ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

LA Catholics’ longtime “quarterback”, Cardinal Mahony, reportedly continued this week trying to run his shameful “hide the ball” plays right under the judicial official’s nose. When the judge blew the whistle, however, Mahony’s new coach, the current Archbishop, Gomez, was forced presumably by his lawyers to bench permanently Mahony and his old complicit “receiver”, Bishop Curry. Gomez, of course, had to have known of Mahony’s misdeeds for some time and appears just to be trying to protect his assets.

What a farce. Where have the Los Angeles prosecutors been for a quarter century? It is time for POTUS, the President of the United States, Barack Obama, to “suit up” and tackle Mahony now. Cardinals Mahony, Law, Bevilacqua, Rigali, Brady, Egan and others get caught “red-handed”, give a phony apology and get sent off with lucrative retirement packages and the power to vote in the upcoming papal election. It is a disgrace and a mockery of the legal process. Bevilacqua has now met his maker just before he was likely about to be prosecuted. The others must be brought to justice now! As a lawyer, I am confident a determined prosecutor can get over the statute of limitation defenses with creative prosecutions. It has been done before.

It seems evident that this is just the tip of the iceberg of child sexual abuse in religious organizational settings. What is disturbingly also evident, to me as a parent and a retired experienced lawyer, is that neither local legislators nor prosecutors have dealt with many of these cases adequately, timely or comprehensively. President Obama was just re-elected with the strong support of mothers and mothers-to-be who wanted him to protect their access to family planning. They also expected, and still expect, his help in protecting the families they have, and will yet have, from sexual violence in institutional settings. These families need his help now!

A petition has been opened for signatures asking President Obama to set up a national investigation commission into the sexual abuse of children by priests, rabbis, ministers and other religious leaders. Please take 30 seconds to sign it no matter where in the world you live. This is a worldwide epidemic. Just click on the below link at:

[Click here for the petition.]

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By Paul Thornton
February 1, 2013

It didn’t take too long for Friday’s front-page story that Archbishop of Los Angeles Jose Gomez had relieved his predecessor, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, of his public duties for readers to start filling up the morning mailbag. And it wasn’t with letters praising Gomez for taking decisive action; to the contrary, the reaction has varied between “it’s about time” and “too little, too late.”

Letters written in response to the article will likely run in Sunday’s paper, and they can also be viewed at latimes.com/letters. Here’s what we have so far (and some of these submissions may make it onto Sunday’s page).

Charles Fox of Huntington Beach says Gomez shares some guilt:

“Let me see if I’ve got this right: Gomez became L.A.’s coadjutor archbishop on April 6, 2010. Until last week, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles did everything it could to prevent access to its records of child abuse. After years, the church exhausted all legal procedures and released the records. Thursday evening, Gomez striped Mahony of his remaining public duties and issued a public apology. Does he expect our praise?

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Michael Sean Winters | Feb. 1, 2013

“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading,” wrote Archbishop Jose Gomez in a letter to the clergy and faithful of Los Angeles that was released last night. “The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed.”

“If in hindsight we also discover that mistakes may have been made as regards prompt removal of priests and assistance to victims, I am deeply sorry,” wrote Cardinal Edward Egan in a letter to the clergy and faith of the Archdiocese of New York in the spring of 2002. You will note how far the pronoun “I” is from the word “mistakes” and how the use of the passive voice adds further distance from the horror.

Archbishop Gomez’s voice is the voice of moral authority. Cardinal Egan’s voice was the voice of moral complicity, the voice of the dodger. Gomez did more than speak. He informed Cardinal Roger Mahony that he was relieved of all administrative and public duties within the archdiocese and he removed auxiliary bishop Thomas Curry as episcopal vicar for Santa Barbara.

The news from Los Angeles is stunning. After years of prevarications, years of excuses, years of enormous expenditures on lawyers trying to cover-up the cover-up, Archbishop Gomez has broken the omerta that has surrounded the hierarchy since the sex abuse scandal broke. He has told a cardinal, a Prince of the Church, that he is relieved of all his administrative and public duties. He has told one of his auxiliary bishops to step down. They did not abuse any children personally, as was the case of Cardinal Groer in Vienna. Their removal from public duties within the Church is a consequence of their failure as administrators and leaders, a failure that has been sadly but conclusively documented for all the world to see. Finally, after so much sulfur clogging the nostrils of the Church, we have a whiff of accountability.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
dotCommonweal

February 1, 2013,

Posted by Grant Gallicho

Following the release of decades-old memos detailing Archdiocese of Los Angeles officials’ efforts to conceal sexual-abuse cases, the new archbishop of L.A., Jose Gomez, has relieved Cardinal Roger Mahony of public duties and relieved auxiliary bishop Thomas Curry of his episcopal duties (.pdf). The archbishop’s statement comes with the release of twelve thousand pages of diocesan personnel files related to the scandal. Gomez writes:

I cannot undo the failings of the past that we find in these pages. Reading these files, reflecting on the wounds that were caused, has been the saddest experience I’ve had since becoming your Archbishop in 2011.

My predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, has expressed his sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care. Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties. Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry has also publicly apologized for his decisions while serving as Vicar for Clergy. I have accepted his request to be relieved of his responsibility as the Regional Bishop of Santa Barbara.

Most reporting on this letter has characterized Gomez’s decision as a suspension: Mahony is “barred from ministry,” Jerry Filtau writes. Michael Sean Winters hails Gomez as morally courageous: “If you want to see what leadership looks like, re-read Archbishop Gomez’s bold, succinct, unaffected, rigorous letter.” Yet, according to diocesan spokesman Tod Tamberg, Mahony’s daily routine will remain largely unchanged.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Pam Cohen | Feb. 1, 2013

On Thursday, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez issued a letter regarding the release of files of priests who “sexually abused children while they were serving in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.”

In the letter, which you can read below, Gomez writes that he has barred retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, who was archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011 and has been a cardinal since 1991, from future activities with the archdiocese.

For more on Mahony’s ban, read Jerry Filteau’s story here, and keep an eye on NCRonline.org over the next few days. We’ll continue to keep an eye on the situation.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Huffington Post

Michael D’Antonio

In the annals of bureaucratic indifference, the phrase “we didn’t know any better” is often employed by those who looked past human suffering and helped abusers to escape responsibility. In the cases of priests who have raped and molested children, Catholic bishops have often offered this excuse after the world comes to know that they protected their brothers rather than report their crimes to police.

The “we didn’t know better” excuse echoed again from Los Angeles recently where newly released documents show that then Cardinal Roger Mahony and his advisor Monsignor Thomas Curry long maneuvered to shield known abusers from police and prosecutors. In one case Mahony advised a priest whom he knew had abused 20 child victims to stay out of California “for the foreseeable future” to avoid “some type of legal action filed in both the criminal and civil sectors.” In another case Mahony considered Curry’s suggestion that an offending priest see a psychiatrist who is also a lawyer because the attorney-client privilege would bar the doctor from reporting his crimes. “”Sounds good –please proceed!!” wrote Mahony.

These notes, among many others, show a pattern of deference to priests whose victims included many who were children of undocumented Mexican immigrants. One letter noted that a priest named Peter Garcia admitted molesting boys “off and on” for decades but felt safe from prosecution because his victims feared the authorities. He even confessed to threatening one child with deportation if he ever complained to police.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

Jeffrey R. Anderson

While better late than never as the saying goes, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles today continued to preserve its own reputation at all costs. Simultaneous to releasing 12,000 damning documents that illustrate decades of concealment, cover up and deliberate, reckless disregard for the safety of children in the Archdiocese, the Archdiocese made public the resignation of Bishop Curry and Cardinal Mahony from any public ministry. After fighting in court against the release of these documents for over six years, it is incredibly disingenuous of the Archdiocese to now make news of the resignation of these two officials. The resignations are an empty gesture, a hollow attempt to right decades of horrific wrongs by these two hierarchs and many others.

In the end, survivors have triumphed. What is finally made public this evening by court order, as a provision of the 2007 settlement, is a long time coming for the survivors, their families and those survivors who have yet to come forward. 12,000 documents, encompassing the secret files on all of the credibly accused priests within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, these documents expose the truth; they unveil a concerted conspiracy to deny, minimize and conceal, to preserve the reputation of the Archdiocese over the safety of children at all costs. Although today the Archdiocese’s shameless attempts to save face have not changed, what has changed is the scope of public knowledge regarding the appalling practices of this Archdiocese in the handling of dangerous predators among its ranks. The released files lay bare the festering flesh of this Archdiocese for all the world to critique, a momentous day for survivors indeed.In the end, survivors have triumphed. What is finally made public this evening by court order, as a provision of the 2007 settlement, is a long time coming for the survivors, their families and those survivors who have yet to come forward. 12,000 documents, encompassing the secret files on all of the credibly accused priests within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, these documents expose the truth; they unveil a concerted conspiracy to deny, minimize and conceal, to preserve the reputation of the Archdiocese over the safety of children at all costs. Although today the Archdiocese’s shameless attempts to save face have not changed, what has changed is the scope of public knowledge regarding the appalling practices of this Archdiocese in the handling of dangerous predators among its ranks. The released files lay bare the festering flesh of this Archdiocese for all the world to critique, a momentous day for survivors indeed.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on February 01, 2013

Bishop Thomas Curry stepping down is a small, belated step in the right direction, though it’s obviously only being done because the horrific extent of his complicity is about to become publicly known. He should have been fired long ago.

Several bishops across the globe have stepped down when their reckless, callous and deceitful actions in clergy sex cases has become known. It should happen far more often. But it would be much more powerful if the Pope and other high ranking church officials would actually force their corrupt colleagues out.

Hand-slapping Mahony is a nearly meaningless gesture. When he had real power, and abused it horribly, he should have been demoted or disciplined by the church hierarchy, in Rome and in the US. But not a single Catholic cleric anywhere had the courage to even denounce him. Shame on them. …

Statement by Los Angeles SNAP leader Esther Hatfield of Huntington Beach CA

The posting of this information by LA Catholic officials is a public relations gambit to divert attention from years and years of deception about pedophile priests and children’s safety. They’ll posture as “transparent.” But that will be a desperate and laughable ruse.

In truth, LA church officials – including Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop Jose Gomez, Bishop Thomas Curry and others – have relentlessly and expensively and successfully fought for years to keep these horrific secrets secret.

