ABUSE TRACKER

NEW JERSEY
Digital Journal

By Brett Wilkins
May 10, 2013

Newark – The Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey has paid $650,000 to settle sex abuse claims against a pedophile priest who allegedly sexually assaulted numerous children in the 1970s and ’80s.

The Newark Star-Ledger reports that the settlement was paid to five men who claim to have been sexually abused by Rev. Carmen Sita, who pleaded guilty in 1982 to sexually assaulting a boy at St. Aloysius Church in Jersey City. Sita was sentenced to five months’ probation, after which time he changed his name to Gerald Howard and was transferred by the archdiocese to a parish in the Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri.

Peter Gerety, the archbishop of Newark at the time who has been implicated in at least one other clergy sex abuse cover-up, never informed the public about Sita’s name change. While in Missouri, the transferred priest would allegedly go on to sexually abuse at least three more children. He was arrested in 2010 and charged with three counts of forcible sodomy, three counts of attempted forcible sodomy and two counts of kidnapping.

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
WSAZ

[with video]

UPDATE @ 4/29/13

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) — A congregation is in shock after their pastor was arrested and charged with three counts of sexual abuse by a parent, guardian or custodian.

“[The church] is in limbo, don’t know what we’re going to do,” said a member of the United Gospel Mission who asked not to be identified because of the nature of the crimes.

Deputies from the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office tell WSAZ.com that Johnnie Franklin Winnell of Gypsum Lane in Elkview confessed Friday to abusing the young girl. Capt. Sean Crosier said the abuse happened during several years.

Neighbor Patricia Strickland says she’d never imagine the man she’s lived beside for 20 years could do such things. She said her young granddaughter even plays at Winnell’s house and, while she trusts him, she feared the worst when she heard the news.

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

FLORIDA
ABC 7

[with video]

By George Solis, Reporter

SANIBEL ISLAND, FL –
Community Concerns of the recent arrest of Charles Nave, who was charged with child porn, were addressed during a service at his church on Sunday.

Nave’s mother is an Associate Pastor at Sanibel Community Church, and his wife and kids are members.

To the surprise of some, both attended services Sunday morning where the issue was brought up.

Behind the sacred walls, the pastor delivered his sermon.

“If we hide stuff it will always take us further than we intended it to go and will cost us more than we thought it would,” said Pastor Daryl Donovan.

Pastor Donovan delivered that message to address obvious questions about the arrest of Charles Nave — known to many as ‘Chad.’

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
NBC Connecticut

By Liz Dahlem and LeAnne Gendreau | Thursday, May 9, 2013

Bristol Police have arrested a youth group leader from a Plainville church man after finding more than 500 images and 13 videos of child pornography on his computer.

Jonathan Spann, 28, of Bristol, appeared in court on Thursday to face an illegal possession of child pornography charge and has been ordered to have no contact with anyone under the age of 16. He is also prohibited from using a computer.

Police started investigating in February 2012 after a special agent from the Department of Homeland Security and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in Hartford called local police about a local IP address accessing a child pornography Web site, according to an arrest warrant application.

When police seized Spann’s computer, they recovered around 3,000 images of child porn from “unallocated space” on hard drives, indicating that the files had been deleted, according to police.

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

CONNECTICUT
WTNH

Published : Thursday, 09 May 2013

Jamie Muro

BRISTOL, Conn. (WTNH)– A youth minister from Plainville faced child porn charges in Bristol, Thursday night.

The arrest warrant for Jonathan Spann details a man initially in denial about his alleged activities, then later admitting to investigators that he’s been downloading child pornography for almost seven years.

In February of 2012, Bristol Police received a call from a special agent from the Department of Homeland Security. A lead was developed from a website called “Liberal Morality” that was a child pornography website.

An IP address would, eventually, lead them to the home of a married Bristol couple, Jonathan Spann and his wife Christina Dube.

The arrest warrant states that in his first interview with police, Spann only admitted to accessing adult pornography. But when police first accessed his hard drives, they discovered many images of child pornography in “free space.”

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
Clerical Whispers

The Catholic archbishop of Newark, John Myers, on finding out that a confessed pedophile priest in his diocese was still palling around with kids, first denied the charge, then defended the fraternization.

And we wonder why children continue to be raped by Catholic leaders.

Because Catholic archbishops don’t care about the rape of children nearly as much as they care about bashing loving gay adults in immigration reform, or bashing women.

Rev. Michael Fugee confessed to fondling the genitals of a 13 (or 14, depending on the account) year old boy.

He was convicted of criminal sexual contact, but an appeals court through out the verdict based on the jury incorrectly hearing a part of the priest’s confession – but the overall confession remains in tact. He did 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.

NEW JERSEY
Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson

Without any foreknowledge or approval of the Paterson Diocese, Fr. Michael Fugee, a priest of the Newark Archdiocese, engaged in ministry with youth in the Diocese of Paterson. This happened, as far as we now know, on one occasion several years ago at a retreat house in the diocese while with a group from a parish of the Trenton Diocese. He was under a restriction not to do so without proper supervision from the Archdiocese of Newark and legal authorities. The first awareness that diocesan leadership had concerning these activities of Fathr Fugee wthin the diocese came from the most recent media accounts.

If anyone has any information about inappropriate behavior on the part of Father Fugee, please notify your County Prosecutor’s Office. Please also inform the diocese by contacting Monsignor James T. Mahoney, Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia (973-777-8818, ext. 205) or Sister Mary Edward Spohrer, S.C.C., Chancellor (973-777-8818, ext. 248).

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
The Record

FRIDAY MAY 10, 2013
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

At a time when the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark is the focus of intense scrutiny over its handling of a priest accused of molesting a child, the diocese representing parishes in Passaic and Morris counties is asking for information about “inappropriate behavior” by the cleric, who was barred for life from working around children.

The Diocese of Paterson, in an unusual move, prominently posted on its website a message asking members of the public to report any information about the priest’s attendance at youth retreats — in apparent defiance of a legal ban on such action — within its three-county territory.

Bergen County prosecutors are investigating the Rev. Michael Fugee, who allegedly molested a Wyckoff teenager more than a decade ago, for possibly violating an agreement he signed with the archdiocese promising never to minister to children.

But it recently was revealed that Fugee joined several youth group excursions, including one to a retreat house at Lake Hopatcong in Morris County, within the Paterson Diocese. The diocese said in a statement, placed at the top of its website, that officials only know of that one event, which was in 2010, but they are encouraging anyone with information about “inappropriate behavior” on Fugee’s part to inform diocesan staff.

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
Christian Post

By Michael Gryboski , Christian Post Reporter
May 10, 2013

Reported cases of priest abuse from last year have been the lowest since 2004, according to an annual compliance audit of Roman Catholic Church dioceses in the United States.

In 2012, there were six credible cases of abuse found of 34 claims, with 15 of those allegations still under investigation, reported the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA).
The audit itself was performed by StoneBridge Business Partners, a multinational organization founded in 1994, on behalf of CARA.

The audit further found that nearly all of the dioceses who took part in the audit were found in compliance.

Sister Mary Ann Walsh of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops told The Christian Post that the findings “offer hope and inspire confidence in the church’s programs of Safe Environment.”

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 League

Bill Donohue comments on the 2012 Annual Report by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the subject of sexual abuse:

The survey, done by an institute at Georgetown University, shows how utterly absurd it is to maintain that the Catholic Church continues to have a problem with priestly sexual abuse. Of the nearly 40,000 priests in the U.S., there were 34 allegations made by minors last year (32 priests, two deacons): six were deemed credible by law enforcement; 12 were either unfounded or unable to be proven; one was a “boundary violation”; and 15 are still being probed. Moreover, in every case brought to the attention of the bishops or heads of religious orders, the civil authorities were notified.

Not counting those of unknown status, in 88 percent of the total number of cases (independent of when they allegedly occurred), the accused priest is either deceased, has been dismissed from ministry, or has been laicized.

Most of the allegations reported to church officials today have nothing to do with current cases: two-thirds date back to the 1960s, 1970s and the first half of the 1980s. As usual, the problem is not pedophilia: 19 percent of the allegations involving those who work in dioceses or eparchies, and 7 percent of religious order priests and deacons, involve pedophilia. In other words, the problem remains what it has always been—an issue involving homosexual priests (85 percent of the victims were male).

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
Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton

We have recently confirmed that a serious breach of compliance with our child protection policies has taken place in one of our parishes. As a result, Father Michael Fugee, a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, who would not have been given clearance to minister in this diocese if procedures had been followed, was present among some of our youth during several parish events.

It is important to remind everyone throughout Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth and Ocean Counties of the Diocese’s policies and processes that have been in place to keep children and youth safe in our parishes, schools and other agencies. To review these policies, visit http://www.dioceseoftrenton.org/protection

We again urge anyone who has been sexually abused as a minor by a member of the clergy or another representative of the Catholic Church, or anyone who knows of someone who was, to report that abuse through the diocesan Abuse Hotline.

To report sexual abuse of minors call our hotline 1-888-296-2965
or contact us at abuseline@dioceseoftrenton.org

Please note: All allegations are reported by the Diocese to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.

For more information about Father Michael Fugee’s ministry
in St. Mary Parish, Colts Neck, click HERE.

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`
The Record

FRIDAY MAY 10, 2013
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton posted a forceful message on its website this morning about a priest who attended youth ministry events in its parishes without permission, following the example of the Paterson Diocese, which took similar action earlier this week.

The message, which fills most of the Trenton diocese website – www.dioceseoftrenton.org — discusses the Rev. Michael Fugee’s “serious breach of compliance with our child protection policies” by his involvement with a Colts Neck parish youth group. The statement encourages victims of sexual abuse by clergy, or people who know victims within the diocese’s four-county territory, to report any allegations to the abuse hotline.

Fugee, who allegedly molested a Wyckoff boy more than a decade ago, recently was revealed to have attended numerous youth retreats in apparent violation of an agreement he signed with prosecutors not to minister to children. Bergen County prosecutors immediately opened an investigation when alerted about the activities in late April.

On Wednesday, the Diocese of Paterson posted a statement on its website calling on anyone with information about “inappropriate behavior” on Fugee’s part to inform diocesan staff. A spokesman for Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli said the diocese also sent the message to all 110 parishes in Passaic, Morris and Sussex counties and plans to publish it in the next edition of The Beacon, the diocesan newspaper. So far, officials have not heard any complaints.

