.

Information gathered from a variety of documents — including a copy of the lawsuit, a police report, multiple diocese releases and Boyd’s 18-page, handwritten statement given to police— create a timeline that contradicts the diocese’s claims of not knowing about abuse allegations made against Lovelace until summer 2019.

The documents point to Lovelace being identified in the summer of 2018 and being allowed to have contact with children for another school year.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

January 17, 2020

By Haidee Eugenio Gilbert

Guam’s clergy sex abuse survivors and other claimants may be able to receive some $21 million in restitution from the Archdiocese of Agana, if the church’s reorganization plan to solve its bankruptcy gets court approval.

This is the first public disclosure of the amount the archdiocese and its insurers plan to pay claimants, including those allegedly molested and raped by bishops, priests and other clergy dating back to the 1950s.

The proposed $21 million is from the sale of church properties of about $7 million, payments from insurers totaling about $13 million, and about $1 million expected from Catholic parishes.

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DANBURY (CT)
The Patch

January 15, 2020

By Rich Kirby

The former priest at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church who was accused of sexual abuse of a minor has a plea hearing scheduled later this month after being arrested on sexual assault charges.

The Rev. Jaime Marin-Cardona, 51, turned himself into the Danbury Police Department on a warrant, and remains in custody on a $500,000 bond. He has been charged with three counts of illegal sexual contact, three counts of fourth-degree sexual assault and three counts of risk of injury to child.

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DANBURY (CT)
Legal Herald (law firm blog)

January 16, 2020

A former priest at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Danbury faces several criminal charges after being accused of sexually abusing a child who attended the church. 51-year-old Rev. Jaime Marin-Cardona is charged with three counts of illegal sexual contact, three counts of fourth-degree sexual assault, and three counts of risk of injury to child.

Marin-Cardona has a plea hearing scheduled later in January.

The Diocese of Bridgeport removed Marin-Cardona from the ministry in September after the diocese received a letter from parents who were worried about his “contact with a family member who is a minor,” Bishop Frank J. Caggiano said in a statement.

These charges stem from allegations of abuse in 2014 and 2016, when Marin-Cardona was at Our Lady of Guadalupe. He most recently served at Saint Mary Parish in Bridgeport. He has also served at Saint Joseph Parish in Norwalk and Saint Charles Borromeo Parish in Bridgeport.

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FRESNO (CA)
Fresno Bee

January 16, 2020

By Brianna Calix and Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks

Fresno man comes forward about being molested by a Boy Scouts leader in the 1970s

David Green learned valuable skills during his few years in the Boy Scouts of America Sequoia Council – first aid, CPR and many survival techniques.

“Now I don’t even go camping anymore because of what happened on the campouts at the Boy Scouts camp they had, Camp Chawanakee, up there at Shaver Lake,” the 62-year-old Fresno man said.

Green alleges that he and his fellow Scouts were sexually abused by Alan Craig Dunlap, a former assistant Boy Scout leader, who was convicted of child molestation.

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ANCHORAGE (ALASKA)
Anchorage Daily News

January 16, 2020

By Michelle Theriault

The Archdiocese of Anchorage for the first time has named 14 Catholic clergy members accused by church investigators of sexually abusing children and vulnerable adults in Alaska.

The report released Thursday is the result of a 15-month investigation by a church commission into allegations of sexual abuse by clergy, church employees and volunteers over a 54-year period.

The clergy members named by the archdiocese range from a deacon to an assistant to the archbishop to the chaplain of a homeless shelter. Some of those named had not previously been identified publicly as potential offenders.

An initial review of state and federal court records shows many, if not all, were never convicted of sex crimes in Alaska.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Associated Press

January 16, 2020

Mark Coleridge says move to legislate against the sanctity of the confessional will fail to make children safer

A move to compel Queensland priests to report child sexual abuse offences disclosed during confessions would fail to make children safer, Brisbane’s Catholic archbishop has said.

Mark Coleridge has opposed a state government plan to legislate against the sanctity of the confessional as an excuse, defence or privilege.

In his submission to the committee considering the bill, the archbishop claimed it would be unworkable and fails to understand the practicalities of a confessional.

“The mechanism within this legislation which deals with the confessional seal quite simply will not make a difference to the safety of our young people,” he wrote.

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BROOKLYN (NY)
SLATE

January 15, 2020

By LEÓN KRAUZE

Marcial Maciel’s crimes should have ended his organization.

In Fernando Meirelles’ film The Two Popes, former Pope Benedict XVI, played by Anthony Hopkins, confesses his sins to Argentinian Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis. It is a crucial scene, in which Benedict aims to convince Bergoglio, played by Jonathan Pryce, of the reasons for his resignation as head of the church.

As Bergoglio listens, Benedict mentions Mexican priest Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, an influential, ultraconservative organization present in more than 20 countries, where it operates more than a dozen colleges and almost 150 schools while maintaining close ties to the upper echelons of political power. Maciel, an infamous pedophile who victimized dozens of children in over six decades in the priesthood, enjoyed the active protection of the church for years, especially during John Paul II’s papacy, in which Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger—later Benedict XVI—was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the church’s authority on policy and discipline. Although Meirelles precludes the audience from listening to Benedict’s full confession on Maciel, the inference is clear: Benedict’s inaction on Maciel and others like him burden him to the point of spiritual exhaustion.

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ST. PAUL (MN)
The Catholic Spirit

January 15, 2020

By Joe Ruff

Victim/survivors and others impacted by clergy sexual abuse are invited to a Jan. 23 conference on restorative justice and healing organized by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
The daylong conference in Lake Elmo, east of St. Paul, will include Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Ramsey County Attorney John Choi providing an update on the impetus for the conference: The settlement of civil charges filed by the county in 2015 alleging the archdiocese was negligent in the case of an abusive priest.

“Mr. Choi always felt restorative justice should be part of the archdiocese taking accountability for its actions and providing a means of healing for the community,” said Stephanie Wiersma, an assistant Ramsey County attorney who will participate in the conference and has been involved in the case since the beginning.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Deseret News

January 14, 2020

By Katie McKellar

As religious opposition both in and out of Utah mounts against a proposed bill that would require all allegations of child abuse to be reported to authorities — including those stated in religious confessionals — a powerful legislative leader has opposed the bill.

House Speaker Brad Wilson won’t support the bill in its current form, according to a statement he sent to the national Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

“I have serious concerns about this bill and the effects it could have on religious leaders as well as their ability to counsel members of their congregation,” Wilson, R-Kaysville, said in the statement circulated by the Catholic League Tuesday. “I do not support this bill in its current form, and unless significant changes are made to ensure the protection of religious liberties, I will be voting against this bill.”

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U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS
HuffPost

January 15, 2020

By Sara Boboltz

The U.S. Virgin Islands has filed a civil lawsuit against the estate of deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein for running a sex trafficking operation at his properties there, Denise N. George, the attorney general of the Virgin Islands, announced Wednesday.

The suit alleges that Epstein and unnamed “associates” trafficked underage girls as young as 12 in the territory, where they “held them captive, and sexually abused them, causing them grave physical, mental and emotional injury.”

