ABUSE TRACKER

[Definitive dismissal of Ricardo Ezzati will be discussed on January 30]

CHILE
Soy Chile

December 15, 2018

La defensa había solicitado el procedimiento el pasado 30 de octubre, pero aún no se había fijado la fecha de la audiencia. El arzobispo de Santiago es investigado por eventuales delitos de encubrimiento en casos de abuso sexual al interior de la Iglesia.

El próximo 30 de enero se discutirá si el arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, será sobreseído o no de manera definitiva en la causa donde es investigado por eventuales encubrimientos de delitos de abuso sexual, cometidos por miembros de la iglesia catolica.

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[John O’Reilly: after 34 years, the Legionaries of Christ priest leaves Chile]

CHILE
La Tercera

December 15, 2018

By M.J. Navarrete and S. Rodríguez

Tras cumplir su condena por abuso y ante el inminente decreto de expulsión que emitiría el Ministerio del Interior, el sacerdote dejó hoy el país y viajó a Italia. Llega a una residencia de su congregación en Vía Aurelia, Roma. Como tiene antecedentes penales, su defensa trabajará para que en el futuro pueda regresar.

A las 12.40 horas de este sábado, en el vuelo de ALItalia 689 que despegó rumbo a Roma, Italia, el sacerdote John O’Reilly abandonó Chile desde el Aeropuerto de Santiago, 34 años después de que llegó. Lo acompañaba el superior de los Legionarios de Cristo para Chile y Argentina, el presbítero Gabriel Bárcena.

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[“Predator” priest expelled from Miami worked with teens in Spain for years]

MADRID (SPAIN)
El País

December 14, 2018

By Íñigo Domínguez

El cura expulsado de Miami tras una denuncia vivió años con adolescentes e invitaba a los estudiantes a su casa

El obispado de Salamanca no solo movió de pueblo en pueblo durante dos décadas a Francisco Carreras, el sacerdote español expulsado de la archidiócesis de Miami en 1981 tras una denuncia de abusos y enviado de vuelta a su provincia, sino que también lo asignó como profesor a dos colegios públicos de la ciudad. Carreras, de cuyos antecedentes fue informado el obispado desde EE UU y que en una de las denuncias posteriores fue definido como “depredador sexual”, ha sido acusado por tres víctimas localizadas por EL PAÍS en Sequeros y Calzada de Valdunciel. Ahora sale a la luz, según confirman cinco antiguos alumnos y un exprofesor, que también fue docente de religión en el colegio Campo Charro, entre los ochenta y los noventa, y el Rufino Blanco, en la década de los noventa y hasta 2000. Hasta ahora solo constaba su paso por el centro privado Lorenzo Milani.

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[Lay people of Osorno ask for visibility into commission investigating abuses in Catholic Church]

CHILE
BioBioChile

December 14, 2018

By Nicole Briones and Eduardo Palacios

La Agrupación de Laicos de Osorno llamó a visibilizar el trabajo de la comisión que recepciona denuncias de posibles abusos dentro de la Iglesia Católica. El vocero de la agrupación, Mario Vargas, sostuvo que la instancia se transforma en el único instrumento válido para reconciliar a los fieles católicos, entendiendo que existen casos que fueron reportados y puestos en conocimiento de las autoridades eclesiásticas.

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[O’Reilly’s lawyer plans legal action so the priest can return to Chile]

CHILE
La Tercera

December 14, 2018

By Sebastián Rivas

Cristián Muga señaló que “no existió decreto de expulsión” y que la idea es que en un futuro quede habilitado para regresar al país.

“Se nos encomendó acciones legales que le permitan en el futuro volver al país. No existió decreto de expulsión”. Con esas palabras, el abogado del sacerdote John O’Reilly, Cristián Muga, explicó a radio Universo la lógica que seguirán sus acciones luego de que el religioso abandonara Chile este viernes rumbo a Roma, tras cumplir una condena por abusos sexuales contra una menor de edad.

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[Priest O’Reilly leaves Chile for Rome, asking friends: “I beg you not to abandon me”]

CHILE
La Tercera

December 14, 2018

By Sergio Rodríguez

El sacerdote de los Legionarios de Cristo envió un texto a sus amigos en el que también señala que, “con el corazón detrozado, muy confundido y con una salud debilitada, me despido con inmensa gratitud”. El religioso debió salir del país tras una resolución dando cuenta del cumplimiento de una condena por abuso.

“Amigos: con el corazón destrozado y muy confundido y una salud debilitada me despido con inmensa gratitud, aprecio y admiración. La Fe y la Esperanza en el Señor quedan intactas, a pesar del inmenso dolor que oprime la mente y corazón, casi hasta la muerte”.

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CHILE/ROME
Reuters

December 14, 2018

By Antonio De la Jara

An Irish-born priest, who was convicted of sexually abusing a girl in his care at a religious school in Santiago but served no jail time for the offense, left Chile on Friday for Rome after serving a four-year sentence.

Critics have long pointed to the case of the Rev. John O’Reilly as an example of leniency in a country where the Roman Catholic church has long held powerful sway in politics and society.

A judge in 2014 sentenced O’Reilly, a leader of the Legionaries of Christ religious order, to four years of “supervised liberty” for abusing a preteen girl at the private Colegio Cumbres in the affluent neighborhood of Las Condes between 2007 and 2009.

O’Reilly completed his sentence on Dec. 10, according to a statement issued by the Legionaries of Christ on Friday, and Chilean courts subsequently expelled him from the country.

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CAROL STREAM (IL)
Christianity Today

December 13, 2018

By Morgan Lee

(UPDATED) Beth Moore and other leading Christian survivors don’t just want to take the church to task. They also believe it plays a key role in helping victims heal.

[Editor’s note: This post has been updated with comments from afternoon speakers, including Max Lucado, Nancy Beach, and Ed Stetzer.]

“I am a survivor. My home was my unsafe place. My church was my harbor.”

Growing up as a victim of abuse, Bible teacher Beth Moore was grateful that she could escape to her church. But in retrospect, she wished it could have done more.

“I have often wondered what a difference it would have made if that same harbor had not only been a place to hide, but a place to heal,” Moore said during a summit held Thursday at Wheaton College to address the evangelical church’s response to abuse in the wake of the #MeToo and #ChurchToo movements.

The Southern Baptist ministry leader has repeatedly spoken out on the issue over the past year, joining a wave of evangelicals calling on churches to more explicitly condemn, prevent, and help the victims of sexism, harassment, and abuse.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Daily Herald

December 14, 2018

By Katlyn Smith

It’s been a year of pain, fear and strained relationships for Nancy Beach.

The first female teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, Beach was one of the women whose allegations of sexual misconduct against founder Bill Hybels led to his early retirement, the resignations of the entire elder board and the ongoing turmoil at the South Barrington-based megachurch.

“I had no idea, no way to foresee what would happen when I joined my voice with the voices of eventually nine other women in calling out the abuse of power and sexual sin in the life of our pastor,” she said.

Beach joined her voice Thursday with some of the most high-profile figures in evangelicalism at a summit convened by Wheaton College. The Billy Graham Center held the one-day gathering to address sexual abuse and harassment within the church.

“We are here to gather our courage. We are here to face that some of our systems have created susceptibility and unanswered culpability,” said Beth Moore, a prominent Bible teacher and author. “We are here to face that, without clarity of teaching and due diligence in training, we have on our hands environments where victimization thrives.”

Even before the opening of the GC2 Summit on Responding to Sexual Harassment, Abuse, and Violence, the event faced criticism from activists behind the #ChurchToo movement, an offshoot of the #MeToo movement that toppled figures in Hollywood and politics.

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AUSTRALIA
National Public Radio

December 13, 2018

By Bill Chappell

Australian news outlets are grappling with how to handle one of the country’s biggest news stories of the year — even though a judge has barred them from reporting the details. The story revolves around Cardinal George Pell, a Vatican insider who was reportedly convicted of sexually abusing minors this week, and public interest in the case has been intense.

A jury in the County Court of Victoria in Melbourne where Pell, 77, was once archbishop, is said to have found the cardinal guilty of “five charges of ‘historical child sexual offenses’ that go back decades,” according to the Jesuit magazine America. Both that outlet and the Catholic News Agency say they have confirmed the initial report of Pell’s conviction that was published by the Daily Beast. All of the outlets are citing sources who either have knowledge of the case or are “close to the cardinal.”

Australian journalists have been forced to either ignore reports of a verdict or refer to it in only the broadest terms. News Corp Australia, which owns a number of print and online outlets in the country, has said it will challenge the court’s suppression order.

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BILOXI (MS)
Sun Herald

December 13, 2018

By Anita Lee

The first principal at Mercy Cross High School in Biloxi, a Jesuit priest named Francis Landwermeyer, in later years railed against the coverup of pedophilia in the Catholic church but did not live to see himself publicly identified as a priest who abused minors.

Landwermeyer’s name was on a list of 42 Jesuit priests, scholastics and brothers whom the religious order identified as having been credibly accused of abusing minors or vulnerable adults.

His name appeared with those facing more than one credible allegation of abuse.

Landwermeyer is accused of abusing minors in the 60s and 70s. No allegations surfaced during the short year he spent at Mercy Cross, the inaugural 1981-82 year of the former co-ed school lost to Hurricane Katrina on Biloxi’s Back Bay.

The Jesuits’ Central and Southern Province, which released the list, said it is trying to protect victims’ identities by keeping private the specific dates and locations of the abuse to protect victims.

Landwermeyer came to Biloxi from Loyola University in New Orleans, where he was a visiting professor. But he didn’t stay long. Accounts from the Sun Herald say the board had some reservations about Landwermeyer’s performance at the end of his first year, but rather than work to improve, he chose to resign.

“There is no confidence in my ability or trust in my integrity among the persons most significant for my effectiveness,” Landwermeyer wrote in his resignation letter in May 1982.

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VERMONT
VT Digger

December 11, 2018

By Kevin O’Connor

A lawyer who has secured more than $30 million in priest misconduct settlements from Vermont’s Catholic Church has found a decades-old case he believes can be tried under the state’s narrow statute of limitations.

Jerome O’Neill has filed civil papers in U.S. District Court in Burlington on behalf of a former Vermont man now living in Texas who alleges he was sexually abused as a child by Alfred Willis, a former priest for the statewide Roman Catholic Diocese from 1975 until his dismissal in 1985.

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TAMPA (FL)
WFLA

December 10, 2018

By Mark Douglas

Massage Envy is the target of yet another lawsuit involving allegations of sexual assault by a massage therapist.

This lawsuit involves a Winter Garden franchise where a previous therapist recently pleaded guilty in another assault case. That therapist, Cesar Guerrero, received 15 years of probation.

“Lightning doesn’t strike twice in one place often. What are the odds of that happening,” said Tampa attorney Joseph Alvarez, who filed the Massage Envy lawsuit in Hillsborough Circuit court on behalf of his unnamed client.

Alvarez sued Massage Envy a few year ago due to another massage therapist who was simply fired from a franchise in Clearwater when allegations arose and went on to assault other women while working for unrelated massage businesses.

“They’re synonymous with the Catholic Church,” Alvarez said. “It’s a head in the sand approach. ‘We don’t know what’s going on, we can’t control this,’ but the reality is they control everything that happens in and around that business.”