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.

HAWAII
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on May 10, 2013

From yesterday’s Honolulu Star Advertiser:

Catholic Church, priest named in lawsuit alleging molestation

A New Jersey man filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that he was sexually molested when he attended St. Anthony’s parish and school in Kailua from 1978 to 1981 when he was about 10 to 13 years old.

The suit filed by the man under the fictitious name of John Roe No. 11 is against the Roman Catholic Church in Hawaii and the Rev. Anthony Bolger, one of the priests at the school during that period.

The lawsuit also alleges that the man was sexually molested by the late Rev. Joseph Ferrario, a priest at St. Anthony’s at the time who later was installed as bishop of Honolulu.

Patrick Downes, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church here, said the Diocese of Honolulu has no comment at this time. Bolger could not be reached for comment.

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.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY JOELLE CASTEIX ON MAY 10, 2013

LA’s archbishop claimed disgraced predecessor wouldn’t engage in “public ministry.” Now, he’s apparently – and quietly – reversed himself, further betraying thousands of abuse victims and hundreds of thousands of parishioners.

Today’s LA Times reports that Archbishop José Horacio Gomez is violating his pledge to forbid Cardinal Roger Mahony from performing confirmations. And Gomez is giving no explanations.

In the midst of a scandal, under the glare of klieg lights and the outrage of parishioners, bishops will promise anything and everything to everybody. Later, when public attention wanes, they’ll go straight – but quietly – back to “business as usual.” This is the sad, simple truth that most of us foolishly and repeatedly ignore and that enables bishops to keep right on endangering the flock, concealing the truth, and recycling the molesters.

This is the “same old, same old.” Bishops say they’ll oust credibly accused clerics at the first allegation, and they don’t. They say they’ll be “transparent” about clergy sex abuse cases, and they aren’t. They say they’ll monitor predator priests, and they don’t. They’ll pledge to treat victims with compassion, then they don’t.

Why can bishops get by with this? Because they’re monarchs. Because their flocks tolerate it. Because the public has a short attention span. Because we want to believe the best about others. Because we let ourselves be convinced that deliberate cover ups are actually just “mistakes” and that bishops are “learning” and “reforming” when they’re not.

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
Jesuit.org

Fr. Timothy P. Kesicki, S.J., to Head U.S. Office for Society of Jesus, Largest Order of Priests and Brothers in Roman Catholic Church

(WASHINGTON, D.C., May 10, 2013)—The Society of Jesus in the United States announces that Father Timothy P. Kesicki, S.J., has been named the next president of the Jesuit Conference. Fr. Kesicki, who was appointed by Father Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus, will assume his new position August 1, 2014. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the Jesuit Conference is the liaison office that coordinates the national work of the Society of Jesus, the largest order of priests and brothers in the Roman Catholic Church.

Fr. Kesicki, currently serving as the provincial of the Chicago-Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus, says, “This assignment comes at a very exciting time for the Church and the Society of Jesus here in the U.S. and around the world. Clearly, the election of Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope in history, has highlighted the Jesuit vocation. Going back to St. Ignatius himself, we Jesuits have always put ourselves in service of the Church to minister where the needs are the greatest. I look forward to helping the Society continue its mission with a renewed zeal, strategic use of our resources, and commitment to serving in Christ’s name here and around the world.”

Fr. Kesicki first met the Jesuits when he was an undergraduate at John Carroll University in Ohio, where he studied political science. During his Jesuit formation he studied at Loyola University Chicago and the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, Ca. After being ordained in 1994, his first mission was with Jesuit Refugee Service in Adjumani, Uganda.

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
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON MAY 10, 2013

A Chicago Jesuit, Fr. Timothy P. Kesicki, has been tapped to head the Jesuit Conference. That’s a mistake. http://www.jesuit.org/blog/

In recent years in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases, Kesicki has done, at best, an inadequate job. At worst, he has done a reckless, callous, and deceitful job.

We’re saddened to see yet another complicit Catholic cleric being promoted. Once again, a clear signal is sent to Catholic employees: “Your clerical career will never suffer no matter how egregiously you ignore, conceal and enable child sex crimes.”

Recent troubling Jesuit cases in which Kesicki has been involved include:

[Chicago Tribune]

–the 2011 revelations of abuse reports against Fr. Robert A. Wild, Marquette University President and former head (for six years) of the Chicago Jesuit Province

–the 2010 ouster of admitted abuser Fr. Larry Reuter, an ex-president of Loyola Academy

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.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
dotCommonweal

May 10, 2013
Posted by Grant Gallicho

Remember how in January, after nearly a decade of legal filibustering, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles finally made public the priest-personnel files it agreed to release as part of a 2007 settlement with abuse victims, except the files were heavily redacted, and remember how those files contained damning memos detailing the lengths to which archdiocesan officials — including Cardinal Roger Mahony — went to shield abuser-priests from civil authorities, and how soon after those memos made news, Archbishop Jose Gomez garnered praise for announcing that Mahony would “no longer have any administrative or public duties,” and how several media outlets reported that Mahony had been “barred from public ministry,” except he really hadn’t, and then he took to his blog to dress down Gomez for “not once over these past years…[raising] any questions about our policies, practices, or procedures in dealing with the problem of clergy sexual misconduct involving minors,” yet, as Mahony’s then-spokesman explained, he had “cleared his calendar of confirmation appointments this year”? Well, he’s doing them again.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Since Easter, he has officiated at eight services, including one last week in which he anointed more than 120 youths at a Wilmington parish.

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)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Tim Townsend ttownsend@post-dispatch.com 314-340-82210

The St. Louis Archdiocese doesn’t exactly alert the press when it has what Archbishop Robert Carlson called sad news about clergy sexual abuse.

On May 1, the archdiocese quietly posted a statement from Carlson on its website saying he had permanently removed the Rev. Leroy Valentine, 71, from ministry. An internal, lay investigatory board had determined that “incidents” taking place “in the 1970s” which had been “only recently brought to our attention” were credible, Carlson said.

The archdiocese also published an article in its weekly newspaper, the St. Louis Review, about Valentine’s removal saying the “allegation of abuse occurred in the 1970s.”

A closer look at Valentine’s story reflects a 30-year journey that neatly embodies the Roman Catholic church’s struggle to deal with its sexual abuse troubles over that time.

It’s a sad story – Carlson is right – about a priest who has been repeatedly accused of abuse, and yet neither the law nor the church can prove it. So the archdiocese, despite proclaiming again and again through the years that no allegation against Valentine has been found credible, says he’s “been monitored and supervised continuously since 1999.” He is not guilty. He is not innocent.

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
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

May 9, 2013

Safe environment programs reach 99 percent of targeted audience
Diocese of Lincoln, five Eastern Rite eparchies still non-compliant
Auditors recommend expansion of audits into parishes

WASHINGTON—The annual audit of diocesan compliance with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People found a drop in the number of allegations, number of victims and number of offenders reported in 2012.

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), which gathered data for the report, found “the fewest allegations and victims reported since the data collection for the annual reports began in 2004.”

Most allegations reported last year were from the seventies and eighties with many of the alleged offenders already deceased or removed from ministry in the priesthood.

StoneBridge Business Partners, which conducts the audits, said law enforcement found six credible cases among 34 allegations of abuse of minors in 2012 itself. Credibility of 15 of the allegations was still under investigation. Law enforcement found 12 allegations to be unfounded or unable to be proven, and one a boundary violation.

Almost all dioceses were found compliant with the audit. Three were found non-compliant with one article of the Charter. The Diocese of Lake Charles, Louisiana, was faulted because its review board had not met in several years. (The diocese had no allegations during that time). The Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was faulted because auditors could not determine if parishes provided safe environment training to religious education students and volunteer teachers. The Diocese of Baker, Oregon, was faulted because students did not receive safe environment training while a new program was being developed. The diocese has since begun training.

The report can be found at http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/child-and-youth-protection/upload/annual-report-on-the-implementation-of-the-charter-for-the-protection-of-children-and-young-people-2012.pdf

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/AUSTRALIA
7 News

AFP
May 10, 2013

LONDON (AFP) – A former Church of England archbishop has denied claims that he covered up allegations of child abuse against a senior clergyman, which were revealed in Friday’s Times newspaper.

David Hope, who served as Archbishop of York between 1995 and 2005, said he “strongly resisted” accusations that he withheld from police claims made by choirboys and school pupils against Robert Waddington, a former Dean of Manchester Cathedral, in order to protect the church.

According to the joint report carried out by the London Times and The Australian newspaper, Hope was told of the claims in 1999 and again in 2003.

Waddington, who died in 2007, was stripped of his right to conduct church services but the claims were not passed on to police or child protection agencies, the Times reported.

“I didn’t report to the police,” Hope told the Times. “With hindsight, probably there ought to have been (a report). He (Waddington) was in such a fragile and frail state.

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 HAMPSHIRE
Catholic Tide

This entry was posted by Colin Real on May 9, 2013

Baltimore, Md., May 9, 2013 / 12:01 am (CNA).- Amid allegations of financial indiscretion and an “inappropriate adult relationship,” Monsignor Edward J. Arsenault has resigned as head of a Maryland treatment center for Catholic priests and religious.

“This is very difficult news, and we are keeping this situation in prayer,” Sheila Harron, Ph.D., chief operation officer and interim CEO of the St. Luke Institute, said May 6.

“We are committed to continuing to move forward, to providing high quality care for priests and religious, and to supporting a culture of healthy ministry in the Church.”

The New Hampshire attorney general is investigating Msgr. Arsenault after the Diocese of Manchester discovered evidence of improper transactions of diocese funds. The diocese reported the discovery to authorities out of concern illegal acts may have been committed. The diocese discovered the evidence while reviewing a claim that he had an inappropriate relationship with an adult.

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.

NORTHERN IRELAND
BBC News

A Catholic priest who admitted giving £145,000 of church money to a woman has been given a two-year sentence suspended for three years.

Fr Conleth Byrne, 78, took the money from church funds in the parish of Loughinisland, County Down.

The money was taken over a 19-month period between 2008 and 2009.

The priest, who is now retired, pleaded guilty last month to fraud by abuse of position just before his trial was due to begin.

