ABUSE TRACKER

YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
The Jambar

November 28, 2018

By Alyssa Weston and John Stran

A Trumbull County man in his 40s said he was driving from a relative’s funeral when his girlfriend received a news alert on her cell phone that said the Youngstown Catholic Diocese released the names of 34 religious figureheads who were removed from the clergy over credible sexual misconduct allegations.

When he realized priest John P. Cunningham’s name was on the list, he “immediately broke down and started crying.”

The man spoke to The Jambar on the condition of anonymity about his experience with sexual abuse at St. Stephen of Hungary Catholic Church with Father Cunningham, deceased, who was recently listed as a credibly accused perpetrator of sexual assault by the Diocese of Youngstown.

In October, the Diocese released the names of 31 Youngstown priests, two religious clergy members and one non-clergy member from a religious order. The release of this list was met with an uproar of mixed emotions throughout Youngstown. Confusion spread from Catholics and non-Catholics alike — the goal of peace and change within the church and painful memories for the alleged victims.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
KCTV 5

November 28, 2018

By Chris Oberholtz &Angie Ricono

The Catholic church is under the microscope according to Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, but some key people say that is not true.

A new opinion column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch blasts Hawley’s office and their investigation of the Catholic church. Hawley has blasted back.

“I think a lot more needs to be done,” said Kansas City attorney Rebecca Randles.

She has spent more than a decade investigating the Catholic church and trying to hold predators priests and the church itself accountable.

“We’ve spoken to over 400 witnesses concerning childhood sexual abuse in the Kansas City Diocese … not in any of the other diocese, just Kansas City,” Randles said.

KCTV5 News spoke with Randles months ago, and at that time she was concerned about how the investigation was unfolding.

“There needs to be an outreach to victims. None of our clients have received any outreach,” she said.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
KDKA TV

November 28, 2018

Reporter Update: Parishioners Concerned Donations Being Used To Pay For Sins Of Priests
In the wake of a scathing grand jury report, Catholic parishioners are concerned that their donations will be used to pay for the sins of accused priests.

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MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald

November 28, 2018

By Julie K. Brown

A decade before #MeToo, a multimillionaire sex offender from Florida got the ultimate break.

Palm Beach County Courthouse

June 30, 2008

Jeffrey Edward Epstein appeared at his sentencing dressed comfortably in a blue blazer, blue shirt, jeans and gray sneakers. His attorney, Jack Goldberger, was at his side.

At the end of the 68-minute hearing, the 55-year-old silver-haired financier — accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls — was fingerprinted and handcuffed, just like any other criminal sentenced in Florida.

But inmate No. W35755 would not be treated like other convicted sex offenders in the state of Florida, which has some of the strictest sex offender laws in the nation.

Ten years before the #MeToo movement raised awareness about the kid-glove handling of powerful men accused of sexual abuse, Epstein’s lenient sentence and his extraordinary treatment while in custody are still the source of consternation for the victims he was accused of molesting when they were minors.

Beginning as far back as 2001, Epstein lured a steady stream of underage girls to his Palm Beach mansion to engage in nude massages, masturbation, oral sex and intercourse, court and police records show. The girls — mostly from disadvantaged, troubled families — were recruited from middle and high schools around Palm Beach County. Epstein would pay the girls for massages and offer them further money to bring him new girls every time he was at his home in Palm Beach, according to police reports.

The girls, now in their late 20s and early 30s, allege in a series of federal civil lawsuits filed over the past decade that Epstein sexually abused hundreds of girls, not only in Palm Beach, but at his homes in Manhattan, New Mexico and in the Caribbean.

In 2007, the FBI had prepared a 53-page federal indictment charging Epstein with sex crimes that could have put him in federal prison for life. But then-Miami U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta signed off on a non-prosecution agreement, which was negotiated, signed and sealed so that no one would know the full scope of Epstein’s crimes. The indictment was shelved, never to be seen again.

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UNITED STATES
Elle

November 27, 2018

By Amanda Mitchell

Since the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings in October, Christine Blasey Ford has kept a low profile. The last anyone had heard from her was in October, when she released a statement on her GoFundMe page. But that all changed last week, when Blasey Ford released a second statement, and the sentiment was a little different this time.

The GoFundMe, which has raised nearly $650,000 in two months, has allowed Blasey Ford and her family to “take reasonable steps to protect ourselves against frightening threats, including physical protection and security for me and my family, and to enhance the security for our home.” Blasey Ford has had to move houses four times, the professor has received death threats, and has hired private security to help protect her family since coming forward with her accusations in mid-September. Kavanaugh has denied the allegations.

There was an inkling of positivity, however: “Your tremendous outpouring of support and kind letters have made it possible for us to cope with the immeasurable stress, particularly the disruption to our safety and privacy,” Blasey Ford wrote. “Because of your support, I feel hopeful that our lives will return to normal.”

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UNITED STATES
WITW

November 26, 2018

The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) was made aware of sexual abuse in gymnastics as far back as the 1990s, according to recent court documents filed at the at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

As Reuters reports, former USA Gymnastics (USAG) President Kathy Scanlan said in a statement included in the filings that she had alerted the committee to the problem during her tenure at the head of the USAG, between 1994 to 1998. She claimed not only that “little was done” to deal with the sexual abuse, but also that the committee discouraged her from investigating and disciplining professional members who had been accused of sexual misconduct, according to The New York Times.

“USOC’s challenge to USAG disciplining professional members in this fashion (specifically impeding the ability to ban, suspend or investigate a member) would have inhibited me from adequately protecting minor members,” Scanlan said in the statement.

Her allegations have come to light as a result of a lawsuit filed by two-time Olympian Aly Raisman, who is suing USOC, USAG and Larry Nassar, the disgraced Olympic doctor who has been accused of sexual abuse by nearly 200 women and girls. Nassar is serving up to 125 years in prison on charges of criminal sexual misconduct and possession of child pornography.

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HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle

November 28, 2018

By Samantha Ketterer

Authorities on Wednesday searched the offices of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston for additional evidence in the case of a Conroe priest accused of sexual misconduct, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office.

The search targets included evidence of “secret archives” that exist at the archdiocese, Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon said.

“The good thing is, I’ve taken the burden off everybody in the Catholic Church,” he said. “They don’t have to know anything. I’m going to find it all.”

The search is in connection with former Conroe priest Manuel Larosa-Lopez, who was arrested Sept. 11 on four counts of indecency with a child for alleged sexual misconduct going back to 1998.

The alleged abuse lasted for at least three years and targeted a boy and a girl who attended the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Conroe, according to an arrest affidavit. Larosa-Lopez has denied the allegations.

Larosa-Lopez has denied the allegations.

The archdiocese issued a statement on the matter, saying it is cooperating with the investigation: “This morning, the District Attorney of Montgomery County executed a search warrant for records and information related to an ongoing investigation. The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston continues to cooperate, as we have since the outset, with this process. In fact, consistent with Cardinal DiNardo’s pledge of full cooperation, the information being sought was already being compiled.”

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HOUSTON (TX)
KTRK

November 28, 2018

By Tom Abrahams

Law enforcement authorities from multiple agencies were moving in and out of the Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston this morning in their effort to find documents related to an ongoing sexual abuse investigation.

The Conroe Police Department, Texas Rangers, Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, and other agencies executed a search warrant at 1700 San Jacinto.

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[Sexual abuse by clergy happened mainly at school]

BELGIUM
De Morgen

November 27, 2018

By Ann Van den Broek

Meerderheid van gevallen ging over jongens in het onderwijs

Seksueel misbruik in de kerk vond in grote mate plaats op school. Voor het eerst raken daar nu cijfers van bekend. Liefst 43 procent van de meldingen die de kerk de afgelopen jaren binnenkreeg, ging over misbruik door geestelijken in het onderwijs.

Sinds het schandaal rond de gewezen Brugse bisschop Roger Vangheluwe in 2010 losbarstte, kregen de 10 opvangpunten die de kerk oprichtte 426 meldingen binnen over seksueel misbruik binnen de kerk. Het is een publiek geheim dat veel misbruik door geestelijken zich op school afspeelde. Hoeveel bleef evenwel onduidelijk. Tot nu. Liefst 43 procent van de meldingen gaat over misbruik in een schoolse context, zo leert De Morgen.

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HOUSTON (TX)
KHOU 11

November 28, 2018

By Jeremy Rogalski

Armed with a search warrant, various law enforcement agencies are searching for records pertaining to clergy sex abuse.

Armed with a search warrant, a team of law enforcement agencies searched the offices of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston on Wednesday, looking for records related to the clergy sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.

The unprecedented action in Texas was taken by the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, along with the Texas Rangers and Conroe Police Department. Nearly 50 investigators arrived Wednesday morning carrying boxes inside the Chancery, located at 1700 San Jacinto Street in downtown Houston.

The DA’s office said investigators were looking for documents in connection to the criminal case of Father Manuel LaRosa-Lopez, the priest charged in September on four counts of indecency with a child. In the search warrant filed Wednesday, the DA’s office sought to examine confidential documents held in the Archdiocese’s Chancery and secret archives.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Register

November 26, 2018

By Peter Feuerherd

Is the glass half empty, or half full? When it comes to financial transparency among U.S. dioceses, there’s reason to think both.

Last year, Voice of the Faithful, a group devoted to bishops’ accountability begun in response to the Boston Archdiocese sex abuse scandals of 2002, put out its first study on diocesan financial transparency.

Titled “Measuring and Ranking Diocesan Online Financial Transparency,” the study charted 177 dioceses across the United States, and discovered that most were not open about their financial statements.

This year’s 2.0 version, reports Margaret Roylance, chair of the committee that compiled an updated study, offers reason for optimism: 77 dioceses were found to have improved their transparency scores, meaning it became easier to find out information about how diocesan money was being collected and used.

The Dioceses of Orlando, Florida, and Burlington, Vermont, earned perfect transparency scores, rating a top number of 60 on the Voice of the Faithful scale. The Archdioceses of Atlanta and Baltimore were right behind, with a 59 rating, along with the Diocese of Sacramento, California.

Others did not rate so well. The Dioceses of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and Grand Isle, Nebraska, scored the lowest, with marks of 12 and 13, respectively. The study found that 39 percent of dioceses do not post audited financial statements on their websites. A quarter do not post a financial statement of any kind.

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PEORIA (IL)
SNAP

November 26, 2018

For the second time, a Peoria priest has been suspended from ministry. And despite repeated promises to be “transparent,” his bishop is being unclear about the reason for this action.

According to one news account, Fr. Jeffrey Windy’s March removal comes 15 years after his 2002 arrest for manufacturing and selling gamma-hydroxybutyrate. Also known as GHB, this drug is notorious for its use in cases of date rape, and Windy served time in federal prison for his role in its manufacture. Following his release from prison, Fr. Windy began working again in Catholic parishes in 2013 and has also spent time in Bloomington.

