ABUSE TRACKER

JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
KRCG TV

March 29, 2019

By Kyreon Lee

On Friday, Pope Francis issued new sex abuse legislation for Vatican personnel and Holy See diplomats that requires the immediate reporting of abuse allegations to Vatican prosecutors, a policy shift aimed at being a model for the Catholic Church worldwide.

The mandatory reporting provision marks the first time the Vatican has put into law requirements for Catholic officials to report allegations of sex crimes to police or face fines and possible jail time.

Don Asbee is a representative of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, who said the abuse by his former priest started for him at the age of 9. He said the law shouldn’t just be a model for the Catholic Church and only apply to the Vatican City, but be applied to every Catholic Church across the board.

“This should apply to any of the people in positions of the church. If it’s not universal, then it doesn’t have teeth,” Asbee said.

He said if it doesn’t create a system to punish the people in the church abusing, then it isn’t effective.

“The whole cycle of abuse and cover up has got to stop because it’s not a sin, it’s beyond a sin, it’s a crime and it has to be treated accordingly,” Asbee said.

Catholic Church member Kelsie Backues said she thinks this is a step forward for the Catholic Church.

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.

CHARLESTON (SC)
Post and Courier

March 29, 2019

By Robert Behre, Gregory Yee and Rickey Dennis

The Roman Catholic Church late Friday released its list of 42 South Carolina priests who have a credible allegation of child sexual misconduct — 10 more than it reported five years ago.

Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone said the list was released “in the spirit of transparency and accountability.”

He said he hopes publishing the names of the priests will help bring healing to the victims and their families who have been “grievously harmed by the betrayal of priests and church leadership.”

“The victims of sexual abuse and their families have suffered much pain and are understandably hurt and angry,” he said. “We must continue to pray and care for our brothers and sisters who have experienced this trauma inflicted by priests they trusted.

“We also need to honor the courage of those who have come forward to share the most intimate and painful experiences of their entire lives,” he added. “My heart hurts for the victims and the damage this has caused to them and to their families.”

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.

AUSTIN (TX)
KXAN TV

March 29, 2019

By Brittany Glas

Two months after the Roman Catholic Diocese of Austin released the names of 22 clergy “credibly accused” of sexually abusing children, victim advocates are calling for reform at the local and state levels.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, is fighting for all statute of limitations to be lifted in Texas for child sexual assault cases and encouraging victims to speak out, regardless of how long ago the alleged abuse happened.

According to current Texas law, it no longer matters when victims of child sexual assault report their abuse to law enforcement for potential prosecution. The case can be prosecuted now or 20 years from now — after the report is made. Since Sept. 1, 2007, there is no longer a statute of limitations on these crimes.

“Looking backwards, we still have limited windows for childhood survivors that were abused in the past,” said Carol Midboe, the Austin support group leader for SNAP.

Midboe traveled to Rome last month for the papal clergy abuse summit.

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.

BRIDGEWATER (NJ)
Bridgewater Courier News

March 29, 2019

By Nick Muscavage

Clergy abuse victim advocates claim the Diocese of Metuchen failed to name eight more priests, in addition to one they named previously, accused of child sexual abuse in its list of credibly accused clergy it released last month.

According to Mark Crawford, New Jersey director of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), at least two priests alleged to have sexually abused children, in addition to the Rev. Romano Ferraro who they previously named, were also assigned to St. John Vianney Church in the Colonia section.

The namings by Crawford come on the heels of advocates meeting outside the church Thursday to release documents depicting how the Metuchen Diocese accepted Ferraro, who allegedly abused boys in New York, into its parishes from the Diocese of Brooklyn.

Ferraro, who later was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in Massachusetts for raping a 7-year-old boy there, came to Metuchen in the 1980s under the watch of then-Bishop Theodore McCarrick. McCarrick was defrocked by the Vatican last month after claims of sexual abuse of a child and young adult men were found credible by the church.

The Rev. Edward M. DePaoli
Edward M. DePaoli, who was a priest with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, served at St. John Vianney between 1988 and 1991, according to a write-up of his allegations and criminal history on the website of Horowitz Law.

DePaoli was convicted in 1986 of receiving child pornography through the mail, according to a 2005 grand jury report cited on www.adamhorowitzlaw.com. DePaoli went for treatment in 1986 after his arrest, which proved unsuccessful, according to the post.

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.

DAYTON (OH)
Daily News

March 29, 2019

By Thomas Gnau

A new directive requiring Vatican City personnel and diplomats to immediately report abuse allegations may represent a step toward lifting a “culture of secrecy” at the independent city-state that anchors the Catholic Church worldwide, said Dennis Doyle, a Catholic theologian and professor at the University of Dayton.

“It’s almost similar to what you find in police departments,” Doyle said Friday. “Some people are corrupt; some people are not. But people are reluctant to turn in other people.

The mandatory reporting provision, while limited in scope, marks the first time the Vatican has put into law requirements for Catholic officials to report allegations of sex crimes to police or face fines and possible jail time, the Associated Press reported.

Added Doyle: “This makes it actually a crime not to report incidents of sex abuse. And it specifies whom this has to be reported to, which are the Vatican prosecutors, who are going to be trained to rise above the culture of secrecy.”

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.

[Aós announces visit to Rome: He will meet Pope Francis next week]

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Emol

March 29, 2019

By Consuelo Ferrer

El nuevo administrador apostólico de Santiago anunció a los trabajadores del arzobispado que sostendrá un encuentro con el Pontífice.

“Mis prioridades en la Iglesia de Santiago son claras: el evangelio. Ese es mi manual de instrucciones”. Fueron las palabras emitidas por nuevo administrador apostólico de Santiago, el obispo Celestino Aós Braco, durante su primer saludo a los trabajadores del Arzobispado de Santiago.

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.

[Lawyer for Karadmina whistleblowers says Archdiocese should also compensate victims of “priest Tato”]

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Emol

March 29, 2019

By Tomás Molina J.

Juan Pablo Hermosilla afirmó que la Iglesia tiene esa “obligación ética” y dijo que sería un “gesto increíble”. Respecto del reciente fallo de la Corte de Apelaciones, afirmó que este podría ser “el primero que establece una separación real entre la Iglesia y el Estado”.

El abogado de los denunciantes del ex sacerdote Fernando Karadima, Juan Pablo Hermosilla, analizó esta mañana los alcances del reciente fallo de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago, el cual determinó que el Arzobispado capitalino debe pagar $300 millones a sus representados, resolución a la que la arquidiócesis decidió no apelar.

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.

[Aós responds to questions: Affirms he sent an accused priest to Spain for “health problems”]

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Emol

March 29, 2019

By Ignacio Guerra

El nuevo administrador apostólico de Santiago aseguró que Antonio Vargas viajó a Europa porque en Chile “no podía atenderse”, justo cuando lo habían acusado de “actitudes inapropiadas”.

Celestino Aós salió a responder los primeros cuestionamientos que surgieron en su contra como nuevo administrador apostólico de Santiago, que apuntan a que envió a España al párroco Antonio Vargas cuando era acusado de “actitudes inapropiadas” con mujeres y menores, en septiembre del año pasado. Luego de sostener una reunión con sacerdotes que sufrieron abusos por parte de Fernando Karadima este jueves, el ex obispo de Copiapó aseguró que su decisión se debió a que Vargas se encontraba enfermo, y no a una maniobra de encubrimiento.

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.

[Tito Rivera goes to court for abuse, nighttime house arrest set]

CHILE
BioBioChile

March 29, 2019

By Felipe Delgado and Nicole Martínez

El religioso Tito Rivera fue formalizado este viernes en el 13° Juzgado de Garantía de Santiago por la acusación de un presunto abuso sexual ocurrido al interior de la Catedral Metropolitana. En un comienzo se habló del delito de violación, pero hoy se presentaron los hechos como abusos sexuales que incluyen sexo oral y tocaciones.

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.

PERTH (AUSTRALIA)
The West Australian

March 29, 2019

By Gabrielle Knowles

Angry supporters of suspected paedophile priest Father Joseph Tran have been urged to stop a witch-hunt for the alleged child victim and her family.

A “number” of mothers and daughters have allegedly been accused by other Catholics of being the ones who made the sex abuse complaint about the hugely popular priest.

The 49-year-old is suspected of taking his own life last Thursday after being confronted by the mother of his alleged victim.

Father Ted Miller said yesterday no one should “hound” a person or their mother for making a complaint to police and pleaded for anyone who was angry to stay calm.

A parishioner, in a post on a Facebook page created as a tribute to Father Tran, said it was understandable people were angry, upset, defensive and wanted “clarification”.

But she also urged people to respect the privacy of the family involved and said the confrontations were “traumatising” for people being falsely accused.

Police are continuing to investigate allegations that Father Tran sexually abused a girl, now aged 13, over several years.

Inquiries include searching the 49-year-old’s parish home at Armadale’s St Francis Xavier, checking his electronic devices and interviewing the alleged victim and any witnesses.

Police are keen to talk to anyone who has information that can assist their investigation.

They have refused to say if anyone else has come forward with allegations of abuse at the hands of the priest, who moved to Armadale a year ago after 15 years at Whitfords parish.

The findings of the child abuse squad investigation will form part of the report being prepared for the Coroner into Father Tran’s death and will be revealed only through an inquest.

It is believed Father Tran, who worked as a chaplain at several Catholic Perth schools, died of a self-inflicted wound.

His death came the same day the police investigation was launched.

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.

BELLEVILLE (IL)
News Democrat

March 29, 2019

By Lexi Cortes

Former Belleville Bishop Wilton Gregory could soon become one of the most influential Churchmen in the nation, according to a report from a Catholic news outlet.

The Catholic News Agency reported Thursday that Gregory, 71, has been asked to serve as the next archbishop of Washington, D.C.

It wasn’t clear whether he accepted Pope Francis’ appointment as of Friday. Gregory did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Belleville News-Democrat or CNA.

Gregory came to the Diocese of Belleville from his hometown of Chicago in 1994. He served as Belleville’s bishop until 2005, when he became the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

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.

SALINA (KS)
KWCH TV

March 29, 2019

The Catholic Diocese of Salina says an investigation has found 14 clergy members with “substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.”

Last September, Bishop Gerald Vincke hired the independent outside counsel of Cottonwood Law LLC. of Hillsboro to conduct a thorough review of clergy personnel files and identify any potential cases of clergy misconduct with minors.

The report found 14 cases of diocesan clergy abuse of a minor. None of the 14 priests are in active ministry today.

At this time, the Diocese of Salina is only releasing the names of clerics with substantiated allegations of abuse of a minor. Any cleric with an allegation of abuse of a minor that is unsubstantiated has been excluded from the list.

The KBI began it’s own investigation into reports of clergy sexual abuse at the beginning of February. The Catholic Diocese of Salina is one of four dioceses in Kansas that the special KBI task force is investigating.

The names of the 14 priests were released on the Diocese website.

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.

MANHATTAN (KS)
The Mercury

March 29, 2019

By Megan Moser

Three men have alleged that the Catholic priest who was superintendent of Seven Dolors Grade School and Luckey High School in the 1950s and 1960s sexually abused them while they were students there.

In an anonymous account, the three men wrote that Monsignor William Merchant, who died in 1975, molested and sexually assaulted them and other boys at the school.

