ABUSE TRACKER

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.

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

NEW YORK (NY)
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It gained some attention, even in the middle of a very crowded news cycle, when the prominent Jesuit magazine America rescinded its endorsement of Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation in the wake of Christine Blasey Ford’s Senate testimony.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.

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

NEW YORK (NY)
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.

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

DENVER (CO)
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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HELENA (MT)
The Associated Press

September 27,.2018

The defendant said the church covered up her sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a congregation member.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses must pay $35 million to a woman who says the church’s national organization ordered Montana clergy members not to report her sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a congregation member, a jury ruled in a verdict.

A judge must review the penalty, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ national organization — Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York — plans to appeal.

Still, the 21-year-old woman’s attorneys said Wednesday’s verdict sends a message to the church to report child abuse to outside authorities.

“Hopefully that message is loud enough that this will cause the organization to change its priorities in a way that they will begin prioritizing the safety of children so that other children aren’t abused in the future,” said attorney Neil Smith Thursday.

The Office of Public Information at the World Headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses responded to the verdict with an unsigned statement.

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SYRACUSE (NY)
syracuse.com

September 28, 2018

By Julie McMahon

Sixty-four Central New Yorkers are among the nearly 1,000 victims of clergy sexual abuse in New York state who plan to take settlements from the Catholic church.

The victim compensation program offered through the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse is nearing its conclusion after about seven months. Victims have started to receive and accept financial offers in Syracuse and across the state.

Program administrator Camille Biros said in five New York dioceses, there were 1,262 claims. From that, 1,133 offers were made. As of Thursday afternoon, 981 signed releases to settle the claims.

In Syracuse, 85 victims were invited to participate in the program. That’s more than the 76 “credible” victims the church has previously acknowledged publicly.

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ROME
Crux

September 16, 2018

By Inés San Martín

A priest who was once a national hero in Chile, and who now finds himself another casualty of that country’s massive clerical sexual abuse crisis, has been expelled from the priesthood by Pope Francis after being found guilty of abusing minors and vulnerable adults.

The Archdiocese of Santiago in Chile released a statement on Saturday saying that Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had notified the Chilean Church that on Sept. 12 Francis had decreed, “with no possibility of appeal,” the “removal from clerical state ‘ex officio et pro bono Ecclesiae’” of Father Cristián Precht Bañados.

Precht, who rose to fame in Chile for his defense of human rights during the government of dictator Augusto Pinochet, had already been suspended from ministry from 2012-2017 after the CDF found him guilty of abusing both minors and adults.

The former priest had played a key role during the visit of St. John Paul II to Chile in 1987, serving as the vice-president of the local organizing committee and also as head of liturgies.

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Vatican sanctions Cristián Precht with expulsion from the clerical state

SANTIAGO
24Horas.cl Tvn

September 15, 2018

La determinación fue confirmada por el Papa Francisco y comunicada por la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe.

Este sábado el Arzobispado de Santiago informó que el Papa Francisco sancionó con dimisión inapelable del sacerdocio al exvicario Cristián Precht.

A través de un comunicado, el Arzobispado de Santiago confirmó que “el Santo Padre Francisco ha decretado, de forma inapelable: La dimisión del estado clerical ‘ex officio et pro bono Ecclesiae’ y la dispensa de todas las obligaciones unidas a la sagrada ordenación, del Rev. Cristián Precht Bañados. El mismo decreto establece que el obispo comunique a la brevedad la nueva situación canónica del afectado al pueblo de Dios”.

De esta manera, Precht, quien recurrió a la justicia con recursos de amparo y protección, dejará de ser sacerdote.

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Pope Francis decrees expulsion of priest Cristián Precht

SANTIAGO
Emol / Agencias

September 15, 2018

By Camila Gálvez

El Arzobispado de Santiago informó que el prefecto de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, cardenal Luis F. Ladaria, S.J. les notificó este sábado su decisión.

A través de un comunicado el Arzobispado de Santiago dio a conocer que el prefecto de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, cardenal Luis F. Ladaria, S.J., los notificó este sábado de la decisión del Papa Francisco de decretar la expulsión del sacerdote Cristián Precht.

“La dimisión del estado clerical ‘ex officio et pro bono Ecclesiae’ y la dispensa de todas las obligaciones unidas a la sagrada ordenación, del Rev. Cristián Precht Bañados. El mismo decreto establece que el obispo comunique a la brevedad la nueva situación canónica del afectado al pueblo de Dios”, informaron.

El religioso es indagado por denuncias de abusos sexuales a menores en el marco del caso Maristas.

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About the perpetrators

GERMANY
Frankfurter Allgemeine

September 24, 2018

By Lydia Rosenfelder

Am Dienstag stellen die deutschen Bischöfe eine Studie über Kindesmissbrauch vor. Nur ein Viertel der Fälle wird beleuchtet – doch schon das hat es in sich.

Am Dienstag wird die Studie über sexuellen Kindesmissbrauch in der katholischen Kirche vorgestellt. Sie liefert wichtige Erkenntnisse. Zum Beispiel erklärt sie, welches Verhältnis zwischen Tätern und Opfern besonders riskant ist. Etwa dieses: Ein Junge, gerade in der Pubertät, wird von seinen Eltern auf ein katholisches Internat geschickt. Er wird nicht gefragt, er muss sich fügen. Im Internat hat er Heimweh. Ein Erzieher nimmt sich seiner an. Der Erzieher ist selbst einsam und zudem noch unreif. Er wird zudringlicher, der Schüler zieht sich zurück, spürt etwas „Fremdes“ im Verhalten des Mannes. Doch ihm fehlt der Mut, das auszusprechen. Der Erzieher fühlt sich nur noch stärker zu ihm hingezogen, immer wieder bedrängt und nötigt er den Jungen sexuell. Rückblickend schildert der Mann das als Ausdruck eines unkontrollierbaren Impulses. Das Verhältnis schlägt in Gewalt um. Die Autoren der Studie schreiben: Der Erzieher sei in dieser Beziehung, auch für ihn selbst überraschend, mit der ganzen Intensität seiner Gefühlswelt, Erotik und Sexualität konfrontiert worden. Damit er weitermachen kann, setzt er den Jungen unter Druck. Macht ihm Versprechungen, droht Strafen an. Der Junge wird schließlich so stark von ihm misshandelt, dass die Internatsleitung darauf aufmerksam wird. Der Erzieher wird versetzt.

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A deep look into the dark past

GERMANY
Frankfurter Allgemeine

September 25, 2018

By Daniel Deckers

Die Ergebnisse eines Forschungsprojekts über den Missbrauch innerhalb der katholischen Kirche erschüttern selbst die erfahrensten Wissenschaftler. Die Reaktion der Kirche: Sie will sich bessern – wieder einmal.

Sie waren alle drei Messdiener. In der „MHG-Studie“, wie der Projektbericht „Sexueller Missbrauch an Minderjährigen durch katholische Priester, Diakone und männliche Ordensangehörige im Bereich der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz“ kurzgefasst heißt, kommen sie vor. Nicht namentlich, denn in der Studie gibt es weder Namen noch Orte. Auch keine Täter, nicht einmal Opfer. Die Rede ist von Betroffenen, wie den drei Kindern, und Beschuldigten, wie ihrem Peiniger.

Ihm, einem katholischen Priester, hat man seine Untaten nachweisen können. Sie wurden sogar dokumentiert. Das war nicht immer so. Manch andere Täter tauchen in den Akten oder in Berichten von Betroffenen nur als Beschuldigte auf. Was wirklich vorgefallen ist, wird man nie erfahren. Viele sind längst verstorben, andere lassen sich nicht mehr identifizieren. Personalakten oder andere Dokumente seien in unbekannter Zahl „vernichtet oder manipuliert worden“, stellen die Wissenschaftler der Universitäten Mannheim, Heidelberg und Gießen (daher das Akronym MHG) um den Forschungskoordinator Harald Dreßing fest. Und wenn man ihrer doch habhaft werden konnte, dann erwiesen sie sich als „ausgesprochen heterogen und ohne einheitliche Standards“. Nicht-Wissen-Wollen als System? Dreßing, der als forensischer Psychiater in mehr als dreißig Jahren vieles gesehen und erlebt hat, zeigte sich am Dienstag in einer persönlichen Bemerkung ob des Ausmaßes von sexueller Gewalt in der katholischen Kirche in Deutschland und dem Umgang damit „erschüttert“.

