ABUSE TRACKER

VENICE (FL)
The Ledger

November 5, 2018

By Carlos R. Munoz

The Rev. Nick McLoughlin of the Diocese of Venice has been placed on administrative leave while the Diocese of St. Petersburg reviews a complaint of “inappropriate physical contact with a minor” lodged against him.

The Diocese of Venice declined to state the nature McLoughlin’s exact duties before he was suspended.

Bishop Frank Dewane told his parishioners in a letter last weekend that the allegation has “a semblance of truth.” He said the Diocese of Venice was notified by the Diocese of St. Petersburg of the allegation, which was made by a person who would have been a minor at the time McLoughlin served as pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in Temple Terrace from 1973 to 1982.

The Diocese of St. Petersburg opened an investigation to determine the facts, Dewane said.

“Because Fr. McLoughlin is now a priest of the Diocese of Venice, this Diocese was also notified and asked to take appropriate action,” Dewane stated. “In accord with the policies of the Diocese of Venice and to allow for an objective review in the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Fr. McLoughlin has been placed on administrative leave. When the Diocese of St. Petersburg has concluded its investigation, the findings will be presented to the Diocese of Venice.”

In a statement sent to the Herald-Tribune, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of St. Petersburg said that “An allegation of inappropriate physical contact with a minor has been made against Rev. Nicholas McLoughlin, a priest of the Diocese of Venice, who served as pastor of Corpus Christi Parish, Temple Terrace from 1973 to 1982. He previously served as associate pastor of St. John Vianney, St. Pete Beach and pastor of Bishop Barry and Notre Dame High Schools in St. Petersburg from June 1972 to August 1973.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Times Union/The Associated Press

November 5, 2018

The Diocese of Buffalo has added 36 names to its public list of priests with substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a child, bringing the number to 78.

Officials say they will not name an additional 66 dead priests who were the subject of a single abuse complaint.

Bishop Richard Malone released the revised list Monday and again fended off calls from some community members and other priests to resign over his handling of clergy abuse.

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OKLAHOMA CITY (OK)
KFOR

November 5, 2018

By Lili Zheng

The attorney of a Catholic priest facing an allegation of child sex abuse is sharing his side of the story.

On Sunday, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma announced Father James Mickus had been removed from ministry pending an investigation of alleged child sex abuse. Mickus, a pastor for two Catholic churches in Chandler and Stroud, has served at more than a dozen churches in Oklahoma.

We’re told the allegation does not involve Mickus’ current parishes.

His attorney, Stephen Jones, told News 4 he is confident the allegation stems from 2002, when Mickus was first accused and later exonerated. Mickus was informed of his removal by Archbishop Paul Coakley on Friday.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Medill Reports

November 6, 2018

By Karyn Simpson

Larry Antonsen wants to do everything he can to ensure no child is ever abused by a priest again. That’s why he works with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) and attends events like All Survivor’s Day at Holy Name Cathedral Parish. The day is dedicated to drawing attention to sexual abuse by clergy members and demanding justice for the survivors. As a survivor of sexual abuse by a priest and a still-practicing member of the Catholic faith, Antonsen knows how hard it can be to heal from this kind of trauma. He wants to share his story in hopes it can give someone else the courage to come forward and get help.

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DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Times

November 6, 2018

By Patsy McGarry

The situation of about 200 women who had been in Magdalene laundries but have to date been excluded from a State redress scheme is expected to be resolved this week, the Department of Justice has said.

The matter is to be addressed at the Cabinet meeting and a spokesman for the department said on Monday night that it expected “to be in a position later this week to write to the women concerned and to start processing awards”.

A Magdalene redress scheme has already paid compensation to 700 women, but awards have been withheld from those who did not live in the institutions. Though they worked in the laundries, they were accommodated elsewhere, usually in adjoining premises.

Ombudsman Peter Tyndall had warned the department that it needed to move speedily to deal with compensation for these women.

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OKLAHOMA CITY (OK)
KOCO News

November 5, 2018

An Oklahoma priest has been removed from ministry pending an investigation into an allegation of sexual abuse against a minor, according to officials with the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.

The archdiocese’s review board is looking into an allegation made against Father James Mickus, who currently serves as the pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Chandler and Saint Louis Catholic Church in Stroud. The allegation does not include Mickus’ current parishes, officials said.

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UNITED STATES
Yahoo Sports

November 5, 2018

By Jack Baer

Two years after the details of Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse started to come out, it looks like Team USA has decided it wants to tear down the entire framework of its gymnastics team.

The United States Olympic Committee released a statement from CEO Sarah Hirshland on Monday announcing that it is has filed a complaint seeking to revoke the recognition of USA Gymnastics as the national governing body for the sport.

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WALES
Wales On Line

November 5, 2018

By Marcus Hughes

An elder member of a Jehovah’s Witness congregation subjected a girl to years of sexual abuse, a court has heard.

Thomas Brian Jenkins, 74, appeared at Merthyr Crown Court on Monday charged with 20 counts of indecent assault against a girl in the 1970s.

The alleged abuse began when the girl was 12 years old and continued until she was 14.

Jenkins, of Landor Road, Redditch, Worcestershire, denies indecently assaulting the girl by touching her genitals on “dozens of occasions”.

Opening the case for the prosecution, Timothy Evans said the abuse began shortly after the girl moved to a village in Powys with her family, who were Jehovah’s Witnesses, and became involved with the local congregation.

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

November 6, 2018

Pope Francis’ US point person on abuse told the The Inquirer that he was “shocked” to learn that so many of his colleagues were hiding abuse and abusers. Frankly, we do not understand his reaction at all.

Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley is the “top dog” when it comes to clergy sex crimes and cover ups in the US. Yet he appeared surprised at the findings by the Globe/Inquirer that “130 bishops – almost one-third of all those living – have been accused during their career of failing to adequately respond to sexual misconduct in their dioceses.”

Nearly every situation and bishop mentioned in the outstanding Globe/Inquirer investigation has been reported, sometimes years ago, in other reputable news outlets. So little if any of this should have “shocked” the Cardinal. Rather, we would have assumed that he was keeping track of this information and transmitting it to the Vatican.

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ARKANSAS
Bilgrimmage

November 5, 2018

By William Lindsey

And there’s more: here’s another diptych from recent commentary that I want to offer for your consideration — about a totally different topic than the one discussed in the diptych I just provided in my previous posting:

James J. Heaney, “Our Myth, Their Lie”:

The structure [i.e., Roman Catholic clericalism] I have just described could hardly be better at catalyzing abuse. Look at Cardinals Egan and McCarrick. One was considered conservative, the other liberal, but both were notorious on abuse—and St. John Paul gave both the red hat. How about Cardinal Mahony and Cardinal Pell? Archbishops Finn, Wilson, and Bruskewitz? Or Cardinal Law, the great conservative prelate whose punishment was promotion? The same story unfolds today in Honduras, Chile, and Australia.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

November 6, 2018

By Elise Harris

In the wake of revelations surrounding scandals involving ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick and accusations by a former Vatican ambassador that Pope Francis and other curial officials knew and said nothing, a leading Italian prelate has said it’s important to build a new future rather than getting stuck in the past.

“Certainly it’s a difficult moment, we must look forward, not behind,” Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Life and for the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences, said in a brief interview with Crux.

Paglia, who spoke at the Nov. 5 inauguration of the new academic year for the institute, was one of several Vatican officials named in an Aug. 25 letter published by former Vatican ambassador to the United States, Italian Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who accused Paglia and others of belonging to a “homosexual current in favor of subverting Catholic doctrine on homosexuality” inside the Roman Curia.

Viganò also charged that several fellow prelates in the Vatican knew about allegations of misconduct against McCarrick, who has been faulted for sexual misconduct with seminarians and who was credibly accused of abusing a minor over the summer, yet McCarrick’s career advanced regardless.

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OMAHA (NB)
World-Herald

November 5, 2018

By Alia Conley

Dozens of parishioners of a church in West Point, Nebraska, are voicing their support for a Catholic priest who resigned last week after the Omaha Archdiocese reviewed clergy assignments.

The Rev. Andy Syring, 41, left St. Mary’s Catholic Church after Archbishop George Lucas’ recent promise to “hold clergy to a higher standard of ministerial conduct.”

But more than 100 people have expressed support for Syring online, some sending prayers and others asking how they can fight the “injustice.”

Charissa J. Steffensmeier wrote that the West Point community is dealing with “outrage, confusion and dismay about that decision.” In a letter to Lucas, Steffensmeier asks him to reconsider accepting the resignation and praised Syring’s compassion, empathy, love for the church and ability to connect with parishioners of all backgrounds.

In 2014, Syring was accused of “significant boundary violations with young adults and minors” when he was associate pastor of Divine Mercy parish in Schuyler.

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MINEOLA (NY)
News 12 Long Island

November 5, 2018

A Mineola priest is reportedly stepping aside amid allegations of sexual misconduct with children.

According to Newsday, Rev. Richard Kammerer had been serving as the associate pastor at the Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church.

The paper says the Nassau district attorney is investigating the allegations.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Catholic News Agency

November 5, 2018

By Jonah McKeown

The Diocese of Buffalo is adding to their public list of clergy with credible allegations of sexual abuse against a minor.

Diocesan officials, including Bishop Richard Malone, held a press conference Nov. 5 during which they fielded questions from reporters about the investigation process for allegations of sexual abuse. Malone held a meeting with priests from across western New York earlier that day to discuss the current situation.

The new list contains an additional 20 names of clergy with “substantiated claims of sexual abuse of a minor,” as well as 16 names of clergy who were or are members of religious orders and had served in Buffalo.

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WELLINGTON (NEW ZEALAND)
Stuff NZ

November 6, 2018

By Damian George

A Wellington priest who took down ribbons tied to the gates of his church by child sexual abuse survivors has had a change of heart.

