ABUSE TRACKER

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

October 1, 2018

In response to current scandals, clericalism and the need for reform, Catholic women must take the initiative and make their voices be heard, according to a series of articles in a Vatican magazine.

The October edition of Women Church World, published Oct. 1 in conjunction with the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, dedicated its monthly issue to “Women Confronting the Crisis of the Church.”

“We wanted to give voice to a critical reflection from the point of view of women,” Lucetta Scaraffia, the magazine’s director, wrote in the opening editorial.

The first article, titled “Holy Rage,” was a Q&A with Sister Veronique Margron, a moral theologian who works with abuse victims, is president of the Conference of Religious in France and is provincial superior of the Dominican Sisters of Charity of the Presentation.

She said one major factor behind the “omerta” or culture of silence in the church lies in the image the church often has of itself as being a family, which, when it comes to incidences of sexual abuse, “has disastrous consequences.”

The image of a family is meant to describe the beauty of reciprocal care and love for each member, she said. However, just like when abuse is experienced in a family, that abuse is rarely talked about and finds support in sayings that warn against “airing your dirty linen in public.”

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POLAND
DW

October 1, 2018

By Magdalena Gwozdz-Pallokat (Warsaw)

The film “Kler” (“Clergy”) has only just been released in Poland. Hardly anyone has seen it yet, but already it’s adding fuel to the fire in the debate about abuse within the country’s powerful Catholic Church.

The film had already been labelled controversial long before it arrived in cinemas. Now it has, and demand is so high that some movie theaters are screening “Kler” up to 20 times a day. On the other hand, there are also municipalities with conservative local authorities that don’t want it in their cinemas at all. Director Wojciech Smarzowski could hardly dream of better advertising.

The subject matter is one of the hottest topics currently being debated in Poland: How priests deal with money, power and sexuality. And pedophilia. There are many people who want to participate in this debate, especially as it’s taking place in a country where almost half the population regularly attends church on Sundays and more than 90 percent are baptized Catholics.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

October 1, 2018

By Kelly Heyboer

Victims advocates are questioning why the Catholic Church has moved former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick to a home for priests in Kansas located within feet of an elementary school.

McCarrick, the former head of the Archdiocese of Newark and the Diocese of Metuchen, resigned from his post as a cardinal last summer after he was accused of sexual misconduct, including sexually abusing at least two altar boys several decades ago. The 88-year-old priest is awaiting a church trial.

The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., where McCarrick had been living, confirmed Friday that McCarrick was moved to St. Fidelis Friary in Victoria, Kansas, after Pope Francis told him to withdraw from public ministry and events.

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VATICAN CITY
ANSA

October 1, 2018

Due to grave faults committed by some of its members

The Catholic Church’s ship is being hit by “violent” winds because of sex abuse scandals, Pope Francis said Monday.
“We are living in a context in which the ship of the Church is being hit by contrary and violent winds, especially because of the grave faults committed by some of its members,” he told a group of French priests. It is important, Francis said, “not to forget humble daily faith in the ministry which the Lord lets the great majority of those he has donated the Church as priests live”.

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BERLIN (GERMANY)
La Croix

October 1, 2018

By Delphine Nerbollier

Victims’ representatives express disappointment at the ‘meager announcements’ and ‘absence of concrete measures’

Following their General Assembly, Germany’s Catholic bishops have presented a seven point plan to tackle sex abuse within church institutions.

The bishops also published their initial response to the publication early last week of an independent report that cited 3,677 children and adolescent victims of abuse by 1,670 clerics since World War II.

The German Episcopal Conference on Sept. 27 announced plans to launch “an introspection prospect” in the nation’s 27 dioceses.

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HUNTSVILLE (AL)
Rocket City Now

September 30, 2018

By Mary Stackhouse

The Village Church opened its doors on Sunday to members within the church as well as to the Huntsville community for a training designed to protect kids from child sex abuse.

Mary Anne Hunter, Director of Children’s Ministry at The Village Church, said that the church partnered with Stewards of Children for the training. The training was for members of the church who work with children, along with members outside the church who advocate for children as well.

Topics covered include recognizing child abuse, preventing it, and responding to it.

Responding the right way is key, she explained. The wrong response may cause the individual to go silent about the abuse they have experienced.

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OTTAWA (CANADA)
Ottawa Citizen

October 1, 2018

By Andrew Duffy

An Ottawa priest who is to stand trial next year on historic sex abuse charges has been defrocked by the Vatican.

Barry McGrory, 83, is the second Ottawa priest to be dismissed from the priesthood in the clergy sex-abuse scandal. The Catholic Church calls the dismissal process “laicization,” and it is considered the harshest penalty the Vatican can deliver.

His official removal from the priesthood follows a determined campaign by one of his acknowledged victims, Colleen Passard, who reached an out-of-court settlement with the diocese in 1997 for the abuse she suffered after meeting McGrory at Ottawa’s Holy Cross Parish in the 1970s. She was a young teenager at the time.

Passard said the legal settlement included a commitment by the diocese to remove McGrory from the priesthood. But that didn’t happen.

Rather, McGrory was ordered not to present himself as a priest and he was prohibited from celebrating mass, hearing confessions or administering the sacraments.

Two-and-a-half years ago, after this newspaper published a story about McGrory’s role in the clergy sex-abuse scandal, Passard renewed her calls to have him removed from the priesthood. She met with Rev. Christian Riesbeck, auxilliary bishop of Ottawa, and prepared a victim-impact statement at his request.

That statement gave a detailed account of her abuse by McGrory, and concluded with a plea to church officials: “I urge you on behalf of myself, all of McGrory‘s victims, and all good priests, to laicize Father Barry McGrory. It is the most merciful and compassionate action you can take. Every day that McGrory remains a priest is a shameless hypocrisy — and a mockery of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.”

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HARRISBURG (PA)
The Associated Press

October 1, 2018

By Michael Rubinkam

Even as top Pennsylvania officials assail the Catholic Church over its cover-up of clergy sexual abuse, a state agency is refusing to release a report on allegations of sexual abuse by a high-ranking state university administrator despite lingering questions about how the accusers’ complaints were handled.

In a case that bears some broad similarities to – and contains important differences with – the Pennsylvania Church scandal that exploded in August, Pennsylvania’s higher education agency won’t agree to allow the public to see the 10-year-old report on former East Stroudsburg University Vice President Isaac Sanders. The report has taken on fresh significance in the wake of a new federal lawsuit by Sanders over his firing that could put Pennsylvania taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars.

The office of Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro – acting as the higher-ed agency’s lawyer – says the report on Sanders remains subject to an 8-year-old confidentiality agreement and can’t be released. But Sanders’ lawyer says he “could care less” if the document is disclosed, and the students who accused Sanders of sexual assault and harassment have long wanted the state’s evidence against him made public, only to be rebuffed by state officials.

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CHICAGO (IL)
ABC7

September 29, 2018

By Chuck Goudie and Ross Weidner

An I-Team investigation has uncovered that a former priest, who church officials say was credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor, worked as a school counselor after leaving Chicago.

Jesus ‘Jesse’ Garza left his priest position at the Archdiocese of Chicago in 2000 and went to work in Beloit, Wisconsin, public schools. Garza claims school district or state officials never questioned him about his background even though in July of 2005 church investigators say they substantiated claims that Garza forced a boy to perform oral sex on him between 10 and 15 times from January to April 1984.

“The people I worked with in Beloit knew I was a priest, they would joke with me about it,” said Garza.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The Washington Post

October 1, 2018

By Michelle Boorstein

In November 2000, a Manhattan priest got fed up with the secrets he knew about a star archbishop named Theodore McCarrick and decided to tell the Vatican.

For years, the Rev. Boniface Ramsey had heard from seminarians that McCarrick was pressuring them to sleep in his bed. The students told him they weren’t being touched, but still, he felt, it was totally inappropriate and irresponsible behavior — especially for the newly named archbishop of Washington.

Ramsey called the Vatican’s then-U.S. ambassador, Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, who implored the priest to write the allegation so it could be sent up the chain in Rome. “Send the letter!” Montalvo demanded, Ramsey recalls.

He never heard back from Montalvo, and Ramsey has since destroyed his copy of the 2000 letter, he said.

“I thought of it as secret and somehow even sacred — something not to be divulged,” Ramsey told The Washington Post. It wasn’t the concept of a cleric occasionally “slipping up” with their celibacy vow that shocked Ramsey, who believes that’s common. It was the repeated and nonconsensual nature of the McCarrick allegations.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
The Salt Lake Tribune

October 1, 2018

By Connor Richards

Bízhínłth baá says she was repeatedly raped by her foster father in a small town in Utah’s Cache County.

Then 12 years old, the Navajo girl knew that what her foster father was doing to her “three or four times a week” wasn’t right, but when she reached out for help to a local leader of the women’s Relief Society of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, baá says, she was met with disbelief. Worse, she was scolded and slapped.

“Do not tell anybody,” she recounts being warned. “And you think I had fear? Oh, I had fear. You can’t believe the fear I had.” And so the abuse continued throughout that school year, until the next May, she says, when she was returned home to the Navajo Nation.

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EAST STROUDSBURG (PA)
The Associated Press

October 1, 2018

By Michael Rubinkam

Even as top Pennsylvania officials assail the Catholic Church over its cover-up of clergy sexual abuse, a state agency is refusing to release a report on allegations of sexual abuse by a high-ranking state university administrator despite lingering questions about how the accusers’ complaints were handled.

In a case that bears some broad similarities to — and contains important differences with — the Pennsylvania church scandal that exploded in August, Pennsylvania’s higher education agency won’t agree to allow the public to see the 10-year-old report on former East Stroudsburg University Vice President Isaac Sanders. The report has taken on fresh significance in the wake of a new federal lawsuit by Sanders over his firing that could put Pennsylvania taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars.

The office of Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro — acting as the higher-ed agency’s lawyer — says the report on Sanders remains subject to an 8-year-old confidentiality agreement and can’t be released. But Sanders’ lawyer says he “could care less” if the document is disclosed, and the students who accused Sanders of sexual assault and harassment have long wanted the state’s evidence against him made public, only to be rebuffed by state officials.

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CANADA
La Croix

October 1, 2018

By Joseph Sinasac

It addresses clericalism but offers no new methods for handling complaints against bishops

Canada’s Catholic bishops have issued updated national guidelines to strengthen the way they deal with the scandal of clergy sex abuse.

