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.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat
…bets are off that our town’s Monsignor Richard Stika, currently Bishop of Knoxville, will be the American prelate to take up a Vatican post. Says vet Vatican watcher John Allen: “Traditionally, at least one American is asked to head a significant decision-making post.
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.
August 6, 1937 – November 15, 2014
The great survivor-activist Rick Springer died today in Chicago.
Almost every cabbie has a story: Here’s one of self-redemption, by Brianna McClane, Medill Reports, Northwestern University, June 8, 2010
Silence is broken: Victims of sexual abuse by clergy seek strength and answers at conference, by Michael Hirsley, Chicago Tribune, October 19, 1992
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
dotCommonweal
Grant Gallicho November 15, 2014
Are Robert Finn’s days as bishop of Kansas City-St. Joseph numbered? Judging from comments Cardinal Sean O’Malley made to 60 Minutes, it sure sounds like it. Yesterday CBS News released a preview of Norah O’Donnell’s interview with O’Malley, archbishop of Boston, in which he acknowledged that the Holy See must do something about Finn, who pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of failing to report suspected child endangerment over two years ago, and was never publicly disciplined by Benedict XVI. “It’s a question that the Holy See needs to address urgently,” O’Malley told O’Donnell. Does the pope understand that? she asked. “There’s a recognition…from Pope Francis,” O’Malley replied. The cardinal also acknowledged that, owing to Finn’s conviction, the bishop would not even be allowed to teach Sunday school.
In September, the National Catholic Reporter broke the news that the Vatican had sent Archbishop Terrance Prendergast of Ontario to Kansas City to investigate Finn, after the bishop’s former chancellor (who is now posted in Chicago) asked the Congregation for Bishops to intervene (I covered some of this here). That seemed to confirm speculation that Finn was one of the three bishops Pope Francis revealed was under investigation back in May. At that time, the pope said that one of the three had “already been found guilty, and we are now considering the penalty to be imposed.” As head of the Vatican’s new sexual-abuse commission, and as one of the pope’s closest advisers, Cardinal O’Malley is part of that “we.”
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.
PARAGUAY
ABC Color
El papa Francisco nombró este sábado a los nuevos obispos en Encarnación, donde renunció monseñor Ignacio Gogorza, y en Ciudad del Este, donde había sido destituido el polémico Rogelio Livieres.
El nuncio apostólico Eliseo Ariotti convocó a una conferencia de prensa en el local de la Conferencia Episcopal Paraguaya (CEP) para anunciar la reciente decisión emanada de la Santa Sede. De esta manera, se comunicó que el papa Francisco aceptó la dimisión de monseñor Ignacio Gogorza Izaguirre de la diócesis de Encarnación, quien decidió retirarse debido a que hace tres años cumplió los 75 años, edad límite para presentar la renuncia al cargo de obispo, según el canon 401 parágrafo 1 del Derecho Canónico.
Como nuevo obispo de la capital de Itapúa fue designado Francisco Pistilli Scorzara, sacerdote del Instituto Secular de los Padres de Schoenstatt. El religioso de 49 años nació en Asunción y tiene 17 años en el sacedocio. Por otra parte, se nombró como obispo de la diócesis de Ciudad del Este al padre Wilhelm (Guillermo) Steckling, quien es “misionero oblato de María Inmaculada”. El nuevo líder de la Iglesia en la capital del Alto Paraná nació en Westfalia, Alemania, pero ya se encontraba viviendo desde hace varios años en Paraguay. Tiene 67 años de edad y recientemente cumplió 40 en el sacerdocio.
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.
PARGUAY
La Nacion
[Pope Francis has appointed Francisco Pistilli Scorzara to replace Bishop Ignacio Gogorza Izaguirre of the Encarnacion diocese and Wilhelm Steckling has been appointed to replace Bishop Regelio Livieres Plano, whom the pope previously terminated from his position in the Ciudad del Este diocese.]
El nuncio apostólico Eliseo Ariotti en conferencia de prensa, anunció que Francisco Pistilli Scorzara, reemplaza a monseñor Ignacio Gogorza Izaguirre de la diócesis de Encarnación, luego que éste renunciara por llegar a los 75 años, como lo establece el canon 401 parágrafo 1 del Derecho Canónico.
Además, en reemplazo del destituído obispo Rogelio Livieres Plano, fue designado Wilhelm Steckling, al frente de la diócesis de Ciudad del Este.
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.
ESTADOS UNIDOS
Religion Digital
Sean O’Malley: “El Vaticano debe aplicar tolerancia cero contra los sacerdotes pedófilos y quienes los encubren”
El cardenal de Boston y responsable de la Comisión de Víctimas de Abusos Sexuales del clero creada por el Papa Francisco, Sean O’Malley, sostuvo ayer que el Vaticano debe aplicar una política de tolerancia cero con los sacerdotes pedófilos y quienes los encubren.
La Santa Sede deberá “atender con urgencia” el caso del obispo Robert Finn, todavía en funciones en la diócesis de Kansas City-Saint Joseph pese a que fue declarado culpable, hace dos años de no denunciar un delito de pedofilia cometido por un sacerdote, declaró el cardenal a la cadena CBS.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
WASHINGTON
University Book Store
SUNDAY • NOVEMBER 23 • 4:30PM
Mary Dispenza
Split: A Child, A Priest, and the Catholic Church (NA)
Bellevue Store – Seattle, WA
Launch Party
A former nun, author and activist Mary Dispenza now serves as the Puget Sound representative for Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). In her poignant and powerful new memoir, she shares her journey to becoming the advocate she is today, beginning with the childhood abuse by her parish priest that remained buried in her memory for decades, offering an inside look at the church during her years as a nun and teacher, and chronicling her search for understanding, her journey of healing, and her involvement in legal proceedings to hold the church accountable after the memory resurfaced. As her influential new book hits shelves this fall, we’re excited to celebrate its release and the brave and important journey it depicts at a launch party with Dispenza herself.
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
Religion Dispatches
BY PATRICIA MILLER NOVEMBER 14, 2014
The U.S. bishops’ semi-annual meeting, which concluded in Baltimore on Thursday, was one giant raspberry to Pope Francis’ agenda. The meeting was heavy on the bishops’ favorite culture war themes, but largely dissed issues near and dear to Francis like income inequality and immigration.
The oversight on immigration was so glaring in light of the current debate in Washington that the bishops hastily arranged for Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, the head of the bishops’ migration committee, to remind the meeting about a letter the committee sent the Obama administration in September urging executive action on the immigration crisis.
The bishops failed to elect Francis’ favorite bishop, Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, to represent them at the next critical leg of the family summit. They are, however, sending the president and the VP of the bishops’ conference, as well as Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who has been highly critical of efforts to modernize the church. Newly appointed Chicago Bishop Blase J. Cupich was selected as an alternate.
And Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who spent the meeting denying that there was any discord at the recent family synod and blaming any perception of such on the media, was elected to head the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, giving him an elevated platform and a good excuse to dial-up the anti-abortion rhetoric.
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
RTE News
Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley has said it is high time for the Vatican to tackle the case of an American bishop convicted of shielding an abusive priest.
In an interview to air tomorrow on CBS television’s “60 Minutes” current affairs programme, O’Malley said “the Holy See needs to urgently address” the question of Bishop Robert Finn.
“There is a recognition of that from Pope Francis,” added O’Malley.
Cardinal O’Malley is the president of the Pope’s new Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, which is leading the church’s efforts to recover from the clerical child sexual abuse scandals.
He is also the only American appointed by Francis to his council of nine cardinal advisers from around the world.
Finn is still head of the Catholic diocese in Kansas City, Missouri two years after he pleaded guilty to failing to tell police that one of his priests was sexually abusing a minor.
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.
IRELAND
Irish Times
Barry Roche
Sat, Nov 15, 2014
The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have apologised for the hurt caused by one its congregation after he was convicted of sexually abusing two boys at a boarding school run by the order in Co Cork in the 1970s and 1980s.
Tadhg Ó Dálaigh (71), of Woodview, Mount Merrion Avenue, Dublin, pleaded guilty earlier this year to abusing one of the boys at Coláiste an Craoí Naofa in Carrignavar in 1982 and 1983
He was convicted by a unanimous verdict of a jury following a two day trial at Cork Circuit Criminal Court in June of sexually assaulting another boy at the boarding school on a date in 1979.
Ó Dálaigh was back in court for sentence yesterday when Judge Donagh McDonagh heard victim impact statements from both the boys – now middle aged men – about how their lives had been affected by the abuse.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
BELGIE
Focus TV
[Deacon Philippe Carpentier, who worked closely with the latest priest accused of abuse in the Bruges diocese, said he knew nothing of the investigation of the priest and said it came as “a bolt from the blue.”]
De diaken in Hooglede wist niets af van het onderzoek tegen de in opspraak gekomen geestelijke.
Diaken Filip Carpentier werkt nauw samen met de priester, als sinds 2007. Toen werd de man uit Loppem pastoor in Hooglede. “Het is een donderslag bij heldere hemel. Hoe is dat nu mogelijk. Een kerk wordt gemaakt door mensen en er gebeuren daar jammer genoeg zware fouten”, zegt de man.
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.
BELGIE
De Morgen
[Child psychiatrist Peter Adriaenssens said its is painful to find a third abuse case in the Bruges diocese.]
STEFAN GROMMEN
“Heel pijnlijk”, zo noemt kinderpsychiater Peter Adriaenssens de link tussen de derde misbruikzaak in het bisdom Brugge, die vandaag aan het licht gebracht werd, en de actuele heisa in het bisdom. Dat zei in een interview in ‘De Ochtend’ op Radio 1. Hij suggereert dat De Kesel in die periode niet meer kon en mocht doen.
De timing waarop het oude kindermisbruikdossier van de priester die nu nog altijd met straatkinderen in Brazilië werkt aan het licht kwam, was uitzonderlijk. Dat vertelt Peter Adriaenssens, toen voorzitter van de commissie-Adriaenssens die het misbruik in de Kerk moest onderzoeken. “Ik herinner me dit dossier nog zeer goed, want het gesprek met hem (de priester in kwestie, nvdr) had plaats op de dag van de inval van operatie-Kelk (eind juni 2010, nvdr), de dag dat de commissie opgeheven werd. We waren net met dat dossier begonnen.”
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.
CANADA
VOCM
The province’s survivors of Indian Residential Schools will begin their lawsuit against the Canadian Government in court next week. VOCM’s Linda Swain has more.
Back in 2007, the federal government agreed to settle a nation-wide class action with the survivors of abuse at the schools which were set up to assimilate Aboriginal children into European-style cultural norms. The Prime Minister also offered an official apology to survivors on behalf of all Canadians.
At the time, approximately 1,000 survivors of residential schools in Newfoundland and Labrador were excluded from the settlement and have been forced to take a separate class action lawsuit. Canada in turn, is suing the International Grenfell Association, Moravian Church and Moravian Union as third parties.
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.
KANSAS CITY (MO)
KCTV
[with video]
By DeAnn Smith, Digital Content Manager
KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) –
According to a top American cardinal, Pope Francis needs to take quick action against Kansas City’s bishop for failing to report a pedophile priest.
Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, spoke to 60 Minutes’ Norah O’Donnell for an interview airing after NFL football on Sunday.
O’Malley is the head of the church’s new commission formed to combat child abuse within the Catholic Church worldwide. He said there must be accountability when it comes to bishops who fail to protect children in his diocese.
In May, Pope Francis revealed that three bishops were under investigation for their roles in child abuse sex scandals. It was revealed in September that Kansas Bishop Robert Finn is one of those three.
Finn was found guilty of failing to report to state authorities a priest who took pornographic pictures of little girls and pulled down their clothing to expose their private parts. Finn apologized in 2012 and was placed on two years probation for the misdemeanor conviction.
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.
FLORIDA
Crestview News Bulletin
By News Bulletin contributor
Published: Friday, November 14, 2014
SHALIMAR — The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office today charged a Shalimar man with lewd or lascivious battery on a person 12 to 16 years of age.