Earlier this year, Sarasota police arrested a Massage Envy massage therapist following several allegations of sexual misconduct.

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ALBANY (NY)
Catholic News Service

December 13, 2018

By Father Kenneth Doyle

Q. The news reports of settlements made in the millions of dollars to victims of clergy sex abuse trouble me. Were there secret assets from wills and estates on reserve for that purpose? Where did all that money come from? (Metuchen, New Jersey)
A. National Public Radio reported in August 2018 that dioceses and religious orders in the United States had thus far paid settlements totaling more than $3 billion to victims of clergy sexual abuse. The settlements have come, not from any “secret assets,” but from a combination of cash, proceeds from the sale of land and buildings, and from insurance payments.
What must be said first, though, is that no financial amount is sufficient to compensate victims for their suffering. As Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis said in May 2018 when announcing a settlement of $210 million in restitution to several hundred survivors, “I recognize that the abuse stole so much from you — your childhood, your innocence, your safety, your ability to trust and, in many cases, your faith. … The church let you down, and I’m very sorry.”
That settlement fund came from approximately $170 million from insurance carriers as well as the sale of diocesan assets, including its three chancery buildings on Cathedral Hill in St. Paul. The plan stipulates that a minimum of $50,000 be awarded to each claimant. In 2010, when the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont, settled 26 lawsuits for nearly $18 million, it put its diocesan administration building and a former Catholic summer camp on the real estate market to help cover the cost.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
ChurchMilitant.com

December 13, 2018

By Anita Carey

Three new victims are suing over abuse they suffered as young boys at the hands of a suspected serial pedophile.

A lawsuit filed on Tuesday is the fourth one alleging homosexual abuse by the former archdiocese of New Orleans deacon, George F. Brignac. All four cases stemmed from Brignac’s tenure at Holy Rosary School in New Orleans, Lousiana. The first suit was settled by the archdiocese for $500,000 in May.

The three new allegations date from the 1980s, and Brignac’s attorney, Martin Regan, told The New Orleans Advocate that his client “has denied the allegations and he’s not been charged or convicted of any criminal offense.”

While two of the victims have not come forward publicly, Morris Daniels told his story to The New Orleans Advocate to showcase the Church’s failure to stop the abuse. Daniels said, “They could’ve done something about it but they didn’t.”

“They didn’t take care of us as kids. They just let it happen,” he added.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WVUE

December 12, 2018

In a new lawsuit, a man claims a Salesian priest in Marrero raped him. The suit was filed Wednesday at Orleans Parish Civil Court against the Salesians of Don Bosco, the Archdiocese of New Orleans and Archbishop Gregory Aymond.

The alleged victim in the new lawsuit says he was 17 at the time of the crime. The suit doesn’t identify the man but names him as “CJ Doe.” He says he met the priest, Salvatore Isgro or “Father Sam,” in 1979 while working at a local hospital to save money for a class ring. That summer, he says Father Sam asked him to care for a Salesian Brother, a double amputee who lived at the Salesians’ residence at Archbishop Shaw High School in Marrero.

At the end of each day, the man says he would pick up a check signed by Father Sam. The lawsuit claims that in November of that year, as the alleged victim went to pick up his check, Father Sam came from behind and put a vial filled with what smelled like ammonia under his nose. The suit claims CJ Doe became dizzy and disoriented, and that’s when the priest pulled down the alleged victim’s pants and raped him.

According to the suit, that was the last time CJ Doe visited at the Salesians’ residence.

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TACOMA (WA)
The News Tribune

December 13, 2018

Editorial Board

Bellarmine Preparatory School, a Tacoma institution since 1928, turned a harsh but necessary spotlight on itself last Friday when it shared information on 23 disgraced Catholic priests and non-ordained brothers previously assigned to the Bellarmine community. All were “credibly accused” of sexual abuse at some point in their Jesuit careers.

Publicly identifying these alleged offenders was the right thing to do. In fact, it was long overdue. Silence and secrecy should no longer be an option. As Bellarmine President Robert Modarelli said in a statement, for too long this scandal has been allowed to “fester unchecked.”

The private school just off South Union Avenue took a lesson from its own Jesuit catechism: Covering up sin only invites more of it.

To date, there is no information tying these men to crimes in the Bellarmine community, and Modarelli says no victims had come forward as of Thursday. It’s unclear how many of the men worked on campus versus serving in other local Jesuit ministries, but all lived within proximity of thousands of area children.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
FOX 13

December 13, 2018

By Ben Winslow

The president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is being sought for a deposition in a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse involving his daughter and son-in-law.

In a motion filed in federal court, an attorney representing six unnamed plaintiffs is demanding an early deposition of LDS Church President Russell M. Nelson.

“Russell N. Nelson is simply a witness,” Craig Vernon, the attorney for the plaintiffs, told FOX 13 on Thursday.

The lawsuit accuses President Nelson’s daughter and son-in-law, Brenda and Richard Miles, of participating in the abuse of children in a Bountiful ward in the 1980s. The allegations claim a number of people were involved in the abuse and suggests it was covered up.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
Cincinnati Enquirer

December 12, 2018

By Dan Horn

St. Xavier High School, Xavier University and other Jesuit institutions in the Midwest will find out next week if they’ve employed Catholic priests accused of sexually abusing children.

The Midwest Province of Jesuits said Wednesday it would release a list naming every priest in the order who has faced a credible accusation of abuse since 1955.

The decision to make the list public comes as the church is under increasing scrutiny from lay Catholics, abuse survivors and criminal prosecutors to resolve a problem that has plagued it for years.

“It’s a step in the spirit of transparency and reconciliation,” said Mike McGrath, a spokesman for the Midwest Jesuits. “There’s been a lot of discussion and debate in the church about this question.”

Jesuit churches and schools were notified this week that the list was coming out on Monday, Dec. 17. The list will be posted on the religious order’s website at jesuitsmidwest.org, and will include the names of the accused priests, the locations and the dates of the alleged abuse.

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DRAPER (UT)
Deseret News

December 12, 2018

By Pat Reavy

A Draper man described in court documents as a “leader” in a local church was charged Wednesday with sexually abusing a boy in his congregation and being lewd around other boys.

Jeffrey Byron Head, 54, a former bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is charged in 3rd District Court with two counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony; and two counts of lewdness, a class B misdemeanor.

In May of 2016, Head went to a boy’s house unannounced, asking him about a recent surgery to his genitals, according to charging documents. After asking “to see the surgery,” the boy pull his pants down and Head inappropriately touched him, the charges state.

A church spokesman said Head was removed from his position after the allegations surfaced.

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MANASSAS (VA)
FOX 5 DC

December 13, 2018

By Lindsay Watts

A former youth pastor accused of sexually abusing a teenager from his Northern Virginia megachurch appeared in court Thursday.

A judge ruled that two additional women can testify in Jordan Baird’s trial – a young woman who Baird was convicted of sexually abusing when she was 16 years old and a third woman who prosecutors say had a sexual relationship with Baird that began when she was underage.

Two additional women who say Baird pursued a sexual relationship with them through the church were not allowed to testify. Those women were not minors at the time.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Washington Post

December 13, 2018

By Keith L. Alexander

A D.C. judge on Thursday ordered a Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting three parishioners to remain in jail until trial and said it was troubling that church leaders did not take action when complaints against the defendant were raised several years ago, possibly allowing additional incidents of alleged abuse.

Prosecutors said leaders at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Northwest Washington were initially notified in mid-June 2015 of allegations that Urbano Vazquez, an assistant pastor, may have sexually assaulted a teenage girl who was a member of the parish. Alleged assaults involving two other victims occurred between June 2016 and December 2017.

In a hearing before D.C. Superior Court Judge Juliet J. McKenna, Vazquez’s attorney argued that his client should be allowed to return to the secluded parish outside of Pittsburgh where he had been staying, saying he would be watched by priests there as he awaited trial. But McKenna rejected the proposal as she questioned the church’s supervision.

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ENGLAND
The Telegraph

December 13, 2018

By Jack Hardy

The country’s most senior Catholic cleric apologised for withholding evidence of abuse allegations made against JRR Tolkien’s son during his priesthood.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols told an inquiry on Thursday he was focused on settling legal action against the church quickly when, in 2002, he chose not to disclose a key document to a complainant.

The note showed that accusations against Father John Tolkien had been made to the church in 1968 – the only evidence of a contemporaneous complaint made about his behaviour.

But despite lawyers telling Cardinal Nichols – then Archbishop of Birmingham – that the findings supported already credible claims by Birmingham man Christopher Carrie, a briefing paper recorded him saying: “The Archdiocese would prefer not to disclose this document even if it means settling the action.”

On Thursday, the clergyman expressed remorse about his actions as he appeared before the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which is investigating child protection failings within the Catholic church.

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MANASSAS (VA)
FOX 5 DC

December 12 2018

By Lindsay Watts

For the first time, a Virginia mother is speaking about the sexual abuse her daughter endured at the hands of her church youth pastor.

Earlier this year, Jordan Baird, 27, was convicted on five felony counts of indecent liberties with a minor. He later pleaded no contest to electronic solicitation of a minor. He was sentenced to eight months behind bars and forced to register as a sex offender.

Gloria Harding says her family had attended The Life Church in Manassas for a decade and considered Baird a close family friend. Baird’s parents are the head pastors at the church and employ many members of their family, including Baird’s brothers and his wife.

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VATICAN CITY
La Croix International

December 14, 2018

Jesuit priest says it is naive to think it is just a Western problem as Pope Francis’ convocation of bishops looms

The Jesuit priest who directed the Holy See Press Office for a decade published an article on Dec. 15 anticipating Pope Francis’ convention of bishops at the Vatican in February on the subject of tackling clerical sex abuse of minors

Father Federico Lombardi, who stepped down from press office post in 2016, titled the story, “In the run-up to the meeting of bishops on the protection of minors.” It ran in La Civilta Cattolica, a biweekly Jesuit magazine.

“The entire Church must feel in solidarity, above all with the victims, with their families, and with their church communities that have been wounded by the [recent clerical sex abuse] scandals,” he wrote in the article, excerpts from which were relayed by Catholic News Service.

Father Lombardi, one of the journal’s contributing writers, also serves as president of the board of directors of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Foundation.

He wrote that attendees at the Feb. 21-24 summit need to share their experiences and best practices to tackle this scourge but also acknowledge that many countries have yet to make significant inroads in preventing the abuse of minors by clergy.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Times

December 13, 2018

By Rachel Abrams and John Koblin

In March 2017, Eliza Dushku, an actress known for her work on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” signed on to play a major role in three episodes of the CBS prime-time drama “Bull,” and there were plans to make her a full-time cast member.

Her time on the set began promisingly. The show’s star, Michael Weatherly — a mainstay of CBS’s prime-time lineup for 15 years — seemed friendly. And a producer and writer on “Bull,” Glenn Gordon Caron, told Ms. Dushku she would be more than a love interest.

Then came a series of comments that made Ms. Dushku uncomfortable. In front of the cast and crew, Mr. Weatherly remarked on her appearance, and made a rape joke and a comment about a threesome. Shortly after Ms. Dushku confronted the star about his behavior, she was written off the show. She believed her time on “Bull” came to a sudden end as a result of retaliation.