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Sexual abuse

GERMANY
Deutschen Bischofskonferenz

September 25, 2018

Seit Ende Januar 2010 wird durch die bekannt gewordenen Fälle sexuellen Missbrauchs am Canisius-Kolleg in Berlin eine öffentliche Debatte zu diesem Thema geführt. Bischof Dr. Stephan Ackermann (Trier) ist Beauftragter der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz für Fragen des sexuellen Missbrauchs im kirchlichen Bereich und für Fragen des Kinder- und Jugendschutzes. Lesen Sie auf dieser Themenseite mehr zu den relevanten Aspekten.

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Researchers press church in the abuse scandal

GERMANY
Radio Bamberg

September 25, 2018

Fulda (dpa) – Eine erschütternde Studie über jahrzehntelangen sexuellen Missbrauch von Kindern und Jugendlichen bringt die katholische Kirche in Deutschland unter Reformdruck.

Die in Fulda vorgestellte Untersuchung zeigt nicht nur die erheblichen Verfehlungen katholischer Kleriker in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten auf, sondern benennt auch problematische Strukturen, die Missbrauchsfälle auch heute begünstigen könnten. Der Leiter der Studie, Harald Dreßing, betonte, die Missbrauchsthematik sei daher keineswegs überwunden. «Das Risiko besteht fort», sagte er.

Die Studie ergab unter anderem, dass zwischen 1946 und 2014 mindestens 1670 katholische Kleriker 3677 meist männliche Minderjährige missbraucht haben sollen.

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MHG study: Sexual abuse of minors by clerics

GERMANY
ZI

September 24, 2018

By Harald Dreßing

Ziel des Forschungsprojektes war es, die Häufigkeit des sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger durch Kleriker im Verantwortungsbereich der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz zu ermitteln. Darüber hinaus wurden die Formen des Missbrauchs beschrieben und kirchliche Strukturen und Dynamiken identifiziert, die Missbrauchsgeschehen begünstigen können.

Mit einem interdisziplinären wissenschaftlichen Ansatz, der kriminologische, psychologische, soziologische, psychiatrische und forensisch-psychiatrische Kompetenz einbezieht, haben die Forscher von 2014 bis 2018 im Auftrag der Deutschen Bischofskonferenz den Missbrauch in einem Umfang untersucht, der in keiner der bisher publizierten nationalen und internationalen Studien zu dieser Thematik in dieser Breite zu finden ist. Alle 27 Diözesen Deutschlands hatten sich vertraglich verpflichtet, am Forschungsprojekt teilzunehmen.

Neben Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern des Zentralinstituts für Seelische Gesundheit waren auch Forscher des Instituts für Kriminologie sowie des Instituts für Gerontologie der Universität Heidelberg und des Bereichs Kriminologie, Jugendstrafrecht und Strafvollzug der Universität Gießen beteiligt (MHG-Studie steht für Mannheim, Heidelberg, Gießen). Prof. Dr. Harald Dreßing, Leiter Forensische Psychiatrie am ZI, koordinierte das Forschungskonsortium. Das gesamte Projekt gliederte sich in sieben Teilprojekte (TP1 bis TP7):

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Leading researcher laments lack of education in church

GERMANY
Epoch Times

September 25, 2018

Der Wissenschaftler Harald Dreßing beklagt einen mangelnden Aufklärungswillen in weiten Teilen der Kirche. Die Missbrauchsthematik sei keineswegs überwunden und das Risiko bestehe weiter fort.

Der Wissenschaftler Harald Dreßing, der das Studienprojekt über Missbrauch in der deutschen katholischen Kirche geleitet hat, beklagt einen mangelnden Aufklärungswillen in weiten Teilen der Institution. Das Ausmaß des sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern und Jugendlichen als auch „der Umgang der Verantwortlichen damit“ hätten die Forscher „erschüttert“, sagte Dreßing am Dienstag in Fulda bei der Vorstellung der Untersuchung.

Er betonte, die Missbrauchsthematik sei keineswegs überwunden. „Das Risiko besteht fort“, sagte der forensische Psychiater, der am Zentralinstitut für Seelische Gesundheit in Mannheim arbeitet. „Unsere Studienergebnisse legen nahe, dass es in der katholischen Kirche Strukturen gab und gibt, die den sexuellen Missbrauch begünstigen können“, sagte er. Gründe dafür seien beispielsweise der Missbrauch klerikaler Macht, die Verpflichtung der Priester zur Ehelosigkeit (Zölibat) sowie ein innerkirchlich „problematischer Umgang“ mit dem Thema Sexualität, vor allem mit der Homosexualität.

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ROME
Crux

September 28, 2018

By Inés San Martín

Seven years after Fernando Karadima was found guilty by the Vatican of sexually abusing minors and sentenced to a life of penitence and prayer, Pope Francis has made the “exceptional” decision to remove him from the priesthood.

A Vatican statement released on Friday said the decision was made “in conscience and for the good of the Church.”

The now former priest had been found guilty of abuse by the Vatican in 2011, and had been sentenced to a life of penitence and prayer.

Karadima was never sentenced by Chilean courts due to the country’s statute of limitations.

To this day, it’s unknown how many people were sexually abused by Karadima. Presumably, the number of people who were psychologically abused, victims of his abuse of power, or who had their consciences manipulated by the priest, is even larger.

In the 1980s and 1990s Karadima led a one-time impressive lay movement from his parish in El Bosque, Chile, with some 40 young men finding their vocation to the priesthood there. Four of these men, who formed his “iron circle,” were later made bishops.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

September 28, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

The former Vatican ambassador who accused three popes and their advisers of covering up for a disgraced American ex-cardinal has challenged the Vatican to say what it knows about the scandal and accused Pope Francis of mounting a campaign of “subtle slander” against him.

Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano penned a new missive a month after his initial 11-page document sent shockwaves through the Catholic Church. It was uploaded to a document-sharing site late Thursday.

Vigano denounced the official Vatican silence about his claims and urged the current head of the Vatican bishops’ office to speak out, saying he has all the documentation needed to prove years of cover-up by the Vatican about alleged sexual misconduct by ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

“How can one avoid concluding that the reason they do not provide the documentation is that they know it confirms my testimony?” Vigano wrote. “The pope’s unwillingness to respond to my charges and his deafness to the appeals by the faithful for accountability are hardly consistent with his calls for transparency and bridge building.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholics 4 Change

September 27, 2018

By Susan Matthews

Last week, Pennsylvania bishops issued a joint statement outlining a myopic and self-serving plan for compensating past victims of clergy child sex abuse.

Read the statement here.

In a PhillyCatholic.com editorial on the statement, Archbishop Chaput seemingly boasts about how the archdiocesan victim’s assistance program “has quietly served hundreds of abuse victims and their families for more than 15 years and underwritten their therapy and care in an amount totaling more than $18 million.”

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DAVENPORT (IA)
The Catholic Messenger

September 2018

By Barb Arland-Fye

Catholics in the Diocese of Davenport and around the country want to know what they can do to prevent clergy sexual abuse and its cover up from ever happening again. Their outrage and call for action comes after news broke this summer about some bishops’ culpability in covering up clergy sexual abuse committed decades ago.

What they may not know is that the Davenport Diocese’s rigorous policies and procedures to protect children and vulnerable adults from clergy sexual abuse appear to be having a positive effect. Bishops, priests and deacons are members of the clergy.