About £45,000 has been repaid and a judge has ordered Fr Byrne to repay the outstanding £100,000.

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.

AUSTRALIA
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian May 11, 2013

THE Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, is one of several senior Catholic clerics investigated by NSW police for allegedly concealing the pedophile crimes of a priest, according to documents tendered to a state inquiry.

Internal police documents, tendered to the NSW special commission of inquiry into child abuse, said Strike Force Lantle was formed in 2010 to investigate allegations that clergy concealed the crimes of serial pedophile priest Denis McAlinden.

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

SCOTLAND
The Tablet

10 May 2013

A lifelong friend of Cardinal Keith O’Brien says that he will challenge any attempt to force the prelate out of Scotland.

Fr John Creanor, parish priest of Our Lady of the Waves, Dunbar, the parish where Cardinal O’Brien is currently living, was responding to rumours that the church hierarchy intended to block the cardinal’s plan to retire to a church-owned house in the East Lothian town.

He told The Tablet: “I’m prepared, if the rumour is more than just a rumour, to instruct my legal team to challenge the Vatican directly. I’m 72 years old. I have nothing to lose. But I do not accept that the Vatican has the power to exile a retired priest, effectively banish him from the country, or deny him access to a house of which I am the landowner.”

He said a petition in the parish had been started urging the cardinal to stay. The cardinal’s resignation of Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh was accepted in February following allegations of sexual impropriety.

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

SCOTLAND
The Tablet (UK)

Elena Curti, Deputy Editor
10 May 2013

The return of Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien to Scotland has for many Catholics rubbed salt into the wound, two months after his admission of sexual misdemeanours and abrupt departure from office weeks before reaching the official retirement age of 75.

According to this narrative, the cardinal heaped scandal on the Scottish Church and the best thing he could do now is to disappear without trace. After all the hurt and embarrassment he has caused, it is easy to understand why some might resent the cardinal continuing with his plans to retire quietly to a church-owned house in the East Lothian seaside town of Dunbar.

It has been reported that the Vatican itself has told the cardinal to leave Scotland and that ‘church leaders’ want him to stay out of public life. However, Bishop Stephen Robson, an auxiliary of St Andrews and Edinburgh, has told The Tablet that the Church has a duty of care to Cardinal O’Brien and that he will be treated in the same way as all other retired priests.

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

AUSTRALIA
Special Commission of Inquiry

Thursday, 9 May 2013: Transcript – Day 4, [PDF, 842kb]

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
Newcastle Herald

VIEW THE TRANSCRIPTS OF THE INQUIRY HERE

HE’D spent five days in and out of the witness box, but Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox was unwavering when asked the same question for the fifth time during his cross-examination yesterday.

Yes, he thought the police strike force set up to investigate child abuse cover-ups within the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese was set up to fail.

Yes, he ignored orders from superiors and shared information with a journalist; yes he lied to colleagues; yes he thought his standing down from the investigation was corrupt; yes he thought police handling of the investigation was a sham; and yes, he thought senior Catholic clergy should be called to account.

During his final cross-examination before the Special Commission of Inquiry in Newcastle yesterday, Mr Fox was accused of a ‘‘character assassination’’ of several police appointed to roles on Strike Force Lantle.

The strike force was set up in 2010 after a string of revelations by the Newcastle Herald raised questions about senior Catholic clergy and how they handled allegations against disgraced former priests Denis McAlinden and James Fletcher.

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 – Lateline

[with video]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 10/05/2013
Reporter: Suzie Smith

A police force intelligence document tendered by the head of the NSW Sex Crimes unit, Superintendent John Kerlatec, to the Special Commission of Inquiry into Clerical Abuse in the Hunter region, NSW, revealed three priests were named as part of a possible paedophile conspiracy and that the Catholic Church had required a victim to “sign a deed” that they’d not pursue any civil or criminal actions.

Transcript

EMMA ALBERICI, REPORTER: The New South Wales special commission of inquiry into clerical abuse in the Hunter region has heard that police were warned of the danger of a possible paedophile ring as far back as 2004.

A NSW police force intelligence document was tendered in a statement by the head of the New South Wales Sex Crimes unit, Superintendent John Kerlatec.

The document also named three priests as part of a possible conspiracy and said that the Catholic Church had required a victim to “sign a deed” promising they would not pursue civil or criminal actions.

John Kerlatec also told the inquiry that an internal police email showed there was no great urgency in the handling of child sexual abuse allegations in the Hunter region

Suzie smith reports from Newcastle

SUZIE SMITH, REPORTING: Today was the fifth day of the special commission and on the stand an unwilling witness detective Superintendent John Kerlatec, the head of the New South Wales Sex Crimes squad.

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
Belfast Telegraph

A former Archbishop of York has denied covering up allegations that a senior Church of England clergyman sexually abused choirboys.

The Very Rev Robert Waddington, a former Dean of Manchester Cathedral, who died from cancer in 2007, is said to have groomed and abused a chorister in Manchester in the 1980s, The Times reported.

He is also said to have targeted a pupil at a boarding school in Queensland, Australia, of which he was the headmaster in the 1960s.

Lord Hope of Thornes, who was Archbishop of York from 1995 to 2005, was informed of the two claims in 1999 and 2003, the newspaper said. He spoke to Mr Waddington about the allegations and then banned him from taking church services but he did not pass on the claims to the police, it added.

Lord Hope wrote to the North Queensland Diocese in 1999 and said Mr Waddington was “deeply sorry for anything he may have done to offend” and that the clergyman offered “an unreserved apology”.

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/AUSTRALIA
CNN

By Laura Smith-Spark and Richard Allen Greene, CNN
updated 9:26 AM EDT, Fri May 10, 2013

London (CNN) — A former archbishop of York was accused Friday of covering up child abuse by a Church of England clergyman who has since died.

The accusations against the late Very Rev. Robert Waddington are the result of a joint investigation by the Times of London and The Australian newspaper, based in Sydney.

The Times alleges that Waddington, who died in 2007 from cancer, abused choirboys and school children, and that the former archbishop of York, David Hope, failed to report the abuse claims to police or child protection authorities after he was made aware of them in 1999 and 2003.

The former archbishop, who was made Lord Hope after he stood down in 2005, said he had followed the legal requirements of the time.

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)
Riverfront Times

By Sam Levin Fri., May 10 2013

Another day, another dispute with the St. Louis Archdiocese regarding allegations of child sex abuse. The case of Father LeRoy Valentine, however, involves a long and complicated history of accusations that span several decades and allegations of repeated inaction by those in charge. And victims’ advocates say the archdiocese today is still trying to downplay Valentine’s proven abuse.

“This is disturbing,” David Clohessy, executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, tells Daily RFT. “Rather than err on the side of being open and transparent, [St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson] chooses to be vague and deceptive.”

The support group for clergy abuse victims — in response to a recent announcement that Valentine has been permanently removed from ecclesiastical ministry — is alleging that officials with the archdiocese failed to supervise Valentine over the last eleven years and is trying to cover up some of the past cases of sex abuse today.

Archdiocese officials, however, say in a statement that they investigated all accusations and properly responded to allegations they found to be “credible.” Valentine, they say, “will continue to live in a monitored, secure environment.”

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
The Star-Ledger

By Mark Mueller/The Star-Ledger
on May 10, 2013

The Archdiocese of Newark has paid $650,000 to settle molestation claims brought by five men against a former New Jersey priest now awaiting trial on unrelated sex charges in Missouri.

The settlement, announced Thursday by a lawyer for the men, recalls one of the darker chapters of the archdiocese’s role in the clergy sex abuse crisis.

The Rev. Carmen Sita pleaded guilty in 1982 to sexually assaulting a teenage boy at St. Aloysius Church in Jersey City. Sentenced to five months’ probation, Sita changed his name to Gerald Howard and was soon shuffled to a parish in the Diocese of Jefferson City, Mo.

The Newark archbishop at the time, Peter Gerety, never informed the public of the name change. Howard would go on to molest at least three more children in Missouri, authorities said. Charged in 2010, he remains jailed on $1.5 million bond while he awaits trial.

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

PUERTO RICO
Catholic Culture

Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves of San Juan, Puerto Rico, has declined to discuss reports that the Vatican has sought his resignation, after the public release of a letter in which he defended himself against Vatican criticism.

A Puerto Rican radio station has released the leaked text of a letter from Archbishop Gonzalez to Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the prefect of the Congregation for Bishops. In the letter the archbishop says that he will not willingly step down, and denies the accuracy of complaints against him. The complaints reportedly included charges that the archbishop had protected priests from sex-abuse charges, interfered in local politics, and abused his power.

The archbishop told reporters that he would not comment on the matter, saying that “I’ll only deal with the Holy See on it.” But he did ask the faithful in Puerto Rico to pray that the truth would be revealed. Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, also declined to speak about the leaked letter.

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 Culture

[the report]

CWN – May 10, 2013

The clerical abuse scandal cost American dioceses $112,966,427 in 2012, according to a report released on May 9 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Only 56% of those funds were allotted to settlements ($50.4 million) and therapy for abuse victims ($7.2 million). The remaining funds were spent on attorneys’ fees ($35.3 million), support for offenders ($11.8 million), and other costs ($2.6 million), according to the 2012 “Report on the Implementation of the Charter for Protection of Children and Young People.”

The clerical abuse scandal cost religious institutes an additional $20,139,384 in 2012. These expenses brought the total cost of the clerical abuse scandal to American dioceses and religious institutes between 2004 and 2012 to $2,621,516,566: $2,242,949,048 for dioceses and eparchies, and $378,567,518 for religious institutes.

During the 2012 audit period, 34 minors alleged they were abused by a priest or deacon. The report found that six allegations “were considered credible by law enforcement,” while 12 “were determined to be unfounded or unable to be proven.” One was determined to be a “boundary violation,” and 15 were still under investigation.

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
7 News

By Paul Maguire, AAP
Updated May 10, 2013

A Hunter Valley Catholic priest suspected of sexually abusing children over four decades boasted he would beat any charges against him, a special commission of inquiry has heard.

When police arrived on his doorstep in September 2005 with an arrest warrant, Father Denis McAlinden allegedly said, “I was previously charged with child abuse matters and I beat those charges, so if I am around long enough, I will beat these charges too”.

But the 72-year-old, who had terminal cancer, was not charged and died soon afterwards.

