ABUSE TRACKER

HOUSTON (TX)
KTRH

By NIK RAJKOVIC

A local woman accuses Methodist preacher Kendall Graham abused her for years and says church officials did nothing to stop it. She’s seeking $25 million in damages.

Referred to as Jane Doe in court documents, the victim claims Graham and his wife invited her move in with them when she was 10-years-old after her mother died, but by age 14 the pastor was sexually abusing her.

Graham and his wife eventually divorced, the victim gave birth to her own child then married her abuser.

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UNITED STATES
Voice from the Desert

Road to Recovery, Inc.
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D.
Co-founder and President

Paul Kendrick of Freeport, Maine, who has championed the cause of dozens of sexual abuse victims of Doug Perlitz at the Haiti-based Project Pierre Toussaint has been served with a subpoena by the lawyer for Fr. Paul Carrier, SJ, one of the principals of the project, former Campus Minister of Fairfield University and Chairperson of the Haiti Fund where the project was birthed and sustained.

The subpoena commands Mr. Kendrick to produce documents, electronically stored information, etc. regarding communications between the abuse victims and Mr. Kendrick in a civil lawsuit filed on behalf of 21 Haitian victims in Connecticut federal court.

Road to Recovery wishes to express its support of Paul Kendrick in his confidential and protected work with courageous and damaged Haiti victims, and its outrage over the request of a lawyer to secure information from those victims and their advocate.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

Barney Zwartz
March 10, 2012

THE state government must stop stalling over an independent inquiry into the Catholic Church’s handling of sexual abuse and hold one ”immediately”, victims and advocates said yesterday.

Last October Attorney-General Robert Clark was able to defer several separate demands for an independent inquiry by asking Justice Philip Cummins to consider some questions as part of his inquiry into vulnerable children in Victoria. His report, released last week, unequivocally urged a specific inquiry.

Advocate and author Chrissie Foster said victims were being re-abused, bullied and paid a pittance under the Catholic Church’s own processes. Only an independent inquiry could give victims a true sense of justice.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Michael O’Malley, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Bishop Richard Lennon of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese did not follow church law or procedures when he closed St. Patrick Church in Cleveland’s West Park neighborhood nearly two years ago, according to a Vatican decree. (StPats.pdf)

The decree was publicly disclosed Thursday at a news conference held by St. Patrick parishioners who appealed to the Vatican when Lennon closed the church.

The decree, which reversed Lennon’s decision, was emailed to St. Patrick parishioners by their lawyer in Rome Wednesday. Twelve other Northeast Ohio parishes also won their appeals, but most are awaiting official word from Rome.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
dotCommonweal

March 8, 2012

Posted by Paul Moses

Back in July, Cleveland’s Bishop Richard Lennon welcomed a Vatican inquiry into his decision to close parishes, and interpreted it as a review of his leadership of the diocese. “This visit will be an opportunity to gather extensive information on all aspects of the activities of the Diocese and will allow for an objective assessment of my leadership,” he said.

The result is a startling decision [PDF from Cleveland Plain-Dealer] to reverse Bishop Lennon’s closure of 13 parishes. As the FutureChurch organization put it, “This is a landmark decision. For the first time the Vatican has powerfully upheld the rights of Catholics to have an appropriate voice in determining the future of their parish by overruling a diocesan bishop’s decision to suppress 13 parishes.”

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WKYC

Written by
Eric Mansfield

CLEVELAND — A letter from the Vatican to Bishop Richard Lennon seems to spell out mistakes the Church feels the Bishop made in closing a local parish.

The three-page letter — obtained by Channel 3 — upholds the appeal of St. Patrick Church, which was forced to close along with dozens of other parishes between 2009 and 2010.

In the letter, the Vatican find the Cleveland Diocese did not validate its case for closure writing “The Bishop of Cleveland, even after being advised of these shortfalls by the Congregation’s letter … declined to clarify the matter either by allowing the Church to remain open for divine worship and the devotion of the faithful, or by following the procedure for relegation.”

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Zanesville Times Recorder

CLEVELAND (AP) — Critics of church closings in the Cleveland Catholic Diocese want the bishop to implement an extraordinary Vatican ruling and reopen 13 churches.

The calls came Thursday from an outspoken opponent of the closings, Patricia Schulte-Singleton, and the group FutureChurch, which promotes a stronger voice for lay Catholics.

Bishop Richard Lennon must decide whether to abide by the ruling from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy or appeal it.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Columbus Dispatch

By Michael O’Malley
THE PLAIN DEALER

Friday March 9, 2012

CLEVELAND — Bishop Richard Lennon of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese did not follow church law or procedures when he closed St. Patrick Church in the city’s West Park neighborhood nearly two years ago, according to a Vatican decree.

The decree was publicly disclosed yesterday at a news conference held by St. Patrick parishioners, who had appealed to the Vatican when Lennon closed the church.

The decree, which reversed Lennon’s decision, was emailed to St. Patrick parishioners by their lawyer in Rome on Wednesday. Twelve other northeastern Ohio parishes also won their appeals, but most are awaiting official word from Rome.

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LORAIN (OH)
Chronicle-Telegram

Filed by Chronicle-Telegram Staff March 9th, 2012

LORAIN — The former St. Mary Church is not among the churches whose closings and mergers have been overturned by the Vatican, according to most of those fighting to reverse decisions of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland.

A story in Thursday’s Chronicle-Telegram reported that St. Mary — now known as Mary, Mother of God Parish — was among those churches affected.

Patricia Schulte-Singleton, who leads the Endangered Catholics group, said the former St. Mary wasn’t among the 13 churches affected. Christine Schenk, with the group FutureChurch, also said that as far as she knew St. Mary wouldn’t be affected by the Vatican decisions.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Catholic Insider

BCI is on a lighter blogging schedule in March due to other pressing responsibilities.

Last weekend, Boston Catholics were treated to the sales pitch during Masses for the launch of the 2012 Catholic Appeal. Here are a few aspects about the appeal that BCI thought faithful Catholics should know and Vicar General Msgr. Deeley might want to dig into a little more, for the sake of the future of the archdiocese.

o The 2011 Catholic Appeal raised $13.7M, against their goal announced in April 2011 of $14M. Unfortunately, they missed their goal in 2011 for the second year in a row. No explanation was provided for the 2011 miss.

o The 2010 Catholic Appeal raised $13M. That was down 14% or $2M from 2009, when the appeal raised $15M.

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YAKIMA (WA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by John Shuster on March 08, 2012

We’re here for three reasons – to help protect the vulnerable, help heal the wounded, and help deter future child sex crimes and cover ups.

We’re helping protecting the vulnerable by warning parents, parishioners and the public about a credibly accused child molesting church employee: James Moritz.

We’re helping the wounded by reaching out to anyone who’s been hurt by James Moritz or Fr. John Tholen and who’s suffering in shame, silence and self blame

We’re helping to deter child sex crimes and cover ups by exposing the truth and showing wrongdoers that, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, “No lie lives forever.” If you think you can successfully keep child sex crimes hidden forever, think again. The days of cowardly Catholics and frightened victims are increasingly over.

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UNITED STATES
Huffington Post

By David Gibson
Religion News Service

(RNS) In the weeks since President Obama proposed a compromise on his plan to mandate free contraception coverage, the nation’s Catholic bishops have appeared unified and galvanized in their thorough rejection of the accommodation.

For the hierarchy, it’s been an invigorating change after years of playing defense during the clergy sexual abuse crisis.

“What (Obama) offered was next to nothing,” a confident New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, told Catholic News Service.

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

David Quinn: The vast majority of abuse allegations received today relate to incidents that date back at least 10 years, usually more

Friday March 09 2012

A COUPLE of years ago I was interviewed by SBS, an Australian TV channel, about the situation of the Catholic Church in Ireland and specifically about the vocations crisis.

I said it was worse than a crisis, that it was a catastrophe and that Ireland was one of the vocations black spots of the world, which it is. I went on to add some context and nuance to this but that was all left out in the edit. All that was used was me talking about the catastrophe. I should have known better.

This is what happens when you agree to give interviews that are later subject to editing. In my case, it doesn’t matter a whole lot, but if you are in a position of real responsibility and authority you have to be extremely careful what you say.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin was interviewed about the abuse crisis by ’60 Minutes’, produced by CBS News in the US. His remarks were widely reported.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Times Herald

By KEITH PHUCAS
kphucas@timesherald.com

COURTHOUSE — The late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua died of natural causes with a nurse by his side, and nothing was suspicious about his death, according to Montgomery County Coroner Dr. Walter Hofman.

