ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
The Salt Lake Tribune

By ALESSANDRO SPECIALE
Religion News Service

First Published Jun 21 2012

For the past six months, the so-called Vatileaks affair has rocked the frescoed halls of the Vatican, plunging the global center of the Roman Catholic Church into turmoil.

Sparked by the publication of dozens of confidential documents, the scandal has led to the arrest of Pope Benedict XVI’s butler and might even be linked to the ouster of the president of the controversial Vatican Bank.

But, as in most things Vatican, it has at times been difficult to tell fact from fiction. Amid the media frenzy, people have often been left wondering what is going on inside the Holy See. Here’s what we know:

What’s been revealed?

The leaked documents vary in content: Most simply give interesting details on the inner workings of the Vatican bureaucracy, or on Rome’s take on local church developments. For example, a letter by Chicago Cardinal Francis George shows how he asked the Vatican to block the Community of Sant’Egidio, a Catholic movement, from giving a “pro-life” award to Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn for ending the state’s death penalty. George argued that the award was inappropriate because Quinn supports abortion rights.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A priest felt devastated when allegations of indecent assault against a 14-year-old girl were put to him, a jury has been told.

Father Eugene Boland denies five charges of indecently assaulting the teenager at his parochial house in Londonderry more than 20 years ago.

The court was told Father Boland denied the allegations when interviewed at Omagh Police Station in April 2010.

Father Boland told the jury he could not sleep and could not eat.

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UNITED STATES
Bangor Daily News

By Emily Yoffe, Slate

Posted June 22, 2012

It could have been much worse. None of the three people who molested me when I was young was a predatory pedophile like Jerry Sandusky. What I went through was brief and sadly common. It’s estimated, though no one knows the actual numbers, that one in four girls and one in six boys are sexually abused before they reach 18. What happened shook me up at the time, but my experiences weren’t shattering. I didn’t repress the memories — I’ve just never given them much thought. But the trial of Sandusky, the former Penn State football coach, has made me think more deeply about what was done to me and what I did in response.

As Dear Prudence, I always urge people to report any sexual abuse. Removing the secrecy takes the shame from the victim and puts the blame on the perpetrator. Exposure is the way to stop repeat offenders. But I never told anyone back then. Even with the benefit of hindsight, considering the world in which these events took place — from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s — and the family in which I lived, I still understand my choice. …

The last incident was not child abuse, because I was no longer a minor, though I was still a teenager of 18 or 19. Several years earlier, my family had worked for the election of our congressman, Father Robert Drinan, an anti-Vietnam War, pro-choice priest. He was in town for a fundraiser or town meeting, and I went. Afterward he offered me a ride to the subway. (You’d think I would have learned.) He was in his 50s, and as he drove we chatted about college. We got to where he was letting me off, he turned off the engine, and he began jabbering incoherently about men and women. Then he lunged, shoving his tongue in my mouth while running his hands over my breasts and up and down my torso. It seems like the set-up for a joke, a Jewish woman being molested by a Jesuit. As we tussled, I had probably the most naïve thought of my life: “How could this be happening, he’s a priest!”

As I shoved him off and opened the car door to get out, I saw I had left a smear of my pink lipstick on his clerical collar. Again, I told no one. It was embarrassing, revolting, and I had no desire to make accusations against a congressman, especially one I admired. …

Editors Note: In response to this story, Drinan’s niece, Ann Drinan, has requested that this statement be printed on behalf of the family: “We find it odd that anyone would come forward with this allegation decades later when our uncle is dead and in no position to defend himself.”

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This was confirmed by AIF director, Francesco De Pasquale, who had criticised the new laws in recent months

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

The new Vatican anti-money laundering law which came into force last January provides “a more precise and complete institutional system” in comparison to Moneyval’s requests. The fact that such a comment on the new financial transparency laws – which have sparked serious controversy over the past few months – should come from the director of the AIF (the Vatican Financial Information Authority), Francesco De Pasquale, is significant.

The Vatican’s transparency law (No. 127), written by lawyer Marcello Condemi towards the end of 2010 and enforced in April 2011, was meant to undergo some modifications to help it meet international criteria for inclusion in the OECD’s white list of financially virtuous countries. These modifications, which were made hastily in juts three weeks last December, by a workgroup led by American lawyer, Jeffrey Lena, came into force on 25 January this year. The President of the AIF, Cardinal Nicora, Gotti Tedeschi and De Pasquale himself, held that in some points, the new law excessively scaled down the AIF’s power and as such was seen as a step backwards. This was the last battle fought by the President of the Vatican bank (IOR) before the no-confidence vote which led to his sudden dismissal.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

With the jury off today, it’s a good time to speculate about if the jury remains deadlocked, should District Attorney Seth Williams retry the case?

Will Spade, a former Philadelphia assistant district attorney who worked on the 2005 grand jury investigation of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, says it’s a no-brainer.

“I really do think they have to because it’s such an important case and because they’ve staked so much on it,” said Spade, now a defense lawyer. “To Seth’s credit he’s the first prosecutor in America to actually hold the Catholic hierarchy responsible for this stuff. I think there’s too much riding on it, so they have to do it.”

Spade even volunteered to help the war effort.

“If the jury does hang or there’s a less than completely successful verdict, I will volunter to go back to the D.A.’s office and help them out with this retrial,” Spade said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

June 21, 2012|By John P. Martin, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Lawyers call a judge’s speech to a deadlocked jury a “dynamite charge,” the workingman’s nickname for a bid to blast through an impasse.

On Wednesday, the 12th day of jury deliberations in the 13th week of the child-endangerment and sex-abuse trial of two Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests, the dynamite sticks came out. It just wasn’t clear who might get hurt.

Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina’s directive could dislodge a verdict in the landmark trial of a Catholic Church supervisor. Or it could implode a case a decade in the making.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service

PHILADELPHIA — Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia has announced a reorganization of the archdiocesan administration that will result in the loss of 40 jobs and the closing of The Catholic Standard & Times, the 117-year-old archdiocesan newspaper.

Changes include the elimination of some offices and the combination of others, with reduced staffing levels.

The recent June issue of the Standard & Times, which went from a weekly to monthly publication schedule last year, was the last of the newspaper.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
ABC News

PHILADELPHIA June 21, 2012 (AP)

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia is cutting 45 jobs to address a $17 million deficit.

Archbishop Charles Chaput (SHAP’-yoo) says the budget gap is unrelated to the extraordinary legal costs incurred from criminal and civil priest-abuse cases.

The church will consolidate jobs in the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center, which now employs 244 people in more than 40 ministry programs and offices.

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PHILADELPHIA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Last month, at my request, the Archdiocese published a financial report that was as comprehensive as possible. In the years ahead, that annual report will improve and become even more thorough. After the past decade of anger and confusion in the Church, Philadelphia Catholics want a life of faith where their children are safe and their spirits are nourished. For as long as God gives me time as your bishop, I promise to work to make that happen.

I know that few things in the Church seem less fertile than talk about money. What finally matters to all of us is the welfare – including the spiritual welfare — of the people we love. Yet as every adult knows, no family can survive for long without using its resources wisely. The zeal to do good things is a natural part of the Christian vocation. But it needs to be anchored in reality and guided by prudence. If we act otherwise, we ignore sound stewardship and create bigger and more painful difficulties for the future, because we can’t quick-fix our way out of problems that we behave ourselves into.

Earlier today, June 21, I approved a staff reduction of more than 40 employees connected with the Archdiocesan Pastoral Center. These are good men and women who have served the Church well. I took this action with great reluctance, as one of several urgently needed steps to restore our Church to a healthy footing. Every departing employee has the respect and sincere gratitude of the Archdiocese and will be treated with maximum consideration, including appropriate severance and counseling.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Plan will stabilize central office operation, ensure long-term financial stability and position the Archdiocese for future growth

Today, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced steps aimed at cutting a projected deficit exceeding $17 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2012. The Archdiocesan Pastoral Center, comprised of the Office for Financial Services and including more than 40 ministry programs and offices, has operated with significant deficits for many years. The restructuring – approved by Archbishop Chaput after a comprehensive review of operations — includes a staff reduction involving 45 positions, the merging and consolidation of 19 offices and/or ministries, the ceasing of The Catholic Standard & Times and the suspension of Phaith Magazine. The Archdiocese is also planning no raises for remaining staff in the next fiscal year. These steps will sharply reduce the expected deficit, provide better stewardship for operations, and help ensure improved financial health.

The extraordinary legal and professional costs of the past 16 months, while burdensome, played little role in the current budget decisions, according to the Archbishop. The financial and organizational difficulties facing the Archdiocese are structural and have been building for many years. They can no longer be sustained, and all of the Church’s works must return to a spirit of careful stewardship.

All employees released in the staff reduction will receive 60 days of pay in lieu of notice and full-time employees will be eligible for one week of severance pay for each year of completed service. All affected employees will also be paid for accrued and unused vacation time. In addition to severance, the Archdiocese will also provide medical coverage through September 30 and departing employees will be eligible for a COBRA-like benefit for the six months following. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia will also contract with a third party firm to provide job counseling and career services, and protocols are in place to match displaced employees’ skills with openings in other offices, including Catholic Social Services and Catholic Healthcare Services, which were not impacted by this restructuring and maintain separate budgets.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

By Jason Nark
Daily News Staff Writer

ON WEDNESDAY, when he addressed a conference of Catholic journalists in Indianapolis, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said, “The habits of Catholic culture run very deep in the Philadelphia region.”

On Thursday, Chaput announced deep and drastic cuts for the church back here in Philadelphia, including 45 layoffs, the consolidation of several offices and ministries, and the elimination of its print newspaper, the Catholic Standard & Times, a very old reading habit for local Catholics.

“It’s the end of an era,” said Susan Matthews, a former Standard and Times editor who runs the Catholics4Change.com website. “With over a million Catholics in the city, it was not only a source for news but for historical records.”

In a news release issued Thursday, the Archdiocese said it would be closing the paper and suspending the production of its monthly magazine, Phaith.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

June 21, 2012|By David O’Reilly, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Facing a $17 million deficit in its operating budget, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on Thursday closed its youth office, shut down its Hispanic evangelization center, ended publication of its monthly newspaper, and laid off 45 employees – 18 percent of the headquarters staff – as part of a massive restructuring.

The cuts, announced by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, come atop his shuttering of 27 schools and nine parishes since arriving in the five-county archdiocese in the fall.