The commission, which began in Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday, is investigating the way police and the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese handled child sex allegations, particularly those involving Fr McAlinden and Father James Fletcher, who is also dead.

The NSW commission was established after Hunter Valley Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox alleged church officials covered up criminal offences and, along with some police, hindered investigations.

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
ITV

Fri 10 May 2013

The former Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, said he responded to and reported abuse claims against a former Dean “correctly” when he learnt about them in 2003.

He said he was “shocked and saddened” to learn of the claims, dating back to the 1980s, and reported the matter to the Archbishop of York and a child protection officer immediately.

In responding to and reporting this tragic alleged abuse, I believe that I and the child protection officer followed correctly the then current 1999 guidelines laid down by the Church of England.

This is a particularly sad story of abuse that has brought deep and lasting distress to a young boy who had put his trust in 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.

UNITED KINGDOM
Eastbourne Herald

Published on 10/05/2013

The priest accused of sexually assaulting young boys and girls in children’s homes has given evidence for the first time.

Church of England priest Gordon Trevor Rideout admitted being “touchy feely” to children in the care homes he visited in the 1960 and 1970s. But he denies indecently assaulting 16 boys and girls as young as five-years-old in children’s care homes in West Sussex, Essex and Hampshire between 1961 and 1973.

The 74-year-old pleaded not guilty to 37 sexual offences, including attempted rape, as he gave evidence at Lewes Crown Court on May 8. Rideout, of Filching Close, Polegate, was asked if he was a “touchy feely kind of person” by defence QC Frances Oldham.

He replied yes, adding, “If a child was miserable or upset I would hug or kiss them, perhaps more so when they were a little, not big children. By little I mean five, six and seven-years-old. I would hug them by putting my arm around them as you would do a child if they had fallen over or were miserable.”

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.

NORTHERN IRELAND
Derry Journal

Published on 10/05/2013

A Derry priest at the centre of a child sex abuse controversy a number of years ago has died.

Rev. John McCullagh (78) passed away suddenly in Maghera on Wednesday.

It’s understood Derry’s Diocesan hierarchy was first alerted to the allegations against Rev. McCullagh in 1994.

In 2000, the Co. Tyrone born priest made an out-of-court settlement when he paid £12,000 of his own money and wrote a letter of apology to a woman from the Derry Diocese who accused him of abusing her over a 10 year period, starting in 1979, from when she was just eight years-old.

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
The Jersey Journal

By The Jersey Journal
on May 10, 2013

The Archdiocese of Newark has paid $650,000 to settle molestation claims brought by five men against a former Jersey City priest now awaiting trial on unrelated sex charges in Missouri, The Star-Ledger reported yesterday.

The settlement, announced yesterday by a lawyer for the men, recalls one of the darker chapters of the archdiocese’s role in the clergy sex abuse crisis.

The Rev. Carmen Sita pleaded guilty in 1982 to sexually assaulting a teenage boy at St. Aloysius Church in Jersey City. Sentenced to five months’ probation, Sita changed his name to Gerald Howard and was soon shuffled to a parish in the Diocese of Jefferson City, Mo., The Ledger reported.

The Newark archbishop at the time, Peter Gerety, never informed the public of the name change. Howard would go on to molest at least three more children in Missouri, authorities said. Charged in 2010, he remains jailed on $1.5 million bond while he awaits trial.

“It frankly horrifies me that this priest was allowed to move on and run amok,” said Greg Gianforcaro, the Phillipsburg attorney who announced yesterday’s settlement. “There is no excuse for 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.

UNITED KINGDOM
Bognor Regis Observer

THE BISHOP of Chichester has welcomed the sentencing of a priest for historic sex offences against young boys.

Keith Wilkie Denford, 78, was jailed for 18 months for the offences which took place between 19 and 27 years ago.

The priest, from Broad Reach Mews, Shoreham, was sentenced on Thursday, May 9, at Hove Crown Court after being convicted of two indecent assaults on a boy then under 16, in or near Shoreham, and one indecent assault on another boy also aged under 16 and also in or near Shoreham, on dates between June 1987 and January 1990.

He was found not guilty of a third charge of indecent assault against the first boy after a three-week trial, also at hove, on Friday, April 5.

Another man, Michael Mytton, 69, of South Road, East Chiltington, East Sussex, was sentenced to a total of nine months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years.

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

An accused NSW pedophile Catholic priest who died before being charged seemed unsurprised and amused when confronted with an arrest warrant.

A Hunter Valley Catholic priest suspected of sexually abusing children over four decades boasted he would beat any charges against him, a special commission of inquiry has heard.

When police arrived on his doorstep in September 2005 with an arrest warrant, Father Denis McAlinden allegedly said, “I was previously charged with child abuse matters and I beat those charges, so if I am around long enough, I will beat these charges too”.

But the 72-year-old, who had terminal cancer, was not charged and died soon afterwards.

The commission, which began in Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday, is investigating the way police and the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese handled child sex allegations, particularly those involving Fr McAlinden and Father James Fletcher, who is also dead.

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

UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail

Former Archbishop denies cover-up over paedophile priest who escaped prosecution over child abuse claims

By HUGO GYE

One of Britain’s top churchmen has denied that he covered up the crimes of a paedophile priest who attacked choirboys and schoolchildren.

When David Hope was Archbishop of York, he was twice told that Robert Waddington, former Dean of Manchester, had been accused of exploiting his position to molest young boys.

Waddington was disciplined by Church officials and banned from holding services, but the allegations against him were never passed on to police.

The former Archbishop, now Lord Hope of Thornes, yesterday admitted he should have told officers about the sexual abuse claims because he was worried about the health of the paedophile.

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.

WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Donna Boynton TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
dboynton@telegram.com

WORCESTER — In a highly emotional sentencing hearing at which one man was ejected from the courtroom and the defendant refused to comply with the terms of her sentencing conditions, a Worcester District Court judge sentenced a follower of the Church of the End Times to one year supervised probation for assaulting an Uxbridge police officer.

Samantha Drury, 19, of Woonsocket, R.I., was found guilty last month of assaulting an Uxbridge police officer during an altercation at the 41 Murphy’s Way home of the church leader and his estranged wife on Oct. 2.

Judge Michael L. Fabbri sentenced Ms. Drury to one year supervised probation, and then issued a list of conditions that included finding a job within 30 days, perform 50 hours of community service in an agency related to public safety, and submit a written letter of apology to the Uxbridge Police Department.

Upon hearing that last condition, Ms. Drury jumped to her feet.

“He attacked me!” she said, refusing to write a letter of apology. “You can arrest me now. He owes me an apology.”

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.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

By Teresa Watanabe and Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times
May 9, 2013

When Archbishop Jose Gomez stripped his predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, of public duties for mishandling clergy sex abuse cases, a church spokesman said the retired prelate’s life would remain largely the same with one exception: confirmations.

No longer would Mahony preside at springtime rites in which teenagers receive the sacrament that marks full passage into the Catholic Church, the spokesman said.

But three months later, Mahony is back doing confirmations. Since Easter, he has officiated at eight services, including one last week in which he anointed more than 120 youths at a Wilmington parish.

His presence has caused controversy, with some parents threatening to pull their children from the liturgies and at least one parish priest asking that Mahony not attend. It has also raised questions about why Gomez’s rebuke of Mahony, an unprecedented move that won him praise from victims and their supporters around the world, had so little lasting effect.

Gomez’s January letter to the region’s more than 4 million Catholics seemed to rule out any conspicuous place for Mahony in the archdiocese. Noting that the cardinal had “expressed his sorrow for his failure to fully protect young people entrusted to his care, ” Gomez told the faithful, “Effective immediately, I have informed Cardinal Mahony that he will no longer have any administrative or public duties.”

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.

GALLUP (NM)
Gallup Independent

Published in the Gallup Independent, Gallup, N.M., May 6, 2013

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Independent correspondent

GALLUP — Roman Catholic Bishop James S. Wall made a dual-purpose public announcement late Friday. In an email sent to the media 5 p.m. Friday, Wall announced the departure of a top chancery official while also advertising for his replacement.

James P. Hoy, an ordained deacon in the Diocese of Gallup, is resigning as the diocese’s chief financial officer after 14 years, Wall said. Hoy is slated to depart June 30.

“He is leaving the diocese to take a financial position in the non-profit sector and to be with his wife who as (sic) been on a temporary assignment with Western New Mexico University in Silver City, New Mexico,” Wall said. “We are grateful to Deacon Hoy for his dedication and service to the Church and to those that he has helped over the years.”

Wall said the diocese will begin its search for a new CFO immediately, and officials hope to have the position filled by July 1 on either a permanent or pro tem basis.

Wall’s email included an online link to the Diocese of Gallup’s employment opportunities page, which features a summary of the job requirements. That page contains another link to a more detailed job description.

According to the job description, the CFO position is “an ecclesiastical office” with qualifications and duties established in the Catholic Church’s 1983 Code of Canon Law. It includes responsibility for the Gallup Diocese’s budgeting, accounting, investments, risk management, human resources and employee benefits.

In addition to being an “active practicing Roman Catholic in full communion with the Church,” applicants must have at least a bachelor’s degree in finance or accounting and 10 years of professional experience. They will need to be able to oversee grant applications, review legal documents and interact with diocesan attorneys.

Since Wall became bishop four years ago, he has declined multiple media requests to confirm the level of Hoy’s educational training and professional experience for the CFO position. During the past decade, numerous priests have raised concerns with chancery officials and the media about Hoy’s qualifications. All media questions about Hoy’s qualifications — in personal interviews with the bishop and through written requests — have been ignored by Wall and Hoy.

Hoy was initially hired by the late Bishop Donald E. Pelotte. According to the Official Catholic Directory, Hoy became a deacon in 1996 while living in Show Low, Ariz. He then moved to Gallup to take over the diocesan budget and finance office.

Hoy’s successor will be employed by a diocese that advertizes itself as one of the poorest Catholic dioceses in the country. In addition, the Gallup Diocese continues to incur unpublicized financial expenses related to settlement money and legal fees from clergy sex abuse lawsuits and an unknown number of out-of-court sex abuse complaints.

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
The Record

FRIDAY MAY 10, 2013

By ALFRED P. DOBLIN
RECORD EDITORIAL COLUMNIST

Alfred P. Doblin is the editorial page editor of The Record. Contact him at doblin@northjersey.com. Follow AlfredPDoblin on Twitter.