We call on Bishop Daniel Jenky to be more forthcoming about why Fr. Windy has been removed again and about why he let Fr. Windy go back to work after he served his prison sentence. And we urge anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered any possible wrongdoing by Fr. Windy – whether in Peoria or elsewhere – to call law enforcement or support groups for help and healing.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

November 19, 2018

By Patti Armstrong

Words of advice from Phil Lawler, Marcy Klatt, Edward Sri and George Weigel

It’s clear that the dust from the Church sexual abuse scandals will not clear any time soon. What is not entirely clear is how Catholics should respond.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains why it’s so damaging:

Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized. It prompted our Lord to utter this curse: ‘Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea’ (Matthew 18:6). Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others. Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep’s clothing (CCC 2285).

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HOUSTON (TX)
Bilgrimage

November 28, 2018

By William D. Lindsey

A significant footnote to what I posted earlier today about how Catholic pastoral leaders have moved beyond the point of no return with the abuse horror show: this morning, criminal authorities are raiding the offices of the Catholic diocese of Galveston-Houston. According to news reports, they are looking for the secret archives that canon law mandates dioceses keep regarding abuse allegations.

This is a highly significant story because this is the diocese of Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, current president of the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Conference. As the news report at the head of the posting states, this is also unprecedented action in the U.S.

Point of no return, indeed.

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ATHENS COUNTY (OH)
WCHS/WVAH

November 27, 2018

By Gil McClanahan and Jeff Morris

A Catholic priest with the Diocese of Steubenville is headed to prison for 12 years for sexual battery charges involving a teenage member of his parish. The church is in Athens County, Ohio. Henry Christopher Foxhoven pleaded guilty to the charges in Athens County Court Tuesday morning. The sentence was part of a plea deal with prosecutors who believe justice was served in this case.

Prosecutors say Henry Christopher Foxhoven had a sexual relationship with a teenage member of his parish from August to October of this year, adding the incidents took place in the church rectory in Athens County, Ohio.

“I forgive him because that’s what God wants me to do. It says in the Bible forgive men and I forgive him as well. I hate seeing him in that orange suit,” said the victim’s mother in court.

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
The Associated Press

November 27, 2018

The Missouri Attorney General’s Office is seeking court orders for Catholic dioceses to provide records as part of an investigation into potential clergy abuse.

Spokeswoman Mary Compton in a Tuesday statement said the office wants personnel records, records relating to allegations of abuse and other documents from Missouri Catholic organizations.

Outgoing Attorney General Josh Hawley on Tuesday tweeted that the office wants court orders to “acquire information needed from the dioceses to ensure a full, thorough, and independent investigation.”

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ATHENS (OH)
The Athens News

November 27, 2018

By Conor Morris

A local Catholic priest was sentenced Tuesday in Athens County Common Pleas Court to a dozen years in prison, with no option for judicial release, on three counts of sexual battery related to his having a sexual relationship with a minor who attended his parish in Glouster.

Father Henry Christopher Foxhoven, 45, the priest of Holy Cross in Glouster, will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, and will be subject to five years of post-release control after he serves his sentence.

Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn in arguing for the 12-year sentence for Foxhoven said the priest had “groomed” the victim for three years. Blackburn reiterated that Foxhoven had admitted to the girl’s family that she was impregnated by Foxhoven in October (the three counts of sexual battery note that Foxhoven engaged in “sexual conduct” with the minor on at least three occasions since August of this year).

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HOUMA (LA)
Houma Today

November 22, 2018

By Dan Copp

A local former Catholic priest convicted of raping an altar boy in 1996 has died in prison, officials said.

Robert Lester “Bobby” Melancon died Nov. 5 of natural causes at the age of 82, state corrections spokesman Ken Pastorick said.

Melancon, who moved from St. Genevieve in Thibodaux to Annunziata Parish in Houma in 1985, died while serving a life sentence at the David Wade Correctional Center, a minimum-security prison near Shreveport.

A Terrebonne Parish jury of seven men and five women convicted Melancon in 1996 of aggravated rape after less than two hours of deliberation following a 4 ½-day trial.

Prosecutors at the time said Melancon was a sexual predator who raped an 8-year-old altar boy several times from 1985 to 1991 at the Annunziata rectory.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Examiner

November 27, 2018

By Michael Barba

The Catholic diocese in San Francisco has settled roughly $87 million worth of sex abuse cases against priests and others associated with the church, mostly in the last 15 years, according to Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone.

The archbishop divulged the eye-popping figure during a series of town hall meetings held to address the sexual abuse of minors in the local Catholic Church on the heels of a grand jury report in Pennsylvania that found hundreds of priest had molested at least 1,000 children in that region.

The multimillion-dollar figure, while expensive, represents just a fraction of the problem in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, according to an advocate with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, otherwise known as SNAP.

“It’s just the tip of the iceberg,” said SNAP national Board of Directors Secretary Melanie Sakoda, who is based in the Bay Area. “Only maybe one in 10 victims ever come forward. Some of them will say they don’t want money. They just want their abuser out of ministry.”

In October, a law firm named 135 priests linked to the Catholic diocese in San Francisco who have been accused of sexual abuse. Cordileone has not released such a list, though the archbishop was expected to decide whether to name priests who have been credibly accused by the end of November.

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ROME(ITALY)
National Catholic Reporter

November 28, 2018

by Joshua J. McElwee

Three women survivors of clergy sexual abuse shared deeply personal stories during a Nov. 27 storytelling event, each revealing layers of pain, sadness and hurt exacerbated by the realization that they were trapped within a male-dominated structure that ignored their stories and demanded silence.

Peruvian Rocio Figueroa Alvear, once the head of the women’s branch of a burgeoning but now disgraced lay religious movement, recounted being forbidden to speak of her abuse by its male second-in-command, and threatened with publishing of false claims against her own conduct should she disobey.

American Barbara Dorris, long known as a leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests or SNAP, spoke publicly for the first time about her rape by a priest as a 6-year-old girl, and how it continued for years afterward.

Saying she did “everything in my power” to hide her pain from her devout parents and family, Dorris only came forward as a parent when she recognized warning signs in the behavior of another priest on a playground with children.e.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

November 28, 2018

ROME – The Vatican’s former doctrinal chief in a new interview issued a strong critique of both a former papal ambassador who asked Pope Francis to resign, and the U.S. bishops’ decision to move on sex abuse without proper consultation from the Holy See.

In the interview, given to veteran Vatican journalist Andrea Tornielli and published Nov. 27 on Italian site Vatican Insider, German Cardinal Gerhard Müller, former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, spoke out against the polemics that have developed between different Church factions, and said he believes Francis is doing everything he can to address clerical sexual abuse.

“No one has the right to indict the pope or ask him to resign!” Müller said, referring to an Aug. 26 statement made by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who served as papal envoy to the U.S. from 2011-2016, accusing Francis of ignoring warnings about the sexual misconduct of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and asking him to resign.

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

November 28, 2018

We applaud Texas law enforcement officials for raiding the “secret archives” of the Houston Catholic archdiocese. All too often, police and prosecutors pursue child molesting clerics but ignore the church supervisors and co-workers who hide their crimes.

Today’s raid was in response to the handling of the Fr. Manual LaRosa-Lopez case by Houston church officials. Perhaps if Cardinal Daniel DiNardo had reported the allegations against Fr. LaRosa-Lopez to law enforcement when he first heard of them this raid would not have been necessary. We cannot help but wonder what will be revealed in these secret files, but are glad that the Montgomery County prosecutor’s office will now have new information to work from.

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ANCHORAGE (AK)
Truth in Love blog

November, 28 2018

By Archbishop Paul Etienne

For various reasons, I have been slow to share my own thoughts with you about our USCCB meeting in Baltimore earlier this month. I needed time to sit and pray with all the events and input of the week. I am sure about two things, one; the People of God need to hear from their bishops in the wake of our meeting in Baltimore, and two, there is hope for our future.

No Vote:

Without a doubt, the ‘show-stopper’ moment came at the beginning of our meeting, when Cardinal DiNardo announced that he had only the night before received word from the Holy See (through the Congregation for Bishops) that we were not to vote on any of the proposed policies for handling sexual misconduct by bishops and dealing with poor governance of bishops with regards to handling abuse cases. Since that moment, the one question that quickly surfaced was: “Why doesn’t the Pope care about the abuse crisis in the United States?”

Let me be very clear, while this was a disturbing moment, and a troubling way to begin our meeting, Pope Francis cares very much about what we are experiencing in the United States. But, he also recognizes that this is a problem of the Universal Church, and requires measures that will apply globally. I’ll have more to say about this in a moment.

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LITTLE ROCK (AR)
Bilgrimage blog

November 28, 2018

By William Lindsey

In a flurry of statements ahead of the first day to commemorate victims of sexual abuse ever held in Germany, on Sunday this week, the German bishops said the Church had reached “a point of no return” and needed to act with the utmost urgency.

Bishops said the crisis was “of the most extreme dimension” and new approaches towards sexuality, gender equality, celibacy and the role of women had to be discussed.

Bishop Stephan Ackermann of Trier, who is responsible for sexual abuse problems in the German bishops’ conference, said it had become clear that the Church could no longer consider abuse an internal church problem and that dioceses must therefore open their archives for independent experts. “This means the bishop must give up his control and hand over all further investigations to independent experts”, he told the German weekly “Der Spiegel”.

Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen told domradio.de that the crisis of confidence in the Church had now reached “the most extreme dimension” and a “point of no return” which meant that everything was completely different to what went before. “The Church must now discuss a new approach to those questions which stem from the abuse crisis, namely, the handling of sexuality, gender equality, celibacy and the role of women in the Church. We can and must face this challenge,” he emphasised.

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[Confidence in Chile’s Catholic Church suffers its greatest fall, but faith of the faithful remains strong]

CHILE
Emol

November 26, 2018

El 80% de los católicos cree en Dios sin dudas, pero solo 15% confía “mucho o bastante” en la institución.

La Encuesta Bicentenario 2018 reveló que la confianza en la Iglesia Católica en Chile ha tenido un descenso significativo. Según el estudio del Centro de Políticas Públicas UC y GfK Adimark, la confianza de los encuestados en la Iglesia cayó de 18% a 9%, desde 2017 y entre los católicos bajó de 27% a 15%. “Es el peor registro de confianza que tiene la Iglesia en nuestra serie, que tiene más de 12 años”, afirma Eduardo Valenzuela, decano de la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales UC.

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[Schoenstatt ponders having ex-bishop Cox return to Chile]

CHILE
La Tercera

November 26, 2018

By Sergio Rodríguez and Leyla Zapata

“La idea es ponerlo a disposición de la justicia”, dijo el sacerdote Patricio Moore, vocero del movimiento religioso que acoge al otrora prelado, quien a mediados de octubre pasado fue expulsado del estado clerical por el Papa.

