ABUSE TRACKER

UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: A Third Order Regular Franciscan brother, Baker was a religion teacher, baseball coach and athletic trainer at high schools in Youngstown, OH and Johnstown, PA; he was also assigned at some point earlier in his career to a high school and boys’ home in Norfolk, VA. Baker is said to have sexually abused “dozens, if not hundreds” of former students. His modus operandi is said to have been to tell male athletes they needed massages to prevent injuries, then to proceed to rub them down with oils, including their genitals. He is also accused of digitally penetrating them. Former students have said he would grope them in hallways and during religion class. One former female student has reported that he requested she show up for treatment of a sports injury in loose fitting clothing and no underwear. Baker was the subject of a 2012 settlement with eleven of his accusers. He is said by a superior to have been removed from ministry “long before 2010.”

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NORTHERN IRELAND
Lurgan Mail

A FORMER Lurgan priest, who pleaded guilty to indecently assaulting a young girl, is to face sentencing next week.

Fr Terence Rafferty, who had been a priest in St Peter’s Parish in Lurgan, was convicted at Craigavon Crown Court before Christmas on four counts of indecent assault relating to offences in 2001.

He was due to appear before Craigavon Magistrates Court last Friday however the case was adjourned until January 31.

The former Administrator of Newry Cathedral, whose address was given as Chestnut Grove, Newry, had five other offences of indecent assault between December 2000 and January 2002 left on the books.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Albany Times Union

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press

Updated 10:56 am, Thursday, January 24, 2013

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest and an ex-teacher charged with sexually assaulting an altar boy won’t testify at their trial, which will soon move to closing arguments.

The case hinges on the credibility of the accuser, a 24-year-old policeman’s son and longtime heroin addict.

His accounts of being raped in about 1999 by the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, teacher Bernard Shero and a now-defrocked priest have changed significantly over time.

A church social worker has testified that the accuser initially said he had been violently attacked for hours by one man, punched by another and tied up by a third.

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MISSISSIPPI
Clarion-Ledger

Editorial

There sometimes appears to be no such thing as fairness in the courts when sentencing is involved — ironic since our systems are set up to foster that very thing.

But take the John Langworthy case as an example. The former Clinton church music minister and school choir director pleaded guilty this week to five felony counts of gratification of lust for molesting children almost 30 years ago.

Langworthy will serve no time in prison for molesting the children, a fact that seems outrageous for the heinous crimes. Consider only that former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky received last year 30 to 60 years in prison — effectively a life sentence — from a Pennsylvania judge for the sexual abuse of 10 boys.

Sandusky, of course, did not plea bargain. He was convicted by a jury on 45 of 48 counts related to the sexual abuse of boys over a 15-year period.

Langworthy, a longtime Clinton school district choir director and former music minister at Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton, entered a guilty plea before Hinds Circuit Court Judge Bill Gowan to five counts of an eight-count indictment. The guilty pleas were part of a plea agreement with the Hinds County district attorney’s office.

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OHIO
Roman Catholic Diocese of Youngstown

January 18, 2013

The story in today’s Tribune Chronicle claiming that the Trumbull County Children Services Board did not receive notification from the Diocese of Youngstown about Brother Stephen Baker, who has been accused of abusing 11 former students at John F. Kennedy High School in Warren, is inaccurate.

The fact is that once the Diocese received sufficient information to make a report from the attorney representing the alleged victims, a letter was sent by Diocesan legal counsel to the Trumbull County Children Services Board.

Although Ohio State law does not require the reporting of allegation when the victims are presently adults, it is the policy of the Diocese to make such a report. This policy was followed in this case.

We regret that inaccurate information was published in the Tribune Chronicle.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
WYTV

Youngstown Diocese Bishop George Murry apologized Thursday to alleged victims of sexual abuse by a Franciscan friar who abused teenage boys during his tenures at Warren’s John F. Kennedy High School and at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown, Pa.

It was the first time Murry directly addressed questions about the abuse accusations that came to light last week when Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian announced 10 former JFK students and a former St. Mary’s students reached high-five figure settlements with the diocese, JFK and the T.O.R. Franciscan Order.

Since, more than 35 former students at JFK and Bishop McCort have come forward and alleged friar Stephen P. Baker sexually molested them under the guise of treating sports-related injuries at the schools.

Garabedian said on Thursday a teacher at one of the schools, that eventually committed suicide in Canada, was aware of the abuse allegations and instructed at least one student to stay away from Baker.

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CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly

[Caffoe file – BishopAccountability.org]

[Documents Selected and Highlighted on the AbusedInSoCal.com Website
Caffoe 1975 – Manning’s Chancellor Rawden Keeps Caffoe, Overly Affectionate with Altarboys, in Parish]

[Other Information
• Summary of Caffoe’s Personnel File, in the Addendum Released by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 2005
• Information on Caffoe’s Assignments and Allegations, in the Database Compiled by the LA Times
• Cheat Sheet on Caffoe by AbusedInSoCal.com
• Secrecy and Reluctant Revelation in the Los Angeles Archdiocese: The Example of the Rev. Lynn Caffoe File]

By Gustavo Arellano
Thu., Jan. 24 2013

In 1975, Lynn Caffoe, a priest at St. Callistus Church in Garden Grove, approached officials at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles with a curious demand: he wanted to leave because he had just molested a boy.

The Diocese of Orange had yet to be born, so each of Orange County’s Catholic churches fell under the domain of LA Cardinal Timothy Manning and his right-hand man, Monsignor John A. Rawden. The two already knew that one of Caffoe’s superiors had already complained that they should keep an eye on the young priest lest he spend “too much time with the chosen few,” according to church documents. And who might that be? The same report said he has a “tendency to gather younger ones around.”

So when parents at St. Callistus went to Rawden to complain that Caffoe had been “overly affectionate to some of the altar boys,” what did Rawden do? Side with the pervert.

Caffoe, according to a document included in the LA archdiocese’s recent document dump of priest personnel files, “wanted an immediate transfer in spite of the fact that he claimed innocence of the charge. He felt it better for the well being of the parish.”

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

Action Alert: Important Milwaukee Archdiocese Bankruptcy Court Hearing Thursday January 24, 1:00 p.m.

WHERE: Milwaukee Federal Courthouse, 517 E. Wisconsin Avenue

In Federal Bankruptcy Court on Thursday January 24, Judge Susan V. Kelley will rule on four cases that could determine if the remaining 570 victim/survivors who have filed cases will be allowed to proceed. Last month, lawyers for the archdiocese sought to dismiss these cases. Kelley heard arguments but declined to issue a ruling and is likely to do so tomorrow. The archdiocese, by objecting to these four claims, is seeking, in principle, to dismiss nearly every one of the cases filed. (For details, see the press advisory from last month when the ruling was first expected.)

The archdiocese has also just filed another 157 case objections, this time based on the argument that they have no responsibility for religious order offenders, even though most of these individuals were officially assigned to the archdiocese to work in parishes and schools and could only work here with the direct consent and supervision of the archbishop. It’s not sure if Kelley will start hearing arguments on this issue tomorrow. There has not been sufficient time for victims’ attorneys and the Creditors Committee to submit their written response to the court. An eventual ruling for victim/survivors on this crucial issue, however, would be a major step in bringing accountability, transparency and public safety concerning scores of religious order child molesters who have harmed children while working for the archdiocese. (NB: Some of these claims objections also include lay employees and volunteers from the archdiocese who committed sex crimes against children.)

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FRANCE – REUNION
Linfo

L’ancien curé des paroisses de Sainte-Rose et de Bras-Panon qui est accusé d’avoir agressé sexuellement de jeunes paroissiens nie catégoriquement les faits graves qui lui sont reprochés.

Depuis ce mardi après-midi, le Tribunal Correctionnel de Saint-Denis examine une affaire très sensible qui a ébranlé l’Eglise de La Réunion. Le Parquet a requis aujourd’hui une peine de six ans de prison à l’encontre de Michel Tual.

Michel Tual, cet ancien prêtre qui a officié durant près de dix ans dans les paroisses de Sainte-Rose et de Bras-Panon est jugé pour des faits d’agression sexuelle sur des mineurs de moins de 15 ans.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

[with video]

By Maria Miller

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. —

It’s been a week since sex abuse allegations surfaced in Johnstown involving a Franciscan brother who worked at Bishop McCort in the 1990s. Students have come forward alleging abuse took place while brother Baker worked at the school as a religion teacher and athletic trainer.

6 News learned Wednesday that Baker also held teaching positions at a middle school in Ohio and a boys home in Virginia.

The Catholic Diocese of Altoona – Johnstown admitted last week that Bishop Mark Bartchak first heard allegations against Baker in 2011. Before that, it’s not clear as to who knew what and when. But the Boston attorney representing several alleged victims said he’s working to find that answer.

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FRANCE – REUNION
Linfo

Au terme de plusieurs heures de délibérations, le Tribunal Correctionnel de Saint-Denis a condamné l’ancien curé Michel Tual à une peine de cinq ans de prison, le jugeant coupable d’agressions sexuelles sur des mineurs.

Il est arrivé libre au Palais de Justice de Champ-Fleuri mais c’est en prison que Michel Tual dormira ce soir.

Le Parquet avait requis cet après-midi à son encontre une peine de six mois de prison avec mandat de dépôt.

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FRANCE – REUNION
Linfo

Hier, les victimes de l’ancien curé de Bras Panon ont dû affronter l’homme qui les a fait souffrir durant leur enfance. Une épreuve difficile qui a fait remonter bien des souvenirs douloureux. Un jeune homme a accepté de témoigner.