In 2002, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) approved the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People which was implemented in dioceses across the country, including the Davenport Diocese. Allegations of abuse of minors or vulnerable adults have been reported in the Davenport Diocese since then, but none allege abuse that occurred post-2002, said diocesan Chief of Staff Deacon David Montgomery.

“The Dallas Charter is working,” writes Stephen J. Rossetti in America magazine (Sept. 20). “Abuse rates in the Catholic Church have fallen dramatically,” added Rossetti, who assisted the U.S. bishops’ committee on the drafting of the charter.

Deacon Montgomery provided statistics of allegations the diocese has received over the past five years. All of the allegations relate to abuse reported to have occurred more than 20 years ago:

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Archdiocese of Washington

September 28, 2018

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In late July 2018, our Holy Father Pope Francis requested that Archbishop Theodore McCarrick withdraw from all public ministry and events. 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.

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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BINGHAMTON (NY)
Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

September 28, 2018

By Maggie Gilroy

When he was a child, a Broome County priest sexually abused him.

About 30 years later, the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse offered him money in compensation for the trauma he endured.

How the victim chose to spend it is a testament to the process of healing.

Now an adult no longer living in the area, the man is using the money to aid two Broome County food pantries and to purchase masses to be said for the victims of clerical sex abuse — as well as for their abusers.

He hopes the donation will demonstrate forgiveness and bring healing at a time when major bombshells — such as the Pennsylvania grand jury report of abuse by over 300 priests and allegations against former archbishop of Washington, D.C., Cardinal Theodore McCarrick — have triggered hurt and rage against the Catholic church.

“I didn’t feel that I needed to heal. But a lot of other people do,” the victim said. “And that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing. There is a tremendous amount of hurt and anger and sorrow and suffering out there, which is all entirely valid and lamentable, and I hope bit by bit can be mitigated and maybe even brought to a sense of peace and comfort somehow.”

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STEUBENVILLE (OH)
The Marietta Times

September 28, 2018

By Michael Kelly

Diocese of Steubenville will publish names of abusers in October

The Diocese of Steubenville, which includes several parishes in Washington County, announced Wednesday it will publish the names of priests in the diocese against whom credible allegations of sex abuse have been made and who have been removed from active ministry.

Diocese Communications director Dino Orsatti said Wednesday the list, which is expected to include between 12 and 20 names, will appear on the diocese website around the end of October.

Both Orsatti and an advocate for victims expect that publication of the names is likely to bring a wave of victims forward, as has happened in other locations where the names of accused priests have been made public.

Judy Block Jones, Midwest regional leader for SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), said Wednesday the Diocese of Steubenville announcement is “a welcome step” but further measures are needed.

Jones, who now lives in the St. Louis area but grew up in southeast Ohio, said she has heard from several people who have stories of abuse in Washington, Belmont and Noble counties but have not come forward publicly with accusations.

“It’s very quiet in that area, but I know about these things personally because the victims have contacted me directly,” she said. “These are small parishes, they’re afraid to come forward, and a lot of times they blame themselves even though they were just kids.”

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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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HARRISBURG (PA)
Trib Live

September 27, 2018

By Deb Erdley

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro had no idea the flood gate he was opening last month, when he went public with a grand jury report on Catholic clergy sexual abuse.

The clergy sexual abuse hotline in the attorney general’s office has been ringing day and night for six weeks, tallying 1,181 new calls as of Thursday, he said.

“As a result of the heroism of the survivors (who testified before the grand jury), more and more survivors are finding voices,” Shapiro said.

He declined to discuss specifics about the deluge of new complaints.

“There has been a lot of useful information, helpful information and information we are working through right now,” he said. “And there has been information about matters we were not aware of.”

Shapiro said he also has fielded calls from attorneys general in 40 other states seeking to launch their own investigations. Within 10 days of the release of the Pennsylvania report, attorneys general in Missouri and Illinois launched investigations. Last week, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette did the same.

Likewise, the U.S. Justice Department has reached out to Pennsylvania’s top prosecutor.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic Philly

September 25, 2018

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

To the people of the Archdiocese:

Dear friends,

On Friday, September 21, the bishops of Pennsylvania issued a joint statement pledging substantial new financial aid for victims of clergy sexual abuse in decades past. I want to underline our commitment to helping abuse survivors, whether their claims are time-barred or not.

Perennial critics of the Church may dismiss the bishops’ statement; this is a regrettable part of today’s ugly political environment. But our local Church has proven the sincerity and scope of her commitment since I arrived here as Archbishop seven years ago. In fact, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Victims’ Assistance Program has quietly served hundreds of abuse victims and their families for more than 15 years and underwritten their therapy and care in an amount totaling more than $18 million.

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VATICAN CITY
Reuters

September 28, 2018

By Philip Pullella

Pope Francis has defrocked Father Fernando Karadima, the 88-year-old priest at the center of the vast sexual abuse scandal in Chile, the Vatican said on Friday.

Chilean priest Fernando Karadima is seen inside the Supreme Court building in Santiago, Chile, November 11, 2015. REUTERS/Carlos Vera
Karadima was found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 of abusing teenage boys over many years. He was ordered to live a life of prayer and penitence, but he was not defrocked.

Seven Chilean bishops have resigned since June following an investigation into an alleged cover-up of Karadima’s actions.

Karadima, who has always denied wrongdoing, escaped civilian justice because of the statute of limitations in the country.

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VATICAN CITY
The Associated Press

September 28, 2018

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis has defrocked the Chilean priest at the center of the global sex abuse scandal rocking his papacy, invoking his “supreme” authority to stiffen a sentence originally handed down by a Vatican court in 2011.

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

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.

The Vatican didn’t say what new evidence, if any, prompted Francis to re-evaluate Karadima’s sanction and impose what clergy consider to be the equivalent of a death sentence. It said Francis made the “exceptional decision” for the good of the church, and cited the church canon that lays out the pope’s “supreme, full, immediate and universal power” to serve the church.

The statement said the decree, signed Thursday, takes effect immediately and that Karadima was informed of it Friday.

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CHILE
NPR

September 28, 2018

By Bill Chappell

Pope Francis has defrocked Chilean priest Fernando Karadima, making what the Vatican calls an “exceptional” decision based on his own conscience and concern for the good of the Catholic Church. Karadima has been the face of the Church’s abuse scandal in Chile.

The move is effective immediately. It was announced in a brief communique from the Vatican’s press office, stating that Francis had signed the decree removing Karadima from the priesthood on Thursday, and that Karadima was informed of the pope’s decision on Friday.

Karadima, 88, had already been forced to retire from ministerial duties, after a Vatican tribunal found him guilty in 2011 of sexually abusing dozens of minors, in a scandal that erupted in 2010.

In June, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of three bishops over the church’s handling of the sexual abuse cases — including Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, who has been accused of covering up Karadima’s actions.

Barros was a protégé of Karadima, who was accused of abuse in cases that date back to the 1980s. Both of them have denied the claims against them.

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CANADA
The Globe and Mail

September 27, 2018

By Elizabeth Renzetti

Women made time Thursday to gather around television sets and laptops to watch Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony to the U.S. Senate judiciary committee. Judging by the outpouring on social media, some of them were in tears. Some were enraged. Far too many of them understood, in the heart and the brain and the gut, what Prof. Blasey Ford meant when she said, “Brett’s assault on me drastically altered my life.”

Brett is of course Brett Kavanaugh, U.S. President Donald Trump’s choice for Supreme Court justice, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by two other women in addition to Prof. Blasey Ford. (Justice Kavanaugh denies the allegations.) The consequences of that day, at a drunken impromptu party in suburban Washington more than three decades ago, were evident in Prof. Blasey Ford’s shaking voice. She remembered that Mr. Kavanaugh pushed her into a room and locked the door and got on top of her and tried to remove her clothes and covered her mouth with his hand to stifle her screams. She remembered that he and his friend, also in the room, laughed uproariously. It was her most indelible memory, she told the committee: They were “having fun at my expense.”