It’s ludicrous for Mahony, Gomez and Curry to claim to be “forthcoming” with records they’ve successfully kept hidden for decades, using millions of dollars from generous parishioners to pay high prices lawyers to obstruct disclosures.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
KPCC

Frank Stoltze with KPCC wire services and KPCC staff

UPDATE 6:31 a.m.: The following is a sampling of the reaction to the release Thursday evening of thousands of pages of personnel files of priests accused of child molestation, and of Archbishop Jose Gomez’s decision to strip Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of his duties:

•Los Angeles archdiocese: The files’ release “concludes a sad and shameful chapter in the history of our local church.”
•Archbishop Jose Gomez: “I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children.”
•Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit and senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University: “It’s quite extraordinary. I don’t think anything like this has happened before. It’s showing that there are consequences now to mismanaging the sex abuse crisis.”
•Terry McKiernan, founder of BishopAccountability.org, which tracks the release of priest files nationally: The reprimand is a “purely symbolic punishment that they hope will satisfy at least some people in the archdiocese. I don’t think that many savvy observers of this will be deceived.”
•David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP): “Hand-slapping Cardinal Roger Mahony is a nearly meaningless gesture. When he had real power, and abused it horribly, he should have been demoted or disciplined by the church hierarchy, in Rome and in the U.S. But not a single Catholic cleric anywhere had the courage to even denounce him. Shame on them.”

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

UNITED STATES
Associated Baptist Press

By Christa Brown

A mother, who says her son was repeatedly molested by a minister at one of the Southern Baptist Convention’s largest churches, claims the church needs to come clean about a cover-up of child sexual abuse.

“I want people to know the truth,” she said in a written statement released to CBS News last Saturday. “The hurt our family endured … is indescribable…. The church never reported John to the police…. We ask that Prestonwood take responsibility for their cover-up, and to say they are sorry.”

After minister John Langworthy was allowed to simply walk away from abuse allegations at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, in the late 1980s, he went on to serve two decades as music minister at another prominent Southern Baptist church, Morrison Heights in Clinton, Miss. There, he recently received a 50-year suspended sentence for molesting multiple boys as young as 6. But Langworthy avoided prison time because, in the plea bargain process, prosecutors were concerned about the statute of limitations.

So, thanks to many years of secrecy surrounding his crimes, minister John Langworthy walks away with no prison time. But no one should overlook the fact that his crimes could have been disclosed many years earlier — and countless kids better protected — if only the leadership of Prestonwood had spoken up and reported Langworthy to police.

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

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Catholic Insider

Debt-Ridden Boston Archdiocese Pays Lay Execs $3.7M, Violates Fiduciary Responsibility and Motu Proprio

The Boston Archdicoese, saddled with $137 million in debt and operating deficits of $11 million in the past two years, paid their top lay executives $3.7M in salaries and benefits in the past year. They acknowledge many are overpaid, and to add insult to injury, they even gave raises to some overpaid execs last year. This excessive spending on salaries violates the diocese’s fiduciary responsibility to make proper use of donor funds, and it also violates the recent Motu Proprio from the Pope Benedict XVI. Because the Massachusetts Attorney General has oversight for Non-Profits and their use of donor funds, she has reason to intervene. Meanwhile, Cardinal O’Malley appears to be fiddling, as the fiscal and moral version of “Rome” is burning.

There is enough content here to take multiple blog posts. We will cover as much as possible today and continue in subsequent posts. That Boston was paying excessive six figure salaries to lay execs has been a public complaint for more than three years. That nothing is being done about it, even with the window-dressing of a “Compensation Committee” formed in 2010 is an even bigger travesty, especially even after publication of the Pope’s “Motu Proprio.” First we cover the “Motu Proprio” and diocesan code of conduct guidelines, then the salaries, the Compensation Committee report, and then examples.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[the Los Angeles files]

Posted by Joelle Casteix on February 01, 2013

■Victims beg Catholics “Read abuse files”
■And they urge ex-church staff: “Help fill in gaps”
■Group believes archdiocese records are incomplete
■SNAP: “Now’s the time for witnesses & whistleblowers to step up”
■Mahony’s restriction & Curry’s resignation are “weak,” victims say

What:
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will react to the moves by two top Los Angeles officials (Archbishop Gomez & Bishop Curry).

They will also urge:
— victims, witnesses, police, prosecutors, church employees and lay Catholics to step forward with information about clergy sex crimes and cover-ups that is NOT in the newly-disclosed files,
— parishoners and the public to read the files carefully and discuss them with friends, family and fellow church-goers, and
— law enforcement authorities to “double down” on efforts to prosecute high-ranking Catholic supervisors who ignored, enabled and concealed the “heinous crimes” of 252 LA-area predator priests.

When:
Friday, February 1 at 11 am

Where:
Outside of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, 555 W. Temple (at Hill), Los Angeles.

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

AUSTRALIA
Bega District News

By Stephanie Gardiner
Feb. 1, 2013

A former NSW police officer and church youth group leader convicted of child sex charges, who told one of his victims ‘‘now we are one’’, has been sentenced to at least seven and a half years’ jail.

Wayne Paul Mason, 42, was a ‘‘serial seducer of underage females’’, using his position of influence as a youth group leader and jujitsu teacher at a Baptist church in Sydney’s south-west between 1996 and 2005, NSW District Court Judge David Frearson said.

A jury found Mason, who was an officer with the NSW Police between 1997 and 2003, guilty of 44 child sex, pornography and pervert the course of justice charges.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Voice of Russia

On Thursday, the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles released personnel files of over a hundred clergy members involved in the 2007 settlement of a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by priests.

Archbishop Jose Gomez said that former Archbishop Roger Mahony would “no longer have any administrative or public duties.” In the wake of the scandal, Mahony’s ex- top adviser on sexual abuse issues, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, stepped down as regional bishop of Santa Barbara.

The clergy files include the names of priests, culminating years of legal debate over whether names should be redacted from the paperwork.

“The 2013 public release of the files of clergy who were subject of the 2007 global settlement concludes a sad and shameful chapter in the history of our local church,” the church statement said.

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

UNITED STATES
The Kansas City Star

February 1

By SARA SMITH
The Kansas City Star

It would be comforting to call the horrific violations recounted in “Mea Maxima Culpa” unthinkable.

But after decades of revelations about the epidemic of sexual abuse of minors in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the ever-accompanying accounts of enabling church officials, a new documentary from Oscar winner Alex Gibney tracks the problem to its source.

“Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God” begins its enraging journey by introducing the crimes of the Rev. Lawrence Murphy, who molested hundreds of boys under his care at St. John’s School for the Deaf in Milwaukee.

Along with the powerlessness of his prey, the failure to act by nuns, police, other priests and more than one archbishop allowed Murphy to assault deaf youths for more than 20 years.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Catholic World Report

February 01, 2013

By Carl E. Olson

Rocco Palmo provides an overview of the latest news from the Archdiocse of Los Angeles:

Ten days after an initial release from 30,000 pages of clergy sex-abuse files in the archdiocese of Los Angeles sparked widespread scorn and calls for the prosecution of now-retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and his then-vicar for clergy, now Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, in a letter to the 5 million-member church released tonight, Archbishop José Gomez announced that the embattled auxiliary would be relieved of his pastoral oversight of Santa Barbara County, and that the iconic Mahony – the longest-reigning American cardinal named after Vatican II, whose quarter-century tenure saw the LA church become the largest diocese in the nation’s history – “will no longer have any administrative or public duties.”

This site created by the Archdiocese contains the clergy files in question; it states, “There are approximately 12,000 pages in the files being released, in accordance with the Court orders. Media reports that there were 30,000 or more pages were inaccurate.” It also explains, “124 files are being released with names. Of this number, 82 files have information on allegations of childhood sexual abuse and 42 files have no information on allegations of childhood sexual abuse but, in those instances, the ‘proffers’ are being provided.” Proffers are “summaries of personnel files, prepared for litigation that describe some of the documents in that file.”

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Whispers in the Loggia

Indeed, it is a stunner.

Ten days after an initial release from 30,000 pages of clergy sex-abuse files in the archdiocese of Los Angeles sparked widespread scorn and calls for the prosecution of now-retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and his then-vicar for clergy, now Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, in a letter to the 5 million-member church released tonight, Archbishop José Gomez announced that the embattled auxiliary would be relieved of his pastoral oversight of two of the LA church’s three counties, while the iconic Mahony – the longest-reigning American cardinal named after Vatican II, whose quarter-century tenure saw his hometown church become the largest diocese in the nation’s history – will, according to his successor, “no longer have any administrative or public duties.”

“The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil,” Gomez said. “There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Jakarta Globe

Michael Thurston | February 01, 2013

The archbishop of Los Angeles stripped his predecessor of all church duties as he released files on more than 100 clerics, as required under a 2007 lawsuit deal over alleged sex abuse.

Archbishop Jose Gomez said retired Cardinal Roger Mahony will “no longer have any administrative or public duties,” while Mahony’s former top adviser on sex-abuse issues, Thomas Curry, has stepped down as a regional bishop.

“These files document abuses that happened decades ago. But that does not make them less serious,” he wrote, releasing the personnel files online after prolonged wrangling over whether the names should be blanked out. …

But the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), a victims group, dismissed Curry’s resignation as a “small, belated step in the right direction” and said “hand-slapping Mahony is a nearly meaningless gesture.”

“The lesson here for Catholic staff is clear: if you successfully conceal your wrongdoing, you can keep your job. If, however, you fail, there’s an extraordinarily slim chance you might experience some slight consequences,” SNAP director David Clohessy said in a statement.

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

MASSACHUSETTS
Salem News

BY TOM DALTON STAFF WRITER

SALEM — Two members of the clergy who fought against racism and child sex abuse will receive the 2013 Salem Award for Human Rights and Social Justice.

The Rev. Thomas Doyle, who warned Catholic Church hierarchy about the looming priest sex abuse scandal two decades before it became a worldwide crisis, will be honored along with Horace Seldon, a former United Church of Christ minister who devoted much of his life to fighting racism.

The award ceremony is Tuesday, March 26, in the Morse Auditorium at the Peabody Essex Museum.

In the 1980s, long before the scandal erupted in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, Doyle warned U.S. Catholic bishops about clergy sex abuse.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Religion News Service

David Gibson | Feb 1, 2013

(RNS) Retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony has been stripped of his official duties in an unusual public rebuke by his successor that followed the release of thousands of pages of internal church documents showing how Mahony and aides for years conspired to cover up the sexual abuse of children by clergy.

The current archbishop of Los Angeles, Jose Gomez, also announced late Thursday (Jan. 31) that Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Curry, a longtime aide to Mahony who was deeply involved in the cover up, had resigned his position overseeing the Santa Barbara region.

“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil,” Gomez said in a statement addressed to Catholics after the archdiocese lost a long legal battle and posted on its website personnel files for 122 priests who were accused of molesting children.

