ABUSE TRACKER

JALANDHAR (INDIA)
Catholic News Agency

April 11, 2019

Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, India has been charged with raping a nun nine times over a two-year period and faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, local authorities announced today.

The charge sheet against Mulakkal included statements from more than 80 witnesses including a cardinal, three bishops, 11 priests and 25 nuns, according to Indian Catholic group Save our Sisters.

Mulakkal has also been charged under laws against intimidation, illegal confinement and unnatural intercourse, the New York Times reports, and he faces at least 10 years in prison if found guilty.

In June 2018, a member of the Missionaries of Jesus religious congregation accused Mulukkal of sexually assaulting her 13 times between 2014 and 2016. In a 72-page complaint to police, filed June 29, the nun alleged that the bishop sexually abused her more than a dozen times over two years.

Police in the Indian state of Kerala had announced yesterday that they had gathered enough evidence to formally charge Mulakkal and that they would file a charging document in criminal court this week.

The bishop maintains his innocence. He was arrested Sept. 21, 2018 amid protests calling for a police investigation of the allegation. He was subsequently released on bail.

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NEW SOUTH WALES (AUSTRALIA)
Mercator.net

April 10, 2019

By Michael Cook

The resolution of the case of Cardinal George Pell, now in jail after his conviction for sexually abusing two 13-year-old choristers in 1996, must wait until an appeals court hands down its judgement.

But in the meantime, commentary is being published which raises further doubts about the controversial verdict.

In the latest Quadrant, its editor, historian Keith Windschuttle, describes, thanks to an alert subscriber to his magazine, an American case with intriguing parallels.

I don’t want to rehearse the details of the crimes of which Cardinal Pell is accused. They are too lurid and they are readily available elsewhere. Suffice it to say that it is alleged – and the jury obviously believed this story – that he found two choristers swigging altar wine in the sacristy of St Patrick’s Cathedral after Mass on a Sunday in December 1996. He was very angry and forced both of them to perform sex acts. Later on, he encountered one of them in a corridor in the Cathedral and abused him again. Two boys were involved, but one died of a drug overdose in 2014.

What Windschuttle stumbled upon is an article in the September 2011 issue of Rolling Stone magazine by journalist Sabrina Rubin Erdely. It described a very similar incident involving a priest in Philadelphia. Fr Charles Engelhardt allegedly caught a boy named “Billy Doe” swigging altar wine in his sacristy. He encouraged him to drink more and showed him pornographic magazines. A week later he performed sex acts on him. A few months later, another priest allegedly abused him.

As Windschuttle points out, that issue of Rolling Stone was readily available in Australia in 2011. In 2013, Victorian Police commenced a trawling operation to find people who were willing to testify that they had been abused by Cardinal Pell. In 2015, the complainant came forward with his story.

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SANTA FE (NM)
Associated Press

April 10, 2019

A federal prosecutor late Tuesday described a former priest and Air Force chaplain standing trial on sex abuse charges as a “serial molester” who during his final years in New Mexico exploited one young altar boy’s interests in the military and priesthood to spend more time with him.

Prosecutor Sean Sullivan’s harsh illustration of Arthur Perrault came as attorneys for both sides delivered closing arguments. Jurors now must decide whether Perrault abused the boy in the early 1990s at Santa Fe National Cemetery and Kirtland Air Force Base.

Perrault, who is 81, was returned by authorities to the United States from Morocco in September to face charges of aggravated sexual abuse and abusive sexual contact.

Once the pastor of St. Bernadette’s, one of New Mexico’s largest Roman Catholic parishes, Perrault is accused of vanishing from the state in 1992 just as an attorney prepared to file two lawsuits against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe alleging he had sexually assaulted seven children.

“He fled to escape justice,” Sullivan said.

While Perrault had multiple victims in New Mexico, according to authorities, the federal charges against him stem only from the abuse of the one boy at the two military properties, which fall under federal jurisdiction.

Perrault has pleaded not guilty to charges, and his attorney questioned Tuesday why the former altar boy did not tell his mother when he was still a child about being abused.

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REGINA (CANADA)
Regina Leader-Post

April 9, 2019

By Arthur White-Crummey

A Catholic priest who served for decades in Saskatchewan could be facing extradition on sexual abuse charges relating to his time as a Benedictine monk in Scottish boys’ schools.

The allegations against Father Robert MacKenzie span roughly 30 years — from the 1950s to the 1980s — and involve several complainants who attended two boarding schools in Scotland. That was confirmed by MacKenzie’s lawyer, who stressed that his client maintains his innocence.

“Father Robert MacKenzie categorically denies now, and he has denied under oath to the minister of justice, that he was involved in any sexual impropriety,” said lawyer Alan McIntyre.

The Archdiocese of Regina sent a letter to its pastors and parishes on Monday, advising them that Scottish authorities have charged MacKenzie, now in his mid-80s, with offences relating to sexual and physical abuse. It said the authorities obtained a surrender order last month from Canada’s minister of justice. That is an important step in clearing the way for extradition to Scotland.

But McIntyre said his client will fight extradition. He plans to ask for judicial review of the minister’s decision at the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.

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ANNAPOLIS (MD)
Capital Gazette

April 10, 2019

By Lauren Lumpkin

Carolyn Surrick has asked three things of Key School, her alma mater: publicly acknowledge years of sexual abuse of students by teachers, ensure the safety of current students and help survivors pay for therapy.

In January, the Annapolis private school satisfied two out of three of those requests. School leaders released a 45-page report describing decades of unchecked sexual abuse. Independent investigators retained by the school did not find evidence of current abuse at the school.

Now, the school is creating a therapy fund to provide support for alumni as they continue to heal “from the abuse inflicted by former faculty members,” officials said in a letter Monday. Backing for the fund will come from the school.

Survivors of abuse at the exclusive private school have requested this kind of support for years. The measure also comes under the guidance of RAINN, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WHYY

April 10, 2019

By Laura Benshoff

When Trish Cahill was 15, a nun who taught at a nearby Catholic high school invited her to perform at a hootenanny mass.

“This was the 60s, you know, Peter Paul and Mary and all that,” said Cahill, now 67. “I didn’t really play guitar, but a nun — a nun! — asked me to come to mass and play guitar.”

Cahill, who lives in Lancaster, Pa., grew up in an Irish Catholic family in Ridgewood, New Jersey that revered clergy.

One invitation from Sister Eileen Shaw led to another. Cahill, who felt alienated from her family, came to see the nun as her mentor. The two became close.

Then, one day at the convent, Cahill says the nun slipped something in her tea.

“She took me into the bedroom and I passed out,” said Cahill. “I was not conscious. I was not able to make a decision.” She said this was the first of many sexual assaults.

Cahill says Shaw, who was more than 20 years older, was a part of her life for the next decade, a tumultuous time that fueled bouts of drug and alcohol addiction.

Today, she’s sober and living in a friend’s guest room in a quiet Lancaster subdivision. Nestled in the cushions of the living room couch, she went through bags of photos and slides that she’s kept, reminders of a toxic adolescence she still can’t shake.

“See how long my hair is?” Cahill said, picking up a photo. “[It’s] because she wanted me to wear my hair long. ‘Cut your hair this way, don’t hang around with this person’…She controlled my life.”

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Clarksburg Caller

April 10, 2019

By Marisa Monroe

This article was provided to The Associated Press by the nonprofit news outlet Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.

This Oct. 22, 2018 photo shows the marker for where the remains of Rev. James Poole are interned at Mount St. Michael in , Wash. Over the course of his life, Poole was accused of sexually abusing at least 20 women. (Emily Swing/Reveal via AP)

On the surface, Father James Poole seemed like the cool priest in Nome. He founded a Catholic mission radio station that broadcast his Jesuit sermons alongside contemporary pop hits. A 1978 story in People magazine called Poole “Western Alaska’s Hippest DJ . Comin‘ at Ya with Rock’n’Roll ‘n‘ Religion.”

Behind the radio station‘s closed doors, Poole was a serial sexual predator. He abused at least 20 women and girls, according to court documents. At least one was 6 years old. One Alaska Native woman says he impregnated her when she was 16, then forced her to get an abortion and blame her father for raping her. Her father went to prison.

Like so many other Catholic priests around the country, Poole’s inappropriate conduct with young girls was well-known to his superiors. A Jesuit supervisor once warned a church official that Poole “has a fixation on sex; an obsession; some sort of mental aberration that makes him see sex everywhere.”

But the last chapter in his story reveals a new twist in the Catholic abuse scandal: Poole was sent to live out his retirement years on Gonzaga University‘s campus in , Washington.

For more than three decades, Cardinal Bea House on Gonzaga’s campus served as a retirement repository for at least 20 Jesuit priests accused of sexual misconduct that predominantly took place in small, isolated Alaska Native villages and on Indian reservations across the Northwest, an investigation by the Northwest News Network and Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting has found.

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PARIS (FRANCE)
LaCroix International

April 10, 2019

By Virginia Saldanha

The voices of survivors and advocates rallying against clerical sex abuse echoed around newsrooms and living rooms the world over when bishops met in Rome from Feb. 18-26, making it a hallowed ground of the wounded. The 190 bishops at the summit heard the testimonies of a few survivors, live-streamed into the hall.

The organizing committee had a face-to-face meeting with 12 survivors in Rome a day before the summit. Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster and Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich (also a member of Pope Francis’ council of cardinal advisors) accepted the invitation of the survivors’ group Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA) to interact with victims and advocates from all over the world. At the group’s invitation, I joined the ECA in Rome from Feb. 17-25, representing India and Asia where the voices of abuse survivors are muzzled, muffled and sporadic. At a press briefing on the first day of the summit, not surprisingly, it was reported that the bishops of Asia and Africa stated that sex abuse was not their problem!

This came despite considerable evidence to the contrary. At the outset, the pope handed the participants a list of 21 points for consideration and implementation. The summit focused on the abuse of minors.

Vulnerable adults were implicitly included but the definition was ambiguous. In Asia, the abuse of nuns and vulnerable women, who routinely approach priests in times of trouble, is a big issue, especially for nuns in diocesan congregations.

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HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle

April 9, 2019

By Nicole Hensley and Massarah Mikati

A former Conroe priest already charged with molesting two teens is accused in a new lawsuit of exposing himself in a church confessional booth to another teen parishioner who was trying to come out as gay.

The man, who lives in Conroe and is identified only by his initials, said he was 15 in 2000 when he entered the confessional to speak to Father Manuel La Rosa-Lopez, who peppered him with “vulgar questions” about his sexuality, according to the suit.

“Do you fantasize about men?” La Rosa-Lopez asked, according to court documents.

The priest then made lewd remarks to the teen in Spanish before he opened the partition window to show his exposed genitals, the suit says.

The teen bolted from the booth and stopped attending Mass at the church soon after, his lawyer David Matthews of Houston said this week. The incident caused him to experience anxiety, depression, alcohol dependence and shame about his sexual orientation, according to court documents.

The accuser — now an adult studying to be a mental health counselor — kept the incident secret until 2017 when he told his therapist what happened, Matthews said. The man has since spoken to the Conroe Police Department about the allegation, Matthews said.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Is It Enough? (blog)

April 9, 2019

By Doug Lay

The pulpit, as a symbol of a theological reformation, stands as a representation of the Bible’s power and uniqueness of that reformation. The pastor, as a symbol of the church’s leadership, stands behind that pulpit to publicly proclaim the Bible’s power and uniqueness of the crucified Christ.

Yet, the pastor can hide behind that pulpit. He can hide behind the pulpit when speaking out about controversial social topics. A recent report finds that “when asked if they felt limited by their congregation to speak out about social issues, 64 percent of pastors said yes, FaithWire reports.”

One particular and relevant social issue today is the sexual exploitation of children by church leaders, the cover-up by those same churches, and then the silence of other churches concerning the cover-ups.

Remember the millstone—Jesus’ harsh and condemning picture of judgment for anyone who would exploit, abuse, or despise the least of these. The pulpit should be the pinnacle of such preaching, but it is easy for the pastor to hide behind the pulpit when preaching about sexual and physical abuse victims and how the church should address abuse.

How do pastors hide behind the pulpit?

First, the pastor sets the focus of the preaching, choosing not only what to preach, but also what not to preach. Topics involving sexual abuse of minors, marital physical abuse, infidelity, rape, and church cover-ups can simply be ignored. The pastor controls the narrative.

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AUSTIN (TX)
Texas Tribune

April 8, 2019

By Cassandra Pollock

As Becky Leach took her seat Monday afternoon, preparing to testify for the first time before a committee at the Texas Capitol, her husband watched as he sat behind his name plate with the word “Chair” engraved underneath.

“I am a victim — and I am not alone,” Becky Leach announced to the room as she began her remarks. “From 12 to 18, I was repeatedly and systematically molested. And I refused to acknowledge it.”

Becky Leach, wife to state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, spoke in support of a bill that would double the amount of time people have to pursue a lawsuit against someone who sexually abused them as a child. The measure, authored by state Rep. Craig Goldman, R-Fort Worth, would lengthen the statute of limitations from 15 to 30 years for a person seeking a civil suit over certain types of sexual abuse.

As she delivered her testimony before the House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee on Monday, Becky Leach said she didn’t acknowledge her own abuse until the age of 35 — almost 17 years after it allegedly occurred — and explained that Goldman’s bill would help give victims more time that is often needed to come forward.

“It’s not a denial. It’s a refusal to admit that this person who you most likely loved … is actually doing this thing to harm you,” Becky Leach said as her husband, a state lawmaker who first entered office in 2013, looked on with tears in his eyes. “I truly believe that it’s my great responsibility to be a voice on behalf of those who don’t know they’ve yet been silenced.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

April 8, 2019

By John Baer

The Pennsylvania legislature, once again, is poised to turn its back on who knows how many survivors of child sex abuse.

Promises of action? Pledges to victims? Repeated assurances that those who were violated (and long-voiceless) might find some measure of justice?

You tell me.

The state is among the nation’s worst in terms of legal recourse for victims. Ironic, given state findings of abuse that last year lit up the issue.

Our legislature, of course, swung into action, embraced survivors and proceeded to pose and preach. Then failed to do anything.

Now, the issue is back with new legislation expected to be taken up this week. But it’s really only for future victims. For past victims? The waiting room.

It’s a two-bill package with bipartisan sponsorship from Reps. Mark Rozzi (D., Berks) and Jim Gregory (R., Blair).

One bill eliminates the criminal statute of limitations for abuse, which, if enacted, catches us up to 40 other states. Hey, better late than never.

It also gives future victims the option up to age 55 to sue their abusers. Current law allows such lawsuits up to age 30.

But gone is the will to open a “window” of time during which past victims – for whom statutes expired – can sue.

Instead, while other states move in that direction (New York now has a window; New Jersey just passed one that Gov. Phil Murphy is expected to sign), we’re keeping that window shut.

Oh, the second bill addresses a window. But it calls for amending the state constitution to allow it, a clear and drastic shift in approach that can’t sit well with survivors.