George said her office began looking into Epstein’s conduct last year after being “inundated with inquiries from local and national media” about his activities in the islands.

Epstein “maintained a deliberately complex web of Virgin Islands corporations, limited liability companies, foundations and other entities, not all of which are yet known to the Government of the Virgin Islands, through which he carried out and concealed his criminal conduct,” according to the suit.

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LYON (FRANCE)
RFI

January 15, 2020

Accused of sexually abusing dozens of boy scouts in the 1970s and 80s, a French Catholic priest has confessed in court to “caresses” he knew were forbidden, saying for 20 years “it happened every weekend”.

Bernard Preynat told a court in Lyon on the first day of his trial that it could have been “four or five children a week”.

“For me, at the time, I was not committing sexual assault but giving caresses, hugs,” he said. “I was wrong.”

Preynat’s voice reportedly faltered as he admitted the interactions “brought me sexual pleasure”.

But while he knew the actions were forbidden, he said he only finally understood that they were illegal thanks to “the accusations of the victims”.

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MEXICO CITY (MEXICO)
Associated Press

Jan. 15, 2019

The Roman Catholic Church in Mexico called on the country’s government Tuesday to modify the legal code and do away with statutes of limitations for sexual abuse of minors.

“We want to ask in the name of the bishops of Mexico for there to be no expiration for this crime,” said Rogelio Cabrera, president of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference.

He called it “unjust” that nothing can be done about such cases starting 10 years from the date of the offense, “since the wrong done lasts for the lifetime of the person who has been a victim.”

Cabrera said the church admits sex abuse complaints up to 20 years from the time a victim reaches adulthood.

The church has had a serious and longtime problem with clerical sex abuse in Mexico.

According to data presented Tuesday at a news conference, the Bishops’ Conference has investigated 426 priests in the last 10 years, 271 of them for sex abuse.

Alfonso Miranda, secretary of the Bishops’ Conference, said 155 of those cases have gone before prosecutors, up about 50 from the number as of last March.

He noted that those are just preliminary figures and added that 217 priests have been defrocked, though without saying whether all were for sex abuse or other offenses.

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UTAH
Deseret News

January 16, 2020

By the Deseret News Editorial Board

This week the Catholic League came out strongly against proposed legislation in Utah aiming to eliminate an exemption for clergy when it comes to reporting confidential confessions detailing abuse. Meanwhile, the Montana Supreme Court recently cited clergy-penitent exemptions in a decision overturning a jury verdict of $35 million against local Jehovah’s Witnesses for not reporting abuse discovered in the mid-2000s. The court ruled, unanimously, that under Montana law, “Clergy are not required to report known or suspected child abuse if the knowledge results from a congregation member’s confidential communication or confession and if the person making the statement does not consent to disclosure.”

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UNITED STATES
Church Militant (blog)

January 15, 2020

By Rodney Pelletier

Catholics in the diocese of Buffalo are still reeling from Bp. Richard Malone’s atrocious handling of clerical sex abuse cases. But the men charged with investigating the diocese and overseeing things after Malone stepped down are showing themselves to be cut from the same cloth.

In October, Brooklyn Bp. Nicholas DiMarzio concluded his fact-finding mission, conducted at the behest of the Vatican. As of now, no report has been issued and Buffalo’s clerical sex abuse survivors are waiting for answers.

It’s not known, however, if answers will ever come; The Vatican’s announcement called the investigation “a non-judicial and non-administrative process that requires confidentiality.”

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SCOTLAND
BBC Scotland

January 15, 2020

By Reevel Alderson

A retired Scottish priest accused of offences against boys at Fort Augustus Abbey School has failed in his bid to block an extradition order.

The minister of justice in Canada, where Robert Mackenzie has been living since 1988, agreed to a request from the Crown Office last year.

But Fr MacKenzie, who denies the allegations against him, applied for a judicial review of the decision.

That has now been refused and he now has until 3 February to appeal.

The Crown Office has made no comment on the case, but earlier said it had received a report in connection with alleged historical offences.

Fr Mackenzie’s legal team in Canada has said he has been charged with a total of 16 offences following allegations made by 16 individuals.

They are understood to involve allegations of physical and sexual abuse over a period from the 1950s to the 1980s.

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UNITED STATES
CrimesOnline (blog)

January 15, 2020

By Jacquelyn Gray

A yearlong investigation has reportedly revealed at least 52 official cases of child sexual assault in the Amish community that spans seven states over the past 20 years.

Cosmopolitan magazine and Type Investigations allegedly found in a joint investigation that many of the victims were discouraged from reporting the assault by relatives and church leaders. The victims were reportedly instructed not to seek outside help and were threatened with excommunication if they did so.

Cosmopolitan called the scandal a “widespread, decentralized cover-up of child sexual abuse by Amish clergy” and suggested that there are more victims — who are likely being silenced due to the religious group’s secretive culture.

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PARIS (FRANCE)
Voice of America

January 15, 2020

By Lisa Bryant

The former pope Benedict XVI reportedly wants his name removed from a controversial book that appears to undermine his successor, Pope Francis, on issues of priestly celibacy. The book hit stores Wednesday in France, the first country to publish it. But despite the furor the book has stirred in the press, many French readers appear underwhelmed.

The book, “Des Profondeurs de Nos Coeurs,” meaning “From the Depths of Our Hearts,” defends priestly celibacy at a time when Pope Francis is considering whether to lift restrictions on married priests in remote areas. Cardinal Robert Sarah, who co-authored the book, rejects accusations he manipulated Benedict regarding the content.

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LYON (FRANCE)
FRANCE 24

January 15, 2020

Former Catholic priest Bernard Preynat, on trial for sexually abusing dozens of boy scouts in the 1970s and 1980s, said on Wednesday that he warned the Catholic Church about his sexual impulses but they failed to take appropriate measures.

“When I was 14 years old, during my Junior Seminary, I already knew (that I was attracted to little boys). People told me ‘you are sick’, but they got rid of me. They sent me to another seminary,” Preynat told the court on the second day of trial.

A former priest in Sainte-Foy-les-Lyon, in the suburbs of Lyon, Preynat could face up to 10 years in prison. But he claims that his sexual inclinations did not prevent him from being ordained in 1971.

“They should have helped me… They let me become a priest instead,” he explained, after he had undergone therapy at the Vinatier Psychiatric Hospital, near Lyon, in 1967 and 1968.

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LYON (FRANCE)
CNA

January 16, 2020

A defrocked French Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of boy scouts decades ago told his trial on Wednesday (Jan 15) that he himself had suffered similar assaults in his youth, in an unexpected twist to his defence.

After confessing in court on Tuesday to “caresses” he knew were forbidden, after victims testified to the horrors they suffered, Bernard Preynat, 74, faulted the church for failing to help him deal with his own urges.

During the second day of the trial in the French city of Lyon, Preynat surprised even his own lawyer in raising for the first time in court the abuses he said he suffered in his youth.