“There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed,” said Gomez, who Pope Benedict XVI named to replace the embattled Mahony in 2011.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
der Freitag

Kirche Die Empörung über die verschobene Aufklärung des Missbrauchsskandals bei den Katholiken verdeckt: Auch die Politik ist bisher untätig geblieben

Vielleicht war Christian Pfeiffer einfach blauäugig, als er sich im Juli 2011 über den einstimmigen Beschluss der deutschen Bischöfe freute: „Es war ein sehr langsamer Prozess“, sagte der Hannoveraner Kriminologe damals, „es gab Ängste und wir mussten Vertrauen gewinnen.“ Doch schließlich war er davon überzeugt, dass die Bischöfe ihm und seinem Team freie Hand lassen würden, um das Ausmaß sexuellen Missbrauchs im Bereich der katholischen Kirche „ohne Scheuklappen“ zu untersuchen.

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

DEUTSCHLAND
Munchner Kirchenradio

Der Münchner Kardinal Reinhard Marx hat die Umstände der Vertragskündigung mit dem Kriminologen Christian Pfeiffer bedauert. „Das ist kommunikativ nicht gut gelaufen“, sagte Marx

Si­cher seien auch auf Sei­ten der Kir­che Feh­ler ge­macht wor­den, nach­dem die deut­schen Bi­schö­fe im No­vem­ber die Kün­di­gung des Ver­trags mit Pro­fes­sor Pfeif­fer zur Er­for­schung der Miss­brauchs­fäl­le be­schlos­sen hat­ten. „Es gibt aber keine An­zei­chen, wir woll­ten etwas ver­tu­schen oder ver­harm­lo­sen, da­ge­gen wehre ich mich ganz ent­schie­den“, er­klär­te Marx bei der Ab­schluss­pres­se­kon­fe­renz zur Früh­jahrs­voll­ver­samm­lung der baye­ri­schen Bi­schö­fe in Wald­sas­sen.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Daily News

By Jonathan Dobrer
dailynews.com
Posted: 01/31/2013

Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony apologizes for realizing only late in the game that molestation was going on, or having any idea of its scope, or believing that is was really traumatic. Really?

The only plausible excuse he has for any part of the cover up is possibly a mistaken view on the efficacy of therapy for pedophiles. In the 1980s, some might have thought it could work. They were quickly disabused of that notion but allowed children to continue to be abused.

Mahony’s statements of remorse for his sins of omission ring hollow, since he worked day and night until his retirement to keep the records sealed and prevent the victims and their families from knowing what was reported, who got sent to rehab, and how many were reassigned. He worked virtually till the day that the records and correspondence were released to keep the documents secret, then just highly redacted. All this was done to “protect” the identity of the victims, he claimed. Not credible. None of it.

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

UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

As an addition to what I posted earlier today about the “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God” HBO documentary, here’s a trailer. Again, this HBO documentary will air 4th February on HBO at 9 P.M. ET.

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Worthy Adversary

[the Los Angeles files]

Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 31, 2013

Moments after a judge ordered a final halt to decades of secrecy by top LA archdiocesan officials, Archbishop Jose Gomez’ lawyer made this outlandish claim:

Michael Hennigan said that after what he called an inevitable “media blitz” over the file release, he hoped the focus would shift to the church’s current well-regarded program for preventing abuse.

“You’ve written almost nothing about what has happened in the last 10 years,” he told reporters outside court. “The church is at the front edge of how to deal with these issues.”

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

My friends, do you wonder why people abandon the Church? Do you wonder why atheism is all the rage among the pierced and tattooed teens and college kids who work at Subway? Do you wonder why nobody takes the whole God thing too seriously any more?

Well, there are many reasons.

But one reason is this. It’s because so few bishops do what Los Angeles Archbishop Gomez just did.

Reading these files, reflecting on the wounds that were caused, has been the saddest experience I’ve had since becoming your Archbishop in 2011. … Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties.

Thus writes Archbishop Gomez, banning Cardinal Mahoney, a “prince of the Church”, from any public or administrative duties. Why? Because Mahoney deliberately and with care and precision shielded child abusing priests from the law, shuffling them from parish to parish, and pawning them off on other dioceses. He let the predators have continued access to their prey – innocent children – as long as it did not cost the archdiocese any money or him personally any embarrassment. His reputation and the almighty dollar counted for more than the safety of children, for the effective treatment of priests, or for the service of justice.

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MICHIGAN
Tribune Chronicle

February 1, 2013

By VIRGINIA SHANK – Staff reporter (vshank@tribtoday.com) , Tribune Chronicle | TribToday.com

The Detroit Archdiocese is reporting that it has no record of sexual abuse complaints brought against Brother Stephen Baker during his two years in Michigan.

The archdiocese made the statement on its website Wednesday after members of SNAP – Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests – a support group for clergy sex abuse victims, called on it to investigate whether Baker had sexually abused any of his students while teaching at Orchard Lakes Schools from 1983 to 1985.

On Thursday, Ned McGrath, communications director for the archdiocese, said there is nothing more the archdiocese can do unless alleged victims come forward with claims against Baker. He said that if that were to happen, the archdiocese would report those claims to the appropriate civil authorities.

“We have looked into it,” he said. “There’s really nothing else we can do unless somebody comes forward claiming abuse.”

Judy Jones of SNAP said on Thursday that the group is disappointed by the Detroit statements. However, she said the organization has not given up on its efforts to locate alleged victims.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
CBS Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.c0m) — While apologizing to victims who were sexually abused by members of the clergy, LA’s Archbishop José H. Gomez also Thursday announced he was stripping his predecessor — Cardinal Roger Mahony — of all administrative and public church duties.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles also released personnel files of more than 100 clergy involved in sexual abuse cases.

The names and files were released as part of a settlement stemming from a 2007 lawsuit. The clergy files include the names of priests and church hierarchy who dealt with the individual cases. The church had fought to keep the names private.

For a look at the files, click here.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
10 News

LOS ANGELES – After a years-long legal battle, the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles Thursday released personnel files of more than 100 clergy members as part of a 2007 settlement of a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by priests.

In conjunction with the release of the files, Archbishop Jose Gomez announced that former Archbishop Roger Mahony will “no longer have any administrative or public duties,” and Mahony’s former top adviser on sex-abuse issues, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, has stepped down as regional bishop of Santa Barbara.

The clergy files include the names of priests, culminating years of legal wrangling over whether names should be redacted from the paperwork.

“The 2013 public release of the files of clergy who were subject of the 2007 global settlement concludes a sad and shameful chapter in the history of our local church,” according to a diocese statement announcing the release of the files. “In the 2004 Report to the People of God and elsewhere, the archdiocese acknowledged and apologized for failing to treat victims of abuse with compassion, as well as for employing what we now know to be inadequate standards for treatment and supervision of priests who were found to have abused children and young people.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Reuters

[the Los Angeles files]

By Dan Whitcomb and Alex Dobuzinskis

LOS ANGELES | Fri Feb 1, 2013

(Reuters) – The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, after years of legal battles, released files on Thursday of priests accused of molesting children and removed a top clergyman who had been linked to efforts to conceal the abuse.

Archbishop Jose Gomez said he had stripped his predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, of all public and administrative duties. Mahony’s former top aide, Thomas Curry, stepped down as bishop of Santa Barbara.

“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil,” Gomez said in a statement released by the nation’s largest Catholic archdiocese.

“There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed,” he said.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Aljazeera

The Catholic Church in Los Angeles has released thousands of pages of documents related to sex abuse by priests, acknowledging a cover-up as “a sad and shameful chapter” of the church.

The Los Angeles archdiocese also announced on Thursday that it has removed top ranking church leaders who have been linked to efforts to conceal the abuses, after years of legal battles.

“The 2013 public release of the files of clergy who were subject of the 2007 global settlement concludes a sad and shameful chapter in the history of our local church,” the archdiocese said in a statement attributed to Archbishop Jose Gomez.

That 2007 settlement with the victims of the abuse cost the church as much as $660m. The Catholic Church in Los Angeles is the largest in the United States.

Gomez also said that his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, has been barred from any future administrative or public duties in the church.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
CNN

By Ben Brumfield, CNN

A California judge has forced the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to release some 12,000 pages of church documents revealing how it handled allegations of priest sexual abuse.

There were many – 192 priests and bishops were named in litigation, the archdiocese said.

“The cases span decades,” Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said in a statement Thursday. Some go back to the 1930s.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Religion News Service

Michael J. O’Loughlin | Jan 31, 2013

There was once a time when Catholic Cardinals in the US were champions of progressive causes, especially on immigration. One such icon was Los Angeles’ Cardinal Roger Mahony, who spent decades championing the rights of undocumented Latino immigrants in that city and across the US. In 2006, he campaigned with then Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts to try to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

But now, with startling revelations coming out of LA about Mahony’s attempts to protect known pedophile priests in his archdiocese while seemingly ignoring the victims, some are questioning his ability to fight for the undocumented. From the LA Times:

On a Sunday night at Dodger Stadium in 1986, Archbishop Roger M. Mahony celebrated Mass in flawless Spanish. In an era when immigrants in Los Angeles were routinely derided as parasites and criminals, the archbishop told the crowd of 55,000 that whether they were born in Puebla, San Salvador or Managua, they were part of his flock.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Zenit

[the Los Angeles files]

Junno De Jesús Arocho Esteves
LOS ANGELES, February 1, 2013 (Zenit.org).

Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles released a statement regarding the release of Clergy files of those involved in the sexual abuse of children. While the files document abuse cases that occurred several decades ago, Archbishop Gomez stated that it does not make them less serious.

“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed,” the Archbishop stated.

Stressing the need to acknowledge the “terrible failure”, Archbishop Gomez stated the need to pray for the victims of abuse and to support them in their healing while “restoring the trust that was broken.”

Cardinal Roger Mahoney, Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles, and Bishop Thomas Curry, bishop of Santa Barbara have both expressed their regret and sorry for their handling of the cases. However, Archbishop Gomez stated that he informed Archbishop Mahoney that he will be relieved of administrative and public duties effective immediately. Bishop Curry, who served as Vicar for Clergy during the period of abuses, has requested to be relieved of his duties as Regional Bishop of Santa Clara.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Tablet (United Kingdom)

1 February 2013

Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles issued a statement yesterday announcing that he has stripped his predecessor Cardinal Roger Mahony of “any administrative or public duties”, and accepted a request from his auxiliary bishop Thomas Curry to be relieved of his responsibility as the regional bishop of Santa Barbara.

