ABUSE TRACKER

PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

Daniel M. Filler, professor at Drexel University law school, Philadelphia.

Q: What are the ramifications if the statute of limitations were eliminated in child sex-abuse cases in criminal proceedings?

A: The whole problem with the issue is that child sexual abuse is a hair-trigger issue in our society, and that fact has led to some real miscarriages of justice. That doesn’t mean that there really aren’t ugly things that happened to people who wait to report. Increasing or eliminating the statute of limitations might lead to more justice, but it also might increase more injustice. The question is how much injustice are we willing to tolerate to get more justice.

Q: What do you mean by more injustice?

A: These kinds of cases make people particularly anxious. I think when it comes to these cases, the worry is that, on one hand, memories are sometimes repressed. But it is also true that a person can be nudged toward remembering things that might not have occurred. Given that, people feel a statute of limitations is needed. It’s the only way a defendant has a chance to disprove such allegations. It’s impossible to find an alibi so long after the event is said to have occurred. The older the memories are, the fear is that it’s more brittle and more likely a person is to create mis-remembrances.

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

DANVILLE (IL)
Commercial-News

BY BRIAN L. HUCHEL Commercial-News

DANVILLE — Courtroom proceedings began Tuesday in the trial of a Danville man accused of sexually abusing students while working as an associate pastor.

Vermilion County State’s Attorney Randy Brinegar said opening arguments were presented Tuesday morning at the trial of 36-year-old Mark List of Danville. The trial could end as early as today, he said.

List is charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse, criminal sexual assault in a position of trust and indecent solicitation of a child. The crimes allegedly took place between Feb. 4, 2008, and Aug. 1, 2009.

Testimony early in the case by Danville police detectives indicated List is accused of sexually abusing a student at Danville Christian Academy while he was an associate pastor there.

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SPOKANE (WA)
National Catholic Reporter

Jul. 10, 2012
By Tom Gallagher

•On Dec. 6, 2004, the Diocese of Spokane filed for bankruptcy and submitted a Plan of Reorganization, which provided a fund of $48 million to compensate victims of sexual abuse.


•The Bankruptcy Court set March 10, 2006, as the deadline or “Bar Date” for filing of future claims for persons who have claims of sexual abuse occurring before Dec. 6, 2004.


•Under certain conditions, a person who did not meet the March 10, 2006, Bar Date may still make a claim of sexual abuse as a “Future Tort Claimant.” The Plan defines such a claimant as a person who was not aware that he or she was abused or harmed prior to the Bar Date. Future claims can be made until 2016.


•A future claims fund was created by setting aside $1million of the total $48 million bankruptcy settlement. In the event that future claims and the awards exceeded $1 million, the diocese was required to recapitalize the future claims fund so that it did not dip below $200,000.


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AUSTRALIA
The Catholic Leader

Published: 15 July 2012
By: Paul Dobbyn

YOUTH worker Salesian Father Chris Riley has described recent Four Corners reports of the cover up of sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church as “sickening and disappointing”.

However, Towards Healing executive officer Missionary of the Sacred Heart priest Fr Tim Brennan and Bravehearts founder and executive director Hetty Johnston have both rejected demands for a national Royal Commission focused solely on allegations of sexual abuse of minors in the Catholic Church.

Fr Brennan said such calls were “simplistic”.

Ms Johnston said it was “shallow indeed to concentrate on just one organisation – at end of the day it’s to do with kids being sexually assaulted and the cover-ups which occur.”

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Huffington Post

In a new book, Father Bernard Lynch, a gay Catholic priest who has incurred the wrath of the Vatican for his views supporting LGBT Catholics, not only says he is non-celibate; he reveals that he has been married to a man for the past 14 years, and has officiated over the weddings of many gay and lesbian Catholic couples. The Vatican, he says, is trying to “get rid” of him, while he has been operating a counseling program for closeted gay priests in London since 1992.

Lynch, who has been a Catholic priest for 40 years, left for London from New York in the early 90s, after he was completely cleared of charges related to child abuse allegations made by a man who recanted his story and whom court testimony showed to be a pathological liar. The scandal had Father Lynch at the center of a media firestorm. He believes to this day that right-wing Catholic groups and now-deceased Cardinal O’Connor of New York, angry at his advocacy on behalf of LGBT people and people with AIDS, were behind his trumped up indictment. He had previously gained awards for his AIDS advocacy from politicians and AIDS activists, while local church officials and the Vatican became concerned about his advocacy.

Lynch wrote a a book in 1993 about the trumped up charges and about his speaking out in support of LGBT Catholics, and discussed his own homosexuality. In the new book, “If It Wasn’t Love: Sex, Death and God,” Lynch says for the first time he has been married for 14 years to Billy Desmond, with whom he lives in London. They were married by an American monk, and Lynch himself has officiated at gay and lesbian weddings. He also writes that he believes more than half of all priests are gay. And he blames the Catholic Church’s child abuse scandal on the celibacy rule.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
PhillyBurbs

Posted on July 10, 2012

by Margaret Gibbons

The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office is taking a second look at information first received in 2007 concerning alleged inappropriate conduct by a priest with a student at Lansdale Catholic High School in the 1970s.

The information alleging inappropriate contact between a student and Father Michael J. Bransfield, who is now bishop of the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese that serves all of West Virginia, had been provided to the DA’s office by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, according to Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman.

“Based on the statute of limitations and the victim’s unwillingness to talk to investigators, we did not have a sufficient basis at that time to move forward,” said Ferman. “Within the last month, new information has come forward to cause us to re-examine the older complaint. We are in the process of doing that now.”

Ferman repeatedly declined to answer further questions on the matter.

Bransfield, a Philadelphia native who began his pastoral service in Huntingdon Valley after he was ordained a priest in 1971, served as a teacher, chaplain, chairman of the religion department and vice principal at Lansdale Catholic High School from 1973 into 1979.

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VATICAN CITY
U.S. Catholic

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The majority of bishops’ conferences in the Americas, Europe and Asia have complied with a Vatican mandate to draw up anti-abuse guidelines, said the Vatican’s top investigator of clerical sex abuse.

Without counting Africa, “more than half of the conferences responded” by the May deadline, Msgr. Charles Scicluna of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said in an interview with the Italian monthly Catholic magazine Jesus.

All those who did not send in their proposed guidelines would be getting “a letter of reminder,” he added.

The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, quoted from the interview July 10 and said that the congregation received an encouraging number of responses from Anglo-Saxon countries, “but also Europe, Asia and Latin America have high percentages of responses.”

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MEMPHIS (TX)
WREG

[with video]

(Memphis)— A Memphis minister faces aggravated statutory rape and sexual exploitation of a minor charges.

50-year-old Orlando Wallace is behind bars, accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl, while another 15-year-old girl took pictures on her cell phone of the two in the act.

” He`s a minister, but he don`t work here. He`s just a preacher here,” said Pastor of Lakeview Community Temple, Jesse Lipford. Wallace is associated with the church.

Sunday, Lipford was disturbed by the news.

“It bothers me any man, would do that.” It’s a child.”

Lipford wasn`t happy to see our cameras Sunday morning, or that the church`s name was caught up in the shocking story.

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MEMPHIS (TN)
Commercial Appeal

By David Waters

Posted July 10, 2012

A 50-year-old elder at a local Church of God in Christ has been removed from church duties pending a police investigation of charges of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Orlando Wallace, one of seven elders at Lakeview Community Temple Church of God in Christ, was arrested Friday on accusations of having sex with a 15-year-old girl while another 15-year-old girl took pictures on her cellphone. Wallace pleaded not guilty in a Monday court appearance. He is in Shelby County jail on $50,000 bond.

“None of the alleged victims are members or affiliated with Lakeview Community Temple Church Of God In Christ in any way,” Jesse Lipford, Lakeview’s pastor for more than 30 years, said in a statement issued to the congregation and the public.

“In addition, none of the alleged acts took place in the church. The church is not responsible for any of its members’ questionable lifestyles. We teach holiness, and we expect our members to live godly lives in the presence of the Lord, their families, and the community.

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CALIFORNIA
NBC Bay Area

By Aliyah Mohammed
Tuesday, Jul 10, 2012

Less than a week after being acquitted by a jury of felony assault and elderly abuse following a confrontation with a Los Gatos priest he says raped him as child, a San Francisco man has created an non-profit organization that aims to end the cycle of sexual abuse against children.

William Lynch, 44, never denied the 2010 assault on Rev. Jerold Lindner, a Catholic priest living at the Sacred Heart retirement home in Los Gatos. But he testified he did so because Lindner allegedly brutally raped and sodomized him and his brother when they were children in the 1970s.

Now Lynch, hopes to prevent what happened to him and his brother from happening to other children and to provide resources to and empower survivors of sexual abuse.

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WHEELING (WV)
West Virginia Public Broadcasting

[with audio]

By Ben Adducchio

July 10, 2012 · According to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, prosecutors in Pennsylvania are investigating a claim made against the Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, Michael Bransfield.

According to the newspaper, prosecutors in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, are reviewing a complaint that Bransfield allegedly fondled a high school student in the 1970s.

Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston spokesman Bryan Minor released a saying the diocese’s stance is that this is old news, and appears to be further reference by the newspaper to information released during this year’s clergy sexual abuse trial in Philadelphia.

In the statement, Minor says these allegations are not new and that – quote -“In April, Bishop Bransfield released a statement responding to all allegations, and he stands today by that response.”

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UNITED STATES
Catholic League

[The ad in the New York Times – SNAP]

Catholic League president Bill Donohue responds to the full-page ad placed by the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP) in today’s New York Times:

Instead of looking at the positive reforms made by the U.S. bishops over the last decade, the professional victims’ lobby SNAP is rehashing its age-old claim that there is an ongoing abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. Never mind that in the last three years, an average of seven new credible accusations were made against over 40,000 priests in this country. Indeed, 99.98% of Catholic priests did not have a credible accusation made against them last year.

The John Jay College of Criminal Justice issued its Causes and Context study last year that found the abuse scandal ran from the mid-60s to the mid-80s, peaking in the 70s. After it was published, I issued a report analyzing the study [click here]. Since the end of the scandal, the Church has reformed its policies and curbed the problem, thus becoming a model of how to protect children.

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NEDERLAND
Dagblad de Limburger

Maastricht
Van onze verslaggeefster

De advocaat van de man eist dat een in opdracht van Schafraad opgesteld deskundigenrapport niet wordt meegenomen in de klachtenprocedure en dat Schafraad zich ‘van verdere privacy schending in deze zaak onthoudt’.

Tegen de geestelijke waren aanvankelijk drie klachten ingediend door oud-leerlingen van jongensinternaat Bleijerheide in Kerkrade. Schafraad werkte daar in de jaren zestig als broeder. Een van de klagers zou zijn klacht inmiddels hebben ingetrokken.

