ABUSE TRACKER

EAST LANSING (MI)
NPR

November 20, 2018

By Vanessa Romo

Former President of Michigan State University Lou Anna Simon was charged with two felony and two misdemeanor counts on Tuesday for allegedly lying to police during their investigation into how the school handled sexual abuse allegations against Larry Nassar, the doctor convicted of abusing scores of young women while employed by the university and USA Gymnastics.

According to the warrant, Simon purposefully concealed that she knew that the university’s Title IX office and police department had launched an investigation into a sexual assault complaint filed against Nassar in 2014, ESPN reported.

Nassar was eventually cleared of wrongdoing by the school but when asked by investigators about the case, Simon allegedly told police that she did not know the name of the sports medicine doctor involved.

“In fact she knew it was Larry Nassar who was the subject,” investigators said according to ESPN.

Nassar pleaded guilty earlier this year to federal child pornography charges and 10 counts of criminal sexual conduct in Michigan state courts.

Simon, who has denied any criminal wrongdoing, could face up to four years in prison, according to the Associated Press. The 71-year-old is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday in Eaton County, Mich.

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EAST LANSING (MI)
Legal Reader

November 21, 2018

By Ryan J. Farrick

Michigan State University’s former and long-time president, Lou Anna Simon, has been charged with two felony and misdemeanor counts of allegedly lying to law enforcement officials investigating Larry Nassar.

Nassar, a USA Gymnastics physician convicted of molesting scores of patients, has already been sentenced to serve up to 125 years in prison.

Simon, reports NPR, repeatedly told officials that she didn’t know Michigan State’s Title IX office and police department had opened an investigation into Nassar following a 2014 complaint. While Nassar was eventually cleared by the university, Simon later said hadn’t been told the sports medicine practitioner’s name.

“In fact she knew it was Larry Nassar who was the subject,” investigators claim.

Nassar pled guilty in early 2018 to federal child pornography charges and 10 counts of criminal sexual misconduct in Michigan.

If Simon’s found guilty of the charges filed against her, she too could face time behind bars—up to four years, according to the Associated Press.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Legal Reader

November 21, 2018

By Sara E. Teller

A former altar boy is the latest to come forward, filing a lawsuit claiming he was sexually abused by a former Pennsylvania priest. The priest already admitted to abusing another boy several years ago and was previously cleared to work with kids by a New Mexico clinic for troubled clergy.

Bruno Tucci, 76, allegedly abused the altar boy who is identified only as a 29-year-old “John Doe” for several years between 1999 and 2001 at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish in Nesquehoning, a small town outside of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Tucci allegedly told the boy to “put his arms out like Jesus on the cross” while he fondled him.

“He is a broken young man,” the client’s chief attorney, Gerald Williams, said. “He veers from anger to despair to depression.” He was motivated to come forward after Tucci was identified by a Pennsylvania grand jury report in August as one of 301 “predator priests” who preyed on thousands of children in parishes across six dioceses.

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DES MOINES (IA)
The Associated Press

November 20, 2018

By Ryan J. Foley

A longtime Catholic priest in Iowa has been removed from the ministry indefinitely after a girl complained a year ago that he improperly touched her, a diocese has confirmed.

The fourth-grader alleged that the Rev. Brian Danner of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Humboldt rubbed the top of her leg while taking her confession, the Diocese of Sioux City told the Associated Press. The girl’s parents were “extremely upset” and complained to church officials, recalled diocese lawyer Michael Ellwanger.

The diocese reported the incident to the county attorney last December and has revoked Danner’s ability to function as a priest indefinitely. Its review found that Danner’s actions were inappropriate but didn’t constitute sexual abuse, Ellwanger said.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Tribune

November 20, 2018

By Mark Scolforo

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia said Tuesday it is putting aside $25 million to start paying claims to people who say its clergy sexually abused them as children.

The archdiocese said it expects to need more money than it has on hand, so it will have to borrow and liquidate assets. A spokesman calls initial funding of $25 million to $30 million, from existing liquid assets, “a floor and not a ceiling.”

The archdiocese announced last week it was beginning a claims process and had mailed out a few hundred informational packets to people who had previously reported credible abuse claims.

Most of the state’s dioceses are setting up compensation funds.

A proposal to retroactively allow child sexual abuse lawsuits that are otherwise too old to pursue passed the state House by a wide margin but was blocked by state Senate Republicans.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Bay Area News Group

November 21, 2018

By Tracey Kaplan

The ongoing scandal over sexual abuse by Catholic clergy has led to two new high-profile lawsuits, both aimed at forcing American bishops to divulge secret lists of offenders dating back more than six decades.

But one of the legal attacks goes even further by pinning the blame on Vatican officials for misconduct in the United States, relying in part on a legal doctrine more commonly used to take down drug dealers and Mafia members. And the other relies on nuisance laws, alleging that the church has created a public hazard.

The lawsuits, both of which include victims from California and were filed in federal court this month, represent a far more sweeping approach than suing individual priests or a diocese as a way to expose clergy abuse and its alleged cover-up.

This is not “Father so-and-so” abusing one child, said Mitchell A. Toups, of Texas, one of the lawyers in the suit that names the church government in the Vatican, known as the Holy See. “This is a much broader attack.”

Judy Keane, a spokeswoman for the conference of bishops, said the group does not comment on pending litigation.

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ALBANY (NEW YORK)
New York Daily News

November 20, 2018

By Kenneth Lovett

Gov. Cuomo said Tuesday he wants to see a bill making it easier for victims of child sex abuse to seek justice as adults pass next year—but not in a way that would bankrupt the Catholic Church.

“Obviously nobody wants to see a dioceses or the Catholic Church bankrupt, so how it is done is very important,” Cuomo told reporters during a pre-Thanksgiving trip to Buffalo to pass out turkeys.

But Cuomo quickly added that “nor do I think you should say, ‘well this may cost the Church money, so we shouldn’t do it.’ There’s a long step between acknowledgment and justice and financial catastrophe, so I do believe there should be a recognition and justice should be done for the victims.”

Buffalo has been contending with a widespread priest abuse scandal.

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press

November 20, 2018

By Tresa Baldas

In a major blow to the federal government, a judge in Detroit has declared America’s female genital mutilation law unconstitutional, thereby dismissing the key charges against two Michigan doctors and six others accused of subjecting at least nine minor girls to the cutting procedure in the nation’s first FGM case.

The historic case involves minor girls from Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota, including some who cried, screamed and bled during the procedure and one who was given Valium ground in liquid Tylenol to keep her calm, court records show.

The judge’s ruling also dismissed charges against three mothers, including two Minnesota women whom prosecutors said tricked their 7 -year-old daughters into thinking they were coming to metro Detroit for a girls’ weekend, but instead had their genitals cut at a Livonia clinic as part of a religious procedure.

U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman concluded that “as despicable as this practice may be,” Congress did not have the authority to pass the 22-year-old federal law that criminalizes female genital mutilation, and that FGM is for the states to regulate. FGM is banned worldwide and has been outlawed in more than 30 countries, though the U.S. statute had never been tested before this case.

“As laudable as the prohibition of a particular type of abuse of girls may be … federalism concerns deprive Congress of the power to enact this statute,” Friedman wrote in his 28-page opinion, noting: “Congress overstepped its bounds by legislating to prohibit FGM … FGM is a ‘local criminal activity’ which, in keeping with long-standing tradition and our federal system of government, is for the states to regulate, not Congress.”

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UNITED STATES
Yahoo Lifestyle

November 20, 2018

By Beth Greenfield

Now that the #MeToo movement, Kavanaugh hearings, Betsy DeVos’s proposed campus rape rules and protests like the Google walkouts have put sexual assault right up there with movies, pets, weather and politics as very possible topics of family dinner discussions, heading into the holidays can feel more fraught than ever. That’s especially true if you’re a sexual assault survivor. And it’s why being thrust into such a conversation without being mentally prepared could leave you rattled.

“I left feeling jarred and jangled and with a feeling disequilibrium,” says Fran (not her real name), a 48-year-old California woman, regarding a recent visit with her parents during which they raised the topic of her childhood assault at the hands of a family member. She believes they brought up the incident, after many years of avoidance, because the national conversation had provided them with a new way of understanding it all. “I wasn’t mad, but I left feeling unmoored,” she tells Yahoo Lifestyle, “because it didn’t feel like it was about me and my well-being and my resolution, but more about theirs.”

Her advice to others heading into a similar setup, particularly for people with traumas that have yet to be disclosed? “Imagine the topic is going to come up in some form, and know who you’re talking to and where they’re coming from … and know that no one’s going to be thinking about you,” she says, “so you think about you. What would be meaningful for you? What would help move you forward and not just the conversation?”

Experts agree that it’s a great guidepost and offer more guidance on how to be ready for sensitive, triggering discussions about sexual assault and harassment — particularly those that leave you wanting to disclose your own history in order to make a heat-of-the-moment point to your clueless relative. “It’s a very pivotal moment when you are able to share your trauma,” psychologist Kathleen carterMartinez, author of Permission Granted: The Journey From Trauma to Healing From Rape, Sexual Assault and Emotional Abuse, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. And you want to do it in a way that feels like healing, rather than self-harm.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

November 19, 2018

By Richard Winton and Maya Lau

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy assigned to handle sensitive sex abuse crimes, often involving vulnerable minors, has been arrested on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old girl in a case he was investigating.

Neil Kimball was taken into custody Friday evening after a monthlong inquiry into the allegations by the sheriff’s criminal internal investigation bureau. He was booked on suspicion of rape by force and preventing or dissuading a victim from testifying.

The 45-year-old investigator with the special victims unit met the girl during the “scope of his work,” a department spokeswoman said Monday.

Kimball, a 20-year department veteran, has investigated dozens of child molestation cases in Los Angeles County as a member of the elite specialized unit since 2013.

“The investigation and arrest resulted from information provided to the department by a member of the public,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. It did not announce the arrest Friday and provided the statement after an inquiry by The Times.

Kimball was investigated previously, after a woman told the Sheriff’s Department in February 2009 that Kimball had grabbed her hand several months earlier and tried to make her touch his genitals, according to a memo from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. Prosecutors ultimately declined to charge Kimball in the case.

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PENNSYLVANIA
jimmyhinton.org

November 20, 2018

By Jimmy Hinton

Pedophile abusers are not intimidated by church policies or accountability partners and will not refrain from abusing kids simply because a handful of people are “keeping an eye” on them. When they are in the church, they are primed for abuse and will strike again. Churches have made a fatal theological mistake by not calling wolves by the proper name and this, in my opinion, is a leading reason why churches continue to be one of the most dangerous places for our youth. Churches mistakenly accept wolves as if they were sheep and give them exactly what they seek to devour. The Bible rightly distinguishes wolves from sheep because wolves are inherently intent on feasting on their prey. A wolf does not get better–he or she gets smarter. Wolves do not convert into sheep. They are, by nature, predators and predators blend in to the flock of prey exceptionally well.

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NEW JERSEY
For NJ.com

November 18, 2018

By Joe Brandt

A church youth minister who was convicted in the 1990s for sexual assault was convicted again on Friday of having inappropriate sexual contact with a teenage girl.

A jury found Shawn Butler, of Hillsborough, guilty of criminal sexual contact and endangering the welfare of a child, Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew Carey announced.

Butler, 52, worked as a youth minister at Eternal Life Christian Center in Franklin Township and served on the church’s executive board.

At trial, Assistant Prosecutor Thomas Carver made the case that Butler improperly touched a 15-year-old girl in South Brunswick and at his home in Hillsborough several times between March and June 2014.

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VATICAN
Get Religion

November 19, 2018

By Terry Mattingly

When I was breaking into the mainstream religion-news biz — soon after the cooling of the earth’s crust — the words “church press” basically meant one thing.

It meant working for the news office in a denomination’s headquarters or, perhaps, in the outreach office of a religious non-profit. In other words, it was one step from the world of public relations.

As the old saying goes: It’s hard to cover a war when a general is signing your paycheck.

However, the Internet has — year after year — been blurring many of these lines. The denominational press is still out there, but so are lots of non-profit publications that offer an often dizzying mix of commentary and factual news.

This is especially true for reporters covering Catholic news. As my colleague Clemente Lisi noted the other day, referring to developments on scandals surrounding ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick:

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SIOUX CITY (IA)
Associated Press

November 20, 2018

By Ryan Foley

A longtime Roman Catholic priest in Northwest Iowa has been removed from the ministry indefinitely after a girl complained a year ago that he improperly touched her, the Diocese of Sioux City has confirmed.