A constitutional amendment needs to pass two successive legislative sessions before going to voters as a statewide ballot question, a long, often dead-end process.

At a minimum, we’re talking three years. And the legislature can get tricky with constitutional amendments, passing them in one session, forgetting them in the next.

So, the best we’re offering past victims is take a number, have a seat. We’ll be with you in a few years.

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NEW SOUTH WALES (AUSTRALIA)
The Australian

April 10, 2019

By Tessa Akerman

Former Catholic priest and school principal Frank Klep has emerged as one of Australia’s most prolific pedophiles, with a staggering 32 victims.

County Court judge Gabriele Cannon yesterday said his assault against a four-year-old boy was offending in the “most repulsive way” as she lengthened Klep’s current jail term by two years.

Klep had pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault of a male and one count of indecent assault. Judge Cannon said while Klep last offended in 1984, his ­offending over 11 years was “prolific”. She said some of his victims were abused in the Salesian College, Rupertswood, infirmary and one was abused while he was homesick at a school camp: “He was especially vulnerable, which you knew.

“They were young and living away from home. Further in the case of some complainants, they were ill when you offended against them.”

Judge Cannon said Klep exploited his power over the boys in order to offend. “You used your position of authority to lord it over the complainants, apparently safe in the knowledge that they were unlikely to tell anyone or if they did they would not be believed,” she said.

“You were a prominent member of your institution that was supposed to be about love, compassion and kindness, especially when it came to children and the vulnerable, but under its cover you perpetrated evil.”

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Patriot News

April 9, 2019

By Ivey DeJesus

The future of the reform of child sex crime laws in Pennsylvania hinges on two companion bills now intricately tied to each other under an amendment approved by the House on Tuesday.

The state House of Representatives cleared the way for the two pieces of legislation to go for a full chamber vote, but linked the future of the bill seeking to eliminate criminal statutes for child sex crimes to the bill that would revive expired statutes of limitations.

By a unanimous vote of 197-0, the House approved an amendment changing the effective date of House bills 962 (which would prospectively eliminate the criminal statute of limitations) to passage in the Senate of its companion piece. That bill – House Bill 963 – calls for a constitutional amendment that would establish a two-year “window” during which adult victims timed-out of the legal system could file lawsuits against predators.

The bills now advance to a full vote in the House, which can happen as early as Wednesday.

“House Bill 962 only passes when the House and Senate pass 963,” said Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, sponsor of the former bill. The other bill is sponsored by Rep. Jim Gregory, R-Blair.

The House Judiciary Committee on Monday advanced to the full chamber two measures that would broadly reform the statute of limitations, eliminating criminal statutes and potentially reviving expired legal recourses.

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WASHINGTON —(DC)
Catholic News Service

April 9, 2019

By Christopher Gunty

A week into National Child Abuse Protection Month, Baltimore Archbishop William Lori visited the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops chapel April 8 to celebrate midday Mass for conference employees and reflect on the church’s work to develop policies and procedures to prevent child abuse by those within the church.

He recognized that those who work at U.S. bishops’ conference headquarters have a keen desire “to do everything possible to address on an ongoing basis the sexual abuse crisis that has roiled the Catholic Church for such a very long time.”

The “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” and the related “Essential Norms” implementing the charter legislatively passed by the U.S. bishops in 2002 were “a major step forward,” the archbishop said. “Nevertheless, all of us admit that much more still needs to be done, especially in the areas of episcopal transparency and accountability.”

“There are many motivations for wanting to get this right,” he said at the Mass.

First of those are the desire to see that all children and young people are safe.

Second, he said that as a bishop, he naturally wants to see confidence in the church restored in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and globally.

The church was hit by revelations last summer that included allegations against Theodore McCarrick, a former cardinal and retired archbishop of Washington, and the release of a report from the Pennsylvania attorney general detailing hundreds of allegations of abuse over a 70-year period beginning in 1947.

Such revelations call into question the church’s essential mission of evangelization, the archbishop said.

“More than anything else, however, our hearts should be broken, humbled, contrite, by the horrific experiences of those who have been sexually abused by clergy or by other representatives of the church,” Lori said. “Even if such abuse was committed many years ago, the wounds inflicted upon innocent children and young people are often lifelong wounds. Far too many do not find justice and healing; far too few have their peace.”

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ANDOVER (MA)
WCVB TV

April 9, 2019

An Andover priest is on administrative leave after being accused of sexual abuse of a minor, the Archdiocese of Boston announced Tuesday.

Rev. Peter Gori was accused of sexually abusing a minor 28 years ago, the archdiocese said.

Gori’s accuser is represented by Boston-based attorney Mitchell Garabedian, who has represented numerous other victims of clergy abuse. Garabedian said his client was approximately 10 years old at the time of the abuse.

Additionally, Garabedian’s client also accused Fr. William F. Waters, O.S.A., of inflicting abuse between 1987 and 1990.

“By coming forward my client is trying to heal, empower other victims and make the world a safer place for children,” Garabedian said.

Gori is the pastor of St. Augustine’s Parish in Andover and previously a canon lawyer in the Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Boston. He is a member of the Augustinian Order of St. Thomas of Villanova. The Archdiocese said that order will be responsible for investigating the allegations.

“The Archdiocese of Boston is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of children and young people in our parishes and institutions,” the archdiocese wrote in a statement. “Through its Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach, the Archdiocese continues to make counseling and other services available to survivors, their families and parishes impacted by clergy sexual abuse and by allegations of abuse by members of the clergy.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Fox News

April 9, 2019

By Hollie McKay

It wasn’t until Rev. Cait Finnegan gave birth to a baby girl more than three decades ago that the full trauma of all she had withstood was fully unleashed.

“It was my protective instinct, I just didn’t want my daughter to be alone. I stayed with her from the day she was born,” Finnegan, 67, a Catholic school student in 1960s New York and once an aspiring nun, told Fox News. “Because I had been abused in many places to many degrees. This was every day in school, weekends, she would come to my home.”

Starting at just 15, Finnegan alleged that she was repeatedly raped by a Catholic nun and for years, after finally escaping, lived a life on the edge of falling apart. She said she spent much of her life trapped in a state of rage, depression, and agoraphobia, unable to leave the house or be away from her daughter, now 36.

They lived in poverty as Finnegan said she was only able to take on odd jobs at night, as her marriage strained under the emotional weight.

“When my daughter was 12, we thought it would be good to register her at a Catholic School,” Finnegan recalled. “But then the nun opened the door, I had a flashback, I grabbed her and ran.”

Finnegan said her abuser died more than four years ago. But the deep, dark memories she has carried since adolescence remain.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Chronicle (blog)

April 9, 2019

Fifteen years ago, Dan McNevin and two other men sued the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, alleging that a priest at a church in Niles had abused them as children. At first, McNevin felt validated. It seemed like he might finally get justice and hold the diocese accountable. As he told the press at the time, going public and confronting what had happened seemed like the only way to move forward. Then the backlash followed.

“I was ridiculed. I was attacked. People wrote letters to editors where they talked about how lovely this priest was and how impossible it was that he had done what I claimed. One letter accused me of just wanting money,” he recalls. Then another victim came forward in his support, making McNevin’s story harder to dismiss.

Today—many years and many clergy abuse scandals later—McNevin feels that some things have changed. “By now, the public no longer reflexively takes the side of the church or of the priests,” McNevin said. Personally, he feels very different, too. “I’m in a very good place now compared to where I used to be. I think it’s a journey, it’s a process and I’m at a point where I feel relieved,” he said. McNevin is now an advocate for abuse victims and an Oakland area leader for the Survivor’s Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP). Helping others get to a point where they feel better is one reason why he went into this line of work.

But he still feels that some things haven’t changed, and that church leaders have not done enough to address the past wrongdoings of abusive clergy members. In February, the Oakland Diocese published a list of 45 religious leaders, including McNevin’s abuser, who have had “credible accusations” of sexual abuse of minors. The list includes the names of 20 diocesan priests, 22 religious order priests, deacons and brothers, and three priests from other dioceses who have worked in the Diocese of Oakland—which covers Alameda and Contra Costa Counties—and have had accusations of sexual abuse of minors that the church deemed credible.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

April 9, 2019

By Elise Harris

On Monday night Peruvian journalist Pedro Salinas, who had been accused by an archbishop with the crime of aggravated defamation related to an ongoing abuse scandal, was found guilty and slapped with a hefty fee and one-year suspended prison sentence.

Judge Judith Cueva Calle of the First Unipersonal Criminal Court in Piura, Peru, ruled April 8 that Salinas was guilty of aggravated defamation of Archbishop Jose Antonio Eguren Anselmi, who runs the Piura archdiocese, and ordered him to pay roughly $24,000 in addition to his suspended jail sentence.

Carlos Rivera Paz, Salinas’ lawyer, said they’re planning to appeal the decision during an April 22 hearing when the full sentence is read.

“We are going to reject the arguments, and we hope that the appeals court has a little more sense and makes a better evaluation of the evidence,” he said.

Salinas and fellow journalist Paola Ugaz, also being sued by Eguren Anselmi, co-authored the 2015 bombshell book Half Monks, Half Soldiers, detailing years of sexual, psychological and physical abuse inside the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae (SCV), a controversial Catholic organization that originated in Peru and whose founder, layman Luis Fernando Figari, has been accused of physical, psychological and sexual abuses and was prohibited by the Vatican in 2017 of having further contact with members of the group.

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ST. PAUL (MN)

The Catholic Spirit

April 9, 2019

By Matthew Davis

Mary Brady hopes a new Lay Advisory Board to assist Archbishop Bernard Hebda will usher in a new era of listening in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

“I was really active in several archdiocesan commissions when I was in my 20s. They’re no longer around,” said Brady, 71, citing as one example a former urban Catholic coalition that promoted inner city parishes. “I’m hoping that it’s a sign … that the diocese is being more open to a variety of input from people around the entire diocese,” said Brady.

Representing Deanery 14, Brady, a member of St. Frances Cabrini in Minneapolis, is one of 19 members of the newly formed board, which met for the first time with the archbishop April 3 at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center in St. Paul.

Ranging in age from their 20s to 70s, some retired but others working for parishes or in professions such as business management, project management and insurance, board members were asked by the archbishop to offer advice, to listen and to be a conduit for information with people throughout the archdiocese about opportunities and challenges in the local Church.

Announced as an initiative in November, the board consists of representative members of parish pastoral councils across the archdiocese. Each was chosen by their peers to represent one of 15 deaneries, or geographic regions of the archdiocese. Some traveled as far as 40 miles to get to the Catholic Center.

Among other roles, the board will be key to finding ways to promote healing from the clergy sexual abuse scandal, Archbishop Hebda said.

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VICTORIA (AUSTRALIA)
Herald Sun

April 8, 2019

By Shannon Deery

Frank Klep today had two years added to his current jail term after admitting some of his most shocking crimes, including the heinous abuse of a four-year-old boy.

In total the disgraced former priest has now been convicted of the vile sexual abuse of 33 children.

INSIDE THE HOLY HOUSE OF HORRORS

ARRESTS MADE AFTER REBELS BIKIE RAIDS

MOKBEL ‘CARTEL’ MEMBER DENIED FREEDOM

The 75-year-old predator priest abused most of them at notorious Salesian College, Rupertswood, in Sunbury, including while he was the school’s principal.

Former students have dubbed the school a “house of horrors” because a sickening club of Salesian paedophiles roamed its grand halls and manned its dormitories.

Klep’s known offending spanned more than a decade between 1973 and 1984.

In that time he was principal at Rupertswood and earlier at Salesian College in Brooklyn Park, Adelaide.

Frank Klep today had two years added to his current jail term after admitting some of his most shocking crimes, including the heinous abuse of a four-year-old boy.

He was first convicted of child sexual offences in 1994, but nothing was done to stop his continued involvement with schoolchildren.

In 2005 he was handed a partially suspended sentence for the abuse of 11 victims, but it was later increased on appeal.

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

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (INDIA)
Hindustan Times

April 9, 2019

When the police failed to arrest him, five other nuns staged a sit-in protest in Kochi. Later a special investigation team was set up and it arrested the influential bishop in September after several rounds of questioning.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing rape charges against former bishop of Jalandhar Franco Mullakkal on Tuesday filed a charge-sheet in the case, almost a year after he was accused of sexually assaulting the nun.

This is the first time in the country where a former bishop is facing the trial based on a complaint filed by a nun. “After months of struggle we are happy the case is coming to a logical conclusion. We have won the case almost half. This is the happiest moment for us. God is with us, truth will prevail finally,” said Sister Anupama, one of the nuns who sat on dharna in Kochi demanding action against Mullakkal.

In last June, a 43-year-old nun, also a mother superior, had complained to the Kerala police that Mullakkal had raped her 13 times between 2014 and 2016. Initially there were many attempts to hush up the complaint against the powerful priest.

When police failed to arrest him, five nuns had staged a sit-in protest in Kochi. Later an SIT was floated and it arrested Mullakkal in September last year after several rounds of questioning. He was later removed from the post. After spending three weeks in judicial custody he was granted bail.

There were many attempts to silence witnesses in the case, and some nuns who deposed against him were threatened with expulsion. Later, the High Court had ordered protection to main witnesses. One of the witnesses in the case, Sister Lucy said she was confined to illegal custody and threatened to be locked up in a mental asylum.

The charge-sheet was submitted after the agitating nuns threatened to hit the street again. They met the Kottayam police superintendent a number of times and wrote to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to expedite the case.

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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (INDIA)
Agence France Presse

April 9, 2019

Police on Tuesday charged an Indian bishop with repeatedly raping a nun at a convent in Kerala state in a case that puts a new spotlight on sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic church.

Franco Mulakkal was charged with raping the nun several times between 2014 and 2016, police deputy superintendent of Vaikom district, K. Subash, told AFP.

The bishop faces other charges including unlawful detention, unnatural sex and abuse of authority. Facing a maximum punishment of life imprisonment, Mulakkal has denied the allegations.
Vatican suspends Indian bishop accused of raping nun

Local media said the report backing the charges ran into more than 100 pages and contained testimonies from priests, bishops and nuns.

The victim filed a formal complaint in June last year, but police only started formal questioning in September after fury over the case mounted.

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Pathos blog

April 9, 2019

By Libby Anne

I grew up in a megachurch. There were so many members the church had to form “small groups” to foster a sense of community; around 2000, the church built a new sanctuary, large enough to accommodate thousands of people. There were Easter pageants with live donkeys and real doves; the children’s ministry was huge and glitzy.

The church’s founding pastor was modest and unassuming. He didn’t bask in attention, or seek it. His clothing was conservative, as was his home. I may not be evangelical—or religious—today, but I still have a lot of respect for the man who pastored my childhood church. He was the real deal. I didn’t realize at the time how odd this was.