NEWARK Archbishop John J. Myers is going to the mattresses. The archdiocese has hired Michael Critchley, a criminal defense lawyer who famously got Michael “Mad Dog” Taccetta, a member of the Lucchese crime family, an acquittal back in the 1980s. Showtime’s “The Borgias” should move its shooting location to Newark.

Myers is under fire because the archdiocese allowed the Rev. Michael Fugee to participate in youth events despite both Fugee and the archdiocese entering into an agreement with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office barring Fugee from such contact.

The priest, who resigned last week, had been convicted of groping a minor, but the conviction was overturned on a technicality. Rather than face a new trial, Fugee made a deal with prosecutors and part of that deal was no unsupervised contact with children and no ministering to children.

However, Fugee went on youth retreats and had one-on-one contact with children in the Newark archdiocese, as well as in dioceses outside of Newark, without the consent of those bishops. The Newark archdiocese has continued to claim it has done nothing wrong.

This would be just reprehensible if it occurred in the private sector; it is something baser, something more vile happening in the Roman Catholic Church. This institutional arrogance was at the heart of the national scandal of priests sexually abusing minors for decades while church officials did nothing to stop it, in many cases enabling the abuse. High-ranking clergy closed their ranks around predators, all to save the face of the institution rather than protect children. Actually, it was less about saving face and more about saving money. Predators are costly.

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
Asbury Park Press

Written by
Kathleen Hopkins
@KHopkinsAPP

TOMS RIVER — The boy at the center of a sexual abuse case within Lakewood’s Orthodox Jewish community had no friends in fifth and sixth grade and none in the summer camp he attended those years, he shyly testified on Wednesday.

So when camp counselor Yosef Kolko let the boy sing solos with the camp choir and gave him the lead role in the play the summer after fifth grade, in 2007, that made the boy feel “awesome,” he told a jury of nine men and seven women.

“I respected him,” the boy, now 16, said of Kolko. “He was one of the cool counselors.”

The following August, the boy returned to Yachad, the summer camp that is run by the Yeshiva Bais Hatorah School on Swarthmore Avenue in Lakewood. He and some other boys in his class told the head counselor they wouldn’t return to camp unless Kolko was their counselor, he said.

“I looked up to him,” the boy told the jury. “I tried to develop a personal relationship, because there was an inkling to be close to the counselor, and because I didn’t have any friends.”

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
Asbury Park Press

Written by
Kathleen Hopkins
@KHopkinsAPP

TOMS RIVER — The father of a former Lakewood boy who accused his camp counselor of sexual abuse wanted to handle the matter discreetly, within the Orthodox Jewish religious community, he testified in court on Thursday.

The man, formerly a prominent rabbi in Lakewood’s Orthodox community, said he just wanted to be sure the counselor, Yosef Kolko, quit working with children, sought therapy and stayed away from his son, the man told a jury.

But when months had already passed after he had brought the matter to the attention of a respected rabbi who promised to handle it discreetly, and learning that Kolko was still working at the summer camp where his son was molested, the father said he broke with Jewish tradition and sought justice with secular authorities.

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
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON May 10, 2013

The head of the NSW sex crimes squad has told the Special Commission of Inquiry that the early response by police to claims of sex abuse cover-ups within the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Diocese appeared to lack urgency.

Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec was shown documents when he took the stand at the commission in Newcastle this morning.

Mr Kerlatec said he recalled having several conversations with Detective Inspector Paul Jacob when Strike Force Lantle was established in late 2010 to investigate claims of sex abuse cover-up.

Under cross examination by Mark Cohen, acting for Mr Fox, Mr Kerlatec was referred to reports which he agreed did not reflect a lot of urgency on the part of police investigations.

He also agreed that while an investigating officer appeared keen to proceed quickly, he was being ‘‘shut down’’ by his superior officer, Detective Inspector Dave Waddell.

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
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON May 10, 2013

The commander of the state’s Police Sex Crimes Squad has given evidence to the Commission of Inquiry this morning.

The commission heard Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec was regularly briefed about Strike Force Lantle – an investigation into the concealed sexual abuse by Maitland-Newcastle Catholic clergy.

Superintendent Kerlatec said one of the country’s best sex crimes investigators Detective Inspector Paul Jacob, who is yet to given evidence, was assigned to give assistance to local detectives investigating the matter.

Earlier in the week, whistleblower Detective Chief Inspector Fox, said the Strike Force had been set up to fail by corrupt police who were not interesting in properly investigating paedophilia within 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.

AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

May 10, 2013

Paul Maguire
AAP

A Hunter Valley Catholic priest suspected of sexually abusing children over four decades boasted he would beat any charges against him, a special commission of inquiry has heard.

When police arrived on his doorstep in September 2005 with an arrest warrant, Father Denis McAlinden allegedly said, “I was previously charged with child abuse matters and I beat those charges, so if I am around long enough, I will beat these charges too”.

But the 72-year-old, who had terminal cancer, was not charged and died soon afterwards.

The commission, which began in Newcastle Supreme Court on Monday, is investigating the way police and the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic diocese handled child sex allegations, particularly those involving Fr McAlinden and Father James Fletcher, who is also dead.

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

UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

David Gibson | May 9, 2013

(RNS) Even as an annual review this week gave Catholic bishops high marks on sex abuse prevention policies, officials with the church’s own oversight agencies expressed serious concerns about “recent high-profile failings” in several dioceses.

The latest scandal has shaken Newark, N.J., where Archbishop John Myers failed to stop a priest from ministering with children in several parishes even though he assured prosecutors that he would enforce a lifetime ban on the priest’s access to children following a molestation case.

Newark Archbishop John J. Myers is facing fierce criticism for his handling of a priest who attended youth retreats and heard confessions from minors in defiance of a court-ordered lifetime ban on ministry to children. Religion News Service photo by Ed Murray/The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J.

Myers initially defended his oversight of the Rev. Michael Fugee, but under increasing pressure he reversed himself; Fugee then resigned from ministry, but ongoing calls for Myers to step down have generated new headlines almost every day.

“I’ll be honest with you, Newark is disheartening,” said Bernie Nojadera, head of the Office of Child and Youth Protection at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “It is like taking steps backwards.”

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

SCOTLAND
The Scottish Sun

By ASHLIE McANALLY

AN elderly nun yesterday denied hitting a girl with a carpet beater while she was head teacher at an approved school.

Anne Kenny, 79 — known as Mother Rosaria — said there was no truth in claims she was violent to three pupils at Dalbeath school in Bishopton, Renfrewshire.

She told Paisley Sheriff Court she never imposed corporal punishment on kids under her care in the early 1970s Questioned over allegations she hit Catherine Logan, 57, with a carpet beater, she added: “We had no carpets to beat.”

The nun was later asked about accounts of events given by her accusers. She said: “They may have gone through these experiences some time in their lives but not at Dalbeath.”

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 10 May 2013

A NUN who was headmistress at an approved school has denied assaulting any girls in her care.

Anne Kenny, 79, known as Sister Rosaria, taught and was the deputy head at Dalbeath approved school between January 1965 and July 1966 before taking on the role of headmistress.

She told Paisley Sheriff Court that was the last time she worked with young people and she resigned from the approved school system because there was due to be an administration change.

Kenny was asked about the approved school regulations the school abided by, in particular disciplining and punishment.

Defence QC Ronnie Clancy put to her that in certain circumstances corporal punishment was permitted and asked if she ever imposed it. She answered: “Never” and again added that it was “forbidden”.

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
Evening Times

A NUN accused of assaulting girls at an approved school told a court that corporal punishment was “forbidden”.

Anne Kenny, 79, known as Sister Rosaria, began giving evidence yesterday at Paisley Sheriff Court.

She told her defence QC Ronnie Clancy she joined the Good Shepherd Order in 1956 and worked in an approved school in Wales from 1959 until 1964 when she moved to Dalbeath approved school in Bishopton.

Kenny, of Manchester, and Agnes Reville, 77, of Newcastle, are on trial accused of assaulting girls at the nun-run 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.

SCOTLAND
Daily Record

A NUN who was headmistress at an approved school yesterday denied assaulting girls in her care.

Anne Kenny, 79, known as Sister Rosaria, told Paisley Sheriff Court that corporal punishment was forbidden at Dalbeath approved school and that she had never imposed it.

Kenny, who became headmistress of the school in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, in July 1966, is accused of three charges of assault dating from the 70s.

She told the court they would sometimes use detention to punish someone who was being “obstreperous” but that no physical intervention was used and the girls would have to walk themselves to the detention room.

Asked by defence QC Ronnie Clancy if there was any truth in claims made by the three alleged victims that she was violent towards them, she said: “None whatever.”

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.

NEDERLAND
Reformatorisch Dagblad

De schadevergoedingen voor misbruikslachtoffers in de Rooms–Katholieke Kerk lopen in totaal op tot boven de tien miljoen euro. Die verwachtingen sprak Wim Deetman donderdag uit op Radio 1.

Deetman is voorzitter van de commissie die onderzoek deed naar het misbruik in de kerk. Hij zei in het radioprogramma Goedemorgen Nederland dat nog niet de helft van de zaken is behandeld. In totaal is er nu al 3,7 miljoen euro uitbetaald aan slachtoffers.

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.

PUERTO RICO
Newsmax

Thursday, 09 May 2013
By Edward Pentin

Edward Pentin reporting from Rome — Pope Francis is facing what is being described as the first crisis of his papacy: a Puerto Rican archbishop who is refusing to obey numerous Vatican requests that he resign.

Archbishop of San Juan, Roberto Octavio Gonzalez Nieves, has been accused by the Vatican of an array of alleged serious offenses: protecting pedophile priests, abusing his power, promoting Puerto Rican independence from the U.S., and supporting a law that could grant same-sex couples living together hereditary rights and health benefits.

According to La Stampa, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, head of the Vatican’s department for bishops, visited Gonzalez Nieves on December 15, when the archbishop denied the allegations. In a “tense meeting,” Ouellet asked him to step down and to ask the Church for a new position elsewhere.

But Gonzalez Nieves says the accusations are politically motivated and has accused a cardinal and a former Puerto Rican governor of being behind the allegations. He has also put up a vigorous defense, writing an angry letter to Ouellet two months after their meeting that was leaked to the Puerto Rican 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.