The ribbons were tied to the gates of the St Mary of the Angels Catholic church in Boulcott St on Thursday to acknowledge historic sexual abuse of children in the Wellington Diocese, particularly at St Patrick’s College in Silverstream and Wellington City, and St Bernard’s College in Lower Hutt.

But they were removed early on Friday by parish priest Kevin Conroy, who cited the church’s policy that nothing could be placed on its grounds without permission.

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ANCHORAGE (AK)
KTVA TV

November 5, 2018

By Cassie Schirm

Anchorage’s archbishop, who has emerged as one of the few heroes in a major newspaper story on bishops’ lack of oversight regarding clergy sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, is continuing his inquiries in Alaska.

An independent commission is currently examining church personnel files for the past half-century in Anchorage, after Archbishop Paul Etienne asked it to do so a few weeks ago.

This isn’t the first time Etienne has sought justice within the church.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WIVB TV

November 5, 2018

By Chris Horvatits

James Faluszczak referred to a press conference held by Diocese of Buffalo officials Monday as “information-overload”.

Faluszczak, a survivor of clergy abuse, has been outspoken against Bishop Richard Malone and the diocese as the sexual abuse crisis has developed.

“What are they throwing at us?” Faluszczak asked. “What are the people in the pew going to get out of this? Is this an event for the press? Is this for the people in the pew? Because I honestly cannot tell what they’re trying to accomplish.”

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COLUMBIA (MO)
Columbia Daily Tribune

November 5, 2018

By Roger McKinney

“God of justice and compassion, protect all children from abuse and deliver us from hate.”

That was part of the closing prayer delivered Monday by Shawn McKnight, bishop of the Jefferson City diocese, after a listening session at Our Lady of Lourdes Church about the Catholic sex abuse crisis.

There was raw emotion and thoughtful analysis among participants who spoke for more than an hour. McKnight will use the information he gathered Monday and at other listening sessions at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops next week.

“There are a lot of common themes,” McKnight said after the session. He said he thinks and feels the same as many of those who spoke.

“We’re all united in this one desire that this crisis would be solved as Christ would want us to,” McKnight said.

Steve Concannon, an attorney in Boonville, referred to a list of “reflection questions” in the program. One was: Do you think bishops should resign if it is found they are culpable in enabling sexual abuse?

“We talked about credibility earlier,” Concannon said. “Why is this even a question? It’s insulting that this is even a question.”

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COLUMBUS (OH)
WSYX/WTTE TV

November 4, 2018

by Seema Iyer

St. Charles Catholic School in Columbus did more than prepare boys to become men, according to some former students, it may have also been an environment that fostered bullying, bigotry, and sex abuse.

In August a former student filed a lawsuit against St Charles, as well as the Columbus Diocese, claiming Monsignor Thomas Bennett, who died in 2008, had sexually abused him in the early 2000s. The former student, Kevin Heidtman, said it started when he had detentions with Bennett alone.

“That’s when things got more physical. Originally just over clothing but then eventually underneath,” Heidtman said.

The lawsuit prompted others to come forward.

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MARYLAND
Maryland Catholics for Action

Join Maryland Catholics for Action outside the USCCB Fall General Assembly in Baltimore.

Catholics for Action will join our friends from the 5 Theses and the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests (SNAP) at two events in Baltimore during the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Retreat. Unlike the USCCB retreat, “all are welcome” to these two events.

An ally group invites all Catholic men and women to meet from 2-3 pm at St. Vincent de Paul Church and then do a rosary walk to the 4:30 Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine where they will tape a copy of their 5 Theses. More information as well as a copy of the 5 Theses can be found here.

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The Daily Wire

November 5, 2018

By Emily Zanotti

A shocking new report compiled by a team of journalists from both the Boston Globe and the Philadelphia Inquirer alleges that at least one in three living, American Catholic bishops has been accused of failing to respond appropriately to claims of sexual abuse brought to their attention.

The report, over the weekend, offers a disturbing look into a Church hierarchy that was supposed to have been reformed in 2002, after the Boston Globe revealed that the Archdiocese of Boston had either covered up — or simply ignored — dozens of allegations of sexual misconduct against Boston priests.

Although much has been done to alleviate the possibility of sexual misconduct at the parish level, almost nothing has been done to root out misconduct among the Church’s administration, and bishops have been allowed to escape both accountability and punishment.

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MARIETTA (OH)
Marietta Times

November 6, 2018

The Diocese of Steubenville did the right thing last week when it released the names of priests who had been “credibly accused” of at least one act of sexual abuse of a minor. Some of the names were of men who are now deceased — that is important to those who have held their secrets for many years and may now quietly be receiving some small comfort from that validation.

Parishioners should be grateful to the diocese for its emphasis on the need to protect victims of abuse — and prevent future abuse — rather than to protect those who have used their positions of influence to inflict such damage.

In fact, according to Dino Orsatti, director of communications for the diocese, “we want to encourage anyone who has experienced abuse to come forward and to find healing and comfort,” even if the name of the accused is not on the current list.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

November 5, 2018

By Jay Tokasz and Lou Michel

Buffalo Diocese officials, acknowledging a recent “tsunami” of new claims of child sex abuse, said Monday they added 36 priest’s names to a list released in March that identified clergy who had been credibly accused of abuse.

The diocese’s list of credibly accused priests now stands at 78 priests – and includes 16 priests who are members of religious orders, a category the diocese excluded in an original list of 42 priests.

Diocese officials said they counted a total of 176 diocesan and religious order priests against whom child sex abuse allegations were made, but they chose not to identify deceased priests who had a single allegation against them.

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CHEEKTOWAGA (NY)
WKBW TV

November 5, 2018

By Josh Bazan

Bishop Richard Malone gathered all the priests in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo for a meeting to discuss the clergy sex abuse scandal Monday afternoon. This, is the wake of explosive reporting by the 7 Eyewitness News I-Team in recent months that has shed light on the extent of Bishop Malone’s involvement in the crisis.

“It’s going to be a long road,” Father Jack Ledwon of St. Joseph University Parish in Buffalo said. “This is a marathon. This crisis developed over decades and it’s not going to be healed with a week or a new program or a new hire or something like that. It’s going to take a lot of effort on a lot of people’s parts and it’s going to be a long road back.”

Father Ledwon spoke to reporters after exiting the meeting with Bishop Malone at Infant of Prague Parish in Cheektowaga. Reverend Paul Seil of St. Bernadette’s Church in Orchard Park also shared his thoughts on the meeting.

“I would call the mood somber,” Reverend Seil said. “I would say that you could hear a pin drop for most of the parts. We got a lot of information. But, there were also some wonderful priests who spoke up about their own personal feelings about the crisis and how it’s being handled.”

According to priests in attendance, one member of the clergy called on Bishop Malone to resign and was met with applause from some fellow priests. However, the majority of priests still seem to support Bishop Malone, according to Reverend Seil.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WVUE TV

November 5, 2018

By Rob Masson

The Archdiocese of New Orleans list of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse highlighted one particularly dark time at a Marrero orphanage.

One local attorney said more victims may come forward in the weeks and months ahead.

For 86 years, Hope Haven-Madonna Manor has served as a gateway to the west bank, but behind the orphanage’s ornate façade existed one of the Catholic church’s darkest secrets.

“Some of the abusers weren’t employed by the church. They were volunteers who were allowed to roam at will on the campus,” said attorney Roger Stetter, who sued the Archdiocese of New Orleans on behalf of sex abuse victims.

On the list of 57 abusive clergy members released by the archdiocese last week, eight – nearly one in seven – were credibly accused of abuse, and at one point spent time at Hope Haven.

“We’re telling the truth, and the truth will set you free,” Archbishop Gregory Aymond said Friday.

The list includes priests and clergy, many from the Salesian order, who served at Hope Haven, with one case dating back to the 1940s. The list includes Patrick Brady, Stanislaus Ceglar, Paul Csik, Anthony Esposito, Joseph Pankowski, Ernest Fagione and August Kita, who, the church said, were all credibly accused of abusing dozens of teens.

“In 2008 we filed a massive lawsuit with 59 named plaintiffs,” said Stetter.

Stetter would ultimately collect more than $5 million on behalf of those 59 plaintiffs, who began coming forward with their tales of abuse in 2005.

“Insurance companies picked up 50 percent of the tab to pay off these cases. …None of them went to trial,” said Stett

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MEMPHIS (TN)
Commercial Appeal

November 5, 2018

By Ron Maxey

The director of a Memphis-based Catholic organization has sent an open letter to Bishop J. Mark Spalding of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville questioning last week’s name release of 13 former priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

Patrick Benedict, a layperson and director of the Saint Michael the Archangel Organization, raises various concerns in the letter dated Nov. 5. Among the points raised are the fact that some of the priests were not accused until after they died and therefore had no chance to respond and the omission of any background information about the accusers.

More: Nashville diocese releases names of 13 former priests accused of sexually abusing minors

Benedict said no one should regard his letter to Spalding as in any way questioning the bishop’s sincerity.

“I do hope,” Benedict added, “you will respond to each of the questions raised in this letter.”

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ROME (ITALY)
La Croix International

October 19, 2018

A Vatican tribunal has ruled against transmitting a summons to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prefect Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer to appear before a French court.The Holy See sent a diplomatic note to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sept. 17 confirming its refusal to notify Cardinal Ladaria of a summons to appear in a French court over the Cardinal Barbarin affair.Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon and other diocesan leaders have been accused of having failed…

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ROME (ITALY)
La Croix International

October 19, 2018

A Vatican tribunal has ruled against transmitting a summons to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prefect Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer to appear before a French court.The Holy See sent a diplomatic note to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sept. 17 confirming its refusal to notify Cardinal Ladaria of a summons to appear in a French court over the Cardinal Barbarin affair.Cardinal Philippe Barbarin of Lyon and other diocesan leaders have been accused of having failed…

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MEMPHIS (TN)
Commercial Appeal

November 5, 2018

By Ron Maxey

The director of a Memphis-based Catholic organization has sent an open letter to Bishop J. Mark Spalding of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville questioning last week’s name release of 13 former priests accused of sexually abusing minors.