Bevilacqua, 88, died on Jan. 31, a day after a Philadelphia court ruled him competent to testify in a priest child endangerment case. Hofman performed a postmortem examination on the body a day later at the request of District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman, who wanted to be certain nothing untoward occurred to cause the cardinal’s death.

The coroner said he would not ordinarily have performed a forensic examination on Bevilacqua, considering his advanced age.

“It is my opinion there is no relationship between the judge’s competency ruling and his Eminence’s subsequent sudden death,” Hofman said. “Elderly people (often) suddenly die. This is a natural death.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

BY REGINA MEDINA
Philadelphia Daily News
medinar@phillynews.com 215-854-5985

IN THE END, Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua’s death can’t invoke nefarious comparisons to that not-quite-a-classic movie “The Godfather Part III.”
Nor the real-life death of Pope John Paul I, who died 33 days into his papacy in 1978.

In the 1990 flick, a newly elected pope is the victim of foul play – something Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman has wanted to rule out in the Bevilacqua case since the 88-year-old cardinal died Jan. 31 in Wynnewood.

The late cardinal died of natural causes – heart disease, with prostate cancer as a contributing factor, coroner Walter I. Hofman announced at a news conference yesterday.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
Inquirer Staff Writer

Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua died of natural causes, not for any reason related to the looming conspiracy and sex-abuse trial of one of his former top aides, the Montgomery County coroner said Thursday.

Ending weeks of speculation, Coroner Walter I. Hofman blamed the 88-year-old cardinal’s Jan. 31 death on routine factors: heart disease, prostate cancer, and old age.

“This is a natural death,” Hofman told reporters at his Norristown office. “Elderly people with preexisting disease often die quite suddenly.”

Hofman released his ruling after toxicology tests showed no inappropriate amounts of medication or chemicals in Bevilacqua’s system when he died.

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NEDERLAND
Limburgs Dagblad

Enkele parochianen van de Maastrichtse Koepelkerk hebben een stichting opgericht voor de op non-actief gestelde pastoor Jan S. De stichting ‘Bezieling wil je delen’ wil financiële ondersteuning aan de onlangs in opspraak geraakte pastoor bieden.

Maastricht
door onze verslaggeefster

S. is voorlopig geschorst door het bisdom Roermond omdat tegen hem een klachtenprocedure loopt bij het meldpunt seksueel misbruik RKK. Drie oud-leerlingen van jongensinternaat Blijerheide claimen dat de huidige pastoor zich in de jaren zestig, toen hij daar als broeder werkte, aan seksueel misbruik schuldig heeft gemaakt. Het bisdom heeft standaard beleid dat als er nog een officieel onderzoek naar een van zijn geestelijken loopt, diegene voorlopig niet zijn functie bij een kerk of parochie. mag uitoefenen. Het geld dat ‘Bezieling wil je delen’ inzamelt is vooral bedoeld voor advocatenkosten, bevestigt Jozeph van der Leegte namens de stichting. “Er moet sprake zijn van persoonsverwisseling. Wij hopen vooral dat hij snel gerehabiliteerd kan worden”, aldus Van der Leegte. Hij bestrijdt dat er een risico bestaat dat er nu een stichting wordt opgericht voor een pastoor die wellicht toch iets op zijn kerfstok heeft. “Wij weten zeker dat hij het niet gedaan heeft.”

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MINNESOTA
Bemidji Pioneer

Unconditional bond in the amount of $1 million has been set in the case of a former Lake George pastor facing 15 counts of criminal sexual conduct with a teenager.

Darwin Frederick Schauer, 70, the longtime pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church of Lake George, was arraigned Wednesday on the charges in Hubbard County District Court. He served in Lake George from 1998, when the church merged with Immanuel in Cass Lake, until about six years ago.

The conduct, including sexual intercourse, is alleged to have begun in 2009, after he left Trinity, according to the criminal complaint. Schauer currently resides in Laporte.

Schauer is charged with six counts of first degree criminal sexual conduct, each punishable by a maximum of 30 years in jail and/or a $40,000 fine; two counts of second degree criminal sexual conduct, each carrying a maximum of 25 yeas and/or a $30,000 fine and seven counts of third degree criminal sexual conduct. Those charges are each punishable by a maximum of 15 years in jail and/or a $30,000 fine upon conviction.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

by Tim Drake

Wednesday, as I attempted to link to several Vatican web pages in my “Contraception Inception Deception” blog post, I repeatedly received error messages that the site was unavailable. Little did I know that the Vatican was under attack. Cyber-attack, that is.

Catholic News Agency/EWTN reports that a loose-knit group of hackers known as “Anonymous” attacked and brought down the Vatican website on March 7.

According to an entry on the “Anonymous” Italy blog site, the attack was in response to the “doctrines, liturgies and the absurd and anachronistic precepts” that the Church spreads worldwide, citing the sexual abuse of children, and various historical and other alleged misdeeds. The hackers also objected to the Catholic stance against abortion and contraceptives.

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ALASKA
Alaska Dispatch

Alex DeMarban | Mar 08, 2012

Presbyterian leaders who believe old church practices caused decades of cultural harm plan to deliver an unusual face-to-face apology to a Yup’ik village on a Bering Sea island.

This weekend in Gambell, the officials will “seek reconciliation” for past cultural abuses, such as attempting to stamp out the Native language and traditional dancing and drumming as part of a decades-long assimilation campaign that began more than a century ago, said Curtis Karns, a top church official with the Presbytery of the Yukon.

Church efforts prompted villagers who became Christians to speak against their own heritage, said Karns.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Rutland & Stamford Mercury

Published on Thursday 8 March 2012

A former Worcestershire council leader and church minister who “used his positions of power and trust to sexually abuse vulnerable females” has admitted indecently assaulting a teenage girl, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

George Lord, 79, from Bromsgrove, pleaded guilty to three counts of indecent assault on a girl under the age of 16, during a hearing at Birmingham Crown Court.

The crimes were committed in 1977, when he was a church minister in Droitwich.

The pensioner, ex-leader of Worcestershire County Council, had denied the charges and was due to face trial later this month, but changed his plea during a pre-trial hearing this afternoon.

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MINNESOTA
KSAX

PARK RAPIDS, Minn. (KSAX) – A former Lake George pastor is in custody, charged with having sex with a 15-year-old girl.

Seventy-year-old Darwin Schauer of Laporte was arrested this week on 15 charges of criminal sexual conduct after allegedly having sex with a girl since 2009, when she was 15 years old.

According to the criminal complaint, the victim felt threatened by Schauer to have sex with him, and she said that it happened twice a week.

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IOWA
KETV

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — A mother who has to tell her children that their father is a sexual predator expresses courage and condemnation.

Brent Girouex was once a church elder, then a youth pastor, but he is now a convicted sex offender.

Girouex pleaded guilty to sexual abuse in the third degree. He also entered an Alford plea on two counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist, admitting prosecutors had enough evidence to find him guilty. One charge is a felony, and the other is a misdemeanor.

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YAKIMA (WA)
KAPP

By David Mance

A Yakima man claims the Catholic Diocese of Yakima protected two church employees, who allegedly abused two boys at local churches more than 40 years ago.

Robert Fontana is part of a national advocacy group called S.N.A.P. He says one of the men, a former choir director, was working at Saint Paul’s Church when he abused one of the children.

Fontana says names of the choir director and a priest appear on a diocese list of clergy and church employees believed to have abused children.

“We’re reaching out to the public, to invite those victims who are abused by these men, to come corth and tell their stories, to get help, get counseling,” says Fontana.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: March 08, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — The Roman Catholic church in Philadelphia is preparing to release updates on the fate of about two dozen suspended priests accused of sexual abuse.

The investigations began one year ago after a blistering grand jury report.

In a news column Thursday, Archbishop Charles Chaput (SHAP’-yoo) says “justice requires a resolution of these men’s circumstances.”

Chaput says he hopes to release the findings on most of the suspended priests within eight weeks. But a gag order in a related criminal case could limit what he can say.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Church Times

by Madeleine Davies

TWO retired priests have been arrested, after an investigation into allegations of child abuse in the diocese of Chichester.

Canon Gordon Rideout was arrested on Tuesday at his home near Eastbourne, on sus­picion of sexual assaults committed against nine young people in Crawley, West Sussex; Barking­side, in north-east London; and Middle Wallop, Hampshire, between 1965 and 1972.

On the same morning, Robert Coles, a former parish priest, was arrested at his home in Eastbourne on suspicion of sexual assaults against three young men in West Sussex during the late 1970s and mid-1980s.