UNITED KINGDOM
Telegraph

The former Archbishop of York has been accused of covering up allegations that a senior member of the Church of England had abused choirboys and school pupils.

By Alice Philipson 10 May 2013

Lord Hope of Thornes was told of the accusations against the Very Rev Robert Waddington, a former Dean of Manchester Cathedral who was made responsible for Church schools, in 1999 and then again in 2003.

The then archbishop did not refer the allegations to police or to child protection agencies, according to The Times.

Following the accusations, Lord Hope, who was then the second most senior bishop in the Church, revoked Waddington’s right to conduct church services and also ordered internal investigations into the alleged abuse.

However, concerns over Waddington’s state of health meant the Archbishop failed to report the case to the authorities. He now admits there “ought to have been” a report.

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
News 24

London – A former Church of England Archbishop has denied claims that he covered up allegations of child abuse against a senior clergyman, which were revealed in Friday’s Times newspaper.

David Hope, who served as Archbishop of York between 1995 and 2005, said he “strongly resisted” accusations that he withheld from police claims made by choirboys and school pupils against Robert Waddington, a former Dean of Manchester Cathedral, in order to protect the church.

According to the joint report carried out by the London Times and The Australian newspaper, Hope was told of the claims in 1999 and again in 2003.

Waddington, who died in 2007, was stripped of his right to conduct church services but the claims were not passed on to police or child protection agencies, the Times reported.

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/AUSTRALIA
BBC News

Sexual abuse complaints against a Church of England cleric were not referred to police by then Archbishop of York, David Hope, it has emerged.

The Times said the now Lord Hope was made aware of the allegations against the former Dean of Manchester, Robert Waddington, in 1999 and again in 2003.

It involved an Australian school pupil and a Manchester Cathedral choirboy.

Lord Hope insisted he acted strictly in line with child protection policy in force in the Church at the time.

Banned as priest
Allegations were put to Lord Hope in 1999 that Mr Waddington had abused a pupil several decades earlier at a school in Queensland where he was head teacher.

Then in 2003, a former choirboy at Manchester Cathedral claimed he had been abused by Mr Waddington during the 1980s.

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 Dan Cox

The head of the NSW Sex Crimes Squad has conceded alleged child sexual abuse in the Hunter Valley’s Catholic Church was not investigated with much urgency.

On day five of the special commission of inquiry’s public hearings at Newcastle Supreme Court, the commander of the NSW Police Sex Crimes Squad Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec was giving evidence.

The probe is examining claims by abuse whistleblower Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox he was directed by superiors to stop investigating the allegations of abuse by two priests in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle, James Fletcher and Denis McAlinden.

Detective Fox’s barrister, Mark Cohen, suggested police emails showed there was not much urgency among Strike Force Lantle investigators to examine the claims.

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/AUSTRALIA
The Independent (UK)

ROB WILLIAMS FRIDAY 10 MAY 2013

Sexual abuse claims against a cleric in the Church of England were not referred to police by a former Archbishop of York, David Hope, it was alleged today.

According to The Times newspaper Lord Hope of Thornes was made aware of accusations against the former Dean of Manchester, Robert Waddington, in 1999 and again in 2003.

Waddington was stripped of his right to conduct church services but Lord Hope did not report concerns to police or child protection agencies.

The allegations relating to an Australian school pupil were reportedly put to Lord Hope in 1999 and a subsequent allegation relating to a Manchester Cathedral choirboy was made in 2003. Mr Waddington, who died in 2007, denied the 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.

CALIFORNIA
Appeal-Democrat

May 09, 2013

By Rob Parsons/A-D Reporter

A Wheatland pastor pleaded not guilty on Thursday to 16 felony counts of sexual child abuse in connection with a year-long sexual relationship with a teenage girl.

If convicted on all charges, Brian Clay Gray faces up to 11 years and three months in state prison and must register as a sex offender, said Shiloh Sorbello, deputy Yuba County district attorney.

Judge Julia L. Scrogin appointed the Yuba County Public Defender’s Office to represent the minister, though Gray said he hopes to retain his own attorney.

“My sister is working on that for me,” Gray told the judge.

The 51-year-old pastor of the Anchor Baptist Church was arrested early Wednesday after his wife’s brother — a police officer in Kansas — reported the abuse to the Yuba County Sheriff’s Department.

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.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

By Kim Geiger and Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune reporters
9:17 p.m. CDT, May 9, 2013

A former parishioner at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Schaumburg sued an ex-Roman Catholic priest and the Archdiocese of Chicago in Cook County Circuit Court on Thursday, accusing the former church leader of sexual abuse.

According to the complaint, the accused, who at the time was a priest, began abusing the plaintiff in 1995, when he was 10 years old, and continued until he was 18.

The suit alleges that the man provided alcohol to the boy and on some occasions gave him $200 or $300. In late 2003 he gave $3,000 to the plaintiff, now 28, and secured a written assurance that the abuse would not be reported to law enforcement or religious authorities, according to the complaint.

In a separate case, victims advocates expressed concern Thursday that a former Chicago priest removed from ministry 20 years ago for a substantiated allegation of sexual misconduct now works as a counselor for Advocate Medical Group in Des Plaines.

Russell Romano, who served as a priest in the Chicago Archdiocese from 1973 to 1991, now reportedly works for the Illinois Professionals Health Program, a publicly funded treatment program for Illinois health care professionals.

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.

CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times

BY LEEANN SHELTON Staff Reporter May 9, 2013

Updated: May 9, 2013
A man filed suit against a former Schaumburg priest and the Archdiocese of Chicago on Thursday, claiming that priest paid him to keep quiet about eight years of sexual abuse that began when he was 10.

The anonymous plaintiff, who turns 28 on Friday, filed the suit Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court. He claims the abuse began in 1995, while he and his family attended St. Matthew Parish in Schaumburg.

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

David Batty
The Guardian, Thursday 9 May 2013

The Church of England is facing a new child protection scandal after accusations that the former archbishop of York failed to report allegations of child abuse by a senior clergyman.

Lord Hope of Thornes, the former archbishop, said he stripped the Very Rev Robert Waddington, a former dean of Manchester cathedral who was once in charge of church schools, of his right to conduct church services after allegations of child abuse against him. But Hope said he did not report the matter to the police or other child protection agencies because he deemed Waddington did not pose a further risk to children.

The extent of the allegations against Waddington have emerged in a joint investigation by the Times and the Australian newspaper that uncovered internal church files showing Hope was made aware of abuse allegations in 1999 and again in 2003. The Office of the Archbishop of York confirmed it was aware of legal action by an alleged victim. Dean died in 2007. The controversy comes after a report published earlier this month, ordered by former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, warned the church risked a ticking “time bomb” if it failed to take urgent action to prevent further incidents of child abuse.

The allegations will also add to the pressure on Williams’s successor, Justin Welby, who now faces the prospect of dealing with historic childhood sexual abuse in addition to rows about same-sex marriage and women 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/UNITED KINGDOM
The Australian

MICHAEL MCKENNA, AMANDA GEARING
From: The Australian May 10, 2013

A SINGLE document was all it took to illuminate a dark secret in the Church of England.

The two-page child protection report, unearthed by police in the archives of the diocese of Manchester, was proof, at last, that a former cathedral choirboy — alleging years of sexual abuse by one of Britain’s most senior clergyman — was not alone.

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 Australian

AMANDA GEARING AND MICHAEL MCKENNA
From: The Australian May 10, 2013

THE little Anglican boarding school of St Barnabas, in the misty mountain town of Ravenshoe, north Queensland, was allegedly a hotbed of physical and sexual abuse in the 1960s.

North Queensland Bishop Bill Ray has confirmed the diocese has few files about the school — which was closed mid-term in 1990 — with suspicions they were dumped “down a well or an old mine shaft” in the district

A history of brutal physical punishment and sexual abuse at the school dating from the 1960s is now emerging.

Headmaster Robert Waddington, who arrived at the school from England to be headmaster in 1961, dished out daily canings to many of his young students and then allegedly raped some behind closed doors in his room or the sick bay, which were next to each other.

Former St Barnabas student Bim Atkinson, now 58, and two other former students have levelled allegations against the man they called “the Wadd”.

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/UNITED KINGDOM
The Australian

MICHAEL MCKENNA, AMANDA GEARING, SEAN O’NEILL
From: The Australian May 10, 2013

A CHILD sex scandal involving victims in Australia and Britain has hit the top echelon of the Anglican Church, with allegations that some of its most senior clergymen failed to respond properly to complaints of horrific abuse.

The former archbishop of York, now Lord (David) Hope of Thornes, yesterday expressed regret over failing to report to police allegations in 1999 and 2003 about a former Queensland Anglican school principal, who rose to become the head of education for the church in Britain.

The late reverend Robert Waddington has been accused of beating and sexually abusing students during the 1960s at St Barnabas boarding school in Ravenshoe, north Queensland, and later, when he was in charge of the choir as dean of Manchester.

A joint investigation by The Australian and The Times newspaper in London has revealed that church officials, including Lord Hope, failed to report the 1999 allegations of abuse made by a former Queensland student and similar claims made in 2003 by the family of a choirboy in Manchester. The alleged victims were never told of the existence of the other 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.

UNITED KINGDOM
Scotsman

By TOM PUGH
Published on 10/05/2013

A RETIRED Church of England priest found guilty of child sex abuse offences dating back more than 25 years was yesterday jailed for 18 months.

A judge said there could be “no greater breach of trust than a man playing the role of a man of God” to use his position to abuse children, as he jailed Father Keith Wilkie Denford,.

Prosecutors said Denford, 78, who was vicar at St John the Evangelist Church in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, used the respectability of the cassock to groom and abuse two boys over an 18-month period from when they were aged around 13.

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.

WORCESTER (MA)
Telegram & Gazette

By Bronislaus B. Kush, TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
bkush@telegram.com

WORCESTER — A New Mexico man who says he was raped about 25 years ago by the Rev. David A. Holley is suing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester in federal court — charging that local church authorities knew the diocesan priest was a pedophile, but nonetheless allowed him to practice his ministry in other parts of the country.

