ABUSE TRACKER

PENNSYLVANIA
Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Catholic
Posted: Tues., Aug. 12, 2014

Pittsburgh Catholic Staff Report

Bishop David Zubik has placed Father John Fitzgerald, 66, the pastor of Our Lady of Peace Parish in Conway, Beaver County, on administrative leave pending further investigation into an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

This action was taken the day after diocesan officials met with an individual who alleged abuse by Father Fitzgerald in the late 1990s. Diocesan officials immediately reported the allegation to the district attorneys of Allegheny County and Lawrence County because the abuse was alleged to have occurred in both jurisdictions.

Prior to this, no other allegation of sexual abuse against Father Fitzgerald has come to the diocese’s notice. Father Fitzgerald has denied committing any acts of sexual abuse. While he is on administrative leave he cannot administer the sacraments, dress in clerical attire or identify himself as a priest.

A letter from Bishop Zubik was read at all Masses Aug. 2-3 at Our Lady of Peace, and a diocesan official answered questions afterward. A copy of the letter will be mailed to all the parishioners.

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

August 17, 2014

A priest in the Archdiocese of Boston has been accused of sexually abusing a minor while he was a priest in the Pittsburgh area in the early 1970s.

The Diocese of Pittsburgh announced today that the allegation against the Rev. John P. Carroll concerns when he was assigned to Saint Michael Parish in Elizabeth Township from 1962 to 1963.

The victim made the allegation directly to the Archdiocese of Boston, according to a news release issued by the Diocese of Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh Bishop David A. Zubik wrote this weekend to Saint Michael Parish and all parishes where Father Carroll served while in the Diocese of Pittsburgh informing them of the allegation.

Bishop Zubik said his purpose in writing “is to discover whether anyone else may have an allegation against Father Carroll or anyone who was acting in the name of the church.”

Father Carroll served in the Diocese of Pittsburgh from 1962 to 1972. In addition to his assignment as a parochial vicar at Saint Michael, Father Carroll served at St. Isaac Jogues, Elrama; Saint Margaret, Greentree; Saint Susanna, Penn Hills; Saint Alphonsus, Springdale; and Saint Denis, Versailles (now Saint Patrick, McKeesport).

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.

MISSOURI
St. Ann Catholic Church

From our Archbishop:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I have accepted the recommendation of the Review Board of the Archdiocese of St. Louis in its determination that a report alleging the sexual abuse of a minor by the late Father Alexander Lippert in the early 1970s is considered credible. Father Lippert died in April 2000, prior to any allegations being made against him. Although he is unable to offer a defense, the allegation against Fr. Lippert is considered “credible though unsubstantiated” because there was enough evidence to conclude that the abuse could have occurred as reported.

Father Lippert’s priestly assignments in the Archdiocese of St. Louis were as follows:

April 1956 Assistant pastor, Holy Guardian Angels
July 1959 Immaculate Conception, Union
1961 St. Liborius
1963 St. Teresa (in residence)
1965 St. Ferdinand, Florissant (in residence)
May 1968 St. Aloysius, Spanish Lake
July 1970 Requested leave of absence; took up residence at St. Paul the Apostle, Pine Lawn
June 1980 Associate pastor, Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France
Nov. 1980 Administrator, St. Catherine of Alexandria, Coffman
May 1983 Associate pastor, St. Ambrose
April 1986 Associate pastor, St. Thomas of Aquinas
July 1988 Sick leave
Jan. 1991 Relieved of priestly duties and granted retirement.

Anyone who wishes to make a report of the sexual abuse of a minor by Father Lippert or by any other priest, deacon or employee of the Archdiocese of St. Louis may contact De-con Phil Hengen, Director of Child and Youth Protection, Archdiocese of St. Louis at 314.792.7704 or phengen@archstl.org. Reports may also be made to the Missouri Division of Social Services Child Abuse Hotline at 800.392.3738 for allegations involving a person who is currently under the age of 18, or to civil authorities for allegations involving a person who is now an adult, but was abused as a minor.

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Most Reverend Robert J. Carlson
Archbishop of St. Louis

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 Bill Zlatos
Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014

Authorities are investigating a claim that a Boston priest molested a child in Elizabeth more than 50 years ago.

The Rev. John P. Carroll, a priest from the Archdiocese of Boston, has been accused of sexually abusing a minor while he was assigned at St. Michael Parish in Elizabeth, officials of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh disclosed Sunday.

They learned about the allegation from Boston church officials Aug. 5 and alerted authorities here.
Pittsburgh Bishop David Zubik warned St. Michael Parish and all the parishes where Carroll served of the allegation in a letter this weekend.

“I urge anyone who has been abused by any person representing the church to notify civil authorities and to contact the diocese to obtain assistance with counseling to help with recovery from abuse,” Zubik wrote.

Carroll worked at the Pittsburgh Diocese from 1962 to 1972, including his stint at St. Michael. He also worked at St. Isaac Jogues in Elrama, St. Margaret in Green Tree, St. Susanna in Penn Hills, St. Alphonsus in Springdale and St. Denis in Versailles, now called St. Patrick in McKeesport.

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
The New York Times

Nicholas Kristof

IN an age of villainy, war and inequality, it makes sense that we need superheroes. And after trying Superman, Batman and Spider-Man, we may have found the best superheroes yet: Nuns.

“I may not believe in God, but I do believe in nuns,” writes Jo Piazza, in her forthcoming book, “If Nuns Ruled the World.” Piazza is an agnostic living in New York City who began interviewing nuns and found herself utterly charmed and inspired.

“They eschew the spotlight by their very nature, and yet they’re out there in the world every day, living the Gospel and caring for the poor,” Piazza writes. “They don’t hide behind fancy and expensive vestments, a pulpit, or a sermon. I have never met a nun who rides a Mercedes-Benz or a Cadillac. They walk a lot; they ride bikes.”

One of the most erroneous caricatures of nuns is that they are prim, Victorian figures cloistered in convents. On the contrary, I’ve become a huge fan of nuns because I see them so often risking their lives around the world, confronting warlords, pimps and thugs, while speaking the local languages fluently. In a selfish world, they epitomize selflessness and compassion.

There are also plenty of formidable nuns whom even warlords don’t want to mess with, who combine reverence with ferocity, who defy the Roman Catholic Church by handing out condoms to prostitutes to protect them from H.I.V. (They surely don’t mention that to the bishops.)

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

AUSTRALIA
The Age

August 18, 2014

Cameron Houston and Chris Vedelago

The Catholic Church has expelled an inner-Melbourne priest after allegations of sexual impropriety as the sex abuse royal commission begins its Melbourne hearings into decades of abuse and alleged cover-ups.

The disclosure that the priest’s alleged victim received a financial settlement from the church and refused to assist police has led to the accusation that the church paid hush money. Father Mato Krizanac, 60, of the Croatian Catholic Centre at St Nicholas’ church in Clifton Hill, was the subject of a 12-month internal investigation by the church’s independent commissioner, Peter O’Callaghan, QC, of the Melbourne Response, and the Archdiocese of Adelaide, where the alleged offences are said to have taken place in the mid 1980s.

Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart told Father Krizanac in June that he would be permanently stripped of all clerical duties, while parishioners were believed to have been informed at Mass on Sunday.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Melbourne confirmed the allegations had been referred to South Australian police in April 2013 – a month before Father Krizanac was placed on “administrative leave” by the church.

The alleged victim received a financial settlement from the church, but refused to assist police, who were unable to investigate the matter.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Age

August 17, 2014

Jane Lee
Legal Affairs Reporter for The Age

There is a cloud over when all of the state inquiry’s recommendations for preventing child abuse will be legislated, three months before the Victorian election.

The state inquiry into the handling of child abuse made the recommendations in its Betrayal of Trust report, which was tabled last November. The Coalition has so far only implemented three of its 15 recommendations, creating offences for grooming, failure to protect children from abuse and failure to disclose abuse. Reforms for a fourth – ensuring religious ministers have working with children checks – are before Parliament.

Attorney-General Robert Clark told a forum hosted by victims’ support group Commission Of Inquiry Now on Friday that the government was working on laws and considering options for the other recommendations, which aim to make organisations more accountable for child abuse, and make it easier for victims to claim compensation.

Mr Clark would not say whether all would be implemented in the 12 sitting days before the November election: “We’re working through each…and when we’re in a position to do so we’ll bring [proposed laws] to the Parliament particularly in relation to the civil redress, limitation of actions and civil liability provisions.”

He would not say whether the government would hold an extra parliamentary sitting to ensure all the recommendations were implemented.

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
The Journal

CLERICAL ABUSE SURVIVOR Brendan Boland says that the resignation of Sean Brady as Primate of All Ireland has come too late.

Speaking on RTÉ’s This Week programme, Boland said that Brady had been “rewarded” for covering up child sex abuse.

Boland disclosed that he had been abused by notorious paedophile Brendan Smyth to a priest in 1975. He has written a book, Sworn to Silence about the cover up that ensued.

He said that he has no desire to meet with Brady, but said that he wants Brady to read the book.

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.

MALTA
Times of Malta

The Maltese Church’s leadership is in a worse situation than that of the Nationalist Party after the 1976 general election, according to Fr Joe Borg.

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.

MALTA
Malta Independent

Former Mġarr parish priest Emanuel Camilleri’s assertion – as reported in The Malta Independent – that the Catholic Church in Malta faces a “leadership crisis” has been echoed by priest and university lecturer Joe Borg.

In an opinion piece which appeared on today’s edition of The Sunday Times of Malta, Fr Borg argued that the leadership crisis faced by the Archdiocese of Malta was the elephant in the room which “all those I have talked to in the Church readily admit to in private to its existence, only to remain totally silent about it in public, or, worse still, deny its existence.”

Fr Camilleri, who had previously served as the parish priest of the St Mary parish in Birkirkara and of Msida, was only appointed parish priest of Mġarr last March.

However, his tenure was soon met with controversy as he sought to enforce a decree he had nothing to do with – it was issued by the Curia on 28 March – on the Via Sagra procession held in the locality.

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

In Recent News (One Hand, Other Hand): How Catholic Leaders Deal with Priests Guilty of Abusing Minors v. How Catholic Leaders Deal with Lay Employees Who Are Gay

In the news lately, there’s this: as this editorial in the Daily Gazette (Schenectady, NY) indicates, this past Wednesday, Father James Taylor, a Catholic priest in Niskayuna, pled guilty to having sexual contact with a 15-year-old girl. Taylor was arrested in April. His bishop, Edward Scharfenberger, placed him on administrative leave after the arrest, but has announced that the diocesan sexual misconduct review board will not make a final decision about Taylor’s continuing work as a priest until after the civil proceedings against him have finished.

Scharfenberger’s approach to the case prompts the Daily Gazette to ask,

[W]hy wait until civil legal proceedings have been completed before holding a hearing, to then determine whether Taylor should remain a priest?

As the editorial notes,

If you own a business and one of your employees is convicted of having sexual contact with a minor, the second that court case is over, that guy is fired. . . . If the bishop really wanted to send a message about zero-tolerance, he would use the outcome of the criminal court case as the final arbiter and kick this guy to the curb now.

And then there’s this, also in the news recently: in July, William Nifong, a Latin teacher at Northside College Prep School in Chicago, proposed to Colin Collette, a longtime music director at Holy Family Catholic church in Inverness, Illinois. Collette announced the engagement on Facebook.