The Catholic Diocese of Salina on Friday released a list of 14 clergy members within the diocese against whom there have been substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor. The report listed Merchant and two other priests (more information below) who had served in Manhattan since the 1950s, and several more who served at other area churches.

The account by the men Merchant abused while they were students and altar boys was included with the report.

“Merchant was a pedophile and sexual predator who ruthlessly exploited grade school and high school children over an extended period of time,” they wrote. “In our collective opinion, Msgr. Merchant’s avocation was masquerading as a Catholic priest while pursuing his true vocation as an aggressive sexual predator. His position as the superintendent of schools offered him a replenishable supply of victims to satisfy his perversity.”

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.

ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
Associated Press

March 29, 2019

By Susan Montoya Bryan

Religious orders once associated with a now-shuttered Catholic boarding school for Native Americans are being accused of failing to protect students from sexual abuse by clergy and faculty.

An Ohio-based order of Franciscan Friars and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, headquartered in Pennsylvania, are named as defendants in a lawsuit filed this week in a New Mexico court by a team of lawyers that has represented dozens of abuse survivors over the years.

The accusations center on a student who attended St. Catherine’s Indian School in Santa Fe during the 1980s, but attorneys for the unnamed plaintiff say the case speaks to broader issues.

The case comes as the Catholic church wrestles with a sex abuse and cover-up scandal that has spanned the globe. New Mexico’s largest diocese is among the religious organizations seeking bankruptcy protection as a result, having spending more than $50 million over the years to settle hundreds of lawsuits.

The latest case surfaced as the plaintiff’s legal team was preparing a claim against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe as part of the bankruptcy case. While the archdiocese is currently immune from separate claims outside the bankruptcy proceedings, lawyers say civil cases can be brought against other religious organizations that might be accused of bearing some responsibility.

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.

ATLANTA (GA)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

March 29, 2019

By Shelia Poole

The Catholic News Agency is reporting that Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, 71, will be named the new archbishop of Washington, D.C.

According to the CNA, Pope Francis is expected to make an announcement as early as next week. The pontiff is facing a church crisis over the sexual abuse scandals in the United States and overseas.The Archdiocese of Atlanta could not be reached for comment. Gregory is the sixth Archbishop of Atlanta.Related: Atlanta archdiocese releases names of those “credibly” accused of abuse He would succeed Cardinal Donald Wuerl as archbishop of Washington, D.C. Pope Francis accepted Wuerl’s resignation last year. He is the former bishop of Pittsburgh.

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.

AUSTIN (TX)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

Then, ex-pastor sued him for defamation

However, the suit was dropped before the initial court hearing

SNAP tells victims “If you were assaulted, speak out, don’t be intimidated”

Group also calls on church officials to help reform abuser friendly laws

WHAT

Holding signs and childhood photos at a State Capitol news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will disclose that an Austin man
–accused a best-selling author, ex-Evangelical/Baptist pastor and Christian literary agent of molesting him as a child,
–was sued by the alleged abuser for defamation, but
–has found other victims of the same alleged perpetrator.

They will also call on local church officials to join with victims in pushing for real legislative reform, like inclusion of victims in shield laws and repealing Texas’ “abuser-friendly statutes of limitations” so survivors can have their day in court.

WHEN
Friday, March 29th at 8:30 a.m.

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)
Fox News

March 29, 2019

By Danielle Wallace

Pope Francis announced Friday a new mandatory reporting provision in the Vatican that requires all personnel and Holy See diplomats to report allegations of abuse “without delay” or risk facing fines or jail time.

Francis also implemented child protection measures for Vatican City State and its youth seminary in order to protect minors from predatory priests. The new legislation for the first time explicitly defines “vulnerable people” who would receive the same protections from the church as children.

Vatican public officials must report allegations of abuse to Vatican prosecutors in a timely manner to avoid being fined up to $5,615. Members of the Vatican police and security force who don’t report sex crimes could serve a jail sentence.

The Vatican defines a “vulnerable person” as an individual impaired by a physical or psychiatric deficiency, unable to exercise personal freedom and unable to understand or resist the crime. The city state added protections for “vulnerable adults” in the past but never gave a legal definition of the term.

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.

CHESHIRE (ENGLAND)
Cheshire Chronicle

March 29, 2019

The Bishop of Chester has handed over safeguarding responsibilities after he was criticised for how the case of retired priest Gordon Dickenson was handled.

Dickenson was jailed on Friday, March 15 at Liverpool Crown Court after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a boy more than 40 years ago.

During a police investigation in 2017, a letter to the Diocese of Chester came to light.

The letter, dated 2009, had been sent by Dickenson to the Diocese and detailed the accusations against him.

Following its release, Bishop Peter Forster was heavily criticised for his lack of action at the time, and the Diocese of Chester issued an apology to the sexual abuse survivor .

Now, Bishop Forster has come forward to say he will no longer be in charge of safeguarding responsibilities following the incident.

Instead, the Bishop of Birkenhead, Keith Sinclair, will take the lead on decisions regarding safeguarding.

In a statement Bishop Peter Forster said: “I have asked the Bishop of Birkenhead, Keith Sinclair, to lead on all safeguarding arrangements in the Diocese of Chester and have formally delegated this responsibility to him with immediate effect.

“I have taken this decision in response to recent comment into my handling of the Gordon Dickenson case in 2009.

“An independent review will seek to identify where any failures in procedures arose, and what lessons can be learned and I look forward to contributing to the review and to giving a full account of my actions in relation to this matter.

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.

WASHINGTON (DC)
Religion News Service

March 29, 2019

By Thomas Reese

When people were first confronted with the extent of Catholic priests’ sexual abuse of children, they were angry. But when, in the early 2000s, they learned that their bishops knew about the abuse and did little to stop it, Catholics and even the wider public were outraged.

As the crisis has rolled on, the demand that the bishops be held accountable for not reporting the abuse to the police, for keeping these priests in ministry and for not protecting children has become the focus of state and church inquiries, from the Vatican to attorney general offices across the U.S.

As I explained in my previous column, thanks to the 2002 Dallas Charter and other reforms, the bishops are much better at protecting children today than they were in the past, but what about the bishops who did not do the right thing in the past, and what about bishops who fail in the future?

Many people, including myself and many survivors, would like to see these bishops thrown in jail.

The problem is that until recently, state and federal law did not require a bishop to report such crimes to the police. It is a general principle of common law that people are not required to report a crime of which they are aware.

Today, most states do make clergy mandatory reporters of child abuse, but that was not true when most of the abuse took place. As a result, it is difficult to prosecute bishops who governed prior to the mandatory reporting laws.

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.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

March 28, 2019

According to a new report, Pope Francis is set to tap Archbishop Wilton Gregory to lead the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.

The current Archbishop at the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Gregory enjoys somewhat of a reputation as a “reformer,” largely because he led the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) 2002 Dallas meeting in which church officials adopted their abuse charter. In truth, his track record on abuse is poor.

For example, in 2004 and while serving as USCCB president, he was found in contempt of court for refusing to turn over abuse records.

In another example, Archbishop Gregory was previously accused of keeping abuse records secret and for failing to inform the public about credibly accused priests while he was in charge of the Diocese of Belleville, IL.

Given the months of scandal that has wracked the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., it is critical that church officials install a new leader there who will take up Pope Francis’ call to wage an “all-out battle” against abuse. Based on his track record, we’re not confident that Archbishop Gregory is the right choice.

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.

ST. AUGUSTINE (FL)
St. Augustine Record

March 10, 2019

By Diana Milesko

Carl Hiassen’s March 2 column was right; the pope must confront the pain of Catholic congregants. The survival of the human race depends on morality and religion must be its guardian.

That’s why it’s unacceptable for the Catholic Church’s Meeting on Sexual Abuse (Feb. 24, 2019) to end without a plan. Five strategies have been proposed for years to address these problems. It’s time they were enacted.

1. Abolish celibacy: In 1139, the Church proclaimed clergy must be celibate because clergy were giving their inheritances to their children. With celibacy, and no legitimate heirs, inheritances went to the Church, which became fabulously wealthy. Celibacy is not normal. Pretending to enforce it created massive problems of sexual child abuse and badly damaged the Church.

2. Abolish absolute power: A Pope is infallible in matters of doctrine, (Infallibility Doctrine, 1869). But if a Pope is never wrong on doctrine, when he changes one, he was not infallible when he made it. Yet dogma changes often. It no longer says slavery is moral, coeducation is against natural law, the sun revolves around the earth, anyone not Catholic goes to hell or religious freedom is wrong.

Furthermore, infallibility contradicts St. Paul, who says not only is it wrong, but the Church should not have a Pope at all, who “sits in the Temple of God and gives himself out as if he were God.” (Thess. 2:3-4)

3. Establish sex education for seminarians: Clergy have positions of staggering trust and must be held to the highest ethical standards. Yet, in Catholic seminaries, the rational is that sex education courses create occasions of sin. Yet forbidding them permits clergy to commit atrocious evils then hide behind a plea of ignorance. Clergy must be taught about sexuality; about what is, and what is not, moral.

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)
Associated Press

March 29, 2019

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis on Friday issued sweeping new sex abuse legislation for Vatican personnel and diplomats that requires the immediate reporting of abuse allegations to Vatican prosecutors, a policy shift aimed at being a model for the Catholic Church worldwide.

The mandatory reporting provision, while limited in scope, marks the first time the Vatican has put into law requirements for Catholic officials to report allegations of sex crimes to police or face fines and possible jail time.

Francis also issued child protection guidelines for Vatican City State and its youth seminary, acting after the global sex abuse scandal exploded anew last year and The Associated Press reported that the headquarters of the Catholic Church had no policy to protect children from predator priests.

While the new norms only cover Vatican City State, affiliated institutions and the diplomatic corps, they were still symbolically significant and were welcomed by a former seminarian whose case helped spark the reform.

“I see this as something positive,” Kamil Jarzembowski told the AP.

The law for the first time provides an explicit Vatican definition for “vulnerable people” who are entitled to the same protections as minors under church law. The Vatican amended its canon law covering sex abuse to include “vulnerable adults” in 2010, but never defined it.

According to the new Vatican definition, a vulnerable person is anyone who is sick or suffering from a physical or psychiatric deficiency, isn’t able to exercise personal freedom even on occasion and has a limited capacity to understand or resist the crime.

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.

OKLAHOMA CITY (OK)
The Christian Chronicle

March 28, 2019

By Bobby Ross Jr.

Charges against Clyde E. Brothers Jr. fell outside Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations, new ruling asserts.

A highly publicized Pennsylvania grand jury report last year identified more than 300 predator Catholic priests who had sexually abused over 1,000 children going back decades.

But because the crimes were hidden by the church hierarchy, “almost every instance of abuse we found is too old to be prosecuted,” the statewide investigating body reported.

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.

AUSTRALIA
SBS News

March 28, 2019

Another 30 institutions have joined the national redress scheme for institutional child abuse victims, ahead of a rally calling for changes to the system.

Another 30 institutions have joined the national redress scheme for institutional child abuse victims.

Social Services Minister Paul Fletcher said the groups joining included 22 Anglican institutions, five Baptist organisations, Scouts Queensland, Sisters of Mercy Parramatta and the Uniting Church in Australia.