Larry Michael Thorne, 53, a chaplain at Abundant Life Church, is accused of committing the sexual acts on numerous occasions between Jan. 1, 2012 and Nov. 11, 2014.
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.
FLORIDA
Northwest Florida Daily News
By TRISTA PRUETT | Daily News
Published: Friday, November 14, 2014
FORT WALTON BEACH — Larry Michael Thorne, pastor of Abundant Life Church, was arrested Friday on charges of inappropriately touching a 14-year-old girl.
Thorne had sexual contact with the girl on numerous occasions between January 2012 and this month, according to his arrest report from the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office. He was charged with lewd and lascivious battery-engaging in sexual activity with a person 12 to 16 years old.
The girl was 14 years old when the touching began. She said it started with mutual massages and escalated to “sexual activity,” Thorne’s arrest report said.
The investigation included forensic interviews and “a controlled telephone call between (Thorne) and the victim,” according to the report. During the call, the victim confronted Thorne “numerous times” about the acts. He didn’t refute the allegations and changed the subject, the report said.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
KANSAS CITY (MO)
Fox 4
[with video]
NOVEMBER 14, 2014, BY MEGAN BRILLEY
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City-St. Joseph Catholic Diocese bishop is back in the national spotlight, gaining the attention of Pope Francis himself.
A key cardinal and advisor to Pope Francis spoke with 60 Minutes and said the pope knows he will have to soon address Bishop Robert Finn.
Since Bishop Finn’s conviction, the diocese has not been the same. Catholics are hoping this break in silence will bring change and hope to back the church.
“I’m just your average catholic in the pew,” said Jeff Weis.
Weis was raised Catholic and was heavily involved in the diocese of Kansas City, until he heard the man he once called a spiritual leader is now labeled a criminal.
“It’s hard for me to go to a church that I know is part of his diocese,” said Weis.
In 2012, a Jackson County judge convicted Bishop Finn of misdemeanor failure to report suspicions of child abuse. Investigators say Bishop Finn did not tell authorities about a priest who later pleaded guilty to producing child porn.
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
Broadway World
Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the Archbishop of Boston, tells 60 MINUTES that the Vatican needs to “urgently address” the fact that the first American bishop to be convicted of shielding an abusive priest still remains the head of an American Catholic diocese. O’Malley speaks to Norah O’Donnell in a rare extended interview in which the cardinal addresses several issues in the Catholic Church. It will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES, Sunday Nov. 16 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Bishop Robert Finn of the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese, pleaded guilty more than two years ago to the criminal misdemeanor of failing to tell law enforcement one of his priests was suspected of sexually abusing a minor. The Vatican began investigating Finn’s leadership of his diocese in September, where he remains bishop. Citing the Church’s stated “zero tolerance” policy on sex abuse, O’Donnell says to O’Malley that Finn “wouldn’t be allowed to teach Sunday school in Boston.”
“That’s right,” replies O’Malley. Asked what Finn’s continued status says to Catholics, the Cardinal responds, “It’s a question the Holy See needs to address urgently…There’s a recognition of that from Pope Francis.” Watch an excerpt. O’Malley is head of the Catholic Church’s new commission formed to combat child abuse in the Church worldwide. He was also chosen by Pope Francis to be on the nine-member Council of Cardinals – the pontiff’s closest advisors.
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
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A federal judge Friday reversed a decision by a magistrate to release a Johnstown-area priest charged with traveling to Honduras for sex with boys and ordered him detained pending trial.
U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson said the Rev. Joseph Maurizio, 69, will remain behind bars as a risk to flee and a danger to the community, the two standards that govern federal detention orders.
The ruling overturned a decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Pesto to release the priest as long as his bank accounts were frozen and he was unable to access church funds.
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
Boston Herald
By: Owen Boss
An American bishop convicted of shielding a sexually abusive priest is still the head of a Catholic diocese, a fact the Vatican needs to “address urgently,” Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley tells CBS News during an extended “60 Minutes” interview set to air tomorrow night.
“We’re looking at how the church could have protocols on how to respond when a bishop has not been responsible for the protection of children in his diocese,” O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, says of Bishop Robert Finn of the Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., diocese.
Finn pleaded guilty more than two years ago to a charge of failing to tell law enforcement one of his priests was suspected of sexually abusing a minor.
“It’s a question the Holy See needs to address urgently … There’s a recognition of that from Pope Francis,” O’Malley tells CBS.
Finn waited six months to notify police about the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, whose computer contained hundreds of lewd photos of young girls taken in and around churches where he worked. Ratigan was sentenced to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to child pornography charges.
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
Bilgrimage
William D. Lindsey
Updates on Two Catholic Abuse Stories: Cardinal O’Malley on Bishop Finn and Pope Francis; SNAP Holds Media Event to Press Arkansas Bishop for More Information about Abusive Priest
Two updates on previous stories I’ve told here about the clerical abuse situation in various parts of the Catholic world. The first has to do with Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Missouri, who was convicted in 2012 of criminal behavior in shielding Father Shawn Ratigan after Finn knew that Ratigan possessed child pornography (he had been taking pornographic photos of little girls) on his computer. If you want to follow what I’ve reported about that story in the past, please click on the label “Bishop Robert Finn” below this posting.
Today, CBS News has uploaded to its website a preview of an interview of Boston cardinal Seán O’Malley by journalist Norah O’Donnell. The full interview will air on CBS this coming Sunday (16 November) at 7 P.M. ET. As Joshua McElwee reports for National Catholic Reporter, Finn’s situation is “a question that the Holy See needs to address urgently.”
Stay tuned. This is a story that sounds to me as if it’s about to get interesting.
The second update is about a story I reported here in October: in late September, the Catholic bishop of Little Rock, Anthony Taylor, removed from ministry a priest named Father James Melnick. As my previous posting notes, when Taylor removed Melnick from ministry, he announced that there had been multiple accusations of sexual misconduct with adults made against Melnick.
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
Bilgrimage
William D. Lindsey
Father Tom Doyle on Sexual Abuse by Clergy: An Audio File from Presentation to Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary
Finally today, I want to share with you another educational resource — this one, a link to an audio file of a presentation given by Father Thomas Doyle to Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana. As the graphic from the Facebook page of this school indicates, in late October, Father Tom Doyle, who has for years now been a prophetic voice in challenging Catholic institutional leaders to address the clerical abuse crisis in the Catholic church, spoke at the seminary about clergy sexual abuse.
AMBS has helpfully uploaded an audio file of the presentation to its website. It’s here. I’m grateful to Ruth Krall (who attended this event) for pointing me to this resource, and I want to share it now with all of you.
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 KINGDOM
Daily Mail
Headteacher who was arrested at his desk on child sex abuse charges and endured year-long court ordeal is cleared by jury in just 15 minutes
By MARTIN ROBINSON FOR MAILONLINE
A respected headmaster was cleared by a jury in just 15 minutes of molesting an unruly pupil in his study.
James Bird, 53, was arrested at his desk and subjected to a year long court ordeal after he was accused of assaulting a boy more than decade ago when he was head of a Church of England primary school.
The boy, now 20, described as ‘aggressive, confrontational and challenging’ by staff had been sent to Mr Bird’s study for being rude to a teacher in class.
Ten years later he went to police after a drinking session with a friend to claim he was forced to perform sex acts upon Mr Bird as ‘punishment’ for being naughty at St Peter’s C or E Primary School, in Accrington, Lancashire.
During the inquiry Mr Bird was suspended and computer and phones were seized from his home in Leyland – but no inappropriate material was found.
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
Toledo Blade
TIFFIN — A former layman at Bloomville United Methodist Church was convicted Friday of gross sexual imposition and sentenced to the maximum five years in prison.
Emanuel Lewis, 61, of New Washington, Ohio, was found guilty by a jury in Seneca County Common Pleas Court. Judge Steve Shuff also ordered him to pay restitution of $692 to the victim’s family and to register as a sex offender.
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.
INDIA
The American Bazaar
Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting 14-year-old girl in Minnesota loses appeal in India’s High Court to stop extradition
By The American Bazaar Staff
WASHINGTON, DC: Roman Catholic priest Rev. Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, 59, who has been incarcerated at the Tihar Jail in New Delhi for over two years, lost his appeal in the High Court in New Delhi on Friday, to stop being extradited to the US, to face trial in Minnesota over allegations of sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl during his time of service there nearly 10 years ago.
Justice Pratibha Rani ordered extradition of Jeyapaul to the US, saying there was no fault in the decisions of the Indian government and the trial court, reported the Business Standard.
“This court is unable to find any fault in the finding of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the lower court,” Justice Rani said, adding that there is a “prima facie” case against Jeyapaul, warranting his extradition.
Jeyapaul had approached the High Court after the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) rejected his representation challenging the trial court’s order. MEA had on October 31 issued an order to extradite him.
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.
IRELAND
Irish Examiner
By Liam Heylin
A normal middle-class teenager’s life collapsed around him when a priest sexually assaulted him in the sick bay of a boarding school in 1979 and returned moments afterwards with a Disprin and a glass of water.
This victim of Tadhg Ó Dálaigh, aged 71, of Woodview, Mount Merrion Avenue, Blackrock, Dublin, and another victim of the priest both told yesterday of attempting suicide as a result of feelings of self-loathing after the sexual abuse.
The abuse in the sick bay was denied by Ó Dálaigh but a jury found him guilty earlier this year. In a statement read by investigating officer Sgt Ann Marie Guiney yesterday, this victim described how the abuse had affected him.
His said his last happy memory was sitting in a friend’s bedroom aged 16 without a care in the world listening to Genesis’ ‘Follow You, Follow Me’. His next memory was of going to boarding school at Coláiste An Chroí Naofa, Carraig Na Bhfear, Co Cork, and waking up on a Sunday night at Easter 1979 in the sick bay of the school being masturbated by the priest until he ejaculated. He pretended to sleep until it was over because he went into deep shock. He sat up afterwards. Ó Dálaigh then went away and came back with a glass of water and a Disprin for the sick boy.
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
Daily American
BY CODY MCDEVITT codym@dailyamerican.com
A federal judge has overturned the decision of a magistrate judge to release a Central City Catholic priest accused of sexual abuse while he awaits trial.
Joseph Maurizio Jr., 69, is charged with sexually assaulting Honduran children while performing missionary work. U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Pesto placed him on home detention on Nov. 6 until the disposition of his trial.
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, Nov. 14, 2014
A Somerset County Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing an orphaned boy in Honduras in 2009 will not be released from jail to await trial, a federal judge in Johnstown ruled Friday.
Judge Kim Gibson reversed a decision last week by U.S. Magistrate Keith Pesto that permitted the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr., 69, to await trial under home detention at his farm in Windber. Gibson ruled after hearing a federal agent testify Friday that investigators may have located two more alleged molestation victims in Honduras.
Maurizio is charged with engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places and possession of material depicting the sexual exploitation of a minor. A federal indictment accuses Maurizio of traveling to Honduras between Feb. 26 and March 13, 2009, to have sex with an underage boy.
Maurizio has pleaded not guilty. He has been held in the Cambria County Jail since Sept. 24.
The U.S. Attorney’s office was granted a stay following Pesto’s ruling Nov. 6, delaying Maurizio’s release so it could appeal.
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
BishopAccountability.org
Summary of Case: James P. Hurley was ordained a Jesuit of the Oregon Province in 1940. Most of his career was spent on Indian reservations in WA state, MT, OR and ID. He was also assigned to Gonzaga University in Spokane WA, and briefly to Jesuit high schools in Seattle and Spokane WA, Portland OR and Missoula MT. He retired to the Jesuits’ Regis Community in Spokane in 1996, and died in 1998. Hurley’s name was included in 2011 on the Oregon Province’s list of its members who have been identified as perpetrators of sexual abuse.
