ABUSE TRACKER

MALTA
The Times of Malta

Defence lawyers yesterday ripped into the arguments made by the Attorney General during an angry, final plea in the appeal of two priests convicted of child abuse.

Lawyers Giannella de Marco and Joseph Giglio lashed out at what they labelled a “vulgarly” worded appeal, the likes of which they said they had never seen before.

Dr de Marco felt hurt by the fact that the Attorney General had used legal “tricks” against defrocked priests Godwin Scerri, 75, and Carmelo Pulis, 66.

They were sentenced to five years and six years in prison respectively last year after being found guilty of defiling teenage boys about 20 years ago at two homes belonging to the Missionary Society of St Paul.

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CALIFORNIA
Mercury News

By Tracey Kaplan
tkaplan@mercurynews.com
mercurynews.com

Posted: 07/06/2012

For weeks as the priest-beating trial unfolded, it was the victim’s name that was dragged through the mud. Even the prosecutor branded the Rev. Jerold Lindner a child molester who decades earlier brutally raped the man on trial in the revenge attack.

But a day after the jury acquitted Lindner’s attacker, Will Lynch’s supporters say there is another way to bring the priest to justice and protect young potential victims. They want District Attorney Jeff Rosen to bring Lindner up on perjury charges for allegedly lying under oath about molesting Lynch and his 4-year-old brother in the mid-1970s. The priest is now back at his bucolic hilltop retirement center in Los Gatos, immune from prosecution because Lynch and other accusers came forward with their molestation allegations after the statute of limitations lapsed.

“If we can’t get justice directly, this is another way we can get him off the street,” Lynch said.

Even though Lindner could only get a maximum of four years in county jail, Lynch said, “It’s better than zero years.”

Rosen is considering the possibility of prosecuting Lindner, but he and legal experts say that would be a difficult task that might not succeed or bring much solace to the victims.

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INGLEWOOD (CA)
Los Angeles Times

[with video]

The last time the Rev. Gordon Solomon spoke from the pulpit at Christ’s Community Church in Inglewood, he asked the congregation to pray for him and his family as he faced troubling times.

Members assumed the 50-year-old pastor had an illness in the family. But on Wednesday, they discovered Solomon was battling allegations that he had an ongoing relationship with a teenage congregant.

“I didn’t think it was something like this,” said Walter Woodard, 57, a musician for the church. “But I know I cannot put my faith in the man.”

Solomon was charged Friday with nine felony counts of allegedly committing lewd acts on a child. He is being held in lieu of $3-million bail. Authorities believe that there may be other victims.

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KENTUCKY
WHAS

by Claudia Coffey
WHAS11.com

SHEPHERDSVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) — A former Shepherdsville youth minister has been arrested on sodomy and sex abuse charges. According to police, the youth director for the Trinity Life Center Church is accused of having sexual contact with a 15-year-old church member for almost a year.

Bryan James Dockery, 26, of Shepherdsville was arrested on July 4. He has since been released.

According to a police report Dockery allegedly engaged in numerous sexual acts with a 15-year-old boy who was a member of the church. The pastor declined to comment further. The church secretary tells WHAS11 that Dockery is no longer with the church.

Police say the acts began shortly after Dockery arrived at Trinity Life Center from August 2011 to June of 2012. The crimes were reported to have taken place at both the church and Dockery’s residence. We visited the home today but Dockery nor his wife were there. His mother-in-law told us the family would not be commenting.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Turk (Turkey)

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia barred two more priests from ministry on Friday amid allegations of child sexual abuse, bringing the tally to nine clergymen banned from the embattled church since May.

Archbishop Charles Chaput said Rev. John Bowe, 64, and Rev. David Givey, 68, did not sexually abuse minors, but violated what the church defines as the “boundaries of appropriate behavior in all interactions with children and young people.”

“We’re not commenting on specifics for what could be a variety of reasons,” said archdiocese spokesman Kenneth A. Gavin, who declined to elaborate.

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DAVENPORT (IA)
Muscatine Journal

Associated Press | Posted: Friday, July 6, 2012

The Diocese of Davenport Review Board recommends a football coach suspected of sexually abusing minors decades ago be added to an online list of abusers.

The board on Friday recommended to Bishop Martin Amos that a report of abuse against Walter Phipps was credible.

Phipps was a coach at Our Lady Of Lourdes in Bettendorf from 1973 to 1975. He was arrested in 1987 and convicted of sexual abuse. Phipps was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He died in 2010.

The board considered a second report of abuse by another non-clergy member, but recommended additional investigation before a credibility decision is made.

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ROSEMEAD (CA)
Whittier Daily News

[with court document]

By Juliette Funes and Maritza Velazquez, SGVN

ROSEMEAD – Franciscan Friars of California and the Diocese of Las Vegas have settled a lawsuit that alleged a student activities director at the University of the West sexually abused children while a member of the Roman Catholic order nearly 30 years ago.

Thomas Thing, 53, director of student life for the Rosemead Buddhist university, was sued last year by a Nevada resident who accused the former Catholic Franciscan brother of molesting and sexually assaulting him in the mid-1980s when he was in seventh grade.

Tim Coonce, now 38, settled the civil suit for $600,000.

Thing has never been charged with a crime. He declined to comment when reached by telephone Friday. His attorney, Robert Howie, said Thing denies the allegations.

“Tom has never admitted or failed to fight these allegations. He has denied them completely,” Howie said. “Basically, the institutions are settling these cases because they just don’t want to deal with them because there’s such a prejudice against them in the community.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CNN

By David Ariosto, CNN

updated 6:09 PM EDT, Fri July 6, 2012

(CNN) — The Archdiocese of Philadelphia barred two more priests from ministry on Friday amid allegations of child sexual abuse, bringing the tally to nine clergymen banned from the embattled church since May.

Archbishop Charles Chaput said Rev. John Bowe, 64, and Rev. David Givey, 68, did not sexually abuse minors, but violated what the church defines as the “boundaries of appropriate behavior in all interactions with children and young people.”

“We’re not commenting on specifics for what could be a variety of reasons,” said archdiocese spokesman Kenneth A. Gavin, who declined to elaborate.

Bowe and Givey, who both have served as clergymen for nearly four decades, have the right to an appeal. They could not be immediately reached for comment Friday.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Main Line

By Pete Bannan
Pbannan@Mainlinemedianews.com

Msgr. Hans Brouwers, the Parochial Administrator at St. Katharine of Siena in Wayne, confirmed that Msgr. John Close has been found suitable for ministry.

“It’s a great relief. It’s been a real cloud over the parish,” Msgr. Brouwers said during a phone interview Friday.

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput issued a statement Friday saying Msgr. Close and three other suspended priests will return to ministry after allegations against them were found to be unsubstantiated.

It is unclear at this time if Msgr. Close will return to St. Katharine. Msgr. Brouwers said the priests that were cleared have to decide what will be the appropriate role for them in consultation with the archdiocese.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Reuters

By Dave Warner

PHILADELPHIA | Fri Jul 6, 2012

(Reuters) – The Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia has barred two priests from ministry, meaning they will not be allowed to perform duties such as saying Mass, after its latest review of suspected child sex abuse cases in the church.

The announcement on Friday by Archbishop Charles Chaput was the latest development in a broader investigation into sexual abuse that was prompted by a 2011 grand jury probe.

The review examined six cases of priests, all of whom had been placed on administrative leave, and cleared four of them. The other two were found to have violated the “standards of ministerial behavior and boundaries.”

Chaput said the review did not find that either of the two priests had sexually abused a minor. Detailed accusations against them were not made public.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – AM

[with audio]

Michael Vincent reported this story on Saturday, July 7, 2012

ELIZABETH JACKSON: The former director of public prosecutions in New South Wales says it’s not good enough for a Catholic priest to say he didn’t have the names of sexual abuse victims and therefore didn’t make a report to the police.

Nicholas Cowdery QC says there’s no legal protection for priests who become aware of a crime and fail to report it.

He says the priests involved in the case aired on Four Corners this week, and their superiors may be in breach of the law.

Michael Vincent reports.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Back in 1992, senior Church officials, Fathers John Usher, Wayne Peters and Brian Lucas held a meeting with another priest, Father F.

A Church document written within days by Father Peters reveals Father F told them that over a period of 12 months he touched several boys’ genitals and performed oral sex on them.

Father Lucas told AM yesterday he doesn’t recall that level of detail and he didn’t go to police.

BRIAN LUCAS: Because the victims are the ones who have to go the police and report. It’s very difficult for the police to prosecute anybody without a statement from a victim; we had no name of a victim.

NICHOLAS COWDERY: I don’t think that’s a satisfactory answer at all.

MICHAEL VINCENT: Nicholas Cowdery QC was the director of public prosecutions in New South Wales for 16 years.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Times

Published: Friday, July 06, 2012

By TIMOTHY LOGUE
tlogue@delcotimes.com
@timothylogue

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput announced Friday that two additional priests, including one with extensive ties to Delaware County, have been found unsuitable for ministry.

Four others were found suitable for ministry.

The Rev. David Givey, 68, a retired priest who served on staff at Our Lady of Peace Parish in Ridley Township, St. Katharine of Siena parish and Archbishop Carroll High School in Radnor, and Archbishop Prendergast High School in Upper Darby, was found to have engaged in inappropriate behavior with minors.

Allegations against the Rev. John Bowe, 64, parochial vicar at St. Joseph Church in Warrington, Bucks County, were also substantiated.

“In the cases of those found unsuitable for ministry none were due to a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor and five were due to a substantiated violation of the Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries,” the archdiocese said in a prepared statement. “The priests found unsuitable for ministry will have no public ministry in the Archdiocese.”

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MALTA
Malta Independent

The priests’ sexual abuse appeal judgement is expected on 26 October after Mr Justice David Scicluna listened to the submissions made by the prosecution and defence, in three separate sittings.

The last sitting was held yesterday morning.

Godwin Scerri and Carmel Pulis, two former priests, were last August sentenced to five years and six years in jail respectively for the sexual abuse of boys who were living at Dar San Gużepp, Sta Venera.

Mr Pulis was found guilty of abusing nine boys, Mr Scerri of corrupting two boys.

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AUSTRALIA
Moree Champion

JAMES ROBERTSON, LEESHA MCKENNY

07 Jul, 2012

ARMIDALE’S second-most senior priest is refusing to explain why he has given two conflicting accounts of a meeting he attended in 1992 during which a priest admitted to a series of child sexual offences.