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DEUTSCHLAND
netzwerkB

Norbert Denef, Vorsitzender des Netzwerks Betroffener von sexualisierter Gewalt, wird am Freitag, 13. Juli 2012 um 14:00 Uhr vor den Reichstag in Berlin kommen, um das Gespräch mit Vertretern der Sozialdemokratischen Partei Deutschlands zu suchen.

Denef ist selbst Opfer jahrelangen systematischen Missbrauchs in seiner Kindheit. Er ist heute 63 Jahre alt. Den an ihm begangenen Verbrechen folgten 35 Jahre, bis er mit viel Anstrengung und mit der Unterstützung seiner Kinder darüber sprechen konnte. Als Sprecher von netzwerkB erlangte Denef ein wenig Bekanntheit. Die Vielzahl der Opfer bleibt namenlos und ohne Hilfe. Die Vielzahl der Opfer leidet still.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
CBS News

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Federal prosecutors say they’ll present evidence at trial that a Kansas City priest charged with sexually exploiting children possessed two pairs of young girls’ panties and searched the Internet for photos of scantily clad children.

The Rev. Shawn Ratigan is scheduled to go to trial next month on 13 counts of sexually exploiting children. Prosecutors filed notice Monday that they’ll present evidence of “uncharged crimes” to illustrate Ratigan had a sexual interest in young children.

Prosecutors say that among the evidence they may present is a photo of the priest in his underwear at the home of one of his alleged victims.

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CANADA
Hamilton Spectator

A former Hamilton priest facing a sex charge has become a fugitive.

According to court documents a bench warrant has been issued for the arrest of Rev. Jose Silva.

Rev. Jose Silva, 34, a popular former parish priest at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, is facing a sexual assault charge in connection with a Sept. 18, 2011 incident. An 18-year-old musician told police he had been assaulted in the priest’s residence during a festival that day.

The Diocese of Hamilton announced Silva’s resignation in October. A statement issued by the church said Silva “has further indicated that he no longer wishes to remain in pastoral ministry in this country” and wanted to return to his native Brazil.

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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org – Assignment Record

Summary of Case: Born in 1938 in Lisheen, Ireland, O’Connell emigrated to St. Louis, MO in 1959 to attend college seminary. He had been rejected by 36 dioceses and religious orders before being accepted by St. Louis. O’Connell was assigned to St. Thomas Aquinas Preparatory Seminary in Hannibal, MO, where he was a teacher, spiritual director, dean of students and, for 18 years, Rector. O’Connell was also the diocesan Vocations Director for years, and was a member of the Priests’ Senate and Personnel Board.

In 1991 a diocesan youth minister told Jefferson City Bishop McAulliffe that boys were disclosing to her that they were being sexually abused by O’Connell and other priests of the diocese. The youth minister was fired. In 1994 a young man told Kansas City bishop Boland that O’Connell had molested him as a boy St. Thomas. Boland is said to have responded, “We like to keep these things quiet”. The accuser soon started to receive secret monthly payments from O’Connell. The Jefferson City diocese settled with one accuser in a “secret agreement” in 1996. This man went public with his accusation in March 2002. O’Connell acknowledged the abuse and resigned a few days later. By 2004 at least nine former St. Thomas seminary students had come forward alleging sexual abuse by O’Connell. Some of the men said they suspected there were dozens of others. Some said the abuse that began while they were boys at St. Thomas, between the 1960s and 1980s, continued into their early adulthoods, including while O’Connell was a bishop.

In June 1988 O’Connell was appointed first bishop of Knoxville, TN. In Nov. 1998 he was appointed bishop of Palm Beach, FL, replacing Bishop Symons, who resigned after admitting to molesting boys. After his 2002 resignation, O’Connell went to live at a Trappist Monastery in South Carolina. He is said to have been free to travel to and from his native Ireland. O’Connell died May 4, 2012.

Ordained: March 30,1963
Ordained Bishop: Sept. 8, 1988
Died: May 4, 2012

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CALIFORNIA
San Jose Today

Posted by Christopher Schumb on Tuesday, July 10, 2012

The verdict is in for the William Lynch Trial, and unsurprisingly it was “not guilty” on all felony counts. The jury did hang 8-4 for “guilty” on a misdemeanor battery charge, but Mr. Lynch was never charged with the misdemeanor count by the District Attorney—it was added by Judge David Cena as a “lesser included offense,” which allows the jury to find him guilty of a less serious offense if the court believes there is evidence to support such an instruction.

The difference between felony and misdemeanor battery is the severity of the injury inflicted on the victim. Felony battery requires a showing of force that would have inflicted great bodily harm, whereas misdemeanor battery is merely “touching” done without consent in a rude or insolent manner.

The not guilty verdict was not a surprise to most experienced attorneys. As one juror noted, it is tough to find someone guilty of a crime when the court tells you that you cannot rely on the testimony of the victim. Indeed, many felt that the defense was crazy to move for mistrial after Father Jerold Lindner’s testimony was stricken by Judge Cena, after the priest invoked his Fifth Amendment Right to remain silent. Once the priest’s testimony was out, the allegations of sexual abuse were no longer relevant evidence, because the Judge had ruled it was admissible only to impeach Father Lindner’s credibility.

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CALIFORNIA
Calaveras Enterprise

Posted on July 10, 2012

by James DeHaven

Former San Andreas priest Michael Kelly faces renewed sex abuse allegations this week after Stockton attorney John Manly confirmed he will press ahead with litigation on behalf of several new clients.

An untold number of accusers have come forward to police and attorneys across three counties after a civil trial against Kelly ended in a $3.75 million verdict last April.

That trial saw Kelly barred from the ministry after the jury found him personally liable for abusing a former altar boy. A criminal case against Kelly was dismissed due to the statute of limitations.

Kelly, who maintains his innocence, fled to Ireland as the civil case was coming to an end, citing stress-related health issues for his departure just days before scheduled liability proceedings against his former diocese.

Manly said he was personally approached by nearly a dozen ex-parishioners and others in recent months, including two from Calaveras County.

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AUSTRALIA
The Armidale Express

STEPHEN JEFFERY

11 Jul, 2012

ARMIDALE Dumaresq Council will ask a former Catholic priest at the centre of a sex abuse scandal to step aside from his position on the sesquicentenary committee.

The man, known as Father F for legal reasons, is alleged to have confessed to sexually abusing five altar boys in the Armidale diocese during the 1980s.

The confession is alleged to have taken place during a 1992 meeting between Father F and three Catholic priests; Father Brian Lucas, Father John Usher and Father Wayne Peters, the current vicar-general of the Armidale diocese.

Father Usher and Father Lucas have denied that any such admission by Father F took place, but a letter sent by Father Peters to the then Bishop of Armidale, Kevin Manning, indicates a confession was made.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

Jul. 10, 2012
By Joshua J. McElwee

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Federal prosecutors in a case against a priest charged with possession of child pornography outlined Monday some of the evidence they intend to present at the priest’s August trial.

Among the material prosecutors said they will introduce in the trial of Fr. Shawn Ratigan is a long list of images of alleged “child erotica” in his possession, a web history that allegedly proves the priest accessed websites specializing in female child pornography, and web searches that allegedly show he was researching “spy” pens.

Altogether, the evidence will allegedly show that Ratigan’s motive in his actions was “to indulge in and satisfy a sexual interest in female children,” prosecutors write in their filing, which was first reported by The Kansas City Star Monday.

Ratigan, who had served as pastor of a local parish until his arrest in May, 2011, faces 13 federal counts of production and possession of child pornography.

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OHIO
Beacon Journal

Beacon Journal staff report
Published: July 10, 2012

CLEVELAND: The resentencing for the Rev. Samuel Ciccolini has been rescheduled for 12:30 p.m. July 27 before Judge James Gwin in U.S. District Court.

Ciccolini, 70, a well-known Catholic priest in Akron, pleaded guilty two years ago to banking and tax fraud. He was sentenced to one day in custody, fined $350,000 and ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution to the Interval Brotherhood Home Foundation in Coventry Township.

An appeals court voided his sentence last week, ruling that Gwin had no authority to order the restitution and that Ciccolini must be resentenced.

Ciccolini has asked the court to have the $3.5 million returned to him. The money has been held by the federal Clerk of Court’s Office in Cleveland during the appeal. Gwin has deferred ruling on the request until the resentencing.

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CALIFORNIA
TheMediaReport

Dave Pierre

The anti-Catholic advocacy group SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests) says it is “grateful” that a criminal jury acquitted a man of felony assault after he brutally attacked an elderly priest that he said abused him some 37 years ago in 1975.

On May 10, 2010, William Lynch used a ruse to enter a retirement home for retired priests. He then violently thrashed 65-year-old Rev. Jerold Lindner in front of shocked witnesses until the priest was bruised and bloody. Lynch readily admitted to the angry beating. [Read more about the case]

Following the acquittal last week in the high-profile trial, SNAP issued a media statement written by its alleged “Outreach Director” Barbara Dorris:

Violence is always wrong. Still, we are grateful for this verdict. The odds that Lynch would ever reoffend are infinitely small.

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NORTH PALM BEACH (FL)
First Coast News

NORTH PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Catholic priest at a North Palm Beach church has taken a leave of absence after his arrest on shoplifting charges.

In a letter to parishioners at St. Clare Church dated June 30, the Rev. Giuseppe Savaia advised that he is “taking time away to tend to personal duress” at the request of the bishop.

Savaia was arrested on a grand theft charge in December after Boca Raton police said he stole an $895 picture frame from Neiman Marcus. Police said he was also arrested in connection with a theft at Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise a few days later.

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RHODE ISLAND
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on July 10, 2012

We call on Pope Benedict and his Vatican staff to investigate and harshly punish the priests who violated the privacy of these young, devout girls and abused their trust in the confessional. It’s a horrific betrayal for Catholic officials to use the sacrament of confession to manipulate vulnerable youngsters.

The 77 brave women who spoke out about the abuses they had suffered under the Legion of Christ at their high school in Rhode Island deserve praise for stepping forward and trying to protect other girls from suffering the same fate.

This story is another mar on the face of the controversial and cult-like Legion of Christ. The evidence that this group is out of control is overwhelming, as reports of abuse suffered at the hands of Legion priests have existed for as long as the organization has. In May, it was revealed that the long-time public face of the Legion, Fr. Thomas Williams, had secretly fathered a child after manipulating a parishioner. The worst part of this case is that the head of the Legion, Fr. Alvaro Corcuera, had known of Williams’ manipulation since 2005, when he began to “take steps” to remove Williams, but never followed through.

Earlier that month, the Vatican opened an investigation into seven Legion priests and whether or not they had abused children. The investigated priests hailed from different countries, but all were alike in that they had received allegations of abuse against them, and the Legion had been slow to act.

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IRELAND
The Catholic World Report

July 10, 2012

Neglect of canon law, not adherence to it, contributed to the covering up of child abuse by Irish priests.