Officials said that Rev. Holley left a long trail of molestations at churches from Central Massachusetts to the Southwest before being sentenced in 1993 to up to 275 years in prison for abusing and sodomizing eight boys in Alamogordo, N.M.

He died behind prison walls in 2008 at the age of 80.

On Monday, lawyers for Eran J. McManemy, a 35-year-old resident of New Mexico, filed suit in U.S. District Court in New Mexico alleging that church authorities in Worcester and dioceses in New Mexico, Texas and Colorado knew that Rev. Holley was molesting children but covered up his behavior and kept moving the cleric from post to post.

Raymond L. Delisle, a spokesman for the Worcester diocese, said he was unaware of the suit and could not comment.

Mr. McManemy said Rev. Holley was one of three priests who abused him while he served as an altar boy at St. Jude Parish in Alamogordo.

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
Patch

By Melissa Sersland Email the author 6:45 pm

Members of SNAP—Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests—want Russell L. Romano to be fired.

Romano, who currently lives in Bolingbrook, works as a counselor for Advocate Health Care in the Illinois Professional Heath Program in Des Plaines, according to SNAP. He is listed on the Archdiocese of Chicago website as a priest with “substantiated allegations of sexual misconduct with

Romano was ordained in 1973 and laicized in May 2009, according to the site. In July 2009, it was revealed that Romano left the church in 1991 after three boys reported abuse, according to ABC. Romano was then serving at St. Barbara’s in Brookfield. He was never formally charged with sexual abuse.

SNAP members gathered in front of the Archdiocese of Chicago on Thursday to deliver a letter to Francis Cardinal George with their concerns.

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
AL.com

[the report]

By Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com
on May 09, 2013

The U.S. Catholic Church’s annual audit of compliance with its Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People found a drop in the number of sexual abuse allegations, victims and offenders reported in 2012, according to a statement released today from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, which gathered data for the report, found “the fewest allegations and victims reported since the data collection for the annual reports began in 2004.”

Most allegations reported last year were from the 1970s and 1980s, with many of the alleged offenders already deceased or removed from ministry.

There were no new allegations of clergy sexual abuse in the Diocese of Birmingham, spokesman Frank Savage told AL.com/The Birmingham News.

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
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

[the report – U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops]

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 09, 2013

There are helpful numbers and misleading numbers. These are misleading numbers.

The sad, simple truth is that it has always taken child sex abuse victims decades to speak up, and that is not likely to change. (When was the last time you heard about a six year old walking to the DA’s office to report that her teacher is molesting her?) Catholic officials know this. Yet they disingenuously put out this self survey – of the very bishops who have concealed and enabled hundreds of thousands of heinous child sex crimse by thousands of priests – knowing it will be good public relations for them, but will recklessly lead to increased complacency by the very people who should be vigilant.

This is little more than a self congratulatory public relations effort.

And we’re troubled by this revelation on page 14 from the report of the implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People:

“The most common scope limitation encountered in the Charter audit process was the unwillingness of most dioceses and eparchies to allow us to conduct parish audits during their onsite audits.”

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
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Report on the Implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan
Archbishop of New York
President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

Preface

I am pleased to present to you the final report of the tenth consecutive annual audit of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. The annual audit continues to ascertain diocesan and eparchial compliance with the provisions of the Charter. The annual report, based as it is on the results of the audit process, is an essential component of the audit. It includes the findings of StoneBridge Business Partners and the results of the 2012 Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) Survey of Allegations and Costs.

Over the past ten years, millions of clergy, employees, and volunteers have been trained to provide safe environments for children. I acknowledge with great appreciation all those who contributed time and effort to this significant achievement. At the same time, we also renew our steadfast resolution never to lessen our common commitment to protect children and young people entrusted to our pastoral care. We seek with equal determination to promote healing and reconciliation for those harmed in the past, and to assure that our audits continue to be credible and maintain accountability in our shared promise to protect and our pledge to heal.

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
U.S. Catholic

By Elizabeth Lefebvre

It’s been an interesting week for women in the church. First, there was the back and forth between prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life Brazilian Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz and the Vatican over who knew what about the crackdown on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

Then yesterday Pope Francis gave a somewhat odd speech while addressing women religious from 75 countries who were attending a gathering of International Union of Superiors General. He urged the women religious to be fertile spiritual mothers in the church, as opposed to being old maids or spinsters. The pope said that the nuns’ vow of chastity must be “fertile” and generate “spiritual children in the church.”

So, even being an unmarried, celibate women still means that the church will define you by fertility and maternity? Continuing to define women by themes of motherhood and maternity undermines the real progress that has been made in the ways that we think about women. The church doesn’t ask priests and monks to be “manly.” Why then does it insist that women must be nurturing mothers?

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

POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON MAY 09, 2013

New Jersey attorney Greg Gianforcaro announced today that he has settled five cases against the Newark archdiocese involving a convicted Newark priest who was sent to Missouri where he assaulted more kids (after changing his name in between).

Catholic officials settle cases like these because they’re scared of trials. They know that under oath their complicity will be laid bare. They are almost always very fearful of having to face tough questions in open court.

So when Catholic officials pretend settlements are driven by “compassion” or ‘charity,” that’s baloney.

These settlements aren’t “reform.” They are just a smart business move by a prelate who knows there’s still tons of dirty secrets in his archdiocese that he wants to keep hidden.

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

The NSW Special Commission into child sexual abuse in the Hunter Valley is this morning expected to hear from the Commander of the police Sex Crimes Squad.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox has spent nearly four full days in the witness box.

His claims about being directed by his superiors to stop investigating allegations of child sexual abuse by two priests led to the Commission.

The public hearings got underway on Monday and will continue next week.

First up this morning, it is expected the inquiry will hear from Detective Superintendent John Kerlatec, who is the Commander of the NSW Police Sex Crimes Squad.

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
Maitland Mercury

By ELLE WATSON May 10, 2013

The NSW Police Force has painted whistleblower Peter Fox as a troublemaker who passed on confidential documents to journalists to undermine the sex abuse investigation he was excluded from in 2010 in the hope he could write a book about it.

Wayne Roser SC, the barrister representing several senior police, told the Commission of Inquiry Inspector Fox asked Newcastle Herald journalist Joanne McCarthy to amend a six-page report on his sexual abuse investigations before he passed it on to his superiors.

“You drafted this report and then you sent it off to your friend Ms McCarthy and asked her to amend it,” Mr Roser put to Inspector Fox who said the “vast majority” of information in the document came from the journalist.

“Ms McCarthy knew a hell of a lot more than what was in my report,” Inspector Fox 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
The Australian

DAN BOX From: The Australian May 10, 2013

A NSW detective who publicly claimed he was ordered to stop investigating child abuse within the Catholic Church co-ordinated his revelation with the ABC, Fairfax Media and a Greens MP as part of a campaign to force a royal commission.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Fox was also given the opportunity to view a transcript of part of a proposed edition of the ABC’s Lateline program, which he successfully requested not be broadcast.

In an email sent to the program’s reporter Suzanne Smith a day before the interview, Inspector Fox wrote: “We can string it out and drip feed . . . it will only give us larger coverage and a much bigger impact.

“Please don’t lose sight of our objective here for the sake of a good, quick story now.”

The part of the program Inspector Fox asked not be broadcast included a separate interview with NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge. Giving evidence yesterday to a state inquiry into the allegations he made on the program, Inspector Fox said he was also given a draft of a public statement the MP planned to make after the broadcast, which he asked him to delay.

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 – Lateline

[with video]

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Broadcast: 09/05/2013
Reporter: Jamelle Wells

Peter Fox the whistleblower who sparked the Newcastle inquiry into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in the Hunter region has been accused of undermining the strikeforce set up to investigate sexual abuse.

Transcript
TONY JONES, PRESENTER: Police whistleblower Peter Fox has been accused of undermining the police strike force set up to investigate child sexual abuse in the Hunter. The Commission of Inquiry also heard claims he’d breached a court order by tweeting information from within the hearing. Jamelle Wells reports from Newcastle.

JAMELLE WELLS, REPORTER: Detective chief inspector Peter Fox has spent four days being grilled about the police investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse by former priests Denis McAlinden and Jim Fletcher in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese, but he says he’s determined to get to the bottom of the truth.

PETER FOX, NSW POLICE: I was expecting it wouldn’t be easy and it certainly hasn’t been, but I’m prepared to endure that.

JAMELLE WELLS: Peter Fox was cross-examined by Wayne Roser, the barrister for a number of police officers appearing at the inquiry. He accused Peter Fox of breaching a suppression order by tweeting information about witnesses. Mr Roser said the tweet was another example of Peter Fox trying to undermine the strike force set up to investigate child sexual abuse allegations. “… from July, 2010 until now you’ve used every endeavour to undermine the Strikeforce Lantle?” “… I tried to assist it in every way …”.

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

POSTED BY MARK CRAWFORD ON MAY 09, 2013

Newark’s archbishop is hiring yet another defense lawyer. That’s about protecting Myers and his reputation, not about protecting kids.

Newark predator priests haven’t had more access to vulnerable youngsters because the archdiocese has too few lawyers on the payroll. These pedophiles have been around kids because of callousness and recklessness by Myers, not because of inadequate legal representation for the church hierarchy.

Motion isn’t necessarily progress. Just doing things isn’t proof of reform. If innocent Newark kids are to be safer and Newark predator priests are to be removed, it will take real leadership by Catholic officials, not more defense lawyers for Catholic officials.

Myers needs to stop hiding behind expensive professional lawyers and PR staffers. He needs to address this crisis directly and with meaningful reforms not empty promises.

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

09 MAY 2013

Moral crusaders must maintain impeccable standards or risk being outed as sanctimonious phoneys – and nothing damages a cause like hypocrisy. This is neither canon nor criminal law, but the law of common sense.

When Cardinal Sean Brady sets himself up as a moral authority, lecturing TDs on their duties as lawmakers and Catholics on their obligation to oppose abortion legislation, naturally his credentials are relevant.

In theory, his role as the Catholic Church’s Primate of All Ireland should mean his voice is an influential one in the abortion debate.

But Cardinal “I was only following orders” Brady has feet of clay: a handicap so conspicuous that it renders him unfit to sermonise on ethics.

This man is compromised irreversibly by his role in the hierarchy’s culture of silence and cover-up over clerical child abuse. He lacks credibility, which means his views – even where sincere and valid – have a currency shortfall.