Patrick Benedict, a layperson and director of the Saint Michael the Archangel Organization, raises various concerns in the letter dated Nov. 5. Among the points raised are the fact that some of the priests were not accused until after they died and therefore had no chance to respond and the omission of any background information about the accusers.

More: Nashville diocese releases names of 13 former priests accused of sexually abusing minors

Benedict said no one should regard his letter to Spalding as in any way questioning the bishop’s sincerity.

“I do hope,” Benedict added, “you will respond to each of the questions raised in this letter.”

Benedict, who says he lives within the Catholic Diocese of Memphis, said by email Monday afternoon that he had no comment beyond what was in his letter.

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GET RELIGION

November 5, 2018

By Terry Mattingly

I’m not sure that we’re talking about a true sequel to the massive 2002 Boston Globe “Spotlight” series about sexual abuse of children and teens by Catholic priests.

Still, there’s no question that journalists at The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Globe have — working together — produced a disturbing report documenting the efforts of many U.S. Catholic bishops to hide abusive priests or, at the very least, to avoid investigations of their own sins and crimes during these scandals.

The dramatic double-decker headline at the Inquirer says a lot, pointing readers to the key fact — that U.S. bishops keep stressing that only Rome’s powers that be can discipline bishops, archbishops and cardinals::

America’s Catholic bishops vowed to remove abusive priests in 2002. In the years that followed, they failed to police themselves.

For the most part, this report avoids pinning simplistic political and doctrinal labels on Catholic shepherds who are, to varying degrees, involved in this story.

If you know any of the players mentioned in this report, you will recognize that it offers more evidence — as if it was needed — that this scandal is too big to be described in terms of “left” and “right.”.

I am sure that critics more qualified than me will find some holes and stereotypes. Experts will be able to connect the dots and see the networks that protected abusers or even produced them. Informed readers can do this, because the Globe-Inquirer team consistently names names. We will come back to one interesting exception to that rule.

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MEMPHIS (TN)
Daily Memphian

November 5, 2018

By Bill Dries

Three of eight former Roman Catholic priests connected to the Catholic Diocese of Nashville accused of child sexual abuse and dismissed from the priesthood had church assignments in Memphis.

They are included in a longer list released Friday in Nashville of 13 priests accused of child sexual abuse. Until the establishment of the separate Diocese of Memphis in 1971, the Nashville Diocese covered the entire state of Tennessee.

The list includes Paul W. St. Charles, who was the first director of the Catholic Youth Office for the new Memphis Diocese. St. Charles, ordained in 1966, had six civil lawsuits filed against him in Shelby County Circuit Court alleging child sexual abuse while he was a priest in Memphis. The lawsuits followed St. Charles’ suspension from all priestly duties in 2004 by then-Memphis Bishop J. Terry Steib.

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PEORIA (IL)
Herald & Review

November 2, 2018

By Maria Nagle

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests wants to know what prompted the Peoria Catholic Diocese to order three retired priests to step down now from public ministry when they face credible allegations of sexual abuse from decades ago.

“The big question is, Why now? What they are doing now, it seems, is unloading these secret crimes from decades ago that they swept under the rug,” SNAP spokesman Kate Bochte said. “It’s possibly because they know the attorney general is investigating these crimes now.

“I’ve heard from many survivors and their No. 1 concern is that this stops — that not another child is violated by any priest,” said Bochte, speaking from Chicago on Friday. “A big part of that is also holding perpetrators accountable and exposing the crimes.”

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Loyola Maroon

November 2, 2018

By Rose Wagner

Two priests who previously worked for Loyola were among the 57 clergy members who the Archdiocese of New Orleans identified as being taken out of ministry due to accusations of sexual abuse of minors.

The list was released Nov. 2, and included six people identified as Jesuits.

Among the Loyola-related priests was Bernard Knoth, who served as president of Loyola from 1995 to 2003, when he resigned amid a sexual abuse complaint regarding an allegation from 1986. The allegation involved a former student at Brebeuf Preparatory School in Indianapolis, Indiana where Knoth served as the principal at the time, according to a 2003 article in The Maroon.

According to the Archdiocese, Knoth was taken out of ministry in 2002. He resigned from his position at Loyola in 2003.

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SPRINGFIELD (IL)
The State Journal-Register

November 3, 2018

An attorney filed a lawsuit claiming Catholic clergy sexual abuse against every Catholic diocese in Illinois to “force each diocese to make public the names of all priests, living and dead, accused of child molestation.” It accuses two dead priests who can neither admit guilt nor claim innocence.

Catholic spokespersons refuted the suit’s claims with legal records and websites.

The suit appears based on a presumption of guilt until proven innocent of a never-ending series of charges, a strategy used by progressives to discredit conservatives. The real goal appears to be to silence pro-life Catholic voices like Bishop Thomas Paprocki locally and Pastor Frank Pavone of Priests for Life at the national level. In 1994 Pastor Pavone met with Mother Teresa, who subsequently wrote “I hope that many priests and deacons will join the Priests for Life.”

The attorney falsely claimed Bishop Paprocki “ascribed survivors coming forward to be devils.” The bishop said the “force behind (sex-abuse lawsuits) is … the devil” for burdening whole congregations and charitable organizations. The bishop attacked the suits’ motivation, not the survivors.

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NEW YORK (NY)
National Review

November 3, 2018

By Nicholas Frankovich

Diocesan review boards are not criminal court — and shouldn’t be.

Most people who allege that they were sexually abused by Catholic priests are telling the truth. The record that has accrued over decades of investigation by the Church itself is clear on that point, though only if you accept an evidentiary standard that’s too low for most cases to result in conviction or make it to trial at all in a criminal or even civil court. So what does William McSwain hope to accomplish?

McSwain, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, last month asked the U.S. bishops to preserve their files on sex-abuse complaints. On the same day, October 9, he sent to each of Pennsylvania’s eight dioceses a subpoena for any records that might shed light on alleged sexual abuse by clergy or on efforts by diocesan officials to cover it up.

He seeks records dating back only to 2001, even though the great bulk of cases for which the Church is still under the spotlight relate to sexual misconduct that is alleged to have occurred well before then, mostly in the 1960s through the 1980s. Moreover, for federal prosecution of the sexual abuse of anyone under 18, no statute of limitations applies during the victim’s lifetime. Why then did McSwain not subpoena relevant records from the 20th century as well?

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Catholic News Agency

November 2, 2018

They are accusing the cardinal of perjury

Three victims of former Chilean priest Fernando Karadima filed a complaint last week against Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa, accusing him of perjury in the civil suit for compensation for damages filed against the Archdiocese of Santiago.

The complaint was filed in a Santiago court Oct. 25 by attorney Juan Pablo Hermosilla, representing Juan Carlos Cruz, José Andrés Murillo, and James Hamilton.

The legal action states that in September 2015 Cardinal Errázuriz, Archbishop Emeritus of Santiago, gave a statement as a witness under oath which “in the light of subsequent facts constitutes the crime of perjury.”

In his statement, the cardinal said that when he was Achbishop of Santiago, “in June 2006, I did not close the process (against Karadima) but put it on hold; the resignation of the priest from the parish is for them to decide.”

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TWIN CITIES (MN)
The Catholic Spirit

November 2, 2018

By Maria Wiering

Archbishop Emeritus John Nienstedt defended himself Oct. 24 from renewed allegations that he has engaged in sexual misconduct and that his judgment in the case of a former priest who sexually abused three boys was influenced by an “unusual social relationship” with him.

The allegations are part of a lawsuit filed against the Vatican Oct. 24 by Jeff Anderson, a St. Paul attorney. Its two plaintiffs include Jim Keenan, a sexual abuse survivor from the Twin Cities. Filed in U.S. District Court-Northern District of California, Anderson’s lawsuit is the third he’s filed against the Vatican. Courts have dismissed both of the two previous suits.

The lawsuit seeks the release of Vatican-held documents in its archives pertaining to clergy sex abuse.

The lawsuit cites the internal investigation commissioned in 2014 by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis into allegations that Archbishop Nienstedt engaged in sexual misconduct with adults prior to being named Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis. That investigation produced affidavits alleging that Archbishop Nienstedt had sexually harassed and propositioned adult males and frequented gay establishments in Canada and Detroit.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Trib Live

October 31, 2018

By Deb Erdley

Clergy sexual abuse survivors say they have the votes to pass a state bill establishing a window for older victims to sue their abusers, and they’re challenging the Pennsylvania Senate to return to Harrisburg for a vote.

“We have the votes. The votes are there to pass SB 261 as it stands,” said Ryan O’Connor. “We just need the majority to allow it to come to a vote.”

O’Connor, 47, of Verona, who has written of his abuse as a child at the hands of a parish priest in Johnstown, is traveling the state with Jim Van Sickle, another survivor who serves as Survivor Advocacy Coordinator for Stop Child Predator, a national nonprofit group.

“There is a lot of support in the Senate for this bill, and we’re asking that they return and vote on it,” Van sickle said.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Palm Springs Desert Sun

November 1, 2018

By Christopher Damien

Two brothers claim in a civil suit that Carlos Rene Rodriguez, a former Roman Catholic priest who spent time in prison from 2004 to 2008 for child sexual assault, abused them as children in the early 1990s, while he was ministering at churches in Riverside.

The lawsuit includes documents that show the church had already known Rodriguez had a past of sexual abuse. Church leaders had sent Rodriguez to a treatment center for troubled priests and stripped Rodriguez of his religious order. The lawsuit also accuses Rodriguez of violating church orders not to minister, due to his previous sexual abuse.

The lawsuit comes just three weeks after Bishop Gerald Barnes’ Oct. 8 release of a list of credible child sexual abuse claims against priests who were part of the Diocese of San Bernardino. The detailed court filings allege that Rodriguez’s pattern of horrific abuse extended into churches in Riverside County.