When approached twice by the Herald in Armidale yesterday, Father Wayne Peters, the vicar-general of the diocese, refused to say why he denied to ABC’s Four Corners program in writing that the priest, Father F., had admitted the offences.

After a two-hour meeting with Armidale’s Bishop Michael Kennedy yesterday, Father Peters would only say: ”My bishop has made a statement and no doubt will make further statements shortly.”

Bishop Kennedy, who has said the matter would be investigated, also refused to answer questions from the Herald.

Father Peters told Four Corners he recalled the meeting with Father F., who cannot be named for legal reasons, but denied that Father F. had admitted his sexual offences. He told the program in writing his report at the time to Bishop Kevin Manning contained only ”instances of misconduct”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics4Change

July 6, 2012 by Susan Matthews

I was not surprised by the content or timing of Archbishop Chaput’s announcement today. Any public relations expert knows you announce bad news on a Friday afternoon. If you’re lucky you can announce it on a Friday afternoon during a holiday week in the summer. There’s far less media coverage. And, Archbishop Chaput doesn’t have just any public relations expert. He has hired the late Cardinal Bevilacqua’s guy – Brian Tierney.

As for the content, I’d like to say I’m shocked and disappointed to see that my former boss at the now defunct Catholic Standard & Times has been permanently removed from ministry. I’m just deeply sad. Father David Givey celebrated my wedding, baptized our children and was considered a dear family friend. The Archbishop won’t announce the specifics, but Msgr. Lynn knew the issues. While it wasn’t introduced at trial, the evidence is there and will find its way to the surface..

Father Dave impacted many lives for the better. I count myself among those people. It was hard for me reconcile that against what I came to know. But I have. – Susan

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Reporter

The Rev. Leonard Peterson has been declared suitable for ministry following an investigation of “an alleged violation of The Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries,” according to a press release from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia today, July 6.

Peterson was among the roughly two dozen priests placed on administrative leave in February 2011 after a grand jury report alleged that several priests remained in active ministry despite being accused of sexual abuse and/or boundary issues.

Peterson most recently served as the pastor at St. Maria Goretti in Hatfield. The parish had been notified, and “announcements of the final resolution of (his cases),” will be made this weekend, according to the press release. The Archdiocese did not release any other details about the accusation against Peterson, only that it was deemed “unsubstantiated.” The findings in the investigations of five other priests were also announced today. According to the Archdiocese, the Rev. Paul Castellani, the Rev. David Givey, the Rev. John Bowe and the Rev. Steven Harris were also accused of “alleged violation(s) of The Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries.” The claims against Givey and Bowe were substantiated, and both have been declared “unsuitable for ministry,” the press release states.

A sexual abuse allegation against the Rev. Msgr. John Close was unsubstantiated, according to the report.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Steve Tawa

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – The Archdiocese of Philadelphia says it has determined that two more priests are not suitable for ministry because of allegations of inappropriate conduct, however, church officials have refused to outline the specific allegations.

In making final decisions in six additional cases, Archbishop Charles Chaput says two more suspended priests will be permanently barred from ministry because of what the church calls “a substantial violation” of the “Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries.”

The Archdiocese says neither was due to “a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.”

Four other suspended priests will return to ministry.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PhillyBurbs

Posted on July 6, 2012

by Theresa Hegel

A longtime Bucks County Catholic priest will be permanently barred from ministry after the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said it substantiated allegations of inappropriate conduct.

The Rev. John Bowe, 64, who served at St. Agnes in Hilltown and St. Joseph’s in Warrington, was found unsuitable for ministry because of “boundary” and “behavioral” problems, not sexual assault.

The Rev. David Givey, another priest in the archdiocese, will also be barred from ministry.

But four other priests who were investigated were found to be suitable for ministry, with the claims against them unsubstantiated including two priests with local connections: the Rev. Msgr. John Close, whose service included time at Archbishop Wood High School, Warminster (1990-1994); Regina Coeli Residence for Priests, Warminster (1991-1994); and Saint Michael the Archangel, Levittown (1994-1996); and the Rev. Leonard Peterson, whose service included time at Saint Isidore, Quakertown (1983); Lansdale Catholic High School, Lansdale (1983-1986); and Saint Maria Goretti, Hatfield (1997-2011).

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

Jul. 06, 2012
By Brian Roewe

Two more priests suspended after the release of a 2011 grand jury report will be removed from public ministry in the Philadelphia archdiocese, Archbishop Charles Chaput announced late Friday morning.

The priests removed from ministry, Fr. John Bowe, 64, and Fr. David Givey, 68, were found to have violated the archdiocese’s Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries. Both can appeal the decision to the Vatican.

Previously, Chaput had indicated priests found unfit for ministry could face laicization, life under supervision or a life of prayer and penance.

Kenneth Gavin, associate director of communications for the archdiocese, told NCR that generally speaking, laicization is usually pursued when sexual abuse of a minor occurs. Neither Bowe nor Givey were alleged to have sexually abuse a minor.

In addition, Chaput said that four priests were found suitable for ministry. They are Fr. Paul Castellani, 53, Msgr. John Close, 68, Fr. Steven Harris, 57, and Fr. Leonard Peterson, 70.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By David O’Reilly
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has announced it is restoring to ministry four priests who were accused of sexual abuse or inappropriate conduct with a minor, and removing two.

The two priests who will not be returned to ministry are the Rev. John Bowe, 64 and the Rev. David Givey, 68.

Restored to ministry will be the Rev. Paul Castellani, 53, Msgr. John Close, 68, Rev. Steven Harris, 57, and Rev. Leonard Peterson, 70.

In an announcement issued Friday, the archdiocese said the allegations against the four had not been substantiated despite lengthy investigations.

Bowe and Givey were found to have violated the archdiocese’s Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries, which is considered a lesser allegation than sexual assault.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Patch

By James Boyle

A former Levittown pastor at St. Michael the Archangel, Rev. Msgr. John Close, is one of four priests cleared of sexual abuse and misconduct charges today by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. An internal investigation by the archdiocese ruled the claims unsubstantiated and cleared the priests for public ministry.

Rev. Paul Castellani, Rev. Steven Harris and Rev. Leonard Peterson have also been restored to public ministry. Rev. Msgr. Close served as pastor for St. Michael the Archangel from 1994 to 1996.

Rev. Msgr. Close and 25 other priests were placed on administrative leave by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia following an explosive February 2011 grand jury report that accused Catholic parishes throughout the Delaware Valley of covering up years of sexual abuses against minors.

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CALIFORNIA
Opposing Views

By Michael Flood McNulty, Fri, July 06, 2012

Will Lynch admitted — in court and under oath — to beating a priest who, he says, molested him in 1975. But Santa Clara County, Calif. jurors overlooked this admission and found Lynch not guilty in a sensational trial that pitted sexual abuse victims against the Catholic church and its decades-long cover-up of clergy abuse.

Lynch was accused of assaulting Father Jerold Lindner in a Los Gatos, Calif. retirement home in 2010. Lynch has maintained that Lindner brutally raped him as a seven-year-old boy in 1975. Lynch assaulted the priest 35 years after the fact.

“I was wrong for doing what I did — in doing that I perpetuated the cycle of violence,” Lynch said outside the courtroom. “But if there is anything I want people [who have been molested] to take away from this — it is you can come forward, you can seek justice and you can find justice in many forms.”

According to the Mercury News, defense lawyers in California cannot ask a jury to “nullify,” which is a legal term for ignoring evidence of guilt because a conviction is seen as unfair. Yet, in closing arguments to the jury, Lynch’s attorney Pat Harris said: the prosecution had “overcharged the case” by filing felony charges.”There is a defense to that ‘overzealous’ decision by the prosecution,” Harris had said — “you,” looking at the jurors.

The argument apparently worked.

The Mercury News says: One juror called the rape of Lynch and his brother “heinous, absolutely heinous.” Despite the judge’s admonitions, “(the alleged assault) was a tough thing to disregard,” said the juror, a retired Silicon Valley accountant. “It played a big role in our decision.” The juror was one of the eight who voted to convict Lynch for misdemeanor assault. Lindner testified last month about what he called a “vicious” and painful attack, but the juror said his account was not a factor in their vote. Judge David A. Cena had instructed the jury to ignore Lindner’s testimony, including his denial of the alleged molestation, after the Jesuit refused to answer any more questions on the grounds it might incriminate him.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Patch

By James Boyle

Former Archbishop Wood principal Rev. Msgr. John Close is one of four priests cleared of sexual abuse and misconduct charges today by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. An internal investigation by the archdiocese ruled the claims unsubstantiated and cleared the priests for public ministry.

Rev. Paul Castellani, Rev. Steven Harris and Rev. Leonard Peterson have also been restored to public ministry. Rev. Msgr. Close served as principal for Archbishop Wood from 1990 to 1994.

Rev. Msgr. Close and 25 other priests were placed on administrative leave by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia following an explosive February 2011 grand jury report that accused Catholic parishes throughout the Delaware Valley of covering up years of sexual abuses against minors.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

By Karen Araiza

Friday, Jul 6, 2012

Archbishop Charles Chaput announced the fate of six more priests under investigation — four can stay and two were found “unsuitable” for ministry.

•Read Chaput’s Full Statement
•Background on Priests
•Priests Resolution Chart

These are the four priests who were investigated and will now be able to return to work because the allegations against them were found to “unsubstantiated”:

•Rev. Leonard Peterson
•Rev. Paul Castellani
•Rev. Msgr. John Close
•Rev. Steven Harris

The two priest found “unsuitable”:

•Rev. John Bowe
•Rev. David Givey

The two priests found unsuitable for their vocation were not involved in cases of alleged sexual abuse.

Father Bowe, 64, served at Saint Agnes in West Chester from 1973-1977; Saint Bridget in Philadelphia from 1977-1982; John W. Hallahan Catholic Girls’ High School from 1980-1982, Blessed Virgin Mary in Darby from 1982-1987, Chaplain for the Pa. National Guard From 1983-2004, Holy Martyrs in Oreland from 1987-1989, Saint Agnes in Sellersville from 1989-2005, Saint Joseph in Warrington from 2005-2011 until he was placed on administrative leave following the February 2011 Grand Jury report.