And then he was fired. Immediately after his wedding plans appeared on Facebook. Lisa Black tells the story for the Chicago Tribune here and here.

A priest can be arrested after having had sexual contact with a 15-year-old girl. He can plead guilty to the charge in civil court.

But his bishop will still bend over backwards to assure that the priest receives every consideration as his clerical career is assessed.

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 ZEALAND
Scoop

Sunday, 17 August 2014
Press Release: Mike Ledingham

Shadow of Priest’s Abuse Over Author’s Grunt Sequel

Wairarapa author Mike Ledingham tackles the difficult topic of abuse in the Catholic Church in Always a Grunt, the newly published sequel to his popular first book, Once a Grunt.

Like his first book, Always a Grunt is chocker with short stories laced with humour and sharp observations of human foibles and vanities.

However, two of the stories also delve deeper into sensitive areas of emotional turmoil as they recount the awful tragedy of an infant’s death, and the sickening and unjust dilemmas a youngster faces after falling victim to paedophile priest.

“The feedback after the first book came out was really encouraging,” says Mr Ledingham. “So I feel braver about branching out into some different areas with some of the new stories. It’s still in the same style, though. People who enjoyed the first book won’t be disappointed.”

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

CALIFORNIA
New York Daily News

Friday, August 15, 2014

BY CAROL KURUVILLA

A Christian school employee is in police custody for allegedly molesting two children who were attending Sunday services.

Jonathan Macy, 31, was cuffed by California police on Wednesday morning after an investigation into the abuse, CBS reports.

The Lancaster man is an employee at the Grace Chapel Church, which is on the same campus as the Desert Christian School.

After allegations arose that he had sexual contact with a young girl on Aug. 5, a second victim stepped forward.

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.

MINNESOTA
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on August 16, 2014

A couple of things struck me about the recently released clergy file of St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese priest Thomas Stitts. I saved the best for last, so be sure to read to the end.

There is the 1985 “mystery letter.” The letter, which became known around the time of Stitts’ death, allegedly “named names” of scandalous priests in archdiocese. Rumors abounded that details in the letter were licentious and detailed. Priests all over the archdiocese begged Archbishop Roach to keep the document a secret.

Where did the letter go? According to the file, it mysteriously disappeared and was allegedly destroyed. Something tells me that copies are still floating around. Stitts knew he was dying and had nothing to lose by writing the letter. He also had nothing to lose by making lots of copies.

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.

MINNESOTA
City Pages

By Jesse Marx
Fri., Aug. 15 2014

Father Thomas Stitts had been dead for mere days before his colleagues began digging up his spirit.

In a “STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL” memo dated November 22, 1985, then-Bishop Robert Carlson writes of Stitts’s possible exploits with boys. Rumors were circulating that, before the cancer got him, Stitts had come clean about his “moral activity” and named similarly abusive priests in a letter.

Carlson’s memo draws no definitive conclusion, but suggests that a choir director burned the confession to avoid scandal.

What remains of the priest’s secret personnel file — released Thursday as part of an upcoming lawsuit — is open to interpretation. Stitts is a more mysterious figure than the other priests who’ve been scrutinized over the last year. He seems to have been intensely private.

But it’s also clear from reading his file that he was deeply troubled, and that his superiors worried about him openly.

In 1979, for instance, then-Archbishop John Roach wrote, “I am very pleased to hear that the whole issue that you and I discussed has worked out,” meaning an allegation of abuse. “I would add only one thing,” Roach continued, “and that is that if there is something you feel you ought to be facing that you be sure to get some help.”

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

AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source AAP 17 AUG 2014

One of the world’s first child abuse compensation schemes will be scrutinised when the child abuse royal commission sits in Melbourne this week.

The Melbourne Response, introduced in 1996, was the one of the Catholic Church’s first redress schemes for victims of pedophile priests.

Cardinal George Pell, who was Archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s, will give evidence via video-link on Thursday from the Vatican about his role in setting up the scheme.

But first up will be Christine Foster, whose daughters were raped by a priest in Melbourne in the 1990s.

One daughter committed suicide while the other is in 24-hour care after being hit by a car.

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 Independent

John Spain 

Published 17/08/2014

The author of the recently published book Sworn to Silence that made devastating revelations about Cardinal Sean Brady has dismissed his resignation letter as “too little too late”.

Brendan Boland was an 11-year-old altar boy in Dundalk when he was abused by Fr Brendan Smyth in the 1970s. Two years after the abuse began, he told another priest what was happening and a secret church inquiry was arranged.

He was questioned in isolation by a group of priests, including the then Fr John Brady. He was sworn to silence and the gardai were never informed, even though he had given the names of other boys who were at risk.

Yesterday, Brendan Boland made clear his dissatisfaction with the letter sent by Cardinal Brady.

He told the Sunday Independent: “This resignation is a long time coming. Cardinal Brady should have handed in his resignation back in 2010 (when a TV expose was broadcast).

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.

LOUISIANA
The Advertiser

Claire Taylor, Ken Stickney August 16, 2014

A survivors group for victims of pedophile priests has rejected as unsatisfactory Bishop Michael Jarrell’s decision to not identify the 15 accused Lafayette Diocese priests for whom the diocese has made financial payouts.

“Changing locations or jobs doesn’t cure a pedophile,” said Barbara Dorris, the outreach director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “So it’s incredibly disingenuous for Jarrell to imply that Lafayette police, parents and parishioners shouldn’t worry because some predator priests aren’t saying Mass now or have moved a few towns away.”

The bishop has turned away numerous requests to release the names of offenders. Late Thursday, he said of the 15, seven have died, five have moved away and none are involved in ministry.

In response to questions from The Daily Advertiser, the bishop conceded that the church is unable to account for the whereabouts of some offenders.

“Monitoring their activities is practically impossible,” he 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.

TEXAS
Watch Keep

M. Dustin Brimberry

to me

Amy,

Let me start off by saying that I 100% support the victims that have been molested (and I believe they probably were), that is not in question. I would never support a predator, I have the facts on my side and we need to catch the actual person that did this, the longer we wait, the more likely that person is to strike again because Greg Kelley is not some monster and he did not do this! Do your research, the police destroyed communication between themselves and CPS, which the judge partially blocked at trial. Greg is also a victim of a corrupt and evil DA, and police department. Do you really think a church would support Greg if he did this? NO. The pastor of the church was not even taking sides in the matter until he saw the real facts of the case with his own eyes. As soon as he was presented with the facts that were suppressed at trial, he quickly got on board because he saw the injustice of this whole thing.

I am extremely disappointed in your recent comments regarding the Greg Kelley case. I know that you probably published the letter from the Cedar Park Chief of Police to be used to try and smear the #FightforGK movement that is quickly gaining momentum, but that is about to backfire on you.

I love how enemies of the true and living God (though they pretend they are not), play right into his hands when they partner with satan. God loves to mock and ridicule satan, satan is always so arrogant that he always overplays his hand. That is exactly what our and all the others who clearly have no understanding of the GK case and have continued to falsely accuse an innocent young man. Your day along with all those others who have been on the side of injustice and corruption by the law enforcement (what a joke) of Williamson County have a day of reckoning coming very soon. God is about to rub all your faces in your lies because the truth is about to explode on the scene and it is Greg Kelley, his supporters and his family that are about to have the last laugh.

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.

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Berger’s Beat

. . .Poor Archbishop Robert Carlson can’t get a break. Even aging rocker and gun enthusiast Ted Nugent pillories Carlson in a recent blog post under the headline “Are You A Gullible Stooge or Real American?” Nugent compares the prelate to the IRS (“They both believe the American public is full of gullible idiots”) and calls Carlson “a fraud, liar, punk.” Nugent’s tirade ends with advice to parishioners: “Any Catholic who fails to step forward and condemn such evil is no better than Muslims who don’t speak out against the evil of the so-called honor killings. Silence is complicity and equally guilty as all hell”. . .

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
National Catholic Reporter

Eugene Cullen Kennedy | Aug. 15, 2014

The Leadership Conference of Women Religious spent the first day of its annual assembly in Nashville, Tenn., exploring the group’s “contemplative, collaborative process for making decisions,” which we know the Vatican has found troublesome.

This is, in fact, but an example, much as patients use in their search to explain to doctors what is bothering them, of the fundamental conflict between Roman authorities and America’s women religious.

The complaints made against these valiant women by Roman authorities are also illustrations of what bothers these officials about these women that they have not, cannot, or dare not express simply and directly.

That is why the indictments brought against American women religious appear to be a compilation of trivialities about problems, such as with the speakers they invite to their assemblies or those, theologian Sr. Elizabeth Johnson in particular, they honor for their work for the church.

These matters have been raised to an operatic level of complaint — or perhaps we might better say, “irritation” — by Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who insisted that the offenses were so grave that he needed to use “blunt” rather than “flowery language” in questioning whether the LCWR leadership was promoting programs “opposed to Christian Revelation.”

It might have been better — and more expressive of his deepest reactions — if Cardinal Müller had simply said, “We just don’t like the way you decide things.” And perhaps he could have added, “We never went along with you women thinking for yourselves, and I’m reasserting our male hierarchical control over 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.

NEW JERSEY
Road to Recovery

Media Release

August 16, 2014

Rev. Robert Gibney allegedly sexually abused in Newark and Cedar Grove parishes

Newark Archdiocese needs to alert parishioners and the general public about allegations of sexual abuse against Fr. Robert Gibney

What: A demonstration and leafleting alerting the parishioners of St. Catherine’s Parish, Cedar Grove, NJ to the allegations of sexual abuse leveled against their former pastor, Rev. Robert Gibney.

When: Saturday, August 16, 2014 before and after the 5:00 and 6:00 PM Masses
Sunday, August 17, 2014 – after the 7:15 AM Mass; before and after the Masses
at 9:15 AM, 10:45 AM, and 12:15 PM

Where: On the public sidewalk outside St. Catherine Roman Catholic Church, 339 Pompton Avenue, Cedar Grove, NJ 07009

Who: Members of a victim/survivor advocacy group known as Road to Recovery, Inc., a non-profit charity that assists victims of sexual abuse and their families.

Why: Two sexual abuse victims of Fr. Robert Gibney, former pastor of St. Catherine’s Parish, Cedar Grove, NJ, have come forward to claim that they were sexually abused by Fr. Robert Gibney. One of the victims alleges that he was sexually abused at Sacred Heart Parish in Newark in the 1960s when Fr. Robert Gibney was assigned to that parish. Another victim has alleged that he was abused when Fr. Robert Gibney was pastor of St. Catherine’s Parish. Fr. Robert Gibney was also stationed at St. Mary’s Parish, Dumont, NJ, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish in Ridgewood, NJ. He was also a seminary dean and a military chaplain. Demonstrators will urge other sexual abuse victims of Fr. Robert Gibney to come forward to begin healing.

Contacts: Robert M. Hoatson, Ph.D., President, Road to Recovery, Inc. – 862-368-2800
Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, Boston, MA – 617-523-6250

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 Catholic Bishops’ Conference

Last month I offered my resignation to Pope Francis in accordance with the requirement of Canon Law. I did so in anticipation of my seventy-fifth birthday which I will celebrate tomorrow.

On 18 January 2013 Pope Benedict XVI acceded to my request for episcopal support and Archbishop Eamon Martin was appointed as Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh. This means that as soon as Pope Francis accepts my resignation Archbishop Eamon will become Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland.