After she went through mediation with CBS, the company agreed to a confidential settlement that would pay her $9.5 million, roughly the equivalent of what Ms. Dushku would have earned if she had stayed on as a cast member for four seasons.

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YORK (PA)
York Daily Record

December 13, 2018

By Candy Woodall

Attempts to solve many problems found in the Catholic church today can be traced back to a meeting among U.S. bishops in June 2002.

It was five months after the Boston Globe had exposed widespread child sexual abuse by priests and a pattern of cover-ups by the church and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops gathered in Dallas to vote on a new set of policies.

Those policies gave bishops the power to ban from ministry any priest who abused a child. They also made it a requirement for bishops to report all allegations of sexual abuse of minors to law enforcement and check the backgrounds of all staff in contact with kids.

Additionally, the priests removed from ministry would not be allowed to celebrate Mass publicly, wear clerical uniforms or be known as a priest.

Gone were the confidentiality agreements that had silenced victims and protected abusers.

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FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram

December 9, 2018

The Star-Telegram began its investigation into abuse at independent fundamental Baptist churches after two men were arrested in February and March on sexual abuse charges at a Mesquite, Texas, church.

Then the church’s pastor, Bob Ross, was arrested in April on a charge of failure to report child abuse. People who had known Ross from his days as youth director at Windsor Hills Baptist Church in Oklahoma said he’d ignored their own abuse allegations and worked for a pastor who wielded absolute control over his congregation by telling members that they would die if they left the church or disobeyed him.

As more and more ex-members of the independent fundamental Baptist movement came forward to the Star-Telegram, a pattern emerged: Despite their use of the word independent, many of the churches were connected with other independent fundamental Baptist churches through colleges and pastoral friendships. And those connections, as well as the church culture, allowed abuse to flourish and abusers to move around the country without consequence.

Ex-members connected reporter Sarah Smith to other members on Facebook and through text messages. The Star-Telegram started a Facebook group of ex-members for informal Q&As and for the ex-members to bring up questions and concerns of their own. The newspaper invited former members to submit videos detailing their experiences in their own words.

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FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram

December 9, 2018

They were terrorized, trapped and even sexually abused. Now, these former members of independent fundamental Baptist churches share how their experiences will affect the rest of their lives.

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FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram

December 9, 2018

By Sarah Smith

Former members of independent fundamental Baptist churches describe a culture and teachings that affect the rest of their lives. The following quotes are taken from interviews.

GETTING IN

Independent fundamental Baptist church members are either born into the movement and grow up knowing nothing else or are brought into the churches through evangelism. The tight-knit community of motivated people is appealing, especially to vulnerable people.

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FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram

December 9, 2018

By Sarah Smith

Pastor Bruce Goddard acted immediately when he learned the principal at Faith Baptist Church’s school in Wildomar, California, had been intimately involved with a 17-year-old student.

He rented the 35-year-old principal a U-Haul and shipped him out of state. He did not call the police.

The accused wound up at First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, a church affiliated with Goddard’s alma mater, working again with teenagers. The abused girl was later told that church officials in Indiana were aware of his involvement with her when he arrived.

An eight-month investigation by the Star-Telegram shows that what happened at Faith Baptist is just one example in a nationwide pattern of cover-ups and shuffling of suspected abusers among churches and universities that, like Faith Baptist, are part of the independent fundamental Baptist movement.

The cover-ups are reminiscent of the scandals of the Roman Catholic Church, but distinctly different.

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AUSTRALIA
Inquisitr

December 12, 2018

By Manuella Libardi

Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s third most powerful official, was found guilty on Tuesday of sexually abusing two choir boys in the late 1990s, a decision that makes him the highest-ranking Catholic Church official to face criminal convictions.

According to The Daily Beast, a jury in Australia returned a unanimous guilty verdict after deliberating for more than three days on the case. The judge ordered the criminal trial to be conducted under a gag order that prevented any details of the trial being made public, the report continues.

The judge placed a suppression order on all press coverage in Australia right before trial proceedings were set to begin in June, according to the judge’s orders reviewed by The Daily Beast. The order was requested by prosecutors and granted to “prevent a real and substantial risk of prejudice to the proper administration of justice,” the order reads, according to the report.

Pell, 77, who is the Vatican’s finance chief and the highest Vatican official to ever go stand trial on sex abuse charges, left Rome in June 2017 to stand trial in Melbourne, the report continues.

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AUSTRALIA
Radar

December 11, 2018

Cardinal George Pell convicted in Australia of child assault.

The Vatican’s third highest ranking official was found guilty of sexually abusing two choir boys in the late 90s.

Cardinal George Pell was convicted by a jury in Australia after a jury deliberated for three days, The Daily Beast reported.

The judge placed a gag order on the Catholic Church official’s trial to prevent details being released during the proceedings. The guilty verdict decision was reportedly unanimous.

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AUSTRALIA
Concise News

December 12, 2018

By Olugbenga Ige

Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s third highest ranking official, was found guilty of sexually abusing two choir boys in the late 90s.

Cardinal Pell was convicted by a jury in Australia after a jury deliberated for three days, the Daily Beast reports.

The judge placed a gag order on the Catholic Church official’s trial to prevent details being released during the proceedings. The guilty verdict decision was reportedly unanimous.

Cardinal Pell was the finance chief at the Vatican and reportedly left Rome in June 2017 to stand trail in Melbourne, where he was accused of sexually abusing the choir boys when he was the archbishop.

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AUSTRALIA
the free thinker

December 12, 2018

By Barry Duke

At the end of a trial believed to have cost him millions, the Vatican’s third most powerful official – George Pell – was convicted yesterday (Tuesday) in Australia of all charges relating to the abuse of two choir boys in the late 1990s.

A unanimous jury returned its verdict after more than three days of deliberations

His trial was trial conducted under a gag order by the judge that prevented any details of the case being made public.

Pell, the Vatican’s finance chief and the highest Vatican official to ever go on trial for sex abuse, left Rome in June 2017 to stand trial in Melbourne.

As that trial was about to get underway in June, a judge placed a suppression order on all press coverage in Australia. Prosecutors applied for the order and it was granted to:

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AUSTRALIA
The Daily Beast

December 11, 2018

By Lachlan Cartwright

The highest-ranking Catholic Church official to face such criminal charges.

The Vatican’s third most powerful official has been convicted in Australia on all charges he sexually abused two choir boys there in the late ’90s, according to two sources with knowledge of the case.

A unanimous jury returned its verdict for Cardinal George Pell on Tuesday (Australian time) after more than three days of deliberations, the sources said, in a trial conducted under a gag order by the judge that prevented any details of the trial being made public.

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YORK (PA)
York Daily Record

December 12, 2018

By Candy Woodall

If they can prove torture, there are no statute of limitations laws to keep child abusers safe.

The days of the Roman Catholic Church policing itself are coming to an end.

Federal prosecutors are digging in to the largest investigation of priest abuse ever conducted in the United States, and the effort starts in Pennsylvania.

The investigation began in Pennsylvania, not Justice Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., court filings show.

U.S. Attorney William McSwain in October launched a case from the Eastern District federal court in Philadelphia. First, he subpoenaed all eight Pennsylvania dioceses. Then, he put every bishop in the U.S. on notice not to destroy any records or evidence.

The federal investigation stems from a Pennsylvania grand jury report released in August that reveals a cover-up of systemic child sex abuse that dates back to 1947. Since that time, 301 priests were found to have abused more than 1,000 victims.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Newcastle

December 13, 2018

By Giselle Wakatama

A survivor of sexual abuse says he was shocked and appalled to learn a paedophile teacher who abused him was still alive decades after Catholic education officials assured him he was dead.

In October, Edward Smith Hall, 68, known as Ted Hall was found guilty of 21 sexual and indecent assault offences in relation to nine boys between 1973 and 1986.

Today several victim impact statements were read in Newcastle District Court, while others were read in a closed court, where media was not allowed.

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AUSTRALIA
The Washington Post

December 12, 2018

By Margaret Sullivan

The front page of Thursday’s Herald Sun newspaper in Melbourne, capital of the Australian state of Victoria, is dominated by a single word in huge white type, all caps, on a black background: CENSORED.

“The world is reading a very important story that is relevant to Victorians,” reads the subhead. “The Herald Sun is prevented from publishing details of this significant news. But trust us. It’s a story you deserve to read.”

The story is, indeed, a blockbuster, especially for Australian citizens: Cardinal George Pell, sometimes described as the third-most-powerful Vatican official, was convicted of all charges that he sexually molested two choirboys in Australia in the late 1990s. (Pell, 77, has been the Vatican’s chief financial officer in recent years; he earlier was the archbishop of Sydney and of Melbourne.)

But because of a court-issued gag order intended to preserve impartiality, the news media has been forbidden from publishing news in Australia on the details of the Melbourne trial, and now on the unanimous decision of the jury.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

December 12, 2018

George Pell is one of three “more elderly cardinals” who have been removed by Pope Francis from his advisory body following a Vatican meeting this week.

A Vatican News report on a meeting of the Pope’s Council of Cardinal Advisers this week said 77-year-old Cardinal Pell would no longer sit on the council.

“In October, the Pope had written to three of the more elderly cardinals: Cardinal Pell from Australia, Cardinal Errazuriz from Chile and Cardinal Monsengwo of Congo thanking them for their work,” Holy See press office director Greg Burke said.

“After a five-year term, these three have passed out for the moment.”

Mr Burke said the Pope had not named new cardinals to replace them on the advisory council, which was established in 2013 to help lead reform in the Vatican’s bureaucracy.

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UNITED STATES
USA TODAY

December 10, 2018

Nearly 17 years ago, I woke up from a nightmare I didn’t realize I was in. If you’re a parent whose child has suffered sexual abuse at the hands of someone you know and trust, you will understand what I mean. Sitting in a family counselor’s office, the world as I knew it came crashing down as I learned that my eldest daughter, Lauren, had been sexually, emotionally and physically abused nearly every day from the ages of 12 to 16.

I worked hard to provide my family with a wonderful life and to create a loving and safe environment for my children to grow. I made sure to get references and background checks on everyone interacting with my daughters or son. But I was unable to protect Lauren from the monster living in my own home.

It never occurred to me that sexual abuse could happen to my family, let alone to my children. That is the message I want to send to every other parent out there: Don’t think this can’t happen to you or your children. Child sexual abuse happens in every ZIP code, in every religion and at every socioeconomic level.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

December 12, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis has removed two cardinals from his informal cabinet after they were implicated in the Catholic Church’s sex abuse and cover-up scandal, shedding embarrassing advisers ahead of a high-stakes Vatican summit on abuse early next year.

The Vatican said Wednesday that Francis in October had written to Chilean Cardinal Javier Errazuriz and Australian Cardinal George Pell thanking them for their five years of service on the so-called Group of Nine, or C-9.

Francis also bid farewell to Congolese Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, who hasn’t been implicated in the scandal but at age 79 recently retired as archbishop of Kinshasa.

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YORK (PA)
York Daily Record

December 7, 2018

By Candy Woodall

The cascade of reports that we know about might be just the tip of the iceberg.

Until Friday morning, Terry McKiernan had 178 Jesuit priests on a list of abusive clergy members in the U.S.