Michael Kelly

“Catholic bishops covered up abuse by priests because they relied on canon law rather than the civil law”—it’s a familiar line in the media and from politicians when bishops or religious superiors have been shown to have mishandled abuse allegations. This side of the Atlantic, at least, it’s hard to have a conversation about the issue without this claim being raised—even by faithful Catholics.

It is, of course, true that many bishops did grievously fail children and the Catholic community at large by failing to respond properly to allegations of abuse against priests and religious. However, on closer inspection it becomes obvious that at the heart of the crisis was not only a failure to report a crime to the civil authorities, but also a failure to apply the Church’s own rules, rather than an overreliance on canon law.

Revealing new statistics published by the Archdiocese of Dublin in May offer a decade-by-decade breakdown of when abuse reported to Irish authorities is alleged to have occurred.

The analysis of allegations of abuse made against 98 priests of the archdiocese over a 70-year period shows that the alleged abuse began to skyrocket in the 1960s. Approximately 2 percent of accused priests are alleged to have abused in the 1940s, 4 percent in the 1950s, 23 percent in the 1960s, 27 percent in the 1970s, 34 percent in the 1980s, 9 percent in the 1990s, and 1 percent in the 2000s.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
CBS St. Louis

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)- Federal prosecutors say they plan to show Internet searches at a trial that they say back up claims that a Kansas City priest had a sexual interest in young children.

The Rev. Shawn Ratigan is scheduled for trial in August on 13 federal counts of sexual exploitation of children after a technician found troubling images on his computer in late 2010.

The 46-year-old also faces three state charges of possessing child pornography.

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OHIO
ONN

Tuesday July 10, 2012

AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A Roman Catholic priest who pleaded guilty in Ohio to tax fraud must wait to be resentenced before learning if he can reclaim $3.5 million in restitution.

Federal Judge James Gwin in Akron has set sentencing for July 27 for 70-year-old Rev. Samuel Ciccolini (chih-koh-LEE’-nee).

The judge had ordered him to pay nearly $3.5 million in restitution to the fundraising arm of an alcohol and drug rehab center he founded. An appeals court overturned the restitution order and one-day sentence.

The judge says he won’t decide on returning the money until re-sentencing.

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AKRON (OH)
The Columbus Dispatch

By Rick Armon

AKRON BEACON JOURNAL
Tuesday July 10, 2012

AKRON — The Rev. Samuel Ciccolini wants his $3.5 million back.

The federal clerk of courts in Cleveland has been holding the money since the Catholic priest from Akron appealed his October 2010 sentence for banking and tax fraud.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star

Federal prosecutors announced Monday that they plan to introduce evidence of uncharged crimes and other “bad acts” at the trial of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan in August.

Ratigan, 46, is charged with production and possession of child pornography while he was pastor of Catholic parishes in St. Joseph and the Northland.

Authorities arrested Ratigan in May 2011, five months after officials and staff at the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph found hundreds of lewd images of young girls on a laptop computer that the priest had sent for servicing.

In the ensuing furor of how church officials handled the discovery, authorities charged Bishop Robert Finn and the diocese in Jackson County each with a misdemeanor count of failure to report suspicions of child abuse. A trial on those counts is scheduled for September.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

By Sheila Sanchez

William Lynch, the man acquitted last Thursday of felony elder abuse and assault charges stemming from an encounter two years ago in Los Gatos with a priest he says brutally raped him as a boy, has began a nonprofit organization to help sexual abuse victims.

Speaking to reporters after the not-guilty verdict was read by the jury in Department 34 of the San Jose Hall of Justice the afternoon of July 5, Lynch said he wanted to start an agency that would also help repeal the statute of limitations for sex abuse cases.

Lynch, 44, was acquitted of felony assault with intent to cause great bodily injury and felony elder abuse under circumstances likely to produce great bodily harm or death. The jury also found him not guilty of misdemeanor elder abuse, but hung 8-4 on the lesser misdemeanor assault charge.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

Anorexia, despair and thoughts of suicide: Inside the Legion of Christ high school where young girls were forced to live like teenage nuns

By Kerry Mcqueeney

Dozens of young women have claimed they developed severe psychological problems after being forced to live like teenage nuns at a high school run by a disgraced Catholic religious order.

Former pupils of the Legion of Christ high school, in Rhode Island, say the psychological abuse they endured led to multiple cases of anorexia, stress-induced migraines, depression and suicidal thoughts.

They have called on the Vatican to shut down the controversial programme to spare others from a similar ordeal.

This weekend, the women sent a letter to the Pope’s envoy denouncing the manipulation, deception and disrespect they say they suffered at the hands of counsellors barely older than themselves at the school.

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VATICAN CITY
Care2

by Annie Urban
July 9, 2012

A group of 77 women who attended a high school run by the Legions of Christ is calling on the Vatican to shut down the program. In a letter to the Pope’s envoy, the women described the psychological abuse that they suffered while “trying to live like teenage nuns,” including anorexia, stress-induced migraines, depression and suicidal thoughts.

The women who signed the letter suffered a wide variety of traumatic experiences. They were forced to follow strict rules, detailing how they should walk, sit, pray and eat. They never had more than five minutes between activities so that there was no time for self-reflection. They were prevented from making friends, had to obey strict silence for much of the day, and had very limited contact with their families.When the girls developed health problems, including anorexia, migraines, sight problems, they were forbidden from telling their parents and were prevented from seeing a doctor or going to a hospital. In the end, the abuse suffered by these women cost them many years of psychological treatment costing tens of thousands of dollars.

On the blog 49 weeks a year, some of the women have been sharing their stories:
Sarita wrote: “One of the most damaging aspects of the PC was the manipulation of conscience and God’s Will. Everything was considered God’s Will: the norms, the schedule, your director, and your spiritual director. If you were told to do anything you were expected to obey instantly with a spirit of supernatural obedience and without questioning.”

Tricia wrote: “The continual need to find fault with each and every action and report my failings not only to my confessor but often to my spiritual director and sometimes even peers created a deep sense of insecurity and self loathing. The Regnum Christi Movement implemented several activities to find and express oneʼs faults to the point of creating a scrupulous conscience. More importantly, the danger that persists is that you begin to have a disgust for yourself.”

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KENTUCKY
LEO Weekly

Though the trial of Rev. James Schook — a Louisville priest charged with sexually abusing two underage boys in the ’70s — was to begin last month, it now looks like it will be delayed until next year, if it’s even tried at all.

While the reason for the postponement in hearings until Dec. 17 was initially a scheduling conflict with another case being prosecuted by Jefferson County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney John Balliet, The Courier-Journal subsequently found that the delay was due to Schook suffering from stage IV melamona. With Schook currently undergoing chemotherapy, Balliet says that “now would not be a good time for him to stand trial.”

Balliet tells LEO that Schook’s health will be evaluated at the December hearing, at which time they will determine whether the trial will go forward.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Cappy Larsen and Melanie Sakoda on July 10, 2012

Eleven days after his consecration as bishop, Metropolitan Jonah Paffhausen was elected to lead the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). The gathered clergy and laity believed that this synodal “outsider” would lead their church, which had been plagued for years by financial scandals at the highest levels, into a better future.

We didn’t. We strongly suspected that Paffhausen would be just like his predecessors when it came to clergy sexual abuse. He talked tough. However, the archbishop failed to follow the words with actions.

Shortly following his election as primate, he told a reporter, “With a crime in the church, the church leader’s responsibility is that such a priest would be immediately removed from his role, and his case would be turned over to the civil authorities.”

Yet in one of the major sex abuse scandals of his tenure, Paffhausen failed to act when the OCA’s Canadian leader, Archbishop Seraphim Storheim, was accused of child sexual abuse. Storheim was finally suspended from the priesthood almost two years later, and only after the Canadian authorities arrested him.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Saabrucker Zeitung

Saarbrücken. Die Staatsanwaltschaft hat ein Ermittlungsverfahren gegen den früheren Völklinger Dechanten Klaus Leist eingeleitet. Das teilte die Behörde der SZ mit. Leist steht im Verdacht, Ende 2010 und Anfang 2011 anonyme Drohbriefe an den früheren Pfarrer der Köllerbacher Herz-Jesu-Gemeinde, Guido Johannes Ittmann, verfasst zu haben (Veröffentlicht am 10.07.2012)

Saarbrücken. Die Staatsanwaltschaft hat ein Ermittlungsverfahren gegen den früheren Völklinger Dechanten Klaus Leist eingeleitet. Das teilte die Behörde der SZ mit. Leist steht im Verdacht, Ende 2010 und Anfang 2011 anonyme Drohbriefe an den früheren Pfarrer der Köllerbacher Herz-Jesu-Gemeinde, Guido Johannes Ittmann, verfasst zu haben.

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CONNECTICUT
Patch

By Megan Bard and Jason Vallee

The four cases against a popular Berlin priest alleged to have held sexually oriented chats on Facebook with young male parishioners and possessed child pornography were continued to Aug. 22.

Michael Miller, 42, pleaded not guilty in New Britain Superior Court on Monday to having inappropriate contact with a juvenile and allegations that he possessed child pornography on three of his computers, which were seized in 2011 after Miller was arrested and charged with having inappropriate contact with the young males.

Miller is charged with eight counts of risk of injury to a minor, two counts of obscenity, one count of attempting to commit an obscene act and one count of possession of child pornography. Miller, a pastor of Saint Paul’s Catholic Church in Kensington, is currently free on $450,000 bond, a total amount set for the four cases pending against him. Miller is currently suspended from his church duties.

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CALIFORNIA
Christian Post

By Nicola Menzie , Christian Post Reporter

Gordon Solomon, pastor of Christ’s Community Church in Inglewood, Calif., has been arrested by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and charged with seven felony counts of committing lewd acts upon a Child for allegedly carrying on a two-year sexual relationship with a teen congregant.

Solomon, the senior pastor of Christ’s Community Church of Los Angeles, was arrested July 4 and charged last Friday. The minister, who is married, was being held on $3,000,000 bail. In addition to the felony lewd acts, Solomon was charged with one felony count of oral copulation of a person under the age of 14 and one felony count of continuous sexual abuse, according to the District Attorney’s office. If convicted, the pastor could be sentenced to 26 years in prison.

The authorities became aware of the accusations against the Solomon, 50, when the young girl’s mother discovered an explicit text messages allegedly from the minister on the teen’s cell phone. The mother immediately contacted the police, who later discovered a trail of emails and text messages allegedly between the 14-year-old and Solomon going back about two years.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Thomas G. Plante

Recent weeks marked several landmarks in the Catholic Church’s dark history with child sexual abuse. In Pennsylvania, the Rev. William Lynn became the first American church official convicted in the cover-up of child sex-abuse. In an Atlanta meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the bishops recognized the 10th anniversary of the Dallas Charter, the church’s document to prevent child abuse in its ranks, with a reflection presentation by the National Review Board, an independent lay advisory group to the bishops.