Archbishop Eamon has been warmly welcomed into the diocese. He has worked tirelessly in getting to know its priests, religious and lay faithful, as well as by becoming involved in every aspect of the life of the Church in Armagh and beyond.

I look forward to the day when my resignation will be accepted and when Archbishop Eamon will take over as Archbishop, a position for which, I believe, he is excellently prepared.

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
Herald

BY CORMAC MCQUINN – 16 AUGUST 2014

CARDINAL Sean Brady has said that his planned successor at the head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, co-adjudicator Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin, is “excellently prepared” to take on the role when his resignation is accepted by Pope Francis.

And the 75-year-old has said he is “looking forward to the day” that the Vatican approves his retirement.

Dr Brady has faced criticism over his role in the church’s handling of abuse claims against paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

Victims of clerical sexual abuse had called on Pope Francis to accept his resignation immediately.

This week it emerged that Dr Brady has written to the Pope requesting approval to retire.

In a statement issued last night, Dr Brady said he offered his resignation to Pope Francis last month in the “anticipation” of his 75th birthday, which he celebrates today.

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

AUSTRALIA
Broken Rites

By a Broken Rites researcher (article updated 16 August 2014

Research by Broken Rites has revealed how the Catholic Church harboured this abusive priest, Father Victor Gabriel Rubeo, for three decades while he committed child-sex crimes in the Melbourne archdiocese. Broken Rites first exposed Rubeo in the 1990s, prompting some more of Rubeo’s victims to contact Broken Rites. In August 2014, Australia’s national Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse is receiving new evidence about more of Rubeo’s crimes, committed during the cover-up. Rubeo (pronounced “roo-BAY-oh”) was born in 1933 and was ordained as a priest in 1959; he died in 2011.

Rubeo’s victims included two boys (Tony and Will) in one of his earliest parishes (in Melbourne in the 1960s). In 1996 he pleaded guilty in court after these two victims finally spoke to police. On 28 October 2011, Rubeo appeared in court again, charged with 30 additional offences (in the 1960s) against the same two boys. He was ordered to re-appear on 16 December 2011 for a full hearing but he died a few hours before his next scheduled court appearance, aged 78.

The two boys in these court proceedings (Tony and Will) were twin brothers who were born about 1952. Their parents were Dutch working-class migrants. Their father had been badly affected by World War 2 and he had an alcohol problem. Their mother was missing her relatives in the Netherlands.

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: Francis X. Nawn was ordained a Jesuit priest for the Wisconsin Province in June 1951. He was assigned to Jesuit high schools in Colorado and Wisconsin, then to Creighton University in Omaha NE for a year. In 1962 Nawn was transferred to Alaska, and was transcribed to the Oregon Province in 1973. He lived and worked in remote Alaskan villages until 1988, with the exception of a year’s sabbatical at Fordham University in New York. He died Oct. 1, 1992. In 2004 Nawn’s name first surfaced in lawsuits as having perpetrated child sexual abuse in Sheldon Point AK. The abuse was said to have occurred as early as 1963 and until at least 1977. By August 2005 nine men and a woman had come forward with allegations of sexual abuse by Nawn when they were children.

Ordained: June 14, 1951
Died: Oct. 1, 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
Stop Baptist Predators

SNAP was at the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting June 11 in Baltimore, handing out flyers and urging Baptists to get serious about dealing with clergy sex abuse and cover-ups.

The evangelical “good-old-boys” network is just as effective at covering up clergy sex crimes as the Catholic hierarchy, said Pam Palmer, a SNAP member who spoke with the media there.

This problem is not going away, and the sooner Baptists start responsibly addressing it, the safer kids in Baptist churches will be.

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

AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

16 AUG 2014

The national inquiry into child sexual abuse in institutions plans to make final recommendations on compensation for victims by June of next year.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in its interim report published two months ago said it would need another $104 million and a two-year extension on its December 2015 deadline to produce its final report.

It promised, however, to make earlier recommendations on redress and civil litigation for thousands of victims of abuse, many of whom are elderly.

On Friday, the royal commission’s chief executive, Philip Reed, said June 30, 2015 was the target date for those recommendations.

“In order to achieve this shortened time frame, we are adopting an intensive consultation process involving both broad public consultation and targeted private consultation,” he 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.

TEXAS
Truth About FightforGK

Friday, August 15, 2014

I have stood just slightly to the side of the Fight for GK movement. Most in the movement would view me as part of the movement although I have not actually actively participated. I simply had the chance to be close. I know many, but not all, of the people directly involved in the movement. I watched the lead up to the trial and the trial itself (although I dared not to be in the actual courtroom). #PrayforGK on its face was noble if you also #PrayforTheVictims. I have no problem with people praying for someone even if that person has committed a crime. In fact, that original hashtag and slogan was chosen to draw in people who were not sure of guilt or innocence. However, the effect of the verdict and the switch to #FightforGK drew me in to watch the psychology of how a large group attempts to deal with this event.

#FightforGK will try to figure out who the “mole” is. I will be careful and not tell every detail that I am aware of, because there are things that I have overheard or been told directly that could tip them off to my identity.

My purpose is not to cause harm to anyone. I truly do feel terrible for almost everyone involved.

My purposes are:
1. Speak out to do a small part in helping to prevent child abuse in the future.
2. Stand for and uphold the Rule of Law that hold very dearly.

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.

LOUISIANA
The Advertiser

Ken Stickney and Claire Taylor, kstickney@theadvertiser.com, cxtaylor@theadvertiser.com
August 15, 2014

Lafayette Bishop Michael Jarrell confirmed today that at least some of the 15 diocesan priests who were credibly accused in child molestation incidents that led to diocesan payout settlements are beyond the point where the diocese knows what they are doing.

Seven of the 15 have died, the bishop said. Of the remaining eight, none are involved in ministry and five have moved away, he said. But in some cases, the bishop concedes, “Monitoring their activities is practically impossible.”

The bishop’s disclosures and comments came in response to a series of written questions submitted to Jarrell by The Daily Advertiser through the Rev. Richard Greene, media liaison for the diocese.

“When these men move out of the diocese, we sometimes know where they are moving. If so, we inform that Diocese,” the bishop said in one written response to a question. The bishop also said that when prospective employers seek information about the former priests, “We respond truthfully.”

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.

TENNESSEE
National Catholic Reporter

Dan Stockman | Aug. 15, 2014

NASHVILLE, TENN. The Vatican and women religious are caught up in a tension with historical, sociological and ecclesiastical roots, but a solution could be found, Sr. Elizabeth Johnson said.

The Fordham University theologian praised the sisters for their commitment to “meaningful, honest dialogue” and urged them to stay the course.

Johnson was honored Friday with the Outstanding Leadership Award by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the largest group of women religious leaders in the nation, representing about 80 percent of the 51,600 sisters in the United States.

Both Johnson and LCWR have been criticized by the church, and Johnson told the nearly 800 sisters gathered here for LCWR’s annual assembly that the criticisms of her writing and of LCWR are intertwined.

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

Droppings from the Catholic Birdcage: “How Could a Catholic Priest with Such a History End Up As Second in Command of a Diocese—in 2014?”

At Commonweal, Grant Gallicho examines the curious case of Father Carlos Urrutigoity, who was removed by the Vatican in July from his position as vicar general in the diocese of Ciudad del Este in Paraguay. In defending Urrutigoity and the decision of Ciudad del Este bishop Rogelio Livieres to make him vicar general of the diocese despite repeated (and seemingly credible) allegations that he had sexually abused minors and seminarians, diocesan officials state that Urrutigoity came to Ciudad del Este with the recommendation of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI.

Gallicho writes:

The priest’s rise to prominence tracks closely with the church’s growing awareness of the gravity of clerical sexual abuse. Accusations of misconduct have followed him from Argentina to Pennsylvania. That’s what makes his reappearance in Ciudad del Este—where the bishop had him helping with seminary formation before promoting him to vicar general—so difficult to understand. How could a Catholic priest with such a history end up as second in command of a diocese—in 2014?

How, indeed?

As Joe Navarro notes in this Psychology Today article, predators appear to be attracted to religious institutions for all kinds of reasons: because the aggregation of congregants at worship services and other religious events creates a pool of potential victims for the predator to prey on; because of the prestige afforded religious leaders; because the club mentality of the leadership structure of many religious organizations affords protection and secrecy for predators; because the predator can exploit claims that he represents God to layfolks and that critical questions about his behavior represent an attack on divine authority; because of the money and other material resources provided to the ordained, etc.

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.

TEXAS
Cleburne Times-Review

August 15, 2014

According to a Fort Worth newspaper, another victim has come forward claiming Dan Haby Jr., pastor of Cowboy Way Church in Alvarado, sexually abused him as a teen.

Haby, 51, is charged on two counts of indecency with a child and remains free on bond after his July 25 arrest on allegations that he sexually abused a teen he mentored while he was a pastor of the Stockyards Community Church in Fort Worth.

Haby used to live in Fort Worth and the alleged abuse began in 2000, when the first victim was 15, and occurred in his home on Creston Avenue. The victim contacted police in June and investigators obtained two arrest warrants for indecency with a child by sexual contact.

According to the article, the second alleged victim, 25, contacted Fort Worth police detective C.W. Daniels on July 31 after news of Haby’s arrest.

A Fort Worth police report filed Thursday indicates the alleged abused also occurred in Haby’s home on Creston Avenue in Fort Worth.

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.

CONNECTICUT
The Hour

Fri Aug 15, 2014.
By STEVE KOBAK
Hour Staff Writer

NORWALK — A former New Canaan Sunday school teacher avoided jail but must register as a sex offender after pleading guilty to having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old male Friday at Norwalk Superior Court.

Morgan Frawley, 26, received a 10-year suspended prison sentence and 10 years of probation after pleading guilty to risk of injury of a minor. Should she violate her probation, she would be subject to serve all or a portion of her 10-year suspended sentence. She must also register as a sex offender for 10 years.

Frawley was ordered to stay away from persons under the age of 16 nor can she have any contact with the victim or his family. She must also undergo mental health treatment.

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
Charisma News

JENNIFER LECLAIRE

Spiritual abuse. I’ve endured it, so I know what it looks like.

As I’ve said in the past, spiritual abuse, cultish churches and controlling ministries are less often exposed than pastors who coerce teenaged boys and unsuspecting church secretaries to have sexual relations.

Mark Driscoll may pour out crude sermons about oral sex and sex toys in sermons—he’s long been ultra-controversial—but the spiritual abuse allegations are most troubling. Those allegations emerged earlier this month—before the Acts 29 network he co-founded disassociated itself with him and the church, and before LifeWay pulled his books off the shelves.

What Is Spiritual Abuse?

I had never heard the words “spiritual abuse” until I escaped a controlling ministry where the subtle practice ran rampant. Someone close to me who had observed the behavior in the church I attended recommended a book called The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse.

Jeff VanVonderen, co-author of the classic book, explains spiritual abuse this way: “Spiritual abuse occurs when someone in a position of spiritual authority … misuses that authority placing themselves over God’s people to control, coerce or manipulate them for seemingly godly purposes which are really their own.”

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

CALIFORNIA
Press-Telegram

Ex-Norwalk pastor, suspected of molesting 20 women, sentenced to 6 years in sexual-penetration case

By Beatriz Valenzuela, Press-Telegram
POSTED: 08/15/14

A former Norwalk pastor was sentenced to six years in state prison this week after he pleaded no contest to sexually assaulting a congregant.