He referred to a letter written in the summer to Michel Dubost, the apostolic administrator in Lyon, where he said he had been repeatedly sexually abused by a priest, a sacristan from his parish and a seminarian.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
Associated Press

Jan. 16, 2019

A woman who accused The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints of covering for a former missionary leader who she says raped her in the 1980s said Tuesday she may be ready to drop her lawsuit against the faith.

McKenna Denson said during a court hearing that she still doesn’t have an attorney. Her previous lawyer withdrew in May for unknown reasons, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

“I’m not sure I want to secure counsel at the time,” Denson told U.S. Magistrate Judge Dustin Pead over the telephone.

Deson asked Pead if she could refile the lawsuit if she found “illegal activity” occurred during the course of the litigation. Pead told Denson he could not give her legal advice, advising her those were questions for her attorney.

Pead gave Denson two weeks to make a decision. He said she needs to file a motion to dismiss the case, express interest in mediation or choose to go to trial.

It’s unknown why her previous lawyer, Craig Vernon, dropped the case. His court motion is sealed and he he has declined to discuss it publicly.

Denson of Pueblo, Colorado, accused Phoenix-area resident Joseph L. Bishop of sexually abusing and raping her in 1984 at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah, where he was president.

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MIAMI (FL)
WLRN Radio

Jan. 15, 2020

By Stephanie Colombini

Florida lawmakers are considering a bill that would give survivors of childhood sexual assault a “look back window” to address previously unreported claims. It would allow them to open cases with an expired statute of limitations for one year.

This follows a recent wave of states passing look back laws. Currently sixteen states and the District of Columbia have created similar opportunities for abuse victims to have their voices heard.

The issue is personal for bill sponsor Sen. Lauren Book (D-Broward), who was assaulted by her nanny as teen.

“It takes a long time for survivors to report these types of crimes,” she said. “75% of children don’t tell within one year of the abuse, I know I waited six years…and many never do”

The nonprofit thinktank Child USA advocates for statute of limitations reform and tracks legislative progress in states across the country.

CEO Marci Hamilton said Florida has done a lot to help current and future survivors of sexual assault by eliminating the statute of limitations for child sexual battery in 2010. But that law wasn’t retroactive.

“That iceberg of victims from the past who were shut down by the short statutes of limitations before still need help,” she said.

Child USA estimates at least 1,000 new cases could come forward in Florida is this bill passes. In New York, which opened a year-long window last August, plaintiffs have already filed more than 1,300 civil cases.

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NEW JERSEY
NorthJersey.com

January 14, 2020

By Abbott Koloff

Four men from other states are using a new New Jersey rule to sue the Boy Scouts of America, alleging that Scout leaders sexually abused them as children — even though the alleged abuse took place in other parts of the country.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Superior Court in New Brunswick because the Boy Scouts of America had its national headquarters in Middlesex County decades ago, when the alleged abuse took place, according to court documents.

The men said they were abused as Scouts while growing up in Wisconsin, Indiana, Texas and Arkansas. Five Scout leaders are accused, including two who were criminally convicted of sex abuse in the 1980s. None of the plaintiffs were part of the criminal cases, their attorneys said.

If the New Jersey suit holds up in court, it could lead to a flood of similar lawsuits from around the country being filed in New Jersey, said Jason Amala, a Seattle attorney whose firm, PCVA Law, represents the plaintiffs.

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PORTLAND (OR)
OPB

January 13, 2020

By Elizabeth Miller

Kim Wilson was a sixth grader in 1994 and 1995. Richardson Shoemaker was her math teacher.
Wilson said Shoemaker repeatedly made her sit on his lap during class, where he ran his hand up the front of her shirt at least 80 times during the year, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Multnomah County circuit court.

Standing in front of a photo of herself from sixth grade, Wilson was flanked by her brother on one side and one of her attorneys, Gilion Dumas, on the other.

“I am coming forward today because I was quieted and devalued by the school for so many years,” Wilson said Monday at a press conference.

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

January 15, 2020

By Tynan Stewart

For two decades, Bryan Bacon kept the memories of his abuse locked away.

In 1985, Bacon was sexually assaulted at knifepoint by an assistant principal at St. John Vianney High School in Kirkwood. He repressed the traumatic memory for years, he said, but it resurfaced in 2005 when he was 35.

Bacon told his story to the House Children and Families Committee in a hearing Tuesday. He was there to support a proposal that would remove the statute of limitations for filing civil lawsuits in cases of childhood sexual abuse. Currently, the law gives survivors of abuse 10 years to file civil claims.

The proposal comes after Missouri removed the statute of limitations for criminal cases in 2018.

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UNITED STATES
Cosmopolitan

January 14, 2020

By Sarah McClure

The memories come to her in fragments. The bed creaking late at night after one of her brothers snuck into her room and pulled her to the edge of her mattress. Her underwear shoved to the side as his body hovered over hers, one of his feet still on the floor.

Her ripped dresses, the clothespins that bent apart on her apron as another brother grabbed her at dusk by the hogpen after they finished feeding the pigs. Sometimes she’d pry herself free and sprint toward the house, but “they were bigger and stronger,” she says. They usually got what they wanted.

As a child, Sadie* was carefully shielded from outside influences, never allowed to watch TV or listen to pop music or get her learner’s permit. Instead, she attended a one-room Amish schoolhouse and rode a horse and buggy to church—a life designed to be humble and disciplined and godly.

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ROME
PBS NewsHour

January 14, 2020

Rome is being roiled by a series of unusual developments in which a former pope appeared to be weighing in on a sensitive issue facing his successor, Pope Francis. The debate is over the law of clerical celibacy, which divides many Catholics. But now, the retired pope, Benedict, is distancing himself from the controversy. Father Thomas Reese of Religion News Service joins Amna Nawaz to discuss.

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ENGLAND
MAILONLINE

January 13, 2020

By Monica Greep

– and argues the clergyman’s affiliation with royalty made him ‘impregnable’

– Cliff James lived with Peter Ball at age of 18 at Littlington in Lewes, East Sussex
– In 1977 Peter became Bishop in East Sussex and established residential project
– Cliff tells of abuse faced at hands of bishop in new BBC2 documentary tonight
– Says he was ‘ripe’ when he met the bishop, in desperate need of a father figure
– Bishop said he ‘got on with Queen Mother’ and often spoke of Charles friendship

A victim of the disgraced paedophile Peter Ball has claimed the bishop’s friendship with Prince Charles made him ‘impregnable’.

Cliff James first met the bishop at the age of 17 while interviewing to become part of Littlington, his residential project established in 1977 for young people in need of ‘spiritual guidance’. He later permanently moved into the Lewes home.

At the age of 18, Cliff’s relationship with Ball quickly took a disturbing turn as the religious figure began ‘grooming’ him and making him feel ‘guilty’ if he did not do what he asked.

In the new BBC2 documentary Exposed: The Church’s Darkest Secret, Cliff told of the abuse he endured at the hands of Ball within the home, including taking part in ‘humiliation’ rituals while naked, being ceremoniously beaten and forced to take part in mutual masturbation.