Writing in his weekly column on the archdiocesan website about the latest reductions, he said he “took this action with great reluctance, as one of several urgently needed steps to restore our church to a healthy footing.”

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NEW YORK
Huffington Post

By COLLEEN LONG 06/21/12

NEW YORK — A teenage girl was offered $500,000 to leave the country instead of testifying in an upcoming sex abuse case against her former spiritual counselor in Brooklyn’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, prosecutors said Thursday.

Abraham Rubin, 48, offered the bribe to the girl and her boyfriend, telling them justice would be better served if they didn’t testify in the case against Nechemya Weberman, prosecutors said. Three other men also tried to harass the accuser into silence, they said.

Weberman, 53, has been accused of molesting the girl from ages 12 to 15. He has pleaded not guilty to sex abuse charges, and he has been embraced in his community and defended as wrongly accused. The girl has been threatened, ostracized and called a slut and a troublemaker, family friends said.

Both the accuser and her boyfriend could be called to testify in the case. A court date was set for July 18.

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NEW YORK
The Guardian (United Kingdom)

Zoë Blackler
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 21 June 2012

Four ultra-Orthodox Jewish men have been charged with attempted bribery and harassment in the case of an alleged child molester, as Brooklyn’s district attorney talks tough on victim intimidation.

The men, arraigned in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Thursday, are accused of trying to derail the prosecution of Nechemya Weberman, an unlicensed therapist awaiting trial for sexual abusing a teenage girl.

Abraham Rubin, 48, and brothers Joseph Berger, Jacob Berger and Hertzka Berger all pleaded not guilty to the charges, which include bribing a witness, witness tampering, coercion and aggravated harassment.

The arrests are being credited to a new task force established by district attorney Charles Hynes following criticism that he has failed to curb the widespread intimidation of sex abuse victims in the Orthodox community. For decades, community leaders have hushed up child abuse allegations, and DA Hynes, who holds an elected position, is accused of minimising prosecutions under pressure from the rabbis with their powerful bloc vote. Thursday’s arrests for victim intimidation are the first in an Orthodox child sex abuse case since 2000.

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NEW YORK
Chicago Tribune

By Jessica Dye

NEW YORK, June 21 (Reuters) – Four men were charged on Thursday with attempting to intimidate and bribe a teenage girl who is a witness in an upcoming sexual-assault trial, the first case resulting from a new task force to address witness tampering in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community.

According to an indictment, Abraham Rubin, 48, offered the alleged victim and her boyfriend $500,000 to recant testimony against Nechemya Weberman, an unlicensed psychotherapist
awaiting trial on charges he repeatedly abused the girl, starting when she was 12 years old.

Another indictment unsealed on Thursday said Joseph, Jacob and Hertzka Berger attempted to pressure the girl and her boyfriend to stop cooperating with law enforcement. The brothers
allegedly told the boyfriend, who is also a witness in the case, that his restaurant would lose its kosher certification if he did not cave to their demands.

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NEW YORK
The Wall Street Journal

By PERVAIZ SHALLWANI

A Brooklyn man has been charged with trying to buy the silence of an alleged sexual-abuse victim and her boyfriend in a criminal case against a beloved counselor in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, authorities said Thursday.

The man’s arrest, along with three others accused of witness intimidation, were the first from a Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office task force created this year to grapple with the intimidation of sexual-abuse victims in the Orthodox Jewish community. District Attorney Charles Hynes has been accused of not zealously prosecuting such cases in that community, but he said his office has brought more than 100 cases, even as prosecutors face limited cooperation.

Charges against one of the four defendants, Abraham Rubin, 48 years old, include trying to give the victim $500,000 to leave the U.S. instead of testifying against Nechemya Weberman, an unlicensed therapist on trial for allegedly molesting the victim in his home and office from when she was 12 to 15 years old. He was arrested in February 2011.

Three other defendants arrested Thursday—Jacob, Joseph and Hertzka Berger—are accused of trying to pressure the couple into not testifying by threatening to remove a kosher certificate in a restaurant owned and operated by the boyfriend, Mr. Hynes said.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

Four Hasidic men are accused of trying to bribe or pressure a sex-assault victim to prevent her from bringing the case to court

By Oren Yaniv / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Four Hasidic men were accused Thursday of intimidating witnesses — and one allegedly offered a half-million dollars — so a sex abuse case against a prominent Jewish counselor would “go away,” Brooklyn prosecutors said.

They are charged with trying to derail the upcoming trial against Nechemya Weberman, 53, who’s accused of molesting a 12-year-old girl.

“We won’t tolerate the illegal interference with the administration of justice in this county,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes. “Not only will sexual predators be caught and punished, but those who attempt to illegally protect them by witness intimidation will be prosecuted.”

The DA, who came under fire for mishandling sex abuse cases in the insular Orthodox community, convened a panel last month to combat harassment. This is the first prosecution to result from that, he said.

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NEW YORK
The New York Times

By SHARON OTTERMAN

Published: June 21, 2012

The Brooklyn district attorney, facing a wave of public criticism about his handling of sexual abuse allegations in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, on Thursday charged four men with attempting to silence an accuser by offering her and her boyfriend a $500,000 bribe, and threatening her boyfriend’s business.

The district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, alleged that the men were part of an effort to protect a prominent member of the Satmar Hasidic community, Nechemya Weberman, who has been accused of 88 counts of sexual misconduct, including oral sex with a child younger than 13 years old. The charges all involve one girl, now 17, who was referred by her school to get counseling by Mr. Weberman, and then alleged she was abused by him during therapy sessions.

The charges are the first time in at least two decades that Mr. Hynes has charged Hasidic Jews with intimidation of a witness in a sexual abuse case, even though victims, their advocates and prosecutors say intimidation has long been a major obstacle to prosecution of abuse among the ultra-Orthodox. In recent weeks, Mr. Hynes has been saying that the intimidation of witnesses in the ultra-Orthodox community is worse than in the world of organized crime.

“I’m hoping that this will be a message to those who are intimidated that they should come forward and help us,” Mr. Hynes said at a news conference. “No one can engage in this kind of conduct and feel free that, based on prior experience, nothing can happen to them.”

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NEW YORK
Forward

By Paul Berger

Published June 21, 2012.

After months complaining about the resistance of ultra-Orthodox Jews to cooperate in child sex abuse cases, Brooklyn’s District Attorney has made four arrests for witness tampering.

The four were set to appear in Brooklyn Supreme Court on June 21 to be arraigned on charges of bribery and intimidation related to the looming trial of Rabbi Nechemya Weberman.

DNAinfo reported that Jacob, Joseph and Hertzka Berger and Abraham Rubin offered to pay an alleged victim $500,000 to keep quiet.

Weberman, 53, was arrested last year on charges of sexually abusing a teenage girl over several years. His case has been deeply contentious among New York’s Satmar community.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Amy Worden
Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau

HARRISBURG – It’s a rare day that simply getting a bill voted out of a committee is cause for celebration in the Capitol.

But Thursday was such a day for lawmakers who have pushed for more than six years for legislation giving victims of childhood sexual abuse more time to file civil suits or criminal complaints against their alleged abusers.

In this case, the national spotlight on former Pennsylvania State University assistant coach Jerry Sandusky’s child-abuse case may have helped propel the stalled legislation forward, as it has other state initiatives to protect children.

Frustrated by the House Judiciary Committee chairman’s reluctance to advance their bills, two Philadelphia Democrats, Mike McGeehan and Louise Williams Bishop, moved this week to circumvent the committee, filing a “discharge motion” to send their bills to the floor.

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GEORGIA
Times-Georgian

by Winston Jones/Times-Georgian

Members of the clergy, volunteers and nurses’ aides are among those added to the list of people required to report suspected child abuse under provisions of a new Georgia law that becomes effective July 1.

These additions are a part of House Bill 1176, known as the Criminal Justice Reform Act, which passed both the state House and Senate unanimously during the 2012 General Assembly session and was signed into law by Gov. Nathan Deal.

These changes come on the heels of the well-publicized child sexual abuse trial of former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. The jury Thursday began deliberations on the case, which charges Sandusky with abusing 10 young boys over a period of 15 years. Some university personnel close to the case have been criticized for not being more forthcoming in reporting the suspected abuse.

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IDAHO
CDA Press

By DAVID COLE/Staff writer

COEUR d’ALENE – Attorneys for Pastor Robert “Bob” Davis of North Country Chapel in Post Falls and the California-based parent church Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa asked a judge Thursday to dismiss a lawsuit filed against them alleging a failure to protect children from a sexual predator.

The lawsuit, filed in August 2011 in 1st District Court, names four men as plaintiffs who said they were sexually abused as teenagers in 2000 to 2003 by a man who was known to have targeted boys in the past.

The lawsuit names the perpetrator as Anthony L. Iglesias, who is currently being held in a Boise prison because of convictions in Kootenai County for lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor. Iglesias was in his early 20s when he allegedly had sexual contact with the four boys. The alleged victims today are in their early 20s.

A separate and previous lawsuit names North Country Chapel and Calvary Rathdrum as defendants, saying Iglesias provided youth services for both institutions while targeting the boys. That case is pending.

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MAINE
Portland Press Herald

By Eric Russell erussell@pressherald.com
Staff Writer

The longtime spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland has resigned, just a few weeks after her boss, Bishop Richard Malone, was assigned to another diocese.

Sue Bernard, who has been communications director for the diocese for more than a decade, will be director of development and college relations for Northern Maine Community College in Presque Isle. …

Bernard was the voice of the diocese during a high-profile period, including the child sexual abuse scandal that spread from Massachusetts to Maine.

Before working for the diocese, Bernard spent more than 20 years in broadcasting, most of it at WAGM-TV, the CBS affiliate in Presque Isle.

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CALIFORNIA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on June 21, 2012

William Lynch has been on my mind quite a bit lately.

For anyone who doesn’t know, Lynch is accused of beating up Fr. Jerold Lindner, a Jesuit priest who — even the Jesuits concede — molested Lynch and his younger brother.

In May 2010, Lynch went into the San Jose, CA-area facility where Lindner lives and asked the priest if he recognized him. When Lindner didn’t, Lynch beat him up out of frustration that Lindner never admitted or acknowledged abusing him and at least a dozen other children. Although Lynch sued the Jesuits and received a settlement as compensation for the abuse, I can only assume that Lynch was frustrated that Lindner is still a free man, under the complete care of the Jesuits’ California Province.