Anthony DeMarco, the lawyer representing the two plaintiffs identified only as John Does, questions why the Diocese of San Bernardino failed to see that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles had documented evidence of Rodriguez’s sexual abuse before he began ministering in Riverside.

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MARRERO (LA)
The Advocate

November 3, 2018

By Matt Sledge

The grand Spanish Colonial Revival buildings of Madonna Manor and Hope Haven that stand on opposite sides of Barataria Boulevard in Marrero are largely vacant now, empty but still-imposing monuments of Catholicism in the New Orleans area.

For decades, they housed orphans and children from troubled families, all placed into the care of the church. But their ornate facades concealed a grotesque pattern of physical and sexual abuse perpetrated by priests, brothers and nuns.

While the scandal there cost the Archdiocese of New Orleans and other entities $5.2 million in 2009, Friday was the first time the archdiocese named alleged abusers there, along with dozens of priests and other clergy that church officials determined were credibly accused of the sexual abuse of minors.

At least 65 people have alleged that as children, they suffered abuse, including whipping, molestation or worse, while confined to the 10-acre campus of Hope Haven and Madonna Manor between the 1940s and 1970s.

One of them, 66-year-old Louis Cantero, still gets a chill whenever he drives past the complex.

“I didn’t realize how much damage that did to me until later in life,” he said.

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SPRINGFIELD (MO)
Springfield News-Leader

November 3, 2018

By Giacomo Bologna

It was cold and windy on Saturday morning as Gail Herbert stood outside the Catholic Center in Springfield, the place where she says she was sexually abused by a top diocesan official.

Gail Herbert and her husband, Jon, no longer want to be anonymous.

As the Herberts spoke about their “Jane Doe” lawsuit and the abuse allegedly perpetrated by the former director of family ministry for the Springfield-Cape Girardeau Catholic Diocese, Bishop Edward Rice came outside.

Rice appeared to record them with his cellphone.

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[In Lourdes, victims of pedophilia testify in front of Catholic bishops]

FRANCE
Le Monde

November 4, 2018

By Cécile Chambraud

Huit personnes ayant subi des violences sexuelles de la part de clercs ont témoigné lors de l’assemblée plénière d’automne des évêques de France.

A Lourdes (Hautes-Pyrénées), cette année, ils sont « les invités » des évêques catholiques. C’est de cette manière que Mgr Luc Crépy, président de la Cellule permanente de lutte contre la pédophilie (CPLP), a présenté les victimes de violences sexuelles de la part de clercs. Huit d’entre elles, hommes et femmes, étaient conviées à témoigner devant les 118 prélats, répartis en quatre groupes, à l’occasion de l’assemblée plénière d’automne des évêques de France, samedi 3 novembre.

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[Pedophilia: French Church tallies 211 testimonies of victims claiming abuse since 2017]

FRANCE
Le Monde

October 31, 2018

By Louise Couvelaire

Selon un rapport de l’épiscopat publié mardi, 129 prêtres ou diacres ont été mis en cause par un témoignage, dont dix ont été mis en examen et quatre incarcérés.

L’Eglise catholique française poursuit son opération de transparence. A quelques jours de la Conférence des évêques de France (CEF), à Lourdes, au cours de laquelle des victimes d’abus sexuels seront pour la première fois invitées à témoigner, l’épiscopat a publié, mardi 30 octobre, un second rapport sur la lutte contre la pédophilie dans l’Eglise.

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[National prosecutor suspends head of sex crimes for sexual harassment complaint]

CHILE
El Mostrador

November 5, 2018

El fiscal nacional encargó una investigación administrativa al jefe de la unidad de Lavado de dinero, Delitos Económicos y Crimen Organizado, Mauricio Fernández.

El fiscal nacional Jorge Abbott suspendió al director de la Unidad Especializada en Derechos Humanos, Violencia de Género y Delitos Sexuales de la Fiscalía Nacional, Luis Torres González, luego que una estudiante en práctica presentara una denuncia en su contra por acoso sexual.

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[Priest victim of Karadima speaks of “spiritual dictatorship” and says abuses continue in the Church]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

November 4, 2018

By Leonardo Vallejos

El presbitero Eugenio de la Fuente se declara como un “sobreviviente de graves abusos de poder y conciencia”.

El presbitero Eugenio de la Fuente, una de las víctimas religiosas de Fernando Karadima, insistió en sus críticas contra el ex sacerdote. En una carta enviada a El Mercurio hace un resumen histórico con todos los hitos que han tenido las denuncias contra el otrora párroco de El Bosque y aprovecha de cuestionar el rol de la Iglesia.

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FRANCE
La Croix International

November 5, 2018

By Céline Hoyeau

Participants hope for a deep change in awareness and in the practice of the Church to prevent and deal with assaults and sexual crimes

French bishops collectively met with victims of clerical sexual abuse for the first time for a session of testimony and discussion that participants later described as of “rare quality.”

Véronique Garnier, who was abused by a priest for two years from the age of 13, says she survived for years in what she described as “deadly silence” because “no one wanted to listen to us.”

Now, she says that she was impressed by the “totally different kind of silence, a great silence” that reigned during her meeting with 30 French bishops gathered in a circle around her at the beginning of their Plenary Assembly in Lourdes on Saturday Nov. 3.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
WKBN

November 1, 2018

The Youngstown Diocese released the assignments for those accused of sex abuse

On Tuesday, Bishop George Murry released the names of 34 religious leaders removed due to sexual misconduct within the Youngstown Diocese since 1943.

The diocese has now released the parishes where each served.

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YORK (PA)
York Daily Record

November 2, 2018

By Candy Woodall

A YDR analysis shows the Diocese of Harrisburg continues to put a high priority on protecting its image.

Since releasing a long list of priests accused of child sexual abuse, the Diocese of Harrisburg has repeatedly vowed to be open and transparent.

Bishop Ronald Gainer has said his church’s darkest days are sins of the past.

But the Harrisburg diocese doesn’t have to look beyond last week to find evidence that it’s breaking its own promises of transparency to the public.

On multiple days in late October, the diocese wouldn’t answer when or why it hired a Republican strategist, lobbyist and crisis communicator to protect its image while claiming to put survivors first.

A York Daily Record analysis shows the Diocese of Harrisburg continues to put a high priority on protecting its image while not answering questions that are a matter of public safety.

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UNITED STATES
La Croix International

November 5, 2018

By Massimo Faggioli

Synodality for Francis is not just a form of Church government but a way of being Church

The most visible critique of the just concluded Synod of Bishops’ assembly on young people has focused on sections in the final document that call for a strengthening of synodality at all levels of the Church.

It is absolutely surprising how very little so many bishops know about synodality, a method Pope Francis has sought to develop throughout his pontificate and a concept Catholic theologians have been discussing for at least a couple of decades.

In order to understand how the pope’s ecclesiology is currently being received, we should look back at the concept of episcopal collegiality as it was introduced at the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

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TORONTO (CANADA)
Catholic News Service

November 5, 2018

By Michael Swan

In a decision that confirms its right to proactively reach out to victims of sexual abuse by priests, the Catholic Diocese of Bathurst, New Brunswick, has been awarded $3.4 million in a dispute with its insurance company.

Following the Oct. 18 decision by the New Brunswick Court of Appeal, the insurer, Aviva Canada, said it would take time to consider appealing to the Supreme Court of Canada. It has 60 days from the date of the decision.

The dispute centers around a case first heard in 2016 in which payments were made to more than 90 victims of predator priests covering a period of decades beginning in the 1950s. As the scope of abuse over the history of the diocese became apparent to Archbishop Valery Vienneau of Moncton, then the bishop of Bathurst, he hired retired Supreme Court judge Michel Bastarache to lead a conciliation process in which victims would be encouraged to tell their stories to Bastarache and the judge would independently investigate and decide on a reasonable offer of compensation.

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

November 5, 2018

In 2003, a popular coach at a Kentucky high school was accused of sexual abuse. Fifteen years later, he is still working around kids.

The grooming by Drew Conliffe described in the KyCIR article is textbook. The abuse suffered by Eric Flynn, and likely others near him, is all too common. Sadly, too, is the fact that this popular coach, well-known in the community, was the one who received the benefit of the doubt over the victim. Despite the fact that other parents in the community apparently saw warning signs, it was ultimately the perpetrator who was believed and not the victim.

This story speaks to the importance of changing culture to stop and prevent sexual abuse. If we lived in a society where victims, especially children, were believed when they came forward, it is likely that Conliffe would not have been able to work around children for another 15 years. If we lived in a culture where sexual assault was understood to be common and not something to be joked about, it is possible that Flynn and other victims would have felt empowered in coming forward and sharing what happened to them, not ashamed. Perhaps then, allegations of abuse would have come into the light and been shared with all instead of needing to be shared anonymously, via windshield-wiper fliers.

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

November 5, 2018

Even after a nationally-run expose into secret files, the spread of a federal investigation to their diocese, and a 60 minutes profile of the brave whistleblower who brought those files to light, church officials in Buffalo are still keeping secrets.

WKBW is reporting that two more priests within the Diocese of Buffalo, who have known allegations of sexual misconduct against them, have been permitted to remain in ministry under Bishop Robert Malone. In response to the report, the Diocese has now placed Fr. Ronald Sajdak and Msgr. Fred Liesing on administrative leave pending an investigation.

Recent history has made it clear that church officials in Buffalo have no business conducting an investigation of their own. Instead, all records related to these clergy and others who have been accused of abuse should be turned over immediately to law enforcement. Given these repeated failures to be fully open and honest – despite pledging to be exactly that in March – parishioners and citizens in Buffalo cannot trust Bishop Malone to do the right thing.

We are grateful that the NY state attorney general and U.S. Department of Justice have already opened investigations into clergy sex abuse in New York. If the revelations out of Buffalo are any indication, the investigation is sorely needed. Such an independent investigation is the only way to ensure the safety of children and vulnerable adults, the healing and support of survivors, and the confidence of citizens that the truth will carry the day.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW

November 4, 2018

By Charlie Spech

Buffalo Bishop Richard J. Malone made a statement Friday during his interview with WBEN radio that is now being called into question.

