A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking “Read original article.” For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.
OHIO
YouTube
Uploaded on Oct 11, 2008
Beth Ann Rocker starts her story of her sexual abuse between the ages of 8 and 12 years old by her Steubenville parish priest .
[ http://www.steubenvilletruth.org/ ] If you wish to connect with this survivor, contact: snapsteubenville@gmail.com
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.
OHIO
YouTube
Uploaded on Oct 11, 2008
Beth Ann Rocker concludes her story of her sexual abuse between the ages of 8 and 12 years old by her Steubenville parish priest.
[ http://www.steubenvilletruth.org/ ] If you wish to connect with this survivor, contact: snapsteubenville@gmail.com
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
BOSTON (MA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
They challenge pope to demote bishops
SNAP: “Church officials refuse to do aggressive outreach”
So group asks parishioners to “search for wounded survivors”
“Post names of proven predators on church websites,” victims say
What:
On the cusp of Pope Francis’ first-ever visit to the US, as parishioners leave mass, abuse victims will hand out fliers urging church goers. The leaflets list the names of 256 publicly accused child molesting Catholic clerics in the Boston Archdiocese, and urges the local bishop to
–disclose the names of other proven, admitted or credibly accused predators, and
–post all church predators’ names on his diocesan website and in church bulletins. Boston Archdiocese has done this, but we fear the list is incomplete.
The fliers also urge Catholic church members to
–question loved ones about these child molesting clerics (“Did any of these clerics ever hurt you?”) and
–prod anyone who has “seen, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes of cover ups to call law enforcement.”
WHEN
Sunday, Sept.13 at noon.
WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, 1400 Washington Street, Boston
WHO
Five-six adults who was abused as kids by clerics (and their supporters) who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org),
WHY
While Catholic officials pretend that the on-going clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis is waning, thousands of proven, admitted and credibly accused predator priests are living among unsuspecting neighbors with little or no supervision. (Several hundred are on sex offender registries but most are not. And most have not been defrocked.)
Some, in fact, are still in church jobs:
For the safety of parishioners, SNAP wants Pope Francis to “defrock, demote or discipline” bishops who continue to “protect predators and endanger kids,” especially by keeping names of child molesting clerics secret.
For more than 25 years, SNAP has repeatedly urged bishops to “aggressively seek out and help” the thousands of victims “still trapped in silence, shame and self-blame.” But bishops refuse to do anything but the most minimal moves, the group contends.
So now, SNAP is prodding rank-and-file Catholics to take this step. Specifically, the organization is asking parishioners to circulate lists of publicly accused predator priests in their dioceses and ask loved ones if any of them were hurt by any of the priests.
SNAP also wants church-goers to push bishops to post these names on church websites. More than two dozen prelates have done this, including Boston, but we fear the Boston list is incomplete:
Contact:
Dave O’Regan 434-446-6769, worcestersnap@gmail.com, David Clohessy 314-566-9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
JOSEPH A. SLOBODZIAN, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
LAST UPDATED: Saturday, September 12, 2015
The former Archbishop Wood High School basketball coach fired last year for his presence at an attack on a gay couple in Center City filed notice Friday that he will sue the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, alleging slander.
The notice of the impending lawsuit was filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court by Francis McGlinn against Archbishop Charles J. Chaput; the archdiocese; and its spokesman, Kenneth A. Gavin.
The legal notice to sue does not include the complaint, which would outline the reason for the lawsuit, but it clearly involves statements made by Gavin last September after three graduates of Wood were arrested in the Sept. 11, 2014, attack on two men.
Gavin was quoted in the Philadelphia Daily News confirming McGlinn’s termination as an assistant basketball coach at Wood, in Warminster, where the 25-year-old Warrington man once played basketball.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review
By Paul Peirce
Friday, Sept. 11, 2015
A Honduran man told a federal jury Friday that he was molested by a Somerset County Catholic priest six years ago when he lived in an orphanage in Honduras. He said he also saw the priest having sex with another teenage orphan in a church at the mission later in the day.
The man, now 22, testified on the second day of the Rev. Joseph Maurizio’s sex trial in U.S. District Court in Johnstown. His testimony about both incidents was corroborated by a second Honduran who lived at the mission in 2009 when Maurizio visited.
Prosecutors allege that Maurizio used money from a foundation he established while pastor of Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Central City, Somerset County, to benefit the ProNino orphanage in Honduras. They allege he traveled there to molest and have sex with homeless boys who lived in the orphanage from 2003 to 2009.
The alleged victim, who was 16 years old, testified Maurizio specifically asked the orphanage administrators in March 2009 that he and two other orphans accompany him on a drive to a warehouse where food and clothing donated by the priest’s self-run Humanitarian Interfaith Ministries were stored. They were going to take the goods back to the mission.
“Every March he would come down (from Pennsylvania) and bring gifts and chocolates,” the man testified under questioning from U.S. Justice Department attorney Amy E. Larson.
As they were loading goods from the warehouse into a truck, the man said, he and Maurizio were alone inside the facility and the priest grabbed his genitals.
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.
AUSTRALIA
Geelong Advertiser
DARYL MCLURE GEELONG ADVERTISER SEPTEMBER 07, 2015
GEELONG featured in national newspapers, television and radio news bulletins throughout last week as the heartbreaking stories of sexual abuse of young children at one of Australia’s most prestigious schools, Geelong Grammar, were detailed at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
Once again, as was the case with the Catholic Church, it seems the Anglican Church/school, failed to act on reports from students being abused, continued to employ offenders at the school and seemed more interested in protecting its reputation than the children in its care.
This has been a common pattern with church institutions in which child sexual abuse has taken place, but offenders in several of the cases heard last week have been dealt with by the courts and the school has also made restitution in a number of instances.
On the other hand, lawyers did warn last week that while Geelong Grammar had settled legal action taken by at least four people abused as children, it could face more claims or a class action.
The Catholic parish priest of St Mary of the Angels Basilica, Father Kevin Dillon, gave another moving sermon on Sunday week in relation to the lack of Christian compassion and leadership shown by his church’s leaders in relation to the sexual abuse of children over several decades.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat
By Randy Griffith
rgriffith@tribdem.com
A 22-year-old man identified only as Erick said he was loading supplies for the Honduras orphanage he called home when the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr. touched him in a sexual manner.
“I got scared,” Erick testified through an interpreter Friday during Maurizio’s trial in U.S. District Court in Johnstown.
Later the same day in 2009, he said, Maurzio touched him again while the two were in a pickup truck. That time, Maurizio asked him to masturbate for him.
“Father Joe” gave him money after each incident, Erick testified.
Maurizio, 60, is accused of using his charity, Humanitarian Interfaith Ministries Inc., and its funds to travel to the ProNino complexes in Honduras to prey on children. Federal counts include possession of child pornography and engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
CALIFORNIA
YouTube
Published on Sep 11, 2015
Joelle Casteix, the leading national “in the trenches” expert on the prevention and exposure of child sex abuse and cover-up, uses her own experiences to illustrate how to move past the trap of victimhood by taking responsibility.
Joelle Casteix is author of the upcoming book THE WELL-ARMORED CHILD: A PARENT’S GUIDE TO PREVENTING ABUSE. She is also the leading national “in the trenches” expert on the prevention and exposure of child sex abuse and cover-up. A successful writer and blogger, her other books include THE COMPASSIONATE RESPONSE: HOW TO HELP AND EMPOWER THE ADULT VICTIM OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE and YES, MY SON, WINE IS ONE OF THE FIVE FOOD GROUPS. Since 2003, Joelle has been the volunteer Western Regional Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Joelle took the TEDxPasadenaWomen audience through her own experience as a survivor of child sexual abuse and how it has shaped the work she does now.
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.
SCOTLAND
Catholic World Report
September 11, 2015
Dorothy Cummings McLean
On August 18, 2015, the McLellan Commission released a report entitled “A Review of the Current Safeguarding Policies, Procedures and Practise within the Catholic Church in Scotland”. The work was commissioned by the Scottish Catholic Bishops, and the committee was headed by Dr Andrew McLellan, a former Moderator of the Church of Scotland. A short summary of the 87-page document was released to the Scottish media, whose coverage showed little evidence that it had read the report in its entirety.
The McLellan Commission was convened in 2013, the year Edinburgh’s archbishop Cardinal Keith O’Brien resigned amid allegations he had made sexual advances to priests. In 2013, allegations also surfaced that boys had been physically and sexually abused by Benedictine monks at their school at Fort Augustus, Inverness-shire before it closed in 1993. The Commission was not asked to research Scottish Catholic clerical misconduct, but to examine the measures the Scottish Catholic bishops had already put in place to protect children and vulnerable adults.
Instead the Commission has produced a badly constructed, meandering document, the first two chapters providing a turgid and repetitive preamble which offers generalities and platitudes about abuse and Catholic shame instead of offering information. Very little context regarding the Catholic Church in Scotland is provided. It is not until Chapter 3 (paragraph 3.49) that the reader is told how many Catholic priests serve in Scotland’s 500 Catholic parishes (590). Never is the reader told how many priests in Scotland have been found guilty of sexual abuse.
In Chapter 2, however, we are told that there were 45 allegations of abuse between 2006 and 2012. “More than half” were claims of sexual abuse. Seven of these resulted in prosecution. (The Commission does not disclose the verdicts.) In 2013, a further 15 allegations of abuse—the Commission does not specify the kind—were made, six relating to events before 1990. Two of those cases are currently before the public prosecutor, and three clerics have been removed from ministry.
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.
DEUTSCHLAND
kathweb
[Causa Tebartz: Limburg will “respect” Vatican decision.]
Bonn, 11.09.2015 (KAP/KNA) Nach dem Vatikan-Bescheid zu Bischof Franz-Peter Tebartz-van Elst hat sich der Pressesprecher der Diözese Limburg, Stephan Schnelle, in einem Pressegespräch um Schadensbegrenzung bemüht. Sowohl der Limburger Apostolische Administrator, Weihbischof Manfred Grothe als auch sein Ständiger Vertreter, Domkapitular Wolfgang Rösch, wollten das Votum aus Rom “respektieren”. Schnelle räumte ein, dass es in der Diözese doch auch deutlich Missfallen an der römischen Entscheidung gibt.
Durch die Entscheidung muss sich Bischof Tebartz-van Elst um seine finanzielle Zukunft keine Sorgen machen, denn die Diözese Limburg kann ihn nicht vor einem vatikanischen Gericht auf Schadenersatz verklagen, wie die Bischofskongregation im Vatikan entschied. Doch wie schon häufiger im Fall Tebartz-van Elst bleibt auch diesmal vieles unklar. Erwartet wird deshalb, dass sich bei der traditionellen Limburger Kreuzwoche, die am Sonntag beginnt, Kritik artikulieren wird. Schnelle geht jedenfalls davon aus, dass die jüngste Entscheidung bei den Veranstaltungen der Kreuzwoche “sicher” ein Thema sein wird.
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.
DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche
Kommentar von Matthias Drobinski
Am Anfang stand der bittere Skandal um die sexuelle Gewalt von Priestern und Kirchenmitarbeitern, der die katholische Kirche im Jahr 2010 in den Abgrund blicken ließ. Und als es um die Frage ging, was nun anders werden müsste in dieser Kirche, folgte die Erkenntnis: Die Bischöfe und das Kirchenvolk mögen die gleichen Gebete sprechen – doch sie reden aneinander vorbei, dass sich dem Heiligen Geist die Federn sträuben müssten, sollte er wirklich eine Taube sein.
In dieser Not hatte Robert Zollitsch, damals Vorsitzender der Bischofskonferenz, eine Idee: Man müsste mal reden mit dem Volk. Schon vor fünf Jahren zog dieser Gesprächsprozess einigen Spott auf sich. Das Kirchenvolk? Es trafen sich die Bischöfe mit ausgewählten Vertretern aus den Pfarreien und Verbänden, der Priester und Ordensleute. Und worüber reden, wenn doch nichts entschieden werden kann? Der konservative Kölner Kardinal Joachim Meisner zum Beispiel machte bei sich daheim im Erzbistum schnell klar: Übers Beten können wir gerne sprechen, über Veränderungen nicht.
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.
SCOTLAND
The Times
Paris Gourtsoyannis
Published September 12 2015
The University of St Andrews has been criticised by victims of sexual abuse after it dismissed a request to remove an honorary degree given to Cardinal Keith O’Brien.
Cardinal O’Brien, once the most senior Roman Catholic clergyman in Britain, has been accused of making a string of sexual advances towards priests during his 25 years as archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh.
One of his alleged victims has claimed Cardinal O’Brien was a sexual “predator” who used confessions from priests and seminarians to groom them.
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.