The alleged abuse is horrific:

From ABC News:

The Lynches, who were 7 and 4 at the time, were raped in the woods and forced to have oral sex with each other while Lindner watched, according to a civil lawsuit. Lindner has been accused of abuse by nearly a dozen people, including his own sister and nieces and nephews, but was never criminally charged because the allegations were too old.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

By Sheila Sanchez

Christina Smith and Joey Piscitelli, spokespeople for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, addressed media questions Thursday morning related to the high-profile Los Gatos priest beating trial that began this week.

San Francisco resident William Lynch, 43, is accused of assaulting Jesuit Jerold Lindner at the Los Gatos Sacred Heart Jesuit Center May 10, 2010. Lynch says Lindner raped and sodomized him and his brother when they were 7 and 4 years of age in the 1970’s while on camping trips.

Lynch has plead not guilty to one count of felony assault with the intent to cause great bodily injury and one count of elder abuse under circumstances likely to produce great bodily harm or death.

On Wednesday, the start of the trial, Lindner took the stand and denied under oath molesting the boys. However, during opening statements, Santa Clara County Deputy Vicki Gemetti told the jury Lindner had molested Lynch some 30-plus years ago. The statement and Lindner’s testimony made defense attorney Pat Harris call for perjury charges.

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UNITED STATES
Slate

In response to Emily Yoffe’s DoubleX story “My Molesters,” Father Robert Drinan’s niece Ann Drinan has requested that Slate print this statement on behalf of the family: “We find it odd that anyone would come forward with this allegation decades later when our uncle is dead and in no position to defend himself.”

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UNITED STATES
First Things

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Matthew Schmitz

People will not welcome Emily Yoffe’s allegation in Slate that Fr. Robert Drinan, the congressman-priest who became the spiritual father of the pro-choice Catholicism, once assaulted her:

Several years earlier, my family had worked for the election of our congressman, Father Robert Drinan, an anti-Vietnam War, pro-choice priest. He was in town for a fundraiser or town meeting, and I went. Afterward he offered me a ride to the subway. (You’d think I would have learned.) He was in his 50s, and as he drove we chatted about college. We got to where he was letting me off, he turned off the engine, and he began jabbering incoherently about men and women. Then he lunged, shoving his tongue in my mouth while running his hands over my breasts and up and down my torso. It seems like the set-up for a joke, a Jewish woman being molested by a Jesuit. As we tussled, I had probably the most naïve thought of my life: “How could this be happening, he’s a priest!”

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Youngstown

RESPONSE OF THE DIOCESE OF YOUNGSTOWN
TO THE VINDICATOR STORY
REGARDING PRIEST WHO ALLEGEDLY DID NOT REPORT ABUSE
JUNE 21, 2012

A news story in the Youngstown Vindicator on June 21, 2012, stated that an allegation of child abuse from a victim abused by her stepfather was reported to Rev. Michael Seifert by the victim, but Rev. Seifert did not report it to police. This is said to have happened when the victim, who is now 34, was 15 years old. The Diocese of Youngstown was not aware of this situation until the Vindicator report was published.

After being made aware of the report, Bishop George V. Murry, S.J., Bishop of Youngstown, stated, “Catholics and most non-Catholics realize that the sacredness of the Seal of Confession cannot be broken under any circumstance.”

Reverend Monsignor Peter Polando, Adjutant Judicial Vicar of the Diocese of Youngstown, cited the Code of Canon Law. “Canon 983, paragraph 1, states ‘The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason’.’’ Monsignor Polando further explained that a priest cannot even acknowledge that a person has approached a priest for the sacrament of Confession, in protection of that sacred seal. Civil law also protects the sacred seal of Confession by recognizing the priest-penitent privilege.

The news story implied that Rev. Seifert was transferred for reasons related to this incident. That is not true. Rev. Seifert was transferred in the normal process of re-assigning priests within the six county Diocese of Youngstown.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
Vindicator

Published: Thu, June 21, 2012

By John W. Goodwin Jr.
jgoodwin@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

A 55-year-old South Carolina man will spend 13 years in prison for raping his underage stepdaughter while living in Mahoning County.

The victim, who is now 34 years old, told authorities she reported the ongoing sexual assaults to a local priest when she was 15, but the priest failed to report the abuse to police.

She said she recently came to authorities with the rape allegations to save other children from harm. …

Frenchko said Parent sexually abused and manipulated the young girl for years before she went to the Rev. Michael Seifert for help. Father Seifert, who has since been transferred out of the Youngstown area, did not report the matter to police.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
Vindicator

YOUNGSTOWN — The Diocese of Youngstown has issued a statement saying a priest was not wrong for failing to notify police about information he received years ago concerning the molestation of an underage girl.

Michael Parent, 55, of Myrtle Beach, was sentenced Wednesday by Judge Lou A. D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to 13 years in prison for raping his stepdaughter for years while living in Mahoning County. The rapes began in 1984 when the girl was 5 and did not end until 1996 when she was almost 18.

The victim, who is now 34, told authorities she went to the Rev. Michael Seifert and spoke about the assaults when she was 15, but the matter was never taken to police.

The diocese, in a press release issued this afternoon, said it was not made aware of the issue or the allegations that Father Seifert did not report what the girl said to authorities until a story appeared in today’s Vindicator, but church officials maintain that a priest cannot divulge information given in confidence.

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CANADA
North Bay Nugget

By Nugget Staff

A Roman Catholic priest working here in the late 1960s was arrested in Montreal Wednesday on a North Bay warrant for gross indecency.

The charge is the result of a North Bay police investigation into a complaint of historical child sexual abuse in the late 1960s.

John Edward Sullivan, 87, was an ordained priest working in North Bay at the time of the alleged offence.

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BERLIN (CT)
The Hartford Courant

By SAMAIA HERNANDEZ, smhernandez@courant.com
The Hartford Courant

6:12 p.m. EDT, June 21, 2012

BERLIN—
Nearly a year after a Berlin priest was accused of using social media to converse with a 13-year-old boy about sex, he is facing additional felony charges after officers examined the contents of his computer and cellphone, police said.

The Rev. Michael Miller, 42, surrendered to police in Berlin last Thursday. He is charged with 10 counts of risk of injury, two counts of obscenity and third-degree child pornography.

He allegedly used Facebook and text messaging on his cellphone to communicate with a boy he knew from his work at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in Kensington. He was suspended from the ministry by the Archdiocese of Hartford.

Miller admitted to detectives that he, on at least two occasions, offered the boy oral sex, according to an arrest warrant. In 2011, he was charged with five counts of risk of injury and one count of attempted obscenity.

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UNITED STATES
Boys Don’t Tell

Joe Paterno: JoePa was the winningest NCAA Division 1 football coach of all time. He worked at Penn State University for 61 years and was head coach for 46 years. Besides helping thousands of young men grow up with the best sports had to offer, he and his wife gave four million dollars to Penn State and funded the library.

Graham Spanier: President of Penn State University for sixteen years at a salary of over a half a million dollars per year. He was one of the top paid public college executives in the country. …

There is also a separate front where our courts are demanding accountability from leaders in the Catholic Church for their role in covering up for suspected and know child molesters. Monsignor William Lynn of Philadelphia and Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City are the first religious leaders being put on trial for protecting perpetrators and the church, instead of protecting the children.

We have things happening here that never would have taken place even two years ago. Our courts are holding administrative representatives of institutions to a higher standard. And the institutions themselves are saying stop to child sex abuse and the culture that supports powerful perpetrators over protecting kids from abuse.

Although we have a long, long ways to go in protecting our children from abuse, this demand for accountability by the courts, the public, and the offending institutions themselves represents a tremendous level of success in the fight against child sex abuse. Those who have worked long and hard to get to this point have a right to celebrate their success. It’s going to take a lot more people and effort for the next steps, so please invite others to join in the fight as we move forward.

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IOWA
Quad-City Times

The four-year Diocese of Davenport bankruptcy case has been closed by Judge Lee Jackwig, the chief judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Iowa, the diocese announced in a news release issued this afternoon.

Jackwig found that the diocese has met the requirements of a bankruptcy plan that was ordered June 26, 2008, including full compliance with what were described as non-monetary undertakings.

The Rev. Martin Amos, the bishop of the Davenport Diocese, said in a prepared statement: “The bankruptcy process provided the best opportunity for healing and for the just and fair compensation of those who have suffered sexual abuse by priests in our diocese. The settlement also provided the best way to continue the church’s mission in the Diocese of Davenport. While the bankruptcy process has closed, it will not end the suffering by some survivors of abuse. I pray that the healing process for the survivors of abuse will continue.”

The diocese negotiated a $37 million settlement with the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors on Nov. 28, 2007. Of the $37 million settlement, $19.5 million was committed from the Travelers Insurance Co. and $17.5 million from the diocese.

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IOWA
The Gazette

The bankruptcy case against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport, the result of a clergy sexual abuse scandal, has been closed.

Judge Lee Jackwig of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Iowa issued an order last Friday to conclude the case, which dates to 2006. She wrote that “substantial consummation of the confirmed plan has occurred and the estate has been fully administered.”

The diocese, however, still must comply with the non-monetary terms that were part of a $37 million settlement reached in 2008 between the diocese and more than 150 avowed abuse victims.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

BY MICHELLE HARRIS

22 Jun, 2012

A HUNTER pastor will spend at least three years in jail for indecently assaulting his three young granddaughters in what was a ‘‘gross abuse of trust and authority’’ that he sought to blame on the influence of the devil.

The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was sentenced in the Sydney District Court yesterday to a total of seven years imprisonment, but would be eligible for parole in May 2016. He previously pleaded guilty to 15 indecent assaults, which he committed over about seven weeks in late 2010.

The girls were each aged under 10, and were staying with their grandparents when the assaults occurred.

As the court heard details of the assaults, set out in a statement of agreed facts, the man sat with his head in his hands and at one point said ‘‘They’re lies’’.

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IOWA
KTTC

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) – The Diocese of Davenport has emerged from bankruptcy after following through with plans to pay $37 million to more than 150 people who claimed they were sexually abused by priests and change key policies.

Judge Lee Jackwig last week closed the bankruptcy case filed by the diocese in 2006, saying the reorganization plan has been completed as envisioned.

