ABUSE TRACKER

KENYA
Daily Nation

September 19, 2018

By Dauti Kahura

The Catholic Church, which boasts over a million followers – never mind many of them are nominal Catholics – has been undergoing a tragedy as a result of its decades-long scandals, as criminal activities by some of its prelates, are popping up into the open in some part of the world.

The year 2018 must surely be one of the nadir and sorest points of the church in its recent years, if not its annus horibilis.

And Chile, the South American longitudinal country, once as catholic as Ireland and France, is the microcosm of what has been ailing the church’s clergy and its efforts to conceal crimes perpetrated by some of its priests.

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

WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post (via Philly.com)

September 19, 2018

by Shawn Boburg and Aaron C. Davis

A dozen years before he became a top leader in the Catholic Church, Donald Wuerl was weighing a fateful decision. It was 1994, and Wuerl, then a bishop, had removed a priest accused of child sex abuse from a Pittsburgh-area parish. But the priest refused to get psychiatric treatment, and instead asked Wuerl for time off.

Wuerl – now a cardinal and the archbishop of Washington, District of Columbia – granted the leave of absence, allowing the Rev. Robert Castelucci to relocate to Ohio without alerting authorities or parishioners, law enforcement records show.

Only after police in Ohio began investigating a 16-year-old boy’s allegation that “Father Bob” plied him with pornography and performed oral sex on him did Wuerl tell Castelucci he could no longer present himself as a priest in public, according to internal church documents obtained by The Washington Post.

The case, one of hundreds mentioned in a groundbreaking Pennsylvania grand jury report released last month, sheds light on how Wuerl handled sex abuse claims in the Pittsburgh Diocese from 1988 to 2006 – a period that now threatens to rewrite his legacy and hasten the end of his career. Wuerl, 77, announced recently that he would go to the Vatican to discuss his possible resignation with Pope Francis and, although it is not clear when that meeting will take place, Wuerl is scheduled to be in Rome this weekend.

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PAXTON (MA)
The Boston Globe

September 5, 2018

By Michael Rezendes

For decades, James C. Graham was tormented by a simple, but profound question: Why did his father seem to dislike him so much?

On Tuesday, the South Carolina man confirmed the bittersweet truth: The man who raised him wasn’t his father at all.

Graham’s extraordinary 25-year effort to find the truth about his father ended when a forensic anthropologist told him that his DNA matched samples taken from a deceased Catholic priest who grew up in Lowell and graduated from Boston College.

“You’ve driven all the way from South Carolina to find out whether Father Thomas Sullivan was your father, and I’m here to tell you that he was,” said Ann Marie Mires, director of forensic criminology at Anna Maria College.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
The Los Angeles Times

September 15, 2018

By Peter Rowe and Kristina Davis

The clerical sexual abuse scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church hit home Thursday, as the Diocese of San Diego added eight priests to the list of those believed to have molested children.

“This is a response to the terrible moment we are in,” said Bishop Robert McElroy, citing a recent Pennsylvania grand jury report that found 1,000 children there had been molested by Pittsburgh-area priests, and the resignation of Theodore McCarrick, who is accused of sexually assaulting altar boys, seminarians and priests.

“The cascade of emotions that this causes the survivors of the abuse, as well as other people in the pews, has caused a tumult of anger, grief, upset, incomprehension, disillusionment,” McElroy said.

The new names — the Revs. Jose Chavarin, Raymond Etienne, J. Patrick Foley, Michael French, Richard Houck, George Lally and Paolino Montagna, plus Msgr. Mark Medaer — were released in piecemeal fashion, with critical details missing.

This list extends the roster of alleged predator priests established by a landmark legal case that was concluded 11 years ago. On Sept. 7, 2007, the diocese settled 144 claims of child sexual abuse by 48 priests and one lay employee. The payments totaled $198.1 million, the second-largest settlement by a Catholic diocese in the United States.

Thursday’s announcement was prompted by the Pennsylvania grand jury report, the McCarrick case and other recent revelations that have called into question the church’s moral authority and its willingness to honestly address this scandal.

“There is a broad call for transparency,” McElroy said. “When we looked at it, we wanted to meet that as best we could.”

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
KUTV

September 14, 2018

By Brian Mullahy

West Valley’s Judy Larson, who accused a priest in Michigan of raping her when she was just 10, commended new disclosures from the Salt Lake Catholic Diocese on the extent of credible abuse claims here, but said the admissions do not go far enough.

“I think it’s a step in the right direction, but it’s a first step,” said Larson in a 2News interview, adding the diocese should name names. “If they’ve been credibly accused, yes. Other archdiocese and diocese have done that.”

Larson is now a board member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, a group that tracks claims of abuse, and calls for action by church leaders to combat it.

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LAFAYETTE (LA)

Lafayette Daily Advertiser

September 19, 2018

By Claire Taylor

Bishop Douglas Deshotel of the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette said Tuesday he is considering releasing the names of priests against whom credible accusations of abuse have been alleged.

Deshotel faced about 250 people Tuesday night at St. John the Evangelist Cathedral hall in Lafayette for a discussion about sex abuse in the church.

The bishop and panel responded to some of the more than 70 questions submitted in advance, including whether the diocese will release the names of priests accused of abuse.

“I’m considering it,” Deshotel replied to much applause.

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FORT WAYNE (IN)
Today’s Catholic (Publication of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend)

September 18, 2018

The Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend published on Tuesday, Sept, 18, the names of the priests and deacons who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of a minor.

During a news conference on Aug. 17, in which he made the announcement to release the names, Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades stated the importance for victims to see the names of their abusers made public “for all to see. For everyone to know the pain caused by these priests.” Bishop Rhoades added, “It is my hope that by releasing these names, the innocent victims of these horrific and heartbreaking crimes can finally begin the process of healing.”

Bishop Rhoades reiterated the diocese’s commitment to protect children and young people, saying, “We must be vigilant in our efforts to protect our youth. With the Lord’s guidance and love, we will do so.”

The list of those credibly accused was developed with the assistance of the Diocesan Review Board, which was established to assist the bishop in complying with the requirements of The Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People and The Essential Norms. The Diocesan Review Board is comprised of mostly lay people, and its members assess all allegations of sexual abuse of minors by priests and deacons presented in this diocese.

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FORT WAYNE (IN)
The Journal Gazette

September 18, 2018

By Rosa Salter Rodriguez

Diocese expected to release about 20 names

The Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend will release names today of “credibly accused” priests and deacons of sexually abusing minors, according to a statement released Monday.

The names will be posted on the diocese’s website, www.diocesefwsb.org, at 1 p.m. and through diocesan media channels, the statement said, fulfilling a pledge the Rev. Kevin C. Rhoades, the diocese’s bishop, made at a news conference Aug. 17.

The list will likely include about 20 names, according to previous statements by the diocese and BishopAccountability.org, an independent, nonprofit website chronicling Catholic clerical sexual abuse for about two decades.

In late 2003, the late Bishop John M. D’Arcy issued a public accounting saying 17 priests in the diocese had been found to have sexually abused 33 individuals since 1950. Sixteen abused minors and one had abused an adult, he said then.

D’Arcy, who had actively pushed for removal of abusive priests in his previous assignment in the Archdiocese of Boston, did not provide names at that time. But he said he had “removed” 12 from ministry and others were dead.

He said a large part of the accusations took place in the 1980s and the last one involving physical contact took place in 1987. The diocese between 1985 and 2002 paid about $1.36 million to settle claims, pay lawyers and provide counseling for priests and victims, he reported.

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UNITED STATES
America Magazine

September 18, 2018

By Jim McDermott

Retired F.B.I. agent Kathleen McChesney was chosen by the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops to establish and lead its Office of Child and Youth Protection in 2002. In that office, she developed and administered the mechanisms used to ensure that every diocese complies with civil law related to the sexual abuse of minors. Ms. McChesney continues to work as a consultant to dioceses, religious organizations and others around the world in the area of child protection, ministerial misconduct and abuse.

Conducted by phone, this interview has been condensed and edited. This is the second of three interviews Jim McDermott, S.J., is conducting on the sex abuse crisis.

What was your reaction to the revelations of the last month?

I wasn’t surprised by the Pennsylvania information because I’ve been working in this area a long time, have met with many survivors of clergy abuse and read thousands of misconduct files. Also, a large percentage of the offenders named by the grand jury had already been posted on the website, BishopAccountability.org or could be easily located in open-source materials.

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BROOKLYN (NY)
New York Times

September 18, 2018

By Sharon Otterman

Four men who were repeatedly sexually abused as children by a religion teacher at a Roman Catholic church reached a $27.5 million settlement with the Diocese of Brooklyn and a local after-school program on Tuesday, in one of the largest settlements ever awarded to individual victims of abuse within the church.

The victims were repeatedly abused by Angelo Serrano, 67, who taught catechism classes and helped organize the religious education programs at St. Lucy’s-St. Patrick’s Church, in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. The abuse occurred inside the church, in Mr. Serrano’s apartment located in an old schoolhouse behind the church and at the affiliated after-school program, lawyers for the victims said.

The settlement comes amid a flurry of investigations — including a New York State civil investigation — and disclosures of sex abuse within the Catholic Church that have led to mounting pressure on Pope Francis to take action against bishops and cardinals for their role in the abuse crisis.

The sexual assaults in Brooklyn took place between 2003 and 2009, the lawyers said, when the boys were between the ages of 8 and 12.