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UNITED STATES
People

January 14, 2020

By Jeff Truesdell

Few outside of the courtroom heard all the evidence that sent Bill Cosby to prison in 2018, capping a shocking downfall that began in 2005 with a woman’s public allegation that he’d drugged and sexually assaulted her, the first of more than 80 similar claims to follow.

From the start, reporter Nicole Weisensee Egan was on the story. The former PEOPLE senior staff writer’s 2019 book Chasing Cosby: The Downfall of America’s Dad chronicled the stop-and-start prosecution that put the disgraced comic and TV icon behind bars for three to 10 years.

That reporting informs a new podcast, Chasing Cosby, from the Los Angeles Times and executive produced by Egan, that lets Cosby’s initial accuser, Andrea Constand, and 13 other women share their experiences. The six-part podcast debuts with two episodes Tuesday, with new episodes dropping each week thereafter.

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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC

January 2020

[VIDEO- series]

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CROOKSTON (MN)
Forum News Service

January 14, 2020

By Alex Derosier

A Bemidji priest has been placed on administrative leave for his conduct, including “boundary violations,” the Catholic Diocese of Crookston announced in a statement.

Bishop Michael Hoeppner placed Father Bryan Kujawa on leave effective Tuesday, Jan. 14, after his fitness to be a priest was repeatedly called into question, the statement said.

Kujawa will remain on leave until the diocese has completed its investigation, conducted a professional assessment and gotten recommendations from its review board.

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CROOKSTON (MN)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Crookston

January 10, 2020

By Janelle Gergen, Director of Communications

Bishop Michael J. Hoeppner has placed Fr. Bryan Kujawa on administrative leave, effective Tuesday, January 14. Several issues concerning Fr. Kujawa’s fitness for ministry have been brought to Bishop Hoeppner’s attention over time, including non-criminal, non-sexual, boundary violations. Accordingly, Fr. Kujawa will remain on leave until these matters have been further investigated, a professional and comprehensive assessment is complete, and the Diocesan Review Board makes further recommendations.

As this is a personnel issue, no further comments will be offered.

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UNITED STATES
Associated Press

January 13, 2020

The company said Drummond is not getting an exit package as part of his departure. His compensation package for 2018 was worth $47 million, making him one of the company’s highest-paid employees, according to regulatory filings.

David Drummond, the legal chief of Google parent company Alphabet, is leaving at the end of the month, following accusations of inappropriate relationships with employees.

Alphabet did not give a reason for Drummond’s departure in a short regulatory filing Friday.

The company said in November that its board was investigating sexual misconduct cases against executives. Claims against Drummond were included in the investigations.

Thousands of Google employees walked out of work in 2018 to protest the company’s handling of sexual misconduct claims. The board investigation followed lawsuits brought by shareholders after reports of sexual harassment at Google received national attention.

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ISRAEL
Tablet

January 14, 2020

By Sarah Krasnostein

Israel is harboring the woman accused of being Australia’s worst Orthodox Jewish sexual predator. Could today’s court ruling finally send her home to face her accusers?

“You have to be as normal as possible so you don’t have black marks against your name, so that you can get married, and your children can get married,” Dassi Erlich explained to me the first time we met, at a café in Melbourne. “As soon as you have mental illness, sexual abuse, someone going off the derech”—off the religious path—“in the family, you start having black marks against your name. And when you’re not from a very wealthy family, those marks mean a lot.”

Growing up as one of seven siblings in an ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, home in Ripponlea, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, Erlich knew about black marks. She was born with a whole mess of them. “A, my mother is Sephardi,” she said. “B, my parents joined the community as adults, they didn’t grow up in it. C, my parents are not wealthy. So growing up, my mother drilled into us that we had to be perfect students, because if we didn’t, we wouldn’t get married. … No matter what was going on, we knew we would face severe punishment if we didn’t get A’s in everything.” The severe punishment to which she is referring included being denied food and locked for extended periods in a dark cupboard under the stairs. “We were absolutely petrified to explain to anyone what was going on at home because we knew that would be used against us,” Erlich told the television news program Australian Story. An abusive home was another black mark.

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MEXICO CITY
Associated Press

January 13, 2020

By Maria Verza

The Catholic Church has removed Mexican Fernando Martínez from the priesthood after considering him guilty of various sexual abuse crimes against minors, the Legion of Christ religious order said Monday.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith decided that Martínez could not continue his priestly duties, but allowed him to remain as a member of the Legion of Christ and the church, a decision that upset his victims.

One of them, Ana Lucía Salazar, who had reported being raped by the priest when she was 8 years old, commented with irony on Twitter.

“The Pope decided that the gentleman continue in the church ranks after raping children,” Salazar wrote Monday. “There’s zero tolerance.” The punishment comes nearly three decades after the abuses were reported to Martínez’s superiors in the 1990s.

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ROME
Catholic News Service

January 14, 2020

The ad limina visits bishops are required to make to the Vatican are occasions to be honest about challenges, while also being encouraged to hope, said Bishop John T. Folda of Fargo, North Dakota.

“It’s tempting at times to lose hope when all you hear is bad news and with some of the challenges we face in our dioceses at home; it’s extremely important to maintain a spirit of hope and the ad limina I think has been that for me,” Folda told Catholic News Service Jan. 13 after a two-hour meeting with Pope Francis.

Bishops from U.S. Region VIII – North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota – met the pope on the first day of their visit. The region’s 10 dioceses have one archbishop, one auxiliary bishop, six bishops, one bishop-designate and two diocesan administrators.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

January 14, 2020

By Joshua J. McElwee

Retired Pope Benedict XVI’s name is being removed as a coauthor of a controversial new book defending the Catholic Church’s practice of clerical celibacy after dueling accounts emerged of the ex-pontiff’s involvement in the preparation of the volume.

The removal, confirmed in a tweet Jan. 14 by Cardinal Robert Sarah, the other author of the book, comes after an odd and dramatic public dispute between Sarah and Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Benedict’s private secretary.

In fact, announcement of the change in authorship came only 90 minutes after Sarah had tweeted a statement defending the choice to list Benedict as a coauthor, claiming the former pope had reviewed the entire manuscript of the volume, the cover design, and also consulted on the publication date.

Sarah, who leads the Vatican’s liturgy office, even quoted a Nov. 25 conversation with Benedict, in which the cardinal said the ex-pontiff had told him: “I agree that the text be published in the form you have foreseen.”

Within an hour, Gänswein had told Italian and German-language news agencies that Benedict only thought he was preparing an essay for the volume, and did not intend to be listed as a coauthor.

“He never approved any project for a coauthored book, and never saw nor authorized the cover,” the archbishop told Italy’s Ansa agency.

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MOUNT VERNON (WA)
KREM-TV, Ch. 2

January 13, 2020

By Ian Smay

Patrick O’Donnell admitted to sexually abusing kids while a priest in Spokane. He now lives .6 miles from two schools in Mount Vernon.

Patrick O’Donnell is a name that draws a strong reaction in Spokane.

He’s a large part of the reason the Catholic Diocese of Spokane went bankrupt after it agreed to pay millions of dollars to 28 victims who O’Donnell admitted to sexually abusing in the 1970s.