A plan approved in 2008 called for the diocese to pay $17.5 million to victims of abuse, and its insurer to pay an additional $19.5 million. The diocese also had to take several steps to prevent sexual abuse and help potential victims.

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MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

June 21, 2012 12:40 pm | Author: Jerry Berger
Over decades, hundreds of aspiring priests – from here and elsewhere – attended St. Thomas Seminary in Hannibal and later kept in touch with classmates through an alumni website. But while the seminary was closed years ago, that website has just been shut down by St. Louis native and Jeff City dioceses Bishop John Gaydos. Among other roles, it had helped connect ex-students who had been victimized by Bishop Anthony O’Connell, Fr. Manus Daly and several other predatory faculty members. The shut down has been denounced by former seminarian Mike Wegs who blogs at ThyChild’sFace.

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CANADA
Huffington Post

Tim Knight writes the regular media column Watching the Watchdog for HuffPost Canada.

Sunday, Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, 85, who as Benedict XVl is believed to be the 265th man to be pope of the Roman Catholic Church described abuse and rape of children by his priests as “a mystery.”

He added, doubtless not appreciating the irony in his words, that the priests’ Christianity “had become merely a matter of habit.”

Indeed it had.

In fact, it became such a habit that around the world, over the years, unknown thousands of Catholic priests have been accused of sexual, physical and emotional abuse of children, mostly boys, in their care.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Eugene Cullen Kennedy on Jun. 21, 2012 Bulletins from the Human Side

Famed baseball manager Casey Stengel was so stunned by the studied ineptitude of the New York Mets in their first season of play that, after his first baseman was hit on the head by the foul ball he was trying to catch, he asked plaintively, “Doesn’t anybody around here know how to play this game?”

On the basis of reports over the last few weeks, that might be a question that can be raised of the officials for whom administering the church seems more like a mystery they cannot solve rather than a Mystery they are called to safeguard and celebrate.

What are we to make of the ballroom delicacy with which these administrators have been engaged in a quadrille with the heretical Society of Saint Pius X in comparison with the step-on-your-foot quickstep they employ in dealing with the Leadership Council of Women Religious of the United States?

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DEUTSCHLAND
netzwerkB

Der Sprecher der Missbrauchsopfer Norbert Denef ist im Hungerstreik: So will er erreichen, dass die SPD sich für die Abschaffung der Verjährungsfristen einsetzt VON EVELYN FINGER

Der Gedanke an den Selbstmord ist ein großer Trost. Denn er hilft uns, sagt Nietzsche, über die Verzweiflung hinweg. Denn er steht als letzte Wahl, sagt Schiller, auch dem Schwächsten offen. Und vielleicht ist er das einzige Stück Freiheit, sagt Stefan Zweig, das man sein ganzes Leben ununterbrochen besitzt. Dass der Selbstmord keine Verzweiflungstat und keine Sünde ist, sondern Freiheit bedeutet, dieser Gedanke kursiert im Abendland schon seit der Antike. Und doch bleibt Gewalt gegen sich selbst eine Provokation. Denn der Einzelne, der sein Leben absichtlich beendet oder gefährdet, setzt alle ins Unrecht. Er weckt ihr schlechtes Gewissen. Er erzeugt Zorn.

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CALIFORNIA
CBS Sacramento

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A California judge has canceled trial for the day in the case of a man accused of beating a priest that he claimed molested him decades ago.

The judge dismissed the jury and lawyers on Thursday morning, moments before the priest was to take the witness stand to resume testifying for a second day.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge David Cena says he and the lawyers in the case had to discuss an undefined legal issue.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers for William Lynch declined comment. Lynch has pleaded not guilty to assaulting Lindner in 2010.

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CALIFORNIA
Oakland Tribune

By Tracey Kaplan tkaplan@mercurynews.com
contracostatimes.com
Posted: 06/21/2012

The judge in the priest beating trial sent the jury home today without hearing any testimony, offering no explanation for the move.

Speculation is rampant about why Judge David Cena sent the jury home until Monday at 10 a.m., and ordered the lawyers back in court at 1:30 p.m. Friday.

San Francisco resident Will Lynch is accused of beating Father Jerrold Lindner at a Jesuit retirement center in Los Gatos. Lynch claims Lindner molested Lynch and his brother when they were young.

Lindner took the stand Wednesday afternoon and was scheduled to resume his testimony today.

Given how distressed the prosecutors looked in court this morning, a couple of scenarios for the judge’s action today are highly likely, legal experts say.

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BERLIN (CT)
NBC Connecticut

By LeAnne Gendreau

Thursday, Jun 21, 2012

A Berlin priest has been arrested and served with three warrants charging him with child pornography possession and risk of injury to a minor.

Rev. Michael Miller, 42, of St. Paul’s Church in Kensington, was previously charged with five counts of risk of injury to a minor and attempted obscenity and pleaded not guilty to those charges.

He turned himself into Berlin police on June 14 and was charged with two counts of obscenity, one count of third-degree child pornography and ten counts of risk of injury to a minor. Police said it was in connection to evidence seized in July 2011.

Police began investigating Miller during the last week of June 2011 after receiving a complaint alleging inappropriate contact with a minor.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

By Sheila Sanchez

A defrocked Los Gatos Jesuit priest, scheduled to testify for the second day in the trial of a San Francisco man accused of beating him up in May of 2010 due to allegations of sexual abuse, was confronted by a woman attending the proceedings as he was entering the courtroom Thursday morning.

Debbie Lukas, a member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests group, was outside the courtroom as Father Jerold Lindner was being escorted in by court security, when she yelled at him “rapist” and tried to confront him.

Her screams could be heard from inside Department 34 of the San Jose Hall of Justice where the jury had been seated for a second day of testimony in the high-profile trial.

After the commotion, the courtroom sat silent, many perplexed, including Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge David Cena, who’s presiding over the case, and the attorneys representing William Lynch and prosecutor Vicki Gemetti.

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CALIFORNIA
KCBS

[with audio]

SAN JOSE (KCBS) – The judge overseeing the trial of a man accused of beating a Los Gatos priest Jerold Lindner sent the jury delayed testimony in the case because of legal questions over whether the cleric may have perjured himself on the witness stand.

Lindner testified on Wednesday that he did not molest William Lynch, the man facing felony assault and elder abuse charges for allegedly attacking him at a retirement home.

In her opening statement, Santa Clara deputy district attorney Vicki Gemetti indicated Lindner had molested Lynch, and advised the jury that that aspect of the priest’s testimony would be false.

Lynch claims Lindner raped him and his brother during a church camping trip in 1975 when the boys were 7 and 4 years old.

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CALIFORNIA
KGO

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) — Testimony is now on hold in the trial of a man charged with beating a priest he says molested him and his brother when they were children.

The judge sent the jury home for the day to discuss a pressing issue with attorneys. The defense wants to pursue perjury charges against the priest Father Jerry Linder.

Linder denied ever molesting the defendant William Lynch or his brother.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

Jun. 21, 2012
By Jason Berry

A string of Vatican investigations and the arrest of the papal butler for allegedly leaking secret documents to the Italian press grabbed the big headlines out of Rome in May and June. The tales of palace intrigue, backbiting cardinals and new mysteries of the Vatican Bank overshadowed the latest jolts in the deepening saga of the Legionaries of Christ, the once high-flying order founded by Marcial Maciel Degollado.

A new disclosure in a just-published book based on leaked Vatican documents, Sua Santità: Le Carte Segrete di Benedetto XVI (“His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI”) by Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, reports that the Legion priest who was closest to Maciel for many years met with Pope John Paul II in 2003, attempting to brief him on Maciel, but was shown the door.

Moreover, a priest who in 2009 met with Cardinal Franc Rodé, then the Vatican official in charge of religious orders, told NCR that Rodé discussed a videotape he had seen of Maciel with one of his children in 2004, yet made no move to punish the Legion founder. Rodé, who has since retired, championed the Legion and its lay wing, Regnum Christi, with glowing speeches to the groups for several years after Maciel was banished from active ministry.

The most startling revelation of recent weeks was the admission to NCR senior correspondent John L. Allen Jr. by Fr. Thomas Williams, a Legion commentator for NBC and CBS, that he had fathered a child “a number of years ago.” That news followed a report by Nicole Winfield of The Associated Press on sex abuse accusations involving seven Legion priests. Finally, Legion general director Fr. Álvaro Corcuera issued an apology, saying he had known about Williams’ child since 2005.

Cardinal Velasio de Paolis, the canon lawyer delegated by Benedict as the Legion overseer, told Reuters that he had known about Williams since January. “There is a need to be careful in cases like this,” he said. “It concerns a private life. These things happen these days, unfortunately.”

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CALIFORNIA
NBC Bay Area

By Damian Trujillo

Thursday, Jun 21, 2012

Family members of a man accused of abusing an elderly priese confronted that priest today as he was exiting the elevator on his way to the courtroom. The family maintains that the priest sexually abused the defendant and his brother more than 20 years ago.

William Lynch’s is charged with elderly abuse from an incident in 2010. The felony trial is delayed until Monday for unrelated reasons.

In testimony on Wednesday the priest, Father Jerry Lindner said he did not abuse Lynch or his brother during a camping trip decades ago. The boys were 4 and 7 at the time.

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CALIFORNIA
Marin Independent Journal

By Tracey Kaplan
tkaplan@mercurynews.com
mercurynews.com

Posted: 06/21/2012

The judge in the priest beating trial sent the jury home today without hearing any testimony, offering no explanation for the move.

Judge David Cena ordered the attorneys for both sides to return at 1:30 p.m. Friday for a hearing regarding an undisclosed topic. The jury is scheduled to return Monday.

San Francisco resident Will Lynch is accused of beating Father Jerrold Lindner at a Jesuit retirement center in Los Gatos. Lynch claims Lindner molested Lynch and his brother when they were young.

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DEUTSCHLAND
NW-News

VON HUBERTUS GÄRTNER

Detmold/Essen. Die Psychiaterin Nahlah Saimeh (46) leitet die Maßregelvollzugsklinik in Lippstadt-Eickelborn. Saimeh gilt als Expertin für die Behandlung von Sexualstraftätern. In einem Prozess vor dem Landgericht Detmold hat sie nun einen viel diskutierten Vorschlag gemacht. Sie verwies auf die Möglichkeit, einen angeklagten pädophilen Mann mit Medikamenten zu kastrieren.