His list grew after Catholic Jesuit provinces released the names of 153 priests and brothers credibly accused of sexually abusing children.

The Jesuits’ U.S. Central and Southern, and West provinces posted the names on their websites Friday, and the Chicago-based Midwest province plans to post its names Dec. 17.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
WCPO

December 13, 2018

Organization releasing report on Jesuit priests

Some school officials will soon learn if they’ve employed priests or others who have faced “established accusations” of sexually abusing children.

The Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus will release a report Monday to Jesuit institutions, including St. Xavier High School and Xavier University, naming every priest who has been accused of sexual abuse since 1955.

St. Xavier’s president has promised to release the names associated with St. X when they get them.

“This isn’t something we’re trying to hide, this isn’t something we’re proud of, but our goal is to build trust,” president Tim Reilly said Thursday.

Reilly said there is the distinct possibility that priests associated with the school will be on the list.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
The New York Times

December 14, 2018

By Campbell Robertson

It was a list Charles L. Bailey Jr. had wanted to see for years: the names of the priests in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse who had been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

Mr. Bailey, 67, a longtime local advocate for survivors of abuse by priests, had heard excuses for why such a list was impossible to release. The last bishop said naming accused priests would be a violation of the Ten Commandments. The current bishop said he would not disclose the names, citing the request of unnamed victims.

But then on Dec. 3, Mr. Bailey got a call from a local reporter. It was up, on the diocesan website. Fifty-seven priests. None were still in ministry and most were deceased, including, there on Page 4, the priest who had repeatedly raped Mr. Bailey when he was not yet a teenager.

As the Catholic Church faces a wave of federal and state attorney general investigations into its handling of sex abuse, bishops around the country have struggled with how to react. Some have locked down defensively. Others are waiting on guidance from the Vatican, which instructed American bishops last month to wait on taking any collective action until the new year.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

December 17, 2018

By Inés San Martín

As the clerical sexual abuse scandals continue to work their way through the global church, bishops and religious superiors in Spain are showing similar but also contrasting reactions both to the crime of abuse and the public reactions to it.

During his first remarks as bishop of Avila during his ordination, Jose Maria Gil Tamayo, former secretary and spokesman of the bishops’ conference, said on Saturday that there’s an attempt to “extend an unfair veil of suspicion over the immense multitude of priests.”

He was referring to the recent publication, in several local newspapers, of allegations of clerical sexual abuse and subsequent silence and cover-up. Seeing this “veil of suspicion,” Gil Tamayo said he wanted to offer some words of “encouragement” and “support” for the local clergy, whom he thanked for their service.

“Especially in these moments in which, seeing the sins and crimes that have been committed by the ecclesial community and for which we apologize and work towards their eradication and prevention,” there’s an attempt to discredit the many good priests “who serve God and the people in a faithful, self-denying and exemplary way,” he said, to a cheering crowd.

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WINSTON-SALEM (NC)
Baptist News Global

December 14, 2018

By Bill Leonard

In our better moments of spiritual self-awareness, we Christians are forced to acknowledge our capacity for actions and ideas that shatter an individual and collective “witness” as followers of Jesus. It’s been like that from the start. Judas Iscariot betrayed him with a kiss. After declaring absolute loyalty, Simon Peter denied Jesus three times: “I never knew the man.” The brothers James and John, perhaps anticipating the Prosperity Gospel, demanded “the best seats” in the coming kingdom. In every era of its history, certain Christian individuals and institutions have compelled an “orthodoxy” from others they refused to require of themselves. Dietrich Bonhoeffer called that kind of gospel cheap grace.

In The Cost of Discipleship (1937), Bonhoeffer called us all to account, warning:

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting to-day for costly grace. . . . Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian “conception” of God. An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to remission of sins. The Church which holds the correct doctrine of grace has, ipso facto, a part in that grace. In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God (emphasis mine).

I returned to Bonhoeffer’s admonition after reading a heartrending series of articles recently published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram regarding years of sexual abuse perpetrated by various “Independent Fundamentalist Baptist” ministers, individuals often protected and “moved on” by their pastoral supervisors or church constituencies.

“Underneath it all is a powerful emphasis on ministerial authority, with pastor-figures as ‘God’s anointed’ whose leadership is not to be questioned.”

After months of research, a group of Star-Telegram investigative reporters documented “at least 412 allegations of sexual misconduct in 187 Independent Fundamentalist Baptist churches and their affiliated institutions” based in 40 states and Canada. Their study suggests that some 168 “church leaders” were accused or convicted of sex crimes against children, with as many as 45 of them continuing in ministry after being identified. The articles detail occasions when women and children were sexually molested by pastoral figures who were then moved on to other churches or church-related ministries. The accusers, almost all females, were often ignored, doubted or blamed for enticing the men.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Washington Post

December 14, 2018

A D.C. judge on Thursday ordered a Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting three parishioners to remain in jail until trial and said it was troubling that church leaders did not take action when complaints against the defendant were raised several years ago, possibly allowing additional instances of alleged abuse.

Prosecutors said leaders at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart in Northwest Washington were initially notified in mid-June 2015 of allegations that Urbano Vazquez, an assistant pastor, may have sexually assaulted a teenage girl who was a member of the parish. Alleged assaults involving two other victims occurred between June 2016 and December 2017.

In a hearing before D.C. Superior Court Judge Juliet McKenna, Vazquez’s attorney argued that his client should be allowed to return to the secluded parish outside of Pittsburgh where he had been staying, saying he would be watched by priests there as he awaited trial. But McKenna rejected the proposal as she questioned the church’s supervision.

“He was in a position of trust and authority,” the judge said of Vazquez. “I am troubled by the number of alleged victims over a number of years of alleged sexual abuse of young girls. And to release him now back in the supervision of colleagues who had been informed of such alleged behavior is troubling to me.”

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By Dana Point Times

December 14, 2018

By Lillian Boyd

Scandal and allegations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church have spread across the globe—and Dana Point is no exception.

On Wednesday, Dec. 5, the Minnesota-based law firm of Jeff Anderson & Associates released a report on clergy sexual abuse in the Diocese of Orange, which contained information, photographs and assignment histories on 72 clergy accused of sexual misconduct. A spokesperson for the Diocese of Orange says that list is erroneous and overinflated. Of those 72, eight men were found to be, at least at one point, affiliated with Dana Point or St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church.

Mike Reck, an attorney with Jeff Anderson & Associates, led a press conference the day the report was released at Doubletree by Hilton in Orange, alongside Patrick Wall, a former Roman Catholic priest and Dana Point resident, and three survivors of abuse.

“We’re doing this because the Diocese of Orange is not,” Reck said. “It’s important because the release of these identities sends a message to survivors of abuse that they are not alone, that this matters and that healing can begin. Because we know only with the acknowledgment that this happened, that this was wrong and that this was not the survivor’s fault can the healing begin.”

The list of 72 names was compiled from public records, documents, letters and archives from churches and witness testimony, according to the firm. But the firm’s associates say the list is incomplete, just as it believes lists released by the church in 2004 and 2016 were incomplete.

“The public and the survivors deserve two things. They deserve a complete list, which is full and honest and transparent. And they deserve a full disclosure of what is known and when it was known. This is what allows the healing to start and allows for accountability,” Reck said.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Huffington Post

December 14, 2018

By Carol Kuruvilla

An investigation has uncovered hundreds of abuse allegations against leaders of a conservative, loosely affiliated network of evangelical Christian churches.

The report, published by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Sunday, identified 412 abuse allegations in 187 independent fundamental Baptist (IFB) churches and institutions across 40 states and Canada, with some cases reaching as far back as the 1970s.

The Star-Telegram spoke to more than 200 current or former IFB church members who shared stories about “rape, assault, humiliation and fear.” Many of the stories have already been made public through criminal cases, lawsuits and news reports. However, the newspaper said its reporters uncovered 21 new abuse allegations in the course of its eight-month investigation.

In total, the newspaper said it found that 168 IFB church leaders were accused or have been convicted of sexually abusing children.

Some of the women interviewed suggested that the patriarchal theology preached in IFB churches protects its male pastors from criticism and helps create a pattern of abuse and cover-up.

Interviewees told the Star-Telegram that pastors in IFB churches were treated as if they were chosen by God and beyond reproach. Abusers used their power and position to psychologically manipulate and silence their victims, the women said. And often, even when victims spoke up, the accused pastors would manage to avoid criminal charges and use informal pastoral networks to relocate to another church.

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HAYWARD (WI)
Associated Press

December 13, 2018

A former priest accused of sexually abusing at least three boys in Wisconsin decades ago has been bound over for trial.

Seventy-one-year-old Thomas Ericksen was arrested Nov. 16 at his Minneapolis home. He faces child sexual assault charges for alleged abuse between June 1982 and April 1983, while he was at St. Peter’s Church in Winter, Wis.

The Wausau Daily Herald reported that Ericksen appeared in court Wednesday and his attorney argued that credibility of purported victims had to be called into question due to the amount of time since the alleged crimes. The judge disagreed and bound the case over for trial.

Prosecutors haven’t said why so much time elapsed before charges were filed.

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HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle

December 13, 2018

By Nicole Hensley

The investigation of a Houston area priest on sexual assault allegations led law enforcement to a cache of files on more than 20 clergy members who faced claims of misconduct over the past decade, including some criminal allegations, according to court records.

The files seized from the Shalom Center in Splendora include details on at least five priests publicly accused of sexual misconduct in Texas, California and Missouri, a Houston Chronicle review found.

The files were listed in an exhaustive inventory stemming from a search warrant executed in September on the Shalom property by Montgomery County law enforcement and Texas Rangers. The files identified priests treated at the center, according to Montgomery County Assistant District Attorney Tyler Dunman.

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SPRINGFIELD (IL)
WJCT Radio

December 12, 2018

By San Dunklau

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan is continuing her investigation of the state’s six Roman Catholic dioceses, and now says criminal prosecution is a potential.

Listen Listening…
0:08 / 0:53 Listen to a summary of the story.

Madigan launched an investigation in August, after a Pennsylvania grand jury report contained “credible” accounts of child sexual abuse incidents committed by over 300 Catholic priests.

The attorney general has been seeking records from Illinois dioceses. She says they should make public the names of priests who have “credible allegations” against them. So far, four of the six dioceses in Illinois have complied, while the other two already had names of priests published.

Madigan says there’s still a lot of information to review.

“It’s become clear that the Catholic Church cannot handle these matters internally. They can’t handle these matters as personnel matters. Crimes were committed.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

December 13, 2018

By Father Kenneth Doyle

Q. The news reports of settlements made in the millions of dollars to victims of clergy sex abuse trouble me. Were there secret assets from wills and estates on reserve for that purpose? Where did all that money come from? (Metuchen, New Jersey)

A. National Public Radio reported in August 2018 that dioceses and religious orders in the United States had thus far paid settlements totaling more than $3 billion to victims of clergy sexual abuse. The settlements have come, not from any “secret assets,” but from a combination of cash, proceeds from the sale of land and buildings, and from insurance payments.
What must be said first, though, is that no financial amount is sufficient to compensate victims for their suffering. As Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of St. Paul and Minneapolis said in May 2018 when announcing a settlement of $210 million in restitution to several hundred survivors, “I recognize that the abuse stole so much from you — your childhood, your innocence, your safety, your ability to trust and, in many cases, your faith. … The church let you down, and I’m very sorry.”