Jorge Castro, 55, who was a pastor at Las Buenas Nuevas Church in Norwalk, pleaded no contest to a felony count of sexual penetration by foreign object and was also ordered to register as a sex offender for life.

In April of 2010, one of the church’s female congregants went to Castro for spiritual counseling, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. While praying for the woman, he sexually assaulted her. Castro, however, is suspected of molesting as many as 20 women, most of whom were Spanish-speaking undocumented immigrants.

Castro was arrested in September after reports of the abuse. He was charged with six felony counts in connection with the alleged sexual assaults of four women between ages 18 and 39.

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.

GEORGIA
WSB

[with video]

By Carl Willis
DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ga. — A former pastor, who has been in the headlines before, is now accused of touching an employee against her will.

Bill Wininger, 62, was arrested on four counts of simple battery Thursday.

The Solicitor-General’s Office announced Friday that they filed a formal accusation of four counts of simple battery. They say Wininger made unwanted physical contact with a teacher at the King’s Way Christian School.

Prosecutors say sexual conduct by Wininger was also directed toward other employees at the school.

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
The Guardian

Vikram Dodd
The Guardian, Friday 15 August 2014

Police investigating a claim of sexual abuse by Sir Cliff Richard on Friday said new people had come forward with information after media coverage of a raid by detectives on the home of the entertainer.

Richard’s property in Sunningdale, Berkshire, was searched on Thursday by detectives investigating a single claim of the sexual abuse of a boy aged under 16 at an evangelical rally held by Billy Graham in Sheffield in 1985 at which the singer performed.

The search is mired in controversy because the BBC had journalists, who apparently knew the raid was going to take place, waiting for the police outside.

South Yorkshire police on Friday said they had worked with the BBC ahead of the raid, but denied being the source of the leak. …

Police raided Richard’s home over allegations of a sexual assault at a rally held by the US evangelical preacher Billy Graham nearly 30 years ago.

Richard said on Thursday that he had been aware of rumours circulating on the internet for some time, but that the allegation was “completely false”. The police raid, he added, was “without notice, except, it would appear, to the press”.

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)
Kansas City Business Journal

Staff
Kansas City Business Journal

The Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph must pay a $1.1 million breach-of-contract award for violating a settlement with victims of priest sexual abuse as an arbitrator ordered, the Jefferson City News Tribune reports.

Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Bryan Round upheld the arbitrator’s finding that the diocese failed to abide by “the terms of the non-monetary commitments” in the 2008 settlement, the report says.

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.

TENNESSEE
Religion News Service

Heidi Hall | August 16, 2014

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) A nun who drew U.S. Catholic bishops’ ire with what they consider radical feminist writings fired back Friday (Aug. 15), saying their investigation of women’s orders is wasteful when financial mismanagement and sexual abuses are being covered up.

Sister Elizabeth Johnson, a theology professor at Fordham University, accepted the Leadership Conference of Women Religious’ top award and then lambasted bishops for criticism of her book “Quest for the Living God,” saying it appears they’ve never read it.

“To this day, no one, not myself or the theological community, the media or the general public knows what doctrinal issue is at stake,” she told the Nashville assembly of about about 900 women representing 80 percent of the nation’s nuns.

In her 20-minute acceptance speech, Johnson suggested the conference’s support of her work prompted the investigation by the church’s top enforcer of orthodoxy, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith.

Johnson’s book includes chapters on black and feminist theology and interfaith engagement. She said book sales skyrocketed after the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops criticized it.

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 Claire O’Sullivan
Irish Examiner Reporter

The Irish representative on the Vatican’s new child protection council said “it would have been better” for the survivors of abuse by Brendan Smyth if Cardinal Sean Brady had resigned two years ago.

The Catholic Primate confirmed yesterday that Cardinal Brady offered his resignation to Pope Francis this week in advance of his 75th birthday, which falls today.

Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin will take over Cardinal Brady’s role as Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland when his resignation is accepted by the Pope.

Speaking in a personal capacity, clerical abuse survivor Marie Collins, who called for his resignation when his role in the Smyth canonical tribunal came to light two years ago, said the Cardinal’s failure to resign then “created a deeper wound for survivors of Brendan Smyth”.

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.

ARIZONA
KTAR

PHOENIX — A Phoenix pastor was arrested Thursday on suspicion of molesting two children and having inappropriate sexual contact with two women, police said.

Jorge Vasquez, the pastor of Iglesia Pentecostales en el Desierto near Interstate 17 and Grant, is accused of committing the crimes between January 2007 and March 2014. Police said the alleged sexual contact and molestation happened during counseling sessions and other times when he was alone with the victims.

Police said there are two adult female victims and two juvenile female victims. None of the victims have been named.

Vasquez was charged with molestation of a child, sexual conduct with a minor, sexual abuse and sexual assault.

Anyone with more information on these crimes is asked to contact the Phoenix Police Department at 602-262-5151 or Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS.

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.

ARIZONA
KPHO

By Breann Bierman

PHOENIX (CBS5) –
Police say a pastor is in jail for allegedly sexually assaulting two girls and two women, and they’re investigating if there are more victims.

Detectives believe Jorge Vasquez, 47, had taken advantage of the victims through his position as a minister.

Phoenix police said the alleged abuse between January 2007 and May 2014 often happened at counseling sessions when he was alone with the victims.

Vasquez was arrested on Thursday at his home in the 8800 block of W. Pinchot Ave. and was booked into the Maricopa County Jail.

He is a pastor at Los Pentecostales en el Desierto in the 2100 block of W. Sherman Ave. in Phoenix. It’s a branch of the The Rock Church based in California.

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.

ARIZONA
Arizona Republic

Police have accused a Phoenix man of taking advantage of his position as a minister to sexually abuse at least two women and two girls in his congregation.

Jorge Vasquez, 47, was arrested Thursday and is being held in a Maricopa County jail on suspicion of six counts of child molestation, two counts of sexual conduct with a minor, four counts of sexual abuse, two counts of sexual assault and four counts of kidnapping, among other allegations.

Detectives from the Family Investigations Bureau of the Phoenix Police Department first learned about the allegations earlier this month, according to a police statement issued Friday.

Investigators say they developed probable cause to believe Vasquez engaged in sexual contact with females ages 12 to 33 against their will during counseling sessions or on other occasions during his 7-year tenure as pastor at La Roca, or the Rock Church, near 21st Avenue and Buckeye Road.

Vasquez has denied any of the allegations, police say.

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.

ARIZONA
Beaumont Enterprise

PHOENIX (AP) — A Phoenix pastor is in custody for allegedly molesting two children and having inappropriate sexual contact with two women.

Phoenix police announced Friday that 47-year-old Jorge Vasquez is being held on suspicion of molestation of a child, sexual conduct with a minor, sexual abuse and sexual assault.

He’s the pastor of Iglesia Pentecostales en el Desierto. It’s unclear if he has a lawyer yet.

Police say the alleged sexual contact and molestation happened during counseling sessions and other times when Vasquez was alone with the victims between January 2007 and March 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.

WEST VIRGINIA
Charleston Daily Mail

A man accused of sexually abusing a family member about 25 years ago is set for sentencing in October after recently reaching a plea deal.

Christopher Mark Winnell, of Ripley, entered a Kennedy-Frazier plea to two counts of first-degree sexual abuse. In this plea, a person maintains innocence but concedes there is enough evidence to convict. The state dismissed Winnell’s other 10 counts.

Winnell, a former pastor, could face one to five years in prison on each charge and a $10,000 fine.

Assistant Special Prosecutor Jennifer Gordon said the evidence the state would present if the case were to go to trial is that when the victim was about 8 or 9 years old, Winnell inappropriately touched the victim and had the victim inappropriately touch him. This continued until the victim was 11, Gordon said.

Gordon was moved over from the Kanawha prosecutor’s office in June to assist Chief Special Prosecutor Don Morris. Bloom appointed Morris and other special prosecutors to handle certain cases involving children in light of Kanawha Prosecutor Mark Plants’ misdemeanor 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.

TEXAS
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Posted Friday, Aug. 15, 20140

BY DEANNA BOYD
dboyd@star-telegram.com

FORT WORTH — An Alvarado pastor already charged with indecency of a child for allegedly sexually abusing a teen boy in 2000 and 2001 was arrested again Friday, now accused of molesting a different teen in 2005.

Dan Haby Jr., pastor of the Cowboy Way Church, turned himself in Friday afternoon at the Tarrant County Jail on an arrest warrant accusing him of indecency with a child/fondling.

Haby, 51, had been charged last month with indecency of a child/fondling on allegations that he sexually abused a teen he had been mentoring while pastor of the now defunct Stockyards Community Church.

In that case, the alleged victim, now 29, told police that the abuse began in 2000, when he was 15, and occurred at Haby’s then Fort Worth home on Creston Avenue.

The second alleged victim, 25, contacted Fort Worth police Detective C.W. Daniels on July 31 after news articles about Haby’s arrest appeared in the Star-Telegram and Cleburne Times, according to a Fort Worth police report filed Thursday.

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.

MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, Aug. 15, 2015

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

We applaud the 42 brave and determined men and women who were assaulted as kids by Kansas City priests. And joined the unusual “breach of contract” lawsuit against KC Catholic officials. Their ground-breaking effort has inspired child sex abuse victims across the country and have shown that civil lawsuits can bring reform, prevention, healing and justice in unexpected ways.

We also want to express our gratitude to two officials: arbitrator Hollis Hanover who awarded this historic judgment and Judge Bryan Rounds who upheld it, the only such award in the country. They are to be commended for doing their jobs justly, showing fairness but not favoritism to Catholic officials who, for far too long, have repeatedly been given every benefit of the doubt by the justice system.

Twice now, Bishop Robert Finn and his diocese have been ordered to pay $1.1 million to these victims because he repeatedly broke at least five of his pledges to improve how he deals with pedophile priest cases. With his legions of lawyers, he can of course find and file some “Hail Mary” appeal. We hope, however, that he chooses to avoid running up even more expensive lawyer bills. We hope he will resolve this without delay so that these courageous individuals can focus on their healing. He and his top staff have already spent millions defending crimes, cover ups and other misdeeds. It’s time to stop fighting and start reforming.

We also hope that for the safety of kids and as a sign of contrition, Finn permanently post on his diocesan website, the names of all proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics who are or have been in his diocese.

As best we can tell, there’s never been a case like this – anywhere – in which victims have successfully held a bishop responsible in court for breaking the promises he made during a settlement. And the amount of this award is significant because it may well deter more Catholic officials from breaking the promises they make to victims.

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.

ILLINOIS
Oakpark.com

[with copy of her statement]

An interview with sex abuse survivor Gail Peloquin Howard
Friday, August 15th, 2014

By Ken Trainor
Staff writer

Gail Howard graduated from Ascension School in 1961 and Trinity High School in 1965. Recently she went public in accusing former Ascension pastor Monsignor John Fitzgerald of sexually assaulting her in the Ascension rectory. The incident took place in 1964 when she was 17.

Fitzgerald, now deceased, was pastor of the south Oak Park parish from 1951 to 1973.

In consideration of her mother, Dorothie Peloquin Cahill, who worked at the rectory for many years, Howard said she did not speak of the incident until 2002, when she met with the Voice of the Faithful, Bridgeport, Connecticut chapter (using an alias), and did not report the incident to the Archdiocese of Chicago until 2005, when she met with them in person.