Alexander B. (28) ist ein einschlägig vorbestrafter Kinderschänder, der offenbar Kontakte zur internationalen Pädophilenszene unterhalten hat. Die Staatsanwaltschaft hat ihn angeklagt, in der Zeit von 2006 bis 2009 drei kleine Jungen im Alter von neun Monaten bis vier Jahren sexuell schwer missbraucht zu haben.

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NEW YORK
Humanistischer Pressedienst

Nicht nur in der katholischen Kirche, auch in den jüdisch-chassidischen Gemeinden der Millionenmetropole New York rumort es. Wie der Fernsehjournalist Anderson Cooper für CNN berichtete, gibt es nicht nur seit längerer Zeit Vorwürfe von sexuellem Missbrauch Minderjähriger.

Hohen Geistlichen wird ebenfalls vorgeworfen, die Vertuschung entsprechender Delikte betrieben zu haben. Pädophile seien gedeckt und Opfer, die reden wollten, bestraft worden. Weil die auf ihre Gemeinde eingeschworenen Gläubigen den Kontakt mit der Polizei meiden, sei entdeckter Missbrauch nicht gemeldet worden. Einige der Fälle seien bereits verjährt, heißt es.

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VATIKANSTADT
Humanistischer Pressedienst

Vatikanstadt: Papst Benedikt XVI sagte irischen Katholiken am Sonntag, es sei ein Rätsel (“mystery”), weshalb Priester und andere Kirchenbedienstete Kinder missbrauchten, die in ihrer Obhut gewesen sein.

Damit hätten sie den Glauben in der Kirche “auf schreckliche Weise” unterminiert. “Es bleibt ein Rätsel”, sagte er. “Jedoch ist ihr Christentum offenbar nicht länger gespeist von einer freudvollen Begegnung mit Jesus Christus. Es ist lediglich eine Frage der Gewohnheit geworden.”

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LUXEMBOUG
Wort

Die durch erzbischöfliches Dekret eingesetzte unabhängige Kommission zwecks Prüfung der Anträge auf eine materielle Leistung in Anerkennung des Leids, das minderjährigen Opfern sexualisierter Gewalt durch Vertreter der Kirche zugefügt wurde, hat in einer letzten Sitzung vom 15. Juni 2012 ihre Arbeiten vorläufig abgeschlossen.

Die Kommission wurde in der Zeitspanne vom 1. Februar bis zum 30. April 2012 mit individuellen Ansprüchen von insgesamt 29 Antragstellern (20 Männern und 9 Frauen) befasst. Nach eingehender Prüfung der einzelnen Ansprüche hält die Kommission fest, dass von den 29 eingereichten Anträgen deren 24 zur Genüge begründet sind.

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CALIFORNIA
ABC News

[with video]

By ALYSSA NEWCOMB (@alyssanewcomb)

June 21, 2012

William Lynch dreamed of this day for more than 35 years, the day the priest who he said sexually abused him and his younger brother would be brought to court and his ugly crimes exposed.

The boys kept their painful secret for years, long past the six year statute of limitations California had in place at the time of the alleged crimes.

But today, William Lynch is finding his own form of personal justice. It’s a risk he is willing to take, even if it means spending the next four years of his life behind bars.

The 44-year-old San Francisco man is on trial for felony assault and elder abuse charges after he allegedly beat the aging Jesuit at his retirement community in 2010.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

How is it possible for a “family” member to have gone on photocopying the Pope’s documents for years? What is the real reason behind this?

Marco Tosatti
Vatican City

The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, is right to denounce the Dan Brown like conjectures and conspiracies described in many news stories published recently. But – without wishing to defend journalists who are shocked if a day goes by without Fr. Federico Lombardi denying their comments – it is worth remembering that we are faced with a case that is without precedents in the history of the modern Church; a case in which there are far more questions marks than solid facts. It is only natural that some – not the Pope – wish to end the process as soon as possible in order to avoid any negative consequences which along exposure to the Vatileaks scandal could have for the Church.

I have been following Vatican affairs since 1981 and witnessed John Paul II’s pontificate almost in its entirety. I cannot help asking myself how it is possible for someone, even if they are “family” members to photocopy or photograph documents from the Pope and his secretary’s study, for years, without rousing the slightest suspicion. It is true that Karol Wojtyla and his secretary, now cardinal, Stanislao Dziwisz, had lived through a Communist regime in which spying was the order of the day, so had developed special antennae for this. But I cannot imagine anyone being able to remove documents for a week, let alone a month, without cardinal Stanislao getting a whiff of it.

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NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A priest felt devastated when allegations of indecent assault against a 14-year-old girl were put to him, a jury has been told.

Father Eugene Boland denies five charges of indecently assaulting the teenager at his parochial house in Londonderry more than 20 years ago.

The court was told Fr Boland completely denied the allegations when interviewed at Omagh Police Station in July 2010.

Fr Boland told police he had a “open, friendly and bubbly” personality.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

By
KERRY O’SHEA,
IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Thursday, June 21, 2012

A report commissioned by the Vatican and led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan on an Irish seminary in Rome has come under harsh criticism by Irish archbishops and has been slammed as both prejudiced and factually flawed.

David Gibson for The Washington Post reports on the mudslinging that has since ensued between Cardinal Dolan and Ireland’s four archbishops surrounding the report on the flagship Irish College in Rome, Italy.

In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI commissioned Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley and other churchmen to review Ireland’s four archdioceses and to inspect Ireland’s Catholic seminaries to make sure they were preparing men properly for the priesthood. The team was assembled following the widespread shocking allegations of sexual abuse within the Church.

Cardinal Dolan’s report, which included his views on the new Irish College seminary in Rome, was sent to the Vatican earlier this year.

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LAS VEGAS (NV)
Las Vegas Review-Journal

By Brian Haynes
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Posted: Jun. 20, 2012

A national victim’s advocacy group called for local Catholic Church officials to reach out to potential victims of a former Las Vegas priest facing accusations of abuse in Hawaii.

Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, SNAP, wants the Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas to tell its parishioners about the allegation against the Rev. Maurice McNeely.

A 48-year-old Hawaii man sued McNeely and a North Dakota diocese in October, saying the priest sexually abused him when he was a boy in Hawaii.

SNAP’s founder, Barbara Blaine, said McNeely preached at the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer sometime in the 2000s.

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LAS VEGAS (NV)
San Antonio Express-News

LAS VEGAS (AP) — An advocacy group wants Catholic Church officials in Nevada to seek possible victims of a former Las Vegas priest facing sexual abuse accusations in Hawaii.

The Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests cites allegations by a 48-year-old Hawaii man against the Rev. Maurice McNeely.

The Hawaii man filed a lawsuit in October alleging sexual abuse when he was a boy.

SNAP official Barbara Blaine tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal (http://bit.ly/PA0RkJ ) that McNeely preached in the 2000s at the Shrine of the Most Holy Redeemer in Las Vegas.

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PHILIPPINES
Philippine Daily Inquirer

By Jocelyn Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines — A Catholic prelate who is an expert in the laws of the Church said on Tuesday that priests and lay leaders in the Diocese of Parañaque City would be facing a long battle to remove their own bishop whom they have accused of misuse of funds over P3.3 million.

On Monday, reports have reached the Church hierarchy that priests and the lay people of the Parañaque diocese have filed a complaint before the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines Archbishop Giuseppe Pinto against Parañaque Bishop Jesse Mercado for abuse of funds.

The allegedly misused funds were supposedly related to earthquake and typhoon donations given by parishioners.

Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, an expert in Canon law, said the complaint should be forwarded to the Vatican to be decided upon by the Congregation of Bishops. “When a bishop is accused of wrongdoing, you don’t go to the CBCP, you to to the Congregation of Bishops in Rome,” said Cruz.

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PHILIPPINES
Sun.Star

MANILA — Accused of diverting millions of funds of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paranaque, Bishop Jesse Mercado said Wednesday that he will not hold on to the post if Vatican finds him guilty and ill-fit to stay.

According to Mercado, he serves at the pleasure of Pope Benedict XVI and will not hesitate from resigning if he is asked by the latter.

“I am always at the service of the Church and if the Holy Father thinks that I am not anymore (fit to serve), anytime,” Mercado said.

But while bowing to the power of the Pontiff, the bishop vehemently denied the accusations supposedly made by some of his priests and lay people in Paranaque.

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PHILIPPINES
ABS-CBN

Posted at 06/20/2012

MANILA, Philippines – A Roman Catholic bishop denied allegations that he misused funds and donations for calamity victims, saying he is willing to resign if the charges are proven true.

“I am always at the service of the Church and if the Holy Father thinks that I am not anymore (fit to serve), anytime (I’m willing to step down),” Parañaque Bishop Jesse Mercado told reporters on Wednesday.

Mercado said the multimillion-peso donations given to the church were properly turned over to their intended beneficiaries.

“The Diocese of Paranaque is audited annually by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila and receives a 100 percent rating,” he said.

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PHILIPPINES
Rappler

by Aries Rufo

Posted on 06/20/2012

MANILA, Philippines — He says he has nothing to hide and is willing to step down if allegations of financial mismanagement against him are proven true.

But Parañaque Bishop Jesse Mercado still won’t open for scrutiny the financial records of his diocese.

Breaking his silence Wednesday, June 20, on a Rappler investigation that he misused donations for calamity victims, Mercado issued a blanket denial that the money was misappropriated.

He said the story, published June 18, was peddled by disgruntled priests in his diocese who belonged to “a small group, about 5 or 6 who have some difficulties.”

We have reported that priests and lay leaders had asked the Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Giuseppi Pinto, to investigate Mercado.

The 61-year-old bishop admitted he recently met with the Papal Nuncio but said they did not talk about the controversy.

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PHILIPPINES
Rappler

[Bishop accused of diverting millions]

MANILA, Philippines — Complaints against Parañaque Bishop Jesse Mercado reach the Vatican. He is being accused of allegedly diverting funds meant for calamity victims. We brought you that exclusive story Monday, June 19.

Now the bishop speaks up in his defense. Rappler’s Paterno Esmaquel reports.

Parañaque Bishop Jesse Mercado denies accusations he diverted millions in Church donations meant for calamity victims to a high yield account.

Mercado claims the funds are properly accounted for, and admits some funds were added to what he calls a “calamity fund.”

BISHOP JESSE MERCADO: All donations are properly receipted and promptly turned over to their intended beneficiaries. In urgent cases, for example, Ondoy and Sendong, the diocese even advanced the amounts even before the second collections were mandated.