“I continue to emphasise the urgency of giving survivors access to redress as soon as they are able,” Mr Fletcher said in a statement on Friday.

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.

PENNSYLVANIA
Pennsylvania Capital-Star

March 29, 2019

By John L. Micek

Eight months after his office released a landmark grand jury report that detailed decades of sexual abuse by hundreds of Roman Catholic priests and a subsequent cover-up, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro is still searching for justice for the victims.

“I continue to be optimistic,” Shapiro said Wednesday during a wide-ranging interview with the Capital-Star in his Harrisburg office. “And I know that this has to get done.”

The “this” that Shapiro is talking about are the four recommendations included in the 884-page grand jury report that lays out, in graphic detail, the abuse committed against thousands of children by priests who were shuttled from diocese to diocese, where they were allowed to abuse again.

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.

DENVER (CO)
KDVR

March 28, 2019

By Eric Ruble

A Denver-based Catholic order identified 13 friars with credible sexual abuse allegations against them Thursday.

The Capuchin Province of St. Conrad is based in Denver and covers Colorado, Kansas and Missouri. It also includes the diocese of Belleville, Peoria and Springfield in Illinois as well as two houses in San Antonio, Texas.

All of the allegations involve either a minor or a vulnerable adult.

Of the 13 friars accused, three are dead and four have left the order. One of the deceased left the order prior to his death. According to the order, none are in active ministry.

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.

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

March 29, 2019

By Tom Maddocks

The head of a leading child safety organisation has condemned comments made by Canberra’s Catholic Archbishop, who indicated the church would not comply with new laws forcing priests to break the seal of confessional by reporting child sex abuse claims.

Speaking to ABC Radio Canberra, Archbishop for Canberra and Goulburn Christopher Prowse said it was not the church’s role to report crimes, adding that he did not expect the issue of child abuse to be raised in the confessional.

He was responding to reforms passed by the ACT Government last week that would make it an offence for any adult not to report suspected child sexual abuse to police.

The law extends to the Catholic Church confessional.

“All these reportable things, deal with them please before you come into the confessional so that we don’t have to deal with crime punishment, when we’re really there as experts on the merciful picture of the lord in our midst today,” Archbishop Prowse said.

In a statement the Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn said sexual abuse was “both a crime and a sin”, but said the church’s role was not to deal with crime.

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.

SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
The Salt Lake Tribune

March 29, 2019

By Paighten Harkins

Knowing what he knows now, Richard Ostler said he would have taken a more involved role in his children’s upbringing within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Ostler, who is now 58, said that 20 years ago, when he had six children at home, he didn’t meddle much in their interactions with church leaders as they grew older and started having one-on-one conversations with bishops as part of so-called worthiness interviews. Ostler said he didn’t ask any questions about those meetings because it never occurred to him that he should. He trusted his church leaders and his children never said anything was amiss.

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.

PLATTE CITY (MO)
FSSPX.NEWS

March 28, 2019

A summit for the protection of minors was held in Rome on February 21 – 24, 2019. On its eve, Cardinals Walter Brandmüller and Raymond L. Burke wrote an open letter to all the presidents of the bishops’ conferences, present for the summit.

Before the Summit

They renewed the doubts (dubia) that they expressed at the publication of Amoris Laetitia (March 19, 2016). In 2019 as in 2016, the existence of an absolute moral law “that is without exceptions” is called into question in the name of relativist pastoralism:

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)
The New Orleans Advocate

March 28, 2019

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

Catholic Church officials asked the Dominican order Thursday to move an elderly priest out of his living quarters at St. Dominic’s Priory in Lakeview, a day after a victim-advocacy group exposed his presence on a list of Dominican religious order members who have been credibly accused of child molestation.

The news about Richard Raphael Archer, 89, a retired priest, was contained in a letter that New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond sent to the parents of children at St. Dominic School on Memphis Street. The school serves students in pre-K through 7th grade and is attached to a church and priory on Harrison Avenue.

Archer in December was among those listed in a 24-name roster of Dominican order members in the eastern and southern United States who were suspected child sex abusers, both living and dead. A board reviewing personnel files deemed “an allegation of the sexual abuse of a minor” against Archer as credible. He was removed from public ministry in 2002, when he was assigned to a Metairie-based Dominican province, his order 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.

DENVER (CO)
Denver7ABC

March 28, 2019

By Blair Miller

Capuchin Franciscan Province of St. Conrad audit released

The Capuchin Franciscan Province of St. Conrad, an order of the Catholic Church based in Denver, on Thursday released an audit report that identifies 13 current or former friars – nine of whom worked in Colorado – who were found to have credible allegations of sexual abuse against minors or vulnerable adults levied against them.

The province said in a news release that two of the friars are dead, five have left the order and the remaining six are not active ministers in the church.

The St. Conrad province was established in 1977 and includes Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, the Dioceses of Belleville, Peoria and Springfield (Illinois), and two houses in San Antonio, Texas in its territory.

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.

AUSTRALIA
Crux

March 28, 2019

An archbishop in Australia has said priests will not report crimes if that involved breaching the seal of confession, after a new mandatory reporting law was passed in the Australian Capital Territory.

Starting Monday, all people in the territory will have to report allegations of child abuse, including religious ministers who hear the allegation in a confessional. If convicted, those that fail to report face up to two years in jail.

Church law forbids the revelation of any sin admitted in confession under the penalty of excommunication.

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.

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Associated Press

March 29, 2019

Chilean Cardinal Javier Errazuriz has gone before a local prosecutor to testify as a defendant as part of an investigation into the country’s sprawling sex abuse and cover-up scandal.

Pope Francis removed Errazuriz last year from his informal Cabinet after he became embroiled in the Catholic Church’s scandal. Errazuriz is accused of covering up clerical abuse in at least 10 cases.

The 85-year old cardinal walked into the prosecutor’s office in Santiago on Thursday with the help of a cane. He looked visibly upset and declined to speak to reporters.

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.

SPRINGFIELD (IL)
WICS/WRSP

March 28, 2019

By Nikki McGee

The bishop of the Diocese of Springfield is now speaking out for the first time after a report accused 23 clergymen of sexual abuse.

The report was released last week and included the names and histories of hundreds of clergy accused of sexual abuse within the Catholic church.

“We’ve chosen to reveal this information because the Catholic bishops and the religious orders who are in charge and have this information and hold it secret have chosen to conceal it,” Author Jeff Anderson said.

The Diocese of Springfield calls the report “highly misleading” and “irresponsible” and said the information is not new, as those on the list have already been publicly accused.

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.

WOODBRIDGE (NJ)
Bridgewater Courier News

March 28, 2019

By Nick Muscavage

A priest who was known by the Catholic Church to have allegedly sexually abused boys was sent from New York to a Diocese of Metuchen church under the watch of then-Bishop Theodore McCarrick.

Clergy abuse victim advocates and an attorney representing victims of the Rev. Romano Ferraro’s alleged abuse met Thursday outside St. John Vianney Church in the Colonia section to share documents depicting how Ferraro was transferred from Brooklyn to the Metuchen Diocese.

Church documents and letters shared by attorney Patrick Noaker show how church officials with the Diocese of Brooklyn handled abuse allegations against Ferraro, and how they transferred him to the Diocese of Metuchen with McCarrick’s approval.

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.

ROCKFORD (IL)
rrstar.com

March 28, 2019

The “Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church” program will be held at 6:30 p.m. April 2 at 6:30 p.m. April 2 at Fisher Memorial Chapel at Rockford University, 5050 E. State St.

The Rev. David Beauvais, long time priest and retired pastor from St. James Catholic Church, will lead the discussion; and Register Star Metro Editor Kevin Haas will moderate.

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.

OXFORD (MI)
The Daily Mississippian

March 28, 2019

By Makayla Steede

Accusations of sexual abuse have rocked the Catholic church since 2002. In August 2018, the scandal intensified following an investigation in Pennsylvania that found more than 300 priests accused of child sexual abuse — leaving at least 1,000 survivors.

This report led to further investigations in Illinois, West Virginia, Texas and Mississippi. On March 19, the Catholic Diocese of Jackson released a list of 37 Mississippi clergy members accused of child sexual abuse. Bernard Haddican, one of the 17 priests accused, was a pastor at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, which neighbors the University of Mississippi campus.

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.

VATICAN CITY
ABC13

March 29, 2019

Pope Francis on Friday issued sweeping new sex abuse legislation for Vatican personnel and Holy See diplomats that requires the immediate reporting of abuse allegations to Vatican prosecutors, a policy shift aimed at being a model for the Catholic Church worldwide.

The mandatory reporting provision marks the first time the Vatican has put into law requirements for Catholic officials to report allegations of sex crimes to police or face fines and possible jail time.

Francis also issued child protection guidelines for Vatican City State and its youth seminary, acting after the global sex abuse scandal exploded anew last year and The Associated Press reported that the headquarters of the Catholic Church had no policy to protect children from predator priests.

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.

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Reuters

March 28, 2019

By Natalia A. Ramos Miranda

Chile’s Catholic Church should prepare itself for an onslaught of new civil suits from victims seeking compensation for past cases of sexual abuse, a lawyer who successfully sued the Archdiocese of Santiago said on Thursday.

Juan Pablo Hermosilla said a Chilean court’s decision on Wednesday to force Chile’s most influential archdiocese to pay his clients more than $400,000 in damages has opened the door for other “victims of abuse in church settings,” to seek financial compensation.

The appeals court decision is the first to require Chile’s powerful Roman Catholic Church to pay damages related to an ongoing sex abuse scandal that last year prompted Pope Francis to apologize to the church’s community worldwide.

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.

GUAM
KUAM News

March 27, 2019

Two separate sex abuse lawsuits were filed in court against the island’s Catholic Church and others, with one allegation against a nun.

A.B.C. alleges that around 1958 or 1959 when he was around 12 or 13 years old he was sexually molested and abused by a Catholic Nun. A.B.C., who now lives in Washington state, alleges that when he was a student at Santa Barbara Catholic School, D.E. a nun with the Sisters of Mercy and a teacher would sexually abuse him. He is seeking monetary damages of up to $5 million and a trial by jury. The case was filed in the District Court. A.B.C. is being represented by attorney David Lujan.

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.

PEORIA (IL)
Heart of Illinois ABC

March 28, 2019

Bishops from across Illinois joined together in Springfield Thursday to voice their concerns about potential changes to state abortion laws. The Catholic bishops held a press conference about the issue, which marks the first media event Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky was present since new allegations of priest sex abuse came to light in the Peoria Diocese.

After numerous requests for interviews via phone, e-mail, and in person about sexual abuse allegations in the Catholic Church. Again, this is the first time there has been a press event where Bishop Daniel Jenky was present, and available for questioning.

The most recent time we reached out about this issue was March 20th, when we asked his office for an interview three times, only to receive a written statement with no quote from the bishop himself.

In Thursday’s press conference, our reporter Kaitlin Pearson, asked for transparency about this issue within the Peoria Diocese.

Kaitlin Pearson, Heart of Illinois ABC: “Bishop Jenky, do you believe you’ve been transparent when it comes to alleged priest sex abuse within the Peoria Diocese?”

Bob Gilligan, Executive Dir. Catholic Conference of Illinois: “We’re going to try to stick to the issue at hand. Bishop Jenky as you can see it’s a little hard to get the mic so we’re going to try and stick to this particular question, so if we could take anything else?”