WBEN host David Bellavia asked the Bishop, “Are there any priests currently under your command, that have any allegations of any sort of assault against children?” Malone responded by stating: “Not that I know of.”

It now appears that statement may not be totally accurate because Msgr. Fred Leising, one of the accused priests, was saying Mass as recently as Saturday. The other accused priest was actively ministering as a pastor.

In an interview with 7 Eyewitness News on Saturday night, Msgr. Leising denied the allegation that he stuck his tongue down the throat of a teenage girl in the 1980s. But he said the diocese has known about the allegation for months and is only suspending him now in a desperate attempt at damage control.

“Yes, actually I had a funeral this morning at Nativity, where I used to be the pastor for 12 years,” Msgr. Leising told 7 Eyewitness News. “I had gotten a call from Bishop Grosz this morning telling me I was going to be put on administrative leave.”

Msgr. Leising, the former president-rector of Christ the King Seminary, says he met with Bishop Grosz about the situation months ago. Internal documents obtained by 7 Eyewitness News show the diocese knew of the allegation since April. Leising said Bishop Malone finally suspended him now – six months later – after consulting with his attorneys.

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PARIS (FRANCE)
Associated Press

November 2, 2018

A Catholic priest said Friday that he has been punished by church leaders in France after he gathered more than 100,000 signatures for a petition calling for a cardinal to resign over his handling of child sexual abuse cases.

The Rev. Pierre Vignon said he learned in an email Thursday that he would no longer be considered for the church court where he has served as a judge since 2002.

In a phone interview, Vignon said the decision showed church leaders are of two minds about how to deal with sex predators within the Catholic clergy.

“They say, ‘We want to do everything,’ but to whistleblowers, ‘We want to shut you up,”‘ Vignon said.

The email said Vignon was no longer a church judge but did not explain the reason for the decision made by 12 bishops who oversee the area of southeast France where he ministers, the priest said.

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SEATTLE (WA)
Ending Clerical Abuse

November 5, 2018

The Honorable Callista Gingrich
United States Ambassador to the Holy See
United States Embassy to the Holy See
Via Sallustiana, 49
00187 Rome, Italy

Re: Survivors of Clergy Sexual Abuse and the U.S. Response to the Vatican

Dear Honorable Ambassador,

We are writing to you as survivors of clergy sexual abuse and human rights advocates from the United States and around the world.

On November 12, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will be convening in Baltimore to address the crisis of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

The meeting takes place in the wake of an unprecedented formal notification by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) directing every Catholic diocese to “not destroy, discard, dispose of, delete, or alter any” documents related to the sexual abuse of children as U.S. officials investigate “possible violations of federal law.”

We are asking you to urge Pope Francis to assert his authority and issue a clear and unambiguous directive to the American bishops to immediately comply with the DOJ notification.

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NORWICH (CT)
The Day

November 3. 2018

By Greg Smith

It was a small group that stood outside the Cathedral of St. Patrick in quiet protest on Saturday with a shared hope their stories of sexual abuse at the hands of priests will have a broader statewide impact.

The rally was organized by the Connecticut Chapter of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, SNAP, which is pushing for elimination of the statute of limitations on all sexual assault-related crimes.

The statute of limitations for sexual assault in Connecticut varies depending on the crime. While there is no limitation on serious felony sexual assaults, state law does bar criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits in certain cases of sexual abuse of a minor once the victim reaches the age of 48. It’s much shorter in other cases.

It can take decades for sexual assault victims to feel confident enough to come forward with their stories, said Lucy Nolan, director of policy and public relations with the Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence.

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OREGON
Spiritual Sounding Board

November 2, 2018

Stephen James Kilpatrick, 63, “was arrested and charged with three counts each of taking indecent liberties with a child younger than 15 years old and soliciting sex from a child younger than 15 years old.”

Richmond-Times Dispatch has reported that Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) posted a Craigslist ad as a 13-yr old girl and conversed via text and e-mail for seven months.

Gardner said the conversations were often sexually explicit and Kilpatrick was told the person he was communicating with was a 13-year-old girl in the eighth grade named “Jenny.” Kilpatrick promised sexual acts to “Jenny,” drove to where he thought she lived and told her he’d thought about her sexually while in his office, according to Gardner.

Kilpatrick was a professor of physics at LU during the time of the incident but has since been fired, his family said from the witness stand Tuesday.

Kilpatrick was actively trying to set up a meeting with the girl, Gardner said, and law enforcement officers staged such a meeting in June. When they intercepted Kilpatrick, she said he had cookies and lubrication in his car.

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MADRID (SPAIN)
El Pais

November 3, 2018

By Joaquin Gil

The Salesian religious order still has a priest within its ranks who is under investigation for abusing a 13-year-old child in 2013. As confirmed by EL PAÍS, Father Francisco Javier López Luna maintains an office at the National Center for Youth Pastoral Care on Calle Alcalá, in Madrid.

“López Luna this year took charge of the Salesian community, and he is a member of the Youth Pastoral Care, a body that brings together the various groups within the order,” says one of its members.

The prosecution is seeking more than four years behind bars for López Luna, who is accused of a crime against the sexual integrity of a minor as well as degrading treatment.

During the school year 2012-2013, Manolo – a pseudonym – was studying his second year of high school at the Salesian School in Cádiz. He was then 13 and going three times a week to the principal’s office. The principal at the time was Francisco Javier López Luna. “When he touched me, he would bite his lip; he enjoyed it,” Manolo says, speaking out for the first time after two years in therapy.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

November 5, 2018

By Inés San Martín

Amid an unprecedented crisis in the Catholic Church in Chile, lay people tired of waiting for deeper change are organizing themselves.

After the extent of sexual abuse cover-up was made known, every bishop submitted his resignation to Pope Francis. He’s accepted seven, with several more expected.

“We agree with Pope Francis that we must not get bogged down in the quicksand of desolation, protest and simple complaining, but rather it is time to make constructive suggestions as to what needs to be done,” says a letter written by some of Chile’s most influential Catholic lay people.

The missive is, in many ways, a response to Francis’s address to the bishops of Chile when he was in the country last January.

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WHEELING (WV)
Intelligencer

November 4, 2018

By Mike Myer

He was a teenager during the 1960s, my caller said. He had a driver’s license and access to a car, so friends sometimes asked him for rides. One asked every week.

They would drive to a Roman Catholic Church in our area, during the early evening. The friend would get out and go into the church. My caller waited in the car.

After awhile, the boy would come out of the church and get back into the car. He would have $20 in small bills. Of that, he gave my caller $5 for the ride.

A priest had paid him for a sex act, performed inside the church.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Times-Picayune

By Kim Chatelain

Nov 2, 2018

The Archdiocese of New Orleans on Friday (Nov. 2) released the names of 57 Roman Catholic clergy members “credibly accused” of abusing minors over many decades in southeast Louisiana, answering a clarion call for transparency in a scandal that has rocked the world’s largest Christian church.

All of the credibly accused clergy members are either deceased or have been removed from the ministry, Archbishop Gregory Aymond said. The names have been turned over to the New Orleans District Attorney’s Office and will be made available to any other district attorney in the area. The New Orleans DA issued a statement Friday morning saying it is willing to take part in investigations as needed.

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DES MOINES (IA)
Des Moines Register

November 2, 2018

By Tyler J Davis

Reuben and Tania Ortiz were remorseful and wondering: Did we really invite a sexual predator to sleep under the same roof as our children?

Reuben said he had to patrol his own house, installing locks on bedroom doors and sleeping in his living room to keep watch on his 13-, 15- and 17-year-olds. Now, he worries that his efforts weren’t enough to protect his kids from admitted pedophile the Rev. Jerome Coyle.

“We knew (Coyle) for 13 years and he really spent a lot of time with us … in fact, people would even say ‘Hey, where’s Jerry?’ because he would go places with us,” Reuben said from his New Mexico home Wednesday. “He had already spent time, even by himself, with our (kids), at times; I don’t know what he did.”

Reuben said he spoke with his children after he was informed of the 85-year-old’s actions as an Iowa priest. Coyle admitted in the 1980s to attraction to or sexual contact with about 50 boys in central and western Iowa over a span of 20-plus years.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WTMA TV

November 3, 2018

Eight of the 57 members of the clergy who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors worked at a Marrero orphanage, according to the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

All eight priests were Salesians, members of a religious order founded in Italy by St. John Bosco.

On November 2, Archbishop Gregory Aymond released the names of the 57 priests, deacons, clergy, and religious order priests who have been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of a minor since 1950.

Eight priests, accounting for about 14 percent of those named, were either stationed solely at Hope Haven orphanage on Barataria Boulevard in Marrero or worked there in addition to other assignments in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.

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OKLAHOMA CITY (OK)
News Channel 4

November 4, 2018

By Lili Zheng

A Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City has been removed from ministry pending an investigation of an alleged sexual abuse of a minor.

The announcement was posted on the archdiocese’s website stating the removal of Rev. James Mickus who serves as pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church in Chandler and Saint Louis Catholic Church in Stroud.

We’re told Archbishop Paul Coakley informed parishioners in person Sunday morning.

According to the statement, the allegation does not involve Mickus’s current parishes and is under review by the archdiocesan Review Board. The board was created in 2002 under the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People” to review allegations of abuse and advise the archbishop.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

November 3, 2018

By Jenn Abelson, Thomas Farragher of the Globe Staff, Jeremy Roebuck, Julia Terruso and William Bender of the Philadelphia Inquirer Staff

Bishop Robert Finn wasn’t going anywhere.

He never alerted authorities about photos of young girls’ genitals stashed on a pastor’s laptop. He kept parishioners in the dark, letting the priest mingle with children and families. Even after a judge found the bishop guilty of failing to report the priest’s suspected child abuse — and after 200,000 people petitioned for his ouster — he refused to go.