I bring all this up for a reason. See, I recently discovered the Instagram “preacherssneakers.” I was hooked. And horrified. And somehow, underneath it all, completely unsurprised. The account features pictures of preachers—typical megachurch pastors—wearing designer clothing, alongside screenshots showing these items’ prices.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

April 9, 2019

By Tom Heneghan

French Church leaders are on the defensive after two films about clerical sexual abuse and a book about homosexuals at the Vatican dramatised to Catholics the extent of the challenge to the institution’s authority.

Criticism and frustration are mounting among the faithful after Pope Francis rejected the resignation of Lyon Cardinal Philippe Barbarin following his suspended sentence from a civil court for covering up an abuse scandal that has rocked his archdiocese.

A film about the Lyon scandal, an Arte television broadcast about nuns abused by priests, and the book “In the Closet of the Vatican” by a French journalist have added to what the outgoing head of the bishops’ conference called the “profound distress” felt by clergy and laity alike. The documentary “Abused Sisters: The Other Scandal of the Church”, was shown by the Franco-German public TV channel ARTE on 5 March.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

By Michael Sean Winters

“I believe that the only way I can serve the local archdiocese is by telling you the truth,” Archbishop Wilton Gregory told his new flock at a press conference last weekend where he was introduced as the next Archbishop of Washington, DC.

He said this was “a moment fraught with challenges,” mindful that his immediate predecessor Cardinal Donald Wuerl resigned amidst controversy over his handling of clergy sex abuse allegations in the 1990s and the previous archbishop was the former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, now removed from the clerical state.

Speaking of the unique challenges of leading a church in the nation’s capital, but in which some neighbourhoods remain mired in poverty, Gregory said, “The Archdiocese of Washington is home to the poor and the powerful, neither of which realises they are both.”

The next day, Gregory toured various ministries of the archdiocese, starting at Catholic Charities downtown where he toured the chapel and visited with volunteers who serve the poor. The archbishop then went to a Catholic elementary school where a second grader asked what his favourite movie is. “I love the ‘Wizard of Oz,’” Gregory replied. Almost half the 228 students at the school benefit from a voucher programme that provides tuition assistance to poor families to attend Catholic and other private schools.

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NEWTON (NJ)
New Jersey Herald

April 9, 2019

The Roman Catholic Church has been a tremendous force for good in the past and present. The good they have done outweighs the bad. They have a problem with pedophile priests because they are following Church tradition rather than the Bible. They believe “once a priest, always a priest.”

The qualifications for church leaders are listed in I Timothy 3:1–13 and Titus 1:5–9.

Guilty pedophile priests should be defrocked and excommunicated. They should be arrested, given a fair trial, and then executed by the government.

Life imprisonment would be acceptable, but any lesser punishment would be showing compassion to the criminal instead of the victim.

What if a guilty pedophile priest repents? He should still be defrocked, but not excommunicated. Repentance will not affect his government trial. He must still pay for his crimes against children.

Dave Salmon, Sparta

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PARIS (FRANCE)
LaCroix International

April 9, 2019

By Massimo Faggioli

The separation between Church management (the hierarchy) and its research and development department (theologians) is one of the most serious problems facing the Catholic Church. Thomas Reese, the former editor-in-chief (1998-2005) of the Jesuit magazine America, identified this problem back in 1996 in his book, Inside the Vatican. And although the book was published two pontificates ago, Reese’s premise remains true.

In fact, the situation is even worse now than it was nearly 25 years ago.One of the effects of the latest phase of the Catholic abuse crisis, which started in 2018, is that it has offered us some historical perspective on the Church’s management-research dichotomy. The sexual abuse crisis has been long in the making.

It became public in the mid-1980s and its turning point was 2001-2002 in the United States. This opened the eyes of many to what had happened in that North American country and what was bound to happen in other countries as well.

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GERMANY
Feinschwarz

April 8, 2019

By Daniel Bogner

The revelations of abuse never cease. These are not only isolated incidents, but a whole system of failure, including organized trafficking in women, right in the heart of the institution. Whether it be the “Child Protection Summit” held in Rome, the “Synodal Process” in Germany, or a convicted French cardinal who may not resign – the Church leadership continues to run on sight. “However, our analysis needs to be more decisive,” says Daniel Bogner.

Just how dark is the place to where abuse has led the Church? Revelations, confessions and reports about the unspeakable are never-ending. Even now, bishops speak of “systematic abuse condition”. A recent ARTE documentary report (Nuns Abused by God) shows how fluid the transition is from the clergyman’s spiritual leadership to sexual abuse.

Patterns of Evil
There are evident patterns of evil in the Church and by virtue of the Church. Take for example the Philippe family’s brothers, Marie-Dominique Philippe and Thomas Philippe from northern France; both from classically good Catholic origin. However, what yesterday was considered to be a model Christian family (seven of twelve children chose religious professions), is revealed today as a system of religious over-identification. Both brothers have made careers in the Church. They both joined the Dominicans; one became a theology professor in Fribourg, Switzerland, as well as the Spiritus rector to the Community of Saint John, founded by some of his students in the late 1970s. The other brother was a spiritual guide to the international Arche Community, founded by Jean Vanier, where disabled and non-disabled people live together.

Later, both have been accused of abuse. When one of the abused women suffered a breakdown following abuse from Marie-Dominique, she was then led by him to the his brother Thomas, who put her through similar turmoil. These are events that leave one speechless, precisely because this is not something that happened out on the fringes of the Church, but instead in the midst of a European Catholicism believed to be in step with the times and with a highly developed spiritual and social consciousness.

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LAS VEGAS (NV)
Review-Journal

April 8, 2019

By Rachel Crosby

Twelve Nevada priests have been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse, and eight of them at one point served in the Las Vegas Valley, according to the Catholic Diocese of Reno.

The Reno diocese published the list Friday as a “measure of transparency and accountability,” the Rev. Randolph Calvo, the bishop of Reno, said in an open letter to parishioners.

Eleven of the 12 named Nevada priests are now dead. But the list was one of many that dioceses around the country have recently released in the wake of national reports on the sexual abuse of minors in the church.

The Catholic Diocese of Las Vegas is working on its own list of priests who have been accused of sexual abuse, according to a statement provided to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. A review committee hopes to finalize it for publication by the end of the week.

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ROME(ITALY)
Crux

April 9, 2019

By Inés San Martín

Acting as the interim replacement for a cardinal subpoenaed by civil prosecutors for alleged sex abuse cover-ups, and facing questions about his own record in responding to abuse charges, the new man in Santiago, Chile, says he’s got only one “pastoral proposal,” and it’s expressed in his motto as a bishop: “To serve and to love.”

“What worries us is not the money [that the archdiocese will have to pay to survivors of clerical abuse], but how can we help those victims heal, and above all, we want to guarantee that they, and everyone else, helps us build a different future where these things don’t happen again,” said Bishop Celestino Aos, named March 23 as the apostolic administrator of Santiago following the resignation of Cardinal Riccardo Ezzati.

“How could we let these things happen… things I didn’t even dream could happen, and that do,” Aos told reporters. “What can we do to guarantee that they don’t happen again?”

Aos’s nomination amounts to the latest twist in a long-running attempted cleanup of Church leadership in Chile, which Francis set in motion in May, when he summoned all the bishops to Rome.

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ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
KRQE TV

April 9, 2019

Closing arguments are scheduled Tuesday for an Albuquerque priest facing federal sex abuse charges.

Arthur Perrault is accused of assaulting an 11-year-old boy at Kirtland Air Force Base and Santa Fe National Cemetery in the early 1990s.

According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, Perrault’s attorney asked for a mistrial Monday but U.S. District Judge Martha Vásquez denied it.

The 80-year-old has pleaded not guilty.

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OLEAN (NY)
Olean Times Herald

April 8, 2019

By Tom Dinki

A St. Bonaventure University conference on the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse crisis has been canceled amid concerns the event would not feature abuse victims.

The Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure decided to cancel the academic conference set for Friday and Saturday after being challenged by local victims who felt it was wrong to hold such an event if victims were not permitted to speak, the university announced Monday.

Specifically, the university said in a press release, an abuse survivor and advocate for victims claimed that a conference on abuse without victims speaking would essentially be a waste of time.

“I listened to the victim. I heard his deep concerns and decided to follow his advice that the conference we had designed was not helpful here in this diocese at this time,” said Father David Couturier, executive director of the Franciscan Institute, in a statement released by the university. “So, I decided to cancel the event.”

Couturier added he wanted to rearrange the schedule and find new speakers to fit the “new direction being advocated,” but with less than a week before the conference, “it just wasn’t possible.”

A call to Couturier’s office was not immediately returned Monday.

The conference, titled “Franciscan Reform and the Abuse Crises in the Catholic Church,” was intended for Franciscan scholars to discuss the tradition of reform and renewal in the long history of Franciscanism, according to the university.

Publicly announced March 26, the two-day conference was to feature a keynote address from a Catholic Church historian and talks by a lawyer, a nun and the chair of the university’s Theological and Franciscan Studies Department.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Daily Item

April 8, 2019

By John Finnerty

The state House is moving two bills that would help victims of clerical abuse — one changing the statute of limitations moving forward and another calling for a Constitutional amendment to allow for civil lawsuits in cases that have passed the existing statute of limitations.

Both measures were approved by the House judiciary committee Monday afternoon.

House Bill 962 would change the statute of limitations moving forward by eliminating the criminal statute of limitations for serious sex crimes against children and giving victims until the age of 55 to sue. The current criminal statute of limitations for child sex crimes is when the victim turns 50 and the civil statute of limitations expires when the victim turns 30.

The bill was authored by state Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks County, who’s been the leading legislative champion for enacting reforms to held adult victims of childhood sex abuse.

Rozzi said he decided to author separate legislation to help future victims so that new victims are provided a path to justice as the state debates how to help past victims.

In addition to Rozzi’s legislation, the judiciary committee also approved HB 963, authored by state Rep. Jim Gregory, R-Blair County, that would ask voters whether there should be a Constitutional amendment to create a two-year window for victims to sue the Catholic Church or other organizations that covered up for child predators.

Legislative leaders in the state House have dubbed the two-bill package “The Pennsylvania Hidden Predator Act.” With Monday’s committee vote, the measures are on schedule for final passage in the state House as soon as Wednesday. Both would go to the Senate for consideration.

The Senate, in February 2017, unanimously passed legislation similar to the measure now proposed by Rozzi. That legislation was later amended to included retroactive provisions and didn’t become law when the House and Senate couldn’t agree on the final form of the bill.

But it’s unclear whether the Rozzi legislation or Gregory’s constitutional will gain traction in the Senate, Rozzi said.

“This is the first step in the process,” he said.

And as a resolution for a possible Constitutional amendment, even if Gregory’s bill passes both chambers this year, it must be approved in a second legislative session before it goes before voters in a statewide referendum.

The issue of changing the law to help victims has become a lightning rod topic at the Capitol in the wake of revelations in a statewide grand jury report released last August that 300 priests had abused 1,000 victims over decades. The state House in September voted 171-23 to pass legislation that would have allowed victims of old child sex crimes to file lawsuits, but the measure died in the Senate.

Senate Republican leaders and church officials have questioned whether the state Constitution would allow the change. Most advocates for changing the law agree that it would be illegal to change the criminal statute of limitations retroactively, but say that changing the civil law to allow for lawsuits should be OK.

Rozzi said that after the Supreme Court ruled in December that 11 names of priests redacted when the grand jury report was released to the public, it left him more uncertain of how the state’s top court would rule if asked to decide the Constitutionality of a civil window.

“I think we’re better off in the hands of the voters of Pennsylvania than in the hands of the Supreme Court,” he adding that if the court were to decide that the civil window was unconstitutional, it would be “devastating” to victims.

The only lawmaker to oppose the measures in the judiciary committee was state Rep. Paul Schemel, R-Franklin County.

He said that the move to change the statute of limitations seems to echo the kinds of “overreach” from the 1980s and 1990s that the state is now trying to correct through criminal justice reforms.

He added that even though the grand jury had called for a two-year window, it didn’t ask for the civil statute of limitations to be changed to 55 for new victims.

Rozzi said the changes are necessary because of how long it takes victims to come forward. The average age at which a victim of childhood sex abuse will come forward is 52, Rozzi said.

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Ronald L. Schadel, 78, of Gratz, passed away Saturday, April 6, 2019. He was born March 18, 1941, in Fearnot, a son of the late Lee and Mae (Snyder) Schadel. Ron was a 1960 graduate of Tri Valley High School. He completed training at Cumberland Valley Technical School, working with HVAC, and…

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

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WWL TV

April 8, 2019

A 64-year-old man in the state of Washington has filed suit against the New Orleans Archdiocese over previously undisclosed claims of sexual assault by a priest at Jesuit High School when he was a teenager.

The lawsuit comes four months after the release of a list of six clergy members tied to the school with credible claims of sexual abuse against them.

The plaintiff, who, as a victim of sexual assault, was not identified in court documents, alleged Friday in a court filing that he was sexually abused as a student in 1969 by Fr. Edward DeRussy, an English and Latin teacher at the school from 1969-1978.

DeRussy was named in December as one of the six priests with ties to the school who had been credibly accused of sexual assault. The six were among 19 priests tied to New Orleans with credible accusations against them.

The court documents allege that DeRussy put his hand down the plaintiff’s pants and touched his genitals multiple times during extracurricular Latin lessons.

The plaintiff reported that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression following the events.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Religion News Service

April 8, 2019

By David Clohessy

When I told my wife that the Rev. Gary Hayes had passed away, she quickly walked across the room, hugged me and quietly said, “I remembered him holding our babies. So much love.”

Gary, the first Catholic priest to speak openly about the sexual abuse he had suffered as a young person, passed away last week at age 66 from cancer. He will be remembered as a dogged advocate for other survivors, but those who knew him will have memories of a man who, though wounded, was more giving than most people who had been through less.

In 1993, with the help of attorney Steve Rubino, Gary filed the first-ever lawsuit charging Catholic officials with racketeering. The Rev. Joseph McGarvey and the Rev. William O’Connell repeatedly molested Gary and two other boys, “conspiring to create a sex ring of children that could be sexually abused by the two priests and other priests,” often taking the kids across state lines “for the express purpose of having forcible sexual contact” with them, the suit said.

Though we were basically neophytes at talking to the media, Gary and I organized news conferences in Camden, N.J., where he had grown up, and in Philadelphia to address the case. Facing dozens and dozens of reporters, Gary stood between his mother and me and softly uttered a line that still brings goosebumps to my skin today.

“I am here seeking justice in the courts because I could find no justice in my church,” he said.

From that day forward, Gary was a dedicated survivor-activist. With every new mean-spirited comment or move Gary endured, I remember being shocked and thinking, “If they treat one of their own so viciously, imagine how they’ll treat a survivor who is not ordained.” Long after he had settled his case, he continued to be shunned by other clergy, but he persevered with grace and determination.

At the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting in Texas in 2002, Gary was a much-sought-after interviewee. He was blunt and biting, with no airs, affectations or posturing — just straightforward and prophetic insights that made all of the victims who attended proud to know him.