Ordained: 1940
Died: Nov. 14, 1988
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
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
November 14, 2014 7:16 PM
By Torsten Ove / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A federal judge today reversed a decision by a magistrate to release a Johnstown-area priest charged with traveling to Honduras for sex with young boys and ordered him detained pending trial.
U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson said Rev. Joseph Maurizio, 69, will remain behind bars as a risk to flee and a danger to the community, the two standards that govern federal detention orders.
The ruling overturned an earlier decision by U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Pesto to release the priest as long his bank accounts were frozen and he was unable to access church funds.
Judge Pesto had kept Rev. Maurizio jailed, however, while the U.S. attorney’s office appealed the decision.
Prosecutors were especially concerned that Rev. Maurizio would use his money, the source of which remains unexplained, to flee the country.
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PENNSYLVANIA
Daily Journal
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: November 14, 2014
JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania — A federal judge is reversing an earlier order to grant home detention to a Pennsylvania priest and is ordering him held until his trial on charges of traveling to Honduras for sex with poor street children during missionary trips.
U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson in Johnstown reversed the decision after a detention hearing Friday for the Rev. Joseph Maurizio.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Pesto last week ruled the 69-year-old priest could be released to home detention as long as his bank accounts are frozen and he’s not able to access church-related funds.
Now, the 69-year-old Maurizio will remain behind bars, after prosecutors argued he could use the money to flee the country before he’s prosecuted and sought the second hearing.
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
Catholic League
Bill Donohue comments on an editorial by the Gallup Independent, a New Mexico daily, attacking the Diocese of Gallup:
Much to the pleasure of the Gallup Independent, the Diocese of Gallup filed for bankruptcy a year ago. How do I know they are delighted? Because of a November 12 editorial noting the “one-year anniversary.”
The editorial wants Bishop James S. Wall to “Publicize the list of credibly accused abusers by inserting it for three consecutive weeks in the church bulletins of every parish that was ever part of the Gallup Diocese.” Reality check: Parishes that have closed have no bulletin.
There is a rampant problem with the sexual abuse of minors among the Navajo in the Gallup area, yet we know of no campaign by this newspaper to demand that they publicize such a list. Wonder why.
The overreach of Bob Zollinger, who runs the Gallup Independent, is incontestable:
“Publicly release a list of all real property in Arizona and New Mexico, along with the sale price,” he says. Here’s my favorite: “The Diocese of Gallup has no need for such property.”
I do not know if Bob has ever employed any wayward characters at his paper, but if he did, would he not think it evidence of an agenda if his critics opined that his newspaper occupies too much space in Gallup? Moreover, since Bob is one of the richest persons in New Mexico, and rich people have been known to cheat on their taxes, does he not have a moral obligation to let the public examine his tax returns? Perhaps he could publish them for three consecutive weeks in his newspaper.
———————
The editorial:
Holding the diocese accountable
NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent
Editorial published in the Gallup Independent, Nov. 12, 2014
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Diocese of Gallup’s Chapter 11 petition being filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Mediation talks before Judge Randall J. Newsome should begin soon if they haven’t already started.
As Bishop James S. Wall discusses mediation strategy with his bankruptcy attorneys, he needs to keep some very vulnerable children in the forefront of his thoughts. Although they are adults now, the case’s clergy sex abuse claimants were once Catholic children from parishes across the diocese. They were once children whose parents sent them to Catholic schools and churches to learn about their Christian faith. They were once eager young altar servers. Neither they nor their parents expected to be betrayed by their own church leaders.
As the mediator, Newsome also needs to keep some promises in the forefront of his thoughts. Newsome is new to the bankruptcy case, but he needs to hold the Gallup bishop and his attorneys accountable for some old promises. Whatever monetary settlement amount is determined for abuse survivors, the mediation talks should result in a settlement agreement that includes the following requirements that will insure clergy abuse survivors finally receive some truth and transparency from the diocese.
• Publicly release a list of everyone associated with the Gallup Diocese who has been credibly accused of the sexual abuse of minors since the diocese’s founding. This includes men and women, priests, members of religious orders, employees and volunteers. This list needs to be posted on the diocese’s website as the bishop promised when he arrived here in 2009, and it needs to be posted permanently and prominently. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s listing on its “Office of Investigations” webpage would be an example to emulate.
• Publicize the list of credibly accused abusers by inserting it for three consecutive weeks in the church bulletins of every parish that was ever part of the Gallup Diocese.
• Publicly release and post online every personnel file of each credibly accused abuser. Identifying information pertaining to clergy sex abuse victims must be redacted, but diocesan officials and their attorneys should not be allowed a role in the redaction responsibilities.
• Require the personnel file of James M. Burns, which has already been released and posted online, to be re-released with dramatically fewer redactions. It is unacceptable that the Gallup Diocese was allowed to censor more than one-third of this notorious abuser’s file.
• Require the diocese to offer counseling to all victims of clergy sex abuse and their immediate family members by underwriting the cost of the therapy.
• Require the diocese to create a new ethics policy for all employees and volunteers. Require that policy be posted prominently on the diocese’s website, and require all employees and volunteers to read and sign the policy and attest to the fact that they have not violated the policy. Another good example from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia would be its “Standards of Ministerial Behaviors and Boundaries.”
• Require the diocese to publicly remove from ministry every employee and volunteer who has violated the ethics policy. The Gallup Diocese currently has a number of individuals who have not been accused of sexually abusing children, but they have been credibly accused of offenses that range from “boundary” allegations to violent crimes. The diocese needs to finally remove these individuals from ministry and tell the public the truth about their removal.
• Publicly release a list of all real property in Arizona and New Mexico, along with the sale prices, which the diocese has sold to help fund the bankruptcy settlement. This includes residential lots, rural tracts of land, and commercial property that is not needed for religious purposes. Lead bankruptcy attorney Susan G. Boswell promised such a list would be compiled, and she promised such property would be sold. The Diocese of Gallup has no need for such property — it needs to live up to its promise of funding a fair and just settlement.
These mediation talks and the final settlement agreement will reveal a lot about the character of the Gallup bishop. We hope it will reveal some sorely needed moral courage.
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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Friday, Nov. 14
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com )
There’s more talk about the possible ouster of embattled KC Bishop Robert Finn. But it’s only talk. And it’s a distraction that buttresses an already unhealthy complacency in the church.
Suppose, after centuries of widespread child sex crimes and selfish cover ups, one pope finally does oust one bishop for complicity in clergy sex crimes. That will be encouraging. But that will only a very tiny drop of reform in an enormous bucket of horror. It will be the smallest of baby steps.
Finn’s departure will, in the short term, if it happens, make some adults happier. By itself, it won’t, in the long term, make many kids safer.
Keep in mind that dozens of Kansas City Catholic employees are concealing or have concealed clergy sex crimes. So it’s irresponsible for anyone to get complacent. Protecting predators and endangering kids is a deeply-rooted and long-standing pattern in the Catholic hierarchy. It didn’t start with one man and won’t stop with one man.
The dozens of current and recent Catholic employees in Kansas City who knew of or suspected clergy sex crimes and kept quiet should be ashamed of themselves. They should be at least suspended – or more likely fired – by Finn or his replacement. But that almost certainly will never happen.
There are now, according to BishopAccountability.org, 25 publicly accused Kansas City area child molesting clerics. That’s a fraction of the real total. Finn alone did not enable, ignore and conceal their crimes. Sadly, he has had and still has plenty of help continuing the cover ups.
So vigilance, not complacency, is needed now. It’s crucial that those who see, suspect or suffer clergy sex crimes and cover ups in KC keep finding the strength to get help, protect kids, call police, expose wrongdoers, deter wrongdoing, and start healing. Let’s not waste precious time that could help precious kids by idle speculation and wild hopes that may or may not ever be fulfilled.
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UNITED STATES
Crux
By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor November 14, 2014
On the cusp of a new Archbishop of Chicago hand-picked by Pope Francis taking office on Tuesday, the CBS news program “60 Minutes” is set to offer a reminder Sunday night that one doesn’t have to go all the way to the Windy City to find the premier face and voice of the Francis era in American Catholicism.
Boston, thank you very much, will do just fine.
In a provocative new interview, Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston tackles head-on two issues that have been sources of chronic controversy in the American Church: clerical sexual abuse and an ongoing Vatican investigation of American nuns.
On both fronts, O’Malley doesn’t pull punches in espousing what will be seen as strong reform positions in line with the pope’s vision and direction.
According to excerpts of the interview released in advance, O’Malley confirms that Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Missouri, wouldn’t even be allowed to teach Sunday school in O’Malley’s archdiocese.
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UNITED STATES
Daily Mail (UK)
AFP
It’s high time for the Vatican to tackle the case of an American bishop convicted of shielding an abusive priest, Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley has said.
In an interview to air Sunday on CBS television’s “60 Minutes” current affairs program, O’Malley said “the Holy See needs to urgently address” the question of Bishop Robert Finn.
“There is a recognition of that from Pope Francis,” added O’Malley, a close advisor to the pontiff and a member of a Vatican commission looking into Church child abuse worldwide.
Finn is still head of the Catholic diocese in Kansas City, Missouri two years after he pleaded guilty to failing to tell police that one of his priests was sexually abusing a minor.
The Vatican put Finn, who was sentenced to two years under probation, under investigation in September.
But O’Malley said that under the Church’s zero tolerance policy on sex abuse, Finn “wouldn’t be allowed to teach Sunday school in Boston.”
The Church in the United States has struggled since the 1980s to put allegations of child abuse by members of its clergy behind it, even after paying out nearly $3 billion in compensation payments.
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KANSAS CITY (MO)
US News
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The leader of the Roman Catholic church’s new commission to fight child sex abuse said the Vatican needs to “address urgently” the position of Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn, the highest-ranking church official in the U.S. to be convicted of failing to take action in response to abuse allegations.
Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who leads the pope’s global commission on the abuse problem, acknowledged that child protection policies in his own archdiocese would bar Finn from teaching Sunday school there.
“It’s a question that the Holy See needs to address urgently,” said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes,” set to air Sunday. “There’s a recognition of that (from the pope).”
“One of the first things that came up is the importance of accountability,” O’Malley said. “We’re looking at how the church could have protocols on how to respond when a bishop has not been responsible for the protection of children in his diocese.”
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UNITED STATES
Crux
By Michael O’Loughlin
National reporter November 14, 2014
Speaking out on the most important clergy sexual abuse issue in the United States, Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley said the Vatican must do something quickly about Bishop Robert Finn, the Kansas City prelate convicted of failing to report child abuse by one of his priests.
Finn, convicted two years ago, was sentenced to two years of probation for waiting six months before telling police that diocesan officials had found pornographic images of young girls on the computer of the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, one of his parish priests. Ratigan pleaded guilty to child pornography charges and was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison; Finn has remained the bishop of the diocese.
Speaking to CBS News, O’Malley agreed that under the Catholic Church’s zero-tolerance policy, he wouldn’t let Finn even teach Sunday school in Boston, let alone head a diocese.
“It’s a question the Holy See needs to address urgently …. There’s a recognition of that from Pope Francis,” O’Malley told 60 Minutes reporter Norah O’Donnell in an interview scheduled to air Sunday.
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MASSACHUSETTS
Patriot Ledger
Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley was interviewed vt the CBS news show “60 Minutes” for a segment that will be broadcast Sunday night.
The interview focuses on the cardinal’s background working with immigrants, Pope Francis, clergy sexual abuse and the challenges facing the church.
The story follows the Cardinal to the Mass on the border in Arizona as well as Rome and Boston.
The interview was produced by Marblehead native Frank Devine, a 30-year veteran and senior producer for the show.
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BELGIUM
Expatica
The Bishop of Bruges is once again at the centre of controversy after it emerged that the Roman Catholic Church authorities allowed a priest who had been accused of sexual abuse to leave for Brazil to work with street children.
The daily Het Nieuwsblad reports that the priest stood accused of abusing two pupils at a secondary school in Bruges during the eighties.