What have we learned in the past ten years?

We have learned that more than 10,000 youth were victimized by perhaps four percent of Catholic priests in America during the past half century, with the vast majority of cases occurring during the 1960s and 1970s. In fact, 94 percent of all cases occurred before 1990, according to the recent John Jay College of Criminal Justice study on the causes and context of the crisis. The sexual abuse of children by priests is horrific enough but it was the repeated stories of cover up and lack of accountability of bishops and other church leaders that has made this crisis a decade-long story.

The sexual abuse trial of Jerry Sandusky at Penn State underscored the fact that child sexual abuse is certainly not confined to the Catholic Church or to any church organization, but can and does occur wherever adult men have power, control and unsupervised access to youth.

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UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

July 9, 2012, 5:01 pm

Posted by Eric Bugyis

The question of what counts as “religious practice” and its protected “free exercise” has dominated much of the Catholic conversation recently, and it has figured prominently on this blog and in the magazine. My approach to the question has been largely informed by a “religious studies” perspective, which attempts to think of “religion” as an object of academic inquiry and analyze the many ways in which it is performed and negotiated by those who use the concept. This includes both believers and non-believers. The former might argue either that “religion” is a 19th-century abstraction imposed on them from without, forcing them to define what they do in very restrictive and exclusionary terms (e.g. as strictly worship), or they might embrace it for the civil protections that it offers and seek shelter under its hopefully expanding exceptions. (The USCCB, it seems to me, is currently oscillating between both of these positions.) Non-believers also might either reject the concept as a 19th-century abstraction that has long been revealed to be a social or psychological pathology that we are (hopefully) outgrowing, or they might find it useful for describing certain communities and individuals that do, in fact, seem to preserve valuable beliefs and practices that set them apart and may provide important resources for a culturally impoverished post-secular society. Regardless of which of these four options one decides to take up, it seems clear that “religion” is indeed a concept that, like all inherited traits, we are stuck with, and thus, the question, “What is religion?” remains a live one, even if your answer is that it is an illusion.

Against this “religious studies” background, Kathryn Lofton has a provocative post over at The Immanent Frame about a conference that she hosted last September at Yale on “Sex Abuse and the Study of Religion.” The participants at the conference focused primarily on the epidemic in the Catholic Church, and looking at the archive of material compiled at BishopAccountability.org, they asked, “How [are] the sex abuse cases also cases of religion?”

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CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle

Bob Egelko

Updated 09:20 p.m., Monday, July 9, 2012

The case of William Lynch, who admitted beating a priest in retaliation for a sexual assault 35 years earlier, was a classic example of jury nullification – jurors’ power to acquit a defendant based on their sense of justice or subjective feelings, rather than the law’s definition of guilt or innocence.

Juries used that power in 1670 to free William Penn over a British judge’s vehement objections, and later to exonerate foes of slavery, Prohibition and the Vietnam War draft – and, less nobly, Southern lynch mobs.

On Thursday, a Santa Clara County jury used that power to clear Lynch of the most serious charges against him and deadlocked on a lesser charge, despite what appeared to be clear-cut evidence of his guilt on that charge.

“It’s a way of saying the law isn’t perfect,” said Michael Saks, an Arizona State University law professor who has written extensively about jury behavior. “Maybe it’s a good thing that when circumstances call for it, 12 citizens … will try to do better than the legal system.”

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WHEELING (WV)
The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register

July 10, 2012

By HEATHER ZIEGLER Associate City Editor , The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register

WHEELING – Prosecutors in Philadelphia are continuing to review allegations that Bishop Michael J. Bransfield fondled a Catholic high school student in the 1970s, according to a report published Sunday in a Philadelphia newspaper.

Bransfield, a native of Philadelphia, is the leader of the Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. He has denied all accusations.

Local diocesan spokesman Bryan Minor said Monday, “Our stance is that this is old news. Even though these are not new allegations against Bishop Bransfield, this story was still published by the (Philadelphia) Inquirer.

“Regardless of what news is reported or repeated in this matter, the diocese asks the community to please pray for our bishop, our diocese, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and all those affected by sexual abuse in any way,” Minor said.

The allegations came to light during a clergy sexual abuse trial involving the Rev. James Brennan held in Philadelphia this spring. In that case, a witness testified that the Archdiocese of Philadelphia priest who allegedly sexually abused him for years starting in the late 1970s had said a colleague, identified as Bransfield, also had sex with teenage boys.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Vatican Insider interviews Domenico Mogavero, Bishop of Mazara del Vallo (Sicily) and member of the Italian Episcopal Conference’s Immigration Commission

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

“Paul VI spoke of “the smoke of Satan” when he entered the Vatican. Taking a look at recent news, what we area dealing with is not Satan’s smoke but the need for structural reform,” says Mogavero, who for many years was right hand man of the Secretary of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), Camillo Ruini.

Is there a mud-slinging machine currently at work in the Vatican?

“Slander and informing are two fatal weapons that are used in a cold and calculating way when there are no valid reasons for attacking one’s adversaries. And the Church is no exception to this unwritten law. Nothing new under the sun. For example, the accusation of “modernism” is periodically launched against members of the Bishops’ Conference who are open and welcome dialogue and is particularly nasty because the accused have no real way of defending themselves. It’s their word against that of their accusers. This makes for a very weak defence.”

The Vatileak scandal still rages on today, partly as a result of the legacy of unresolved issues left behind by John Paul II. Is he really a “popestar” as some have defined him?

“Karol Wojtyla was a great pastor, but there are some structural problems that still need to be resolved. For example, I would like it if there were opportunities for more direct and frank discussions with the Pope, given that, as bishops, we are all successors of the Apostles and so we care for all Churches alongside him. The Pope is an Italian bishop to all effects and purposes, although the way he exercises his ministry is atypical compared to that of other bishops. He is Pope because he is the Bishop of Rome, not the other way round. The appointment of the Pope as president is a choice which is based on a contingent fact and can be modified at any time. I personally believe that making the common laws which apply to other conferences, apply also to the Italian Episcopal Conference would not threaten the Pope’s role as Primate of the Catholic Church, but would rightly give Italian bishops a key role in the management of the body that represents their communion and care for all Churches. When this will happen I am not sure, but I hope it will not take too long before it does.”

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UNITED STATES
Child Protection News

Written on July 9, 2012 by Patrick Noaker

(St. Paul, Minnesota) Web-based video chat websites designed to connect anonymous strangers are being used as sex sites. Sites like Chatroulette.com and Omegle.com that are designed to pair complete strangers anonymously for a video chat are being flagged as a significant concern for misuse as sexual websites. Even though these sites may have been created for the wholesome purpose of connecting people from around the world, it is now clear that they have turned into live interactive sex sites. According to an article on CNN.com, around 35,000 people are on Chatroulette.com at any one time. When CNN conducted a test to see who was on this website, two of the five people with whom they were connected were naked and a third person held up a sign that said “please show me your boobs.” It appears that the Omegle site has taken the same route. So much so that according to internetsafetyproject.org, Omegle’s creator is disappointed with the fact that the site is being used for sexual interaction.

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FLORIDA
Sun Sentinel

[with video]

By Ed Komenda, Sun Sentinel

7:28 p.m. EDT, July 9, 2012
Ed Furey never wanted to believe a priest could go against his own sermons about doing the right thing. But now, it doesn’t seem he has much choice in the matter.

No choice, he said, since reading a bizarre June 20 letter from the Rev. Giuseppe Savaia — a Catholic priest at Furey’s church in North Palm Beach’s, St. Clare’s Parish — announcing he would leave his job to deal with his arrest after two alleged shoplifting incidents in December 2011.

“It’s sad,” said Furey, 84, of North Palm, who has been going to the church since 1960. “I couldn’t understand.”

Many parishioners, like Furey, found the details of Savaia’s alleged shoplifting spree difficult to accept.

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BELGIE
KerkNet

BRUSSEL (KerkNet) – In een verrassend openhartig interview met het Franse persagentschap ‘AFP’ beweert Lucetta Scaraffia dat de katholieke Kerk schandalen rond seksueel misbruik van minderjarigen door geestelijken had kunnen voorkomen als vrouwen daadwerkelijk meer macht en verantwoordelijkheid hadden binnen het instituut. Scaraffia is hoofdredactrice van ‘L’Inserto’, het maandelijkse vrouwensupplement van L’Osservatore Romano, de krant van het Vaticaan, dat vorige maand voor het eerst verscheen.

De Italiaanse Lucetta Scaraffia (64), eminente historica en getrouwd met een journalist, zorgde met L’Inserto voor een onvervalste primeur in de geschiedenis van de katholieke Kerk. Een vrouwenbijlage in de Osservatore, het zou tien jaar geleden compleet onvoorstelbaar zijn geweest! Zij noemt zichzelf een geëngageerde feministe, die opkomt voor vrouwenrechten in de Kerk en zich tegelijk erop beroept op de volle steun van paus Benedictus XVI te kunnen rekenen.

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DEUTCHLAND
Vaticanhistory

Sonntag 8. Juli 2012 von VH

Der Heilige Stuhl verschickt derzeit Mahnbriefe wegen fehlender Missbrauchsrichtlinien. Das sagte der vatikanische Missbrauchsbeauftragte, Charles Scicluna, der italienischen Monatszeitschrift „Jesus”. Knapp die Hälfte aller nationalen Bischofskonferenzen hätten bisher noch keine Richtlinien für den Umgang mit sexuellem Missbrauch erlassen, wie der Heilige Stuhl es gefordert hatte. Die diesbezügliche Frist lief im Mai ab. Scicluna, der Justizpromotor an der Glaubenskongregation, sagte, das Dikasterium werde die eingegangenen Richtlinien im Herbst prüfen und sei damit wohl mindestens ein Jahr beschäftigt. Die Bischofskonferenzen des deutschen Sprachraums haben bereits Richtlinien verabschiedet. (rv)

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DEUTSCHLAND
Christ & Welt

Aus: Ausgabe 27/2012

Vom offenen Umgang mit sexueller Gewalt sind beide Kirchen noch weit entfernt

Die Meldung, die in der vergangenen Woche in vielen Tageszeitungen erschien, war kurz und bündig. „Die Deutsche Bischofskonferenz und die Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) haben Vereinbarungen mit der Bundesregierung für einen verbesserten Schutz von Kindern und Jugendlichen vor Missbrauch unterzeichnet“, heißt es dort in klarem Agenturdeutsch. Kernpunkt der Vereinbarung sei die Übereinkunft, fachliche Mindeststandards zur Prävention und Intervention bei sexualisierter Gewalt in Kirchen und kirchlichen Organisationen einzuführen.