Father Givey, 68, served at Saint Katharine of Siena in Way from 1971-1973, Archbishop Carroll High School in Radnor from 1971-1973, The Catholic Standard and Times from 1973-1974, 1976, 1984-1991 Pontifical University in Rome from 1973-1976, Temple University from 1976-1978, Archbishop Prendergast High School in Drexel Hill from 1978-1984, Sisters of Mercy Convent in Merion from 1980-1984, Saint Agatha/Saint James in Philadelphia from 1994-1996, Our Lady of Peace in Milmont Park from 1996-2001 when he was placed on administrative leave.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 06, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — Two Roman Catholic priests will be permanently barred from ministry after the Philadelphia archdiocese substantiated allegations of inappropriate conduct.

Archbishop Charles Chaput (SHAP’-yoo) said the two substantiated cases involved undisclosed “boundary” or “behavioral” problems, not sexual assaults.

Chaput also said Friday that four other suspended priests will return to ministry after allegations against them were found to be unsubstantiated. Another 12 cases remain under review.

Priests removed from ministry can agree to serve a life of prayer and penance in a church-run facility. Some might agree to leave the priesthood, while others may be laicized after a church trial. The priests can also appeal.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

Archbishop Chaput makes final decisions in six more cases of priests placed on administrative leave following the February 2011 Grand Jury Report

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced today that Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., has made final decisions in six additional cases of the priests who were placed on administrative leave following the February 2011 Grand Jury Report. Through a rigorous investigative process involving over 20 experts in child abuse four of the priests have been found suitable for ministry and two have been found not suitable for ministry.

In the cases of those found unsuitable for ministry none were due to a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor and five were due to a substantiated violation of the Standards of Ministerial Behavior and Boundaries. The priests found unsuitable for ministry will have no public ministry in the Archdiocese. They do have the right to appeal the decision to the Holy See. For those found to have a substantiated allegation of sexual abuse of a minor, if they do not appeal, or if their appeal is unsuccessful, they could be laicized (removed from the clerical state) or live a life of prayer and penance.

Archbishop Chaput said, “In making these decisions I relied on the counsel of numerous experts in two separate bodies-the Multi-Disciplinary Team and the Archdiocesan Review Board. They come from various professional disciplines and have dedicated their lives to child protection, to the investigation of sexual offenders and to support for victims of sexual violence. I’m grateful for their tireless efforts. The experience of these doctors, police officers, former prosecutors, victims’ advocates and others in dealing with the broad societal problem of sexual abuse was crucial to our work.”

Prior to conducting an investigation, each case was submitted to the appropriate local district attorney’s office. After receiving clearance, that investigation was conducted by the Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) led by veteran child abuse prosecutor Gina Maisto Smith. The results of the investigations were provided to the Archdiocesan Review Board (ARB), which provided a recommendation to the Archbishop, who made the final decision.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Newsworks

July 6, 2012
By Shannon McDonald

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has found two more priests unsuitable for ministry following the investigation that was opened after the 2011 grand jury report detailing accusations of sexual abuse by four clergy members and a teacher.

The two, Rev. John Bowe and Rev. David Givey, were among six clergy members whose resolutions were announced today; They were part of an initial list of more than 20 priests being investigated for misconduct. Eight cases were resolved in May.

Revs. Paul Castellani, Msgr. John Close, Steven Harris and Leonard Peterson have been found suitable for ministry after the diocese determined misconduct claims against them are unsubstantiated.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

July 7, 2012
Opinion

Adele Horin

As the reputation of the Catholic Church sinks further into the mire with the latest allegations of sex abuse and cover-up, it is worth raising again the subject of priestly celibacy.

Celibacy cuts to the heart of what is wrong with the church – along with its homophobia and misogyny.

Father F, a focus of the Four Corners expose this week, admitted to interfering with five boys aged 10 and 11. He forced two of them to have oral sex regularly over a year, according to a letter written by one of the three priests who interviewed him in 1992.

But understandably overlooked in the outrage over the alleged paedophilia and cover-up is that Father F also admitted to two affairs with young women. This is also a grave offence in the church’s eye. For most people, it is the rank hypocrisy that is offensive.

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The Immanent Frame

posted by Kathryn Lofton

To think, write, or speak about the sexual abuse of children is to enter a terrain of bleak human experience. Even as I write that sentence, my regimented scholarly disposition makes me cautious of its potentially maudlin sentiment. Is this set of experiences more or less bleak than other grievous ones?

Physicians, psychologists, and criminal codes (e.g., Texas state law) largely agree on what constitutes the sexual abuse of children by an adult. It includes, but is not limited to, the sexual touching of any part of the body, clothed or unclothed; penetrative sex, including penetration of the mouth; encouraging a child to engage in sexual activity, including masturbation; intentionally engaging in sexual activity in front of a child; showing children pornography, or using children to create pornography; and encouraging a child to engage in prostitution.

What I want to tackle, immediately, is the fraught relationship between effect and affect in this subject for those of us who seek to interpret it. It is difficult to write or think about sex abuse without being affected by its circulating effects, without feeling that the very practices of academic analysis do something suffocating to its experience. To think about sex abuse in an academic context could suggest that we might wish to think away its awfulness; to write about sex abuse could suggest that we seek to argue away its visceral trauma.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on July 06, 2012

Two accused Philly predator priests are being permanently removed and four others are being put back on the job, according to noted Philly Catholic blogger Rocco Palmo.

Archbishop Charles Chaput continues to selfishly disclose decisions at his convenience with little or no regard for children’s safety.

Just last year, prosecutors concluded that 37 accused Philly priests were still on the job. So it’s very hard to have any faith whatsoever in secretive internal church procedures run by a few Catholics hand-picked by complicit church officials.

The real and urgent remedy is still eliminating Pennsylvania’s archaic, arbitrary, predator-friendly statutes of limitations. When the courthouse doors, long slammed in victims’ faces, are cracked open, the truth about these abuses and cover up reports can be better revealed and children can be better protected.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Philly Post

By Kevin Cirilli

Waiting for Monsignor William Lynn’s hearing to start yesterday morning, I felt like I was back in Monday morning chapel at prep school: It was too early and too hot, and I couldn’t follow a damn thing.

There was also a nun. She comforted Lynn’s friends and family, rubbing backs, offering prayers. They showed up to see if Lynn would be let out of jail and put on house arrest while he awaits sentencing. Lynn is the highest-ranking church official to be found guilty of endangering children for his role in covering up Catholic priests’ sexual abuse of children.

The prosecution said last week that if he were let out of jail, he might flee to the Vatican. Defense attorney William Bergstrom said in court that Lynn wouldn’t screw his family out of the $100,000 they had posted for his bail money. “The family didn’t put up $100,000,” said prosecutor Patrick Blessington. “It was $10,000.” Judge M. Teresa Sarmina bought it, sending Lynn, 61, back behind bars while he awaits his July 24th sentencing hearing.

The nun burst into tears, dabbing her eyes with a tissue, her fingers intertwined with a silver rosary. “I just called the Vatican and told them to give up his room,” Bergstrom sarcastically quipped as he left the courtroom. Lynn was taken back to jail.

Perhaps the most hellish detail to emerge from Lynn’s trial was that his own records stated that he suggested to a pedophile priest that the priest was “seduced into it” by an 11-year-old altar boy. (You can read Lynn’s report here.) The sentiment blames the boy. And it’s a blame one of the young men whom Jerry Sandusky abused told jurors last month that he felt when he came forward. No one believed him.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

By Reuven Blau / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, July 5, 2012

A Borough Park man accused of raping a young boy has been working at a Brooklyn yeshiva for troubled teens – and the city’s Probation Dept. never barred him from contact with minors.

Moshe Pinter, 28, was arrested and charged with a trying to molest a 13-year old boy in 2007, but pled down the top felony charge to a misdemeanor child endangerment offense after the victim declined to testify against him, according to court records and sources.

Pinter was sentenced to three years of probation, but was not barred from working with minors.

For the past year Pinter has been working at Ohr Hameir Yeshiva in Borough Park chaperoning Hasidic teens on weekend getaways while parents had no idea of his criminal past – which also includes two theft convictions.

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INGLEWOOD (CA)
LA Daily News

By Larry Altman, Staff Writerdailynews.com
Posted: 07/05/2012

A 50-year-old pastor of an Inglewood church has been arrested on suspicion of engaging in “substantial sexual acts” with a 14-year-old girl, deputies said Thursday night.

The Rev. Gordon Solomon allegedly met the girl through his involvement as senior pastor at Christ’s Community Church, 234 Hindry Ave., deputies said.

“An ongoing affinity developed and continued for approximately the past two years,” sheriff’s Sgt. Dan Scott of the department’s Special Victims Bureau said in a statement.

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INGLEWOOD (CA)
Mercury News

The Associated Press
Posted: 07/06/2012

INGLEWOOD, Calif.—The pastor of an Inglewood church has been arrested on suspicion of having a two-year sexual relationship with a girl that began when she was 14.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says 50-year-old Gordon Solomon was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of committing lewd acts on a child. He remains jailed on $3 million bail.

Investigators contend that Solomon, who’s married, met the girl through his position as pastor of Christ’s Community Church.

Authorities say the girl’s mother contacted authorities after discovering an explicit text message that Solomon allegedly sent to her daughter.

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INGLEWOOD (CA)
Los Angeles Times

Investigators were looking Friday into whether the sexual misconduct charge against an Inglewood pastor should be expanded beyond one alleged victim, a teenage girl who was a congregant, authorities said Friday.

Gordon Solomon, 50, of Christ’s Community Church was arrested this week on suspicion of engaging in sexual acts with a minor, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Solomon allegedly had a two-year relationship with a teenage congregant that started when the girl was 14, officials said. …

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Special Victims Bureau at (877) 710-5273 or specialvictims@lasd.org. To remain anonymous, call L.A. Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477, text the letters TIPLA plus your tip to CRIMES (274637) or go to lacrimestoppers.org.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Humanistischer Pressedienst

ESSEN. (hpd) Gegen den katholischen Soldatenbischof Franz-Josef Overbeck wird es keine Anklage geben. Im Mai hatte der Bischof zwar während einer später auch über das Internet übertragenen Rede erklärt, dass es ohne Religion und religiöse Praxis kein Menschsein gebe. Die Justiz sieht deshalb aber keinen Handlungsbedarf.