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FARGO (ND)
Valley News Live

April 7, 2019

By Cali Hubbard

A statement released today by the Diocese revealed that a priest in Fargo was put on administrative leave due to an ongoing investigation with a minor.

“Anything can happen anywhere”, said Fargo resident Melissa Bachmeier. “I mean everyone just kind of has to watch themselves and their kids and just know that anything can happen at any moment in time.”

Melissa Bachmeier is from Fargo and she grew up going to church.

“It’s fun to get involved with other members of the church, to know that you feel like you belong with a group,” said Bachmeier.

And like Bachmeier, Carl Selvig can relate to her. He says the church has always been a part of him.

“Loving him and loving each other and I think it’s important for us all to learn how to love our neighbor,” said Selvig.

Many carried out their weekly tradition of going to church on Sunday.

It wasn’t that way for a few North Dakota churches including Sts. Anne and Joachim Catholic Church in Fargo, where a priest was put on administrative leave last Thursday.

Father Wenceslaus Katanga was removed from his priestly duties due to an interaction he had with a minor at the Catholic church in Fargo.

The priest had a big impact on the community as he was also a part of other churches in North Dakota.

Some members from these churches say Father Katanga isn’t like this.

One Wishek woman who did not want to her name to be mentioned said, “he’s a very sweet kind man. You could be having the worst day and he would go out of his way to ask how you were doing. He even helped a few in our community come out of a dark place. I’ve known him for at least 12 years.

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DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

April 8, 2019

The bishop accused of serially raping a nun could face criminal charges this week, as Indian police say they will ask a court to charge him with rape, evidence tampering, and menacing his accuser.

In June 2018, a member of the Missionaries of Jesus religious congregation accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandharr of sexually assaulting her 13 times between 2014 and 2016. In a 72-page complaint to police, filed June 29, the nun alleged that the bishop sexually abused her more than a dozen times over two years.

The bishop maintains his innocence. He was arrested Sept. 21, 2018 amid protests calling for a police investigation of the allegation. He was subsequently released on bail.

Police in the Indian state of Kerala now say they have enough evidence to formally charge Mulakkal, and that they will file a charging document in criminal court this week, the Wall Street Journal reported April 8.

A judge will determine whether the bishop will face formal criminal charges.

“After our extensive investigation we have come to a conclusion that what the nun alleged seems to be truthful,” police inspector general Vijay Sakhare told the Wall Street Journal.

“We have strong evidence to get the bishop prosecuted.”

Mulakkal, 55, was temporarily removed from the administration of his diocese shortly before he was arrested. The bishop claims that the nun accused him of rape as retaliation, because he had ordered an investigation into a claim that she was having an affair with a relative.

On Oct. 22, 2018, Fr. Kuriakose Kattuthara, a key police witness in the case, was found dead in his room. The priest’s family alleged foul play.

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

GREAT FALLS (MT)
Great Falls Tribune

April 8, 2019

By Traci Rosenbaum

A former Our Lady of Lourdes priest changed his plea to guilty Monday morning on one count of receipt of child pornography.

Lothar Konrad Krauth, 81, voluntarily changed his plea to guilty without a plea agreement in place.

Krauth was first accused in November 2018 after Homeland Security Investigations Great Falls received a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children CyberTip identifying a Great Falls IP address as uploading an image of a nude prepubescent male child.

United States District Judge Brian Morris questioned Krauth at Monday’s hearing to establish that Krauth understood the rights he was giving up by changing his plea and verifying that Krauth’s decision was not a result of coercion, drugs or alcohol.

“I’m here to change my plea from not guilty to guilty,” Krauth told the judge.

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

NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

April 8, 2019

By Sean Reynolds and Dobie Moser

These are among the words we are hearing over and over as we facilitate “four courageous conversations” with parishioners, priests, diocesan leaders and parish staff on their reactions to the recent revelations in the Catholic clergy sex abuse crisis.

When the Pennsylvania grand-jury report was published, we knew we had to fashion a way for Catholics to speak their truth aloud and to one another, in the context of reflection, community and prayer. Further, we knew we needed to find a way for these voices to reach the ears of church leaders. We developed these “courageous conversations” to provide safe forums where Catholics could come together to speak freely about the Catholic clergy sex abuse crisis and to have their thoughts recorded and available for church leaders. Reflection, listening and conversation about the crisis aim to turn experience into insight, and insight into discerned, compassionate action.

In the 90-to-120 minute conversations framework we use in our work at Mustard Seed Consultants, participants first express their feelings about the crisis; then their thoughts on its roots and causes; then what they wish to see church leaders do about it; and finally, their conclusions based on what they heard in the conversations. Notes from these conversations are recorded anonymously to guarantee candor and relieve any fear of reprisal when they are shared with church leadership.

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

HACKENSACK (NJ)
Daily Voice

April 8 , 2019

By Jerry DeMarco

A massive investigation by New Jersey authorities into the sexual abuse of young boys by Roman Catholic priests has produced its first conviction — by a priest who admitted abusing a young girl.

Fr. Thomas P. Ganley, 63, of Phillipsburg admitted abusing the girl from 1990 through 1994, — from when she was 14 until she was 17 — while he was a priest at St. Cecelia Church in the Iselin section of Woodbridge.

The charges were the first brought by the New Jersey Clergy Abuse Task Force, which state Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal created last September to investigate allegations of clergy abuse.

Ganley, in turn, pleaded guilty in exchange for a sentence of four years in state prison.

He will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be prohibited from having any contact with the victim, as well as from having unsupervised contact with children under the age of 18, grewal said.

Ganley was assigned to Saint Philip & Saint James Church in Phillipsburg when he was arrested in January — just two days after the victim called the Clergy Abuse Task Force Hotline to report him, the attorney general said.

Sentencing was scheduled for July 2.

Ganley was investigated and prosecuted by members of the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office assigned to the New Jersey Clergy Abuse Task Force: Assistant Prosecutor Allysa Gambarella, Detective Paul Kelley, and Detective Julissa Alvarado, Grewal said.

The attorney general formed the task force in response to the publication of a report by a grand jury in Pennsylvania outlining allegations of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests against more than 1,000 victims uncovered in a multi-year investigation there.

Task force members investigate allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy within the Catholic dioceses of New Jersey, as well as any attempted coverups.

Detectives and prosecutors from all 21 New Jersey county prosecutors’ offices and the state Division of Criminal Justice participate – using documents and subpoenas to compel testimony before grand juries, among other measures.

“Our message today is that we will move swiftly and decisively to secure justice for survivors,” Grewal said.

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

OTTAWA (CANADA)
Ottawa Citizen

April 7, 2019

By Bruce Deachman

The dimly lit conference room looked like so many others — a long table with nameplates and microphones, surrounded by drab olive drapes and beige carpet.

On this particular Thursday, however, two things stood out: a painting of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus on the wall behind the head table, and the speaker whose back they appeared to be looking at: Pope Francis.

Wearing his white cassock, the Pope faced the tiered rows of cardinals, archbishops, bishops and other clergy in their respective plumage, and in under two minutes read his opening address, delivering his words in a dry monotone and barely lifting his eyes to look at his audience.

The occasion was the Meeting on the Protection of Minors in the Church, a four-day summit held at the Vatican in February for Roman Catholic officials to address the issue of the abuse of minors by church clergy.

“In the face of the scourge of sexual abuse by churchmen to the detriment of minors,” the Pope said, “I have decided to meet you, patriarchs, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, religious superiors and leaders, so that together we might listen to the Holy Spirit and, with docility, with its guidance, hear the cry of the little ones who plead for justice.”

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Patheos blog

April 8, 2019

By Hemant Mehta

In an article appearing in the latest issue of the New Yorker, Paul Elie takes a look at how victims of the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal are obtaining justice. Is it enough that a priest is sent to prison? How much money is fair compensation? What happens if the abuse occurred so long ago that the statute of limitations has long passed?

He specifically looks at the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (IRCP), independent of the Church, that has been tasked to dole out money to victims on behalf of various dioceses. Victims accept any money with the understanding that they will not be able to sue the Church in the future, even if the laws change (and, say, the statute of limitations is repealed).

Before going into the specifics, though, Elie talks about just how serious this scandal has become for Catholics.

Like many Catholics, I wonder whether this story will ever be over and whether things will ever be set right. Often called a crisis, the problem is more enduring and more comprehensive than that. Social scientists report that the gravest period of priestly sexual abuse was the sixties and seventies, and the problem has been in public view for the past three and a half decades. For most American Catholics, then, the fact of sexual abuse by priests and its coverup by bishops has long been an everyday reality. Priestly sexual abuse has directly harmed thousands of Catholics, spoiling their sense of sexuality, of intimacy, of trust, of faith. Indirectly, the pattern of abuse and coverup has made Catholics leery of priests and disdainful of the idea that the bishops are our “shepherds.” It has muddled questions about Church doctrine concerning sexual orientation, the nature of the priesthood, and the role of women; it has hastened the decline of Catholic schooling and the shuttering of churches…

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

PARIS (FRANCE)
LaCroix International

April 8, 2019

The appalling current situation has driven us to speak out.

How can we keep quiet when the papal nuncio of France is the subject of three complaints of sexual assault and yet he calmly continues living his life at the nunciature? How can we keep quiet when nuns are abused or raped by priests, including within the Vatican itself, with the passive complicity of some of their superiors?

How can we keep quiet when an old priest explains on television that it is children who “spontaneously… seek affection” and says, “You have all seen a how a child comes and kisses you on the mouth…” ?

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

BROOKLYN (NY)
People

April 8, 2019

By KC Baker

Prosecutors have accused Mack of recruiting sex slaves for Keith Raniere, co-founder of Nxivm

Smallville actress Allison Mack has pleaded guilty to charges related to her involvement with a controversial self-help group described as having a secret society of “masters” and sexually subservient “slaves” within it, PEOPLE confirms. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York tells PEOPLE that Mack was scheduled to appear in court at 11:30 a.m. to plead guilty. The spokesman says she is pleading guilty to racketeering conspiracy and racketeering.

Prosecutors have accused her of recruiting sex slaves for Keith Raniere, who co-founded the controversial self-help group Nxivm and its subgroup, DOS, described as an all-female secret society in which women allegedly were forced to be sexually subservient to Raniere.

On Monday, Mack, 36, appeared in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, where jury selection in her trial was set to begin.

Best known for her years-long role as a young Superman’s friend, Chloe Sullivan, on The WB’s Smallville, Mack was charged last spring with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and forced labor conspiracy.

One of the group’s most prominent members, Mack faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Yahoo

April 8, 2019

By Taryn Ryder

Allison Mack, the Smallville star who has made headlines for her role in an alleged sex cult, has now pleaded guilty ahead of trial. Mack previously pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, forced labor conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy.

It appears Mack worked out a deal with prosecutors, weeks after the judge denied her attorney’s request to delay the trial so they could have more time to negotiate a plea deal. Exact details are unknown at this time; however, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York confirmed to Yahoo Entertainment that Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and racketeering.

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STEUBENVILLE (OH)
ChurchMilitant

April 8, 2019

By Christine Niles, M.St. (Oxon.), J.D.

Fr. Sean Sheridan steps down after months of public controversy

The embattled president of Franciscan University of Steubenville is resigning.

In an email to students sent Monday morning, Fr. Sean Sheridan announced that the university has accepted his resignation, which he submitted “[n]ot too long ago.”

“As you can imagine, this was a difficult letter for me to write and deliver to you as I have great affection for the entire Franciscan Family,” Sheridan wrote.

Sheridan came under fire after Church Militant reported the university’s initial support for Dr. Stephen Lewis, who assigned a blasphemous and pornographic book in a graduate course during spring 2018.

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WHEELING (WV)
Catholic News Service

April 8, 2019

By Colleen Rowan

The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston is addressing a lawsuit filed by the state “with utmost seriousness,” while “steadfastly affirming” the diocese’s rigorous child protection standards, said the diocese’s apostolic administrator, Baltimore Archbishop William Lori.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey announced March 19 a civil suit against the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and Bishop Michael Bransfield, the diocese’s former bishop.

He alleges the defendants violated the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act by failing “to disclose to consumers of its educational and recreational services that it employed priests and laity who have sexually abused children.”

Pointing to its “rigorous Safe Environment Program, the foundation of which is a zero-tolerance policy for any cleric, employee or volunteer credibly accused of abuse,” the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston in a statement reacting to the suit said it “strongly and unconditionally rejects” Morrissey’s assertion that it is not wholly committed to the protection of children.

On March 29, Lori addressed the issue in a letter to the priests, religious and laity of the statewide diocese.

“We are addressing this lawsuit appropriately and with the utmost seriousness while steadfastly affirming our ongoing commitment to the rigorous policies and practices in place to ensure the absolute protection of those young people entrusted to our care,” the archbishop said.

The faithful also received a letter from the diocese March 22 stating that the diocese’s Safe Environment Program employs mandatory screening, background checks and training for all employees and volunteers who work with children.

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

GENEVA (IL)
Kane County Chronicle

April 8, 2019

Fifteen years ago, Rev. Mark Campobello pleaded guilty to aggravated criminal sexual abuse of two girls, age 14 and 15, at St. Peter Catholic Church in Geneva and at Aurora Central Catholic High School.

The revelations caused an uproar.

Last month, 395 Catholic members of clergy, publicly accused of childhood sexual abuse, were named in a report that highlights their Illinois service histories, allegations of abuse, history of their subsequent transfers and disciplinary by both church and authorities.

The list included 13 priests who served in Kane County, including Campobello.

In the meantime, St. Peter has worked to rebuilt trust among its parishioners.

Rev. Jonathan Bakkelund, who is now the pastor of St. Peter, said when he arrived in 2016, people spoke to him about the pain of the Campobello era.

“Folks wanted to … share with me the hurt that the parish had gone through – and the healing,” Bakkelund said. “There had been several years of prayers and moving forward and staying together. It did cause some folks to leave.”

The list included 13 priests who served in Kane County, including Campobello. In the meantime, St. Peter has worked to rebuilt trust among its parishioners.

Rev. Jonathan Bakkelund, who is now the pastor of St. Peter, said when he arrived in 2016, people spoke to him about the pain of the Campobello era.

“Folks wanted to … share with me the hurt that the parish had gone through – and the healing,” Bakkelund said. “There had been several years of prayers and moving forward and staying together. It did cause some folks to leave.”

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

NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

April 8, 2019

By Filipe Domingues

Brazil bishops are officially assuming a “zero tolerance” stance on sexual abuse. The church here has instituted an abuse policy that has been finalized and approved by the Vatican, and Brazil is one of three nations hosting a new pilot project for the protection of minors. Brazil’s project includes the creation of local survivor advisory panels, as recommended by the Vatican commission working on guidelines for the prevention of child sexual abuse. The goal is to assist bishops and develop church policy and best practices from the perspective of victims.