Noch Fragen? Lieber nicht. Denn wer sich den Wortlaut der Vereinbarung durchliest, kann sich des Eindrucks nicht erwehren, dass die Forderungen der Opfer hinter einem Wust von Leitlinien, Empfehlungen und „Präventionsanstrengungen“ zu verschwinden drohen. Was haben die Betroffenen von der Entwicklung einheitlicher Qualitätsstandards, von Forschungsprojekten, Fachtagungen und Online-Umfragen? So löblich es auch ist, dass sich Verantwortungsträger aus Politik, Kirche und Gesellschaft auf Schutzmaßnahmen im Kampf gegen den sexuellen Missbrauch einigen: Sie könnten viel mehr tun, als eine „Vereinbarung zur Umsetzung der Empfehlungen des Runden Tisches Sexueller Kindesmissbrauch“ zu unterzeichnen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Spiegel

Gegen den Passauer Bischof Wilhelm Schraml hat sich im eigenen Bistum eine Protestbewegung gebildet, die den Abtritt des 77-Jährigen fordert. Entzündet hat sich der Konflikt in der bayerischen Marktgemeinde Ruhstorf, weil Schraml dort gegen einen beliebten Pfarrer wegen eines laufenden Strafverfahrens vorgegangen ist, der sich zudem nicht ans Zölibat gehalten hatte. In Ruhstorf hängen zahlreiche Transparente an Häusern katholischer Familien, die sich gegen den konservativen Bischof richten. Ein mit mehr als 800 Personen überfüllter Sonntagsgottesdienst geriet kürzlich zur Solidaritätsdemonstration mit dem drangsalierten Pfarrer. In einem offenen Brief des lange Jahre in der Gemeinde engagierten Unternehmers Wolfram Hatz heißt es, Schraml habe mit seiner Arroganz und Macht “den Pfarrverband vernichtet” und Gläubige aus der Kirche getrieben.

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DEUTSCHLAND
netzwerkB

Quelle: DER SPIEGEL Nr. 28/9.7.12
_
Anmerkung von Norbert Denef:

Das Interview zu diesem Artikel führte mit mir der SPIEGEL-Redakteur Ralf Hoppe, am 3. Juli 2012, in der Zeit von 11:00 Uhr bis 16:30 Uhr.

Leider erhielt ich vom SPIEGEL nicht die Möglichkeit, diesen Artikel Korrektur zu lesen und insofern weise ich nachfolgend auf einige Aussagen hin, die mit der Realität aus meiner Sicht nichts zu tun haben:
•Jetzt verlässt Denef nur selten das Dachzimmer und neulich lag er keuchend da, die Wärmflasche an sich gepresst, unter Kamelhaardecken, mitten im Sommer, die Sonne leuchtete warm in die Dachstube, die jeden Tag mehr zu seinem Sterbezimmer wird.
•Herzschmerzen, Sehstörungen, erhöhter Infektionsgefahr

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg-Digital

Die Mauer des Schweigens in der Diözese Regensburg will eine Gruppe ehemaliger Domspatzen nun durchbrechen. Vergangenes Wochenende trafen sie sich im Altmühltal und brachten ein Archiv auf den Weg, in dem sie möglichst viele Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs dokumentieren und veröffentlichen wollen. Dem eben nach Rom beförderten Gerhard Ludwig Müller bescheinigen sie: „Er hat es nicht mehr verdient, als ‘Seelsorger’ bezeichnet zu werden.“

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AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher

Article originally posted December 2011,
last updated 7 July 2012

This is a classic case-study in how the Catholic Church authorities in Australia kept quiet about this priest (let’s call him Father F) for thirty years until the matter was finally exposed in a television program in July 2012.

In the early 1980s, in one parish in northern New South Wales, altar boys alleged that they were being sexually abused by Father F. But the two leaders of this diocese — Bishop Henry Kennedy and Monsignor Frank Ryan — ignored the complaints. The two leaders protected this priest, helping him to avoid a criminal conviction.

Former altar boys of Father F have said that their lives were damaged not only by the abuse but also by the church’s cover-up and the code of silence.

Eventually, the church was forced to pay compensation to two of Father F’s former altar boys — Damian Jurd and Daniel Powell. But, despite this compensation, Damian and Daniel no longer wished to continue living, and they died at the age of 28, each of them leaving two young children. Damian and Daniel did not know each other (they were from different parishes) but their tragic stories are remarkably similar.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on July 09, 2012

Two groups that focus on clergy sex crime and cover ups are urging a San Jose prosecutor to file perjury charges against a Catholic priest who allegedly molested more than a dozen children.

Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org) and the National Survivors Advocate Coalition (NSAC) are writing Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff F. Rosen, urging him to pursue criminal charges against Fr. Jerold Lindner, who, both groups believe, lied on the witness stand in a recent criminal trial.

Fr. Lindner was called to testify in the case against William Lynch, a victim of child sex abuse who allegedly went to the facility where Lindner lives and beat the priest in May 2010. Last week, a jury acquitted Lynch on all charges.

Although Lindner has never been criminally charged with molesting Lynch, more than a dozen victims have come forward to say that Lindner sexually abused them as children, including Lindner’s sister, three nieces and a nephew.

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CONNECTICUT
Patch

By Paul Petrone

Today Fr. Dennis Carey, 65, the former head pastor of Waterford’s St. Paul in Chains Rectory, plead not guilty to a charge of first-degree possession of child pornography.

Carey resigned from St. Paul’s on June 28 after police executed a search warrant on the rectory and found 338 files of child pornography on various computers inside the Roman Catholic church, according to the arrest warrant. Police also said in the warrant that during the search, Carey said he was addicted to child pornography for the last two years, although said he never physically abused a child.

Carey later turned himself in on a charge of first-degree child pornography. During his arraignment hearing on July 3, Carey told Judge Kevin McMahon that he wanted to get help, and his lawyer, Ron Stevens, told reporters after the arraignment that Carey has been struggling with the problem for a long time.

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CONNECTICUT
Norwich Bulletin

By GREG SMITH
The Bulletin

Posted Jul 09, 2012
NEW LONDON —

Dennis Carey, the former Waterford pastor who police said admitted he has an addiction to child pornography, made his second appearance in court today.

Carey, 65, appeared with attorney, Ronald Stevens, in New London’s Part A court where a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf. The plea is typically a procedural step that moves the case into the pretrial phase.

The case was continued to Aug. 13.

Carey turned himself in to state police July 3 following investigation by state and Waterford police into the trading of child pornography online.

Read more: Former Waterford pastor charged with child porn appears in court – Norwich, CT – The Bulletin http://www.norwichbulletin.com/news/x1197884335/Former-Waterford-pastor-charged-with-child-porn-appears-in-court#ixzz20AAh2KWJ

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FLORIDA
Alachua County Today

Time for renewal, reformation, and rebirth in 21st Century Catholicism

Dear Most Holy Father:

As a survivor of clergy sexual abuse in the early 1960s in Birmingham, Ala., I approached the local diocese, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and John Paul II, in 1993, to report the priest who sexually abused me for four years. I was virtually ignored.

As a result, this monster priest was allowed to remain in ministry until his crimes were finally made public by The Decatur Daily (Ala.) in 2002 after I reported him. He was forced into retirement in June of this year as a result of my relentless pursuit for justice.

For the past 19 years, I have been an outspoken critic of the hierarchy of a broken church in need of renewal, reformation, and rebirth in the 21st Century. Consequently, I have written numerous letters challenging the church’s hierarchy to admit culpability in the cover-up of clergy sexual abuse crimes. John Paul and you failed miserably in meeting my challenge.

The Roman Catholic Church is in dire need of becoming truly “spiritual” in exercising its brand of Christianity in the 21st Century. I offer the following recommendations for your consideration:

1) Rescind the canonization process for Pope John Paul II. He is unworthy of this exalted declaration as it has been proven that he failed miserably in protecting children from being sexually victimized by predator priests.

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IRELAND
Catholic News Service

By Sarah MacDonald
Catholic News Service

CORK, Ireland (CNS) — The head of the Vatican’s highest court described the spate of leaks of confidential Vatican documents as “most grave crimes” and warned that those responsible must be discovered and “appropriately sanctioned.”

Cardinal Raymond L. Burke, prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature, said the confidentiality of Pope Benedict XVI’s communications must be respected in order for the pope to carry out his work in service of the church.

“It is not a question of hiding anything but of respecting conscience,” the U.S.-born cardinal told reporters following his address to the Fifth Fota International Liturgy Conference.

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CALIFORNIA
CNN

[video]

William Lynch discusses his acquittal after punching an elderly priest that he claims sexually molested him as a child. Lynch admitted to attacking the priest but was found not guilty of felony assault and elder abuse charges.

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UNITED STATES
Renew America

By Tom O’Toole

[We will] vigorously defend [ourselves] against…the false accusations [of complicity with Euteneuer]…To the extent Father Euteneuer has already admitted to engaging in highly inappropriate and gravely sinful conduct with a young adult woman, we can only emphasize that such behavior was never within the scope of his employment with HLI. -Stephen Phelan, spokesman for HLI

Can we believe anything this woman says? -Jenn Giroux, former HLI employee and current columnist for RenewAmerica

Victim Jane Doe:

[in the chapel, and about to be touched inappropriately by Fr. Euteneuer]

Are you sure this is alright?

Fr. Euteneuer:

[impatient; looking at the tabernacle and then back at Jane]

Well, He would stop me if it wasn’t!

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CONNECTICUT
The Hartford Courant

By ALAINE GRIFFIN, agriffin@courant.com
The Hartford Courant

10:51 a.m. EDT, July 9, 2012
NEW LONDON—
A Waterford priest charged last week with possession of child pornography pleaded not guilty Monday during a brief hearing in Superior Court in New London.

The Rev. Dennis Carey, 65, entered the plea before Judge Patrick J. Clifford.

Carey’s attorney told the judge that Carey is residing at the Holy Apostles Seminary in Cromwell. He was released after posting bail Tuesday afternoon.

Investigators arrested Carey last week at the rectory of St. Paul In Chains parish.

He told police at the time that there were “inappropriate” photos and videos of children there, according to court documents. And, the priest said, he was addicted to them.

“Father Carey stated that he believed he knew why we were at the house with a search warrant and further explained that he had some inappropriate material on his computer,” State Trooper David Aresco wrote in a seven-page arrest warrant affidavit charging Carey with first-degree possession of child pornography.

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NORTH PALM BEACH (FL)
New Times

By Victor Gonzalez
Mon., Jul. 9 2012

Sandwiched between “Thou shalt not commit adultery” and “Thou shalt not bear false witness” on one of two stone tablets allegedly presented to Moses on Mt. Sinai, God clearly listed “Thou shalt not steal” as one of the ten commandments.

For one Catholic priest in North Palm Beach, however, the warning was seemingly lost in translation.

Rev. Giuseppe Savaia has left St. Clare parish “to tend to personal duress” and clear his name as an alleged shoplifter, according to WPTV NewsChannel 5.