Prof. Blasey Ford was too ashamed and afraid to tell anyone initially what had happened. Her schoolwork suffered, she testified. She had trouble making friends. The legacy of that day followed her into adulthood: When she renovated her house a few years ago, she insisted that two front doors be installed, a suggestion that at first mystified her husband, but is abundantly clear from the point of view of someone who is always looking for a way of escape.

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UNITED STATES
TIME

September 27, 2018

By Abigail Abrams

When Christine Blasey Ford testified on Thursday in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee about her accusation that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her 36 years ago, millions of Americans listened to her describe the intimate details of her alleged assault and the trauma she says she has lived with for decades since.

For many of those people, her words and the questions she was asked brought up personal memories. Some shared their experiences on social media, others talked to friends or co-workers and others called into news networks to publicly recall their incidents of assault. It turns out many people also called the National Sexual Assault Hotline looking for help.

The National Sexual Assault Hotline saw a 147 percent increase in calls on Thursday compared with a normal weekday on which sexual assault did not dominate the news, according to RAINN, a large anti-sexual violence organization that administers the hotline.

The organization told TIME it often sees an uptick in survivors asking for help when sexual assault is in the news.

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GREEN BAY (WI)
Green Bay Press-Gazette

September 27, 2018

By Shelby Le Duc

The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, with the help of a third party investigator, is launching an investigation next month into of all of its priests and Deacons.

A Texas-based independent investigative firm will be conducting an “outside review of the files of all priests and deacons who have served in the diocese,” according to a Catholic Diocese of Green Bay news release.

“As we work to assure all clergy abuse cases have been identified and objectively reviewed, the diocese has arranged for Defenbaugh & Associates Inc., who specializes in this kind of work, to review files beginning in early October,” the release states.

The announcement of the investigation comes a week after news broke that retired Bishop Robert Morneau withdrew from public ministry. He said his exit was prompted by his failure to report a priest’s sexual abuse of a minor almost 40 years ago that allowed the priest to assault other youths.

In a letter to the diocese, Morneau admitted to failing to report to police a 1979 incident in which former priest David Boyea sexually abused a child. Boyea then went on to abuse more children, and in 1985 pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual assault of a child and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was also permanently removed from the priesthood.

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VATICAN CITY
CNA/EWTN News

September 27, 2018

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has issued a new letter addressing his allegation that senior prelates have been complicit in covering up alleged sex abuse by Archbishop Theodore McCarrick.

Headed with Archbishop Viganò’s episcopal motto, Scio Cui credidi (I know whom I have believed), the letter, dated Sept. 29, was released Sept. 27.

The former apostolic nuncio to the US prefaced his letter giving “thanks and glory to God the Father for every situation and trial that He has prepared and will prepare for me during my life. As a priest and bishop of the holy Church, spouse of Christ, I am called like every baptized person to bear witness to the truth … I intend to do so until the end of my days. Our only Lord has addressed also to me the invitation, “Follow me!”, and I intend to follow him with the help of his grace until the end of my days.”

He noted it has been a month since he released his testimony, “solely for the good of the Church,” alleging that Pope Francis and other high-ranking prelates knew of grave sexual sins committed by Archbishop McCarrick.

He said he chose to disclose the cover-up “after long reflection and prayer, during months of profound suffering and anguish, during a crescendo of continual news of terrible events … The silence of the pastors who could have provided a remedy and prevented new victims became increasingly indefensible, a devastating crime for the Church.”

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HELENA (MT)
The Associated Press

September 27, 2018

By Matt Volz

A Montana jury has ruled that the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization must pay $35 million to a woman who says the church covered up her sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a congregation member.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses must pay $35 million to a woman who says the church’s national organization ordered Montana clergy members not to report her sexual abuse as a child at the hands of a congregation member, a jury ruled in a verdict.

A judge must review the penalty, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ national organization — Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York — plans to appeal.

Still, the 21-year-old woman’s attorneys say Wednesday’s verdict sends a message to the church to report child abuse to outside authorities.

“Hopefully that message is loud enough that this will cause the organization to change its priorities in a way that they will begin prioritizing the safety of children so that other children aren’t abused in the future,” attorney Neil Smith said Thursday.

The Office of Public Information at the World Headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses responded to the verdict with an unsigned statement.

“Jehovah’s Witnesses abhor child abuse and strive to protect children from such acts. Watchtower is pursuing appellate review,” it said.

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SPAIN
AKA Catholic

September 24, 2018

By Randy Engel

AN INTERVIEW WITH MR. JUAN CUATRECASAS ON THE GAZTELUETA SEX ABUSE CASE
[Note: The following interview with Mr. Juan Cuatrecasas Asua is a follow-up to the detailed investigative report of the Gaztelueta sex abuse case by this writer that originally appeared as a two-part series, “The Gaztelueta Sex Abuse Case – Opus Dei On Trial,” on AKA Catholic HERE and HERE. The reader may want to refer to that report before reading this interview with Mr. Cuatrecasas, the victim’s father. The Gaztelueta case is expected to go to trial on October 4 to October 11, 2018, at the Audiencia provincial de Vizcaya (Bizcaia) in Basque, Spain. – R.E.]

Randy Engel: Thank you, Mr. Cuatrecasas, for agreeing to this interview. I am grateful that you write and speak English so well. Is this your first American interview on the Gaztelueta case?

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UNITED STATES
Reuters

September 28, 2018

The American Bar Association has called on the Senate Judiciary Committee to delay the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh so that the FBI can investigate the sexual assault accusations against him, the Washington Post reported.

Association President Robert Carlson requested the delay in a letter sent to the committee on Thursday evening, the Post reported, after a day of testimony by university professor Christine Blasey Ford who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her 36 years ago, and by Kavanaugh who denied it.

“The basic principles that underscore the Senate’s constitutional duty of advice and consent on federal judicial nominees require nothing less than a careful examination of the accusations and facts by the FBI,” Carlson wrote to Chairman Charles Grassley and ranking committee Democrat Dianne Feinstein that, the Post reported.

Kavanaugh, a conservative federal appeals court judge chosen by President Donald Trump, said he was the victim of “grotesque and obvious character assassination” orchestrated by Senate Democrats.

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ROME
LifeSiteNews

September 27, 2018

By Diane Montagna

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has today issued a new extraordinary testimony, responding to Pope Francis’ refusal to answer the charge that he knew of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s sexual abuse, yet made McCarrick “one of his principal agents in governing the Church.”

In the four-page document (see below), the former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States also responds to the Pope’s recent homilies which seem to cast himself in the role of Christ and Viganò as the diabolical “Great Accuser.”

“Has Christ perhaps become invisible to his vicar? Perhaps is he being tempted to try to act as a substitute of our only Master and Lord?” Archbishop Viganò asks in the new statement, sent to LifeSiteNews today.

Given the symbolic date of September 29, the liturgical feast of St. Michael the Archangel, and bearing the Archbishop’s episcopal coat of arms and motto, Viganò:

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DES MOINES (IA)
Des Moines Register

September 27, 2018

By Lee Rood

A U.S. cardinal at the center of the Vatican’s response to the sex abuse crisis besetting the Catholic church is being accused this month by clergy abuse survivors of mishandling cases in Iowa and Texas.

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, led a delegation of Catholic leaders this month to meet with Pope Francis about the crisis.

In public remarks, DiNardo blamed the “moral catastrophe” on “the failure of episcopal leadership.”

“The result was that scores of beloved children of God were abandoned to face an abuse of power alone,” DiNardo wrote.

But one Iowa abuse survivor told Reader’s Watchdog that DiNardo is guilty of the same leadership failures.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
VOA News

September 27, 2018

By Cecily Hilleary

Elsie Boudreau was 10 years old that afternoon in 1978 when Father James Poole called her and two playmates into the office of a small radio station he had founded in Nome, Alaska.