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NEWTON (MA)
NECN

September 18, 2018

[VIDEO]

Is the Roman Catholic Church facing its #MeToo moment? Why has the Pope refused to confirm or deny allegations that he knew about sex abuse allegations against a prominent American Cardinal years before they became public? Has Cardinal Sean O’Malley decided to use the old playbook of Catholic leaders of failing to confront accusations and using plausible deniability when they became public? Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of Bishopaccountability.org, joins Sue to discuss.

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BROOKLYN (NY)
The Tablet (publication of the Brooklyn diocese)

September 18, 2018

In one of the largest known settlement payouts for sex abuse within the Catholic Church to date, the Diocese of Brooklyn announced on Sept.18 that it would pay $27.5 million to four victims of abuse at the hands of a volunteer at St. Lucy’s-St. Patrick’s Church in the Fort Greene/Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn.

While some reports have claimed the individual in question, Angelo Serrano, was an employee of the school at the time, the Diocese of Brooklyn has contested those claims noting that he was a volunteer at the time of the abuse.

Serrano was found responsible for raping four victims between the ages of 8 and 12 from 2003 to 2009. The abuse did not take place on church property.

According to published reports, a priest saw the abuse, but didn’t report it. The two priests at the parish were named co-defendants in the case.

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WASHINGTON, D.C.
Catholic News Agency/EWTN via Catholic Online

September 18, 2018

Courage International, an apostolate to support people with same sex-attraction in leading chaste lives, has issued a statement on three priests mentioned as credibly accused of sexual abuse in the Pennsylvania grand jury report.

Released last month, the report found more than 1,000 allegations of abuse at the hands of some 300 clergy members in six dioceses in the state. It also found a pattern of cover up by senior Church officials.

“The horror of these crimes of sexual abuse and harassment is amplified by the failure of some bishops and diocesan officials to take corrective action against the offenders, and to communicate honestly with the faithful about what has happened and how they are responding,” said Father Philip Bochanski, executive director of Courage, in a Sept. 15 statement.

“I am writing to you to share some information regarding connections between the Grand Jury Report and Courage International, as well as to discuss some other issues related to the apostolate and how we handle allegations of sexual abuse.”

Father Bochanski said no reports of sexual abuse of minors had been made to him or his staff during his time in the Courage Office.

However, he noted three priests named in the Grand Jury report who have connections to the apostolate.

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TRENTON (NJ)
Insider NJ

September 18, 2018

Senator Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex) issued the following statement on the recent allegations against the Catholic Church for silencing victims of sexual abuse, as well as, the creation of Attorney General Gurbir Grewal’s task force to investigate clergy abuse in the state of New Jersey:

“Since the announcement of the Attorney General’s creation of a task force and his plans to empanel a grand jury to investigate clergy abuse in the state of New Jersey, many victims have reached out to my office to ask what they can do to help.

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BUENOS AIRES (ARGENTINA)
Associated Press

September 18, 2018

By Luis Andres Henao and Nicole Winfield

[See also our Detailed Summary of Case of Rev. Julio César Grassi]

Pope Francis’ role in Argentina’s most famous case of priestly sex abuse is coming under renewed scrutiny as he faces the greatest crisis of his papacy over the Catholic Church’s troubled legacy of cover-up and allegations he himself sided with the accused.

Francis, who at the time was still Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, in 2010 commissioned a four-volume, 2,000-plus page forensic study of the legal case against a convicted priest that concluded he was innocent, that his victims were lying and that the case never should have gone to trial.

The Argentine church says that the study obtained by The Associated Press — bound volumes complete with reproductions of Johannes Vermeer paintings on the covers — was for internal church use only. But the volumes purportedly ended up on the desks of some Argentine court justices who were ruling on the appeals of the Rev. Julio Grassi.

Despite the study, Argentina’s Supreme Court in March 2017 upheld the conviction and 15-year prison sentence against Grassi, a celebrity priest who ran homes for street children across Argentina.

The study, and Francis’ role in the Grassi case, have taken on new relevance following allegations by a former Vatican ambassador that Francis, and a long line of Vatican officials before him, covered up the sexual misconduct of a prominent U.S. cardinal.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)

September 18, 2018

By Patricia Dailey Lewis

Last month, news broke of thousands of children sexually abused by more than 300 Catholic priests across six dioceses in Pennsylvania. The report, rightfully so, has provoked disgust and outrage. But as the dust settles, an even more egregious reality becomes evident: prosecutors have only been able to file criminal charges against two of the perpetrators. Even more disturbing, most of the survivors have lost their right to sue not only the perpetrator, but the institution as well.

The reason for this miscarriage of justice? Antiquated statute of limitations laws that prevent claimants over the age of 50 from making criminal allegations against their abusers. Similar laws prevent survivors over the age of 30 from filing civil charges. These laws as they stand leave very few victims able to seek redress for their suffering. Suffering to which a statute of limitations does not apply. Without accountability, there can be no change.

To these survivors and their families, I say: There is hope.

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ALLENTOWN (PA)

The Morning Call

By Daniel Patrick Sheehan

http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-nws-allentown-priest-accused-2018″>http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-nws-allentown-priest-accused-2018

The pastor of a Catholic church in Bethlehem Township has been removed from ministry while authorities investigate a sexual abuse allegation against him.

In a statement in the church bulletin, the Rev. Edward Sacks of Our Lady of Perpetual Help said the allegation was made by the mother of a student from the former Holy Name High School in Reading, where Sacks was principal in the 1970s.

“I am absolutely convinced I can prove my innocence,” the statement said. “It is a case of mistaken identity.”

Under its zero tolerance policy, the diocese removed Sacks from ministry and informed law enforcement of the allegations, diocese spokesman Matt Kerr said in a statement.

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STEUBENVILLE (OH)

September 18, 2018

By Elisha Valladares-Cormier

Franciscan University of Steubenville is doing what it can to best respond to the latest clergy sex abuse scandal, said the university’s president in an email.

The Rev. Sean Sheridan, TOR, said in a Sept. 14 email that he and the university are taking concrete steps to address the sex abuse scandal because his duty as a Franciscan friar and a priest is to fill the role of spiritual fatherhood entrusted to him as president of the university.

“As I listened to our students, faculty and staff trying to process the shocking news from Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., I felt moved to address the issue directly,” Sheridan said.

The news Sheridan referred to are incidents that have dominated headlines for Catholics all summer. In late June, the first news broke out when New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan announced that that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, former archbishop of Washington, had been removed from active ministry at the direction of the Vatican after an investigation found a charge that the archbishop had sexually abused a teenager was credible.

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FOLSOM (CA)
Governing.com / e.Republic

September 18, 2018

By Candice Norwood

This summer, a Pennsylvania grand jury released an explosive report, accusing more than 300 Catholic priests in the state of sexually abusing 1,000 children over seven decades. Despite the number of accused, only two priests reportedly can face criminal prosecution.

Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations only allows victims of child sex abuse to file criminal lawsuits until they reach the age of 50. Civil cases can be filed until the victim is 30 years old.

The Pennsylvania report has prompted attorneys general in at least six states — Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico and New York — to review or investigate clergy sex abuse cases. But the concern is not just with the Catholic Church. Recent events have brought attention to sexual abuse, assault and harassment in Boy Scouts of America, USA Gymnastics, Hollywood and the halls of government.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Inquirer

September 18, 2018

By Arthur McCaffrey

http://www2.philly.com/philly/opinion/commentary/catholic-sex-abuse-grand-jury-report-pennsylvania-federal-inquiry-20180918.html

Earlier this month, the New York attorney general initiated a criminal inquiry into clergy abuse of children in all the Catholic dioceses in New York state. This came fast on the heels of Pennsylvania’s statewide grand jury investigation of Catholic clergy abuse, which was reported out by Attorney General Josh Shapiro on Aug. 14, exposing at least 1,000 cases of child abuse over a 70-year period.

New Jersey, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Missouri have similar criminal investigations underway. This follows previous inquiries in other states.

If you want to go back to ground zero, in Boston in 2002, Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly may have issued the very first statewide report on July 23, 2003, when his 16-month investigation revealed that probably more than 1,000 children had been sexually abused by priests and other church workers in the Archdiocese of Boston since 1940 — which averaged out to about 16 children per year up to 2003. By that time, Archbishop Cardinal Bernard Law, who presided over decades-long cover-ups of abuse, had fled to Rome, leaving before he could be subpoenaed.

But no matter how many separate state inquiries are initiated, I predict that the findings will all repeat the vocabulary of “cover-up,” “collusion,” “enabling,” “sacrificing children for the sake of the institution’s reputation” — the same script gets replayed over and over. The time is long past for the criminality of the Roman Catholic Church to be treated as just a local or state problem — this is a national problem that is part of the global epidemic of child abuse.

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PENNSYLVANIA
York Daily Record

September 17, 2018

By Rick Lee

Lawsuit represents both victims and children now at risk attending Catholic schools

Failure of dioceses to disclose identities of predatory priests “constitutes a clear and present danger”

A Verona man and a Catholic school kindergartner are the representative plaintiffs in a class action suit seeking the full disclosure of all Catholic dioceses’ records concerning sexual abuse by priests.

The complaint was filed Monday in Pittsburgh while untold numbers of people who were allegedly sexually assaulted by predatory priests wait for the Pennsylvania legislature to determine if they have a “window of justice” to seek legal redress.

The adult plaintiff, Ryan O’Connor, says he was abused by a priest between the ages of 10 and 12. O’Connor says he remains a member of the Catholic Church, and his children attend Catholic school.

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UNITED STATES
USA TODAY

September 13, 2018

I’m a life-long Catholic furious about the corruption, crimes, and cover-ups of the church’s leaders. It’s past time to purge their ranks.