Sussex Police have been investigating allega­tions of abuse for six months, after they received a confidential review of allegations against Church of England priests, conducted by Baroness Butler-Sloss (News, 27 May, 22 July 2011). Although several of the allegations had previously been reported to the police, there was insufficient evidence to justify prosecution at those times, Sussex Police said.

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CANADA
National Post

Sarah Boesveld

Cindy Blanchette was a little girl when she attended a ceremony renaming the local arena in Cap-Pelé, N.B., after a prominent local priest. An image of the elderly man of honour, Father Camille Léger ­— his legs amputated due to gangrene — is burned in her memory, as are the whispers of whether he deserved the honour.

“I remember saying, ‘Look at him, doing great things for the community,’” said Ms. Blanchette, a lifelong resident of the Acadian fishing village. “And I remember my Dad saying, ‘He’s not such a great man for what he did to those kids.’”

Léger, who served in the Ste Therese d’Avila Roman Catholic parish in Cap-Pelé from 1957-1980, has been dead for over 20 years. But the muted rumours of sexual abuse became very public this week after the village council announced it will hold a plebiscite during the May 14 municipal election about whether to change the arena’s name from Aréna Père-Camille-Léger to Aréna de Cap-Pelé.

A committee made up of Knights of Columbus and current parishioners at the Catholic church came to council recently and asked Léger’s name be removed over allegations of child abuse, said deputy mayor Hector Doiron.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Lodi News-Sentinel

By Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel Staff Writer

STOCKTON — The 37-year-old man suing popular Lockeford priest Michael Kelly told a jury Thursday that Kelly sexually assaulted him at least twice while babysitting him and his younger sister.

The plaintiff, who claims his memory of the alleged sexual abuse came back to him about January 2006, will continue his testimony on Friday morning. Cross-examination by attorneys for Kelly and the Stockton Diocese will follow, probably on Friday.

Kelly, pastor of St. Joachim’s Catholic Church in Lockeford since 2004, will not be allowed to answer the allegations against him until the plaintiff’s side finishes its case. It will be next week or even later before Kelly takes the witness stand.

On the first episode, the plaintiff testified, Kelly was babysitting him and his sister at their home in Stockton. The plaintiff was a fifth-grader at the time. While the sister was in another room, he testified, Kelly pulled down the pants portion of his pajamas while lying on the floor watching TV, touched and fondled him. When his parents returned home, the plaintiff testified, Kelly told them, “I didn’t expect you home so soon. Next time, stay out longer.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
Inquirer Staff Writer

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said Thursday that he hoped to complete within two months an Archdiocese of Philadelphia review of nearly two dozen Catholic priests suspended last year over past accusations of sexual abuse or misconduct around children.

“Our ability to act on these cases has been limited by a number of stubborn legal and practical factors,” Chaput wrote in his weekly newsletter. “But some of these cases are very near conclusion. My hope is that most will be completed and announced over the next eight weeks.”

The archbishop did not elaborate. Archdiocesan officials have steadfastly declined to discuss the cases.

Chaput’s remarks came a year to the day after his predecessor, Cardinal Justin Rigali, ordered 21 priests removed from active ministry while church officials reexamined complaints against them.

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NEW JERSEY
Courier-Post

Written by
JIM WALSH
Courier-Post Staff

TRENTON — A South Jersey legislator has introduced a bill that would allow more time for victims of child sex abuse to sue their assailants.

The measure, which would end a current two-year statute of limitation for such civil suits, is part of a three-bill package proposed by Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald, D-Voorhees.

The proposed legislation also would require more training for school employees and others to recognize and report the signs of child sexual abuse. Among other changes, it would toughen criminal penalties for child sexual abuse and would expand the category of people liable for “knowingly permitting or acquiescing” to the offense.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Stockton Record

By Jennie Rodriguez-Moore
Record Staff Writer

March 09, 2012

STOCKTON – He remembers receiving extra attention. Feeling special. Feeling favored by the Rev. Michael Kelly, a local priest then at Stockton’s Cathedral of the Annunciation.

But he also links darker memories to Kelly.

“Both of the times I remember him babysitting (me), he sexually abused me,” a 37-year-old Fairfax man, identified in court documents as John TZ Doe, said in a civil trial Thursday.

The former Annunciation altar boy is suing Kelly and the Diocese of Stockton for damages based on repressed memories of sex abuse during the 1980s he said he recovered in 2006.

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JAMAICA
Jamaica Observer

Friday, March 09, 2012

FALMOUTH, Trelawny — An Anglican priest who has been charged by the Trelawny police with two counts of carnal abuse was yesterday morning granted bail when he appeared in the Falmouth Resident Magistrate’s Court.

Resident Magistrate Icolyn Reid granted the priest bail in the sum of $400,000 and demanded that as a part of his bail condition he surrender his travel documents. The clergyman is required to report at the Clark’s Town Police Station at 7:00 am on Mondays and Fridays.

Additionally, the court also recommended that he not offer any counselling to young ladies until a conclusion of the matter.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Six months ago this week (March 8), I began my service as Archbishop of Philadelphia. One of the reasons I write this weekly column is to speak directly and freely to our clergy and people. Today is a good time to reflect on the work that’s been done so far to resolve the challenges facing the Archdiocese, and the work – a great deal of work – that still remains.

As I’ve noted in the past, when I arrived in Philadelphia I began a comprehensive financial and legal review of our archdiocesan operations. That process has been thorough and sobering. It will continue for several more months. But today we do have a far better sense of our limited resources and the scope of our problems. I’ve shared this information in detail with our Priests’ Council, our Archdiocesan Finance Council and our newly formed Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, which I’ll focus on in my column next week. Going forward, all three of these key advisory bodies will have regular, accurate briefings on the issues we face as a Church.

In the months since last September, we’ve reorganized our legal representation; hired a new and very capable chief financial officer; developed new internal financial controls; begun the work of improving our business policies, personnel and procedures; brought the Blue Ribbon Commission’s important work to conclusion; started a new education foundation; and carried out a difficult — but necessary and fair — appeals process for schools slated to regionalize or close.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
York Dispatch

The Associated Press
Updated: 03/08/2012

PHILADELPHIA—The Roman Catholic church in Philadelphia is preparing to release updates on the fate of about two dozen suspended priests accused of sexual abuse.

The investigations began one year ago after a blistering grand jury report.

In a news column Thursday, Archbishop Charles Chaput (SHAP’-yoo) says “justice requires a resolution of these men’s circumstances.”

Chaput says he hopes to release the findings on most of the suspended priests within eight weeks. But a gag order in a related criminal case could limit what he can say.

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WAUKESHA (WI)
Fox 6

[with video]

by Ben Handelman

WAUKESHA — A former Lutheran church official, accused of having child pornography, is close to a plea deal. Joel Hochmuth was in Waukesha County court Thursday, March 8th.

A plea deal is in place, but Hochmuth’s attorney said they needed more time to review it. A plea hearing is now set for Friday morning, March 9th.

Prosecutors say Hochmuth had pictures and videos of young boys in sex acts. He was fired from his post at the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, where he served as Director of Communications.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

Mar. 08, 2012
By Matthew Gambino, Catholic News Service

PHILADELPHIA — Suspicion surrounding the death of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, former archbishop of Philadelphia, has been laid to rest with a Thursday coroner’s report that he died of natural causes Jan. 31 at St. Charles Seminary in Wynnewood.

“Elderly people with pre-existent natural disease often die quite suddenly,” Montgomery County Coroner Walter I. Hofman said Thursday at news conference at his office in Norristown.

Bevilacqua, 88, had been living at the seminary since his retirement in 2003.

Hofman said the cardinal had received excellent care for prostate cancer and dementia, and toxicology tests revealed normal levels of medications to treat the conditions.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Chicago Tribune

By David Zucchino

Conspiracy theories worthy of a Dan Brown novel arose in Philadelphia last month after a local prosecutor said she considered the Jan. 31 death of the city’s 88-year-old Roman Catholic cardinal “peculiar.”

Relax.

A suburban Philadelphia coroner announced Thursday that there was nothing peculiar, or even suspicious, about the death of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

“Elderly people often die suddenly,” Montgomery County Coroner Walter I. Hofman told a news conference. “This is a natural death.”

Montgomery County Dist. Atty. Risa Vetri Ferman had asked the coroner to review the cardinal’s death, though she said she had no particular reason to suspect foul play.