CHILE
el Nuevo Herald
[Marie Collins of Ireland, member of the pontifical commission on sexual abuse, on Friday expressed displeasure at the attitude of two Catholic cardinals in Chile. Emails released this week indicate they attempted to block survivor Juan Carlos Cruz from membership on the commission.
“I am personally disgusted by the attitude displayed by these leaders, she said.
Crus said it is sad to hear two cardinals talk like that or treat a person like that but more serious they were interfering in an appointment to be made by the Holy Father. He likened it to going back to the “days of the Borgias.”]
POR EVA VERGARA
Associated Press
SANTIAGO, CHILE
Una integrante de la Comisión Pontificia de Previsión de Abusos Sexuales expresó el viernes su disgusto por la actitud de dos cardenales de Chile hacia esa entidad católica y una víctima de un sacerdote chileno pedófilo.
Los cardenales Francisco Javier Errázuriz y su colega y actual arzobispo de Santiago, Ricardo Ezzati, intercambiaron una serie de correos electrónicos en 2014, en los que se pusieron de acuerdo para hablar con prelados en el Vaticano para frenar el nombramiento del periodista Juan Carlos Cruz en la comisión papal.
Los correos fueron publicados por el diario electrónico El Mostrador, que no reveló cómo los obtuvo y que recibió críticas por publicar correos privados. El Arzobispado de Santiago reconoció la autenticidad de los correos.
La irlandesa Marie Collins, que propuso a Cruz para integrar la comisión papal, dijo en exclusiva a The Associated Press que el grupo deberá abordar el asunto. “Personalmente estoy disgustada por la actitud mostrada por estos líderes” respecto a la Comisión y a un sobreviviente de abuso.
“Es muy triste oír a dos cardenales hablar de esa forma y tratar a una persona así, pero lo más grave es interferir en un nombramiento que iba a hacer el Santo Padre”, dijo a la AP Cruz. “Interferir de esa forma, como en la época de los Borgia”.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
UNITED STATES
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
By BY JOSIE MUSICO
A-J MEDIA
A famed Christian leader makes his living telling others how to live, preaching daily about right versus wrong.
Then, mixed reactions emerge from the public when the leader is caught in a shocking extramarital affair or fraud case.
From Josh Duggar to Ted Haggard to Jim Bakker, it’s becoming a familiar scenario.
Are those Christians hypocrites?
Yes, suggested one of Lubbock’s own Christian leaders.
“You are requiring something of someone that you are not doing,” Charles Stephenson, chairman of Lubbock Christian University’s department of biblical studies, said of those examples. “Rightly so, they are considered hypocrites.”
But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad people. Like private citizens who make mistakes, they’re still human.
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.
UTAH
KUTV
BY MEHUL ASHER AND LARRY CURTIS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12TH 2015
(KUTV) An man self-reported sexual abuse of children to Pleasant Grove police after he was confronted by LDS church leaders who learned of the abuse from an alleged victim.
The man, Andrew Bishop, is 33-years-old and is accused of abusing five victims in a 10-year period according to police. When leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints confronted Bishop,he was told he needed to call police or church leaders would, according to Lt. Britt Smith with the Pleasant Grove police.
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.
SCOTLAND
Scotsman
CHRIS MARSHALL
Friday 11 September 2015
THE Scottish Government has been accused of “betraying” survivors of historical abuse over plans to lift a time bar on legal action.
The government is currently consulting on removing a three-year bar on bringing civil actions in abuse cases.
The move would allow survivors of historical physical and sexual abuse to seek compensation from those responsible for their suffering in cases dating back to 1964.
But survivors are angry that legislation needed for the move was left out of the Scottish Government’s “Programme for Scotland”, which was published earlier this month.
The Scottish Government said that a draft bill would be brought forward before the end of the current parliamentary session.
Alan Draper, a spokesman for In-Care Abuse Survivors (Incas), said: “The time bar is the key issue for survivors, so its scrapping is the litmus test for the government’s commitment on this issue. They issued a consultation document for feedback, but then not to find anything in the proposed legislation . . . you can imagine how we’re feeling.
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.
CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly
By Matt Coker Fri., Sep. 11 2015
UPDATE, SEPT. 11, 4:59 P.M.: Newport Beach’s Joelle Casteix, Western regional director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), has issued a statement regarding the arrest of Ryan Joseph Seider.
We salute the brave young victim for speaking out about her abuse. We applaud her parents who listened and immediately contacted law enforcement. Because of their quick action, they have helped saved other potential victims of sexual abuse.
Bishop Vann must now do the right thing: reach out to anyone and everyone who may have had contact with Ryan Joseph Seider or anyone who uses their position of power to abuse and exploit children.
We hope that Seider does not have other victims, but our experience tells us this is probably not the case. We urge anyone with information about Seider or anyone who has hurt children or covered up abuse to alert the Orange County DAs office.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic Whistleblowers
On Wednesday, September 16, 2015, the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee will submit to Pope Francis’ newly-established Vatican tribunal cases of abuse of office against Cardinal Justin Rigali for his behavior in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, MO, and in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, PA, and Cardinal Raymond Burke for his behavior in the Diocese of La Crosse, WI, and the Archdiocese of St. Louis, MO.
What
A press conference sponsored by the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee which will announce the filing of cases against both Cardinal Rigali and Cardinal Burke to the newly-established Vatican tribunal that investigates and holds accountable bishops who abuse their office in matters of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.
When
Wednesday, September 16, 2015 at 11:30 am
Where
St. John Chrysostom Albanian Orthodox Church, 237 N. 17th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
Who
Members of the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee: Rev. James Connell, retired priest of the Milwaukee, WI Archdiocese and canon lawyer; victims’ advocate Sister Maureen Paul Turlish of New Castle, DE, and Philadelphia, PA; former Newark, NJ, Archdiocesan priest Dr. Robert M. Hoatson, who will represent and speak on behalf of Carol A. Kuhnert, whose brother, Fr. Norman H. Christian, deceased of the St. Louis, MO, Archdiocese, sexually abused children before and during his years as a priest; and Arthur Baselice, father of Arthur Baselice III, who was sexually abused by a priest in Philadelphia and took his own life as a young adult.
Why
The efforts of the Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee to hold bishops accountable for the mishandling of cases of clergy sexual abuse have been affirmed by Pope Francis and his June 6, 2015 establishment of a new Vatican tribunal within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to investigate (and discipline) bishops who have harmed people by abusing their power and authority in matters related to clergy sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults.
But, the new tribunal will not function if people do not bring to the attention of the tribunal those bishops and the circumstances of the problems. The Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee is bringing to the tribunal the cases of Cardinal Justin Rigali and Cardinal Raymond Burke for their culpable negligence regarding matters of clergy sexual abuse.
“Culpable negligence” is a key term in the Church’s Canon Law. It is not simply that a bishop did something or did not do something that harmed people; he should have known better and behaved better; his negligence was culpable.
The Catholic Whistleblowers Steering Committee is seeking a specific “just penalty” for Cardinals Rigali and Burke: removal from the College of Cardinals and all other offices; and, as to provide reparation, that Cardinals Rigali and Burke be required to listen to those harmed, provide any and all information sought by those who were harmed, and publicly apologize for using ecclesiastical power and authority in such a way that through their culpable negligence, their actions have harmed persons.
It’s all about protecting children, young people, and vulnerable adults, and holding the culprits accountable.
Contacts
Rev. James Connell, J.C.D., Milwaukee, WI – 414-940-8054
Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish, SNDdeN, New Castle, DE – 610-212-2770
Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., West Orange, NJ – 862-368-2800
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.
CHILE
Fox News
Associated Press
SANTIAGO, Chile – The Catholic Church in Chile has been rocked by another scandal surrounding its most infamous pedophile.
Leaked emails between the archbishop of Santiago and his predecessor show how they conspired to block a well-known abuse survivor from being named to Pope Francis’ sex abuse commission, fearing it would damage the church.
Local newspaper El Mostrador this week published the email exchanges between the current archbishop, Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati, and his predecessor, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz. The Santiago archdiocese confirmed their authenticity.
In the emails, dated 2013 and 2014, the two men discussed the key Vatican cardinals they needed to consult to try to prevent Juan Carlos Cruz from being invited to speak at a meeting of Anglophone bishops on sex abuse.
“I hope we can prevent lies from finding space between those who belong to the same church,” Ezzati wrote to Errazuri.
Cruz was sexually abused by the Rev. Fernando Karadima, a charismatic preacher whom the Vatican sanctioned to a lifetime of penance and prayer for having abused young boys.
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.
CALIFORNIA
Orange County Register
BY LOUIS CASIANO JR. / STAFF WRITER
More possible victims of an 18-year-old Mission Viejo church volunteer, who is suspected of molesting a child, are being sought, the Orange County District Attorney said Thursday.
Ryan Joseph Seider of Lake Forest was a volunteer at St. Kilian Catholic Church when is believed to have molested a young girl, the DA said. Seider was supervising a group of children on Aug. 22 when he was playing with the girl, who was under 10 years old.
After getting her alone, Seider put the girl on his lap and molested her, the statement said.
The girl reported the incident to her family, who then contacted the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. Seider was arrested on Aug. 25.
St. Kilian church officials, when reached by phone, were not available for comment Thursday evening.
Seider was charged with felony lewd act upon a child under 14 years old. He was released Aug. 26 on $100,000 bail, according to jail records.
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.
CALIFORNIA
Patch
By PAIGE AUSTIN (Patch Staff)
An 18-year-old Lake Forest man was charged today with molesting a young girl at a Roman Catholic church in Mission Viejo.
Ryan Joseph Seider was charged with a felony count of lewd act on a child younger than 14. Seider, who has posted $100,000 bail, was scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 23.
Seider volunteered at St. Killian Catholic Church in Mission Viejo and supervised a group of children, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office. He allegedly played with a girl younger than 10, until he was alone with her. According to prosecutor’s, Seider had the girl sit on his lap and then committed a lewd act upon her. The victim reported the alleged crime to her family ,who then contacted OCSD. OCSD investigated this case.
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.
CALIFORNIA
Orange County Weekly
By Matt Coker Fri., Sep. 11 2015
An 18-year-old volunteer at St. Kilian Catholic Church is facing charges of molesting a young girl at the Mission Viejo parish, according to prosecutors.
Ryan Joseph Seider of Lake Forest was supervising a group of children at the church on Aug. 22 when he found himself alone with the girl, who is under age 10, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office.
“The defendant is accused of having Jane Doe sit on his lap and committing a lewd act upon the victim,” says the OCDA, adding the girl informed her parents, the parents contacted the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and, after an investigation, Seider was arrested.
He was charged Thursday with one felony count of lewd act upon a child under 14, and he could go to state prison for eight years and have to register as a sex offender for life if he is convicted, the OCDA says.
Seider, who made his $100,000 bail and is out of custody, is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 23 in Newport Beach.
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 MEXICO
Gallup Independent
Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., Sept. 9, 2015
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent
religion@gallupindependent.com
GALLUP – Past environmental damage may sabotage the sale of one of the Diocese of Gallup’s commercial properties slated for auction later this month.
As part of its bankruptcy case, the Gallup Diocese has agreed to auction off a number of parcels of real property in Arizona Sept. 12, and New Mexico Sept. 19. One of the Gallup properties scheduled to be sold is a vacant lot on the northwest corner of Aztec Avenue and Fourth Street, currently being rented by the city of Gallup as a parking lot for municipal vehicles.
During a recent downtown revitalization workshop, community members raised the idea of the city purchasing the property as a site for a multi-floor library with an underground parking garage.
However, reports recently obtained by the city indicate the property sustained soil and groundwater contamination from underground storage tanks belonging to a service station once located on the site. That environmental damage, which has not been fully remediated, may cause potential buyers to think twice about purchasing the downtown lot.
Environmental report
“Because of the environmental problems and alternative options open to the city of Gallup, City Council has instructed us not pursue it further,” City Attorney George Kozeliski said in an email Aug. 31. Kozeliski said the city had been researching a possible purchase of the property.
Kozeliski was contacted about the terms of the city’s lease agreement with the Diocese of Gallup and was asked for documents regarding environmental damage to the property. Kozeliski and City Clerk Alfred Abeita provided a copy of the lease agreement, and Kozeliski also provided a copy of the inspection of public records request he submitted to the New Mexico Environment Department Aug. 25.
The lease agreement, signed by Bishop James S. Wall and former City Manager Dan Dible in July 2012, acknowledged the property was once the site of a service station and had soil contamination, and stated the diocese was working with state officials regarding remediation efforts.
On Sept. 1, Kozeliski confirmed documents about the environmental damage and cleanup efforts had just arrived from the state and from attorneys for the Diocese of Gallup, and he made those documents available for inspection.