The fourth-grader at St. Mary’s school in Humboldt alleged that the Rev. Brian Danner of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Humboldt rubbed the top of her leg while taking her confession, the diocese told The Associated Press. The girl’s parents were “extremely upset” and complained to church officials, recalled diocese lawyer Michael Ellwanger.

The diocese reported the incident to the county attorney last December and has revoked Danner’s ability to function as a priest indefinitely. Its review found that Danner’s actions were inappropriate but didn’t constitute sexual abuse, Ellwanger said.

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PHILAdELPHIA (PA)
Patheos

November 20, 2018

By Teresa Messineo

I live in the eye of the storm that is the Pennsylvania clergy sex abuse scandal. The diocese named, the schools, parishes, bishops and sex abuse survivors are all with me here, at ground zero. Photographs of people crying, or staring stoically ahead, or holding on to each other as our attorney general finally read the findings of the two-year grand jury investigation – those people aren’t just human interest stories, or a way to sell more papers, or images to lead off internet articles. They are my high school classmates. My teammates. My friends.

And the priests named in that report – the men who wrote us demerit slips for chewing gum or rolling down our dress socks, while they raped and tortured children – I know them, too. They were our class advisors, our religion teachers; they heard our confessions and doled out penances for our petty sins while they exonerated themselves from all wrong-doing.

The Catholic Church stands at a crossroads, globally. But nowhere is that more apparent than here, in Pennsylvania. Every fourth person in our state is Catholic. I’ve gone to mass in Pittsburgh, where there were three Catholic churches in one square block. Older Philadelphians still give directions by parish. So, the uncertainty facing the future of our church is – to a large extent – a shared uncertainty about our own future, the two are so closely enmeshed.

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JACKSON (MS)
Associated Press

November 20, 2018

A Mississippi priest says he was an informant for the federal fraud investigation of another priest.

The Clarion Ledger reported The Rev. John Bohn told the weekend services at St. Richard Catholic Church in Jackson that he was an informant in the case involving a priest in Starkville.

Bohn previously served in Starkville.

A federal affidavit says there were four informants as they investigated the priest, whom The Associated Press is not naming because he has not been charged.

The affidavit says the Starkville priest announced from the pulpit numerous times that he had cancer and was going to Canada for treatment. He received donations from parishioners.

The affidavit says the priest actually had been diagnosed with HIV. The diocese said it could not talk about the priest’s medical condition.

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
Jefferson City Press Tribune

November 20, 2018

By Joe Gamm

Bishop W. Shawn McKnight of the Diocese of Jefferson City — one of the youngest and newest of those attending the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — was among the first and loudest to respond when the Vatican asked the conference to delay action on the sexual abuse crisis facing the church.

Many were surprised. Maybe none more so than McKnight.

“I made the promise to myself that I would not speak at my first major general assembly out of deference. You’re the new guy, and you need to learn how this crisis works,” McKnight said Monday. “But, when this crisis blew up and the November assembly was focused primarily on addressing it. The way this was happening, I could not keep silent, no matter how young I am.”

The U.S. bishops meet annually to promote the greater good the church can do for humankind, according to the conference website, and fits programs to circumstances as required. The agenda going into this year’s conference in Baltimore was to create a strategy to deal with the growing clergy sexual abuse crisis across the country.

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DENVER (CO)
Colorado Public Radio

November 20, 2018

By Allison Sherry

Stephen Szutenbach didn’t have anywhere to turn when his priest and mentor came on to him sexually when he was 18 years old.

Szutenbach aspired to be a priest himself. He had never even kissed anyone before.

He first met Rev. Kent Drotar, a leader at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, at a youth retreat in 1999. It was the summer before he started his senior year at Conifer High School.

Szutenbach was having trouble with his parents and confided in Drotar. The priest gave him advice and counsel and supported him personally and spiritually throughout his last year in high school. He attended his swim meets and graduation, where Szutenbach delivered the valedictorian speech in 2000. Drotar gave Szutenbach a laptop computer after graduation.

“I saw him as a friend and a mentor,” Szutenbach said. “And as a father figure.”

That summer, Szutenbach was slated to start seminary and got a job working on the grounds at Denver’s St. John Vianney Seminary. Drotar often had him over for lunch in his apartment.

“Slowly but surely as the summer went on, we would be sitting on the couch eating lunch, he would put his arm around me, he would put his hand on my leg and try to cuddle with me,” Szutenbach said. “It made me uncomfortable.”

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RIVERVIEW (FL)
Bradenton Patch

November 20, 2018

By Paul Scicchitano

A Florida Catholic church has informed its parishioners that a well-known former priest who once worked as a stunt car performer in an automotive thrill show, has been accused of two cases of sexual misconduct with children. The allegations involve the Rev. Michael P. Juran, who was most recently assigned to the Diocese of Buffalo in upstate New York though still living in Florida.

“On Monday, Nov. 5, 2018 we received information from the Diocese of St. Petersburg regarding allegations involving Rev. Michael P. Juran, a former parochial vicar of St. Stephen Catholic Church from 2006 to 2011,” wrote Father Dermot Dunne in a Nov. 8 letter to parishioners of his western Florida parish.

In 2008, Juran appeared in a video in which he described his work with the thrill show, even allowing himself to be strapped to the hood of a stunt car at 60 mph as he crashed through a flaming firewall on the track.

“The faster you go the better and then it doesn’t hurt as much,” Juran told an interviewer. “Right through the firewall and then you come back and you take your bow.”

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EAST BRUNSWICK (NJ)
CentralNewJersey.com

November 20, 2018

By Vashti Harris

Striving to address recent sexual abuse revelations within the Catholic church, St. Bartholomew Church served as a host to a listening session for patrons to voice their concerns.

“The church decided to have a listening session for all Catholics of our parish and surrounding parishes in order to hear about how they are feeling about the sexual abuse crisis and ask for their opinions for what actions the church can take going forward,” parishioner MaryEllen Firestone said.

More than 30 patrons attended the session that was facilitated by Sister Margaret Conlon of Sister of Charity of Saint Elizabeth on Oct. 22 at St. Bart’s in East Brunswick.

Conlon has ministered to high school students and families, as a teacher and counselor, in Jersey City for more than 20 years. For the last 27 years, she has ministered as a licensed clinical alcohol and drug counselor at Emmaus House, a holistic center for women religious, in Ocean Grove. Conlon has facilitated programs for suicide prevention for youth as well as groups and retreats for adult women in recovery, according to a prepared statement from the St. Bartholomew Church.

The session began with parishioner JoLynn Krempecki talking about the history of the crisis and the church’s response.

“Today we are in a terrible state in the Catholic church. The sins of some clergy that have been committed in the dark were brought to light in 2002. These were sins of sexual abuse against children,” Krempecki said. “Sadly, not all of the abusers were named [and] some abused children were afraid to come forward.”

In 2002, the Boston Globe’s Spotlight team published an investigative article exposing systemic sexual abuse against children in the Boston area by numerous priests.

“When the Spotlight was shown the [United States Conference of Catholic Bishops] scattered to make decisions that was suppose to ensure that such things would never happen again,” Krempecki said. “They put guidelines and provisions into place and since then all who work with children must go through criminal background checks and also must have training that teaches people where the boundary lines are. This is a national policy and this is a policy in this diocese and every parish and every Catholic institution are checked regularly for compliance.”

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NEW YORK (NY)
Commonweal

November 20, 2018

By Dorothy Fortenberry

It was somewhere in the process of explaining transubstantiation to my skeptical seven-year-old that I taught her the phrase “Go big or go home.”

I hadn’t intended to bring up transubstantiation, or religion, or anything at all—we were just trying to make it through a rare sit-down post-church brunch (we usually do more of a perching coffee and pastries), helping the two-year-old balance scrambled eggs on her spoon, when my older kid asked, pretty much out of nowhere, “The cracker and the wine…they’re not really the body and the blood of Jesus, right?”

Even though my husband attended Catholic school for five years and has sat through more theology classes than I have, I’m the actual Catholic, so I was fielding this one.

I grabbed the moment as best I could to explain that yes, well, actually, the craziness of that idea was the point. The whole idea that something could literally transform before our eyes. That we could, daily if we wanted to, eat the body and drink the blood of a two-thousand-year-old man, alongside a billion other people across the globe. She raised her magnificent eyebrows. “Okaaaaaay.”

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NEW YORK (NY)
Commonweal

November 20, 2018

By Helene Stapinski

In 1992, I quit my job at my local newspaper and moved to Nome, Alaska, to join the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. I was only twenty-seven but felt jaded and hopeless in the face of the problems I wrote about in my hometown of Jersey City—AIDS, toxic waste, political corruption. I never seemed to make a dent.

The motto of the JVC is “Ruined for Life”—the idea being that once you join, you’re fundamentally changed, eager from then on to make a difference in the world. I had been raised Catholic but felt estranged from the church because of its positions on the gay community, birth control, women’s roles—the usual liberal lament. But I knew the Jesuits had a reputation for being forward-thinking, and I thought a year spent at a radio mission might just renew my faith. I thought I could bring some change by working with the 3,000-person community of Nome, where alcoholism, domestic abuse, and suicide were common problems.

On my flight in, an older man sitting in front of me turned around and asked, over the seat, “Where you headed, honey?”

Honey? “I’m one of the new KNOM volunteers,” I said. KNOM was the voice of western Alaska, the glue that held Alaska Native villages together. The man only gave me a wooden stare. “You know,” I said. “KNOM? The radio station?”

“I’m familiar with KNOM,” he answered. He paused again. He reached a hand out to shake mine. “I’m Father Jim Poole.”

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LAFAYETTE (LA)
Daily Advertiser

November 20, 2018

By Cal Thomas

One doesn’t have to be Roman Catholic or even Christian to recognize the great good the Catholic Church has done. America would be worse off were it not its pro-life stance and numerous acts of charity.

But good works are sometimes diluted or even overwhelmed by evil works, and it is the evil works of pedophile priests that threaten to sully the good the church has done.

But what should trouble not only Catholics but non-Catholics too is the latest statement from the Vatican regarding the sexual abuse scandal, a scandal that has prompted many Catholics to leave the church and the faith altogether.

In a letter to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting in Baltimore, the Vatican, as reported by U.S. News & World Report, requested that U.S. bishops “wait until after the Vatican-convened global meeting on sex abuse takes place in February” to take action on the sexual abuse issue plaguing the church. “The conference of bishops had expected to focus … on measures to combat abuse, including establishing a new code of conduct.”

Is it just a question of timing, or yet another attempt to avoid dealing with the crisis?

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DENVER (CO)
Colorado Public Radio

November 20, 2018

By Allison Sherry

Stephen Szutenbach didn’t have anywhere to turn when his priest and mentor came on to him sexually when he was 18 years old.

Szutenbach aspired to be a priest himself. He had never even kissed anyone before.

He first met Rev. Kent Drotar, a leader at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary, at a youth retreat in 1999. It was the summer before he started his senior year at Conifer High School.

Szutenbach was having trouble with his parents and confided in Drotar. The priest gave him advice and counsel and supported him personally and spiritually throughout his last year in high school. He attended his swim meets and graduation, where Szutenbach delivered the valedictorian speech in 2000. Drotar gave Szutenbach a laptop computer after graduation.

“I saw him as a friend and a mentor,” Szutenbach said. “And as a father figure.”

That summer, Szutenbach was slated to start seminary and got a job working on the grounds at Denver’s St. John Vianney Seminary. Drotar often had him over for lunch in his apartment.

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
Catholic News Service

November 19, 2018

Laypeople need to help the U.S. bishops get out from under the clerical sex abuse scandal that is plaguing the Church, said Bishop W. Shawn McKnight of Jefferson City in a message to Catholics of his diocese posted Nov. 16 on the diocesan website.

Beyond just the abuse crisis, laity need to be involved “at all levels of the church,” McKnight said.

“Why can’t we have well-qualified, nationally known and trusted lay experts named to the special task force announced by the president of the USCCB (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops)?” he asked. “The Second Vatican Council gave us not only the freedom but the obligation to utilize and engage the gifts and talents of the laity in the life and mission of the Church.”

After the substantiated abuse allegation that prompted retired Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick’s resignation in July from the College of Cardinals, “an internal investigation of the McCarrick scandal without the use of competent and qualified lay investigators will hardly be considered transparent and credible,” McKnight said.