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VATICAN CITY
The Economist

Mar 10th 2012 | ROME

On March 7th, Anonymous, a hackers’ network, took credit for temporarily bringing down the Vatican’s website, calling the Catholic church “corrupt” and “retrograde”. But the more dangerous attacks come from within the Holy See. Its police force, the Gendarmerie, is hunting for the source of an unprecedented string of leaks, most of them apparently intended to get Pope Benedict XVI to dismiss Tarcisio Bertone, who as secretary of state is the Vatican’s most senior official. The stakes are high. The pope will be 85 next month. And whoever is secretary of state when Benedict dies will play an important, perhaps decisive, role in choosing his successor.

Cardinal Bertone, who rose in the Vatican’s hierarchy as a close ally of Benedict’s, has many enemies within the high walls of the world’s tiniest independent state. His appointment in 2006 to head a department staffed by trained diplomats upset many who had come to expect they would be led by one of their own. But nobody, it is said, resented his promotion more than the man he replaced, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, some of whose former aides hold influential posts in the hierarchy.

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VATICAN CITY
New Zealand Herald

A fake twitter message ascribed to a top cardinal announced the death of the pope, a report immediately denied by the Vatican spokesman.

The message, in Italian, said to have been tweeted by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state and the number two at the Vatican, appeared at around 7:00 pm (7:00am NZT) announcing: “The Holy Father unexpectedly passed away this afternoon. We announce this with grief and consternation.”

It was followed by similar tweets in Spanish, English and French.

Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi immediately denied the reports, terming them “baseless” and “unworthy of attention”.

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ROLLA (MO)
The Rolla Daily News

By Shannon Beck
The Rolla Daily News

Rolla, Mo. —

The Christ Episcopal Church says they have reason to believe Father Joseph Carlo, a beloved priest working at the Rolla congregation for 30 years, committed acts of sexual abuse several children in the church.

According to Rev. Cannon Daniel Smith, who works under the church’s bishop at the Diocese of Missouri, the church recently completed an investigation involving Father Carlo.

“We believe that it (sexual abuse) has occurred,” Smith said.

The church says their internal investigation revealed five victims ranging between 10 and 18 years of age between the years of 1975 and 1985.

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WAUKESHA (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Mike Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

March 8, 2012

Waukesha – A former Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod official is expected to enter a guilty plea Friday to possession of child pornography.

Joel W. Hochmuth was scheduled for a jury trial next week, but his attorney, Paul Bucher, said during a court hearing Thursday that a plea agreement had been reached.

Hochmuth, who was the communications director for the synod, was charged in November with three counts of possession of child pornography.

Under the terms of the agreement, Hochmuth would plead guilty to one count and two counts would be dismissed but considered when Hochmuth is sentenced, Bucher said.

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OHIO
Cleveland Scene

Posted by Erich Burnett on Thu, Mar 8, 2012

The Feast of St. Patrick has come early for a 159-year-old parish on Rocky River Drive and 12 others across the Cleveland area that had been deemed needless by Bishop Richard Lennon, head of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland.

News trickled out from Rome Wednesday afternoon that Pope Benedict XVI has overturned the closing of 13 churches, part of a diocese-wide downsizing led by Lennon in 2009 and 2010. In almost each case, the displaced congregation — including St. Patrick in West Park — was instrumental in making sure the Vatican heard its pleas; some, including St. Casimir on the East Side, have held weekly vigils since their church was enshrouded in chain-link fence.

Among the churches across Cleveland and Akron given a new lease:

St. James in Lakewood
St. Patrick in West Park
St. Adalbert
St. Barbara
St. Emeric
St. Peter
St. Margaret Mary of Euclid
St. Casimir
St. Wendelin
St. Mary of Bedford
St. John the Baptist of Akron
St. Martha of Akron
St. Mary of Akron

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The Advocate

By THOMAS J. SHEERAN
Associated Press

March 08, 2012

CLEVELAND (AP) — Critics of widespread church closings in the Cleveland Catholic Diocese called Thursday for the bishop to implement an extraordinary Vatican ruling and quickly reopen 13 churches.

Bishop Richard Lennon must decide whether to abide by the ruling from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy or challenge it before the church’s top court.

Spokesman Robert Tayek said Thursday the bishop has unofficial copies of the ruling but must await certified documents from the Vatican to comment. Lennon has 60 days to appeal.

Patricia Schulte-Singleton, who leads the Endangered Catholics group that challenged the closings, called on Lennon to meet with affected parishioners and reopen the churches.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Washington Post

By Michael O’malley| Religion News Service

CLEVELAND — In an extraordinary move, the Vatican has reversed the closure of 13 churches in the Diocese of Cleveland, saying the parishes must be restored and the sanctuaries reopened for worship, according to activists who fought the closings.

The diocese and Bishop Richard Lennon, who ordered the closures as part of a downsizing plan in 2009 and 2010, could appeal the reversals.

The 13 parishes had filed appeals with the Vatican after Lennon closed 50 churches, citing changes in demographics and shortages of priests and cash.

Since the closings, parishioners have been swamping Rome with flurries of letters, arguing that their parishes were vibrant communities wrongfully snuffed out by the diocese.

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MASSACHUSETTS
Patch

John Moynihan

It was just a little over 10 years ago when the Boston Globe began publishing the series of articles on the Priest Abuse Scandal that rocked the Catholic Church and won a Pulitzer Prize for the Globe. Ten years ago you probably were convinced that the Catholic Bishops were the meanest men on earth. But ten years have past and you probably don’t give the bishops much thought today.

Let me tell you something — they still are the MEANEST MEN ON EARTH. This time their target is not young boys but the organization that has taken those survivors in, has helped to bring dignity, sanity and justice to those who have been abused. Several of them have been Swampscott residents.

Since long before the Globe began reporting their stories, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) has been in 24/7 service to the survivors (“don’t call me a victim” one survivor once told me). Just as SNAP’s work is going global with the lurid stories of abuse coming from all over the world, the Catholic Bishops of the Dioceses of Kansas City and St. Louis have begun legal actions designed to shut down SNAP.

In a recent email to supporters, Barbara Blaine, SNAP’s President wrote:

“Catholic officials are desperately trying to conceal their wrong-doing by attacking victims. They’re trying to silence victims, and others, by trying to severely weaken SNAP. In October, SNAP Director David Clohessy was served with a subpoena in Kansas City by church defense lawyers. They demanded emails, correspondence and other records (some going back 23 years) including deeply private conversations with victims, their names and the details of the abuse they suffered.

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NORRISTOWN (PA)
CBS Philly

By Brad Segall

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (CBS) — The Montgomery County coroner has the final say on the death of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua and says there was no foul play. His eminence died of natural causes in late January at the age of 88.

Doctor Walter Hofman says there’s no relationship between a Philadelphia judge’s competency ruling and the Cardinal’s sudden death less than 36 hours later.

Hofman says elderly people with pre-existing natural disease often die quite suddenly. He said the Cardinal died of heart disease and prostate cancer and his dementia was fairly advanced.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin will be characterized by humility, moderation and a renewed focus on the Eucharist as the source and nourishment of unity in the church, said the president of the Vatican committee charged with overseeing the gathering.

Archbishop Piero Marini, president of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses, said the congress June 10-17 will reflect that this year is the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, but also that Catholics in the host country, Ireland, are still reeling from the clerical sex abuse scandal and are engaged in a process of repentance and reform.

The archbishop spoke to Catholic News Service March 7 after presenting the Italian edition of “The Eucharist: Womb of the Church,” a series of theological and pastoral reflections published in preparation for the congress.

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ITALY
The Guardian (United Kingdom)

Reuters

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 8 March 2012

Italian police have broken up a paedophile network, spanning at least 28 countries, that used social media to swap pornographic images and videos of child abuse.

Ten people have been arrested in Italy, the US, France and Portugal and another 112 are being investigated on suspicion of child pornography offences, the Italian NIT computer crime police bureau said in a statement.

Police carried out raids in several countries on Thursday in what they called Operation Nanny to dismantle what NIT said was an extensive international community of paedophiles.

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NORRISTOWN (PA)
The Associated Press

By PATRICK WALTERS, Associated Press

NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A suburban Philadelphia coroner said Thursday that 88-year-old Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua died of natural causes a day after he had been ruled competent to testify at the child-endangerment trial of a longtime aide.

Officials had said Bevilacqua, who served as archbishop from 1988 to 2003, was suffering from dementia and cancer. But last month, prosecutors asked the coroner to investigate because of the timing of his death.

Bevilacqua, spiritual leader of the archdiocese’s 1.5 million Roman Catholics from 1988 to 2003, died Jan. 31 at a seminary and was laid to rest without an autopsy. He was suffering from dementia and cancer, according to church officials and his lawyers, and his death was widely assumed to be from natural causes.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
My Fox Philly

PHILADELPHIA – Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, the former Archbishop at the center of the Philadelphia clergy child sex-abuse scandal , died of natural causes, the coroner in the case said on Thursday.