It is hard to be a Catholic today. It is clear from this summer’s Pennsylvania grand jury report, the Cardinal Theodore McCarrick scandal and, most recently, the dodge by Pope Francis to a Vatican diplomat’s testimony that the pontiff rehabilitated McCarrick, that the Catholic Church has been betrayed by her leaders.

For decades, our bishops, cardinals and the Vatican have engaged in an unforgivable cover-up of sins and alleged crimes against children. While in some cases, the cover-up may have been done with the purpose of aiding and abetting sinful and criminal conduct, it is also apparent that the cover-up was engineered with the goal of protecting the church’s “brand.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Reuters

September 17, 2018

People claiming they were sexually abused by priests filed a class action lawsuit on Monday against eight dioceses in Pennsylvania seeking to compel them to divulge the names of priests accused of such actions over the past 70 years.

Pennsylvania’s attorney general released a grand jury report in August that found that 301 priests in the state had sexually abused minors over the past 70 years.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops declined to comment on the lawsuit. The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference did not respond to a request for comment.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
CNN

September 17, 2018

By Shelby Rose, Claudia Dominguez and Susannah Cullinane

Pope Francis has expelled the Reverend Cristian Precht Bañados of Chile, according to a statement from the Archdiocese of Santiago.

This is the first formal resignation the Pope has decreed since every bishop in Chile offered to step down in May over the country’s sex abuse scandal. The Chilean bishops’ offer was thought to be unprecedented in the modern history of the Catholic Church.

Precht had been suspended in 2012 from practicing within the ministry for five years after the Archbishop of Santiago ordered a criminal investigation into allegations of sexual abuse against him.

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[Octavio Errázuriz meets with the Pope and becomes Chile’s ambassador to the Vatican]

CHILE
Emol

September 17, 2018

By C. Fernández

El abogado llega al cargo en un momento complejo para la Iglesia Católica chilena, institución que se ha visto involucrada en diversos casos de abusos sexuales.

El abogado Octavio Errázuriz Guilisasti asumió oficialmente como embajador de Chile ante la Santa Sede la mañana de este lunes 17 de septiembre. En una audiencia, que se realizó a las 11:15 de la mañana (hora local), el diplomático entregó sus cartas credenciales al Papa Francisco para comenzar su trabajo en el Vaticano.

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UNITED STATES
Vox

September 17, 2018

By Tara Isabella Burton

Differing state laws make it harder for some states to coordinate investigations.

Justice is coming slowly for the victims of the Catholic clerical sex abuse crisis. Since a Pennsylvania grand jury report last month identified hundreds of priests accused of molesting at least 1,000 minors over the past seven decades in that state, several other states have announced their own investigations into historical Catholic clerical child sex abuse.

The scope and scale of the Pennsylvania report was made possible by the state’s legal structures, which give the attorney general’s office a significant degree of power to conduct investigations through the grand jury system. However, each of the states below has taken steps toward centralizing the likely hundreds, if not thousands, of potential cases of clerical sex abuse that may have taken place over the past few decades.

Each state will take a different approach, due to the range of laws concerning the convening of grand juries and who has the authority to subpoena documents from Catholic dioceses. For the most part, attorneys general are trying to gather historical records from parishes and diocese to conduct these investigations. The vast stores of private documents relating to sex abuse, compensation of victims, and transfers of offending priests were instrumental in the formation and impact of the Pennsylvania report.

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UNITED STATES
The New Yorker

September 17, 2018

By James Carroll

With the sex-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church reaching a critical mass, Pope Francis has issued an unprecedented call to the world’s top bishops to meet with him in Rome, next February, to discuss “the protection of minors.” But the pressing question for leaders of the Catholic Church no longer concerns abusive priests or complicit bishops, because the Church has forfeited the credibility necessary for such investigations, and has been replaced by civil authorities, such as the state attorneys general—six, as of last week—who are following Pennsylvania’s lead into this morass.

The question for the Church now, given the astounding scale of the dysfunction, arching from the Americas to Europe, Africa, the Philippines, and Australia, is: What in Catholic culture caused this debauchery? The proximate cause concerns essential mistakes of moral theology, including the stigmatizing of normal erotic longing and the sanctifying of prejudice against women and homosexuals. Those errors have roots in the ancient Church, when fundamental options in favor of male power and against sex for pleasure and love were made.

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[Victims of Cristian Precht ask the church to help guarantee legal sanctions]

CHILE
BioBioChile

September 16, 2018

By Alejandro Alarcón and Estefanía Bustamante

Tras la determinación del Vaticano que decretó la expulsión del sacerdocio de Cristian Precht, laicos y víctimas del ahora exsacerdote hicieron un llamado a las instituciones eclesiásticas para colaborar con la justicia chilena y así facilitar las sanciones contra acusados por abusos a menores. Uno de los denunciantes del Caso Maristas, Eneas Espinoza, señaló que la decisión del Papa Francisco es satisfactoria pero no suficiente, porque, según sus palabras, “es un delincuente sexual que aún está suelto”.

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[Raúl Hasbún, canonical defender of Precht: “I will demand the nullification of everything that has been done and decreed”]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

September 18, 2018

By Tamara Cerna

El presbítero, quien asumió nuevamente la representación del ex vicario, señaló que el hecho que no se hubiese instruido un proceso hace “insanablemente nula toda sentencia condenatoria”.

El sábado en la noche, el presbítero Raúl Hasbún fue notificado de la decisión del Papa Francisco de expulsar del sacerdocio al ex vicario de la solidaridad, Cristián Precht. A este último, lo defendió en proceso canónico iniciado en su contra en 2012, el cual concluyó con una condena por “conductas abusivas” la cual le significó al religioso estar cinco años alejado del ejercicio sacerdotal, además de una vida de oración y penitencia.

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PHOENIX (AZ)
Associated Press

September 17, 2018

A former pastor has been sentenced to 13 years in prison and lifetime probation for sexually abusing underage girls who attended his Phoenix church.

Maricopa County Superior Court officials say Jose Vicente Morales was sentenced Monday.

He pleaded guilty last month to molestation of a child, sex abuse and three counts of attempted molestation of a child.

The 51-year-old Morales will get credit for the more than two years he’s already served since his 2016 arrest.

Morales formerly was the pastor of Iglesia Cristiana Impacto de Fe, a small church in Phoenix.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Associated Press

September 18, 2018

By Claudia Lauer

Parents of children in the Roman Catholic Church and survivors of sexual abuse by clergy filed a lawsuit Monday against Pennsylvania’s eight dioceses and their bishops asking a judge to compel them to release information about abuse allegations.

The lawsuit filed Monday in Pittsburgh comes a month after a statewide grand jury report detailed sexual abuse allegations against more than 300 priests over decades in six of the state’s dioceses. The lawsuit alleges the dioceses haven’t met their obligations to report child sexual abusers under state law.

Benjamin Sweet, an attorney for the lead plaintiffs in the case said they are not seeking money, but instead are asking for public transparency about allegations. Many victims who came forward to talk to the grand jury fall outside the statute of limitations to file a civil personal injury lawsuit. The lawsuit filed Monday doesn’t seek damages and doesn’t represent solely victims of abuse, so Sweet said it isn’t prohibited by any statute of limitations.

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SPRINGFIELD (IL)
The State Journal-Register

September 17, 2018

By Steven Spearie

An advisory commission to Pope Francis which Springfield resident Teresa Morris Kettelkamp was appointed to earlier this year may play a pivotal role in an historic meeting in February that brings together leaders of the Catholic Church from around the world to discuss the prevention of abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.

The announcement for the gathering of the presidents of the bishops’ conferences came last week on the same day the pope met with U.S. Catholic Church leaders who admitted the Church here has been “lacerated by the evil of sexual abuse.”

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WHEELING (WV)
The Herald-Dispatch

September 17, 2018

This is an open letter to the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston:

As the Roman Catholic Church reels from new revelations of the cover-up of clergy sexual abuse, thousands of Catholics from various corners of the church have loudly demanded the mass resignation and/or dismissal of U.S. bishops in order to “clean house.” In the midst of this turmoil, Bishop Michael Bransfield of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston offered his resignation to Pope Francis, not as penance, but in the manner customary for bishops who have reached the age of 75. (Bransfield turned 75 on Sept. 8.)

Pope Francis accepted Bransfield’s resignation in a matter of days and appointed Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore as temporary administrator of the Diocese. Further, the Vatican charged Lori with the task of conducting an investigation of Bransfield’s alleged sexual harassment of adults.

The swift acceptance of Bransfield’s resignation and subsequent investigation is not surprising. Abuse allegations have haunted Bransfield, resurfacing most recently during the criminal trial of Catholic priests in Philadelphia in 2012. But more, Bransfield’s lavish lifestyle and flaunted political allegiances marked his episcopacy with signs of clerical privilege and entitlement that are the root cause of abuse by members of the priesthood, including sexual misconduct.

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CONROE (TX)
Houston Chronicle

September 17, 2018

By Jay R. Jordan and Nicole Hensley

Police have raided the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Conroe less than a week after a former priest was accused of child molestation.

Conroe police Sgt. Scott McCann confirmed that detectives and the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office searched the church Monday afternoon in connection with the arrest of Manuel La Rosa-Lopez, who has been charged with four counts of indecency with a child.

While executing the search warrant, authorities could be seen walking out of the church on the corner of Frazier and McDade with boxes and plastic bins, according to KHOU-TV video footage. It was not immediately known what was taken from the church or what authorities were looking for.