Aujourd’hui adulte, Martin (prénom d’emprunt) attendait la vérité lors du procès de Michel Tual. Le jeune homme a été surpris par le comportement du prévenu qui a nié en bloc les faits graves qui lui sont reprochés. L’attitude de l’ancien curé de Bras Panon et de Sainte-Rose a choqué les victimes présentes à l’audience.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Updated January 23, 2013

8 SUGGESTIONS on how to publicly defy and stop Benedict XVI excommunication of Fr. Flannery

Italian Galileo & Irish Tony Flannery: parallel victims of Vatican Last Tsar Benedict XVI Tyranny

In the 17th Century, Galileo offered the Pope and the Vatican Inquisition to look at the telescope “a thousand times” but they refused. By using merely their naked eyes to look at the planets, they doggedly insisted that ‘the Earth is the center of the universe and that the Sun revolved around the Earth’ – based on the Bible alone, and they shamed and condemned Galileo for his scientific beliefs. The rest is history.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

BOYCOTT the Vatican Museum and boycott ALL donations to the Vatican Catholic Church Reign of Terror

Vatican Assets in England and in the United States of America

Vatican assets in London

– premises of Bulgari, the upmarket jewellers in New Bond Street

– headquarters of the wealthy investment bank Altium Capital, on the corner of St James’s Square

– Pall Mall

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NECN

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest and ex-teacher charged with sexually assaulting an altar boy could testify Thursday as the two-week Philadelphia trial nears an end.

The case hinges on the credibility of the accuser, a 24-year-old policeman’s son and longtime heroin addict.

His accounts of being raped in about 1999 by the Rev. Charles Engelhardt, teacher Bernard Shero and a now-defrocked priest have changed significantly over time.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune-Democrat

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH — The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh is alerting parishioners that a priest accused of molesting a New Hampshire teen in the 1980s once served in western Pennsylvania.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported earlier this month that the Rev. Michael Ledoux resigned as dean of secular Widener University in July after school officials learned he was accused of abusing the boy decades earlier. Ledoux has denied wrongdoing and was never criminally charged by New Hampshire authorities, though his Franciscan order settled a related lawsuit in 2002 and banned him from public ministry.

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ESPANA
La Informacion

La madres de los “niños robados” seguirán adelante con sus demandas ante la Justicia

Madrid, 24 ene (EFE).- La presidenta de Sos Bebés Robados, María Cruz Rodrigo, ha asegurado hoy que los afectados seguirán adelante con sus demandas ante la Justicia, aunque la religiosa María Gómez Valbuena, conocida como “Sor María”, imputada en dos casos de “niños robados”, haya fallecido.

“Si de verdad creía en Dios, cosa que algunas veces dudo, entonces tendría que haber dicho lo que hizo”, ha indicado Rodrigo, quien se ha mostrado convencida de que “sor María” era una pieza dentro de una trama dedicada al robo de niños.

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ESPANA
Puranoticia

La religiosa María Gómez Valbuena, conocida como «sor María», ha fallecido en Madrid, según han confirmado a ABC fuentes del convento de las Hijas de la Caridad de San Vicente Paúl que no han querido dar más detalles sobre su muerte. Al parecer la muerte se habría producido el martes y fue enterrada ayer.

Sor María, que a sus 87 años sufría de diversos problemas de salud, estaba imputada por el presunto robo de bebés en clínicas madrileñas por los delitos de detención ilegal y falsedad en documento público. Había sido citada para declarar el pasado 18 de enero tras la denuncia de Purificación Betegón por la supuesta desaparición de dos gemelas nacidas en la clínica Santa Cristina en 1981, pero la declaración fue aplazada por motivos de salud. El abogado de la religiosa presentó unos informes médicos en el Juzgado de Instrucción número 50 de Madrid para solicitar el aplazamiento. Según informó el letrado de la demandante, Alipio Barbero, los documentos alegaban una «insuficencia cardíaca».

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SPAIN
Times LIVE (South Africa)

An 87-year-old Spanish nun accused of trafficking in newborns in the 1980s, a practice believed to date from the Franco dictatorship, has died, her convent said.

Sister Maria Gomez Valbuena in April last year was the first person to go before a judge over the “stolen babies” scandal.

General Francisco Franco’s regime allowed children to be taken from their parents on moral or ideological grounds, and the practice allegedly continued for profit for years after his death in 1975.

Asked about press reports that she had died on Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul convent said: “Yes indeed, but we do not have more information.”

Sister Maria had been scheduled to appear in court for questioning for a second time last week but the hearing was postponed indefinitely because of her poor health.

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UNITED STATES
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

The Roman Catholic Church in the United States is spending a bucketload of Catholic cash on the Catholics Come Home advertising campaign currently running in a number of media markets.

The Church has also spent incredible amounts of Catholic cash on attorneys and public relations firm to suppress, hide, and delay making public what the Catholic hierarchy and their aides and chancery staffs did with their knowledge of sexual abuse of children and minors.

Now in Los Angeles comes the deluge.

The deluge of the documents that as part of the 2007 clergy sexual abuse victims’ $660 million settlement were to be made – and now are being made – public.

But not before the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press joined forces to bring pressure to bear for the agreement for the records to be made public. And not before the Archdiocese of Los Angeles tried a last minute desperate effort to Swiss cheese the documents of the names of those in authority. The ploy didn’t work thanks to a stand-up judge who simply asked the question: don’t Catholics have a right to know what happened in their Church?

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

Tony Flannery

Some clarifications of stories that are doing the rounds in the Media.
1. The Irish Catholic says that I am not threatened with excommunication.
In June of last year, 2012 I received a document from the CDF which contained the following paragraph:

“The Church’s canon law (c. 1044) calls a priest who has committed the delict of heresy ‘irregular for the exercise of orders received’, while canon 1364 says that ‘a heretic … incurs a latae sentientiae excommunication’. Before imposing the sanctions provided for in the law, it is the practice of the CDF to take steps to restore a priest to the faith, and to ensure that he is not in a state of contumacy regarding the position(s) he may have taken. Only should these remedies fail would the canonical penalties be required”

I am not a theologian, but to me that definitely reads like a threat. If the Vatican has now decided to withdraw that threat I would be very glad. Though I would be happier still if they allowed me to continue my ministry as a priest. But if that is the case I would like to get it in writing from the CDF, but this time on official paper and with a signature! Hearing it from that classic journalistic cliché of an ‘informed source’ telling the editor of a minor Irish newspaper is not totally convincing.

2. The second issue is what exactly the argument between me and the Vatican was about.
It is correct that at first it concerned a few sentences taken for various articles I had written in Reality Magazine over the years, to do with the origins of Church and priesthood. During the early part of last year I worked on this, and in June presented the following statement to the CDF through the head of the Redemptorists:

Since some concerns have been raised by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith over possible interpretations of articles I have written in the past few years. I respectfully take this opportunity to clarify my views and to offer the reassurance necessary to lay those concerns fully to rest. Such words as I have written were written in good faith with absolutely no intent whatever to imply anything contrary to the truths we are all obliged to hold by the divine and catholic faith to which I fully adhere and to which I have always adhered.

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

We have created a petition to to have Fr. Tony Flannery returned to his priestly ministry

This will be sent to The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the faith.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Michael Kelly

Thursday January 24 2013

THERE is “no question” of Fr Tony Flannery facing excommunication, senior Vatican sources have said.

And the sources also insisted that the case hinges on whether the Redemptorist priest accepts the church’s teaching on the nature of the priesthood.

The outspoken cleric, who has already been banned from ministering, claims he is facing excommunication for suggesting women might become priests in the future.

During a press conference in Dublin at the weekend, Fr Flannery (66) said he had been told by the Vatican that if he wants to remain in the church he must end his involvement with the liberal Association of Catholic Priests, of which he is a founder member.

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CALIFORNIA
Mountain News

By Glenn Barr, Reporter

An allegation of child molestation which church officials believe to be credible has been raised against Father Tim Keppel, the former long-time pastor of Catholic churches in Crest Park and Running Springs.

The allegation surfaced in a letter read by Father Leonard Krzywda to parishioners attending all Masses at both Our Lady of the Lake and St. Anne’s in the Mountains on the weekend of Jan. 12 and 13. This newspaper obtained a copy of that letter.

It states that the Congregation of the Resurrection—the church order to which Father Keppel belongs—had received information about an incident of sexual misconduct involving a minor that involved Keppel.

“The case is alleged to have occurred in the late 1970s here in the Diocese of San Bernardino involving a minor who was not a member of your parishes,” says the letter, printed on the Congregation’s letterhead.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Joseph A. Slobodzian, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted: Thursday, January 24, 2013

After eight days of testimony, the Philadelphia jury in the child sex-assault trial of a priest and a former parochial-school teacher is expected to hear its final witnesses Thursday.

Common Pleas Court Judge Ellen Ceisler told jurors Wednesday that they would begin deliberations this week.

The judge’s comments ended a day in which 20 defense witnesses testified for the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero.

What remains unknown is whether either man will testify in his defense for the alleged serial rape of a 10-year-old altar boy in 1998 and 1999 at St. Jerome’s church in Northeast Philadelphia.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

By Ralph Cipriano
for bigtrial.net

Before he ever told his story to detectives, the district attorney, the grand jury, or the jury in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse case, “Billy Doe” gave an interview to a couple of social workers from the archdiocese.

And the story he told was pretty wild, and full of violence. According to one of the social workers, Billy claimed a predator priest sat on his chest, cutting off his air, before the priest pummeled the 10-year-old altar boy with hours of anal sex. Billy told the social worker another predator priest punched him in the face and knocked him out, and when he woke up, the boy was naked and tied up with altar sashes. Billy also claimed a Catholic teacher punched him in the face, and wrapped a seat belt around his neck before raping him.

By the time Billy Doe told his story to authorities, all the violence and wild details were gone. The jury in the archdiocese sex abuse case may have to figure out why.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

It is sad but hardly surprising that Tony Flannery should, at this stage of his life, be silenced, removed from ministry and threatened with excommunication. Following on from Vatican II, the Catholic Church’s influence has waned in western societies because of sexual and financial scandals. But a determined effort is now being made by Vatican authorities to impose orthodoxy. Fr Flannery with a number of colleagues and members of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) are under threat due to their insistence on the importance of personal conscience.

Fr Flannery has written of an era of great openness in the church after Vatican II, when freedom of thought and conscience existed and priests were able to present the message of Christ in a way that addressed the reality of people’s lives. In time, as authority became more centralised in the Vatican, priests were sanctioned, silenced and dismissed because they would not “toe the line”. Orthodoxy was the imperative, he wrote. Allowing people to think for themselves was seen by a significant core of the church as dangerous.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

COLIN GLEESON

The head of Redemptorists in Rome yesterday released a statement in which he expressed his “deep regret” at the recent actions of Irish priest Fr Tony Flannery, and disputed the reasons he has given for his clash with the Vatican.