Montgomery County Coroner Walter Hofman released the finding at a press conference in Norristown, Pa.

Hofman said heart disease was the primary cause of death and the prostate cancer was a contributing cause. He saw no link between the Cardinal’s death and a request that he testify in court in an abuse scandal.

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NORRISTOWN (PA)
Patch

By David Powell

Former Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua died of natural causes, Montgomery County Coroner Walter I. Hofman said Thursday afternoon.

Hofman said he found no evidence of strangulation, suffocation, or other types of wounds or injuries on Bevilacqua’s body.

Bevilacqua was on several medications, which Hofman said were found in the body in expected amounts, allowing for irregularities caused by the introduction of embalming fluid. Bevilacqua’s body was examined after it had been prepared for interment by an Upper Darby funeral home.

The official cause of death was listed as arteriosclerotic heart disease, Hofman said.

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NORRISTOWN (PA)
ABC News

By Associated Press

NORRISTOWN, Pa. March 8, 2012 (AP)

A suburban Philadelphia coroner says 88-year-old Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua died of natural causes. His death in January came the day after he had been ruled competent to testify at the child-endangerment trial of a longtime aide.

Officials had said Bevilacqua, who served as archbishop from 1988 to 2003, was suffering from dementia and cancer. But last month, prosecutors asked the coroner to investigate because of the timing of his death.

Montgomery County Coroner Walter Hofman said at a news conference Thursday that Bevilacqua had suffered from heart disease and prostate cancer.

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BEND (OR)
Catholic Sentinel

Ed Langlois
Staff Writer

BEND — Father Liam Cary, a priest of the Archdiocese of Portland, has been named the new bishop of the Baker Diocese, which covers central and eastern Oregon.

Pope Benedict’s appointment was announced March 8 in Washington by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Bishop-designate Cary, 64, succeeds Bishop Robert Vasa, who was named coadjutor bishop of Santa Rosa, Calif., in January 2011 and took over leadership of the diocese last June.

Bishop William Skylstad, retired bishop of Spokane and former president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has been serving as apostolic administrator in the Diocese of Baker, which has its headquarters in Bend.

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OREGON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on March 08, 2012

We don’t know much about newly-appointed Oregon Bishop Liam Cary. But we’re encouraged almost every time the Vatican promotes a priest rather than a chancery office staffer to higher positions. And we’re encouraged when men who have spent some adult years outside of the priesthood are elevated, because we believe it’s likely such men are slightly less caught up in an unhealthy, secretive, rigid clerical culture that dominates the Catholic hierarchy.

Bishop Cary has a tough job. His predecessor, Bishop Robert Vasa, acted recklessly, deceitfully and callously in child sex cases.

— Vasa let a Catholic deacon (Joseph Levine) who was refused ordination by a New Jersey bishop and ousted by a Pennsylvania bishop work at an Oregon parish.

— Vasa ignored our pleas to launch a vigorous public outreach campaign to warn unsuspecting families about a pedophile priest (Fr. Jose Joaquin Estrada) and a child-molesting deacon (Aaron Ramirez), both of whom lived and worked in Baker in recent years and are believed to be living in other countries now.

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HOUSTON (TX)
KHOU

[with video]

by Rucks Russell/KHOU 11 News

HOUSTON—A former United Methodist Minister is named in a multi-million dollar civil suit filed by a woman who claims that she was sexually abused for years while senior church members failed to take any action to prevent it.

“He had complete control over my mind and my body,” said the woman referred to as Jane Doe in court documents.

Doe read from a prepared statement at her Houston attorney’s office.

“We lived as husband and wife in private, but in public I had to call him daddy,” she said.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on March 08, 2012

We applaud this brave woman for coming forward and taking legal action against her alleged abuser, Pastor Kendall Graham. Putting child sex abuse accusations into the justice system is the best way to prevent children being hurt.

We are glad that Bishop Huie fired Graham when she heard about the allegations, but firing a predator is only a first step. It’s crucial that anyone who sees, suspects, or suffers clergy sex crimes reports what they know or hear to the police. Bishop Huie ought to personally seek out other victims of this predator and beg them to come forward to police.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua died of natural causes, the Montgomery County coroner said Thursday.

Coroner Walter I. Hofman said toxicology tests revealed nothing suspicious or unusual about the Jan. 31 death of the longtime leader of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

His ruling ends a month of speculation stoked when District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman asked the coroner to review the 88-year-old cardinal’s death. Ferman said she had no reason to suspect foul play, but she and others found the timing of his death “peculiar.”

Bevilacqua died a day after a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge declared that, despite claims of his failing health and mental state, he was presumed to be competent enough to testify at the forthcoming conspiracy and child-sex abuse trial of three former and current priests.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WPVI

PHILADELPHIA – March 8, 2012 (WPVI) — Action News has learned that an investigation into Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua’s death has concluded that he died from natural causes, and that no foul play was involved.

Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman ordered the review, citing the timing of the cardinal’s death on January 31st, and a ruling the previous day that he was competent to testify in the sex abuse case against two priests and a monsignor.

Ferman explained that, since the death of the former Archbishop of Philadephia happened in her jurisdiction, she thought someone should make sure there was no foul play – given the timing of his death.

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VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail (United Kingdom)

By Nick Pisa
UPDATED: 11:16 EST, 8 March 2012

Drug enforcement chiefs have for the first time identified the Vatican as a possible centre for money laundering from criminal activity.

The report by the American State Department’s International Narcotics Control Strategy lists the Holy See as one of 68 countries including Yemen, Algeria and North Korea, describing it as a ‘country of concern’ for money laundering or other financial crimes.

Officials said they had placed the Vatican on its watch list because of the ‘huge amount of cash’ that flows into the tiny city state and also because it was still unclear how effective anti money laundering legislation introduced last year by Pope Benedict XVI had been.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

Thu Mar 8, 2012 11:51am EST

* Vatican added for first time to State Department list
* Washington puts tiny state in less vulnerable list
* Vatican tries to join Europe’s ‘White List’

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY, March 8 (Reuters) – The Vatican has for the first time appeared on the U.S. State Department’s list of money-laundering centres but the tiny city-state is not rated as a high-risk country.

The 2012 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report was made public on Wednesday and Washington’s list of 190 countries classifies them in three categories: of primary concern, of concern and monitored.

The Vatican is in the second category, grouped with 67 other nations including Poland, Egypt, Ireland, Hungary and Chile.

It was added to the list because it was considered vulnerable to money-laundering and had recently established programmes to prevent it, a State Department official said.

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ITALIA
Genova Oggi Notizie

Genova – E’ una vicenda molto delicata quella che vedrebbe coinvolto padre Gianluca Depretto, 39 anni, ex rettore dell’istituto Calasanzio di Cornigliano accusato di aver fatto sesso con alcuni ragazzini. Secondo indiscrezioni, le indagini della curia nei suoi confronti sarebbero partite da una vicenda di gestione delle casse del Calasanzio: il buco nel bilancio dell’istituto dopo l’esposto presentato nei mesi scorsi da padre Ugo Barani, 72 anni, considerato la massima autorità provinciale degli Scolopi. Sospetti ammanchi motivati da fini personali, con tanto di acquisti folli, spese eccessive come conti in alberghi di lusso e altro ancora.

La Procura indaga anche per appropriazione indebita dopo la sparizione di diversi quadri della scuola Rubens.

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CHILE
El Mostrador

José Andrés Murillo, uno de los querellantes del sacerdote Fernando Karadima, se refirió a la polémica originada por el premio que recibirá el ex senador de la DC Jorge Lavandero.

Al respecto, señaló -en entrevista con Radio ADN- que “en sí, un premio me parece inofensivo, pero cuando se da un premio en el contexto de decir que ha habido un montaje para desacreditarlo y acusarlo de abuso sexual de menores, es una afrenta, es un insulto a las víctimas”.

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SCHWEIZ
Tages Woche

8.3.2012, 16:00 Uhr

Priester, denen sexuelle Übergriffe auf Kinder gebeichtet werden, sollen die Täter nicht der Polizei melden müssen. Der Nationalrat hat es am Mittwoch abgelehnt, das Beichtgeheimnis für solche Fälle aufzuheben. Von sda

Mit 121 zu 47 Stimmen bei 5 Enthaltungen lehnte er eine parlamentarische Initiative von Carlo Sommaruga (SP/GE) ab. Dieser forderte, Angriffe auf die sexuelle Freiheit Unmündiger nicht länger durch das Berufsgeheimnis von Geistlichen zu schützen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Regensburg-Digital

Der Umgang des Bistums Regensburg mit Missbrauchsopfern wird zunehmend innerhalb der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz ein Thema. Der Trierer Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann hat seinem Regensburger Amtskollegen nun einen Brief geschrieben. „Es gibt Dinge, die nachdenklich stimmen“, sagt er dazu gegenüber einer Trierer Zeitung.