At their annual plenary assembly on Sept. 28 in Cornwall, Ontario, the bishops reviewed the final version of the document titled Protecting Minors from Sexual Abuse: A Call to the Catholic Faithful in Canada for Healing, Reconciliation and Transformation.

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DES MOINES (IA)
Des Moines Register

September 28, 2018

By Alex Ivanisevic

The Diocese of Des Moines has heard a third allegation of decades-old sexual abuse of a minor by the same priest.

The complaint — received Sept. 6 — was made against the Rev. Leonard Kenkel, according to a news release from the diocese. Bishop Richard Pates immediately referred the allegation to local law enforcement, the diocese said. Pates has apologized to the victim, who asked for anonymity.

Two allegations of decades-old abuse have previously been made in 2003 and 2005 against Kenkel. The Allegation Review Committee — comprising a chief of police, a judge, a lawyer, a counselor, a retired teacher, a priest and a deacon — determined in both cases there was not strong enough evidence to conclude that sexual abuse happened, but recommended that Kenkel meet with a professional, which he did, to help him better understand personal space and the recognition of appropriate boundaries for physical contact.

“It has always been a top priority for me that we address all allegations of sexual abuse with utmost transparency, consistency and accountability outlined by the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” Pates said in the news release. “The diocese continues to work diligently to ensure a safe environment for children and all vulnerable individuals in our churches and schools.”

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SYRACUSE (NY)
CNY Central

September 28th 2018

Sixty-four of the people sexually abused by clergy plan to take settlements from the Catholic Church.

The Syracuse Diocese confirms to CNYCentral that the 64 victims have agreed to participate in the victim compensation program offered by the diocese.

In Syracuse, 85 victims were invited to participate. That includes 76 victims along with nine others who have not corresponded with the diocese, according to Danielle Cummings, Chancellor and communications director.

Victims have until the end of October to decide whether to participate.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

September 28, 2018

By Mariana Barillas

The dioceses involved have pledged to cooperate with the probes, but some observers have questioned if this is the most effective way to move forward.

In response to resurging revelations and allegations of clergy sex-abuse cover-ups in the Catholic Church after the release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report, law enforcement in a growing number of states are initiating their own investigations.

Attorneys general in New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Vermont, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan, Nebraska and New Mexico have already begun probes into diocesan responses to allegations of sexual misconduct through a variety of means, including issuing subpoenas, forming special task forces and asking for full disclosure of diocesan documents. In addition, local police in Wyoming have reopened a case against a former bishop. It is likely that more states will follow suit, as Florida and Kentucky attorneys general have made first steps toward beginning a formal inquiry. Each diocese has stated that it will cooperate with authorities.

In addition, Sept. 24, Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore disclosed that the archdiocese had been in discussions with Maryland’s attorney general about an investigation. In a letter to his clergy, Archbishop Lori stated that “the archdiocese is supportive of the review and will be fully cooperative throughout the process.”

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MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
KSTP/ABC 5

September 29, 2018

Gov. Mark Dayton met Friday with seven county attorneys around the state to discuss how to potentially investigate clergy sex abuse in Minnesota.

In a statement, Dayton’s office said the meeting regarded “the capabilities and challenges of conducting an investigation into possible sexual misconduct in the dioceses of Minnesota.”

The statement went on to say the “Governor has consulted with his legal counsel about the state’s role and authority in this matter and discussions will remain ongoing.”

The seven county attorneys released the following joint statement:

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BUFFALO (NY)
WBFO

October 1, 2018

By Mike Desmond

Western New York Catholics gathered Sunday in St. Joseph’s Cathedral for an hour of Reparation and Healing. A small group of protesters was also there.

Bishop Richard Malone called for the event, so that Catholics could come together to pray for the victims of clergy abuse, to pray for those who offended and for the forgiveness of the church leaders who failed to respond adequately – something the bishop admitted during a short homily during the service.

Many of those who entered the cathedral through the front doors saw a small group of protesters who want the bishop to resign, saying he has failed to deal with the problems of abusive priests in the diocese, as the number of accused diocesan clergy has continued to rise.

While Malone has acknowledged what he calls “past inadequacies” in his handling of complaints, he says he will not resign.

One of the protesters, Robert Hoatson, is a former priest removed for supporting abuse victims. Hoatson said only church members can force change.

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BUFFALO (NY)
The Associated Press

September 30, 2018

The Diocese of Buffalo has hired a former FBI agent to investigate complaints of clergy abuse and other wrongdoing.

Bishop Richard Malone on Friday announced the appointment of Steven Halter as director of the newly created Office of Professional Responsibility.

Halter was a special agent in the FBI for nearly 30 years.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Spectrum Local News

October 1, 2018

By Fadia Patterson

Bishop Richard Malone hosted a “Holy Hour of Prayer” for victims of clergy sex abuse Sunday.

During the hour Bishop Malone took the opportunity to apologize for his own missteps in handling two cases involving adult victims.

“I know that I failed in the way I responded to allegations during my time here,” said Malone.

Bishop Malone has been under constant scrutiny since releasing a list of 42 priests accused within the Diocese of Buffalo.

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BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

October 1, 2018

By Jay Tokasz

Six Buffalo Diocese bishops or auxiliary bishops allowed the Rev. Brian M. Hatrick to remain in parishes for decades after a teenage boy complained Hatrick sexually abused him in the early 1980s.

Auxiliary Bishop Edward M. Grosz, the current No. 2 ranking administrator in the Buffalo Diocese, and current Syracuse Diocese Bishop Robert J. Cunningham, formerly a high-ranking administrator in Buffalo, kept Hatrick in ministry even after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops set its “zero tolerance” policy.

Bishop Edward U. Kmiec, more than two years into his tenure, quietly removed Hatrick from priestly duties in 2007. But it wasn’t until March that the current leader of the diocese, Bishop Richard J. Malone, publicly identified Hatrick on a list of 42 priests who had been credibly accused of sexual abusing a child.

“This was a covered-up mess,” said Monica Lesniak, a Cheektowaga mother who first reported the alleged abuse in the early 1980s, after her son told her that Hatrick had molested him.

Instead of alerting the police, Lesniak immediately called her church pastor – a decision she has anguished over for years.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
The Baltimore Sun

September 27, 2018

By Tricia Bishop

Before The Sun moved offices last month, we were told we had to pare down what was in many cases years of accumulated notes and files — drawers full of interviews, court records, gang manifestos and whatever else we’d managed to collect and save in case we might need it again for another story, another day. I chucked two decades worth of papers to get to the goal: bringing a single box. Inside, along with personal items and performance evaluations, I put two large, white binders, each several inches thick — files from the only story I was certain wasn’t over.

They contain much of what I know about John Merzbacher, the child rapist accused of terrorizing dozens of Catholic students in Baltimore in the 1970s. The church turned its back on those children when it was happening, and again, in many ways, in the 1990s, after several of them gathered the courage to come forward as adults, in court, ultimately condemning Mr. Merzbacher to multiple life sentences in prison.

Now, state authorities are investigating how the Archdiocese of Baltimore has handled allegations of sexual abuse made against its representatives through the decades, spurred by a Pennsylvania grand jury report last month that identified more than 300 “predator priests” in that state. Baltimore’s current archbishop, William E. Lori, says officials are supportive of the effort and plan to cooperate.

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ESTONIA
Business Insider

September 26, 2018

By Kelly McLaughlin

– Pope Francis told reporters in Tallinn, Estonia, that everyone covered up sex abuse scandals in the past.
– He suggested that it’s unfair to apply modern standards to the Catholic Church’s cover up.
– His comments come amid Catholic Church sex abuse scandals worldwide, with the most recent revealing at least 3,677 children had been abused by priests in Germany between 1946 and 2014.

Pope Francis says that it’s unfair to apply modern standards to the Catholic Church’s sex abuse cover up.

Speaking to reporters in Tallinn, Estonia, on Tuesday, the pope suggested that everyone covered up crimes in the past, and that the Catholic Church shouldn’t be singled out, the Associated Press reported.

He said he was not excusing the church’s actions but said it was unfair to judge the cover up by today’s standards, comparing it to judging the conversion of indigenous people in the colonial era or the past use of the death penalty.

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AUSTRALIA
The West Australian

September 14, 2018

By Gary Adshead

The legacy of one of WA’s highest profile priests, Father Brian Morrison, is under threat from multiple claims of child sex abuse.

Eastern States law firm Porters is acting for “quite a few” people pursuing allegations that Father Brian abused them. He died from cancer in 2009.

“These victims were young children at the time of their abuse,” Porters said.

A recipient of many awards and honours, including the Senior Australian of the Year, Father Brian and his Catholic Churches Crisis Care Centre in North Perth were synonymous with charity work in WA for more than 30 years and up until his death aged 76.

But Porters — lawyers who have acted in hundreds of child sex abuse cases across the country — is seeking information “in relation to the abuse of children in the Archdiocese of Perth”.

“Porters wish to speak to any former parishioners, teachers, students or parents of students or parishioners who engaged Father Brian Morrison from 1975 to 1990, to obtain further evidence that will assist our clients in their claims,” an advertisement in today’s The Weekend West reads.

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Pedophilia: the Church eaten up by scandal

FRANCE
LE MONDE

September 25, 2018

Editorial. Alors que les révélations d’abus sexuels commis par des prêtres s’accumulent, le pape François ne peut plus se contenter de paroles de contrition, et l’Etat, notamment en France, se doit d’intervenir.

Editorial du « Monde ». Les chiffres sont accablants. En Allemagne, 3 677 mineurs ont été agressés sexuellement par des clercs de l’Eglise catholique entre 1946 et 2014. En Australie, 4 444 cas d’abus ont été identifiés entre 1980 et 2015. Aux Etats-Unis, pendant cinq ou six décennies, plus d’un millier d’enfants et d’adolescents ont été victimes de violences commises par des prêtres. Des scandales de même nature ont été révélés en Irlande ou encore au Chili, avec à chaque fois des évêques qui ont fait écran entre les agresseurs et la justice civile, et même maintenu des prédateurs au contact d’enfants.
La France n’est pas davantage épargnée : des faits d’abus sexuels, tantôt anciens, tantôt récents, surgissent régulièrement. Le mal de la pédophilie, couvert par une intolérable conspiration du silence, ronge l’Eglise. « Abus sexuels, état d’urgence dans l’Eglise », a titré le quotidien La Croix le 13 septembre.