Bruges prosecutors confirm that in 2010 two complaints were lodged against the priest.
No prosecution was possible because of the time that has lapsed since the alleged abuse occurred.
The Belgian judicial authorities were powerless to act and the priest was allowed to continue to work as a missionary in Brazil with street children.
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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service – Rhymes with Religion
Boz Tchividjian Follow @BozT | Nov 14, 2014
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Mathew 18: 15-17.
Do these words of Jesus require professing Christians to privately confront those accused of committing a crime before the matter can be reported to the police? Too many within faith communities argue that it does. Even worse, I have met many sexual abuse survivors who actually walked through this nightmare. Not only were they re-traumatized by being required to privately confront their abuser, but they often watched as the perpetrator was never reported to law enforcement.
This well-known biblical passage has all too often been a justification for 1) not reporting abuse disclosures to the authorities and 2) convincing sexual abuse victims to privately confront their perpetrators. Needless to say, this misreading and misapplication of Jesus’ words is incredibly harmful on a number of fronts. More importantly, it’s simply not consistent with the person and character of Jesus.
In Matthew 18, Jesus prescribes three progressive steps for handling personal offenses within the local church: 1) a private confrontation, 2) a witnessed confrontation, and 3) a wider confrontation before the church. At each step, the goal is repentance by the offender as a basis for some form of reconciliation with the offended. If all three approaches are rebuffed, then the offender is no longer part of the fellowship.
Child sexual abuse is not merely a personal offense. It is a serious crime. Child sexual abuse does not even fit into the paradigm of which Jesus was speaking about in this passage. Jesus never intended these statements to be twisted into the required method for handling murder, rape, torture, kidnapping, or genocide. Child sexual abuse is not a private matter, but rather a public offense against the victim, society and humanity as a whole. It is not a matter which can be handled quietly between two persons or between two families, as is wrongly done in many communities. It is a matter of public alarm, because of its pervasive, extensive, and expansive nature, causing a cascade of misery in countless lives.
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UNITED KINGDOM
Newsweek
Reuters
Police looking into accusations that powerful figures at the heart of the British establishment were involved in child sex abuse in the 1970s and 1980s said on Friday they were now investigating murder allegations.
London detectives launched an inquiry two years ago into allegations about paedophile rings involving politicians, officials and other senior public figures.
“Our inquiries into this, over subsequent weeks, have revealed further information regarding possible homicide,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
“Based on our current knowledge, this is the first time that this specific information has been passed to the Met.”
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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Newsmax
Friday, 14 Nov 2014
By Drew MacKenzie
Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley has called on Pope Francis to “urgently address” the fact that an American bishop heads a Catholic diocese even though he’s been convicted of shielding a pedophile priest.
In an interview on “60 Minutes” to be broadcast this Sunday, O’Malley told correspondent Norah O’Donnell that the Vatican must deal with the leadership problem surrounding Bishop Robert Finn of the Kansas City, Missouri, diocese.
“It’s a question the Holy See needs to address urgently,” said O’Malley. “There’s a recognition of that from Pope Francis.”
Citing the Catholic Church’s stated “zero tolerance” policy on sex abuse, O’Donnell told O’Malley that Finn “wouldn’t be allowed to teach Sunday school in Boston.”
“That’s right,” said O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, replied during the rare extended interview on the CBS show.
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KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star
BY MARK MORRIS
THE KANSAS CITY STAR
11/14/2014
Breaking two years of silence since the 2012 conviction of Kansas City Bishop Robert Finn, a key member of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy said the church must deal with the situation soon.
Speaking with the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes, Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, said he understands the message that leaving Finn in place sends to Catholics.
“It’s a question the Holy See needs to address urgently,” O’Malley said in an interview with correspondent Norah O’Donnell.
A spokesman for the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, which Finn leads, could not be reached for comment Friday morning.
A Jackson County judge convicted Finn of misdemeanor failure to report suspicions of child abuse for not telling authorities about a priest who later pleaded guilty to producing child pornography.
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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Thomas Reese | Nov. 14, 2014 Faith and Justice
A lack of passion and leadership marked the meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops this week in Baltimore. Their agenda was stale and did not reflect the excitement that Pope Francis’ papacy has generated.
The pope has caught the imagination of the world with his emphasis on God’s love, compassion, and mercy toward us and our need to respond by loving one another, especially the poor. But most of the bishops’ meeting was devoted to mind-numbing housekeeping actions and reports.
The action items dealt with minor liturgical translations, which got some of the bishops excited, but no one else. Should it be “children of Adam,” as the committee recommended, or “children of men,” or “sons of men”? The committee won. And does the bishop really have to preach while seated with a miter on his head and crosier in hand at the dedication of a church as required by the rubrics?
Meanwhile, nothing was said about the economic plight of the American people, gridlock in Washington, or the wars in which America is engaged. They practically ignored immigration and only gave a few minutes to the topic because the media kept asking why the bishops were silent on the hottest political issue of the day.
There is a significant faction among the bishops and the USCCB staff who do not want these issues emphasized lest they distract from their core agenda — opposition to gay marriage, abortion, and the contraceptive mandate.
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DEUTSCHLAND
Frankfurter Rundschau
[The Evangelical Church in Germany wants to strengthen disciplinary proceedings in cases of sexual abuse.]
Die Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland will Opfer von sexuellem Missbrauch in kirchlichen Disziplinarverfahren gegen mutmaßliche Täter stärken. Die Synode zieht damit Konsequenzen aus einem viel beachteten Fall aus dem Jahr 2013.
Die Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) will Opfer von sexuellem Missbrauch in kirchlichen Disziplinarverfahren gegen mutmaßliche Täter stärken. So sieht es die Änderung des EKD-Disziplinargesetzes vor, die die EKD-Synode am Mittwochabend beschlossen hat. Der Rechtsausschuss hatte bereits zugestimmt.
Die Evangelische Kirche zieht damit Konsequenzen aus einem viel beachteten Fall aus dem Jahr 2013. Der EKD-Disziplinarhof hatte das bayerische Disziplinarurteil gegen einen Oberkirchenrat aus dem fränkischen Hof kassiert, der in den 60er und 70er Jahren Frauen sexuell missbraucht haben soll, dies aber bestreitet. Das Kirchengericht hatte mit Rücksicht auf das hohe Alter des Beschuldigten und wegen angeblicher Formfehler in der vorangegangenen Instanz eine Entlassung des Mannes aus dem Dienst aufgehoben. Der Oberkirchenrat war in dem Verfahren vor dem EKD-Disziplinargericht angehört worden, seine mutmaßlichen Opfer hingegen nicht.
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PENNSYLVANIA
Houston Chronicle
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A federal judge is reconsidering a lower magistrate’s order to release a Pennsylvania priest from jail and confine him to his home until his trial on charges that he traveled to Honduras for sex with poor street children during missionary trips.
U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson in Johnstown will hold a new detention hearing Friday for the Rev. Joseph Maurizio.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Pesto last week ruled the 69-year-old priest could be released to home detention as long as his bank accounts are frozen and he’s not able to access church-related funds. Prosecutors are concerned Maurizio could use the money to flee the country before he’s prosecuted.
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OSTERREICH
Kurier
Anschuldigungen gegen Pfarrer. Die Erzdiözese hat die Staatsanwaltschaft eingeschaltet.
Man hat der katholischen Kirche seit Jahren vorgeworfen, bei Verdachtsfällen sexuellen Missbrauchs in ihren Reihen zu mauern, zu verharmlosen, zu vertuschen.
Im jüngsten Fall, der sich in einer Pfarre in Wien-Simmering zugetragen haben soll, ging der Anstoß für Ermittlungen gegen einen Pfarrer aber allen Anschein nach von der katholischen Kirche selbst aus. Wie berichtet, wird ein Priester verdächtigt, vor wenigen Monaten einen Jugendlichen sexuell missbraucht zu haben. Darüber hinaus ordnete die Staatsanwaltschaft Wien wegen Verdachts der Kinderpornografie eine Hausdurchsuchung an – der Computer des Geistlichen wurde vergangenen Freitag beschlagnahmt.
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DEUTSCHLAND
Sueddeutsche
[The Regensburg diocese has paid out $158,500 euros to victims of clergy sexual abuse.]
Das Bistum Regensburg hat erstmals Zahlen zur Missbrauchsaffäre veröffentlicht: 158 500 Euro wurden bislang an Opfer sexuelle Übergriffe ausbezahlt. Doch vielen Betroffenen geht es gar nicht ums Geld.
Von Wolfgang Wittl, Regensburg
Zum ersten Mal im Zuge der Missbrauchsaffäre in der katholischen Kirche hat das Bistum Regensburg Zahlen über Anerkennungsleistungen veröffentlicht: In den Jahren 2011 bis 2014 seien 158 500 Euro an Opfer von sexuellen Übergriffen ausbezahlt worden, heißt es im Tätigkeitsbericht des neuen Missbrauchsbeauftragten Martin Linder. Die Summe sei an insgesamt 30 Antragsteller geflossen – auch an solche, deren Vorwürfe nicht mehr juristisch geklärt hätten werden können. Linder, der mehr als 20 Jahre lang die Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie am Bezirksklinikum Regensburg leitete, ist Nachfolger der 2013 gestorbenen Beauftragten Birgit Böhm. Opfer kritisieren den Bericht als nicht ausreichend.
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UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph
Questions over trial as headteacher cleared of sex abuse allegations in just 15 minutes
A respected headmaster has been cleared by a jury in just 15 minutes after “unbelievable” allegations he molested an unruly pupil subjected him to a year-long court ordeal.
James Bird, 53, was arrested at his desk after he was accused of assaulting a boy more than decade ago when he was head of a Church of England primary school.
The pupil, described as “aggressive, confrontational and challenging” by staff, had been sent to Mr Bird’s study for talking back to a teacher in class.
Ten years later the pupil, now 20, went to police after a drinking session with a friend to claim he was forced to perform sex acts upon Mr Bird as “punishment” for being naughty at St Peter’s C or E Primary School, in Accrington, Lancashire.
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UNITED STATES
CBS News
NOVEMBER 14, 2014, 8:00 AM|Cardinal Seán O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston and the head of the Roman Catholic Church’s new commission to fight sex abuse, gives a rare and wide-ranging interview. Watch Norah O’Donnell report on Sunday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter
Joshua J. McElwee | Nov. 14, 2014 NCR Today
Boston Cardinal Seán O’Malley, a key advisor to Pope Francis, has said the pontiff recognizes the need to address the situation in Kansas City, Mo., where Bishop Robert Finn was found guilty in 2012 of a criminal misdemeanor count of shielding a priest who was a threat to children.
Speaking in a forthcoming interview with the U.S. television program 60 Minutes, O’Malley says the situation surrounding Finn is “a question that the Holy See needs to address urgently.”
“There’s a recognition of that — from Pope Francis,” O’Malley continues during the interview, which is to air Sunday evening.
CBS made a preview of the interview available online Friday.
During the interview, O’Malley is apparently speaking of his work on both the Council of Cardinals and the pope’s new commission on the sexual abuse of minors. After interviewer Norah O’Donnell says one of the “biggest scandals” of the church in recent years is the way bishops handled priests accused of abuse, O’Malley says that is something he is working on.
“One of the first things that we came up was the importance of accountability and we’re looking at how the church can have protocols and how to respond when a bishop has not been responsible for protection of children in his diocese,” O’Malley states.
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BELGIE
kerknet
De volgende zin zou het begin van een mop kunnen zijn. Wat is het verschil tussen een vrouwelijke burgemeester uit een Vlaamse kustgemeente en een Vlaamse kerkjurist uit de Amerikaanse hoofdstad? Het antwoord op die vraag zou kunnen luiden: Er is geen verschil, want… (dan volgt de pointe).
Maar het was geen mop dat er geen verschil was tussen burgemeester Janna Rommel-Opstaele en kerkjurist Kurt Martens. Beiden reageerden boos op de geplande benoeming van priester Tom F. als pastoor in de federatie van Middelkerke. De burgemeester met een quote op de televisie, de kerkjurist met een opiniestuk in de krant.