Fr Flannery told a press conference on Sunday he had been threatened with excommunication by Rome’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) for refusing to recant his more liberal views on church teachings concerning women priests, contraception and homosexuality.

Superior General of the Redemptorists Most Rev Fr Michael Brehl said yesterday however that his “deep regret” at the actions of Fr Flannery related not to these views, but to “some of the writings of Fr Flannery which were ambiguous regarding fundamental areas of Catholic doctrine”.

These “fundamental areas” include “the priesthood, the nature of the Church, and the Eucharist”, said Fr Brehl. “He was instructed to undertake a period of prayer and theological reflection to clarify his positions on these matters.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Irish Examiner

Thursday, January 24, 2013

A US judge ordered the unsealing of documents related to a disgraced Catholic organisation called the Legion of Christ as it faces questions about its relationship to wealthy elderly patrons, but the religious order immediately moved to block it.

Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein called the public’s right to fully scrutinise the documents “paramount”.

The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Providence Journal and the National Catholic Reporter had asked the judge to unseal the documents, which are from a lawsuit filed by a woman contesting the will of a wealthy aunt who left the Legion of Christ US$60m (€45m).

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Wall Street Journal

Associated Press

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A judge on Wednesday ordered the unsealing of documents related to a disgraced Roman Catholic organization called the Legion of Christ as it faces questions about its relationship to wealthy elderly patrons, but the religious order immediately moved to block it.

Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein called the public’s right to fully scrutinize the documents “paramount.”

The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Providence Journal and the National Catholic Reporter had asked the judge to unseal the documents, which are from a lawsuit filed by a woman contesting the will of a wealthy aunt who left the Legion of Christ $60 million. The media organizations’ attorney, Joseph Cavanagh, argued the documents could shed light on the Legion’s operations and there was no justification to seal them.

The Legion, founded in Mexico City in 1941, calls itself a religious congregation of pontifical right and says its mission involves “extending the Kingdom of Christ in society,” according to its website. The Vatican took over the Legion in 2010 after determining that its late founder, the Rev. Marcial Maciel, had sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children by two women. The Legion has faced other complaints, including one from someone who claims to be one of Maciel’s children.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
SNAP Wisconsin

WHO/WHAT
Victim/survivors of childhood sexual abuse by clergy of the Milwaukee Archdiocese, including leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org/SNAPwisconsin.com) will be joined by victim/claimants in the Milwaukee Archdiocese bankruptcy hearing to discuss Judge Susan V. Kelley’s court ruling that may well determine the admissibility or dismissal of the majority of 570 cases filed by victims into the court. At issue is whether the majority of cases, charging the archdiocese with fraud by concealing and transferring known child sex offender clerics, were filed within Wisconsin’s statute of limitations. The ruling, expected in a hearing last month (see details here), was delayed by Kelley until Thursday.

Also discussed will be other recent key developments emerging from the bankruptcy court, including the rejection of the use of the first amendment by Judge Kelly to prohibit the court from examining former Archbishop, now New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s controversial and potentially fraudulent transfer of 55 million dollars into a so-called “cemetery trust” to shield assets from victims. And it was discovered last week that top archdiocesan officials for almost two months refused to turn over criminal evidence in a current and active child sex abuse investigation in Fond du Lac, telling law enforcement that Judge Kelley’s bankruptcy court prohibited them from doing so, a patently false claim.

Finally, the archdiocese has filed this week a motion for Kelly to dismiss 157 victim cases because they involve religious order sex offenders, based on the argument that the archdiocese has no responsibility for religious orders, even though most of these individuals must be officially assigned to the archdiocese and can only work in parishes and schools with the direct consent and supervision of the archbishop.

WHEN
Thursday, January 24th. Court hearing is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
On the front steps of the Federal Courthouse, 517 E. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, after the hearing.

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CALIFORNIA
KEYT

Written by Shirin Rajaee

Santa Barbara- Some confidential files released this week on clergy sex abuse in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, reveal ties to at least one prominent local religious figure. For years, the Catholic Church has fought to keep these files secret, but the documents that date back to the 1980’s are revealing. They clearly show how Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and a top adviser, Bishop Thomas Curry, who now presides over the Santa Barbara region plotted to hide child molestation by priests, from reaching the police.

Santa Barbara Attorney, Tim Hale, who represents a number of the 500 abuse victims says that there were discussions in these memos where church leaders would knowingly give the abusive priests out of the area assignments to keep them from being exposed, and kept them from seeing psychologists, in case the therapist alerted police.

Father James Ford who was assigned to many locations in the area, is one of the abusers that Mahony and Curry were covering up for.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
OneNewsNow

Becky Yeh – California correspondent (OneNewsNow.com)
Thursday, January 24, 2013

Concerning the cover-up of sex abuse in the Lost Angeles Archdiocese, a Christian attorney says a little government “intrusion” is necessary to ensure that justice be served.

Prosecutors who were unable to build a case against leaders of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are now reviewing internal church documents that were recently released. According to the Los Angeles Times, the files show how church leaders protected molester priests and sought to hide information from other church leaders. The documents reveal that retired Cardinal Roger Mahony and church hierarchy failed to discipline pedophile priests, even though they were aware there were other victims.

Bob Tyler of Advocates for Faith & Freedom says this case calls for unusual measures.

“In this case, the victims certainly deserve justice. However, a judge needs to decide whether that includes publicly identifying those individuals who may have known about the abuse but did nothing about it,” he asserts.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
KCET

Recently discovered letters from the 1980s cast a new and disturbing light on the L.A. Archdiocese and its former archbishop, Cardinal Roger Mahony. They strongly suggest that Mahony actively conspired to keep suspected pedophile priests away from the police, even going so far as to send a priest out of state to elude authorities. Mahony has apologized — again. But now there are fresh calls for prosecution.

Manny Vega of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) tells Madeleine his devastating story of abuse and what he thinks should be the fate of Mahony and the other priests involved in this scandal.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Justia Verdict

[Archive of Los Angeles Archdiocesan Documents – BishopAccountability.org]

Marci A. Hamilton

The Release of the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s Records Relating to Clergy Child Sex Abuse: The Insights It Reveals, and Why the Justice System Deserves Great Credit Here

The Earth moved in Los Angeles recently, without a flicker of the Richter scale. Files of the Los Angeles Archdiocese were released as part of a civil case in which members of the hierarchy were named, and their unforgivable actions described in their own words. These men knew about child-predator priests who gravely harmed dozens, if not hundreds, of victims, and they never once called the police before the year 2000. Instead, they helped one pedophile priest escape the country, suggested sending another to a therapist who was also a lawyer so as to ensure that attorney-client privilege would apply, and let another simply melt into the general population after returning from treatment. The details, reported by The Los Angeles Times,are nauseating.

These files are just the beginning of the earthshaking information still to be released in Los Angeles, as the revelations I have described above are from just one individual case. Soon, the files that were supposed to be released as part of the massive 2007 settlement between 550 survivors and the Archdiocese will also become public. While the Archdiocese pushed hard to have the names of the members of the hierarchy redacted in those files, the press fought back in court and won. Now, these additional files will be also released, and likely will be just as searing as the few just now released.

I know, I know. At this point in history, learning that bishops failed to protect children from priest child predators is something that, to quote Capt. Reynaud in Casablanca, “I’m shocked, shocked to find.” The bigger picture though, is where I would like my reader to look now. The truth about child sex abuse in our culture is pouring in; where did it come from?

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
KDKA

[with video]

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A priest who once served in the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh is accused in the alleged molestation of a boy in New Hampshire in the 1980s.

Fr. Michael Ledoux was a principal at Serra Catholic High School in McKeesport and pastor of St. Pamphilus in Beechview.

Fr. Ledoux resigned from his post at a university outside Philadelphia after the allegations surfaced.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Diocese of Pittsburgh to send letters to 2 parishes after priest accused of abuse in New Hampshire

January 24, 2013

By Ann Rodgers / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Parishioners at two churches and alumni of Serra Catholic High School will receive letters asking whether anyone was harmed by a Franciscan priest who served in the 1990s and is accused of molesting a New Hampshire high school student in the 1980s.

Father Michael Ledoux, 55, was pastor of St. Pamphilus in Beechview from 1993 to 1995, principal of Serra in McKeesport from 1995 to 2000 and said Mass at St. Angela Merici in White Oak in 1999 and 2000, said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.

“While the allegation was reported to the Diocese of New Hampshire in 2003, the Diocese of Pittsburgh was not informed until recently,” he said. “No allegation was made to us at all while he was in Pittsburgh.”

Father Ledoux has been banned from ministry since the Franciscan Friars of the Province of the Immaculate Conception settled his case in 2002. In 2003, he became dean of secular Widener University near Philadelphia.

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SCHWEIZ
Sudostschweiz

Ein unabhängiger Expertenbericht bestätigt, dass Ingenbohler Schwestern zwischen 1928 und 1970 Heimzöglingen Leid zugefügt haben. Der Bericht geht auch auf die miserablen Bedingungen ein, unter denen die Schwestern bis zur Erschöpfung arbeiteten.

Ingenbohl SZ. – Die vom Kloster beauftragte Expertengruppe hat am Mittwoch nach zweijähriger Arbeit ihren Bericht vorgestellt. Auslöser war der 2010 ausgestrahlten Dokumentarfilm «Das Kinderzuchthaus» von Beat Bieri. Darin geht es um die Erziehungsanstalt Rathausen bei Luzern, in der – neben vielen anderen Heimen – Ingenbohler Schwestern tätig waren.

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OSTERREICH
Kurier

Eine kleine juristische Sensation kündigt sich in Vorarlberg an. Zwei ehemalige Schüler des Klosterinternats Mehrerau in Bregenz haben 2012 wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs durch einen Pater geklagt. Das Kloster hat sich damals auf Verjährung berufen. Dies kommt für das Landesgericht Feldkirch nicht infrage. „Das Gericht hat von der Möglichkeit Gebrauch gemacht, die Verjährungseinrede in beiden Fällen nicht anzunehmen“, sagt Gerichtssprecher Reinhard Flatz.