“He had us line up against the wall and began asking us questions,” said Boudreau, who grew up in St. Mary’s, a tiny Yup’ik village in northwest Alaska where Poole had earlier served as pastor. “Then, he told the two other girls that they could leave, but that I should stay. He said it was because I was so much more mature than the other girls.”

The abuse began with hours of French kissing and later escalated, lasting nine years.

“I have a memory of him being on top of me in a super high bed,” Boudreau said. “I must have had an out-of-body experience, because when I look back, I’m actually hiding behind a door, peeking out, seeing myself in bed with him, a little girl with long hair in braids.”

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CARMEL (IN)
WIBC

September 27, 2018

By Kurt Darling

An anonymous man accuses a Mt. Carmel parish priest of molesting when he was a child in 1982.

More sexual abuse claims against Catholic priests in Indiana, this time within the Diocese of Lafayette.

An anonymous man, who was a child of the St. Ann’s parish in Montery, Indiana says he was abused by a Father James Grear during a Catholic youth rally at Mt. Carmel parish in Hamilton County in 1982.

A lawsuit says when the man, identified as John Doe, returned St. Ann’s the following week he went to confession. The suit said then Bishop of Lafayette Raymond Gallagher was the one hearing confessions that day.

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[María Paz Lagos, President of Catholic Voices: “The Pope asked me to pray so that he can find the new Archbishop of Santiago”]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 26, 2018

“El Santo Padre que viene llegando de su viaje de Estonia, se veía cansado. Hay que rezar por él”, añadió.

Durante esta jornada, María Paz Lagos, presidenta de Voces Católicas, contó detalles de su encuentro con el Papa Francisco, en Roma. En la oportunidad, la representante del grupo laico le pidió al Pontífice que acelere el nombramiento del nuevo Arzobispo de Santiago. Según su testimonio, Francisco le contestó: “Mijita no he encontrado a la Persona. Por favor rece para que la encuentre”.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star

September 27, 2018

The Kansas City Editorial Board

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley has promised a thorough investigation of sexual abuse allegations lodged against priests and clergy in the Catholic Church.

Missourians should expect such an investigation, comparable to the recent investigation in Pennsylvania that exposed decades of abuse and maltreatment by priests.

If Hawley needs the power to subpoena church records, he should seek it — and get it.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests held a news conference Wednesday imploring Gov. Mike Parson to provide Hawley with such authority. The group thinks a full investigation should not rely on the voluntary cooperation of the institutions being investigated.

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[Review of Karadima victims’ appeal is postponed]

CHILE
BioBioChile

September 27, 2018

By Felipe Delgado and Nicole Martínez

Durante la próxima semana se podría resolver la apelación presentada por tres víctimas de Fernando Karadima al rechazo de una demanda civil contra el Arzobispado de Santiago, luego que se suspendiera su revisión programada para hoy. El médico James Hamilton, el periodista Juan Carlos Cruz y el presidente de la Fundación para la Confianza, José Andrés Murillo, interpusieron el recurso civil para buscar una reparación de $450 millones por el encubrimiento que el ente religioso habría realizado de los abusos cometidos por el otrora párroco de El Bosque.

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[Ex-bishop of Chillán: “I reserve the right to denounce those who have denounced me”]

CHILE
TV13

September 21, 2018

Luego de reunirse con el clero de la diócesis de Chillán, el renunciado obispo Carlos Pellegrín, pidió “perdón por las veces en que no estuve a la altura de lo que requiere mi responsabilidad como pastor”.

El renunciado obispo de Chillán, Carlos Pellegrín, aseguró este viernes que se reserva “el derecho a denunciar a los que me han denunciado”, refiriéndose así directamente a la denuncia que pesa en su contra y cuya investigación encabeza el fiscal regional de O’Higgins, Emiliano Arias.

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[James Hamilton after suspension of allegations: “The Judiciary has to show us its independence from the Church”]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

September 27, 2018

By Tamara Cerna

“Hoy debía verse la apelación a la rechazada demanda civil de las víctimas de Karadima contra el arzobispado. Además, se refirió al porqué el ex párroco no fue expulsado del sacerdocio.

Para esta mañana estaban programados los alegatos de la apelación de la demanda civil que llevan adelante contra el Arzobispado de Santiago las víctimas del ex párroco de El Bosque Fernando Karadima, y que fue rechazada en primera instancia hace más de un año y medio. Sin embargo, fueron suspendidos. Ante esto, el abogado de los denunciantes, Juan Pablo Hermosilla, aseguró: “Fue una decepción toda esta demora, esta causa debió haberse visto hace muchos meses, aún no entendemos por qué se demora tanto (…) Estamos preparados para enfrentar este tema desde hace mucho tiempo y esperamos que el Estado chileno pueda resolverlo y zanjarlo de una vez por todas”.

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[Church of Santiago: Lay person heads the new entity to address abuses]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 26, 2018

By Sergio Rodríguez G.

La abogada Andrea Idalsoaga estará a cargo de “Delegación Episcopal para la Verdad y la Paz”. Instancia coordinará el trabajo de la Oficina de Denuncias y la promoción de ambientes sanos.

“Enfrentar el daño producido por los abusos causados por miembros de la Iglesia en la arquidiócesis, responder a las necesidades actuales y construir caminos para restablecer la confianza”. Esos son, en lo básico, los objetivos de la nueva estructura que creó el Arzobispado de Santiago para enfrentar el tema de los abusos sexuales por parte del clero, y que hoy informó a la comunidad a través de un comunicado.

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[Episcopal Delegation for Truth and Peace, the new unit for abuse accusations]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

September 26, 2018

By Juan Peña

La instancia será coordinada por la abogada Andrea Idalsoaga, la primera laica que encabeza las tareas vinculadas a este tema y a la formación en prevención.

Delegación Episcopal para la Verdad y la Paz. Así se llama la nueva estructura que creó el Arzobispado de Santiago para coordinar las denuncias de abusos cometidas por miembros de la Iglesia en la arquidiócesis. La instancia tendrá a su cargo las labores que llevan a cabo la Oficina Pastoral de Denuncias (Opade) y el Departamento de Prevención de Abusos que ahora se denominará Departamento de Promoción de Ambientes Sanos.

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UNITED STATES
The Tablet

September 26, 2018

By Massimo Faggioli

The American Church divided

The story of the Catholic Church in the United States of America is a success story. A small community of poor migrants and missionaries, barely tolerated and often unable to worship freely in a new nation founded by religious dissenters fleeing from European Christendom, grew to become its single largest religious denomination.

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
SNAP Network

September 27, 2018

Governor Parson
State of Missouri

Dear Governor Parson,

As you know, our Attorney General Josh Hawley is looking into clergy sex crimes and cover ups in the Missouri Catholic Church. He maintains he can only ask for the voluntary cooperation of the same Church officials who have hidden those crimes for decades.

However, according to Mr. Hawley, you can change this. You can order him to obtain full criminal jurisdiction and use this power to conduct a genuine, thorough inquiry that will expose wrongdoers and protect kids. We beg you to do this immediately.

Why should you do this?

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LISBON (ME)
NEWS CENTER Maine

September 26, 2018

By Beth McEvoy and Chris Costa

Derek Michael Boyce was a teacher at Pine Tree Academy in Freeport. Police said they are investigating his relationship with a 15-year-old female student from the school.

A 37-year-old teacher is behind bars for allegedly having a relationship with a 15-year-old student.

Police arrested Derek Michael Boyce on September 21, and charged him with one count of gross sexual assault. Boyce was a teacher at Pine Tree Academy in Freeport which is a Seventh-day Adventist school for grades K–12.

Lisbon Police Chief Marc Hagan said they believe that Boyce and the student had an ongoing relationship.

”It was more than one incident. It appears to be an ongoing situation,” said Chief Hagan.