Le pape François, qui depuis son élection en 2013 a toujours pris la défense des plus faibles, ne semble pas avoir pris conscience de l’ampleur de ce tsunami qui ébranle les fondements mêmes de son Eglise. Après son désastreux voyage au Chili, en janvier, où il avait soutenu un évêque accusé d’avoir protégé un prêtre soupçonné d’agressions sexuelles sur mineurs, le pontife argentin avait reconnu « avoir commis de graves erreurs d’appréciation et de perception ». Il avait fait part de sa « douleur » et de sa « honte ». Et il avait même dénoncé une « perversion » ecclésiale. Une sorte d’aveu d’impuissance, comme si l’Eglise admettait qu’elle n’avait rien entrepris contre les fautifs ou que les mécanismes de prévention ou d’alerte qu’elle prétendait avoir mis en place avaient été inefficaces.

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CHILE
BBC News

September 28, 2018

Pope Francis has removed the priest at the centre of Chile’s clerical sex abuse scandal.

In a statement, the Vatican said the pontiff had defrocked Fernando Karadima for “the good of the Church”.

The 88-year-old former priest had previously been sanctioned to a lifetime of “penance and prayer” for having sexually abused minors.

In June, the Pope accepted the resignations of three Chilean bishops in the wake of the scandal.

They included the controversial Juan Barros who was accused of covering up sexual abuse committed by Karadima in the 1980s and 1990s.

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

September 28, 2018

By Jason Hancock

Can the governor grant Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley subpoena power in his investigation into possible clergy sex abuse and cover-ups in the Roman Catholic Church?

Hawley’s office seemed to imply that was an option last week, which inspired abuse survivors on Wednesday to call on Gov. Mike Parson’s office to take action.

But the governor responded by saying his hands were tied without a local prosecutor requesting assistance. The Star asked Hawley’s office to clarify its position Thursday, but instead his spokeswoman re-sent the same prepared statement it released last week that kicked off the debate.

The back-and-forth and lack of clarity is disappointing, said David Clohessy, former director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
The Morning Call

September 24, 2018

By Steve Esack

One half of the Pennsylvania Legislature moved a step closer to approving a bill extending lawsuits for some childhood sexual abuse victims.

The House voted 171 to 23 Monday to add an amendment to a Senate bill that would give some adults older than 30 a two-year window to sue their alleged abusers and their employers who may have covered up the crime. The bill would give victims 24 months to file retroactive civil lawsuits to try to recoup money and compel their alleged abusers to testify in court.

However, the amended bill creates a different level of legal proof needed to prove a child sex abuse claim in civil court. Anyone suing a private entity, such as the Catholic church, for a child sex abuse cover-up would need to prove a lower level of “negligence” than someone suing a public institution, such a school district. Financial claims against a public institutional also would be capped. They would not be limited against private entities.

The vote was not without drama or biblical verse or cheers.

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ALLENTOWN (PA)
The Morning Call

September 26, 2018

By Peter Hall

Lawyers fighting to protect the identities of nearly two dozen Catholic priests implicated in a grand jury report on the sexual abuse of children urged the state Supreme Court on Wednesday to end the case and adopt the report with the priests’ names blacked out, keeping the allegations secret forever.

If the court does so, the state attorney general’s office argued, it would damage the grand jury process, costing the office a valuable tool.

The grand jury report, released Aug. 14, identified 301 priests accused of abusing more than 1,000 children in six dioceses over several decades, with all but a few cases too old to prosecute. It also described efforts by church officials to cover up allegations and discredit victims.

The court agreed to temporarily withhold the identities of priests whose lawyers say the report would “name and shame” them, violating their constitutional right to defend themselves in the process.

The justices must decide whether to keep the priests’ names concealed or reopen the grand jury process, giving the priests an opportunity to present evidence.

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ERIE (PA)
ErieNewsNow.com

September 29th 2018

By Lisa Adams

Trial for retired priest David Poulson on charges of child sex abuse not scheduled until February of 2018.

The anticipated fall trial date for a former Erie Catholic Diocese Priest on charges he sexually abused two young boys for several years is pushed back to next year.

After a pre-trial conference, a judge in Jefferson County set jury selection in the trial of David Poulson, 64 of Oil City, for February 11 of 2019.

In announcing the charges last May, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said the the Diocese of Erie knew about Poulson’s predator tendencies since 2010 but did not tell police.

Poulson faces trial for felony counts of indecent assault, plus counts of endangering the welfare of children and corruption of minors. One victim was just 8-years-old when the alleged abuse began.

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

ROME (ITALY)
The Daily Beast

September 29, 2018

By Barbie Latza Nadeau

The priests and monks created their own sick sign language to command the deaf and mute boys to perform oral sex and be sodomized.

Giuseppe” was born to impoverished parents outside of Verona in northern Italy with a congenital birth defect that left him deaf and mute. When it became clear that his parents could not provide for him—much less communicate with him—they brought him to the local Catholic church, which enrolled him in their Antonio Provolo Institute for deaf and mute children. It was here he learned to communicate through standard sign language and other visual cues. It was also where he became one of scores of victims of the priests and religious brothers who ran the school.

When he was 11, a monk who worked at the institute as an educator started teaching “special secret signs” for things like masturbation, fellatio, penis, and anus. “I didn’t understand at first just why this man was teaching me these strange secret signs,” Giuseppe explained in an exclusive, and very emotional, interview in Rome. “Then one day it became very clear when one of the priests made the secret sign for fellatio when we were alone, which was followed by him pushing his erect penis into my mouth.”

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

PENNSYLVANIA
Associated Press via Crux

October 1, 2018

By Michael Rubinkam

Even as top Pennsylvania officials assail the Catholic Church over its cover-up of clergy sexual abuse, a state agency is refusing to release a report on allegations of sexual abuse by a high-ranking state university administrator despite lingering questions about how the accusers’ complaints were handled.

In a case that bears some broad similarities to – and contains important differences with – the Pennsylvania church scandal that exploded in August, Pennsylvania’s higher education agency won’t agree to allow the public to see the 10-year-old report on former East Stroudsburg University Vice President Isaac Sanders. The report has taken on fresh significance in the wake of a new federal lawsuit by Sanders over his firing that could put Pennsylvania taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars.

The office of Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro – acting as the higher-ed agency’s lawyer – says the report on Sanders remains subject to an 8-year-old confidentiality agreement and can’t be released. But Sanders’ lawyer says he “could care less” if the document is disclosed, and the students who accused Sanders of sexual assault and harassment have long wanted the state’s evidence against him made public, only to be rebuffed by state officials.

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

RIVER FALLS (WI)

Hudson Star Observer

September 30, 2018

By Father John Gerritts

I am a Roman Catholic Priest and pastor at Saint Patrick Catholic Church in Hudson. The Catholic Church has been in the national news lately because priests and bishops in our church have been accused of rampant sexual abuse of children — which supposed leaders within the church have covered up for decades. The cover-ups continued even after church leaders made strong public commitments 16 years ago to protect children.

In the late 1970’s and early 80’s, as I was finishing junior high and moving on to high school, a priest was assigned as a chaplain at the local hospital in our community. While his primary assignment was serving at the hospital, he frequently assisted at our parish. People enjoyed it when he offered Mass since he was a good homilist, had a fun sense of humor, and was quite charismatic. He frequently attended various events with kids, such as high school athletic contests and concerts. He was close to several families in the community, including my own.

Families were thrilled that he gave attention to the kids in the church. My parents were excited because they knew I was thinking about becoming a priest, so surely his would be a good influence.

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
New York Magazine

September 29, 2018

By Ed Kilgore

It gained some attention, even in the middle of a very crowded news cycle, when the prominent Jesuit magazine America rescinded its endorsement of Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation after Christine Blasey Ford’s Senate testimony. Kavanaugh, after all, has constantly and proudly talked about his character and career being shaped by the Jesuit education he obtained at the super-elite Georgetown Preparatory School in the Washington suburbs. And he was at Georgetown Prep when the alleged sexual assault against Ford — along with the gang rapes that Julie Swetnick, herself an alleged victim, has reported in a sworn affadavit — were said to have occurred.

America endorsed Kavanaugh back in July because of the high likelihood (which ironically, he tried so very hard to deny or obscure in his first Judiciary Committee testimony) that he would help overturn Roe v. Wade, and eliminate any constitutional right to an abortion. Its second thoughts involved an issue that is all too familiar to contemporary Catholics:

[T]his nomination battle is no longer purely about predicting the likely outcome of Judge Kavanaugh’s vote on the court. It now involves the symbolic meaning of his nomination and confirmation in the #MeToo era. The hearings and the committee’s deliberations are now also a bellwether of the way the country treats women when their reports of harassment, assault and abuse threaten to derail the careers of powerful men.

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.

RISING SUN (MD)
Associated Press via Fox 29

A Pennsylvania man has been charged with child sexual abuse dating back to his time as a youth group leader at a Maryland church decades ago.

A Maryland State Police statement says 58-year-old Allen Price of Quarryville, Pennsylvania, was arrested Friday at his home.

Indictments handed down Thursday charge Prince with more than 100 counts, including second-degree child abuse, second-degree assault, and second-, third- and fourth-degree sex offenses.

Police say Price is accused of assaulting and abusing five girls, then aged 11 to 16, who attended youth group meetings at Grace Bible Chapel in Rising Sun from 1987 until 2001. They say Price also has ties to Lewes, Delaware, where he’s been involved in youth activities.

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.

THOMPSON FALLS (MT)
The Missoulian

September 30, 2018

By Seaborn Larson

Perhaps the largest jury award ever to a single person claiming the Jehovah’s Witnesses church failed to protect her from a sexual predator came Wednesday in Thompson Falls, a 1,300-person town peeking out from the pines along Highway 200 in northwest Montana.

The jury’s award, $35 million in punitive and compensatory damages to one woman, is more than financial relief, the woman’s attorneys say. It’s a message to the church: If leadership won’t amend their policies in handling child sex abuse, they’re going to pay for it.

In 2012, a California jury awarded one woman $28 million for her own claims against the Witnesses. Her attorney said it was the largest jury verdict for a single victim in a religious abuse case in the entire country at that time. The payout is a direct reflection of the church’s enormous and — most importantly — centralized wealth at the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, located in Pennsylvania and New York.