Dr. Stephan Ackermann kann einem leid tun. Als Missbrauchsbeauftragter der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz (DBK) ist er immer wieder erste Anlaufstelle, wenn Amtskollegen in anderen Diözesen wegen ihres Umgangs mit Missbrauchsopfern in die Kritik geraten. Doch Ackermann ist diesen Amtskollegen gegenüber weder weisungsbefugt, noch wurde er mit besonderen Kompetenzen ausgestattet. Der mit 46 Jahren jüngste Bischof in Deutschland ist der öffentliche Prellbock und Interviewpartner. Nach innen kann er lediglich versuchen, mit Diplomatie und Geschick ein Umdenken bei den Hardlinern zu erreichen.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.

A senior Vatican prelate has claimed that a “strategy of confusion” is behind the current leaks scandal, arguing that the recent torrent of leaked documents is intended to paint a picture of the Vatican as a “ship without a helmsman”, thereby undercutting the moral leadership of Pope Benedict XVI.

The comments came from Italian Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican’s former top diplomat and then, until October 2011, the man who led the Government of the Vatican City State. That’s the office where Arcbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, today the pope’s ambassador in the United States, held the number two role.

It was two confidential letters from Viganò to the pope and to the Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, complaining of corruption and cronyism in the finances of the government, which triggered the recent avalanche of leaked documents.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Lodi News-Sentinel

By Ross Farrow/News-Sentinel Staff Writer

The mother of the 37-year-old man suing Father Michael Kelly on a child sexual abuse allegation told a jury Wednesday that she and her then-husband saw Kelly tickle and roughhouse with her two children during the mid-1980s, but she said she felt too intimidated to question his actions.

“We didn’t say anything because it’s very hard to admonish a priest,” the woman said during the fifth day of the civil trial against Kelly, pastor of Lockeford’s St. Joachim’s Catholic Church since 2004.

The plaintiff’s mother began testimony Wednesday afternoon in San Joaquin County Superior Court. Her son, whose name is being withheld by court order, claims that Kelly sexually abused him in the 1980s, when the plaintiff was an altar boy at Stockton’s Cathedral of the Annunciation.

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UNITED STATES
My Fox Phoenix

(NewsCore) – The Vatican is potentially vulnerable to money laundering, according to a State Department report.

This is the first time the Holy See has appeared in the department’s annual International Narcotics Control Strategy report, which was submitted to Congress on Wednesday.

Vatican City set up anti-money laundering programs for the first time in 2011 and it will take a year to start determining how effective they are, a State Department official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The State Department listed the Vatican as one of its “jurisdictions of concern,” which also included Egypt, Ireland, Monaco, North Korea, Syria and Yemen amongst others.

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AUSTRALIA/UNITED STATES
Adelaide Now

AUSTRALIA has been included in a list of the world’s major money laundering countries.

The list of 66 countries includes Afghanistan, Brazil, the Cayman Islands, China, Japan, Russia, Uruguay, the UK, US and Zimbabwe.

And for the first time, Vatican City has been named as a potential hub for money laundering. US officials said the Vatican was on the list because it wasn’t clear if new anti-money laundering efforts were effective.

It is “potentially vulnerable” as massive amounts of money flow into the Vatican from around the world.

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UNITED STATES
The Telegraph (United Kingdom)

The US State Department for the first time listed the Vatican as potentially vulnerable to money laundering, along with 67 other countries.

The department’s annual International Narcotics Control Strategy report listed the Vaticanas a “jurisdiction of concern” along with countries like Albania, the Czech Republic, Egypt, South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam and Yemen.

It said the Holy See appears for the “first time” in the annual report.

Vatican City set up anti-money laundering programs for the first time in 2011 and it will take a year to start determining how effective they are, a State Department official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

In an interview with the new Vatican news blog, Stanze Vaticane, published on the website of Italian news channel Tgcom24, the cardinal and former president of the Governorate, Giovanni Lajolo, talks about the case that shook the Vatican

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

“Mgr. Viganò nurtured suspicions that were proven to be unfounded and went down the wrong track.” This statement was made by Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, former president of the Vatican Governorate, in an interview published on the blog Stanze Vaticane, edited by Fabio Marchese Ragona on the website of the Italian news channel Tgcom24.

Cardinal Lajolo was the first to sign the communiqué issued last 4 February in response to the accusations made in the letters written by the archbishop appointed Nuncio to the U.S. The cardinal stated that “Viganò saw that unfair comments were being made about him in some news articles and he felt deeply hurt by this.” The articles Cardinal Lajolo was referring to, had been published anonymously in the Italian daily newspaper Il Giornale.

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UNITED STATES
Vatican Insider

The inclusion of the Holy See in the list of areas of concern in the published in the U.S. Department of State’s annual drug-trafficking report has caused uproar

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

The United States Department of State has added the Vatican to a list of 67 Countries that could be potentially susceptible to money-laundering, for the first time. In the annual report on the International Narcotics Control Strategy, the U.S. government has listed the Holy See as a “Jurisdiction of Concern”, alongside Albania, the Czech Republic, Egypt, South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam and Yemen. The “Jurisdiction of Concern” category is a notch below that of “Jurisdictions of Primary Concern,” which amount to a watch list of “major money laundering countries,” such as Afghanistan, Australia, Brazil, the Cayman Islands, China, Japan, Russia, Great Britain, The United States itself, Uruguay and Zimbabwe.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 8 March 2012 (VIS) – The Holy Father appointed Fr. Liam Stephen Cary of the clergy of the archdiocese of Portland in Oregon, U.S.A., pastor of the parish of St. Mary in Eugene, as bishop of Baker (area 173013, population 502,610, Catholics 37,029, priests 60, permanent deacons 12, religious 25), U.S.A. The bishop-elect was born in Prineville, U.S.A. in 1947 and ordained a priest in 1992. Before ordination he spent many years working with poor people and migrants. Since becoming a priest he has worked in pastoral care in a number of parishes and as vicar forane.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Religion News Service – Spiritual Politics

Mark Silk|Mar 7, 2012

Forgive me, but lately I’ve been feeling sorry for Bill Donohue, the self-appointed (albeit well-remunerated) defender of the Catholic Church against all enemies foreign and domestic. After Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia died at the end of January on the eve of having to testify at the abuse coverup trial of his sometime henchman Msgr. William Lynn, Donohue delivered himself of “Cardinal Bevilacqua Treated Unfairly,” a press release criticizing the obits–including the Catholic News Service for failing to mention “that he was never indicted for any alleged infraction.” Now there’s a testimonial for a prince of the church.

“Oh, they tried,” continued Donohue. And you figure the prosecutors would have succeeded had they had in their possession what Lynn’s lawyers presented to the court two weeks ago: the cardinal’s handwritten note ordering the shredding of a memo identifying 35 Archdiocese of Philadelphia priests suspected of sexually abusing children. The lawyers contended that the note, which had been squirreled away for years in an archdiocesan safe, demonstrated that the coverup conspiracy had been orchestrated far above Lynch and they therefore asked the judge to dismiss the case. That the judge did nothing of the sort was entirely predictable. Did I mention that the lawyers are being paid for by the archdiocese of Philadelphia?

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LAKEWOOD (OH)
The Plain Dealer

By Carol Kovach, Sun News

LAKEWOOD A crowd gathered outside St. James Catholic Church in Lakewood this evening to celebrate news that their beloved church could reopen soon. Excited parishioners hugged each other, saying they waited nearly two years for this decision. The 100-year-old cathedral-like church, still locked as it has been since June 2010, loomed behind them.

Some in the crowd held “Save St. James” signs. The signs popped up on lawns throughout the city after Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon announced more than two years ago that the parish woul be among more than 50 churches closed in a downsizing of the diocese.

The faithful, like Joe Dwyer, a 25-year parishioner, never lost hope that the decision to close St. James would be reversed. He greeted dozens of friends outside the church with hugs and kisses.

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LAKEWOOD (OH)
Fox 8

[with video]

LAKEWOOD, Ohio — At St. James Church in Lakewood, parishioners said their prayers have been answered.