The most recent quarterly groundwater monitoring report, dated June 14, was prepared for the New Mexico Environment Department’s Petroleum Storage Tank Bureau by Advanced Corrosion and Environmental Services of Farmington.
The report refers to the property as the Downtown Conoco Site at 400 W. Aztec Ave., while in U.S. Bankruptcy Court documents the property is listed as Item 38, Parcel No. 2-106-088-088-110, and is referred to as Ralph’s Shell Station.
Reduced contamination
According to the report, the good news is contamination at the site has seen a “huge reduction” over the past six years. The bad news is some contamination still exists, particularly in one section of the property, and ongoing monitoring and remediation efforts are recommended.
The initial hydrocarbon release that caused the contamination is believed to date back to 1989 or earlier. The service station’s three underground storage tanks were the source of the contamination.
After the initial environmental investigation, groundwater monitoring wells were installed on the property. In addition, a major corrective action took place in August 2006, when 2,500 cubic yards of hydrocarbon contaminated soil was removed from the site.
The report states recent groundwater monitoring shows the “cleanup of the groundwater was achieved in the center of the soil excavation area but one small area continues to show elevated dissolved hydrocarbon contamination” near where the old underground storage tanks were located.
The report also noted there was an increase in hydrocarbon concentration levels in the groundwater during the most recent testing, and it attributed this to “the rise of the water table to a level that old soil contamination in the subsurface is encountered.”
“Overall the hydrocarbon plume at this site has been reducing as a result of ongoing natural processes such as contaminant dispersion effects and the natural attenuation activities,” the report concluded. However, in the property section that continues to be contaminated, the report recommended additional investigation and possible installation of an active remediation system.
Unpublicized damage
According to the report, local businessman Joe DiGregorio owned the service station, and he and the diocese receive copies of the environmental monitoring reports.
Soon after the Diocese of Gallup filed for bankruptcy in November 2013, the diocese included DiGregorio’s name in a court document as someone it might have a claim against. To date, the diocese has not filed any such claim against DiGregorio in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
DiGregorio did not respond to an email requesting comment.
The Diocese of Gallup has not publicized the property’s environmental damage in its auction marketing efforts nor has it included any information about the contamination in any of the auction documents filed with the court.
Todd Good, whose company Accelerated Marketing Group is publicizing the upcoming property auctions, did not return phone messages Tuesday.
Lyn Carter, chief investigator for the New Mexico Real Estate Commission, said state law generally requires sellers to disclose environmental damage to potential buyers. However, when property is sold in auctions, he said, the requirements sometimes vary depending on the auction circumstances.
“It gets a little murky,” Carter said, explaining some property auctions are public, others are private, some feature voluntary sales and others are forced by foreclosure or bankruptcy.
All buyers should do their own due diligence, he added, and research property before purchasing it.
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NEBRASKA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Friday, Sept. 10
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com,SNAPclohessy@aol.com)
For more than a dozen years, Lincoln Catholic officials have violated the weak, vague and ineffective US church abuse policy. So it’s hard to get excited that Bishop James Conley is belatedly complying with one part of that policy.
If Conley really wants to protect kids, he’ll do what 30 of his colleagues have grudgingly and belatedly done: post names of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics on church websites. He’ll visit each parish where a predator priest worked, begging victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call law enforcement. He’ll turn over every single document he has about these predators to police and prosecutors.
He’ll scour priests’ personnel files and demote or discipline every cleric who concealed crimes or suspected crimes by another cleric. He’ll join with victims in advocating, not opposing, better secular child safety laws.
Today’s move is a tiny and ineffective one, designed, we suspect, to generate positive public relations more than to make a real difference.
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TEXAS/ALABAMA
Baptist News
By Bob Allen
An Alabama judge has revoked the bond of a former youth pastor awaiting trial for sex crimes after media reports he was serving at a Cooperative Baptist Fellowship church in Texas.
Advocates for survivors of child sexual abuse by clergy protested Sept. 10 outside First Baptist Church of Bedford, Texas, after it came to light that Kyle Adcock, the church’s 32-year-old worship pastor, was indicted last year on 29 counts of rape and sodomy involving a girl younger than 16.
Adcock, former youth minister at Woodward Avenue Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals, Ala., stands accused of molesting a girl in his former youth group over two years beginning when she was 14. He pleaded not guilty and is seeking dismissal of his indictment, which his lawyers claim is legally flawed.
Arrested in August 2014, Adcock got out of jail in Alabama last October on $500,000 bail, with the understanding that he would be supervised by his parents, who live in Garland, Texas. The Alabama Media Group reported Sept. 11 that a Colbert County judge revoked the bond, finding that his new church job violated a condition that he not have unsupervised contact with minors.
Controversy built during the week as media in both Texas and Alabama followed up on a Sept. 8 report by Fox4News that parents became concerned after learning on Facebook that an accused child molester could find work as a minister even before his case even came to trial.
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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Friday, Sept. 11
Statement by Amy Smith, Dallas co-leader of SNAP (281-748-4050, watchkeepamy@gmail.com)
It’s heartbreaking to see that a minister facing credible allegations of ignoring or concealing suspected child sex crimes is being given a place of prominence in a church conference.
After several years of adopting a lower public profile, Rev. C.J. Mahaney of Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, Ky will speak at the biennial Together for the Gospel conference next spring in Louisville, Ky.
Mahaney was one of several officials of Sovereign Grace Ministries, a church-planting network, named as defendants in a class-action lawsuit for allegedly not reporting alleged sexual and physical abuse of kids.
This is wrong for at least two reasons.
First, it rubs salt into the wounds of the families whose lives were devastated by dreadful child sex crimes and cover ups within Sovereign Grace.
Second, it encourages wrongdoing. Giving roles of prominence, prestige or power to those accused of hiding possible crimes encourages others to hide possible crimes.
Men like Mahaney should be ostracized, not elevated, by church colleagues and in church circles.
For the safety of kids, we call on every person who is organizing or planning to attend this conference next April to publicly denounce this move. Otherwise, cover ups of suspected crimes will be encouraged, not discouraged.
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MISSOURI
Moberly Monitor-Index
By Atina Roberts/Connie Duvall
Posted Sep. 11, 2015
An end to a chapter has come for one man.
David Clohessy formally filed charges after alleged abuse at the hands of Father John Whiteley while Clohessy attended St. Pius X in 1991. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City recently reached a settlement with Clohessy.
According to statements by Clohessy, “he was intimidated into silence because of his trust in Whiteley, his belief that Whiteley was a close family friend, his perception of Whiteley’s greater physical strength, and his young age. He also alleges that the abuse caused him to repress the incidents so that he was unable to know or perceive that he was a victim of sexual abuse or that he suffered injuries from that abuse.”
Clohessy shared he began to realize in 1987 that Whiteley had abused him. It wasn’t until later in Clohessy’s life he was able to connect both his physical and emotional injuries to the abuse he says Whiteley caused.
A story “Former Rolla priest facing sex charges,” first appeared in the Daily News in Rolla in 1991.
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ALABAMA
AL.com
By Crystal Bonvillian | cbonvillian@al.com
on September 11, 2015
A Colbert County judge has revoked the bond of a former Muscle Shoals youth pastor who, while facing 20 counts of rape and nine counts of sodomy in Alabama, has been hired by a church in Texas.
Assistant District Attorney Angela Hulsey on Thursday filed a motion seeking to revoke the bond of Charles Kyle Adcock, 32, who is accused of repeatedly raping a young girl between 2010 and 2012, while he was a youth pastor at Woodward Avenue Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals. The girl was 14 years old at the time the alleged abuse began.
Indicted in January, Adcock was out on bond, a condition of which is that he not have unsupervised contact with minors.
“The state has received information that the defendant is employed by First Baptist Church in Bedford, Texas as a worship pastor, which would allow him unsupervised contact with minors,” Hulsey wrote in her motion. “This type of employment is a violation of the conditions of the defendant’s release on bond.”
The judge granted the motion, ordering that Adcock be taken into custody.
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SCOTLAND
Fife Today
Lindsey Alexander
lindsey.alexander@jpress.co.uk
Friday 11 September 2015
The University of St Andrews has confirmed it will not revoke an honorary degree it awarded to Scotland’s disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien in 2004.
The University’s Senate Business Committee (SBC) yesterday (Thursday) dismissed a request from a member of staff who had called publicly for the degree to be rescinded.
After discussion, committee members agreed there was no case to recommend to Senate that the degree be revoked, and that it considered the matter closed.
A spokesperson said: “SBC recognises that universities award honorary degrees in good faith on the basis of evidence available to them at a point in time, that revocation cannot change or ameliorate the wrongs of the past and that, notwithstanding the very real hurt and loss caused by the actions of the honorand, it would be no more than an empty gesture.
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SCOTLAND
The Courier
By CRAIG SMITH, 11 September 2015
St Andrews University has confirmed it will not revoke the honorary degree it awarded to Cardinal Keith O’Brien.
There had been calls for the disgraced former head of the Catholic church in Scotland to be stripped of the honorary doctorate in divinity he received from Scotland’s oldest university back in 2004, after he admitted sexual misconduct two years ago.
However, the university’s senate business committee has now dismissed a request from a member of staff who had called publicly for the degree to be rescinded.
“After discussion, committee members agreed there was no case to recommend to Senate that the degree be revoked, and that it considered the matter closed,” the University said in a statement.
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SCOTLAND
BBC News
An honorary degree awarded to Cardinal Keith O’Brien by St Andrews University will not be revoked.
The former head of the Catholic Church in Scotland stepped down in disgrace two years ago after admitting sexual misconduct.
The university’s senate business committee dismissed a request from a member of staff who had called publicly for the degree to be rescinded.
Cardinal O’Brien was awarded a doctorate in Divinity in 2004.
The committee said it recognised that “universities awarded honorary degrees in good faith on the basis of evidence available to them at a point in time, that revocation cannot change or ameliorate the wrongs of the past and that, notwithstanding the very real hurt and loss caused by the actions of the honorand, it would be no more than an empty gesture”.
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SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland
St Andrews University has said it will not strip disgraced cardinal Keith O’Brien of his honorary degree.
The university considered revoking the 2004 award following a request from a member of staff.
Cardinal O’Brien resigned from the Archdiocese of St Andrews & Edinburgh in 2013 after several priests accused him of inappropriate behaviour.
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NEBRASKA
Catholic News Agency
By Kevin J. Jones
Lincoln, Neb., Sep 11, 2015 / 07:31 am (CNA).- The Diocese of Lincoln will now take part in the U.S. bishops’ audit of the implementation of the youth protection charter – a move it says adds to a well-functioning system of safeguards against abuse.
“I believe it will demonstrate clearly that the Diocese of Lincoln does an excellent job creating safe environments for children,” Bishop James Conley said in his Sept. 11 column.
Bishop Conley said his diocese already complies with all church laws and civil laws on child abuse reporting and child protection. He said the audit can help bishops hold themselves accountable and provide transparency as “an assurance that the Church takes child protection seriously.”
In 2002, in response to the scandal of sexual abuse by clergy dating back decades, the U.S. bishops adopted the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. The charter made voluntary recommendations to bishops, including an audit to ensure compliance.
The Lincoln diocese participated in the first audit in 2003, but then-Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz declined to participate again.
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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Register
COMMENTARY
by BISHOP JAMES CONLEY 09/11/2015
The Catholic Church is a supernatural community, united together in Christ Jesus, protected and sustained by the Holy Spirit. But the Church is also a community of human beings, of ordinary people, who are capable of great love, and of great sinfulness.
Sin — especially the most grave sins — can have profoundly hurtful consequences for other people, and for the community of the Church. The laws and policies of the Church help to ensure safety and freedom, particularly for children, and for those most vulnerable to being harmed.
Since they were passed in 2002 by the Catholic Bishops of the United States and approved by the Holy See, the Diocese of Lincoln has followed a set of Church laws called the “Essential Norms for Diocesan/Eparchial Policies Dealing with Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Priests or Deacons.” These norms are concerned with ensuring that child abuse has no place in the Church — that there is no room for it to take place, and that is not tolerated, under any circumstances, if it does take place. The Lincoln Diocese has also participated in most of the recommendations of the voluntary Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, which is published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) as a guide for bishops to help maintain safe environments in the Church. Additionally, the Diocese of Lincoln observes every civil law regarding child abuse protection and reporting.
Among the recommendations of the USCCB’s Charter is that every diocese be audited each year to ensure that it has done all it can to help create safe environments. The purpose of the audit is accountability. It is not intended to be punitive or invasive, but instead to help dioceses create safe environments. The Diocese of Lincoln voluntarily participated in the audit when it first began in 2003. At that time, the process was still being worked out and it needed refinements. Legitimate questions were raised about its purpose and methodology. For that reason, the Diocese of Lincoln elected not to participate in subsequent audits. I believe that was a prudent decision.