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
Catholic News Agency

September 29, 2018

In an op-ed column published Saturday, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia has restated his concerns about the upcoming synod of bishops on young adults, faith and vocational discernment, set to begin Oct. 3.

The column was published in the Italian newspaper Il Foglio.

According to Chaput, after the Pennsylvania statewide grand jury report, and abuse problems in Chile, Germany and elsewhere, “the Church is in turmoil.”

“In this turbulent environment, the Holy See will host a world synod of bishops, October 3-28, in Rome. Keyed to the theme of ‘young people, faith, and vocational discernment,’ a more ironic, and more difficult, confluence of bad facts at a bad time for the meeting can hardly be imagined.

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 LONDON (CT)
The Day

September 30, 2018

By Editorial Board

Sexual assault and abuse are crimes so revolting that their innocent victims have borne the stigma: blame the victim, shame the victim, silence the victim, shield the victim’s name from the public. The events of the past weeks have upended those old conventions, awkwardly, painfully, but irrevocably.

The Day recently published articles by staff writer Joe Wojtas, whose reporting over the years has covered sexual abuse charges against Roman Catholic priests in the Norwich Diocese and allegations of sexual misbehavior by a former Stonington first selectman. The Sept. 23 stories were prompted by coverage of local reaction to a Pennsylvania Grand Jury report detailing charges against some 300 priests in that state over many years. One is the story of a New London man who says he was assaulted in Noank by a pastor now deceased. He described the emotional burdens ever since.

Christine Blasey Ford testified openly before the Senate Judiciary Committee Friday that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were in high school 36 years ago. She had told only her husband and therapists in most of that time, but she decided that keeping her secret any longer did not serve the public interest: The person she was accusing could be appointed to the nation’s high court.

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.

BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

September 29, 2018

By Mark Arsenault

A member of the so-called Silent Generation and grandmother of 13, Mary Ann Keyes is the matriarch of a big Catholic family whose ties to the Roman Catholic Church — like those of many families — have grown more complicated with each generation.

While angered and saddened by the clergy sexual abuse scandals, Keyes, whose family is based in part on the South Shore, would never walk away. “The church means everything to me,” she said.

Her daughter, Kelly Carey, is 53, born between the baby boomers and Generation X. She considered stepping away after the abuse revelations of the early 2000s, she says, but weathered the scandals as a “roaming” Catholic, bouncing among different parishes in the area to hear individual priests she likes and respects.

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

ROME (ITALY)
Crux

September 29, 2018

By Inés San Martín

In a move suggesting Pope Francis believes the Church is in a moment of “spiritual turbulence,” the pontiff is asking Catholics around the world to pray the rosary every day during the month of October for protection of the Church from the devil.

The daily praying of the rosary during the “Marian month of October,” a Vatican statement Saturday said, will unite the faithful “in communion and penance, as a people of God, in asking the Holy Mother of God and St. Michael the Archangel to protect the Church from the devil, who always aims to divide us from God and among us.”

The statement also says that, as the pope noted during his daily homily on Sept. 11, prayer is the weapon against “the Great accuser who ‘travels around the world looking for accusations’.”

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

ROME (ITALY)
Crux

September 20, 2018

By Claire Giangravè

In February 2013, in his last official act as pope, Pope emeritus Benedict XVI appointed a commissioner for a small, seemingly insignificant hospital in Rome, the Immaculate Dermatological Institute (IDI).

Two years later, that same hospital was at the center of a tug-of-war between Australian Cardinal George Pell and the Vatican’s Secretary of State. Today, IDI is deepening the rift that threatens to tear apart the Church in the U.S., and to poison its relationship with Rome.

To understand what makes this hospital such a lightning rod, one needs to look at the path that led what was once a symbol of excellence in Catholic healthcare to the brink of ruin and almost $1 billion in debt.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

September 30, 2018

By John Allen

Moments of great crisis generally affect institutions in multiple ways, some of which are immediately evident and others that take longer to discern. Amid the clerical abuse scandals currently rocking Catholicism, it’s worth asking if one such long-term result is playing out before our eyes.

To wit, are we seeing a redefinition of the traditional left/right divides in the Church because the focus of popular complaint is no longer really teaching, one of the three traditional duties of a bishop, but rather governing?

Recently I sat down with a senior Church leader who was musing on criticism of the bishops of late, which he said at times seems reminiscent of Congregationalism – the idea that it’s the lay congregation, not the clerical caste, that exercises real power over Church affairs.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
San Jose Mercury News

September 30, 2018

By Harvey Barkin

San Jose Bishop Patrick McGrath met with the outrage and clamor for immediate accountability of the clergy accused of sexual abuses at the first of three scheduled listening sessions at Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Palo Alto Sept. 29.

McGrath said the involved clergy “say ‘sorry’ but it’s not enough. Deeds, not words are what we need. This is the beginning of the process.”

Locally, the process of holding abusive priests accountable arguably began in 2002, when the Diocese of San Jose implemented the Dallas Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People after U.S. bishops approved it. The charter was updated in 2005, 2011 and this year. Also, in 2002 the diocese set up its own Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults. In the ensuing years, training, background checks and fingerprinting became necessary for seminarians, employees and even volunteers who work for the diocese. All diocesan personnel are mandated to immediately notify civil authorities of any suspected sexual abuse.

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

ERIE (PA)
GoErie.com

September 30, 2018

An anonymous author posted 21 Theses on the doors of St. Peter Cathedral. The message, made in response to the abuse crisis, has gained support.

More than 500 years after Martin Luther, a like-minded activist is at work in the Catholic Diocese of Erie, trying to ignite reform in response to the child sexual-abuse crisis.

Luther in 1517 sparked the Reformation by posting his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. Luther put his name to the earth-shaking document.

The local activist is operating on a more localized scale. And the person is doing so anonymously.

The person taped a document called the 21 Theses to the doors of St. Peter Cathedral in downtown Erie on Sept. 13, according to the Twitter account @21Theses.

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

VATICAN CITY
Daily Mail

September 30, 2018

By George Martin

– The Pope said in a statement Saturday that Catholics should protect the church
– He called prayer a ‘weapon’ to be used against ‘the great accuser’ in statement
– The Church has been embroiled in a series of sexual abuse scandals recently
– A German report showed 3,700 children were abused between 1946 and 2014

The Pope has urged Catholics to pray daily to protect the church from ‘turbulence’, as more and more sexual abuse revelations emerge.

In a Vatican statement released on Saturday, Pope Francis urged Catholics the world over to pray every day in October in order ‘to protect the Church from the devil, who always seeks to separate us from God and from each other’.

The Pope called prayer a ‘weapon’ to be used against ‘the great accuser’ who he claimed ‘can only be defeated by prayer’.

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.

ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Associated Press via Fox News Channel

September 29, 2018

A Roman Catholic priest accused of sexual abuse and unwanted physical contact dating to the 1980s is stepping away from his official duties while diocese officials investigate the allegations.

Newsday reported the Diocese of Rockville Center, which covers Long Island, will be looking into the allegations against Msgr. William Breslawski, who has been serving as the pastor of the Church of St. Anthony of Padua in Rocky Point, New York.

The diocese said a letter had come Sept. 25 accusing Breslawski of sexually abusing a relative of the writer’s, a middle-school-age child, and referenced a previous complaint about it that had been made in 2002.

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.

HUDSON (WI)
Hudson Star Observer

September 30, 2018

By Father John Gerritts

I am a Roman Catholic Priest and pastor at Saint Patrick Catholic Church in Hudson. The Catholic Church has been in the national news lately because priests and bishops in our church have been accused of rampant sexual abuse of children — which supposed leaders within the church have covered up for decades. The cover-ups continued even after church leaders made strong public commitments 16 years ago to protect children.

In the late 1970’s and early 80’s, as I was finishing junior high and moving on to high school, a
priest was assigned as a chaplain at the local hospital in our community. While his primary
assignment was serving at the hospital, he frequently assisted at our parish. People enjoyed it
when he offered Mass since he was a good homilist, had a fun sense of humor, and was quite
charismatic. He frequently attended various events with kids, such as high school athletic
contests and concerts. He was close to several families in the community, including my own.

Families were thrilled that he gave attention to the kids in the church. My parents were excited
because they knew I was thinking about becoming a priest, so surely his would be a good
influence.

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.

[Karadima victim describes Ezzati’s request for dismissal as “rare” and “irregular”]

CHILE
BioBioChile

September 30, 2018

By Nicolás Parra and Nicole Martínez

“Como rara” e “irregular” calificó José Andrés Murillo, una de las víctimas del expulsado sacerdote Fernando Karadima, la petición de sobreseimiento de Ezzati, realizada por su defensa, para que no sea investigado en el caso de los delitos sexuales que se le imputan al excanciller del arzobispado de Santiago, Óscar Muñoz Toledo.

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

[After Karadima’s expulsion from the priesthood, laity of Osorno ask for the same with Juan Barros]

CHILE
BioBioChile

September 30, 2018

By María José Villarroel

Desde la organización de Laicos y Laicas de Osorno valoraron la decisión tomada por el papa Francisco de expulsar al exsacerdote Fernando Karadima, culpado por la Iglesia Católica como autor de abusos sexuales. Mario Vargas, vocero de la agrupación en Osorno, se mostró conforme con la decisión del Papa, calificando la determinación como un gran avance respecto a la condena que recibe el ahora exsacerdote.

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[Priests abused by Karadima say: “May God forgive him and may he be able to ask forgiveness for everything he did”]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

September 30, 2018

By Leonardo Vallejos

Sergio Cobo y Eugenio de la Fuente valoran que la expulsión del ex clérigo “marca un precedente a nivel mundial”.

Los sacerdotes Sergio Cobo y Eugenio de la Fuente, son dos de las declaradas víctimas del ex párroco de El Bosque Fernando Karadima. Por eso, valoraron que el Papa Francisco haya tomado la decisión de expulsarlo del sacerdocio. “Marca un precedente a nivel mundial. No creo que pase desapercibido que luego de haber hecho un proceso hace años, el Papa, de modo excepcional, vea que lo correcto sea dimitir del estado clerical a un sacerdote que cometió abusos”, afirmó Cobo, sacerdote de la Iglesia Inmaculada Concepción de Vitacura, a El Mercurio.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

September 29, 2018

Pope Francis asked Saturday for daily prayers to protect the Catholic Church from what he says are “attacks by the devil,” in his latest response to the clerical sex abuse and cover-up scandal roiling his papacy.