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NEW HAVEN (CT)
WFSB

November 18, 2018

By Rebecca Cashman and Jennifer Lee

Saint Mary’s Parish in New Haven held a vigil in the wake of sexual abuse scandals around the country involving clergy on Sunday night.

Members of the church and the Knights of Columbus allowed parishioners to view and pay their respects to a relic of the world famous, French Saint Jean Vianney who Catholics believe symbolizes love, courage, and commitment.

The relic is the 159-year-old heart of Saint Vianney and is on display after Sunday’s mass from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

A pastor from France led the vigil that followed mass and reflected on personal holiness.

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TEXAS
Baptist Standard

November 19, 2018

By Scott Floyd

The church has the incredibly important task of creating a safe atmosphere for children. The previous article in this series considered a brief theology of care of children and then pivoted to practical steps the church can take to provide effective protection for the safety of children.

Now, think about what no one wants to think about. Consider the role of ministry personnel as mandated reporters when abuse occurs. Here, we will explore what must happen and how the church can assist child victims and families after abuse takes place.

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.

ROCHESTER (NY)
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle

November 19, 2018

By Sarah Taddeo

A group of U.S. lawyers is publicizing its services to survivors of childhood sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, in anticipation of the potential passage of the Child Victim’s Act in the New York state legislature.

Versions of the bill have made their way around the legislature for more than a decade, and while a version passed the Assembly in June 2017, it has yet to pass the Senate.

The bill would extend the age at which individuals can seek criminal charges for sexual abuse from 23 to 28, and the age at which they can seek civil penalties against their abusers from 18 to 50.

State Democrats, who now control both houses of the legislature, have indicated that this issue is a priority for the upcoming session, which starts in January.

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.

DETROIT (MI)
Click on Detroit

November 19, 2018

By Sandra Ali and Kayla Clarke

Allegations rocked Catholic Church

Sexual abuse revelations have rocked the Catholic Church.

The Roman Catholic bishops of the United States traveled to Baltimore last week for their first time meeting since an explosive grand jury report by the Pennsylvania attorney general that detailed decades of sexual abuse involving hundreds of priests.

The bishops left the meeting without taking any action. They were asked by the Vatican to stand down and wait until Pope Francis meets with church leaders from all over the world to discuss the abuse crisis.

A Detroit priest opened up to Local 4 about the scandal. The Rev. Stephen Pullis is the director of evangelization of catechesis and schools for the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said he would start investigation allegations of sexual abuse and assault by Catholic priests dating back to the 1950s.

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.

MARTINSBURG (WV)
Local DVM

November 16, 2018

By Thao Ta

Tom Stollings said the accused, lived in his home for about two months.

The Mormon Church settled a sexual abuse case in Berkeley County nearly five months ago. Now, some families are speaking up with allegations that there were sexual abuse cover ups by an individual who has a history of sexual abuse.

It’s a case that rattled the Mormon Church community. Allegations of sexual abuse hidden for years by one of their own members at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Martinsburg .

“They stop at nothing to attack the parents,” said Tom Stollings, a former member of the church who is speaking up now.

Tom Stollings and Kelly H., are among the nine plaintiffs who sued the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Martinsburg, saying the church covered up years of sexual abuse, involving member Christopher Michael Jensen. They say the case was prolonged for nearly five years before a date for the civil trial was set in January in West Virginia.

“I felt like we were settled to shut up,” said Kelly H.

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

NEW YORK (NY)
The Guardian

November 19, 2018

By Naaman Zhou

Brett Sengstock waives anonymity to accuse Hillsong founder of failing victims by not reporting pastor Frank Houston to police

The victim of a paedophile pastor has accused the man’s son, Hillsong Church founder Brian Houston, of not doing enough to expose his father’s crimes.

Brett Sengstock waived his anonymity as he told Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes program on Sunday night he was sexually abused by Frank Houston, the influential leader of the Pentecostal denomination Assemblies of God in the 1960s and 70s.

Sengstock had previously testified before the royal commission into child sexual abuse in 2013, under the pseudonym AHA.

But he told 60 Minutes he wanted to publicly ask Houston’s son Brian why he did not report his father to the police, despite knowing of his abuse since 1999.

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.

JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
LifeSiteNews

November 20, 2018

By Lisa Bourne

Bishop Shawn McKnight was “very disappointed” at the Holy See’s intervention last week prohibiting the U.S. bishops from taking action on measures to address sexual abuse.

“My frustration, shared with many other people, is this,” Bishop McKnight of the Diocese of Jefferson City explained. “We have known about the scandal of Archbishop McCarrick since the end of June, and our Church must take immediate, decisive and substantive action in light of the deep wound the scandal has caused.”

It’s not so much the time it’s taking to punish McCarrick, he said, and more is needed beyond punishment of the perpetrator.

“How could his rise to such an influential position in the Church have happened?” he questioned. “I am concerned how the national conference of bishops and the Holy See answer that question.”

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AUSTRALIA
DAILY MAIL AUSTRALIA

November 18, 2018

By Lauren Ferri and Alex Chapman

– Brett Sengstock held back tears as he recalled years of torment he suffered
– The 56-year-old cancer sufferer was sexually abused for years in his youth
– He spoke for the first time about being molested by pastor Frank Houston
– Mr Sengstock said the religious figurehead abused him for five years in the 1970s
– Executives at the Assemblies of God church discovered the paedophilia in 1990

A man battling stage four brain cancer has bravely spoken about being sexually abused by a pastor for years as a young child.

Brett Sengstock and his family were loyal followers of the Assemblies of God in Australia church when he was growing up.

Pastor Frank Houston, the father of Hillsong Church founder Brian Houston, would sneak into the young boy’s room and molest him, a horror he repressed for 44 years.

Breaking decades of silence, the 56-year-old choked back tears and could hardly stomach a response when shown a photograph of the man who stole his childhood.

Wanting to put a face to previously anonymous accusations, Mr Sengstock broke down in tears while recounting the horrific memories of sexual abuse on Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes.

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.

YAKIMA (WA)
Yakima Herald

November 16, 2018

By Robert Fontana

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a gay man in a church that teaches homosexual behavior is sinful, has been exposed as a sexual predator who targeted males, mostly seminarians, and young boys.

According to Kenneth Woodward (former religious editor for Newsweek, Commonweal -11/9/18), McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, D.C., was not only protected by his high office but by a network of gay clerics that had secrets to keep. Woodward writes, “By network, I mean groups of gay priests, diocesan and religious, who encourage the sexual grooming of seminarians and young priests for decades, and who themselves lead double lives – breaking their vows of chastity while ministering to the laity and staffing the various bureaucracies of the church.”

These men hide behind a veneer of public ministry, celibacy and Catholic orthodoxy while living secret lives of sexual misbehavior, some of it criminal.

Readers of the Yakima Herald-Republic saw a glimpse of this in the story of Juan Jose Gonzalez Rios. Gonzalez, a former seminarian and retreat director, was arrested in the spring, 2008, for an outstanding warrant for accessing child porn. Charges were later dropped (“Former Seminarian Tells His Story,” Yakima Herald-Republic, 5/15/08). Gonzalez described how his pastor drew him into parish ministry, simultaneously introducing him to a public life of service and a private life of pornography, sex games, drinking, and gambling. This behavior continued as Gonzales entered the seminary and ended, according to Gonzalez, when the priest sexually assaulted 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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WITF

November 20, 2018

By Katie Meyer

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Monday more is to come from his office’s investigation into abuse within the Catholic Church.

In a wide-ranging speech, Shapiro touched on the many lawsuits he’s been involved in against the Trump administration. He also touted improvements to the AG office after years of scandal, and rebuffed a question about whether he wants to be governor.

But he had perhaps the most to say about a grand jury report released earlier this year that found more than 300 clergy members abused more than 1,000 children over many decades.

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ROCKFORD (IL)
The Rock River Times

November 19, 2018

By Jim Hagerty

A former Rockford priest at the center of chilling allegations and a 2006 lawsuit appears on a list of 15 priests accused of sexual abuse.

Theodore “Ted” Feely, who Rockford resident Donald Bondick claimed in a five-count lawsuit molested him and other boys, is one of the 10 men on the list released by the Diocese of Rockford Wednesday that have since died.

The list is part of a letter by Bishop David Malloy​ and includes six priests, one deacon and eight priests/brothers. The accusations range from 1925 to 1991.

According the 2006 lawsuit, Feely raped Bondick in 1969, when Bondick was 13.

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NEW JERSEY
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

November 19, 2018

By Kelly Heyboer

The names of every priest and deacon “credibly accused” of sexually abusing a child will be made public by New Jersey’s five Catholic dioceses early next year, church officials announced Monday.

The dioceses — Newark, Camden, Paterson, Metuchen and Trenton — are also establishing a victim compensation fund and counseling program for victims of sexual abuse by clergy and other church employees, said Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the head of the Archdiocese of Newark.

“The dioceses will undertake this action in coordination with the attorney general of New Jersey’s ongoing task force examining the issue of clergy sexual abuse. It is hoped that these steps will aid in the process of healing for victims, who are deserving of our support and prayers,” Tobin said in a statement.

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
69 News

November 18, 2018

Two survivors of alleged child sexual abuse by Catholic clergy are suing for the release of church records from all of Pennsylvania’s dioceses.

The lawsuit seeks the release of records from dioceses related to allegations of child sexual abuse and a list of all accused priests and their work histories.

The firm that filed lawsuit has filed similar lawsuits in New York, California and Illinois and against the U-S Conference of Catholic Bishops.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

November 18, 2018

By Joelle Casteix

~Part one in a multi-part series~
[Read Part 2: Lessons from Covington and Part 3:The Evil Opt-Out]

Class Actions: BAD for Victims. BAD for Justice. BAD for Transparency

Class action lawsuits are a bishop’s dream and a victim’s nightmare. Let me explain:

Earlier this week, news reports discussed a federal class action lawsuit filed on Tuesday against the Vatican and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

(This class action lawsuit is not to be confused with this civil public nuisance lawsuit against the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, also announced this week. It is NOT a class action. The civil public nuisance is a case filed by six individuals. Confusing, I know.)

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NEW JERSEY
SNAP

November 16, 2018

The attorney general for New Jersey has ramped up their investigation into clergy sex abuse and has issued subpoenas to at least one of the state’s catholic dioceses. We applaud this move by Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.

The issuing of these subpoenas is a huge step forward for the investigation in New Jersey and one that will make a major difference in the effort to get to the bottom of the clergy sex abuse crisis. Subpoena power was a critical tool in Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s investigation into clergy sex abuse that revealed evidence of more than 1000 children abused by more than 300 priests. By following in the footsteps of AG Shapiro, it is clear that AG Grewal is taking this investigation seriously.

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.

BRENHAM (TX)
KBTX

November 19, 2018

By Clay Falls

A Catholic priest that served in Brenham earlier this year is now at the center of a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse and misconduct.

The lawsuit filed in Austin raises concerns against Father Isidore “Izzy” Ndagizimana and the Austin Diocese. Six anonymous women claim the priest was abusive while serving at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Austin. They are seeking more than $1 million in damages.

The court documents claimed he was abusive even when the women were in a confessional. The plaintiff’s attorneys accuse the church of not addressing the problems and moving the priest to other parishes. The lawsuit claims the misconduct happened in Austin and not in Brenham.

The Austin Diocese said KBTX Father “Izzy” started in Brenham on July 2 and served until August 21, when we was placed on leave.

“They really hit a brick wall and something needs to change here. There need to be some change in policies and procedure with the diocese,” said Sean Breen, who is the attorney representing the women. He says they hope the suit will bring changes to the church for allegations of misconduct.

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UNITED STATES
SNAP

November 16, 2018

On Monday, the Vatican delayed a vote that would have let US bishops take small steps towards addressing the clergy sex abuse crisis. Despite that delay, some bishops around the country have already been taking positive steps in their own way.

Without permission from the Holy See or their colleagues in the USCCB, several US bishops have become leaders by example. In doing so, these bishops provide a counter-example to the myth that bishops cannot act on this crisis without Vatican approval. Three examples of bishops doing the right thing include:

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.

PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

November 16, 2018

By Peter Smith

The dozen lawsuits filed this week against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh represent the opening of a second front in the effort to overcome the statute of limitations and enable victims to sue over decades-old sexual abuse, even as a similar effort remains stalled in Harrisburg.