Die beiden Fälle sind ähnlich gelagert, aber doch von unterschiedlicher juristischer Tragweite. Ein ehemaliger Zögling, 58, gibt an, bereits 1968 im Vorarlberger Eliteinternat von Pater B. sexuell missbraucht worden zu sein. Der andere ehemalige Mehrerau-Schüler, 46, soll 1982 ebenfalls Opfer sexueller Übergriffe durch denselben Pater geworden sein. Im Fall von 1968 liegt ein psychologisches Gutachten vor, dass der Missbrauchte durch die Traumatisierung erst jetzt über die Vorfälle sprechen könne. Im anderen Fall waren die 30 Jahre Verjährungsfrist im Zivilverfahren ohnehin nicht erreicht.

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DEUTSCHLAND
kathweb

Zum Abschluss des Treffens gab es keine öffentliche Erklärung zur weiteren Vorgehensweise

23.01.2013

München (KAP) Der Ständige Rat der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz (DBK) hat am Dienstagabend seine zweitägige Krisensitzung in Würzburg beendet. Die Aufarbeitung des Missbrauchsskandals nach dem Zerwürfnis der Bischöfe mit dem Kriminologen Christian Pfeiffer stand im Mittelpunkt. Das Thema wird die DBK auch in den nächsten Monaten intensiv beschäftigen. Zum Abschluss des Treffens gab es keine öffentliche Erklärung zur weiteren Vorgehensweise.

Innerhalb der DBK forderte der Eichstätter Bischof Gregor Hanke Selbstkritik. Man müsse sich der Frage stellen, warum man die Probleme, an denen die Zusammenarbeit der Bischöfe mit Pfeiffer letztendlich gescheitert waren, “nicht schon am Anfang” in den Blick genommen habe.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Loyolan

Dr. C. Colt Anderson, the Fordham University Dean of the Graduate School of Religion, presented a talk on “Lessons of History: What Can the Church of the Middle Ages Teach Us about the Modern Sex-Abuse Scandal?” this past Wednesday in Ahmanson Auditorium. He spoke with the Loyolan before the event.

Jenna Andou (JA): If a priest from a century ago learned about the realities of sexual abuse in the Church today, what would they say?

C. Colt Anderson (CA): They would probably say that they had similar problems. If you study Church history, you can see that these problems have always been around – they get worse and they get better.

JA: How would you define modern sexual abuse?

CA: I would use St. Peter Damian’s category – he says that sexual abuse is spiritual incest. It is a similar betrayal, but it is even worse because the priest’s role is supposed to be someone of absolute trust.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Kathy Mellott kmellott@tribdem.com

JOHNSTOWN — An advocacy group aimed at bringing greater accountability to Catholic church leaders in dealing with child sexual abuse by priests is mapping where Brother Stephen Baker has been during the past three decades and pushing to make sure he has no access to children.

Much of the background of Baker, a Franciscan friar, remains a mystery.

That has led to speculation that incidents of his alleged abuse of children – particularly boys – may reach into the hundreds, said Judy Jones, a St. Louis resident who works with SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests).

Especially disconcerting, she said, is the past decade since Baker, a brother with the Franciscans, left Bishop McCort High School.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune-Review

By Jason Cato

Published: Thursday, January 24, 2013.

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh this week notified parishes and alumni of a high school that a priest who worked there is accused of sexual abuse.

The Rev. Michael Ledoux, 55, a Franciscan friar, served as pastor of St. Pamphilus in Beechview from 1993-95; headmaster of Serra Catholic High School in McKeesport from 1995 to 2000; and worked as an adjunct professor at Duquesne University from 1997 through 2000.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported this month that Ledoux resigned in July as a dean at Widener University in Chester because school officials learned of a 2003 allegation that he sexually abused a teenage boy in the 1980s in New Hampshire.

Ledoux could not be reached for comment.

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CALIFORNIA
Santa Barbara Independent

[Archive of Los Angeles Archdiocesan Documents – BishopAccountability.org]

Thursday, January 24, 2013

By Nick Welsh

Santa Barbara’s Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Curry has been accused of “thwarting” potential sex abuse investigations by responsible law enforcement agencies concerning at least three pedophile priests during the 1980s when Curry served as the archdiocese’s chief advisor to archbishop ​— ​and later cardinal ​— ​Roger Mahony on sex abuse cases.

Attorney Tony De Marco submitted just-released church personnel records demonstrating how concerned Curry and Mahony were that sexual-offender priests might come to the attention of law enforcement investigators. De Marco submitted these documents as part of a lawsuit he filed on behalf of a man who claims he’d been abused by a priest, Nicholas Aguilar Rivera. Rivera remains at large, and De Marco is demanding the opportunity to depose Curry and Mahony to demonstrate the extent to which the archdiocese was “thwarting law enforcement investigations.”

In 1986, Curry wrote a memo to Mahony about Michael Baker, a priest who’d admitted to molesting boys that year. Curry cautioned against allowing Baker to see a California therapist. “I see a problem here, in that if he were to mention his problem with child abuse it would put the therapist in a position of having to report him.” Curry then added, “I think we have to be very careful about whom he goes to see and what kind of information is released to the program. Given the fact that he cannot mention his past problem, the necessity to be so circumspect might defeat the purpose of his going to a therapist.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
WHPT

Saying the move is long overdue and flanked by high-profile reform advocates, state Reps. Louise Williams Bishop and Michael P. McGeehan, both D-Phila., today announced a renewed push to update archaic statute-of-limitations laws in child sexual abuse cases at a Capitol Rotunda news conference.

Bishop and McGeehan said their respective bills are patterned after ones they introduced in the last two-year legislative session but died after being inexplicably bottled up in the committee process.

Bishop has reintroduced her legislation, now known as H.B. 237, which would abolish the statute of limitations on criminal charges and civil lawsuits in cases of child sexual abuse.

“Child sexual abuse victims are slowly beginning to break the barriers of silence; however, they still face a daunting procedural obstacle — the statute of limitations,” said Bishop, who came out last year as a victim of child sexual abuse. “Instead of suppressing legislation that would lift the statute of limitations, we should be voting these game-changing bills out of committee and the House, so more victims can seek justice.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Tribune-Democrat

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests says churches should notify the public about accusations of child abuse. Do you agree?

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IRELAND
Huffington Post

Steve McSwain

I was reading recently of the bravery of the Irish Catholic priest, Fr. Tony Flannery, who, at 66, is being threatened by the Vatican.

No! I thought. The Vatican never threatens anyone!

LOL!

The history of Christianity, and not just in Catholicism but in all Christian denominations, is similar. The Church has found that it thrives best not in a world it sacrifices itself to redeem — not in a world it lays down its life in order to give life to others — but, instead, it survives best by demanding coercion, by making itself into a “god” and insisting this God can only be known “our” way; by making its beliefs into an idol that the faithful must bow the knee. The church has found that, by drawing lines in theological and doctrinal sands, battle lines between “us,” the theologically “correct” and “them,” the doctrinally “wrong,” that, by doing so, the church wins.

But does it really?

Of course, it does not, as history has repeatedly demonstrated. Unfortunately, however, history, at least as far as the church is concerned, has never been a very good teacher for church leaders.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

A Roman Catholic priest who ministered at a Long Beach church pleaded no contest to sexually groping a 14-year-old girl and two young women and was sentenced to five years felony probation Wednesday.

Father Luis Jose Cuevas, 67, who served at St. Athanasius Church on Linden Avenue, admitted to groping the 14-year-old and two 19-year-olds. He pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors of sexual assault in February 2012 and a felony lewd act upon a child in July 2010.

“God be with you because you need him now more than we do,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Jennifer Zepeda told the priest, reading from a statement from the victims.

In addition to probation, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Jesse Rodriguez ordered the priest to complete a 40-hour community service program and to register as a sex offender.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal

January 23, 2013 5:14 pm

By Richard C. Dujardin

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Agreeing with The Providence Journal and certain other media outlets, a state judge has ordered the unsealing of documents relating to a $60 million bequest that the late Gabrielle Mee left to the scandal-plagued Legion of Christ.

Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein ordered the unsealing on Wednesday, granting a request brought by The Providence Journal, New York Times, National Catholic Reporter and the Associated Press.

Mee’s niece, Mary Lou Dauray of Sausalito, Calif., has been challenging the distribution of her aunt’s assets, claiming that the Legion of Christ exercised undue influence on her aunt when it convinced her to donate all her money to the order before she died in 2008 at age 96. The order owns Mater Ecclesiae College in Smithfield.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
ABC News

By DAVID KLEPPER Associated Press

PROVIDENCE, R.I. January 24, 2013 (AP)

A Rhode Island judge has ordered the unsealing of documents related to a disgraced Roman Catholic organization called the Legion of Christ as it faces questions about its relationship to wealthy elderly patrons.

Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein ruled Wednesday the public should be allowed to scrutinize the documents.

The documents are from a lawsuit filed by a woman contesting the will of a wealthy aunt who left the Legion $60 million. The Legion argued the documents could taint prospective jurors.

The Associated Press and other media organizations sought to unseal the documents, arguing they could reveal the Legion’s operations.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.comtwincities.com
Posted: 01/23/2013 12:01:00 AM CST

A priest formerly assigned to a Chanhassen parish has persuaded a judge to seal the record of his conviction for indecent exposure in a St. Paul park.

Michael John Krenik, 55, has been banned from public ministry since his November 2010 arrest. He wants to become a hospital chaplain, his attorney, Paul Engh, told Ramsey County District Judge Judith Tilsen on Wednesday, Jan. 23.

“I truly regret and am sorry for my actions of Nov. 4, 2010,” Krenik said, standing before the judge in his clerical collar. He said he wanted the conviction expunged so that he could “begin anew” in his relationship with the city, the church and himself.

Engh told the court that a parish priest, Krenik offered forgiveness to others on a regular basis.

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ARIZONA
The Salt Lake Tribune

By Jim Dalrymple II
The Salt Lake Tribune

First Published Jan 22 2013

A woman who was finally able to leave an FLDS-controlled polygamous community escaped thanks to beefed up law enforcement in the area, according to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, which pleaded Tuesday for more funding.

In a news conference, Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne announced that Ruby Jessop had managed to leave Colorado City earlier this month. According to a news release, Jessop was held against her will for more than 10 years after being forced to marry her second-cousin, Haven Barlow, in 2001. Ruby, now 26, has been granted temporary custody of her six children, according to the release.