The 43-year-old priest is accused of stealing an $895 picture frame from Neiman Marcus on December 9, 2011. A few days later, the clergyman was arrested at Sawgrass Mills after video surveillance caught Savaia stealing two $400 designer coats from Neiman Marcus Last Call.

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CONNECTICUT
The Day

By Karen Florin

Publication: theday.com
Published 07/09/2012

Former Waterford pastor Dennis Carey, an admitted child pornography addict, made his first appearance this morning in the New London court where major crimes are tried this morning.

Judge Patrick J. Clifford entered a “not guilty” plea on Carey’s behalf and reminded him of the conditions of his release. He is to have no access to the Internet, no contact with children under the age of 13 and no access to pornography.

Carey was concerned about coming into contact with minors when he went grocery shopping, according to his attorney, Ronald F. Stevens. The judge said Carey is not prevented from going to the store, and prosecutor Theresa Anne Ferryman said that incidental contact with minors is expected.

Carey, 65, resigned from Waterford’s St. Paul in Chains Church on June 29 after state and local police served a search warrant on the rectory, where Carey lived, and seized computers they said contained hundreds of images of child pornography. He posted a $100,000 bond following his arrest last week for possession of child pornography. He is living at the Holy Apostle Seminary in Cromwell, according to his attorney. His next court date is Aug. 13.

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WHEELING (WV)
Roman Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston

Our diocesan faithful and neighbors across West Virginia have learned about an article that appeared in Sunday’s edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Click here for the Philly.com article

The diocese’s stance is that this is old news.

Read more.

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WHEELING (WV)
The Intelligencer/ Wheeling News-Register

July 9, 2012

By HEATHER ZIEGLER Associate City Editor , The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register

WHEELING – Prosecutors in Philadelphia are continuing to review allegations that Bishop Michael J. Bransfield fondled a Catholic high school student in the 1970s, according to a story published Sunday in a Philadelphia newspaper.

Bransfield, a native of Philadelphia, is the leader of the Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. He has vehemently denied all accusations.

Local diocesan spokesman Bryan Minor said today, “Our stance is that this is old news. Even though these are not new allegations against Bishop Bransfield, this story was still published by the (Philadelphia) Inquirer.

“Regardless of what news is reported or repeated in this matter, the Diocese asks the community to please pray for our Bishop, our Diocese, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and all those affected by sexual abuse in any way.”

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WHEELING (WV)
WTRF

Posted: Jul 09, 2012

The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston has released a statement regarding a report that prosecutors are reviewing a sexual abuse claim against Bishop Michael J. Bransfield.

The report was published in Sunday’s edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Diocese is taking a stance that this is “old news.”

Below is the statement released by Diocese Spokesman Brian Minor:

You may be following upon an article that appeared in Sunday’s edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Our stance is that this is old news.

It appears to us to be further reference by the Inquirer to information released during this year’s clergy sexual abuse trial in Philadelphia. Bishop Bransfield’s name was used in those proceedings, which were reported extensively by media in Philadelphia and the Ohio Valley from April 17-19. In fact, in this article— you will see this reference: [Prosecutors are also aware of a separate allegation “of a fondling of a student by Bransfield,” Blessington told Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina. He did not elaborate, and the judge has barred the lawyers from publicly commenting in the case.

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VATICAN CITY
Huffington Post

By NICOLE WINFIELD 07/09/12

VATICAN CITY — Dozens of women who attended a high school run by the disgraced Legion of Christ religious order have urged the Vatican to close the program, saying the psychological abuse they endured trying to live like teenage nuns led to multiple cases of anorexia, stress-induced migraines, depression and even suicidal thoughts.

The women sent a letter this weekend to the pope’s envoy running the Legion to denounce the manipulation, deception and disrespect they say they suffered at the hands of counselors barely older than themselves at the Rhode Island school. For some, the trauma required years of psychological therapy that cost them tens of thousands of dollars.

A copy of the letter was provided to The Associated Press by the letter’s 77 signatories, a dozen of whom agreed to be interviewed about their personal problems for the sake of warning parents against sending their children to the program’s schools in the U.S., Mexico and Spain.

“I have many defining and traumatic memories that I believe epitomize the systematic breakdown of the person” in the school, Mary told The Associated Press in an email exchange. She developed anorexia after joining in 1998, weighed less than 85 pounds when she left and dropped to 68 pounds before beginning to recover at home. “The feelings of worthlessness, shame and isolation that are associated with those memories are still vivid and shocking.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Bettendorf

July 9, 2012 by Donald Kaul

In one of those strange coincidences that make life read like a cheap novel, Jerry Sandusky and Monsignor William Lynn were convicted at almost the same moment by two Pennsylvania juries of charges growing out of sex scandals involving the molestation of underage youngsters.

Not that the two cases are mirror images of each other.

Sandusky is a former football coach at Penn State University. Lynn is a former aide to the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and was secretary of the clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Dan Box
From:The Australian
July 10, 2012

A FORMER priest at the centre of a sex abuse scandal will be asked to step aside from a council committee in Armidale, in northern NSW.

Known as Father F for legal reasons, the former Catholic cleric allegedly confessed to abusing at least five altar boys, aged 10 and 11, in the Armidale diocese during the early 1980s.

In a 1992 meeting with three senior Catholic officials, he allegedly admitted he had “fondled the genitals of (two) of these boys and to quote ‘sucked off their dicks’,” according to a contemporary account written by one of the three clergy, Wayne Peters, the present vicar-general of Armidale.

The two other officials — Brian Lucas, now the secretary-general of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, and John Usher, the chancellor of the Archdiocese of Sydney — have since given conflicting accounts of what was said at the meeting.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WTRF

Updated: Jul 09, 2012

By Ashley Mullins

PHILADELPHIA, PA –
The world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), is releasing a statement after Philadelphia prosecutors decide to investigate Wheeling-Bishop Michael J. Bransfield after allegations that he sexually abusing a child during his priesthood in the Philadelphia Archdiocese.

Back in April, Bishop Bransfield, was accused of sexual abuse of a child during sworn testimony in the Philadelphia hierarchy clergy sex abuse trial.

When the allegations came out, Bransfield released a lengthy statement in which he said, “I have never sexually abused anyone.”

SNAP said in a news release, “After Bransfield’s angry letter of denial, it would be irresponsible and reckless for this testimony to be forgotten or ignored. We anticipate that Bransfield would like for these accusations to just go away, but it is well known that child predators rarely have only one victim. Sexual predators are often powerful and well-loved. They can also work their way up the church hierarchy ladder of authority and become bishops.”

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ZIMBABWE
Newsday

Tatenda Chitagu, Own Correspondent | 2012-07-09

A Masvingo-based Roman Catholic priest Father John Dzeka last Friday heaved a sigh of relief after the court acquitted him on three counts of rape he was facing for lack of evidence.

Dzeka (35) was being charged with raping his 19-year-old maid. However, Masvingo regional magistrate Esther Muremba threw out the case, saying the State had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

Muremba said the complainant did not raise alarm or try to resist when she was allegedly raped on October 18 and 19, 2009. The court heard she only reported the matter a month later after being quizzed by another priest from the same church.

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UNITED KINGDOM
EADT

BY LIZZIE PARRY Monday, July 9, 2012

A RETIRED priest has today denied 15 allegations of sex assault on a child and an adult.

Father Haley Dossor appeared at South East Suffolk Magistrates’ Court in Elm Street, just metres from St Mary at the Elms church where until his retirement in November 2006 he was priest-in-charge.

Standing in the dock wearing a grey suit Dossor spoke only to confirm his name and address.

The 71-year-old of Kirton, near Felixstowe pleaded not guilty to all charges against him.

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AUSTRALIA
NEWS.com.au

Another man has alleged that a former NSW Catholic priest, named as “Father F” in media reports, sexually abused him while he was an altar boy in the 1980s.

IN a report aired on ABC’s 7.30 program on Monday, a man who wanted to be known only as “Bill” said he was abused by a former Catholic priest in the northern NSW town of Moree during the mid-1980s.

The ABC has previously reported that the accused clergyman was sacked by the church in 2005 after serious sexual abuse allegations and is now a prominent citizen in Armidale.

Hours before the program went to air, Father F’s identity was revealed by Melbourne broadcaster Derryn Hinch, who was jailed in the 1980s for naming a Melbourne paedophile priest.

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UNITED STATES
Pope Crimes & Vatican Evils…

Paris Arrow

Updated July 8, 2012

The Vatican Pied Piper, Sandro Magister, has recycled his article of 30 June 2006 entitled The Victorious Barque of Peter, Buffeted in Vain by Satan: In his homily for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, Benedict XVI describes a Church “buffeted by the wind of ideologies,” but unsinkable…. This year, on July 6, 2012, Magister calls it, “The Mutineers of the Barque of Peter but added a pathological lie that Benedict XVI had something to do with the Arab Spring: The memorable lecture in Regensburg was the first demonstration of this. Benedict XVI… invoked for Muslims the revolution of the Enlightenment that Christianity has already experienced. Years later, the springtime of freedom that sprouted and immediately withered in the city squares of the Arab world confirmed that he had seen correctly…

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UNITED STATES
The Garden of Roses: Stories of Abused and Healing

I almost revel in my sobs,
Knifelike pain slashing through my heart,
On a sleepless Saturday night
I feel helpless.
Whatever will be, will be.

I went to Mass Sunday morning
And watched the priest with tired eyes
and listened to the priest with tired ears.
Bible readings speak of going through pain and loss, rejection and persecution.
I close my eyes and see Jesus struggling to carry the cross along the Via Dolorosa,
along the Way of Tears,
The crown of thorns digging into his blood and sweat streaked brow;
His hair snarled and matted with blood;
His body bent from pain and the weight of wooden beams balanced on his back,
Knowing the pain and suffocation of crucifixion is yet to come.

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VATICAN CITY
The Daily Beast

Authors
Peter Popham
Barbie Latza Nadeau

Jul 9, 2012

A series of leaks have exposed chaos at the heart of the Pope’s empire.

Pope Benedict XVI wakes every morning between 6:30 and 6:45 a.m. in the papal apartment on the third floor of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, which overlooks St. Peter’s Square. After bathing and shaving, he makes his way to his private chapel, where at 7:30 he celebrates the first mass of the day. After a time of private prayer in the chapel, at around 8:30 he joins Msgr. Georg Gänswein, his personal secretary, and a small circle of his closest collaborators for breakfast. The pope’s preference is decaffeinated coffee, bread with butter and jam, and, once in a while, a slice of tart.

We know all of these details because the Vatican has sprung a leak. For centuries one of the tightest organizations in the world, with a code of honor to rival that of the Sicilian Mafia, it has been turned inside out in the past six months. A gusher of highly confidential letters to the pope and his closest associates, many of them originally in code, has poured into the Italian media and into a book, Sua Santità by Gianluigi Nuzzi, which became an instant bestseller. The leaks are just one in a string of scandals to rock the Vatican this year—the latest, in early June, involved the ouster of the head of the Vatican bank, who possessed documents that apparently showed the Church circumventing European money-laundering regulations. To combat the spate of bad publicity, the Vatican has gone as far as hiring a former Fox News reporter, who happens to be an Opus Dei numerary, to be one of its official PR flacks. But whether the pope and the Vatican establishment can recover their credibility is now a matter of serious doubt.