The plaintiffs allege that the diocese engaged in a systematic effort at fraud and concealment, which the victims couldn’t have known about when they were younger because it’s only now in the open, thanks to an August grand jury report.

As a result, they claim, the statute of limitations that normally would have closed the courtroom door to them long ago should be opened wide.

It’s an argument that their attorneys tried more than a decade ago without success. But this time they are banking on the statewide grand jury report released in August to reverse their fortunes.

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.

WINONA (MN)
MPR News

November 19, 2018

By Martin Moylan

The southern Minnesota Catholic diocese of Winona-Rochester plans to file for bankruptcy protection later this month, as it faces lawsuits alleging former priests sexually abused children.

In a letter to parishioners this past weekend, Bishop John Quinn said that bankruptcy offers the best opportunity to resolve 121 claims of sexual abuse.

“Bishop Quinn, in consultation with a number of groups within the diocese, feels that this is the best way to help bring about healing and justice for survivors and a way forward for our entire diocesan community,” said Matt Willkom, director of communications for the diocese.

He said the bankruptcy filing will not affect the day-to-day operations of diocese parishes and schools.

Victims would be compensated from diocesan savings, insurance and asset sales.

The Winona-Rochester diocese includes 20 counties and serves more than 131,000 Catholics.

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

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Catholic

November 20, 2018

By Father James F. Keenan, SJ

Many people were disappointed when, as the U.S. bishops began their meeting in Baltimore Nov. 12, it was announced that the Vatican instructed them to delay their votes on their response to the abuse crisis until a February meeting of the presidents of the world’s bishops conferences.

Most U.S. Catholics were expecting new structures of accountability and transparency to be voted on at the Baltimore gathering. Thus, the Vatican interruption was startling, but might it actually have been helpful? Can we find a silver lining here?

Four items strike me as important for us to better understand the events of last week.

First, the more we understand the context of the bishops’ proposals, the more questionable their readiness seems to have been. Questions were raised about how strong the proposed structures would be, whether there was sufficient specificity in them and whether difficulties between the proposals and canon law were resolvable at the meeting.

Furthermore, the draft texts were only sent to Rome at the end of October, and to the full conference at the beginning of this month.

Second, Pope Francis is calling to Rome the presidents of every bishops’ conference in the world for a meeting to address the crisis Feb. 21-24. This is extraordinary in that the pope is convening the entire episcopacy to accountability over the scandal. No longer is it seen as “an American problem,” as many have suggested.

Recent reports from Chile, Germany and India highlight how tragically universal the crisis really is. So if the U.S. bishops passed a problematic proposal or, worse, didn’t pass anything because of internal divisions, it would have set a terrible precedent for the February meeting.

Third, at the pope’s suggestion, the U.S. bishops have scheduled a retreat from Jan. 2-8 at Mundelein Seminary. While some say the bishops need to act more than pray, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has not always shown a great deal of collegiality and solidarity with one another or even the pope.

For instance, the conference has yet to put the pope’s apostolic exhortation on family life, “Amoris Laetitia,” on its agenda. Other episcopal conferences, from Germany and Austria to South Africa and Argentina, have not only welcomed and discussed it, but developed interesting programs to help families with their marriages, particularly those who have divorced. The retreat might lead to greater unity among the body of bishops, which may bring stronger responses to the current crisis.

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.

KERALA (INDIA)
Aljazeera

November 20, 2018

by Raksha Kumar

The Catholic Church in India is facing a trying time, with a growing protest movement in response to allegations of sexual assault by clergymen.

In June, police in the southern Indian state of Kerala registered a case against the bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Jalandhar, in the northern state of Punjab.

A nun had alleged that the bishop, Franko Mulakkal, had raped her repeatedly between 2014 and 2016 at a convent in Kerala.

The nun is a member of the Missionaries of Jesus congregation based in Jalandhar.

The bishop was arrested but then released from prison on October 15 on bail on the condition that he presents himself in the police station once every fortnight.

Five nuns of the same congregation have come out in support of the complainant. Six of them live in a convent in Kerala, under police protection.

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AMHERST (NY)
The Post Star

November 20, 2018

A Roman Catholic priest in upstate New York who was placed on leave amid accusations of child sex abuse says he knows he’s innocent.

WGRZ-TV in Buffalo reports the complaint against the Rev. Samuel Venne centers on his time at Our Lady of Pompei in Depew in 1980.

Venne says he has not been told the accuser’s name, and his attorney has not been able to give evidence to show his innocence.

Venne is one of 18 Buffalo-area priests placed on leave as part of an investigation into alleged abuse. The investigation process abides by Catholic canon law and not the American justice system.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
The Associated Press

November 20, 2018

The state Ethics Commission has denied motions by a Rhode Island Supreme Court justice to dismiss a complaint against him.

The complaint alleges Justice Francis Flaherty violated ethics rules by not reporting his service on the board of a Catholic lawyers’ group on financial disclosure forms.

The commission dismissed Flaherty’s motions Tuesday. A hearing will be held to determine whether Flaherty violated the code.

Flaherty says it wasn’t a willful violation. He questioned the commission’s authority and says his due process rights were violated.

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NEWARK (NJ)
Newark Archdiocese

November 19, 2018

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R., Archbishop of Newark, announced today that the Archdiocese of Newark and the Dioceses of Camden, Trenton, Paterson and Metuchen are committed to the establishment of a Victim Compensation and Counseling Program. The details and mechanics of this Program will be finalized after consultation with – and input from – all stakeholders, and will be released when they are available.

This Program will provide the resources to compensate those victims of child sexual abuse by clergy and employees of the Dioceses in New Jersey whose financial claims are legally barred by New Jersey’s statute of limitations. This will give victims a formal voice and allow them to be heard by an independent panel. The Cardinal said that the Program also will assure that victims who have not received any financial compensation will be paid, regardless of whether their claims meet the time requirements of the statute of limitations. This initiative will expand on the current arrangement through which the Catholic Church in New Jersey already has provided some fifty million dollars in financial settlements to victims of abuse. The vast majority of these claims had been barred by the statute of limitations.

The Program also will be a resource to provide permanent funding for necessary counseling to those who have been victimized. Such counseling so often is needed to help in the healing of those who have been harmed.

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MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
KSTP TV 5

November 19, 2018

A former Wisconsin priest is accused of preying on several minors who served as altar boys at his churches in the early 1980s, according to details contained in the criminal complaints filed against him.

Thomas Edward Ericksen, 71, was living in Minneapolis and was arrested Friday in Hennepin County after being charged with sexual assault in Wisconsin.

Court records show Ericksen is charged with second-degree sexual assault of an unconscious victim, second-degree sexual assault against a child and first-degree sexual assault against a child. According to Jeff Anderson & Associates, a law firm which represents victims of sexual abuse, Ericksen was ordained in 1973 and worked in Wisconsin parishes until 1988, when he was permanently removed from ministry.

Ericksen left Wisconsin, even left the country and lived in Indonesia for a while. For years, no one knew of his whereabouts. Court records showed he returned to the United States in 2013 and his name was added to the list of predator priests. In 2016, investigators interviewed Ericksen, where he freely admitted to “fondling five boys,” yet was never charged.

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POINT PLEASANT (NJ)
Patch

November 20, 2018

By Tom Davis

Leaders of the Catholic Church in New Jersey announced this week they will soon reveal the names of priests “credibly accused” of child sex abuse to help victims heal as more revelations have been made in recent months.

Indeed, at least nine members of the clergy with ties to New Jersey have faced allegations of child sex abuse in recent years. Nearly all of them were either sanctioned by the church, charged with a crime or both.

Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, announced Monday that the Roman Catholic Dioceses in New Jersey will undertake a complete review of their files so that, early next year, the names of all priests and deacons who have been credibly accused of the sexual abuse of minors will be made public.

The dioceses will undertake this action in coordination with the Attorney General of New Jersey’s ongoing task force examining the issue of clergy sexual abuse. The revelation could be made by the end of the year.

“It is hoped that these steps will aid in the process of healing for victims, who are deserving of our support and prayers,” according to a statement from Tobin’s office.

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KANSAS CITY(MO)
National Catholic Reporter

November 19, 2018

by Heidi Schlumpf

After public discussion raised several criticisms of a possible new commission to receive and investigate accusations of misconduct by bishops, a retired prelate of Tucson, Arizona, suggested using a church structure already in place: metropolitans, or the archbishops who oversee ecclesiastical provinces — in the U.S., usually a state.

Now some are saying that alternative plan was hatched in advance of the annual bishops’ meeting in Baltimore by two-high ranking cardinals — a charge at least one of them vehemently denies.

“At no time prior to the Baltimore meeting did the two of us collaborate in developing, nor even talk about, an alternative plan,” Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich told Crux on Sunday.

Cupich called “false” a news story that alleged that he and Cardinal Donald Wuerl worked on the alternative plan “for weeks” and presented it to the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops before the four-day meeting of the U.S. prelates last week.

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

November 19, 2018

A now-deceased Rapid City bishop has been accused of molesting a Minnesota child, Catholic officials recently acknowledged.

St. Cloud MN Bishop Donald Kettler said that Bishop Harold Dimmerling has been credibly accused of sexually abusing a minor while a priest in the Diocese of Saint Cloud. The allegation has been reported to law enforcement.

SNAP hopes others who may have been hurt by this deceased prelate will come forward to independent sources of healing, such as therapists, loved ones, and support groups like ours.

Bishop Kettler has said that he will hold listening sessions in the near future in areas of the diocese where Bishop Dimmerling worked. We also encourage current Rapid City Bishop Robert Gruss to aggressively reach out to those who may be suffering in silence, shame and self-blame. He and his staff should use parish bulletins, pulpit announcements, church websites and other resources to seek out and help anyone who might have been hurt by the accused hierarch. Bishop Gruss should also closely reexamine all the abuse allegations handled by his predessor.

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NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

November 20, 2018

By Michael Sean Winters

The US bishops’ conference concluded its autumn plenary last week divided and disheartened. After a summer of intense focus on their mishandling of clergy sex abuse issues, they fumbled any attempt to demonstrate a reason the people in the pews should trust them to lead the ecclesial community.

The Holy See had issued a last minute directive, barring them from enacting the proposed remedies formally, pending the outcome of a Rome meeting in February with the presidents of the world’s episcopal conferences. The executive committee proposed “Standards of Episcopal Conduct”, and a National Review Board to investigate charges against bishops. But, when they discussed those proposals with a view towards instructing their president-delegate to that same meeting, it quickly became clear that the bishops found them inadequate, too expensive, and too cumbersome. They did not even take a “sense of the body” vote on the proposals as was suggested by Cardinal Blase Cupich when the Vatican’s decision to bar a vote on enacting the proposals was announced.

Nor was there any consensus on diagnosing the problem. Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco commended a study purported to link increased numbers of gay people in the priesthood with clergy sex abuse and Bishop Joseph Strickland, of Tyler, Texas, criticised Fr. James Martin, S.J., without naming him, for his efforts to encourage outreach to the LGBT community. Sex abuse victims’ groups have repeatedly denounced efforts to blame the abuse crisis on gays and the most thorough study of the sources of the crisis, published by the John Jay College in 2011, cited a variety of factors that led to the crisis but insisted homosexuality is not a predictor of sex abuse.

Archbishop Paul Etienne of Anchorage, Alaska pointed to the culture of clericalism. He criticised bishops “who have gotten too accustomed to listening to lawyers over victims” and those too concerned with power, privilege and pride. “That’s a corruption of our life as shepherds that has to be called out and say ‘No more. It’s not tolerable.’”

The lack of consensus and mixed motives were evident in the debate over a proposal by Bishop Earl Boyer of Lansing, Michigan. Boyer proposed a resolution urging the Vatican to publish all documents related to the scandal surrounding former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Cardinal Joseph Tobin pointed out the Vatican is already conducting an investigation and has promised to publish the results. The proposed resolution was defeated two-to-one.

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UNITED STATES
America Magazine

November 19, 2018

By Michael J. O’Loughlin

Following the announcement earlier this month that Jesuits in the western part of the United States will release a list of credibly accused priests and brothers on Dec. 7, two more provinces, which cover most of the middle and southern parts of the United States, will follow suit.

“We take this step in the spirit of transparency and reconciliation,” Brian Paulson, S.J., the provincial of the Midwest Province, said in a press release. “As we look back at our history, the failures of the Church and the Society of Jesus to protect those entrusted to its care fill our hearts with outrage, sorrow and shame. On behalf of the Midwest Jesuits, I sincerely apologize to victims and their families for the harm and suffering you have endured. Many have suffered in silence for decades. Our concern and prayers are with the victim-survivors and we hope and pray that this step will strengthen the trust of those we serve.”