Currently the only Brazilian member of the Pontifical Commission for Protection of Minors, Nelson Giovanelli Rosendo dos Santos is coordinating the project with leaders of Brazil’s national bishops’ conference. He is a consecrated layperson and one of the founders of an internationally known not-for-profit organization working on the rehabilitation of drug addicts, Fazenda da Esperança (“The Farm of Hope”). Pope Benedict XVI visited one of the organization’s 140 farms in 2007.

Speaking from his home in Guaratinguetá, in the state of São Paulo, Mr. dos Santos told America that at least half of the chemically dependent people who arrive at the program’s farms suffer from traumas related to sexual abuse, either during childhood or in adult situations of vulnerability.

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

ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Service

April 8, 2019

By Junno Arocho Esteves

Pope Francis is aware of the suffering that abuse survivors and all Catholics in Chile have endured following the revelations of abuse and cover-up and is doing everything possible to accompany them, said the new apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Santiago.

Bishop Celestino Aos Braco of Copiapo, Chile, told journalists at the Vatican April 8 that the pope conveyed a message to the faithful in the country.

“Tell them that I am close to the Chilean people,” Bishop Aos quoted the pope as saying. The pope wants people to know that “he is working hard to give the faithful of Chile the best governance, the best possible pastoral assistance. He realizes that he is the shepherd of all the shepherds in the world and he wants the church in Chile to know that they are not only living through a difficult time, a very painful time, but also a time of action.”

Pope Francis, who chose Bishop Aos in March to lead the archdiocese temporarily after accepting the resignation of Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, met with the bishop April 5 “for more than an hour.”

During the private meeting, the Spain-born bishop told journalists, he discussed the situation in the archdiocese, including the fallout of the abuse crisis.

Although there are several auxiliary bishops in Santiago, Bishop Aos said he asked the pope to name new auxiliary bishops who can help him with the governance of the archdiocese.

“The (auxiliary bishops) who are there are involved in other committees and tasks,” he explained. “That is why I find myself not only new there, but alone as well.”

Bishop Aos also met April 8 with Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston who, like Bishop Aos, is a member of the Capuchins.

As a fellow bishop who was brought in to lead a archdiocese dealing with the scandal of clergy sex abuse, Bishop Aos said he valued the U.S. cardinal’s advice and experience.

Cardinal O’Malley “told me the things he did in Boston” and the solutions they implemented, the bishop said.

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Vanishing Predators blog

April 8, 2019

Police officers and priests have a great deal in common.

Each, for example, has chosen to work in a career field imbued with enormous power and authority, with the understanding that these tools be used responsibly and always for the accomplishment of good. Practitioners in both lines of work are, generally, treated with a modicum of respect and, whether “on duty” or “off duty,” are expected to behave in a manner above reproach. And as we have witnessed far too frequently, malfeasance in either of these two professional arenas can cause incalculable harm in the community.

As a forty year member of the law enforcement profession (now retired) and a life-long Catholic, these two entities have often provided great joy and satisfaction over the course of my seventy plus years while, at other times, leaving me outraged and filled with despair. Both institutions are, of course, composed of human beings, and despite what individuals swear, affirm, vow or promise, we know they sometimes fall short.

It is at this juncture that the two professions diverge.

In cases where police officers break the law or misbehave, law enforcement leaders act swiftly and with purpose. They understand, after all, that they are guardians of a public trust, and that in order to be effective a police agency must have the confidence and cooperation of the community. A bad cop found to have violated law or policy will be terminated; he could face criminal charges; the circumstances of the event leading to his dismissal will be public; and he will never be able to work as a police officer again.

When a priest is accused of sexual abuse, though, church leaders run for cover. Yes, a fallen clergyman could be removed from his position and, depending on the recency of his offense, be criminally charged. Absent external pressure, though, the circumstances will likely remain secret and at the end of the day … unbelievably … he remains a priest. According to Canon Law, the sacrament of Holy Orders cannot be revoked and in some emergency circumstances, a laicized priest can even be called upon to perform certain priestly duties.

With specific regard to Catholic Church hierarchy, though, their response to the devastating scandal that has harmed so many innocents can only be described as shameful. In one especially egregious case in the New York Archdiocese, a diocesan priest whose despicable behavior was well known (including a secret settlement with a victim) was simply moved from parish to parish. In one case, his assignment lasted only two weeks; parishioners there, having learned of the damage he had caused, threatened to withhold donations if he was not removed.

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

NORTH ANDOVER (MA)
Valley Patriot

April 7, 2019

By Joe D’Amore

“We may be surprised at the people we find in heaven. God has a soft spot for sinners. His standards are quite low” Desmond Tutu.

God’s mercy is uniform, constant and unwaveringly applied to all who seek it. Justice, however, is a flawed mimicry of it because it is a human invention and therefore subject to discretion.
The fabric of the catholic church is torn and there’s no repair in progress. Once again after a cacophony of recent news of abuse by high ranking clergy, at the conclusion of a summit of bishops in Rome to address the issue, the Pope disappoints.

In a faux response the church announced through the Associated Press that it would issue a “ new law” creating a child protection policy that covers the internal bureaucracy at Vatican City. Perhaps, the Pope and the hierarchy missed the proverbial memo. Criminal sexual abuse of children has become institutionalized throughout the world for decades by the church as well as its coverup.

There is neither nothing new about this condition, nor are the crimes localized within the walls of Vatican City. Certainly, the application of the law directed at “ bureaucracy” provides a “ line-in-the-sand” whereby high-ranking officials are now finally at risk of being held materially accountable . Certainly, this is a novel approach.

But criminal conviction remains still the exclusive purview of civil authorities. The church’s internal authority is devoid of a genuine will to initiate comprehensive justice in its most basic forms:

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GREEN BAY (WI)
Associated Press

April 7, 2019

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay has named another priest who it says sexually abused a minor, bringing the total to 47 priests with confirmed allegations against them.

The diocese in January disclosed 46 priests with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor over the past 112 years in its 157 parishes. Only 15 of the priests are still alive.

The Green Bay Press Gazette reported that the priest the diocese named on Thursday died in 2000. The diocese substantiated that he abused a minor in 1964.

Diocese leaders say they’re committed to being more transparent about addressing abuse. The diocese also has set up programs to assist victims of priest abuse.

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STEUBENVILLE (OH)
CNA

April 8, 2019

By Ed Condon

Fr. Sean Sheridan, TOR, has resigned as president of Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. Fr. Sheridan informed the university’s trustees of his decision during a regular meeting of the board on Friday.

The unexpected decision comes almost exactly six years since his appointment to the role in April 2013. Although he informed the university board of trustees of his decision on April 5, he has agreed to remain in the post until a successor is found.

Fr. Sheridan said in a statement that he had made the decision “after a great deal of prayer.”

“Any university president would readily admit that all the days are long; many are great days, and some are difficult. Being a Franciscan Friar has taught me to recognize that all those long days—the great days, and even the difficult days—are blessed days and all the more so when I am among my Franciscan Family.”

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SPRINGFIELD (IL)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

They are not on diocese’s alleged offenders’ list

Group blasts central IL Catholic officials on abuse

But in a twist, SNAP backs Paprocki’s plan for accused bishops

“But the real answer,” group insists, “is prosecution & legal reform”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will disclose that five more publicly accused priests were left off the Springfield diocese’s ‘accused’ list. Each spent time in central Illinois but has attracted little or no media or public attention before in the state.

In an unusual move, the group will also announce that it backs a proposal by Springfield’s bishop to set up a new national church panel that would investigate abuse allegations made against bishops. It contradicts a plan being pushed by Illinois’ top Catholic official, Cardinal Blasé Cupich ofChicago.

And the victims will call on local Catholic officials to
–post names of ALL accused priests on their diocesan website,
–include details like their work histories, whereabouts and photos, and
–join with victims in pushing for real legislative reform, like repealing Illinois’ “archaic, predator-friendly statute of limitations” so survivors can do what bishops will not do: expose child molesters in court.

WHEN
Sunday, April 7 at 2:00 p.m.

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 524 E. Lawrence in Springfield IL

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SOUTH BEND (IN)
The Observer

April 8, 2019

By Claire Rafford

In January of 2002, when the Boston Globe Spotlight team released an article exposing the sexual abuse crisis in Boston parishes, the Catholic Church entered a state of deadlock. In response to the mass allegations, Church leaders met in Dallas that June and created the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. The charter established several stipulations, including a key way for lay communities to check their clergies’ power: the creation of review boards.

“Article II of the charter asked that every dioceses and group form a review board, and that the majority of its members are to be laypersons not in the employment of the diocese or the religious order,” Fr. Peter Jarret, assistant provincial and vicar of the Congregation of Holy Cross, said. “So pretty much every entity — all the dioceses, religious communities which are broken up into provinces — formed review boards.”

The lay review board lives on in the Congregation of Holy Cross to this day. Its current purpose is to review allegations of sexual assault made against Holy Cross priests and brothers.

The board is mainly made up of lay people who have some expertise in law or psychology, Jarret said. The board includes a psychologist, two attorneys, one former prosecutor, an education [worker] and a mother and Holy Cross parishioner, among others.

“It’s a consultative body to the bishop — or in our case, to the provincial of the United States Province of Priests and Brothers of Holy Cross,” Jarret said. “If one of our members were to receive an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor about one of our members, we would of course inform the authorities right away and remove that person from ministry. But we would use the board to help us investigate, or they would be kind of our sounding board in terms of how to proceed.”

The board members are appointed, not elected, and serve for a six-year term. Jarret said the Holy Cross provincial, or head of the order, is also elected for a six-year term, and another three-year term if he is re-elected, so leadership often tries to coincide board member terms with the term of the provincial.

Jarret said the congregation has very specific procedures to follow when a person comes forward with an accusation against a Holy Cross clergy member.

“We would respond immediately and remove the person from active ministry,” he said. “And then if the person is currently a minor, or it happened when the person was a minor, we would notify the police, the authorities and then work with them to do an investigation. We would usually meet with the person making the allegation and listen to their story, and all that would get written up, and if there’s other people that were involved in terms of someone who witnessed it or had knowledge of it … we write all that up and we would call the review board together and we would present all that to them and they would help us think through it.”

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

April 8, 2019

By John L. Allen Jr.

Pope Francis has defrocked an Italian priest accused of sexual liaisons with young but over-age girls reminiscent of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s infamous “bunga-bunga” parties, though the priest insists he’s innocent and claims he’s being targeted for his theological views inspired by the 19th century philosopher and spiritual writer Antonio Rosmini.

The Diocese of Modena in northern Italy, just north of Bologna, issued a statement Friday indicating that ex-Father Fernando Bellelli, 42, had been informed of the decision that day. His dismissal from the clerical state was decided, the statement said, by the pope following an investigation by the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy, and “cannot be appealed and does not allow for any form of recourse.”

The statement did not provide any details of the charges against Bellelli, other than indicating “it does not include criminal charges, either canonical or civil, regarding minor persons, but fundamental aspects of the priestly life.”

“A Church penalty is always imposed in view of a greater good, both for the affected party and for the entire Christian community,” the diocese said. “Fernando Bellelli is not excommunicated; he remains in communion with the Church as a baptized brother in Christ.”

Bellelli had been the pastor in Portile, a small town of roughly 2,000 people about 40 minutes from Bologna.

According to local media reports, sometime before 2015 a group of local parents and parishioners had reported Bellelli to the police, accusing him of inappropriate relationships with young girls who were, nevertheless, adults, including what they described as “psychological submission.”

A police investigation, according to those reports, was closed without any charges being filed.

Nevertheless, in 2014 Bellelli was forced to resign as the pastor when banners began appearing around his church saying, “This is the parish of bunga-bunga and of love.”

In Italian context, the term bunga-bunga evokes memories of a scandal that exploded around Berlusconi in 2010, when a 17-year-old Moroccan belly dancer and alleged prostitute named Karima El Mahroug – known among her Italian friends as Ruby Rubacouri, or “Ruby the Heartstealer” – claimed she had been paid $10,000 by Berlusconi, a real estate and media tycoon in addition to his political career, to give private parties at his villas.

Among other things, El Mahroug claimed that she and other young girls would perform traditional African dances in the nude known as bunga-bunga with Berlusconi, who was 74 at the time.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Washington Post

April 8, 2019

In state after state, the Catholic Church has fought a rearguard action to shield itself from lawsuits by adults abused as children at the hands of priests who were protected from repercussions by the church hierarchy over the course of decades. That effort has been more successful in some states than others.

In Maryland, it has worked splendidly, thanks to lawmakers so inattentive that they failed to notice a provision in their own legislation proffered by slick lobbyists working for the Church.

A Bill enacted two years ago allowed adults who were childhood victims of sexual abuse to file lawsuits seeking restitution, and a measure of justice, until the age of 38; previously, the cut-off was age 25. That seemed like progress, although it applied prospectively, meaning only for people victimised after the law took effect on October 1, 2017.

However, the Bill’s own sponsors apparently failed to realise that, at the very end of the four-page Bill, legalistic language would bar any further extensions — including one that may open a brief time window in the future allowing victims of any age to sue their abusers or those who protected their abusers.

Now legislators in Annapolis are shocked to see that the Church’s lobbyists were so effective in doing what lobbyists do: limiting risk and advancing their clients’ interests.

“I was working with [the Church and its representatives] in good faith,” the Bill’s sponsor, delegate C.T. Wilson, told The Washington Post. “They were behind the scenes, crafting language that protects them for ever.”

Wilson, who was abused as a child by an adoptive father, sounds aggrieved. But how could he have failed to check the meaning of the “statute of repose” — an ironclad bar to future changes — added to legislation offered in his own name?

In fairness, it is possible that even without the Church’s fancy legal footwork, Maryland courts would disallow any such “look-back” windows that would enable victims to file suits for abuse they suffered many years or decades earlier.

Courts in quite a few states prohibit retroactive changes to statutes of limitations.

And although about a dozen states have enacted such measures, usually in response to the continuing scandal involving the Church, in several cases they have done so with asterisks — for example, by allowing lawsuits targeting abusers themselves, but not organisations such as the Catholic Church or the Boy Scouts of America, which has had its own similar problems, that supervised or even shielded abusers.

The Attorney-General’s office in Maryland has said the 2017 law, in addition to the state’s own constitution, probably means lawmakers are barred from enacting any “look-back” window for abuse victims.

Undeterred, the House of Delegates in Annapolis passed just such a Bill last month; the state Senate killed it.

All criminal law applies only going forward, as a matter of constitutional fairness and logic.

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

JOLIET (IL)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

Two more accused clerics missing from his list, group says

They’re also not in recent “Anderson Report” on abuse in Illinois

SNAP urges the inclusion of those who prey on ‘vulnerable adults’

It begs those who “saw, suspected or suffered abuse” to speak up

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, two clergy sex abuse victims will disclose the names of and information about two publicly accused Joliet area predator priests who allegedly assaulted others but are not on
–the official Joliet diocese list of ‘’credibly accused’ clerics, nor in
–the recently-issued “Anderson Report” on clergy abuse in Illinois.