He said a criminal probe of the FLDS and the Marshal’s Office, which serves as a small police force in the twin polygamous towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, is currently under way. He declined to provide details.

“What they do is say, ‘Everybody watch her so she won’t run away.’ Then she can’t leave,” Horne said of women like Ruby. “Women who wanted to escape have been forcibly held by the marshals against their will.”

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ARIZONA
Fox News

A mother of six who authorities say was held captive in an Arizona town by Warren Jeffs’ polygamous sect and the local police force it controlled has escaped with her children, according to the state’s top lawman.

Ruby Jessop, 26, whose detention in Colorado City led to a criminal probe of the church founded by the now-imprisoned Jeffs, was granted temporary custody of the children and has left the tiny town, according to Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne. As a member of Jeffs’ Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), Jessop was forced to marry her brother-in-law at age 14. For the next dozen years, she remained trapped in the Utah-Arizona border town, Horne said, along with several other women allegedly held captive by church elders.

“What they do is say, ‘Everybody watch her so she won’t run away.’ Then she can’t leave,” Horne said. “Women who wanted to escape have been forcibly held by the marshals against their will.”

A criminal probe of the FLDS and the Marshal’s Office, the police force with jurisdiction over the twin polygamous towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, is currently ongoing, said Horne, who declined to elaborate. The Marshal’s Office has long been accused of being under the control of the sect.

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ARIZONA
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

The incredible story of child bride forced to marry step-brother who escaped Warren Jeffs’ polygamous sect with her six children

By Rachel Quigley

PUBLISHED: 15:18 EST, 23 January 2013

Ruby Jessop was just 14-years-old when she was deemed ‘sexually mature’ by polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs and forced to marry her step-brother and have sex with different men.

She was held against her will at the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for the next 12 years, in which time she bore six children and lived under the iron fist of the pervert leader.

Ruby Jessop, now 26, managed to escape from the sick and twisted world of Warren Jeffs last month and has now been granted temporary custody of the children aged from two to ten, who were being held ‘hostage’ by the sect, her sister said.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Catholic Culture

Phil Lawler

In 2002, when Pope John Paul II called the leaders of the US bishops’ conference to Rome for a discussion of the sex-abuse crisis, one cardinal, speaking to the Los Angeles Times under cover of anonymity, said that the prelates would push for the resignation of Boston’s Cardinal Bernard Law.

Cardinal Law was in trouble, of course, because of the revelations that he had covered up evidence of sexual abuse by priests, and shuffled abusive priests from one parish to another without informing parishioners.

The anonymous prelate who called for Law’s scalp was never identified, but most informed observers believe that it was Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles.

That was back in 2002. Now, after a decade of legal resistance, the Los Angeles archdiocese has released files that show how Cardinal Mahony had handling sex-abuse complaints: roughly the same way Cardinal Law did. Thanks to the dogged efforts of lawyers for the LA archdiocese, this evidence became public only after Cardinal Mahony’s retirement. But if it was indeed Cardinal Mahony who wanted Cardinal Law to step down in 2002, it seems quite clear that he should have followed his own advice.

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LONG BEACH (CA)
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on January 23, 2013

Less than 48 hours after the historic first “document dump” in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, a former Long Beach priest has been sentenced to probation and must register as a sex offender.

Fr. Cuevas, Do you have a secret file in Archbishop Gomez’ office?

And people say that the “scandal” is over …

According to the Long Beach Press Telegram:

Luis Jose Cuevas, who was once a parish priest at St. Athanasius Catholic Church, 5390 Linden Ave., was given five years of probation and must register as a sex offender as part of a plea agreement.

Cuevas, who was initially charged with nine counts, agreed to one count of sexual battery against of each of three victims, including one felony because the victim was a minor.

In April of 2012, two adult women came forward to say that Cuevas had sexually assaulted them. During the police investigation, Cuevas was allowed to remain at St. Athanasius Catholic Church. When the third victim came forward—a minor who says she was molested by Cuevas during over the course of two years—Archdiocese officials removed the priest. Cuevas was arrested in July 2012.

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IRELAND
Vatican Insider

Redemptorist Superior General, Michael Brehl has asked the Irish priest to obey the instructions of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Gianni Valente
Rome

The case of rebel Redemptorist priest Tony Flannery has reached a significant turning point. In recent days Fr. Flannery announced his intention – to newspapers and in a public conference – to ignore the disciplinary measures presented against him by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Today, Michael Brehl, the Canadian Superior General of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, issued a declaration in which he expressed his deep regret for the actions recently undertaken by Flannery, also a member of the Congregation.

In his brief statement, the current Superior of the religious order founded by Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, gives a brief summary of the whole affair: “In January, 2012, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith raised concerns about some of the writings of Fr. Flannery which were ambiguous regarding fundamental areas of Catholic doctrine, including the priesthood, the nature of the Church, and the Eucharist,” Brehl writes. The priest “was instructed to undertake a period of prayer and theological reflection to clarify his positions on these matters. During this sabbatical period, he was instructed not to grant interviews or make public statements, and to withdraw from active involvement in the leadership of the ACP (an independent body of Catholic priests which had been called to address the paedophilia scandal in the Irish Catholic Church, Ed.), especially since the priesthood was one of the matters on which he was asked to clarify his position. He was also instructed to withdraw from active priestly ministry during this period of prayer and reflection.”

In his statement, Fr. Brehl “earnestly” urged his confrere “to renew the efforts to find an agreed solution to the concerns raised by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the faith.” Finally, he invited his “Redemptorist confreres of the Irish Province to join with [him] in praying and working together in the spirit of St Alphonsus to maintain and strengthen our communion with the Universal Church.”

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LONG BEACH (CA)
NBC Southern California

[with video]

By Jonathan Lloyd and Toni Guinyard

Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013

A former Long Beach priest who entered a plea of no contest to sexual assault charges — including lewd acts involving a child — was sentenced Wednesday and ordered to register as a sex offender.

Luis Jose Cuevas, 68, who served the North Long Beach Catholic community for seven years, entered the no-contest plea in December. He was charged with eight misdemeanor counts of sex assault involving two women and one felony count of a lewd acts involving a child.

The girl, 17, accused the priest of repeatedly groping her at the church during a period of two years.

He was sentenced to five years felony probation, 40 hours of community service and one year of offender counseling. He also must register as a sex offender.

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LONG BEACH (CA)
Press-Telegram

By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
presstelegram.com
Posted: 01/23/2013

LONG BEACH — A former Catholic priest who pleaded no contest to three counts of sexual battery avoided jail time Wednesday at his sentencing in Long Beach Superior Court.

Luis Jose Cuevas, who was once a parish priest at St. Athanasius Catholic Church, 5390 Linden Ave., was given five years of probation and must register as a sex offender as part of a plea agreement.

Cuevas, who was initially charged with nine counts, agreed to one count of sexual battery against of each of three victims, including one felony because the victim was a minor.

Prior to the sentencing, Cuevas’ lawyer, George Bird, said his client accepted responsibility for his actions and would “use his remaining time to do kind, as he attempted

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)
LA Weekly

By Patrick Range McDonald
Wed., Jan. 23 2013

On the front page of this morning’s Los Angeles Times, the paper notes that several legal experts suspect Cardinal Roger Mahony will not face criminal charges for covering up clergy sex abuse due to the statute of limitations. One advocacy group says those experts have it wrong.

“We aren’t police, prosecutors or even lawyers,” says David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), in a press statement today. “But for 25 years, we’ve seen, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., ‘the long arc of history bend toward justice.’ We’ve seen secular authorities become increasingly assertive and creative and successful in pursuing sophisticated criminals.”

Founded in 1988, SNAP is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims and has more than 12,000 members.

Clohessy adds, “Remember one simple fact and one simple adage: Al Capone was nailed on tax evasion [and] ‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way.'”

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Joseph A. Slobodzian, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
Posted: Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The victim-services coordinator for the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia spent this morning on the witness stand caught in the cross-fire questioning of defense and prosecution lawyers in the sex-assault trial of a priest and a former parochial school teacher.

Lawyers for the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero called Louise Hagner as part of their continuing attack on the credibility of victim-accuser “Billy Doe” in the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court trial.

Billy, now 24, alleges that Engelhardt, 66, and Shero, 49, raped and assaulted him in 1998-1999 when he was a 10-year-old altar boy at St. Jerome’s parish school in the Northeast.

Defense lawyers contend that the assaults never happened and have portrayed Billy as a troubled drug-addicted man trying to make money by suing the archdiocese.

Hagner, who said she fields sex-abuse allegations against priests and other church personnel and arranges for social and support services, testified about her telephone and in-person interviews with Billy on Jan. 30, 2009 after he called the archdiocesan sex-abuse hotline.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Citizens Voice

By Denis J. O’Malley (Staff Writer)
Published: January 23, 2013

After less than two hours of deliberation, a Monroe County jury on Tuesday convicted the former pastor accused of killing his second wife in 2008 with first-degree murder.

The relatively quick decision, which also found Arthur Schirmer, 64, guilty of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence for staging a car crash on Route 715 in Jackson Twp. to explain Betty Jean Schirmer’s death, came after an 11-day trial that saw nearly 60 witnesses testify.

Schirmer, who served as pastor at Reeders United Methodist Church at the time of the murder, showed hardly any reaction as he stood listening to the jury forewoman report the guilty verdict at about 4:20 p.m.

Just a few feet behind him on the other side of the courtroom’s wooden gallery barrier, Mr. Schirmer’s two daughters and his fiancée buried their heads in their hands and wept.

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PENNSYLVANIA
CBS News

(CBS/AP) STROUDSBURG, Pa. – A former Methodist clergyman convicted Tuesday of bludgeoning his second wife to death in 2008 will now face trial for allegedly killing his first wife.

Arthur Schirmer, 64, was found guilty of first-degree murder and evidence tampering after a jury in the Poconos concluded he clubbed Betty Schirmer on the head with a crowbar, then loaded her into their PT Cruiser and staged a low-speed accident in an effort to conceal the crime.

In September 2012, a grand jury indicted Schirmer in the 1999 death of his first wife, Jewel Schirmer. A trial date has not been set.