“Va a tener que obedecer lo que nosotros decidamos, es la única oportunidad que tiene. Por supuesto que nos vamos a preocupar de él, pero queremos hacerlo acá en Chile”, subrayó hoy el sacerdote Patricio Moore, vocero en el país del movimiento Padres de Schoenstatt. Y agregó: “La idea es que vuelva y se ponga a disposición de la justicia”.

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HOUSTON (TX)
KHOU TV

November 28, 2018

By Jeremy Rogalski

Armed with a search warrant, a team of law enforcement agencies raided the offices of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston on Wednesday, searching for records related to the clergy sex abuse crisis in the Catholic church.

The unprecedented action in Texas was taken by the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, along with the Texas Rangers and Conroe Police Department.

The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office said investigators were looking for documents in connection to the criminal case of Manuel LaRosa-Lopez, the priest charged in September on four counts of indecency with a child. A man and a woman claimed they were abused as teenagers between 1998 and 2001 at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Conroe.

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National Catholic Register

November 27, 2018

By Patti Armstrong

Could it be that the Church does not yet have a plan to deal with the sex abuse scandal and the crises of confidence because self-preserving, narcissist personalities stand in the way? Humble servant leaders dedicated to shepherding are not adept at handling that.

Priests and bishops creating personal fiefdoms put themselves above others; even God. Their goal is self-enhancement and they establish a network of like-minded friends in high places. Hard-working, and hard-praying clergy are not working to form powerful networks. Their own honesty also leads them to take others at their word which is a disadvantage when dealing with the duplicitous. For instance, most never imagined the hypocrisy of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s speech (at the 1:20 mark) at the Dallas Charter in 2002 when he expressed a desire to clean up the Church all while sullying it with behind-the-scenes decadence.

The narcissists have brought suffering to the entire Church. In the U.S., there is divisiveness, confusion and money getting withheld. There are plans for more state attorney general investigations and threats of RICO, and many Catholics who remained loyal through previous scandals are now leaving.

A potentially globally disastrous consequence also looms due to the last-minute intervention at the opening of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) fall meeting. The bishops intended to vote on two measures responding to the sex abuse crisis, but the Vatican instructed them to stand down and await a meeting of global episcopal conference leadership with Pope Francis in February.

That move may have undermined a previous defense used by the Vatican to avoid responsibility for damages when victims of clergy abuse sue. The 2010 suit O’Bryan vs. the Holy See attempted to depose Pope Benedict XVI in the U.S. district court in Kentucky. A Vatican lawyer argued successfully that the Vatican is not responsible for the U.S. bishops’ policy on protecting children, and nor is it responsible for day-to-day operational policy.

So now, what will be the Vatican’s defense on a new class action suit filed Nov. 13 against the Holy See and USCCB? Six men claim they were sexually abused by clergy as children and are asking financial damages as well as public contrition and reparation from the Church. The suit claims that the Vatican and the bishops covered up for the “endemic, systemic, rampant, and pervasive rape and sexual abuse” of the plaintiffs and others.

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NEWCASTLE (AUSTRALIA)
ABC Newcastle

November 27, 2018

By Giselle Wakatama

A Newcastle judge has been heckled and abuse survivors left outraged after the former Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson was excused from attending an appeals court judgement in relation to him allegedly covering up child abuse.

Wilson, 68, has appealed his conviction for concealing child sex abuse that occurred in the Hunter region of New South Wales in the 1970s.

He is currently serving a minimum sentence of six months home detention.

The local court found that in 1976 the victim, Peter Creigh, confided in Wilson that he had been sexually abused, yet Wilson failed to report it to police when Jim Fletcher was charged with other child sex offences in 2004.

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

November 27, 2018

A priest from the Diocese of Steubenville pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual battery for grooming and impregnating a teenaged parishioner. Father Henry Christopher Foxhaven was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his crimes and will be required to register as a sex offender.

We are grateful for this sentence and for the fact that the prosecutor and the judge recognized the severity of the violation. We hope this encourages others who may have experienced, witnessed, or suspected abuse by Father Foxhaven, or others, to come forward and report to law enforcement.

However, we are troubled by the fact that the media coverage of this case constantly referred to Father Foxhaven’s crimes as a “sexual relationship.” The victim in this case was 14 years old when the grooming began and certainly cannot consent to a “sexual relationship” with an authority figure almost three decades her senior. Using the term “relationship” not only downplays the seriousness of the crime but also, as we saw from the reports on the sentencing hearing, will cause this young girl to blame herself for what happened. The onus should be placed squarely on the shoulders of Father Foxhaven and the Church officials who should have acted decisively to protect this child last year.

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INDIA
Ed Times Youth blog

November 28, 2018

By A Guest Writer

Disclaimer: The identity of the author has been kept anonymous, as per her request owing to her personal reasons and insecurities.

I had never thought, not even in any of my dreams, that I’ll be penning this down and would get it published. It is the dark side of my life that I never wanted the world to know, that side of me that was always a well-kept secret.

Yes, like every other person, I had my past too, a dark one that I never dared to discuss with anyone. But today, I would dare to.

My Story

I was like any other bubbly child, with a normal childhood. I used to be very energetic and people used to call me “the happy soul” until that day when everything changed.

I clearly remember that day, the year was 2008. I was as always playing in a temple near my house with my friends. It was near my home and we all used to go and have a nice time there. The priest knew us and used to welcome us with open arms.

That day, not many of us were there. It was early in the evening that all of us decided to go back when the priest called me. Rest of my friends went while I stayed. He said he wanted my help. I was too innocent to understand what may happen and I stayed back. He then asked me to sit on his laps and recite “twinkle twinkle little stars”. As I was reciting, he suddenly held my face and started kissing me.

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EAU CLAIRE (WI)
Wisconsin Public Radio

November 26, 2018

By John Davis

For the last two decades the Roman Catholic Church has been the center of several high-profile scandals involving the sexual abuse of children by priests.

In the wake of countless accusations, priests and those involved in the church are questioning how to move forward.

For one Eau Claire pastor, Rev. Thomas Krieg of St. James the Greater Catholic Church, the key is for the Catholic church hierarchy to be honest about the history of sex abuse.

He also said the underlying problem in the Catholic church has been the need of its leaders to protect the reputation of the church.

“That’s really what we’re working on now is greater transparency. We’re here to serve. A crime is a crime. Forget about protecting reputations, let’s protect children. Let’s hold everyone who has a part to play in the destruction of lives accountable,” Krieg said.

Charlene Burns, a professor of philosophy and religious studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, agrees.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The Fordham Ram)

November 28, 2018

By Erica Scalise

The late Rev. Cornelius Carr, S.J., who spent the end of his life living in Murray-Weigel Hall, the Jesuit nursing home on Fordham’s Rose Hill campus, was accused this year of being involved in a sexual abuse incident at Jesuit High School in New Orleans in the late 1970’s.

According to Bob Howe, assistant vice president for communications, the university was not aware of the allegations against Carr until The Ram raised them.

“That was a lapse on our part, and one that will not be repeated,” said Howe. “It is the university’s duty to ensure the safety of its students, faculty and staff, and while we don’t believe any members of the Fordham community have been placed at risk by Father Carr’s presence, it is inappropriate to house him in proximity to a college campus and high school.”

According to the New Orleans Advocate, before spending the end of his life at Fordham, Carr served as Provincial of Jesuits’ New York Province in 1966, principal of McQuaid High School in Rochester, New York from 1960-64, a teacher at Jesuit High School (1976-1980), principal of St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City, New Jersey and a member of the Archdiocese of Florida, 1981-2005.

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PERTH (AUSTRALIA)
Out in Perth

November 28, 2018

By Leigh Andrew Hill

A cardinal of the Catholic Church has spoken out against the LGBTI+ community in a recent interview, blaming the church’s sexual abuse scandal on the “moral depravity” of gay people.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller spoke with right-wing publication LifeSite to address accusations of sexual abuse of boys within the organisation. Müller also addresses the resignation of cardinal Theodore McCarrick in July, after he was accused of abusing young men.

In the interview, Müller says that the “homosexual conduct of clergymen can in no case be tolerated.”

“That McCarrick, together with his clan and a homosexual network, was able to wreak havoc in a mafia-like manner in the Church is connected with the underestimation of the moral depravity of homosexual acts among adults,” Müller said.

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WHEELING (WV)
The Intelligencer

November 28, 2018

A priest who served several areas of East Ohio now will serve 12 years in jail for sexual battery after he impregnated a 17-year-old girl.

Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn said the Rev. Henry Christopher Foxhoven, 45, of Glouster, pleaded guilty to three sexual battery counts. As part of his sentence, Foxhoven must register as a sex offender.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Steubenville suspended Foxhoven in October. The diocese said Bishop Jeffrey M. Monforton took that action as soon as he learned Foxhoven had admitted to the offense.

Blackburn said the teen was an altar girl in one of Foxhoven’s parishes in the diocese and Foxhoven engaged in sexual conduct with her between Aug. 17 and Oct. 25.

Blackburn previously said Foxhoven “groomed” the girl.

“He took her at a young age and used religion to the point where she fell in love with him,” he said.

Blackburn has said the Diocese of Steubenville appropriately turned the case over to authorities when Foxhoven came to Monforton to tell him about the pregnancy. However, the diocese did not report an incident that led to a weeklong suspension in November 2017. He reportedly had been inappropriately touching the same girl during a wedding reception.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Times-Picayune

November 27, 2018

By Kim Chatelain

Last week, I reached into the depths of a guest bedroom closet and retrieved a fancy white album containing photos of our wedding in 1984.

Naturally, I was somewhat amazed by how young both my wife and I looked in the photos. But what really struck me was the marriage license that was affixed to the back page of the album, which included the signature of the priest who married us – Father Louis LeBourgeois.

A few weeks earlier, I had interviewed a woman in California who reached out to me after reading stories I’d written about clergy abuse in the Catholic Church. She wanted to share her story in hopes it would help other survivors.

She claimed that it was LeBourgeois who had abused her in 1968, when she was just shy of five years old and living in River Ridge. After listening to LindaLee Stonebreaker’s story over the course of several telephone interviews, one thing became crystal clear in the mind of this lifelong Catholic – this was going to be one of the most difficult stories I would handle in my 40 years in journalism.

Although she had never gone public with her story, Stonebreaker said the recent spate of clergy abuse news accounts prompted her to speak out. I spent weeks trying to verify the story, with at least part of me hoping that my research would prove that the claim was at least partially false.

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NANTES (FRANCE)
La Croix International

November 28, 2018

By Céline Hoyeau

An investigation into the “sexual abuse of minor of 15” has begun. The accused is a Congolese priest who has spent the past two years in parish run by the Emmanuel Community in the city of Nantes in Western France.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

November 28, 2018

By Claire Giangrave and Elise Harris

One of the organizers appointed by Pope Francis to plan a February 21-24 summit at the Vatican on sexual abuse of vulnerable people has been accused of covering up abuse in his own archdiocese in India by one of his former collaborators.