The target of the most damaging leaks is the most important and powerful figure in the Vatican besides the pope: the 77-year-old secretary of state Tarcisio Bertone. The leaks have been loudly condemned by the Vatican, and the man blamed for them—the pope’s butler—may end up going to jail for years. But if the ambition that motivated the leaks was the sacking of Cardinal Bertone, they may yet succeed. Bertone’s name recurs in letter after secret letter, as he plots to oust rivals as varied as the editor of the bishops’ daily newspaper and the man sent in to clean up the Vatican’s finances. Though Benedict is said to have turned down the cardinal’s offer of resignation in late June, the informed consensus now is that Bertone’s days are numbered. Though he may limp on into 2013, the leaks have done their corrosive work.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

[Whispers in the Loggia]

Julie Shaw
Philadelphia Daily News

Chillin’ Wit’ . . .” is a regular feature of the Daily News spotlighting a name in the news away from the job.

Rocco Palmo is only 29. The born-and-bred South Philly guy, thin at 5 feet 11 inches, is the go-to person for reporters and followers of the Catholic Church. The New York Times quoted him last month after the verdicts in the landmark Philadelphia church sex-abuse trial. So did the Washington Post. And CNN.

On Sunday afternoon, we’re sitting outside the Grindcore House coffee shop at 4th and Greenwich streets in South Philly. It’s vegan. He’s not. He’s drinking black coffee in a cappuccino-sized mug and a glass of ice water. He puffs away at his Djarum brand cigarettes.

He’s talkative. (He gets it from his mom.) Without prompting, encyclopedic knowledge about the Vatican and the Philadelphia Archdiocese flows out of him.

Palmo, Italian and Catholic, went to Masterman for middle and high schools, then studied political science at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 2004. Later that year, he started his blog, Whispers in the Loggia, now read worldwide.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Inquirer

By Michael Matza
Inquirer Staff Writer

Moments before the start of Sunday’s 8 a.m. Mass at St. Isaac Jogues Catholic Church in Chesterbrook, the Rev. Joseph Dieckhaus, clerical dean for archdiocesan parishes across northern Chester County, took to the pulpit with an important message.

“My reason for being here,” he said, “is to tell you personally: Father Harris has been found suitable for ministry.”

Scattered applause broke the silence in the modern brick-and-glass chapel as the 100 or so parishioners leaned forward for more information.

“What does that mean?” said Dieckhaus, acknowledging the unspoken question. “It means Father’s good name has been fully restored.”

The Rev. Steven Harris, 57, who led St. Isaac Jogues from 2009 to 2011, was among the 26 priests the archdiocese placed on administrative leave last year following a Philadelphia grand jury investigation into clergy sex abuse and misconduct involving children.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Der-Asso Blog

Der Moralkodex für Ordinierte im Buddhismus ist der Vinaya, zugleich der erste Teil des Pali-Kanon. Dort wird berichtet, wie sich ein bhikkhu, ein Mönch, selbst den Schwanz abschnitt, um sich von seinen sexuellen Zwängen zu befreien (Vin. II, 110). Einmal fand man in einer Straße Sâvatthis einen Penis (Vin. II, 269). Und im Upâlisutta (M. I, 383) hat der Beruf des Mannes, “der die Hoden abtrennt”, auch einen Namen: andahâraka.

Schon immer lag also auch die buddhistische Praxis im Clinch mit natürlich ausgelebter Sexualität. Und so ist es nicht verwunderlich, dass man der Meinung war, nur wer sich jeder Sexualität enthalte, würde sich ganz auf die Verwirklichung des religiösen Pfades konzentrieren können. Schließlich wurde die Annahme, Mönche hätten keinen Sex, zu einem wesentlichen Bestandteil ihres asketischen Images: Nur wer dem entsagt, was der Otto Normalverbraucher für unverzichtbar hält, verdient Respekt und eine volle Bettelschale. Da man die Sexualität aber nicht ungestraft unterdrücken kann und nur wenige impotente, asexuelle oder besonders sublimationsfähige Menschen damit klarkommen, nicht einmal Hand an sich selbst legen zu dürfen, ist das heimliche und pervertierte Sexleben von Mönchen und Nonnen vorprogrammiert.

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ROM
Radio Vatikan

Es braucht noch große Anstrengungen, damit der Kampf gegen sexuellen Missbrauch in der katholischen Weltkirche fruchtet. Vor allem die unterschiedlichen Bedingungen in den verschiedenen Ländern der Welt, unter denen entsprechende Gesetze und Maßnahmen möglich sind, stellen die Kirche vor Herausforderungen. Das betont Pater Hans Zollner, Leiter des psychologischen Institutes der päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana und Mitorganisator der großen Vatikankonferenz über Missbrauch vom vergangenen Februar in Rom. In diesen Tagen war bekanntgeworden, dass knapp die Hälfte aller nationalen Bischofskonferenzen die vom Heiligen Stuhl verlangten Leitlinien zur Missbrauchsprävention bislang noch nicht erarbeitet hat. Pater Zollner sagte im Gespräch mit unseren italienischsprachigen Kollegen:

„Die päpstliche Universität Gregoriana hat in München ja ein Forschungsprojekt zum sexuellen Missbrauch eingerichtet (…). In diesen Tagen sind unsere Mitarbeiter in die ersten Diözesen und Länder gegangen, mit denen wir bei dem Forschungsprojekt zusammenarbeiten wollen. Sie haben Ergebnisse aus Asien, Indien und Indonesien mitgebracht, die sehr interessant sind. Wir wollen im Kampf gegen den Missbrauch vereint sein, müssen uns aber auch darüber bewusst werden, dass die Sprache, die Sensibilität und die Gesetze selbst von Kontinent zu Kontinent und von Land zu Land sehr unterschiedlich sind Deshalb braucht es zusätzliche Kraft, um die Antwort der Kirche in allen Teilen der Welt wirkungsvoller zu machen.“

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WTOV

[Montco reviewing case against cleric first reported in 2007 – Philadelphia Inquirer]

[with video]

By Philip Stahl

PHILADELPHIA, Pa.—

The Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office is investigating allegations made by a former high school student against Bishop Michael Bransfield of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

An article published Sunday reports that he fondled a Lansdale Catholic High School student in the late 1970s.

According the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia learned of the allegations in 2007 and then forwarded it to the Montgomery County prosecutor’s office.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

Editorial

The guilty verdicts in two major child sex abuse cases, and the e-mails revealing the extent of the cover-up in one of the cases, the Penn State nightmare, could be more than just examples of justice delivered — if they provide impetus for new accountability and deterrence.

The cases — the conviction of Jerry Sandusky for the sexual assault of children under his care, and the conviction of Msgr. William Lynn for helping to cover up cases of abuse by priests — contain lessons for combating abuse and the cover-ups that often follow.

Children who are sexually abused can take many years to speak about their ordeals, if they ever do. Much of the evidence for the cover-up in the Lynn case came from victims barred from bringing criminal charges or civil claims under the applicable statute of limitations.

Existing laws need to be recalibrated to make them more protective of children and less protective of adults who prey on them. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state legislative leaders have failed to heed rising calls for such reforms. But some other jurisdictions are beginning to take action.

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CONNECTICUT
Norwich Bulletin

By GREG SMITH
The Bulletin

New London, Conn. —

The former Waterford pastor who police said confessed an addiction to child pornography is due for an appearance today in New London’s Part A court for serious felonies.

The Rev. Dennis Carey, 65, turned himself in to state police July 3, a week after state and Waterford police confronted Carey with a search warrant at the rectory of the St. Paul in Chains Church on Rope Ferry Road in Waterford. Carey resigned as pastor of the church a day after police seized computer hardware from the rectory.

Police said a forensic analysis turned up 338 files of suspected child pornography on two desktop computers, two laptop computers, a USB drive and an external hard drive. Police said it included 275 images and 63 videos of boys and girls younger than 16 in sexual situations. Police said several graphic videos included children between 2 and 3 years old.

The search warrant was the culmination of an investigation into the trading of child pornography that had started months earlier in California.

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KENTUCKY
WAVE

[with video]

By Scott Adkins

SHEPHERDSVILLE, KY (WAVE) – A former church leader is out on bond after police arrested him for having sexual relations with a teenager. Investigators said the abuse happened at the Trinity Life Center Church and the man’s home.

Bryan Dockery, 26, faces numerous sexual abuse charges including sodomy after allegedly having sexual contact with a 15-year-old boy. Shepherdsville police told WAVE 3 the sex crimes began in August 2011 and continued until June of 2012.

Trinity’s pastor declined to comment or go on-camera when WAVE 3’s crew contacted him and the congregation Sunday.

According to police documents, Dockery worked as the youth director at the church where the boy attended. Church personnel who answered a phone called Sunday confirmed Dockery is no longer with the church.

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KENTUCKY
Lex 18

A former Bullitt County church youth leader faces sex charges.

Bryan Dockery, 26, served as the youth director at Trinity Life Center in Shepherdsville. Investigators say a 15-year-old boy says he and Dockery had sexual relations at the church and at Dockery’s home between August 2011 and June 2012.

Police say they are still trying to figure out if any other boys were involved with Dockery.

Police charged Dockery with three counts of third-degree sodomy and eight counts of first-degree sexual abuse.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

[with video]

Updated July 09, 2012

After 4 Corners uncovered evidence that leaders of the Catholic Church in Australia knew about incidents of abuse, Auxillary Bishop Julian Porteous responded from the pulpit.

Adam Harvey

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The aftershocks from the latest sex abuse scandal continue to shake the Catholic Church. Archbishop George Pell is under growing pressure over conflicting accounts senior clergy have given about the confessions of the priest known as Father F.

Tonight another victim has come forward to 7.30 to describe the abuse he endured at the hands of the disgraced former priest.

Adam Harvey reports the man’s family reported the matter to the Church hierarchy, but nothing was done.

ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: The spiritual heart of Sydney’s Catholic community, St Mary’s Cathedral. It’s Sunday mass and the pews are full. If ever the spirits of the faithful needed lifting, it’s now.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

By Phil Vinter

PUBLISHED: 04:28 EST, 9 July 2012

A respected spiritual leader allegedly conducted a two year sexual relationship with a 12-year-old girl.

Gordon Solomon, from Inglewood in Los Angeles, is accused of sending ‘sexually charged’ texts and emails and meeting the young girl, a member of Christ’s Community Church, at various locations.

Charges were laid against the minister when the mother of the victim allegedly discovered at least one explicit text message from Solomon and contacted the police.