The Vatican overturned the closings of 13 Cleveland-area parishes, according to the attorney who led a legal fight against their doors being shut for good.

According to attorney Peter Borre, the ruling was handed down by the Congregation of the Clergy last week.

Borre tells Fox 8 News’ Kevin Freeman, the clergy showed that Bishop Richard Lennon did not follow proper procedure in closing the parishes in 2009.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
The New York Times

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

Published: March 8, 2012

The Vatican has ordered the bishop of Cleveland, Richard Lennon, to reopen 13 of the 50 parishes that he closed in 2010, according to advocates for the parishes. The decision was an unprecedented win for parishioners who have fought church closings across the country in recent years. Bishop Lennon, who previously oversaw the shuttering of parishes in Boston, can appeal the decision to the Vatican’s highest court, the Apostolic Signatura. A spokesman said that the bishop was still reviewing the ruling.

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LAKEWOOD (OH)
Patch

By Colin McEwen

Could St. James reopen?

That’s a question many in Lakewood are asking following the Vatican’s reported decision to overturn Bishop Richard Lennon’s move to close 50 parishes in 2010.

According to reports, 13 of them would reopen.

Attorney Peter Borre told the Associated Press that the Cleveland diocese failed to follow church law and procedure in its closings of the Cleveland-area parishes.

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NEW MEXICO
The New Mexican

Tom Sharpe | The New Mexican

The New Mexico Supreme Court has made the grounds more restrictive for defamation cases by ruling against an Episcopal priest who sued four parishioners for accusing him of pedophilia.

State District Court Judge Nan Nash dismissed the Rev. Walter F. Smith III’s lawsuit, ruling he had not demonstrated an injury to his reputation.

The state Court of Appeals in 2010 overturned Nash’s ruling, finding that “humiliation and mental anguish is sufficient to establish actual injury for liability purposes in a defamation action.”

But on Monday, the state Supreme Court unanimously reversed the appellate court, effectively upholding Nash’s decision.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Democrat

By KATHERINE JARVIS dailydemocrat.com

The Rev. Uriel Ojeda may finally enter a plea on molestation charges at a hearing Friday in Sacramento Superior Court.

Ojeda, a 32-year-old former priest at Woodland’s Holy Rosary Catholic Church, faces seven counts of molesting a girl under the age of 14 between 2007 and 2009.

Ojeda served at Holy Rosary from 2007 until 2009. Previous reports said the crimes occurred in Sacramento and Shasta counties, where Ojeda was a parochial vicar at Our Lady of Mercy parish in Redding.

His hearing will take place at 1:35 p.m. in Department 61 at the main jail at 652 I St. Ojeda was released on bail in January when a judge lowered it to $700,000 from $5 million.

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CANADA
CBC News

Cap-Pelé will hold a plebiscite this spring on whether to remove the name of a former priest from the village’s arena.

Camille Léger died in 1990, but several people now allege he sexually assaulted children in the community when he worked there between 1957 and 1980.

Léger was never charged with any crimes.

The village council has agreed to put the issue of renaming Aréna Père-Camille-Léger to Aréna de Cap-Pelé to a vote during the May 14 municipal elections.

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MISSOURI
KSHB

•By: Associated Press

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – A Missouri prosecutor said Wednesday she was dropping all charges against five men accused of sexually molesting young relatives on a western Missouri farm more than 20 years ago, saying she doubted she could convince a jury that the bizarre claims were true.

“Whether or not I believe the allegations is an independent question from whether or not I believe I can prove each and every element of the case beyond a reasonable doubt at trial,” prosecutor Kellie Wingate Campbell told The Associated Press after notifying courts in three counties of her action.

Six members of the Mohler family — Burrell Sr.; his sons Burrell Jr., David, Jared and Roland; and his brother, Darrel — were arrested in November 2009 after several young family members told investigators about a series of bizarre sex crimes that allegedly took place on a Lafayette County farm, about 30 miles east of Kansas City.

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IRELAND
Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference

Today a press conference was held in the Columba Centre, Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth marking the closing of the Spring General Meeting of the Irish Bishops’ Conference. The bishops attending the press conference were: Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, President of the Eucharistic Congress; Bishop Kieran O’Reilly, Bishop of Killaloe and chairman of Share the Good News; and, Bishop Donal McKeown, Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor and member of the Bishops’ Council for Emigrants. The full audio recording of the press conference is available at the following link: http://www.catholicbishops.ie/category/multimedia/audio/ The following subjects were discussed at the bishops’ spring meeting:
• Lent and preparation for Easter
• Safeguarding Children
• 50th International Eucharistic Congress in Ireland, 10 – 17 June 2012
• Share the Good News: National Directory for Catechesis
• The Solemnity of Saint Patrick
• Trócaire’s 2012 Lenten Campaign “Rebuilding Communities for lasting change”

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IRELAND
Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference

On the final day of the Spring General Meeting of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Bishop Donal McKeown and Bishop Kieran O’Reilly spoke at a media briefing in the Columba Centre, St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. Among the themes addressed at the press conference were: Child Safeguarding, The International Eucharistic Congress, Share the Good News and Education. Listen to the press conference by clicking on the two links below.

Bishops’ Media Briefing 7 March 2012 – part 1web

Bishops’ Media Briefing 7 March 2012 – Part 2 web

Press Release from Spring 2012 General Meeting of the Irish Bishops’ Conference

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IRELAND
Irish Independent

By Colm Kelpie

Thursday March 08 2012

A LEADING abuse survivor last night branded as “insulting” a request from the Catholic bishops for parishioners to pray to make amends for the sins of paedophile priests.

Marie Collins said the onus should be on the bishops to make amends and she accused them of failing to show humility over the abuse scandals.

On the final day of their three-day spring general meeting, the bishops reiterated a call from Pope Benedict and encouraged the faithful to pray intensely to “make reparation for the sins of abuse that have done so much harm”.

But Ms Collins said the people did not need to atone.

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CANADA
FFWD

The legacy of residential schools includes unmarked graves

Published March 8, 2012 by Suzy Thompson in News

Cemetery foreman Greg Sundsten trudges back and forth through the foot of snow that has settled over Red Deer’s main graveyard. He takes a break from digging to explain how close he must be to finding the children’s graves. He rechecks his map and swears they are somewhere between Arndt and Bice. After an hour, he gives up. Whatever remains to mark the children’s plot must be small, hidden somewhere outside the trails Sundsten dug searching for them.

The search for these three children began 25 years ago with Lyle Richards, who was volunteering in the Red Deer archives when he was approached by a stranger.

“A man by the name of Albert Lightning came in,” says town historian Don Hepburn. The man informed Richards, “you’re the one who’s going to find my brother for me.” Lightning’s brother was one of three children from the Red Deer Indian residential school who died during the 1918 influenza epidemic.

Lightning was lucky to trace his brother to the town cemetery. Normally, students were buried at the school, beside the Kinickinick Creek, but during the flu epidemic no one at the school was healthy enough to dig graves.

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IOWA
KPTM

Maureen Wurtz

COUNCIL BLUFFS (KPTM)- A former youth pastor and convicted sex offender will not spend time behind bars.

Brent Girouex was in court today. He was sentenced to sex offender treatments and life on probation. This sentence has some officials worried.

Emotions were running high in court today, and it was standing room only.

Girouex is no stranger to court. Last March, he was charged with 89 counts of sexual abuse. The prosecution combined many of those, and reached a plea deal back in November. Girouex plead guilt on three counts.

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SEATTLE (WA)
Seattle Times

By Mike Carter
Seattle Times staff reporter

The Archdiocese of Seattle is asking that the most recent lawsuit alleging it was complicit in the sexual abuse of an O’Dea High School student by a pedophile teacher be moved to bankruptcy court in New York, where the Christian Brothers order that employed the alleged abuser has sought Chapter 11 protection.

Archdiocese attorney Michael Patterson said the move is a tactical one aimed at asset protection. It comes as the archdiocese continues to defend itself against civil actions seeking damages for the alleged sexual abuse of dozens, if not hundreds, of boys by teachers belonging to the Christian Brothers religious order.

The Congregation of Christian Brothers in North America, the order that runs O’Dea High School — the archdiocese’s flagship school for boys — filed bankruptcy in New York in April as it sought protection from mounting legal claims, mostly from Seattle, but also involving children in Illinois and Michigan.

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VATICAN CITY
WHEC

Members of the amorphous hacking group Anonymous claim they took down the Vatican’s website to protest everything from Catholic doctrine to the sexual abuse of children.

The site – www.vatican.va – was inaccessible for much of Wednesday afternoon and evening before technicians got it back online.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, confirmed the attack but declined to comment on its possible source.