Archbishop Gomez took the action in response to the recent release of archdiocesan documents pertaining to abuse by priests in the 1980s, showing that then-Archbishop Mahony and Mgr Curry tried to keep information from the police and move perpetrators out of the state beyond the reach of law enforcement officials.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Australian

[the Los Angeles files]

AFP
February 02, 2013

THE Archbishop of Los Angeles stripped his predecessor of all church duties last night as he released files on more than 100 clerics, as required under a 2007 lawsuit deal over alleged sex abuse.

Archbishop Jose Gomez said retired cardinal Roger Mahony would “no longer have any administrative or public duties”, while Cardinal Mahony’s former top adviser on sex abuse issues, Thomas Curry, had stepped down as a regional bishop.

“These files document abuses that happened decades ago, but that does not make them less serious,” Archbishop Gomez wrote, releasing the personnel files online after prolonged wrangling over whether the names should be blanked out.

“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behaviour described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed. We need to acknowledge that terrible failure today.”

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

‘This is a frame-up,’ says father of Brooklyn rabbi arrested for allegedly sexually abusing at least three former students of his at a yeshiva

By Rocco Parascandola , Kerry Burke AND Larry Mcshane / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Thursday, January 31, 2013

A depraved Brooklyn rabbi, busted for sexually abusing three teenage boys, shamelessly blamed his underage victims for trying to seduce him, police sources said Thursday.

Yoel Malik, 33, a highly regarded member of an ultra-Orthodox Hasidic sect, lured all three teens to Brooklyn motels, prosecutors and police said.

But Malik, after his arrest on 28 criminal counts late Wednesday, tried to convince cops that he was the victim rather than the predator. The boys were all his students at Ohr Hameir, a now-shuttered Satmar yeshiva in Borough Park.

The twisted teacher’s comments “were self-serving,” said one police source. “In other words, they were coming on to him.”

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By MOSI SECRET

Published: January 31, 2013

A rabbi from a prominent ultra-Orthodox Jewish family in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, was charged on Thursday with sexually abusing three teenage boys from a school he ran, in a case that is likely to shine yet another spotlight on a secretive community grappling with abuse allegations.

The rabbi and leader of the school, Yoel Malik, 33, is accused of taking two of the boys to a local hotel for sexual encounters and rubbing another boy’s penis through his pants while masturbating in a parked car.

The encounters, the police said, occurred from March of last year until early in January. The three boys ranged in age from 14 to 16, the police said, although prosecutors said they were 13 to 16. The police said no charges were filed concerning a fourth victim, who is currently in Israel. A prosecutor said at an arraignment hearing in Brooklyn Criminal Court that there was a video of Rabbi Malik entering a hotel with the fourth victim at 3 a.m. and leaving later in the morning.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Die Welt

Der Erzbischof von Los Angeles, Jose Gomez, hat Akten über mutmaßlichen sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern durch Priester veröffentlicht. Auf der Internetseite der US-Diözese sind seit Donnerstag die Daten zu Vorwürfen gegen 124 Priester einzusehen. In 82 Fällen geht es um mutmaßlichen Missbrauch. Die Veröffentlichung ist Teil einer Einigung der Kirche und der mutmaßlichen Opfer von 2007.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
News.ch (Schweiz)

Los Angeles – Der Erzbischof von Los Angeles, Jose Gomez, hat Akten über mutmasslichen sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern durch Priester veröffentlicht. Auf der Internetseite der US-Diözese sind seit Donnerstag die Daten zu Vorwürfen gegen 124 Priester einzusehen.

In 82 Fällen geht es um mutmasslichen Missbrauch. Die Veröffentlichung ist Teil einer Einigung der Kirche und der mutmasslichen Opfer von 2007.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Beverly Hills Courier

[with video]

(CNS) Posted Thursday, January 31, 2013–7:17 PM

After a years-long legal battle, the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles today released personnel files of more than 100 clergy members as part of a 2007 settlement of a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by priests.

In conjunction with the release, Archbishop Jose Gomez announced that former Archbishop Roger Mahony will “no longer have any administrative or public duties,” and Mahony’s former top adviser on sex-abuse issues, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, has stepped down as regional bishop of Santa Barbara.

The clergy files include the names of priests, culminating years of legal wrangling over whether names should be redacted from the paperwork.

“The 2013 public release of the files of clergy who were subject of the 2007 global settlement concludes a sad and shameful chapter in the history of our local church,” according to a diocese statement announcing the release of the files. “In the 2004 Report to the People of God and elsewhere, the archdiocese acknowledged and apologized for failing to treat victims of abuse with compassion, as well as for employing what we now know to be inadequate standards for treatment and supervision of priests who were found to have abused children and young people.”

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
OTZ (Deutschland)

Der Erzbischof von Los Angeles, Jose Gomez, hat Akten über mutmaßlichen sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern durch Priester veröffentlicht.

Der Erzbischof von Los Angeles, Jose Gomez, hat Akten über mutmaßlichen sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern durch Priester veröffentlicht. Auf der Internetseite der US-Diözese sind seit Donnerstag die Daten zu Vorwürfen gegen 124 Priester einzusehen. In 82 Fällen geht es um mutmaßlichen Missbrauch. Die Veröffentlichung ist Teil einer Einigung der Kirche und der mutmaßlichen Opfer von 2007.

“Diese Akten dokumentieren Missbrauch, der vor Jahrzehnten begangen wurde. Das macht ihn aber nicht weniger schlimm”, erklärte Erzbischof Gomez. “Ich finde es schmerzhaft und brutal, diese Dokumente zu lesen. Das darin beschriebene Verhalten ist furchtbar traurig und böse. Es gibt keine Entschuldigung, keine Erklärung dazu, was diesen Kindern geschehen ist.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles

Personnel Files of clergy who where subject of the 2007 global settlement have been publicly released and are listed below. We ask that you read the introduction page before exploring content below.

Frequently Asked Questions/Clergy Personnel Files:

1. Which files are being disclosed?
The files concern those priests named in the litigation that settled in 2007. Pursuant to the settlement agreement between victims and the Archdiocese, retired Federal Judge Dickran Tevrizian ordered files released subject to certain rules designed to protect the privacy of certain individuals, including the redaction of the names of victims, third parties and church hierarchy.

Judge Emilie Elias then adopted the Judge Tevrizian order with certain modifications. Specifically, she ordered that the names of the church hierarchy generally be disclosed in the files. The Archdiocese accepted her ruling, and has restored the names of church hierarchy in the documents being released. …

Clergy Personnel Files

•Abercombie, Leonard
•Aguilar-Rivera, Nicolas
•Alzugaray, Joseph
•Arzube, Juan
•Baker, Michael
•Barmasse, Kevin
•Boyer, Leland
•Brennan, John
•Buckley, Michael
•Buckman, Franklin
•Caffoe, Lynn
•Carey, Cleve
•Carriere, David
•Carroll, Michael
•Casey, Edward
•Casey, John
•Castro, Willebaldo
•Chandler, David
•Coffield, John
•Cosgrove, John
•Coughlin, Richard
•Cronin, Sean
•Cruces, Angel
•Daley, Wallace
•Dawson, John
•Deady, John
•DeJonghe, Harold
•Devaney, James
•Diesta, Arwyn
•Doherty, John
•Dolan, James
•Duggan, Albert
•English, Thomas
•Farabaugh, Clint
•Farmer, Donald
•Farris, John
•Faue, Matthias
•Feeney, John
•Fernando, Walter
•Fessard, Gerald
•Fitzpatrick, James
•Ford, James
•Gallagher, George
•Garcia, Cristobal
•Garcia, Peter
•Garcia, Richard
•Ginty, Denis
•Granadino, David
•Grill, Philip
•Grimes, James
•Gunst, George
•Hackett, John
•Hagenbach, Clinton
•Hanley, Bernard
•Haran, Michael
•Hartman, Richard
•Henry, Richard
•Hernandez, Stephen
•Hovath, Bertrand
•Hunt, Michael
•Hurley, Daniel
•Jaramillo, Luis
•Kearney, Christopher
•Kelly, Matthew
•Knoernschild, John
•Kohnke, John
•Lapierre, David
•Lindner, Jerold
•Llanos, Theodore
•Loomis, Richard
•Lopez, Joseph
•Lovell, Lawrence
•MacSweeney, Eugene
•Marshall, Thomas
•Martinez, Ruben
•Mateo, Leonard
•McAsey, Joseph
•McCarthy, Kevin
•McElhatton, Thomas
•Miani, Titian
•Miller, George
•Monte, Alfred
•Nocita, Michael
•O’Carroll, Charles
•O’Connor, Donal
•Orellana-Mendoza, Samuel
•Pecharich, Michael
•Perez, Henry
•Pina, Joseph
•Plesetz, Gerald
•Ramos, Eleutario
•Reilly, Terrence
•Rodriguez, Carlos
•Roemer, Donald
•Roper, William
•Rowe, Dorian
•Rozo, Efrain
•Rucker, George
•Ruhl, John
•Ryan, Joseph
•Salazar, John
•Salinas, Gabriel
•Sanchez, Manuel
•Santillan, John
•Savino, Dominic
•Scott, George
•Sharpe, Joseph
•Sheahan, John
•Shimmaly, Edward
•Silva-Flores, Fidencio
•Stalkamp, Louis
•Sutphin, Carl
•Tamayo, Santiago
•Tepe, Raymond
•Terra, Michael
•Ugarte, Jose
•Van Liefde, Christopher
•Vetter, Henry
•Villa Gomez, Nemoria
•Weitz, Wilfrid
•Wempe, Michael
•Ziemann, Patrick
•z-I
•z-II
•z-III
•z-IV
•z-V
•z-VI

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Wall Street Journal

By TAMARA AUDI and ERICA E. PHILLIPS

The Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles removed retired Cardinal Roger Mahony from public and administrative church duties Thursday night, just before the church released thousands of pages of personnel files of priests accused of abusing children.

Cardinal Mahony was a well-known figure in Los Angeles who had led the diocese as archbishop from 1985 until his retirement in 2011. His removal from public duties came on the heels of a previous document release that showed he and other church officials allegedly attempting to keep priests accused of abuse from prosecution.

Shortly after announcing the decision regarding Cardinal Mahony, the church unexpectedly released thousands of pages of documents about more than 100 priests believed to have abused children. The document release is part of a $660 million civil settlement reached with more than 500 plaintiffs in 2007.

In a statement, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez called the files “brutal and painful reading.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
The New York Times

By JENNIFER MEDINA and LAURIE GOODSTEIN

LOS ANGELES — Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, who retired less than two years ago as the leader of the nation’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, was removed from all public duties by his successor, Archbishop José H. Gomez, as the church complied with a court order to release thousands of pages of internal documents that show how the cardinal shielded priests who sexually abused children.