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AUSTRALIA
The Age
September 11, 2015
Nino Bucci and Chris Johnston
As many as 4000 Victorians are sharing child abuse images online at any moment, police have revealed.
The Joint Anti Child Exploitation Team estimated the figure after conducting a 90-day snapshot of child abuse files that were being shared, using the data of internet service providers, earlier this year.
Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana mentioned the alarming figure in an opinion piece, published by Fairfax Media, that outlines his horror at viewing a video showing the abuse of a young girl.
Mr Fontana also revealed that 31 people had been recently charged in Victoria after police had executed 38 warrants, finding thousands of child pornography images. A number of investigations are still ongoing.
“Late last year I made myself watch a movie file,” Mr Fontana wrote.
“I didn’t want to. But I sat there and watched. To see for myself the horror caused through child exploitation and understand what some of our police members are being exposed to almost every day.
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MISSISSIPPI
WDAM
By Eddie Robertson, Reporter
By Amanda LaBrot, Reporter
JONES COUNTY, MS (WDAM) –
A former Jones County priest is behind bars for allegedly sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy.
“Now you see here a priest, a man of the cloth, has violated a young child,” Jones County Sheriff Alex Hodge said. “We know for a fact that the 12-year-old boy, on two different occasions that we know of, was engaged in a sexual act with this man. You think ‘Well how did that happen?’ You’ve got a grown man who’s influenced this 12-year-old kid to allow the priest to perform sexual acts on him. Sick.”
Sheriff Hodge said 36-year-old Jose Vazquez was charged with two counts of sexual battery of a minor, and had his bond set at $100,000 cash bond due to him being a flight risk.
“He just recently returned from Mexico,” Hodge said. “Certainly have no reason to think that he wouldn’t go back, so thankful for a $100,000 cash bond. Obviously you think, ‘well it needs to be higher,’ but we have to stay within the parameters of the law.”
According to the Diocese of Biloxi, Vazquez has worked as the pastor of St. Francis Xavier Parish in Wiggins and St. Lucy Mission in Lucedale since Jan. 15, 2014. He was the parochial vicar or associate pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Laurel about four years ago, according to Sheriff Hodge, and has also worked at Sacred Heart Parish in Hattiesburg.
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ILLINOIS
Catholic Culture
The Appellate Court of Illinois has ruled that a letter written to a priest does not fall under the purview of the clergy-penitent privilege.
A pastor in the Diocese of Rockford received a letter from a parish volunteer alleging that one minor had sexually abused another minor. The mother of the accused minor filed a defamation lawsuit in which she alleged that the accusation was false and that her child had become “isolated and ostracized in the community, including the parish community.”
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MISSISSIPPI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For Immediate release Thursday, September 10
Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 503 0003, bdorris@SNAPnetwork.org)
We are grateful for many things in the Jones County case involving a priest and a young boy.
We are grateful that the father of the young boy had the wisdom to call the police rather than contact church officials.
We are grateful that police immediately responded and arrested Father Jose Vazquez.
We are grateful that civil authorities will investigate further and attempt to bring other charges.
[WJTV]
We encourage anyone who has been harmed by Vazquez to come forward and begin to heal. We beg witnesses and whistleblowers to remember that charges are not a conviction. That church officials often hire high powered defense attorneys so that even if found guilty the priest will spend little time in jail and then once again pose a risk to children. So now more than ever it is imperative that anyone with information no matter how old or insignificant they feel it is to come forward and talk with civil authorities.
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CANADA
Toronto Star
Many of the high-profile movies at TIFF this year involve seekers of the truth, who want to get to the bottom of a story that can’t be told via a Facebook post or 140-character tweet.
By: Peter Howell Movie Critic, Published on Thu Sep 10 2015
My ink-stained heart is gladdened that one of the early talking points at TIFF 2015 is Spotlight, a film about journalists unmasking Roman Catholic Church corruption.
Tom McCarthy’s engrossing procedural on the Boston Globe’s 2002 pedophile priest exposé was the film I heard mentioned most often at a pre-TIFF party Wednesday night, the “Critical Drinking” bash hosted by the Toronto Film Critics Association and sponsored by the Star.
You’d expect journalists to be captivated by a film like Spotlight, but there were also many non-journos at the event who expressed great interest in seeing it. The cast includes Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo and John Slattery, all in top form as they depict the real reporters and editors who doggedly unearthed a Boston Archdiocese coverup, one with global implications, of the widespread sexual abuse of minors by supposedly holy men.
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CANADA
The Globe and Mail
SIMON HOUPT
The Globe and Mail
Published Thursday, Sep. 10, 2015
Talk about kicking folks when they’re down. For the past decade or so, reporters and their ever-suffering bosses have had to come to terms with the fact that most people don’t seem to want to pay for journalism. And now comes word that people don’t even want to pay for movies about journalism.
In an interview at the Venice Film Festival last weekend, where Spotlight, his thrilling new film about The Boston Globe’s 2001 investigation into the Catholic Church’s sex-abuse scandal, had its world premiere prior to a bow at TIFF next Monday, director Tom McCarthy told the trade paper Variety that the film “kept falling apart,” as the producers tried to raise funds. “It was brutal,” he said. “It was dead three times.”
Through all the tumult of the Great Disruption that has laid waste to North America’s newsrooms, journalists have been able at least to draw some succour from movies that celebrated our life’s work, that made us out to be the heroes we are in our own minds: say, Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon; or last year’s well-received Rosewater, about the Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari. But, like newsrooms themselves, newsroom dramas rarely make money. If the genre dries up, how will we make ourselves feel better? Is there really that much Scotch in the world?
Spotlight is one of two American indie films about the news trade, both based on a true story, that are appearing at this year’s TIFF. The other, called simply Truth, is about television news rather than my ink-stained colleagues in the newspaper biz, and is therefore far more glamorous. Premiering Saturday afternoon, Truth stars Cate Blanchett as Mary Mapes, the 60 Minutes producer who steered that program’s ill-fated 2004 report about George W. Bush’s questionable Vietnam War-era National Guard service. Robert Redford, who played Bob Woodward in the ur-journo-drama All the President’s Men, is Dan Rather, the veteran CBS Evening News anchor who retired in early 2005 amid a tsunami of criticism over the Bush report.
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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat
Posted on Sep 10, 2015
by Dave Sutor
Testimony began in a Central City priest’s sex abuse trial Thursday.
And, with a jury seated, attorneys in both sides of the case began trial by painting two far different images of the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr.
Prosecutors said Honduran orphans knew Maurizio as the “Money Man” – someone who used donations from home as power to satisfy his sexual urges.
But defense attorney Steven Passarello described Maurizio as a man who dedicated nearly 20 years to helping Honduras’ impoverished youth and expanding their campus-like charity before baseless accusations in the troubled country branded him a pedophile.
A jury of seven men and five women was selected Thursday morning to hear what could be weeks of testimony from dozens of witnesses, including three young men allegedly abused by Maurizio as boys.
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MASSACHUSETTS
BishopAccountability.org
Summary of Case: Joseph F. Byrne was ordained for the Boston archdiocese in 1969. He assisted at parishes in Dorchester, Quincy and Weymouth MA until he was named pastor of a parish in Waltham in 1994. Among his many involvements were the Archdiocesan Office of Vocations, Project Rachel, and the Office of Spiritual Development. He was also a police and hospital chaplain in Quincy for 10 years. From 2002-2008 Byrne’s status was “unassigned.” He pleaded guilty in 2005 to embezzling more than $135,000 from his Waltham parish and was sentenced to 5 years’ probation. Despite being unassigned, Byrne reportedly moved to Falmouth MA in 2003 where he helped out as a fill-in at a parish. He also lived for a time in 2012-2013 at a parish in Arlington MA. In May 2012 Byrne was placed on leave after an allegation emerged that he sexually abused a child in the early 1970s. He was reinstated in May 2013 after the archdiocese found the allegation to be “unsubstantiated.” Byrne was again removed from active ministry in February 2014 when a second allegation was made that he had sexually abused a child, also in the early 1970s. He died June 18, 2014.
Born: 1943
Ordained: May 21, 1969
Died: June 18, 2014
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CHILE
El Mostrador
[Marie Collins of Ireland, member of the pontifical child abuse commission, verified she had sought appointment of Juan Carlos Cruz to the commission.]
Tenía 13 años, acababa de confirmarse y a la vulnerabilidad de la adolescencia, sumaba otro factor: estaba enferma y hospitalizada.
En ese contexto comenzó a recibir todas las tardes la visita de un sacerdote para acompañarla con lecturas católicas. Aunque no fueron solo esas lecturas la que la acompañaron de por vida, sino también los abusos de los que fue víctima. Quedaron registrados en su mente y en su cuerpo. Alimentaron su aislamiento y la sensación de sentirse sucia. “Este constante sentimiento de culpabilidad me llevó a una profunda depresión y a problemas de ansiedad suficientemente serios como para necesitar tratamiento médico cuando tenía 17 años. Después vinieron largas hospitalizaciones”, comentó a la prensa hace algunos años.
La irlandesa Marie Collins, uno de los íconos en el mundo que demuestran el daño de los abusos sexuales contra menores cometidos por sacerdotes, comenzó una batalla interminable para establecer que el problema no era ella, sino su agresor y la protección que le entregaron los superiores de la Iglesia a su victimario. “Lo mejor de mi vida comenzó hace quince años cuando mi agresor compareció ante la justicia. Durante esos años trabajé con mi diócesis y con la Iglesia Católica en Irlanda para mejorar la protección de los menores. Mi vida ya no está destrozada. Tiene sentido y valor”, señaló.
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CHILE
El Mostrador
Organización de Laicos y Laicas de Osorno dicen que hay un poder revestido de religión en la Iglesia Católica
[The organization of laity in Osorno in a statement have rejected the email exchange between Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati and Francisco Javier Errazuiz. The email revealed that the cardinals are exercising power within the hierarchy and secondly they were serious about blocking appointment of Juan Carlos Cruz to the Pontifical Commission for the Prevention of Abuse.]
Por medio de un comunicado, la Organización de Laicos y Laicas de Osorno manifestó su rechazo al intercambio de correos electrónicos entre los cardenales Ricardo Ezzati y Francisco Javier Errázuriz.
“Los correos revelan dos noticias, a saber, por un lado la lógica poco cristiana de ejercer el poder dentro de la jerarquía eclesiástica, y por otro, la seria consideración del Vaticano para que Juan Carlos Cruz integre la Pontificia Comisión para la Prevención del Abuso”, dice la nota.
“Consideramos de gran magnitud que uno de los principales testigos de la reprochabilidad del obispo Juan Barros haya sido postulado a esta comisión. Es un reconocimiento a la verdad de sus dichos que impone una carga más al actual obispo de Osorno cuando intente desdecirlo. El hecho que los cardenales de la Iglesia Católica hayan realizado gestiones y confabulaciones exitosas en su contra, no hace sino presumir que su verdad era un peligro para muchos”, agregó.
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MISSOURI
The Rolla Daily News
By Summer Ballentine
Associated Press
Posted Sep. 10, 2015
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.
A Missouri advocate who says he was sexually abused by a priest as a teenager said Thursday that he received $40,000 from the Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City.
A spokesman for the diocese, Deacon Dan Joyce, confirmed Thursday that the diocese provided $40,000 to David Clohessy, who serves as the national director of an advocacy group for victims of clergy sexual abuse. The diocese did not provide further details about the out-of-court settlement.
Joyce said that staff met with Clohessy earlier this year after he contacted them regarding his allegations of abuse by the Rev. John Whiteley.
Joyce said Bishop John Gaydos later wrote to Clohessy “to extend to him an apology for the abuse that he reported.” Joyce said the diocese last month gave Clohessy money to “help him with his needs for healing.”
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AUSTRALIA
The Age
[with video]
Sex abuse inquiry: Geelong Grammar principal Stephen Meek apologises to sexual abuse victims
September 11, 2015
Henrietta Cook
Education Reporter at The Age
Geelong Grammar failed its students who suffered “traumatic and terrible” sexual abuse at the hands of teachers, its headmaster says.
Stephen Meek, who became headmaster in 2004, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that he was “unreservedly” sorry and that the school had failed its duty of care.
Geelong Grammar principal Stephen Meek says he was told about a sexual assault allegation at the school on his first day in the job
Geelong Grammar principal Stephen Meek says he was told about a sexual assault allegation at the school on his first day in the job Photo: Eddie Jim
“As students they had every right to attend a school where they were looked after and where their safety and well-being were assured. This did not happen, the school failed in its duty of
The Geelong Grammar community has been rocked by shocking accounts of child sexual abuse that took place on all its campuses from the late 1950s until 2007. The public hearing, which has run for two weeks, has focused on the school’s response to five teachers who have all been convicted of child sexual abuse.