A Vatican statement appeared to be an indirect response to accusations that Francis himself, and a string of Vatican officials before him, were complicit in covering up the sexual misconduct of a now-disgraced American ex-cardinal.

The Vatican said Francis had asked for Catholics worldwide to unite and pray the Rosary each day during October “to protect the church from the devil, who is always looking to divide us from God and from one another.”

At the same time, Francis asked for prayers so the church becomes ever more aware of its “guilt, errors and abuses committed in the present and the past and is committed to combat it without fail to prevent evil from prevailing.”

Francis identified the devil as the “Great Accuser, who roams the earth looking for ways to accuse.”

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.

[What delays the Pope from appointing a new archbishop of Santiago]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 27, 2018

By Paula Yévenes

Algunos sacerdotes dicen que está dentro de los plazos habituales. Otros, que la elección es excepcionalmente compleja. La reciente frase de Francisco, de que “no he encontrado a la persona”, abre suspicacias. Y dudas.

Varios nombres han surgido como eventuales reemplazos del renunciado arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati. Desde otros prelados, como Fernando Chomali -de Concepción y quien la semana pasada se reunió en Roma con el Pontífice-, hasta pastores extranjeros y sacerdotes locales. Todos suenan entre las opciones para encabezar la arquidiócesis. Francisco, sin embargo, mantiene la incógnita. Luego de tres oleadas de aceptación de renuncias de obispos, en las cuales se han ido siete de ellos, aún no define al nuevo pastor de la capital. Y la expectación crece.

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

[The 48-hour controversy over Church of Santiago’s guide to prevent abuses]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 29, 2018

By J. Matus

En el documento, publicado y luego eliminado del sitio web del arzobispado, se detallaban reglas a cumplir.

El Arzobispado de Santiago publicó este jueves, en su sitio web oficial, el documento titulado “Orientaciones que fomentan el buen trato y la sana convivencia pastoral”. El objetivo: dar señales de un cambio respecto de cómo están enfrentando los escándalos por abusos sexuales en la Iglesia Católica chilena. En particular, buscan establecer directrices sobre cómo deber ser la relación del clero con niños, adolescentes y personas con algún tipo de discapacidad.

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.

[Church: personalities demand a parliamentary inquiry on pedophilia in France]

PARIS (FRANCE)
Le Monde

September 30, 2018

Les signataires ont transmis une pétition aux parlementaires. Prenant l’exemple de l’Australie et des Etats-Unis, ils veulent que le pays rattrape son « retard » en la matière.

[The signatories sent a petition to parliamentarians. Taking the example of Australia and the United States, they want the country to catch up with the “backlog” in this area.]

Religieux, anciens ministres, avocats, victimes… Un groupe de personnalités lance un appel pour une enquête parlementaire indépendante sur les abus sexuels dans l’Eglise en France.

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DES MOINES (IA)
Diocese of Des Moines

September 28, 2018

The Diocese of Des Moines recently received an allegation against Father Leonard Kenkel of decades-old sexual abuse of a minor. Upon receiving the complaint September 6, 2018, Bishop Richard Pates immediately referred the allegation to local law enforcement where the alleged abuse occurred and has been notified that the allegation is beyond the statute of limitations.

Bishop Pates has apologized to the victim, who asked for anonymity. The diocese will honor this request.

“It has always been a top priority for me that we address all allegations of sexual abuse with utmost transparency, consistency and accountability outlined by the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. The diocese continues to work diligently to ensure a safe environment for children and all vulnerable individuals in our churches and schools,” said Bishop Pates.

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VICTORIA (KS)
Kansas City Star

September 28, 2018

By Judy L. Thomas

Officials at a grade school in a rural Kansas town were stunned Friday to learn that a former Catholic cardinal — who stepped down in July over allegations that he sexually abused seminarians and minors — was now living next door.

Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington is residing at St. Fidelis Friary in Victoria, Kan., within a block of Victoria Elementary School.

“I was never made aware of it until I found out through social media today,” said Kent Michel, superintendent of USD 432 and also principal of Victoria Elementary.

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UNITED STATES
LifeSiteNews

August 31, 2018

In a forcefully-written column titled “A Cancer on the Papacy,” former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan pulls no punches as he contends that the Catholic Church is going through perhaps its “gravest crisis” since the Protestant Reformation, and that homosexuality is to blame.

A former aid to Richard Nixon who in a 2002 column argued that Vatican II was an “unrelieved disaster,” Buchanan calls for not only a thorough investigation of the “stunning” claims made by Archbishop Carlo Viganò, but an extensive “purge” and severing from the priesthood of those who covered up the scandals.

“The issue here is whether Pope Francis knew what was going on in the Vatican and in his Church, and why he was not more resolute in rooting out the moral squalor,” Buchanan writes.

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DUNKIRK (NY)
Observer Today

September 29, 2018

A priest who has been suspended by the Buffalo Diocese is a Dunkirk native.

According to the Buffalo Diocese, on Wednesday, the diocese received a complaint against Father Joseph C. Gatto involving an alleged sexual advance made on an adult. Bishop Richard J. Malone placed Father Gatto on administrative leave as an investigation continues.

“Please note that this administrative leave is for the purpose of investigation and does not imply any determination as to the truth and falsity of the complaint,” the diocese stated on its website. “We continue to pray for all victims of abuse. If you have any information specific to clerical sexual abuse you would like to share, please contact Jackie Joy, our Victim Assistance Coordinator, who can be reached at 716-895-3010.”

Gatto is an alumnus of Holy Trinity Elementary School and Cardinal Mindszety High School. In 1979 he graduated from Wadham’s Hall Seminary College, Ogdensburg and in 1982 he received his Bachelor of Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, Italy. He was ordained a priest at his home parish, Holy Trinity Church on July 9, 1983. Gatto had been the president and rector of Christ the King Seminary in Amherst, which prepares men for the priesthood in the Buffalo Diocese. He is accused of making a sexual advance on an adult male in 2000. In an interview with WKBW, he denied the accusation and said he was already planning on stepping down from his position, saying he was suffering from burnout and needed to take a break.

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DES MOINES (IA)
WeAreIowa.com

September 29, 2018

By Sarah Beckman

A priest serving in the Des Moines area for years has been accused of abuse by a minor.

Father Leonard Kenkel has been accused of decades-old sexual abuse of a minor. The complaint was received by the Diocese of Des Moines on September 6. The allegation was immediately referred to local law enforcement.

Bishop Pates has apologized to the victim, who asked for anonymity. The Diocese has obtained the services of an investigator and will consult with them what to do next.

Father Kenkel is retired from his services at the church and is in a nursing facility. Bishop Pates has suspended Kenkel’s priestly faculties so he can’t engage in public ministry.

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VICTORIA (KS)
Associated Press via the Toronto Star

September 29, 2018

The friary in remote western Kansas that is now home to a disgraced former U.S. cardinal removed from ministry by Pope Francis over allegations of sexual abuse is just one block from an elementary school.

The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., confirmed in a statement Friday that ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick is living at St. Fidelis Friary in Victoria, a rural town of about 1,200 that lies more than 400 kilometres west of Kansas City. The Friary is within a block of Victoria Elementary School.

News of McCarrick’s living arrangement took school officials by surprise, the Kansas City Star reported .

“I was never made aware of it until I found out through social media” on Friday, Victoria Elementary Principal Kent Michel said.

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

ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Newsday

September 29, 2018

By Bart Jones

Msgr. William G. Breslawski agreed to step away while the Diocese of Rockville Centre investigates allegations he sexually abused a middle schooler nearly 40 years ago, a church spokesman said Saturday.

A Roman Catholic priest has stepped aside from his ministry while church officials investigate allegations that he sexually abused a middle schooler nearly 40 years ago and had “an inappropriate interaction” with two adults in the 1980s, the Diocese of Rockville Centre said.

Msgr. William G. Breslawski agreed to step away while the diocese investigates those allegations, Sean Dolan, a spokesman for the diocese, said Saturday.

Breslawski, who was ordained a priest in 1979, most recently served as the pastor of the Church of Saint Anthony of Padua in Rocky Point. He could not be reached for comment.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
The New York Times

September 29, 2018

By Pascale Bonnefoy

Pope Francis has defrocked a once-prominent priest whose case has been at the center of public outrage about clerical sexual abuse and its concealment in Chile — a rare move that Vatican officials said showed his determination to tackle a scandal that has roiled the Catholic Church here and around the world.

The priest, the Rev. Fernando Karadima, was found guilty of sexual offenses by the Vatican as long ago as 2011. But his case has proved particularly toxic for Francis, who long defended a bishop accused of covering it up, Juan Barros, including during a visit to Chile in January.

A month later, following a storm of protest, Francis sent sex crimes investigators to the country, beginning an about-face that was to result in all 34 of the Roman Catholic bishops in Chile offering their resignations.

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BOISE (ID)
Idaho Statesman

September 28, 2018

By Katy Moeller, Christina Lords, and Michael Katz

A retired Boise priest accused of possessing thousands of images and videos of children being sexually abused — and sharing some of them online with others — won’t go to trial in October.

After reaching a deal with prosecutors, the Rev. W. Thomas “Tom” Faucher pleaded guilty Friday to five of the 24 charges against him, including two counts of distribution of sexually exploitative material, two counts of possession of sexually exploitative materials and drug possession. The other charges were dismissed.

He will be sentenced at 9 a.m. Dec. 20.

Prosecutors will ask the judge to sentence Faucher to 30 years in prison, including 20 before he’s eligible for parole. The defense is free to argue for less, under the plea deal

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BOISE (ID)
Associated Press via U.S. News and World Report

September 28, 2018

A former Boise Catholic priest has pleaded guilty to child pornography charges as part of a plea deal.

News outlets report William Thomas Faucher pleaded guilty to five of the 24 charges against him, including distribution of sexually exploitative material, possession of sexually exploitative materials and drug possession.

The other charges were dismissed.

The Idaho Statesman reports Faucher, who will be 73 next month, told the court he sent an email that contained child pornography while in alcohol-induced depression and while being affected by dementia.

Prosecutors say it wasn’t one drunken mistake and that more than 2,000 photos and videos depicting child sexual abuse were found on Faucher’s computer and phone.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

September 28, 2018

By Paulina Guzik

In the last week, three dioceses in Poland have published their data on clerical sex abuse, saying they are trying to better understand the issue and find effective measures to stop it.