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Catholic World Report

November 18, 2018

By Christopher R. Altieri

If the bishops cannot break their thrall to their umbrella organization, and their paralysis within the warped culture of cronyism that structure fosters from top to bottom, all under the more general rubric of collegiality, it will likely be their undoing.

In the wake of reports that the intrusion of the Holy See on the proceedings of the USCCB fall meeting in Baltimore was even more extensive than previously understood, and that the Holy See’s intrusion involved high-ranking members of the Conference in its organization and execution, frustration and outrage has increased across broad quarters of the Catholic body. Some of that frustration and outrage will inevitably result in railing and denunciation, but this moment in the life of the Church and in the US theater of the global crisis calls for cold analysis.

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[Diocese gives files to prosecutor]

GERMANY
RWM

November 16, 2018

Das Bistum Essen wird der Staatsanwaltschaft Essen 41 Akten möglicher Missbrauchsfälle zur Verfügung stellen. Dies sei das Ergebnis eines gemeinsamen Gesprächs im Essener Generalivikariat vom Donnerstag, erklärte Oberstaatsanwältin Anette Milk, Pressesprecherin der Staatsanwaltschaft Essen, Neues Ruhr-Wort auf Anfrage.

„Wir rechnen mit den Unterlagen in den nächsten Tagen“, sagte Milk. Da die Bistumsgrenzen und der Zuständigkeitsbereich der Staatsanwaltschat Essen nicht deckungsgleich seien, sei es möglich, dass die Ermittler Akten nach einer ersten Sichtung auch an benachbarte Behörden abgeben.

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[Expert: Abuse Prevention Must Begin in the Seminary
“It’s a Problem of the Institution”]

GERMANY
Domradio.de

November 17, 2018

Expertin: Missbrauchsprävention muss im Priesterseminar beginnen

Der Missbrauchsskandal wird die katholische Kirche in Deutschland wohl noch lange beschäftigen. Bei einer Fachtagung in Dresden gab jetzt eine Psychologin von der Päpstlichen Universität in Rom bemerkenswerte Einblick.

Als im September die Ergebnisse der von den katholischen Bischöfen in Auftrag gegebenen Studie zu sexuellem Missbrauch von Minderjährigen durch Geistliche öffentlich wurden, war das Entsetzen groß. Zwischen 1946 und 2014 wurden demnach in Deutschland 3.677 Kinder und Jugendliche Opfer sexueller Übergriffe von mindestens 1.670 Beschuldigten; das sind 4,4 Prozent der Geistlichen. “Die Ergebnisse geben einen guten ersten Eindruck. Wobei die Dunkelziffer sicher höher ist. Insgesamt liegt Deutschland damit im internationalen Vergleich aber in der Norm”, urteilt die Psychologin Katharina Fuchs. Als Verantwortliche für Forschung und Entwicklung am “Centre for Child Protection” der Päpstlichen Universität Gregoriana in Rom ist sie Expertin für sexuellen Missbrauch durch Kleriker.

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[Church wants to present numbers from all dioceses
Poland’s church announces data on child abuse]

WARSAW (POLAND)
katholisch.de

November 16, 2018

Wie groß ist das Problem des sexuellen Missbrauchs in der katholischen Kirche in Polen? Zur Beantwortung dieser Frage will die polnische Kirche im kommenden Jahr statistische Daten über Kindesmissbrauch durch Geistliche veröffentlichen.

Die katholische Kirche in Polen will im ersten Halbjahr 2019 statistische Daten über sexuellen Kindesmissbrauch durch Geistliche veröffentlichen. Alle Diözesen sollen bis Ende November ihre Erhebungen einem Statistikzentrum melden, sagte der Missbrauchsbeauftragte der Polnischen Bischofskonferenz, der Jesuit Adam Zak, der polnischen katholischen Nachrichtenagentur KAI (Donnerstagabend). Die Auswertung der Daten werde mehrere Monate dauern.

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[Pedophilia in the Church: the commission of inquiry will have “no restrictions” according to its president]

PARIS (FRANCE)
AFP

November 16, 2018

La commission chargée de faire la lumière sur les abus sexuels sur les mineurs dans l’Eglise depuis 1950, une première en France, aura “tous les moyens nécessaires” pour enquêter, assure à l’AFP son président, Jean-Marc Sauvé.
QUESTION : A la demande des évêques, vous avez accepté d’être président d’une commission de transparence sur la pédophilie dans l’Eglise. En quoi sera-t-elle indépendante?

RÉPONSE : “Elle sera indépendante, car c’est moi et moi seul qui la composerai. Il n’y aura aucune interférence de l’Eglise catholique, ni de la Conférence des évêques. Son mandat est large et ne comporte aucune restriction. Ses méthodes de travail seront déterminées par elle.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
WYTV

November 16, 2018

Father Zappitelli moved to Phoenix from Youngstown in 1983

A priest accused of sexual misconduct within the Diocese of Youngstown has been removed from public ministry in Phoenix.

Father Frank Zappitelli is a retired priest of the Diocese of Phoenix. When the diocese learned he had been placed on Youngstown’s list of accused priests, the bishop removed him from service.

The 84-year-old moved to Phoenix from Youngstown in 1983. He served at six parishes there.

After he retired in 2001, Zappitelli helped out at another parish.

His allegation of sexual misconduct dates back to the mid-’70s in the Youngstown area.

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HUBBARD (OH)
Tribune Chronicle

November 16, 2018

By Bob Coupland

A member of the Queen of the Holy Rosary Parish in Vienna said she was doing her job as church procurator in reporting an alleged incident of inappropriate behavior involving a priest and a minor.

Joann Knuth of Hubbard said Thursday that church members have split in the wake of the Rev. Denis Bouchard, church pastor since 2009, being placed on administrative leave after the Diocese of Youngstown received an allegation against Bouchard of inappropriate behavior with a minor.

Knuth said she believes congregation members are blaming her for what turmoil is happening in the church.

The Diocesan Review Board met and recommended to Bishop George Murry further investigation to determine credibility and substantiation. The Rev. John Jerek, vicar for the clergy, said it is the policy of the diocese that Bouchard be placed on administrative leave while a thorough investigation proceeds.

In the interim, the Rev. Carlos Casavantes has been appointed administrator at Queen of the Holy Rosary. Both Bouchard and Casavantes are members of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter.

Jerek said because it is an ongoing investigation, additional comments on the case cannot be made.

Knuth, a longtime parish member, said she was contacted by the mother of the victim, neither of whom she has met. She said the mother left the church years ago.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
WTAE

November 13, 2018

By Chris Lovingood

Seven laps — that’s how many times a small group of protesters said they would walk around the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh offices on Tuesday morning.

Carrying signs and wearing red shirts and that said, “Bishop Zubik Silence Stops Now,” the group was pushing for more transparency from the church.

“I am angry, and I think it’s a righteous anger,” said Mary Gasior, of Robinson Township.

The diocese said Monday that the Rev. Richard Lelonis had been put on administrative leave. He’s the latest priest to be accused of sexually assaulting minors — once in the 1970s, and an attempted abuse in the 1980s.

“We saw in the summertime that things are still covered up, and the victims need a voice and we are here for them,” said Gasior.

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UNITED STATES
The Cut

November 19, 2018

Larissa Boyce was 10 when her coach, John Geddert, forced her legs into a split so hard she cried. He pulled her right leg up toward his torso, sending shooting pains through her groin and hamstrings, and he kept pulling. “Racking,” as it’s called, was common practice at the gym, but it was evidently too much for Larissa’s mother, who marched onto the mats and told Geddert to take his hands off her daughter. From then on, Larissa would train under Kathie Klages, a relatively low-key coach with unruly red hair and glasses at Michigan State University’s Spartan youth gymnastics team. Klages, like Geddert, considered herself a dear friend of an athletic trainer named Larry Nassar and sent her gymnasts to him.

When, six years later, Larissa felt ready to talk about the fact that Larry had penetrated her with his hand without warning, she approached Klages. Larissa remembers her office as a small room with a desk, a window, and green carpet. “‘I have known Larry for years and years,’” Larissa recalls Klages saying. “‘He would never do anything inappropriate.’”

Larissa named another gymnast who had been touched, and when Klages called her into the office, she told her the same story. Klages countered by bringing in college gymnasts, who said that Larry had touched “around” the area but that it was never “inappropriate.”

“That’s not what happened to me,” Larissa said. Klages, who has been indicted for allegedly lying to police about this and another such instance, maintains that no one ever came to her with complaints of sexual abuse.

According to Larissa, Klages said she could report the allegations but doing so would have “very serious consequences” for both Larry and Larissa. Larissa couldn’t look at Klages, so she stared out the window. She didn’t want to get anyone in trouble. Afterward, she cried in the bathroom and resolved never to tell anyone again. She worried that Klages would tell Larry.

The next time she went to visit Larry, he closed the door, pulled up a stool, sat down, and looked at her. “So,” he said, “I talked to Kathie.”

“I’m so sorry,” Larissa said. “I misunderstood. It’s all my fault.”

It was 1997. Most of Larry Nassar’s victims had not yet been born.

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WARSAW (POLAND)
Reuters

November 19, 2018

By Marcin Goclowski

Poland’s Catholic Church on Monday asked victims of sexual abuse by the clergy for forgiveness, a month after an appeal court upheld a ruling stating the Church was responsible for the crimes of one if its priests.

The Catholic Church worldwide is reeling from crises involving sexual abuse of minors, damaging confidence in the Church in Chile, the United States, Australia and Ireland and other countries.

The Polish court of appeal upheld last month a landmark ruling granting a million zloty ($260,000) in compensation to a victim of sexual abuse by a Catholic priest, accepting that the Church was responsible.

“We ask God, the victims of abuse, their families and the Church community for forgiveness for all the harm done to children and young people and their relatives,” the Polish Bishops wrote in a statement after a conference dedicated to the issue.

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[Pedophilia in the French Church: Jean-Marc Sauvé will chair independent commission]

FRANCE
Le Monde

November 13, 2018

By Cécile Chambraud

L’ancien vice-président du Conseil d’Etat doit mettre en place cette commission chargée de faire la lumière sur les affaires de pédophilie dans l’Eglise depuis 1950.

L’Eglise catholique est allée chercher un grand commis de l’Etat pour faire la lumière sur les abus sexuels sur mineurs perpétrés dans ses rangs depuis 1950. Jean-Marc Sauvé, qui fut vice-président du Conseil d’Etat pendant douze ans, jusqu’en mai, présidera la commission indépendante dont les évêques ont décidé la création à Lourdes, le 7 novembre. Il rencontrera prochainement Mgr Georges Pontier, le président de la Conférence des évêques de France, « pour préciser les objectifs de cette commission » ainsi que ses moyens, a indiqué l’épiscopat mardi. Avec cet organisme, l’Eglise espère apurer le passé et prévenir la répétition de tels faits dans l’avenir.

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[The Church did not see sexual abuse, but “sin” in the Order of the Miguelianos]

PONTEVEDRA (SPAIN)
El País

November 14, 2018

By Elisa Lois

Adoctrinamiento, anulación de la consciencia y agresiones sexuales son algunas de las prácticas de las que se acusa al líder de la organización, que afronta 66 años de cárcel

Mientras excongregados de la disuelta Orden y Mandato San Miguel Arcángel que declararon contra su fundador, Miguel Rosendo, han dejado testimonios estremecedores (alguna ocultándose tras un biombo) en el juicio que se celebra desde septiembre en la Audiencia de Pontevedra por presuntos abusos sexuales y otros 11 delitos, la postura de la Iglesia ha quedado en evidencia en este proceso al no haber denunciado los hechos ante la Justicia.

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[Spain’s bishops meet without pedophilia on the agenda]

MADRID (SPAIN)
El País

November 19, 2018

By Juan G. Bedoya

La Conferencia Episcopal Española celebra su ‘plenaria de otoño’ con discrepancias sobre cómo afrontar su peor crisis

Las jerarquías del catolicismo se sienten “en estado de sitio”, en palabras de uno de los obispos que esta mañana se encierra con sus colegas en la asamblea plenaria que la Conferencia Episcopal Española (CEE) celebra todos los otoños. La reunión se prolongará hasta el viernes y no incluye en su orden del día debate alguno sobre los escándalos de pederastia.