Insgesamt vier Strafanzeigen wurden nach dem Bekanntwerden der Rede des Bischofs erstattet. Die scharfe Kritik an der auch im Netz veröffentlichten Rede des Bischofs hat sich nicht nur daran entzündet, dass er das „Menschsein“ denjenigen absprach, die ohne Religion und religiöse Praxis leben. Auch weitere Äußerungen des einflussreichen Geistlichen stießen auf Empörung und teils großes Entsetzen.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Main Post

Was sexueller Missbrauch in Kindheit und Jugend aus einem Menschen machen kann, zeigt sich im Prozess gegen den ehemaligen Mesner einer katholischen Gemeinde im Kreis Kitzingen. Der Mann steht wegen sexueller Übergriffe auf einen Ministranten vor dem Würzburger Landgericht. Zu Prozessbeginn gab er zu, den Messdiener missbraucht zu haben, seit dieser zwölf Jahre alt war.

Am zweiten Verhandlungstag spricht der Vorsitzende Richter Lothar Schmitt das Missbrauchsopfer, an, das als Nebenkläger auftritt. Er wisse, „wie schwer“ es für den 20-Jährigen gewesen sei, vor Gericht von seinem Martyrium zu berichten, sagt Schmitt. Und er wisse auch, wie schwer es ihm falle, die Verhandlung durchzustehen. Dass er trotzdem anwesend sei, „verdient Respekt“.

Der 20-jährige nickt kaum merklich. Der gut aussehende Mann mit der sportlichen Figur wirkt tieftraurig und in sich gekehrt. Wenn er während der Pausen mit seiner Familie zum Durchatmen vors Gerichtsgebäude geht, raucht er schweigend.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Der Schockwellenreiter

[mit Video]

Der Herausgeber von regensburg-digital, Stefan Aigner, wurde vom Bistum Regensburg 2010 wegen dieses Kommentars, der sich mit der Verquickung des Papstbruders Georg Ratzinger und des Regensburger Bischofs Gerhard Ludwig Müller im Regensburger Mißbrauchsskandal befaßte, abgemahnt, verklagt und vom berüchtigen Landgericht Hamburg verurteilt. Eineinhalb Jahre später hob das Oberlandgericht Hamburg diesen kirchlichen Maulkorb wieder auf. regensburg-digital darf nun wieder behaupten, daß die Diozöse im Fall des pädophilen Priesters Peter K., der nach einem ersten bekanntgewordenen Mißbrauchsfall wieder auf Kinder losgelassen wurde und mindestens einen Ministranten 23 mal mißbraucht hatte, sich beim Vertuschen des Falls ausgesprochen kreativ verhielt:

Ein Opfer des pädophilen Pfarrers von Riekofen erhielten Geldzahlungen, die nicht nur in den Augen unserer Redaktion den Beigeschmack einer Schweigegeldzahlung hat. Das Bistum Regensburg hat das stets bestritten. Es habe keinen kausalen Zusammenhang zwischen der Zahlung und dem vereinbarten Schweigen gegeben, behauptet das Bistum. »Es geht Ihnen nicht um die Opfer, sondern vor allem darum, daß nichts an die Öffentlichkeit kommt«, sagte eines der Opfer dem SPIEGEL.

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DEUTSCHLAND
MissBiT

“… und das Generalvikariat habe im Zuge der Ernennung des Pfarrers zum Krankenhaus-Seelsorger nicht über diese Vorgeschichte informiert, teilt das Gemeinschaftsklinikum auf Anfrage mit.”

Der Seelsorger des Mayener St.-Elisabeth-Krankenhauses ist 2010 verurteilt worden, weil er mehr als 130 kinderpornografische Bilder auf seinem Computer hatte. Erst jetzt hat das Klinikum davon erfahren – und die Konsequenzen gezogen.

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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Joelle Casteix on July 06, 2012

After yesterday’s Bay Area jury verdict, now attention rightfully shifts from William Lynch to the prosecutor and Catholic officials. The prosecutor should file perjury charges against Fr. Lindner.

San Jose Bishop Patrick McGrath should insist that the Jesuits move Fr. Lindner out of his diocese.

And the Jesuits should, at a bare minimum, put Fr. Lindner to a remote, secure, independently-run treatment center not run by the church. (He’s now at a Jesuit facility in Los Gatos where the LA Times says “he is free to travel and tutor seminarians and has collected a living allowance from the order.”)

They should also publicly discipline and denounce him.

The Catholic hierarchy now knows Fr. Lindner is both a serial child molester and a perjurer. (Even Fr. Lindner’s mom, in today’s LA Times, says she’s convinced he’s a child molester.)

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MISSOURI
Berger’s Beat

July 5, 2012 5:15 pm | Author: Jerry Berger
For the second time in a few months, barrister Gerald Noce has failed to stop a child sex abuse and cover up lawsuit against the Marianists and Brother William Mueller. This week the Mo. Supreme Court ruled against Noce and in favor of Clayton attorney Ken Chackes and Florida attorney Adam Horowitz. who represent the alleged victim. (Two other men who also say Mueller molested them at St. Mary’s lost the statute of limitations. They were represented by a K.C.lawyer.) Mueller now lives in San Antonio.

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UNITED STATES
WA Today (Australia)

Terry Collins, San Jose
July 7, 2012 Read later

A US jury has acquitted a man who bashed a priest he says brutally raped him as a child more than three decades ago.

William Lynch acknowledged punching Jerold Lindner several times in 2010 at a retirement home, but he pleaded not guilty. He said the abuse had left him with tormented memories that led to alcohol abuse and depression.

Lynch said he hoped to use the case to publicly shame Lindner and to highlight abuse in the Catholic Church.

Even though the Jesuits have doled out millions of dollars to settle cases brought by Lindner’s alleged victims, the priest was never prosecuted because Lynch and others reported the abuse after the brief window of opportunity set by the statute of limitations at the time slammed shut.

Lynch, who faced up to four years in jail, said the verdict surprised him. ”I honestly thought I was going to jail,” he said.

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CONNECTICUT
Patch

[with poll]

In response to the recent arrest of a priest on child porn possession charges, a spokesman for the Catholic Church in Connecticut maintains that the Church still has a thorough background check process for priests in place.

By Julian McKinley

The Catholic Church in eastern Connecticut was rocked this week after one of its parish priests, the Rev. Dennis Carey of St. Paul in Chains parish in Waterford, was arrested on a felony charge of possession of child pornography.

Carey has since posted a $150,000 bond and remains at liberty while his case is pending.

There is no evidence, however, that Carey had any inappropriate contact with any children of the parish, which is an assertion made by his attorney and supported by the police and state’s attorney’s office. He reportedly said he was addicted to child porn over the past two years and that, since his arrest, he will seek help.

Meanwhile, Waterford Patch published a story today in which a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Norwich asserts that Roman Catholic Church is still a “model” institution for protecting children.

Since 2001, when sex scandals plagued the church in the U.S. and worldwide, the institution enacted a strict screening process, during which both priests and lay workers are subjected to background checks.

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CANADA
Canada.com

Members of the Blood Tribe in southern Alberta say a retired B.C. judge’s visit has renewed some faith in the settlement process for Indian residential school survivors.

Ian Pitfield met with members of the tribe this week to reassure them that their compensation claims for sexual and physical abuse will be dealt with properly. “The integrity of the system has to be restored,” Rick Tailfeathers, a Blood Tribe spokesman, said Thursday.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
WLS

SAN JOSE, Calif. (WLS) – William Lynch, the California man who admitted he pummeled a priest who he said abused him as a boy, has been found not guilty of felony assault and elder abuse charges.

The jury of nine men and three women could not reach a verdict on a lesser charge of misdemeanor assault for the 2010 attack at a retirement home.

The jury began deliberations late Monday after hearing impassioned closing arguments from both sides.

The defense’s strategy had long been to prove to the jury that the wrong man was on trial. However, prosecutor Vicki Gemetti urged jurors to focus on the assault.

“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” she said in her closing arguments on Monday.

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CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

Ten, including relatives, say the Jesuit molested them. He denies it and has not been charged.

[Note: This article was published December 14, 2002.]

Glenn F. Bunting | Times Staff Writer

During 16 years at Loyola High School, Father Jerold Lindner was admired as an energetic teacher exceptionally devoted to his students. Superiors lauded him as the model of “a Christian educator.” A colleague in the English department nominated him as “chairman for life.”

Others outside the school say they knew a different Lindner. Ten men and women portray the Jesuit as a molester who haunted their childhoods, abusing them on Sundays after Mass, during holiday gatherings and on Catholic family camping trips — nearly always while wearing his clerical collar.

These encounters allegedly began in the 1950s, continued through the 1970s, when Lindner was entering the priesthood, and persisted into the 1980s, while he was teaching at Loyola High, a private, all-boys prep school west of downtown Los Angeles.

Jesuit leaders say they first learned about Lindner’s past a decade ago, when his brother told them that the priest had sexually abused three nieces, a nephew and a younger sibling. After sending Lindner for a psychiatric evaluation, Jesuit superiors deemed the allegations not credible and put him back in the classroom.

Fresh charges surfaced in 1997, when two brothers asserted in a lawsuit that Lindner sodomized them years earlier during weekend retreats in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Jesuits then removed the priest from Loyola and negotiated a secret $625,000 settlement with the brothers. As before, Lindner’s superiors did not inform law enforcement authorities, parents or teachers about the allegations.

In a sworn deposition, Lindner denied ever abusing anyone. In a statement to The Times, he said: “I have devoted my life to helping people, and I insist that the accusations against me are not true.” He said the Catholic sex-abuse crisis has “created an atmosphere where people like me are presumed guilty until proven innocent.”

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SCOTLAND
The Scottish Observer

— Approval given on Bishop of Dunkeld’s wish to retire early on health grounds; administrator to be appointed

Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Bishop Vincent Logan of Dunkeld on health grounds with immediate effect. The appointment of Mgr Basil O’Sullivan, parish priest of Holy Family Church, Dunblane, as administrator—chosen by senior priests of the diocese—was made after the SCO went to press.

Bishop Logan, 71, who celebrated 30 years as Bishop of Dunkeld last March, said in December 2010 that he ‘deeply regretted’ having to offer his resignation but felt he had ‘no choice.’

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UNITED KINGDOM
Isle of Thanet Gazette

A PRIEST from Margate has been accused of raping a 28-year-old woman.

Reverend John Taylor, 48, of Canterbury Road appeared at Margate Magistrates’ Court last Thursday morning.

Mr Taylor, who is an Old Roman Catholic priest, was chaplain at the court until last year, often visiting prisoners in the holding cells.

The offence is alleged to have happened on the evening of February 22 this year.

Mr Taylor stood in the dock as details of the charges were read out by prosecutor Julie Farbrace. He spoke only to confirm his name and address.