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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
11 September, 2015
The Royal Commission directions hearing in relation to Case Study 33 listed in Sydney at 10:00am AEST on Monday 14 September 2015 has been vacated and will no longer proceed.
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CHILE
Terra
Dos cardenales en ojo del huracán por nuevas filtraciones sobre conspiración
[Two Chilean cardinals are now in the eye of the storm after the release of a new exchange of emails that reveals efforts to prevent Juan Carlos Cruz, a victim of sexual abuse by an influential Chilean priest, from appointment to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. Emails published Wednesday by El Mostrador show that Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati and Francisco Javier Errauriz apptempted to stop appointment of Cruz.]
Dos cardenales chilenos están hoy en el ojo del huracán tras la difusión de un nuevo intercambio de correos que revelan gestiones para impedir que una víctima de abusos sexuales por parte de un influyente expárroco chileno formara parte de la Comisión Pontificia para la Protección de los Menores.
Los correos electrónicos, publicados este miércoles por el medio digital El Mostrador, revelan la intercesión de los cardenales Ricardo Ezzati y Francisco Javier Errázuriz para imposibilitar el nombramiento de una de las víctimas del expárroco Fernando Karadima, condenado por abusos sexuales por El Vaticano, como miembro en una institución pontificia.
En uno de los correos, cuya autoría no ha sido desmentida por la Iglesia chilena, enviado a Errázuriz, Ezzati intentaba disuadir al cardenal de nombrar a Juan Carlos Cruz, víctima y denunciante de los abusos de Karadima, como miembro de la Comisión Pontificia.
“Espero que (el nombramiento) no sea así, sería demasiado grave para la Iglesia de Chile. Significaría, entre otras cosas, dar crédito y avalar a una construcción que el Sr. Cruz ha construido astutamente (…). Espero que pueda hacer luz con quienes tienen responsabilidades de este nombramiento”, dice el correo enviado el de 28 de junio de 2014.
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TEXAS
Watch Keep
Amy Smith
Earlier this week, FOX4 News in Dallas broke the story locally of a Baptist minister indicted on 29 counts of rape and sodomy of a child in Alabama who is now working at a church in the Dallas area. First Baptist Church Bedford hired Charles Kyle Adcock about 8 months ago as a music minister. Pastor Steve Knott apparently was aware of Adcock’s charges when he hired him. Church leaders spoke with Elizabeth Dinh of CBS11 yesterday saying that they spoke with Adcock and believe his story that he is not guilty. We know about this story now because concerned parents spoke out.
CBSDFW
“We think it’s incredibly irresponsible and reckless to have hired him in the first place,” says Amy Smith, who works with SNAP: Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Smith say she took to twitter to blast First Baptist’s pastor for hiring Adcock, and says she was immediately blocked from the church’s feed. Smith and another supporter staged a hastily arranged protest outside the church this afternoon. And although they were outnumbered by press, she insists it doesn’t take a crowd to warn parents.
“What we know about predators is they rarely have just one victim” says Smith, “and they’re very manipulative and often will find places like churches to have a position of trust. That word ‘minister’ signals to most churchgoers that he is safe.”
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AUSTRALIA
The Age
September 11, 2015
Adam Cooper
A former Geelong Grammar housemaster, who was also renowned among Australia’s arts community, has been jailed for seven-and-half-years for sexually abusing six boys in his care more than three decades ago.
As the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse continued its focus on the prestigious school in the Victorian County Court building on Friday, John Hamilton Buckley sat in another court room as judge Jane Patrick condemned his “disgraceful” and “predatory” offending.
Buckley sexually abused six boys aged between 10 and 13 between 1980 and 1983, when he was a teacher and housemaster at Geelong Grammar’s junior school Glamorgan in Toorak.
Among his victims were two brothers, another boy who was indecently assaulted while in the sick bay and another who was told to pretend Buckley was Bo Derek and to “make love” to him.
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Buckley used pornographic material, dinners outside the campus and a card game similar to strip poker to manipulate the boys before offending.
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MICHIGAN
The Arab American
DEARBORN HEIGHTS — An Orthodox bishop has been placed on leave after allegations of sexual misconduct.
Dearborn Heights Archbishop Nathaniel Popp announced on Tuesday that his auxiliary bishop the Right Rev Irineu Duvlea, is under investigation.
In a statement, Popp said Duvlea, 53, is presumed innocent but will remain on leave and be prohibited from working during the investigation. Duvlea served as the bishop of Dearborn Heights and auxiliary bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America.
Popp did not disclose any information about potential victims and called the investigation highly confidential.
“No one should discuss the investigation with anyone,” Popp said in the announcement.
In a statement, members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, commended Popp for making the investigation public.
However, Cappy Larson of SNAP Orthodox said the church should supply more information.
“Did the misconduct involve a parishioner?” Larson asked in the statement. “If so, was the victim a child, an adult, a male a female? How many victims have come forward? More complete disclosure can help to jog memories and reassure other survivors, producing additional testimony and evidence.
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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly.com
By Timothy R. Rice
As I rounded Lombard Street the other day, heading west in Philadelphia, I was greeted by a lifesized, cardboard cutout of Pope Francis on a balcony at Second and Lombard Streets. His arms were outstretched and he was wearing a shirt with the word “Hope” on his chest. My first thought was: Does this poor soul know what he is in for in Philadelphia?
As our pope continues to preach tolerance, forgiveness, and humility, the Catholic Church in Philadelphia escalates its ground war against such crazy notions. The local archbishop, Charles J. Chaput, rules with a fist clenched in a velvet glove. Cloaked as a man of God, his message is simple: Follow all rules or leave the Church; we have no need for dissent or diversity in our ranks.
Judging from some of his email replies to the faithful, he is less than kind about delivering the message. Lately, he has taken off his gloves and started delivering bare-fisted body blows. Some days it seems he is auditioning to be a modern-day Rocky Balboa in clerical garb, pounding away on a side of beef at a slaughterhouse at the Italian Market.
On Tuesday, Rocky Chaput pronounced that all parents of Catholic school students must sign a loyalty pledge, acknowledging allegiance to Church doctrine and to him as their supreme moral authority. Parents, who often work two jobs to afford a Catholic education for their children, are being lectured that Catholic education is a privilege, not a right. If they don’t agree with every Church doctrine, they should head for public school. His edict comes only a few years after he shuttered dozens of Catholic schools, often without consulting parents, and after Catholic bishops have been targeted for concealing sexual abuse of children by clergy.
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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
[with video]
September 11, 2015
Eryk Bagshaw
Education Reporter
Parents and students at Sydney school Cranbrook fear that the career of their headmaster may be over after damaging revelations at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
On Thursday the school’s headmaster, Nicholas Sampson, admitted he paid a teacher at his former institution, Geelong Grammar, to retire early to avoid any formal complaints of child sex abuse being made against him.
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The commission also heard that Mr Sampson allowed the teacher, Jonathan Harvey, to remain at the school teaching maths for a further six months after the allegations were raised and that he failed to report the matter to Victorian Police and the Victorian Institute of Teachers.
After he suggested Harvey retire, Mr Sampson wrote handwritten notes to him praising his “outstanding service” and for his “friendship and kindness towards my family”, before authorising a payment of $64,348 for an extra year in which he did not work.
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UNITED STATES
Baptist News
By Bob Allen
A speaker sidelined two years ago by a sexual abuse scandal at his former church is back at center stage for an upcoming conference featuring prominent leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention.
C.J. Mahaney, senior pastor of Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, Ky., joins Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler and International Mission Board President David Platt as scheduled speakers at the biennial Together for the Gospel conference scheduled April 12-14 in Louisville, Ky.
Mahaney, who in 2006 along with Mohler and two others founded the confab popular among young Calvinists, sat out the last conference in 2014, saying he didn’t want publicity over a high-profile lawsuit alleging a cover-up of child abuse at his former church to subject the other founders to unfair criticism. Criticism nevertheless followed, after a photo taken at the gathering showed Mahaney seated alongside conference headliners on the front row.
Mahaney was one of numerous leaders of Sovereign Grace Ministries, a church-planting network he helped start in the 1980s, named in a class-action lawsuit for allegedly failing to report alleged sexual and physical abuse of children. The lawsuit was dismissed due to statute of limitations, but in 2014 a volunteer at Mahaney’s former church was convicted on criminal charges similar to acts alleged in the civil suit.
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ZAMBIA
Daily Mail
MUBANGA NONDO, Ndola
A MEDICAL doctor at Arthur Davison Children’s Hospital in Ndola has told Ndola principal resident magistrate Obbister Musukwa that her medical examinations on a 15-year-old girl who was allegedly defiled by her pastor were consistent with allegations of sexual abuse.
The doctor was testifying in a case in which Joseph Kaindu, 43, pastor of Faith Deeper Understanding Church, is alleged to have defiled a teenage member of his church.
Masengu Chilenge, 35, a medical doctor of Mukuba Flats, told Mr Musukwa that the victim’s hymen was torn, although there were no fresh lacerations on the genital area.
“The general condition of the victim when she was brought to the hospital on June 30 this year was stable, so I focused on the genital area. My findings were that there were no fresh wounds or lacerations, but what I saw were multiple bruises which had healed.
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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter
Elizabeth A. Elliott | Sep. 10, 2015
KANSAS CITY, MO.
Baskets of fresh white candles greeted visitors at St. Elizabeth Parish as they entered the dim and sparsely decorated church for an unusual evening service. A little more than 100 men and women scattered throughout the pews, some in small groups, some in couples, some quietly alone.
“I commend you for being here,” Fr. Greg Haskamp, the pastor at St. Elizabeth’s, told the solemn group. “I know the decision to attend was not an easy one.”
The event was the second in a series of healing services sponsored by the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., to reach out to survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of clergy over many decades. St. Elizabeth’s is one of four parishes chosen for the services because of its history with clergy sex abuse. At least three priests — Fr. Thomas O’Brien and Fr. Thomas Reardon in the 1970s and ’80s and Fr. Michael Brewer in the 1990s — have been accused of sexually molesting boys in the parish, according to the website bishopaccountability.org.
The diocese began the program, Healing Our Parishes through Empathy (HOPE), in August, four months after Bishop Robert Finn resigned. The services are the first of their kind in the diocese, according to Carrie Cooper, director of the Department of Child and Youth Protection.
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BAHAMAS
Caribbean 360
NASSAU, Bahamas, Wednesday September 9, 2015 – Bahamian-born Rhonda Darville triumphed over sexual abuse and two abortions to become the founder and executive director of The Bahamas’ first pregnancy resource centre (PRC).
Darville, who grew up in Nassau and worshipped at an Anglican church, was molested by her brother and a priest at an early age, going on to travel a destructive path that led to abortion.
LifeNews.com reports that she underwent her first abortion at the age of 18, and later had a second, going on to attempt suicide on three occasions as a result of the emotional pain from the procedures.
According to LifeNews, she was one of the many women who attempt suicide after abortion, with statistics showing that post-abortive women are six times more likely to commit suicide than women who have given birth.
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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat
September 10, 2015 12:02 pm | Author: berger
“For decades, the locker rooms at Chaminade College Preparatory School in our town were a place of terror for several students aged 11-18, who as adults have filed lawsuits against the school alleging widespread sexual abuse by its staff. Former students also say they were abused in Chaminade’s boarding school rooms and staff offices.” That’s the lede of a new Guardian piece about the church’s continuing abuse crisis. It quotes our town’s Christopher Wimmer, who says he was abused by Brother John Woulfe and Brother Louis Meinhardt at the school. It also quotes local victims’ barrister Nicole Gorovsky and Marianist head Fr. Martin Solma.
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ILLINOIS
Patch
By AMIE SCHAENZER (Patch Staff)
September 10, 2015
A lawsuit has been filed against a former Geneva priest who is accused of sexually abusing a boy when he was between the ages of 5 and 7 years old in the 1970s while he served at St. Rita’s of Cascia in Aurora, according to the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
The lawsuit claims John C. Holdren “manipulated the boy’s emotions” and groomed him to keep him from reporting the sex acts. Holdren is accused of having sex with the boy and inappropriately groping and fondling his genitals. The incidents occurred in 1972 and 1973. The alleged victim is a 49-year-old Maryland man who grew up in Aurora.
Holdren served as a priest at St. Peter in Geneva from 1981 to 1983. Holdren served at St. Rita’s until 1981 and also spent time with two other parishes in the Chicago area: He was with St. Thomas the Apostle in Crystal Lake for six years in the 1970s and retired in 1994 from St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Johnsburg after serving for 10 years as a priest, according to the Kane County Chronicle.
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MISSISSIPPI
Clarion-Ledger
Jones County, Miss. – A priest is charged with sexual battery in Jones County after he confessed.