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BELGIE
De Morgen
[The Bruges bishop said he acted immediately after receiving a complaint of abuse by a priest and notified the prosecutor and the court but the court did not respond right away.]
Bisschop van Brugge Jozef De Kesel heeft voor het eerst gereageerd op de jongste schandalenzaken in zijn bisdom. Dat deed hij donderdagavond voor de camera’s van Focus-WTV en Terzake. De Kesel blijft erbij dat hij in het recente geval van de priester uit Hooglede juist heeft gehandeld. “Ik heb mijn plicht als burger gedaan”, klinkt het.
“Ik heb meteen gehandeld nadat de klacht binnenkwam bij het Opvangpunt”, aldus De Kesel. “Ik heb de procureur en het gerecht verwittigd en het onderzoek niet doorkruist. Ook het gerecht heeft niet meteen ingegrepen. Er zijn me zaken bekend waarbij een priester meteen gearresteerd werd of in voorhechtenis werd genomen. Dat is hier niet gebeurd.”
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BELGIE
Het Nieuwsblad
[Two victims of abuse by a Belgian priest said Bruges Bishop Jozef De Kesel did not prevent the priest from going to South America where he now works with street children.]
De Brugse bisschop Jozef De Kesel riep in 2011 een priester terug uit Brazilië, nadat twee slachtoffers een klacht hadden ingediend wegens kindermisbruik. Maar de bisschop verhinderde niet dat de man een jaar later weer naar Zuid-Amerika vertrok, waar hij nu met straatkinderen werkt. Het is het derde dossier waarmee De Kesel in zwaar weer belandt.
Priester M.D. was in de jaren 80 een leerkracht in een Brugse katholieke middelbare school. In die tijd zou hij twee slachtoffers gemaakt hebben. De leerlingen dienden jaren later, in 2010, toen ze volwassen waren, afzonderlijk van elkaar een klacht in tegen de priester. Eén slachtoffer stapte naar het gerecht, bevestigt het parket van Brugge. Een tweede slachtoffer stapte naar de Commissie Adriaenssens. De feiten gebeurden tussen 1986 en 1992. De twee zouden elkaar niet kennen.
Het Brugse gerecht kon niet meteen ingrijpen, want M.D. woonde toen al geruime tijd in Brazilië. Hij was begin jaren 90 als missionaris naar Brazilië vertrokken.
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BELGIE
Het Nieuwsblad
[Peter Adriaenssens, who served on a defunct commission looking into sexual abuse in the Belgian Catholic Church, said the Bishop of Bruges is concerned about recent allegations of sexual abuse in the diocese. A priest in question is now working in Brazil.]
Peter Adriaenssens van de opgedoekte commissie Adriaenssens neemt het op voor de Brugse bisschop De Kesel. ‘Hij is heel begaan met wat er allemaal gebeurt’, aldus Adriaenssens op Radio 1.
Pastoor M.D. was een gekende naam bij de commissie Adriaenssens, een commissie over seksueel misbruik in de Kerk die voorgezeten werd door kinderpsychiater Peter Adriaenssens. In 2011 werd M.D. door de Brugse bisschop De Kesel teruggeroepen uit Brazilië, waar hij op dat moment aan het werk was, omdat twee slachtoffers een klacht hadden ingediend wegens kindermisbruik.
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BRASIL
Gazeta
[Lieve Halsberghe, spokesman in Belgium for the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said a Belgian priest accused to sexually abusing minors in Belgium is currently working at a shelter for street children in Brazil.]
AGÊNCIA EFE
Um sacerdote belga acusado de abusar sexualmente de menores no país trabalha atualmente em uma casa de amparo a meninos de rua no Brasil, denunciou nesta quinta-feira uma associação de ajuda a vítimas deste tipo de crime.
O padre trabalhou em várias paróquias do norte da Bélgica antes de ir para o Brasil, segundo a porta-voz da associação SNAP Belgium, Lieve Halsberghe, citada pela agência “Belga”.
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INDIA
Business Standard
The Delhi High Court Friday dismissed a plea of Catholic priest Joseph Palanivel Jeyapaul, accused of molesting a child in the US, against his extradition.
Jeyapaul, 59, had challenged the order of a trial court here recommending that he be extradited to the US to stand trial.
Justice Pratibha Rani dismissed his plea, saying she has not found any fault in the decision of the trial court.
The trial court said a prima facie case was made out for his extradition.
The high court ruling said: “I am unable to find any fault either with the decision making process or with the view taken by the extradition magistrate…”
If extradited, Jeyapaul will stand trial on charge of first degree criminal sexual conduct in Minnesota. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in jail.
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UNITED KINGDOM
BBC News
A retired Catholic priest has appeared in court accused of indecently assaulting 10 girls in Greater Manchester.
Canon Mortimer Stanley, 82, is charged with 17 offences during his time at a church in Rochdale.
He is alleged to have abused the girls between the 1970s and 1990s.
The fomer priest, who now lives in the Irish Republic, was given bail at Bury Magistrates’ Court and will appear at Manchester Crown Court on 4 December.
Canon Stanley is now based in Bullybunion, County Kerry.
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NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
BY DEBORAH MCALEESE – 14 NOVEMBER 2014
One of Northern Ireland’s most notorious clerical sex offenders has been charged with child abuse for a fifth time.
Fr Daniel Curran (64) has already been jailed for abusing more than a dozen boys over a 17-year period.
At Downpatrick Magistrates Court yesterday Curran, of Bryansford Avenue, Newcastle, was charged with four further sex offences committed against a child in the 1990s.
He is accused of gross indecency and indecent assault.
Curran allegedly abused the child sometime between August 8, 1990 and August 7, 1995.
At a preliminary enquiry yesterday District Judge Eamon King ruled there was a case to answer.
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UNITED STATES
BishopAccountability.org
Summary of Case: John S. “Jack” Harrington was ordained a Jesuit priest of the Oregon province in 1948. He went on to teach for 25 years – at Seattle University in Seattle WA, and then at Gonzaga University and Gonzaga Preparatory High School in Spokane WA. In 1976 Harrington was assigned to a parish in Havre MT, where he stayed almost twenty years, before being transferred to a parish in Missoula MT. He was an assistant priest at both. Harrington retired in the early 2000s to the Jesuits’ Regis Community in Spokane. He died March 5, 2004. Harrington’s name name was included in 2011 on the Oregon Province’s list of its members who have been identified as perpetrators of sexual abuse.
Ordained: 1948
Died: March 5, 2004
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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse
13 November, 2014
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will hear oral submissions in relation to the Retta Dixon Home public hearing on Monday 17 November 2014.
The public hearing commenced in Darwin on Monday 22 September and inquired into the experiences of men and women who were sexually abused as children at the Retta Dixon Home.
The oral submissions will take place in Sydney with a video link to parties based in Darwin.
Location: Royal Commission Hearing Room 1, Level 17, Governor Macquarie Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney
Video link: Courtroom 6, Darwin Supreme Court Building, State Square, Darwin
Time: 10:00AM AEDT (8:30AM ACST)
Interested parties can attend the oral submissions in person in Sydney or Darwin. The oral submissions will also be streamed live on the Royal Commission website but will only show the Sydney hearing room.
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WASHINGTON
National Catholic Reporter
Dan Morris-Young | Nov. 13, 2014
The law firm accused by the Spokane, Wash., diocese of mishandling a 2007 bankruptcy and settlement with clergy sex abuse victims filed a motion to dismiss the diocese’s claims on Monday in federal bankruptcy court.
Based in part on depositions from retired Bishop William Skylstad and Fr. Steven Dublinski, the diocese’s previous vicar general, the Monday filing charges that “the current claims are simply an attempt to throw mud at Paine Hamblen to try to get some insurance money.”
For its work leading to the 2007 settlement, the law firm of Paine Hamblen was ordered to be paid about $3.5 million by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patty Williams.
On Wednesday, the Spokane daily newspaper, The Spokesman-Review, reported that the diocese “is asking for at least $4 million in damages from the firm after alleging attorneys failed to disclose a conflict of interest in the case and were wrong about how many claims would be made against the church by abuse victims.”
“The diocese sought to change the terms of its bankruptcy settlement after a flurry of abuse allegations, most of them outside of Spokane, depleted the $1 million fund the church had set aside to pay future claims,” wrote Spokesman-Review reporter Kip Hill, adding that Spokane Bishop Blase Cupich “and the diocese say Paine Hamblen undershot the amount that would be necessary to pay future claimants because lawyers failed to conduct an independent study of potential cases and limited the diocese’s ability to challenge payments out of the victim fund.”
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AUSTRALIA
7 News
By Xavier La Canna
November 14, 2014
The head of a religious group that once employed a notorious Darwin paedophile met with him last month in an unsuccessful bid to get him to admit to child sexual abuse allegations he was never convicted of, new submissions say.
The information came as siblings of Donald Bruce Henderson prepare to meet with him this weekend, including one flying in from America, to discuss matters including the allegations of child sexual abuse.
Documents tendered to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse on Friday reveal that the head of the Australian Indigenous Ministries (AIM), Reverend Trevor Leggott, met with Mr Henderson in an attempt to get him to admit he was involved in child sexual abuse against children at Darwin’s Retta Dixon home.
“This was done for the specific purpose of, if those admissions were made, placing the matter in the hands of the police,” the submission by Reverend Leggott’s lawyer Mark Thomas said.
Mr Thomas told the ABC the meeting occurred on October 20.
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IRELAND
Irish Mirror
Nov 14, 2014 By Neal Keeling
Canon Mortimer Stanley, who lives in Kerry, appeared before Bury Magistrates court in Manchester yesterday
A priest who lives in Ballybunion, Co Kerry has been charged with a string of sex offences dating back 30 years.
Canon Mortimer Stanley returned to Manchester from his home in Ireland to face the allegations at Bury Magistrates court yesterday.
The Crown Prosecution Service authorised Greater Manchester Police to charge Canon Stanley, 82, after numerous complaints by former pupils at a Rochdale school.
He is accused of 17 charges of indecent assault on a girl under 14 between 1977 and 1988.
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NEW JERSEY
The Record
NOVEMBER 14, 2014
BY ALFRED P. DOBLIN
THE RECORD
Alfred P. Doblin is the editorial page editor of The Record. Contact him at doblin@northjersey.com. Follow AlfredPDoblin on Twitter.
THE WORD “miracle” is often used in the Catholic Church. In October, Pope Francis beatified Pope Paul VI, the first step toward sainthood. Popes John XXIII and John Paul II were canonized saints in April of this year.
Two miracles must be attributed to a candidate for sainthood. The process focuses on miracles affecting individuals; one affecting an institution may be occurring before our eyes.
Francis, elected by a body of cardinals mostly selected for their conservative views and lack of personal charisma, is emerging as the most progressive, charismatic pope since John XXIII. If this isn’t a miracle, I’m not sure what qualifies.
On Saturday, Francis demoted Cardinal Raymond Burke, not a household word in America unless you live in St. Louis where Burke was once archbishop. Burke was a favorite of previous popes because he is a hard-line conservative. He railed against Catholic public officials who supported a woman’s right to choose. Burke believed those opinions were sufficient reasons to deny those Catholics communion.
Burke was sent to the Vatican where he once was on the committee that recommended who would be named bishop. Francis removed him from that committee. Burke also was the head of the Vatican’s highest court. Francis removed him from that post last week and then made him the new cardinal protector of the Sovereign Order of Malta.
The Knights and Dames of Malta are loyal Catholics, and usually not without substantial financial means. It is a nice title for a lay person indeed, but the cardinal protector doesn’t have much to do. Pope Francis sent his Napoleon into exile.
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CANADA
Argus Observer
PAYETTE — Forest Reuben Gibson, a former Canyon County youth pastor, has pleaded guilty to the charge of sexual battery to a minor.