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[Blázquez: “Abuses should not be covered up or given the wrong answer”]

MADRID (SPAIN)
El País

November 19, 2018

By Juan G. Bedoya

El presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal hace suyas las conclusiones sobre pederastia del Sínodo de Obispos de octubre

El presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal Española (CEE), Ricardo Blázquez, ha leído este lunes un documento en el que dice que “la Iglesia reconoce abiertamente los abusos de diversa índole y tiene la firme decisión de erradicarlos”. Lo ha asegurado durante la sesión inaugural de la Asamblea Plenaria de los obispos, en la que ha dado las gracias a las víctimas de abusos sexuales en el seno de la Iglesia por su “valentía al denunciarlos”, porque “ayudan a la Iglesia a tomar conciencia de cuanto ha ocurrido y de la necesidad de reaccionar con decisión”.

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[Canonical sentence reveals the Church “looked the other way” in the face of abuses]

MADRID (SPAIN)
El País

November 19, 2018

By José Manuel Romero and Julio Núñez

EL PAÍS publica el fallo de un tribunal eclesiástico que expulsó a un cura por violar repetidamente a una niña y admite la tolerancia de los obispos ante casos similares

El tribunal eclesiástico de la diócesis de Mallorca dictó una sentencia canónica en marzo de 2013 sobre un caso grave de abusos a menores en la que admite la culpa de la Iglesia por encubrimiento de estas conductas. EL PAÍS hace pública esa sentencia, oculta hasta ahora como el resto de las impuestas por tribunales eclesiásticos.

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[1987 report warned of “undue pressure” by Karadima in El Bosque]

CHILE
BioBioChile

November 19, 2018

By Valentina González

“Sus nervios lo traicionan frecuentemente con explosiones de rabia, violencia con los pobres de la parroquia, a quienes amenaza con Carabineros si no se van, desprecios, hablar muy mal de la gente en público y con sus íntimos (yo he tenido esa experiencia)”.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

November 19, 2018

By Peter Smith

When Michael Norris talks with fellow survivors of sexual abuse by clergy, he finds that they have a lot in common — the betrayal by a trusted priest and the long trail of damage to family relationships, schooling and a career path.

But Mr. Norris said many victims are astonished when he gets to the part of the story in which he sat in a rural Kentucky courtroom on a November day in 2016. There, he witnessed a group of jurors come out from their deliberations and convict his perpetrator.

“It was the ultimate release,” said Mr. Norris, 55, now of Houston. “To hear the jury come back with a guilty verdict, it just overwhelmed me. Most survivors don’t get that kind of justice.”

Abused by the Rev. Joseph Hemmerle in a summer-camp cabin in 1973, Mr. Norris first came forward to the church and police in 2001, but no charges were filed and the priest returned to ministry.

More than a decade later, after a second victim came forward, Hemmerle was charged and convicted in separate court cases. As long as the wait was, such an outcome wouldn’t have been an option at all if the abuse had happened at that time in Pennsylvania or many other states.

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AUSTIN (TX)
CBS 29 TV

November 14, 2018

Six women are suing the Catholic Diocese of Austin and a priest for years of alleged sexual harassment and abuse.

The women name Father Isidore Ndagizimana in their suit. They say he made unwanted sexual advances and isolated them — holding the women against their will.

This reportedly happened while they were attending Austin’s St. Thomas More Catholic Church off FM 620 in Northwest Austin.

The suit says Ndagizimana, also known as “Father Izzy,” was transferred to a parish in Brenham after the women brought the allegations to light.

According to the suit, the women behind the lawsuit are mothers, wives and active parish volunteers.

The women claimed that they were told they didn’t need to take legal action against Father Izzy or the church and that they should trust the diocese to handle the situation.

This comes about a month after more than a dozen Catholic bishops in Texas announced they’d release the names of clergy who have been credibly accused of child sexual assault.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Patheos (blog)

November 16, 2018

By Deacon Greg Kandra

If bishops want a sense of where things stand these days, consider this:

Last weekend, a parishioner shared with me a story that offers a snapshot of what the world now thinks of the Catholic Church.

He works for a private, secular day camp on Long Island and was giving a tour to a family. The mother kept peppering him with questions about how the children were supervised. Where did they change? What sort of access did adults have? My friend politely answered the questions and concerns, and at the end of the tour the mother explained. “I’m sorry if I asked so many questions,” she said, “but with what’s happening with the Catholic Church now, you can’t be too careful…”

Mind you: she was not Catholic. The camp was not Catholic. But the festering boil that is the sex scandals of the Church has now broken wide open, and no bandage can contain it. This is how the public now perceives us.

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GET RELIGION

November 10, 2018

By Clemente Lisi

The scandals that have engulfed the Catholic Church the past few months are only intensifying.

The allegations to come out of Pennsylvania (as well as Ireland and Australia) and accusations against ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick not only revealed how much the church is hurting, but also the stark ideological split within it. These events have also seen a rise in the power of online media.

The growth of conservative Catholic outlets, for example, and their ability to break stories against “Uncle Ted” has coincided with the internal struggle contrasting what traditionalists see as inadequate news coverage from the mainstream media regarding Pope Francis’ leadership. Filling that void are conservative journalists and bloggers on a mission to expose what they see as the Vatican’s progressive hierarchy.

In 2002, an investigation by The Boston Globe unearthed decades of abuse by clergy never before reported to civil authorities (click here for links). These days, accusations of wrongdoing within the Catholic Church are being exposed by smaller news organizations. No longer are mainstream outlets setting the pace here. Depleted newsrooms and not wanting to do negative stories about the pontiff have spurred conservative Catholic media to fill the journalism void.

Indeed, it’s a small group of influential blogs and news websites that has helped to inform millions as well as drive the debate.

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The Anchoress (blog)

November 16, 2018

By Elizabeth Scalia

After the Vatican ordered US Bishops to refrain from voting on episcopal correctives to their failures on the sex abuse front (a February bishop’s gathering in Rome will now address it), American bishops left their bi-annual conference with little to show for their time beyond approving a the promotion of the excellent Sister Thea Bowman’s cause for sainthood.

The do-little gathering left plenty of American Catholics feeling short-changed and fed-up, and precipitated Melinda Henneburger’s scorching rebuke to the bishops as she declared herself “done” with the Church. Her piece is a stunningly naked and raw howl of authentic anguish from a woman who feels betrayed beyond endurance.

[USCCB President Cardinal Daniel] DiNardo recounted that it happened this way: “In our weakness,’’ he said in Baltimore, “we fell asleep.” Not so much like Peter in the garden, though. More like Rip Van Winkle, and for a century instead of 20 years.

When and if the bishops do fully rouse themselves, I won’t be in the pews to hear about it.

Read all of it.

Henneberger says she has not been able to bring herself to attend Mass since last June, when revelations concerning former-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick came to light. Having covered the Vatican for the New York Times, Henneberger thought she had a good sense of McCarrick, and so she felt particularly and personally crushed by his sins, and the evidence they gave of the man’s deep betrayal of everything he professed and preached:

After “credible and substantiated” allegations that the now former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick had taken advantage of seminarians, assaulted an altar boy in 1971 and even, because evil knows no shame, abused the first child he had ever baptized, the accused was shipped off to the quiet of a Kansas friary — thanks so much for thinking of us out here on the prairie! — to pray, repent and, so far, stick to his story that he has done nothing wrong.

Far from alone
Yes, that’s one angry woman, and she is far from alone. My email is a daily font of fury being expressed by friends and Catholic media colleagues who declare their faith shaken enough to impact their prayer lives, their attendance at Mass, and even their foundational belief in the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Amid so many lies, cover-ups and assists to evil, they catch themselves wondering, is any of true?

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MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
The Catholic Spirit

November 19, 2018

Bishop Donald Kettler has added the name of Bishop Harold Dimmerling to the list of clergy likely to have abused minors, according to a Nov. 12 statement from the Diocese of St. Cloud.
Dimmerling was a priest of the Saint Cloud Diocese who later served as bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota, from 1969 until his death in 1987.

Bishop Kettler recently received an allegation that Dimmerling sexually abused a minor while serving as a priest in the Diocese of Saint Cloud, the statement said.

Bishop Kettler has spoken with the victim/survivor and, after prayer and consultation, deemed the allegation credible. The allegation has been reported to law enforcement. There has been no other report of sexual misconduct involving Dimmerling in the Diocese of Saint Cloud prior to receiving the present allegation, the statement said.

In line with past practice, Bishop Kettler will hold listening sessions in the near future in areas of the diocese where Dimmerling served. The sessions have three primary goals: to assure parishioners of the bishop’s support and assistance; to offer a process whereby sexual misconduct issues/concerns can be voiced and discussed; and to allow other potential victims the opportunity to come forward and receive assistance and healing.

Dimmerling was ordained on May 2, 1940, in the Diocese of Altoona, Pennsylvania, and was incardinated upon ordination into the Diocese of Saint Cloud. His assignments in the diocese included: assistant, Cathedral of St. Mary, St. Cloud (1940-1943); chaplain, St. Francis Hospital, Breckenridge, while also serving at St. Joseph, Brushvale (1943-1949); pastor, Sacred Heart in Glenwood and St. Bartholomew in Villard (1949-1957); pastor, St. Mary of the Presentation, Breckenridge (1957-1961); spiritual director, diocesan seminary, Collegeville (1961-1963); rector, diocesan seminary, Collegeville (1963-1969); pastor, St. Mary, Little Falls (1969).

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NEWARK (NJ)
North Jersey Record

November 19, 2018

By Hannan Adely

The Catholic Church in New Jersey will name all priests and deacons who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors early next year, Cardinal Joseph Tobin announced Monday.

The naming of the alleged abusers is part of a larger effort by the church that includes a “complete review” of abuse allegations and the establishment of a victim compensation fund and counseling program, Tobin said in a statement.

The announcement comes amid a time of turmoil in the church, following abuse controversies and alleged church cover-ups of abuse that have led some faithful to question their support of the church and its leadership over the years.

A two-year investigation in Pennsylvania found more than 1,000 victims there over 70 years and evidence of a cover up by church leaders. Some 300 Pennsylvania priests were implicated, including at least four priests had who spent part of their ministries in New Jersey.

Jim Goodness, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Newark, did not say how many priests and deacons the church has already identified in connection with credible abuse allegations.

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LACROSS (WI)
WXOW TV

November 19, 2018

The Catholic Diocese of Winona-Rochester will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy by the end of the month following multiple claims of clergy sex abuse.

Chapter 11 is a specific type of bankruptcy that allows the Diocese to restructure so it can divide its assets among its creditors.

“As part of this healing, it is incumbent upon us to create a path forward that provides just compensation for the victims of abuse. This must include public acknowledgment of their pain and an apology for it as well as financial compensation,” Bishop John Quinn said in a statement released over the weekend.

The Diocese is facing 121 pending claims of clergy sex abuse by 14 priests who have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct with children from the 1960s through the 1980s.

The Diocese disclosed the names of the priests in 2013: Thomas Adamson, Sylvester Brown, Joseph Cashman, Louis Cook, William Curtis, John Feiten, Richard Hatch, Ferdinand, Leo Koppala, Jack Krough, Michael Kuisle, James Lennon, Leland Smith, and Robert Taylor.

They include a high school principal, parish priests, a hospital chaplain, and seminary instructors. All of whom have either died or been suspended from the ministry. 11 of them served in Rochester parishes.

One lawsuit includes Father Richard Hatch who sexually abused a 13-year-old boy in 1962 while serving as a priest at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church and School in Winona. The suit alleges the Diocese knew about Father Hatch being a possible sexual abuser at the time, citing a 1964 letter from then diocesan chancellor Monsignor Emmett Tighs, in which he said that Hatch was “a very disturbed man.”

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

November 19, 2018

Bishop Richard J. Malone states it’s difficult to have one’s integrity questioned. He is right.

He should ask every one of the children who went to their parents about what was happening to them behind the altar. He should go to each mother who watched her broken child become depressed, anxious, perhaps in later years alcoholic or suicidal. Sexual abuse does that to kids.

Then Malone should study the word integrity, “the state of being unimpaired; perfect condition; the quality or state of being of sound moral principle, uprightness, honesty, sincerity.” What part of this word applies to him?

There is no question: Malone’s integrity is not being questioned. The answer is in. He must resign.