“My bishop is among the organizers, which left me perplexed,” said Indian-born Virginia Saldanha, a former director of the women’s commission of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, “What is he going to do? Come up with more cover-up ideas?”

Saldanha was referring to Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, who also serves on Francis’s “C-9” council of cardinal advisors. Gracias was appointed to organize the long-awaited gathering of the heads of bishops’ conferences from around the world and experts from various fields for the protection of minors and vulnerable adults.

With 20 years of experience within the Indian Church, Saldanha had a front-row seat to the rapid changes that led to the arrest of Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandha for sexually abusing a religious sister 13 times.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Knasas City Star

November 27, 2018

By Judy L. Thomas

Angered by a column in a Missouri newspaper that said he wasn’t doing enough to investigate clergy sex abuse in the Roman Catholic Church, Attorney General Josh Hawley on Tuesday took to social media.

“We are seeking court orders to acquire information needed from the dioceses to ensure a full, thorough, and independent investigation,” Hawley said in a tweet just before noon.

And two hours later: “We are prepared to use every tool at our disposal to ensure a thorough and independent investigation to find the facts and the truth.”

The tweets were in response to an op-ed piece published Monday in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It was written by Kansas City attorney Rebecca Randles, who has represented hundreds of clergy sex abuse victims, and David Clohessy, former director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

“One of us is an advocate who has, over the past 30 years, spoken with more clergy sex abuse victims than perhaps anyone anywhere,” they wrote. “The other is an attorney who has, over the past 25 years, represented more than 300 people assaulted by Catholic priests, nuns, brothers and seminarians and has talked to roughly 300 more.

“But we’ve essentially gotten silence from the attorney general’s office.”

They said St. Louis attorney Ken Chackes, who has represented more than 100 priest sex abuse victims, also had not heard from Hawley.

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PORTLAND (ME)
Portland Press Herald

November 27, 2018

By Megan Gray

Keith Townsend described his memory of the bottle in Ronald Paquin’s hand: Tanqueray gin.

He described how Paquin made him a drink and then got upset when the liquor made him throw up on the carpet in the trailer at a Kennebunkport campground.

And he described the way Paquin touched him that night and the pain he felt the next morning that later led him to believe he had been sexually assaulted.

Townsend shared those details and others with a jury Tuesday when he testified against the former Boston priest, who is accused of repeatedly sexually abusing him and another boy on trips to Maine in the 1980s. Townsend was 13 years old on that night he recounted from the witness stand.

“I can still taste that drink today,” said Townsend, now 44.

Paquin, 76, was one of the priests exposed in the early 2000s by a sweeping Boston Globe investigation into clergy sex abuse. He is now facing criminal charges in York County, and his trial this week likely is the first in Maine for a priest embroiled in the Catholic Church’s ongoing sexual abuse scandal.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

November 26, 2018

By Jeannine Gramick

This is not a feel-good article, so you might want to stop reading right now. With the report from the Pennsylvania grand jury about the sexual abuse of children by priests and the scandal of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sexual advances toward seminarians and youth, you may feel saturated by horrific stories and want to shut out any further disgusting accounts that should never have occurred. I know I feel that way. If you want to read no further, I sympathize with you. I, too, am exhausted by all the talk about sexual abuse. I feel weary of seeing article after article in almost every newspaper I pick up. I want to scream, “Enough already!”

But maybe not enough yet, because sexual exploitation has been perpetrated not only on boys and men, but also on women and nuns. In 1994, the late Sr. Maura O’Donohue submitted the results of a 23-nation survey about African nuns who were impregnated by priests who, in their fear of contracting AIDS, preyed upon nuns for safe sexual encounters. Unfortunately, O’Donohue’s reports, which were made public by the National Catholic Reporter in 2001, were never acted upon by the Vatican.

This year, a former superior general of the Missionaries of Jesus in India charged Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, India, with sexually molesting her for several years. She took this action only after receiving no response from the Indian bishops and the apostolic nuncio in India.

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SCRANTON (PA)
Citizens Voice

November 27, 2018

By Terrie Morgan-Besecker

A Philadelphia law firm announced today the filing of a lawsuit against the Diocese of Scranton and a predator priest the complaint accuses of sexually abusing an altar boy more than a decade ago.

Attorney Gerald J. Williams filed the suit in Lackawanna County Court, alleging church officials failed to protect his client from former priest William Jeffrey Paulish.

The suit identifies the victim by the fictitious name Richard Roe. He is 29 years old and a resident of Lackawanna County.

The complaint alleges Paulish repeatedly sexually abused Roe between October 2006 and May 2007 at St. Mary’s Parish in Old Forge, where the priest was assistant pastor at the time.

Paulish pleaded guilty in February 2014 to one count of corruption of a minor for engaging in oral sex with a 15-year-old boy inside a car parked at the Penn State Scranton campus in Dunmore. He was sentenced in June 2014 to eight to 23 months in prison.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WLS-AM Radio

November 27, 2018

Cardinal Cupich is vowing REAL change in the Catholic church’s pursuit of pedophile priests.

Pope Francis has given Cupich a leadership role for a Vatican meeting on reforms in February. At a City Club breakfast, the cardinal was promising change after so many years of scandals, but he did acknowledge the questions so many people have.

“Why should we trust them to do the right thing? Sorrow, disgust and outrage. These are all righteous feelings. They are the stirrings of the conscience of a people scandalized by the terrible reality that too many of the men who promised to protect their children and strengthen their faith have been responsible for wounding both.”

Cupich said the church needs to make it easier for victims to come forward and to end a culture of privilege and self protection.

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ST. PETERSBURG (FL)
Poynter

November 27, 2018

By Tiffany Stevens

When the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, released the names of 71 clergy members accused of sexual abuse, York Daily Record investigative reporter Brandie Kessler immediately thought of Todd Frey.

Kessler has stayed in touch with Frey since 2016, when he told her that a priest named Guy Marsico had abused him as a young teenager at a church in York. Marsico’s name on the list gave Kessler the chance to ask Frey something she had asked several times before — whether he would be willing to put his story on the record. This time, he said yes.

At times, Kessler was unsure whether Frey would ever be ready to go on the record. Staying in touch, showing compassion and reassuring Frey that he had final say in whether a story was written at all, however, allowed Kessler to show readers the trauma local residents suffered because of sexual abuse committed by clergy members.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

November 27, 2018

By Edwina Brincat

The man admitted his actions but said a prison term was excessive

An appeals court has confirmed an effective three-year prison term for a 70-year old man who had admitted sexually abusing a number of underage boys.

Valletta resident John Zammit will also have his name recorded in the Sexual Offenders’ Register following the decision by the Criminal Court of Appeal.

The accused was investigated by the police following an anonymous tip-off. He subsequently admitted to having had oral sex with four boys, aged between 13 and 17, in exchange for money or food.

The man, a part-time worker at a pastizzi shop, also admitted the charges in court and was handed a three-year effective jail term. He appealed, arguing that the punishment was excessive.

While acknowledging that what he had done was “very serious,” the accused said that by sending him to prison, the court would allow him no chance to fix the harm done.

The Court of Criminal Appeal, presided over by Madam Justice Consuelo Scerri Herrera, focusing upon the accused’s own statement, observed that the man, a father of four and separated for the past 37 years, had allegedly been sexually abused by a priest when aged 16.

After years of inner turmoil, the man had finally come to terms with his bisexual tendencies, trying to lead as normal a life as possible.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

November 27, 2018

By Kim Chatelain

Linda Lee Stonebreaker says she was four-and-a-half years old when a Catholic priest picked her up at a preschool in River Ridge and sexually assaulted her in his car.

The year was 1968, long before clergy abuse in the world’s largest Christian church entered the public’s consciousness, and before Stonebreaker was old enough to fully understand the gravity of what she says happened.

Confused and intimidated by the priest, Stonebreaker says for years she told no one. She feared she wouldn’t be believed, would go to hell for revealing the abuse or would bring about an attack on the priest by her father, Steve Stonebreaker, then a 6-foot-3, 235-pound linebacker for the New Orleans Saints with a well-documented penchant for fisticuffs.

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[More abuse victims in Rhede]

GERMANY
WDR

November 26, 2018

– Kaplan verging sich an Messdienern
– Weitere Missbrauchsfälle in Pfarrei
– Informationsveranstaltung des Bistums

In Rhede wurden Anfang der Siebziger Jahre mehr Kinder als bislang bekannt von einem katholischen Priester missbraucht. Nachdem vor gut einer Woche in der betroffenen Pfarrei “Zur Heiligen Familie” ein erster Fall von Kindesmissbrauch durch den damaligen Kaplan bekannt gemacht worden war, meldete sich beim WDR in Münster ein weiterer Betroffener.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

November 27, 2018

By Michael Sean Winters

In his most recent column at First Things, titled “Vatican Autocracy and the U.S. Bishops,” George Weigel, who once posed as the “authoritative biographer” of Pope Paul II, writes:

I recently spent almost five weeks in Rome, during which I found an anti-American atmosphere worse than anything I’d experienced in 30 years of work in and around the Vatican. A false picture of the Church’s life in the United States, in which wealthy Catholics in league with extreme right-wing bishops have hijacked the Church and are leading an embittered resistance to the present pontificate, has been successfully sold. And in another offense against collegiality, this grossly distorted depiction of American Catholicism has not been effectively challenged or corrected by American bishops enjoying Roman favor these days.

This paragraph provokes several plausible responses, the most obvious of which is to say that this picture was not “sold” so much as it was “discovered,” one might even say “discerned.” Weigel once defined natural law as the result of “disciplined reflection on the dynamics of human action,” and something similar could be used to describe how Vatican officials came to the conclusion that “wealthy Catholics in league with extreme right-wing bishops have hijacked the Church” in the United States.

An even simpler response is found in a recent news story: “Catholic Business Leaders Hold Back Donation to Vatican Amid Church Crisis,” as The Wall Street Journal headline had it. Legatus, an organization for Catholic CEOs, has decided to withhold the organization’s tithe to the Holy See. Talk about throwing your money around or, in this case, not throwing your money around. I want to ask these titans of industry how their action is not merely an updated version of simony?

But the best response would be for Weigel to simply consult past issues of the National Catholic Reporter.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

November 27, 2018

Story by Sean D. Hamill, Visuals by Andrew Rush

The memories, anger and betrayal of being sexually abused by Catholic priest Anthony Cipolla in Pittsburgh have been inescapable for three men he targeted as boys

Tim Bendig was repeatedly abused by Catholic priest Anthony Cipolla from 1982 to 1986. That came after the Catholic Church declined to remove Cipolla from the priesthood for the abuse of two brothers in the 1970s. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recently followed Mr. Bendig as he returned to the vacant rectory and church, St. Canice, where his life changed forever 36 years ago.

“That’s the room,” said a shaken Tim Bendig.

He was pointing at the bedroom on the second floor in the former St. Canice Church rectory where he was first sexually abused 36 years ago by a Catholic priest, Anthony Cipolla.