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[Judicial vicar of Santiago after expulsion of Cristián Precht: “It is a hard measure, the pain is great”]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

September 16, 2018

By Leonardo Vallejos

Jaime Ortíz de Lazcano aclaró que el ex vicario de la solidaridad deja de ser sacerdote y recibe “la pena perpetua”.

La Iglesia Católica chilena se pronunció tras el anuncio de que el Papa decidió expulsar a Cristián Precht como sacerdote. “Es la medida a nivel canónica más dura, la pena perpetua del estado clerical. Deja de pertenecer al clero y ya no se considera sacerdote”, señaló este domingo Jaime Ortíz de Lazcano, vicario judicial de la Arquidiócesis de Santiago.

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[Vatican prepares new expulsions of Chilean priests]

CHILE
El Mostrador

September 16, 2018

By Alejandra Carmona López

Según fuentes de El Mostrador, la sanción de por vida a Precht se repetirá con otros religiosos chilenos acusados de abusos sexuales. La decisión de Roma sobre el sacerdote, ícono de la defensa a los Derechos Humanos en dictadura, se debió a casos de abusos de menores.

A la decisión notificada ayer por la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe respecto a Cristián Precht, se sumarán en los próximos días nuevas expulsiones de sacerdotes chilenos acusados de abusos sexuales al interior de la Iglesia Católica chilena. De a acuerdo a fuentes de El Mostrador, el religioso que fuera ícono de la defensa de los Derechos Humanos en dictadura, solo es el inicio de una cadena de sanciones que comenzará a conocerse próximamente.

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[Precht’s expulsion was due to new abuse allegations]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 16, 2018

By M. Navarrete and L. Leiva

Vicario judicial de la Arquidiócesis de Santiago explicó que la destitución del estado sacerdotal del expresbítero ocurrió luego de que se enviaran al Vaticano antecedentes sobre el caso maristas y al menos dos nuevas acusaciones.

“Más allá del caso maristas, hubo por lo menos dos nuevas denuncias que tuvieron que ver con la misma actuación de abuso sexual de menores. Todo eso, junto con lo del caso maristas, se envió diligentemente a la Santa Sede”, afirmó hoy el vicario judicial del Arzobispado de Santiago, Jaime Ortiz de Lazcano, al referirse a la situación del expresbítero Cristián Precht, quien el sábado fue notificado de la decisión inapelable del Vaticano de expulsarlo del sacerdocio, con lo que deja de pertenecer al clero.

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[Prosecutor of La Araucanía investigates 17 cases of possible clergy sex abuse]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 16, 2018

By F. Díaz and S. Rodríguez

La información se obtuvo tras el análisis de los documentos incautados en diócesis de Temuco y Villarrica.

Desde hace 47 años que los obispados católicos ubicados en la Región de La Araucanía -Temuco y Villarrica- han recibido diversas acusaciones contra miembros de la Iglesia por denuncias de presuntos abusos sexuales. Esta información se guardó con celo durante todos estos años, hasta que el pasado viernes 13 de julio dejó de estar exclusivamente en manos de representantes del clero.

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[Laymen demand that priests investigated for abuse and cover up do not preside over Te Deum]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 17, 2018

By Alejandra Jara

Desde la organización se mostraron de acuerdo con la decisión del Vaticano de expulsar a Cristian Precht.

A horas de que se realice un nuevo Te Deum, la Red Nacional de Laicos de Chile se refirió a las últimas investigaciones judiciales que afectan a sacerdotes católicos. A través de un comunicado, los laicos exigieron que los religiosos investigados por abuso y encubrimiento no presidan estas ceremonias y lamentaron que en un nuevo aniversario patrio los crímenes de la Iglesia siguen presentándose como signo de “escándalo y testimonio”.

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ATLANTA (GA)
CNN

September 17, 2018

By Shelby Rose, Claudia Dominquez and Susannah Cullinane

Pope Francis has expelled the Reverend Cristian Precht Bañados of Chile, according to a statement from the Archdiocese of Santiago.

This is the first formal resignation the Pope has decreed since every bishop in Chile offered to step down in May over the country’s sex abuse scandal. The move is thought to be unprecedented in the modern history of the Catholic Church.

Precht had been suspended in 2012 from practicing within the ministry for five years after the Archbishop of Santiago ordered a criminal investigation into allegations of sexual abuse against him.

The Archbishop issued a statement at the time saying that “during the process were established verifiable reports of abusive behavior with adults and minors.”

Precht has not been charged with any crimes by Chilean authorities, but was not allowed to leave the country’s capital, Santiago, pending completion of the church investigation.

In a February 2013 statement, Precht denied “ever forcing anyone’s will, be it an adult or a minor, woman or man.”

He also denied the allegations earlier this year in a letter to the director of the Chilean newspaper La Tercera.

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MADRID (SPAIN)
El País

September 17, 2018

By José Antonio Hernández

The man who was contacted by the pope after he wrote to him about the sexual assaults he suffered at the hands of Catholic priests breaks his silence in an interview with El País

The former altar boy and catechist from Granada who was phoned by an apologetic Pope Francis in 2014 in response to a letter he wrote to the Vatican reporting sexual abuse, has decided to break his silence. He has spent years hiding from the press and when he welcomes El País into his office in Pamplona, it is on condition he is not photographed and can remain anonymous, using the name Daniel for the purposes of this article.

“I don’t want to be pointed at in the street,” he says. A university professor, Daniel is 28, married and a member of the Catholic organization, Opus Dei. “I went through a lot and so did my family,” he says. “I ended up with the shakes and anxiety attacks. I decided to speak out about it because I don’t want anyone else to go through the same thing.”

Daniel feels pained and saddened by the handling of his case, both by the judiciary and the Catholic Church. “Hurt because some who abused me have gone back to their parishes, and who knows if they will go back to what they were doing,” he says.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

September 13, 2018

By The Times Editorial Board

For almost a generation, the Roman Catholic Church in the United States and worldwide has been shaken by revelations that a significant number of priests had sexually abused young people — and that church leaders not only conspired to conceal their crimes, but often also allowed them to continue to have contact with children, sometimes on the mistaken assumption that they had been “cured.”

But lately the anxiety among the faithful over decades of denial and deceit has reached a crisis point. It now threatens to tarnish the reformist papacy of Pope Francis.

The pope himself has been accused by a retired Vatican diplomat, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, of reactivating a sidelined former U.S. cardinal despite being told that the prelate had sexually harassed seminarians. Meanwhile, the American church has been dealing with the aftershocks of a grand jury report in Pennsylvania that identified 301 “predator priests” who abused more than 1,000 children in six of the state’s eight dioceses over a period of 70 years. The report has led to calls for the resignation of Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., who was faulted in the report for decisions he made as bishop of Pittsburgh. Wuerl has said he will meet with the pope soon to ask Francis to accept his resignation.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

September 16, 2018

Three Letters to the Editor

Your editorial about the Roman Catholic church abuse and cover-up crisis nailed it with this one line: Pope Francis “needs to recommit his papacy and the church he leads to protecting the faithful.”

All too often, church officials and observers talk of the need for healing. This implies that the bulk of the child sex crimes are behind us, which is questionable at best. Even if that were true, adults can recover from childhood trauma.

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YORK (PA)
York Dail Record

September 15, 2018

By Candy Woodall

A statewide priest abuse investigation in Pennsylvania has inspired widespread inquiries in other states and dioceses across the country.

Most recently, dioceses in Salt Lake City, Utah, and San Jose, California, said they would reveal the names of Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse.

The Salt Lake City diocese on Thursday said it received 16 credible reports of priest abuse since the 1990s. Two incidents occurred this year, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

Also on Thursday, the San Diego diocese released the names of eight priests accused of sexually abusing children, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The San Jose diocese will release names of its accused priests in October, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The Archdiocese of San Francisco is considering a similar release.

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ALLENTOWN (PA)
Morning Call

September 15, 2018

By Tim Darragh, Riley Yates and Christine Schiavo

For the last 20 years, Diana Vojtasek could barely speak about the sexual abuse she says she suffered as a Catholic high school student during a vulnerable time in her life.

When she married in 1997, her husband, Mark, didn’t know about what she would later describe as forced sexual encounters with a priest, who has since been defrocked.

And when a civil lawsuit she filed in 2004 failed to advance because it missed a legal deadline, she said, “I just kind of went back into my little hole.”

With three little children at the time, Vojtasek, who lives near Reading, said she became consumed with protecting herself and them.

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BATON ROUGE (LA)
The Advocate

September 16, 2018

By John Simerman

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry pledged last week to help root out sex abuse by Catholic clergy wherever it appears.

He’s just not about to turn the church over the spit to find it, given what he said is his limited authority under Louisiana law and what he described as the perils of “smearing the church” without a specific criminal allegation.

Landry’s decisive rejection of a broader investigation into how the state’s seven Catholic dioceses have dealt with allegations of priestly abuse came as his counterparts elsewhere are lining up to do just that.

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UNITED STATES
First Things

October 2018

By R. R. Reno

Theodore McCarrick has been stripped of his status as cardinal for pursuing young men throughout his clerical career. “­Uncle Ted” liked to take his “nephews” to bed with him. The public revelations of this fact evoked outrage. It was not so much that a churchman sinned as that he did so with impunity, protected by the see-no-evil mentality and, perhaps, the complicity of those who have their own secrets to keep. The anger was further stoked by an initial wave of denials. McCarrick’s protégés—some now bishops—ran for cover, insisting they knew nothing about his misdeeds.