“I got this job from John Paul II. There’s his signature right there,” Finn had told a prospective deacon shortly after the priest’s arrest in 2011, pointing to the late pontiff’s photo. “And that’s who I answer to.”

Sixteen years after the clergy sexual abuse crisis exploded in Boston, the American Catholic Church is again mired in scandal. This time, the controversy is propelled not so much by priests in the rectories as by the leadership, bishops across the country who like Finn have enabled sexual misconduct or in some cases committed it themselves.

More than 130 US bishops — or nearly one-third of those still living — have been accused during their careers of failing to adequately respond to sexual misconduct in their dioceses, according to a Boston Globe and Philadelphia Inquirer examination of court records, media reports, and interviews with church officials, victims, and attorneys.

At least 15, including Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington who resigned in July, have themselves been accused of committing such abuse or harassment.

Most telling, the analysis shows that the claims against more than 50 bishops center on incidents that occurred after a historic 2002 Dallas gathering of US bishops where they promised that the church’s days of concealment and inaction were over. By an overwhelming, though not unanimous, vote, church leaders voted to remove any priest who had ever abused a minor and set up civilian review boards to investigate clergy misconduct claims.

But while they imposed new standards that led to the removal of hundreds of priests, the bishops specifically excluded themselves from the landmark child protection measures.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

November 2, 2018

By Daniel Bice

Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign has spent the past year accusing Democratic foe Tony Evers of putting children in danger by not stripping the licenses of teachers found guilty of improper and immoral acts.

But it turns out that the second-term Republican governor’s administration has its own serious lapse involving the professional licenses of individuals of highly questionable character.

Records show one of Walker’s agencies — the state Department of Safety and Professional Services — either gave licenses to or renewed the licenses of four ex-priests who were defrocked for sexually abusing children.

The four former pedophile priests from the Milwaukee Archdiocese were given state approval to practice such professions as social work, nursing, alcohol and drug counseling and funeral work. All four appear on the archdiocese’s list of former Milwaukee priests with a “substantiated case of sexual abuse of a minor.”

After learning of the issue this week, Walker moved to strip the four of their state credentials.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

November 5, 2018

By Elise Harris

Denise Buchanan, a survivor of clerical sexual abuse and advocate for fellow victims, has said she was disappointed in the handling of the issue during last month’s Synod of Bishops on youth, and that a lack of a unified consensus is thwarting any progress that could be made.

With some bishops making vocal apologies for the Church’s failures and others trying to downplay the problem, depicting it as a mainly Western issue, it’s clear that prelates “don’t know what to do,” Buchanan said.

Speaking to Crux over the phone from Los Angeles, she said that when the Oct. 3-28 Synod of Bishops on young people, faith and vocational discernment came to a close, “it ended with a whimper because there was no agreement on a lot of the issues they had on their agenda,” particularly clerical abuse.

“That’s very telling,” she said, “because if you have factions within global groups, within the Vatican and the Vatican hierarchy that are fighting with each other, how can there be any consensus, how can there be any way to move forward?”

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NEW YORK (NY)
Commonweal

November 1, 2018

By James J. Heaney

Ten years ago, I believed a myth. In the beginning, there was Vatican II. It was good but messy, and the Bad Catholics hijacked it to undermine doctrine. They took over seminaries and turned them into cesspools where heresy was mandatory and depravity rampant. Then Pope John Paul II came along. He drove out the Bad Catholics and cleaned up the seminaries. Too late! The Bad Catholics had already committed terrible crimes, which were covered up without the pope’s awareness. In 2002, their abuses exploded into public view, and the JPII Catholics got blamed for crimes committed by a dying generation of clerics. The JPII bishops took it on the chin, but they fixed the problem with the Dallas Charter. Then Benedict XVI, the great theologian, appointed orthodox bishops who would carry forward the renewal. The horrors of the Scandal were behind us. The two primordial forces of the postconciliar church, orthodoxy and heresy, had fought a great battle, and orthodoxy had been vindicated.

My diocese, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, was proof. In the 1980s, we were led by Archbishop John Roach. Appointed by Pope Paul VI, Roach fit the “Spirit of Vatican II” archetype to a tee. Under Roach, Saint Paul Seminary was taken over by dissenters, one of whom described the Eucharist as “cookie worship” that he had “moved beyond.” There were open homosexual affairs. Those who dared adhere to church teaching were punished.

Saint Paul soon experienced one of the first abuse scandals in the American church. For years, Roach and his cronies had secretly shuffled abusive priests between parishes. When this came out and the diocese was sued, Roach found himself under oath, where he became conveniently forgetful. The diocese lost, with the victim awarded $3.5 million—paltry by today’s standards, but shocking at the time. In response, Roach imposed “tough policies,” which won praise from newspapers. Privately, he declined to enforce them.

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LOUISVILLE (KY)
Center for Investigative Reporting

November 2, 2018

By R.G. Dunlop

As a high school sophomore, Eric Flynn was spiraling.

The once-stellar student was placed in less challenging classes. The gifted athlete dropped out of sports he loved. The teenager, once reserved, now punched holes in doors and threatened suicide.

He wouldn’t say why. Perplexed, his parents sought help from their son’s mentor. Drew Conliffe was quick to respond.

Sure, he’d take Eric out for a nice dinner and see what he could learn about the root of his torment. Anything to help.

At the time, Kathy Flynn thought that was a great idea. After all, everybody loved Conliffe: a basketball coach at Trinity High School, a leader in Kentucky’s junior golf world and a friend of the Flynn family.

Today, Kathy Flynn is overwhelmed with guilt.

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MADRID (SPAIN)
BBC

November 4, 2018

By James Badcock

Emiliano Álvarez says the abuse at his boarding school began at the age of 11

“The priest who tortured me is still giving Mass in the village down the road,” says Emiliano Álvarez, a 52-year-old from Borrenes, north-western Spain.

Like other victims who have come forward, Mr Álvarez claims he was abused by staff at the Seminario Menor boarding school in La Bañeza, in Zamora province, and that Spain’s Catholic Church authorities have done little about it.

He filed his accusation against a priest in early 2017, and is still waiting for a decision by the local ecclesiastical court in Astorga.

Mr Álvarez says he was 11 on the night he recalls being woken by the priest.

“He was pulling down the sheets and my underpants, and I was pulling them back up again and again.

“I can’t remember much more about that first time, but it started to happen almost every night. Then, when I was 12, it got worse; I remember fighting to turn my hips away from him so he could not touch me.”

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SPRINGFIELD (MO)
KY3-TV

November 3, 2018

By Taylor Frost

Springfield couple, Gail and Jon Herbert, decided to come forward and reveal their identities after filing a lawsuit in August against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau and Troy Casteel, director of family ministries, for years of sexual and emotional abuse. They hope to help someone else through their pain.

“I’m angry and I fight to not feel shame … but I refuse to feel shame,” Gail Herbert said.

Gail Herbert says the couple went to Casteel for marriage counseling beginning in 2013. He then used the information in those therapy sessions as weapons. The lawsuit says she “was sexually abused on property.”

“Whenever it was happening I was feeling confused, I was feeling guilty,” Gail Herbert said. “I didn’t understand how I could do the things that I was doing.”

The lawsuit filed in August claims top diocese officials knew this abuse was happening.

During the interview, Bishop Edward Rice, came and listened to part of the interview and appeared to record it on his phone. When approached by David Clohessy, St. Louis Director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Rice chose not to comment and walked away. Clohessy says he hopes Rice and other church leaders will step up to report any wrongdoing.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Times-Picayune

November 3, 2018

By Hanna Krueger

Two more of the 57 Roman Catholic ex-priests and deacons who were “credibly accused” of sex abuse in newly released files from the Archdiocese of New Orleans responded to their identification when contacted by WVUE television.

John Sax and James Lockwood are among 14 former clergy members who are on the list and still alive.

Sax has admitted sexually abusing an altar boy when he was a priest at St. Peter Church in Reserve in the 1980s after a lawsuit was filed in 2001. He had been ordained in 1973 and served assignments in Metairie, Kenner, New Orleans and Reserve before being removed from ministry in 2004.

When asked Friday (Nov. 2) whether he was sorry, he told WVUE: “I’ve already done that 17 years ago. I apologized then; I apologize now. I’m sorry. I regret what I did. The name is correct that’s on the list. I’m sorry, that’s all I can say. I’m sorry, I regret it.”

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NORWICH (CT)
The Day

November 4, 2018

By Greg Smith

It was a small group that stood outside the Cathedral of St. Patrick in quiet protest on Saturday with a shared hope their stories of sexual abuse at the hands of priests will have a broader statewide impact.

The rally was organized by the Connecticut Chapter of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, SNAP, which is pushing for elimination of the statute of limitations on all sexual assault-related crimes.

The statute of limitations for sexual assault in Connecticut varies depending on the crime. While there is no limitation on serious felony sexual assaults, state law does bar criminal prosecution and civil lawsuits in certain cases of sexual abuse of a minor once the victim reaches the age of 48. It’s much shorter in other cases.

It can take decades for sexual assault victims to feel confident enough to come forward with their stories, said Lucy Nolan, director of policy and public relations with the Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence.

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UNITED STATES
The Boston Globe

November 3, 2018

By Jenn Abelson, Thomas Farragher of the Globe Staff, Jeremy Roebuck, Julia Terruso and William Bender of the Philadelphia Inquirer Staff

American bishops promised reform after the clergy sexual abuse scandal exploded in Boston. But they largely ignored the misdeeds of one group: themselves

Sixteen years after the clergy sexual abuse crisis exploded in Boston, the American Catholic Church is again mired in scandal. This time, the controversy is propelled not so much by priests in the rectories as by the leadership, bishops across the country who like Finn have enabled sexual misconduct or in some cases committed it themselves.

More than 130 US bishops — or nearly one-third of those still living — have been accused during their careers of failing to adequately respond to sexual misconduct in their dioceses, according to a Boston Globe and Philadelphia Inquirer examination of court records, media reports, and interviews with church officials, victims, and attorneys.