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MALTA
Times of Malta

The judgement on the appeals of two former priests convicted of child abuse will be delivered on October 26.

The final submissions by both the prosecution and the defence were heard in court this morning as the accused stood in the dock and two of the victims fidgeted as they heard the proceedings.

During today’s hearing, the sitting was stopped for 20 minutes while the judge, the prosecution and the defence watched a video in which victim Laurence Grech stripped a 12-year-old boy naked.

The two former priests Godwin Scerri and Charles Pulis, both members of the Missionary Society of St Paul, were sentenced to five and six years in prison respectively for sexually abusing boys in their care.

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VATICAN CITY
Chiesa

With the leaking of confidential documents, the pact of loyalty that binds together the members of the Vatican curia has been broken. The consultations for a change of government have begun. A letter from the pope to Cardinal Bertone

by Sandro Magister

ROME, July 6, 2012 – The critical point of this pontificate is not the opposition, sometimes bitter, that rains down uninterruptedly on it in various areas. But it is the rupture that has taken place with that pact of loyalty within the Church which is manifested in the leaking of confidential documents, from its highest offices.

Pope Joseph Ratzinger does not allow himself to be intimidated by opposition. It is not something that he endures, but rather in crucial cases he intentionally provokes it. And he does not retreat by even one step when the reaction becomes exaggerated and fierce, beyond what is to be expected.

The memorable lecture in Regensburg was the first demonstration of this. Benedict XVI laid bare the burden of violence present in Islam with a clarity that astonished the world and scandalized in the Church the lovers of the embrace among the religions. He 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, that the future of Islam really is played out here.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
National Catholic Reporter

by Brian Roewe on Jul. 05, 2012 NCR Today

Denied a house arrest request, Msgr. William J. Lynn will remain in jail until his sentencing.

Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina ruled Thursday morning against a plan that would have moved Lynn into the home of his sister’s stepmother until his sentencing date. While the convicted monsignor will stay jailed, his time there will be shorter after Sarmina granted his lawyers’ request to have the sentencing date moved up, from Aug. 13 to July 24.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the rescheduled sentencing will allow Lynn’s defense to appeal the case sooner and reapply to release Lynn on bail.

Lynn was convicted of child endangerment for leaving defrocked priest Edward Avery in ministry despite knowledge of past abuse.

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CONNECTICUT
Patch

By Paul Petrone

Monday, the Rev. Dennis Carey, formerly the pastor of Waterford’s St. Paul in Chains Rectory, was arrested for first-degree possession of child pornography. Court documents would later show that while there are no allegations of Carey sexually abusing children, the priest admitted to police he was addicted to child porn for the last two years.

For many, it seemed like another of many cases of a priest in the Roman Catholic Church being charged with a crime against children. But Michael Strammiello, director of communications for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich, said Thursday nothing could be further from the truth, calling the Roman Catholic Church “the model institution” when it comes to protecting children.

“There is no institution in America that has done more to protect young people than the Catholic church,” Strammiello said. “No institution has done more, invested more.”

Strammiello said the screenings of priests and the way child abuse allegations are handled has completely changed since 2001, when allegations of priests sexually abusing children began pouring in nationally. He said the church is constantly working on how to guarantee safety for children, and has done a better job than anybody of doing that.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
Reuters

By Andrew Lu at FindLaw.com

Thu Jul 5, 2012

Two wrongs don’t make a right, at least not always. Will Lynch was found not guilty in the priest beating trial where he was accused of attacking 67-year-old retired priest Rev. Jerold Lindner.

Lynch did not deny attacking the Catholic priest. However, the jury let him off anyway, perhaps due to Lynch’s special motivation for the attack.

Over 30 years ago, Will Lynch says that the Catholic priest raped him and his brother when they were both just children, reports NBC. Linder was never officially tied to the rape though the church did pay Lynch and his brother $187,000 to settle a civil case without admitting wrongdoing.

Obviously not feeling vindicated, Lynch decided to take matters into his own hands in 2010. He showed up at the Northern California retirement home of Lindner and punched him repeatedly in the face and body, reports NBC. Unlike Lindner and his alleged acts of child rape, Lynch showed some mercy by requesting that Lindner remove his glasses before the beating.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
Mercury News

By Scott Herhold
The Mercury News mercurynews.com
Posted: 07/05/2012

The trial of Will Lynch offered mirrors within mirrors, ironies within ironies. Nothing made that clearer than the words of juror No. 12, a grizzled, retired accountant who said the turning point came when the jurors were instructed to ignore the testimony of the Rev. Jerold Lindner.

“The thing that struck me was that the victim in this case disappeared, or his testimony did. I had to ask myself, if you don’t have a victim, do you have a crime?” said the burly juror, who explained that jurors were ready to acquit on all charges until Lynch testified to the attack.

In my view, the jury still got it wrong: We don’t operate as vigilantes in America. But you could understand how they got there. In the courtroom, the defendant became Lindner, not Lynch. And the crime happened 35 years ago, not two years past.

How did we get to the place where a man can go to a Jesuit retreat center, bloody the priest who assaulted him years ago, and then emerge to cheers after a near clear-cut victory in court?

The quick answer is that powerful forces and feelings trump a prosecutor’s brief. Emotions, and yes, the memory of years of abuse by priests, matter more than the cold litany of charges. Call it jury nullification, but it is both simpler and more complex than that.

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SEATTLE (WA)
The Seattle Times

Posted by Alexa Vaughn

A man who, as a child, was sexually abused by a Seattle Catholic school official has won a $6.4 million in court, one of the largest such awards in state history.

The jury at King County Courthouse found the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a worldwide Catholic order of priests, guilty of ignoring the plaintiff’s sex-abuse complaints when he attended St. Benedict School in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood.

“The Oblates tried to point the finger at everyone except themselves, but the jury didn’t accept this and rightly held them accountable for their actions,” said Michael Pfau, an attorney for the plaintiff, in a statement. “The evidence was overwhelming that this religious order was more concerned with protecting its reputation and avoiding scandal than doing the right thing and protecting children.”

The plaintiff — identified as “S.O.” — testified that he was abused on a weekly basis between 1961 and 1964 by Daniel Adamson, a former teacher and principal at the school, who was not a member of the clergy. The plaintiff said he asked the Oblate pastor, Father Henry Conrad, twice for help but was ignored.

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SEATTLE (WA)
KOMO

By Lindsay Cohen

SEATTLE — A King County jury has awarded $8 million to a victim of sexual abuse at a Seattle Catholic school. The sum is believed to be the largest ever against the Catholic Church in Washington state.

The jury found the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a Catholic order of priests, guilty of ignoring the plaintiff’s complaints of sexual abuse at St. Benedict School in Wallingford. The plaintiff testified in court that he was abused on a weekly basis between 1961 and 1964 by a former teacher and principal, Daniel Adamson.

“This wasn’t minor abuse. This was three years of the worst crimes you can imagine on a child,” said the plaintiff, Stephen O’Connor. “What sexual abuse and sodomy and rape of a 12-year-old child is minimal?”

O’Connor, who grew up in Seattle but now splits his time between Western Washington and Spokane, said he hid the memories of sexual abuse for nearly 50 years but that a 2008 reunion at St. Benedict – to mark the school’s 100th anniversary – triggered an onslaught of feelings.

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AUSTRALIA
Perth Now

AAP
July 06, 2012

Police are expected to be informed of fresh allegations of sexual abuse at a Catholic school that weren’t passed on to authorities, a former victim says.

ROBERT Lipari told AAP he was sexually abused by a former teacher at a Catholic school in NSW during the 1970s.

An internal Catholic Church report dated August 2011, and obtained by AAP, substantiated Mr Lipari’s allegations of indecent and sexual assaults between 1976 and 1977 when he was a student at the school.

The allegations included being assaulted in a caravan, on a boat during a fishing trip and in a classroom.

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NIGERIA
allAfrica

Daily Trust

By John Chuks Azu, 6 July 2012

A pastor of a new generation church in Nyanya, Abuja, was yesterday arraigned by the police before an Abuja Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Karu for allegedly molesting young female members of his church.

Pastor Basil Princewill, the general overseer of Mountain Movers Fire Ministries International, Nyanya, Abuja, was arraigned with Ms Paulyn Ode, the church’s coordinator on charges of alleged conspiracy, criminal impersonation, criminal intimidation, and criminal force and assault.

The pastor was accused of having carnal knowledge of two 14-year-old female members of the church under pretences of offering prayers for them in July, 2011 and later aborted the pregnancy of one the girls this year at the Fountain Health Clinic, Nyanya, Abuja after telling doctors he is her father.

According to the charge, which was transferred from the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) where parents of the victims lodged initial complaints, the pastor also impersonated as a lawyer with an LL.B certificate.

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AUSTRALIA
Advertiser

LINTON BESSER, JOANNE MCCARTHY

06 Jul, 2012

THE church prematurely terminated an investigation last year into the alleged failure of a top Catholic education official to take action over the sexual assault of an 11-year-old boy in the 1970s by a lay teacher.

A former principal of St Patrick’s at Sutherland, Brother Anthony Peter Whelan, had been accused by Robert Lipari of failing to take action against a science teacher, Thomas Keady, after he reported being molested by the man at a caravan park.

Shortly before being employed at the school, Keady had completed a three-year jail term in Victoria for child sex offences.

The church commissioned an investigation by the former NSW Police assistant commissioner, Norm Maroney, who substantiated the 1976 assault, and the fact it was reported it to another senior teacher at the school, Brother John Vincent Roberts.

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CALIFORNIA
The Orange County Register

By PETER LARSON and VIK JOLLY / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

SANTA ANA – A Laguna Hills pastor molested five boys – as young as 9 years old – from his church during sleepovers and visits he arranged, a prosecutor told a jury Thursday.

Defendant Oscar Perez, 69, asked one of the victims’ parents to bring the boy to his Lake Forest apartment because he wasn’t feeling well, Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker said in her opening statement.

The boys’ parents trusted him, she said. Their sons assisted Perez with services at Iglesia Antigua, a church that rented space at a Laguna Hills Episcopal Church, where he represented himself as a Catholic and Apostolic pastor and bishop, Walker said.

Perez is charged with 22 counts of lewd acts upon a child under 14, four counts of lewd acts on a child, and faces sentencing enhancement allegations for lewd acts against multiple victims.

The first victim’s mother reported the sexual assault last July to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, the prosecutor said. Continued investigation revealed the other four. She said the victims believed the church would be ruined and they would go to hell if they told anyone.