Mr. Bendig had not expected to be here on a sunny day in September, inside the rectory, and later the crumbling church in Knoxville next door. In both are the places where he was abused at least 15 times in the first of four years of abuse he endured, starting when he was 13 years old.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Spreaker

November 27, 2018

From: Out of the Shadows

Length: 54:31

Please be advised this episode contains content and language that is graphic in nature, listener discretion is strongly advised.

Where were you at in life at the age of 13? Personally, I remember being in 8th grade using my free time to binge read Harry Potter books. Charles Franz had a much different experience… For more than 5 years Charles fell victim to a predator – someone he knew as Father Joseph Maskell. You have heard from female survivors so far in this series, but Maskell’s reign of terror wasn’t limited to gender or age. Charles is an amazing person, we thank him for sharing his story with us.

Join Gemma Hoskins and Shane Waters as they continue the conversation that Netflix’s Docu-Series “The Keepers” shared with the world in 2017. Although Gemma and many people you hear from were featured in the Docu-Series; This production is not affiliated with Netflix.

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CANADA
CBC News

November 26, 2018

By Jorge Barrera

Estimates place Ottawa’s liabilities related to historical claims to be in the billions of dollars

Ottawa is consistently missing its legislated deadline for responding to historical claims filed by First Nations, according to a recently released report.

The report, compiled by the B.C. Specific Claims Working Group, says Ottawa had blown its three-year deadline on 65 per cent of all historical claims — known as specific claims — filed between Jan. 1, 2014 and Nov. 10, 2015.

Specific claims are monetary damage claims made by a First Nation against the Crown and generally deal with lost lands and mishandled funds.

Under the Specific Claims Tribunal Act, Ottawa is required to respond within three years after a First Nation files a specific claim as to whether it would negotiate a settlement.

“We are seeing a lot of rhetoric, a lot of promises, and they are very hollow,” said Neskonlith Chief Judy Wilson, whose community is in B.C.

“They don’t seem to be filtering down to the grassroots level for the systemic changes we need.”

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TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade

November 24, 2018

The Editorial Board

Since the early 2000s, waves of revelations about clergy sex abuse and the systemic cover-ups that hid that abuse for generations have rocked the Catholic Church.

And despite paying billions of dollars in settlements, despite creating institutional reforms, despite apologies and promises that such abuses were no longer tolerated, victims continue to come forward.

And the church continues to demonstrate that its first priority is to protect itself and its predatory priests, rather than to protect its most vulnerable parishioners.

In the case of 51-year-old Riley Kinn, the church is doing nothing less than stonewalling a man who is taking church leaders at their word that abuse allegations would be taken seriously.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
CNA

November 26, 2018

By JD Flynn

Bishop Frank Rodimer and Fr. Peter Osinski were friends.

Osinski was a priest in the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey. Rodimer was Bishop of Paterson, a nearby diocese, from 1978 until 2004.

For years the men rented a beach house together each summer on New Jersey’s Long Beach Island, south of Seaside and north of Atlantic City. There, for seven years in the 1980s, Osinski molested a young boy. The first year it happened, the boy was seven.

The priest was arrested in 1997. He was sentenced to ten years in prison.

In 1999, the victim settled a lawsuit against the bishop, the priest, and the priest’s diocese. Rodimer was not alleged to have have committed sexual abuse, but the suit charged that the bishop had been negligent in failing to recognize what was going on.

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IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph

November 26, 2018

By Nick Bramhill

Priests who die while facing accusations of sexual abuse are being denied traditional Catholic funerals, even if they weren’t convicted.

The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) has voiced concern over the funeral arrangements of stepped-down members of clergy, with one member claiming that even deceased murderers and gangland criminals are laid to rest with more dignity.

The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) has published a list of broad guidelines to Church authorities on how to discreetly conduct the funerals of clerics who were facing abuse allegations when they died.

But some dioceses in Ireland have adopted even more stringent policies for funerals of priests facing accusations.

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ATHENS COUNTY (WV)
WCHS/WVAH

November 26, 2018

A Catholic priest accused of sexual misconduct with a minor female will appear Tuesday in Athens County Court of Common Pleas.

Henry Christopher Foxhoven, 45, of Glouster, Ohio, a Catholic priest in the Diocese of Steubenville, will appear in court on charges of three counts of sexual battery, according to a news release from the Athens County Prosecutor’s Office.

Prosecutor Keller Blackburn said Foxhoven is accused of engaging in sexual conduct with a minor female between Aug. 17 and Oct. 25. The minor is a member of Holy Cross in Glouster, Ohio, one of Foxhoven’s two parishes.

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ALFRED (ME)
The Associated Press

November 26, 2018

A 74-year-old former Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to raping an altar boy in Massachusetts went on trial Monday for allegedly assaulting two boys in Maine in the 1980s.

Ronald Paquin, who was defrocked in 2004, is charged with assaulting the boys between 1985 and 1988 in Kennebunkport, Maine, when the victims were 14 or younger. Court documents indicate one of them was “substantially impaired” by drugs during the assault.

Paquin, who pleaded not guilty, used a cane when he entered the courtroom on Monday, and sat between his attorneys as one of the victims testified in York County Superior Court.

The man told jurors Paquin took him out for meals, let him drive his car without a license and took him on trips, the Portland Press Herald reported .

The abuse allegedly began when the man was as young as 12 or 13 years old and continued through his teenage years. The sexual assaults took place at several locations, including a motel and a campground in Kennebunkport, the man said.

Jurors who were selected last week were asked a series of questions including whether they watched the movie “Spotlight” about the Boston Globe’s reporting on the clergy abuse scandal.

Paquin, who was featured in the movie, was a central figure in the scandal that enveloped the Boston archdiocese. He spent more than a decade in a Massachusetts prison for sexually assaulting an altar boy.

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ALFRED (ME)
WGME

November 26, 2018

A former Catholic priest, who has already served a lengthy prison sentence for raping an altar boy, is now on trial in York County.

He is accused of molesting two boys in the 1980s.

The trial started with prosecutors laying out their case against Ronald Paquin, and the two alleged victims who will testify against him.

“I remember, the first time he touched me I was sitting on his lap driving his brand-new Toyota Cressida, at eight years old,” alleged victim Keith Townsend said.

Speaking to CBS 13 last year, Keith Townsend claims he is one of two alleged victims, now coming forward to testify against their former priest and alleged abuser, Ronald Paquin.

The alleged victims say they were abused more than 30 years ago inside Paquin’s RV at a Maine campground.

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PEORIA (IL)
Patch

November 26, 2018

By Rebecca Bream

Rev. Jeffrey Windy previously served time for manufacturing and selling a date-rape drug.

For the second time since 2002, a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Peoria has been removed from ministry, and the reason why isn’t exactly clear. According to the Chicago Tribune, the Rev. Jeffrey Windy’s superiors in Peoria learned last winter Windy had visited two people involved in a criminal court case, leading the police to question him and his boss in the Ottawa parishes, the Rev. David Kipfer.

Windy was removed from ministry in March by Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky because, according to diocese official Monsignor James Kruse, Windy didn’t ask for his superiors’ approval before getting involved in the criminal case, showing he hadn’t overcome what Kruse called “a pattern of imprudence,” the Chicago Tribune said.

The Catholic Diocese of Peoria and Windy wouldn’t provide a comment to the news outlet, but the Tribune said Kruse confirmed Jenky filed a canon law case in Rome for more action on Windy’s status.

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ST. PETERSBURG (FL)
NBC 2

November 26, 2018

By Joe Putrelo

A Catholic pastor who worked almost 20 years in Southwest Florida is now accused of sexually abusing a child in the 1970s.

A Catholic pastor who worked almost 20 years in Southwest Florida is now accused of sexually abusing a child in the 1970s.

The suspect at the center of the investigation is Rev. Nicholas McLoughlin.

He served as pastor of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Port Charlotte from 1982-2003 after his assignment as pastor at Corpus Christi Parish in Temple Terrace.

The Diocese of St. Petersburg, the organization leading the investigation, released this statement:

“An allegation of inappropriate physical contact with a minor has been made against Rev. Nicholas McLoughlin, a priest of the Diocese of Venice, who served as pastor of Corpus Christi Parish, Temple Terrace from 1973 to 1982. He previously served as associate pastor of St. John Vianney, St. Pete Beach and pastor of Bishop Barry and Notre Dame High Schools in St. Petersburg from June 1972 to August 1973.

The alleged incident took place during the 1970s while Father McLoughlin was assigned to Corpus Christi. The Diocese has notified the State Attorney’s office of the allegation. Also, parishioners of Corpus Christi Parish and St. John Vianney Parish received announcements of the allegation the weekend of November 3- 4, 2018.

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HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle

November 26, 2018

By Cardinal Daniel DiNardo

In Matthew 16:24, the Lord instructs his disciples, and all of us, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross …” As followers of Christ, and as a Church greatly challenged by the clergy abuse scandal, I recognize as a Church leader that we have no more important cross to take up and bear today than restoring the trust of the faithful. That means confronting the evil of abuse wherever it is found and working with law enforcement and other agencies to see that justice is served.

The vast majority of our priests serve with selflessness and fidelity, but the vile and horrid acts of a small minority has shaped the perception of the media and many in the public about all priests – and now, our bishops. While this is understandable, it is regrettable and it is only through actions based on faith and just principles that this evil that afflicts the Church will be eradicated.

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NUNAVUT (CANADA)
Nunatsiaq News

November 26, 2018

By Jim Bell

Eric Dejaeger loses appeal of sentence, appeal of sex crime convictions

The notorious serial pedophile, ex-Nunavut priest Erik Dejaeger, is now a two-time loser at the Nunavut Court of Appeal.

That’s because of two written judgments that the appeal court released on Monday, Nov. 26: one says no to 70-year-old Dejaeger’s appeal of a 19-year prison sentence, while the other says no to his appeal on 24 convictions for sex crimes against Inuit children, most of them in Igloolik.

After a hearing in Iqaluit this past Sept. 25, a panel of three appeal court judges orally dismissed Dejaeger’s appeal on 24 convictions that Justice Robert Kilpatrick entered against him on Aug. 12, 2014, following a long trial that began in November 2013.

Dejaeger had also appealed Kilpatrick’s findings of fact in eight additional charges to which Dejaeger had pleaded guilty.

The Nunavut appeal court released its written reasons for that decision on the verdict appeal today.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Hill

November 24, 2018

By Tal Axelrod

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro lobbied Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), projected by many to be the next chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to investigate abuse by members of the Catholic Church.

“I hope Chairman @LindseyGrahamSC focuses @senjudiciary on clergy abuse. It is a national issue and deserves attention. I’ll assist in any way the Chairman deems appropriate,” he tweeted Saturday.

“The abuse we unearthed in PA was not confined to our state borders.”