Schirmer has maintained his innocence in both Betty and Jewel’s deaths, and his attorney pledged to appeal the verdict. Defense attorney Brandon Reish had insisted in his closing argument that while his client cheated on Betty, he had no motive to kill her.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NECN

Jan 23, 2013

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A church social worker says she believed a longtime heroin addict was sober when he raised abuse claims against two priests and a teacher.

Louise Hagner’s testimony for the defense Wednesday is designed to discredit the accuser. The young man has testified that he was high when he first detailed the abuse.

He has since changed key details of his story.

Hagner’s notes show he said he was abused by sixth-grade teacher Bernard Shero in the classroom in 2000 and raped by the Rev. Charles Engelhardt for five hours at church.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
KDKA

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A protest will be held downtown Wednesday afternoon to urge the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese to break their silence about an alleged predator priest who used to work in the city.

According to a press release, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) will protest outside of the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese headquarters on the Boulevard of the Allies around 2 p.m.

The protest will be about Fr. Michael Ledoux, a Franciscan priest, who resigned from his position near Philadelphia after reports accused him of reportedly molesting a child.

For the last nine years, Ledoux had worked at Widener University, but prior to that he spent time at Duquesne University, Sierra Catholoc High School and St. Pamphilus parish in Pittsburgh.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

[The Philadelphia Archive – BishopAccountability.org]

By David Chang
Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013

Several months after the conviction of Msgr. William Lynn, a new website has been launched featuring files that were used as evidence during his child-endangerment trial last year.

The Philadelphia Archive from watchdog group Bishop Accountability, has posted 195 pages from the file of convicted former priest Edward Avery. The website plans to post more documents each month until they have a 5,780 page collection online.

The website states the following:

These documents, which became public when they were entered into evidence at the 2012 trial of Msgr. William J. Lynn and Rev. James J. Brennan, offer a rich sample of the archdiocesan files that formed the basis of the work of three Philadelphia grand juries. Those men and women were impaneled under District Attorneys Lynne Abraham and Seth Williams, and the reports that they produced in 2003, 2005, and 2011 are the gold standard of investigative work on the Catholic abuse crisis in the United States.

The 2005 Philadelphia Grand Jury Report in particular is remarkably comprehensive, dealing in an integrated and forceful way with aspects of the crisis that are too often examined in isolation. The abuse itself is described in harrowing and meticulous detail. But the report also studies the mismanagement of the crisis and the cover-up of the abuse, and it clearly explains the holes in current secular law that sometimes make it difficult or impossible to punish abusers and enablers.

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LONG BEACH (CA)
NBC Southern California

By Jonathan Lloyd and Toni Guinyard

Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013

A former Long Beach priest who entered a plea of no contest to sexual assault charges — including lewd acts involving a child — is scheduled for sentencing Wednesday.

Luis Jose Cuevas, 68, who served the North Long Beach Catholic community for seven years, entered the no-contest plea in December. He was charged with eight misdemeanor counts of sex assault involving two women and one felony count of a lewd acts involving a child.

The girl, 17, accused the priest of repeatedly groping her at the church during a period of two years.

He faces a maximum penalty of one year of sex offender counseling, five years formal probation and 40 hours of community service.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

January 23, 2013

By Ann Rodgers / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Letters will be sent to members of two Catholic parishes and alumni of Serra Catholic High School asking if anyone was harmed by a Franciscan priest who served there in the 1990s and who was recently revealed to have been accused of molesting a boy in New Hampshire in the late 1980s.

The Rev. Michael Ledoux, a Franciscan Friar from the Province of the Immaculate Conception in New York, was pastor of St. Pamphilus in Beechview from 1993-95, principal of Serra from 1995-2000 and said Mass regularly at St. Angela Merici in White Oak in 1999-2000, said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

The pastors of the two parishes will make announcements this weekend and send letters asking parishioners to contact either the diocesan or Pennsylvania state abuse hotlines if they were harmed by Father Ledoux “or anyone representing the church,” he said. An identical letter will be sent by the principal and superintendant of Serra Catholic to all alumni, he said.

Father Ledoux, who had spent the past nine years working at Widener University near Philadelphia, recently resigned after it was revealed that in 2003 the Diocese of Manchester, N.H., received a complaint that he had molested a minor in 1986 or 1987, when he was a pastor in Derry, N.H.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

[The Philadelphia Archive – BishopAccountability.org]

January 23, 2013 by Susan Matthews

Click here to read: “Watchdog group releases data on claims against Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests,” by John P. Martin, The Philadelphia Inquirer, January 23, 2013

Editor’s note: If you couldn’t attend Msgr. William Lynn’s trial, here’s your chance to examine the documents submitted as evidence. “Read ‘em and weep” was never a more appropriate statement. The Church hierarchy has dealt the Philly faithful a bad hand. – Susan Matthews

Excerpt from Martin’s article: “The group, BishopAccountability.org, culled the documents from evidence introduced at last year’s landmark child-endangerment trial of Msgr. William J. Lynn.

The records include confidential church memos, e-mails, psychological evaluations, and correspondence among archdiocese officials, accusers, and more than 20 priests who served in area parishes over the last half-century.

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By Gustavo Arellano
Wed., Jan. 23 2013

[Ramos file – BishopAccountability.org]

[Documents Selected and Highlighted on the AbusedInSoCal.com Website – Ramos 1986]

[Archive of Los Angeles Archdiocesan Documents – BishopAccountability.org]

I’ve spent nearly a decade writing about Eleuterio Ramos, the most notorious pedophile priest in the history of the Diocese of Orange, a monster who admitted to molesting “at least” 25 boys, a ghoul who church officials–including current Diocese of Boise and Diocese of Sacramento bishops Michael Driscoll and Jaime Soto, and current St. Timothy Church pastor John Urell–sent down to Tijuana in 1985 to ensure he’d escape the law after admitting to molesting a teenager at St. Anthony Claret in Anaheim.

And Tijuana is where the final mystery of Ramos exists.

The Orange diocese’s personnel files on Ramos makes no mention of any Ramos victims based down there (although Ramos liked to take OC children to Tijuana to get gang-raped), and none of the dozens of people who have filed civil lawsuits against Ramos and the diocese of Orange and Los Angeles (where Ramos previously served) ever alleged they were from Ramos’ Tijuana holiday. But the massive document dump yesterday by the LA Archdiocese has unearthed for the first time ever a Ramos victim in Tijuana.

In Ramos’ file is a 2004 memorandum from the Diocese of San Bernardino which details a meeting that church leaders had with a man who claimed Ramos had molested him at a cabin in Crestline. The victim (whose name is redacted in the document) said that he first encountered Ramos at Divina Providencia Parish and Our Lady of Loreto chapel in Tijuana, where Ramos headed–I kid you not–a children’s ministry. Starting in 1985 and continuing until the boy’s family moved to San Bernardino, Ramos molested the child repeatedly–at Crestline, at hotels near Disneyland, in Los Angeles, and in Tijuana proper. In 2003, when stories about Ramos’ depravity first hit Southern California newspapers, the victims family asked him if Ramos–who was a “good family friend”–had ever molested him; the victim denied it. The victim didn’t want to tell his family because he was, according to the notes of the meeting, “fearful of his mother’s reaction to his abuse since he recalls that his mother would frequently encourage her son to take private overnight trips with Fr. Ramos (e.g., the Crestline, Disneyland, and Universal Studios trips).”

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

Posted by David Clohessy on January 23, 2013

It’s factually and morally wrong to assume that criminal charges can’t be brought against current and former top LA archdiocesan officials, especially with tens of thousands of church records about to be released.

We aren’t police, prosecutors or even lawyers. But for 25 years, we’ve seen – in the words of Martin Luther King – “the long arc of history bend toward justice.” We’ve seen secular authorities become increasingly assertive and creative and successful in pursuing sophisticated criminals.

Remember one simple fact and one simple adage:

Al Capone was nailed on tax evasion.

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

The irresponsible assumption that Mahony, Curry and others can’t be prosecuted rests on another irresponsible assumption: that their behavior has changed. Can we be more reckless than to assume that these men – who have repeatedly done serious wrong for decades and have entirely escaped penalties – have magically, completely, and voluntarily reformed?

All the policies and panels and procedures and promises made by church officials don’t change one simple truth – Archbishop Gomez and Bishop Curry and others still have the ability, right now, to do exactly as they’ve done for decades in child sex cases.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Catholic Insider

With almost no fanfare, the Boston Archdiocese released the 2012 Annual Report on Friday. This stands in contrast to last year, when the archdiocese released the 2011 results saying they had a “balanced budget,” when that really was not true. Central Operations for the archdiocese ran at a loss of about $6.8M, and the archdiocese also faces their own “fiscal cliff” of sorts as they have $137M of debt and no obvious way of paying it right now.

For all who care about the future of the Boston Archdiocese and her ability to carry out the saving mission of Jesus Christ for generations to come, there is reason for serious concern.

The report, available here, presents a lot of data, and it is easy to be overwhelmed with the data and miss the meaning of the data, as the Boston Globe did in their article on Friday. Once you look at the big picture, the message should raise alarm bells at 66 Brooks Drive and at the Vatican that we can no longer have “business as usual.” A few finance experts looked over the report and helped shed insight for us into the data. Here are just some of the key things you should know:
o Despite a “balanced budget” announced for the 2011 fiscal year, the recently released financial statements show (page 24, and page 73–Column 2) that the Central Operations of the archdiocese had an operating loss of $6.8 million in 2012 and $6.3M in 2011 (page 24). BCI pointed out the deception last year, and at least this year, they did not say they had a balanced budget–they just said they had a goal of having one.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

[with video]

A Roman Catholic bishop apologized Tuesday for “inadequate or mistaken” responses to clergy sex abuse when he served as a top advisor to Cardinal Roger M. Mahony in the late 1980s.

“Like many others, I have come to a clearer understanding over the years of the causes and treatment of sexual abuse,” Bishop Thomas J. Curry, who oversees Santa Barbara and Ventura counties for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, said in a statement.

Internal church files released this week show Curry and Mahony, who was then archbishop, discussed how to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement, including by keeping the priests out of California to avoid prosecution. While serving as vicar of clergy, Curry also suggested to Mahony that they prevent pedophile priests from seeing therapists who might alert authorities.