On Sep. 27, the Diocese of Warsaw-Prague – located in the eastern part of greater Warsaw – said in the last 26 years twelve priests were accused of abusing minors, and that all of the cases were reported to the Vatican. It added that two of the accused were cleared of charges.

“I want to do everything in my power to help those who feel hurt, so they could have a safe return to the Church and regain confidence in her,” said Bishop Romuald Kaminski.

The diocese also published its policies on child protection and gave information about its special team of priests and lay experts working on issues related to abuse.

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HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle

September 28, 2018

By Nicole Hensley

A former Conroe priest facing decades-old child molestation accusations has been staying at a gated retirement community in southwest Houston while out on bail, according to officials.

The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston has been housing Manuel Larosa-Lopez at the St. Dominic Village along Holcombe Boulevard after he was released on a $375,000 bond two weeks ago, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office confirmed. The property is fenced off save for a guarded driveway.

The diocese touts the village, which includes a senior home and about a dozen apartments for retired priests south of the Brays Bayou, as providing “all the comforts of home” on its website.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

September 27, 2018

By Philip Pullella

Pope Francis has defrocked a 88-year-old Chilean priest who sexually abused teenage boys over a period of many years and is at the center of a wider abuse scandal that is still under investigation, the Vatican said on Friday.

Father Fernando Karadima was defrocked, or “reduced to the lay state” by the pope on Thursday, a move the Vatican called “exceptional” and done “for the good of the Church”.

Karadima, who lives in a home for the elderly in the Chilean capital Santiago, was notified on Friday.

He was found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 and ordered to live a life of “prayer and penitence”, but was not defrocked at the time, the final years of the reign of former Pope Benedict. That meant he was still a priest, although he could not minister in public.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press via Boston Globe

September 28, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis has defrocked a Chilean priest who was a central character in the global sex abuse scandal rocking his papacy, invoking his ‘‘supreme’’ authority to stiffen an earlier sentence because of the ‘‘exceptional amount of damage’’ the priest’s crimes had caused.

In a statement Friday, the Vatican said Francis had laicized 88-year-old Fernando Karadima, who was originally sanctioned in 2011 to live a lifetime of ‘‘penance and prayer’’ for having sexually abused minors in the upscale Santiago parish he ran.

The Vatican said Francis was doing so for ‘‘the good of the church.’’

‘‘It is without doubt an exceptional measure, but Karadima’s grave crimes have caused exceptional damage in Chile,’’ Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said.

The ‘‘penance and prayer’’ sanction has been the Vatican’s punishment of choice for elderly priests convicted of raping and molesting children. It has long been criticized by victims as too soft and essentially an all-expenses-paid retirement, and Karadima’s whistle-blowers had pressed for it to be toughened.

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DES MOINES (IA)
KCCI 8 CBS

September 28, 2018

The Diocese of Des Moines is investigating an allegation of decades-old sexual abuse of a minor against one of its priests who retired in 2008.

According to a news release, Bishop Richard Pates immediately referred the complaint made Sept. 6 against Father Leonard Kenkel to local law enforcement authorities where the alleged abuse happened. The allegation is beyond the statute of limitations.

Pates apologized to the victim, who asked for anonymity.

“It has always been a top priority for me that we address all allegations of sexual abuse with utmost transparency, consistency and accountability outlined by the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” Pates said in a statement.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

September 27, 2018

By Robert Herguth

Weeks after making remarks to news reporters that seemed to minimize the Catholic Church’s priest sex abuse crisis — and insisting his words were taken out of context — Cardinal Blase Cupich is now saying he used a “poor choice of words” and apologized “for the offense caused by my comments.”

“It was a mistake for me to even mention that the church has a bigger agenda than responding to the charges in the letter by former papal nuncio Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano,” Cupich said in an op-ed published by the Chicago Tribune.

Vigano released an explosive letter late last month contending, among other things, that Pope Francis knew of alleged sexual misconduct by disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick — who has been accused of sexually preying on adult seminarians as well as children — but allowed McCarrick to continue in ministry and serve as an influential adviser.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Magazine

September 29, 2018

By Ed Kilgore

It gained some attention, even in the middle of a very crowded news cycle, when the prominent Jesuit magazine America rescinded its endorsement of Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation in the wake of Christine Blasey Ford’s Senate testimony. Kavanaugh, after all, has constantly and proudly talked about his character and career being shaped by the Jesuit education he obtained at the super-elite Georgetown Preparatory School in the Washington suburbs. And he was at Georgetown Prep when the alleged sexual assault against Ford — along with the gang-rapes that Julie Swetnick, herself an alleged victim, has reported in a sworn affadavit — were said to have occurred.

America endorsed Kavanaugh back in July because of the high likelihood (which ironically, he tried so very hard to deny or obscure in his first Judiciary Committee testimony) that he would help overturn Roe v. Wade, and eliminate any constitutional right to an abortion. Its second thoughts involved an issue that is all too familiar to contemporary Catholics:

[T]his nomination battle is no longer purely about predicting the likely outcome of Judge Kavanaugh’s vote on the court. It now involves the symbolic meaning of his nomination and confirmation in the #MeToo era. The hearings and the committee’s deliberations are now also a bellwether of the way the country treats women when their reports of harassment, assault and abuse threaten to derail the careers of powerful men.

Substitute “children” for “women” in that last sentence and you have an issue that has been of paramount concern to Catholics everywhere recently. And while America did not mention the parallels explicitly, the church’s child sex abuse crisis had to be in the background in discussing the situation. In an article about Kavanaugh’s staunchest supporters, Emma Green noted that prominent Catholic conservative Mary Rice Hasson is battling the obvious connections between abuse allegations.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

September 29, 2018

By Christopher White

Ahead of next week’s start to the much-anticipated month-long gathering of bishops in Rome, two American delegates have already preempted the debate by publishing an exchange on the guiding document for the meetings.

Correspondence between Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and Archbishop Charles Chaput was published in First Things, a conservative journal on religion, in response to a September 21 column by Chaput that included a 1,300 word critique of the Instrumentem Laboris, the synod’s working document, sent to Chaput by a “respected North American theologian” and published anonymously in his article.

In the original commentary, the theologian faulted the document for its “pervasive focus on socio-cultural elements, to the exclusion of deeper religious and moral issues,” and four areas in which the author enumerated criticisms: “An inadequate grasp of the Church’s spiritual authority;” “A partial theological anthropology;” “A relativistic conception of vocation;” and “An impoverished understanding of Christian joy.”

In addition, the theologian claimed “there are other serious theological concerns, including: a false understanding of the conscience and its role in the moral life; a false dichotomy proposed between truth and freedom; false equivalence between dialogue with LGBT youth and ecumenical dialogue; and an insufficient treatment of the abuse scandal.”

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NEW YORK (NY)
First Things

September 21, 2018

By Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.

Over the past several months, I’ve received scores of emails and letters from laypeople, clergy, theologians, and other scholars, young and old, with their thoughts regarding the October synod of bishops in Rome focused on young people. Nearly all note the importance of the subject matter. Nearly all praise the synod’s intent. And nearly all raise concerns of one sort or another about the synod’s timing and possible content. The critique below, received from a respected North American theologian, is one person’s analysis; others may disagree. But it is substantive enough to warrant much wider consideration and discussion as bishop-delegates prepare to engage the synod’s theme. Thus, I offer it here:

* * *

Besides the above considerations, there are other serious theological concerns in the IL, including: a false understanding of the conscience and its role in the moral life; a false dichotomy proposed between truth and freedom; false equivalence between dialogue with LGBT youth and ecumenical dialogue; and an insufficient treatment of the abuse scandal.

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NEW YORK (NY)
First Things

September 28, 2018

By Blase J. Cupich and Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.

On September 21, Archbishop of Philadelphia Charles J. Chaput presented a critique of the Instrumentum Laboris for the 2018 Synod on Young People, sent to him by a respected North American theologian. Below we publish a response to this critique from Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, followed by a note from Chaput.

[By Cardinal Cupich]

The increasing use of anonymous criticism in American society does not necessarily contribute to healthy public discourse, but in fact can erode it. For this reason, the anonymous critique of the Instrumentum Laboris (IL) for the 2018 Synod, published by First Things on September 21, 2018, raises essential questions about the nature of theological dialogue in our Church and the problematic nature of some forms of anonymity. It also raises fundamental questions about why First Things would publish such an anonymous critique.

The mature vision of Donum Veritatis (On the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian), speaks of dialogue that is public and forthright in the search for truth, generous in spirit, fair in critique and balanced in tone. The anonymous critique published by First Things rejects these elements, substituting selectivity, condescension, and the deployment of partial truths to obfuscate the fullness of truth. Worse, this piece distorts the truth at many points and shows condescension toward the issues raised by the bishops’ conferences of the world on which the IL is based.

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NEW YORK (NY)
National Review

By Kathleen Beckman, interviewed by Kathryn Jean Lopez

September 29, 2018

An urgent need for all of us.

Pray for Priests. It’s the constant refrain of Kathleen Beckman, a friend and adviser to many of them. She is a founder of the Foundation for Prayer for Priests and the author of the upcoming Praying for Priests: An Urgent Call for the Salvation of Souls. At this time, when so much scandal is coming to light, it’s a call for more who believe in Christ and love their faith to take it more seriously. She talks about the priesthood and the Church and the call to prayer and sacrifice in an interview.

Kathryn Jean Lopez: Some of the news stories — certainly the August Pennsylvania grand-jury report — that have come out about abuse are unbearable to read. It all gives some window into the suffering of men and women who have experienced abuse at the hands of priests. What is your prayer for those who have suffered such abuse?

Kathleen Beckman: As unbearable as it is read the horrific accounts of clergy sexual abuse, we must face this reality if justice is to be done for the victims and the perpetrators. The victim’s pain is a heavy weight upon my heart. At daily Mass and holy hour, I pray that victims will experience Christ’s personal, transformative love. Intercessory prayer is powerful; it stirs God’s heart to intervene in miraculous ways. Fasting and offering up suffering is part of my intercession. As a layperson, I have a duty to pray and work toward building up the Body of Christ. The Church is my family — hearts are broken, minds are baffled, we are ashamed of sins and crimes, and ridiculed for staying. The Church is God’s family. He will purify and revive us. I pray that we will earn the back trust through necessary reform and renewal.

Lopez: Do you pray for the perpetrators? Do you pray for those who have died?