O’Donnell now lives in a retirement community for people 55 and older, just over half-a-mile from two schools in Mount Vernon, Washington, a suburb an hour north of Seattle.

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OSSINING (NY)
The Journal News

January 14, 2020

By Frank Esposito

The son of a missionary claims he was sexually abused by a priest from a local order, according to a Westchester County court filling.

The case,filed by an anonymous plaintiff, accused Ronald Boccieri, a Maryknoll priest, of sexually abusing him at a cabin in the Catskills.

Boccieri was accused ofinitially grooming the plaintiff while at the Ossining Maryknoll campus.

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LYON (FRANCE)
BBC News

January 14, 2020

A former French priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of Boy Scouts has admitted “caressing” children in ways he knew were wrong, at the beginning of his trial in France.

“It could be four or five children a week,” Bernard Preynat, 74, told the court in Lyon on Tuesday.

He is accused of assaulting at least 80 young boys in the 1980s and 1990s and faces ten years in prison if convicted.

Ten of his accusers are expected to give evidence in the four-day trial.

The men were all aged between seven and 15 at the time of the alleged abuse.

This is the first time that Mr Preynat has appeared in a French court to answer questions about these allegations.

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LYON (FRANCE)
The Guardian

January 13, 2020

By Kim Willsher in Paris

Bernard Preynat, 74, is believed to have sexually abused scores of boys over a 30-year period

The victims of a paedophile priest at the heart of the biggest scandal to hit the Catholic church will face their attacker in a French court.

Bernard Preynat, 74, who has been defrocked, is believed to have sexually abused scores of boys over a 30-year period, many of them while they attended catechism classes or Boy Scout camps he ran.

Even after he admitted he was “sick” and had a problem with children, he was allowed to remain a priest in his diocese in Lyon.

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LYON (FRANCE)
Associated Press

January 14, 2020

By Nicolas Vaux-Montagny

A former priest detailed Tuesday how he systematically abused boys over two decades as a French scout chaplain, and said his superiors knew about his “abnormal” behavior as far back as the 1970s.

The shocking testimony of Bernard Preynat is likely to further shake up the French Catholic Church as it reckons with sexual abuses that were long covered up. His account in court Tuesday suggested as many as five cardinals were aware of his behavior over the years, but didn’t report it to police or prosecutors.

Preynat, now 74, is charged with sexually abusing multiple minors and faces up to 10 years in prison in what is France’s biggest clergy sex abuse trial to date. He’s suspected of abusing around 75 boys, but his testimony suggests the overall number could be even higher.

He said he abused up to two boys “almost every weekend” from 1970 to 1990 when he worked as their scout chaplain, and as many as four or five a week when he led one-week scout camps.

He said parents first alerted the diocese in the 1970s, but his hierachy never punished him.

“I often said to myself ‘I have to stop’ but I started again a few months later. I blame myself today,” he told a hushed courtroom.

“It seemed to me that the children were consenting,” he said. “I was wrong.”

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BALTIMORE (MD)
WJZ-TV (CBS affiliate)

January 14, 2020

[VIDEO]

A Baltimore priest at St. Agnes/St. William of York Parish has been removed by the Archdiocese of Baltimore after he was accused of touching three women inappropriately.

Father Joseph O’Meara has been removed from active ministry and will no longer reside at St. Agnes/St. William of York, the Archdiocese said.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Sun

January 14, 2020

By Hallie Miller and Lillian Reed

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has removed from active ministry a retired priest accused of inappropriately touching three women.

Father Joseph O’Meara, who lived at St. Agnes/St. William of York Parish in Catonsville near West Baltimore, was “recently … separately accused by three adult women of touching them inappropriately,” according to a letter signed by Father Isaac Makovo sent to parishioners in December. He no longer lives at the parish’s residences, according to the letter.

All three incidents were reported to church officials within the same day. Two of the women told church officials the incidents took place that same day and the third woman, who decided to come forward after learning of the other women, said she was inappropriately touched two days earlier, Archdiocese spokesman Sean Caine said in an email.

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MEXICO CITY (MEXICO)
Associated Press

January 14, 2020

The Roman Catholic Church in Mexico called on the country’s government Tuesday to modify the legal code and do away with statutes of limitations for sexual abuse of minors.

“We want to ask in the name of the bishops of Mexico for there to be no expiration for this crime,” said Rogelio Cabrera, president of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference.

He called it “unjust” that nothing can be done about such cases starting 10 years from the date of the offense, “since the wrong done lasts for the lifetime of the person who has been a victim.”

Cabrera said the church admits sex abuse complaints up to 20 years from the time a victim reaches adulthood.

The church has had a serious and longtime problem with clerical sex abuse in Mexico.

According to data presented Tuesday at a news conference, the Bishops’ Conference has investigated 426 priests in the last 10 years, 271 of them for sex abuse.

Alfonso Miranda, secretary of the Bishops’ Conference, said 155 of those cases have gone before prosecutors, up about 50 from the number as of last March.

He noted that those are just preliminary figures and added that 217 priests have been defrocked, though without saying whether all were for sex abuse or other offenses.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Agency

January 14, 2020

By J. D. Flynn

Alongside bishops from North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota, Bishop Michael Hoeppner met with Pope Francis Tuesday, for a two-hour meeting some bishops called “open,” and “hopeful.”

But Hoeppner is unique among his brother bishops: he is the first U.S. bishop to be investigated under the norms of Vos estis lux mundi, the 2018 policy from Pope Francis on investigating bishops accused of mishandling or obstructing allegations of clerical sexual abuse. In fact, alongside Hoeppner at the Jan. 13 papal meeting was Archbishop Bernard Hebda, the archbishop who conducted the investigation.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

January 14, 2020

By Nicole Winfield

Ever since Benedict XVI announced he would become the first pope in 600 years to resign, Catholic theologians, canon lawyers and others warned of the potential confusion in having two popes living side by side in the Vatican, one reigning, the other retired but calling himself “emeritus pope” and still wearing the white cassock of the papacy.

Their worst fears came true this week.

In a saga befitting the Oscar-nominated movie “The Two Popes,” Benedict co-wrote a book reaffirming the “necessity” of a celibate priesthood. There was nothing novel with his position, but the book is coming out at the same time Pope Francis is weighing whether to ordain married men in the Amazon because of a priest shortage there.

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SALT LAKE CITY
Fox 13 TV

January 14, 2020

The Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City is opposing a bill that requires clergy to report disclosures of abuse to law enforcement to investigate.

In an editorial being published Wednesday in the Diocesan newspaper Intermountain Catholic and shared with FOX 13, the faith outlines its objections with House Bill 90.

“The motivation for the bill is understandable, to uncover and stop the abuse of children, but HB 90 will not have this intended effect,” the Diocese wrote in the op-ed.

The Diocese said in the editorial the confession is central to the practice of the Catholic faith going back millennia, giving members the opportunity to reveal their conscience to God.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

January 14, 2020

By Nicole Winfield

The Vatican cardinal who co-authored a bombshell book with Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI reaffirming priestly celibacy on Tuesday strongly denied he manipulated the retired pope into publishing.

Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah, who heads the Vatican’s liturgy office, spoke out after news reports quoting “sources close to Benedict” claimed the retired pope never saw or approved the finished product.

Sarah reproduced letters from Benedict making clear the 92-year-old pope had written the text and approved of publishing it as a book. “These defamations are of exceptional gravity,” Sarah tweeted.

The controversy underscores the conservative-progressive battle lines that have deepened in the Catholic Church following Benedict’s 2013 decision to retire, and his successor Pope Francis’ more reform-minded papacy.

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[Benedict XVI .: I am not co-author of Sarah’s book]

VATICAN CITY
KathPress.at

January 14, 2020

Privatsekretär Gänswein: Emeritierter Papst war nicht über tatsächliche Form und Aufmachung von Buch über Priestertum und Zölibat informiert – Name und Bild Benedikts XVI. soll von Buchcover entfernt werden – Beitrag des emeritierten Papstes im Hauptteil des Buches allerdings “100 Prozent Benedikt”

[Private secretary Gänswein: Pope Emeritus was not informed of the actual form and layout of books on priesthood and celibacy – name and image of Benedict XVI. to be removed from book cover – contribution of the emeritus pope in the main part of the book, however, “100 percent Benedict”]

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UNITED STATES
The Conversation

January 13, 2020

By Christine P. Bartholomew, Associate Professor of Law, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

Pope Francis recently removed one of the barriers facing sex abuse victims looking for justice – the “Rule of Pontifical Secrecy.”

The rule is an obligation under the church’s laws to keep sensitive information regarding the Catholic Church’s governance strictly confidential. This rule allowed church officials to withhold information in sexual abuse cases, even where there was an alleged cover-up or a failure to report allegations. The clergy could claim secrecy even from victims or legal authorities.

Pope Francis stated on Dec. 17, 2019, in a press release “On the Topic of Confidentiality in Legal Proceedings,” that his intention in ending papal secrecy was to increase transparency in child abuse cases.

As a legal scholar, I have extensively analyzed the use of evidence rules that shield confidential communications with clergy. I argue that even with the removal of the papal secrecy rule, transparency might remain illusive for abuse victims.

The Catholic Church has other practices it can rely on to conceal information.

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TAMPA BAY (FLORIDA)
Fox TV 13 News

January 14, 2020

[VIDEO]

The Florida Attorney General’s office is not releasing the number of tips it has received since 2018 when then-state attorney general Pam Bondi launched a statewide investigation into all reports of past abuse in the Catholic Dioceses, including a website where victims can submit tips about abuse – past and present.

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MANILA (PHILIPPINES)
ABS-CBN News

January 14, 2020

By Christian V. Esguerra

A Filipino priest, known for his supposed ability to heal and even raise people from the dead, said bishops should now lift their ban, citing the Vatican’s findings that he was “not guilty” of sexually abusing minors.

Fr. Fernando Suarez, 53, said there was no more reason to prevent him from practicing his healing ministry in at least 4 dioceses that earlier shut their doors on him and members of his Missionaries of Mary Mother of the Poor (MMP).

He said many other bishops had not allowed him in their dioceses since the complaint was lodged more than 5 years ago.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), last December, ruled that Suarez had been “falsely accused” of sexual abuse, according to a decree of notification signed by Bishop Antonio Tobias, who heads the Philippine Catholic Church’s National Tribunal of Appeals.

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FRANCE
BBC News

January 14, 2020

The trial of a former French priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of Boy Scouts in the 1980s and 1990s is set to begin in France on Tuesday.

Bernard Preynat, 74, is alleged to have assaulted more than 80 individuals and faces ten years in prison if convicted.

His trial was scheduled to start on Monday, but was delayed because of a lawyers’ strike over pension reforms.

Ten of his accusers, all aged between seven and 15 at the time of the alleged abuse, are expected to give evidence.

Also linked to the case is Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who was found guilty last March of failing to report the allegations against Preynat.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

January 13, 2020

Roman Catholic scholars rebuked the former Pope Benedict on Monday for his comments in a new book regarding the delicate matter of priestly celibacy, saying his words were helping to destabilize the reigning Pope Francis.

It is not the first time that Benedict has spoken out on Church matters despite a public vow he made in 2013, when he became the first pontiff in 700 years to resign.

The situation also underscores the polarization between conservatives and progressives in the 1.3 billion-member Church.

“One pope is complicated enough. This is a mess,” John Gehring, Catholic Program Director at Faith in Public Life, a U.S. group, said in a tweet.

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UNITED STATES
National Review

January 13, 2020

By Mairead McArdle

The Catholic Church in the U.S. has moved around more than $2 billion in assets in order to prevent the funds from going to alleged abuse victims who sued the Church.

As more victims of sexual abuse by priests sued various dioceses around the country, churches began transferring and reclassifying assets, and filing for bankruptcy, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek review of court filings by lawyers representing churches and victims over the last 15 years.

Filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy has allowed the dioceses to reach universal settle­ments and protected them from further victim claims. Dioceses have chosen the bankruptcy option more than 20 times since 2004.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops stated that the “decision on whether to seek Chapter 11 protection in a given case is the diocese’s alone.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
ABA Journal

January 13, 2020

By Amanda Robert

The Montana Supreme Court has reversed a $35 million judgment against Jehovah’s Witnesses for failing to report that one of its members had been sexually abusing children for years.

In its 7-0 decision, the court held that even though Montana law requires clergy and other officials to report child sexual abuse to authorities, Jehovah’s Witnesses fell under an exemption in this case “because their church doctrine, canon, or practice required that clergy keep reports of child abuse confidential.” NPR and the Associated Press have coverage.

Holly McGowan, one of two plaintiffs in the lawsuit, told elders in the Thompson Falls Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1998 that her stepfather, Maximo Reyes, had inappropriately touched and fondled her, the court’s opinion states.

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JERUSALEM (ISRAEL)
Associated Press

January 13, 2020

By Josef Federman

Israeli officials are seeking to expedite an extradition hearing for a woman facing dozens of sexual-abuse charges in Australia after a psychiatric panel concluded she had lied about suffering from mental illness, the Justice Ministry announced Monday.

The panel’s decision last week that found Malka Leifer fit to stand trial marked a major breakthrough in a years-old case that has strained relations between Israel and Australia and antagonized members of Australia’s Jewish community.

In its announcement, the Justice Ministry said the psychiatric panel had “unanimously and unequivocally” concluded that Leifer had faked mental illness in order to avoid extradition.

“The prosecution believes that the psychiatric panel’s definitive conclusions have removed the obstacles that stood in the way of any significant progress in this case,” the ministry said. “The psychiatric panel’s findings lead to the inevitable conclusion that over the past five years, the court and the mental health system have fallen victim to a fraud perpetrated by Leifer and her supporters.”