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BUFFALO (NY)
WGRZ TV
.
December 14, 2018

By Steve Brown

Mitchell Garabedian is not hesitant about sharing his feelings on the Roman Catholic Church.

“The Catholic Church is drunk with power. Take away their robes, take away their religion as Catholic priests and they’re just criminals,” said Garabedian.

Garabedian has spent decades representing victims of clergy sex abuse.

Wednesday, in an interview in his Boston office, Garabedian disclosed a number of his clients claiming clergy sex abuse in the Buffalo Catholic Diocese have been interviewed by the FBI.

“Approximately ten”, said Garabedian.

The Buffalo Diocese has been the focus of a federal criminal investigation for months. Diocesan official reports receiving a pair of subpoenas, but little else is known about the probe. Neither the Buffalo FBI office or the US Attorney’s office will even acknowledge there is an investigation.

Ask what agents might have asked his clients about Garabedians said, “I can tell you right now they’re interested in crime of sexual abuse and the cover-up of those crimes.”

But Garabedian would not get into specifics.

The Boston attorney also represents Siobhan O’Connor, the whistle-blower who leaked internal documents while she worked as Bishop Richard Malone’s executive assistant.

When asked if O’Connor had been interviewed by the feds, Garabedian said, “I cannot comment.”

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

December 14, 2018

By Heidi Schlumpf

A Nashville deacon who has raised questions about the completeness of the diocese’s recently published list of priests accused of sexual abuse has been removed from ministry for “carrying on a public disagreement with the Diocese,” according to a letter from his pastor.

n the wake of the Pennsylvania grand jury report, more and more dioceses are moving to publish such lists, raising questions about who is — and is not — on them. Deacon Ron Deal first raised concerns in October, after an email to priests and deacons indicated the list would contain only nine names.

The Nashville Diocese eventually released a list of 13 names on Nov. 2; which was updated and corrected on Nov. 8, mentioning three more priests, including two Nashville priests accused of abuse in other dioceses as well as one religious order priest.

Deal and other victims and victims’ advocates believe the list is still incomplete and are calling on state law enforcement officials, including Attorney General Herbert Slatery, to open an investigation into cover-up in all three dioceses in Tennessee.

“We need an independent set of eyes,” said Deal, an attorney who formerly worked for the Nashville Diocese as a construction project development manager and headed the diaconate program.

Diocesan spokesperson Rick Musacchio said the October email to clergy was part of “an effort to make [the list] as complete as possible.” The voluntary release of names indicates the diocese’s “ongoing commitment to transparency, accountability and pastoral care,” he told NCR.

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press

December 14, 2018

By Robert Allen

The Archdiocese of Detroit transferred hundreds of parishes this year to a separate real estate corporation, a move critics say is similar to attempts across the country by the Catholic Church to shield assets from lawsuits filed by victims of clergy sex abuse.

For the six-county archdiocese, which includes 313 parishes, this is a first step toward creating an individual corporation for each parish, archdiocese spokesman Ned McGrath said Thursday. He said U.S. dioceses had been encouraged by church leadership to make such a change since 1911, and timing has nothing to do with concerns over lawsuits, which have already cost the church billions of dollars.

Terry McKiernan, co-founder of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks the abuse crisis, said this is a shell game to protect those assets from seizure through lawsuits regarding child sex abuse. He compared it to several other cases, such as a fund the Archdiocese of Milwaukee used to try to protect tens of millions of dollars in assets when it entered bankruptcy.

“I don’t know if Detroit will go in that direction,” McKiernan said. “But clearly, they’re bracing for something.”

Across the United States, about 20 dioceses and other religious orders have filed for bankruptcy protection as a result of clergy sex abuse claims, the Associated Press reported last week. As a result, victims’ advocates say they are seeing trends across the country that include shifting of assets to other funds or parishes, a tactic previously used in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Tennessee and Southern California.

“This is not an unusual step,” said James Stang, a Los Angeles attorney who has represented more than 13 creditors’ committees involving survivors of sexual abuse and now represents victims of former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. “They will tell you that the transfer of the property to a trust or away from the archdiocese actually reflects their canon law concepts. I look at it as club rules.”

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
Catholic News Agency

December 13, 2018

A trial began Tuesday for the San Diego priest accused of sexually assaulting a seminarian in February. The alleged victim testified Wednesday that the priest groped him in a restaurant bathroom.

The seminarian told the court that he and another seminarian had drinks with Fr. Juan Garcia Castillo at a bar and restaurant on Feb. 3, after an event at St. Patrick’s Parish in Carlsbad, where Castillo served as parochial vicar. He said they had several drinks, and that the priest encouraged him to drink to excess.

The seminarian testified that he went to the bathroom sick after midnight. While he was in the restroom, Castillo allegedly approached him from behind and groped his genitals, twice.

The seminarian said he told the priest to “get away.”

“I walked out of the stall, and I look at myself in the mirror and I said, ‘Oh my God, what has happened to me?’” the seminarian said, according to the San Diego Union Tribune.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
WPXI TV

December 13, 2018

Two new lawsuits have been filed against the Diocese of Pittsburgh and Bishop David Zubik, alleging they knew about and allowed of priests to sexually assault young boys.

Later Thursday, Zubik announced the formation of the diocese’s compensation fund for survivors of clergy abuse.

The first lawsuit claims that Rev. Carl Roemele molested a victim multiple times when he was 13
The unnamed victim and his family were members of the St. Agatha parish in Bridgeville when the alleged attacks occurred.

According to a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Roemele had a close relationship with the victim’s parents and would take him to a cabin in Donegal where assaults are alleged to have occurred.

The second names Rev. Richard Lelonis, then at St. Luke’s in Carnegie, as the abusive priest.

According to the lawsuit, Lelonis sexually assaulted a boy between the time he was 8 and 12 years old in the late ’60s and early ’70s.

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YORK (PA)
York Daily Record

December 13, 2018

By Candy Woodall

In 2014, Harrisburg Bishop Ronald Gainer decided prayer and penance was the best punishment for a priest who had confessed to sexually abusing multiple children.

Gainer wrote a letter to the Vatican and told the pope he believed the harm done by the Rev. Joseph Pease was being sufficiently repaired.

Pease was 83 at the time and living with dementia, and Gainer believed he couldn’t defend himself in the church’s disciplinary process.

The bishop asked the Vatican to allow Pease to “live out his remaining years in prayer and penance, without adding further anxiety or suffering to his situation, and without risking public knowledge of his crimes.”

Gainer has now changed his mind.

A week after the York Daily Record published a report showing Pease is the only priest among 72 accused in the Harrisburg diocese who is still on the church’s payroll, the bishop is now seeking laicization for Pease.

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IRVING (TX)
CBS News

December 13, 2018

By Kate Gibson

The Boy Scouts of America is exploring a range of options to address it’s increasingly shaky financial situation. Those may include declaring bankruptcy, with the more than century-old organization facing rising legal fees due to lawsuits over its handling of sexual abuse allegations.

In a Dec. 12 letter to employees released by the nonprofit organization, Mike Surbaugh, its chief scout executive, said the nonprofit is “working with experts to explore all options available” to keep the organization’s local and national programs running.

The Boy Scouts has hired law firm Sidley Austin to explore a potential chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, according to The Wall Street Journal. Seeking protection from its debts would stop multiple lawsuits over alleged sexual abuse by Boy Scout workers and volunteers going back decades, while giving the organization space to negotiate with those who sued, according to the newspaper.

The Boy Scouts have a responsibility to “fairly compensate victims who suffered abuse during their time in scouting,” wrote Surbaugh, who added the scouts never knowingly allowed a sexual predator to work with youth.

“We have always taken care of victims – we believe them, we believe in fairly compensating them and we have paid for unlimited counseling, by a provider of their choice, regardless of the amount of time that has passed since an instance of abuse,” he wrote.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

December 13, 2018

By Peter Smith

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh on Thursday said victims of sexual abuse by priests could apply for compensation as soon as January under a program run by a law firm that has run similar programs for such victims in New York state dioceses.

Bishop David Zubik did not announce a dollar figure for the fund but said the diocese would pay the amounts from proceeds from past and future sales of properties. He said the diocese may sell its Downtown offices on the Boulevard of the Allies, where Thursday’s press conference announcing the fund was held.

Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros lead a Washington, D.C.-based team with experience administering similar funds to compensate victims sexual abuse victims in other dioceses as well as at Penn State. That experience also includes handling compensation funds for such things as the 9/11 attacks, mass shootings and the BP oil spill.

They will be representing Pittsburgh and six other Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses that have announced plans for compensation funds for victims, including those who cannot currently sue for damages because the abuse happened too long ago under the statute of limitations.

The funds come the wake of a withering state grand jury report, released in August. It said more than 300 priests, including at least 90 in Pittsburgh, were accused of sexually abusing more than 1,000 victims over seven decades in six dioceses.

In Pittsburgh, compensation will be limited to those who were sexually abused by diocesan priests or deacons, not by lay employees or members of religious orders working for the diocese. Also not eligible are victims who have already reached financial settlements with the diocese.

“It is not all about money,” Mr. Feinberg said. But for those who are found eligible and receive settlements, it validates “the legitimacy of the claim, sometimes after decades of waiting.”

The program “is completely voluntary,” Mr. Feinberg said. “No victim, no alleged victim is required to come forward.” But those who have already contacted the diocese will be notified of the plan.

People can be represented by a lawyer or file claims on their own, Mr. Feinberg and Ms. Biros said, and they can meet with the team in person if they want.

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TACOMA (WA)
Tacoma News Tribune

December 13, 2018

Bellarmine Preparatory School, a Tacoma institution since 1928, turned a harsh but necessary spotlight on itself last Friday when it shared information on 23 disgraced Catholic priests and non-ordained brothers previously assigned to the Bellarmine community. All were “credibly accused” of sexual abuse at some point in their Jesuit careers.

Publicly identifying these alleged offenders was the right thing to do. In fact, it was long overdue. Silence and secrecy should no longer be an option. As Bellarmine President Robert Modarelli said in a statement, for too long this scandal has been allowed to “fester unchecked.”

The private school just off South Union Avenue took a lesson from its own Jesuit catechism: Covering up sin only invites more of it.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Catholic News Service

December 13, 2018

By Simon Caldwell

An English cardinal has told an inquiry into child abuse of his shock at learning that a vicar general of his former archdiocese tried to help two pedophile priests escape to the United States.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse revealed for the first time that Msgr. Daniel Leonard, a former vicar general of the Archdiocese of Birmingham, ordered a priest to tip off Father Samuel Penney that he was about to be arrested and to give him cash to flee to the United States.

It also revealed that Msgr. Leonard, who is now deceased, provided Father James Robinson with a good character reference so he could transfer to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, even though the priest was facing allegations of child abuse in the U.K.

Giving evidence to the inquiry, Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster said: “This comes as a shock to me that such a course of action could have been in the mind of the then vicar general.

“It is shocking. If I understand things correctly, it is criminal intent,” said Cardinal Nichols, president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, at the Dec. 13 hearing in London.