According to court documents obtained by the Sun Journal, Boyce told police his relationship with the girl began after she sustained a sports injury and had been depressed. He said they messaged each other over social media. He told police the relationship started in May, and turned sexual in July. He said they met in a park and performed oral sex on each other. Boyce told police they had sexual intercourse twice.

Boyce told police the sexual contact was always consensual and that no drugs nor alcohol were involved.

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BUFFALO (NY)
WKBW

September 27, 2018

By Charlie Specht

Confirmed he is taking “leave of absence”

The Rev. Joseph C. Gatto, who runs the seminary for the Diocese of Buffalo, has stepped away from his position as he faces an allegation of sexual misconduct.

Gatto confirmed Thursday morning to I-Team Chief Investigator Charlie Specht that he is taking a “leave of absence” from Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, which prepares men for the priesthood in the Buffalo Diocese.

“The pressures of the job, all the things that I’ve been doing — it’s just a temporary thing,” he said in a brief phone interview with 7 Eyewitness News. “I’ve had so many responsibilities. I’m just burned out. I’m just taking some time.”

But 7 Eyewitness News has obtained a copy of a complaint filed Wednesday with the Diocese of Buffalo, in which a local man alleges that in 2000, he went to Gatto for spiritual advice and counseling and the high-profile priest “quickly befriended me, and shortly thereafter made unwanted sexual advances toward me.”

The man said he was in his 20s when the encounter happened, and in the complaint, he added, “On one occasion he [Gatto] grabbed my knee in a suggestive manner, and invited me to a ‘cabin’ for a weekend with him alone. I declined, and ended any further communication.”

Gatto said the diocese had not contacted him about the complaint and denied his leave of absence had anything to do with allegations of sexual misconduct.

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
Missourinet

September 27, 2018

An organization that provides support for victims of clergy abuse called on Missouri’s governor on Wednesday to order Attorney General Josh Hawley (R) to use subpoenas during his clergy sex abuse investigation.

St. Louis volunteer SNAP director David Clohessy prepares for a news conference on September 26, 2018 in Jefferson City (Brian Hauswirth photo)

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which is known as SNAP, held a Wednesday news conference outside the Statehouse in Jefferson City.

St. Louis volunteer SNAP director David Clohessy says Governor Mike Parson understands the difference between a real investigation and an inadequate investigation.

“And we’re asking him to essentially order the attorney general to do this probe of Catholic dioceses in Missouri on child sex crimes and cover-up and to do it right,” Clohessy says.

SNAP wants Hawley to question Missouri Catholic church officials under oath.

Governor Parson’s spokeswoman, Kelli Jones, issued a statement to Missourinet, after the press conference.

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NEW ZEALAND
Newsroom

September 27, 2018

By Phil Quin

If you’re one of millions tuning into tomorrow’s high stakes hearing on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, don’t be fooled into thinking what you witness is remotely typical of such deliberations. The process by which the 22 members of the Senate Judiciary committee plan to hear evidence from Kavanaugh and his accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, is anything but normal.

The Republican majority, terrified of how the sight of 11 elderly white men grilling the victim of an alleged sexual assault will play among crucial women voters in November, has rewritten the rulebook in unprecedented ways. To avoid such a damming spectacle, committee chairman Chuck Grassley, an octogenarian from Iowa, conscripted a female prosecutor to probe the witnesses on behalf of the frail, stale, pale males on the GOP side. What’s more, he unilaterally slashed questioning time to just one round of five minutes each for Democrats on the committee, no doubt fearful of the damage experienced prosecutors like Kamala Harris of California and Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar are likely to inflict on the besieged nominee.

Acceding to Ford’s request, Grassley also limited media presence at the hearing room and authorised only a single camera to broadcast proceedings. Overall, when you consider the Committee’s refusal to call witnesses who may corroborate or otherwise the events Ford describes, along with the White House’s refusal to instruct the FBI to conduct a separate investigation into the claims (as is normal practice), it’s clear Republicans much prefer damage control to due process.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS

September 27, 2018

By Brad Edwards

Father James Nowak has faced a multitude of accusations of child sex abuse. In fact, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Joliet paid out millions of dollars to eight men who claimed Nowak abused them.

When CBS 2 Investigator Brad Edwards started looking into why Nowak was being housed next to a school, he moved, and moved again.

You won’t believe where Edwards found him now; at an Extended Stay America motel next to the Joliet Catholic Charities offices.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Cleveland Scene

September 26, 2018

By BJ Colangelo

According to reports from The Associated Press, a second Ohio Roman Catholic Diocese is planning to release a list of priests who have been removed from parishes due to allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct over the years. The list is due out sometime before the end of October.

The Ohio diocese in question is located in Steubenville, the smallest diocese in the state, with only 34,000 members. Its list will contain names and crimes of priests, possibly dating as far back as 1944. A spokesperson told the AP they expect 12 to 20 names to appear on the list.

Bishop Jeffrey Monforton wants the list to be as transparent and accountable as possible. As Orsatti said to the Associated Press, “[Monforton] would welcome any investigation like the one in Pennsylvania.” This list release follows suit with the diocese in Youngstown, that announced earlier this month it’d also be releasing a comprehensive report. The Youngstown diocese broke off from the Cleveland diocese in 1943.

The 2002 approval of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People by the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops implemented a zero-tolerance policy for crimes against children in response to The Boston Globe’s devastating reveal of decades of childhood sexual abuse at the hands of priests.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Religion News Service

September 26, 2018

By Jack Jenkins

Groups of religious women are speaking out about the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, citing their faith as they call on lawmakers to investigate allegations of sexual assault raised by Christine Blasey Ford and others.

“I understand that when he testifies, Judge Kavanaugh is going to cite his Catholic faith as a shield to claim these attacks never happened. Being a Catholic does not change the accounts provided by Christine Blasey Ford, Deborah Ramirez, and Julie Swetnick,” Sister Simone Campbell, head of the Catholic social justice lobby group Network, said in a statement referencing Kavanaugh’s accusers. “I know all too painfully that being a person of faith does not stop men from being sexual predators.”

Network has been critical of Kavanaugh’s nomination for weeks, and the group’s latest statement calls on senators to launch a full investigation into the allegations against him. Network representatives are also slated to speak at a protest tentatively scheduled for Friday, the day the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on the nomination. The protest is organized in part by the National Council of Jewish Women.

The Catholic school-educated U.S. Circuit judge is expected to deny the allegations and highlight his Catholic background during his testimony before the committee on Thursday (Sept. 27).

“I am here this morning to answer these allegations and to tell the truth. And the truth is that I have never sexually assaulted anyone — not in high school, not in college, not ever,” Kavanaugh wrote in his prepared remarks. “Sexual assault is horrific. It is morally wrong. It is illegal. It is contrary to my religious faith.”

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

September 26, 2018

By Laura Newberry

A bill sitting on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk could give survivors of childhood sexual assault much more time — in some cases, decades — to sue those who might have stopped their abuse.

The proposed law, written by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego), would allow victims to file abuse claims until they are 40 years old. It would also permit those who have repressed memories of abuse to sue within five years of unearthing the cause of their trauma.

If enacted, the bill would be a symbol of progress for abuse survivors such as Tim Lennon, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Lennon was raped by a Roman Catholic priest when he 12 years old but buried the memory until he was 43.

“If a survivor does make the brave choice to come forward, they only have a restricted amount of time to seek justice,” Lennon said of the current statute of limitations.

Victims in California can sue a third party that may have ignored or covered up abuse — such as a private school or a church — until they are 26 years old or three years after coming to terms with repressed memories, whichever occurs later.

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GREENFIELD (MA)
The Greenfield Recorder

September 27, 2018

Many years ago, a Franklin County priest, much respected and beloved by the adults in his flock, was accused by a young teenage boy of sexual assault. The parishioners were horrified at the accusation — that the youth could even think such a thing. The victim became a pariah. Until he wasn’t. Until evidence mounted and the priest was charged in court and eventually pleaded guilty.