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LAGUNA HILLS (CA)
Patch

The pastor of a Laguna Hills church molested five boys in his congregation who ranged in age from 9 to 15 years old as they slept over or visited his Lake Forest apartment, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday.

Oscar D. Perez Perez’s attorney, however, said the accusations were the result of “misunderstandings,” and that his 69-year-old client was actually giving the boys sex education and tips on hygiene.

Perez is charged with 22 felony counts of lewd acts on a child younger than 14, four felony counts of lewd acts on a child and faces sentencing enhancement allegations for lewd acts on multiple victims.

Perez claims to be a bishop and pastor of Iglesia Antigua, or Old Church, which at the time of his arrest rented space at St. George’s Episcopalian Church in Laguna Hills. Perez’s church is not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church or the Diocese of Orange.

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INGLEWOOD (CA)
Los Angeles Times

A pastor at an Inglewood church has been arrested on suspicion of engaging in sexual acts with a minor, authorities said Thursday.

Gordon Solomon, 50, of Christ’s Community Church allegedly had a two-year relationship with a teenage congregant that started when the girl was 14, according to a statement released by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Solomon and the victim allegedly exchanged emails and texts of a sexual nature and met at various locations. The victim’s mother stumbled upon one of the explicit text messages from Solomon that was sent to the girl, authorities said, and immediately called police.

Solomon was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of felony lewd acts upon a child. He is being held in lieu of $3-million bail.

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INGLEWOOD (CA)
KABC

[with video]

Amy Powell

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (KABC) — A local pastor has been arrested on child sex abuse charges. Authorities say he met the alleged victim at church.

Gordon Solomon, 50, was arrested Wednesday for felony lewd acts on child. Police said the alleged victim is a 14-year-old girl who Solomon met through Christ Community Church, and relatives said the girl was 12 when the abuse began.

“The case was discovered after the mother reported the incident to authorities,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Dep. Benjamin Grubb. “Apparently she found text messages on her daughter’s phone regarding her and the suspect.” …

Investigators said they have reason to believe there may be other victims. Anyone with information should call the Los Angeles Police Department Special Victims Bureau at (877) 710-5273.

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NIGERIA
allAfrica

Daily Trust

By John Chuks Azu, 6 July 2012

A pastor of a new generation church in Nyanya, Abuja, was yesterday arraigned by the police before an Abuja Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Karu for allegedly molesting young female members of his church.

Pastor Basil Princewill, the general overseer of Mountain Movers Fire Ministries International, Nyanya, Abuja, was arraigned with Ms Paulyn Ode, the church’s coordinator on charges of alleged conspiracy, criminal impersonation, criminal intimidation, and criminal force and assault.

The pastor was accused of having carnal knowledge of two 14-year-old female members of the church under pretences of offering prayers for them in July, 2011 and later aborted the pregnancy of one the girls this year at the Fountain Health Clinic, Nyanya, Abuja after telling doctors he is her father.

According to the charge, which was transferred from the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) where parents of the victims lodged initial complaints, the pastor also impersonated as a lawyer with an LL.B certificate.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC – AM

Tony Eastley reported this story on Friday, July 6, 2012

TONY EASTLEY: After an ABC Four Corners program was aired on Monday the Catholic Church has reopened inquiries into what has been seen as a botched investigation into allegations of sexual abuse of boys by a priest in the 1980s.

The priest, known as Father F, was accused of sexually abusing altar boys in Moree and Parramatta in New South Wales. One of the priest’s alleged victims, Damien Jurd, later committed suicide.

Three senior priests investigated the claims, but no evidence was forwarded to police despite the fact Father F made admissions of serious criminal behaviour in a 1992 meeting with the three officials.

One of those officials was Father Brian Lucas who’s now the general secretary of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

Father Brian Lucas, thanks for joining us on AM. What happened at that meeting in 1992 at St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney when you, John Usher and Wayne Peters met with now known as Father F?

BRIAN LUCAS: I think to understand the context of that meeting we have to understand that Father F, as we are calling him, had been charged with respect to an offence involving Damien Jurd and that case had been dismissed.

Following that he was then working in the Parramatta diocese and there other rumours and innuendo and there was a still a fair bit of notoriety around the Armidale area with respect to the dismissal of that court case.

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DAVENPORT (IA)
Quad-City Times

Brian Wellner

A priest exonerated by the Vatican of child molestation charges said his diocese should release all names of priests accused of sexually abusing children, regardless of whether their charges were dropped.

The Rev. Drake Shafer spoke Thursday both as a former vicar general once accused of abusing a teenager in the 1970s and as a victim himself of a sex abuse crime he said happened more than 50 years ago when he was a minor.

His alleged abuser was a priest.

“I can certainly understand why victims want the names to be presented,” said Shafer, pastor of St. Ann’s Catholic Church in Long Grove. “And I can personally understand it, as a victim.”

A judge’s recent ruling allows the Diocese of Davenport, which is coming out of bankruptcy over the clergy sex abuse scandal, to withhold the names of 18 priests whose accusers received financial settlements.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times

July 6, 2012
SAN JOSE — A jury has found a San Francisco man not guilty of felony assault and felony elder abuse, despite his admission that he attacked the priest accused of molesting him nearly four decades ago.

The 10-man, two-woman panel also said Thursday that William Lynch was not guilty of misdemeanor elder abuse in the 2010 attack on Father Jerold Lindner. The 67-year-old Catholic priest has been linked to more than a dozen alleged victims — including his own nieces, nephew and sister — but never has been brought to trial because the statute of limitations in every case had run out.

The jury was split on a final charge against Lynch: misdemeanor assault. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge David Cena declared a mistrial on that count. Dist. Atty. Jeffrey Rosen said his office would decide in the coming days whether to retry Lynch.

After the verdict was read, Lynch said he had felt certain that he would be going to jail — and was pleasantly surprised that he would not. But he also spoke haltingly, and with deep emotion, about justice and responsibility.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
San Francisco Examiner

By:Bay City News | 07/05/12

A jury in San Jose acquitted William Lynch on Thursday of two felony counts in connection with his 2010 attack on the Jesuit priest he said molested him during a camping trip more than 30 years ago.

Three female and nine male jurors found the 44-year-old not guilty on felony charges of assault causing great bodily injury and elder abuse, but were hung on the lesser charge of simple assault.

The charges stemmed from Lynch’s May 10, 2010, assault at the Los Gatos retirement home of the Rev. Jerold Lindner, then 65. Lynch said the Jesuit priest raped him at the age of 7 and also forced him to perform sexual acts with his brother, who was then 4 years old.

Taking the stand last week, Lynch described how the abuse and Lindner’s alleged threats against reporting the molestation ruined his life, driving him to alcohol abuse and depression.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

By Tom Nightingale, ABC
July 6, 2012

There are calls for police in New South Wales to open an investigation into three senior priests of the Catholic Church who failed to inform police of a priest’s apparent admission of child sex abuse.

This week the a priest known as Father F met with three church leaders and admitted in that meeting to serious criminal behaviour involving altar boys in Moree and Parramatta dating back to the 1980s.

After the meeting he was suspended from the priesthood, although he remained a lay member of the church for 13 years after that.

The church responded to the Four Corners claims by denying there was any admission during the 1992 meeting with Father Brian Lucas, Father John Usher and Father Wayne Peters.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
Patch

[video]

By Sheila Sanchez

A jury has acquitted a San Francisco man accused of beating a priest at the Los Gatos Sacred Heart Jesuit Center in May 2010.

On Thursday afternoon, the panel found William Lynch, 44, not guilty of one count of felony assault with intent to cause great bodily injury and one count of elder abuse under circumstances likely to produce great bodily harm or death. He had pleaded not guilty to both charges.

The jury hung 8-4 on a lesser misdemeanor crime of an assault on Father Jerold Lindner and it’s not clear if the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office will refile charges related to that lesser offense or appeal.

Outside the San Jose Hall of Justice, Lynch said he was happy with the verdict and surprised by the outcome of the highly emotional trial.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
International Business Times

By Ewan Palmer | July 6, 2012

A man who admitted attacking a 67-year-old priest who allegedly abused him as a child has been found not guilty of assault and “elder abuse”.

William Lynch, 44, stood trial accused of assaulting Rev Jerold Lindner at a retirement home for priests in Los Gatos, California on May 2010.

Lindner sustained minor injuries.

Lynch had claimed that Lynch had sexually abused him and his younger brother on a camping trip more than 35 years ago.

Supporters of Lynch wept and hugged each other in court as the verdict was read out. The defendant and his attorneys received a rousing cheer as they left the courtroom.

“I honestly thought I was going to jail,” Lynch said. “It turned out better than I expected.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC Newcastle

Updated July 06, 2012

The Newcastle Anglican Diocese Professional Standards Board has recommended a Hunter priest be stripped of his holy orders over alleged sexual acts with a 19-year-old man in 1984.

The Board has heard evidence from the the man allegedly involved in the incident that he claimed took place at a motel during an Anglican conference in Narrandera, in southern New South Wales.

At a public hearing in Newcastle this week the board has concluded that Reverend Bruce Hoare breached the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle’s professional standards ordinance and code of conduct.

Reverend Hoare has denied the allegations made against him and no police charges have been laid.

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SEATTLE (WA)
Q13 Fox

Web reporter
Q13 Fox News Online

3:48 p.m. PDT, July 5, 2012
SEATTLE—
A jury has awarded $8 million to a former student of St. Benedict School in Seattle in a lawsuit against the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a worldwide Catholic religious order of priests.

It is believed to be the largest monetary judgment against the Catholic Church in Washington state, the plaintiff’s attorneys said in a statement.

The jury found the plaintiff, identified only as “S.O.,” was sexually abused on a weekly basis between 1961 and 1964 by Daniel Adamson, a former teacher and principal at the Catholic school. S.O. testified that he twice asked the Oblate pastor, the Rev. Henry Conrad, for help, but the priest ignored him.

At the time, St. Benedict was owned by the Seattle Archdiocese and run by Oblate priests. S.O. filed suit against both entities, but settled with the Seattle Archdiocese last year.

The jury also heard from two other students who testified that they also told Conrad that Adamson was abusing them, but the Oblate priest allegedly told them to stay quiet.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
KRON

By: Brian Shields – Thu, 05 Jul 2012

SAN JOSE (KRON) — A jury has acquitted William Lynch of all felony charges in the attack on a priest he says molested him as a child.