The cardinal, who served as archbishop of Birmingham from 2000 to 2009, said Msgr. Leonard was in a nursing home when he took over as archbishop, and he met him only once. Cardinal Nichols said he found a “much-diminished old man who was clearly incapable of remembering much.”

Father Gerard Doyle, a parish priest in Stone, England, said in the early 1990s that he received a call from Msgr. Leonard, who instructed him to dress in plain clothes and visit Father Penney at the Gracewell Institute, Birmingham, where he was undergoing therapy following child abuse allegations.

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REDONDO BEACH (CA)
The Beach News

December 11, 2018

By Nathaniel Percy

An internal investigation at a South Bay Catholic school found that two nuns who worked there allegedly misappropriated a “substantial” amount of funds for personal use over a period of years, a letter sent to school families Wednesday said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how much was stolen from St. James Catholic School in Torrance. A specific time period also wasn’t provided by authorities.

One of the sisters had recently retired, according to a church newsletter.

Msgr. Michael Meyers, the pastor at St. James Catholic Church in Redondo Beach, said in the letter that Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, the nuns’ order, is cooperating with the parish and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to determine exactly how much money may have been taken by the pair.

The church in Redondo Beach oversees the operations of the elementary school located 2 miles away in Torrance.

“Our community is concerned and saddened by this situation and regret any injury to our long relationship with the families of the school,” the Order said in a statement. “The Sisters of St. Joseph both desire and intend to make complete restitution to St. James School.”

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ROCHESTER (NY)
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

December 13, 2018

By David Andreatta

In recently purging another priest from the Diocese of Rochester who was found to have abused children, Bishop Salvatore Matano issued a statement pledging to continue “the many important initiatives we have undertaken” to protect young and vulnerable people.

Among those were the creation of an independent review board to probe sex abuse allegations and advise the diocese; mandatory background checks for clerics and others in the diocese who work with children; and an established code of conduct.

Such initiatives are worthwhile, but they’ve done little to bring justice to victims and even less to restore the shattered confidence in the Catholic Church felt by many of the faithful.

For that, two things need to happen — one plausible, one implausible, and both necessary.

First, the implausible.

There needs to be a public airing of how so many pedophiles got into the priesthood, how so many bishops looked the other way, and how revelations of clerical abuse and cover-ups are still surfacing after journalists peeled back the first layer of the onion 17 years ago.

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[Jesuits of Catalonia become first order in Spain to investigate abuses in their institutions]

MADRID (SPAIN)
El País

December 13, 2018

By Íñigo Domínguez

A raíz de las informaciones de EL PAÍS, admiten que “aún hay una asignatura pendiente en la investigación del pasado” y que la gestión de los casos “ha podido ser deficiente”

Los jesuitas de Cataluña serán la primera orden religiosa en España, y la primera institución de la Iglesia católica en el país, en emprender una investigación interna rigurosa de los posibles abusos sexuales sobre menores cometidos en sus centros. En la línea de las iniciativas realizadas en Francia y Alemania, y mientras la Conferencia Episcopal española se niega todavía a dar ese paso, la Compañía de Jesús y Jesuïtes Educació anuncian en un comunicado que han decidido “emprender una investigación más sistemática de los posibles casos de abusos sobre menores y conductas impropias que en el pasado, remontándonos a los años sesenta, hayan podido suceder en los centros educativos”. La decisión ha sido tomada a raíz de las informaciones publicadas en EL PAÍS que afectan a su orden: “La búsqueda de información sobre algún caso ya conocido nos muestra que necesitamos sistematizar la información que pueda haber”.

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LITTLE ROCK (AR)
Bilgrimage

December 12, 2018

By William Lindsey

As I posted my posting two days ago with an assortment of reports about the sexual abuse of vulnerable people in Christian churches, I had decided that I’d do a follow-up posting featuring some valuable commentary from Jamie Manson about Pope Francis’ “worries” about gay priests. In my view, the critique/discussion of comments by top Catholic officials like the ones Francis has made to Father Fernando Prado about homosexuality and gay priests needs to go hand in hand with reports about abuse of vulnerable people in Christian churches. Where a plethora of reports from various churches, including the Catholic church, demonstrates plainly that the vulnerable people being abused by priests and pastors include females…. Demonstrating that the gays-are-the-problem analysis is a red herring if we really want to get to the root of sexual abuse of vulnerable people in faith communities….

Some very important commentary from Jamie Manson regarding Francis’ muddled, bigoted, scientifically ludicrous comments about homosexuality to Father Prado:

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Crux

December 12, 2018

By Christopher White

Thirty years ago, investigative reporter Jason Berry pioneered new territory by covering clerical sexual abuse in Louisiana. Since then, his name has become synonymous with the crisis that continues to loom over the Catholic Church today.

In his new book, City of a Million Dreams: A History of New Orleans at 300, Berry returns to his roots. In an interview with Crux, he details some of the city’s rich Catholic history, its efforts to confront race relations, and why researching some of the city’s saints proved far more fulfilling than his work in Rome.

Crux: You’ve spent decades uncovering and chronicling the Church’s shameful history of clerical sex abuse and cover-up, yet this new book switches gears to tell the story of a city – your city – New Orleans. What prompted you to write this book?

Berry: In 1985, when I began investigating clergy abuse cases in Lafayette, Louisiana my second book was heading toward publication, Up from the Cradle of Jazz: New Orleans Music Since World War II. After six years on that topic I had become intrigued with jazz funerals, how they arose, what they said about the city. As I gathered documents on clergy predators, the narrative taking shape for Lead Us Not into Temptation (1992) became hugely consuming. I came back from reporting trips, numbed by clerical secrets and crimes, and invariably attended the funeral of a musician. As the mourners danced in the streets, I felt strangely happy. My own church made me sad. The city of my birth was sending rhythms of spiritual hope.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The Media Project

December 12, 2018

By Clemente Lisi

The attention of the Catholic world will be on Panama next month when the Central American nation hosts World Youth Day, an event that remains a major part of Saint Pope John Paul II’s legacy.

Started in 1985 and influenced by the “Light-Life Movement” that began in the then-pope’s native Poland two decades earlier, World Youth Day has allowed the church to spread its message directly to young adults who eagerly gather to celebrate as a community. It is that spirit and tradition that accompanies World Youth Day each time it is held somewhere in the world. The five-day event, which starts on Jan. 22, will be a real chance for Pope Francis to try and set things right following a very difficult 2018 for him and the church as a whole.

There is a spiritual hunger around the world by Christians of all denominations. This pope needs to get back to basics and focus on evangelizing like John Paul II did during his 17-year papacy. This Holy Father needs to be less political and more spiritual. He needs to break free from the labels that have been heaped on him by critics and supporters alike. He needs to get back to the universal message of the church that resonates in both industrialized nations and the developing world.

This pope has been a polarizing figure among the faithful. He’s been on the receiving end of much criticism in recent years from conservative Catholics who increasingly believe his mixed messages on homosexuality, birth control and allowing those who have divorced to receive communion runs counter to the catechism.

At the same time, Pope Francis has often demonstrated himself to be a champion of liberal causes and seen by progressive Catholics as someone charting the church on a radically new course more in line with the needs and wants of a modern secular world.

For example, asking “who am I to judge?” in a 2013 news conference when referring to the LGBTQ community has been largely welcomed by non-Catholics and the secular news media. In January 2014, Francis even made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in a piece that praised him and largely attacked his predecessor Pope Benedict XVI.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Advocate

December 12, 2018

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

A Louisiana man claims in a new lawsuit that nearly 40 years ago, the regional leader of a Catholic religious order that founded Archbishop Shaw High School dosed him with what might have been chloroform and raped him.

When he confronted Catholic officials this fall about the episode, they tried to prevent it from becoming public despite treating the claim as credible, the 36-page lawsuit filed Wednesday in Orleans Parish Civil District Court says.

The man, whose identity is not revealed in the suit, demands damages from the Salesians of Don Bosco, the Archdiocese of New Orleans and officials with both organizations, including Archbishop Gregory Aymond.

The suit marks the latest legal salvo against the local Catholic Church involving decades-old allegations of clerical abuse in New Orleans and a movement from victims and their advocates to air the claims publicly.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

Decmeber 13, 2018

A D.C. Catholic priest charged with sexually assaulting two female members of his parish — a 9-year-old girl and a woman — was ordered held in D.C. jail until his next hearing.

Urbano Vazquez, 46, had been allowed to avoid jail while an investigation continued, after he was charged in…

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EVANSVILLE (IN)
Evansville Courier & Press

December 12, 2018

By Noah Stubbs

It’s been nearly three months since Bishop Joseph M. Siegel announced the Catholic Diocese will collect and release the names of priests who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors over the years.

The diocese said in a news release Wednesday that the inspection of clergy records is still ongoing, and the list will be made public in the early months of 2019.

“When complete, the Diocesan Review Board and Bishop Joseph M. Siegel will review the findings to assure that they are as complete as possible,” the release said.

In September, The Message — the diocese’s community newspaper — reported the names had already been listed in previous editions of the publication through the years.

The September announcement came after an Evansville Diocese priest was put on administrative leave after the diocese received a report of sexual misconduct.

Father David Fleck denies the claim of sexual misconduct that allegedly happened decades ago, according to the statement from the diocese.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
WLWT TV

December 12, 2018

By Emily Wood

St. Xavier High School is informing parents, students and alumni about a list of names of alleged sexual abusers.

The list is expected to be released Monday by the U.S. Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus. In an email, St. X wrote, “the Province will release the names of all Jesuit priests, brothers and scholastics under the jurisdiction of the Province who have been the subject of credible allegations of sexual abuse against minors during the period from 1955 until the present.”

The email said St. Xavier is releasing the list “in an effort to be transparent about the past, to precipitate victims who desire assistance and make the intent to protect youth unmistakable.”

The release will include names of Jesuits who were assigned to St. Xavier during their alleged abuse.

Gerry Ahrens is a St. Xavier graduate and a sexual abuse survivor.

He told WLWT Monday will be a great day because victims will finally have acknowledgement of what happened to them by publishing the names of their abusers.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
NBC 7 TV

December 12, 2018

An attorney and former U.S. Naval officer who was studying to become a priest accused a San Diego-area priest of grabbing his genitals after a night of drinking in a Carlsbad restaurant and bar.

Rev. Juan Garcia Castillo, a former associate pastor at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Carlsbad, is accused of misdemeanor sexual battery for the incident that is alleged to have occurred on Feb. 4.

A 34-year-old testified in court Wednesday that he was a seminary student when he joined Castillo, 35, and another seminary student for a beer at BJ’s in Carlsbad.

Surveillance video shows the three men sitting for more than four hours drinking and talking.

After two hours at the restaurant, the accuser estimated he had finished two and was drinking a third Long Island Iced Teas.

“I was drunk but I knew what was happening,” he said from the stand.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune Review

December 12, 2018

By Rich Cholodofsky

The lawyer for a disgraced Catholic Diocese of Greensburg priest who pleaded guilty to molesting a Lower Burrell school student a quarter-century ago pleaded for mercy for his client before a sentencing hearing next week.

In court documents filed Wednesday, defense attorney Fran Murrman asked for no jail time for the Rev. John Thomas Sweeney.

Murrman said Sweeney, 75, is mentally fragile and, through his impending banishment from the church, understands that he will “never escape the consequences of his action.”