I was not shocked by the news. I entered the Catholic Church in 2004, two years after clerical sex abuse of adolescent boys and its cover-up were exposed in Boston. We learned that many of the bishops of the United States—perhaps nearly all during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s—did little to root out priests who preyed upon boys and adolescents. Men who made a habit of grooming altar boys as sexual prey were shuttled from one parish to another. Pressure was exerted to keep aggrieved parents silent. Victims were stiff-armed. Insofar as there was strenuous episcopal effort, it was devoted to keeping a festering problem secret. The recently released Pennsylvania Grand Jury report deepens our knowledge of this pattern of behavior.

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MILWAUKEE (WI
WDJT-TV

September 15, 2018

By Lindsey Branwall

“We can never apologize enough,” said Archbishop Jerome Listecki.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee is saying sorry for anyone that abused abused by a member of the Catholic church. They did so at a candlelight vigil at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Miwlaukee. The program was titled, “A Vigil of Reparation for the sins of the Bishops of the Church; Shepherds who have led their sheep astray.

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BOSTON MA
The Boston Globe

The Globe continues to lead the way in reporting about the institutional and systemic abuses at all ranks of the Catholic Church (“Another plea about abuse, and another empty reply,” Page A1, Sept. 9). However, we need more reporting about what is happening on the ground, today, to prevent future transgressions. The illuminating 2011 report by investigators at John Jay College, “The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010,” documents factors, both individual and educational, that have contributed to sexual abuse by priests.

It’s important to know that there is widespread understanding of risk factors for sexual abuse and that would-be priests are being carefully screened before being admitted into seminary. We need to hear how seminarians and experienced priests alike are coming to terms with the still-emerging crimes and coverups. And we need to advocate for priests at all stages of their careers to be nurtured and supported to be emotionally healthy individuals.

While incidents of abuse have dramatically decreased since the mid-1980s, even one abusive priest is too many. We need to be reassured that, every day, the church is doing everything it can to prevent a new cycle of betrayal and trauma.

Katharine Canfield
Watertown

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TULSA (OK)
Tulsa World

September 16, 2018

By Frank Keating

I chaired the first National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People. It was created by the Catholic bishops of the United States in 2002 to implement their reform charter and to investigate the scandal.

Accusations of clerical sexual abuse and cover-up had exploded from Boston and ripped across the land. The bishops threw down the gauntlet. No more of this. The clergy is to be celibate. No girlfriends. No boyfriends. Going forward, there would be zero tolerance of sexual crimes against the young. Every accusation of clerical sexual misconduct was to be referred to law enforcement.

And there would be transparency. If the church settled an abuse-related lawsuit, it should be on the front page of the newspaper.

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WORCESTER (MA)
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

September 15, 2018

By Brian Lee

Catholic clergy are coping with the impact of a global sex-abuse crisis that has resulted in allegations of a cover-up even against the highest levels of the Catholic Church.

Since May: Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, resigned and was ordered to a life of prayer and penance after allegations that the cardinal sexually abused minors and adult seminarians over the course of decades; a Pennsylvania grand jury named more than 300 priests in a report that found more than 1,000 children had allegedly been abused over seven decades; an Australian archbishop resigned after he was convicted of concealing pedophilia by another priest; a former Vatican diplomat was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for possessing child porn; and 34 Roman Catholic bishops in Chile offered to resign after a child sex scandal and cover-up.

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UNITED STATES
Breitbart

September 15, 2018

Catholics are “outraged” about reports of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick’s serial homosexual abuse, not so much because a churchman sinned as that he did so with impunity and protection, a new article asserts.

In a bracing October essay titled “Catholicism After 2018,” First Things editor Rusty Reno pinpoints an acceptance of a homosexual subculture in the Catholic clergy as the core issue underlying recent sex abuse scandals assailing the Catholic Church.

Catholics are incensed over McCarrick’s abuse, the article states, not so much because of one man’s moral failings “as that he did so with impunity, protected by the see-no-evil mentality and, perhaps, the complicity of those who have their own secrets to keep.”

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POZNAN (POLAND)
Agence France Presse via France 24

Women should play a greater role in the training of priests to fight the child abuse “crisis” that has engulfed the Catholic Church, Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet has said.

More must be done within the church to tackle the root causes of the latest wave of global abuse scandals to rock the institution, said Ouellet, the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

“We would need participation of more women in (training) of priests,” he told reporters on Saturday on the sidelines of a meeting in the Polish city of Poznan.

Better care must be taken when choosing bishops, he said, adding that more women should select candidates for priesthood and assess their suitability for the job.

His comments at the four-day assembly of the Presidents of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe come amid a slew of devastating assault allegations spanning several continents.

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JAMESTOWN (NY)
The Post-Journal

September 16, 2018

By Rolland Kidder

I am not a Catholic but I do have a post-college seminary degree. Going back to those “old” days, I recall having conversations with my Catholic counterparts who were also in seminary, who wanted to be married but could not under the celibacy rules of the Roman Catholic Church.

Now, nearly every day when I pick up the newspaper there is a story about sexual abuse by priests in the Catholic Church. There are accompanying articles with apologies from Catholic leaders including the Pope. Catholic lay people are “turned off” by all of this and young people raised as Catholics find it a reason to leave the Church. Something significant has to change.

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UNITED STATES
The New York Times

September 16, 2018

A reader suggests that the faithful are duty bound to call for change.

Re “The Catholic Church Is Sick With Sex” (column, Sept. 3):

Timothy Egan’s call to meaningfully address both the plot to undo the progressive Pope Francis and, most important, to upend the church’s endless, writhing battle with sex is long overdue. Alas, the column will probably never be read by the pope, the Curia or anyone who can actually cause change in the church.

The distinction between this ecclesiastical crisis and all those that have preceded it is that the activities covered up and ignored by the church hierarchy are criminal assaults on defenseless children and seminarians that have real effects, not just on the body of the church, but on civil society as a whole.

These crimes are so pervasive and systemic that they must be eliminated, root and branch, from our body politic. It is painful to witness what the faithful go through to beg the church hierarchy to do something meaningful that addresses these crimes while not daring to touch the third rails of priestly celibacy and an all-male priesthood.

Mr. Egan finally lays it on the line. All Americans, Catholic and non-Catholic, are duty bound to demand that a hidebound Catholic hierarchy listen and take action.

James F. Blair
Ossining, N.Y.

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LANSING (MI)
By Associated Press via ClickonDetroit.com

September 15, 2018

Outside agency to review handling of cases

The Catholic Diocese of Lansing plans to invite an outside agency to review its handling of clergy child sexual abuse cases.

Bishop Earl Boyea outlined the review and plans to publish the names of all diocesan priests who sexually abused children in a report posted Tuesday on the diocesan website.

The review follows an August report by a Pennsylvania grand jury which found that about 300 Pennsylvania priests abused at least 1,000 children over the past 70 years. That report alleges senior church officials helped to cover up the abuse complaints.

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FRANCE
The Tablet

September 11, 2018

By Tom Heneghan

The cardinal has denied wrongdoing but admitted his reaction to abuse accusations he learned about in 2007 was “belated”

A French court has ordered Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon, to face trail in early January on charges of failing to denounce a sexually abusive priest, without the presence of co-defendant Vatican Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF).

The twice-delayed trial of Cardinal Barbarin, who denies wrongdoing in an abuse case tormenting his archdiocese, should go ahead on 7-9 January despite the Vatican’s failure to respond to a summons issued to Cardinal Ladaria, it decided.

‘La Parole Libérée’, the victims’ association that brought the charges in a private prosecution after judicial authorities closed an earlier case against Barbarin, said it preferred to delay the trial again so that all involved -– including the Spanish-born Ladaria – could be tried. Barbarin’s defence opposes any further delays.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register

September 16, 2018

By Brianna Heldt

I believe the Church is the bride of Christ, and the best possible place for you to be if you love Jesus.

Last week, I happened to notice an announcement in my parish bulletin. It read something like, “Interested in Catholicism? Come join our RCIA classes.”

I have to confess that I found myself half laughing (in a dark-humor sort of way), half shaking my head, about how it’s kind of a funny time for anyone to be, well, interested in Catholicism.

With all that’s come out over the past couple of months related to the Catholic sex abuse crisis, and seemingly widespread allegations of misconduct among bishops and cardinals, we are certainly not in era where evangelization will be easy. To put it bluntly, the Catholic Church has a PR problem.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Tribune-Review

September 16, 2018

Sorry, Your Excellency.

On Tuesday, Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik announced a Year of Repentance, a way for the clergy to give back to the communities wounded by decades of molestation, rape, intimidation and lies disclosed by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s grand jury report.

Let’s forget for a moment that the year is retroactive to last month, so it’s really just 11 months of atonement.

Let’s forget for a moment that some of the victims are dead, as are many of the priests who did the perpetrating and most of the bishops who were behind the covering up.

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STEUBENVILLE (OH)
Pop Feminist, Patheos (blog)

September 15, 2018

By Emily C. A. Snyder

Elizabeth Vermilyea, PhD is a nationally recognized Traumatic Stress Specialist. As an alumna of Franciscan University of Steubenville (FUS), and in light of the continuing and unfolding fall out from the Catholic priest scandals including universities knowingly harboring priest abusers, she offers her words of counsel in the following open letter.

The following was originally addressed to FUS, regarding their acknowledgement of allowing Fr. Samuel Tiesi, TOR, to continue to work and be housed on campus, despite knowing about credible allegations of his sexual misconduct towards young college women. Allegations which FUS President, Father Sean O. Sheridan, TOR, addressed in an alumni email sent on Sept. 10, 2018. It should be noted that in answer to their own failings, FUS has made a gesture towards instituting better Title IX safety measures. Whether these measures are sufficient, remains to be seen.