Over the years, what seemed like a local aberration turned into a worldwide scandal, with continuing revelations of abuse by many Catholic clergy and inaction by many of their superiors. More recently, we have seen the pattern repeated and spawn the #MeToo movement as powerful lay people — entertainment and media celebrities, politicians, judges and yes, presidents Democratic and Republican — have been accused of sexual harassment, abuse and assault against people less powerful than them and more vulnerable.

On Tuesday, 81-year-old Bill Cosby saw his Hollywood career and good-guy image transformed as he was officially branded a “violent sexual predator” and sentenced to 3 to 10 years in Pennsylvania state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman, becoming the first celebrity of the #MeToo era to be sent to prison.

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UNITED STATES
Verdict Justia

September 27, 2018

By Marci A. Hamilton

In the same week, Bill Cosby was sentenced and labeled a sex offender for drugging Andrea Constand and sexually assaulting her; Pennsylvania House members passed by overwhelming margins a strong bill for statutes of limitations reform for child sex abuse victims in response to Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s monumental grand jury report on six Catholic dioceses detailing craven abuse and callous cover-up going back 70 years; and the third woman emerged with accusations against Brett Kavanaugh for drunken sexual misconduct, including gang rape. In sum, there was a conviction of a sexual perpetrator, legal reform for sex assault victims, and more allegations from sexual assault victims.

Each of these instances is at a different stage in the justice system, but they are all cut from the same cloth. Wonderful, upstanding men are being charged with sex abuse and assault, and other powerful men race to defend their honor. Then the truth brings them all down.

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CORNWALL, ONTARIO (CANADA)
Catholic News Service

September 26, 2018

By Deborah Gyapong

The sexual abuse crisis is like a fire that should be left to burn to purify the church, said the president of the Canadian bishops’ conference.

“When there is a fire, our first instinct is often to try to put it out to prevent damage,” said Bishop Lionel Gendron of Saint-Jean-Longueuil, Quebec. He spoke Sept. 24 to more than 80 bishops and eparchs at the annual plenary meeting of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“In this case, however, we may need to allow this fire to keep burning,” he said.

Gendron reminded the bishops of St. Paul’s words, “It is better to expose works of darkness and bring them to light.”

“The fire burning in the church today may appear to be out of our control and, in some cases, consuming that which we hold dear,” Gendron said. “But as it blazes with brightness, it is cleansing and purifying, and thereby casting light on things until now hidden in darkness.”

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CANADA
CBC News

September 26, 2018

By Sara Frizzell

Dejaeger’s appeal related to the amount of jail time awaits written decision

The Nunavut Court of Appeal will not grant ex-priest Eric Dejaeger a new trial for a 2014 conviction for sex offences in Igloolik.

Yesterday, Dejaeger’s lawyers argued in front of a panel of three judges that Justice Robert Kilpatrick made errors in his 2014 decision. The lawyers were seeking a new trial to review the evidence.

Dejaeger’s lawyer Scott Cowan had three reasons for challenging the conviction. To begin, he argued the judge did not adequately explain why he accepted some complainants’ testimonies and not others.

Dejaeger was convicted on 32 counts of various sexual offences for abusing 23 people in Igloolik. The offences ranged from anal and vaginal rape to fondling, and they took place over a four-year period in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Kilpatrick found Dejaeger not guilty on 40 counts.

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BOSTON (MA)
The Conversation

September 26, 2018

By Hadeel Al-Alosi

Last December, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse made public its final report, containing 409 recommendations. The inquiry revealed that there were numerous instances where senior officials in churches failed to report allegations of child sexual abuse while in their care.

Since then, there have been steps forward. For example, on July 1, the National Redress Scheme was established to support people who have experienced institutional child sexual abuse.

What has been particularly controversial is recommendation 7.4, which states:

Laws concerning mandatory reporting to child protection authorities should not exempt persons in religious ministry from being required to report knowledge or suspicions formed, in whole or in part, on the basis of information disclosed in or in connection with a religious confession.

The conflict between the rules of the Catholic Church on the confidentiality of confessions and mandatory reporting laws is not a new issue. These laws require people from selected professions (known as “mandatory reporters”) to report suspected child abuse to government authorities. However, recommendation 7.4 has recently reignited the debate.

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VERMONT
VT Digger

September 26, 2018

By Anne Galloway

The Vermont Attorney General’s investigation into sex abuse in the Catholic church will include the Weston Priory, following a complaint lodged against the monastery by an alleged victim.

Michael Veitch said he was sexually abused by a visiting priest from Cuba who was staying at the Benedictine monastery in southern Vermont. Veitch said he was assaulted shortly after his father, a devout Catholic, died in 1970 when Veitch was 15 years old.

A few months after his death, Veitch and his brother visited Weston Priory, where their father was buried. The two brothers had helped the monks with farming chores for a few weeks each summer, and Veitch struck up a friendship with a visiting priest from Cuba. Veitch said the priest later assaulted him.

Veitch said the experience profoundly affected his academic performance his junior year at Bellows Falls Union High School and his life went off the rails. He was unable to go to college as a young man and despite years of therapy had three failed marriages. Veitch worked for many years as a recycling advocate at Vermont Public Interest Research Group.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

September 26, 2018

By Carol Zimmermann

A panel discussion Sept. 25 at Georgetown University on the current church crisis was akin to a very large parish town hall meeting.

Panelists and audience members alike shared their pain, shock and complete frustration with recent allegations of abuse and cover-up by church leaders and they also showed a strong desire to somehow forge a path out of this.

This wasn’t a talk where audience members were scrolling through their phones to pass time or looking at their watches to see when it would be over. During the hour and a half, there were moments in the churchlike campus hall when you could hear a pin drop, particularly when panelists shared about their own experiences of being abused.

The audience also audibly gasped over references to church leaders’ seemingly callous responses to the abuse crisis over the years and they also broke into applause at several points, particularly over calls for laypeople, especially women, to have more say in the church.

When it came time for question and answer session, a line formed immediately and snaked to the back of the hall. Many of the questions, from college students, recent graduates and many long since out of college, echoed frustrations and a desire to make things right but no idea how to begin.

One questioner, who said he was a seminarian, asked in almost a hushed tone: “What can we do? How can we be a solution?”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
RNS

September 26, 2018

David Clohessy, a longtime leader with Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, stood on a sidewalk near the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis and told a group of reporters about nine Catholic priests who were named in a recent Pennsylvania grand jury report on child sex abuse.

The church removed these men from their parishes and sent them to the St. Louis area to live at Roman Catholic facilities that treat sexually abusive priests, according to SNAP, which aims to expose abusive clergy and provide support for victims.

The Archdiocese of St. Louis has said the nine priests did not serve in any capacity locally.

But local Catholics were not told that abusive priests were living in the community, said Clohessy.

“They are among literally hundreds of predator priests from across the country who have been sent and spent time in St. Louis with virtually no warning to parents and parishioners,” Clohessy told reporters on Sept. 20.

Speaking to reporters about abuse is a familiar role for Clohessy.

But it’s also a new one.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WVUE

September 26, 2018

By Kimberly Curth

There is more pressure on the Louisiana Attorney General to investigate child sex abuse within the Catholic church. This as archbishops across the state consider releasing names of abusers within the church.

Gov. John Bel Edward’s office says Louisiana State Police are now reviewing an official complaint sent to the governor, the Attorney General and State Police by a man who says a Jesuit High School janitor raped him in the late 1970s while a priest watched.

In his email to authorities, Richard Windmann references that Archbishop Gregory Aymond has a “list of known pedophiles that are employed or have been employed by the Catholic Church” in Louisiana.

Windmann goes on to say he thinks authorities should make the list public and prosecute those listed.