In what claims to be the “official” site of Anonymous in Italy, a statement posted Wednesday said the group was attacking the Vatican to protest the execution of heretics and the burning of books during the Inquisition and more recently the sexual abuse of children by priests.

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MISSOURI
The Kansas City Star

By DONALD BRADLEY and JUDY THOMAS
The Kansas City Star

In the end, maybe the story of the Mohler family was just too much.

Too much to believe or too much to prove.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Lafayette County prosecutor dropped all charges in the incest case that more than two years ago shocked the world with bizarre stories of barnyard “weddings” of children to older relatives, rape, sodomy and secrets buried in fruit jars.

Those who had faced dozens of counts of sexual abuse were family patriarch Burrell Mohler Sr., then 79, of Independence, a sometimes preacher, and his four adult sons, Burrell Jr., David, Jared and Roland.

All were scheduled for trials later this year, including a June 4 date in Clay County for David Mohler.

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MISSOURI
God Discussion

[with video]

Back in November 2009, three of a family of six men accused of sexual crimes against children in Lafayette County, Missouri, were suspended as lay ministers by the Community of Christ church. The six were jailed and felony charges were issued for forcible sodomy, rape with a child younger than 12 and use of a child in a sexual performance.

The Mohler family members will not be brought to trial.

A prosecutor said yesterday that she was dropping all charges against five men accused of sexually molesting young relatives on a U.S. farm more than 20 years ago, saying she doubted she could convince a jury that the bizarre claims were true.

The father, an ordained minister, was accused of conducting weddings in which young girls were married to older relatives so that they could have sex.

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VATICAN CITY
V3 (United Kingdom)

by Gareth Morgan
08 Mar 2012

Hackers affiliated with Anonymous have turned their attentions to the Catholic Church, taking down the Vatican’s website for several hours on Wednesday and cutting off email access.

A spokesman for the Vatican, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, confirmed to the Catholic News that vatican.va had been the “object of an attack”, but declined to add further details.

Groups claiming to be affiliated with Anonymous said the attack was revenge for a number of historical atrocities carried out by the Catholic Church.

The group accused the church of covering up details of sexual abuse suffered by children at the hands of Catholic priests and hiding Nazi war criminals.

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IOWA
WOWT

[with video]

Reporter: Gary Smollen
Email Address: sixonline@wowt.com

A former youth pastor, accused of sexual abuse of young men, is sentenced as his victims and their families watch.

Brent Girouex was given the maximum sentence, then it was suspended a move that upset many of his victims and their families.

Girouex entered the courtroom facing up to 17-years in prison but walked out with the very real possibility of never having to spend a day behind bars.

Judge Steensland suspended the prison time and opted for a lifetime of supervised probation.

Judge Greg Steensland says, “Can I put together a sentence that shows that not only do we care about your personal rehabilitation but we care about the message it sends to society and society needs to feel protected from you.”

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IOWA
World-Herald

COUNCIL BLUFFS — A judge disappointed a church congregation Wednesday with his sentence for a former pastor who sexually abused young people.

Brent Girouex, 32, was sentenced to 17 years in prison, but Judge Greg Steensland then suspended the sentence and ordered Girouex to stay at a sex offender treatment facility until “maximum benefit is obtained.”

He was initially charged with 61 counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist and 28 counts of third-degree sexual abuse related to incidents with several teenagers and young adults at Victory Fellowship Church.

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ARGENTINA
Clarin

El Tribunal Oral en lo Criminal Nro 1 de Morón decidió ayer anular la libertad vigilada de la que gozaba el cura Julio César Grassi y ordenar su prisión domiciliaria.

Lo hizo luego de que la querella y la fiscalía pidieran que el sacerdote fuera preso por haber violado las condiciones de esa libertad: no pisar la sede de la Fundación Felices los Niños ( donde ocurrió el abuso por el que fue condenado) y no referirse públicamente a su víctima.

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ARGENTINA
La Voz de Cataratas

El Tribunal Oral en lo Criminal 1 de Morón resolvió revocarle el beneficio de prisión morigerada que gozaba por haberse referido a una de sus presuntas víctimas en un programa de televisión

Julio César Grassi, el sacerdote condenado a 15 años de prisión por abuso de un menor, quedó ayer por la noche arrestado por orden de la Cámara de Garantías de Morón, pero su prisión será domiciliaria por haberse referido a una de sus víctimas durante un programa de televisión.

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ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires Herald

A court ruled priest Julio César Grassi remains under house arrest, following the fact he publically mentioned the victims” of the cases for which he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Grassi atended the hearing at the Morón courts and was taken to jail, but he will comply with the house arrest ruling.

Earlier today, Morón public prosecutor Alejandro Varela and the plaintiffs of the sexual abuse case requested the priest’s detention on grounds that he violated the conditions that had been imposed on him, including the ban of his entering the Felices los niños foundation, where he allegedly sexually abused several teenagers.

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STOCKTON (CA)
Modesto Bee

News-Sentinel (Lodi)

STOCKTON — The father of a 37-year-old man suing Father Michael Kelly testified on Tuesday that his son told him that Kelly had sexually assaulted him.

The father, whose name is being withheld because his son is an alleged sexual assault victim, said he was visiting his son in 2007. They were saying their goodbyes when the son blurted out, “I was (sexually assaulted) by Father Kelly,” the man said.

However, the son drove away without elaborating, the father said, and calls to his son were not successful, he told a jury at San Joaquin County Superior Court. Due to statute of limitations laws, Kelly was never criminally charged.

Kelly has been the pastor of St. Joachim’s Catholic Church in Lockeford since 2004 and previously served at parishes in Stockton, Sonora, Tracy, Modesto and Ceres.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

Published on Thursday 8 March 2012

TWO FORMER priests arrested at their homes in Eastbourne this week on suspicion of child sex abuse have been released on police bail.

Former All Saints vicar Gordon Rideout, 73, was arrested on Tuesday morning at his home in Filching Close in relation to allegedly sexually assaulting young people in Sussex and London in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Fellow former priest Robert Coles, 70, of Upperton Road, was also arrested on the same morning on suspicion of sexual assaults against three young men in Sussex during the late 1970s and mid-1980s.

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IOWA
KCCI

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — A former youth pastor accused of sexually abusing a half-dozen boys and men has been put on probation and ordered to get sex offender treatment.

A judge told Brent Girouex “because this is a sexual abuse case, you are committed to custody of the Department of Corrections for rest of your life.”

Girouex told his victims he was trying to help them gain “sexual purity in the eyes of God,” according to court documents obtained by the KETV-TV.

Prosecutors said Girouex sexually abused the victims at their homes, and not at Victory Fellowship Church, where he worked.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
WOIO

CLEVELAND, OH (WOIO) –
Council of Parishes Attorney Peter Borre tells 19 Action News that the Vatican has overruled 13 parish closures in Cleveland, Ohio.

“All Cleveland Catholic churches who appealed their closures have won” said Borre in a phone interview Wednesday.

Cleveland Catholic Diocese spokesperson, Bob Tayek, declined to comment on the ruling at this time.

Borre tells 19 Action News that Cleveland Diocese Bishop Richard Lennon failed to follow procedure or “Canon Law” in the closings three years ago.

Click here to view the complete list of church closures, merges.

The Cleveland Catholic Diocese parishes who appealed their closures/merges are as follows:

SACRED HEART OF JESUS (CLOSED)
6916 KRAKOW AVE. CLEVELAND

ST. ADALBERT (CLOSED)
2347 E. 83RD ST. CLEVELAND

ST. CASIMIR (CLOSED)
8223 SOWINSKI AVE. CLEVELAND

ST. COLMAN (MERGED)
2027 W. 65TH ST. CLEVELAND

ST. EMERIC (CLOSED)
1890 W. 22ND ST. CLEVELAND

ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH (CLOSED)
10205 LORAIN AVE. CLEVELAND

ST. JAMES (CLOSED)
17514 DETROIT AVE. LAKEWOOD

ST. JOSEPH (CLOSED–WANTED TO MERGE)
REID AVE. & 15TH ST. LORAIN

ST. LAWRENCE (CLOSED)
3532 E. 80TH ST. CLEVELAND

ST. MARY (MERGED)
REID AVE. & 8TH ST. BEDFORD

ST. PETER (CLOSED)
1533 E. 17TH ST. CLEVELAND

ST. PROCOP (CLOSED)
3181 W. 41ST ST. CLEVELAND

ST. WENDELIN (CLOSED)
2281 COLUMBUS RD. CLEVELAND

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