DOCUMENT: Los Angeles Archdiocese priest abuse files

In one letter about a priest who had acknowledged using a 12-year-old parishioner as what a church official called his “sex partner,” Curry said it was “surprising” that a church-paid counselor hadn’t reported Father Michael Wempe to police. He and Wempe “agreed it would be better if Mike did not return to him.”

Perhaps, Curry added, the priest could be sent to “a lawyer who is also a psychiatrist” thereby putting “the reports under the protection of privilege.”

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

[Archive of Los Angeles Archdiocesan Documents – BishopAccountability.org]

Posted by David Clohessy on January 23, 2013

Two groups that deal with clergy sex abuse are asking the top Catholic official in Los Angeles to demote one of his highest ranking staff members.

Leaders of BishopAccountability.org and of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, are writing Archbishop José H. Gomez, urging him to discipline Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Curry, who was implicated in newly-released church records about pedophile priests.

“It’s bad enough to deceive parents, parishioners and the public. It’s even worse to deceive police and prosecutors. Bishop Curry has done both,” said Joelle Casteix, SNAP Western Regional Director. “He should be fired, censured or demoted immediately.”

In memos from 1986 and 1987, between then-Msgr. Curry and Cardinal Roger Mahony, then the leader of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Curry offers suggestions on way to prevent and circumvent investigations by police of priests who had admitted abusing young boys. His tactics included avoiding therapists who might alert authorities and sending priests to assignments out of state.

“This is an opportunity for Archbishop Gomez to make a clean break with the failed policies of his predecessor, Cardinal Mahony,” said Terence McKiernan, President of BishopAccountability.org, a website that archives Catholic abuse documents. “The documents show that Auxiliary Bishop Curry’s management of the Wempe, Baker, and Peter Garcia cases was immoral and likely illegal. At a time when managerial malfeasance has been judged criminal in Philadelphia and Kansas City, Archbishop Gomez must do the accountable thing: remove Bishop Curry from his positions of power and make a full disclosure of the archdiocese’s previous obstructionist practices.”

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IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter

by John Cooney | Jan. 23, 2013

Dublin —
Irish Redemptorist Fr. Tony Flannery broke a year of silence Sunday to reveal that the Vatican had threatened him with excommunication and removal from his religious congregation because he advocates for open discussions about church teachings on ordaining women, clerical celibacy, contraceptives and homosexuality.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith removed Flannery, 66, from public ministry last February, pending the outcome of its inquiries into views he expressed in Reality, a Redemptorist-run magazine.

Flannery also said he has had no direct contact in person or writing from the congregation. All communication has come through the Redemptorist superior general in Rome, Fr. Michael Brehl.

Flannery described the actions against him as “frightening, disproportionate and reminiscent of the Inquisition.”

He said he initially tried to find a compromise with the Vatican congregation, but by September, it became clear this would not happen.

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JOHNSTOWN (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will

–disclose that a just “outed” credibly accused child molesting cleric worked at third Catholic school,

— beg anyone who may have seen, suspected, or suffered his crimes to come forward, and

–urge his victims and victims of other Johnstown clerics- to report to police officials, not church officials.

They also want to know why Johnstown Catholic officials delayed for over a year before releasing information about the alleged predator to the public.

WHEN
Wednesday, January 23, at 11:00 a.m.

WHERE
In front of the Johnstown Police Station at 401 Washington Street (corner of Market St.), Johnstown, PA

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.

PITTSBURGH (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will urge Pittsburgh’s Catholic bishop to

–explain his silence about a recently “outed” predator priest who worked in Pittsburgh,

–disclose the names and whereabouts of any other credibly accused child molesting clerics who have worked in Pittsburgh (regardless of where their alleged crimes took place), and

–use all of his resources (diocesan websites, parish bulletins, and pulpit announcements) to spread info about the just-outed priest and aggressively seek out others who may have been hurt by him.

They will also urge anyone who may have seen, suspected, or suffered clergy crimes in Pittsburgh in any denomination – to come forward, call police, expose wrongdoing, protect kids and start healing.

WHEN
TODAY, Tuesday, January 22, at 2:00- p.m.

WHERE
Outside the Pittsburgh Catholic diocese headquarters (“chancery office”), 111 Boulevard of the Allies (corner of Stanwix) in Pittsburgh, PA

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.

MICHIGAN
Click on Detroit

TROY, Mich. –
The priest of a church in Troy has temporarily stepped aside in the wake of an embezzlement investigation.

The Archdiocese of Detroit said the Rev. Edward Belczak of the St. Thomas More Parish was temporarily excluded from his post on Tuesday.

Both the Archdiocese and the Troy Police Department are conducting separate investigations into a slew of alleged misappropriation and mismanagement by Belczak.

They include:
•Taking excess compensation beyond archdiocesan policies, estimating a loss of $92,000 to the parish over the past six years.
•Accepting and directing funds to himself that should have been posted to parish accounts, estimating a loss to the parish of $16,000 over the past six years.
•Compensating, with benefits, an individual best described as a “ghost employee,” estimating a loss of $240,000 to the parish over the past six years.
•Maintaining improper medical/dental insurance coverage for an individual, estimating a loss of approximately $26,000 to the parish over the past six years.
•Authorizing a long-term disability policy for one employee, while not providing a similar benefit to other parish staff members, estimating a loss of $20,000 to the parish.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
NBC San Diego

By Nicole Gonzales and R. Stickney
Wednesday, Jan 23, 2013

A San Diego attorney who represents sexual abuse victims of Catholic priests said even he was shocked at the extensive cover up revealed in newly-released documents.

Thousands of pages from the internal disciplinary files of 14 priests made public Monday show retired Los Angeles Archdiocese Cardinal Roger Mahony and other top aides maneuvered behind the scenes to shield molester priests and provide damage control for the church.

San Diego attorney Irwin Zalkin has represented survivors of clergy sexual abuse for the past decades and some of his clients are included in the 30,000 pages of confidential files made public.

He told NBC 7 San Diego he’s amazed at how long this scandal was covered up.

“Clearly, clearly no interest in protecting children. None,” Zalkin said. “This was all about protecting the church from scandal.”

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NEW YORK
New York Post

By JOSH SAUL
Last Updated: 3:55 AM, January 23, 2013

The Brooklyn teen sadistically abused by her Hasidic counselor from the time she was 12 smiled through her tears yesterday — as the perverted monster was sentenced to 103 years behind bars.

Pedophile Nechemya Weberman, 54, showed no emotion when he heard the judge pronounce his virtual life sentence for repeatedly molesting the girl for more than three years in his locked counseling office.

But his victim, now 18, showed how glad she was, smiling outside court minutes after tearfully recounting to the judge how the Williamsburg counselor had abused her.

“I clearly remember how I would look in the mirror and see a person I didn’t recognize. I saw a girl who didn’t want to live in her own skin,” the brave victim said, weeping, before Weberman’s sentencing in Brooklyn Supreme Court.

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MISSISSIPPI
WJTV

[with video]

By: Chris Williams | WJTV
Published: January 22, 2013

Jackson- John Langworthy pleaded guilty in a Hinds County court Tuesday morning.

He admitted to five counts of gratification of lust. Court records show between 1980 and 1984, Langworhty molested boys. He befriended families and worked as a babysitter before moving in on his victims.

A judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison, but suspended all 10 years, meaning he won’t serve any jail time. Langworthy will serve 5 years probation and will have to register as a sex offender.

The story came to light in August 2011. Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton hired Langworthy and his wife. Langworthy publicly confessed to molesting boys and asked for forgiveness. After that, victims started coming forward.

Langworthy also lived in Texas. He moved back to Mississippi in 1989 after similar allegations surfaced against him in Texas.

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

IRELAND
Vatican Insider

Tony Flannery, the head of Ireland’s Association of Catholic Priests, has rejected Rome’s request for him to sign a “mea culpa” declaration. “Freedom of conscience comes first,” he insists

Alessandro Speciale
Vatican City

An Irish priest has decided to defy the silence imposed on him by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith because he considers that giving up “on freedom of thought, freedom of speech and most especially freedom of conscience is too high a price” for him “to pay to be allowed minister in today’s church.”

The 66 year old priest, Tony Flannery, a Redemptorist, is a founder of the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland, an independent association made up of over 850 priests that was created in response to the indignation shown towards the Church’s handling of the paedophilia scandal.

In a long open letter published in The Irish Times, Flannery explained he risked excommunication and dismissal from his congregation if he did not agree to sign a document that reaffirms the Catholic Church’s doctrine on women priests and homosexuality, amongst other things.

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

IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

‘We are Church Ireland’ expresses its unconditional support for Fr. Tony Flannery in his assertion of his right of conscience not to be forced by an abuse of his vow of obedience to submit to the secretive demands of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

We welcome the statement of support of his Irish Redemptorist Order and the Association of Catholic priests of Ireland and Austria.

It is now up to the rest of the people of God, both non-ordained and ordained, to express their support for Tony Flannery and to that end ‘We are Church Ireland’ is organising a peaceful vigil outside the Papal Nunciature , Navan Road, Dublin 7 next Sunday 27th January 2013 at 3 p.m. and encourages all concerned for the future of the Irish Church to attend.

Further information, from Brendan Butler (Spokesperson, We are Church Ireland 086 4054984)

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

“Truth can impose itself on the mind of man only in virtue of its own truth, which wins over the mind with both gentleness and power.” (Article 1, Declaration on Religious Liberty, Vatican II 1965)

Way back in 1965 this official statement reconciled me to the Catholic Church, after years of agonising as a student of history over its long record of religious persecution. That was all behind us now, I told myself. The church at its summit had at long last realised that truth cannot be conveyed or strengthened by coercion. The truth of the Creeds is centrally also love, so in future it would only be communicated lovingly, in freedom.

This conclusion was supported by the strong criticism directed by some eminent bishops during the council toward the formerly unjust practices of the church’s central theological monitor, the Holy Office (once the Roman Inquisition). This body became the ‘Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’ on the same day the Declaration on Religious Liberty was formally ratified. Most of us then expected that the CDF would now develop procedures and structures that would bear comparison with the highest principles of jurisprudence in the secular world.