In an exclusive report, Rappler shows records of millions of supposedly unremitted funds. These include an unremitted 1.3-million pesos from 1.6-million collected for victims of tropical storm Ondoy in 2009. For fire victims in 2010, records show 129,000 pesos in donations were entirely unremitted.

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PHILIPPINES
Vatican Insider

Philippine bishop Jesse Mercado has rejected accusations which he says were the fruit of the “desperation” and “personal problems” of certain priests

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

Bishop Jesse Mercado of Paranaque today denied allegations by priests and lay leaders that he diverted multimillion donations intended for victims of natural disasters. He said the allegations were motivated by the “desperation” of certain priests who were not happy with the positions they got following a shuffle in the diocese’s parishes.

Mgr. Mercado has rejected the allegations of some priests and lay people who accused him of misuse of funds intended for victims of natural disasters. His accusers had asked the apostolic Nuncio in the Philippines, Mgr. Giuseppe Pinto to bring the case to the attention of the Roman Curia and remove the bishop from office. “All donations are properly receipted and promptly turned over to the intended beneficiaries,” the prelate told Catholic news agency ucanews.

Bishop Mercado’s spokesman, Jerry Habunal, confirmed that six priests had sent a letter to the Nuncio. “But they are only six out of more than 50 priests in our diocese. They have personal issues and they wanted to be interviewed by the media,” he said.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

In a few days the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is to publish the responses to bishops’ proposals for combating sex abuse in the clergy

Andrés Beltramo Álvarez
Vatican City

In recent weeks bishops from across the world sent the Holy See their guidelines for preventing and combating sex abuse against minors perpetrated by clerics. In the next few days the Vatican will publish a preliminary report containing the assessment of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This is a delicate task given the diversity in the various Episcopates’ opinions on such a distressing topic.

Most of the world’s Episcopates have already responded to the call from the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, William Levada, in a letter dated 3 May 2011. In the letter, the cardinal asked all Episcopal conferences to put together their own set of guidelines for combating the scourge of paedophilia in their respective areas. The deadline was set for the end of May 2012.

Levada asked that said documents establish clear and coordinated procedures for managing cases and dealing with the problem in a timely and efficient manner, through guidelines that are suitable for each local area. Guidelines which should take into account the civil law of each respective country.

These guidelines have been in force for years in some countries, particularly in countries such as the U.S., Ireland, Germany and Austria, where most of the abuse cases were recorded. Some Episcopates based their laws on the experiences of these countries.

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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on June 21, 2012

The NJ Senate Judiciary Committee will meet this morning in Trenton to hear testimony and consider a bill to make it easier for child sex abuse victims to take legal action against predators.

The hearing is set for 10 a.m. at the NJ State House in committee room 6, 1st floor of the annex building.

Several survivors and supporters who belong to a self help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, will testify in support of bill A2405 which eliminates the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse.

The Catholic Conference is expected to be there opposing the measure.

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BERLIN (CT)
Patch

By Robert Mayer

The Berlin Police Department arrested Father Michael Miller of St. Paul’s Church on three additional counts to the ones he is already facing. Miller was charged and arrested for obscenity, possession of child pornography and risk of injury to a minor.

Miller’s case has been continued 11 times since he was originally charged on five felony counts of risk of injury to a minor and a misdemeanor obscenity charge. One of the reasons the court case may have been continued was that the Berlin Police Dept. was working on forensics from cell phones and computers, which according to police takes time.

These forensic clues provide more evidence in the case against Miller, who was very popular in his tenure at St. Paul’s.

As part of the ongoing investigation, police served a warrant on Miller, 41, pastor of Saint Paul’s Catholic Church in Kensington.

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UNITED STATES
Bilgrimage

As the jury in the Philadelphia archdiocesan trial continues to be deadlocked, and as Catholics and others concerned about the issue of abuse of minors by Catholic clerics continue to monitor this trial, Jerry Slevin has provided another valuable statement dealing with the situation in Philadelphia and its implications from a more “global” perspective, and placing this situation against the backdrop of Vatican concerns and Vatican politics. What follows is Jerry’s statement:

VATICAN’S STRATEGIC CHOICES: (A) HOPEFUL TRANSPARENCY OR (B) FATAL SECRECY

Assume you were a key executive for a couple of decades of a multinational religious organization. What would you choose?

By 1992, twenty years ago, you and your executive team knew that numerous top executives had for years tolerated, and often likely covered-up, many potentially criminal acts by employees involving sexual assaults on children.

By 2002, with the publicity from the Boston and Irish abuse scandals, key executives were facing escalating financial and legal risks from victims’ claims and from prosecutors’ charges.

By 2012, the organization’s reputation had suffered dramatically, thereby reducing revenues from contributions, while costs, especially legal expenses, continued to climb.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com

WORCESTER — A former director of family activities at a local church was sentenced to 25 to 30 years in state prison yesterday after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting seven children from 5 to 10 years old.

Samuel Molina, 33, formerly of 2 Freeland St., got to know many of his victims and their families while doing volunteer work as director of family activities at the Iglesia Cristiana Bet-El church at 3 Wiser Ave., according to Assistant District Attorney Cheryl R. Riddle.

After becoming a trusted member of the church community, Mr. Molina sexually assaulted seven children — four boys and three girls — from 2009 through July of last year, the prosecutor said during a plea hearing in Worcester Superior Court.

Ms. Riddle said the sexual assaults occurred at the homes of Mr. Molina and the victims and, on one occasion, in a closet at the church. When asked by police how he was sometimes able to sexually assault children in their own homes with their parents or other family members present, according to Ms. Riddle Mr. Molina responded: “They had a lot of faith in me. They trusted me.”

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BERLIN (CT)
New Britain Herald

Thursday, June 21, 2012

By LISA BACKUS
Staff writer

BERLIN – A popular priest already facing charges he initiated lurid conversations with a 13-year-old boy was arrested again this month for possessing child pornography.

Michael Miller, a Franciscan Friar relieved of his duties at St. Paul’s Church last year was charged with 10 counts of risk of injury to a child, two counts of obscenity and third-degree possession of child pornography June 14. He will be arraigned in New Britain Superior Court on the new charges July 9.

The arrest likely stems from the seizure of Miller’s computers when he was charged in July 2011 with five counts of risk of injury to a child and attempted obscenity. It is unclear if the new charges involve contact with the same 13-year-old.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

Ronnie Polaneczky, Daily News Columnist
Philadelphia Daily News

SO IT’S still not over. After an 11-week trial, with almost 2,000 documents, 60 witnesses, multiple references to a dead cardinal and a defendant’s suggestion that taking a 14-year-old to bed after watching porn with him was “borderline inappropriate” and not wrong, wrong, wrong, the jury has yet to reach a verdict in the landmark trial of Philadelphia Archdiocese Monsignor William Lynn and the Rev. James Brennan.

Did or didn’t Lynn engage in child-endangerment and conspiracy in moving predator priests around the Archdiocese like party chairs?

Did or didn’t Brennan endanger that 14-year-old and attempt to rape him after a lively discussion about penile erections?

On Wednesday, the jury reported to Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina that they were deadlocked on all but one charge. Sarmina ordered them to keep talking and they will resume deliberations Friday. It’s anyone’s guess whether more time will yield anything different.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Joseph A. Slobodzian and John P. Martin
Inquirer Staff Writers

After 12 days of deliberations, the jury considering charges against two Philadelphia priests in the landmark church sex-abuse trial reported Wednesday that it was deadlocked on four of five charges, but it resumed working toward a verdict upon the judge’s order.

The Common Pleas Court jury of seven men and five women gathers again Friday to continue deliberations after a day off so one juror can tend to what Judge M. Teresa Sarmina called an “important family matter.”

The jurors came into court shortly before noon after sending the message the lawyers and trial participants had dreaded but seemed to anticipate: Deadlocked – on all but one count.

“Please advise us of our next step,” the jury’s note concluded.

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CALIFORNIA
OrovilleMR

By Tracey Kaplan
tkaplan@mercurynews.com
mercurynews.com

Posted: 06/20/2012

For someone essentially described as a sexually deviant monster — even by the prosecutor who called him to the stand Wednesday — Father Jerold Lindner looked like an average 67-year-old with horn-rimmed glasses and a weight problem as he shuffled into a San Jose courtroom, all eyes upon him.

Lindner was there to testify that he did nothing to provoke Will Lynch to viciously beat him up two years ago at a Jesuit retirement center in Los Gatos, leaving him bruised and with two small cuts requiring stitches. But it was tough to tell on the first day of Lynch’s assault trial just who the real culprit was — Lynch or the priest.

Lynch chose to go to trial rather than negotiating a plea deal so he could “out” Lindner, who he claims molested him and his brother when they were kids. Even though the Jesuits have doled out millions of dollars to settle cases brought by Lindner’s victims — including the Lynch brothers — the priest was never prosecuted because Lynch and others reported the abuse after the brief window of opportunity set by the statute of limitations ended.

So essentially the priest testified Wednesday that he did nothing 35 years ago or in 2010 to incite what he described as a “vicious” beating at Lynch’s hands. Lynch dabbed at his eyes with a handkerchief and sobbed while the priest testified.

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UNITED STATES
Truth Wins Out

Posted June 19th, 2012 by Wayne Besen

If there is one thing that irks me, it is having the Roman Catholic Church preach to me about sexual morality. It is a religious sect led by a virulently homophobic Pope that goes out of its way to trash my family. Yet, my family hasn’t spent a cent defending itself against nonexistent charges of child rape, while the Vatican has spent $2.5 billion on legal fees, prevention programs, and settlements relating to the sexual abuse of minors.

Exactly why should I listen to what these “holy” men have to say? I’ve been out of the closet for twenty-four years, during which time I worked in the center of the LGBT movement, but can’t think of a single friend or colleague arrested for child molestation. None of the people I associate with have shielded, shuffled, or offered severance packages to pedophiles to protect the institutions that they work for. But such obscene behavior is precisely what the Vatican did, all the while turning my loved ones into scapegoats to obscure their criminality.

The latest preoccupation of the Catholic Church, as well as their brethren in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Community, is fiercely lobbying state legislatures to not change the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases.

“Even when you have the institution admitting they knew about the abuse, the perpetrator admitting that he did it, and corroborating evidence, if the statute of limitations has expired, there won’t be any justice,” Marci Hamilton, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cordozo School of Law at Yeshiva University, explained to the New York Times.