The documents, released as part of a record $660 million settlement in 2007 with the victims of abuse, are the strongest evidence so far that top officials for years purposely tried to conceal abuse from law enforcement officials. The files, which go from the 1940s to the present, are the latest in a series of revelations that suggest that the church continued to maneuver against law enforcement even after the extent of the abuse crisis emerged.

Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, who was the vicar for clergy and one of the cardinal’s top deputies and his adviser on sexual abuse, also stepped down as the regional bishop for Santa Barbara, Calif.

The church had fought for years to keep the documents secret, and until this week it argued that the names of top church officials should be kept private. In letters written in the 1980s, then-Father Curry gave suggestions for how to stop the police from investigating priests who admitted that they had abused children, like stopping the priests from seeing therapists who would be required to alert law enforcement about the abuse.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

Built in the 18th century, Our Lady Queen of Angels Church on Olvera Street is a historic landmark that Cardinal Roger Mahony would frequently visit for various events including the popular blessing of the animals.

But on Thursday, the mood at the Spanish Colonial chapel was decidedly more somber as parishioners quietly discussed Archbishop Jose Gomez’s dramatic decision to strip Mahony of any public and administrative church duties in the wake of the priest abuse scandal.

There were only a few people at the church Thursday evening. But when Mahony’s name was mentioned, other came to join the discussion.

“They seem to be taking drastic measures,” said Ralph Ochoa, a food volunteer. “They have to for the church to survive. A lot of people were hurt, they feel they were betrayed. It hurt parishioners and everyone too.”

Gomez acted after the release of church records showing that Mahony and another church leader tried to hide child abuse by priests from police.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
LA Weekly

By Dennis Romero
Thu., Jan. 31 2013 at 10:34 PM

We’re not sure that a stunning rebuke is, but we’re going to guess that this is one.

Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez stated tonight that retired Cardinal and Archbishop Emeritus Roger Mahony would “no longer have any administrative or public duties” for the 4-million-parishioner L.A. Archdiocese.

The announcement came as Gomez unveiled its files related to clergy sexual abuse:

Gomez also said he accepted the the request of Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry “to be relieved of his responsibility as the Regional Bishop of Santa Barbara.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
NBC Southern California

[with video]

Former Cardinal Mahoney Stripped of Public Duties for Role in Shielding Alleged Priest Child Molesters

By Samantha Tata

Thursday, Jan 31, 2013

Hours after personnel files detailing years of alleged sexual abuse by Los Angeles priests were released Thursday, the Archbishop of Los Angeles apologized for priests’ past abuse as he took action against two church leaders who were at the helm while the suspected abuse took place.

Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony will “no longer have any administrative or public duties,” and his former Vicar of Clergy Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry will resign as the Regional Bishop of Santa Barbara, Archbishop José H. Gomez said in a statement released Thursday evening.

Mahoney and other top Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles officials maneuvered behind the scenes to shield molester priests, provide damage control for the church and keep parishioners in the dark, according to the church personnel files.

As Vicar for Clergy, Curry was responsible for “promoting the spiritual and physical well-being” for all priests and deacons in the archdiocese, including those who were inactive, sick or on leave, according to the archdiocese’s website. He also doled out assignments for priests and deacons.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Catholic News Agency

Los Angeles, Calif., Jan 31, 2013 / 11:05 pm (CNA).- Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez has relieved retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of his remaining duties after the release of personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse decades ago.

“We need to acknowledge that terrible failure today. We need to pray for everyone who has ever been hurt by members of the Church,” the archbishop said in a Jan. 31 statement.

“And we need to continue to support the long and painful process of healing their wounds and restoring the trust that was broken.”

Archbishop Gomez noted that “effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony” – who served the archdiocese from 1985 to 2011 – “that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
CBS 47

[with video]

Reported by: Lemor Abrams
Email: LemorAbrams@cbsfresno.com

A bombshell from the Catholic Church.

Retired cardinal Roger Mahony is relieved of his remaining duties with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

It comes as the Church releases 12,000 documents from files on priests accused of sexual abuse.

Records show Mahony worked for years to conceal molestation by the clergy from law enforcement.

Archbishop of Los Angeles Jose Gomez released a statement late Thursday.

He says in part:

“My predecessor, Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, has expressed his sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care. Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Times (United Kingdom)

Lucinda Beaman

America’s largest Roman Catholic diocese has released thousands of pages of personnel files of priests accused of child molestation and removed a top clergyman who has been linked to efforts to conceal the abuse.

The former head of the Los Angeles diocese, the retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, has been stripped of administrative and public duties by his successor, Archbishop José Gómez.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Press TV (Iran)

A US Catholic archbishop has stripped a top cardinal, who led a Los Angeles Archdiocese before him, of all church duties for his role in concealing child sexual abuse offenses by Catholic priests from authorities.

Archbishop Jose Gomez announced in a Thursday statement by the Los Angeles Catholic Archdiocese that he had removed his predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, of all public and administrative duties.

Former top advisor to 76-year-old Mahony on child sexual abuse cases in the church, Thomas Curry, 70, who colluded with him in hiding child molestation offenses by Catholic priests, has reportedly quit his current position as a bishop in the California city of Santa Barbara.

“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil,” Gomez proclaimed in a statement issued by the largest Catholic archdiocese in the US.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Redlands Daily Facts

By Susan Abram and Barbara Jones, Staff Writersdailynews.com

Cardinal Roger Mahony, who has stood at the center of the Los Angeles Archdiocese clergy sex abuse scandal after mounting evidence showed he shielded pedophile priests from law enforcement, has been relieved of all public duties, Archbishop Jose Gomez announced late Thursday.

Gomez’s unexpected announcement came as the archdiocese, under court order, released some 12,000 documents from the internal personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse.

“Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties,” Gomez said in a written statement.

He also said auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, who served as Mahony’s vicar of clergy and his point person on sex abuse cases, has stepped down as regional bishop of Santa Barbara.

“I have accepted his request to be relieved of his responsibility,” Gomez said.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Indian Express

The archbishop of Los Angeles has stripped his predecessor of all church duties as he released files on more than 100 clerics, as required under a 2007 lawsuit deal over alleged sex abuse.

Archbishop Jose Gomez said retired Cardinal Roger Mahony will “no longer have any administrative or public duties,” while Mahony’s former top adviser on sex-abuse issues, Thomas Curry, has stepped down as a regional bishop.

“These files document abuses that happened decades ago. But that does not make them less serious,” he wrote, releasing the personnel files online after prolonged wrangling over whether the names should be blanked out.

“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behaviour described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
CNN

By Ben Brumfield, CNN

updated 7:12 AM EST, Fri February 1, 2013

(CNN) — A California judge has forced the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to release some 12,000 pages of church documents revealing how it handled allegations of priest sexual abuse.

There were many — 192 priests and bishops were named in litigation, the archdiocese said.

“The cases span decades,” Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said in a statement Thursday. Some go back to the 1930s.

“But that does not make them less serious. I find these files to be brutal and painful reading,” he said.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
U-T San Diego

By Gillian Flaccus Associated Press

Los Angeles

Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez announced Thursday night he has relieved retired Cardinal Roger Mahony of his remaining duties and a former top aide to Mahony has stepped down from his post, on the same night the church released thousands of pages of personnel files of priests accused of sexual abuse.

“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading,” Gomez said in a statement, referring to the newly released files made public by the church Thursday night hours after a judge’s order. “The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children.”

Gomez announced he has “informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties.”

Mahony, who retired in 2011 after more than a quarter-century at the helm of the archdiocese, has publicly apologized for mistakes he made in dealing with priests who molested children.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Guardian (United Kingdom)

Reuters in Los Angeles
guardian.co.uk, Friday 1 February 2013

The Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles has removed a top clergyman linked to efforts to conceal abuse as it released thousands on files of priests accused of molesting children.

Archbishop Jose Gomez said he had stripped his predecessor, the retired cardinal Roger Mahony, of all public and administrative duties. “I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behaviour described in these files is terribly sad and evil,” Gomez said in a statement released by the US’s largest Catholic archdiocese.

“There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed,” he said.

Mahony’s former top aide, Thomas Curry, also stepped down as bishop of Santa Barbara.

The 12,000 pages of files were made public more than a week after church records relating to 14 priests were unsealed as part of a separate civil suit, showing that church officials plotted to conceal the abuse from law enforcement agencies as late as 1987.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Newser

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 1, 2013

(Newser) – The former archbishop of Los Angeles has been removed from all public duties due to the central role he played in the coverup of child abuse. Tens of thousands of pages revealing the extent of the abuse crisis, now posted on the church’s website, are “brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil,” said current archbishop Jose Gomez. The public action against Cardinal Roger Mahony—which comes within hours of the documents’ court-ordered release—is “unprecedented” within the American Catholic Church, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
BBC News

A retired Los Angeles cardinal accused of mismanaging a child sex abuse crisis has been stripped of all administrative and public duties by his successor.

Retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, 76, has apologised for his “failure”, Archbishop Jose Gomez said on Thursday.

The Los Angeles archdiocese, the largest in the US, has released thousands of pages of files on priests accused of child molestation.

Cardinal Mahony retired in 2011, having run the archdiocese for 25 years.

In 2007 Los Angeles paid $660m (£415m) to alleged victims of abuse, the largest sex abuse payout on record.

Cardinal Mahony has publicly apologised for mistakes he made handling the clerical sex abuse issue.

‘They failed’

“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading,” Archbishop Gomez said in a statement. “The behaviour described in these files is terribly sad and evil.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Coshocton Tribune

by Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TDOAY

One of the most powerful Catholic leaders in the USA, Cardinal Roger Mahony, the retired archbishop of Los Angeles, has been relieved of his duties for covering up for sexually abusive priests – a role the current archbishop called “evil.”

Just hours after a court-ordered massive release of priest personnel files revealed the extent of Mahony’s role in covering up for known sexual predators, Archbishop José Gómez announced Thursday night that he has relieved Mahony of his remaining duties.

A former top aide to Mahony also stepped down from his current post.

This is the first time since the massive abuse scandal exploded in 2002 hen there were direct repercussions for top church officials. In December 2002, Cardinal Bernard Law resigned his post as archbishop of Boston when protesters and priests called for him to step aside.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
RTE News (Ireland)

The Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, after years of legal battles, has released files on priests accused of molesting children.

Archbishop Jose Gomez said he had stripped his predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, of all public and administrative duties.

He also removed a top clergyman who had been linked to efforts to conceal the abuse.

Cardinal Mahony’s former top aide, Thomas Curry, stepped down as bishop of Santa Barbara.