They will also prod northern Illinois Catholic officials to
–add these two and other names to their list of “credibly accused” priests,
–expand their lists to include clerics who hurt ‘vulnerable adults,’ and
–blast them for their secrecy about abuse and cover ups.

They’ll also urge those who “saw suspected or suffered” abuse to “call police and get help.”

WHEN
Monday, April 8 at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Joliet Catholic diocese HQ/chancery office, 16555 Weber Rd, (corner of Division St.) in Crest Hill, IL

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

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

April 8, 2019

By Anna Kim, Elyssa Cherney and Alicia Fabbre

In the 15 months since the Rev. Richard McGrath abruptly retired from Providence Catholic High School amid a probe into “potentially inappropriate material” on his phone, the priest was the subject of two criminal investigations, accused in a lawsuit by a former student of sexual abuse and deemed AWOL from his religious order.

Authorities have now closed both investigations without filing any criminal charges against McGrath, who led the New Lenox school for three decades until a student reported that she saw what she thought was an image of a naked boy on the priest’s phone.

Yet McGrath is still considered “illegitimately absent” from his order, its leaders said, and his current whereabouts are unclear.

New Lenox police said they ended the cellphone investigation after McGrath “steadfastly refused” to turn over the device. In the other criminal probe, involving the sexual abuse claims by a former student, Will County prosecutors said there was “insufficient evidence to bring charges.” But a civil case stemming from the same claim is still pending.

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

TOKYO (JAPAN)
The New York Times

April 8, 2019

By Makiko Inoue and Mike Ives

Catholic bishops in Japan plan to conduct a nationwide survey on sexual abuse of children by members of the clergy, church officials said Monday.

Archbishop Mitsuaki Takami of Nagasaki, the leader of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan, shared the plan on Sunday during a gathering in Tokyo where a man spoke of being abused as a young boy at the hands of a German priest.

“Japan’s Catholic Church is small, and we are not sure what we can do” about child sexual abuse, Archbishop Takami said by telephone on Monday. “But we think we have to pay attention to this issue.”

According to The Mainichi Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, bishops from around the country agreed last week to carry out the survey in all 16 dioceses. The survey method has not yet been decided.

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

NEW YORK (NY)
The New Yorker

April 8, 2019

By Paul Elie

Some time before Brooklyn was incorporated into New York City, in 1898, it was dubbed the City of Churches. Houses of worship remain thick on the ground in the borough. In the part of Brooklyn where I live, churches outnumber grocery stores, pet shops, and nail salons together. There’s the Institutional Church of God in Christ (red brick, stained glass) and the Revelation Church of God in Christ (a converted movie theatre); the French-Speaking Baptist Church, founded by Haitian immigrants; the Zion Shiloh Baptist Church, whose members come from all over the metropolitan area, parking their cars in a long row; and the Ileri Oluwa Parish, where congregants of Nigerian descent worship shoeless and in long white robes. And there are the Catholic places. Queen of All Saints Church and Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School face each other across Lafayette Avenue. Up the hill is the walled-in motherhouse of the Sisters of Mercy; down the hill is the old church of St. Boniface, now the home of a community called the Brooklyn Oratory, where I go to Mass on Sundays.

A few blocks away is St. Lucy–​St. Patrick Church, on Willoughby Avenue. Over six years, beginning in 2003, Angelo Serrano, a religious educator at the church, sexually abused four boys. He raped or molested them in the church’s offices and at his apartment, in a brick schoolhouse converted to low-cost housing by Catholic Charities. Eventually, one of the boys told his mother, who told the police. In 2011, Serrano was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. The victims then sued the Diocese of Brooklyn; in a settlement reached last September, they were awarded $27.5 million.

My wife and I have been raising three sons in this part of Brooklyn, and the morning that the news about the settlement broke I cycled up Willoughby Avenue toward the church. St. Lucy–St. Patrick’s is one of the oldest Catholic churches in the borough, dating from 1843, and it has a haunted, left-behind aspect. On the edge of a row of restored brownstones, it is notably unkempt: pink paint is peeling from the doors, and the iron fence along the sidewalk is broken in places.

When I arrived, a correspondent from “Noticias Univision 41,” a Spanish-language news program, was standing nearby. A white car rolled up, the flag of Puerto Rico dangling from the rearview mirror, and a large middle-aged man stepped out, wearing a T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. “If I had my way,” the man hollered, “he would get raped every night at that prison where he is, for what he done.”

I cycled on, unsure how to respond. The situation was straight out of a college course on justice. A legal settlement had expressed an idea of justice as financial restitution; my neighbor had expressed an idea of justice as physical retribution. Neither felt like a way forward.

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CRYSTAL LAKE (IL)
Northwest Herald

April 5, 2019

By Katie Smith

Local, diocesan officials weigh in on Catholic Church clergy abuse

Parishioners at St. Mary Catholic Church in McHenry are looking forward to celebrating the church’s 125th anniversary later this year.

Hanging over their festivities, however, is a reminder that their church, and several others in McHenry County, once housed leaders who faced accusations of abuse.

In the wake of a sweeping report that revealed the names of 395 Catholic church members accused of child sexual abuse, some Catholic leaders and residents in McHenry County are wrestling with the importance of airing out the Catholic Church’s past and moving beyond decades-old allegations. Included in the report where clergy members who worked at St. Mary Catholic Church in McHenry, St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Woodstock, St. Thomas the Apostle in Crystal Lake, St. John the Baptist in Johnsburg and Marion Central Catholic High School in Woodstock. The majority of accusations occurred in the 1970s and 1980s. In two of the six cases tied to McHenry County, allegations did not surface until years after the accused clergy members died.

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UNITED STATES
Elle

April 4, 2019

By Nerisha Penrose

On January 19, 2018, Aly Raisman’s life changed forever. She came face to face with disgraced former gymnastics doctor, Larry Nassar, to testify as one of the many women who endured sexual abuse from Nassar for years. Raisman has since become an #AerieReal Role Model, using her platform to continue the fight against child sexual abuse.

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NEW JERSEY
North Jersey Record

April 4, 2019

By Deena Yellin

When Johnrocco Sibilia finally broke a 29-year silence about the priest who he said sexually abused him when he was a teenager, he said he hoped to ease his pain and extinguish the demons that tortured him for years.

Instead, he said he was thrown into a labyrinth of frustration that left him wondering if opening up about his past was a mistake.

At first, he said he was hopeful, moved by Cardinal Joseph Tobin’s impassioned speeches apologizing for the sins of the church, and urging victims to step forward.

But when he approached the Archdiocese of Newark, he said, each person to whom he revealed his terrible secret sent him to someone else or brushed him aside.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Sun-Times

A[ril 7, 2019

By Mitch Dudek

A Catholic priest who was investigated for sexual misconduct against a minor but ultimately cleared of wrongdoing returned to ministry this weekend at his Northwest Side parish after a full-throated endorsement from Cardinal Blase Cupich.

“The important thing is that they know it was a false accusation, that nothing inappropriate occurred,” Pastor Gary Graf said Sunday before visiting the three churches that make up his North Side San Jose Luis Sanchez del Rio Parish.

The parish consists of St. Philomena and Maternity BVM in the Hermosa neighborhood and St. Francis Assisi in the Humboldt Park neighborhood.

In a letter to parishioners that was also posted on the Chicago Archdiocese website, Cupich said while church policy calls for allegations to be shared with police, it also calls for church officials to restore a priest’s name when allegations are determined to be unfounded.

“This, too, is a matter of justice. Therefore, both out of regard for Father Graf and all our priests, I am resolved to see that Father Graf’s good name is restored,” Cupich said in the letter.

Graf said he was eager to return to the job after being sidelined for nearly eight months.

“I’m thrilled that we’re at this moment in the history of the church — I think other good priests are also — and it means there are going to be some false accusations. It’s going to happen. But when a priest is found not responsible of any wrongdoing he’ll be returned back to ministry like I am today and those who are not, they need to be removed from ministry and they need to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” he said.

“It took much more time than I ever imagined, but it’s important that these investigations happen,” Graf said.

Graf was removed in August from the ministry — just weeks after taking over the parish — while authorities investigated an allegation that a 17-year-old boy received a phone call from a church secretary stating that Graf found him attractive. The boy told investigators Graf had previously touched his shoulders and back.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services found the allegations “unfounded,” Associated Press reported.

An Archdiocese investigation found “there was insufficient reason to suspect that Father Graf had committed sexual abuse of a minor.”

And in January Graf was found not guilty by a Cook County judge in a criminal bench trial stemming from the allegations.

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SPRINGFIELD (IL)
Journal Register

April 7, 2019

By Steven Spearie

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) disclosed the names of five more publicly accused abusive priests who spent time in the Springfield Roman Catholic Diocese but are not on the official diocesan ‘accused’ list Sunday.

Members of SNAP protested outside of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception urging Bishop Thomas Paprocki to add the names.

Rev. Noel Shaughnessy, Rev. Thomas Gardner and Rev. Thomas McShane all ministered in the diocese, which covers 28 counties in central Illinois.

Another priest, Rev. Scott Kallal, is a Jerseyville native and a member of the Rome-based Apostles of the Interior Life order.

Kallal didn’t officially serve in the Springfield diocese. Kallal was sent to go to trial this month on two felony counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, but it has been delayed.

Rev. Francis Benham, who served in the Columbus, Ohio diocese, lived in Lincoln, which is in the Peoria diocese.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The Atlantic

March 25, 2019

By Douglas Quenqua

In March 1997, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the nonprofit organization that oversees the Jehovah’s Witnesses, sent a letter to each of its 10,883 U.S. congregations, and to many more congregations worldwide. The organization was concerned about the legal risk posed by possible child molesters within its ranks. The letter laid out instructions on how to deal with a known predator: Write a detailed report answering 12 questions—Was this a onetime occurrence, or did the accused have a history of child molestation? How is the accused viewed within the community? Does anyone else know about the abuse?—and mail it to Watchtower’s headquarters in a special blue envelope. Keep a copy of the report in your congregation’s confidential file, the instructions continued, and do not share it with anyone.

Thus did the Jehovah’s Witnesses build what might be the world’s largest database of undocumented child molesters: at least two decades’ worth of names and addresses—likely numbering in the tens of thousands—and detailed acts of alleged abuse, most of which have never been shared with law enforcement, all scanned and searchable in a Microsoft SharePoint file. In recent decades, much of the world’s attention to allegations of abuse has focused on the Catholic Church and other religious groups. Less notice has been paid to the abuse among the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a Christian sect with more than 8.5 million members. Yet all this time, Watchtower has refused to comply with multiple court orders to release the information contained in its database and has paid millions of dollars over the years to keep it secret, even from the survivors whose stories are contained within.

That effort has been remarkably successful—until recently.

A white Priority Mail box filled with manila envelopes sits on the floor of Mark O’Donnell’s wood-paneled home office, on the outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland. Mark, 51, is the owner of an exercise-equipment repair business and a longtime Jehovah’s Witness who quietly left the religion in late 2013. Soon after, he became known to ex–Jehovah’s Witnesses as John Redwood, an activist and a blogger who reports on the various controversies, including cases of child abuse, surrounding Watchtower. (Recently, he has begun using his own name.)

When I first met Mark, in May of last year, he appeared at the front door of his modest home in the same outfit he nearly always wears: khaki cargo shorts, a short-sleeved shirt, white sneakers, and sweat socks pulled up over his calves. He invited me into his densely furnished office, where a fan barely dispelled the wafting smell of cat food. He pulled an envelope from the Priority Mail box and passed me its contents, a mixture of typed and handwritten letters discussing various sins allegedly committed by members of a Jehovah’s Witness congregation in Massachusetts. All the letters in the box had been stolen by an anonymous source inside the religion and shared with Mark. The sins described in the letters ranged from the mundane—smoking pot, marital infidelity, drunkenness—to the horrifying. Slowly, over the past couple of years, Mark has been leaking the most damning contents of the box, much of which is still secret.

Mark’s eyebrows are permanently arched, and when he makes an important point, he peers out above his rimless glasses, eyes widened, which lends him a conspiratorial air.

“Start with these,” he said.

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SYDNEY (AUSTRALIA)
News.com.AU

April 7, 2019

The sentencing of Cardinal George Pell garnered mixed reactions last month, as the convicted child sex offender was handed a six-year prison sentence for his horrific child sex crimes.

Some celebrated. Others were outraged.

But for one man, who wishes to remain anonymous, the case hit much too close to home.

In a news.com.au exclusive, he shares his harrowing story.

***
It’s been a tough few months for those of us sexually abused as kids.

The final dark moments of George Pell’s life as a free man were unmissable; plastered across newspapers, computer screens and TVs.

Watching Pell’s sentencing was quite something.

The way he abused those boys was similar to my own experiences. It was molestation betrothed with power.

Paedophilia is a funny word because in the minds of the public it can be both a verb and a noun. An act as well as the name of a desire. I believe Pell’s lust — like my own abuser’s — was for power, not little boys.

In short, Pell is a paedophile in that he sexually abused children, but I doubt he is a paedophile in the sense of maintaining sexual desire for children.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

April 7, 2019

By Rhina Guidos

There were no smokestacks, nor surprises in Washington with the appointment of Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory as the new head of the Archdiocese of Washington, an announcement that had been leaked days before it became official April 4.

Rumors about his appointment made it to the local pages of the city’s main newspaper, The Washington Post, March 31 and though it was no secret, it was still welcome news in a region looking for a new path forward after months of revelations of decades-old sex abuse allegations involving its past archbishop, former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, and questions about what Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl, his successor, knew about them.

“There are a lot of wounded and angry Catholics here who are looking for episcopal leadership that is honest and humble. Archbishop Gregory is known for being a pastor, someone who can build bridges,” said John Gehring, Catholic program director for the Washington-based nonprofit Faith in Public Life.

“That’s a good combination for a person expected to come and navigate an archdiocese that, under the best of circumstances, is challenging but is really filled with a lot of raw emotions right now, given everything that’s happened here.”

Washington Catholics like Gehring have been reeling since last year when the archdiocese made public past accusations that McCarrick, who was archbishop of Washington from 2000 until 2006, had molested minors and possibly abused seminarians at various times and places during his 60 years as a priest. He has always proclaimed his innocence. The Vatican stripped McCarrick of his clerical status Feb. 16.

“Those of us who knew (then) Cardinal McCarrick, for example, or were involved with him in social justice efforts … I was just gut-punched finding that out then,” said Gehring, recalling the developments of the past few months. “This is an archdiocese in real need of healing after the abuse crisis hit here in a very personal way.”