Sweeney pleaded guilty in July to one felony count of indecent assault in connection with what investigators said was a sexual assault against a 10-year-old boy who attended St. Margaret Mary Church school between September 1991 and June 1992.

Prosecutors said Sweeney forced the fourth-grader to perform sex acts in a conference room next to his office at the church.

Sweeney had ordered the boy to the room to be disciplined for being disruptive on a school bus, investigators said.

Afterward, a church secretary brought the boy milk and cookies, according to prosecutors.

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MORRISTOWN (TN)
Citizen Tribune

December 12, 2018

By Ken Little

The Diocese of Knoxville has no plans to investigate any allegations of sexual abuse by priests committed within the diocese after 1988, a spokesman said.

The diocese, which includes Greene County, also declined to respond to a request for an investigation by an independent third party of any allegations of sexual misconduct by priests. The request was made by a member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests group, known by the acronym SNAP.

“Should there be a third party investigation begun to get to the whole truth? Survivors and their advocates unanimously promote this as the next step in getting to the truth in Tennessee,” East Tennessee SNAP advocate Susan Vance recently said.

In November, the Diocese of Nashville released a list of 13 alleged pedophile priests and former priests.

Nine of the 13 priests and former priests are dead. Two others are in prison. None are in active ministry, the Diocese of Nashville said in a news release.

All of the alleged sexual abuse was committed before 1988, when the area currently covered by the Diocese of Knoxville was included in the Diocese of Nashville.

Four of the pastors on the list served at Notre Dame Catholic Church.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Pennsylvania Record

December 12, 2018

A priest invites an 8-year-old boy into the rectory and begins to kiss him. He sticks his tongue and hands where they don’t belong after offering alcohol to the child and his friend.

The boy pushes back and escapes the situation, but his friend isn’t able to – the boy watches the priest shut the door with his friend behind it.

Outside, the boy smashes a window on the priest’s car while, inside the church, his friend is sexually abused.

A shut door and a shattered window – symbols of silence and anger.

This story is taken from a Pittsburgh lawsuit against the Catholic Church, which for decades protected more than 300 priests across Pennsylvania accused of committing heinous acts on young boys and girls, according to a grand jury report.

And in that grand jury report are more heartbreaking symbols: Where the names of 19 accused priests are listed, black bars of redaction hide them.

Because of a recent state Supreme Court decision, parishioners in five Pennsylvania dioceses will have to wonder whether the names of their current and former priests are behind those black bars of redaction.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro argued that disclosure of the names was allowed by the Grand Jury Act, but the justices ruled it would be harmful to the reputations of the anonymous accused pedophiles. Ugh.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
National Public Radio

December 12, 2018

By Ian Stewart
]
The Vatican announced Wednesday that two cardinals have been let go from a papal council, the day after one of them was reportedly convicted of sexual abuse by an Australian court.

George Pell and Javier Errázuriz both served on the Council of Cardinals, a papal advisory group. Errázuriz had been accused of ignoring sexual abuse by a Chilean priest. Multiple news outlets have reported a jury unanimously found Pell guilty Tuesday of sexually assaulting children in the 1990s, although Australian officials have put a gag order on the trial.

In the announcement, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Greg Burke, said Pell and Errázuriz had been released in October after “reflection on the work, structure and composition of the Council itself, also taking into account the advanced age of some members.” Pell is 77, and Errázuriz is 85. Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, 79, will also not return to the council.

Burke said Pope Francis thanked the men for their service on his advisory committee at the time; others in the group had called for their departure.

Pell has said before that he is innocent of the abuse charges, which stem from his time as a priest and archbishop in Australia, calling them “relentless character assassination.” He has a reputation for vigorously defending the church against accusations of sexual misconduct.

As NPR has reported, Australia is grappling with the results of a disturbing 2017 report which “found that seven percent of the country’s Catholic priests between 1950 and 2010 allegedly sexually abused children, and identified 1,880 different alleged perpetrators.”

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JUNEAU (AK)
KTVA TV

December 12, 2018

By: Chris Klint

The Roman Catholic Church in Juneau is examining its records for any possible links of current or former clergy to a vast series of cases in the Lower 48 which came to light in August.

The Diocese of Juneau announced Wednesday the appointment of a three-member commission by Bishop Andrew Bellisario. According to a decree, the independent panel will “review the personnel files of clergy and religious who have served in the Diocese,” as well as any allegations of sexual abuse by staff or volunteers since the diocese’s founding in 1951.

The commission is set to begin its work Jan. 7, with a final report due by June 1.

A database maintained by the non profit group BishopAccountability.org lists just two known cases of clergy abuse in Juneau, the most recent in 1988.

Dominique Johnson, a spokesman for the diocese, said Wednesday that no new allegations of abuse in Juneau have come to light. The commission was instead prompted, he said, by the massive allegations of Pennsylvania sex abuse involving hundreds of clergy members and more than 1,000 victims.

“We just wanted to review our files to see if any allegations have been reported involving our employees, our past employees, since the establishment of the diocese in 1951,” Johnson said.

The Archdiocese of Anchorage announced a similar review in October of any abuse allegations dating back 50 years. Anchorage’s archbishop, Paul Etienne – who barred a Wyoming bishop from public ministry over alleged abuse when Etienne served there – told KTVA last month that the move was part of a focus on transparency.

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SANTA BARBARA (CA)
Santa Barbara Independent

December 13, 2018

by Tyler Hayden

New disclosures by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Catholic Church’s western Jesuit province have identified more than 200 clergymen accused of child molestation, 12 of whom held lengthy postings in the Santa Barbara area dating back to the 1950s.

The names were made public for the first time this week as part of what church officials described as atonement for the revelations of clergy sex abuse that have roiled the Catholic Church the last two decades, including the longtime protection of predator priests by some of the institution’s top leaders. The names were added to a list that was initially published by the Archdiocese in 2004 and hadn’t been updated since 2008.

“We owe it to the victim-survivors to be fully transparent in listing the names of those who perpetrate this abuse,” said L.A. Archbishop José H. Gomez in a prepared statement. “It is inconceivable that someone entrusted with the pastoral care of a child could be capable of something so harmful,” said Rev. Scott Santarosa, the head of the western Jesuit province. “Yet, tragically, this is a part of our Jesuit history, a legacy we cannot ignore.”

Victim advocates, however, called the release a self-serving strategy to shield the church from further scrutiny and potential criminal prosecution after a Pennsylvania grand jury issued a searing report in August that described how bishops in the state covered up child sexual abuse by more than 300 priests over 70 years. It was the most expansive investigation yet by a U.S. government agency of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Santiago Times

December 12, 2018

Pope Francis has removed two prominent cardinals from his inner circle months after they were hit by pedophile scandals, the Vatican announced on Wednesday.

Chilean Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz and Australian Cardinal George Pell were both removed from the so-called C9 Council of Cardinals, a powerful council of advisers picked by Pope Francis to guide him on matters critical to the future of the Catholic Church.

The last time the C9 met in September, Errazuriz, who is accused of covering up abuse in Chile, and Pell, who faces charges in Australia related to historical child sexual offenses, were both absent, and the council said it was considering restructuring.

In October, the pope wrote to the cardinals that they will leave the office to thank them for “the work they have achieved for five years,” Vatican press director Greg Burke said.

Despite being removed from the C9, Pell, 77, remains in charge of Vatican finances, the third most powerful position in the Roman Catholic Church.

Errazuriz, the retired archbishop of Santiago, met Francis last month and subsequently announced his “withdrawal” from the C9. “It’s not a resignation. I said goodbye at the end of the period for which I was appointed,” the prelate said in an interview with a Chilean newspaper. Back home, he is accused by victims of sexual abuse of having covered the acts of a pedophile priest, a case that scandalizes the South American country.

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CORPUS CHRISTI (TX)
Corpus Christi Caller Times

Dec. 12, 2018

By Alexandria Rodriguez

A Jesuit priest accused of more than one incident of sexual abuse of a minor spent time in Corpus Christi.

The late J. Donald Pearce, who was in Corpus Christi in the 1970s, was included in a list of names of Jesuits, who were members of the U.S. Central and Southern Province, with “credible allegations.”

Jesuits are a Roman Catholic order of priests and brothers.

The men included in the list, released on the Society of Jesuits’ website, fall into one of three categories.

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LONDON (CANADA)
London Free Press

December 12, 2018

ByJennifer Bieman

Supporters of clergy sexual abuse survivor Irene Deschenes shouted “shame” and “justice for Irene” at the Catholic diocese office in London Wednesday afternoon, delivering a letter to the bishop demanding the organization abandon a planned appeal of a court ruling that allows her to reopen a settled civil case.

Representatives from London-area women’s groups gathered at the office to denounce the diocese’s move and voice their support for the 57-year-old sex-abuse survivor.

“Irene entered into a legal process because of the wrong that was done to her by the diocese,” said Michelle Schryer, executive director of the Chatham-Kent Sexual Assault Crisis Centre.

On Friday, the Roman Catholic Diocese of London announced its plan to appeal Superior Court Justice David Aston’s Nov. 27 decision to allow Deschenes to reopen the settlement reached in her 1996 lawsuit for abuse involving then-priest Charles Sylvestre.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

December 13, 2018

by David Knight
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Editor’s note: Last week, Melinda Henneberger, a public Catholic and writer, described her decision to leave the church amid ongoing revelations of the clergy sex abuse scandal and coverup, and what she was hearing about it.

It was one of the most-read pieces on our website. Among the many responses was the one below from Fr. David Knight. Both are smart and thoughtful (and quite witty) explorations of the “To leave or stay?” question increasingly on the minds of Catholics disgusted with the scandal and the inability of church leaders to deal with it at a depth that begins to restore trust.

We’ve invited NCR members by separate email to continue the discussion, and we’ll report on those opinions at a later date. If you’re not a member and would like to become one and join the discussion, you can do so here. You’ll get an email early next week with instructions on how to send us your thoughts on the issue.

Melinda, I read your article in NCR just when an intellectual friend was disagreeing with my proposition that more people left the church because of boring Masses than because of child abuse. She and her husband, both highly educated, deeply involved Catholics, had both felt inclined to leave the church because of the recurring scandals, although they never would.

My response was, “But you are intellectual people. You couldn’t leave for a reason like that. It is totally illogical!”

You are obviously intellectual, too, but in your article I found no one telling you that you are illogical. So I want to ask how in the world a person with your education could possibly leave the church for such an unreasonable reason. In the kind of people who vote for Donald Trump, it is understandable. Not in you.

Logically, if you leave the church because the priests are sinful and the bishops worse, you are saying you belonged to the church because the priests were holy and the bishops even more so — which would be manifestly insane. (Or it would be clericalism, which is the same thing!)

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

December 13, 2018

By Christopher White

In a decision that will undoubtedly create shockwaves around the globe, Cardinal George Pell, the most senior Church official to stand trial for sexual abuse, was found guilty on Tuesday by a Melbourne Court.

In one of the most closely watched trials in modern Catholic Church history, after nearly four full days of deliberations, a jury rendered unanimous guilty verdicts on five charges related to the abuse of two choirboys in 1996.

The trial, which began on November 7, has been subject to a media blackout at the request of the prosecution, and follows a first trial in September ended after a jury failed to reach consensus.