In an interview Wednesday, The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, says Attorney General Jeff Landry should be more aggressive in protecting the community. The President of SNAP’s board of directors, Tim Lennon, is calling for a statewide investigation into church sex abuse in Louisiana.

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ABOARD THE PAPAL FLIGHT FROM ESTONIA
Catholic News Agency

September 26, 2018

The Pope told the inflight press conference that the Church is learning from its mistakes on abuse

Pope Francis said Tuesday that renewed procedures and priorities in handling sex abuse cases have yielded results in the Church, and have developed alongside a greater moral awareness of the dangers of child abuse. Francis spoke during a press conference Sept. 25 on the return flight from a four-day papal visit to the Baltic region.

Citing the Pennsylvania grand jury report released July 14, Francis said the difference between the number of historical and recent abuse cases is clear, and indicates true progress in the way the Church addresses the problem of clerical sexual abuse.

“We see that in the first 70 years there were so many priests that fell into this corruption, then in more recent times it has diminished, because the Church noticed that it needed to fight it in another way,” the pope said. “Watch the [number of cases] and watch when the Church became conscious of this.”

Francis stressed that while meaningful progress should be recognized, there is no such thing as a tolerable level of abuse: “Even if it was just one priest who abused a boy or a girl, this is atrocious, because that man was chosen by God.”

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BROOKLYN (NY)
VICE

September 26 2018

By Alex Norcia

Guess how much the Church claims St. Peter’s Basilica is worth.

Last week, the Diocese of Brooklyn and an after-school program settled with four people who were frequently abused as children at a Catholic Church, agreeing to pay a total of $27.5 million. The historic sum was reported at the tail end of a summer that has become a public relations fiasco for the Vatican worldwide, sparking something of an identity crisis within its own walls. In the past few months alone, Theodore McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington, DC, resigned from the College of Cardinals when he became the highest-ranking clergyman to be directly accused of sexual violence. Weeks later, a grand jury report out of Pennsylvania concluded that, since the 1940s, roughly 300 priests had abused at least 1,000 children in just some of the state’s dioceses. Traveling in Ireland not long after, Pope Francis was called on to resign by a prominent former Church official who claimed the pontiff knew about the McCarrick allegations before they went public. Meanwhile, state attorneys general in New York, New Jersey, and other states launched their own probes into local dioceses.

It sometimes seems as if you could rattle off a list of Catholic sex abuse scandals in perpetuity. The pope, for his part, has barely responded outside of summoning the world’s bishops to the Vatican for a meeting this winter to discuss the ongoing crisis.

Considering the unlikelihood of criminal consequences for those at the clergy’s top levels, and the fact that many of these sex abuse cases have far surpassed the statutes of limitations, the endgame seems increasingly a financial—that is, a civil liability—question. But can the Church settle with survivors forever? Will it ever, somehow, completely run out of money with which to do so? In settling sex abuse claims, the Church has already reportedly spent or agreed to spend at least $3 billion in the US alone, and about 20 American dioceses have filed for some kind of bankruptcy. There’s little evidence that will slow down, or that the price tag won’t keep climbing. (In Pennsylvania, for example, bishops said they supported a fund to compensate survivors if they could prove they were abused but, because of the statute of limitations in the state, could no longer file a lawsuit.)

But specifics on the Church’s finances, like virtually everything else that goes on behind those holy gates, are hard to come by.

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ROME
CBS NEWS

September 26, 2018

Pope Francis called sex abuse “monstrous” on his return flight from a four-day trip to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on Tuesday. During his tour, he acknowledged for the first time that the recent sex abuse scandals have “put-off” many young people, turning them away from the church.

CBS News producer Anna Matranga was on the Papal flight back to Rome, and noted that despite being asked by journalists about the church sex abuse and cover-ups repeatedly, Pope Francis initially would only discuss his trip. Then, about 40 minutes into the press conference, he did return to address the topic.

“There are accusations against the church. We all know that. We know the statistics, I will not repeat them,” he said. Then he specifically addressed the Pennsylvania grand jury report which found that more than 300 predator priests and more than 1,000 victims of clerical sex abuse.

“Look at the report and you will see that when the church began to become aware of this, then we gave it our all to stop it,” he said. But Francis spoke just hours after yet another scathing study was released, this one by the Catholic Church in Germany.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WPXI

September 26, 2018

Redacted names contained in the grand jury report into clergy sex abuse across Pennsylvania could be one step closer to being made public.

In Philadelphia on Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard arguments from the petitioners and the attorney general’s office over releasing the names.

“We tried to get across to the court the importance of the grand jury process and the reporting process and the need for this whole report to come out,” said Deputy Attorney General Ronald Eisenberg.

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RALEIGH (NC)
Religion News Service

September 26, 2018

By Yonat Shimron and Jack Jenkins

In the end, it didn’t matter much what the bishop said during the Mass of Reparation and Prayer for Healing for victims of the sex abuse scandal.

His gesture said it all.

Standing in front of the altar Tuesday (Sept. 25) in Raleigh’s Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral, Bishop Luis Rafael Zarama took his violet zucchetto from his head and fell to his knees.

“I’d like all you who have been abused, who have been victims of this horrible crime, in the name of the church, I ask for forgiveness,” he said.

For the next 20 minutes, as he delivered his homily without notes in his heavily accented English — he is Colombian — Zarama was on his knees.

The Mass was one of many such healing services specifically tailored to address the clergy sex abuse crisis, which got new life last month after the Pennsylvania attorney general released the report on a two-year grand jury investigation into widespread sexual abuse and cover-up within six Catholic dioceses across that state.

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LEICESTER (UK)
Crux

September 24, 2018

By Charles Collins

Before beginning their ‘ad limina’ visit to Rome, the bishops of England and Wales said they spent time together to reflect on the “stark revelations of child sexual abuse” in the Church and will discuss the issue with Pope Francis on Friday.

The bishops also announced an independent review of the Church’s safeguarding structures in England and Wales.

Every bishop in the world is supposed to make an ‘ad limina’ visit every five years, where they visit the Vatican to meet the pope and officials of the Roman Curia.

In a statement issued at the beginning of their visit, the bishops said the recent reports about abuse “make it clear” that bishops and other religious leaders “failed to protect the children in their care from those who have done them great harm.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CNS

September 26, 2018

By Matthew Gambino

The bishops of Pennsylvania’s eight Roman Catholic dioceses are supporting creation of an independent fund to compensate survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

Ever since the Aug. 14 release of the Pennsylvania grand jury report that graphically detailed the alleged sexual abuse of more than 1,000 boys and girls by some 300 priests and church workers in the state over 70 years, the bishops had “reflected deeply on the ugly record” of abuse and how “church leadership failed to protect our people over a period of decades.”

The bishops made the comments in a joint statement released by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Sept. 21.

The bishops recognize that although survivors of abuse that happened decades ago are time-barred from suing the dioceses under the statutes of limitation in Pennsylvania law, the General Assembly is considering proposals to lift those limits.

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
News Tribune

September 27, 2018

By Joe Gamm

Survivors of sexual abuse by priests and their supporters delivered a letter to Gov. Mike Parson on Wednesday, asking him to command Attorney General Josh Hawley to conduct a criminal investigation — and authorize him to use subpoena power in investigations — of alleged sexual abuse by Catholic Church officials in Missouri.

Members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said they wanted the governor to add teeth to an investigation Hawley began late last month.

Hawley announced Aug. 23 he was starting an independent investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by members of the clergy in the Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis. He asked that other dioceses in the state voluntarily allow his office to examine them. Hours later, Bishop W. Shawn McKnight of the Jefferson City Diocese invited the AG’s office to review the local diocese.

The late August activities followed a Pennsylvania grand jury release of a report on clergy abuse there.

David Clohessy, former director of SNAP, which was established to support survivors of clergy sexual abuse, said as a former law enforcement official, Parson should understand the difference between a “real investigation and an inadequate investigation.”

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