Beckman: Indeed, I pray for the living and dead perpetrators because love of God demands prayer for the conversion of sinners and salvation of souls. As president of the Foundation for Prayer for Priests apostolate, I sometimes receive correspondence from lay, deacon, or clergy prison chaplains. A deacon once wrote asking for prayer for an anonymous elderly priest who had been incarcerated for years — despondent over his horrible deeds, living in fear that he would be forever damned to hell. The chaplain described the daily agony of this priest’s tormented soul as self-hatred consumed him. For love of the Eternal High Priest, I pray for the priest “most in need of His mercy.” If we aim to be Christ-like, justice and mercy must intertwine as they did when Jesus hung on the Cross praying to His Father for the forgiveness of his murderers.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

By Christopher White

September 26, 2018

One of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s former closest collaborators and one of the U.S. Church’s leading crusaders for sex abuse reform, is calling on Pope Francis to break his silence about what the Vatican knew about the previous archbishop of Washington’s history of abuse and to act more decisively on the issue.

In the hope of ending the “silence and secrecy” surrounding the Church’s handling of abuse, John Carr – who served for two decades as the Capitol Hill point man for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) – also revealed that he was abused by priests while in high school seminary.

“Pope Francis has been too slow to understand and act on the moral and spiritual consequences of abuse. I believe his recent efforts to listen to victims/survivors, challenge destructive clericalism and call leaders of the entire church to Rome offer steps forward,” Carr told a crowd of over 500 attendees at Georgetown University’s Initiative for Catholic Social Thought and Public Life panel discussion on “Confronting a Moral Catastrophe: Lay Leadership, Catholic Social Teaching, and the Sexual Abuse Crisis.”

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VATICAN CITY
Holy See Press Office

September 28, 2018

Pope Francis has removed Fernando Karadima Fariña, of the archdiocese of Santiago de Chile, from the clerical state. The Holy Father has taken this exceptional decision in conscience and for the good of the Church.

The Holy Father has exercised his ordinary power, which is supreme, full, immediate and universal in the Church (cf. Code of Canon Law, canon 331), conscious of his service to the people of God as successor of Saint Peter.

The decree, signed by the Pope on Thursday, 27 September 2018, came into force automatically from that moment, and also implies the dispensation of all clerical obligations. Karadima Fariña was notified on Friday 28 September 2018.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

By Inés San Martín

September 29, 2018

According to the latest count by the Chilean national prosecutor’s office, some 221 priests and 8 bishops are being investigated up and down the country on charges of sexual abuse and cover-up, all due to allegations made from the year 2000 to date.

In the total is Fernando Karadima, the country’s most infamous predator priest, who was removed from the clerical state by Pope Francis on Thursday in an “exceptional” decision communicated by the Vatican on Friday, the same day the man who once led an impressive lay movement in Santiago was informed.

Karadima had been found guilty by the Vatican in 2011, but instead of being removed from the priesthood at that time was sentenced to a life of penance and prayer.

To put the ongoing crisis of the Chilean Church in perspective, information gathered in three raids on two dioceses- Rancagua and Santiago- led prosecutor Emiliano Arias to open 70 investigations in the last three months. All of them, according to La Tercera, are against members of the Chilean bishops’ conference who allegedly had knowledge of abuses committed by clerics.

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MARIETTA (OH)
Marietta Times

September 29, 2018

The Steubenville Diocese, which includes some parishes in Washington County, has made an important and welcomed announcement. It will publish the names of priests in the diocese against whom credible allegations of sexual abuse have been made, and who have been removed from active ministry.

Good. It is encouraging to see such a move. Too much damage has been done already, because that information was kept in the dark.

Bishop Jeffery Monforton appears to have decided to do the right thing.

“He wants to get the trust back in the church,” said diocese communications director Dino Orsatti. “So much has been lost in different investigations over the years, and we want to make sure we are as open as possible.”

There is some question as to whether the diocese will publish the names of priests who are no longer living. If it truly wants to be as open as possible, it should.

“Even if the priest is dead, it helps the victims know they are not alone,” said Judy Block Jones, Midwest regional leader for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

According to Orsatti, the diocese already knows there may be legal consequences in publishing this list. Likely seeing names on the list will prompt more to come forward with allegations of abuse.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican News

September 29, 2018

A communiqué released by the Holy See’s Press Office on Saturday states that Pope Francis invites “all the faithful of all the world, to pray the Holy Rosary every day” during the Marian month of October.

The following is the full text of a comuniqué released on Saturday by the Holy See’s Press Office regarding an invitation extended by Pope Francis to all the faithful to join in praying the Rosary during the month of October:

Pope Francis’ invitation

The Holy Father has decided to invite all the faithful, of all the world, to pray the Holy Rosary every day, during the entire Marian month of October, and thus to join in communion and in penitence, as the people of God, in asking the Holy Mother of God and Saint Michael Archangel to protect the Church from the devil, who always seeks to separate us from God and from each other.

In recent days, before his departure for the Baltic States, the Holy Father met with Fr. Fréderic Fornos, S.J., international director of the World Network of Prayer for the Pope, and asked him to spread this appeal to all the faithful throughout the world, inviting them to conclude the recitation of the Rosary with the ancient invocation “Sub Tuum Praesidium”, and with the prayer to Saint Michael Archangel that he protect us and help us in the struggle against evil (cf. Revelation 12, 7-12).

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

By Michelle Boorstein and Julie Zauzmer

September 29, 2018

Cardinal Donald Wuerl, who has said repeatedly that he didn’t know about years of sexual misconduct complaints involving his predecessor in the District, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, was named in a 2005 settlement agreement that included allegations against McCarrick, according to the accuser in the case and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Robert Ciolek, who left the priesthood and later became an attorney, spoke for the first time publicly this summer about the $80,000 settlement he reached in June 2005 with three New Jersey dioceses over his allegations against McCarrick and a teacher at his Catholic high school. McCarrick led the church in Newark and Metuchen before coming to the District in 2001; Ciolek’s high school was in New Jersey as well.

In an interview with The Post this month, Ciolek said for the first time publicly that the settlement included allegations against a third person, a Pittsburgh priest Ciolek says made unwanted sexual contact with him in seminary, where the priest was a professor. The first page of the settlement agreement lists the Diocese of Pittsburgh and Wuerl, who supervised the priest as bishop of Pittsburgh at the time, among the numerous parties to the settlement. The agreement was signed by Ciolek and the three New Jersey dioceses.

Ciolek shared a copy of the settlement with The Post.

[American Catholics’ demands for reform intensify after letter implicates Pope Francis in sex abuse coverup]

The presence of Wuerl’s name on Ciolek’s settlement agreement raises questions about the cardinal’s assertion that he did not know about any allegations against McCarrick before they became a topic of public discussion this summer.

Wuerl’s D.C. spokesman, Ed McFadden, said this week that Wuerl had been unaware of the legal agreement.

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MECHANICSVILLE (PA)
PennLive

September 26, 2018

Bill Cosby. Harvey Weinstein. The Roman Catholic clergy named in the Pennsylvania grand jury report. Brett Kavanaugh.

They all have two things in common: They’ve been accused, to varying degrees, of sexual misconduct. And all face accusations involving incidents said to have happened years ago.

Victims deserve to be heard. They deserve justice. But the accused also must be afforded the opportunity to defend themselves, in a court of law if necessary, and not branded as criminals based on accusation alone.

Cosby had his day in court; a jury convicted him and a judge sent him to prison. Weinstein has been indicted and faces criminal prosecution. Kavanaugh and his accuser will appear at a U.S. Senate hearing Thursday.

The problem in nearly every one of these cases is that time degrades memory. While the central incident may be alive in a victim’s memory, circumstantial details fade.

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[Fernando Karadima will continue to receive a pension after his expulsion from the priestly ministry]

CHILE
Emol

September 29, 2018

By Tomás Molina J.

Por orden papal, desde ayer el ex párroco ya no forma parte del clero, por lo que no podrá residir en el hogar donde cumplía su condena eclesial. Eso sí, seguirá recibiendo una pensión “mínima”.

¿Cuál será el futuro de Fernando Karadima? Esa es una las principales dudas que han surgido tras la determinación del Papa Francisco de, finalmente, expulsarlo ayer del sacerdocio producto de los abusos sexuales a menores perpetrados por el ex párroco de El Bosque. Por lo anterior ya se encontraba cumpliendo una pena vitalicia de penitencia y oración en el hogar de ancianos San José de las religiosas de la congregación de Santa Teresa Jornet, residencia ubicada en la comuna de Lo Barnechea.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Tribune-Review

September 29, 2018

Gannon University Friday joined the list of Catholic institutions citing the Aug. 14 Pennsylvania grand jury report on clergy sexual abuse in a decision to revoke honors accorded a former bishop.

GoErie first reported news of the Catholic university’s decision Friday afternoon.

Fallout from the grand jury report that said 301 priests abused about 1,000 children across Pennsylvania over seven decades has rippled across Pennsylvania and the nation over the last six weeks.

GoErie reported that Gannon University trustees voted to strike retired Bishop Donald W. Trautman’s name from a campus building on its downtown Erie campus, revoked an honorary degree it had bestowed on the bishop who headed the diocese from 1990-2012 and canceled a lecture series that bore his name.

Trautman, 82, who came under fire in the report for not moving aggressively on allegations of clergy sexual abuse defended his record saying he had disciplined and defrocked pedophile priests.

GoErie quoted Trautman as calling Gannon’s decision “unjust and unchristian.”

Gannon said it was following Catholic tradition of “giving voice to victims.”

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[The road to Karadima’s expulsion: Chronology of the crisis in Chile’s Catholic Church]

CHILE
Emol

September 28, 2018

El Papa Francisco puso fin a la carrera sacerdotal del ex párroco de El Bosque, uno de los casos más simbólicos de abusos sexuales cometidos por integrantes del clero en nuestro país. La Fiscalía Nacional contabiliza casi 180 víctimas.

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[Karadima Expulsion: Former priest showed “difficult to control” behavior during his previous canonical sentence]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

September 29, 2018

Fue el vicario judicial del Arzobispado de Santiago, Jaime Ortiz de Lazcano, quien comunicó la decisión papal al ahora ex presbítero. “Impactado, molesto y dolido”, habría sido su reacción.