Shapiro spearheaded an investigation into abuse at Catholic diocese in the Keystone State. A grand jury released a report in August found more than 1,000 instances of sexual abuse allegedly committed by hundreds of Catholic priests in the state.

The grand jury identified over 300 members of the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania who allegedly committed acts of sexual abuse that were covered up by church officials. The church also persuaded local law enforcement agencies to drop several investigations.

“Despite some institutional reform, individual leaders of the church have largely escaped public accountability. Priests were raping little boys and girls, and the men of God who were responsible for them not only did nothing; they hid it all. For decades,” the report said.

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FREMONT (OH)
Fremont News Messenger

November 21, 2018

Thanks to The News-Messenger for an outstanding story about how Toledo Bishop Daniel Thomas and his top staff continue to shun victims and deceive parishioners. (“Area man says bishop won’t hear his abuse allegations,” November 17)

There’s no clearer sign that Catholic bishops haven’t changed than this: An alleged victim of a known predator priest fights unsuccessfully for two years just to sit in a room with a single Catholic official.

My heart aches for Riley Kinn and other Toledo area victims and Catholics who continue to be betrayed. And my blood boils at Thomas, Victim Assistance Coordinator Frank DiLallo and other church officials who refuse to act with compassion and honesty.

David G. Clohessy
St. Louis

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AUSTRALIA
news.com.au

November 24, 2018

By Candace Sutton

Victims of ‘deviant’ paedophile priest Victor Higgs cheered and told the 81-year-old to ‘rot in hell’ as he was sentenced to jail.

Victims of a former Jesuit teacher with a “deviant interest” in 12-year-old boys cheered in court as the 81-year-old was handcuffed and led off to spend at least seven-and-a-half-years in prison.

“I hope he rots in hell — in actual fact hell is too good for him. He is evil,” one of Victor Thomas Higgs’ former schoolboy victims said in a statement.

Higgs — who has been convicted for molesting boys at Sydney’s exclusive St Ignatius College Riverview and its brother school in Adelaide — is regarded as one of the Australian Catholic Church’s worst sexual predators.

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DETROIT (MI)
WKBW

November 19, 2018

By Hannah Buehler

On his way back from the Bishop’s Conference in Baltimore, Buffalo Catholic Bishop Richard Malone was confronted by Michael Voris of the Church Militant.

Voris, seen in this video asked Malone multiple times about his decision to keep Father Dennis Riter in ministry, despite several claims of sexual abuse of a minor, as uncovered by the 7 Eyewitness News I-Team.

In the video, Malone says “it’s a lie” when asked about the Riter situation.

Malone appears to not want to answer any questions, and tells his spokeswoman to call the police.

The Church Militant is a controversial, ultra conservative Catholic group.

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HOUSTON (TX)
Catholic News Service

November 26, 2018

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston called a series of news stories by CBS News on the church sex abuse scandal “inaccurate,” saying they “demand a response.”

“In these stories, CBS alleges that the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston has allowed priests who have been ‘credibly accused’ of sexual abuse against a minor to continue their ministry as priests,” said the cardinal, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“The archdiocese responded to over 30 questions submitted to it by CBS News this past weekend, only to see almost all of our responses completely ignored by the CBS team,” he added in a statement released late Nov. 21.

In a story that aired Nov. 20, CBS News reported on allegations made against Fr. Terence Brinkman and Fr. John Keller, who are in active ministry in Houston.

In his statement, DiNardo confirmed the two priests each had had an accusation of abuse lodged against them, which they both denied, he said. The respective incidents occurred decades ago, the cardinal said, and a lay board reviewed them and concluded the priests should stay in ministry.

“It is true that two priests remain in ministry who have each been accused of sexually abusing a minor,” DiNardo said. “One accusation was made approximately 20 years after the alleged abuse. The other was made over 30 years after the alleged abuse. Both priests denied they had committed sexual abuse.

“Each accusation was reviewed by the archdiocesan lay review board who recommended that both priests be allowed to minister,” he continued. “These are the only accusations made against either priest, who have each served more than 40 years in the archdiocese.”

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

November 26, 2018

By Carol Glatz

Pope Francis named U.S. Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago to be part of the organizing committee preparing for a meeting of the world’s bishops’ conferences and representatives of religious orders to address the abuse and protection of minors.

The Feb. 21-24 Vatican meeting is not only “about keeping children safe from harm worldwide,” said Greg Burke, head of the Vatican press office, in a written statement Nov. 23.

“Pope Francis wants church leaders to have a full understanding of the devastating impact that clerical sexual abuse has on victims,” he said, soon after the Vatican announced the members of the preparatory committee.

Together with Cupich, the committee will include Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, India; Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta; and Jesuit Fr. Hans Zollner, president of the Centre for the Protection of Minors at the Pontifical Gregorian University and a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, headed by Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, and some survivors of abuse by members of the clergy also will be involved in the preparatory work for the meeting, the Vatican said.

“This a critical moment for the universal church in addressing the sexual abuse crisis,” O’Malley said, and the February meeting “will be an important moment for developing a clear path forward for dioceses around the world.”

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle

November 26, 2018

By Gwendolyn Wu

The Catholic Diocese of Oakland postponed its reveal of clergy members credibly accused of sex abuse until next year, the church announced this week in a newsletter.

Bishop Michael Barber had previously said the Oakland Diocese has “nothing to hide” and called the publication of names “the right thing to do.” In an Oct. 8 announcement, Barber said the diocese would publish the list within 45 days, which would have made it due for publication on Thanksgiving.

But the diocese’s weekly newsletter announced that the names will not be released until after Jan. 1.

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NASHVILLE (TN)
The Tennessean

November 26, 2018

By Tracy Kornet

Congregants have left their churches over horrific accusations of molestation and abuse. We can change the culture and make things better.

Like many of you, I have a tender heart.

I was 11 when someone stole my little brother’s brand-new bike. He walked into our kitchen with tear-filled eyes, and I bolted like the Wicked Witch of the West on my 10-speed, flying through the neighborhood to retrieve Nate’s bike from the bad guys.

In my first TV news job, I would cry when I reported any story about child abuse.

I have always had a deep belief in God and in the value of organized religion. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt how each of us is deeply loved as a child of God.

I was raised a “Charismatic Christian” and spent a whole lot of time in church, summers at Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s PTL Club, and almost every weekend with my best friend’s family, who is Jewish. I still call them my surrogate parents.

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LONDON (UNITED KINGDOM)
The Tablet

November 26, 2018

By Ruth Gledhill

UISG will help anyone who wishes to move forward on a complaint to take it to the appropriate organisations.

The organisation that represents religious sisters around the world has expressed “deep sorrow and indignation” over abuse perpetrated against men and women.

In a statement that coincided with the United Nations’ International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the organisation representing more than 500,000 religious sisters condemned “the pattern of abuse that is prevalent within the church and society today”.

The Union of International Superiors General (UISG), whose memberships consists of 2000 superior generals of congregations of women religious, said: “Abuse in all forms: sexual, verbal, emotional, or any inappropriate use of power within a relationship, diminishes the dignity and healthy development of the person who is victimised.

“We stand by those courageous women and men who have reported abuse to the authorities. We condemn those who support the culture of silence and secrecy, often under the guise of ‘protection’ of an institution’s reputation or naming it ‘part of one’s culture’.

“We advocate for transparent civil and criminal reporting of abuse whether within religious congregations, at the parish or diocesan levels, or in any public arena. We ask that any woman religious who has suffered abuse, report the abuse to the leader of her congregation, and to church and civic authorities as appropriate.”

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Examiner

November 24, 2018

By Laura Waxmann

The Archdiocese of San Francisco has revealed that six instances of alleged sex abuse of minors by clergy were reported in the 1990s and three in the year 2000, according to an initial review of personnel files dating back to the 1950s.

The review follows a lawsuit accusing the Vatican of actively covering up sexual abuse within the Catholic Church.

The lawsuit was launched by two survivors of clerical abuse last month with the help of the Minnesota-based law firm Jeff Anderson & Associates. Also in October, the firm released a report implicating more than 200 Bay Area priests in allegations of sexual misconduct in recent decades, including 135 priests connected to the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

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PROSPECT (PA)
KDKA

November 25, 2018

Father Joseph Feltz, 65, recently served as pastor of Saint Christopher Parish in Prospect, Butler County.

He remains on administrative leave after allegations in a lawsuit claim he sexually abused a minor in the mid-’80s.

“Faithful Catholics have been thrown to the lions for several thousand years now,” parishioner Bill Adams said.

Adams says he knows Father Feltz very well and doesn’t believe the allegations.

“There have been so many allegations that have been so profitable for so many people that it’s really hard to take them seriously,” he said.

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NEW ZEALAND
Radio NZ

November 26, 2018

By Phil Pennington

More survivors of clerical sex abuse are coming forward after Catholic school Old Boys formed an online support network as the Church continues stonewalling over the extent of sexual predation.

As the new victims emerged, a Catholic religious order used the upcoming Royal Commission as a reason for not providing information to RNZ about known child abusers, even though a report on faith-based abuse is not due until 2023.

St Bernard’s Lower Hutt Old Boy Patrick Hill and another abuse victim, Steve Goodlass, set up a Facebook group to offer assistance and in doing so unearthed further victims, Mr Hill told RNZ.

In 2015 Mr Hill instigated the prosecution Marist Brother, Patrick Bignell, which led to his conviction for abusing Mr Hill and two other boys.

“We now have information that in fact there were seven of us abused by Brother Patrick Bignell during the 1980s and 90s,” Mr Hill said.

“Victims have come out of the woodwork… He took nude photos of many of his victims. He also used those same photos to groom and lure other boys. So he created a trail of victims and a timeline for us to track.”

St Bernard’s School and the Church told RNZ Catholic authorities were not aware of any information that suggested other victims of Brother Bignell existed.

There was also no record of attempts being made in the intervening decades to find other victims or confront other predators.

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ROME
The Associated Press

November 25, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

The Catholic Church’s global organization of nuns has denounced the “culture of silence and secrecy” surrounding sexual abuse in the church and is urging sisters who have been abused to report the crimes to police and their superiors.

The International Union of Superiors General, which represents more than 500,000 sisters worldwide, vowed to help nuns who have been abused find the courage to report it, and pledged to help victims heal and seek justice.

The statement, issued on the eve of the U.N.-designated International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, was the first from the Rome-based International Union of Superiors General since the abuse scandal erupted anew this year and as the sexual abuse of adult nuns by clergymen has also come to light. The Associated Press reported earlier this year that the Vatican has known for decades about the problem of priests and bishops preying on nuns, but has done next to nothing to stop it.

In the statement Friday, the International Union of Superiors General didn’t specify clergy as the aggressors. While such abuse is well known in parts of Africa, and an Indian case of the alleged rape of a nun by a bishop is currently making headlines, there have also been cases of sexual abuse committed by women against other women within congregations.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Crux

November 23, 2018

By Christopher White

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, named Friday by Pope Francis to the planning committee for February’s high-stakes Vatican meeting on sex abuse, says the pope is seeking the “full involvement of the global Church in assuring the protection of children around the world from clerical sexual abuse.”