“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behaviour described in these files is terribly sad and evil,” Archbishop Gomez said in a statement.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
IrishCentral

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Friday, February 1, 2013, 7:05 AM

A Catholic Archbishop has described the efforts of the American church to thwart police investigations into clerical sex abuse as ‘terribly sad and evil’ – after he banned Cardinal Roger M. Mahony from public life.

The Los Angeles Times has revealed that new documents show that Cardinal Mahony has been removed from all public office by his successor Archbishop José H. Gomez.

Cardinal Mahony was leader of America’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese when Archbishop Gomez took initial action two years ago as the church complied with a court order to release thousands of pages of internal documents that show how the cardinal shielded priests who sexually abused children.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Jerry Filteau | Feb. 1, 2013

In an action possibly without any precedent in church history, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez has barred his predecessor, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, from any public ministry in Los Angeles.

“Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties” Gomez said in a Jan 31 letter.

He cited Mahony’s alleged failures to protect young people from sexually abusive priests – extensively documented in court filings in recent years – as grounds for the extraordinary decision, in church terms, to bar the cardinal from any future public activities in the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011 and a cardinal since 1991, has long been one of the leading church figures in the United States, a leader in justice for farmworkers, immigrants and other victims of economic injustice.

Church law gives cardinals extraordinary authority even beyond their own dioceses, with Canon 357 of the Code of Canon Law saying that “in those matters which pertain to their own person, cardinals living outside of Rome and outside their own diocese are exempt from the power of governance of the bishop of the diocese in which they are residing.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
St. Augustine Record

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cardinal Roger Mahony, who retired with a tainted career after dodging criminal charges over how he handled pedophile priests, was stripped of duties by his successor as a judge ordered confidential church personnel files released.

The unprecedented move by Archbishop Jose Gomez came less than two weeks after other long-secret priest personnel records showed how Mahony worked with top aides to protect the Roman Catholic church from the engulfing scandal.

One of those aides, Monsignor Thomas Curry stepped down Thursday as auxiliary bishop in the Los Angeles archdiocese’s Santa Barbara region. Gomez said Mahony, 76, would no longer have administrative or public duties in the diocese.

“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading,” Gomez said in a statement, referring to 12,000 pages of files posted online by the church Thursday night just hours after a judge’s order. “The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Arquidiócesis de Los Ángeles

Monseñor José H. Gomez
Arzobispo de Los Ángeles
Los Angeles, 31 de enero de 2013

Hermanos y Hermanas en Cristo,

Esta semana estamos haciendo públicos los archivos de los sacerdotes que abusaron sexualmente a niños mientras servían en la Arquidiócesis de Los Angeles.

Estos archivos contienen documentación sobre abusos que sucedieron hace varias décadas. Pero eso no los hace menos graves.

La lectura de esos archivos es brutal y dolorosa. El comportamiento que se describe ahí es tristísimo y terriblemente malo. No hay excusas ni explicaciones posibles sobre lo que pasó a esos niños. Los sacerdotes involucrados tenían el deber de ser sus padres espirituales, y fallaron.

Hoy, necesitamos admitir esas terribles faltas. Tenemos que rezar por todos aquellos que alguna vez han sido heridos por miembros de la Iglesia. Y tenemos que seguir ofreciendo nuestro apoyo en el largo y doloroso proceso de la sanación de sus heridas, así como de la recuperación de la confianza que fue destrozada.

No puedo deshacer los errores del pasado que se encuentran en esas páginas. Leer esos archivos, reflexionar sobre las heridas causadas, ha sido la experiencia más triste que he tenido desde que asumí la responsabilidad de ser su Arzobispo en el 2011.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles

[en espanol]

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Archbishop of Los Angeles
Los Angeles January 31, 2013

My brothers and sisters in Christ,

This week we are releasing the files of priests who sexually abused children while they were serving in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

These files document abuses that happened decades ago. But that does not make them less serious.

I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil. There is no excuse, no explaining away what happened to these children. The priests involved had the duty to be their spiritual fathers and they failed.

We need to acknowledge that terrible failure today. We need to pray for everyone who has ever been hurt by members of the Church. And we need to continue to support the long and painful process of healing their wounds and restoring the trust that was broken.

I cannot undo the failings of the past that we find in these pages. Reading these files, reflecting on the wounds that were caused, has been the saddest experience I’ve had since becoming your Archbishop in 2011.

My predecessor, retired Cardinal Roger Mahony, has expressed his sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care. Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties. Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry has also publicly apologized for his decisions while serving as Vicar for Clergy. I have accepted his request to be relieved of his responsibility as the Regional Bishop of Santa Barbara.

To every victim of child sexual abuse by a member of our Church: I want to help you in your healing. I am profoundly sorry for these sins against you.

To every Catholic in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, I want you to know: We will continue, as we have for many years now, to immediately report every credible allegation of abuse to law enforcement authorities and to remove those credibly accused from ministry. We will continue to work, every day, to make sure that our children are safe and loved and cared for in our parishes, schools and in every ministry in the Archdiocese.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By Harriet Ryan and Victoria Kim, Los Angeles Times
February 1, 2013

In a move unprecedented in the American Catholic Church, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez announced Thursday that he had relieved his predecessor, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, of all public duties over his mishandling of clergy sex abuse of children decades ago.

Gomez also said that Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Curry, who worked with Mahony to conceal abusers from police in the 1980s, had resigned his post as a regional bishop in Santa Barbara.

The announcement came as the church posted on its website tens of thousands of pages of previously secret personnel files for 122 priests accused of molesting children.

“I find these files to be brutal and painful reading. The behavior described in these files is terribly sad and evil,” Gomez wrote in a letter addressed to “My brothers and sisters in Christ.”

The release of the records and the rebuke of the two central figures in L.A.’s molestation scandal signaled a clear desire by Gomez to define the sexual abuse crisis as a problem of a different era — and a different archbishop.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

A trove of confidential church files detailing how the Los Angeles archdiocese dealt with priests accused of molestation must be released “as soon as possible” and include the names of Cardinal Roger Mahony and his aides, a judge ruled Thursday.

In a written order, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Emilie H. Elias gave the church a Feb. 22 deadline to turn over about 30,000 pages of internal memos, psychiatric reports, Vatican correspondence and other documents.

“Let’s just get it done,” Elias said in court Thursday.

Her order brought to a close five and a half years of legal wrangling and delays and set the stage for a raft of new and almost certainly embarrassing revelations about the church’s handling of pedophile priests. A small portion of the files were made public in a civil case last week and showed that in the 1980s Mahony and a top aide discussed methods for concealing abuse from police, including giving molesters out-of-state assignments.

DOCUMENT: Los Angeles Archdiocese priest abuse files

The files Elias ordered released are the final piece of a landmark 2007 settlement between the archdiocese and about 500 people who said clergy abused them. As part of that $660-million settlement, the archdiocese agreed to hand over the personnel files of accused abusers. Victims said the files would provide accountability for church leaders who let pedophiles remain in the ministry; law enforcement officials said the records would be important investigative tools.

But the release was delayed for years by appeals and the painstaking process of reading and redacting 89 files, some hundreds of pages long. A private mediator in 2011 ordered the church to black out the names of victims and archdiocese employees not accused of abuse, saying he wanted to avoid “guilt by association.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Washington Post

Judge orders LA archdiocese to release 30K pages of priest files without blacked-out names

By Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — A judge on Thursday ordered the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to turn over 30,000 pages from the confidential files of priests accused of child molestation without blacking out the names of top church officials who were responsible for key decisions in how to handle the sexually abusive priests.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Emilie Elias ordered the nation’s largest archdiocese to turn over the files to attorneys for alleged victims no later than Feb. 22.

The archdiocese had planned to black out the names of members of the church hierarchy who were responsible for the molesting priests in the documents and instead provide a cover sheet for each priest’s file, listing the names of top officials who handled that case. The church reversed course Wednesday after The Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times and plaintiff attorneys objected in court.

The archdiocese had also planned to black out handwritten comments on the files inked by recently retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and provide those in typewritten form instead.

A record-breaking $660 million settlement in 2007 with more than 500 alleged victims paved the way for the ultimate disclosure of the tens of thousands of pages, but the archdiocese and individual priests fought to keep them secret for more than five years. The AP and the Los Angeles Times intervened in court in January because the 4.3 million-person archdiocese intended to release the files with the names of top officials, including Mahony’s, blacked out.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
ABC 6

Posted: Jan 31, 2013

By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) – A judge has ordered the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to turn over 30,000 pages from the confidential files of priests accused of sex abuse without blacking out the names of top church officials who were responsible for handling their cases.

Judge Emilie Elias on Thursday ordered the nation’s largest archdiocese to release the files by Feb. 22.

A record-breaking $660 million settlement with more than 500 victims in 2007 set the stage for the release of the files, but the archdiocese and individual priests fought for five years to keep them secret.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By Sandra Hernandez
January 31, 2013, 4:47 p.m.

Earlier this month, a state judge ordered the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to include the names of church leaders who mishandled sex-abuse claims when it finally releases scores of confidential priest files as part of a 2007 settlement.

Yet despite that court order, the archdiocese has continued to act as if the rules don’t apply to it. This week, the church resubmitted a proposal that would have redacted the names of top church leaders from the documents and only provided the names of those officials in a generic cover sheet attached to the priest’s file. The church’s actions were nothing short of an attempt to delay justice and conceal the truth from the victims and the public.

I can’t say the church’s request came as a surprise. The archdiocese has spent years in court fighting to keep those records under wraps. And last week, we learned why.

As The Times’ Victoria Kim and Harriet Ryan reported, confidential letters and memos, filed in a civil court case, reveal Cardinal Roger M. Mahony’s role in plotting to shield pedophile priests from coming to the attention of police or prosecutors. The letters document how Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, his top advisor on sex-abuse cases, discussed strategies to keep pedophile priests out of state.

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MICHIGAN
The Oakland Press

By CAROL HOPKINS
carol.hopkins@oakpress.com Twitter: @opcarolhopkins

Officials with SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are inviting people to come forward after learning a Franciscan friar who once worked at Orchard Lake Schools committed suicide and left a note apologizing to his victims.

Brother Stephen Baker worked at the school in Orchard Lake between 1983 and 85. There is no record that Baker molested anyone connected with the school system, said officials with the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Baker, 62 — who killed himself Jan. 26 with a self-inflicted knife wound to the heart at the St. Bernardine Monastery in Hollidaysburg, Pa. — is accused of molesting high school students in Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Baker was named in legal settlements last week involving 11 men who alleged that he sexually abused them at a Catholic high school in northeast Ohio three decades ago. The undisclosed financial settlements announced Jan. 16 involved his contact with students at John F. Kennedy High School in Warren, Ohio from 1986-90.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
NBC Southern California

By Patrick Healy and Jonathan Lloyd

Thursday, Jan 31, 2013

A judge is expected to issue an order Thursday afternoon governing the release of personnel files that include the names of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles leaders who handled priest abuse cases.