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[Chile: Survivors network presents map of clergy sexual abuse]

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
AP

April 6, 2019

By Patricia Luna

La Red de Sobrevivientes de Abuso Eclesiástico de Chile presentó el sábado un mapa que detalla, ubica, contextualiza, sistematiza y caracteriza la lacra de los abusos sexuales y de conciencia que se vive en el seno de la Iglesia católica chilena. La iniciativa, a título totalmente privado por parte de la organización y financiado por las propias víctima en un servidor seguro contra posibles hackeos, recoge hasta el momento 230 casos de víctimas y jerarquiza a las personas implicadas, facilitando y concentrado el goteo de información que se encontraba disperso hasta ahora. El mapa será actualizado cada semana.

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[Survivors to present map of Chilean clergy abuse cases]

CHILE
El Mostrador

April 5, 2019

La presentación se realizará el sábado 6 de abril a las 18:30 en el auditorio del Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos.

La Red de Sobrevivientes de Abuso Eclesiástico presentará este sábado el Mapa Chileno de los delitos de abuso sexual y de conciencia cometidos por integrantes de la iglesia católica chilena. El mapa es, según sus creadores, una “muestra pequeña e imperfecta de la enorme cantidad de crímenes que siguen silenciados por parte de las autoridades” de la iglesia en el país.

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

[Scicluna talks about his abuse inquiry: Most victims are men and many of the latter cases are from Chile]

CHILE
BioBioChile

April 5, 2019

By Sebastián Asencio

El secretario adjunto de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe y arzobispo de Malta, Charles Scicluna, se refirió este viernes a la actual situación de los casos de abusos por parte de la Iglesia en Chile, haciendo un llamado a mantener la valentía y esperanza para erradicar dichas irregularidades de la institución.

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[Rape in the Cathedral: Tito Rivera says that demand for 350 million pesos is an “exaggerated sum”]

CHILE
BioBioChile

April 6, 2019

By Jorge Molina Sanhueza

Patrocinado por el exauditor del Ejército durante la dictadura militar, Samuel Correa Meléndez, el exsacerdote acusado de violar a un hombre en una de las habitaciones del principal templo religioso, respondió al libelo civil que incluye al Arzobispado, presentado por la víctima. En su escrito ante la ministra de fuero Maritza Villadangos, asegura que la cifra solicitada como indemnización “excede con creces cualquiera otra otorgada por daño moral por cualquier tribunal en casos en los que incluso existen víctimas fatales.

El sacerdote Tito Rivera, acusado de drogar y violar a un hombre en una de las habitaciones de La Catedral, en 2015, reapareció. Lo hizo a través de un escrito presentado por su abogado Samuel Correa Meléndez, contestando así la demanda por indemnización de perjuicios de 350 millones de pesos, ingresada en su contra por la víctima y que incluye como responsable solidario al Arzobispado de Santiago.

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[Penquista priest accuses man of asking for money to keep abuse claims quiet]

CHILE
BioBioChile

April 4, 2019

By Nicolás Parra and Fabián Polanco

Una denuncia por extorsión o chantaje investiga la Fiscalía de Concepción tras la denuncia de un sacerdote quien asegura que un hombre se le acercó, exigiéndole dinero a cambio de no entregar a la justicia y a la Iglesia antecedentes sobre los abusos sexuales de que habría sido víctima hace 37 años.

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[Scicluna says he does not think Pope will share Chilean testimonies with prosecutors]

CHILE
La Tercera

April 4, 2019

By S. Rodríguez and MJ Navarrete

El arzobispo de Malta explicó que los testimonios fueron dirigidos al Papa y cree que él respetará esa voluntad.

“La documentación y testimonios que yo recibí de tantas personas que me entregaron su confianza en Chile -en la segunda misión en particular- respondía a que la información iba a ser dirigida directamente al Santo Padre. Esta era la intención y deseo de las personas con las que nosotros nos encontramos en Chile. Yo consigné toda la información al Papa y estoy convencido de que él respetará la voluntad de estas personas, que tuvieron fe en él”, afirmó Charles Scicluna, arzobispo de Malta, en una entrevista con el periódico Encuentro, del Arzobispado de Santiago.

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[Apostolic Administrator of Santiago after meeting with Pope Francis: “He asked me to show his affection and closeness to you”]

Sebastián Rivas

CHILE
La Tercera

April 6, 2019

By Sebastián Rivas

Celestino Aós grabó un video desde Asís, donde visitó la tumba de San Francisco, y aseguró que “queremos vivir este tiempo imitando el estilo” del santo italiano.

“Paz y bien desde Asís, junto a la tumba de San Francisco”. Así comienza la declaración del administrador apostólico de Santiago, monseñor Celestino Aós, enviada este sábado desde Asís, donde se encontraba visitando el lugar donde descansan los restos del santo italiano, luego de haberse reunido ayer viernes con el Papa Francisco.

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SPRINGFIELD (MO)
KTTS Radio

April 6, 2019

By Nathaniel Polley

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Cape Girardeau and Springfield has announced in a letter that details the financial expenditure’s of the diocese in connection to sexual abuse over its 64 year history.

The Church has spent a total of 700,000 dollars over the last 30 years in connection to sex abuse claims. Of that, 70,000 has gone to victim support, 450,000 to settlement, and 189,000 to legal fees. None of the money spent came from local churches.

The letter names 16 diocesan priests who were accused of abusing minors over the 64 years of the diocese’s existence.

According to the bishop’s letter, none of these abuses involve anyone in current ministry and all but three occurred before 1990. The internal investigation was launched by the diocese less than a month after the Pennsylvania scandal.

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FLORENCE (SC)
Morning News

April 7, 2019

On March 29, the Catholic Diocese of Charleston released its list of priests with credible allegations of sexual misconduct or abuse of minors. Now, I would like to address what the diocese has been doing for 25 years to protect children.

The diocese has had a policy on how to address allegations of sexual misconduct and abuse against children by church personnel since 1994. We were one of the first dioceses in the country to have such a policy. That policy was updated in 2003, after the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued its original Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and its Essential Norms for Diocesan/Eparchial Policies Dealing with Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests or Deacons (revised in 2011 and most recently in 2018). We updated our policy again in 2012.

According to our policy, when the diocese receives an allegation, we direct the claimant to report to civil authorities immediately and then we, too, make a report to law enforcement. We offer access to pastoral resources, including a counseling referral, via our victim assistance coordinator.

When a priest, deacon, religious or layperson is accused of sexual misconduct against a minor, he/she is immediately placed on temporary administrative leave. If the accused is a priest, he cannot function as a priest. An investigation commences by law enforcement authorities, and to the extent it can be done without violating the prohibition against interfering with a law enforcement investigation, an independent investigator is engaged by the diocese.

After the investigation is completed, the case goes before the independent Sexual Abuse Advisory Board. The Board makes a recommendation to me as to the credibility of the allegation. If the allegation is deemed not credible, the religious or lay person can return to ministry. If the allegation is deemed credible, I will move to permanently remove the person from his/her ministry/position and apply any additional sanctions I deem appropriate.

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RENO (NV)
Associated Press

April 7, 2019

The Catholic Diocese of Reno has released the names of 12 former priests it has determined have been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of minors.

The diocese on Friday released a statement listing 11 individuals who are now dead and one still living former priest who was removed from the ministry 45 years ago for abusing minors.

Bishop Randolph Calvo called for a review of clergy to help identify the abusive former priests.

The diocese said anyone who has been abused by clergy, a church employee or volunteer is encouraged to call the police and that the diocese offers assistance to abuse victims.

According to the diocese, a review board determined the credibility of the accusations by weighing corroborating evidence, criminal prosecution or an admission of guilt.

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DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Mirror

April 7, 2019

By Lynne Kelleher

The Archbishop of Dublin has told of his shock at finding serial paedophile priests are unable to conclusively identify new cases – because they had so many victims.

Dr Diarmuid Martin said some serial offenders could not recall the names of all their victims which in some instances numbered more than 100.

He makes the disturbing revelation in an RTE documentary detailing how the Vatican came to exert control over almost every aspect of Irish life since the foundation of the state.

Former Minister for Justice Michael McDowell looks at how the Catholic Church wielded so much power over the State for more than a century.

Dr Martin talks frankly about the scale of abuse expressing his deep concern that paedophile priests can often be unsure if they abused a victim or not when a new case comes to light.

He said: “Any organisation has to ask how is it that at a particular time there was large number of serial paedophiles.

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ATHENS (GA)
Athens Messenger

April 7, 2019

By Steve Robb

A former Glouster priest is claiming he was coerced into pleading guilty to three counts of sexual battery and argues that the 12-year sentence he received is excessive.

Henry Foxhoven, 45, who was a priest of Holy Cross Church in Glouster, filed notice this week that he is appealing his conviction to the 4th District Court of Appeals. He missed the normal 30-day deadline for filing an appeal, but has asked the court to allow him to file a delayed appeal, claiming his trial attorney failed to file a timely notice of appeal.

Foxhoven pleaded guilty last November in Athens County Common Pleas Court to three counts of sexual battery. He was accused of being sexually involved with an underaged parishioner who became pregnant. Foxhoven pleaded guilty to a bill of information, rather than have the case go to a grand jury for indictment.

As part of the appeal, Foxhaven claims he had ineffective assistance of counsel.

“…Defense counsel coerced and induced a guilty plea from Mr. Foxhoven by threatening him with 20 years if he goes to trial for a 3rd degree felony of sexual battery that only carries 1 to 5 years maximum penalty,” the appeal brief argues.

Although he pleaded guilty to three counts which resolved the case, Foxhoven had initially been charged in Athens County Municipal Court with eight counts of sexual battery involving the same girl. If the case had been taken to a grand jury, it’s conceivable he could have been indicted on more than three counts.

Foxhoven was sentenced to four years in prison on each of the three counts, and Common Pleas Judge Patrick Lang ordered the sentences be served consecutively for a total of 12 years.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WGN TV News

April 7, 2019

By Dina Bair

A Chicago priest who was accused of sexual wrongdoing was reinstated at his parish after being cleared of the allegations. In the wake of the sex abuse scandal, the Catholic Church acted swiftly, but this time, the accused was an innocent man.

It was a happy homecoming Saturday for the Rev. Gary Graf at San Jose Luis Sanchez Del Rio Parish in the Hermosa neighborhood. His parishioners believed in him all along, but he believed in the process of protecting children, and for him, that meant being removed from ministry for nine months.

A church employee, who was a minor, accused him of inappropriate behavior in July.

The teenager said he once received a phone call from the church secretary saying Graf was attracted to him. He said Graf would also rub his shoulders and once offered him a free car. The teen said he immediately told his parents.

According to a policy for the protection of minors, Cardinal Blase Cupich removed Graf from his pastoral duties, and immediately reported to local authorities. The Department of Children and Family Services investigated and found the allegation was not credible.

Chicago police launched their own investigation and the case went to trial where a judge ruled Graf not guilty. Then, the church conducted its own independent review which revealed no evidence of sexual abuse of a minor.

The season of Lent is a time of sacrifice for 40 days in the Catholic Church, but Graf has spent the last nine months in silence.

“It’s a new day, and these kinds of investigations have to take place. If a priest or minister is found not guilty, then he goes back to ministry. And if not, then the priest needs not to go back and be confronted by the law, and to the full extent of the law to be prosecuted,” Graf said. “We have to route out anyone who is going to do any harm to the most significant important members of the church which are our children.”

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune Review

April 7, 2019

By Deb Erdley

The Catholic Diocese of Erie, which recently settled a $2 million clergy sexual abuse complaint, is making “relevant” internal files available to abuse survivors for the asking, church officials said.

The policy has been in effect since the diocese launched its compensation fund for abuse survivors in February, said Pittsburgh attorney Mark Rush of K&L Gates, legal counsel to the Erie diocese.

“They can simply request to review the file, and it will be made available to them. Bishop (Lawrence) Persico has been fully on board in asking us to be as transparent as possible,” Rush said.

Survivors need not be participating in the diocese compensation fund program to access files regarding their abuser, he said. Those files will include any other complaints against the alleged abuser, but will stop short of identifying victims.

“We want to be mindful of the privacy rights of other victims,” Rush said.

The so-called secret archives, church personnel files that detail abuse allegations and the church’s response to them, were kept under lock and key for decades. Subpoenas that compelled Pennsylvania bishops to release the files were a critical factor in building the Pennsylvania grand jury investigation that ultimately detailed allegations of abuse against 301 priests spanning seven decades.

Such files can be key to launching discovery in civil lawsuits, something church leaders across the state hoped to head off when they announced the launch of compensation funds for abuse survivors last fall. Those who accept compensation must sign away their right to sue.

Richard Serbin, an Altoona lawyer who has represented survivors in legal actions against every Pennsylvania diocese, said he was surprised when he received a letter notifying him of the offer to access the Erie diocese records.

“They are the first diocese to my knowledge to do this,” Serbin said. “I give Bishop Persico credit for taking this step to be more transparent.”

At least one person skeptical of the offer is Mitchell Garabedian, the Boston lawyer who settled the $2 million abuse case with the Erie diocese in late March and represented multiple survivors in the 2002 Boston Archdiocese abuse scandal.

“History has proven the Catholic Church cannot practice transparency and appropriate self-policing, so one has to be skeptical of their completeness with regard to the release of files. What the dioceses should be doing is releasing all files, including those of the priests and those complicit in covering up for them. Otherwise, there is serious concern files will be sanitized,” Garabedian said.

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NASHVILLE (TN)
The Tennessean

April 6, 2019

By Holly Meyer and Anita Wadhwani

Kathleen Lisle cannot forget the summer day a priest at Christ the King Catholic Church called her childhood home, asking her to help fold bulletins for Mass.

She hesitated to go.

Lisle was 12. She did not want to be alone with the Rev. James Arthur Rudisill, but, in the 1950s, explaining that to her mother seemed impossible. A frequent guest at the Nashville home where she grew up with 10 brothers and five sisters, Rudisill sometimes sat next to Lisle, rubbing her leg while playing chess.

At her mother’s urging, Lisle walked the few blocks to the parish church.

“He was kind of touchy while we were doing that and then afterwards he said, ‘I need to go over to the school,’ ” said Lisle, who asked to be identified by her maiden name. “I was afraid to go, but you heard back then, ‘Do whatever father tells you to do.’ So I went.

“He took me over to the gym and up on the stage to the closet on the right hand side and that’s where he molested me.”

It would take Lisle about 40 years to find the courage to report the sexual abuse to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville. Nearly a quarter of a century would pass before the diocese would make the allegation against Rudisill public.

The Nashville diocese is one of about 60 across the nation to release the names of accused priests they have long kept secret — in some cases for decades.

The names have rolled out in news releases and newsletters since a Pennsylvania grand jury investigation in August laid out in detail the “horrifying scale” of sexual abuse perpetrated by 300 priests on more than 1,000 identified victims spanning nearly eight decades.

Rudisill, who died in 2006, is among the 21 clergy the Nashville diocese has named since November.

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MILLVILLE (NJ)
Daily Journal

April 6, 2019

Father Gary Hayes, 66, of Millville, passed away peacefully on Thursday, April 4, 2019, surrounded by his loving family.