While attending the annual conference of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), she appeared at a press conference July 31 outside the Archdiocese’s Chancery Office, 835 N. Rush St., and, for the first time, made her accusation fully public.

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
Advocates for Awareness of Watchtower Abuses

A group of international experts will come together in London on the weekend of August 22-23, 2014 to address some of the major concerns relating to the undue influence of extremist groups and cults. Scientology, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Islamic extremists are just some of the groups that will be considered. The context of their discussions will be the impact these groups have and the control they are able to maintain over people’s lives. This is an invitation only meeting. The meeting will be recorded and the information will be shared with a wider audience at a later date.

Undoing the damage of such groups is a huge task for governments and agencies who often struggle trying to understand their inner workings and cultures. Dealing with the fallout and damage is often left in the hands of professionals who are still trying to develop appropriate response and recovery techniques.

Some Government policy initiatives such as “social cohesion” are directed to the integration of such groups into mainstream society. But these policies do not directly address either the immediate or the ongoing impact of the beliefs and ideas disseminated by such groups. These cultish groups promote ideas that weaken or destroy family and societal relationships. The result is the creation of a continuum where mental health issues exist at one end – and extremism and terrorism at the other.

These groups operate using “undue Influence”

Undue influence is any act of persuasion that overcomes the free will and judgment of another person. People can be unduly influenced by urgent warnings, flattery, trickery, coercion and deception. In a court of law, “undue influence” is a legal term that applies when individuals or organizations take advantage of their position of power over other persons or groups.

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
Patrick J. Wall

AUGUST 15, 2014

The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse in Ireland is a grand example of what needs to be done to put kids first.

One of the lessons the commission learned when they investigated the Irish Christian Brothers is that all roads lead to Rome AND all files on child sexual abuse are transported to Rome. Here is a section of the report and what the archivist found while reviewing the Roman archives of the Irish Christian Brothers:

Consistent with the American experience of Civil and Criminal Court litigation is the finding that the leadership of the Church is lethargic in producing or even making known the location of their files and knowledge of childhood sexual abuse. (emphasis mine)

6.168 The Rome Files make it impossible to contend that the issue of abuse and, in particular, sexual abuse of boys was not an urgent and continuing concern to the Congregation. In circumstances where the issue of abuse in institutions had been the object of so much media attention from 1995 onwards, it is surprising that these files were only discovered to the Committee in 2004.

Rome Files and documentary evidence

6.159In the Emergence hearings in July 2004, Br Gibson described how files, which came to be known as ‘The Rome Files’, came to the attention of the Leadership Team in Ireland.

6.160In 2003, the Leadership Team took the decision to employ an archivist to look at all the documents in the possession of the Congregation. This archivist was asked to go to Rome to look at the files there that related to the Irish Communities for any references to abuse. He explained that, in the early 1960s, a decision was taken to move the Congregation’s headquarters from Dublin to Rome. The management team brought with them the relevant archives for their own work, and left in Ireland the files and records that dealt with the Christian Brothers in Ireland.

6.161Br Gibson explained:

However, when our archivist went to Rome, she came across their minute books of their Council decisions, the General Council decisions. In those, she came across details of allegations of abuse in the institutions in Ireland that did not exist in our files … Yes, all of these dealt with incidents of child abuse in our institutions between, say, 1930 and when they closed.

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.

TENNESSEE
National Catholic Reporter

Dan Stockman | Aug. 15, 2014

NASHVILLE, TENN.
The gathering of nearly 800 religious sisters here drew one protester Thursday.

Bob Hoatson, president of advocacy organization Road to Recovery, based in Livingston, N.J., stood outside the convention center where the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is holding its four-day assembly holding a sign that said, “Nuns abuse kids too.”

Hoatson said there had been another local protester with him, but he had left.

Hoatson said while abuse by priests may be more visible, it is a problem for women religious, too, and — more importantly — they have failed to address it.

“I’m dealing with a good number of men and women abused by nuns,” Hoatson said. “The nuns have been much better at burying it than the bishops.”

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 JERSEY
NJ.com

By James Kleimann | NJ.com
on August 15, 2014

TENAFLY — A Jewish youth day camp has “instituted additional safeguards” and fired a 16-year-old camp counselor charged with sexually abusing three young campers, its president and CEO said following the arrest.

Officials at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades learned that charges were filed against a 16-year-old camp counselor on Thursday, president Tina Guberman and CEO Avi Lewinson said in a joint press statement.

“This counselor, who is a minor, was immediately suspended by the camp upon learning of the alleged incident,” the statement read. “We continue to cooperate fully with the local authorities in their investigation.”

Prosecutors said the counselor, of Teaneck, sexually touched three campers under his supervision at the Neil Klatskin Day Camp. Another camp employee claims to have directly witnessed inappropriate touching, Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said.

The accused was released to the custody of his parents and must wear an electronic monitoring device. He’s charged with three counts each of sexual assault and endangering the welfare of 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.

NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, August 15, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com )

A New Jersey teenaged camp counselor has been arrested for inappropriately touching several young boys under his supervision. We applaud the brave witness who came forward and reported to police. When those who see, suspect, or suffer child sex crimes speak up children are safer.

The counselor was working at Neil Klatsin Day Camp, which is run by Kaplen Jewish Community Center , when he allegedly inappropriately touched at least three 6 year old boys.

We are glad camp officials informed parents of the abuse and law enforcement were able to interview all the children the counselor had contact with. We urge officials from Kaplen Jewish Community Center and any other organizations the counselor was a part of to seek out victims.

Anyone who saw, suspects, or suffered abuse should immediately call police, help protect others and start healing.

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)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Unless Finn appeals, victims will share $1.1 million
Their message to bishop: “Accept justice, don’t appeal”
They urge Catholic officials: post predators’ names on church websites

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, victims of clergy sex abuse and their supporters will discuss and give copies of a new court ruling upholding their unprecedented $1.1 million “breach of contract” award. They will also urge KC’s Catholic bishop to:

– stop waging an “incredibly expensive” legal defense battle, and instead honor his pledges by not appealing the ruling, and
– permanently post on his diocesan website, as a way to protect kids and show contrition, the names of all proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics who are or have been in the KC diocese.

And the group will:

– explain how their unprecedented lawsuit and the arbitrator’s historic decision impacts victims across the country, and
– urge those victims in other cities and states to consider filing similar suits to force bishops to live up to their child protection promises.

Finally, they will also prod everyone who sees, suspects or suffers clergy sex crimes to keep coming forward and calling police.

WHEN
TODAY, Friday, Aug. 15, 2:00 p.m.

WHERE
Outside Our Lady of Perpetual Help Redemptorist Catholic Church, 3333 Broadway Blvd. in Kansas City MO

WHO
Four-six individuals who were assaulted as kids by Kansas City priests, including at least one or two who are part of the unusual “breach of contract” lawsuit against KC Catholic officials. Most are members of a support group called SNAP (the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)
WHY

Yesterday, a KC judge has upheld an unprecedented “breach of contract” award to 42 clergy sex abuse victims, the only such award in the country.

Bishop Robert Finn and his diocese have now been twice ordered to pay $1.1 million to these victims because he broke his pledges to improve how he deals with pedophile priest cases.

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
Indiana Gazette

HOLLIDAYSBURG (AP) — A judge has scheduled a settlement conference for civil claims by people who say a Franciscan friar molested them when he was an athletic trainer at a Johnstown Catholic high school from 1992 to 2001.

The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown has said it may sell its bishop’s residence to raise money to settle the cases involving Brother Stephen Baker.

Baker committed suicide in January 2013 after abuse settlements with an Ohio diocese where he formerly worked were publicized.

That has prompted dozens of former students at Bishop McCort High School to come forward with similar allegations.

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 Journal

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: August 15, 2014

ALTOONA, Pennsylvania — A spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown says the sale of the bishop’s home is pending and that money from the nearly $1 million asking price might be used to care for sexual misconduct victims.

The diocese has been named in several legal claims filed by former students at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown, who claim they were molested by Brother Stephen Baker, a Franciscan friar, from 1992 to 2001. Baker committed suicide in January 2013 after the Youngstown Ohio diocese disclosed abuse settlements with 11 former students at a school in that state, which prompted many of the alleged McCort victims to come forward.

The Altoona Mirror (http://bit.ly/1oAfx8d ) reports the six-bedroom, seven-bathroom home is listed at $995,000.

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
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Friday, August 15, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

Whether the Vatican accepts Cardinal Sean Brady’s resignation sooner or later, we caution Irish citizens and Catholics to not become complacent about the safety of kids.

We agree with Irish victims who are urging Pope Francis to move quickly on this resignation. At the same time, however, we worry that when Brady’s gone, many will automatically assume that his successor will do a better job of safeguarding the vulnerable and helping the wounded. That’s a tempting assumption. But it may or may not be true.

Complacency protects no one. Only vigilance protects kids. So we urge everyone in Ireland who sees, suspects, or suffers clergy sex crimes or cover ups to contact law enforcement officials, not church officials. And we urge them to judge Brady’s successor by his deeds, not his words. No one should be impressed or mollified by symbolic gestures from a Catholic official on abuse. Only tangible steps that expose and punish those who commit or conceal child sex crimes really matter.

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 JERSEY
NJ.com

By James Kleimann | NJ.com
on August 14, 2014

TENAFLY — A 16-year-old counselor at the Neil Klatsin Day Camp was arrested Tuesday on charges he sexually touched a trio of 6-year-old male campers under his supervision.

Prosecutor John L. Molinelli said the 16-year-old counselor from Teaneck, who has not been identified due to his age, was charged with three counts of sexual assault and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child. He was released to his parents’ custody and is required to wear an electronic monitoring device on his ankle, Molinelli said.

The prosecutor’s office initiated an investigation in late July after supervisors of the day camp, which is run by the Kaplen Jewish Community Center on the Palisades, told Tenafly police that another employee at the Neil Klatskin Day Camp came forward with the allegations, Molinelli said.

That employee directly witnessed the counselor touching a boy inappropriately, the prosecutor told NJ.com.

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

IRELAND
The Irish Catholic

by Michael Kelly
August 14, 2014

Cardinal Seán Brady turns 75 on Saturday and, so, is obliged to send his resignation to Pope Francis. Few expect the resignation to take effect immediately, however, it’s believed that the cardinal will be relieved of his duties before Christmas.

When his resignation is accepted, it will mark the end of an often turbulent and tumultuous time for Seán Brady as Primate. As President of the Irish Bishops’ Conference since 1996, he has led the Catholic Church in Ireland during some of its darkest days. Dr Brady will surely breathe a sigh of relief as he steps down.

The past 25 years have been a period of monumental crisis for Catholics in Ireland as they have watched their Church and its leaders grapple to come to terms with the dreadful clerical abuse crisis.

Most fair-minded people acknowledge that there has been a sea-change in Church leaders’ approach and that real progress has been made to ensure that the Church is a safe place. While there have been admirable approaches at reconciliation and healing with victims, they will continue to carry the wounds of their abuse for the rest of their lives. And the Church in Ireland will – and should – continue to carry that wound.

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

NEW YORK
Daily Gazette

Friday, August 15, 2014

Gazette Editorial

If you own a business and one of your employees is convicted of having sexual contact with a minor, the second that court case is over, that guy is fired.

But when you’re the Catholic Church, which has a history of dragging its sandals in dealing with pedophile priests, you tend not to be as efficient.