Pearson tried asking another question later in the press conference, directed at Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago.

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.

CHARLOTTE (NC)
Associated Press

March 28, 2019

A North Carolina Catholic diocese official stepped down after what the diocese called a “credible allegation” of sexual misconduct, officials said Thursday.

The Diocese of Charlotte announced in a news release that Monsignor Mauricio West stepped down effective March 25. The allegation involves multiple instances of unwanted overtures during the mid-1980s toward an adult student at Belmont Abbey College, where West was vice president of student affairs, the diocese said.

West has denied the allegation. He had served as the diocese’s vicar general and chancellor.

Bishop Peter J. Jugis said that in February, the individual met with the lay review board to discuss the allegation.

“While the alleged behavior did not constitute sexual abuse and did not involve a minor, it is the strict policy of the Diocese of Charlotte to refer all allegations by known accusers of potential sexual misconduct to the Lay Review Board for investigation,” Jugis said. “Misconduct includes boundary violations and improper behavior by clergy, lay people and church volunteers involving children and adults.”

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.

NEWARK (NJ)
Star Ledger

March 28, 2019

By Sophie Nieto-Munoz

Six weeks after N.J. Catholic dioceses released the names of 188 priests and deacons accused of sexually abusing children, survivors of the abuse are calling for the church to release more names, including a priest brought under the watch of disgraced Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

Mark Crawford, director of the N.J. chapter of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, stood in front of St. John Vianney church in Colonia and demanded New Jersey bishops take accountability to release all the names of accused priests.

The Catholic church came under massive pressure to identify the clergy accused of sexual misconduct following the release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report identifying 300 credibly accused clergy members, leading to N.J.’s five Catholic dioceses to release the names of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse against children.

But Crawford said there are several priests who ministered at St. John Vianney, even though they had known records of molesting young children, including Fathers John R. Butler, Edward M. DePaoli and Romano Ferraro.

The church has taken advantage of opportunities to release limited information, Crawford said, but “more important than what they have told us, is what they have decided not to reveal.”

“Father Ferraro, although he is listed as having been at the staff at this parish, he is not one of the names the Diocese of Metuchen has put on this list,” said attorney Patrick Noaker, who represents eight of Ferraro’s victims. “When you look at these documents, you might understand why they might be scared to admit they welcomed him into this diocese.”

Ferraro had one of the most egregious records on being sent to different dioceses following sexual abuse allegations, said Noaker, a Minnesota-based attorney.

“Nobody in the parishes were told anything about Father Ferraro’s background so they could protect their kids from him. They unleashed him on a whole ‘nother group of kids. An entire diocese of children,” he said.

Ferraro was brought to the Diocese of Metuchen in 1984 under the watch of then-Bishop Theodore McCarrick.

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.

NORWICH (CT)
The Day

March 28, 2019

This is regarding the article, “Legislators looking to help older victims of priest abuse get settlements,” (March 17).

Christopher Healy, executive director of The Connecticut Catholic Conference and lobbyist for the Archdiocese of Hartford is quoted. Healy states the archdiocese feels the current law is “fair and just to handle all claims” and adds that “fading memories and lack of evidence are part of the archdiocese’s position.”

As a reporter who has interviewed many survivors of church related sexual abuse for an ongoing television documentary project, all the survivors I’ve interviewed have precise, vivid, painful memories and documented evidence of their decades-old sexual abuse at the hands of priests.

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)
Commonweal

March 28, 2019

By Rita Ferrone

I’ve never been much enamored of the idea of a “women’s supplement” to L’Osservatore Romano. What does that say about the main publication? That it’s a men’s newspaper—and intends to stay that way?

In 2012, out of a desire to promote women, Pope Benedict XVI asked the newspaper’s then-editor Giovanni Maria Vian to make room for Lucetta Scaraffia, a historian and self-identified feminist, to write about women’s issues at L’Osservatore Romano. With Vian’s blessing, she went on to develop the monthly supplement, Donne Chiesa Mondo (Women Church World), which is now distributed in Italian, Spanish, and French (with English online only) and has a print circulation of about 12,000.

Scaraffia and her entire editorial board resigned yesterday in protest over being subjected to “male control” in the form of a new editor who came on board in December to replace Vian, another experienced journalist by the name of Andrea Monda. Tensions emerged as early as January when Monda had the temerity to come to one of Donne Chiesa Mondo’s editorial meetings and make some suggestions. At once, they threatened to quit.

Monda backed off and everyone stayed in place. But then he published some articles by and about women in the main paper, L’Osservatore Romano—articles Scaraffia had not previewed or endorsed. I read a few of them; they were well written and showed no markedly different approach to those found in Donne Chiesa Mondo. But that was perhaps why they were perceived as a threat.

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.

HAYS (KS)
Hays Post

March 28, 2019

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Many are shedding tears these days, including myself, because of the great harm caused to minors and vulnerable adults by priests, deacons and religious brothers. On behalf of the Capuchin Franciscans I must beg your forgiveness for the trust betrayed by our abusive friars.

The knowledge has caused me personal grief. I am good friends with one of the victims, a student of mine who I taught at TMP-Marian. It took the individual many years to come forward and let me know what had happened. Sometimes victims are filled with shame and guilt. These feelings though, should not be theirs. The shame and guilt rightly belongs with the friars, especially those who caused the harm.

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.

WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

March 28, 2019

By Junno Arocho Esteves

A Chilean appeals court ruled in favor of three survivors of abuse by former priest Fernando Karadima and ordered the Catholic Church to pay damages.

In a decision announced March 27, the court ordered the church to pay 100 million pesos (about US$147,000) for “moral damages” to each of the survivors: Juan Carlos Cruz, José Andrés Murillo and James Hamilton.

According the ruling, the appeals court said that “the omissions and the errors of the leadership of the Catholic Church” in Chile proved the church had been “negligent in its conduct in terms that can be qualified as a cover-up that gave way to the configuration of a civil offense.”

Support independent Catholic journalism. Become an NCR Forward member for $5 a month.

Known as an influential and charismatic priest, Karadima founded a Catholic Action group in a wealthy Santiago parish and drew hundreds of young men to the priesthood.

However, several former seminarians from the parish revealed in 2010 that the former Chilean priest sexually abused them and other members of the parish community for years. One year later, Karadima was sentenced by the Vatican to a life of prayer and penance after he was found guilty of sexual abuse.

Pope Francis expelled Karadima from the priesthood in late September.

The court pointed to documents that confirmed that both former archbishops of Santiago, Cardinals Francisco Javier Errázuriz and Ricardo Ezzati, were aware of and did not properly investigate the allegations against Karadima.

Citing the definition of the word “cover-up” as being “responsible for concealing a crime,” the court ruled that the definition applies to “the behavior of Cardinals Errázuriz and Ezzatti and other ecclesiastical authorities.”

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.

DENVER (CO)
Denver Post

March 28, 2019

By Noelle Phillips

A Catholic order of Franciscans based in Denver released Thursday the names of 13 friars or former friars who have been accused of sexual abuse of a minor or a vulnerable adult.

The Capuchin Franciscans – Province of St. Conrad said two of the 13 are dead and five have left the order. Ten men on the list spent time serving in Colorado, according to a news release from the Province of St. Conrad.

None of the living are in active ministry, according to the news release.

The order’s territory includes Colorado, Kansas and Missouri and the Diocese of Belleville, Peoria and Springfield in Illinois and two houses in San Antonio, Texas.

The province used an outside group to audit 226 personnel files and other records that had been retained in its offices.

The auditors also reviewed five safety plans that provide guidance for how the province monitors its members who are under supervision for credible allegations of abuse, the news release said. No significant issues were found with supervision of those who remain in the province, the release said.

An allegation is deemed credible when an investigators determine that abuse more likely than not has occurred, the news release said. But the release noted that inclusion on the list does not imply the allegations are true or that the accused has been found guilty of a crime or is liable for civil claims.

“Every effort has been made to ensure the list is accurate,” the news release said. “In most instances, the claims were made many years after the alleged abuse, making it difficult to conduct a complete investigation.

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.

BRIDGEWATER (NJ)
Bridgewater Courier News

March 28, 2019

By Nick Muscavage

A priest who was known by the Catholic church to have allegedly sexually abused boys was sent from Brooklyn to a Diocese of Metuchen church under the watch of then Bishop Theodore McCarrick.

On Thursday, clergy abuse advocates and an attorney representing victims of the Rev. Romano Ferraro’s alleged abuse in New York met outside St. John Vianney Church in the Colonia section to share documents depicting how Ferraro was transferred from Brooklyn to the Metuchen Diocese.

Church documents and letters shared by attorney Patrick Noaker show how church officials with the Diocese of Brooklyn handled abuse allegations against Ferraro, and how they then transferred him to the Diocese of Metuchen with McCarrick’s approval.

“Our bishops knew well before that time that this man was an abuser,” said Mark Crawford, the New Jersey director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

“Pedophiles surround themselves with people who will keep secrets,” Noaker said. “We’re here today to talk about secrets that are being kept by the Diocese of Metuchen by not acknowledging pedophile priests who have been welcome into their diocese over the years, and also bishops who have invited pedophiles into this diocese.”

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.

CHERRY HILL (NJ)
Catholic Star Herald

March 28, 2019

By Carl Peters

An adult survivor of child sexual abuse was scheduled to be a presenter on the first day of the conference, but notice came at the last minute that he would be unable to speak.

But, although it was not the topic of his talk, the next presenter on the schedule, Dr. Robert Crawford, acknowledged that he too had been a victim of abuse as a child. He also pointed out that, based on statistics, abuse victims were in the audience.

Not that anyone in the audience needed to be convinced of the prevalence — or the trauma — of childhood sexual abuse. Or the damage it has done to the institutional church. This was the 14th annual Child and Youth Protection Catholic Leadership Conference, held March 24-27 at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill.

In attendance were 210 representatives from archdioceses and dioceses throughout the United States. The large majority of the group were women, but their professional backgrounds varied. They included social workers, psychotherapists, educators and others.

Like most professional conventions, the three-day conference was designed to let participants update and sharpen their skills, enjoy camaraderie with their peers, and boost morale. But the title of the first day’s last presentation was an indication of the difficult challenge these workers face: “Keeping Our Faith When Exposed to the Worst Things That Happen in Our Church.”

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.

HARRISBURG (PA)
Patroit News

March 28, 2019

By Ivey DeJesus and Jan Murphy

After years of failed efforts to reform Pennsylvania’s child sex crime laws, a pair of House lawmakers this week served up the latest attempt at addressing remedies for thousands of adults who were sexually abused as children – and are looking for quick action on it.

Historically, victims of abuse have been among the most strident supporters of such efforts. This time, however, proposals are engendering mixed reactions among victims, including outrage.

On Wednesday afternoon, state House Representatives Mark Rozzi (D-Berks) and Jim Gregory, (R-Blair) introduced House bills 962 and 963 respectively, ushering them swiftly into committee without co-sponsoring or press conferences.

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.

[Whistleblowers say court ruling will set precedent: “It is historic”]

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Emol

March 27, 2019

By Ignacio Guerra

“Ahora la víctima, si es que la Iglesia llegase a actuar con encubrimiento, tendrá el derecho a demandar”, señalaron James Hamilton, Juan Carlos Cruz y José Andrés Murillo en una declaración conjunta.