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AUSTRALIA
Donnybrook Mail

JAMES ROBERTSON
09 Jul, 2012

THE Vatican’s most senior representative in Australia failed to co-operate with a government inquiry into child sexual abuse in Ireland and once invoked diplomatic immunity in a civil suit in which a victim was suing the church.

Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto assumed the job of apostolic nuncio in 2008, a role equivalent to the Vatican’s ambassador.

He had served in the same role in Ireland but left before the government released an inquiry into sexual abuse in the Dublin archdiocese, the 2009 Murphy Report. The report criticised Archbishop Lazzarotto for not responding to a 2007 request to provide the inquiry with evidence of abuse.

Colm O’Gorman, a former Irish senator and now the executive director of Amnesty International in Ireland, told the Herald Archbishop Lazzarotto invoked diplomatic immunity, which caused him to drop a lawsuit against the Vatican.

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AUSTRALIA
The Telegraph

AAP
July 09, 2012

A former priest at the centre of sex abuse claims aired on the ABC has been named on Fairfax Radio in Victoria.

BROADCASTER Derryn Hinch on Monday revealed the identity of the man, known as “Father F”, who was the subject of a Four Corners report alleging the Catholic Church had been involved in the cover-up of sexual abuse.

Fairfax Radio cut its online feed at 4pm (AEST) for legal reasons.

Hinch gave some details of the NSW man’s address and work.

“He’s still living a good life untouched by the law in spite of his crimes,” Hinch said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

July 9, 2012

Barney Zwartz

Abuse victims have derided prayers for them offered at a Mass in Sydney’s Catholic cathedral yesterday as hypocritical and an empty gesture designed to keep donations coming.

“This is the ultimate hypocrisy,” said Nicky Davis, a victim and spokeswoman for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, about the prayers offered by Sydney Bishop Julian Porteous at St Mary’s Cathedral.

“Victims do not see this as a genuine attempt to help us, nor that its intended audience is victims at all. We are being used to make those Catholics still attending Mass feel like something is being done to help victims so that they don’t stop funding the church in protest,” Ms Davis said.

At the Mass, Bishop Porteous said the sexual abuse of children was a “most heinous crime’’ because of the damage it did to victims and their families, and was worse if the abuser represented the Church and was in a unique position of trust.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Times

Published: Monday, July 09, 2012

It probably would be a fair statement to say that in the last 10 years, there hasn’t been much love lost between the Philadelphia District Attorney and officials in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

In 2003, after the clerical sexual abuse scandal broke nationwide as a result of the 2002 child molestation conviction of a Boston priest, then-Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham launched a grand jury investigation.

Two years later her grand jury report revealed that 63 priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia allegedly abused children as far back as the 1940s. Forty-three of them had ties to Delaware County. None could be criminally charged because the state’s statute of limitations, which has since been expanded, had expired.

The report documented repeated transfers of suspected pedophile priests from one parish to another, giving them access to more, unsuspecting children. The grand jury members noted that much of the abuse occurred under the watch of Cardinal John Krol while he headed the archdiocese from 1961 to 1988 and his successor, Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, who they maintained used his legal expertise to further bury the abuse and shield the archdiocese from lawsuits. Bevilacqua, a civil and canon law attorney who was Philadelphia’s archbishop from 1988 to 2003, told the grand jury he did not turn suspected child abusers over to police simply because Pennsylvania law did not require him to.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – 7.30

[with video]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 09/07/2012
Reporter: Adam Harvey

A new claim of abuse adds to questions being asked of the Catholic Church’s reaction to the issue, even as Sydney’s Auxillary Bishop Julian Porteous gave his response from the pulpit.

Transcript
LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The aftershocks from the latest sex abuse scandal continue to shake the Catholic Church. Archbishop George Pell is under growing pressure over conflicting accounts senior clergy have given about the confessions of the priest known as Father F.

Tonight another victim has come forward to 7.30 to describe the abuse he endured at the hands of the disgraced former priest.

Adam Harvey reports the man’s family reported the matter to the Church hierarchy, but nothing was done.

ADAM HARVEY, REPORTER: The spiritual heart of Sydney’s Catholic community, St Mary’s Cathedral. It’s Sunday mass and the pews are full. If ever the spirits of the faithful needed lifting, it’s now.

JULIAN PORTEOUS, AUXILIARY BISHOP: Once again, sadly the crime of sexual abuse of children has been raised. This is the most heinous crime.

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AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

AAP
July 09, 2012

A FORMER priest at the centre of sex abuse claims aired on the ABC has been named by controversial broadcaster Derryn Hinch.

Hinch – who was recently released from home detention for breaching suppression orders to name two sex offenders – revealed the identity of the man, known as “Father F”, on Victorian Fairfax radio station 3AW.

“Father F” was the subject of a Four Corners report alleging the Catholic Church had been involved in the cover-up of sexual abuse.

Fairfax Radio cut its online feed at 4pm (AEST) for legal reasons.

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AUSTRALIA
Northern Star

9th July 2012

THE alleged paedophile priest dubbed Father F who featured on the ABC’s Four Corners program on Monday twice visited a former Lismore priest at Tweed Heads also accused of child abuse.

The Northern Star has learnt that Father F, as he is known for legal reasons, visited Father Paul Rex Brown at his Tweed Heads rectory in the early 80s and in 1987.

Father Brown, who died in 2005 and was convicted of child pornography offences in 1996, was accused by former street kid Eric Fleissig of abusing him at Tweed Heads’ Futcher House youth refuge between 1982 and 1985.

Mr Fleissig could not be contacted this week but he told The Northern Star in 2008 that he reported Father Brown’s abuse to church officials at the time who interrogated him and another boy before asking them to leave the church’s care.

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UNITED STATES
Recovery Memory Project

Child sexual abuse has recently been the focus of three high-profile stories. Most prominently, former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of sexually assaulting 10 different boys since 1998. Most dramatically, Msrg. William Lynn became the highest ranking official in the Catholic Church to be convicted of a crime connected to covering-up the sexual abuse of children by priests. Most controversially, the New York Times published a long story about sexual abuse by teachers, none of whom had been charged in court, at the Horace Mann School.

A recent editorial in the New York Times focused on one lesson that ties all three stories together: “the reality of late uncovering of child sexual abuse.” For psychological and emotional reasons, victims of sexual abuse often delay reporting their abuse. The law can recognize these realities by extending the statute of limitations to allow for civil and criminal cases to go forward in adulthood. But New York state law does not permit this. Their “egregiously short statute of limitations,” as the Times put it, “tilts the legal playing field against accountability, fairness and public safety.”

The New York legislature needs to do what the Pennsylvania legislature did years ago: extend the statute of limitations well into adulthood. Had that not occurred in Pennsylvania, the Sandusky case could not have gone forward. Neither could the case against Mrsg. Lynn. The state would have been as powerless to act as prosecutors in New York are now that a former Horace Mann teacher has admitted to sexually abusing students, adding weight to a story that some criticized for focusing only on teachers who are deceased.

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CALIFORNIA
Patch

By Julianna Crisalli

During Fr. Timothy Ramaekers first weekend as priest of Corpus Christi Catholic Church in Aliso Viejo, protesters lined the street with signs that read, “Protect Our Children,” “Pedophile Priest Raped my Brother” and “Matthew’s 9/11 Moment Lasted 4 Years.”

The group of 35-40 picketers are family and friends of Matthew, a man who claimed to have recovered repressed memories of sexual abuse by four priests and one layperson from 1978-86 at St. Justin Martyr in Anaheim. Ramaekers was one of the accused priests.

“I have been accused of sexual misconduct with a minor,” Ramaekers said during his Sunday service. “No credible evidence to support the allegations of the plaintiff could be found. At no time have I been removed from ministry or placed on administrative leave.”

Wide discrepancies and factual inaccuracies made during the investigation determined that the accusations made against Ramaekers were false, according to church documents.

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CONNECTICUT
My Fox New York

WATERFORD, Conn. (AP) – Bishop Michael R. Cote of the Diocese of Norwich says he has started the process of dismissing a Waterford priest after he was charged with possessing child pornography.

The Day of New London published on its website (http://bit.ly/L2dukU ) a letter on Saturday from Cote to parishioners that the diocese has begun the process to dismiss the Rev. Dennis Carey from the clerical state. A diocese spokesman confirmed that Cote wrote the letter.

The bishop said he also will offer to send Carey, who had been pastor of St. Paul Church, to a residential treatment program.

The 65-year-old Carey resigned from the parish and was charged with possession of child pornography after police found suspected child pornography on computers.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

BY JOANNE MCCARTHY

09 Jul, 2012

A WOMAN whose son was sexually assaulted by a Catholic school teacher in the 1970s has disputed a Christian Brothers version of its handling of the incident, and backed calls for a Royal Commission into child sex abuse in the Catholic Church.

The woman denied any contact with Brother Anthony Peter Whelan, the principal of St Patrick’s College, Sutherland, in 1978 after her son, 13, told Brother Whelan that he was sexually assaulted by teacher Thomas Keady.

Brother Whelan went on to become director of schools for Broken Bay diocese, covering the Central Coast. He retired in March.

The woman’s statement that “we had no liaison with him whatsoever”, contradicts a Christian Brothers’ statement that Brother Whelan liaised with parents when allegations about Keady were raised with him. It also contradicts Brother Whelan’s signed statement to a church-commissioned investigator in November 2010, that he advised students to inform their parents because “parents of the boys had the right to take the matter up with the police”.

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COLOMBIA
El Pais

El pastor Álvaro José Gámez Castro, acusado de abuso sexual con varias jóvenes en el departamento de Nariño, se entregó en la noche de este sábado a la Fiscalía General de la Nación, en Bogotá.

Gámez Castro, que se puso a disposición de las autoridades acompañado por su abogado defensor, será presentado en el transcurso de las próximas horas ante un juez de control de garantías.

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COLOMBIA
El Espectador

En la noche de este sábado, se entregó en Bogotá el pastor de la secta Salem, Álvaro José Gámez Castro, a quien la Fiscalía investiga por hechos ocurridos en el departamento de Nariño, luego de que varias de sus feligreses lo acusaran de abuso sexual.

A Gámez Castro lo acompaño en la entrega su abogado defensor. En el transcurso de las próximas horas será presentado ante un Juez de Control de Garantías.

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COLOMBIA
Colombia Reports

Sunday, 08 July 2012
Adriaan Alsema

An evangelical pastor, charged with the sexual abuse of at least five members of his church, surrendered to authorities in Colombia’s capital Bogota Saturday.

Reverent Alvaro Jose Gamez, who leads an evangelical church with approximately 15,000 followers, turned himself in after being accused by five women who say they were forced to be his sex slaves.

According to Cali newspaper El Pais, the religious leader sexually abused at least 27 women, most of them minors.

One of the victims told authorities she had been sexually abused by Gamez for eight years.

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