Lynn Sullivan

Orchard Park

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OAKLAND (MI)
Oakland Press

November 19, 2018

By Aileen Wingblad

A Chaldean Catholic church deacon has been bound over to Oakland County Circuit Court for alleged sex crimes against a teen boy.

Hurmiz Ishak, 65 of Sterling Heights, is charged with three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct – multiple variables for alleged acts at St. Joseph Chaldean Catholic Church, 2442 E. Big Beaver Rd. in Troy.

Judge Maureen McGinnis of Troy’s 52-4 District Court advanced the case to the higher court on Nov. 15. Ishak is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 29 by Judge Phyllis McMillen.

Court records indicate the alleged assaults began May 1, 2017 and Troy police say they continued over the past several months. Church officials contacted police Oct. 14 after learning about the alleged incidents from the victim’s family.

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STARKVILLE, MS
Starkville Daily News

November 19, 2018

By Ryan Philips

Few details have been revealed by the Catholic Diocese of Jackson concerning a Starkville priest at the center of a federal investigation.

But through an email exchange with the Starkville Daily News, the Diocese did provide background information on Father Lenin Vargas of St. Joseph Catholic Church as church leaders address accusations that he defrauded parishioners with a fake cancer diagnosis — a scam that investigators and some in the church believe was covered up by the Diocese to avoid negative publicity.

Diocese Communications Director Maureen Smith said Father Vargas was first ordained a priest in June 2006. Most recently the native of Mexico was the subject of a 37-page affidavit filed in federal court in Jackson last week with a search warrant for both the Starkville parish and the Diocese’s office in Jackson.

In the affidavit, as many as five confidential informants provided information to investigators, with at least one saying Vargas was diagnosed with HIV in 2014, but instead told parishioners at St. Joseph and Corpus Christi Mission in Macon that he had a rare form of cancer and began collecting donations for his supposed cancer treatment in Canada.

Informants also claim he propagated at least two fraudulent pet projects — an orphanage and a chapel on a Mexican mountain — to those in the church to raise money, which he then used for unrelated personal expenses not associated with any medical expenses.

Smith said Vargas attended Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. When he was first ordained in 2006, he served as the associate pastor at St. Francis of Assisi in Madison, Mississippi.

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ALABAMA
AL.com

November 19, 2018

By Christopher Harress

Mark Belenchia remembers the day when he first set eyes on the new Catholic priest in the small Mississippi Delta town of Shelby. It was 1968 at the time and he was 13 years-old.

“He turned up without his collar on at a baseball game I was playing in,” said Belenchia from his home in Jackson, Mississippi. “He was different from the stuffy priests we were used to. Charismatic, like a breath of fresh air.” “That was Rev. [Bernard] Haddican’s first day on the job. The day he began to groom us.”

While Belenchia’s story takes place in Mississippi, his position as an advocate for sex abuse victims has put him in touch with people from across his home state, Alabama and other parts of the country. He has heard the full scale of sexual abuse against children dating back decades. He has heard grown men cry over the phone as they, for the first time, explain what happened to them. Many of it decades before. Now, with the expected release of a list naming priests and other clergy accused of sexually abusing children over the last 50 years in parts of Alabama and Mississippi, Belenchia is preparing himself for more heartbreaking calls.

“I want to be there for people as much as I can,” said Belenchia, who is an advocate for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) . “but the sad truth is that for most of them time has run out.”

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Maryland Matters

November 18, 2018

By Frank A. DeFilippo

Back in the dark ages, around 1970, the prelates of the three Roman Catholic archdiocese and diocese that straddle Maryland – Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Wilmington, Del. – sought a meeting with Gov. Marvin Mandel (D) to discuss one of the church-bell issues of the day, aid to parochial schools.

As press secretary to Mandel (and a former altar boy), I briefed Mandel, Maryland’s first and only Jewish governor, on the proper titles and greetings for the princes of the church – your eminence for the cardinals of the Archdiocese of Baltimore and Washington and your excellency for the Bishop of Wilmington.

Concluding the conversation, I said: “And the most important thing to remember, Marvin, is that they became cardinals and bishops the same way you became governor.”

A decade before that event, when Woodstock College, in Howard County, was the intellectual center of the Catholic universe, the reigning Jesuit theologians of the era were Avery Dulles, John Courtney Murray and Gustav Weigel.

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DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Extra.ie

November 19, 2018

By Emer Scully

An Irish priest who was removed from his ministry in America over a sexual abuse allegation went on to serve for 20 years in Ireland, where new allegations of abuse emerged, Extra.ie has learned.

Fr Joe Seery fled to Ireland in 1978 while police in New Orleans were investigating the case of sexual abuse of a male minor, and was immediately appointed on special assignment to Knock, Co. Mayo, in preparation for Pope John Paul II’s visit.

New allegations of sexual abuse arose when he was moved to a small parish in Connemara, according to Fr Pat Buckley, who was ordained with Fr Seery in Waterford in 1976 – just two years before sexual abuse allegations arose in New Orleans.

He went on to serve five more parishes in Ireland over a period of 20 years before being pressured into retiring in 1997, aged just 44.

Details of his life have been uncovered for the first time after the Archdiocese of New Orleans published a file on priests who had been removed from ministry for sexual abuse allegations, as part of a new policy of openness in the American Catholic Church.

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WATERROWN (NY)
Watertown Daily Times

November 19, 2018

Many parishioners objected to a previous decision by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ogdensburg to not release the names of priests accused of sexual abuse, and officials have received their message.

On its website last week, the diocese listed the names of 28 priests removed from the ministry. This followed an announcement the previous weekend by Bishop Terry R. LaValley pledging to do so.

“I am writing to address an important matter: the release of the names of priests removed from ministry according to the provisions of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” Bishop LaValley wrote in a letter read Nov. 11 during Masses throughout parishes in the diocese. “In the past, we have declined to publicize the names of these individuals for many reasons, including due process questions. While there are strong arguments for releasing the names and strong arguments for not releasing the names, recent controversies in the church make it necessary for us to now release the names.

“The recent controversies and scandals have produced righteous anger, discouragement and frustration among the people of God. Increasingly, the faithful have called for the release of the names of those removed from ministry under the charter. I know the release of names will cause pain for those on the list, their families, former parishioners and friends. There will be a need for compassion and understanding among all of us. While our main concern is the safety of our young people and helping victims find healing and peace, we must also strive to uphold the dignity of those removed from ministry. Mercy and reconciliation are central to our mission as the church of Jesus Christ.”

Releasing these names was a good step on the part of the diocese. It shows that officials are beginning to recognize the anger and frustration felt by many members of the church.

People around the world have demanded answers over how authorities could permit incidents of sexual abuse to go on for so long. They want to know what is being done about all those who moved predator priests from parish to parish.

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ROCHESTER (MN)
FOX 47 TV

November 18, 2018

“As part of this healing, it is incumbent upon us to create a path forward that provides just compensation for the victims of abuse. This must include public acknowledgment of their pain and an apology for it as well as financial compensation,” Bishop John Quinn said in a statement released over the weekend.

The Diocese is facing 121 pending claims of clergy sex abuse by 14 priests who have been credibly accused of sexual misconduct with children from the 1960s through the 1980s.

The Diocese disclosed the names in 2013: Thomas Adamson, Sylvester Brown, Joseph Cashman, Louis Cook, William Curtis, John Feiten, Richard Hatch, Ferdinand, Leo Koppala, Jack Krough, Michael Kuisle, James Lennon, Leland Smith, and Robert Taylor.

They include a high school principal, parish priests, a hospital chaplain, and seminary instructors. All of whom have either died or been suspended from the ministry. 11 of them served in Rochester parishes.

Father Hatch sexually abused a 13-year-old boy in 1962, while serving as a priest at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church and School in Winona. The lawsuit alleges the Diocese knew about Father Hatch being a possible sexual abuser at the time, citing a 1964 letter from then diocesan chancellor Monsignor Emmett Tighs, in which he cited Hatch as being quote “A very disturbed man.”

Quinn, in his statement, said the Diocese is committed to creating an environment of healing for these victims and their families.

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ROCKFORD (IL)
Northwest Herald

November 19, 2018

By Katie Smith

The Catholic Diocese of Rockford has released the names of 15 priests accused of sexual abuse, including at least three of whom previously were assigned to churches in McHenry County.

Although the diocese previously reported some of the 15 priests named in the report, which was released Wednesday, others were not disclosed until the diocese reviewed the claims while compiling the list, according to a statement from Rockford Bishop David Malloy.

A statement attached to the release did not include details about the specific allegations, dates when church officials learned about the alleged abuse or how the claims were substantiated. A diocese spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

Three of the named men – Mark A. Campobello, John C. Holdren and William I. Joffe – each were priests in McHenry County at one point.

In 2000, Campobello was assigned to St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in Crystal Lake as a priest, but he served the parish for less than a year. He pleaded guilty in 2004 to abusing two teenage girls he taught at Aurora Central Catholic High School while serving as a priest in Geneva and received a four-year prison sentence. Campobello was removed from the ministry in December 2002, and he was stripped of his religious status in 2005, according to the release.

In 2004, the Catholic Diocese of Rockford announced that it received sexual misconduct allegations against Joffe, who had been a pastor in Woodstock, Cary and Harvard. Joffe was removed from the ministry in August 1993 and died in April 2008.

Most recently, Holdren was accused in 2015 of sexually abusing a 7- to 9-year-old child while assigned to an Aurora church. He retired in 1994 from St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Johnsburg, where he spent 10 years as a priest. He also spent six years in the 1970s at St. Thomas the Apostle in Crystal Lake and St. Peter in Geneva from 1981 to 1983. Holdren was removed from the ministry for a reason not related to a child abuse allegation in July 1994, and died this past April, according to the diocese’s records.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

November 19, 2018

The Roman Catholic bishops of the United States traveled to Baltimore last week for their first meeting following an explosive grand jury report by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro detailing decades of sex abuse involving hundreds of priests across the state. They were there in part to confront this latest chapter in the scandal but left without taking any action.

The Vatican instructed the bishops to hold off voting on any reforms until next year. That’s when Pope Francis plans to hold a summit in Rome to address the sexual abuse crisis that continues to engulf the church around the world.

Survivors of clergy sex abuse are angry and disappointed by the lack of action from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. But given the woeful track record of bishops to take accountability for their role in covering up decades of bad clergy behavior, did anyone expect any substantive reforms to come from the meeting?

This is an institution that has presided over a criminal conspiracy and cover-up for more than half a century. The bishops have demonstrated they remain unable to hold abusive priests or themselves fully accountable.

There was hope Pope Francis would root out the wrongdoers and their enablers. But the scope of the scandal is entrenched and rife with coconspirators more interested in wallpapering over the horrific crimes. Not even the pope, it seems, has the fortitude to take on the powerful interests within the church who seem hell-bent on keeping a lid on the wrongdoing.

Yes, there have been sexual-abuse scandals at other institutions, including public schools, universities, other religious organizations, the media, politics, and Hollywood. But nowhere has the abuse been as widespread and accountability so disregarded. And few carry the moral weight of exploiting the authority of the Church to turn the faithful into victims.

As the recent investigation by the Inquirer and Boston Globe found, more than 130 U.S. bishops have been accused of failing to properly respond to sexual misconduct allegations, including Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, Philadelphia’s former archbishop.

Claims involving more than 50 bishops center on incidents that took place after a 2002 gathering of U.S. bishops, where they promised the church’s days of cover-up and inaction were over. At least 15 of the bishops have been accused of committing sexual abuse or harassment themselves.

The only reckoning has come through grand jury investigations and civil claims. The recent Pennsylvania grand jury report showed the same playbook has been used in diocese after diocese to cover up the abuse. The report has prompted prosecutors in other states to launch investigations.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

November 19, 2018

By Inés San Martín

A Spanish layman and member of Opus Dei was sentenced to 11 years in prison Thursday after he was found guilty of sexually abusing a minor. The ruling comes after prosecutors had asked for a 20-month sentence, saying they doubted some of the testimony of the victim.

José María Martínez Sanz, professor of the all-male school Gaztelueta in Leioa, northern Spain, was accused of abusing a student from 2008 to 2010, when the student was 12 and 13 years old. The case had been investigated by ecclesial authorities and the school, but nothing came of those probes.

The professor, who no longer works in the school, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison by a Spanish judge and has been banned from contacting the victim for the next 15 years.