Gary was a graduate of Sacred Heart High School, class of 1971. After high school, Gary attended St. Bernard’s Seminary School in Rochester, NY where he obtained his Master’s Degree in Theology. Gary was ordained a priest in 1990 and worked for the Diocese of Owensboro, KY for many years.

In his spare time, Gary loved cooking, reading, Survivor, game shows, traveling and spending time with his family and friends as well as working within numerous church groups. Gary is also a lifelong member of the Knights of Columbus.

Gary was predeceased by his father, Rutherford B. Hayes and his mother, Alfia M. Hayes.

He is survived by his brother; Russell (Kathleen), brother; Bruce (Toni), brother; Robert, sister; Patricia (Paul) and brother; Richard (Dee), his Aunt; Josephine Lolli, as well as many beloved nieces, nephews and cousins.

Family and friends will be received on Wednesday, April 10, 2019, from 6pm to 8pm, with a service at 7:30pm, at the DeMarco-Luisi Funeral Home, 2755 S. Lincoln Ave., Vineland, NJ 08361. Memories, thoughts and prayers may be extended to the family by visiting dlfuneral.com.

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PARIS (FRANCE)
LaCroix International

April 6, 2019

By Rita Ferrone

When Pope Francis wrote to the American bishops concerning the abuse crisis, he observed that “many actions can be helpful, good and necessary, and may even seem correct, but not all of them have the ‘flavor’ of the Gospel.”

By recommending a return to the Gospel as an essential reference point, Francis is on to something. The horror of the abuse cases, the sheer numbers of victims, the longevity of the crisis, its scope, and the fact that it has proved so hard to change the institutional patterns and habits that abet it—all this has been, for many of the faithful, a profoundly shocking and disorienting experience.

It has eroded the trust we used to give to our church leaders and structures. It has shamed us in the eyes of the world. We do not taste the Gospel here.

Yet we long for it, even when that longing goes unnamed.

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PRINCE GEORGE COUNTY (MD)
Prince George Citizen

April 5, 2019

Re: Praying for the sinners and the victims, March 30.

Another excuse for concentrating on the Catholic Church and not those victimized by the church.

Such as being concerned about “that damned Catholic,” which is irrelevant to those who have been abused.

“… Their very nature altered by their vocation.” Altered negatively so that they can abuse others? Is that it?

” … Shackled to our vocation.” Again what does this have to do with the victims except more flannel to avoid what happened to those sexually abused?

” … Cover up scandals” “… the person is “part of the faith.” Do the abused get comfort from this? They need more than prayers.

There is a concern to prevent future abuses by the church. The present victims of the Roman Catholic Church have to live with their abuse for the rest of their lives. The Vatican should continue to audit itself? Who audits the Vatican? Whether sexual crimes are far higher in the wider population we do not know. The church covers up its sexual crimes.

“Keep watch and pray.” What satisfaction do the sexually abused of the Catholic Church get from this?

M. Warr, Prince George

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BATON ROUGE (LA)
WBRZ TV

April 5, 2019

By Mark Armstrong

A few dozen faithful filled St. Joseph Cathedral in downtown to pray for forgiveness in the aftermath of the Catholic priest sex abuse scandal.

In February, the diocese released a list of 41 clergyman accused of a litany of sexual abuse across several decades. The list, like Friday’s service, are similar to actions taken by other dioceses across the country.

At Friday’s service, Baton Rouge Bishop Michael Duca called on Catholics to be patient friends to abuse victims who are still healing. He said he hopes victims and others disheartened by the scandal will one day regain trust in the church.

“I understand why they left, I understand the hurt and the difficulty they have. And then I pray they may one day see the church is responding in a way that might restore their hope,” said Duca.

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KNOXVILLE (TN)
Knoxville News

April 6, 2019

By Curtis Freeman

The Roman Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention, the two largest religious bodies in the United States, are both embroiled in a crisis of trust.

For years the public has learned in horrific detail the abuses by Catholic priests who preyed on parishioners and bishops who covered it up.

It is now clear that for decades, the Southern Baptist denominational leadership has systematically ignored, suppressed and denied the right of sexual abuse survivors to be heard. Rather than addressing this problem, church leaders hid behind the excuse that congregational autonomy precludes denominational oversight.

While plenty of new details, based on court documents, published accounts and public records, have been unearthed recently, this sordid tale has been an open secret for decades. Southern Baptist leaders disregarded warnings and dismissed reports.

Even more troubling is that the more than 300 ministers and lay leaders identified in recent news accounts are only the tip of the iceberg. That’s because many survivors of abuse have never felt free to tell their stories, and the church’s power structure shielded countless abusers from facing the truth of their actions.

Southern Baptist clergy, like other Baptist and non-denominational ministers, lack accountability beyond the local congregation that ordains. Clergy are poorly vetted before being ordained, and are rarely evaluated after ordination. Sometimes when an abusive minister is forced by a congregation to resign, he is not prevented from serving in another congregation because unlike many other professions, there is no cumulative list of abusive ministers. It is a structure easy to exploit and abuse.

But Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists have something else in common. Each are controlled by all-male leadership and power structures that exclude women from decision-making and oversight. Only men can be Roman Catholic priests and bishops. And only men can be Southern Baptist pastors. It should not be surprising, then, that men dominate the oversight processes that could demand accountability and honesty.

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MANILA (PHILIPPINES)
Manila Times

April 7, 2019

By Fr. Shay Cullen

There are serious and profound changes taking place in the Catholic Church to acknowledge and prevent child sexual abuse by clerics and lay people, prosecute the perpetrators and help the victims in their healing process. It is the belated result of generations of historical clerical child sexual abuse and the denial and cover-up of their crimes by some bishops and cardinals around the world. It has become a crisis for the Church as an institution.

Pope Francis approved recently a new law to protect child victims and prosecute any clerical suspects accused in the Vatican State. Before this, there was no such law protecting children in the Vatican. But the new law is a model for others and is a zero-tolerance law. Every complaint of child abuse must be reported and investigated immediately.

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SALINA (KS)
Salina Journal

April 5, 2019

I read the article in The Salina Journal: “Salina Diocese releases list of substantiated abusers” (March 29 issue).

As a youth, I knew former Rev. Robert Reif who served at Saints Philip and James in Phillipsburg. My late grandmother Dora Marples’ home was at Agra 10 miles away and my late mom and I would go to Mass there.

The other name I know from my adulthood, the former Rev. Allen Scheer who served at Esbon (only 3 houses south of our home) as well as simultaneously serving at Smith Center with main parish being at Mankato.

When mom and I first moved to Esbon, Father Scheer saw me on the front porch sweeping and my mom hand sewing pillowcases. He introduced himself, although we had been to Mass many times.

In 2002, the media nationwide broke the news of the clergy-sex scandal (although it has existed for centuries). With the scandal in the news, I was horrified how he spoke of his days at seminary fairly graphically.

I was appalled with that talk from a clergyman, especially within earshot of my then 80-year-old mother. As I say, I was sweeping the porch and gradually swept near his feet. He backed up and off my porch. He left in peace.

I motioned for Mom to come in the house. I told her: “I will take you anywhere to Mass but not to a priest I have no confidence in.”

I ended up taking her to Mass in Beloit and to Superior and Nelson, Nebraska. Gut instinct was right. Priests convicted of heinous crimes should be imprisoned, not merely laicized. I wasn’t a victim but feel vulnerable potential victims need protection.

James Marples, Salina

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LAFAYETTE (LA)
Daily Advertiser

April 6, 2019

By Andrew J. Yawn

The list of priests accused of sexual abuse while serving in the Lafayette diocese is expected to be released soon, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette said Friday.

The diocese received a report from the committee in charge of assembling the list last week, said spokeswoman Blue Rolfes.

“Getting close to releasing it,” Rolfes said in a brief phone interview last week, although she offered no specific timeline.

The Lafayette diocese is one of two in the state that have not yet released a comprehensive list of priests who had credible complaints of sexual abuse made against them. The Diocese of Lake Charles is the other. The state’s four other dioceses have released their information.

Members of the Lafayette diocese’s lay review board and local attorneys have spent months searching for accusations against clergy by combing through 50 years of personnel records for the hundreds of priests who have served in the diocese, Rolfes has said.

But this is not the first time Rolfes has said the list would be released in short order. In a Daily Advertiser story first published on Feb. 11, Rolfes said they hoped “within the next week or two to release the list,” a timeline that has long since passed.

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HERSHEY (PA)
Herdon Gazette

April 5, 2019

An investigation has uncovered hundreds of abuse allegations against leaders of a conservative, loosely affiliated network of evangelical Christian churches.

The report, identified 412 abuse allegations in 187 independent fundamental Baptist (IFB) churches and institutions across 40 states and Canada, with some cases reaching as far back as the 1970s.

The Star-Telegram spoke to more than 200 current or former IFB church members who shared stories about “rape, assault, humiliation and fear.” Many of the stories have already been made public through, and news reports. However, the newspaper said its reporters 21 new abuse allegations in the course of its eight-month investigation.

In total, the newspaper said it found that 168 IFB church leaders were accused or have been convicted of sexually abusing children.

Some of the women interviewed suggested that the patriarchal theology preached in IFB churches protects its male pastors from criticism and helps create a pattern of abuse and cover-up.

Interviewees that pastors in IFB churches were treated as if they were chosen by God and beyond reproach. Abusers used their power and position to psychologically manipulate and silence their victims, the women said. And often, even when victims spoke up, the accused pastors would manage to avoid criminal charges and use informal pastoral networks to relocate to another church.

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RENO (NV)
Channel 2 News

April 5, 2019

Bishop Randolph Calvo has released the names of priests and religious credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors.

Bishop Calvo called for a review of policies and procedures as well as a review of clergy files extending back over 80 years, after recent national reports of sexual abuse of minors by members of the clergy.

The reviews were conducted independently by the Diocesan Review Board.

The following is a list of names on that list:
Diocesan priests who formally belonged to the Diocese of Reno:
Robert Anderson
Edmund Boyle
Eugene Braun
Robert Despars
William Duff
Florence Flahive
Harold Vieages

Diocesan priests incardinated in another diocese who worked on a temporary basis in the Diocese of Reno:
Carmelo Baltazar
Timothy Ryan

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ERIE (PA)
WFXP TV

April 5, 2019

The Erie Diocese releasing its fifth update of the public disclosure list in the wake of the church’s sex abuse scandal.

Two priests and one layperson, all deceased, have been added to the list for the first time. The others changed classification, mostly from ‘under investigation,’ to ‘credibly accused’. Of those, two are from this corner of the Diocese, both lay people.

They are Jonathan Borkowski of Fairview and Robert Viszeki of Erie.

Bishop Lawrence Persico of the Diocese of Erie tells us, “I feel it’s very important, especially with people who are living, is the fact that it alerts the public some of these people are living in the community.”

See the full release below:

The Diocese of Erie has updated its Public Disclosure List, which contains the names of persons who have been “credibly accused of actions that, in the diocese’s judgment, disqualify them from working with children.” In addition, it has added an explanation of the investigative process to its website to clarify what occurs when a person is under investigation. The explanation has been included in this release.

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WEST DES MOINES (IA)
KCCI TV

April 5, 2019

By Hannah Hilyard

A West Des Moines woman who survived priest sexual abuse called the Diocese of Des Moines decision to release a list of credibly accused priests a trigger.

The Diocese of Des Moines named nine priests Thursday with credible allegations against them of abusing children.

Theresa Arlaud said she saw the announcement on the news and was instantly taken back to when she was sexually abused by a priest in Ohio.

“It lives with you your whole life,” Arlaud said. “You know, I don’t try to live in the past or anything, but when I saw that on TV, it triggered it.”

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YAKIMA (WA)
Herald-Republic

April 2, 2019

By Tammy Ayer

A man who grew up in Ellensburg is suing the Catholic Diocese of Yakima, alleging he was sexually abused as a boy by four priests. One of the four has served at multiple churches in North Central Washington.

The civil lawsuit filed in Kittitas County alleges that priests Richard Scully, Peter Hagel and Seamus Kerr, who lives at Holy Apostles Church in East Wenatchee, along with another unnamed Yakima Diocese priest, repeatedly sexually abused the boy in the 1970s and 1980s. The abuse allegedly took place at St. Andrews Church in Ellensburg and a YMCA building that the diocese previously used for church services.

Kerr denied the allegations against him through a diocese spokesman.

“Father Kerr has served faithfully as a priest in our diocese for 59 years and we have no evidence or reason to believe that he has abused anyone, much less a minor,” Monsignor Robert Siler, chancellor with the Diocese of Yakima, said Monday.

Kerr retired out of Ephrata several years ago and has since resided at Holy Apostles. At the request of Bishop Joseph Tyson, Kerr has stepped aside from the ministry while the Diocese’s advisory board reviews the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday, Siler said.

At least one of the priests — Scully — has been laicized, or defrocked, according to a list of clergy and other church personnel accused of sexually abusing children the Seattle Archdiocese published on its website in January 2016.

Scully’s name is one of three on that list of priests who were associated with Seattle and Yakima. Previously, in Yakima records, Scully was listed as retired, but after leaving Yakima, he moved to Texas and a diocese there laicized him.

“Given what we have learned about the sexual abuse that went on in the Church in Ellensburg, we would not be surprised if other abuse victims came forward,” Seattle attorney Daniel T.L. Fasy said in a news release.

Fasy and Spokane attorney Joseph A. Blumel are representing the victim, referred to in court papers as John Doe. The lawsuit seeks to recover unspecified damages and attorney’s fees from the diocese.

Along with alleging that Doe was abused by the priests, the suit alleges that he was forced to engage in sex acts with other boys.

The abuse began when Doe was 10 years old and attending services at the YMCA building in Ellensburg, first by the unknown priest and then Kerr, the suit alleges. Doe was introduced to Scully and Hagel approximately two years later and their abuse began then, also at the YMCA building, according to court documents.

It continued when Doe began attending services at St. Andrews Church in approximately 1980 or 1981, when it was new, court documents state. Kerr was a pastor or co-pastor at the church from 1966-1980, according to Siler.

Diocese response

Siler said while the plaintiff’s name is not listed, given the description, it appears to be a man who previously made a report to the diocese, which has investigated it.

“Our investigation so far is inconclusive,” Siler said. “We have been providing him counseling for probably more than a year now. We have been looking into it.”

There are some concerns, he said. When the plaintiff was interviewed by the diocese’s investigator, he did say he had been abused by more than one priest, Siler noted. “But he was unable to name a single person as an abuser, including one priest with whom he had gotten reacquainted that year,” he said in an email.

“Also, there are inconsistencies in the dates given by the plaintiff in regard to when at least two of the priests were assigned to the parish and when he says he was abused,” Siler added.

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CAPE GIRARDEAU (MO)
Associated Press

Apr 5, 2019

In a story April 3, The Associated Press reported that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau spent more than $700,000 settling claims with clergy abuse victims. Nearly $126,000 of that amount was spent on a related investigation of church files going back decades.

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