Father Jose Vazquez’s bond was set at $100,000, WJTV reported. Authorities said that the 36-year-old priest works in Stone County.
The victim’s father called the sheriff’s dept. on Sept. 9. and said there was inappropriate behavior between his 12-year-old son and Father Jose Vazquez. Vazquez was still at the scene when deputies arrived. He was taken into custody and confessed to multiple acts of sexual battery with the victim. He said one of the acts happened in Jones County and the other acts took place elsewhere.
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MISSISSIPPI
The Times-Picayune
By Kim Chatelain, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
on September 10, 2015 at 3:35 PM, updated September 10, 2015 at 3:36 PM
A Catholic priest in south Mississippi was arrested Wednesday (Aug. 9), accused of sexual battery involving a 12-year-old boy, according to SunHerald.com. Rev. Jose Vazquez, pastor at St. Francis Xavier in Wiggins and at St. Lucy Mission in Lucedale, confessed to several sex acts with the boy and other incidents in different jurisdictions, the website reported, citing a press release from Jones County Sheriff’s Office.
At his initial court appearance Thursday, Vazquez was deemed a flight risk and his bond was set at $100,000, the website reported.
The Catholic Diocese of Biloxi issued a statement, saying it is saddened by the news and regrets “any actions or behavior by clergy or any other personnel who might betray the trust placed in us. Sexual misconduct with a minor on the part of any clergyman is reprehensible and will not be tolerated.
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MISSISSIPPI
Roman Catholic Diocese of Biloxi – Gulf Pine Catholic
Thursday, 10 September 2015
In response to the arrest and criminal charges filed against Father Jose Vazquez, the Diocese of Biloxi is issuing the following statement. “We wish to make it absolutely clear that the Diocese of Biloxi makes every effort to protect and to provide a safe environment for the children and young people entrusted to our care. We are saddened and deeply regret any actions or behavior by clergy or any other personnel who might betray the trust placed in us. Sexual misconduct with a minor on the part of any clergyman is reprehensible and will not be tolerated. We pledge our full cooperation with authorities on this matter. We also pledge our prayers and support to the victim and family going forward.”
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MISSISSIPPI
SunHerald
BY ROBIN FITZGERALD
rfitzgerald@sunherald.comSeptember 10, 2015
Rev. Jose Vazquez, a priest in Wiggins, has been arrested in Jones County on a sexual battery charge involving a 12-year-old boy.
The Jones County Sheriff’s Office reported his arrest in a press release, saying Vazquez was at a family’s home in west Jones County on Wednesday when the boy’s father called to report inappropriate behavior between Vazquez and his son.
Vazquez, 36, is the pastor at St. Francis Xavier in Wiggins and at St. Lucy Mission in Lucedale.
Vazquez was still at the boy’s home when deputies arrived, and deputies interviewed the boy.
During Vazquez’ interview, he confessed to several sex acts with the boy, including the act in Jones County and incidents in other jurisdictions, the press release said.
Vazquez was deemed a flight risk at his initial court appearance Thursday and the judge imposed a $100,000 bond. …
The Catholic Diocese of Biloxi issued a statement saying it is saddened by the news and regrets “any actions or behavior by clergy or any other personnel who might betray the trust placed in us. Sexual misconduct with a minor on the part of any clergyman is reprehensible and will not be tolerated.
“We wish to make it absolutely clear that the Diocese of Biloxi makes every effort to protect and to provide a safe environment for the children and young people entrusted to our care.”
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CHILE
El Mostrador
Diputado Ojeda (DC): “Si el obispo de Osorno Juan Barros oficia el Te Deum de Fiestas Patrias, no asistiré”
[The deputy of the Chilean Christian Democratic – Sergio Ojeda – said he would not attend the Te Deum on Independence Day in Osorno if the religious service is headed by Bishop Juan Barros. Barros is accused to being an accessory of abuse of minors committed by priest Fernando Karadima.]
El diputado de la Democracia Cristiana Segio Ojeda adelantó que no asistirá al Te Deum de Fiestas Patrias en Osorno si el oficio religioso es encabezado por el obispo Juan Barros, debido a los cuestionamietos que pesan sobre el prelado, a quien se acusa de ser uno de los encubridores de los abusos cometidos por el sacerdote Fernando Karadima.
Durante una actividad con motivo de la visita a Osorno de Juan Carlos Cruz, quien fue una de las víctimas del ex párroco de la iglesia de El Bosque, Ojeda dijo que “si el obispo de Osorno Juan Barros oficia el Te Deum de Fiestas Patrias, no asistiré”.
Lo anterior, subrayó, “por las graves acusaciones que se hace en su contra, que han originado el rechazo de gran parte del mundo cristiano y laico, con lo que reafirmo y reitero mi rechazo a Juan Barros como obispo de Osorno. Él es el culpable de la división de los católicos y la comunidad, la unidad se producirá sólo cuando él deje el cargo”.
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ILLINOIS
BishopAccountability.org
Summary of Case: John C. Holdren was ordained for the Rockford IL diocese in 1971. He assisted in parishes in Aurora, Crystal Lake and Geneva. He pastored a Johnsburg parish from 1983 until going on sick leave in 1994, after he was injured during what he told police was a home invasion. He is last indexed in the Official Catholic Directory in 2005, still as “Absent on Leave.” Holdren was accused in a lawsuit filed September 8, 2015 of sexually abusing a 7 to 9-year-old boy at an Aurora parish in the early 1970s. The abuse is said to have included fondling and sodomy. Holdren’s accuser said some of his friends have told him they were abused, too. Holdren denied abusing the boy.
Ordained: 1971
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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Trial begins for former Johnstown pastor accused of traveling to Honduras to molest young boys
By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
After 2 ½ days, a jury has been seated in U.S. District Court in Johnstown to hear the case of a Catholic priest charged with traveling to Honduras to molest young boys under the guise of doing charity work.
Opening arguments are expected this afternoon in United States v. Joseph Maurizio, 70, formerly the pastor at Our Lady Queen of Angels in Somerset County.
The Rev. Maurizio is accused of engaging in illicit sex in foreign places, possession of child porn and transferring money into and out of the country for unlawful purposes.
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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, Sept. 10
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com, SNAPclohessy@aol.com)
Tomorrow, a brave clergy sex abuse victim will lead a walk across the entire state of New Jersey to highlight the state’s archaic, predator-friendly statutes of limitations.
We commend Fred Marigliano for his courage and commitment. We hope his admirable effort will prod lawmakers to take decisive steps to better safeguard New Jersey’s children.
Don’t believe the hype, spin, threats and self-serving rhetoric of a couple of bishops on this issue. We, as a society, should protect children, not predators. We should deter deceit, not reward deceit.
Vulnerable kids need protection. Shrewd pedophiles and corrupt supervisors do not.
Reforming these civil statutes will help safeguard kids from predators in three key ways. First, it will help publicly expose child molesters, through the time-tested, proven, open justice system. Second, it will help publicly expose irresponsible supervisors who ignored or concealed child sex crimes. And third, it will help deter future recklessness, deceit and callousness by some employers, again, using the time-tested, proven, open justice system.
In the ideal world, every child molester would be locked up. But that isn’t happening and can’t. Many in law enforcement estimate that 80% of those who sexually assault kids are never convicted and imprisoned. That means there are hundreds of dangerous child predators in every state who are molesting kids today.
The sad and simple truth is that we don’t have and may never have adequate police, prosecutors and prisons to charge, convicted and jail these predators. So the next best approach is to publicly expose them, so parents, neighbors, relatives, co-workers and employers know of their crimes. That’s what civil statute of limitations can do.
Catholic bishops claim these reforms are anti-Catholic. That’s silly. Institutions that deliberately or recklessly put kids in harm’s way could face consequences for their irresponsible misdeeds – whether they are secular or religious, public or private. As a society, by eliminating or extending statues of limitations, we’re just saying that Baptist officials and government officials and for-profit day care centers all have to take children’s safety carefully.
We in SNAP believe there should be no statute of limitations on child rape. Any such statute just gives predators and their enablers the incentive, and the time, to destroy evidence, intimidate victims, threaten witnesses, fabricate alibis and escape overseas. No child rapist or his allies should get to exploit an arbitrary deadline, escape detection, and assault others.
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WASHINGTON (DC)
JTA
Rabbi Barry Freundel is serving a 6 1/2 year prison sentence for voyeurism for secretly filming 52 women in the shower room of the mikvah adjacent to Kesher Israel, the prominent Orthodox Washington synagogue he led for some 25 years. On Wednesday, he published this apology letter in the Washington Jewish Week:
No matter how many times I attempt to apologize, it will never be enough. There are simply no words available to sufficiently assuage the hurt that I caused among conversion candidates, congregants, students, family, friends, and rabbinic and academic colleagues. I am sorry, beyond measure, for my heinous behavior and the perverse mindset that provoked my actions.
On May 15th, as I sat in the courtroom listening to the victim impact statements, each felt like a blade entering my gut. The speakers expressed their feelings of rage, hurt, humiliation, vulnerability and violation. How could I have been so incredibly blind, so unaware of my own impact on others? I ask myself that question every day. Through therapy, I came to understand the psychological underpinnings of why I acted in this despicable way. But I have not yet fully grasped how I could have been so completely oblivious to the harm I was doing to others.
I shook the faith foundations of those who were approaching Judaism with determination and the trepidation of leaving their previous lives behind; I defiled a space that was supposed to be private, sacred and healing; and I caused people to feel unsafe, abused and objectified, I did this to people I genuinely cared about, people to whom I was close, and I shattered the worlds of those I loved most.
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TEXAS
CBS DFW
[with video]
Robbie Owens
BEDFORD (CBSDFW) – A Bedford church minister awaiting trial on 29 counts of rape and sodomy involving a teenage girl in Alabama has resigned. That’s according to a man who only identified himself as “leader” with Bedford’s First Baptist Church. The church’s pastor has not returned multiple calls seeking comment; but, sources tell CBS that the church leadership was aware of the accusations facing now 32 year old Charles Kyle Adcock when he was hired.
“We think it’s incredibly irresponsible and reckless to have hired him in the first place,” says Amy Smith, who works with SNAP: Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Smith say she took to twitter to blast First Baptist’s pastor for hiring Adcock, and says she was immediately blocked from the church’s feed. Smith and another supporter staged a hastily arranged protest outside the church this afternoon. And although they were outnumbered by press, she insists it doesn’t take a crowd to warn parents.
“What we know about predators is they rarely have just one victim” says Smith, “and they’re very manipulative and often will find places like churches to have a position of trust. That word ‘minister’ signals to most churchgoers that he is safe.”
But, critics of the hire say Kyle is anything but. According to Alabama court documents, one of the terms of Adcock’s release was that he live with and be under the supervision of his parents in Grapevine.
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ALABAMA/TEXAS
WAAY
Patrick Ary pary@waaytv.com
A former youth minister arrested on sex abuse charges last year in Colbert County could go back behind bars for violating his bond conditions.
Colbert County’s district attorney said a warrant has been issued for the arrest of Charles Kyle Adcock, 32, in Texas.
According to court documents, Adcock is not allowed to work in a capacity that allows him to be unsupervised around minors. Documents filed Thursday indicate Adcock took a job as a worship pastor at First Baptist Church in Bedford, Texas.
Adcock was brought back to Colbert County in September 2014 from Grapevine, Texas, and charged with more than two dozen counts of rape and sodomy. The alleged incidents took place at his Muscle Shoals home while he was a youth minister at Woodward Avenue Baptist Church.
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ALABAMA/TEXAS
WAFF
Steffany Means
Posted: 09/10/2015
COLBERT COUNTY, AL (WAFF) – A warrant has been issued for a former Alabama youth minister facing sex charges in Colbert County.
Charles Kyle Adcock is listed as the worship leader at First Baptist Church in the Dallas suburb of Bedford, Texas.
According to investigators Adcock was accused of rape and sodomy when he was the youth minister at Woodward Avenue Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals between 2010 and 2012.
Colbert County District Attorney’s office says a warrant has been issued for his arrest for violation of his bond conditions,
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MINNESOTA
Canonical Consultation
09/10/2015
Jennifer Haselbergerl
Since Tuesday, when MPR published its story about Gil Gustafson (a priest of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis convicted of sexual abuse of a minor) and his efforts to purchase the Archdiocesan Chancery buildings, many people have written to ask me my thoughts about his efforts. My response is simple: Gil Gustafson doesn’t get it. In my opinion, Gustafson’s belief that he can somehow be an instrument of healing for victims of abuse is just one more lie that he, along with others who sexually abuse minors, tell in order to justify their behavior. On a fundamental level, it is this capacity for self-delusion that makes sex offenders so difficult to treat, it is why their risk of re-offending remains so high, and it is why no reputable therapist will ever speak of them as ‘cured’.