During the trial Martínez insisted on his innocence, and prosecutors acknowledged they had doubts regarding some of the allegations. However, the lawyer of the victim argued that at the beginning, the victim hadn’t told the whole story because he was ashamed. According to him, the abuse escalated from indecent touching to penetration.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Crux

November 19, 2018

By Christopher White

Cardinal Blase Cupich is firing back against claims that he sought to advance an alternative proposal for bishop accountability ahead of last week’s meeting in Baltimore, in place of the plan put forth by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

“The allegation is false,” the archbishop of Chicago told Crux on Sunday, in response to a Catholic News Agency (CNA) report Friday that he and Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington collaborated on a separate proposal.

“At no time prior to the Baltimore meeting did the two of us collaborate in developing, nor even talk about, an alternative plan,” he said.

At the start of last week’s meeting of U.S. bishops, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the USCCB, made the surprise announcement that the Vatican had requested a delay on voting until after a February summit in Rome where Pope Francis will convene the head of every bishops’ conference around the world to confront the global sex abuse crisis.

On the table was a proposal for new standards of conduct for bishops, as well as the establishment of a new lay commission that would investigate claims against bishops.

The two proposals were put forth in response to this summer’s revelations that former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick serially abused seminarians for decades while ascending the ranks of Church leadership, along with the findings of a Pennsylvania grand jury report in August chronicling seven decades of sexual abuse and cover-up.

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TRAVERSE CITY (MI)
Record Eagle

This week the Catholic Diocese of Gaylord named 10 priests in our area who faced “credible and substantiated” allegations of sexually abusing children.

The list carries names and current clerical status. Further details — like where the men served — were not available.

Eight of the 10 men on the list are dead.

None of the names have a prison record or were prosecuted in court. None of the names were ever on the sex offender registry. All of them were involved in at least one “credible incident of sexual abuse with a minor.”

Publishing and maintaining a list “may be helpful to the healing process of victims-survivors” and to the continued effort for increased transparency, a diocese statement reads.

That may be true but it’s also true that this comes after a search warrant was served two months ago by the Attorney General’s office investigating “alleged sexual abuse and assault of children and others by Catholic priests from 1950 to the present for all seven Catholic dioceses in Michigan.”

Like lists are being dropped by dioceses across the country. Like, careful wording. Like state investigations (at least a dozen, including our own) into the Catholic Church. Like headlines following.

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LITTLE ROCK (AR)
Bilgrimmage

November 17, 2018

By William Lindsey

Barry Blitt’s “Welcome to Congress” cover for New Yorker, 9 November 2018

Now if a knock-off cover could only be produced, showing all those whited-out men in suits as the Catholic bishops at their latest meeting….

My major takeaway from the recent USCCB meeting: the bishops convened it with a huge deficit of moral and pastoral authority, and they have even less moral and pastoral authority now that it’s over. Something has finally given way within American Catholicism — a willingness to tolerate the vain show any longer, to make one more excuse for Father. There’s no going back to the obediential culture the EWTN crowd wishes to cultivate — as long as the pope is not Francis.

I frankly felt a thousand miles removed as I read commentary about the USCCB meeting. In many ways, I could not care less about anything the Catholic church is now discussing — and, above all, about the stale, incestuous, airless, parochial commentary of the mostly straight, mostly white, mostly male U.S. Catholic commentariat. Here’s commentary I have found worth reading, however:

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ERIE (PA)
YourErie.com

November 16, 2018

Over the last week the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops convened in Baltimore. Among them was former Erie Bishop Donald W. Trautman.

As Bishops exchanged ideas about ending child abuse, Trautman questioned reports like the one released by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro and the media.

“We should not be so Naive as to accept every government report every attorney general report as being totally accurate or honest and I wouldn’t cite the Philadelphia Inquirer or Boston Globe as sources of confident information,” said Trautman.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General August grand jury report on clergy abuse found that Trautman failed to remove an abusive priest. Current bishop Lawrence Persico has publicly been supportive of survivors and victims of sexual abuse. He was in the room when Trautman made his comments.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
KYW Newsradio

November 17, 2018

By Tony Romeo

As expected, the state legislature this past week wrapped up work in the current two-year session without resolving the fight over legislation sought by victims of child sex abuse.

The state Senate indicated it would return for one post-election day to re-elect leaders for the next session, and not to vote on legislation, and made good on that plan. Nonetheless, as members of the GOP Senate majority met behind closed doors, Cindy Leech of Johnstown stood in the hallway with a picture of her late son, a victim of clergy sex abuse and the drug abuse that followed.

“Just because they decided not to vote, we’re not going away,” Leech said. “We’re going to show them that we’re bound and determined.”

A short time later, the top-ranking state Senator, Republican Joe Scarnati, said not much had happened since the Senate had last met a month before.

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TAOS (NM)
Taos News

November 17, 2018

By Cody Hooks

Donald Naranjo had gone back to the old seminary campus in Santa Fe only once since he was a teenager, but he still knew where to turn: Make a right at the midcentury house with a double garage, go east about a mile, turn left.

Naranjo, now 70, was a sophomore in high school when he convinced his parents to let him heed a calling. He started his studies to be a priest at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary on the eastern edge of Santa Fe, a facility that now serves as a retreat. For a kid from the Española Valley, a heavily Catholic community, it was the kind of choice that makes a family proud.

“If you wanted to seek a vocation in the church, it was wonderful,” Naranjo said. “You’d be right there next to God.”

His mother, sitting behind the wheel of the family’s Ford Falcon, dropped him off at the seminary in August 1963, when he was 15.

The abuse started soon after, Naranjo said.

Known as John Doe No. 60 in a civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, Naranjo is one of scores of people who have sued the archdiocese, claiming abuse by a priest, and one of thousands nationwide.

Like many other priests from around the country, the man Naranjo accused of abuse, Earl Bierman, came to New Mexico for treatment at a Jemez Springs facility that became a dumping ground for sexual abusers. It was run by the Servants of the Paraclete, a religious order in New Mexico with close ties to both the Catholic Church’s hierarchy and local parishes.

At least two lawsuits allege Bierman abused young men at the Santa Fe seminary: one filed in 1995 and Naranjo’s in 2016.

Bierman died in prison in 2005 as he was serving out a 20-year sentence for pleading guilty to sexually abusing boys in three Kentucky counties while he was a priest there.

Naranjo, who has settled his case with the archdiocese, is one of the few claimants of Catholic clergy abuse to share their stories publicly. He told the Taos News that he hopes his story will help prevent further abuse by clergy and will prompt other victims who have remained silent about abuse to begin a path of healing.

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DULUTH (MN)
Duluth News Tribune

November 17, 2018

By David Clohessy

Duluth’s top Catholic official continues to maintain the same secrecy about accused priests that long has plagued the church. As a result, some parishioners are misinformed and feel betrayed while some alleged victims feel discouraged and intimidated.

After months of inquiry, the Catholic Diocese of Duluth said Fr. William Graham was “credibly accused” of abusing a child (“Diocese names two Duluth priests as ‘credibly accused,'” Aug. 6).

It’s true a jury made a puzzling ruling in this case, finding for both the accused and the accuser (“Split verdict in Duluth priest’s suit against accuser,” Aug. 25). But it’s also true that Duluth Diocese Bishop Paul Sirba, who could have shed much light on the situation, did not testify.

Regardless, some churchgoers continue to defend Fr. Graham. I certainly understand their feelings. One of my brothers this month was listed as a former priest credibly accused of sexual abuse in Missouri.

What should happen now with regard to Fr. Graham? The bishop should make public his file on Graham and the names of his review board. He repeatedly has pledged to be transparent in such matters. He should meet with and take questions from parishioners. And he should insist they stop making public comments that criticize Graham’s accuser. Such callousness makes the church more dangerous by deterring others from speaking up who see, suspect, or suffer misdeeds.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
WPXI TV

November 15, 2018

More than 100 local priests were named in the Pennsylvania grand jury diocese abuse report released in August.

Channel 11 has worked tirelessly going through those names to investigate the allegations against priests in our local communities. We started looking into one priest’s background in particular after we found a police report saying there was evidence to substantiate claims against him.

The Rev. Robert Moslener was placed on leave from the Greensburg diocese in 2002 after multiple allegations of sexual abuse of minors. Those allegations are all documented in the grand jury report.

According to the report, bishops William Connare and Anthony Bosco allowed Moslener to prey on children for 22 years after the first complaint.

In 1980, after the first allegation of inappropriate behavior with a 15-year-old boy, Moslener was sent for evaluation. An internal diocesan document called it “an unacceptable yet understandable waystation on his path to more adult sexual integration.”

Claims that the leaders of these dioceses knew about abuse and didn’t do enough to stop it have bothered state leaders and parishioners alike.

“What’s now the most outrageous part is clearly people in authority knew for not just a couple days, but for decades, and this is clear evidence right here,” said state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale.

During his career, Moslener was moved between 10 different parishes. In 1986, six years after the first allegation, North Huntingdon police launched an investigation into Moslener and acts involving male juveniles.

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ROCKFORD (IL)
Rockford Register Star

November 15, 2018

By Corina Curry and Kevin Haas

When the Diocese of Rockford released a list Wednesday of clergy members accused of sexual abuse, Sid Pauletto searched for the name of the priest who he said abused him more than 50 years ago.

It wasn’t there.

There are four other clergy members publicly accused of abuse who are not on the diocese’s list, including the priest Pauletto identified. Pauletto, along with advocates for survivors of sexual abuse by clergy members, have criticized the diocese’s list as incomplete and renewed calls for an independent investigation of sexual abuse by priests.

The diocese named 15 clergy members on Wednesday, covering a span from 1908 to today. The only names listed are those associated with cases in which the diocese says it found some proof of the allegations.

The list supports the diocese’s claim that those working in the diocese today have done nothing wrong, said Penny Weigert, director of communications for the diocese.

“It proves what we have said,” Weigert said. “Anyone with a credible accusation against them is not in our ministry.”

Still, Pauletto believes that his complaint was never given the attention it deserved. He said he was never questioned after coming forward and is not aware of any investigation.

“It just pisses me off that they’re pushing it off like it never happened,” said Pauletto, 67, who now lives in Roscoe.

To report an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor, the Diocese of Rockford asks that people call the police in the county in which the abuse occurred and then contact the Diocese of Rockford at its victim abuse hotline, 815-293-7540 or reportsexualabuse@rockforddiocese.org.

For more information about the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, the Essential Norms, the diocese’s safe environment policies and training of children and adults in prevention, detection and reporting of sexual abuse, the diocese asks that

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholics 4 Change

November 17, 2018

By Kathy Kane

It had been a long day of travel, prayer and protest for the Mom Squad from the Philadelphia Archdiocese. A stroke of good luck had enabled us to book the very last room available at the pricey Marriott Waterfront where the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was being held. Accumulated travel points covered our one-night stay, a rate so high it would have cost the average Catholic a few months of donation basket envelopes. A very nice hotel employee upgraded us. This gave us access to the 31st floor concierge lounge where free food was available along with beautiful views of the Baltimore harbor and skyline. Somehow, on a shoe string budget we managed to live like Bishops for a night.

The first person I recognized when we walked through the Marriott lobby bar on Tuesday night was Bishop John Mcintyre, an auxiliary bishop from Philadelphia.

We hadn’t been sure we would see any clergy during our stay. A church insider told me that most clergy would be laying low, at least for optics sake. That made sense due to the prior day’s news that depicted a hierarchy reeling from the Vatican directive to delay reform along with the eyes of the world watching in the wake of the McCarrick case, PA grand jury report and PA federal investigation.

Instead, the atmosphere was what you might expect at any corporate convention. Priests and bishops circulated throughout the public areas of the hotel as well as the lay employees with their USCCCB lanyards. Everyone looked healthy and not too malnourished from all the fasting. All seemed to hold their liquor well too despite that drinking on an empty stomach can be a disaster.

There were clergy in the concierge lounge, some grabbing a bite to eat, others enjoying a glass of wine or evening cocktail. One Bishop with a booming voice and swagger of a CEO, talked loudly on his cell phone. At the dessert table a lay employee took it upon herself to loudly identify each dessert to a bishop, treating him like a helpless man child.

A Study In Contrasts

There were clergy in the main lobby throughout the day, talking and enjoying each other’s company. In contrast, protestors came in from the cold whipping winds of the waterfront to warm up for a minute or use the bathroom. Security was polite but ever present. Protest signs were forbidden and the Mom Squad had to conceal them or risk those losing their stay and accumulated travel points.

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