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IRLAND
domradio

Papst Benedikt XVI. erwartet ausgehend vom Eucharistischen Weltkongress in Dublin eine innere Erneuerung für die vom Missbrauchsskandal erschütterte Kirche Irlands. Die große christliche Geschichte des Landes sei “in jüngster Zeit auf eine erschreckende Weise getrübt worden durch die Offenlegung von Sünden”, die Geistliche gegenüber ihnen anvertrauten Menschen begangen hätten, sagte er in einer Videobotschaft zum Abschluss des Weltkongresses am Sonntagnachmittag. Diese Priester und Ordensleute hätten Menschen missbraucht und damit auch die Botschaft der Kirche unglaubwürdig gemacht. Für sie sei das Christentum nur noch ein “System von Gewohnheiten” geworden und nicht mehr eine freudige Begegnung mit Christus, sagte der Papst. Anders ließen sich derartige Fehler nicht erklären. Zugleich kündigte er an, dass der nächste Kongress 2016 in Cebu auf den Philippinen stattfinden soll. Das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil habe vor 50 Jahren ein erstarrtes Christentum zu überwinden versucht.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Saarbrucker Zeitung

Herr Dr. Müller, was ist von Seiten der Kirche nach dem Missbrauchsskandal im vergangenen Jahr geschehen?
Wunibald Müller: Die Kirche hat sich auf einen Weg der Erneuerung begeben. Im Bereich sexueller Missbrauch Minderjähriger durch kirchliche Mitarbeiter sind wichtige Initiativen in die Wege geleitet worden und Beschlüsse gefasst worden, die deutlich machen, dass die Kirche es ernst meint, wirklich zuerst die Opfer sexuellen Missbrauchs zu sehen und alles zu tun, zum Beispiel auch durch Präventionsmaßnahmen, um in Zukunft sexuellen Missbrauch in ihren eigenen Reihen zu verhindern.

Wie soll mit den Priestern umgegangen werden, die Minderjährige sexuell missbraucht haben?

Müller: Liegt bei einem Priester, der Minderjährige missbraucht, eine pädophile Veranlagung vor, darf er zum Schutz möglicher Opfer nicht länger in der Seelsorge eingesetzt werden, gegebenenfalls auch nicht länger einer priesterlichen Tätigkeit nachgehen. Priestern, bei denen mit Hilfe der besten uns heute zur Verfügung stehenden diagnostischen Möglichkeiten festgestellt werden kann, dass sie nicht pädophil veranlagt sind und es sich bei ihrem Fehlverhalten um ein einmaliges regressives Verhalten handelt, das unter anderem auf Defizite im Bereich der Intimität zurückzuführen ist, kann im Einzelfall nach erfolgreicher Psychotherapie auch eine klar umgrenzte priesterliche Tätigkeit möglich sein. Diese Vorgehensweise ist schwieriger zu handhaben als die Nulltoleranz-Lösung, wonach jemand, der sich einmal sexuell missbräuchlich verhalten hat, nie mehr als Seelsorger oder als Priester tätig sein kann. Sie berücksichtigt aber die jeweilige Situation der einzelnen Priester, deren Vergehen nicht beschönigt werden darf, die aber auch nicht einfach abgeschoben und abgeschrieben werden dürfen.

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OSTERREICH
oe24

Dem 2009 verstorbenen Pfarrer von Thiersee im Tiroler Bezirk Kufstein ist nun auch offiziell die Ehrenbürgerschaft der Gemeinde aberkannt worden. Dies beschloss der Gemeinderat in einer Sitzung am Mittwochabend mit großer Mehrheit. Der Geistliche soll jahrelang Kinder missbraucht haben.

Rein rechtlich erlosch die Auszeichnung mit dem Tod des Pfarrers, betonte Ortschef Hannes Juffinger (V). Die Angehörigen hätten die Auszeichnung mittlerweile retourniert. Es gebe keine Ehrentafel oder einen Vermerk am Grabstein des Mannes.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

VATICAN CITY, June 21, 2012 – They are three cardinals, they are over the age of eighty, they are spry yet reserved, they know the Roman curia very well, and their names are Julián Herranz, Jozef Tomko, and Salvatore De Giorgi. It is to them that Benedict XVI has entrusted the task of getting to the bottom of the leaking of confidential documents that has hit the Vatican in recent months.

Their work is proceeding in parallel with the judicial investigation formally underway in Vatican City-State, which has so far seen the questioning – and jailing as a suspect – only of the pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, charged at the moment with aggravated theft.

The commission, however, has a broader mission and more room for maneuver with respect to the Vatican magistracy. And it is made up of three cardinals because in this way it has the freedom to question, if need be, even their peers.

The commission was announced last March 16 in an interview with the substitute of the secretariat of state, Archbishop Angelo Becciu, published in “L’Osservatore Romano” and initialed by its director, Giovanni Maria Vian:

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PENNSYLVANIA
Star-Gazette

The former Blossburg Catholic priest accused of molesting an altar boy between 1991 and 1997 turned himself in for arraignment Wednesday.

The Rev. Thomas Shoback, 61, now of Wilkes-Barre, was arraigned Wednesday afternoon before District Judge James Carlson in Mansfield, according to state police at Mansfield.

He was released on $35,000 bail pending a preliminary hearing at 1:15 p.m. July 25 before Carlson.

Shoback faces 32 criminal charges in the sexual abuse case involving a parishioner at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, where Shoback was parish priest. He has since served at other parishes in Pennsylvania, police said.

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AUSTRALIA
Galus Australis

By David Werdiger
Rabbi YD Groner OBM was often described as “larger than life”. He was an imposing character: large in size, strong in voice, autocratic in nature. From his arrival in Melbourne in the 1950s, he worked tirelessly for the organization, and can take deserved credit for the strong positive influence Chabad had during the majority of his tenure as its leader.

This Sunday, as the local Chabad community will mark his yahrzeit, many have mixed feelings. Despite it being four years since his passing, Rabbi Groner has come under fire recently regarding what he did or didn’t do in cases of sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated by people employed (or subcontracted) in or around the school, including teachers, during a period some 10-20 years ago. But here’s the thing: no-one will ever truly know what he did or didn’t do. While those who interacted with him directly know their side of the story, none of us can know all of his side, let alone the thought process that drove very private decisions. As he is not around to defend his decisions, he has become a convenient soft target for his detractors.

The mishnaic dictum (Pirkei Avot 2:4) “do not judge your fellow person until you stand in their place” applies equally to the community leaders of the time, and to the victims of abuse. Even with our 20/20 hindsight, we cannot understand the cultural challenges of dealing with the scourge of sexual abuse in a closed, tight-knit community in a time before mandatory reporting. The leaders of the time acted using the knowledge, information and context available to them at that time, all of which are now considered vastly deficient. Equally, we cannot understand the anguish of victims who were abused, and feel betrayed by a trusted organisation and its leaders.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Patriot-News

By JAN MURPHY, The Patriot-News

The House Judiciary Committee approved legislation that child protection advocates see as making good steps forward in helping future victims of child sexual abuse.

A bill, sponsored by committee Chairman Ron Marsico, R-Lower Paxton Twp., would lift the statute of limitations on criminal prosecutions in child sexual assault cases. It also would extend the statute of limitations in civil proceedings until the victim reaches age 50.

Current state statutes give victims until age 50 to press criminal charges and until age 30 to file a civil suit against their abusers.

Marsico said that while he would have preferred to wait to hear from the Task Force on Child Protection that is currently review the state’s child protection laws. But child protection advocates were pressuring the committee to act, including one who took out an ad urging action by Marsico’s committee.

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KENTUCKY
WPSD

Reporter – Julie Collins

PADUCAH — A judge dismissed the case involving a local church and the alleged abuse of two former Boy Scouts.

In February 2011, 49-year-old Joseph Andrecht filed a lawsuit saying his former scoutmaster, Danny Middleton, sexually abused him. Andrecht said the abuse happened in the late 1970s.

He brought suit against the Boy Scouts of America, the Shawnee Trails Council, Grace Episcopal Church in Paducah and the Episcopal Diocese of Kentucky, claiming they never did anything about the allegations.

After the initial suit, another man, Timothy Vasseur, stepped forward with similar allegations.

But on Monday, Judge Tim Kaltenbach dismissed the case, citing statute of limitations, meaning too much time had passed since the alleged abuse.

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MANSFIELD (PA)
Sun-Gazette

June 21, 2012

By CHERYL R. CLARKE cclarke@sungazette.com , Williamsport Sun-Gazette

MANSFIELD – The Blossburg priest who was suspended last fall for allegedly sexually assaulting an altar boy was arraigned Wednesday before District Judge James Carlson.

Thomas P. Shoback, 60, of Wilkes-Barre, was charged with three counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, two counts of indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children, corruption of minors and indecent assault in connection with the alleged assaults against an altar boy at St. Mary’s Parish Rectory several times between Feb. 20, 1991, and Feb. 20, 1997.

According to court documents, Shoback was the priest at St. Mary’s and the victim, who now is 32, and his family were parishioners and friends with Shoback.

Police said the victim called the Diocese of Scranton last November to report that Shoback had been sexually abusing him from the time he was 11 or 12 years old.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

By Sheila Sanchez

Defrocked Jesuit priest Jerold Lindner denied Wednesday that he raped and sodomized the man accused of assaulting him in May of 2010.

Lindner’s denial caused defendant William Lynch’s attorney, Paul Harris, to threaten to file perjury charges against the 67-year-old ex-priest.

Lindner took the witness stand on the first day of Lynch’s trial and was questioned by prosecutor Vicki Gemetti about the assault on the afternoon of May 10, 2010 at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in Los Gatos.

“Did you molest the defendant and his brother?” Gemetti asked during the high-profile case in Department 34 of the San Jose Hall of Justice. Lindner answered: “No.” The testimony came after Gemetti asked Lindner what Lynch told him when they met in a parlor at the center.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

By Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times

June 21, 2012
SAN JOSE — When the jury in Department 34 of Santa Clara County Superior Court finally sits down to deliberate, the main question facing the nine men and three women sounds simple: Just who is the victim here?

William Lynch, 45, is accused of tracking down Father Jerold Lindner on May 10, 2010, and assaulting him at his Jesuit retirement home. Witnesses testified during the preliminary hearing that Lynch had punched and kicked the elderly priest, yelling: “You ruined my life. Turn yourself in. You molested me.”