“Impactado, molesto y dolido”. Esa habría sido la reacción del ex párroco de El Bosque, Fernando Karadima, luego de que durante la mañana de ayer el vicario judicial del Arzobispado de Santiago, Jaime Ortiz de Lazcano, llegara hasta el hogar San José de Lo Barnechea para comunicarle la decisión tomada por el Papa Francisco: despojarlo de su estado clerical.

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[Whistleblowers protest in front of Marist house, claiming 7 clergy members involved in sexual abuse live there]

CHILE
El Mostrador

September 27, 2018

La protesta llegó a un punto de máxima tensión cuando Paola Givovich, hermana de uno de los denunciantes, ingresó a la residencia y pidió que el marista Adolfo Fuentes “diera la cara”.

Un grupo de denunciantes y sobrevivientes de abusos sexuales del denominado caso Maristas protestaron este jueves frente a la casa de la congregación ubicada frente a la Nunciatura Apostólica en Providencia. Con carteles, lienzos y gritos, los manifestantes denunciaron que en la residencia viven 7 religiosos acusados de abusos, informó Cooperativa.

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[The Catholic Church does not stop: the Archdiocese’s manual describes sexual abuses as “inappropriate” displays of affection]

CHILE
El Mostrador

September 29, 2019

Este viernes se filtró un documento llamado “Orientaciones que fomentan el Buen Trato y la Sana Convivencia Pastoral”, que está firmado por Ricardo Ezzati, donde se señalan algunas medidas y recomendaciones para que los sacerdotes no estén envueltos en polémicas, justo cuando la iglesia católica está cuestionada por los abusos sexuales a menores. Precisamente, uno de los puntos del manual habla sobre eso, dando algunos consejos

Durante la jornada del viernes, se hizo público un manual que el Arzobispado de Santiago le está enviando a los sacerdotes, donde les indica cómo deben actuar con los menores, para no ser acusados de abuso sexual. El documento, firmado por el mismo Ricardo Ezzati, se titula “Orientaciones que fomentan el Buen Trato y la Sana Convivencia Pastoral”. En él, se detallan siete puntos para la sana convivencia pastoral.

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CHILE
Associated Press

September 28, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis has defrocked a Chilean priest who was a central character in the global sex abuse scandal rocking his papacy, invoking his “supreme” authority to stiffen an earlier sentence because of the “exceptional amount of damage” the priest’s crimes had caused.

In a statement Friday, the Vatican said Francis had laicized 88-year-old Rev. Fernando Karadima, who was originally sanctioned in 2011 to live a lifetime of “penance and prayer” for having sexually abused minors in the upscale Santiago parish he ran.

The Vatican said Francis was doing so for “the good of the church.”

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[Better late than never: Pope Francis exiles Karadima from the priesthood]

CHILE
El Mostrador

September 28, 2018

A través de un comunicado del Vaticano, se informó que el Papa “ha tomado esta decisión excepcional en conciencia y por el bien de la Iglesia”. Una de las víctimas de Karadima, Juan Carlos Cruz, agradeció el gesto del Papa contra “este hombre que le ha hecho daño a tanta gente”. La expulsión del ex párroco de El Bosque se produce a días de la decisión que afectó al ex vicario de la Solidaridad, Cristián Precht, otra figura emblemática de los casos de abusos dentro de la Iglesia católica chilena.

A días de sacar del sacerdocio a Cristián Precht, el Papa Francisco volvió a golpear la mesa y decidió dimitir del estado clerical al otrora poderoso ex párroco de El Bosque, Fernando Karadima Fariña.

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[Three priests cleared in investigation of “La Cofradía” of Rancagua]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

September 28, 2018

By Tomás Molina J.

El Ministerio Público no logró acreditar ningún delito cometido por Gino Bonomo, Aquiles Correa y Fernando Armijo. Este último era sindicado como el eventual líder de la organización, lo que finalmente fue descartado.

Tres de los al menos 14 sacerdotes que la fiscalía de O’Higgins investiga en el marco del denominado caso “La Cofradía” de Rancagua, fueron sobreseídos ayer por el Juzgado de Garantía de Pichilemu. En esta causa en la en que se indagan presuntos abusos sexuales cometidos por los religiosos, algunos contra menores de edad.

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[Monsignor Ramos is surprised by Karadima’s expulsion: “A long-awaited decision”]

CHILE
BioBioChile

September 28, 2018

By Guido Focacci

El secretario general de la Conferencia Episcopal, monseñor Fernando Ramos, se refirió esta tarde a la decisión del papa Francisco de de dimitir del estado clerical a Fernando Karadima. “La tomo, en primer lugar, como una decisión largamente anhelada por mucha gente y que hace justicia, creo yo. Porque están más que demostrados los delitos que él cometió y eso es absolutamente incompatible con el ejercicio del ministerio sacerdotal”, dijo Ramos en entrevista con Podría ser Peor, de Radio Bío Bío.

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[Emotional Juan Carlos Cruz after Karadima’s expulsion: “I never thought this day would come”]

CHILE
BioBioChile

September 28, 2018

By Valentina González

Uno de los principales denunciantes de Fernando Karadima, Juan Carlos Cruz, valoró la decisión de expulsar del sacerdocio al exreligioso, hallado culpable por la Iglesia de abusos sexuales contra menores. “El pedófilo Karadima expulsado del sacerdocio. Nunca pensé que vería este día. Un hombre que le arruinó la vida a tantas personas“, escribió Juan Carlos, una de sus víctimas.

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[Pope Francis expels Fernando Karadima from the priesthood 8 years after his abuses were known]

CHILE
BioBioChile

September 28, 2018

By Felipe Delgado and Nicole Martínez

El Vaticano dio a conocer este viernes la decisión del papa Francisco de dimitir de su estado clerical a Fernando Karadima, ahora exsacerdote que fue hallado culpable por la Iglesia Católica como autor de abusos sexuales, esto tras una investigación canónica.

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[Vatican spokesman on Karadima: “We were facing a very serious case of rot and it had to be rooted out”]

CHILE
BioBioChile

September 28, 2018

By Guido Focacci and Nicole Martínez

Greg Burke, director de la Oficina de Prensa de la Santa Sede, se refirió también a la expulsión del sacerdocio de Fernando Karadima por parte del propio papa Francisco. “Hay dos claves para entender este decreto, la primera, que el Papa lo hace en conciencia. La segunda, la motivación: por el bien de la Iglesia. El papa Francisco está actuando como pastor, como padre, por el bien de todo el pueblo de dios”, dijo el vocero del Vaticano.

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[“It is an excellent sign for the universal Church”: The analysis of an expert in Catholic history on Karadima’s expulsion from the priesthood]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 28, 2018

By Carla Pía Ruiz

Marcial Sánchez, doctor en Historia y autor de libros sobre la iglesia chilena, afirmó a La Tercera que “lo que hoy el Papa ha tomado por decisión es, por justicia, lo que debería haber hecho hace tiempo”.

“Era uno de los hombres más depredadores que hemos tenido en la historia de Chile”. Con estas palabras, Marcial Sánchez, doctor en Historia y especialista en la Iglesia Católica chilena, valoró este viernes la decisión del Papa Francisco de expulsar del sacerdocio a Fernando Karadima.

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[Ezzati on the expulsion of Karadima: The “never again” must also be “a reality in our Church of Santiago”]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 28, 2018

By Angelica Baeza

El arzobispo de Santiago, mediante un comunicado de prensa, indicó que “los católicos de Santiago y la gente de buena voluntad estamos llamados a acoger esta determinación del Santo Padre”.

Luego de que la Santa Sede informara la expulsión de Fernando Karadima, el arzobispo de Santiago Ricardo Ezzati, emitió un comunicado de prensa en el que dice que el Papa Francisco tomó una decisión dentro de sus facultades y que espera que estos casos de abusos sexuales no ocurran nunca más.

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[The details of Fernando Karadima’s expulsion]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 28, 2018

By Angelica Baeza

El abogado canónico Camilo Cortés, asegura que “lo que hizo es Papa lo hizo como pastor de la Iglesia, corrigiendo una decisión que se tuvo que tomar mucho antes”.

En 2010 se dieron a conocer las denuncias de abuso sexual en contra de Fernando Karadima, quien fuera párroco de El Bosque. Seis años más tarde la Doctrina de la Fe lo declara culpable y lo confina a una vida de oración, alejado de la vida clerical. Y hoy 28 de septiembre de 2018 ocurrió lo que muchos ya pensaban no pasaría. El Papa Francisco lo notifica de su expulsión del sacerdocio. ¿Pero en realidad que significa esto?

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

September 28, 2018

By Judy L. Thomas

Former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, who stepped down in July over credible allegations that he sexually abused seminarians and minors for decades, is now living in a friary in Kansas.

The Archdiocese of Washington confirmed McCarrick’s residency in a statement issued Friday.

“In late July 2018, our Holy Father Pope Francis requested that Archbishop Theodore McCarrick withdraw from all public ministry and events,” the statement said. “To that end, Archbishop McCarrick now resides at St. Fidelis Friary in Victoria, Kansas, in the Diocese of Salina, with the permission of the Provincial Superior of the Franciscan Capuchin Community responsible for the Friary, Fr. Christopher Popravak, O.F.M. Cap., and the Bishop of Salina, Most Reverend Gerald Vincke.”

The statement added that “out of consideration for the peace of the community at St. Fidelis Friary, respect for the privacy of this arrangement is requested.”

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DULUTH (MN)
City Pages

September 27, 2018

By Mike Mullen

A priest and a former cop walk into a courtroom.

Do not stop us; you have not heard this one before.

And even if you read the strange little tale told in Minnesota Lawyer, it’s hard to make heads or tails of this one. Even the “long story, short” takes some explaining.

William Graham, a Roman Catholic priest with St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Duluth, was sued in 2016 by T.J. Davis Jr., a former parishioner who attended Cathedral Senior High School (later rechristened Marshall School) in that port city some 40 years ago.

Davis, who as an adult joined the Duluth Police force, claimed in his lawsuit Graham had abused him during his high school years. That claim meant Graham was automatically put on “administrative leave” from his job with the church, and therefore went without a $500 stipend as the civil case played out in court.

This displeased the priest, who was later found — as part of a massive clergy sex abuse action that has bankrupted the Diocese of Duluth — to be a “credibly accused” perpetrator. So Graham, the reverend, took the rarely-if-ever seen step of suing his accuser, alleging Davis had purposely tried robbing him of his livelihood … by suing him, for sexual abuse.

And a jury agreed.

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