Attorneys and the judge concluded a conference call Thursday morning in which they discussed how the 30,000 pages of confidential personnel files will be released. The archdiocese is expected to be given 30 days to comply, but officials might have the documents ready in as soon as one week.

The files will be provided to attorneys for clergy abuse victims.

Attorneys for the archdiocese said Wednesday they will not pursue a plan that would have blacked out church leaders’ names when the files are released, according to the Associated Press. The move is a reversal of the archdiocese’s plan to redact the names, citing privacy rights of priests and others.

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DETROIT (MI)
Desert Sun

Written by
Patricia Montemurri
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier headline on this story incorrectly stated that the Archdiocese of Detroit had abuse complaints tied to Catholic friar Stephen Baker. The archdiocese does not have a record of any abuse complaints against Baker. This was an editing error. The current headline is correct.

The Archdiocese of Detroit said it has no record of complaints against a Catholic friar who taught at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s Prep High School for two years, and killed himself Saturday after allegations surfaced that he had molested students at Ohio and Pennsylvania Catholic schools.

Brother Stephen Baker, a Franciscan friar, taught at the all-boys St. Mary’s Prep from 1983 to 1985. He then went on to teach at Catholic high schools in Warren, Ohio, and Johnstown, Pa.

“The Detroit archdiocese has no record of sexual abuse complaints involving minors brought against Br. Baker during the two years in Michigan,” the archdiocese said in a statement released Wednesday.

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MICHIGAN
Tribune Chronicle

January 31, 2013

The Detroit Archdiocese is reporting that it has no record of sexual abuse complaints brought against Brother Stephen Baker during his two years in Michigan.

The archdiocese made the statement on its website after members of SNAP, a support group for clergy sex abuse victims, called on it to investigate whether Baker had sexually abused any of his students while teaching at Orchard Lakes Schools from 1983 to 1985.

Baker is accused of abusing former students while he was working at John F. Kennedy High School in Warren from 1986 to 1990 and then at Bishop McCort in the 1990s. He committed suicide Saturday morning at St. Bernardine Monastery in Hollidaysburg, Pa., where he lived. In a letter found in his room at the monastery, Baker apologized to the church, the Blair County Coroner’s Office confirmed.

In its statement, the Detroit Archdiocese confirmed that Baker, a Franciscan friar, took classes and worked at Orchard Lakes Schools. However, the archdiocese explained that OLS reports that it does not have any record of an abuse complaint during or after those years.

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INDIA
Ucanews

Priscilla Pinto, Pune
India
2013-01-31

Catholic leaders are questioning the investigation of a Salesian priest accused of molesting a minor girl in Pune.

Father Igidius Falcao, a vice principal at Don Bosco high school in Pune, Maharashtra state, was arrested January 21 after a 14-year-old Catholic student complained he had attempted to molest her on January 2 in his office.

Father Falcao, 61, was transfered from police custody to magisterial custody on Monday, where he will stay until February 11, his lawyer said.

He applied for bail yesterday, but police are seeking an extension of custody while they investigate the priest’s past positions in Mumbai, according to police inspector Reshma Mulani.

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UNITED STATES
ABC 23

There is more information tonight on the investigation into a cleric accused of sexually abusing young kids at Bishop McCort High School. We told you last week that Brother Stephen Baker also worked at two schools in Ohio and one in Virginia. Today we have learned of another, a prep school in Michigan. A support group known as “SNAP” held a rally in Detroit today asking why church leaders have kept silent about Baker’s past especially now that the number of alleged victim reach at least eight. We did reach out to the Diocese of Richmond Virginia and Detroit today both told us there were never any allegations against Brother Baker at their schools and said today was the first they even heard of the case.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Failed Messiah

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

According to a Behadrei Haredim report, the beit din (religious court) called to investigate allegations that Rabbi Chaim Halpern has arrived in London. It met this morning to deal with administrative matters and will begin hearing Halpern’s case tomorrow.

The dayanim (rabbi-judges) are: Rabbi Sariel Rosenberg, of Rabbi Nissim Karelitz’s Beit Din Tzedek (Badatz) of Bnei Brak; Rabbi Yisroel Berger, who was sent by Rabbi Ephraim Nussbaum of Badatz Ahvas Shalom and Beit Din Hayashor Vehatov in Jerusalem; and Rabbi Avraham Baruch Rosenberg of Monsey, New York who heads the Badatz Toras Chaim-Vizhnitz Monsey USA and who also heads another beit din there, Machon Le’Hora’ah.

Rabbi David Cohen Rabbi of the large Sephardic community in London was appointed as a special assistant to the Beis Din to screen those who want to testify and determine the procedures for the hearings, which are expected to continue for another week. After the beit din finishes hearing testimony it will meet in a series of hearings to decide the case.

A decision is expected to be handed down in late February or early March.

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Huffington Post

Rabbi Yitzchak Shochet

Last night, British Channel 4’s Dispatches programme did an exposé on attitudes within some of the Orthodox Jewish community in London toward sex abuse crimes. One particular victim went undercover to expose the way his community has for decades been dealing with paedophilia. It’s been a year long investigation and it has sent shockwaves through much of the Anglo-Jewish community. Unfortunately this is one of many stories emerging of late. There was the high profile trial and conviction of an Orthodox Jewish “therapist” in Williamsburg, N.Y., and a lot of media attention focussed on a spiritual leader in Golders Green, London.

Often the community rallies around alleged offenders and ostracise the would-be victim. Edward Thorndike, president of the American Psychological Association in the early 20th century, coined a term called “the halo effect.” The theory goes that we tend to give someone the benefit of the doubt based on personal image and stature. When we hear about a common man having committed an offence we immediately presume him to be guilty while feeling sorry for the victim. But when it’s someone of stature in the community, we immediately presume that person’s innocence while vilifying those who bring the accusations. As Thorndike put it, we make “a generalisation from the perception of one outstanding personality trait to an overly favourable evaluation of the whole personality.”

Isn’t that why Jimmy Saville got away with what he did for so long? I’ve spoken to several people involved in the music industry during the Saville era that now claim with hindsight that “Jimmy Saville was obviously up to no good.” Only at the time they didn’t see it. Like them, the hundreds who have clamoured to the support of a rabbi in London, the thousands who have done the same for one of their own in New York and the many more who immediately ostracise those bringing claims of sexual abuse, all suffer from the halo effect. After all who are you more likely to believe: a “skimpy clad, rebellious” teenage girl or a long frock coated, black-bearded therapist; a leading rabbi or a “desperate” divorcee; a “troubled” student or a popular star-studded teacher?

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

By Rocco Parascandola , Eric Badia AND Larry Mcshane / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, January 31, 2013

A Brooklyn rabbi sexually abused three teenage boys from the ultra-Orthodox yeshiva where he once taught, cops said Thursday.

Yoel Malik, 33, a well-regarded member of the Satmar Hasidic sect, was arrested on 28 charges ranging from sexual abuse to forcible touching, police said.

He lured two of the underaged victims to Brooklyn hotels, according to sources.

The arrest came a week after a Satmar counselor was sentenced to 103 years behind bars for his repeated sexual abuse of a teenage girl sent to him for help.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on January 31, 2013

A Catholic cleric who is accused of molesting dozens of boys and who killed himself on Saturday worked for at least four years in the Twin Cities and may have molested a Minnesota child, a newspaper has reported.

And a support group is blasting two Catholic institutions – the St. Paul-Minneapolis archdiocese and a religious order called the Franciscans – for not disclosing the accused man’s presence here and the allegation against him.

On Jan. 26, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette disclosed that Brother Stephen P. Baker “had been banned from ministry in 2000 after his order settled a claim that he had sexually abused a minor while serving in Minnesota in the 1980s.”

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, believe that Baker was at St. Patrick’s church in Inver Grove Heights from 1978 to 1981. That parish has long been staffed by priests and others from the Franciscans.

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IOWA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on January 31, 2013

We think this idea deserves serious consideration. There’s no magic age at which a sex offender is suddenly no longer dangerous. Older sex offenders may look harmless but actually be more dangerous than ever.

Serial offenders with stooped shoulders, thick glasses, thinning hair and advanced age tends look like harmless grandpas. They often lull us into complacency. But having spent years picking, grooming and assaulting the vulnerable, then telling cunning lies and making shrewd excuses, these older predators are often more dangerous than ever.

The real remedy, however, is reforming Iowa’s archaic, predator-friendly statutes of limitations. If more victims can seek justice in courts – both civil and criminal – more child predators will be suspended, arrested, charged and imprisoned. And more officials will think twice about – and decide against – covering up child sex crimes.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

The jury in Philadelphia convicted Rev. Charles Engelhardt and former teacher Bernard Shero on Wednesday.

Here is the link to the Associated Press story via ABC News: [click here]

There will be news stories, columns, and other editorials about these convictions but it is our desire that these words spoken by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams capture and hold center ground today.

”The victim in this case has shown exceptional courage,” said District Attorney Seth Williams. “Not only did he have the strength to report his abuse, he had the tenacity to look his abusers in the eye and testify in front of complete strangers about the horrific details of his attacks. I hope this verdict will help him to continue with the long journey of healing that comes after such trauma.”

Indeed, without the courage of victims, truth is strangled.

Society is deeply indebted to them for tearing away the masks, the veils, the abusers’ sought after opaque personas.

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CALIFORNIA
KPCC

A Superior Court judge has ordered the release of thousands of documents held by the L.A. Archdiocese identifying Roman Catholic priests who have been accused of molesting children.

If you are Catholic or have been involved with the Catholic Church, how does this information release affect you, your family and the Church?

KPCC journalists want to hear from Catholics, clergy, survivors and others about the benefits or harms they see coming from the Church’s policy of keeping allegations confidential, and the public release of these files.

Responses to our questions are confidential, so nothing you share will be aired or published without your permission.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

The former administrator of Newry Cathedral has been sentenced to 100 hours community service for indecently assaulting a teenage girl.

Father Terrence Rafferty, of Chestnut Grove, Newry, pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault.

The priest was also given a three-year probation order.

The details of the case were only released after a court ban protecting the priest’s identity was lifted.