In an interview with Crux on Friday, he said the committee is “committed to achieving specific outcomes from this meeting that reflect the mind of Pope Francis.”

In addition to Cupich, the pope appointed Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, the Vatican’s leading prosecutor on child abuse; German Jesuit Father Hans Zollner, a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors and head of the Center for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University; and Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai, who also serves on Francis’s “C-9” council of cardinal advisors.

In October, Gracias voiced concern in an interview with Crux about the February summit.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

November 24, 2018

By Andrew Goldstein

A Butler County priest has been placed on administrative leave following an allegation of sexual abuse of a boy in the 1980s, the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh announced Saturday.

The Rev. Joseph Feltz, 65, most recently served as pastor of St. Christopher Parish in Prospect. He was named in a lawsuit filed earlier this month with other priests who were accused of being part of the “ring of predatory priests” described by the state grand jury report released in August on sexual abuse in the church.

Father Feltz was not named in the grand jury report and has denied the abuse allegation, according to the diocese.

The lawsuit, filed Nov. 15 in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, said that Mark A. Pearce, 48, of Raleigh, N.C., was abused when he was a minor by Father Feltz and the Rev. George Zirwas, two who were part of what the grand jury report called a “ring of predatory priests” active in the 1970s and 1980s, along with the Revs. Robert Wolk, Francis Pucci and Richard Zula.

According to the court filing, Mr. Pearce was abused in the rectory by priests Zula, Pucci and Feltz.

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ROCHESTER (MN)
Post Bulletin

November 26, 2018

Dear Answer Man: The clergy sexual lawsuits have hit Rochester. I am curious to know how much money clergy sexual lawsuit attorneys Jeff Anderson & Associates have taken in on this Minnesota-wide bonanza? Ken.

Ken: You sound like a man who might be familiar with the line from Matthew 22:21 that reads: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s” Of course, the general rule along with that is, “But let the lawyers take their third off the top from the righteous side.”

Attorney Jeff Anderson of Jeff Anderson & Associates in St. Paul has been a leading crusader against child sex abuse by clergy since 1983 when he filed his first such case in Minnesota. He has represented victims from across the country, and has been a key player in the dioceses in Minnesota that have settled with victims or, like the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, plans to settle with victims.

Of course, attorneys are not required to disclose their share of any particular settlement or judgment – except to the tax collector – so it’s impossible to know how much Anderson and his team of attorneys has made.

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VATICAN
Vatican News

November 2018

By Christopher Wells

Newly appointed to the organising Committee for a February meeting of Church leaders from around the world, Maltese Archbishop Charles Scicluna says he hopes the Church will begin to take a global approach to protecting minors and confronting clerical sexual abuse.

In an exclusive interview with Jesuit periodical America, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta described the upcoming meeting as “the beginning of a new approach that I hope will be global, because it concerns the whole Church.” But, he continued, “it will also have a very important local context, because safeguarding is not something up-there, it has to be lived in every parish, in every school, in every diocese.”

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NEWARK (NJ)
The Legal Examiner

November 26, 2018

By Joseph H. Saunders

On Monday, November 19, 2018, Cardinal Joseph Tobin, Archbishop of Newark, announced that the Archdiocese along with every diocese in the state of New Jersey will offer a compensation program for survivors of sexual abuse.

New Jersey has four dioceses and one archdiocese. The dioceses include Paterson, Trenton, Metuchen, and Camden. In making the announcement, Tobin noted that all New Jersey dioceses will participate and will offer survivors a chance to come forward and tell their stories. The program will include all survivors who were abused in New Jersey regardless of the statute of limitations.

The details of the plan have not been announced. Last week, the dioceses in Pennsylvania made a similar announcement. Most of the plans are administered by the law firm of Kenneth Feinberg in Washington, DC.

The Catholic Church in New Jersey has already paid out more than $50 million in financial settlements to those who were sexually abused as children by members of the clergy or diocesan employees in the state.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
joeypiscitelli.com

November 25, 2018

By Joey Piscitelli

For the last 60 years, the Salesian Province of San Francisco, or Don Bosco West, has harbored, transferred, and enabled a nest of convicted, accused, and admitted child molesters on the West Coast.

The Salesian Province based in San Francisco, or “Don Bosco West”, is the headquarters of the Salesians for the Western half of the United States. It is the first Salesian Province to be established in the USA. In 1897 the head of the Salesian order in Italy sent a group of Salesian Priests to San Francisco, led by Fr. Ralph Piperni.

Pipernis group met at the Italian church, St. Peter and Pauls, in San Francisco. They later met with the Bishop of San Francisco, Patrick Riordan, at the SF Diocese headquarters Mansion at 1100 Franklin Street, to establish the Salesians in San Francisco. St. Peter and Pauls became the headquarters for the Salesians at that time. The Mansion on Franklin Street later became the headquarters for the Salesian Province of San Francisco, now referred to also as Don Bosco West. It remains the headquarters for the Salesian Province of the West today, and it is also a residence for Salesian priests. Numerous Salesian accused child molesters and rapists have lived there in the last 50 years, and the Salesian order does not not release the list of names of accused predators that live there to the public, or to several nearby schools to warn them of their presence.

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CANADA
LifeSiteNews

November 26, 2018

On 21 November, LifeSiteNews published a wide-ranging interview with Cardinal Gerhard Müller – the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – in which the cardinal spoke about the abuse problem in general as related to the loss of Faith, and he pointed to the high percentage of male victims of clerical sex abuse and likewise to the problem of homosexually active priests.

These statements have prompted an outcry of indignation in Germany, as may be seen with the German bishops’ news website Katholisch.de conducting an interview with a German Jesuit, Klaus Mertes. Now, however, does not only Cardinal Müller respond to the criticism, but also Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Bishop Marian Eleganti, and Father Joseph Fessio, S.J, have publicly supported Cardinal Müller and his recent statements.

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VATICAN
Vatican News

November 2018

By Seán-Patrick Lovett

In an interview with Crux, the on-line Catholic news service, U.S. Cardinal Blase Cupich, describes the anti-abuse summit called by Pope Francis as the beginning of a worldwide reform intended to bring about a change in culture regarding how the Church protects children.

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago is part of the organizing Committee for the February 21 to 24 meeting of Presidents of Bishops’ Conferences, called to focus on the protection of children in the Church. In the Crux interview, Cardinal Cupich confirms that the Committee is “committed to achieving specific outcomes from this meeting that reflect the mind of Pope Francis.” He also stresses the consultative role of “both clerics and lay women and men, who have shown expertise and experience” in the area of abuse.

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BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

November 24, 2018

By Jay Tokasz

A firestorm in the Buffalo Diocese over Bishop Richard J. Malone’s handling of clergy molestation allegations was not specifically mentioned when more than 250 Catholic bishops, including Malone, gathered last week in Baltimore to address the church’s ongoing sex abuse crisis.

The bishops, at least in public, steered clear of commentary on the Buffalo Diocese or Malone, who has refused to step down despite calls from some Western New York Catholics for his resignation.

The bishops focused in three days of meetings on making themselves more accountable for how they handle abuse cases, without criticizing a single bishop or diocese for mismanaging or covering up such cases.

The only public criticism of a bishop was levied at Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick, who resigned as a cardinal in July and was removed by Pope Francis from public ministry after revelations of sexual misconduct with seminarians dating back decades. McCarrick, who is being investigated by the Vatican and others, did not attend the meetings.

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HAYWARD (WI)
The Associated Press

November 23, 2018

A former priest is accused of sexually abusing at least three boys while he was stationed at St. Peter’s Church in Winter, Wisconsin, decades ago.

Seventy-one-year-old Thomas Ericksen was arrested Nov. 16 at his home in Minneapolis. He faces child sexual assault charges for the alleged abuse between June 1982 and April 1983.

Prosecutors declined to provide details to USA Today Network-Wisconsin as to why so much time elapsed before charges were filed.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Ericksen has an attorney. A listed home telephone number couldn’t be found.

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YAOUNDÉ (CAMEROON)
Crux

November 21, 2018

An archbishop in South Africa has suggested the Church’s law system should be amended to mandate the excommunication of priests who commit sexual abuse.

Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg made his comments during an ordination mass for four new priests.

“Perhaps the abuse of minors by a priest, considering its moral gravity … ought to be considered as an automatic excommunication. In other words, when a priest is found to have abused a child, that should be included in the list of those acts that bring about automatic excommunication,” he said Oct. 27.

Currently, there are several offenses which lead to an automatic excommunication for a priest, including breaking the seal of confession and soliciting sexual favors during the sacrament of reconciliation.

Tlhagale’s suggestion came against the backdrop of the trial in Port Elizabeth of a Nigerian tele-evangelist, 58-year-old Timothy Omotoso, who was accused of raping a woman and kidnapping over 30 girls.

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FRANCE
Agence France-Presse

November 23, 2018

A French priest from the town of Orleans was handed a two-year jail term on Thursday and a bishop was convicted for failing to report him in rare prosecutions that have shaken the French Catholic church.

Pierre de Castelet, 69, was sentenced to two years in prison, with another year suspended, after abusing children during a summer camp in 1993 where he touched them while pretending to carry out medical examinations.

His superior, the former bishop of Orleans Andre Fort, 83, was given a suspended prison sentence of eight months for failing to notify French police when he was made aware of the abuse allegations in 2008.

Both men are expected to avoid serving time behind bars, however, under French law that allows a convict to apply for a non-custodial punishment in cases involving short jail sentences.

Prosecutions of bishops are extremely rare in France, with the last case dating back to 2001 when a bishop in the town of Bayeux-Lisieux was given a three-month suspended jail term for failing to report abuse.

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[Landeskirchen: 107 cases of sexual abuse]

GERMANY
NDR.de

November 22, 2018

In den niedersächsischen evangelischen Landeskirchen Hannover, Braunschweig und Oldenburg hat es 107 Missbrauchsfälle seit 1950 gegeben. Das gab der Braunschweiger Landesbischof Christoph Meyns am Donnerstagabend bei der Tagung des Kirchenparlaments in Goslar bekannt. 95 der Missbrauchsfälle seien dem Bereich der auch für Kinderheime verantwortlichen Diakonie zuzuordnen. Eine unabhängige Kommission, die für alle Kirchen in Niedersachsen tätig ist, habe den Betroffenen Anerkennungsleistungen und die Erstattung von Therapiekosten zugesprochen, so Meyns.

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[Theologian: Church threatens critical women with dismissal]

GERMANY
Katholisch.de

November 23, 2018

“Entweder ihr seid still, oder ihr verliert euren Job!” Sie kenne Frauen, die von der Kirche genau vor diese Wahl gestellt wurden, berichtet Theologin und Buchautorin Jacqueline Straub. Scharf krtisiert sie zudem die Jugendsynode.