Below, Dr. Vermilyea offers her advice about how universities and institutions can better handle these cases, with an eye to walking with victims through their trauma, rather than subjecting them to further silencing and misinformation. Please read.

Hello,

I want to be clear about how the University is coming across with the very recent (and all too late) Title IX review and the even more recent disclosures about Sam Teisi. Sam was a known offender from as far back as the 80s. He was Michael Scanlan’s best friend, lionized on the campus, feted and adored, and Scanlan knew he was an offender, knew he was assaulting women. He did what the church has always done, He moved him.

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NEWARK (NJ)
Channel 2 (CBS affiliate in NYC)

September 15, 2018

By Lisa Rozner

[VIDEO]

A hotline created to document reports of clergy sex abuse in New Jersey is receiving so many calls that some can’t even get through. The round-the-clock call center opened last week as part of a new investigation by Attorney General Gurbir Grewal.

Fred Marigliano says it took him more than 50 years to speak out about being abused by his priest when he was 11-years-old.

“All I wanted to do was not be raped again,” he told CBS2. “Sometimes I still have nightmares.”

His sobering story was told to a crowd that included William Cardinal Tobin at Newark’s Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart on Friday. On Saturday, he called it in to Grewal’s office via the hotline that’s been slammed virtually nonstop with calls from other survivors.

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

WHEELING (WV)
The Intelligencer via the Weirton (WV) Daily Times

September 16, 2018

By Linda Comins

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey wants to review allegations of sexual harassment levied against the Most Rev. Michael J. Bransfield, former bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston.

Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori, the newly-named apostolic administrator of the diocese, “is emphasizing the importance of this investigation being lay-led,” diocesan spokesman Tim Bishop said today.

“The archbishop is very adamant that this investigation be lay-led. I think he is committed that this investigation gets to the truth and as expeditiously as possible,” Bishop said, adding that Lori will oversee the work.

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.

RACINE (WI)
The Journal Times

September 16, 2018

By Linda Flashinski

As the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic church continues to make headlines, I think back to a radio program I recorded with two victims of sexual abuse and their painful stories.

“While he was raping me,” Monica said, “he kept telling me that I was no good, that I wasn’t listening, that I was no good, over and over again, he kept saying it.” The “he” she was referring to was a Wisconsin priest, and the “I” was the quiet, shy 8-year-old girl she was many years ago. When the assault was over, the priest assigned her penance to do for her sins and told her that if she ever told anyone about what had happened, her parents would burn in hell for all eternity. It was a mighty load of guilt for a little girl to carry, and a mighty threat that kept her quiet for over 20 years. It was only when she was 31 and saw a TV news report of that same priest being arrested for sexual assault of children that was she able to tell of her own abuse at his hands. It was the beginning of a healing journey that will never completely end.

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.

RIVERHEAD (NY)
Riverhead Local

September 16, 2018

By Eileen Benthal

I remember sitting outside the church, in the middle of the discarded tree. The cold wind blew around me and the swirling snow formed interesting patterns in the air. But I was warm as the tree branches enveloped me.

I was attending a youth retreat and the retreat director gave us some time for individual reflection and journaling. The Christmas tree, cleared of all remnants of paper decorations and lights, was tossed off to the side of the parish hall on the border of the woods surrounding the church property. It was the perfect place to sit and reflect on that Saturday morning in the middle of January.

When I was a teenager, I made a deeper and more personal commitment to Christ and to my Catholic faith. I was a cradle Catholic, brought to church to be baptized by my faith-filled parents whose individual lives and marriage was founded on principles they had learned growing up in the Catholic church.

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IRELAND
Refinery 29 (blog)

September 16, 2018

By Tara Murtha

Every song is a prayer pulled from her throat.

Sinéad O’Connor’s breakthrough record I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got opens with a recitation of the Serenity Prayer, and ends with the titular poem, performed like a chant:

“I’m walking through the desert / And I am not frightened although it’s hot / I have all that I requested / And I do not want what I haven’t got.”

**
Two years after the concert in Santiago, O’Connor was the musical guest on a now-notorious episode of Saturday Night Live. She sang an a capella version of Bob Marley’s “War,” updating lyrics referencing apartheid and colonialism in Africa to address child abuse, ye-AH. O’Connor ends the chant: “We know we will win. We have confidence in the victory of good over evil.”

While chanting the word “evil,” O’Connor holds up a photograph of Pope John Paul II and rips it in half, then into pieces, then tosses the pieces at the camera and says, “Fight the real enemy!”

[Includes link to SNL clip]

The backlash was swift and brutal. Frank Sinatra called her a “stupid broad” said he’d kick her ass if she was a guy. Actor Joe Pesci, who hosted SNL the following week, made a joke about smacking O’Connor in the face, and the audience laughed and clapped. A Catholic cardinal was pretty sure it was “voodoo.” Even Madonna was aghast, or pretended to be.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego

September 14, 2018

In 2007, as part of its bankruptcy proceeding, the diocese published a list of priests who had been credibly accused of abusing minors. The list was split into two parts—one listing priests from the San Diego and San Bernardino dioceses and another listing visiting priests from other dioceses and religious orders. In 1978, the Diocese of San Bernardino separated from the Diocese of San Diego. Until then, they were one diocese.

Recently, as part of an effort to respond to questions from parishioners and the public, the diocese began a review of its records to see if additional names should be added to that list.

Below is a list of 51 priests where the diocese has received a credible allegation involving sexual abuse of a minor.

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SAN JOSE (CA)
Bay Area News Group via the Mercury News

September 16, 2018

By John Woolfolk

In what many consider a long-overdue confessional, Catholic church leaders from San Jose to San Diego have taken the extraordinary step of promising to bare some of their darkest secrets by revealing previously undisclosed names of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse.

And names now being disclosed reveal a disturbing fact — at least one of those priests remains active. An itinerant Roman Catholic priest who holds Bay Area retreats is among eight clergymen the Diocese of San Diego just identified as having been the subject of previously undisclosed accusations of sexual abuse.

The Rev. J. Patrick Foley, who held retreats in Soquel and Danville this year costing participants more than $200 a person, faced a church tribunal after a couple in the Sacramento area accused him in 2010 of sexually molesting their boys, said San Diego diocese spokesman Kevin C. Eckery. The tribunal was inconclusive, he said, and although church officials also alerted local police, nothing ever came of it. But the diocese in 2015 stripped him of his priestly faculties.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Santiago Times

September 16, 2018

A Chilean priest, convicted of pedophilia, has been stripped of his priestly duties by Pope Francis amid a growing global abuse scandal that has shaken the Roman Catholic Church.

The Archdiocese of Santiago said the Pope had decided to defrock Reverend Cristian Precht, El Mercurio reported on Saturday.

The information, confirmed on the website of the Archbishopric of Santiago, indicates that it was the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Luis F. Ladaria, who notified the Chilean Church of the decision of Pope Francis’ decision.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

September 16, 2018

By Inés San Martín

As Pope Francis continues to ponder his response to the Chilean sexual abuse crisis, having accepted the resignations of only five bishops after all of them offered to step down in May, the local criminal justice system is marching full steam ahead, with four dioceses raided on Thursday as part of an ongoing investigation into abuse and cover-ups by bishops.

The raids, conducted simultaneously and requested by general prosecutor Emiliano Arias, hit the dioceses of Valparaiso, Chillan, Osorno and Concepcion. Images published by local media showed authorities walking out of buildings after seizing documents.

Until June, when Francis accepted his resignation, Valparaiso was headed by Bishop Gonzalo Duarte, who’s been accused by victims of not only cover-up but abuse himself.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

September 16, 2018

By John L. Allen Jr.

A scandal’s impact can be measured multiple ways, with the most obvious being the toll it takes in terms of bad press, litigation and settlements, declining attendance or market share, as well as disillusionment and outrage among the rank and file.

What’s often harder to assess is the opportunity cost – what else might an institution have done, had its energies not been focused on putting out its own fires?

That seems an especially pressing question in the United States right now with regard to the Catholic Church, which seems largely to be sitting out two important political fights in which it otherwise might have been a protagonist.

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NEW YORK
Times Herald-Record

September 16, 2018

Here are three things to keep in mind as the New York attorney general begins an investigation into sexual abuse by clergy in the Roman Catholic Church in the state.

First, we should expect a report similar to the one that came out following a grand jury inquiry in Pennsylvania, one that found more than 1,000 victims abused by more than 300 priests over 70 years. From what we know already in New York from church settlements and occasional court cases, the magnitude of the findings is likely to be the same.

Second, we should expect that most of those cases will not result in prosecutions because of the statute of limitations. New York has very strict limitations preventing most victims from pursuing cases in court. And more than 300 people who settled privately with the church have waived their right to sue.

Third, we should expect the outcome of this investigation to lend more support to efforts in Albany to help those victims seek the kind of justice denied them for so long. The way to do that is to pass the Child Victims Act, a series of bills providing future victims with more opportunity to go to court, that would penalize those responsible for these crimes and, most important, open up a one-year window in that restrictive statue of limitations.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Philly.com

September 16, 2018

By Angela Couloumbis

Like in the Batman reruns he grew up watching as a kid, there is something about the battle between good and evil that, even as an adult, Daniel Dye can’t seem to shake from his conscience.

Maybe it’s because in those stories, someone shows up, flaws and all, when duty calls. Or maybe it’s because those people are unafraid and unabashed at feeling righteousness.

Dye, 38, muses openly about such things. On social media, where his posts often cite famous men in history or discuss the fight for justice. In a coffeehouse on an overcast weekday afternoon. And in a grand jury room, where as a senior prosecutor for state Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office, he’s spent the last five years building the cases that led to the damning report on Catholic clergy sexual abuse in Pennsylvania — once even quoting Scripture to a defrocked priest he was questioning.