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YORK (PA)
York Daily Record

December 12, 2018

By Mike Argento

The grand jury implored everyone to take heed of all they had learned. Here’s how their report shook up the world.

Marcia Hince lived with it all her life.

It’s difficult to explain. It was like a malignant growth, something that resided inside her being, infecting her soul, hoping against hope that ignoring it or suppressing her thoughts about it would make it disappear.

She felt alone, isolated, cut off from the rest of humanity, as if she were an alien being occupying a human body.

“I felt like I was the only person this happened to,” she said, “that I was outside the human race.”

She remained silent about it for years.

Then, in 2002, after the Boston Globe’s groundbreaking expose of child sexual abuse perpetrated by members of the Catholic clergy, she reported what happened to her to the Harrisburg diocese, writing a letter that outlined the abuse she endured and the consequences on her life.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
Catholic News Agency

December 12, 2018

By Ed Condon

Cardinal George Pell has been convicted by an Australian court on charges of sexual abuse of minors, according to media reports and CNA sources close to the cardinal.

A judicial gag order has restricted Australian media coverage of the trial since June.

Despite the gag order, a story published Dec. 11 on the Daily Beast website first reported that a unanimous verdict of guilty had been returned by a jury on charges that Pell sexually abused two altar servers in the late 1990s, while he was Archbishop of Melbourne.

The verdict reportedly followed three days of deliberations by the jury – the second to hear the case. An earlier hearing of the case is reported to have ended in early autumn with a mistrial, after jurors were unable to reach a verdict.

In October, two sources close to Cardinal Pell, members of neither his legal team nor the Catholic hierarchy in Australia, told CNA that the first hearing of the case had ended in a mistrial due to a jury stalemate. One source said that jury was deadlocked 10-2 in favor of Pell.

In remarks to CNA Dec. 12, the same sources independently confirmed this week’s report that a guilty verdict had been reached.

The conviction has not yet been confirmed by the Australian judiciary, and the gag order on Australian media could remain in place for several months.

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AUSTRALIA
America Magazine

December 12, 2018

By Gerard O’Connell

An Australian jury has found Cardinal George Pell, 77, guilty on five charges of “historical child sexual offenses” that go back decades, according to various media reports and confirmed by America. The 12-member jury gave their unanimous verdict in the County Court of the State of Victoria in Melbourne on Tuesday, Dec. 11.

The judge decided that the sentencing will take place in early February 2019 and released the cardinal on bail.

Little is known about the nature of the charges on which Cardinal Pell has been condemned because the entire trial and a second trial that has yet to take place are covered by a strict suppression order issued by the presiding judge, Peter Kidd. The order prohibits reporting on the case in any of the country’s media until the second trial has taken place to avoid prejudicing his case in both instances. The judge has prohibited the publication of the number of complainants in either of the two trials as well as the number and nature of the charges, except for the fact that the charges relate to “historical child sexual offenses.”

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ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
The Associated Press

December 12, 2018

A 44-year-old man has filed a lawsuit against the Boy Scouts of America, saying two Catholic priests who served as scout leaders in New Mexico sexually abused him for years starting in the early 1980s.

The lawsuit filed Thursday accuses the organization of negligence — with the victim saying officials knew or had reason to know the priests had abused boys.

The victim, who remains unnamed in the court filing, said he was abused during hiking and camping trips in the state, including at Cochití Lake and Jemez.

The priests accused of abuse in the lawsuit are Ronald Bruckner and Robert Malloy, neither of whom are listed as defendants.

Chris Shelby, the director of the Boy Scouts branch in New Mexico, did not immediately return an Associated Press call requesting comment.

He told KOB-TV on Monday that the organization — which like the Catholic Church has been at the center of sexual abuse scandals in the past — has implemented numerous policies since the 1980s to improve protections for youth.

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BURLINGTON (VT)
The Associated Press/WAMC

December 12, 2018

By Pat Bradley

A Texas man who says he was sexually abused as a boy by a Vermont priest is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington.

The complaint filed Friday alleges negligence, fraud and “outrageous conduct” by the diocese and seeks more than $75,000 in damages.

The Burlington Free Press reports the man says he was altar boy at St. Ann’s Parish in Milton in the late 1970s and 1980s when he was abused by Father Alfred Willis.
Willis was accused of abusing others in several complaints that were settled in the early 2000s. He was eventually dismissed from the priesthood.

Bishop Christopher Coyne wrote in a statement the filing is “further evidence that we still have much to do to bring healing and closure” to survivors of sexual abuse by clergy in the past.

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ROCHESTER (NY)
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

December 11, 2018

By Sean Lahman

Days after Bishop Salvatore Matano dismissed two priests over allegations of misconduct, victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests say the actions fall short of what is needed to address a dark chapter in the history of the Diocese.

“The removal of these two priests is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Robert M. Hoatson, a former priest and co-founder and president of Road to Recovery Inc., a nonprofit charity based in New Jersey that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families.

On Sunday, the Diocese of Rochester announced that Matano had removed two priests after an investigation into allegations of misconduct.

Fathers Thomas J. Valenti and Erick Viloria are both restricted from engaging in public ministry or presenting themselves publicly as clerics, according to a statement from the Diocese of Rochester.

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CALIFORNIA
The Recorder

December 10, 2018

By Ross Todd

The ruling from the Fourth District Court of Appeal leaves in place terminating sanctions issued after the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York Inc. refused to hand over a trove of documents concerning known molesters in the church.

A California appellate court has upheld a $4-plus million judgment against Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York Inc., the top organizational body of Jehovah’s Witnesses, in a case brought by a woman who alleges she was molested as a child by a church elder in 2006.

The ruling from the Fourth District Court of Appeal leaves in place terminating sanctions and a $4,016,152.39 judgment after Watchtower refused to hand over a trove of documents it received in response to a 1997 letter sent to Jehovah’s Witness congregations concerning known molesters in the church.

The underlying case was brought on behalf of J.W., who was molested by Gilbert Simental, with whom she and her family attended the Mountain View Jehovah’s Witness congregation. J.W. contends that her family wouldn’t have allowed her to attend a slumber party at Simental’s house but for his service as an elder in the church, the highest authority at the congregational level of the organization. Simental was found guilty in two criminal cases of molesting J.W. and two other anonymous victims.

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FORT WORTH (TX)
The Star-Telegram Editorial Board

December 9, 2018

Revelations of shameless sexual harassment and abuse by powerful men in entertainment, politics and the Roman Catholic Church rocked the nation the past few years.

In truth, such abuse may be just as pronounced, pervasive and pernicious among a loose-knit network of independent fundamental Baptist churches and universities, an eight-month Star-Telegram investigation has found.

The newspaper uncovered over 400 allegations of sexual misconduct in nearly 200 of the churches and affiliated institutions across 40 states and stretching into Canada.

Yet there appears to be even less accountability among these churches than in other areas of society.

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ST. LOUIS (MI)
The Associated Press

December 9, 2018

Two Roman Catholic Jesuit provinces that cover nearly half the U.S. released the names Friday of more than 150 priests and other ministry leaders who were found to have “credible allegations” of sexual abuse made against them dating to the 1950s.

One of the names on the list is Segundo Llorente, who served at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Pocatello from 1982 to 1984. He also served at St. Stanislaus Church in Lewiston from 1984 to 1989. He died in 1989, according to the Jesuit’s release. The claims were for 1962-1963, and the mid-1960s, for alleged sexual abuse of a minor.

The Jesuits say many claims were received after accused priests had died. So in those cases thorough investigations could not be undertaken. Deceased individuals are included in the list based on the fact that an accusation was reported.

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NASHVILLE (TN)
Nashville Tennessean

December 9, 2018

By Amelia Ferrell Knisely

Pastors in independent fundamental Baptist churches have for the first time admitted they shuffled suspected abusers among churches and universities rather than call law enforcement.

It’s according to an eight-month investigation by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that includes first-hand accounts from former church members.

The report reveals 186 church leaders in the denomination were accused or convicted of committing sexual crimes against children, and at least 45 of the alleged abusers continued in ministry — including in Tennessee — after accusations came to the attention of church authorities or law enforcement.

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BROOKSVILLE (FL)
Patheos

December 11, 2018

By Michael Stone

Blaming the victim: Bishop Donald Sanborn claims that the immodest dress of modern women causes sexual assault.

In a recent blog post for In Veritate, Bishop Sanborn offers a critique of the “MeToo” movement by suggesting that women cause their own sexual assault by tempting men with their “immodest dress.”

In his blog post Sanborn makes it clear that victims are at least partially responsible for their own sexual assault, writing:

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YORK (PA)
York Daily Record

December 10, 2018

By Brandie Kessler

The program that appeared to be designed to support them left some sexually abused Catholics feeling even worse.

Mary Handler remembers some of the details so vividly that it’s like it happened yesterday instead of decades ago.

She was 5-½ years old, sitting in the backseat of her family’s car.

Family cars in the 1950s were big — and felt exceptionally so to a child. Handler remembers it was dark out, her mother was in the front seat holding a baby and her father was driving.

Handler was wearing a dress. It was summertime.

Next to her sat the priest her family was taking to the bus station.

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[Two priests sentenced to jail for child abuse were sent to Peru and Bolivia]

MADRID, SPAIN
El País

December 9, 2018

By Íñigo Domínguez

Dos de las escasas sentencias de los noventa, de un agustino recoleto y un jesuita, terminaron con el agresor en América Latina a los pocos meses

Un jesuita, Luis Tó González, y un agustino recoleto, José Luis Untoria Mahave, recibieron en los noventa dos de las escasas condenas de cárcel por abusos de menores en España en aquellos años, en 1992 y 1997, respectivamente, y los dos tuvieron idéntico destino: enviados de misiones a América Latina, al no ingresar en prisión por ser penas de dos años y no tener antecedentes. Luis Tó, profesor del colegio San Ignacio de Barcelona y condenado por abusar de una menor de ocho años, cuando él tenía 57, fue trasladado a Bolivia a los dos meses de la sentencia. José Luis Untoria, profesor en el colegio Santo Tomás de Villanueva de Salamanca, condenado por abusar de diez alumnos del internado, partió a Perú. Tras el eco mediático de sus condenas, casi nada se supo de destino posterior.

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[The sinister face of Father Juanjo, investigated for abusing minors in Benin]

MADRID, SPAIN
El País

December 9, 2018

By Julio Núñez and Íñigo Domínguez

La Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe investiga a un conocido misionero que asiste a niños que viven en la calle en Benín. Dos jóvenes le acusan de violación

El sacerdote Juan José Gómez es un hombre conocido e importante en Benín (África). Su trabajo como misionero sacando a niños pobres de entre 8 y 17 años de las calles de la capital de Porto Novo le ha llevado a salir en varios medios españoles (EL PAÍS, Onda Cero y eldiario.es, entre otros) e incluso en un documental sobre el tráfico de menores en África (No estoy en venta). Frente a esa apariencia, varias denuncias por abusos arrojan sombras sobre su labor solidaria. En 2013, voluntarios denunciaron a Gómez por agredir sexualmente a varios menores a los que daba cobijo con su programa Chicos de la calle. Patrick Yehouenou, de 20 años, es uno de esos jóvenes.

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