And so the pattern is repeated with Father James Taylor, a 30-year-old local priest who pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor count of child endangerment for having sexual contact with a 15-year-old girl in his Clifton Park parish.

New Bishop Edward Scharfenberger says he has a zero-tolerance policy toward child abuse, and he has removed Taylor from all priestly duties, including contact with children. That’s fine. But why wait until civil legal proceedings have been completed before holding a hearing, to then determine whether Taylor should remain a priest?

Isn’t a confession and a conviction in the United States criminal justice system enough proof that this man is not worthy to serve the church anymore?

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 Independent

Denise Calnan Twitter

Published 15/08/2014

Cardinal Sean Brady has declared he is ‘looking forward to the day’ when his resignation as Archbishop of Armagh will be accepted.

Dr Brady, who faced criticism over his role in the Church’s handling of abuse claims against paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth, has spoken after clerical sexual abuse victims called on Pope Francis to accept his resignation immediately.

In a statement issued today, Dr Brady said he offered his resignation to Pope Francis last month with the ‘anticipation’ of his 74th birthday which he celebrates tomorrow.

“I look forward to the day when my resignation will be accepted and when Archbishop Eamon will take over as Archbishop, a position for which, I believe, he is excellently prepared,” he said.

“Last month I offered my resignation to Pope Francis in accordance with the requirement of Canon Law. I did so in anticipation of my seventy-fifth birthday which I will celebrate tomorrow.”

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
The Journal

CARDINAL SEÁN BRADY has confirmed he has offered his resignation as Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland to Pope Francis.

In a statement issued this morning, Brady confirmed he offered his resignation to the Pontiff last month in accordance with the requirement under Canon Law that he retire at the age of 75 which he will turn tomorrow.

The statement confirms reports earlier this week that Brady had written to the head of the Catholic Church indicating he would step down.

It’s thought the Pope will accept Brady’s resignation despite often deciding to allow diocesan bishops to continue in their roles beyond the age of 75.

Brady has been the subject of controversy in recent years after the BBC alleged that he failed to protect children from the abuse of paedophile priest Father Brendan Smyth.

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 Mirror

Aug 15, 2014 By Brynmor Pattison

Cardinal Sean Brady has offered his resignation to Pope Francis.

The Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh, who was made a cardinal in 2007, confirmed he had offered to step down in keeping with canon law.

The religious law states that bishops must resign by the age of 75 – and Cardinal Brady turns that age tomorrow, Saturday, August 16.

The move should see Archbishop Eamon Martin take both places in the hierarchy.

A statement by Cardinal Brady read: “Last month I offered my resignation to Pope Francis in accordance with the requirement of Canon Law.

“I did so in anticipation of my seventy-fifth birthday which I will celebrate tomorrow.

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
Derry Journal

by Staff Reporter
editorial@derryjournal.com
Updated on the 15 August 2014

All Ireland Primate Cardinal Sean Brady has confirmed he has offered his resignation to Pope Francis.

The resignation of Cardinal Brady will lead to the elevation of Derry’s Eamon Martin, currently Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh, to the cardinalship.

In a statement issued this morning, Cardinal Brady said: “Last month I offered my resignation to Pope Francis in accordance with the requirement of Canon Law. I did so in anticipation of my seventy-fifth birthday which I will celebrate tomorrow.

He added: “I look forward to the day when my resignation will be accepted and when Archbishop Eamon will take over as Archbishop, a position for which, I believe, he is excellently prepared.”

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
Tyrone Times

Cardinal Sean Brady has confirmed that he offered his resignation as Archbishop of Armagh to Pope Francis last month.

In a statement Cardinal Brady said the offer was made to the pope in anticipation of his 75th birthday which occurred on Saturday.

The statement confirms reports last week that the Cardinal had written to the head of the Catholic Church indicating he would step down.

It’s believed the Pope will accept Cardinal Brady’s resignation despite often deciding to allow diocesan bishops to continue in their roles beyond the age of 75.

“I look forward to the day when my resignation will be accepted and when Archbishop Eamon will take over as Archbishop, a position for which, I believe, he is excellently prepared,” he said.

Dr Brady said that as soon as Pope Francis accepts his resignation Archbishop Eamon, who was appointed as Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh in 2013 by Pope Benedict XVI will become Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland.

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
The Anglo-Celt

Cardinal Sean Brady has tendered his resignation to Pope Francis in advance of his 75th birthday tomorrow (Saturday, August 16) and says he is ‘looking forward to the day’ when it is accepted.

However, a victim of clerical abuse says to allow Dr Brady to retire without sanction over his role in the Fr Brendan Smyth abuse would be part of a “cover up”.

The resignation letter is in accordance with Canon Law [church law] ahead of his 75th year.

The Archbishop of Armagh Diocese Dr Brady’s statement, who faced criticism over his role in the Church’s handling of abuse claims against paedophile priest Fr Smyth, comes after clerical sexual abuse victims called on Pope Francis to accept his resignation immediately.

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

Genevieve Carbery

Fri, Aug 15, 2014

Catholic Primate of All Ireland, Cardinal Seán Brady, has confirmed that he offered his resignation as Archbishop of Armagh to Pope Francis last month.

In a statement Cardinal Brady said the offer was made to the pope in anticipation of his 75th birthday tomorrow.

Cardinal Brady said he did so “in accordance with Canon Law”.

As soon as his regination is accepted by Pope Francis, Archbishop Eamon Martin will become Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, he said.

Eamon Martin is Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh and was appointed to the role in January 2013 by Pope Benedict XVI.

Cardinal Brady said he looked forward to “the day when my resignation will be accepted and when “Archbishop Eamon will take over”.

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
News Letter

Cardinal Sean Brady, the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, has confirmed he has offered his resignation.

Amid much speculation that he was to stand down, the senior churchman said he wrote to Pope Francis last month asking if he could resign as Archbishop of Armagh.

“I did so in anticipation of my seventy-fifth birthday which I will celebrate tomorrow,” he said in a statement on Friday.

Archbishop Eamon Martin will take over the role as Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland as soon as Pope Francis accepts the resignation.

“I look forward to the day when my resignation will be accepted and when Archbishop Eamon will take over as Archbishop, a position for which, I believe, he is excellently prepared,” added Cardinal Brady.

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
Yahoo! News

DUBLIN (Reuters) – The head of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, whose career was plagued by scandal over the sexual abuse of children by clergy, said on Friday he had tendered his resignation, confirming his plan to retire on his 75th birthday.

Brady, who turns 75 on Saturday, will leave office once his resignation has been accepted by Pope Francis.

Brady had resisted calls by three of Ireland’s four main parties to resign earlier over the sexual abuse scandal. Last year the Vatican appointed Monsignor Eamon Martin as “coadjutor” to run the day-to-day affairs of the Church in Ireland.

A BBC television documentary in 2012 reported that Brady had failed to warn parents their children were being sexually abused by a priest in 1975 after he had been given the information by one of the victims.

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
Belfast Telegraph

15 AUGUST 2014

Cardinal Sean Brady, the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, has confirmed he has offered his resignation.

Amid much speculation that he was to stand down, the senior churchman said he wrote to Pope Francis last month asking if he could resign as Archbishop of Armagh.

“I did so in anticipation of my seventy-fifth birthday which I will celebrate tomorrow,” he said in a statement today.

Archbishop Eamon Martin will take over the role as Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland as soon as Pope Francis accepts the resignation.

“I look forward to the day when my resignation will be accepted and when Archbishop Eamon will take over as Archbishop, a position for which, I believe, he is excellently prepared,” added Cardinal Brady.

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

SCOTLAND
Herald Scotland

Friday 15 August 2014

A PRIEST has denied he targeted a fellow clergyman after being offended at a controversial book that alleged a gay mafia was operating within the Catholic Church.

Father William Nolan, 60, replaced Father Matthew Despard at St John Ogilvie Church in High Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, after Father Despard was ordered out by the Bishop of Motherwell, Joseph Toal.

Father Despard had been suspended after writing the book, Priesthood In Crisis. It was later withdrawn after threats of legal action were made.

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

AUSTRALIA
ABC News

By Sarah Dingle
Updated 15 Aug 2014

The Salvation Army has abruptly dismissed a whistleblower, just months after her husband publicly aired concerns about the organisation’s commissioner, James Condon.

Major Marina Randall had been volunteering four days a week at the organisation’s Professional Standards Office, to assess the complaints of victims of child abuse.

The couple gave evidence in the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in February in Sydney.

In the 1970s Mrs Randall and her husband Major Cliff Randall had been houseparents at the Alkira Salvation Army boy’s home in Brisbane when they reported an incident of violence against a child involving a Salvation Army officer to Queensland’s Department of Children’s Services.

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

AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

15 August, 2014

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has today published two research reports into aspects related to child sexual abuse:

Mandatory reporting laws for child sexual abuse in Australia; a legislative history
Child exploitation material in the context of institutional child sexual abuse

Royal Commission CEO Philip Reed said the information in the reports published today will fill gaps in the current body of research on child sexual abuse to assist others in their work in this area.

“While the findings and opinions contained in Royal Commission research reports are those of the authors and not the Royal Commission, the Royal Commission will use the results to inform its work and the development of final recommendations,” he said.

“The Royal Commission is investing significant resources to deliver research that will provide evidence to support our work and help us to make recommendations for strengthening the protection of children and institutional responses to child sexual abuse. …

Key findings of reports

Mandatory reporting laws for child sexual abuse in Australia: a legislative history – Queensland University of Technology

* This report provides an overview of the development of laws relating to mandatory reporting in each State and Territory.

* Every Australian jurisdiction now has some form of mandatory reporting law for child sexual abuse.

* Australian States and Territories have introduced laws relating to mandatory reporting at different times over a 40 year period. They were first enacted in 1969 in South Australia and the last State to enact them was Western Australia in 2009.

* Currently the laws share many features and have a similar approach however several significant differences remain particularly in relation to reporter groups

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

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian (UK)

Richard Ackland
theguardian.com, Thursday 14 August 2014

As the baby Gammy story hit the headlines, Australians suddenly realised that a person with 22 child sex convictions, including unlawful and indecent dealing with girls as young as seven years old, can have a baby girl by surrogacy – and the law is silent.

So what can be done about it? One way of making children safe would be to licence intending parents. A great government agency handing out permissions for people to have children would be just the ticket.

Who will licence the licensers and what criteria or tests will be applied are difficulties that could be managed by skilfully drafted legislation. This uniform law would be administered by a reproductive management commission, safely housed in Kevin Andrews’ department of social services.

First and foremost the commission would be licensing quality people, people who are likely to produce superior children. The permitted progeny don’t necessarily have to have blond hair or blue eyes, but that would be a discretion left to the minister.

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

AUSTRALIA
Herald Sun

ALEX WHITE HERALD SUN AUGUST 15, 2014

A MAN will next week tell the Royal Commission into child sex abuse how a Catholic priest groomed and abused two generations of young men in his family over three decades.

Paul Hersbach, 37, will speak out against the late Father Victor Gabriel Rubeo at the inquiry’s first Melbourne hearings, starting on Monday.

Mr Hersbach suffered a decade of abuse from before the age of 10. Years later his father Tony revealed he had also been abused by the same priest.

The priest lived in the family home, accompanied them on holidays and even officiated at Mr Hersbach’s parents’ wedding and the baptism of four children — all the while perpetrating years of abuse.