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[Vatican ignores questions and ratifies permanence of Cardinal Errázuriz in Pope’s advisory council]

CHILE
El Mostrador

September 13, 2018

El pasado 16 de agosto, el sitio web español eldiario.es. publicó que el Papa Francisco expulsó al arzobispo emérito de Santiago, Francisco Javier Errázuriz, del Consejo de Cardenales (C-9), grupo asesor creado por Bergoglio en 2013. Dicha información fue reiterada por el periódico italiano Corriere della Sera, para explicar la ausencia del purpurado chileno de la reunión sostenida desde el lunes y hasta ayer por el Francisco y el cuerpo de asesores en Roma.
Pero, ¿cuál es la versión del Vaticano? La respuesta de la Oficina de Prensa fue: “No ha habido ningún cambio en la composición del C-9. Es decir, todos sus miembros tienen ya en agenda la convocatoria del próximo encuentro, los días 10-11-12 de diciembre”, consigna El Mercurio.

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[Reactions to the Vatican’s expulsion of Cristián Precht]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

September 15, 2018

By Camila Gálvez

El Papa Francisco comunicó su decisión este sábado a través del prefecto de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, cardenal Luis F. Ladaria, S.J.

Cristián Precht Bañados dejó de ser sacerdote tras la decisión de expulsión tomada por el Papa Francisco. Información que fue dada a conocer por el Arzobispado de Santiago a través de un comunicado en el que afirmaba que el prefecto de la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, cardenal Luis F. Ladaria, S.J. les notificó de la salida del religioso indagado en el caso Maristas.

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.

[Cristián Precht expelled from the Catholic Church: The history of accusations that preceded his departure]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

September 16, 2018

By Carla Fernández

El Papa Francisco determinó la desvinculación del icónico defensor de los derechos humanos, quien actualmente es investigado en el marco del caso Maristas.

La tarde del sábado 15 de septiembre, el Arzobispado de Santiago informó que Cristián Precht dejaba de ser sacerdote luego de que el Papa Francisco tomara la decisión de expulsarlo. La noticia fue dada a conocer en medio de un controversial escenario para el emblemático ex vicario de la solidaridad, quien actualmente es investigado por denuncias de abusos sexuales a menores en el marco del caso Maristas.

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 allegations of clergy sexual abuse uncovered in Puerto Montt]

CHILE
BioBioChile

September 14, 2018

By Nicole Briones and Robinson Cardenas

Nuevas denuncias por presuntos abusos sexuales quedaron al descubierto este viernes en Puerto Montt, región de Los Lagos. Fue el administrador apostólico, Ricardo Morales, quien confirmó denuncias contra dos presbíteros de la capital regional.

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[Court keeps the former Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Santiago in jail]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 14, 2018

By Leyla Zapata

Tribunal de Rancagua mantuvo en prisión al sacerdote Óscar Muñoz, quien ofreció una caución de $ 5 millones para garantizar su participación en el proceso.

La defensa del suspendido excanciller del Arzobispado de Santiago, Óscar Muñoz, solicitó este viernes rebajar la prisión preventiva que pesa sobre el sacerdote desde hace más de 60 días, cuando se le imputaron cargos como eventual autor de abusos a menores y un estupro.

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[Vatican bans Cristián Precht from the priesthood]

CHILE
La Tercera

September 15, 2018

By S. Rodríguez, MJ Navarrete, and L. Leiva

La Iglesia de Santiago comunicó que la decisión que adoptó el Papa Francisco es inapelable. Antecedentes por eventuales abusos habían sido remitidos a Roma.

Cristián Precht, el emblemático exvicario de la solidaridad que jugó un importante papel en Chile en materia de derechos humanos, perdió hoy su calidad de sacerdote, recibiendo así la sanción más grave que contempla el ordenamiento canónica. Así lo estableció el Vaticano, que a través de un comunicado público difundido este sábado, aseguró que la decisión adoptada por Roma es inapelable.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Reuters via the New York Times

September 15, 2018

Pope Francis on Saturday expelled a Chilean priest under investigation in a case involving the sexual abuse of children, according to a report by local media on Saturday, amid a growing global abuse scandal that has shaken the Roman Catholic Church.

The Archdiocese of Santiago said the Pope had decided to defrock the Reverend Cristian Precht, local daily El Mercurio reported.

Precht was a former head of the Church’s Vicariate of Solidarity human rights group that in the 1980s had challenged ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet to end the practice of torture in Chile.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
Channel 7 (NBC affiliate)

September 14, 2018

By Artie Ojeda, Alex Presha, Rafael Avitabile and NBC Staff

The addition of the names brings the total number of abusive priests connected to the diocese to 56.

The Catholic Diocese of San Diego released the names of eight priests who at one time worked in San Diego County and have credible reports of child abuse against them.

The eight names: The Reverends Jose Chavarin, Raymond Etienne, J. Patrick Foley, Michael French, Richard Houck, George Lally and Paolino Montagna, and Monsignor Mark Medaer.

The cases against them date as far back as the 60s and 70s, and not all of the alleged abuse incidents happened in San Diego, the diocese said. Five of the eight priests are now dead and the diocese was only able to provide photographs of three.

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ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Long Island News 12

September 14, 2018

The Diocese of Rockville Centre offered settlements to hundreds of victims of clergy abuse, but some say the settlement doesn’t cover all victims.

Harold Siering says he was sexually abused in the 1970s at a Catholic school on Long Island by a Franciscan brother. He says the abuse started when he was about 10 years old, and lasted into his teens.

“I kept it hidden, because the abusers, they tell you, ‘If you tell anybody, no one is going to believe you,’” Siering told News 12.

The Diocese of Rockville Centre started a compensation program for victims who were sexually abused at the hands of priests. The diocese has received almost 300 claims since the program opened up last year – awarding victims sums of $25,000 to $500,000.

But the program doesn’t compensate victims like Siering who were abused by church officials who weren’t priests.

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ALBANY (NY)
Catholic News Service via National Catholic Reporter

September 14, 2018

By Kate Blain

A pastor from the Albany Diocese said the reaction from local Catholics to the clergy abuse scandal is a combination of concern for the church and its future along with anger and confusion about the church that they love.

The priest, Fr. Robert Longobucco, pastor of St. Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in Schenectady and diocesan vicar for Catholic faith formation and education, has heard individual comments from parishioners, but he planned to hear from them as a group during a Sept. 13 listening session.

Since Albany Bishop Edward Scharfenberger is “anxious to have” feedback from diocesan Catholics on moving through the crisis, the priest said the goal for the session at St. Kateri’s was “to have people voice their feelings and give input to the bishop.”

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THE HAGUE (NETHERLANDS)
Channel NewsAsia

September 15, 2018

More than half of the Netherlands’ senior clerics were involved in covering up sexual assault of children between 1945 and 2010, a press report claimed Saturday (Sep 15), further engulfing the Catholic Church in a global abuse scandal.

Over the course of 65 years, 20 of 39 Dutch cardinals, bishops and their auxiliaries “covered up sexual abuse, allowing the perpetrators to cause many more victims”, the daily NRC reported.

“Four abused children and 16 others allowed the transfer of paedophile priests who could have caused new victims in other parishes,” the Dutch newspaper added.

Church spokeswoman Daphne van Roosendaal told AFP the church could “confirm a part” of the report.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Fox 5 TV

September 14, 2018

By Sharon Crowley

[VIDEO]

As the Catholic Church grapples with an on-going worldwide scandal of clergy-child sex abuse, Fox 5 took a closer look at why accused priests were so often able to avoid criminal prosecution. We found that the church is often reluctant to move forward on these cases but sometimes the accused priests have law enforcement in their corner as well.

“My basketball coach and priest began sexually assaulting me and some of my classmates,” said Shaun Dougherty, who lives and works in Long Island City now. But when he 10 and living in Pennsylvania, a Catholic priest repeatedly sexually abused him, he said.

“He worked his way up my thigh and began fondling my genitals,” Dougherty said. “When it first happened, you think, ‘What was that?'”

Dougherty did not report what he says happened to him until he was an adult, long after Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations had expired. The priest he accused was never prosecuted. He moved to another parish and retired.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

September 14, 2018

By Almudena Rincon

A day before Cardinal Blase Cupich is expected to address the latest in the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal, local Catholics and those visiting Chicago shared their thoughts about how Pope Francis and others in leadership have responded to the ongoing crisis.

Here’s what some of them shared Friday as they stood outside Holy Name Cathedral:

Adriana Ramos, 24, Chicago: “I think they should’ve stepped up to the plate and really been true pillars of the community and (said), ‘Hey, you know what? This is what’s going on. This should not be going on at all. This is what we can do to prevent from situations like these from happening again.’ … But at the end of the day, we’re all humans, we all make human errors.”

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IRELAND
Irish Times

September 14, 2018

Psychotherapist and former Benedictine monk who knew that ‘all trails led to Rome’

His major book, A Secret World: Sexuality and the Search for Celibacy, concluded that 6 per cent of priests (later revised to 9 per cent) had had sexual contact with minors and that at least a third of clergy were homosexuals.