Leifer faces 74 counts of sexual assault related to accusations brought forward by three sisters who say they were abused while she was a teacher and principal at the ultra-Orthodox religious school they attended in Melbourne. In 2008, as the allegations surfaced, the Israeli-born Leifer left the school in Australia and returned to Israel.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW

January 13, 2020

By Charlie Specht

Alleged molester now lives in Depew

In the 1980s, the Boy Scouts discovered a dirty little secret about one of their Scoutmasters: he was an accused child molester.

Leaders of Depew Troop #565 appear to have secured Douglas W. Nail’s resignation within days.

But because the matter was handled “internally” and not reported to law enforcement, Nail spent the next 20 years coaching youth hockey, where he is alleged to have struck again — this time molesting an 8-year-old.

Those allegations against the hockey coach are included in a lawsuit filed last week in State Supreme Court alleging Nail molested a child when he was coach of the Depew Saints Hockey Club from 1985 to 1992.

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PHILIPPINES
Manila Bulletin

January 13, 2020

By Leslie Ann Aquino

“Healing priest” Father Fernando Suarez was found not guilty of the sexual abuse of minors.

Bishop Antonio Tobias, judicial vicar of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CPCP) National Tribunal Appeals, informed the priest of this development in a decree of notification dated Jan. 6, 2020.

“By order of the Most Rev. Giacomo Morandi, Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Titular Archbishop of Cerveteri, in his letter of December 13, 2019 — I was instructed to notify the Rev. Fr. Fernando M. Suarez of the Apostolic Vicariate of San Jose de Occidental Mindoro of the decree of ‘not guilty’ of the accusation lodged against him of sexual abuse of minors which this National Tribunal of Appeals submitted to Rome on May 8, 2019,” the notification reads.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

January 12, 2020

By Cindy Wooden

Pope Francis opened 2020 with a strong call to acknowledge the dignity of women, end violence against them and stop the exploitation of women’s bodies.

His homily Jan. 1 was not generic: it referenced prostitution, rape, coerced abortions, pornography and even advertising.

And Francis called for the involvement of women in decision-making processes in civil society, specifically when it comes to promoting peace.

At the Mass on the feast of Mary, Mother of God, he said the Church is “woman and mother,” but he did not use the homily to address the roles of women in formal church structures.

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SARASOTA (FL)
WWSB/ABC7 Staff

January 13, 2020

A 72-year-old bishop in Sarasota is now facing two charges of sexual battery on a child under 12 years of age after police say another victim has come forward.

On Friday, police charged Henry Lee Porter, Sr. with the additional count. The second victim tells police the abuse happened between April and November in 1990 when the victim was attending the school at Westcoast Center for Human Development.

Police began investigating Porter in October 2019 after learning of a video on social media alleging sexual abuse. Detectives reached out to the alleged victim, who told them that Porter sexually abused him beginning in 1989 when he was 11 after his parents went out-of-state for an extended period of time to stay at a hospital.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
Lexology

January 13 2020

Sydney Criminal Lawyers

Disgraced former Catholic Priest James Joseph Cunneen, who was found guilty of indecent assault against six teenage boys in New South Wales in the late 1980s, has died before he could be sentenced.

60-year old Mr Cunneen was due to be sentenced in Downing Centre District Court on 14 February 2020. He was arrested, charged and prosecuted last year after information given to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2014.

After an extensive investigation, police extradited Mr Cunneen back to Australia in 2017 where he was charged.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
KUTV

January 13, 2020

By McKenzie Stauffer

An organization dedicated to defending and protecting the Catholic Church is speaking out against a new bill that is set to be discussed in Utah’s 2020 Legislative session.

President of the Catholic League For Religious and Civil Rights, William Donohue Ph.D., wrote a letter to Rep. Angela Romero, the sponsor of H.B. 90, to express his concern.

The new bill would remove the clergy exemption from reporting child abuse. Meaning if the bill passes, religious leaders would be required, by law, to report confessions of child abuse in Utah.

Donohue claims the bill would violate “the Sacrament of Reconciliation in the Roman Catholic Church.”

“You are treading on dangerous territory,” Donohue wrote.

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VATICAN CITY
CNN

January 13, 2020

By Amy Woodyatt, Vasco Cotovio and Hada Messia

Retired Pope Benedict has issued a passionate defense of priestly celibacy, saying he “cannot remain silent” as his successor Pope Francis considers easing the prohibition on married men serving as priests.

What has Benedict said?

Benedict made the comments in a book that he co-authored with Cardinal Robert Sarah, which will be released in France on Wednesday.

In the book, titled “From the Depths of Our Hearts,” the 92-year-old pontiff argues in favor of the centuries-old tradition of celibacy within the church, defending the ability to “put oneself completely at the disposition of the Lord” as a criterion for those wishing to be ordained as priests.

“We can say: ‘Silere non possum! I cannot remain silent!'” Benedict and Sarah wrote in a joint introduction to the book, according to excerpts released by French daily newspaper Le Figaro on Sunday.

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UNITED STATES
Patheos

January 13, 2020

By Barry Duke

DOMINATING religious and secular media outlets today is the ‘shocking’ news that Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI has co-authored a book in which he insists that priestly celibacy must be retained by the Catholic Church.

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VICTORIA (KS)
KWCH/CNA

January 11, 2020

Former Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has moved from the Kansas friary where he had been living since 2018, according to the Catholic News Agency.

Theodore Edgar McCarrick, retired American prelate of the Catholic Church., Photo Date: January 24, 2008 / Cropped Photo: World Economic Forum / CC BY-SA 2.0 / (MGN)
CNA reports a spokesperson for the Capuchin Franciscan Province of St. Conrad said McCarrick left St. Fidelis Friary in Victoria, Kansas last week.

CNA reports McCarrick, a former cardinal, was the subject of two legal settlements in 2005 and 2007. These settlements concerned men who said McCarrick sexually abused them while they were seminarians for the New Jersey dioceses he headed before moving to the Washington archdiocese in 2001, the agency reports.

According to CNA, senior church officials, McCarrick moved to a residential community of priests who have been removed from ministry. Sources tell the agency that he made the decision to leave the Kansas friary himself over the Christmas period, adding that his continued presence in the friary had become a strain on the Franciscan community that was hosting him.

“McCarrick remains a guest at his new accommodation, but he is funding his own stay and is there by his own choice – no one can make him stay if he does not wish to,” a Church official told CNA.

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ISRAEL
Forward

January 10, 2020

By Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt

An American rabbi who fled to Israel ten years ago after being accused of sexually abusing female relatives was arrested by Israeli police on Sunday, according to Israel’s Justice Ministry.

Jewish Community Watch, a watchdog organization that tries to combat child sexual abuse within the Orthodox Jewish community, identified that man as Rabbi Gershon Kranczer, a former principal of a Brooklyn yeshiva. An American law enforcement official who has direct knowledge of this case also independently confirmed Kranczer’s identity to the Forward.

“We have been shocked at the horrific, drawn-out process that the victims have been forced to endure, all the while facing denial and ambivalence from so many in their community,” Jewish Community Watch said in a statement on Tuesday. “The authorities in both the U.S. and Israel have much to answer for, in allowing this case to drag on for so long.” The group also thanked Israeli police and intelligence for their work on the case.