It is also why, in 2002, the Catholic Church opened the door for American dioceses to permanently remove men like Gustafson from the priesthood. Recognizing the risks associated with allowing them to remain as representatives of the church, the Holy Father opened a window whereby American bishops could submit old cases for resolution, regardless of when the abuse had occurred. Many American bishops devoted considerable resources, not to mention personal effort, towards taking advantage of this opportunity. The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, of course, did not.
Instead, the Archdiocese chose to incorrectly characterize priests like Gustafson as ‘prayer and penance’ cases, a designation meant to be reserved for elderly priests whose advanced age or ill health made the judicial application of penalties impossible or ineffective. In exchange for being allowed to remain priests, those living a life of ‘prayer and penace’ agreed to live quietly, under strict diocesan supervision, and to avoid causing further harm or scandal to the community.
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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald
By JOANNE McCARTHY Sept. 10, 2015
THE Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse held its 4000th private hearing in a jail in August as Britain followed Australia’s lead in tackling child sexual abuse.
The royal commission heard evidence on August 19 from a prisoner who had been sexually abused as a child.
In Britain, the head of its newly established Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse praised the ‘‘remarkable’’ response to the Australian commission.
In a speech to Australian church leaders on Thursday, Royal commissioner Justice Peter McClellan said he was pleased the British inquiry would closely follow successful Australian arrangements.
More than 1500 people were waiting for a private hearing and about 40 people a week requested a private hearing, Justice McClellan said.
The royal commission has received 16,361 allegations involving 3566 institutions since it was established in November 2012 following the Newcastle Herald’s Shine the Light campaign for a royal commission into historic child sexual abuse.
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MARYLAND
Virtue Online
By Mary Ann Mueller
VOL Special Correspondent
www.virtueonline.org
September 9, 2015
BALTIMORE, MD — Former Episcopal Bishop Heather Cook was grayer and looked 10 years older as she pleaded guilty in Baltimore City Circuit Court, Tuesday (Sept. 8), a ploy which would bring to an end the legal rollercoaster ride, which started on Dec. 27, 2014, when the intoxicated bishop hit bicyclist Thomas Palermo in North Baltimore bike lane and killed him. While in court, Cook admitted to vehicular manslaughter, drunk driving, texting while driving, as well as leaving the scene of an accident.
As a result of a carefully crafted plea bargain between the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office and Cook’s legal team, — headed by Towson, Maryland, criminal defense attorney David Irwin, — the defrocked bishop could be facing as much as 10 years behind bars for her crime, coupled with five years probation after she gets out.
The prosecution, handled by Assistant Baltimore City State’s Attorney Kurt Bjorklund, is asking for 20 years but will suspend half of it.
Associate Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Timothy Doory said he would sentence Cook on October 27. When the late October sentencing date rolls around, he indicated he would not sentence the former bishop to any more time than prosecutors are seeking. He does have the discretion to lessen her time behind bars.
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KENYA
Daily Nation
By FAITH NYAMAI
The Anglican Church is investigating five more priests from Mt Kenya region over allegations of involvement in homosexuality.
The five, who are on suspension, are married with children and are said to be homosexuals without their wives’ knowledge, according to Mt Kenya West diocese Bishop Joseph Kagunda.
They are from Othaya, Karatina, Murang’a and Nyeri towns.
The church tribunal launched investigations into their behaviour mid this year. Bishop Kagunda also noted that some of them offer marriage counselling.
“The church is ashamed to be associated with them,” said the bishop.
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KENYA
Daily Nation
By FAITH NYAMAI
The Anglican Church (ACK) of Kenya has asked one of its priests to step down for allegedly practising homosexuality.
The priest, who the church said had served in several parishes within Mt Kenya region, is accused of enticing four young men to engage in homosexuality.
The young men are said to have been spending nights with him in the vicars’ house.
The priest reportedly befriended and requested them to visit him at the church for spiritual guidance but would “seduce them and force them to engage in homosexuality.”
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PENNSYLVANIA
We Are Central PA
Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.
It took more than two days, but a jury has been chosen in the case against Rev. Joseph Maurizio.
The selection process began Wednesday, when the judge excused 45 potential jurors. Many of those men and women said they could not be impartial in the trial.
Maurizio is accused of making mission trips to Honduras where he paid to have sex with orphans.
The priest from Somerset County claims he is innocent. His attorneys say the charity Maurizio was working with became angry after the priest broke off ties and accused the group of fabricating these stories.
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SCOTLAND
STV
A former priest at a Highland abbey has appeared in court on six charges of assaulting pupils to their injury.
Father Benedict Seed taught chemistry at Fort Augustus Abbey before the Loch Ness boarding school closed in 1999.
The 82-year-old appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court before Sheriff Margaret Neilson under his real name of Thomas Seed.
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MISSISSIPPI
WJTV
By Donesha Aldridge
JONES COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) — A priest is arrested for sexual battery in Jones County after he confessed to the crime.
A judge set bond at $100,000 for 36-year-old Father Jose Vazquez. We’re told by authorities that Father Vazquez currently works in Stone County.
Sheriff’s Deputies went to the victim’s home on Sept. 9. after his father called authorities. The victim’s father said there was inappropriate behavior between his 12-year-old son and the priest.
When authorities arrived on the scene, Vazquez was still there. He was taken into custody and he confessed to multiple acts of sexual battery with the victim. He said one of the acts happened in Jones County and the other acts happened in other areas.
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UNITED STATES
Pacific Standard
TOM JACOBS
During his upcoming visit to the United States, Pope Francis will attempt to instill some fresh energy into American Catholicism, which desperately needs his holiness’ help. According to a new Reuters analysis, the Catholic Church in the U.S. is dealing with deep financial problems, as well as shrinking congregations—52 million self-identified members this year, compared to 55 million in 2007.
While multiple factors underlie these trends, a recently published study suggests the clergy sex-abuse scandals of recent years have played a major and lasting role.
Economists Nicolas Bottan of the University of Illinois and Ricardo Perez-Truglia of Microsoft Research report there was “a significant decline in religious participation as a result of the scandals,” as well as a parallel decline in charitable donations.
“The indirect cost of the scandals through the decline in giving is an order of magnitude higher than the direct costs of the scandals to the Catholic churches, such as the cost of lawsuit settlements,” the pair write in their study, published in the Journal of Public Economics.
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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
By Paul Peirce
Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015
A federal jury was seated Thursday morning in Johnstown to hear testimony in the trial of a suspended Somerset County Catholic priest accused of traveling to Honduras to have sex with poor street children during missionary trips.
The Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr., 70, of Windber has been in jail since federal prosecutors charged him last fall with molesting a boy and possessing child pornography. An indictment in April added charges involving two other boys and alleged the priest illegally sent $8,000 to a charity to help facilitate the trips that ended in 2009.
The priest has denied the allegations.
The judge gave instructions to the jury of seven men and five women when court reconvened at 1 p.m. Thursday. They are expected to hear opening arguments in the afternoon.
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TEXAS
CBS DFW
Elizabeth Dinh
BEDFORD (CBSDFW.COM) – Community members in Bedford are angry after learning that an employee at First Baptist Church of Bedford was recently indicted on sex abuse charges in Alabama.
Investigators arrested and indicted Kyle Adcock back in January on 20 counts of rape and nine counts of sodomy. Authorities believe that the incidents happened while Adcock worked at Woodward Avenue Baptist Church from 2010 to 2012. Police said that the female victim was 14 years old at the time.
Adcock has not been convicted, and has pleaded not guilty in court.
After he was released, the judge in Alabama ordered Adcock’s parents to supervise him, mandating that the suspect live with his parents at their home here in Grapevine.
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GERMANY
National Catholic Reporter
Christa Pongratz-Lippitt | Sep. 10, 2015
German Jesuit Fr. Klaus Mertes, who first broke the story of the long-standing, systematic priestly sex abuse scandal in Germany in 2010, said in an interview with the German Internet portal katholisch.de, that the Vatican is not doing nearly enough to clear up sex abuse cases.
Mertes said he agrees with Australian Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, who testified to that fact in front of the Australian Royal Commission Aug. 23. Mertes also warned that this may cause credibility problems for the bishops at the coming Synod of Bishops on the family in October.
Robinson was not trying to reopen the subject of abuse and the way the Vatican handled it in his critical testimony before the royal commission, Mertes said. Robinson was deeply worried that the questions the church faced concerning priestly sexual abuse of children when it encountered the victims would once again meet with silence in Rome. This did not mean depreciating praiseworthy efforts like the foundation of the Child Protection Commission and the many different efforts being made to prevent abuse, Mertes said, but added, “They are simply not enough. The entire church is at stake.”
Mertes said he fully agreed with Robinson that Pope Francis had not yet shown the type of leadership needed to deal with child sexual abuse in the church and demanded that the Vatican make greater efforts to clear up sexual abuse cases by members of the clergy. Those responsible in the Vatican at the moment were “not credible” and their desire for clarification “doubtful,” he said.
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PENNSYLVANIA
Catholics4Change
SEPTEMBER 10, 2015 BY SUSAN MATTHEWS
“Statutes of limitations exist to ensure a just verdict can be reached,” said Amy Hill, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference, the bishops’ political arm in the state.
“Over time witnesses’ memories fade, evidence is lost or never found, and in many instances perpetrators or witnesses may be deceased.” – Reuters.com
Hill’s argument doesn’t hold water because there is no Statute of Limitations for murder in Pennsylvania. All the evidence challenges she mentions would also apply to murder trials. There should not be a Statute of Limitations on Child Sex Abuse.
This is just a case of the Church trying to avoid fiscal and moral responsibility.
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UNITED STATES
Al Jazeera
When Pope Francis makes his first visit to the U.S. this month, he will find that wounds from the U.S. Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal have not yet healed.
Those tensions are being played out in courtrooms and state legislatures, where the Church is using its legal and political clout to oppose bills that would extend the statute of limitations for victims of child sex abuse.
A statute of limitations forbids prosecutors or plaintiffs from taking legal action after a certain number of years.
The pontiff has vowed to root out “the scourge” of sex abuse from the Roman Catholic Church, and this year created a Vatican tribunal to judge clergy accused of such crimes.
But U.S. victims’ advocates contend the biggest obstacle they face in giving victims more time to report abuse remains the Church itself, and want the pope to change that stance.
The U.S. church has already been dealt a heavy financial blow by settlement payments and other costs totaling around $3 billion, which has forced it to sell off assets and cut costs.
“It is the bishops who have blocked any kind of meaningful reform,” said Marci Hamilton, a professor at the Cardozo School of Law in New York who studies statutes of limitations.
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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter
Kieran Tapsell | Sep. 10, 2015
ANALYSIS
Dying of cancer, Bishop Emeritus Geoffrey Robinson appeared Aug. 24 before the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to testify to the prevalence of child sexual abuse in the church.
He painted a sad picture of a brave and lonely Sisyphus with his band of bishops in tow, pushing a boulder with a reasoned response to the crisis up the Vatican Hill, only to have it pushed back by popes and cardinals who had no idea about the issue and a blindness about the incapacity of canon law to deal with it.
“However great the faults of the Australian bishops have been over the last 30 years, it still remains true that the major obstacle to a better response from the church has been the Vatican,” Robinson told the commission. Most of the Roman Curia saw the problem as a “moral one: if a priest offends, he should repent; if he repents, he should be forgiven and restored to his position. … They basically saw the sin as a sexual one, and did not show great understanding of the abuse of power involved or the harm done to the victims.”
Robinson entered the seminary at 12-years-old, was ordained a priest, and became a canon lawyer and then auxiliary bishop of Sydney. In 1996, when revelations of clergy sexual abuse of children in Australia had reached a crescendo, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference appointed him to find a solution. In 2004, he resigned as auxiliary bishop of Sydney after concluding that the church’s response was still inadequate.
“I eventually came to the point where I felt that, with the thoughts that were running through my head, I could not continue to be a bishop of a church about which I had such profound reservations,” Robinson wrote in a 2008 book Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church. “I resigned my office as Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney and began to write this book, about the very foundations of power and sex within the church.”
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SCOTLAND
BBC News
A former priest at Fort Augustus Abbey school has appeared in private at Inverness Sheriff Court on six charges of assaulting pupils to their injury.
Father Benedict Seed, 82, taught chemistry at the school on the banks of Loch Ness in the years leading up to its closure in 1999.
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MISSISSIPPI
WDAM
By Eddie Robertson, Reporter
JONES COUNTY, MS (WDAM) –
This is a news release from the Jones County Sheriff’s Department
On Wednesday, Jones County Sheriff’s Deputies were dispatched to a residence in western Jones County on a complaint of sexual battery.