For years his research work was called into question by the American hierarchy, but he has been posthumously vindicated with the removal from ministry and resignation of retired US cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Archbishop of Washington DC, followed by the shocking findings of more than 301 children being raped over 70 years by clergy in six dioceses in Pennsylvania. Sipe was critical of how Pope Benedict XVI, in his 2010 apostolic letter to the Catholics of Ireland in the wake of the Murphy report, ignored Rome’s culpability and attributed failures by bishops in the Dublin archdiocese to their ignoring canon law.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal

September 14, 2018

By Tom Mooney

Tremors from the escalating clergy sex-abuse crisis now shaking the Catholic Church’s Vatican hierarchy were evident Friday in a Providence cathedral, in a diocese where leaders confronted a wave of sex-abuse cases almost 20 years ago and yearn to move beyond what they say is the past.

Yet as more allegations emerge elsewhere — the pope ignoring warnings about a prominent cardinal; a Pennsylvania grand jury report that 300 priests had abused more than 1,000 children over decades — escaping Rhode Island’s own dark history is proving difficult, local church officials concede.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

September 14, 2018

By Natasha Lindstrom

Cardinal Donald Wuerl told parishioners Friday that he is repenting for the “wounds that were caused by my bad judgments or failures” as he prepares to discuss his resignation with Pope Francis.

Wuerl — the archbishop of Washington and former Pittsburgh bishop entangled in two far-reaching child sex abuse scandals — introduced a six-week “Season of Healing” during a special Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C.

During the homily portion of the service, Wuerl said that he hopes that all church leaders will demonstrate transparency as the Roman Catholic Church moves away “from the darkness of sin and failure — abuse and shame

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RICHMOND (VA)
Channel 8 (ABC affiliate)

September 14, 2018

By Sierra Fox

[VIDEO]

Richmond bishop organizes Mass in wake of Pennsylvania grand jury report

The bishop of Richmond’s Catholic Diocese held a “Mass of Atonement” on Friday at the Catholic Church of Sacred Heart to pray for victims of sex abuse.

In the most recent church sex scandal in Pennsylvania, decades of abuse and cover-ups were uncovered.

Catholics from across Virginia gathered in Richmond for an opportunity to pray for victims of abuse and to pray for church leaders seeking forgiveness for their sins and failures.

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ROME (ITALY)
CBS News

September 13, 2018

By Seth Doane

Some of the highest ranking Catholic leaders from the U.S. met with Pope Francis to discuss the priest sex abuse crisis that has rocked the church. The U.S. bishops said Pope Francis “listened deeply from the heart” in their discussions but they offered few details and no “next steps.”

Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the head of all U.S. bishops, pushed for this meeting and wants a Vatican investigation into how disgraced former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick rose to the highest levels of the church despite allegations of sexual misconduct. But now DiNardo himself is accused of allowing a predator priest to remain in his own archdiocese in Texas.

In a statement, the archdiocese explained that one of the cases against the accused priest was dropped years ago by the minor’s family, and a second case brought last month was taken “seriously” and reported to authorities.

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UNITED STATES
Global Sisters Report in National Catholic Reporter

August 31, 2018

By Nicole Trahan

Since I was in high school, praying with Scripture has been one of my favorite ways to pray. I read and meditate on the readings of the day and draw from them challenge, edification, questions, and/or calls to conversion. Sometimes the fruit of my meditation is obscure. Other times, the message is clear as a cloudless sky.

On Wednesday, Aug. 22, the message of the first reading, from Ezekiel 34, hit me hard. Not because of its challenging words for my life, but because of the forceful message for our church at this time:

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UNITED STATES
Global Sisters Report in National Catholic Reporter

August 27, 2018

By Nancy Sylvester

It is difficult to find the words to capture what I feel as the report of the 18-month investigation of sexual abuse by Catholic priests in Pennsylvania is revealed. The number of priests — more than 300 — and the number of children abused — over 1,000 — is staggering.

In the victims’ testimonies, one feels the pain and the shame even these many years later. The magnitude of the violation is hard to imagine when the victim sees the abuser as a representative of God.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Crux

September 13, 2018

Christopher White

Recent revelations and accusations related to clerical sexual abuse have been “a disaster, one crisis after another” for the Catholic Church, according to Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, and have jeopardized its moral authority to speak on other issues such as the sanctity of human life, immigration and the environment.

In an interview on Thursday with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, the archbishop of New York said the latest rounds of abuse scandals have been “nauseating” and “diabolical,” although he hopes they can ultimately be a “cause for healing.”

In June, former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was credibly accused of abusing an altar boy while serving as a priest in the archdiocese of New York, prompting a wave of new allegations spanning several decades from seminarians who said they were abused by the former archbishop of Newark and Washington.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Christian Science Monitor

September 14, 2018

By Harry Bruinius

WHY WE WROTE THIS
The question overlays every detailing of the sexual abuse of children by trusted spiritual figures: How can there be justice for such a crime? We asked several of those now-grown children what, exactly, ‘justice’ would mean for them.

There are crimes for which justice can seem like a remote concept.

There are crimes, like the sexual abuse of children, from which many turn away – using language like “unspeakable,” “unimaginable,” or even “inhuman.” Even survivors create their mental shields from the crimes they endured.

“This form of abuse is really completely and utterly spiritually annihilating,” says Christa Brown, a survivor of abuse at the hands of a Baptist minister decades ago, and an author who now lives in Colorado. “It’s been called ‘soul murder,’ and I think that’s a very apt word for it.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

September 15, 2018

By Nassim Benchaabane

The St. Louis-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests named a new executive director Friday following a turbulent year that saw a serious legal threat and resignations of longtime leaders.

Zach Hiner, who began his eight-year career in child abuse and neglect prevention as an assistant to SNAP founder Barbara Blaine and longtime executive director David Clohessy, will take the reins Sept. 24 as head of the nation’s oldest and largest self-help group for survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

In a statement sent to SNAP members, Hiner said he was returning to the group at a “critical time.”

“Every day, more and more people are becoming aware of the realities of just how common abuse becomes when we put institutions over people, whether that institution is a church, a university, or a Hollywood studio,” said Hiner, former communications director with Prevent Child Abuse America.

“For years SNAP has led the way in providing a voice to the voiceless and I am looking forward to increasing our reach, updating our messaging and helping SNAP reach more people than we ever thought would be possible.”

Meanwhile, Clohessy, the longtime public face of SNAP, has returned as the group’s spokesman in St. Louis. He had stepped down in December 2016 after 29 years as executive director.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Channel 4

September 10, 2018

By Paul Van Osdol

Action News Investigates has learned a former priest accused of molesting boys found a job as a social worker at a counseling center, working near children.

William B. Yockey was a priest at several parishes in the Pittsburgh area before leaving the priesthood in the wake of child sex abuse allegations.

Yockey did not answer questions when Action News Investigates found him at the Community Counseling Center in Ashtabula, Ohio, where he was working as a therapist.

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ERIE (PA)
GoErie.com

September 15, 2018

Funds paid for law firm to conduct investigation that led to list of accused priests and laypeople.

Firm also updated child-protection policy. No parish funds used, bishop says.

The Catholic Diocese of Erie’s unprecedented internal investigation of clergy sexual abuse has come at a large cost: $4 million.

Erie Catholic Bishop Lawrence Persico said that is how much the 13-county diocese has spent to have a law firm investigate the claims of abuse, going back to the 1940s, as well as revise the diocese’s child-protection policy and represent the diocese during the two-year statewide grand jury probe that ended with the release of the sweeping 884-page report on Aug. 14.

The $4 million is separate from the $750,000 the diocese said it has given to abuse victims over the past several decades.

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[Monsignor testifies in case of former military bishop Quiroz]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

By Tamara Cerna

El antecesor en el cargo del obispo emérito de Osorno, Juan Barros, está siendo interrogado por un presunto encubrimiento respecto a los abusos que habría cometido el ex capellán de la FACh.

En 14 días, la Fiscalía Metropolitana Sur ha concretado en tres oportunidades una diligencia que apunta a investigar los presuntos abusos sexuales que habría cometido el ex capellán de la FACh de Iquique, Pedro Quiroz Fernández. A fines de agosto, el sacerdote Cristián Precht Bañados llegó hasta la Brigada de Delitos Sexuales y de Menores de la Policía de Investigaciones (PDI) para declarar en calidad de imputado por un presunto encubrimiento en el caso. El 6 de septiembre lo hizo bajo el mismo contexto, el obispo emérito de Osorno, Juan Barros; y hoy, el monseñor Pablo Lizama Riquelme.

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[Prosecutor’s office collected evidence for accusations against Ezzati during raid in Concepción]

CHILE
BioBioChile

September 13, 2018

By Yerko Roa and Óscar Valenzuela

La Fiscalía recogió evidencia por las acusaciones de encubrimiento contra el arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, este jueves durante el allanamiento del Arzobispado de Concepción. “Parte de las indagatorias que hemos realizado acá dicen relación con dichos cargos”, expresó el persecutor a cargo del procedimiento, Sergio Moya.

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[San Felipe whistleblower says lay people are part of “the network of concealment”]

CHILE
El Mostrador

September 14, 2018

En tanto, el ex seminarista, también denunciante del presbítero Humberto Enríquez ante el obispado de Valparaíso, acusó que la diócesis de San Felipe es el lugar ideal para esconder este tipo de delincuentes porque “es como el patio trasero de la diócesis de Valparaíso.

En el marco de la investigación, en manos de la Fiscalía, en contra del obispo de San Felipe, Cristián Contreras Molina, por delitos “contra el orden de las familias, la moralidad pública y contra la integridad sexual” , el denunciante y ex seminarista Mauricio Pulgar, se refirió al caso y dijo, con respecto a lo que está pasando, que “lamentablemente la iglesia Católica perdió la oportunidad de haber reconocido los abusos, porque hasta el día de hoy habla de víctimas en
general. Ahora, lo que nos queda, es que la iglesia asuma los delitos y las consecuencias”.

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