Die junge deutsch-schweizerische Theologin Jacqueline Straub hat der katholischen Kirche eine Knebelung kritischer Stimmen von Frauen vorgeworfen. Oftmals drohe kirchlichen Mitarbeiterinnen die Kündigung, wenn sie öffentlich über bestimmte Themen redeten, sagte Straub dem Schweizer Presseportal kath.ch (Donnerstag). In Deutschland kenne sie Frauen, “die vor die Wahl gestellt wurden: Entweder ihr seid still, oder ihr verliert euren Job”.

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[According to Cardinal Müller, lay people can not condemn bishops]

GERMANY
Dom Radio

November 22, 2018

“Mit Lynchjustiz kommt man nicht weiter”

Die Missbrauchsaufarbeitung ist in vollem Gang. Wie soll man mit Bischöfen umgehen, die Missbrauch vertuscht haben, ist eine der Fragen. Sie können jedenfalls nicht innerkirchlich durch Laien gerichtet werden, meint Gerhard Ludwig Kardinal Müller.

Zu den Diskussionen um entsprechende Pläne der US-Bischöfe sagte der frühere Leiter der Glaubenskongregation im Interview der kanadischen Website LifeSite-News (Mittwoch Ortszeit): “Die Lösung sehe ich nicht darin, dass nun ‘die’ Laien das Heft in die Hand nehmen, weil es die Bischöfe nicht aus eigener Kraft schafften – wie man meint.”

Missstände ließen sich nicht überwinden, indem man “die hierarchisch-sakramentale Verfassung der Kirche auf den Kopf stellt”.

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TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade

November 21, 2018

When it comes to abuse and coverup, it is clear the Toledo Catholic bishop is going backwards ( “Man’s allegations of abuse by Fostoria priest surface after 40 years,” Friday). For years, Bishop Daniel Thomas and dozens of his staff have publicly and deceptively claimed how they’re now allegedly more “transparent” about abuse than before. But they’re not.

In 2003, an alleged victim of the Rev. Joseph Schmelzer got to speak with the diocesan abuse panel. But in 2016, despite two years of trying, another alleged victim of the same now-suspended cleric was denied. Bishop Thomas’ public relations staffer refused to explain the change or say when it happened.

Bishop Thomas claims Father Schmelzer is being overseen. But The Blade reports that “the diocese has not informed (the priest’s victims) of any oversight measures,” and the circumstances of Father Schmelzer’s supervision “were not disclosed by the diocese” to the press or the public.

Finally, a church website “glosses over the circumstances of Father Schmelzer’s removal (and) makes no mention of why the priest was removed,” according to The Blade.

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CANADA
LifeSiteNews

November 22, 2018

By Dr. Joseph Shaw

The Pennsylvania Grand Jury report into clerical sex abuse in the Catholic Church and the Australian Royal Commission on child sex-abuse have an English equivalent in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which is currently taking evidence from witnesses, in public hearings.

Bishops and religious superiors publicly humiliated by these bodies have, of course, brought it upon themselves. Certainly, the degree of humiliation in each case does not necessarily correspond exactly with the degree of guilt, but the ones in the dock tend to make an admission of failure the keynote of their opening statements.

Despite all this, it is difficult to discern any real change of direction in episcopal policies and attitudes. The cases which remain hidden, and above all the clerics with credible allegations hanging over them still in active ministry, poison dioceses and religious communities. It is easy, though painful, to imagine the effect on the morale of seminarians and priests aware of the allegations against former Cardinal McCarrick, to see him honored and invited around the country year after year. But while the secular power is dragging information out of bishops about one case after another, bishops still seem to have no appetite to review old cases, to ensure that widely-suspected abusers are not still swanning around the diocese.

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ALBANY (NY)
Times Union

November 21, 2018

By Rachel Silberstein

Survivors of childhood sex abuse are pushing back on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s Tuesday comments about the Child Victims Act.

The bill, which would enable adult victims of childhood sex abuse to bring claims against their abusers in court, includes a controversial “look-back window,” which groups like the Boy Scouts of America and the Catholic Church fear will cripple them financially.

At at pre-Thanksgiving event in Buffalo, the Democratic governor told reporters that he supports the bill, which has passed the Assembly twice and has nearly unanimous support among Democrats in the state Senate, but expressed concern about the version of the bill touted by his party.

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AUSTRALIA
SA Weekend

November 23, 2018

By Ian Henschke

Royal Commissions have been in the news lately. And it’s been a sad and sorry time. Last month was the National Apology following the findings of the inquiry into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.

That happened while the top end of town was reeling from revelations from the investigation into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. Now we’ve got another starting in Adelaide looking into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

Royal commissions focus the minds of the public and the parliament. They also have repercussions. Look at the fallout from the one into banking and finance. The businesses involved have been hit with fines and remediation costs totalling more than a billion dollars. They have to give back money. Heads have rolled and there’s talk of criminal charges.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

November 26, 2018

By Sean Philip Cotter

Cardinal refutes speculation of Vatican snub after being left off panel

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley says he remains as close to Pope Francis and involved in fighting against sex crimes in the church as ever, pushing back on speculation that followed his being left off of the organizing committee for a summit aimed at preventing abuse.

O’Malley told the Herald he retains the trust of the pope, who has kept O’Malley leading the Vatican advisory commission of the sex abuse of minors.

“I’m still on the commission, and I’m still one of his advisers — I’m going next month for another meeting,” O’Malley said of the pope.

The cardinal, who’s the archbishop of Boston, said the fact he’s not on the summit committee is simply a case of logistics.

“We still have the commission,” O’Malley said following an event in Malden. “The point-person of the group is a member of our commission — Father Zollner, who lives in Rome , and so they need someone there who will be able to organize it and pull it off.”

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STEUBENVILLE (OH)
Wheeling Intelligencer

November 26, 2018

By Linda Harris

Bishop Jeffrey M. Monforton said he understands Pope Francis’ desire to develop a worldwide approach to combating the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis.

The Diocese of Steubenville’s leader made his comments following “an obvious curveball” that the Vatican threw at the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops when it nixed the group’s plans to vote on accountability proposals. Monforton said Pope Francis wants to pursue a worldwide, rather than a geographical, approach.

Although the council did sign off on an anti-racism letter, it also had planned to vote on a proposal to establish an investigative board — one that would include lay people — to look into allegations of sexual misconduct, as well as a draft code of conduct for bishops. That plan changed when the Vatican issued a last-minute directive prohibiting a vote until after a global Vatican-led meeting on the church’s sex abuse scandal convenes in February.

“We came in thinking we were going to take a vote; obviously that vote was delayed,” Monforton said during a recent interview, adding he thought the Council of Bishops “certainly acclimated well” to the delay so Pope Francis “can work with all the bishop conferences throughout the world.”

“We have to look through the universal eyes of the church, it’s not just us,” Monforton said. “After that, we have to keep our minds open” to other ideas.”

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VATICAN CITY
America Magazine

November 23, 2018

By Gerard O’Connell

In a decision highlighting the great importance he gives to next February’s summit meeting on “the protection of minors in the church,” to which he has called the presidents of all the Catholic bishops conferences, Pope Francis has appointed a high-powered steering committee to oversee the project.

The committee is composed of two cardinals, Blase Cupich (Chicago) and Oswald Gracias (Bombay, India), and two of the church’s experts in the field: Archbishop Charles Scicluna (Malta), and Father Hans Zollner, a German Jesuit and president of the Center for Child Protection and Director and professor of psychology at the Gregorian University in Rome, who will serve as coordinator. The Vatican announced this today, November 23.

In this exclusive interview with America, Archbishop Scicluna, whom the pope recently appointed as adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and who is also the president of its tribunal for appeals, speaks about the significance and goals of the February meeting, and how it will be conducted.

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JACKSON (MS)
Mississippi Clarion Ledger

November 21, 2018

By Sarah Fowler

A priest currently visiting the Jackson diocese has faced past accusations of sexual harassment.

The Rev. Maurice Nutt was in attendance and helped lead Mass Sunday at St. Peter’s Catholic Cathedral in downtown Jackson to open the cause for canonization of Sister Thea Bowman of Canton, the first African-American member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. The Catholic Diocese of Jackson posted photos from the Mass on its Facebook page. Nutt prepared the gifts for consecration alongside Bishop Joseph Kopacz.

Nutt, a Redemptorist priest, is “back and forth” between Jackson and New Orleans while he works as a consultant on the cause for canonization, according to Maureen Smith, spokeswoman for the diocese. Smith said the diocese was aware of the allegations against Nutt.

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BOSTON (MA)
WGBH News

November 21, 2018

By Tori Bedford

[LISTEN: Healey On Sexual Misconduct In The Catholic Church]

Attorney General Maura Healey said she is “actively reviewing” the existing policies and procedures that surround the reporting of cases of sexual misconduct after several Catholic advocacy groups have called on her office to investigate the personnel records of all Massachusetts archdioceses.

“We’ve been in touch with the archdiocese, we’ve been in touch with the district attorney’s offices,” Healey said during an interview with Boston Public Radio Tuesday. She later said, “I want to make sure that there are answers, and that there is accountability. … We cannot allow that kind of conduct to continue, and the coverup, and the hiding, and the failure to deal with this.”

Activist groups, including Catholic Democrats and Voice of the Faithful, are calling for an update to the 2003 investigation into priest sex abuse and a full investigation of dioceses in Fall River, Worcester and Springfield.

Healey stated that “any report or allegation of abuse will be thoroughly investigated and addressed, either by my office or by another office.”

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Advocate

November 23, 2018

By Jacob Ogles

The former doctrine chief for the Catholic Church told a conservative website the child sex abuse scandal in the church is tied to growing influence of LGBTQ ideology, which he said was based on atheism and the denial of God.

Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, spoke with the far-right website LifeSite regarding the recent resignation of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

McCarrick is accused of sexually abusing young boys, but Müller seemed more focused on the “the moral depravity of homosexual acts among adults.” He said the recent scandal comes from growing influence of LGBTQ voices in the church.

On that front, he said the inclusion of the term “LGBT” in church documents shows the real problem. He referenced the term among “propaganda phrases of the homosexual lobby.”

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TORONTO (CANADA)
Times of Israel

November 23, 2018

By JTA

Stephen Schacter guilty of 3 counts of sexual assault, and 3 other crimes between 1982 and 2002

A former teacher at two Toronto-area Jewish day schools was found guilty of several sexual offenses.

Stephen Joseph Schacter was found guilty last week by a Superior Court of Justice judge of three counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual interference and one count of gross indecency, the Canadian Jewish News reported last week.

Sentencing hearings on the child pornography charge and the sexual offenses are scheduled for early 2019.

The offenses occurred between 1982 and 2002. The case featured four complaints.

Schacter was a teacher at Eitz Chaim schools between 1986 and 2004. At a news conference Monday, police said Schacter taught second and third grades at the Orthodox Jewish school, which runs three campuses in the Toronto area.

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