A jury deliberated for two days before returning the verdict.

Lynch admitted attacking Father Jerold Lindner during his testimony in the case. The defendant says the former Catholic priest molested him and his little brother during a visit to a camp over Memorial Day weekend in 1974.

Prosecutors had charged Lynch with two felonies including assault and elder abuse. The attack on Lindner happened at a Los Gatos nursing home where the former priest was living. The jury couldn’t agree on a misdemeanor charge of simple assault in the case.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
Mercury News

By Tracey Kaplan
tkaplan@mercurynews.commercurynews.com

Posted: 07/05/2012

A jury today acquitted a San Francisco man of felony charges that he beat up and abused the cleric he says brutally raped him decades ago.

The jury found Will Lynch not guilty of felony elder abuse and felony assault for a confrontation with Rev. Jerold Lindner two years ago. It also found Lynch not guilty of misdemeanor elder abuse, but deadlocked 8-4 in favor of a conviction on misdemeanor assault.

The verdict was a triumph for Lynch, now 44, and his supporters, who faithfully picketed outside and packed the Santa Clara County courtroom as the assault trial — normally a brief event — stretched over three weeks. From accusations of prosecutorial misconduct to a confrontation in the hallway between the priest and one of his alleged molestation victims, the trial was roiled by disruptions.

“I was wrong for doing what I did — in doing that I perpetuated the cycle of violence,” Lynch said outside the courtroom, referring to the two blows to the head he delivered to Lindner at the Sacred Heart retirement home in Los Gatos. “But if there is anything I want people to take away from this — it is you can come forward, you can seek justice and you can find justice in many forms.”

District Attorney Jeff Rosen said he was “disappointed” by the verdict. He said he’ll carefully evaluate whether to retry Lynch on the misdemeanor assault charge.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
CBS San Francisco

[with audio]

SAN JOSE (CBS SF)— A San Jose man was acquitted Thursday of assaulting a retired priest who he claims molested him decades ago as a boy.

44-year-old William Lynch was accused of assaulting 67-year-old Rev. Jerold Lindner at a Los Gatos retirement home in May 2010.

The jury found him not guilty of felony assault and felony elder abuse, and deadlocked on a lesser charge of simple assault. When the verdicts were read Thursday afternoon, Lynch appeared relieved, smiling and receiving hugs from his attorneys.

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ZIMBABWE
Nehanda Radio

By Esther Gomo

Nearly two years ago Bishop Daniel Gwedegwe was dragged to court facing charges that he had touched his 24 year old sister-in-laws private parts.

The complainant sensationally claimed that Gwedegwe would sometimes kneel and touch her private organ and kiss her breasts. This was said to have started sometime in 2005 when the Bishop’s wife was in the United Kingdom.

The Bishop from the Pentecostal Revival Ministries International in Harare has now set the record straight with Nehanda Radio telling us the case was thrown out on the 27th of January 2011 at the Rotten Row Magistrates Courts.

Bishop Gwedegwe said “this case should not have passed the Public Relations Desk at the police Charge Office where I was the complainant turned accused. The Public Prosecutor should have seen the dubious nature of the charges.”

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SAN JOSE (CA)
ABC News

By TERRY COLLINS Associated Press

SAN JOSE, Calif. July 6, 2012 (AP)

A jury acquitted a man Thursday of assaulting a priest he says molested him more than three decades ago during a camping trip and left him with tormented memories that led to alcohol abuse, depression and suicide attempts.

The verdict came after defendant William Lynch took the witness stand during the two-week trial and acknowledged punching Jerold Lindner several times on May 10, 2010.

While previously pleading not guilty, Lynch said he hoped to use the case to publicly shame Lindner and bring further attention to the Catholic Church clergy abuse scandal. Lynch said the verdict surprised him.

“I honestly thought I was going to jail,” he said after the verdicts were read. “It turned our better than I expected.”

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SAN JOSE (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on July 05, 2012

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

We hope this case prods lawmakers to reform predator friendly laws that prevent child sex abuse victims from exposing predators in civil and criminal court.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
Pasadena Star

Associated Press
Posted: 07/05/2012

SAN JOSE – A jury acquitted a man Thursday of assaulting a priest he says molested him more than three decades ago during a camping trip and left him with tormented memories that led to alcohol abuse, depression and suicide attempts.

The verdict came after defendant William Lynch took the witness stand during the two-week trial and acknowledged punching Jerold Lindner several times on May 10, 2010.

While previously pleading not guilty, Lynch said he hoped to use the case to publicly shame Lindner and bring further attention to the Catholic Church clergy abuse scandal.

Lynch has said memories of the priest have tormented him for years, and he struggled through nightmares, divorce and other problems. He tried to commit suicide twice.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle

Kevin Fagan

(07-05) 14:47 PDT SAN JOSE — A jury in San Jose found a 44-year-old man not guilty Thursday of two felony counts stemming from an alleged attack on a retired Catholic priest who he says raped him on a camping trip in 1975.

William Lynch was acquitted of felony assault and elder abuse for allegedly beating Jerold Lindner in a Los Gatos retirement center in 2010. The jury hung on a count of misdemeanor assault.

If convicted, Lynch could have gone to prison for four years.

The nationally watched trial threw a spotlight on the issue of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, as Lynch sought

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SAN JOSE (CA)
The Fresno Bee

By TERRY COLLINS – Associated Press

Thursday, Jul. 05, 2012 | 02:52 PM

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A jury has acquitted a man charged with assaulting a retired priest he says molested him more than three decades ago in California.

The jury of nine men and three women returned its verdict Thursday against William Lynch after starting deliberations Monday in San Jose.

Prosecutors say Lynch acted as a vigilante when he pummeled Jerold Lindner with his fists in the 2010 attack. They said Lynch’s testimony about his alleged sexual abuse by Lindner was no excuse for beating up the priest years later.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
KTVU

KTVU And Wires

SAN JOSE, Calif. —

After more than three days of deliberations, a jury has reached a verdict in the case of a man charged with beating a priest he claimed molested him as a youth.

The verdict was expected to be read in San Clara County Superior Court around 2:30 p.m.

William Lynch testified last Friday that he punched the priest after memories of the alleged sexual abuse came flooding back across the decades and were so vivid that he felt threatened.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
NBC Bay Area

By Lisa Fernandez and Arturo Santiago

| Thursday, Jul 5, 2012

A Santa Clara County jury on Thursday is expected to return a verdict on whether a man who beat a priest who he said sexually abused him years ago is guilty or not of felony assault.

If found guilty, William Lynch could face up to four years in prison when he is sentenced.

Lynch, 44 of San Francisco 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 raped him and his brother when they were children in the 1970s.

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VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Holy See sustained its largest budget deficit of the past decade in 2011 as a result of global financial trends, the Vatican said July 5. But Vatican City State, which includes the income-generating Vatican Museums and Vatican post office, ended 2011 with a surplus of 21.8 million euros ($27 million).

The budget of the Holy See, which includes the offices of the Roman Curia and its communications outlets such as Vatican Radio, recorded a deficit of 14.9 million euros ($18.4 million) at the end of 2011. It was the largest budget deficit recorded in the past decade and reversed the 2010 surplus of 9.8 million euros ($12 million).

Total expenditures for the Holy See in 2011 were 263.7 million euros ($326.4 million) with 248.8 million euros ($308 million) in revenues.

A brief summary of the Vatican’s financial report released to the press blamed the deficit on “the negative trend of global financial markets, which made it impossible to achieve the goals laid down in the budget.”

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VATICAN CITY
MSNBC

By Claudio Lavanga, NBC News

If you were seeking confirmation that the current economic crisis really is evil, look no further than the Holy See.

The Vatican reported on Thursday that its tiny state wasn’t spared by the global economic downfall. With its budget deficit hitting $19 million, 2011 was one of the Holy See’s worst financial years on record.

With lines for entering Vatican museums and Saint Peter’s Basilica consistently as long as the Vatican wall, last year alone tickets for attractions like the Sistine Chapel filled the Vatican’s coffers with more than $90 million. If to that you add the almost $70 million the pope received in charitable donations, it’s difficult to believe that the smallest state in the world, with its 0.2-square-miles territory, could ever go in the red.

The sheer cost of employing almost 3,000 people to run the Vatican, its radio and newspaper services, plus the especially bad real estate market affecting some of Italy’s most prestigious palazzos owned by the Vatican, mean it spent more, much more, than it earned.

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CALIFORNIA
BishopAccountability.org – Assignment Record

Summary of Case: Ordained in Ireland, Fitz-Henry spent his career in the Monterey, CA diocese. He was removed from active ministry in February 2011 when accused of having sexually abused a 14 year-old boy in 2005. The abuse is said to have included the priest asking the boy questions and making comments of a sexual nature during confession. An investigation revealed an allegation from 1992 as well. That incident may have involved two boys, who were brothers. The family received a settlement from the diocese, and Fitz-Henry was sent to Servants of the Paraclete in New Mexico for treatment in May 1992. In 1995 he was made pastor of a Monterey parish.

Born: Sept. 18, 1958 in Dublin, Ireland
Educated: Colaiste Eoin, Finglas, Ireland (1972-1976); Holy Cross College, Dublin, Ireland (1977-1980); All Hallows College (Seminary), Drumcondra, Dublin, Ireland (1981-1984); Baccalaureate in Divinity.
Ordained: 1985

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UNITED STATES
NPR

[with audio]

by Barbara Bradley Hagerty

July 4, 2012

The Catholic Church is drawing a line in the sand.

Perceiving its core beliefs to be under threat from popular culture, the White House and even Catholics themselves, the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops are pushing back.

In recent months, the church leadership has been cracking down on liberal theologians, disciplining nuns and emphasizing a more orthodox theology.

The most recent example is the bishops’ response to the new health care law. After the Obama administration announced that religious universities, hospitals and charities must offer insurance plans that cover birth control, the bishops swung into action. …

Reese says today’s church leaders remind him of parents of teenage children.

“They realize they’re losing control,” he says, “and they think the solution is simply to shout louder, and to say, ‘No, you can’t do that,’ or, ‘Not in my house, you won’t,’ or, ‘Because I said so!’

“That’s simply not going to work with an educated laity,” Reese says.

‘Maybe Our Time Has Come’

Reese believes that top-down approach, combined with the bishops’ handling of the sex abuse crisis, has alienated many of the faithful.

Polls show that one-third of people raised Catholic no longer attends church.