The CDF has instead reverted to the intellectual brutalities of the Holy Office, reneged on this key Vatican II declaration on religious freedom, and very seriously weakened the authority of the church.

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CONNECTICUT
Albany Times Union

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A suspended Roman Catholic priest in Connecticut has pleaded not guilty to federal drug charges accusing him of taking in more than $300,000 from sales of methamphetamines.

The Connecticut Post reports (http://bit.ly/VSCCTg ) that 61-year-old Kevin Wallin entered the pleas Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Hartford. Four other people have been charged in the alleged drug-selling operation that authorities say involved shipments of methamphetamine from California to Connecticut.

Wallin is the former pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport. He resigned in 2011 citing health and personal issues and was suspended from public ministry last May by the Diocese of Bridgeport.

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

Editorial

The release of confidential files on 1980s clergy sex abuse in the Los Angeles Archdiocese is the beginning of the end of a long and sordid saga.

January 23, 2013

For years, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles fought to keep secret its confidential files concerning pedophile priests. Hundreds of sex abuse victims hoping for a full accounting of what church leaders knew about the growing scandal and what they did to stop it were rebuffed time and again.

But the cover-up is finally coming to an end. On Monday, a series of memos and letters filed in a civil case confirmed that Cardinal Roger M. Mahony and other church leaders plotted to shield pedophile priests rather than turn them over to police and prosecutors.

The documents, which date to 1986 and 1987, show how Mahony and Msgr. Thomas J. Curry, his top advisor on sex abuse cases, discussed strategies to keep priests from coming to the attention of law enforcement. Curry proposed to Mahony that certain priests be kept from seeing therapists, who would have been obliged to alert police; in other cases, priests were sent out of state to avoid criminal investigations. One cleric — who had admitted molesting undocumented immigrant children for decades, and even threatened one with deportation if he reported the abuse to police — was not allowed by Mahony to return to California from a treatment center, for fear that it would spark criminal or civil action.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Stuart Rintoul
From:The Australian
January 24, 2013

A GROUP of Catholics pressing for reform within the church has told an abuse inquiry the church is a “private and conflicted organisation” with a 17th century system of governance.

The group, Catholics for Renewal, said the church was “self-protective” on the issue of pedophile priests and must be made to report abuse allegations to police.

In its submission to the Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations, the group, chaired by senior Catholic Peter Johnstone, quoted the late cardinal Carlo Maria Martini saying that the church was centuries “out of date”.

It said the church’s governance was “feudal in origin”, autocratically ruled by socially isolated and increasingly aged bishops.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

A DEFROCKED Catholic priest who was jailed in 2010 for child sex offences against 39 boys allegedly sexually assaulted another 14 boys in the 1970s and 1980s, police alleged yesterday in a facts sheet in Newcastle Local Court.

Former Maitland-Newcastle priest John Sidney Denham, 70, allegedly told one victim in 1977, ‘‘You loved it. You wanted it. You want more and more’’, after a sexual assault that left the boy, 12, ‘‘bleeding heavily’’, police alleged.

The boy did not complain to his parents about alleged repeated sexual assaults at St Pius X School, Adamstown, because he came from a violent home where alcohol was abused.

When the boy allegedly told principal Father Tom Brennan, who died late last year, he was caned.

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AUSTRALIA
WA Today

January 24, 2013

Barney Zwartz

MANY Catholic priests take a flexible approach to celibacy, tolerated by church leaders, and some believe sex with children or men does not count, a former Melbourne priest said on Wednesday.

”An enormous number of priests struggle with celibacy,” Philip O’Donnell told the state inquiry into how the churches handle child sex abuse.

”There’s a tolerance for imperfection in celibacy, and that may have led to a lessening of outrage at sex with children.”

He said he had no training about celibacy in the seminary and that many priests were ill-equipped. ”Chosen celibacy is a gift, but mandatory celibacy is for many priests a millstone,” he said.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

A defrocked Hunter Valley Catholic priest has been committed to stand trial for child sexual offences.

John Sidney Denham, 70, is accused of abusing several boys in the 1970s and 1980s at various locations, including at a Newcastle Catholic high school.

He did not show emotion as he faced Newcastle Local Court today via video link from Goulburn jail.

He has waived his right for a committal hearing and is yet to enter pleas.

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MICHIGAN
The Detroit News

The Archdiocese of Detroit temporarily has removed a priest from a Troy parish while authorities investigate accusations he mishandled thousands of dollars in church money over the past six years.

Archdiocese officials said the Rev. Edward Belczak has been “temporarily excluded from the office of pastor” at St. Thomas More, meaning he cannot hold that post until an administrative review process is completed.

Belczak, 67, remains a priest but is expected to leave parish housing, officials said in a statement Tuesday.

The allegations include:

Taking compensation beyond what is allowed by archdiocesan policies, causing the parish to lose an estimated $92,000 over six years.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Joseph A. Slobodzian, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Lawyers for a Philadelphia priest and an ex-parochial-school teacher on Tuesday began a two-pronged defense to convince a Common Pleas Court jury that their clients’ personalities were inconsistent with those of men who would rape a 10-year-old altar boy.

Lawyers for the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero called a series of character witnesses who testified about the pair’s reputation in the community for being peaceful and law-abiding.

Engelhardt’s lawyer, Michael McGovern, also called seven current and former teachers from St. Jerome’s parish school in the Northeast to tell the jury their memories of victim-accuser “Billy Doe.”

It is not known whether either Engelhardt, 66, or Shero, 49, will testify in his own defense.

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IRELAND
Galway Independent

A Galway priest has said the Vatican’s demand for silence is “too high a price” for a return to his priestly duties.

Redemptorist Fr Tony Flannery from Attymon in Athenry spoke out on Sunday amid threats from the Vatican that he could be excommunicated from the Catholic Church if he continued to air his controversial views.

The local priest said he had received a letter from Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith instructing him to refrain from publishing any further articles outlining his views and to have no further involvement with the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP).

Fr Flannery, who has been prevented from ministering as a priest for the last year, was also instructed to write, sign and publish a article accepting that the Catholic Church can never ordain women to the priesthood, accepting all Church stances on contraception and homosexuality, and the refusal of the sacraments to people in second relationships.

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CANADA
The Western Star

Published on January 23, 2013
Cory Hurley

CORNER BROOK — One day would not have been sufficient to deal with the lengthy facts and numerous victim impact statements to be read in the sentencing hearing for Roman Catholic priest George Ansel Smith.

When that hearing was called Tuesday morning in Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador, the 74-year-old had the matter postponed until Feb. 27-28. Crown attorney Trina Simms requested the new date.

She also told the court there is a new charge to be filed before that day. It originated in New Brunswick, the province in which previous charges were laid against Smith.

Throughout the court proceedings, new charges have continued to pile up.

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MICHIGAN
My Fox Detroit

TROY, Mich. (AP) — The Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit says it has temporarily removed a priest from his suburban parish while it and police investigate accusations he mishandled at least $429,000 in church money over the past six years.

The archdiocese says it forced the Rev. Edward Belczak to step aside from his duties at St. Thomas More Parish in Troy during the probes. It says the 67-year-old remains a priest but will leave parish housing.

The archdiocese says an audit found that Belczak paid a “ghost employee” $240,000. It says the priest also took $92,000 in compensation above what he’s supposed to get under church policies.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
WKBN

[with video]

Leaders with a group advocating for victims of alleged abuse by clergy said they’re frustrated over what they claim is a lack of action to investigate local cases.

Judy Jones, a representative of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, was in town Tuesday, claiming reports of abuse against a number of former Warren JFK High School students has in turn prompted others to come forward and make their own claims against employees of the Diocese of Youngstown.

Jones claims there are two other, unrelated abuse allegations against Diocese employees. She wouldn’t be any more specific, other than to say the alleged incidents happened years ago.

She also said neither of the alleged victims has told anyone in law enforcement.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
Canton Rep

YOUNGSTOWN —
Bishop George V. Murry, head of the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown, will hold a press conference at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at his offices at 144 W. Wood St., to address media reports relative to the Diocese of Youngstown Schools.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
WYTV

[with video]

Leaders with a group advocating for victims of alleged abuse by clergy said they’re frustrated over what they claim is a lack of action to investigate local cases.

Judy Jones, a representative of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, was in town Tuesday, claiming reports of abuse against a number of former Warren JFK High School students has in turn prompted others to come forward and make their own claims against employees of the Diocese of Youngstown.

Jones claims there are two other, unrelated abuse allegations against Diocese employees. She wouldn’t be any more specific, other than to say the alleged incidents happened years ago.

She also said neither of the alleged victims has told anyone in law enforcement.

Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains said there’s only so much authorities can do.

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INDIA
Conference of Religious India Bulletin

The court ordered to issue notices to investigating officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and to the three prime accused.

Kochi: The Kerala High court on Wednesday stayed the trial in the alleged murder of a Catholic nun, admitting a petition seeking further investigation in the 20-year old case.

The court ordered to issue notices to investigating officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and to the three prime accused—two Catholic priests and a nun.

The “Sister Abhaya murder” case is pending before the CBI special court in state capital Thiruvanathapuram and it had earlier dismissed a petition of rights activist Jomon Puthenpurackal seeking further investigations.

However, High Court admitted Puthenpurackal’s plea that said there were serious lapses in the investigation and justice will not be achieved if trial proceeded without further investigation.

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SPAIN
El Pais

Jesús Duva Madrid 22 ENE

A women stolen from a hospital in Valencia almost half a century ago — just one of many alleged abductions of newborn babies during the Franco era — has been reunited with her biological mother, say police in the Mediterranean port city.

The woman, now aged 48, has asked for her identity and that of her mother to be kept private, saying that her adopted mother is seriously ill and close to death.

In the wake of several stories that appeared in the media in 2011 — revealing that during the Franco years a network of nuns and doctors at certain hospitals had taken babies from poor families or single mothers and given them to wealthy parents unable to conceive — the woman in question decided to try and trace her biological mother. The abductions are believed to have continued for several years after the death of Franco, in 1975.

The woman, who strongly suspected she was a stolen baby, lodged a judicial request to find her mother, the National Police said in a statement.

She filed a request with the relevant authorities, and the Valencia force began investigating.

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