“Conformes”, pero “no felices”. Así se manifestaron los tres denunciantes de Fernando Karadima luego de que la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago ordenara al Arzobispado el pago de $100 millones a cada uno como indemnización por el encubrimiento de abusos sexuales.

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.

[The trajectory of “Keno” Valenzuela, the former provincial of the Jesuits who will stop being a priest]

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Emol

March 27, 2019

By B. Osses and F. Fernández

A través de un comunicado, la Compañía de Jesús informó que el religioso solicitó al Superior General de la congregación su salida de la Orden en medio de acusaciones de abuso.

“El padre Eugenio Valenzuela ha solicitado formalmente al Superior General de la Compañía de Jesús su salida de la Orden y al Papa Francisco la dimisión del estado clerical”. Así informó este martes la Compañía de Jesús le decisión del ex provincial Eugenio Valenzuela, quien, en medio de acusaciones por abusos sexuales determinó alejarse de la congregación en la que tuvo un rol importante, marcado por la renovación de los jesuitas y la formación de 30 novicios.

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.

[“The Church acted with apathy:” 11 facts underpinning Court of Santiago’s ruling in Karadima case]

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Emol

March 27, 2019

By Tamara Cerna

De manera unánime, la 9° Sala del tribunal de alzada reconoció actos negligentes “que pueden ser calificados como propios de un encubrimiento” por parte del Arzobispado capitalino, ordenando el pago de $300 millones.

En 28 páginas, la 9° Sala de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago argumentó las razones de por qué ordenó al Arzobispado capitalino pagar $300 millones a los denunciantes de Fernando Karadima. El fallo es duro. Y apunta a las responsabilidades de distintas autoridades religiosas del país. Una de las principales conclusiones dice así: “La Iglesia conocía de las denuncias, al menos desde el año 2003 (…) que decidió mantener el libre ejercicio sacerdotal de Karadima y finalmente, que no prestó amparo y auxilio alguno a los demandantes, sino una vez que los hechos se hicieron públicos y notorios”.

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.

[After his departure from archdiocese: Ezzati asks to testify before prosecution about concealment]

CHILE
Emol

March 28, 2019

By Tamara Cerna

El persecutor regional de O’Higginis, Emiliano Arias, dijo que solicitud aún está siendo evaluada. Además se refirió a la importancia del fallo civil en el caso Karadima en sus indagatorias.

El 3 de octubre de 2018, el cardenal Ricardo Ezzati llegó hasta la Fiscalía de Rancagua tras ser citado a declarar en el marco de las investigaciones por presunto encubrimiento de casos de abusos sexuales al interior de la Iglesia católica.

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.

[Hamilton: “the last enclave of impunity in this country is over”]

CHILE
La Tercera

March 28, 2019

By M.J. Navarrete and A. Chechilnitzky

“El objetivo de esto, que ha sido un juicio de siete años, con un desgaste personal y humano, es haber dejado la herencia de este surco en la legislación chilena, y demostrar que hubo encubrimiento. Si no hubiésemos demostrado eso, todo habría sido un trabajo perdido”, afirmó este miércoles Hamilton.

Un fallo “histórico” y que marca un “precedente”. Así calificaron las víctimas del expárroco de El Bosque, Fernando Karadima, la resolución de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago. James Hamilton, José Andrés Murillo y Juan Carlos Cruz serán indemnizados, luego de que se determinara civilmente que el Arzobispado de Santiago actuó con “desidia” y “negligencia” para tratar sus denuncias de abusos.

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.

[Aós: “I hope to meet with victims soon”]

CHILE
La Tercera

March 28, 2019

By M. J. Navarrete and A. Chechilnitzky

Arzobispado de Santiago no apelará al fallo. “Esta sentencia contribuye al proceso de reparación del dolor”, se informó.

“Todo el proceso de revisión y de purificación que estamos viviendo es posible gracias al esfuerzo y perseverancia de personas concretas, que incluso contra toda esperanza o teñidas de descrédito no se cansaron de buscar la verdad. Me refiero a las víctimas de los abusos sexuales, de poder y de autoridad, y aquellos que en su momento les creyeron y acompañaron”. Esta fue la cita del Papa Francisco que ayer leyó el obispo Celestino Aós, administrador apostólico de Santiago, para referirse al fallo de la Corte de Apelaciones sobre la demanda en el caso Karadima.

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.

[Ricardo Ezzati: “Pope Francis is not angry with the Chilean bishops”]

CHILE
La Tercera

March 28, 2019

By Sergio Rodríguez G.

El prelado, actualmente investigado por la fiscalía por presunto encubrimiento, repasa su rol en el arzobispado y los casos de denuncias de abuso. Asegura que el Pontífice tiene una buena relación con el Episcopado y reconoce que unos 40 sacerdotes de la diócesis “han vivido al alero” de Karadima.

“Soy respetuoso de los dictámenes de la justicia. He leído el comunicado del Arzobispado de Santiago y me sumo a la esperanza allí expresada”. Así se manifestó ayer por la tarde el cardenal Ricardo Ezzati respecto del fallo de la Corte de Apelaciones de Santiago, que acogió la demanda civil que tres víctimas de Fernando Karadima presentaron contra el Arzobispado de Santiago y que condenó a la entidad religiosa a pagar una indemnización de $ 300 millones.

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.

[Santiago’s new apostolic administrator will meet priest-victims of Karadima in El Bosque]

CHILE
La Tercera

March 28, 2019

By Angélica Baeza

Monseñor Celestino Aós tiene programado dar declaraciones a la prensa la tarde de este jueves en la que fuera la emblemática sede del exsacerdote, para luego celebrar una misa en el lugar.

Será una reunión, pero también un gesto con un sentido más allá del encuentro. La tarde de este jueves, el recién designado administrador apostólico de Santiago, monseñor Celestino Aós, sostendrá un encuentro con sacerdotes que fueron víctimas de Fernando Karadima en la parroquia de El Bosque, la que fuera la emblemática sede del exprelado denunciado por abusos sexuales y de conciencia.

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.

[“It will come from other resources, not 1%:” How will Archdiocese of Santiago compensate victims?]

CHILE
La Tercera

March 27, 2019

By Andrés Muñoz

La Corte obligó al Arzobispado de Santiago a pagar $100 millones a cada una de las tres víctimas del caso Karadima. Sin embargo, no se ha especificado de dónde saldrán esos recursos y solo son públicos los ingresos y gastos de 2017.

“El dinero con el que se va a pagar es indudable que va a salir de la Iglesia Católica. Ahora, no sale del 1%, no sale del dinero que entregan los fieles directamente para otras cosas, sino que en la Iglesia las finanzas son también transparentes y cuando se entrega un dinero para una causa. (…) no se va a sacar ni un cinco para poder pagar a las víctimas y tampoco se va a pagar del 1%. Saldrá de otros recursos”.

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.

[Vatican’s intervention in Chile is unprecedented worldwide]

CHILE
La Tercera

March 26, 2019

By S. Rodríguez, G. Peñafiel, M. J. Navarrete, J. Ojeda and J.P. Iglesias

En los últimos 10 meses, un tercio de las diócesis del país quedaron “vacantes”, a cargo de un administrador apostólico, quien ejerce su potestad en nombre del Papa Francisco.

“Inédita”, “intervenida” y “compleja”. Así definen distintos expertos en temas vaticanos la situación actual de la Iglesia chilena. Con el reciente nombramiento -el más esperado- de Celestino Aós como administrador apostólico del Arzobispado de Santiago, el número de diócesis con esta figura en el país se elevó a nueve. Ocho de ellos, designados durante los últimos diez meses (desde el 11 de junio del año pasado), después de la crisis reconocida por el Papa Francisco. Valdivia ya tenía el mismo estatus antes del Informe Scicluna y ahora Copiapó, de donde llegó Aós, también quedó como “sede vacante”.

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.

[Former student of Madrid Salesians accuses priest of abuse in 1990’s]

MADRID (SPAIN)
El País

March 27, 2019

By Julio Núñez

La madre del denunciante asegura que en 1998 fue a hablar con el director pero que este “no hizo nada”

Un exalumno del colegio salesiano San Miguel Arcángel, en el Paseo de Extremadura de Madrid, ha denunciado ante la policía al antiguo profesor y sacerdote Marcelino Antón por abusos sexuales en 1993. Por entonces, el denunciante tenía 10 años, pero no relató lo sucedido hasta que tuvo 15, mientras cursaba segundo de BUP, en 1998. Su madre cuenta que fue a hablar con el director del centro. “Le pregunté qué estaba pasando y no me negó los hechos. Se quedó callado. Tampoco apartó a Marcelino”, relata la madre. Durante años, cuenta, se ha arrepentido de no haber ido a denunciar a la justicia civil, pero “la presión y el miedo” a hacer más daño a su hijo pudieron con ella. Con el tiempo han pensado en sacar su caso a la luz y ahora, con los casos que los medios están publicando, se han animado a dar un paso adelante.

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.

JACKSON (MS)
Mississippi Clarion Ledger

March 19, 2019

By Sarah Fowler

From the retired superintendent of Catholic education in Mississippi to a priest on the lam in Peru, more than three dozen clergy have been named as potential abusers.

According to a list released by Jackson Diocese officials Tuesday, March 19, there have been 35 priests and two religious brothers accused of assault with Mississippi ties. The allegations date back decades, with the most recent allegations coming in the early 2000s.

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.

JACKSON (MS)
WLBT

March 19, 2019

By Mary Grace Eppes

This investigation examined the files dating back to 1924

The Catholic Diocese of Jackson has released the names of clergy members it says have been credibly accused of sexual abuse.

SEE LIST HERE

Diocesan Priests:

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.

AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

March 25, 2019

By Shannon Hampton

A former teacher at Perth Catholic schools who sexually abused three vulnerable boys during his decades-long career has been jailed for five years over the “extremely damaging” breach of trust.

Arthur Frank Mowle, 72, preyed on the teenage boys when he was a teacher, nurse and counsellor at the then St Marks College in Bedford in the late 1970s, Servite College in Tuart Hill in the 1980s and Kolbe Catholic College in Rockingham between 2004 and 2005.

District Court Judge Stephen Scott said Mowle — who pleaded guilty to five charges stemming from the royal commission into child sex abuse — stole his victims’ innocence.

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.

ERIE (PA)
Associated Press

March 26, 2019

A Roman Catholic diocese in Pennsylvania has agreed to pay $2 million to a man who was sexually abused as a child by a priest who made him say confession after the assaults.

The settlement with the Diocese of Erie was announced Tuesday by the victim’s attorney, Mitchell Garabedian.

The defrocked priest, David Poulson, was sentenced this year to 2 1/2 to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to the sexual assault of one boy and attempted sexual assault of another. Garabedian confirmed at a press conference Tuesday that his client who is identified as John Doe in documents was one of the two boys abused by Poulson in his criminal case.

“This settlement is significant because it shows that the Diocese of Erie is responsible for the wholesale sexual abuse of children post, after 2002,” when the church put revised policies for handling abuse into effect, Garabedian said.

During a news conference Tuesday, Garabedian alleged that the diocese was aware of allegations of abuse against Poulson earlier than the 2018 report by a military chaplain that his client had disclosed significant abuse.