Gibson entered his guilty plea in 3rd Judicial District Court Friday. Because of that plea, a hearing that had been set for Wednesday was canceled, said Josh Dalton, deputy prosecuting attorney for Payette County.
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PENNSYLVANIA
Lancaster Online
By BRETT HAMBRIGHT | Staff Writer
A former local pastor and junior-high basketball coach will serve at least 30 years in prison for sexual abuse of a 13-year-old boy.
Jonathan Masteller, 24, was recently sentenced in Lancaster County Court to 30 to 80 years in prison for the sexual assaults, which he also photographed and videotaped.
Masteller pleaded guilty in July to 12 counts of sex abuse and faced a mandatory 10-year prison term.
President Judge Joseph Madenspacher ordered consecutive sentences on four of the charges for the grand total of 30 to 80.
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WASHINGTON
NBC Chicago
By Phil Rogers
The law firm that once represented the Catholic Archidocese of Spokane has filed a motion against the Archdiocese and incoming Chicago Archbishop Blaise Cupich, seeking to dismiss Cupich’s malpractice claim against them.
Cupich filed a claim earlier this year against the firm, Paine-Hamblen, alleging that they inadequately protected the Spokane Archdiocese during bankruptcy proceedings, and that they failed to disclose a potential conflict to the court concerning their representation of the previous Archbishop, William Skylstad, during litigation concerning sexual abuse claims.
In the latest motion, the firm insists there was no conflict, because they represented Skylstad in his capacity as head of the Archdiocese, not personally. Indeed, Skylstad himself affirmed that fact in depositions associated with the case, and is quoted as saying Paine-Hamblen had done a “remarkable job” in their representation of the Spokane Church.
The document quotes Father Steve Dublinksi, the former vicar general of the Archdiocese, as saying that he argued unsuccessfully to Cupich that the suit against his parish’s longtime attorneys was ill-advised.
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AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street
Vic O’Callaghan | 16 November 2014
On Monday 27 October, the Hon Justice Peter McClellan AM, Chair, Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, gave a talk at the Blue Knot Day for adults surviving child abuse. In his speech he used a well-worn phrase most adults will have heard, ‘children should be see but not heard.’
The Commissioner went on to point out that this attitude has prevailed for decades and has been a critical contributor to the conditions under which abusers could manipulate and silence children in order to abuse them.
The Commissioner also highlighted current efforts by most institutions, to modify their practices in order that future abuse can be recognised early and brought to the attention of those charged with the protection of children.
In fact, ask most office holders charged with the responsibility of child protection and they will readily outline efforts and safeguards to prevent future incidences of abuse.
It is interesting that the language of protection is now front and centre when it comes to the care and protection of children. This is admirable and in the culture of what has transpired, it is an achievement creating some quiet satisfaction. But could this sense of pride be masking something deeper and more troubling?
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MINNESOTA
KARE
[with video]
John Croman, KARE November 14, 2014
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Local Catholic officials have been accused of destroying videotapes that purportedly contained homemade child pornography.
The law firm of Jeff Anderson and Associates on Thursday released a set of documents suggesting church leaders threw out the tapes, allegedly found inside former St. Paul priest Donald Dummer’s room. The case dates back to 1997 when Rev. Dummer was assigned to St. Mary’s Catholic Church on St. Paul’s East Side.
Attorney Mike Finnegan said the paper trail also implies officials in the Vatican’s U-S embassy in Washington, D.C. urged the St. Paul Archdiocese to keep the case out of the public eye.
“Instead of reporting this to the police, instead of removing Dummer, they send this stuff back to Archbishop Flynn.” Finnegan remarked. “Their concern is about public scandal, and that this might get out.”
The files were recently unsealed as part of an out of court settlement in a public nuisance lawsuit Anderson’s clients brought against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
An unnamed employee of St. Mary’s wrote a letter to the Vatican Embassy, known as the Apostolic Nunciature, in 2002 detailing efforts he’d made years earlier to expose Rev. Dummer. The letter was also signed by the organization known as Catholic Parents OnLine.
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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota
Esme Murphy
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — There are new allegations that the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis destroyed as many as five suspected child porn videos — and that the Vatican knew what happened.
This latest allegation involving the Twin Cities Catholic Church comes as a direct result of a landmark agreement between the church and victims.
The agreement has resulted in more names of priests, suspected of sexual abuse against a minor, being released.
One of the new names released by the archdiocese is 77-year-old Father Don Dummer. In 1997, when Dummer was working at St. Mary’s Church in St. Paul, a part-time employee said he found VHS tapes in Dummer’s room at a St. Paul home.
One of those videos was of 10- to 12-year-old boys playing basketball in the nude. The co-worker turned the videos over to then-Vicar General Kevin McDonough. Attorney Mike Finnegan said the co-worker waited to see what McDonough would do.
“He waited and waited and heard nothing from the vicar general, so he called McDonough again, he asked if he had checked it out and McDonough said, ‘Yes,’ and that he had destroyed the videos,” Finnegan said.
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NEW YORK
The Journal News
Steve Lieberman, slieberm@lohud.com November 13, 2014
The FBI made numerous arrests in New York City, Orange County and Monsey Thursday involving an apparent long-term mortgage and welfare fraud case.
An extended family and several business associates were indicted on federal charges Thursday in a rich man, poor man mortgage and welfare fraud scheme that authorities say netted more than $20 million.
Federal agents arrested 13 people in pre-dawn raids in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, Kiryas Joel and Monroe in Orange County, and Manhattan. Those charged include a Monsey resident who allegedly provided faulty real estate appraisals as part of the fraud. Two more people indicted are expected to surrender Thursday, authorities said.
“The defendants involved alternately played the parts of prince and pauper depending on which scam was being perpetrated,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a news conference in White Plains. “There’s a lot of fraud here and shell games… The fraud was complex and they were fairly organized.”
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NEW YORK
The Jewish Daily Forward
By Josh Nathan-Kazis
Published November 13, 2014.
One of the men arrested in a $20 million Satmar family mortgage fraud conspiracy is the same man who was convicted of trying to intimidate a witness against notorious Hasidic sex abuser Nechemya Weberman, the Forward has learned.
Abraham Rubin is fresh out of prison after serving three months for trying to bribe into not testifying against Weberman, an unlicensed counselor who was convicted in 2012 of repeatedly abusing a teenage girl in his care.
Rubin was arrested November 13 along with 14 of his family members and associates in a sprawling mortgage and public fraud conspiracy. He now faces up to 35 years in prison.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s office confirmed to the Forward that Abraham Rubin had been cited for a $500,000 bribery attempt in the past. The man he tried to pay off, Boorey Deutsch, the victim’s husband, confirmed to the Forward that the man who tried to bribe him was the same Abraham Rubin as was arrested in the fraud scheme.
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MINNESOTA
KAAL
[with video]
Lawyers are accusing the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis of destroying pornographic videos from a St. Paul priest.
The accusations involve Father Donald Dummer. He was recently added to a list of priests with credible accusations of sexual misconduct.
On Thursday, attorneys for Jeff Anderson and Associates say a church employee found inappropriate videotapes of naked boys playing basketball in Father Dummer’s room at St. Mary’s Church in 1997.
The employee allegedly called the archbishop’s office and was told vicar general, Father Kevin McDonough, would handle the matter.
On Thursday, lawyers presented letters between church officials, implying they destroyed those videos.
The new allegations aren’t currently part of any lawsuit filed against the archdiocese.
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DEUTSCHLAND
Epoch Times
[Interview with an ex-nun on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.]
von Roland R. Ropers / Gastautor, Donnerstag, 13. November 2014
Die ehemalige Nonne Doris Wagner hat in ihrem Buch „Nicht mehr ich“ ihre wahre Geschichte als junge Ordensfrau veröffentlicht. In „Menschen bei Maischberger“ war sie am Dienstagabend zu sehen. In einem Interview mit Roland R. Ropers beantwortete sie seine Fragen für die Epoch Times.
Doris Wagner kam 1983 in Ansbach/Bayern zur Welt. Sie ist in einem protestantischen Elternhaus aufgewachsen. Im Mai 1999 wurde die Familie römisch-katholisch. Nach dem Abitur studierte sie in Rom, Freiburg und Erfurt Philosophie und katholische Theologie und war neben dem Studium unter anderem als Organistin und Fremdenführerin tätig. Sie wurde Mitglied einer aus Männer und Frauen bestehenden Ordensgemeinschaft „Die geistliche Familie Das Werk“ [FSO – Familia Spiritualis Opus – www.daswerk-fso.org] und erlebte während ihrer Zeit in Rom die dramatische Dynamik von Ideologie, Manipulation und Missbrauch. Die Hölle auf Erden. Am 18. Mai 2001 hatte der damalige Kurienkardinal Joseph Ratzinger im Vatikan seine Anweisung zur Geheimhaltung von sexuellem Missbrauch verfasst: „De Delictis Gravioribus”
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BELGIE
Deredactie
[Another case of child abuse has been found in the Bruges diocese. A 50-year-old priest is said to have abused minors for several years in Menen in the early 2000s. One victim came forward last year and the diocese was informed.]
Erneut ist ein Fall von Kindesmissbrauch im Bistum Brügge bekannt geworden. Ein heute 50 Jahre alter Priester soll Anfang der 2000er Jahre einen damals minderjährigen Jugendlichen mehrere Jahre lang in Menen sexuell missbraucht haben. Das Opfer meldete sich bereits im vergangenen Jahr bei einer Anlaufstelle für solche Fälle, von wo aus das Bistum unterrichtet wurde.
Nach Angaben unseres Hauses, der öffentlich-rechtliche Rundfunk des belgischen Bundeslandes Flandern, VRT, stellte das Bistum fest, dass die Fakten, die sich vor allem 2002 zugetragen haben sollen, nicht verjährt sind und gab den Vorgang an die Justiz, bzw. an die Staatsanwaltschaft Kortrijk weiter. Auffallend ist, dass das Opfer des Geistlichen bereits im vergangenen Jahr Anzeige erstattet hat. Doch das Bistum zog den Priester nicht von seinem Amt im westflämischen Hooglede ab.
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IRELAND
RTE News
One of the ten children of Jean McConville, who was abducted and murdered by the IRA, says his family is owed an apology by the State and the church, for how they were treated after their mother’s disappearance.
Ms McConville was abducted by an IRA gang after being accused of passing information to the British army.
She was later shot in the back of the head and buried 80km from her home.
Billy McConville told Northern Ireland’s Institutional Abuse Inquiry last week that he was sexually and physically abused in care homes and wants those wrongs acknowledged.
When the IRA abducted their mother in 1972, the eldest of the ten McConville children, Helen, was 15.
The two youngest were the six-year-old twins, Billy and Jim.
The ten children were left to fend for themselves before they were taken into care, split up and dispatched to a series of institutions.
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IRELAND
Irish Examiner
By Conall Ó Fátharta
Irish Examiner Reporter
Magdalene women are being forced accept smaller compensation payments because the State believes the religious orders over survivors regarding how long they spent in the laundries.
In a strongly worded speech at the opening of the National Women’s Council of Ireland’s new offices, co-founder of Justice For Magdalenes Research (JFMR) Claire McGettrick said that despite Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s apology, the State was exercising a “contemptible” attitude to survivors which valued “damage limitation and optics before justice and fairness”.
“Perhaps the most contemptible double standard is that the religious orders — who have not contributed one cent towards the ex gratia scheme — are believed over survivors regarding duration of stay. As a result, some women, many of whom are in dire financial circumstances, have had no choice but to accept lesser amounts,” she said.
Ms McGettrick said that elderly and frail survivors were waiting 17 months for the HAA medical card promised to them in the wake of the Taoiseach’s apology, while the dedicated unit recommended by Mr Justice Quirke has also failed to materialise.