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MICHIGAN
Youngstown Vindicator

Staff report

WARREN

A support group for victims of clergy sex abuse called attention in Detroit on Wednesday to what it says is another place where Brother Stephen Baker worked as a Franciscan friar.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests said Baker was assigned three years to a Catholic prep school in Orchard Lake, Mich., from 1983 to 1985.

Judy Jones, SNAP’s Midwest associate director, said the organization was told by someone in the Detroit area that Baker served at the school.

SNAP held signs Wednesday outside the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit headquarters to talk about Baker, and hand- delivered a letter to the office of the archbishop asking that he reach out to anyone who “saw, suspected or suffered” crimes by Baker, Jones said.

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OHIO/PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune Chronicle

January 31, 2013

By VIRGINIA SHANK , Tribune Chronicle | TribToday.com

YOUNGSTOWN – The Diocese of Youngstown confirmed it has been notified of a potential civil lawsuit on behalf of victims who say they were abused by a Franciscan friar.

Nancy L. Yuhasz, chancellor, said the matter has been turned over to the attorney representing the diocese.

“There’s really not a lot to say at this point,” she said. “There’s nothing to comment on at this point. It’s basically letting us know there could be a lawsuit.”

The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, the Third Order Regular Franciscans and Bishop McCort Catholic High School also were to be served with similar notices this week.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

February 1, 2013

Barney Zwartz

A LEADING rabbi who compared child sex abuse to diarrhoea – ”it’s embarrassing but nobody’s business” – will be sued in Jewish courts by a victim advocacy group that wants him to stand down.

In a lecture posted on YouTube but later removed, Rabbi Manis Friedman says that not reciting a blessing after eating cake is worse than being sexually abused, that victims learn ”an important lesson” from abuse, and suggests victims ”are not that damaged, cut it out”.

Rabbi Friedman is an emissary at large from the Chabad Lubavitch headquarters in New York, and has been generally regarded as a serious and moderate figure in the Orthodox movement. That movement, and particularly its Melbourne Yeshivah centre, has been embroiled in child sex abuse controversies.

Manny Waks, an abuse victim at Yeshivah himself in the 1980s and founder of the Tzedek advocacy group for Jewish abuse survivors, said on Thursday he had launched lawsuits against Rabbi Friedman in the Jewish court or Beth Din in Sydney and Crown Heights in Brooklyn, New York. The courts would decide which of them had jurisdiction.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Lurgan Mail

Published on Thursday 31 January 2013

A FORMER town priest has been sentenced to 100 hours community service for indecently assaulting a teenage girl.

Father Terrence Rafferty, of Chestnut Grove, Newry, pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault.

The priest was also given a three-year probation order.

The details of the case were only released after a court ban protecting the priest’s identity was lifted.

This followed a request from the victim. The incident happened more than a decade ago.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

Attorneys for the Los Angeles Archdiocese are scheduled to speak with a judge Thursday to discuss the release of personnel files of priests accused of sexually abusing children.

The church had agreed to make public the personnel files of 89 priests accused of sexually abusing children as part of a 2007 court settlement. Fourteen files were released last week in ongoing civil litigation.

Those files showed Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and his chief advisor on abuse, Msgr. Thomas Curry, plotted to hide the sexual abuse of children from police in the 1980s.

This week, church lawyers submitted papers to the Los Angeles County Superior Court judge overseeing the release of the remaining, much larger batch of files. They proposed the archdiocese be allowed to hand over the documents with the names of top church officials removed.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
UTV

Victims of clerical abuse have reacted with anger after a former priest, who pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a schoolgirl, was given probation and community service.

Terence Rafferty, of Chestnut Grove in Newry, was a priest in St Peter’s Parish in Lurgan when the four offences took place during a six month period in 2001.

Rafferty, who was 38 years old at the time, maintained the physical relationship he had with the 16-year-old was consensual.

He stepped aside from his responsibilities as a priest following the allegation, which was made against him in April 2011.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
My Fox Philly

PHILADELPHIA –
There’s been another big verdict in a child sex abuse case that rocked the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

A jury on Wednesday convicted Rev. Charles Engelhardt and sixth-grade teacher Bernard Shero. …

On Thursday morning, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams joined “Good Day” to discuss the verdict.

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CONNECTICUT
Stratford Star

By Joe Pisani on January 31, 2013

A friend of mine sent me a newspaper clip from 1981 with a story about Kevin Wallin, the notorious “Monsignor Meth,” as a young man about to enter the priesthood. The headline said, “Life’s a well-planned journey for future ‘new breed’ priest.”

The tragic irony is that the new breed of priest in the photo, smiling and mustachioed, wearing a Lacoste golf shirt and khakis, and standing on the steps of Sacred Heart Church in Byram, would 32 years later be at the center of a scandal for allegedly having sex in the rectory dressed as a woman and facing a life in prison for allegedly selling $300,000 of crystal meth and laundering the profits through a porn store. The diocese relieved him of his public ministry as pastor of St. Augustine Cathedral last May.

Is that the life of a well-planned journey for the future new breed of priest? Are there any old breed priests left?

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MINNESOTA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: Reynolds was accused in a 1991 lawsuit of the sexual abuse of a girl from about 1972-1984, while he was pastor of a Buffalo, MN parish. The girl was a parishioner and attended the parish school. Reynolds died in 1988.

Ordained: 1955
Incardinated: St. Paul
Retired: 1986
Died: Feb. 13, 1988

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

William D. Lindsey

Important news in the ongoing (and now international) battle to hold the leaders of the Catholic church accountable for covering up child sexual abuse by priests: yesterday, a jury in Philadelphia found Father Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero guilty on multiple charges in a case involving the sexual assault of a 10-year-old altar boy. Joseph A. Slobdozian summarizes the story at the Philly.com website (and see also Jon Hurdle at the New York Times). The victim, “Billy Doe,” reports that he was serially raped by Engelhardt, his parish priest, and Shero, principal of his Catholic school, when he was in fifth and sixth grade.

As Brian Roewe writes for National Catholic Reporter, a former priest, Edward Avery, was also accused of raping “Billy Doe,” and pled guilty, but has now denied that he knew the victim. Roewe states,

The 2011 investigation [which issued in a grand jury report conducted by the Philadelphia district attorney’s office] revealed the story of “Billy Doe,” the now-24-year-old man who accused Engelhardt, Shero and Avery of serially raping and abusing him. The report presents a picture where the three men passed Billy among one another. The young man, who has battled a drug addiction since his teens, took the stand for several hours during the trial.

Just as this news breaks from Philadelphia, Alex Gibney’s hard-hitting documentary on the story of Father Lawrence Murphy and his abuse of boys at St. John’s School for the Deaf in Wisconsin is preparing to premier on HBO.* The documentary, “Mea Maxima Culpa,” will air next Monday, 4 February, on HBO at 9 P.M. ET. A press release I received yesterday about the documentary notes its significance as an exposé showing that the cover-up of clerical sexual abuse cases reaches the very highest levels of the Catholic church:

From the row houses of Milwaukee through the bare ruined choirs of Ireland’s churches, all the way to the highest office of the Vatican, it was an international and systematic conspiracy to silence victims of sexual abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
The Tablet

31 January 2013

An independent inquiry commissioned by two Australian bishops has found deficiencies in the Church’s response to child sexual abuse allegations about a former priest, “F”, in the 1980s and ’90s.

The inquiry accuses the late Bishop Henry Kennedy of Armidale in New South Wales of ignoring advice not to ordain the priest and of an “utterly inexplicable” failure to examine claims against him.

The inquiry, by former Federal Court judge Antony Whitlam, QC, found that, had current procedures for reporting child abuse by the Catholic Church and protocols regarding the transfer of priests been in force, “F” would have been “stopped in his tracks”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on January 31, 2013

The newly-established guilt of two Philly Catholic employees should be a clarion call for Philly’s Catholic hierarchy. After hearing and seeing voluminous evidence, an impartial jury has found that Fr. Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero are child molesters. What now?

Now, Archbishop Charles Chaput has two choices. He can break with the long-standing, selfish and destructive practices of the Catholic hierarchy, and aggressively seek out others who were hurt by these two predators. Or he can do what he and his brother bishops have done for decades, and essentially be passive.

We urge Chaput to act like a compassionate shepherd, not a cold-hearted CEO. We urge him to personally visit every church or school where these two convicted child molesters worked or lived. We urge him to beg any victims, witnesses, and whistleblowers to step forward, call police, expose wrongdoers, and deter wrongdoing. We urge him to print prominent and clear appeals in every parish bulletin and on the archdiocesan website, prodding others who have been victimized to step forward. This is an inexpensive and non-controversial way to help those who were violated as kids but are still in pain as adults.

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IOWA
The Messenger

January 31, 2013

By BILL SHEA (bshea@messengernews.net) , Messenger News

Iowa would establish a specialized nursing home to house elderly sex offenders under legislation being drafted by state Rep. Helen Miller, D-Fort Dodge.

Miller said Wednesday that her proposal would direct the state government to either set up the facility or hire a private company to do so.

”The 800 pound gorilla in the room that no one wants to talk about is what are you going to do with these individuals if they’re denied entry to a nursing home or are kicked out of one,” she said. ”They’ve got to go somewhere.”

”My bill cuts to the chase and quits the dinking around because you’ve got to put them somewhere,” she added.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A priest and former lay teacher were taken into custody immediately after a jury convicted them of sexually assaulting the same boy, the same victim who was assaulted by another priest who pleaded guilty last year. The convicted defendants are scheduled to be sentenced in April.

Father Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero face possible maximum sentences of decades in prison and District Attorney Seth Williams says there’s really not enough jail time that they could get for what they did.

The victim, now 24, testified in painful detail to the attacks when he was just 10 and 11-years-old. Prosecutors have praised his courage. But, he was not in the courtroom for the verdicts. His civil attorney, Paul Lauricella says he was relieved to return home, outside this area, after his testimony and he now knows the result.

“He’s relieved, he’s gratified. He’s, quite frankly — you can’t say ecstatic in a situation like this because the story is so troubling, so horrible, that it is not even a time for joy. It’s a time for more relief and reflection.”

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IRELAND
The Tablet

31 January 2013

More than 200 people took part in a protest in support of dissident priest Fr Tony Flannery outside the papal nuncio’s residence in Dublin last Sunday.

The protesters left a letter for the nuncio calling for dialogue within the Church to address the case of Fr Flannery, who has been threatened with excommunication if he does not sign a document retracting his views on women priests, artificial contraception and homosexuality.

The letter, organised by the lay reform group We Are Church Ireland, was critical of the way the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) exercises its authority in relation to those who question church teaching.

A petition against the CDF’s treatment of Fr Flannery is being delivered to Rome and has already gathered more than 1,450 signatures.

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