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.

ERIE (PA)
The Associated Press

March 26, 2019

A Roman Catholic diocese in Pennsylvania has agreed to pay $2 million to a man who was sexually abused as a child by a priest who made him say confession after the assaults.

The settlement with the Diocese of Erie was announced Tuesday by the victim’s attorney, Mitchell Garabedian.

The defrocked priest, David Poulson, was sentenced this year to 2 1/2 to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to the sexual assault of one boy and attempted sexual assault of another. Garabedian confirmed at a press conference Tuesday that his client who is identified as John Doe in documents was one of the two boys abused by Poulson in his criminal case.

“This settlement is significant because it shows that the Diocese of Erie is responsible for the wholesale sexual abuse of children post, after 2002,” when the church put revised policies for handling abuse into effect, Garabedian 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.

YORK (PA)
York Daily Record

March 26, 2019

By Sam Ruland

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie has reached a $2 million settlement with a man who was allegedly sexually abused as a minor by a former priest in the diocese for nearly eight years.

The victim, who is being referred to as “John Doe,” was allegedly assaulted while Poulson was assigned to St. Michael’s Church in Fryburg and St. Anthony of Padua Church in Cambridge Springs from 2002 to 2010.

The male, now in his 20s, has only been been identified as “Victim No. 1” in the criminal case, but details of his abuse allege that Poulson made Doe say confession after the assaults.

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.

ERIE (PA)
MSN

March 27, 2019

A Roman Catholic diocese in Pennsylvania has agreed to pay $2 million to a man who was sexually abused as a child by a priest who made him say confession after the assaults.

The settlement with the Diocese of Erie was announced Tuesday by the victim’s attorney, Mitchell Garabedian.

The defrocked priest, David Poulson, was sentenced this year to 2 1/2 to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to the sexual assault of one boy and attempted sexual assault of another.

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.

ERIE (PA)
Go Erie

March 26, 2019

By Ed Palattella

Catholic Diocese of Erie agrees to $2 million settlement with victim of former Rev. David Poulson, who is in state prison. Case falls within statute of limitations in Pennsylvania, a situation that spurred deal.

Ever since the clergy sexual abuse crisis exploded nationwide in the early 2000s, Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations has insulated the Catholic Diocese of Erie from facing abuse-related lawsuits and large payouts to victims.

The abuse cases were too old to lead to civil actions.

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.

CHERRY HILL (NJ)
Catholic Star Herald

March 28, 2019

By Carl Peters

An adult survivor of child sexual abuse was scheduled to be a presenter on the first day of the conference, but notice came at the last minute that he would be unable to speak.

But, although it was not the topic of his talk, the next presenter on the schedule, Dr. Robert Crawford, acknowledged that he too had been a victim of abuse as a child. He also pointed out that, based on statistics, abuse victims were in the audience.

Not that anyone in the audience needed to be convinced of the prevalence — or the trauma — of childhood sexual abuse. Or the damage it has done to the institutional church. This was the 14th annual Child and Youth Protection Catholic Leadership Conference, held March 24-27 at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill.

In attendance were 210 representatives from archdioceses and dioceses throughout the United States. The large majority of the group were women, but their professional backgrounds varied. They included social workers, psychotherapists, educators and others.

Like most professional conventions, the three-day conference was designed to let participants update and sharpen their skills, enjoy camaraderie with their peers, and boost morale. But the title of the first day’s last presentation was an indication of the difficult challenge these workers face: “Keeping Our Faith When Exposed to the Worst Things That Happen in Our Church.”

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.

ERIE (PA)
Associated Press

March 27, 2019

A Roman Catholic diocese in Pennsylvania has agreed to pay $2 million to a man who was sexually abused as a child by a priest who made him say confession after the assaults.

The settlement with the Diocese of Erie was announced Tuesday by the victim’s attorney, Mitchell Garabedian.

The defrocked priest, David Poulson, was sentenced this year to 2 1/2 to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to the sexual assault of one boy and attempted sexual assault of another.

Garabedian confirmed at a press conference Tuesday that his client who is identified as John Doe in documents was one of the two boys abused by Poulson in his criminal case.

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.

ERIE (PA)
Your Erie

March 26, 2019

By Samiar Nefzi

The Catholic Diocese of Erie has reached a $2 million settlement with a victim who was sexually abused by Father David Poulson.

Boston Attorney Mitchell Garabedian appearing via Skype at a news conference in Erie, telling us this settlement was negotiated outside of the courts with lawyers from the Diocese.

The victim, referred to by his attorney as ‘John Doe,’ is in his 20’s. He came forward with claims of sexual abuse at the hands of Father Poulson. He alleges the abuse took place over the course of eight years, from 2002-2010.

Boston Attorney Mitchell Garabedian says Bishop Donald Trautman allowed Father Poulson to continue to interact with the victim while fully knowing his past record as a pedophile.

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.

WHEELING (WV)
West Virginia Record

March 26, 2019

By Chris Dickerson

A former altar server and secretary to resigned Catholic Bishop Michael J. Bransfield has filed a lawsuit claiming the bishop sexually molested him.

The plaintiff, only identified as J.E., filed his complaint March 22 in Ohio Circuit Court against Bransfield, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and up to 20 unidentified defendants.

“The complaint is very specific and lays out the details,” attorney Bobby Warner of Warner Law Offices in Charleston told The West Virginia Record. “I find it troubling that while we continue to hear Bishop Bransfield’s name and alleged allegations, no one has stepped forward as an individual.

“I believe our client is the first individual who has had the strength and courage to step forward. It’s very troubling to me that while they’ve released names of individuals within the church in the press, Bishop Bransfield’s name wasn’t on the list. When, as you can see in our complaint, there have been prior allegations and investigations about him.”

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.

OHIO COUNTY (WV)
WTOV9

March 26, 2019

By Anthony Conn

A lawsuit has been filed against former Wheeling-Charleston Diocese Bishop Michael Bransfield, accusing him of exposing himself and inappropriately touching a young boy several times during his time as a bishop in the Diocese.

The civil suit was filed with the Ohio County Circuit Court on March 22.

The lawsuit’s plaintiff was a resident of St. Clairsville during the time period in question.

The complaint contains detailed accounts of Bransfield initiating unwanted sexual contact with a young male who was under his care.

It also alleges that Bransfield was known to be a heavy drinker who consumed one-half to one whole bottle of 80-proof liquor nightly and then engaged in grossly inappropriate behavior, including (but not limited to) making sexually-aggressive gestures, hugging, kissing, and fondling seminarians. According to the complaint, the Diocese covered the cost of the alcohol Bransfield consumed, which amounted to at least $20 per bottle.

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.

WHEELING (WV)
The Intelligencer

March 27, 2019

By Joselyn King

A civil lawsuit filed in Ohio County Circuit Court alleges Bishop Michael Bransfield to be “a sexual predator” prone to binge drinking liquor, then molesting young men.

The suit filed Friday lists the complainant only as someone with the initials “J.E.,” described as having been a personal altar server and secretary to Bransfield, former bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. The suit alleges the plaintiff was sexually assaulted by Bransfield in 2014 and was a victim of sexual harassment by him for years prior to that.

J.E. is listed as a current resident of Pocahontas County, West Virginia, but was a resident of St. Clairsville when the alleged incidents took place between 2008 and 2014.

The defendants named in the suit are Bransfield, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston and numerous “John Does” associated with the diocese.

Tim Bishop, spokesman for the diocese, said the diocese does not comment on pending litigation.

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.

ALTOONA (PA)
The Tribune-Democrat

March 27, 2019

By Dave Sutor

Bishop Joseph V. Adamec was a gregarious extrovert, who, in retirement, was forced into the life of an introvert.

The conversion process was the central theme of a homily, given by the Rev. Jude Brady from Saint Benedict Roman Catholic Church in Carrolltown, during Adamec’s funeral Mass at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on Tuesday.

Adamec retired as bishop in 2011, having served in the position since 1987.

After he stepped down, an increasing amount of child sexual abuse cases within the diocese began to become publicly known. Then, in 2016, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General issued a grand jury report that provided details about the diocese covering up child sexual abuse for decades, placing much of the responsibility on Adamec and his predecessor, Bishop James Hogan.

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.

CHARLESTON (WV)
WV Metro News

March 27, 2019

By Jeff Jenkins

The attorney representing a former alter server and secretary in West Virginia’s Catholic Church says his client came forward with allegations against retired Bishop Michael Bransfield to seek an avenue that would encourage others to come forward.

The man, identified only as J.E. in the lawsuit, claims he was a victim of sexual harassment for years at the hands of Bransfield and was the victim of an alleged sexual assault that took place five years ago.

Charleston attorney Bobby Warner, who represents J.E., said Wednesday on MetroNews “Talkline” the case is about “a typical culture of cover-up” by the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

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.

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Tablet

March 28, 2019

By Christopher White

A member of the organizing committee for February’s Vatican sex abuse summit has dubbed the meeting “partly a success,” saying it achieved his main goal of bringing about “unity for the whole church leadership that was present.”

Father Hans Zollner, S.J., head of Rome’s Center for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University, said that 2018 was a “year of change” in the Church’s understanding of the global sex abuse crisis and that “we are at another level of awareness.”

In reference to cardinals now under scrutiny for mishandling abuse cases, or for abuse itself, Father Zollner said “untouchables have become touchable and are facing prison sentences,” adding that the Church has been greatly influenced by the “Me Too” movement,” which has caused a cultural awakening on issues of abuse of power and sexual misconduct.

Father Zollner’s remarks were delivered March 26 during a discussion on “Reckoning and Reform: New Frontiers on the Clergy Abuse Crisis,” hosted by Fordham University’s Center on Religion and Culture, which also included a presentation by John Jay College researchers Karen Terry and Margaret Smith on new developments and data in their efforts to study the roots and extent of the abuse crisis.

The German Jesuit priest, appointed by Pope Francis as one of the organizers of the summit which brought together the heads of every bishops’ conference around the globe, said that in surveying the U.S. Catholic Church, the country is “in some state of what Saint Ignatius termed ‘spiritual desolation’ – a decrease of faith, hope, and love,” suffering a severe loss of trust in the Church over the issue of abuse.

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.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Surviviors Network of those Abused by Priests

March 28, 2019

Victims ‘out’ five more publicly accused priests

“Bishop’s list is deceptive and incomplete,” they say

In surprising move, they praise prelate for his “more inclusive list”

Braxton, unlike most of his peers, exposes those who prey on adults

SNAP: “But alleged abusers’ photos & whereabouts should be added”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will disclose – and write on the sidewalk with chalk – the names of five more publicly accused priests who are or were in the Belleville diocese but have essentially been ‘under the radar,’ attracting attention elsewhere but not in Illinois.

They will also praise Belleville’s bishop for including clerics who have assaulted adults on his ‘accused’ list-a move most bishops do not make.

And they’ll prod Belleville Catholic officials to
–reveal the names of ALL proven, admitted and ‘credibly accused’ predator priests,
–permanently and prominently post their photos, whereabouts and work histories on church websites, and
–‘aggressively reach out’ to anyone who may have been hurt by church staff.

WHEN
Thursday, March 28 at 11:15 a.m.

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.