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AUSTRALIA
The Tablet (UK)
13 November 2014 by Abigail Frymann Rouch, Mark Brolly
Dominican bioethicist Anthony Fisher, who was installed as Archbishop of Sydney on Wednesday, vowed to improve the Church’s record on safeguarding and apologised for sexual abuse committed by clergy.
Giving the homily during his installation Mass he told a packed St Mary’s Cathedral he spoke of survivors’ “harrowing” experiences, “the shameful deeds of some clergy and serious failures of some leaders to respond”.
The 54-year-old prelate said he prayed the Church would “emerge from this period of public scrutiny humbler, more compassionate and spiritually regenerated” and urged disillusioned Catholics to return and “help us be a better Church”.
Archbishop Fisher’s Installation Mass, SydneyThe Catholic Church in Australia has been participating with a Royal Commission into institutional child sexual abuse, and there have also been state-level inquiries into historic instances of abuse by religious organisations.
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ESPANA
ABC
07-11-2014
La Agrupación Arciprestal de Hermandades y Cofradías ha enviado una carta al Arzobispo de Mérida-Badajoz, Santiago García Aracil, en la que muestran su apoyo al prelado y manifiestan su repulsa ante las “difamaciones” e “informaciones injuriosas” vertidas hacia su persona y el arzobispado.
La agrupación, donde se engloba la Junta de Cofradías y el resto de asociaciones religiosas del Arciprestazgo de Mérida, remite este escrito que “no pretende ser otra cosa que un fraternal abrazo a nuestro pastor”, según informa en un comunicado de prensa.
Al mismo tiempo, se le pide “serenidad y sosiego” ante dichas “difamaciones” puesto que considera que también “de las calumnias que viertan sobre el arzobispado, pueden llegar bendiciones”.
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ESPANA
Digital Extremadura
El Presbiterio de Mérida-Badajoz, órgano que representa a todos los sacerdotes de la Comunidad Autónoma de Extremadura, ha hecho público el siguiente comunicado, que en DEx reproducimos en su totalidad:
“Paz y bien.
Ante las calumnias y difamaciones que está sufriendo en los últimos días el Arzobispo de Mérida-Badajoz, Don Santiago García Aracil, los sacerdotes que formamos parte del presbiterio de Mérida- Badajoz queremos manifestar nuestra repulsa más absoluta ante semejante atropello e injusticia. A la vez hacemos público nuestro sincero afecto, cariño y cercanía a… Don Santiago, nuestro Padre y Pastor.
Está siendo para todos muy triste ver cómo, so capa de una acción profética, se ha dañado a la persona del Sr. Arzobispo y a la Iglesia diocesana y universal, a la vez que se han pisoteado los más elementales principios de la caridad cristiana y de la verdad.
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SPAIN
National Catholic Reporter
Catholic News Service | Nov. 13, 2014
BADAJOZ, SPAIN A Spanish archbishop reacted angrily to complaints by local clergy that he wasted money on a “luxurious residence” for himself in one of the country’s most-deprived regions.
Archbishop Santiago Garcia Aracil of Merida-Badajoz said in a brief posting on the archdiocesan website that the work on the residence and the archdiocesan seminary was approved by an advisory council before it began.
“I reject these libelous and defamatory claims,” Garcia wrote.
“I have received abundant expressions of understanding and support from priests, religious and laity throughout the diocese, lamenting that the source of this information is a very small group of priests,” he said.
The posting came in response to a Nov. 2 letter from 50 unnamed clergy in the western Spanish province of Extremadura to the Madrid-based papal nuncio, Archbishop Renzo Fratini. The letter accused Garcia of living an “excessive, ostentatious, scandalous and undesirable” lifestyle.
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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Legal Intelligencer
P.J. D’Annunzio, The Legal Intelligencer
November 13, 2014
The plaintiff in a priest sex-abuse case has asked the court to compel the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to reveal its “secret archive files” and personnel records on 17 priests.
In obtaining the information from the secret archives—which plaintiff Billy Doe claims to contain “unflattering” information on priests—Doe seeks to establish that Monsignor William Lynn repeatedly reassigned priests accused of sexual misconduct to different parishes, including defrocked priest Edward Avery, who in 1999 pleaded guilty to sexually abusing Doe, according to Doe’s motion to compel.
The motion was filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas by one of Doe’s attorneys, Paul Lauricella of McLaughlin & Lauricella. Lauricella did not return a call seeking comment.
Lynn was the first Catholic Church administrative official convicted of endangering the welfare of children abused by other priests, however, his conviction was overturned by the state Superior Court and he was released from prison Jan. 7. The state Supreme Court is set to hear argument in Lynn’s case Nov. 18.
“These files are likely to produce evidence of defendant Lynn’s bias and his interest in protecting the church, even at the expense of the well-being of the victims to whom he was supposedly offering pastoral care,” Doe’s court papers said.
Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney attorney Thomas A. Bergstrom, who represents Lynn, said he had not seen the motion, but asserted that Lynn brought the contents of the secret archive to the attention of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, the leader of the archdiocese when Lynn was secretary of the clergy. Bevilacqua was archbishop of Philadelphia from 1988 to 2003, and died in 2012.
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WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette
[Obituary: John J. Szantyr – Citizen’s News – published May 19, 2014 ]
By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com
WORCESTER — Child sexual assault charges that were pending against the Rev. John Szantyr, an 83-year-old retired Catholic priest who died in May, were formally dropped by prosecutors Thursday.
Rev. Szantyr, of Waterbury, Conn., was charged in 2003 in Central District Court with four counts of indecent assault and battery on a child. The charges resulted from allegations that Rev. Szantyr sexually assaulted two altar boys in the 1980s, when he was assigned to Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish on Ward Street.
Rev. Szantyr, who had pleaded not guilty, was found mentally incompetent to stand trial in 2006, and again in 2008. There was testimony during the 2008 competency hearing that Rev. Szantyr was suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
The case was scheduled for periodic status reviews by the court every year since 2008, according to court records.
Assistant District Attorney Joseph A. Quinlan nol prossed the charges Thursday. A nol pros, or nolle prosequi, is an entry in the court record reflecting a prosecutor’s decision not to proceed with a case after criminal charges have been lodged.
In his filing with the court, Mr. Quinlan noted that Rev. Szantyr died May 16 in Waterbury.
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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, Nov. 13
Statement by Frank Meuers of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 952-334-5180, frankameuers@gmail.com )
We endorse the new plea – made today by attorney Mike Finnegan – that Ramsey County law enforcement officials more aggressively investigate the possible destruction of evidence by top Catholic officials in the Twin Cities.
Finnegan’s request comes as more evidence of cover ups of child sex crimes is made public in the Twin Cities archdiocese. This time the alleged predator is Fr. Donald Dummer and the alleged “enabler” is Fr. Kevin McDonough. Evidence suggests that child porn was destroyed and that credible allegations against Fr. Dummer were hidden for 14 years, until just weeks ago.
What on earth will it take before John Choi shows some spine and takes a more vigorous approach to pursuing these church criminals?
As best we can tell, no subpoenas or search warrants have been issued. No one has questioned Fr. McDonough, who has been deeply involved in cover ups for years in the Twin Cities. What could possibly justify such a slow and timid response to such a continuing crisis?
(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 25 years and have more than 18,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)
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VIRGINIA
Roanoke Times
By Robby Korth robby.korth@roanoke.com 381-1679
CHRISTIANSBURG — A former pastor and youth minister in Hopewell pleaded guilty to two counts of procuring a sex act by computer Wednesday in Montgomery County.
Deric Peacock, 30, was sentenced to serve five years in prison and seven years probation upon his release by Circuit Court Judge Marcus Long. Peacock had online communications in which he exposed himself and said he fantasized about having sex with what he thought were a 12-year-old girl and her mother, but both were in fact, a Christiansburg police detective.
Long sentenced Peacock to a total of 20 years, but suspended 15.
The five-year sentence is 18 months above the high end of usual guidelines in such cases, county Commonwealth’s Attorney Mary Pettitt said. Long agreed to go above guidelines because of Peacock’s role as a minister, he said.
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OHIO
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, Nov. 13
For more information: David Clohessy ( 314-566-9790 cell, SNAPclohessy@aol.com ), Judy Jones, 636-433-2511, SNAPJudy@gmail.com
Vatican claims to speed up sex abuse appeals
But no word yet on local priest ousted 7 years ago
He faces at least two allegations of molesting girls
Child molesting cleric now teaches in St. Clairsville or Woodsfield
SNAP: “Steubenville Bishop needs to take action and push harder”
Vatican officials claim they’ll soon be taking quicker action to defrock predator priests. And a victims’ support group wants a Steubenville priest – who now teaches at a local college – to be among them.
Leaders of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, say they hope that Fr. Gary Zalenski will soon be ousted from the priesthood. Seven years ago this month, Fr. Zalenski was suspended from active ministry in the Steubenville diocese by then-Bishop Daniel Conlon. The priest is still being paid by current Steubenville Bishop Jeffrey Monforton.
“Fr. Zalenski is living and working unsupervised among unsuspecting colleagues and vulnerable students at a college, so defrocking him will help warn others about him and hopefully keep more children away from him,” said SNAP leader Judy Jones, a Woodsfield native. “We urge anyone who may have had contact with Fr Zalenski to find the courage to speak up, get help, expose wrongdoers, prevent abuse and start healing.”
Fr. Zalenski is on the faculty at Belmont College which has branches in the Ohio towns of Cadiz, Woodsfield and St. Clairsville. The school offers classes at the Swiss Hills Career Center, which is part of the Switzerland of Ohio Local School District (740 472 5801). The district is headed by Superintendent John Hall.
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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press
By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 11/13/2014
When two employees at St. Mary’s church in downtown St. Paul found what they believed was child pornography in the Rev. Donald J. Dummer’s living quarters in 1997, they brought the material to an archdiocese official.
Over the next five years, the circle of church leaders made aware of the material grew. It included then-Vicar General Kevin McDonough, Archbishop Harry Flynn, and the Rev. Joseph Hitpas, Dummer’s superior in the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the order to which he belonged.
It even reached the apostolic nuncio in Washington, D.C., Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States.
But the potentially criminal material was never turned over to law enforcement. Instead, Hitpas told Flynn in 2002, “I will dispose of the tapes.”
The details of the events involving the former Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis priest were released Thursday by attorney Jeff Anderson of St. Paul, who obtained it through a lawsuit.
A message left for Dummer, now 77 and living in an oblates residence in Tewksbury, Mass., was returned by the residence’s administrator, David Arthur, who referred a reporter to the oblates headquarters in Washington, D.C. Messages left there were not immediately returned.
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UNITED KINGDOM
ITV
A Catholic priest has been charged with a string of sex offences dating back 30 years.
Canon Mortimer Stanley returned to Greater Manchester from his home in Ireland to face the allegations at Bury Magistrates court today.
The Crown Prosecution Service authorised Greater Manchester Police to charge Canon Stanley, 82, after complaints by former pupils at a Rochdale school.
He is accused of 17 charges of indecent assault on a girl under 14 between 1977 and 1988.
The allegations involve ten victims. All the alleged victims were pupils at St Vincent’s Primary School, which has been historically linked to the parish.
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MINNESOTA
Star Tribune
Article by: RANDY FURST , Star Tribune Updated: November 13, 2014
Documents alleging that church leaders destroyed videotapes have been turned over to Ramsey County attorney’s office.
Church officials in St. Paul may have destroyed evidence that a St. Paul priest possessed child pornography, a St. Paul attorney charged Thursday.
Documents released at a news conference describe an alleged coverup by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and Vatican officials in Washington, D.C., in the case of the Rev. Donald Dummer. Dummer was among those recently added to a list of priests with credible accusations of sexual misconduct.
Attorney Mike Finnegan and former priest Patrick Wall, who work with clergy abuse litigator Jeff Anderson, gave media representatives documents describing the destruction of allegedly pornographic videotapes by a former vicar general of the archdiocese, Kevin McDonough, and an official in a religious order in St. Paul.