Mr Hersbach says he triumphed over his attacker by breaking the cycle of 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.

AUSTRALIA
NT News

ANNETTE BLACKWELL AAP AUGUST 15, 2014

AUSTRALIA lacks the most basic research evidence about the prevalence of child sex abuse necessary to produce sound policy to fight the crime.

THE finding has been made in a research report on mandatory national reporting laws published by the ongoing federal royal commission into institutional responses to child abuse.

Author Ben Matthews from the Australian Centre for Health Law Research at the Queensland University of Technology looked at reporting approaches in states and territories across Australia and found inconsistencies.

There was also no rigorous overarching research evidence which could be used to bring about a decline in the abuse of children, he found.

“On a broad level, Australia lacks even the most basic rigorous evidence about the national prevalence, incidence and characteristics of child sexual abuse,” Prof Matthews said.

In an accompanying review of international crime health data Associate Professor Matthews said a substantial decline in the US, declared in 2012, was identified after “assiduous analysis of seven different sources of data” which took in state and community incidence studies and self report surveys.

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

CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times

By STEPHEN CEASAR

An employee of Desert Christian Schools in Lancaster was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of child molestation, authorities said.

Jonathan Macy, 31, of Lancaster was arrested on suspicion of molesting two children at Grace Chapel Church, which is on the Desert Christian campus, as the children attended Sunday services, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Macy, who is also employed at St. Mary’s School in Palmdale, is being held in lieu of $1.2 million bail.

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

CALIFORNIA
SCV News

LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT | THURSDAY, AUG 14, 2014

A Lancaster man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of molesting two children in a chapel on the campus of Desert Christian School.

The investigation began Aug. 5 when detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Special Victims Bureau looked into an allegation of child molestation involving a young female child and an employee at the school in Lancaster.

Over the course of the investigation, a second victim of child molestation was identified. Both victims had come to know the suspect due to his employment at Grace Chapel Church, which is located on the campus of Desert Christian School in the 44600 Block of 15th Street West in Lancaster. The acts of molestation occurred while the children were at Grace Chapel for Sunday Church Services.

As a result of the investigation, the suspect, Jonathan Macy, a White male, 31 years old and resident of Lancaster, was arrested by Sheriff’s Special Victims Bureau Detectives during the morning hours on Wednesday, August 13, 2014. He is currently in the custody of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and being held in lieu of $1.2 million bail.

Detectives have learned that the suspect was also employed as a teacher at St. Mary’s School in Palmdale. School officials at both Desert Christian and St. Mary’s School have been cooperative with detectives.

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

CALIFORNIA
CBS Los Angeles

LANCASTER (CBSLA.com) — A Christian school employee was in custody Thursday on suspicion of molesting two young children during weekend church services.

According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Jonathan Macy, 31, of Lancaster was arrested by detectives Wednesday morning.

Detectives said that an initial investigation began Aug. 5 after an allegation of child molestation involving a girl and an employee at the Desert Christian School, which is in the 44600 block of 15th Street West.

A second victim of child molestation was identified during the investigation, officials said. It was unclear if the second victim was also a girl.

According to authorities, both the victims knew Macy, as he was employed by the Grace Chapel Church, which is on the campus of the Desert Christian School.

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

CALIFORNIA
KTLA

[with video]

AUGUST 14, 2014, BY TRACY BLOOM

An employee at Desert Christian School in Lancaster was arrested after allegedly molesting two children while they were at a chapel to attend Sunday church services, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced on Thursday.

Detectives began investigating an allegation of child molestation between a young girl and the employee, identified as Jonathan Macy, on Aug. 5, a release from the Sheriff’s Department stated.

A second child victim came forward during the investigation, according to the release.

Both victims knew Macy through his employment at Grace Chapel Church, which is located on the Desert Christian School’s campus, investigators said.

The alleged molestations occurred while the children were at Grace Chapel for Sunday church services, according to the release.

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

CALIFORNIA
SF Gate

Kale Williams
Thursday, August 14, 2014

A pastor from Daly City who held services at a number of Bay Area churches has been charged with multiple counts of child sex abuse, prosecutors said.

Ventje Cornelis Singkoh, a 69-year-old pastor at the IPAFC Church at 18th Avenue and Geary Boulevard in San Francisco, was taken into custody by Daly City police around 8 a.m. and was charged with three counts of felony child molestation after allegedly abusing a victim younger than 13 for more than a year, starting in January 2013 and ending February 2014, said San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Singkoh also held services at the Golden Gate Christian Church on 18th Avenue in San Francisco and the First Presbyterian Church on Colfax Street in Concord, as well as at his residence in Daly City, police said. However, the First Presbyterian Church in Concord said it had no affiliation with Singkoh, and had only leased him a room at the church.

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

CALIFORNIA
Lompoc Record

DALY CITY, Calif. (AP) — A San Francisco Bay Area pastor is accused of child molestation.

Sixty-nine-year-old Ventje Cornelis Singkoh was arrested on Tuesday by police in Daly City. He has been charged with three counts of felony child molestation.

San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe tells the San Francisco Chronicle (http://bit.ly/1r9Pera) Singkoh abused a child younger than 13 between January 2013 and February 2014.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Singkoh had an attorney. He was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon.

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.

MARYLAND
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A former youth worker convicted of sexually abusing boys in the 1980s at a Sovereign Grace Ministries church in Maryland was sentenced Aug. 14 to 40 years in prison.

Nathaniel Morales, 56, was found guilty in May of abusing three boys from 1983 to 1991 while working in youth ministries and leading Bible studies at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Md.

Morales, who now lives in Las Vegas, Nev., is also named in a class-action lawsuit of numerous acts to conceal child sexual abuse by leaders at the church and SGM, a Calvinist church-planting network now based in Louisville, Ky. That case has been thrown out under a statute of limitations but is under appeal.

The case, described in media as the largest evangelical abuse scandal to date, drew attention in Southern Baptist circles because of close ties between C.J. Mahaney, founder and former head of Sovereign Grace Ministries, and denominational leaders including Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and prominent Washington pastor Mark Dever.

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

NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

By Robert Gavin

Albany

First, Angel Garcia lost his congregation.

Now he’s lost his freedom.

Garcia, 61, who was defrocked as a deacon in 2010 for child molestation allegations, was convicted on Thursday of two counts of sexual abuse for victimizing a 6-year-old girl in 2003.

Each of the sex abuse counts could land the one-time deacon at the Church of the Holy Family on Central Avenue in prison for up to 7 years.

The trial was not related to the allegation that Garcia sexually abused a minor in the early 1990s before his ordination as a deacon. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, which found reasonable grounds to believe the earlier allegations, defrocked Garcia.

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

CALIFORNIA
Stockton Record

Posted Aug. 14, 2014

STOCKTON – Friday is the deadline for claims to be filed alleging sex abuse by leaders of the Diocese of Stockton, which is undergoing bankruptcy proceedings.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court had ordered that anyone planning to file a claim has until 4 p.m. Friday to submit the required forms.

The court needs to determine how the Catholic organization’s assets will be distributed and to which outstanding claims.

Stockton’s diocese filed for bankruptcy in January amid pending civil litigation in claims of child sexual abuse by priests.

Previous settlements to victims and other legal costs have set the diocese back $32 million over the past two decades.

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

MINNESOTA
KSTP

[with video]

By: Cassie Hart

Lawyers released the file of another Minnesota priest Thursday as part of the civil lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The documents, released by Jeff Anderson and Associates, show Fr. Thomas Stitts admitting he abused boys in every parish he worked in.

He also admitted to having a sexual relationship with two boys.

Before he died in 1985, the file says Stitts wrote a letter, outlining his sexual activity in the archdiocese; as well as other priests’ behavior.

The priests named in the letter, begged the archdiocese to keep it secret.

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 Independent

Sarah McDonald
Published 15/08/2014

VICTIMS of clerical sexual abuse have called on Pope Francis to accept Cardinal Sean Brady’s resignation immediately.

They spoke out after the Cardinal confirmed he had asked to stand down from his role as Primate of All Ireland, traditional for cardinals on their 75th birthday.

Dr Brady has faced criticism over his role in the Church’s handling of abuse claims against paedophile priest Fr Brendan Smyth.

Abuse survivor Marie Kane, who met Pope Francis last month, said she would be surprised if the Pontiff didn’t allow the cardinal to leave his position soon.

“I would hope for a quick response from Pope Francis. I would be so disappointed if it even took months,” she 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.

AUSTRALIA
SBS

Source AAP 15 AUG 2014

When the Australian Catholic church was hit with a tidal wave of sexual abuse allegations in the 1990s, its bishops – barring George Pell – were like rabbits caught in the headlights.

Their reaction was described by the Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane, Mark Coleridge, when he appeared before the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Archbishop Coleridge was explaining why an internal church process – Towards Healing – set up to provide support for abuse survivors, sometimes failed badly.

In those days, the bishops just didn’t know what to do, said Archbishop Coleridge, so when lawyers and insurance brokers showed the way, the pastors were relieved.

But Cardinal Pell, who went on to become the Vatican’s supreme bean counter and the third most powerful clergyman in its bureaucracy, was definitely not among the rabbits.

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

AUSTRALIA
Eureka Street

Neil Ormerod | 17 August 2014

Child Abuse Royal Commission hearing

On Monday (18 August), we are beginning Round 8 of the Royal Commission’s investigation into the Catholic Church’s handling of sexual abuse allegations. While some of these have passed without significant media attention, and in one case the Wollongong church came out looking not too bad, this upcoming round, like the Sydney based investigation into the John Ellis case, promises to be explosive in its content.

We received a preview of the matters likely to be investigated in the ABC’s Four Corners on 11 August. The program aired material relating to the Melbourne Response established by then Archbishop Pell to be the Melbourne Archdiocese alternate response to the national protocols being developed at that time by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Towards Healing. The program dealt with a number of specific cases of abuse including the case of Chrissie and Anthony Foster, whose two daughters Emma and Katie were assaulted by serial abuser Fr Kevin O’Donnell.

Their case was one of the first to be processed by the Melbourne Response process and has already been subject to investigation by a Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the handling of child abuse by religious and other organisations. That inquiry involved some feisty, if not heated, exchanges between the parliamentarians and Cardinal Pell. His subsequent appearances at the Royal Commission on the John Ellis case were more circumspect.

At the closure of the Commission investigation of that case the Cardinal was asked to make himself available for this coming round into its investigation into the Melbourne Response, to which he agreed he would if possible. So we can expect another probing process of question and answer with Cardinal Pell the star witness. Once again we will have the spectacle of a cardinal of the Church humbled before a secular authority.

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)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
August 14, 2014

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — A judge has affirmed an arbitrator’s $1.1 million breach-of-contract award against the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City and St. Joseph for violating a 2008 settlement with victims of sexual abuse by priests.

In his ruling late Wednesday, Jackson County Circuit Judge Bryan Round wrote there could “be no doubt that the Diocese, through its leadership and higher-level personnel, failed in numerous respects to abide by the terms of the non-monetary commitments” of the settlement, The Kansas City Star reported (http://bit.ly/1vOMfqc ).

The breach-of-contract lawsuit was filed in 2011 by several of the plaintiffs in the 2008 case, which was resolved with a $10 million judgment and 19 specific conditions for the diocese. Among them was a requirement that any suspected abuse by priests be reported immediately to authorities.