DUBLIN (IRELAND)
The Irish Catholic

March 28, 2019

By Colm Fitzpatrick

One of the most common reasons people decide to leave the Church is because of the internal corruption that runs to even the upper echelons of the hierarchy. The decision to leave for this particular reason is one that everybody can sympathise with, even the most ardent and devout believers.

All too often, we have or hear conversations about the Church’s financial corruption or the clerical abuse scandals, the latter of which has a particularly dark resonance in Ireland. These forms of exploitation have led to many Catholics leaving the Church, while still trying to practice their faith in a personal, albeit hampered way.

Indeed, the well-known Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson said recently that the levels of corruption in the Vatican are almost beyond corruption that “maybe believing Catholics should go on strike [and] stop attending Church”. While I’m a big fan of Dr Peterson, I think in this case, he’s off the mark.

It’s perfectly understandable, for example, to retract membership from a political party if one no longer supports it for moral reasons, but the difference between institutions like these, and the Church, is that Catholics believe that the visible Church was founded by Christ himself – and so is not man-made.

This includes a visible membership as well as a visible leadership structure, based on the idea of apostolic succession. In the Church, Catholics also receive the Sacraments – an outward sign of an invisible, inward grace – which provide spiritual sustenance. As a result, the Church is the place where God’s love is on full offer, and where Catholics can worship and pray together in communion. These visible aspects are fundamental to the Church, as well as indispensable.

This, of course, doesn’t mean that the divinely ordained Church is filled with perfect people that always operate with the best intentions. The Church – laity, priests and bishops – is composed of people who not only do great good, but also horrendous evils. Sin and grace percolate within it.

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.

Get Religion blong

March 28, 2019

By Richard Ostling

This is another of those religion beat nostalgia Memos, inspired by a pretty sensational March 22 scoop in America magazine from its Vatican correspondent, Gerard O’Connell. He reported the precise number of votes for all 22 candidates on the first ballot when the College of Cardinals elected Pope Francis in 2013.

The cardinals’ first round usually scatters votes across assorted friends and favorite sons, but a telltale pattern appeared immediately. The Italian favorite, Angelo Scola, got only 30 votes, with the eventual winner, Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina, close behind at 26 and Canadian Marc Ouellet at 22. In a major surprise, Boston’s Sean O’Malley was fourth with 10 votes, and New York’s Timothy Dolan got two. Clearly, the electors would forsake not just Italy but the Old World entirely and choose the Western Hemisphere’s first pontiff .

As so often occurs, the Washington Post immediately grabbed an important religion story that other media missed, with Michelle Boorstein adding a beat specialist’s knowing perspective (behind pay wall).

O’Connell likewise demonstrates the virtues of specialization. He has worked the Vatican beat for various Catholic periodicals since 1985, a task that requires long-term cultivation of prelates who spill secrets. (Or did his wife, a Vatican correspondent from the pope’s homeland, acquire this leak?)

Adding to the intrigue, in papal elections each cardinal must take a solemn oath before God to maintain strict secrecy on everything that occurred, under pain of excommunication.

Yet O’Connell’s oath-busting leak appeared in a magazine of Francis’s own religious order, the Jesuits. The article was excerpted from “The Election of Pope Francis,” O’Connell’s fuller version to be published April 24 by another Catholic entity, the Maryknoll order’s Orbis Books.

There was less buzz over the election of Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany — a powerful aide of Pope John Paul II — was the front-runner through all ballots. Significantly, Bergoglio was the runner-up. This time it took only five months for a cardinal’s diary to leak to an Italian journalist, followed by more detail six years later in the daily La Stampa.

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.

CHARLOTTE (NC)
Charlotte Observer

March 28, 2019

By Bruce Henderson

The second in command of the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte has stepped down after a “credible allegation” of sexual misconduct involving a former adult student of Belmont Abbey College, the diocese’s newspaper reported Thursday.

Monsignor Mauricio West, the diocese’s vicar general and chancellor, has denied the allegation, the Catholic News Herald reported. Following a period of counseling and assessment, the diocese’s bishop said in a statement, West will be on a leave of absence from his ministerial duties.

The statement by Bishop Peter Jugis said West resigned Monday following a finding by the 46-county diocese’s Lay Review Board that the allegations were credible.

The events are alleged to have occurred in the mid-1980s, when West was vice president for student affairs at Belmont Abbey. They involved multiple incidents of unwanted overtures toward an adult student over a two-year period, the bishop’s statement 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.

NEWARK (NJ)
Star-Ledger

Match 28, 2019

Contrary to legal doctrine, justice delayed is not justice denied – at least not in perpetuity – as long as you have a righteous cause and one indomitable lawmaker.

This instructive lesson in governance comes from a bill that extends the statute of limitations in civil actions for children who were victims of sexual abuse, which is now headed for the governor’s desk after passing the Assembly by a unanimous vote Monday.

The bill affirms that access to justice is a civil right, and that an arbitrary statute of limitations prevents it. It took 17 years for Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, to convince his colleagues that this was the moral calling of our age, and that it was inexcusable to look the other way while the Catholic Church shielded clergy who raped children.

Changing the statute was crucial. The existing window for civil action in New Jersey was ludicrously short, as victims had to bring a civil case before they turned 20, or within two years from the time they connected their trauma to the abuse.

The reality is that the vast majority of victims, if they disclose anything at all, do it during adulthood. The average age of such disclosure is 52. Roughly one-third of child sexual abuse cases are never reported at all.

Vitale’s bill, which Gov. Murphy endorses, allows child victims to sue until age 55, or from 7 years of the discovery of their abuse. It also gives those who have been time-barred another two-year window to pursue their civil case. And critically, it allows victims to hold both the abusers and the institutions who protected them accountable.

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.

OXFORD (MS)
Daily Mississippian

March 28, 2019

By Makayla Steede

Accusations of sexual abuse have rocked the Catholic church since 2002. In August 2018, the scandal intensified following an investigation in Pennsylvania that found more than 300 priests accused of child sexual abuse — leaving at least 1,000 survivors.

This report led to further investigations in Illinois, West Virginia, Texas and Mississippi. On March 19, the Catholic Diocese of Jackson released a list of 37 Mississippi clergy members accused of child sexual abuse. Bernard Haddican, one of the 17 priests accused, was a pastor at St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, which neighbors the University of Mississippi campus.

In 1998 and 2002, the two accusations against Haddican, who died in 1996, came to light. The period of abuse is suspected to have taken place from 1964 to 1984.

The current St. John’s pastor, Joe Tonos, was only an infant when Haddican’s term as pastor at St. John’s began.

Haddican served as pastor of St. John’s in Oxford from 1965 to 1968, but Tonos did not become personally acquainted with him until college. From the start, Tonos said, he did not like the pastor.

“I knew him when I was in college because I went to Delta State (University) in Cleveland, and he was the pastor there at the time,” Tonos said. “I did not like him at all.”

While attending Delta State, Tonos was the cartoonist for his school paper, and Haddican expressed disdain at the satirical cartoons Tonos drew.

“He found, for whatever reason, the need to tell his parish that I was anti-Catholic because he did not like some of my satire, which I thought was distasteful,” Tonos said. “I just really didn’t care for him.”

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.

DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

March 27, 2019

By Kevin J. Jones

A former Catholic deacon has charged that the Diocese of Lubbock wrongly named him on its list of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors and has filed a lawsuit seeking $1 million.

Lubbock resident Jesus Guerrero has filed a lawsuit that rejected claims he had ever been accused of sex abuse or misconduct. The lawsuit described him as “a faithful servant of God in the Catholic Church his entire life,” the news site EverythingLubbock.com reports.

The plaintiff charged that the diocese committed libel and defamation against him. His lawsuit said his reputation was destroyed and he has become the object of contempt and ridicule.

Lucas Flores, the Diocese of Lubbock’s director for the office of communications, told CNA the diocese is not commenting on ongoing litigation.

In October 2018 all 15 dioceses in Texas pledged to release names of clergy who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing a minor, dating as far back as the 1950s.

The Diocese of Lubbock released its list Jan. 31, saying Guerrero had been credibly accused of “sexual abuse of a minor.” It reported that he had been permanently removed from ministry in 2008.

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.

RICHMOND (VA)
Capital News Service

March 27, 2019

By Corrine Fizer

In response in part to the child sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, Virginia will have a new law on July 1 requiring priests, ministers, rabbis and other clergy members to report suspected cases of child abuse or neglect.

Gov. Ralph Northam has signed into law two bills — HB 1659, sponsored by Del. Karrie Delaney, D-Fairfax, and SB 1257, introduced by Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, R-Fauquier. The measures mandate that religious officials must report any suspected abuse to local law enforcement.

The bills passed unanimously in the House and Senate last month.

Existing state law lists 18 categories of people who must report information to local authorities if they “have reason to suspect that a child is an abused or neglected child.” They include health-care providers, police officers, athletic coaches and teachers.

The new law will add a 19th category to the list of “mandatory reporters”: “Any minister, priest, rabbi, imam, or duly accredited practitioner of any religious organization or denomination usually referred to as a church.”

However, the law will exempt clergy members from the reporting requirement when confidentiality is required by the religious organization, such as anything a priest hears during confession.

A minister who hears about possible child abuse while counseling a parishioner, for example, would not have to tell authorities.

Delaney said she filed her bill after a church in her Northern Virginia district failed to act on a case of child abuse. She said 27 other states have laws making clergy mandatory reporters.

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.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

March 27, 2019

The Dominican Province of St. Joseph has posted a list of those friars “credibly accused” of the sexual abuse of a minor. This list included the name of a man with an allegation that was “deemed to be established by the lay Provincial Review Board.” The friar is currently in residence at a New Orleans parish.

Fr. Richard Raphael Archer was removed from public ministry in 2002, according to the Dominicans. Yet the website of St. Dominic Parish in New Orleans, which has an attached school that serves children pre-K through 7th grade, shows that the priest is “in residence.” In fact, in 2017 the New Orleans Archdiocese celebrated Fr. Archer’s 65 years as a priest.

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.

WHEELING (WV)
WTRF TV

March 27, 2019
By Kathryn Ghion

Attorney Robert Warner calls this a “classic grooming situation”.

He claims Bishop Bransfield abused his power to get close to his client, who is referred to as J.E. in the lawsuit.

Warner also told us his client had planned to have a career within the church but left the faith after his experiences.

“It’s a classic case of someone of power that’s just using that position inappropriately in a sexual nature towards the young men that they’re around,” he said.

In this case, the suit alleges that Bishop Bransfield used that power to sexually assault the plaintiff, who was previously an altar server at the Cathedral of St. Joseph and interim secretary to the Bishop.

“It was multiple years,” Warner explained. “It started in 2008 and it’s kind of the classic grooming situation, which escalated to the point in 2014 of a sexual assault a true criminal sexual assault in my opinion.”

Warner says this type of behavior allegedly occurred with other adolescent and adult males, describing Bransfield in the complaint as a “sexual predator.”

“There were multiple allegations in the past,” he continued. “It appears there were inadequate investigations and certainly nothing was ever done to the bishop. And according to my client what happened to him was observed by other senior members of the church and he observed the Bishop do things inappropriately to other young men.”

It wasn’t until the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston asked for people to come forward as part of its investigations Warner says his client reached out to tell his story.