McDonough, the No. 2 person in the archdiocese, got the allegedly pornographic videotapes in 1997 and 1998 and destroyed them, according to a document prepared by an employee at St. Mary’s Parish, 261 East 8th Street, St. Paul.
Another document quotes a St. Paul religious order leader stating that he would dispose of the alleged pornography.
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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
November 14, 2014
Frank McGuire
Middle-aged men wept with joy. Women silenced by unspeakable crimes since they were girls raised three cheers for the Victorian Parliament a year ago, when I told survivors of child sexual abuse that bipartisan support had been secured to implement all recommendations from the landmark report, Betrayal of Trust.
Findings of the parliamentary inquiry revealed a cover-up that killed in religious and other non-government organisations in Victoria. Heinous crimes were exposed, blighted lives acknowledged and remedies agreed across the political divide.
Victims abused physically, emotionally and sexually as innocent children felt vindicated after summoning the fortitude as adults to testify. Survivors waved red balloons and hugged each other during the “Rally of Hope” on the steps of Parliament, in recognition that after so much suffering at the hands of institutions, a measure of trust had finally been restored.
Goodwill expired with Victoria’s 57th Parliament. Survivors have contacted me dismayed that key recommendations were not implemented despite incontrovertible evidence that the sexual and physical abuse of children has been endemic for generations in many Victorian public and private institutions.
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ITALY
Crux
By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor November 13, 2014
Under ordinary circumstances, the election of a new regional vice president for the Italian bishops’ conference would elicit little more than yawns in Italy, and no reaction at all anywhere else.
Circumstances in the Catholic Church today, however, are anything but ordinary.
Thus it was that Tuesday’s 140-60 win by Bishop Mario Meini of Fiesole over Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto as vice president for Central Italy of CEI, the Italian episcopal conference, was quickly hailed as a bellwether for the direction of the Church in the early 21st century.
Specifically, the result has been seen as a vote of no confidence for the role the moderate-to-progressive Forte played at the recent Synod of Bishops for the family. Forte was the lead author of a controversial interim report with daringly positive evaluations of same-sex unions and other kinds of relationships outside the bounds of official Church teaching.
Backlash against the interim report set the stage for far more cautious language in the synod’s final document, and his defeat this week has been styled as an additional rebuke.
One traditionalist Catholic blog in Italy carried the news of the election along with an image of a cell phone screen displaying the prompt, “Message Received!” An English-language Catholic blog said the outcome expressed “blowback from the scandalous press and the politburo tactics applied at the October Synod.”
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LATIN AMERICA
First Coast News
USA Today
MIAMI — In just one generation, Latin America has seen the number of people who identify themselves as Catholic plummet, with more people becoming Protestant or dropping religion altogether, a new report shows.
The shift is dramatic for a region that has long been one of the bastions of Catholicism in the world. With more than 425 million Catholics, Latin America accounts for nearly 40% of the global Catholic population. Through the 1960s, at least 90% of Latin Americans were Catholic, and 84% of people surveyed recently by the Pew Research Center said they were raised Catholic.
But the report released Thursday found that only 69% of Latin Americans still consider themselves Catholic, with more people switching to more conservative Protestant churches (19%) or describing themselves as agnostic or religiously unaffiliated (8%).
Even last year’s election of an Argentine as pope to head the Catholic Church has led to conflicting feelings in Latin America.
“While it is too soon to know whether (Pope) Francis can stop or reverse the church’s losses in the region, the new survey finds that people who are currently Catholic overwhelmingly view Francis favorably and consider his papacy a major change for the church,” the report said. “But former Catholics are more skeptical about Pope Francis. Only in Argentina and Uruguay do majorities of ex-Catholics express a favorable view of the pope.”
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MINNESOTA/MASSACHUSETTS
Jeff Anderson & Associates
Donald Dummer Documents
Donald Dummer File
Donald Dummer Timeline
[press conference video]
This priest is now in Tewksbury: [Massachusetts]
Media Advisory
November 13, 2014
Documents indicate possible child pornography destroyed by Fr. Kevin McDonough and Fr. Joseph Hitpas
WHAT: At a news conference today, attorney Mike Finnegan and former priest and monk Patrick Wall will:
· Release the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis priest file of Father Donald Dummer who was in possession of possible child pornography in 1997, 1998 and 2002.
· Discuss the possible destruction of evidence by church officials including former Vicar General Father Kevin McDonough and Oblates Superior Father Joseph Hitpas.
· Provide and review key documents showing the mishandling of Dummer’s case.
WHEN: Thursday, November 13, 2014, at 11:00AM CT
WHERE: Jeff Anderson & Associates
366 Jackson St. Suite 100
St. Paul, MN 55101
NOTES: Dummer’s priest file and key documents are available on our website. We will live stream the press event online from our website www.andersonadvocates.com.
Contact Jeff Anderson: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.817.8665
Contact Mike Finnegan: Office/651.227.9990 Cell/612.205.5531
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CALIFORNIA
Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA)
By: Roy L. Kaufmann
The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act is playing an important part in a recent case against a child abuser in Lompoc, California.
One of the lesser known parts of the SCRA is that it puts a hold on the statute of limitations in any case that a servicemember is involved in, according to The American Bar Association. This includes cases brought by or against a servicemember. Under 50 U.S. Code App. § 526, the period during which a servicemember is on active military status cannot be included when calculating any limitation period for filing suit. This element of the law played an essential part in helping a child abuse victim to bring a suit against his abuser.
Eleven years later
One of the problems in litigating child abuse cases is that the victim rarely comes forward early on. Often, it isn’t until years later that he or she is able to face the difficulties involved with bringing his or her abuser to court. As a result, there are some abuse cases that cannot be prosecuted, despite a longer statute of limitations on this type of crime than on many others.
A suit filed Oct. 30 in Los Angeles Superior Court demonstrated just this principle, according to The Lompoc Record. The suit alleges that national and Region 122 officials of the American Youth Soccer Association – the largest youth soccer organization in the United States – allowed Terence Paul Stevens to retain his position as coach after he was arrested and admitted to the abuse. It states that he used his position to gain access to and “groom” youths for sexual abuse.
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UNITED KINGDOM
Greenock Telegraph
Published: 13 Nov 2014
A TORMENTED Greenock man told today how he was sexually abused by paedophile priests from the age of 11 — then handed a ‘paltry’ £8,000 payout half-a-century later.
Gerry McLaughlin, now aged 61, has spoken out about the abuse he says he endured at the hands of priests.
Gerry McLaughlin, now 61, waived his right to anonymity to speak to the Telegraph about his disgust at the settlement — which came with no admission of the suffering he says he had to endure.
He was taken from his family home in West Stewart Street by a holy order called the Verona Fathers to a seminary school in Yorkshire where he planned to study for the priesthood himself.
Another four boys — three from Greenock and one from Port Glasgow — were among the intake from the local area to the order’s St Peter’s Mirfield institution 50 years ago.
But Gerry told how the abuse by two churchmen — Fr John Pinkman and Fr Domenico Valmaggia — began within days of his arrival there.
Gerry — who now lives in Ireland — told how Valmaggia locked him in the school’s infirmary and tried to ‘cure’ him of a groin injury by rubbing his private parts.
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WASHINGTON
BishopAccountability.org
Summary of Case: Harold Ernsdorff was a priest of the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus, ordained in 1943. He was pastor of a parish and ran a school on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Washington state. He spent his last five years at Seattle Prep High school in Seattle until his death in 1958. Ernsdorff’s name was included in 2011 on the Oregon Province’s list of its members who have been identified as perpetrators of sexual abuse.
Ordained: 1943
Died: Aug. 21, 1958
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WASHINGTON (DC)
WTOP
By John Aaron
WASHINGTON – Any talk of a plea agreement with a Georgetown rabbi charged with voyeurism is premature, D.C. prosecutors said hours after suggesting in court that a deal might be offered.
During a status hearing in D.C. Superior Court Wednesday, prosecutors asked a judge for additional time before the case moves forward to negotiate a possible plea deal with Rabbi Barry Freundel, who is accused of secretly recording women as they undressed for a ritual cleansing.
The suggestion that the case would not go to trial angered representatives of victims who were in the courtroom, sparked an outcry on social media and quickly drew a clarification from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
A statement from the office says that the investigation continues and that no plea offer has been made.
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WASHINGTON (DC)
Failed Messiah
Video: Possible Victims Of Alleged Mikvah Voyeur Rabbi Barry Freundel Upset With Government Handling Of Case
Possible victims of the Rabbi Barry Freundel, who allegedly secretly videoed naked women as they prepared to immerse in the mikvah (ritual bath) he controlled are upset with the government’s handling of the case, talk of plea deal, may sue synagogue, Rabbinical Council of America.
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NEW MEXICO
Gallup Independent
Editorial published in the Gallup Independent, Nov. 12, 2014
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Diocese of Gallup’s Chapter 11 petition being filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Mediation talks before Judge Randall J. Newsome should begin soon if they haven’t already started.
As Bishop James S. Wall discusses mediation strategy with his bankruptcy attorneys, he needs to keep some very vulnerable children in the forefront of his thoughts. Although they are adults now, the case’s clergy sex abuse claimants were once Catholic children from parishes across the diocese. They were once children whose parents sent them to Catholic schools and churches to learn about their Christian faith. They were once eager young altar servers. Neither they nor their parents expected to be betrayed by their own church leaders.
As the mediator, Newsome also needs to keep some promises in the forefront of his thoughts. Newsome is new to the bankruptcy case, but he needs to hold the Gallup bishop and his attorneys accountable for some old promises. Whatever monetary settlement amount is determined for abuse survivors, the mediation talks should result in a settlement agreement that includes the following requirements that will insure clergy abuse survivors finally receive some truth and transparency from the diocese.
• Publicly release a list of everyone associated with the Gallup Diocese who has been credibly accused of the sexual abuse of minors since the diocese’s founding. This includes men and women, priests, members of religious orders, employees and volunteers. This list needs to be posted on the diocese’s website as the bishop promised when he arrived here in 2009, and it needs to be posted permanently and prominently. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s listing on its “Office of Investigations” webpage would be an example to emulate.
• Publicize the list of credibly accused abusers by inserting it for three consecutive weeks in the church bulletins of every parish that was ever part of the Gallup Diocese.
• Publicly release and post online every personnel file of each credibly accused abuser. Identifying information pertaining to clergy sex abuse victims must be redacted, but diocesan officials and their attorneys should not be allowed a role in the redaction responsibilities.
• Require the personnel file of James M. Burns, which has already been released and posted online, to be re-released with dramatically fewer redactions. It is unacceptable that the Gallup Diocese was allowed to censor more than one-third of this notorious abuser’s file.
• Require the diocese to offer counseling to all victims of clergy sex abuse and their immediate family members by underwriting the cost of the therapy.
• Require the diocese to create a new ethics policy for all employees and volunteers. Require that policy be posted prominently on the diocese’s website, and require all employees and volunteers to read and sign the policy and attest to the fact that they have not violated the policy. Another good example from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia would be its “Standards of Ministerial Behaviors and Boundaries.”
• Require the diocese to publicly remove from ministry every employee and volunteer who has violated the ethics policy. The Gallup Diocese currently has a number of individuals who have not been accused of sexually abusing children, but they have been credibly accused of offenses that range from “boundary” allegations to violent crimes. The diocese needs to finally remove these individuals from ministry and tell the public the truth about their removal.
• Publicly release a list of all real property in Arizona and New Mexico, along with the sale prices, which the diocese has sold to help fund the bankruptcy settlement. This includes residential lots, rural tracts of land, and commercial property that is not needed for religious purposes. Lead bankruptcy attorney Susan G. Boswell promised such a list would be compiled, and she promised such property would be sold. The Diocese of Gallup has no need for such property — it needs to live up to its promise of funding a fair and just settlement.
These mediation talks and the final settlement agreement will reveal a lot about the character of the Gallup bishop. We hope it will reveal some sorely needed moral courage.
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