The lawsuit accused the diocese and Bishop Robert Finn of violating the settlement through such actions as waiting nearly a year to report suspected abuse by the Rev. Shawn Ratigan and withholding evidence of possible child pornography for months.

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

UNITED STATES
Catholic World Report

August 14, 2014

By Carl E. Olson

In a lengthy feature article, “This pope means business” (Aug. 14, 2014), Fortune magazine offers a detailed look at what Francis has done to “restructure the Vatican’s scandal-plagued finances.” It’s an informative, if occasionally annoying, piece. For instance, the author, Shawn Tully, drags out many of the tired and not-so-helpful storylines about Francis being the “people’s pope” whose gentle (even carefree) approach to doctrine contrasts with the harsh and dogmatic approach of Benedict. And:

The church has often promoted issues that tended to divide Catholics more than unite them. And the backlash made Rome look defensive, as many bishops and cardinals viewed their role as defending Catholic doctrines against a hostile culture of secularism.

Also, in a rather misleading paragraph:

By contrast, Francis’s upbeat, quotable approach and emphasis on charity over doctrine have quickly made him perhaps the most talked-about and admired person on the planet. (Fortune named him No. 1 on its World’s Greatest Leaders list earlier this year.) His famous “Who am I to judge?” declaration on homosexuality distanced him from Benedict’s severe criticism of gays. Francis could be called the first modern pope. His Twitter account, @Pontifex, boasts 4.3 million followers in nine languages. And his message is universally appealing: The paramount duty of the church and its faithful is to aid those in need.

Because, as we all know, Benedict never talked about charity—that is, if you discount his first encyclical, which was about charity. And most of his other writing and addresses. And, no, the paramount duty of the Church and the faithful is not to aid those in need, but to bring all men into communion with God, through Christ, and into the fullness of the Kingdom. But, hey, theology is boring and ultimate questions don’t grab headlines.

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
Psychology Today

by Joe Navarro

The eye-catching headline read, “Which Professions Have The Most Psychopaths?” (The Week, October 30, 2013) What ensued was quite a dialogue on the internet, as everyone seemed to have their own favorite picks or a personal horror story. The article stimulated debate, but unfortunately did not add clarity to a worthy subject. And that subject is: Why would a so-called “psychopath” be found in greater numbers in one profession versus another?

According to the article, CEO positions attract the most psychopaths. Perhaps so, if one considers the history of Enron, Bernard Madoff, and movies such as “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013). But the one career that caught my eye, and that 30 years ago probably would have escaped me, is that of the clergy (8th in line behind law enforcement, according to the article). I say 30 years ago because prior to the revelations relating to Catholic priests abusing children, one would not think of predators going into the clergy, yet that is a reality. Which begs the question, why a so-called “psychopath” would be attracted to the clergy? As it turns out, there are good reasons for this; that predators understand all too well—but first some caveats.

Unfortunately, the term psychopath is bandied about too much, making things murkier. There is a huge difference between a psychopath as defined by Robert Hare, a sociopath, someone with antisocial personality disorder, someone with conduct disorder, an aggressive narcissist, or someone with dissocial personality disorder. Unfortunately most people, even many clinicians, don’t differentiate, and we should. Too often these terms are lumped together, as in the above captioned article, and that can be confusing. There are distinctions between all these terms, and so rather than use this vague and overused term (psychopath), I will call these individuals predators, which encompasses all of the above noted disorders and pathologies.

I should also note that I am not writing this article to criticize any particular religion, because any religious group, as history has taught us, can be taken advantage of by predators or malignant zealots. Rather, it is an analysis of why predators would choose to imbed themselves within a religious organization or seek to be part of the clergy—so that we can be more aware in order to protect our loved ones and ourselves. Knowing what we do now, it is fitting that we examine predators among the clergy and how they would use their office or a religious organization to take advantage of others.

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
POPE FRANCIS the CON-Christ.

Paris Arrow

According to SNAP “It’s now been 10 years since we first began prodding the largest group of U.S. nuns to take action on abuse by women religious. It’s been a frustrating and fruitless decade. Almost every August since 2004, we have shown up at and held news conferences outside the annual gathering of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, America’s largest organization of nuns. We’ve begged LCWR to expose the truth about child sex crimes and cover-ups by women religious. We’ve politely but firmly urged it to take simple steps to protect the vulnerable from abusive nuns and heal those wounded by abusive nuns. And we’ve been politely but repeatedly rebuffed. (Our website lists each of our interactions with the LCWR over the past decade.)

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 August 14, 2014

In early July the Vatican announced that it would send investigators to the Diocese of Ciudad del Este in Paraguay. The apostolic visitation was prompted by complaints from local bishops and laypeople following news reports that an Argentine priest accused of molesting high-school students in Pennsylvania had been welcomed into Ciudad del Este by Bishop Rogelio Livieres—and promoted to vicar general.

Weeks later, the Vatican revealed that it had removed Fr. Urrutigoity from his position as vicar general and—in an unusual step—barred Bishop Livieres from ordaining anyone for the time being. (A final decision will be made after the Vatican studies the investigators’ report.) In response, the Diocese of Ciudad del Este published a long, forceful defense of Urrutigoity and Livieres. The statement, posted to the diocese’s website, claims that Urrutigoity is innocent, that he and his bishop have been the victim of a smear campaign, that his previous bishop approved his transfer to Paraguay, and that he came with the recommendation of several cardinals—including Joseph Ratzinger.

In a 2002 federal lawsuit, a plaintiff claimed that Urrutigoity and another priest, Eric Ensey, had molested him under the guise of “spiritual direction.” He accused Ensey of abusing him while he was a high-school student in the Diocese of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and he accused Urrutigoity of sexual misconduct after he graduated and was preparing for the priesthood. (No criminal charges were filed because the statute of limitations had run.) In addition to the abuse accusations, several depositions and affidavits taken in connection with the suit allege that the priests often supplied alcohol to underage boys and regularly shared their beds with them. The bishop at the time, James Timlin, suspended both clerics, and the diocese eventually settled out of court for about four hundred thousand dollars. The case rocked the diocese for years, not only because of the plaintiff’s shocking allegations, but also because the accused priests were not local to Scranton. Bishop Timlin had invited them in.

A review of hundreds of pages of court documents—including private correspondence, depositions, and affidavits—makes it clear that the Urrutigoity case is one of the most complicated to emerge during the 2002 wave of sexual-abuse scandals. It spans three decades, two continents, three countries, and two states. It involves multiple bishops—some schismatic—several dioceses, and numerous high-ranking Vatican officials. The priest’s rise to prominence tracks closely with the church’s growing awareness of the gravity of clerical sexual abuse. Accusations of misconduct have followed him from Argentina to Pennsylvania. That’s what makes his reappearance in Ciudad del Este—where the bishop had him helping with seminary formation before promoting him to vicar general—so difficult to understand. How could a Catholic priest with such a history end up as second in command of a diocese—in 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.

UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on August 14, 2014

1) Call the cops, not your college president.

There has been a ton of press about the problem of sexual assaults on campus. Recent government intervention—telling universities that they must have better “policies” and “procedures” to handle the crime—is ALL wrong.

Why? Check out this article from (the most unlikely of places) the Harvard Gazette. Funny that the author didn’t put two and two together about universities’ investigations of sexual assault. But I have, so consider yourself warned …

The same goes for ANY internal investigation of sexual abuse, whether it be a high school, the Boy Scouts, a church, or sports club.

An institution’s first job is to protect itself. If you need an example, take a look at the cover-up of sexual abuse in the Catholic church. The very recent scandal in St. Paul, MN is a good place to start. This isn’t from 10 or 20 years ago, this is right now.

The moral of the story? If you or someone you love is a victim of sexual assault or child sexual abuse, call the police, not your college president or bishop. And read the article above.

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)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

(Kansas City, Missouri) – Circuit Court Judge Bryan E. Round has affirmed in its entirety an arbiter’s award of more than $1.1 million against the Diocese of Kansas City-St Joseph. The judge also awarded interest on the judgment.

The case was an unprecedented breach of contract action brought by Jeff Anderson & Associates of St. Paul, MN and others against the Diocese for failing to report an abusive priest, Shawn Ratigan, when it became known that he was creating child pornography using children of the Diocese. Bishop Robert Finn was criminally convicted and given probation for his failure to report.

The contract being enforced was a 2008 settlement between the Diocese and 47 plaintiffs who were themselves abused by priests or other agents of the Diocese. Those victims enforced the commitments the Diocese had agreed to in resolving their claims. “The Diocese paid less in damages for agreeing to the non-economic terms demanded by the Plaintiffs. When the Diocese reached the non-economic commitments, it effectively received the benefits without paying for it,” the judge wrote.

The commitments to protect children in the Diocese remain in place and the Plaintiffs remain able to hold the Diocese accountable for following them in the future.

Contact – Attorney Gregg Meyers: Office: 651.227.9990 Cell: 843.324.1589

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)
The Kansas City Star

BY JUDY L. THOMAS
THE KANSAS CITY STAR
08/14/2014

The Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese must pay the $1.1 million ordered by an arbitrator last spring for violating the terms of a 2008 settlement with priest sexual abuse victims, a judge has ruled.

Calling the award a “scathing indictment of the defendant,” Jackson County Circuit Judge Bryan Round said in his ruling that “there can be no doubt that the Diocese, through its leadership and higher level personnel, failed in numerous respects to abide by the terms of the non-monetary commitments” of the 2008 agreement.

Round issued the ruling late Wednesday, three weeks after hearing arguments from both sides in the case. The plaintiffs asked him to confirm the arbitrator’s order, while the diocese argued that the order be vacated.

“The order is once again an indictment of the way the diocese has handled issues of childhood sexual abuse,” said Rebecca Randles, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “We are so proud and so honored to stand side by side with these men and women who have done so much to try to protect children from the kind of abuse they experienced.”

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.

MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Aug. 14, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003 cell, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

A judge has ruled against Bishop Robert Finn and for 42 victims of clergy sex crimes in an unprecedented “breach of contract” case, the only one like it in the country.

Because he broke his pledges to improve how he deals with abuse cases, his diocese has now been twice ordered to pay $1.1 million to the victims.

In June, in a virtually-unnoticed court filing by Finn’s lawyers, the award was disclosed. Finn wanted it nullified. So his lawyers appealed to Judge Bryan Round, who ruled against Finn today.

Church officials have the option to appeal. We hope they choose to avoid running up even more expensive lawyer bills and resolve this without delay so these brave, wounded victims can focus on their healing.

As best we can tell, there’s never been a case like this in which victims have successfully held a bishop responsible in court for breaking the promises he made during a settlement. And the amount of this award is significant because it may well deter more Catholic officials from breaking the promises they make to victims.

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.

MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

The secret priest file of Father Thomas Stitts was released today as part of a civil lawsuit filed in Ramsey County. Stitts was assigned to multiple parishes, abusing boys everywhere he worked. Eventually, Stitts admitted to having a sexual relationship with two boys.

Upon his death in 1985, Stitts wrote a letter outlining not only his own, but other priest’s sexual activities in the Archdiocese. The priests implicated in the letter begged the Archdiocese to keep the letter secret and eventually the letter was destroyed.

A summary of the Stitts documents, a timeline, and a summary of Stitts’ priest file are available below.

Father Thomas Stitts Summary and Timeline
Thomas Stitts Hot Docs
Thomas Stitts Priest File Part 1
Thomas Stitts Priest File Part 2
Stitts pics

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.