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CHILE
Terra

El presidente de la Fundación para la Confianza, José Andrés Murillo, llamó a la población a no callar y dar a conocer los casos de abusos sexuales u otros tipos de delitos relacionados.

“No hay que olvidarse nunca que la piedra angular del abuso es el silencio. En estos casos, el silencio es tremendamente efectivo, gracias a que esta persona (el abusador) es importante, o tiene poder o es significativa”, afirmó uno de los denunciantes del sacerdote Fernando Karadima a Radio ADN.

Asimismo, indicó que el caso en contra del religioso Cristián Precht y los relacionados a diversos establecimientos educacionales, están demostrando que se está perdiendo el temor a hacer público este tipo de hechos.

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AUSTRALIA
Vatican Insider

Australian police in collaboration with the Catholic Church, have launched a new inquiry into cases of paedophilia

Vatican Insider staff
Rome

The Australian Catholic Church has launched a new inquiry into cases of sex abuse against minors which occurred in two parishes in New South Wales in the early 80’s. This is after the publication of a detailed document, which states that three of Australia’s most distinguished prelates failed to report a series of serious paedophilia cases which a priest – known only as Fr. F – had admitted to in person. Apparently they did not report him to authorities for legal reasons.

Meanwhile, State police is investigating into the affair in order to establish whether the three prelates committed a crime which could be punishable with a two year prison sentence, for not reporting the cases to the police.

Fr. F was arrested in 1987 on charges of committing acts of paedophilia in the Catholic parish of Moree. He was put on trial but the judge dismissed the case before allowing the jury to examine him, claiming that the credibility of one of the victims, who was 15 at the time, could not be set against that of a priest. Fr. F therefore continued his ministry in the parish of Paramatta, in Sydney, where he sexually molested two altar boys.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

The Holy See financial statements for 2011 have been published. They show a deficit of almost fifteen million Euro

Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City

In times of crisis, admission tickets to museums and offerings to the Pope become the Vatican’s financial pillars. The Holy See’s consolidated financial statements for 2011 close with a deficit of 14,890,034 Euro. Not all Vatican administrations however have published their financial statements; the accounts are therefore only partial.

The Governorate and the Peter’s Pence Collection have faired well but the Holy See is in the red. The Holy See has promised “contained spending without cutting back on jobs.” The cardinals of the Council for the examination of the Holy See’s organisational and economic problems gathered yesterday and Tuesday in the Vatican for a meeting chaired by the Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone. Participants gave “numerous” speeches and “made clear their appreciation at the completeness and transparency of the information they had been given,” while “recognition was expressed for the commitment to the ongoing improvement of the administration of the goods and resources of the Holy See.”

The Vatican Press Office reported that “a call was made for prudence and limiting costs, though while maintaining jobs.” “The result – the Council of cardinals informed – was affected by the negative trend of global financial markets, which made it impossible to achieve the goals laid down in the budget.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Armidale Express

JANENE CAREY

06 Jul, 2012

AMID calls for a Royal Commission into Catholic Church cover-ups of child sexual abuse cases, Armidale resident Peter Jurd, who featured in Monday night’s Four Corner’s expose, spoke to The Express about how the program has sparked hopes of finally seeing justice for his brother Damian and other victims.

Mr Jurd, a mature-aged student who moved to Armidale four years ago to study law at the University of New England, said he only found out for sure that he was living in the same town as his brother’s alleged abuser, Father F, when his family was contacted by the Four Corners investigation team.

“We had heard he might be here but we didn’t know,” Mr Jurd said. “It’s only in the last couple of months that I’ve been made aware he was definitely here in Armidale. But because Four Corners was investigating him, I didn’t want to interfere in that. It was hard at times – it would have been nice to go and confront him.”

Father F, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is a defrocked Catholic priest originally from the Armidale Diocese accused of sexually molesting a string of altar boys in Moree and Sydney during the 1980s, including 11-year-old Damian Jurd.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

BY BEN SMEE

06 Jul, 2012

AN Anglican church professional standards board has recommended a Hunter priest be defrocked for his involvement in a sexual encounter with a 19-year-old and another priest, and for breaching a long-repealed law that banned homosexuality in NSW.

The priest, who cannot be named, did not attend the hearings this week but said through a lawyer that he could not afford to retain legal counsel and denied the allegations.

The three-person board unanimously upheld four allegations relating to an alleged encounter at a church synod in 1984.

They included that the priest committed the offences ‘‘indecent assault’’ and ‘‘outrage on decency’’ in a motel room with the complainant, who was 19 at the time, and another priest.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
ABC News

By JOANN LOVIGLIO Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA July 5, 2012 (AP)

A Roman Catholic official convicted of child endangerment will remain behind bars until his sentencing later this month, a judge ruled Thursday, denying a defense request for house arrest.

Monsignor William Lynn has been in custody since a jury convicted him June 22 of the charge, which stemmed from his handling of sex abuse claims at the Philadelphia archdiocese.

Lynn, 61, is the first U.S. Catholic church official convicted in the cover-up of child sex-abuse complaints. He faces 3 1/2 to seven years in prison.

“After due consideration, the motion is denied,” Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina, who presided over Lynn’s three-month jury trial, said at the brief hearing that was packed with the monsignor’s friends and family. She did approve a defense request to move up Lynn’s sentencing date from Aug. 13 to July 24. …

A national support group for sexual abuse victims praised the judge’s decision to keep Lynn in prison.

“Some may view this decision as harsh. We consider it just and smart,” said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “And we hope it will help end current cover-ups and deter future cover-ups by Catholic officials across the country.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Priest Abuse Trial Blog

Ralph Cipriano

Judge M. Teresa Sarmina denied a defense motion today that would have granted house arrest to Msgr. William J. Lynn.

The judge’s decision means that Lynn will continue to reside at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, known as CFCF, on State Road in Northeast Philadelphia. According to his attorney, Jeff Lindy, Lynn is in protective custody there, and leading a contemplative life.

Judge Sarmina did grant one defense request, to move up Lynn’s sentencing date from Aug. 13 to July 24, provided the monsignor was willing to waive a pre-sentence report. The theory was, after Lynn has been the object of grand jury scrutiny and a decade of investigation, there was nothing new out there to be dug up by an investigator that would affect his sentence. Lynn agreed to the request.

The 61-year-old monsignor is facing a sentence of three and a half to seven years after being convicted on one count of endangering the welfare of a child, a third-degree felony. Assistant District Attorney Patrick Blessington surprised nobody in the courtroom when he said he would be asking for the maximum sentence.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

By John P. Martin
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Msgr. William J. Lynn lost a bid today to get out of jail before being sentenced for child endangerment but persuaded a judge to move his sentencing hearing up by three weeks.

After barely 10 minutes of discussion, Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina sided with Philadelphia prosecutors who said Lynn, the first Catholic church supervisor convicted for enabling clergy sex-abuse, should stay in prison because he is a flight risk.

The former secretary for clergy for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia faces up to seven years in prison. Sarmina moved up his sentencing to July 24, from Aug. 13.

Lynn’s relatives and supporters packed the courtroom for the bail hearing, the second since Lynn was convicted and jailed on June 22. A few gasped when the judge announced her decision.

Lynn, sitting at the defense table in black priestly garb without a clerical collar, didn’t appear to react. One of his lawyers, Jeffrey Lindy, patted the monsignor’s back.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Wall Street Journal

By PETER LOFTUS

A Philadelphia judge denied a request that a Roman Catholic monsignor recently convicted of child endangerment be released from jail to house arrest while awaiting sentencing.

Judge M. Teresa Sarmina did, however, agree Thursday to a request by Msgr. William Lynn’s defense attorneys to move up his sentencing hearing to July 24 from Aug. 13. The 61-year-old faces 3½ years to seven years in prison.

Msgr. Lynn, who served as secretary for clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1992 to 2004, was jailed June 22 after a jury found him guilty of one count of child endangerment for allowing a priest to take a new assignment involving contact with children even after learning of allegations that he had engaged in inappropriate contact with at least one minor.

It was the first conviction of a U.S. Catholic official related to allegations of covering up sex-abuse complaints. His lawyers have said they are likely to appeal the conviction.

Defense attorneys had requested that Msgr. Lynn be released from jail to live with a relative until his sentencing date. Msgr. Lynn offered to waive his right to contest extradition, to alleviate concerns raised by Philadelphia prosecutors that he was at risk of fleeing to the Vatican while on house arrest.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Blaine on July 05, 2012

Given the Catholic hierarchy’s ongoing protection of those who commit and conceal child sex crimes, we believe Judge Sarmina has made a prudent choice. If Msgr. Lynn is behind bars, there’s virtually no way that he can flee the country, destroy evidence, deceive victims, mislead parishioners or take other steps to further cover up wrongdoing.

Some may view this decision as harsh. We consider it just and smart. And we hope it will help end current cover ups and deter future cover ups by Catholic officials across the country.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The New York Times

By JON HURDLE

Published: July 5, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — A former cardinal’s aide, found guilty last month of endangering children, must remain in jail until he is sentenced, instead of being released on house arrest.

On Thursday, Judge M. Teresa Sarmina ruled that Msgr. William J. Lynn, 61, of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, should not be given special treatment, essentially agreeing with prosecutors who said others convicted of a similar felony crime would not be allowed to remain at home pending a sentencing hearing, as his defense team had requested. He is the first senior official in the Romanc Catholic Church in the United States to be convicted of covering up sexual abuses by priests under his supervision.

Monsignor Lynn, who faces up to seven years in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced July 24, a date that was moved up by Judge Sarmina on Thursday from the previously scheduled date of Aug. 13.

On June 22, after a three-month trial, a jury conviced Monsignor Lynn of a single count of endangering children, but acquitted him of conspiracy and a second count of endangerment.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Reuters

By Dave Warner

PHILADELPHIA | Thu Jul 5, 2012

(Reuters) – Monsignor William Lynn, the first senior U.S. Roman Catholic Church official to be convicted of covering up child sex abuse, was sent back to prison on Thursday after a judge rejected his bid for house arrest.

Family members sobbed in the court gallery after Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina denied Lynn’s request to be released to the home of a distant relative in Philadelphia.

The judge did, however, grant his request to move up his sentencing to July 24 from August 13. Lynn, 61, faces up to seven years in prison.

The former secretary of the clergy for the Philadelphia Archdiocese, who was in effect personnel manager for 800 priests, was convicted in June of child endangerment for covering up sex abuse allegations, often by transferring priests to unsuspecting parishes.

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