Lynch and his younger brother sued the Society of Jesus, Lindner’s order, 15 years ago, alleging that the priest had raped them and forced them to have sex with each other when Lynch was 7 and his brother 4. The case was settled for $625,000, and Lindner was removed from Loyola High School in Los Angeles, where he had been teaching. The church never informed law enforcement about the allegations.

More than a dozen men and women have accused Lindner of molesting them through the years — including his sister, nieces and nephew. The Catholic Church has settled three cases brought against him, according to a Jesuit spokesman. But the 67-year-old has never faced charges because the statute of limitations for the alleged abuse had run out.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

Shortly before noon, the jury in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse case sent a note to Judge M. Teresa Sarmina, saying on their 12th day of deliberations, they were deadlocked on four of five counts.

“Please advise us of our next step,” the note concluded.

The judge told the jury to continue deliberating. She offered her assistance to break the deadlock. The judge offered to read back her entire hour-long set of instructions to the jury, known as a charge, which covered the crimes the two defendants are accused of, as well as how to evaluate direct and circumstantial evidence, and the concept of reasonable doubt, among other legal topics.

The judge offered to do read backs on days of testimony regarding Mark Bukowski, the accuser of Father James J. Brennan, along with testimony from Bukowski’s mother, and testimony from a former 10-year-old altar boy who was sexually abused by Father Edward V. Avery.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
News-Sentinel

The Associated Press

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A stubbornly divided jury will have a day off to dwell on clergy-abuse charges pending against two Roman Catholic priests before returning for a 13th day of talks Friday.

Jurors deliberated anew for several hours Wednesday after telling a Philadelphia judge they were at an impasse on four of the case’s five charges. The panel won’t meet Thursday because a juror has a family conflict, the judge said.

Jurors are weighing criminal charges against a priest and a church supervisor, the first U.S. church official charged over his handling of abuse complaints.

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CALIFORNIA
WNEM

By GILLIAN FLACCUS and PAUL ELIAS
Associated Press
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) – The priest at the heart of an assault trial testified Wednesday that he never molested the man accused of assaulting him.

Lawyers say the Rev. Jerold Lindner was called to the witness stand late Wednesday in the San Jose trial of William Lynch. Lindner was expected to continue testifying Thursday and endure cross-examination where he will be asked again whether he abused Lynch.

Lynch, 44, is accused of beating the Lindner in May 2010 at a Los Gatos retirement home for priests near San Jose. He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial began with opening statements Wednesday. Lynch claims Lindner raped him in 1975 when he was 7 years old.

Prosecutors concede Lindner is lying when he denies he molested Lynch and Lynch’s 4-year-old brother during a church camping trip, but prosecutors also argue that’s no defense against assault charges. The Catholic Church earlier settled a civil lawsuit the brothers filed.

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SAN ANTONIO (TX)
San Antonio Express-News

By Abe Levy

Published 08:23 p.m., Monday, June 18, 2012

A lawsuit trial involving a former priest accused of sexually abusing a 12-year-old altar boy in Floresville in the 1970s was delayed until October, the plaintiff’s attorney said.

The lawsuit accused Louis Paul White, who was defrocked in 1989, of abusing the boy when he was an associate pastor at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Floresville. It also accused the Archdiocese of San Antonio of covering it up and allowing White to work at other parishes afterward.

Jury selection had been set for Monday but was reset for Oct. 8 because there weren’t enough civil courtrooms available, said Thomas Rhodes, a lawyer for the plaintiff, now 48.

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PHILIPPINES
National Catholic Reporter

by N.J. Viehland on Jun. 20, 2012 NCR Today

MANILA, Philippines — Bishop Jesse Mercado of Parañaque denied Wednesday he misused money donated for victims of calamities and church programs, saying he was open to a probe by the nunciature.

In his statement to reporters at a gathering in Intramuros, Manila, Mercado said all the donations are properly documented and were “promptly turned over to their intended beneficiaries.”

On Monday, Rappler reported that priests and lay leaders have complained to Papal Nuncio Archbishop Giuseppi Pinto about Mercado, saying he diverted millions of pesos of specified donations to other uses.

The funds include Sunday Mass collection donations for flood and fire victims and for rehabilitation of Haiti after the catastrophic earthquake there in 2010. The report summarized the questioned funds donated for calamities and special activities table.

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PHILIPPINES
Vatican Insider

Philippine bishop Jesse Mercado has rejected accusations which he says were the fruit of the “desperation” and “personal problems” of certain priests

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

Bishop Jesse Mercado of Paranaque today denied allegations by priests and lay leaders that he diverted multimillion donations intended for victims of natural disasters. He said the allegations were motivated by the “desperation” of certain priests who were not happy with the positions they got following a shuffle in the diocese’s parishes.

Mgr. Mercado has rejected the allegations of some priests and lay people who accused him of misuse of funds intended for victims of natural disasters. His accusers had asked the apostolic Nuncio in the Philippines, Mgr. Giuseppe Pinto to bring the case to the attention of the Roman Curia and remove the bishop from office. “All donations are properly receipted and promptly turned over to the intended beneficiaries,” the prelate told Catholic news agency ucanews.

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NEW YORK
Observer-Dispatch

By ROCCO LaDUCA
Observer-Dispatch

Posted Jun 20, 2012

UTICA —

The Rev. Valentine Krul asked for forgiveness Wednesday as he was sentenced for stealing more than $87,000 from a New York Mills church.

Krul, 61, of Forestport, was placed on five years of probation after already completing six-months of incarceration at the Oneida County jail for his guilty plea to second-degree grand larceny.

“I ask forgiveness from my family and my friends and the church for my actions,” Krul told Judge Barry M. Donalty in Oneida County Court.

Krul stole thousands of dollars from the Church of the Sacred Heart and St. Mary Our Lady of Czestochowa in New York Mills while he was pastor from October 2008 until January 2011. Of that money, Krul used more than $46,000 of it to buy a condominium in Florida.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
City of Angels

Kay Ebeling

I wonder if we’ll find out some day there was jury nullification in the Philadelphia trial of Monsignor William J. Lynn and Father James J. Brennan. It only takes one juror to prevent a verdict, and God knows, the Catholic Church has enough attorneys and investigators to find one person on the panel who was vulnerable and would stymie any efforts to convict.

“I don’t know what the problem is,” Judge Theresa Sarmina said to attorneys after the jury reported it was hung on all counts except one. (Per Reuters today).

The judge spoke out of earshot of jurors, waiting until they left the room to continue their twelfth day of conferring. Because honest people in this country still go through the motions of justice, even when it’s obvious justice will not be carried out. Honestly, how much more evidence did the jury need? Read the best coverage of the Philadelphia Trial at Philadelphia Abuse Trial Blog by Ralph Cipriano.

Meanwhile, for another good summer read, go to Abused by Fr. James Robinson, a blog by Geoffrey Smith of Ireland, relating his experience testifying as one of the victims in the Robinson case in the UK in 2010. You remember Robinson, the priest who was located living on the lam in California, receiving generous paychecks from the Church while about a dozen victims were trying to experience justice in England?

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CALIFORNIA
The Fresno Bee

PAUL ELIAS and GILLIAN FLACCUS – Associated Press

Wednesday, Jun. 20, 2012

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Northern California prosecutors concede the man on trial in the beating of an aging priest was sexually abused by the Jesuit, but told a jury Wednesday that still did not give William Lynch the right to take the law into in his own hands.

Lynch, 44, is accused of beating the Rev. Jerold Lindner in May 2010 at a Los Gatos retirement home for priests near San Jose. He has pleaded not guilty and his trial began with opening statements Wednesday.

Lynch says Lindner raped him and his 4-year-old brother during a 1975 camping trip in Northern California.

Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Vicki Gemetti began her 20-minute opening by displaying a blown-up photograph of a bruised and bloodied Lindner slumped in a chair. She implored jurors to focus solely on the assault, which she said Lynch “undeniably” committed.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KSRO

MARYCLAIRE DALE

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A stubbornly divided Philadelphia jury will have a day off to dwell on clergy-abuse charges pending against two Roman Catholic priests.

The jury is deliberating anew after telling a judge Wednesday morning they are hung on four of five charges.

Now, they’re off until Friday because one juror has an important family conflict Thursday.

The panel is weighing criminal charges against a priest and a church official who supervised him at the Philadelphia archdiocese.

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CALIFORNIA
Mercury News

By Tracey Kaplan and Robert Salonga
Mercury News
mercurynews.com

Posted: 06/20/2012

Evidence will show the man on trial in the beating of an aging Jesuit priest was abused by the priest, but that still did not give him the right to take the law into in his own hands, prosecutors in Northern California said today in their opening statement in the trial of William Lynch.

Lynch, 44, is accused of beating the Rev. Jerold Lindner in 2010 in front of startled witnesses at a retirement home for priests.

Lynch has said Lindner abused him and his brother during a camping trip in Northern California.

Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Vicki Gemetti began her 20-minute opening displaying a blown-up photograph of a bruised and bloodied Lindner slumped in a chair. She implored jurors to focus solely on the assault, which she said Lynch “undeniably” committed.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CNN

The jury in a Philadelphia priest sex abuse case told a judge Wednesday that they are unable to reach a verdict on four of the five charges, CNN affiliate KYW reports.

In a note to Judge Teresa Sarmina, the panel said that it has developed “firm, fixed opinions” and “entrenched positions” among its members, making it unable to return verdicts, according to KYW.

The judge said she will offer the jurors some additional or clarifying remarks if they would find that helpful, according to KYW.

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PHILIPPINES
Philippines Daily Inquirer

By Jocelyn R. Uy
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Parañaque Bishop Jesse Mercado on Wednesday denied accusations he had misused some P3.2 million in donations from his parishioners, saying the funds were audited annually by the Archdiocese of Manila.

Facing reporters, Mercado answered point by point the accusations by some of his priests and lay members of the diocese.

In a complaint filed in the papal nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Pinto, Mercado was alleged to have diverted over P3.2 million in donations for victims of Tropical Storm “Ondoy,” Haiti earthquake, Typhoon “Sendong,” and a fire in Muntinlupa City.

Low morale, frustration

The bishop was also accused of allotting a measly amount for the health insurance and retirement of priests from the diocese’s yearly collections, causing low morale and frustration among the clergy.

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