At least 15, including Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington who resigned in July, have themselves been accused of committing such abuse or harassment.

Most telling, the analysis shows that the claims against more than 50 bishops center on incidents that occurred after a historic 2002 Dallas gathering of US bishops where they promised that the church’s days of concealment and inaction were over. By an overwhelming, though not unanimous, vote, church leaders voted to remove any priest who had ever abused a minor and set up civilian review boards to investigate clergy misconduct claims.

But while they imposed new standards that led to the removal of hundreds of priests, the bishops specifically excluded themselves from the landmark child protection measures. They contended only the pope had authority to discipline them and said peer pressure — public or private shaming they euphemistically called “fraternal correction” — would keep them in line.

It hasn’t.

Bishop accountability has proved a contradiction in terms; resistance and indifference remain all too common. Even some of the bishops who wrote the 2002 reforms would themselves be accused of enabling or ignoring abuse. And the chairwoman of the new civilian board overseeing compliance with the reforms quickly despaired of the seriousness of the bishops’ commitment, saying, in a 2004 letter not previously reported, that their pledge to change “appears to be nothing more than a common fraud.”

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BATON ROUGE (LA)
The Advocate

November 2, 2018

By Andrea Gallo

A Catholic priest who ingratiated himself with the deaf community and who helped to open Catholic deaf centers in both Baton Rouge and New Orleans secretly preyed on children there during the 1960s and 1970s before he was removed as a priest, his victims recalled Friday as the Archdiocese of New Orleans released the names of 57 priests credibly accused of sexual abuse.

The Rev. Gerard “Jerry” Howell was assigned to St. Pius X in Baton Rouge as well as eight churches across the New Orleans area before he was removed from ministry in 1980, according to records the Archdiocese of New Orleans released Friday. Howell was appointed director of the New Orleans deaf apostolate in 1967 and moved in 1978 to help establish the St. Francis de Sales deaf center in Baton Rouge.

He was one of eight priests accused of sexual abuse on the list from the Archdiocese of New Orleans who had ministered in the Diocese of Baton Rouge over the last decade. Howell, who is still alive, could not be reached Friday.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WGNO-TV

November 2, 2018

Eight of the 57 members of the clergy who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors worked at a Marrero orphanage, according to the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

All eight priests were Salesians, members of a religious order founded in Italy by St. John Bosco.

On November 2, Archbishop Gregory Aymond released the names of the 57 priests, deacons, clergy, and religious order priests who have been “credibly accused” of sexual abuse of a minor since 1950.

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[Trial opens for priest accused of pedophilia and former bishop accused of failing to take action]

FRANCE
La République du Centre

October 30, 2018

Le procès de l’abbé Pierre de Castelet, accusé d’agressions sexuelles sur mineurs, s’est ouvert mardi devant le tribunal correctionnel d’Orléans en l’absence de l’ancien évêque d’Orléans, Mgr André Fort, poursuivi lui pour non-dénonciation. Mgr André Fort, 83 ans, évêque d’Orléans de 2002 à 2010, est “affaibli par sa maladie à la suite d’une opération”, a déclaré son avocat Me Benoit de Gaullier à l’ouverture de l’audience, pour expliquer l’absence de son client.

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[The diocese of Vendée investigates sexual abuse in two institutions]

FRANCE
La Croix

November 1, 2018

By Julien Tranié with AFP

L’Église catholique en Vendée a annoncé, mercredi 31 octobre, qu’elle enquêtait sur des faits de pédophilie dans deux établissements du département entre 1950 et 1979. Ces enquêtes ont conduit l’évêque de Luçon, Mgr François Jacolin, à suspendre deux prêtres de tout ministère public.

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[The punishment of Father Pierre Vignon causes a stir]

FRANCE
La Croix

November 3, 2018

By Céline Hoyeau

Fervent soutien des victimes de pédophilie dans l’Église, le prêtre qui avait lancé une pétition appelant à la démission du cardinal Barbarin, n’a pas été reconduit dans ses fonctions de juge à l’officialité interdiocésaine de Lyon.

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[Assembly of Bishops in Lourdes to hear testimony of clergy abuse victim]

FRANCE
La Croix

November 3, 2018

By Céline Hoyeau

Sept victimes d’abus sexuels commis par des clercs seront reçues par les évêques à Lourdes, samedi 3 novembre, au premier jour de leur Assemblée plénière.

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[Canon judge who demanded the resignation of Cardinal Barbarin removed from office]

FRANCE
Le Monde

November 1, 2018

By Le Monde with AFP

Pierre Vignon a annoncé jeudi n’avoir pas été reconduit dans ses fonctions de juge auprès du tribunal ecclésiastique de Lyon. Une décision qu’il estime « directement liée » à sa pétition.

Il avait lancé en août une pétition appelant à la démission du cardinal Philippe Barbarin. Le père Pierre Vignon a annoncé jeudi 1er novembre n’avoir pas été reconduit dans ses fonctions de juge auprès de l’officialité interdiocésaine de Lyon.

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[In Lourdes, bishops will hear from sexual abuse victims]

LOURDES, FRANCE
Le Monde

October 31, 2018

By Cécile Chambraud

En organisant cette rencontre lors de son assemblée plénière d’automne, samedi, l’épiscopat entend montrer qu’il ne reste pas « sans rien faire » face aux scandales.

Comme tous les ans début novembre, les évêques de l’Eglise catholique se retrouvent à Lourdes pour leur assemblée plénière d’automne. Mais cette année, l’atmosphère de cette réunion, organisée du 3 au 8 novembre, sera dominée par la question des abus sexuels. Elle est omniprésente depuis l’avalanche de révélations de l’été : plongée dans les crimes pédophiles du clergé de Pennsylvanie pendant les dernières décennies, bilan des affaires du même ordre en Allemagne, mise en cause de l’ancien archevêque de Washington Theodore McCarrick, contraint de quitter le Collège des cardinaux.

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[Archbishop Ezzati’s lawyer defends his right to remain silent, citing lack of objectivity]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

November 3, 2018

By C. Díaz

“El defensor Hugo Rivera insiste en que el proceso no se ha desarrollado con la debida objetividad que corresponde a un proceso de estas características y que la decisión del cardenal fue siguiendo su “consejo profesional”.

Luego de que el cardenal arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, decidiera acogerse a su derecho de guardar silencio durante su declaración para el fiscal de O’Higgins, Sergio Moya, en la jornada del pasado 3 de octubre, su abogado defensor, Hugo Rivera, aseguró que la medida se trata de una decisión ante la falta de rigurosidad y objetividad que se ha expuesto en el caso.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
New Orleans Advocate

By John Simerman, Ramon Antonio Vargas and Matt Sledge

November 2, 2018

New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond on Friday released the names of 57 former clergy members credibly accused of sexually abusing minors — the first such disclosure in the history of the Catholic Church in Louisiana.

The list, released amid pressure from local Catholics and widespread demands for church transparency across the U.S., includes 34 clergy whose alleged abuses do not appear to have been previously exposed. According to Aymond, all 57 clergy were either removed from ministry as a result of the allegations or were already dead when the allegations arose.

In all, the disgraced clergy served across a wide swath of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Alleged abusers worked at some time or another in about 125 schools, parishes and other church-operated facilities. That figure represents about 25 percent of all such facilities under the archdiocese in the 1970s, when the largest share of known clergy sex abuse took place.

Many of the listed clergy served as modest parish priests or worked in local high schools while they allegedly preyed on children and young adults.

But a select few were once pillars of the city. J. Donald Pearce served as president of Jesuit High School from 1965 to 1968 and was earlier a legendary disciplinarian at the school. It turns out he sexually abused minors in the 1960s, according to allegations the archdiocese deemed credible.

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PARIS (FRANCE)
Associated Press

November 2, 2018

A Catholic priest said Friday that he has been punished by church leaders in France after he gathered more than 100,000 signatures for a petition calling for a cardinal to resign over his handling of child sexual abuse cases.

The Rev. Pierre Vignon said he learned in an email Thursday that he would no longer be considered for the church court where he has served as a judge since 2002.

In a phone interview, Vignon said the decision showed church leaders are of two minds about how to deal with sex predators within the Catholic clergy.

“They say, ‘We want to do everything,’ but to whistleblowers, ‘We want to shut you up,’” Vignon said.

The email stated Vignon was no longer a church judge but did not explain the reason for the decision made by 12 bishops who oversee the area of southeast France where he ministers, the priest said.

Vignon’s online petition in August called for the resignation of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, who has been the archbishop of Lyon since 2002. Vignon faulted the cardinal’s handling of a notorious alleged pedophile priest suspected of abusing Boy Scouts in Lyon during the 1980s.

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NASHVILLE (TN)
NewsChannel5.com

November 2, 2018

By Ben Hall

The Catholic Diocese of Nashville has released the names of 13 former priests who have been “credibly accused” of sexually abusing children.

The Diocese reviewed records dating back to the 1950s.

The decision to release the list comes as other states are investigating whether church leaders covered up abuse.

Most of the priests named by the Nashville Diocese have been publicly accused in the past. But in some cases, this is the first time the diocese has acknowledged a credible accusation of sex with a child.

Nine of the 13 priests named are dead. Two are in prison, and the other two were long ago removed from the priesthood.

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NASHVILLE (TN)
Diocese of Nashville

November 2, 2018

The Diocese of Nashville, as part of its ongoing commitment to transparency, accountability, and pastoral care, is publishing the names of the 13 former priests who served in the diocese who have been accused of sexually abusing a minor.

Of the 13, nine are dead and two are in prison. None are in active ministry.

The names are being released after consultation with the Presbyteral Council and Diocesan Review Board, which is made up almost entirely of lay people not employed by the diocese. Files on abuse cases were shared with the Davidson County District Attorney General’s office nearly 20 years ago.