“He had seen the church cover up other allegations before,” Warner said. “He wasn’t confident they would do anything.”

The Diocese said that no criminal activity was found in its investigation into Bishop Bransfield, but Warner says they found his client’s story to be credible.

“They released the names of all these individuals that have been known to have committed inappropriate acts and somehow the bishop’s name is not included,” he explained.

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.

WASHINGTON (DC)
The Hill

March 27, 2019

By John Bowden

The editor of the Vatican’s magazine for women denied that he attempted to exert control of the magazine’s staff after the publication’s founder and entire staff of female writers resigned en masse Wednesday.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Andrea Monda, editor of the magazine’s parent newspaper L’Osservatore Romano said in a statement that he never demanded “obedience” from the magazine’s writers on issues such as the Catholic Church’s ongoing sexual abuse scandal after Women Church World founder Lucetta Scaraffia announced the mass resignation.

“In no way have I selected anyone, be it male or female, based on the criterion of obedience,” Monda said, according to the Post. “It is the opposite, avoiding any interference with the monthly magazine, I have supported truly free dialogue, not based on the mechanism of pitting one against the other, or of closed groups.”

He also described Scaraffia’s resignation as “free and autonomous” while not elaborating on the departure of the magazine’s all-female staff.

Scaraffia told the Post in an interview that her entire staff had resigned due to Monda’s decision to publish pieces that contradicted the magazine’s editorial line in L’Osservatore Romano and rumors that Monda was set to take over the magazine as well.

“The whole newsroom has resigned,” she told the Post.

“We couldn’t stay silent anymore; the trust that so many women had put in us would have been gravely wounded,” she added in an open letter to Pope Francis, according to the newspaper.

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.

PHADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

March 27, 2019

By Jeremy Roebuck

In a new lawsuit, the former personal secretary for Roxborough native and ex-West Virginia Bishop Michael J. Bransfield described his former boss as a “sexual predator” prone to binge drinking orange liqueur and venting his lust on priests and seminarians.

The plaintiff, a onetime seminarian in his early 20s identified in court filings by the initials J.E., says that Bransfield exposed his penis and groped him while they were traveling together on church business in 2014.

His suit marks the first time any of the bishop’s accusers have publicly offered an account of the type of alleged misconduct that led the Vatican to oust Bransfield, 75, from his position last year.

But in an interview Wednesday, the retired prelate dismissed the man’s claims — and those of his other accusers — as nothing more than a money grab.

“They’re all out to destroy me,” said Bransfield, who has been living in Roxborough since he left Wheeling. “I wasn’t even that friendly with this person.”

Since his resignation in September, Bransfield has been beset by a growing list of legal problems, including a lawsuit filed last week by West Virginia’s attorney general alleging he and his predecessors within the Wheeling-Charleston diocese had knowingly harbored pedophiles.

He was previously accused of abusing a minor during his time as a priest in Philadelphia — a claim Bransfield denied. Both prosecutors and the archdiocese reviewed the allegation; neither ultimately took action against him.

But even amid the current scandal, J.E.’s claims paint a particularly unflattering portrait of the man reared by a devout family of Philadelphia priests only to be named in 2004 as the Catholic church’s top official in West Virginia.

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.

ERIA (PA)
Erie Times News

March 27, 2019

Victims of sexual abuse in Pennsylvania can bring a lawsuit against their attackers until they’re 50-years-old under the current statute of limitations.

Last year, a bill that would open a two-year window for victims over the age of 50 to bring civil suits for their abuse passed in the Pennsylvania House, but stalled late in the year in the Senate.

This, after the recommendations for just such a law from PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro after the release of the grand jury report on predator priests in Pennsylvania.

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.

SAGINAW (MI)
Saginaw News

March 27, 2019

By Cole Waterman

The day after a Catholic priest pleaded no contest to sexual assault and drug charges, prosecutors said it would have been foolish of him to have gone before a jury with the audio recordings they had.

The afternoon of Wednesday, March 27, Saginaw County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Mark J. Gaertner and Assistant Prosecutor Melissa Hoover convened a press conference in the Saginaw County courthouse to address the prior day’s developments for the Rev. Robert J. “Father Bob” DeLand. He pleaded no contest March 26 to second-degree criminal sexual conduct, gross indecency between two males, and manufacturing or distributing an imitation controlled substance. The most serious charge is second-degree criminal sexual conduct, a 15-year felony.

“Rolling the dice against tape recordings that we had probably would have been a foolish idea,” Gaertner said. “The tapes, that’s Robert DeLand talking. That’s not somebody saying what he said; that’s him saying exactly what he said. That’s powerful evidence.”

The tapes were recorded by a teenager who filed a police report against DeLand in November 2017, then went undercover in other interactions with the priest, equipped with a recording device provided by investigators.

“I can’t get into the mind of Robert DeLand,” Gaertner continued, “but I think, finally, when he realized — and this is just my opinion — that those tapes were going to be played, when his feet were put to the fire, and he knew those tapes were going to be played in court, he decided to make his decision.”

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.

MONTREAL (CANADA)
Catholic News Service

March 27, 2019

By Francois Gloutnay

Five dioceses from the province of Quebec will allow an external audit of their files regarding sex abuse cases, the Archdiocese of Montreal announced March 27.

In September, retired Quebec Superior Court Judge Anne-Marie Trahan will be able to consult the regular and secret files of five Catholic dioceses in the greater Montreal area, confirmed Montreal Archbishop Christian Lepine.

Archbishop Lepine said Trahan will be able to count on the full cooperation of the authorities of the dioceses of Montreal, Joliette, Saint-Jean-Longueuil, Saint-Jerome and Valleyfield and that she will have “complete access” the records of priests and diocesan staff for the past 70 years.

As part of the review, abuse survivors will be invited to come forward and tell their stories.

Trahan will have to submit a report within two years that will indicate “the number and nature of allegations of sexual abuse of minors by members of the Roman Catholic clergy and their staff from 1950 to the present day,” Archbishop Lepine told journalists.

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.

PHIADELPHIA (PA)
Legal Intelligencer

March 26, 2019

By P.J. D’Annunzio

A lawsuit claiming the Archdiocese of Philadelphia is liable for alleged child molestation by one of its former priests in the 1970s will remain in New Jersey court, a state Superior Court judge in Atlantic County has ruled.

Atlantic County Judge Christine Smith held that New Jersey was the appropriate venue for the John Doe lawsuit against defrocked priest Craig Brugger because some of the instances of alleged abuse took place in state.

Brugger, who died in 2010, was laicized in 2002 after abuse allegations against him surfaced. At the time the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilaqua told Brugger’s former congregation that the archdiocese took the allegations seriously.

“Like other priests who have been accused, Father Brugger will be treated fairly and with great compassion,” he said, according to a CNN report from March 2002. “At the same time, I need to assure you that the archdiocese will not tolerate acts of abuse against minors.”

In the Doe lawsuit, the plaintiff alleged he was sexually assaulted several times by Brugger from 1972 to 1976 when he attended St. Anne’s Parish in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, ending when he was 12 years old. The lawsuit alleged that the assaults occurred in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where the plaintiff lived; at Doe’s parents’ beach house in Brigantine, Atlantic County; and other New Jersey locations, including a rectory and a hotel, according to Smith’s opinion.

At one point Doe reported the abuse to the head of his parish, “Father Griffin,” but Griffin told him “these things did not happen and that people should not speak of these types of matters,” according to Smith. After a nun intervened, Brugger was transferred to another parish.

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.

CORPUS CHRISTI (TX)
Caller-Times

March 27, 2019

By Eleanor Dearman

A Corpus Christi priest accused of sexual misconduct wants to know how the Diocese of Corpus Christi is backing up its claims against him.

Attorneys for Msgr. Michael Heras and the diocese were in court Wednesday on a 2018 court filing by Heras’ lawyer Andrew Greenwell.

In it, Heras asks for documents and possible depositions related to Heras’ “alleged ‘admission’ to child abuse and sex with a minor.” In another court filing from 2018, Hera asks for sanctions — the payment of related court fees — in response to allegations Heras admitted to the abuse.

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.

WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

March 27, 2019

By Dennis Sadowski

Two systematic theologians examined how power and clericalism among Catholic clergy played a role in creating the sexual abuse crisis that has rocked the church anew since June during a daylong Catholic University of America conference.

While offering differing perspectives, Richard Gaillardetz of Boston College and Chad Pecknold of The Catholic University of America agreed March 26 that clericalism needed to be addressed if the church is to begin recovering from the scandal.

Pope Francis has described clericalism as an attitude embraced by priests and bishops in which they see themselves as special or superior to others.

Gaillardetz explained that clericalism manifests itself in “the maintenance of a distinct clerical identity” that often lacks solidarity with the people of God, a sense of being “exempt from criticism or accountability by those outside the clerical guild, and an instinct “to protect the good reputation of their guild at all costs.”

On the other hand, Pecknold theorized that clericalism stems from a willingness to turn away from God and the call to true priestly ministry as exercised by Jesus rather than solely the desire to maintain power and influence over others.

The theologians supported their arguments in presentations during the latest in the university’s ongoing “Healing the Breach of Trust” conferences.

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.

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Reuters

March 27, 2019

A Chilean appeals court ruled on Wednesday that the Catholic Church should pay compensation to three victims in a sex abuse case involving former Santiago parish priest Fernando Karadima, potentially opening the floodgates to similar civil lawsuits.

The unanimous decision requires the Church pay 100 million pesos($146,000) each for “moral damages” to Juan Carlos Cruz, Jose Andres Murillo and James Hamilton. The men accuse Karadima of having sexually abused them decades ago, and the Church of having covered up that abuse.

Church officials were not immediately available for comment.

The case could pave the way for a flood of civil lawsuits seeking monetary damages from the Latin American country’s Catholic Church, and beyond.

The decision may still be appealed to Chile’sSupreme Court.

Chilean investigators have looked into about 120 allegations of sexual abuse or cover-ups involving 167 Church officials or workers.

The scandal last week prompted Pope Francis to accept the resignation of Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, the archbishop of Santiago and the highest-ranking member of the Catholic Church in Chile.

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

March 27, 2019

Founded in 2009 by Anne Soupa and Christine Pedotti to promote male-female equality in the Church, the Skirt Committee (Comité de la Jupe) announced that “in view of various affairs in the Catholic Church” it had launched a new petition reaffirming “its opposition to the condition currently given to women in their own Church.”

“Their exclusion from all responsibility is an aggravating cause of sex abuse since the male and celibate structure of the clergy leads to a closed world where impunity rules,” says the press release accompanying the March 25 petition.

“Moreover, this exclusion is the major cause of the clericalism condemned by Pope Francis. Thus, the attached petition demands that equality of responsibilities and rights between men and women finally be recognized in the Catholic Church.”

“Matters cannot go on as they are. Things must change!”

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.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

March 27, 2019

A lawsuit was filed yesterday in West Virginia that names the former bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston as a “sexual predator.”

We hope that the filing of this lawsuit against Bishop Michael Bransfield will help J.E. along his healing journey. It is a brave thing to come forward with allegations and we commend him for doing so. We suspect that the announcement of this suit will encourage other victims who may be suffering in silence to come forward and report their own abuse. We hope that when they do, they contact independent law enforcement or the attorney general, not Church officials.

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.