The father of a 12-year-old male victim reported inappropriate behavior between his son and a priest who previously worked in Jones County, Father Jose Vazquez, 36.
Vazquez is currently working in Stone County.
Vazquez was at the victim’s home at the time of the call and remained there as deputies arrived.
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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, Sep. 10
Statement by Frank Meuers, Minnesota SNAP leader, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (952-334-5180, frankameuers@gmail.com)
We urge Catholics and citizens to donate to non-profits with proven records in preventing abuse and healing victims, not to the facility a convicted Minnesota predator priest and others are trying to set up.
We fear that recent publicity about Fr. Gilbert Gustafson’s planned “healing center” will bring more donations to this effort. That would, in our view, be unfortunate.
Giving power and prestige to an admitted serial predator is reckless. But it will also likely encourage other predators to work harder to rehab their reputations and seek power and prestige. And we know that predators often use their power and prestige into befriend parents, groom kids and abuse again.
Just like an alcoholic shouldn’t seek a brewery job, a predator shouldn’t seek a position of power over others, especially already-vulnerable and still-wounded victims of childhood sexual abuse.
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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
Group blasts church staff
They hired accused child molester
SNAP: “Local victims & witnesses must speak up”
Group urges other ministers to “denounce recklessness”
What:
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, abuse victims will
–blast the pastor of a Dallas area church for quietly hiring an accused child molester, and
–urge other local Baptist ministers to “publicly denounce” the pastor
They will also
–seek out others who saw, suspected or suffered misdeeds or crimes by the alleged predator, and
–prod current and former church members and staff to call law enforcement if they “saw, suspected or suffered” the accused molester’s crimes or his supervisors’ cover ups.
WHEN
Thursday, September 10 at 1:00 p.m.
WHERE
On the sidewalk outside the First Baptist Church Bedford (corner of Bedford Rd and Barr Dr) in Bedford, Texas
2045 Bedford Rd
Bedford, TX 76021
WHO
Two-three adults who belong to a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a whistleblower from another Texas Baptist church
WHY
SNAP members are upset that First Baptist Church of Bedford Pastor Steve Knott quietly hired a pastor who is charged with child rape and sodomy in Alabama.
Alabama court records show that First Baptist music minister Charles Kyle Adcock faces charges for 29 counts of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl at Woodward Avenue Baptist Church between 2010 and 2012.
For the safety of congregants, SNAP wants 1) the church board to “harshly and public discipline Knott for acting so recklessly,” and 2) all church staff and members to “aggressively search for and help anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes or cover ups” by Adcock (or other church staff) 3) prod victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call law enforcement in both states and help them investigate and convict Adcock “and anyone who might have enabled or hidden his crimes.”
If more victims, witnesses or whistleblowers step forward, SNAP says, Adcock may face more charges which “will increase the chances that he’ll be extradited, convicted and imprisoned and make everyone safer and deters similar crimes and cover ups in the future.”
SNAP also contends that, to “deter such recklessness and secrecy in the future,” other Baptist officials in the Dallas/Fort Worth area should publicly denounce pastor Steve Knott “for his irresponsible actions that put children in harm’s way.”
Some church members or staff who may have information or suspicions about Adcock and his hiring may have quit the church in frustration or fear, SNAP says. So the organization is appealing to ex-church-goers and ex-church employees and ask them to “share any anything they may know about this troubling situation” with law enforcement.
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MISSOURI
The Raw Story
BETHANIA PALMA MARKUS
19 AUG 2015
A Missouri pastor at a church called “Passion for Truth Ministries” will serve prison time for lying to and defrauding elderly investors, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
Jim Staley, 40, was sentenced Wednesday to 7 years in prison and ordered to repay elderly investors $3.3 million. He pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud and profited $570,000 in the scam of elderly people who trusted him because of his Christian faith and family values. Some of them were suffering from dementia.
Although he apologized, the daughter of a man who lost $155,000 in Staley’s scam said it wasn’t sincere and was staged for church members.
His victims were not members of his parish.
Despite being warned by the court that not accepting personal responsibility for his actions could earn him more prison time, Staley has said in sermons that he was “in the wrong place at the wrong time” and blamed the economy.
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UNITED STATES
The Guardian (UK)
Amanda Holpuch in New York
@holpuch
Thursday 10 September 2015
For decades, the locker rooms at Chaminade College Preparatory School in St Louis were a place of terror for several students aged 11 to 18, who as adults have filed lawsuits against the school alleging widespread sexual abuse by its staff. Former students also say they were abused in Chaminade’s boarding school rooms and staff offices.
Christopher Wimmer, who says he was abused by two staff members at Chaminade for seven years, reports anger issues and problems with authority and is unable to keep a job because bosses frustrate him, along with a host of other mental and physical issues. He describes himself as “one of the good ones”, however, having seen people escorted into child sex abuse survivor support groups, unable to speak and barely able to function.
“I always thought that because I hadn’t eaten a gun or jumped off a bridge that I had transcended,” Wimmer said.
The story is a familiar one across the US, where the culture of child sex abuse in Catholic organizations persists.
When Pope Francis arrives in the US for the first time later this month, his reputation as the beloved “people’s pope” will be clouded by the trauma endured by the thousands of people abused as children in the Catholic church.
Wimmer told the Guardian that he hopes Francis is as “wonderful” as his reputation suggests. “But as far as this issue goes, he hasn’t done anything to give me hope,” the 56-year-old said.
Using data from John Jay College of Criminal Justice’s 2011 report on sex abuse in the church, BishopAccountability.org estimates that there have been at least 17,200 victims in the US. The site warns that this is a conservative estimate.
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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat
Posted: Wednesday, September 9, 2015
By David Hurst
dhurst@tribdem.com
Attorneys will likely be able to deliver opening statements Thursday in a Central City priest’s sex abuse trial.
But both sides’ legal teams will begin the day weighing in on which of the 44 jury finalists should be seated in the 12-member jury panel – the final step in this week’s extended jury selection procedure.
Attorneys representing the U.S. Government and the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr., still have a limited number of “strikes” they can use to eliminate individuals viewed as unfavorable to their respective sides. But that process should be completed Thursday morning, U.S. District Judge Kim R. Gibson told the court.
Jury selection extends into a third day after two days of questioning eliminated 67 of 111 potential jurors for extraordinary hardships or “cause,” such as bias or prejudice toward one side or the other.
Maurizio, 70, is accused of using his Honduran mission to lure street orphans, offering them candy for sex acts.
Prosecutors have described him as a habitual abuser who transferred money across national borders to fund his fetish for young boys.
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AUSTRALIA
The Age
[with video]
Sex abuse inquiry: Former Geelong Grammar principal admits teacher accused of child sex abuse was paid to retire early
September 10, 2015
Henrietta Cook
Education Reporter at The Age
A former Geelong Grammar principal has admitted he paid a teacher accused of child sex abuse to retire early, but insists it was not a “sweetheart deal”.
Nicholas Sampson, who has been the headmaster of Sydney’s elite Cranbrook School since 2012, told the Royal Commission into Institutional Response to Child Abuse that he regretted writing a glowing letter to former teacher Jonathan Harvey, thanking him for his “exceptional service”.
Mr Harvey was jailed in 2007 for 10 months, with another 22 months suspended, after pleading guilty to abusing a former student between 1976 and 1978.
Mr Sampson, who was principal of Geelong Grammar from 2001 to 2004, said on Thursday he became aware of sexual abuse allegations involving Mr Harvey during his final month at the school.
In a tense discussion in Mr Sampson’s office, staff member BLW, who had attended the school as a child, revealed to the former Geelong Grammar principal that his brother had been sexually abused by Mr Harvey in the late ’70s.
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CALIFORNIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
In about 20 minutes, using one website (BishopAccountability.org), we found ten proven, admitted or credibly accused predator priests who were “outed” elsewhere but worked in the Sacramento area. On 9/8/15, SNAP disclosed their names:
–Fr. Robert “Bob” Marsicek
According to his personnel files, his superiors repeatedly told him to stop hugging and touching children. In May 2012, Sacramento police launched an investigation of Marsicek after a woman reported that the priest had molested her two sons in the late 1980s and early 1990s while he was their parish pastor.
Fr. Marsicek’s direct supervisor is Fr. Joseph Rodrigues, who knew of the Sacramento investigation but kept Fr. Marsicek in ministry in Milwaukee. Almost a year later, Fr. Marsicek was put on leave after a parish school teacher reported that she observed him on several occasions inappropriately touching a little girl.
He also worked in Arizona and Alabama. He belongs to a religious order called the Salvatorians.
As of 2013, he was said to be living in a church facility in Milwaukee.
–Br. William C. Farrington
He worked at Bellarmine College Prep in San Jose in the late 1960s. Fr. Farrington supervised students living on campus. School officials found accusations against him credible and publicly apologized to the accuser. They also reportedly sent letter to hundreds of former students about him.
In 2002, Fr. Farrington was removed from Loyola Marymount University after allegations from another student at Jesuit HS. He reportedly lives “under supervision” at Los Gatos Retreat Center in California. At least four other victims of his have come forward.
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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post
By Sarah Pulliam Bailey September 9
A once-influential Orthodox rabbi who was sentenced to prison for videotaping dozens of women as they prepared for a ritual bath in a Washington synagogue, has issued an apology to the women, the first time he has spoken publicly since his arrest last fall.
In a letter published Wednesday, Barry Freundel wrote that he would have preferred to apologize individually to each of his victims, but he felt that it could cause further harm to some and would be unwelcome, so he issued a public apology, saying he “shattered the worlds of those I most loved.”
“No matter how many times I attempt to apologize, it will never be enough,” Freundel wrote in his Sept. 8 letter of apology, which was at the Washington Jewish Week’s Web site. “I am sorry, beyond measure, for my heinous behavior and the perverse mindset that provoked my actions.”
In May, Freundel who had pleaded guilty to secretly videotaping 52 women, was sentenced to 6 1 /2 years in prison. He had been arrested in October 2014 on charges that he videotaped nude women at Kesher Israel synagogue in Georgetown as the women prepared for the bath known as a mikvah, used as part of a purification ritual.
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UNITED STATES
CBS Baltimore
BALTIMORE (WJZ)—The rabbi who was sentenced to six and a half years in May for secretly videotaping naked women issues a public apology, calling his behavior “heinous” and “perverse”.
“No matter how many times I attempted to apologize, it will never be enough,” said Rabbi Barry Freundel in a personal apology posted on the Washington Jewish Week website.
“I am sorry, beyond measure, for my heinous behavior and the perverse mindset that provoked my actions.”
Freundel, who was a professor at both Towson and Georgetown universities, was arrested back in October 2014 of last year on charges of voyeurism.
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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
10 September, 2015
The Hon. Justice Peter McClellan AM, Chair of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, will address the Safe as Churches? conference hosted by the National Council of Churches in Australia in Sydney today.
Justice McClellan’s speech is available here.
Justice McClellan also delivered an address at the Supreme Court Conference in Bowral on Friday 4 September. You can access a copy of this speech here.
For media inquiries about the Royal Commission or Justice McClellan’s speeches, contact the Royal Commission media unit on 02 8282 3966 or media@childabuseroyalcommission.gov.au.
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AUSTRALIA
Pro Bono Australia
Posted: Thursday, September 10, 2015
The Catholic Church’s Truth Justice and Healing Council has called for the introduction of a new, consistent nation-wide criminal law requiring the reporting to the police of suspected child sexual abuse.
In its submission to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Issues Paper 8, called Police and Prosecution Responses, the Council recommends the new law should require anyone who has a reasonable belief that a sexual offence has been committed against a child to disclose what they know to the police.
The Submission said the only circumstance in which this would not be required is if the person has a reasonable excuse, such as where the person believes the allegations have already been reported under mandatory reporting laws.
Francis Sullivan CEO of the TJHC said nationally consistent police reporting legislation would enhance a nationally consistent, trauma informed approach to survivors of child sexual abuse.
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UNITED KINGDOM
The Argus
AN ALLEGED victim of former bishop Peter Ball says he has been “denied justice” now his case will not be heard in court – even as the clergyman finally admitted sexually abusing 18 young men.
Phil Johnson waived his anonymity to speak out after prosecutors accepted the former Lewes bishop’s guilty pleas on most counts, bu left Mr Johnson’s and another man’s allegations to lie on file.
The 49-year-old, from Eastbourne, who said he was indecently assaulted by Ball in 1978, which Ball denies, said: “I have been pursuing this for nearly 20 years and never has my experience been told in open court.
“Throughout the two decades since the original disclosures, none of the allegations has been tested or fully examined. At every turn there have been deals and cover-ups.”
On Tuesday, two decades of investigations and negotiations – including a phonecall from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the chief prosecutor behind the case were revealed after reporting restrictions were lifted at the Old Bailey.
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