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NASHVILLE (TN)
Tennessean

November 2, 2018

By Holly Meyer

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville has published the names of 13 former priests accused of sexually abusing minors. The ex-clergy listed served as priests from the 1940s to the 1990s and held positions at Catholic parishes, schools and youth programs across the state.

Nashville Bishop J. Mark Spalding decided to release the names — many of which local media have already reported — in response to this summer’s damning Pennsylvania grand jury report that found allegations of widespread clergy sex abuse and cover-up in six of that state’s dioceses.

“It’s really a part of the ongoing effort that Bishop Spalding has been stressing of transparency and accountability and pastoral care for people of the diocese,” said Rick Musacchio, Nashville diocese spokesman. “He thought it would be appropriate for us to publish these names at this time as part of that effort.”

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DES MOINES (IA)
Des Moines Register

November 2, 2018

By Tyler J Davis

Reuben and Tania Ortiz were remorseful and wondering: Did we really invite a sexual predator to sleep under the same roof as our children?

Reuben said he had to patrol his own house, installing locks on bedroom doors and sleeping in his living room to keep watch on his 13-, 15- and 17-year-olds. Now, he worries that his efforts weren’t enough to protect his kids from admitted pedophile the Rev. Jerome Coyle.

“We knew (Coyle) for 13 years and he really spent a lot of time with us … in fact, people would even say ‘Hey, where’s Jerry?’ because he would go places with us,” Reuben said from his New Mexico home Wednesday. “He had already spent time, even by himself, with our (kids), at times; I don’t know what he did.”

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[Bishop of Los Angeles says presumed case of sexual abuse remains in posecutor’s office]

CHILE
BioBioChile

November 1, 2018

By Alejandra Soto and Carlos Agurto

El obispo de Los Ángeles, Felipe Bacarreza, aseguró escuetamente que continúa en la Fiscalía un presunto caso de abuso sexual en un colegio de la Iglesia Católica, en la provincia del Bío Bío.

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ERIE (PA)
Erie News Now

November 1, 2018

By Paul Wagner

Pushing for Statute of Limitations Reforms

Survivors of clergy sex abuse say they plan to keep up the pressure on state lawmakers to make it easier for them to file lawsuits.

Right now, the statute of limitations prevents most victims from suing.

Survivor and member of “Stop Child Predators,” Jim VanSickle, was in Erie urging the state legislature to pass a bill allowing a two year window for filing lawsuits.

The state house passed the legislation.

But it was never brought up for a vote in the senate despite marches, rallies and protests.

VanSickle says while the inaction is disappointing, he remains optimistic the bill will eventually pass.

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PEORIA (IL)
NewsTribune

November 2, 2018

Priests served at Illinois Valley parishes

Three retired priests who had served parishes in the Illinois Valley have been removed from the ministry, the Diocese of Peoria said in a press release issued Thursday.

The Rev. George Hiland, the Rev. Duane Leclercq and the Rev. John Onderko all have been required to step down from public ministry over what Bishop Daniel Jenky, in the release, termed “credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.”

The press release disclosed the following allegations:

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SYRACUSE (NY)
WKTV

November 1, 2018

By Kristen Copeland

The latest lawsuit to put a spotlight on the Catholic Church seeks to identify all priests in New York State who have been accused of sexual misconduct.

The latest lawsuit to put a spotlight on the Catholic Church seeks to identify all priests in New York State who have been accused of sexual misconduct.

However, the Diocese of Syracuse says it won’t do that.

The lawsuit was filed in State Supreme Court in New York City. The plaintiff is accusing a Brooklyn priest of sexually abusing him for two years, and accuses all eight dioceses in New York State of making sure similar allegations never became public.

49 priests face accusations in the Syracuse Diocese, which spans seven counties – including Oneida and Madison. 67 priests in the Albany Diocese face accusations as well. That covers all or parts of 14 counties, including Herkimer and Otsego.

The lawsuit is seeking the names of all agents, including priests, accused of child molestation; the history of abuse; the pattern of sexual behavior; and the alleged offenders’ last known address.

Syracuse Diocese officials explain why they won’t release the information of the accused.

“It’s certainly not right of any organization to put out a list of people accused. It should be a list of individuals found to have credible complaints of abusing a minor,” says Danielle Cummings, director of communications for the Diocese of Syracuse.

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

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

November 2, 2018

By Drew Broach

Eight Roman Catholic priests whom the Archdiocese of New Orleans identified Friday (Nov. 2) as being credibly accused of sexually abusing children decades ago had been assigned to Hope Haven, a church-run orphanage in Marrero. Six of the accused are now dead.

All eight were members of the Salesians of Don Bosco order, said the archdiocese, which released a list of 57 accused priests who had served in its jurisdiction. The archdiocese said it learned of allegations against the eight between 2006 and 2011, and identified them as Paul Avallone, Stanislaus Ceglar, Paul Csik, Anthony Esposito, Ernest Fagione, August Kita, Joseph Pankowski and Alfred Sokol.

Hope Haven and the related Madonna Manor, directly across Barataria Boulevard, were founded by the church in the 1930s as group homes for children and teenagers from families in disarray. Some young residents were sent there by the courts as wards of the state; others were handed over to the church by desperate families unable to care for their children. Madonna Manor was for young children, Hope Haven for older children and teens.

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.

UNITED STATES
America Magazine

November 2, 2018

The church in the United States faces a crisis of both trust and hope. As the bishops gather for their first national meeting since this summer’s revelations of sexual abuse in the church, it is clear that while they must make reforms, they cannot succeed alone. Nonetheless, there is hope to be found on this slow and difficult path.

One reason for hope is that the zero-tolerance policies put in place by the Dallas Charter following the 2002 scandals have, in fact, worked; today, new allegations of misconduct are dealt with swiftly and through the proper legal channels. Yet the church is still haunted by the history of decades of failures.

In the wake of revelations of Archbishop Theodore McCarrick’s history of abuse and harassment and the Pennsylvania grand jury report detailing predation by more than 300 priests over 50 years, Catholics are left asking: Why should I stay? Who can I believe? How can I raise a child in this church?

The bishops can use their annual fall gathering to establish a baseline for credible reform.

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

PEORIA (IL)
Journal Star

November 1, 2018

By Andy Kravetz

The Catholic Diocese of Peoria has removed three retired priests from public ministry because of credible allegations of sexual abuse that occurred decades ago.

In a news release, Bishop Daniel Jenky announced that George Hiland, Duane Leclercq and John Onderko can no longer function as priests in any public capacity, wear clerical garb or the Roman collar, and are to refrain from using the title reverend or father.

In the release, Hiland is alleged to have engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor about 50 years ago. Leclercq was alleged to have engaged in sexual misconduct about 30 years ago. Onderko allegedly did the same thing about 55 years ago.

Jenky said his office reported the allegations to the state’s attorney where the allegations occurred, per diocesan policy.

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

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The New Orleans Advocate

November 2, 2018

Archbishop Gregory Aymond on Friday released the names of 30 diocesan priests, 25 religious order priests and two deacons who, in the last century, were removed from ministry after accusations that they sexually abused minors were deemed credible. This is the first time in the history of the Archdiocese of New Orleans that a Catholic archbishop has attempted to provide an accounting of the identities of the alleged abusers in church ranks.

Aymond’s list was compiled after a team of 10 people, including staff members and outside legal counsel, reviewed 2,432 personnel files. The archbishop has provided the complete work histories of diocesan priests, but only the New Orleans assignments of religious-order priests, claiming the archdiocese does not have complete records for those men. He also did not provide the years that clergy worked in different schools or parishes.

The list below, in alphabetical order, does not include employees of the church, or any other religious — such as nuns or brothers — who may have been accused. Clergy accused of sexually abusing a minor can try to clear their names through church tribunals, the outcomes of which are secret.

The biographies below combine information provided by the archbishop with information found in media reports, court documents and interviews.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The New Orleans Advocate

November 2, 2018

By Ramon Antonio Vargas and Matt Sledge

Archbishop Gregory Aymond has said he will soon release the names of clergy who, in the last 50 years, were removed from ministry after accusations that they sexually abused minors were deemed credible. Many of the allegations surfaced publicly in recent years, particularly after 2002 when the sex-abuse scandal in Boston caused the Catholic church to reform how it dealt with victims.

[UPDATE, Nov. 2, noon: Archdiocese releases official list of accused for 1st time in history]

Below are 16 priests and deacons who either admitted to the sex abuse allegations made against them, left the ministry on their own after being accused, or were removed from ministry. Based on information from media reports, other documents, and the website bishop-accountability.org, each appears to meet the criteria outlined by Aymond for inclusion on the list, though it’s possible that some may be excluded.

Any clergy accused of sexually abusing a minor could seek to clear his name through a secret church tribunal, a process whose outcome is hardly ever known.

In alphabetical order:

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LAFAYETTE (LA)
KATC News

November 1, 2018

The pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in Jeanerette has been placed on leave after allegations surfaced against him.

The report alleges that Rev. Jody Simoneaux was involved in improper behavior with minors more than 30 years ago, a statement from the diocese says.

The allegations center around the time Simoneaux was assigned to St. Anthony Church, St. Edmund High School in Eunice, and St. Anne Church in Youngsville.

Simoneaux has been placed on administrative leave pending a determination in this matter, the diocese says.

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FRANCE
La Croix International

November 2, 2018

By Olivier Savignac

Musician Olivier Savignac, who is also an abuse victim, will meet with a group of French bishops this weekend

With the Church still in the throes of a crisis generated by the sexual abuse scandals, La Croix has invited several leading Church personalities to look at possible solutions. In this article, musician Olivier Savignac, who was himself a victim of child sex abuse, shares his perspective on the issue.

To my dear Catholic family, who are battling to keep the faith.

Amid the current crisis that has affected all of us at the deepest levels of our faith lives, we all have an opportunity to respond as Christ would wish us to do.

Until the age of 13, I had a happy life, a loving family, friends and activities, which all helped me to develop.

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.