The arrest came after a five-year search by Israeli authorities trying to comply with an American extradition request, according to a statement from the Justice Ministry.

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FRANCE
La Croix International

January 11, 2020

By Isabelle de Gaulmyn

By sticking to a naturalist version of sex, the Church left many Catholics in the lurch

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UNITED STATES
TRD NATIONAL

January 11, 2020

At least 20 dioceses use bankruptcy and legal entities to limit payouts to victims

Catholic church dioceses across the country are moving around their real estate portfolios and using Chapter 11 bankruptcy to protect assets in sex abuse lawsuits.

Over the last decade and a half, the U.S. Catholic Church has shielded more than $2 billion worth of assets from people who were abused by clergy, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek report. In some cases, that has significantly reduced the amount of money available to compensate those victims.

More than 20 dioceses have chosen to go the bankruptcy route since 2004 rather than face lawsuits.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Times

January 12, 2020

By Julia Jacobs

The Weinstein trial is rare because most sexual misconduct allegations are too old to litigate. But women, and men, are finding an alternative way to get to court.

Ashley Judd was one of the first women to attach her name to accusations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein, but like many of the claims that followed, her account of intimidating sexual advances was too old to bring Mr. Weinstein to court over.

Then a legal window opened to her. After reading about a director’s claim that Mr. Weinstein’s studio, Miramax, had described Ms. Judd as a “nightmare to work with,” she sued the producer for defamation in 2018.

Mr. Weinstein’s rape trial in Manhattan, which began with jury selection last week, is a spectacle not only because he is the avatar of the #MeToo era, but also because it is one of the few sexual assault cases to surface with allegations recent enough to result in criminal charges.

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press (TNS)

January 13, 2020

By Tresa Baldas

When word got out that a football player at De La Salle High School was sexually hazed in the locker room, about a dozen athletes clammed up, including the victim, who police said doesn’t want charges.

The same thing happened after a brawl broke out in December between students from Birmingham Brother Rice and Catholic Central: The case has gone nowhere because one victim doesn’t want charges, police said, and no one else is talking.

Students at U-D Jesuit in Detroit were equally quiet in 2014 after a former teacher was charged with videotaping hockey players changing in a locker room. Students vented privately but refused to speak publicly.

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VATICAN
Vatican News

January 2020

By Andrea Tornielli

A book by the Pope emeritus and the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship addresses a theme on which Pope Francis has expressed himself several times.

A book on the priesthood that bears the signatures of Pope emeritus Joseph Ratzinger and of Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, will be released in France on 15 January. The pre-publication material provided by Le Figaro shows that with their contribution, the authors are entering into the debate on celibacy and the possibility of ordaining married men as priests. Ratzinger and Sarah — who describe themselves as two Bishops “in filial obedience to Pope Francis” who “are seeking the truth” in “a spirit of love for the unity of the Church” — defend the discipline of celibacy and put forth the reasons that they feel counsel against changing it. The question of celibacy occupies 175 pages of the volume, with two texts — one from the Pope emeritus and the other from the Cardinal — together with an introduction and a conclusion signed by both.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

January 12, 2020

By Joshua J. McElwee

Retired Pope Benedict XVI has coauthored a new book defending the Catholic Church’s practice of a celibate priesthood, in a shocking move that comes as Pope Francis is considering the possibility of allowing older, married men to be ordained as priests in the Amazon region.

According to excerpts from the volume released Jan. 12 by the conservative French outlet Le Figaro, the ex-pontiff says he could not remain silent on the issue as Francis is contemplating the move, which was requested by the bishops from the nine-nation Amazon region at October’s Vatican synod gathering.

The book is co-written with Cardinal Robert Sarah, the head of the Vatican’s liturgy office. It is to be released in France Jan. 15 and carries the title Des profondeurs de nos cœurs (“From the Depths of Our Hearts).

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[The Vatican expelled the pedophile priest defended by Bishop Martinez]

ARGENTINA
El Diario Misiones

January 9, 2020

Ocurrió luego que el sacerdote santafesino Néstor Fabián Monzón (51) fuera condenado por “abuso sexual gravemente ultrajante, calificado, en concurso real” a dos niños.

[It happened after the Santa Fe priest Néstor Fabián Monzón (51) was convicted of “severely outrageous, qualified sexual abuse in royal contest” to two children.]

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FALL RIVER (MA)
WPRI-TV

January 10, 2020

By Eli Sherman

Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River wrote a letter to parishioners last January announcing the church had hired a former FBI agent to review allegations of sexual abuse against minors dating back to the 1950s.

The plan, he wrote, was to complete the review by spring of last year, and produce a list of credibly accused clergy members, following what a growing number of dioceses – including Providence – have already done across the country.

“I wish that this information could be made available sooner; yet it takes time and diligence to compile a list that is accurate and complete,” da Cunha wrote at the time.

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VATICAN CITY
National Public Radio

January 13, 2020

By Scott Neuman

Retired Pope Benedict XVI, who promised to remain silent when he resigned as head of the Roman Catholic Church seven years ago, has stepped back into the ongoing debate over priestly celibacy with a new book defending the traditionalist view.

The surprise move is seen as a rebuke to Pope Francis, who is weighing the possibility of a revolutionary move to relax the strict celibacy requirement for ordination in some South American countries where the shortage of priests is particularly acute.

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LYON (FRANCE)
Associated Press

January 13, 2020

By Nicolas Vaux-Montagny

A former French priest accused of sexually abusing around 75 Boy Scouts went on trial Monday, but the proceedings were delayed for a day because of a strike by lawyers.

The case is France’s worst clergy abuse drama to reach court so far, and its repercussions reached all the way to the Vatican.

Bernard Preynat admitted in the 1990s to abusing boys, but was only removed from the priesthood last year. The church defrocked him in July, after French Cardinal Philippe Barbarin was convicted of covering up for Preynat’s actions.

Several other church officials were also accused of failing to alert police or prosecutors of his actions, including a senior Vatican official, Cardinal Luis Ladaria. The Vatican shielded Ladaria from trial, invoking his immunity as an official of a sovereign state.

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PHILIPPINES
Tempo

January 12, 2020

Controversial “healing priest” Father Fernando Suarez can exercise his ministry again after the Vatican found him “not guilty” of sexual abuse accusations, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said yesterday.

Bishop Antonio Tobias, judicial vicar of the CBCP National Tribunal Appeals, informed the priest of the “not guilty” verdict of his case in a decree of notification dated January 6, 2020.

“By order of the Most Rev. Giacomo Morandi, Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Titular Archbishop of Cerveteri, in his letter of December 13, 2019—I was instructed to notify the Rev. Fr. Fernando M. Suarez of the Apostolic Vicariate of San Jose de Occidental Mindoro of the decree of ‘not guilty’ of the accusation lodged against him of sexual abuse of minors which this National Tribunal of Appeals submitted to Rome on May 8, 2019,” read the notification.

“This means that he has been falsely accused of these crimes and, therefore, nothing now stands in the way for him to exercise his healing ministry, provided it is done properly in coordination with the ecclesiastical authority of every ecclesiastical jurisdiction,” it further read.

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