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

POSTED BY JUDY JONES ON MAY 09, 2013

For decades our legal system – both civil and criminal, at the federal, state and local level – has respected the privacy rights of proven and alleged child sex abuse victims. So has neary every journalist.

But not Bishop Robert Finn. Recently, he “outed” three Kansas City men who were sexually assaulted as kids by Kansas City Catholic priests. He should be ashamed. His flock should be outraged.

Finn’s lawyers recently put in the public court file a document that reveals the identities of these three victims. The three, along with dozens of other victims, are potential witnesses in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by parents of a boy who committed suicide after having been repeatedly molested by Msgr. Thomas O’Brien, a Kansas City diocesan priest.

Finn might well soon “out” these dozens of other victims too.

Finn’s stunningly callous legal move amounts to mean-spirited “hair-splitting.” It’s mean-spirited because it hurts these three victims and scares who-knows-how-many more. It’s hair-splitting because Finn makes a silly and meaningless distinction between victims who are plaintiffs and victims who are both plaintiffs and witnesses. It’s a distinction without a difference.

This cruel move is being done to help defend Msgr. Thomas O’Brien. O’Brien is considered by many to be Missouri’s most prolific predator priest. Dozens have accused him. Dozens have sued him. Dozens have settled cases involving him. He’s been suspended from active ministry for years. Church officials are reportedly trying to defrock him.

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

NEW JERSEY
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on May 9, 2013

Within the past few weeks, the Archdiocese of Newark has settled sex abuse and cover-up lawsuits with five men who charge that they were abused by convicted Newark priest Fr. Carmine Sita.

Call me Carmine. Call me Gerald. Whatever you do, don’t call the cops.

Sita, who was convicted of child sex abuse in New Jersey in 1983, was later allowed to change his name to Fr. Jerry Howard and move to Missouri, where he continued to work as a priest with the blessing of church officials.

Howard continued to abuse in Missouri. He is currently in Missouri’s Cooper County Jail awaiting trial for sex crimes there.

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
CBS Baltimore

GLEN BURNIE, Md. (WJZ) — At least two staff members at a Glen Burnie Catholic high school are facing sex abuse allegations.

A former student at Monsignor Slade Catholic School says it happened in the mid-2000′s.

The staff members accused of abuse are suspended, but no charges have been filed.

Police also say they found marijuana and drug paraphernalia in the home of vice principal Robert Ritz, but would not confirm the search was connected to the abuse allegations.

Police responded to the school on Wednesday after receiving tips that two staff members may have had inappropriate contact with a former student.

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

CANADA
Catholic Register

Written by Fr. Raymond J. de Souza

Last week Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who resigned as archbishop of Edinburgh just before the recent conclave upon revelations of “lewd behaviour” and “drunken fumblings,” spoke for the first time since press reports led him to absent himself from the conclave. The accusations were made by Scottish priests who reported O’Brien had made advances after excessive drinking in years past. The accusations did not involve minors.

“It’s been quite a difficult time for me, quite a humbling experience for me,” Cardinal O’Brien said. “It’s very difficult for them too. That is why I have apologized for being a teacher who has not been able to live up to the teaching of the Church. We know what’s against God’s law. Consequently we should try to live by God’s law. I’ve apologized for my failures in that respect.”

Also last week, Pope Francis went to the papal basilica of St. Mary Major to pray the rosary on the first Saturday of May. Just as on his visit to St. Mary Major on the morning after his election as Pope, Francis was greeted by the cardinal archpriest of the basilica, who is now Cardinal Santos Abril y Castelló. It used to be Cardinal Bernard Law, former archbishop of Boston.

Therein lies a tale of what to do when bishops behave badly, a tale highlighted by the drama of the recent conclave.

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
The Worthy Adversary

Posted by Joelle Casteix on May 9, 2013

Too small to see the Johnson, but it’s there. Believe me, it’s there.

After more than 30 years of upsetting, insulting and disgusting Catholics, passers-by and anyone with eyes, Boner Jesus—a mural on the wall of St. Joseph’s Church in Santa Ana—has finally been covered up.

Put this one in the “tentative win” column for new Orange Bishop Kevin Vann.

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

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 09, 2013

KC bishop “outs” 3 victims, group says
In unusual move, he discloses their identities
SNAP: “Dozens more victims could suffer same fate”
As plaintiffs in child sex cases, their privacy is guaranteed
But Finn’s lawyers release their names when they are witnesses
Defense maneuver comes in parent’s wrongful death suicide suit
Accused predator priest is Missouri’s “most notorious” abusive cleric, SNAP says

What:
Holding signs and childhood photos, leaders of a clergy sex abuse victims support group will announce that Kansas City’s bishop

–has disclosed the names of three KC adults who filed child sex abuse and cover up lawsuits as “John Does” and
–may do also violate the privacy of dozens of other alleged victims.

They will discuss a new court filing that’s designed to stop what they call “this mean-spirited and intimidating legal defense maneuver” and prod local Catholics to

–donate elsewhere until Kansas City Catholic officials “stop the legal hardball” and
–share what they know about clergy sex crimes with police and prosecutors “so that kids will be safer.”

When:
TODAY, Thursday, May 9, at 1:00 p.m.

Where:
Outside the Kansas City diocesan headquarters, 20 West Ninth Street (at Baltimore) in Kansas City, MO

Who:
Three adults including a Kansas City abuse victim who belongs to a self help group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including a St. Louis woman who is the organization’s Associate Midwest Director

Why:
At least three alleged clergy sex abuse victims’ privacy has been violated, SNAP contends, because defense lawyers for Kansas City Catholic officials have put their names in court filings that are open to the public. Dozens more who have taken legal action against local predator priests may soon suffer the same fate, SNAP says.

The three filed civil lawsuits against Bishop Finn and the diocese as “John Does” to protect themselves and their loved ones, SNAP says, and won court orders guaranteeing their confidentiality.

But now Finn’s lawyers are making their names available to the public. They claim that court “protective orders” for victims only cover those victims in their own litigation, not if they are possible witnesses in other clergy sex abuse and cover up 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.

NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY DAVID CLOHESSY ON MAY 09, 2013

NY Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s PR man is lying. He claims that Dolan is powerless to do anything about embattled Newark Archbishop John Myers.

That’s wrong and he knows it.

Dolan heads the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. As the group’s title suggests, it’s a US organization. As the group’s president, Dolan could easily

–kick Myers out,
–suspend Myers’ membership,
— forbid Myers to attend meetings, or
— deny Myers committee assignments.

Dolan needs no “OK” from any Catholic official in Rome or Washington to do this. He’s the president of the group (and the most powerful and visible Catholic official in America.)

What’s more, Dolan has more resources and a bigger bully pulpit than any other US Catholic official. He’s not shy about using either to make pronouncements about how millions should behave. But he refuses to use either to call out reckless, deceitful or callous actions by other Catholic employees who endanger children.

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
BBC News

A retired Church of England priest who abused teenage boys has been jailed for 18 months at Hove Crown Court.

Father Keith Wilkie Denford, 78, of Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, was found guilty at an earlier hearing of indecently assaulting two teenage boys.

Church organist Michael Mytton, 69, of East Chiltington, East Sussex, was given a suspended nine-month jail term for indecently assaulting a third boy,

He was made subject to a sex offender programme and two years’ supervision.

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 Argus

By Ben James

A former priest who used the respectability of the cassock to groom and abuse two boys has been jailed.

Keith Wilkie Denford, 78, abused the pair over an 18-month period from when they were aged around 13.

Jailing him at Hove Crown Court, Judge Paul Tain, said that there could be “No greater breach of trust than a man playing the role of a man of God”.

The jury at the two week trial heard that Denford, of Broad Reach Mews, Shoreham, was the vicar at St John the Evangelist Church in Burgess Hill in the 1980s.

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
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

POSTED BY BARBARA DORRIS ON MAY 09, 2013

Our hearts ache for parents at this school who must be upset about the child sex allegations and the vague way school officials are dealing with them. Parents and the public need and deserve straight answers about possible child sex crimes. It’s disturbing to see Catholic officials leaving families in the dark about such serious matters.

We hope that every person who may have seen or suspected or suffered any misdeeds by this teacher will call police immediately. We also hope that Baltimore’s Catholic archbishop will use his vast resources to aggressively seek out any victims, witnesses and whistleblowers who may have information or suspicions about this teacher, so he might be effectively prosecuted and kept away from kids.

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
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Mr. James H. Skogsbergh
President and Chief Executive Officer
Advocate Health Care
2025 Windsor Drive
Oak Brook, Il 60523

Dear Mr. Skogsbergh:

On behalf of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), we are writing to you about the employment of Russell L. Romano. He is a counselor for Advocate Health Care in the Illinois Professional Health Program (IPHP) at your Des Plaines location.

Mr. Romano is a former priest who was determined by the Archdiocese of Chicago to be a perpetrator of sexual abuse of minors. SNAP has learned that both the Archdiocese of Chicago and Advocate Health Care were made aware of this grave situation and we are sadden a known pedophile has been allowed to continue to be employed by Advocate.

We are asking you to immediately terminate his employment; investigate the circumstances that allowed him to be hired; and determine why he remained employed once Advocate learned of his past.

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
Special Commission of Inquiry

Wednesday, 8 May 2013: Transcript – Day 3 [PDF, 867kb]

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

Jamie Manson | May. 9, 2013 Grace on the Margins

The more something changes, the more it stays the same. It’s a cliché, yes, but it seems to be an increasingly apt one to apply to the situation between women religious and the Vatican.
For those watching the situation unfold since April 2012, when the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith mandated that the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) be reformed by three U.S. bishops, this week promised to offer some explanations about where the new pope stands on the issue. Pope Francis even met with members of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), a group of nearly 2,000 leaders of women religious throughout the world who have been meeting in Rome all week.

There have been high hopes for Pope Francis among those left spiritually bruised by the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI. Francis paid his own hotel bill after the conclave, took the bus with the rest of the bishops, refused to move into the papal apartment, claimed to want a “poor church,” and celebrated Holy Thursday at a juvenile detention facility where he washed the feet of 10 men and two women.

But a month after his election, a fly got caught in the balm Francis was pouring over the church’s body. LCWR leaders were informed in a meeting with the doctrinal congregation’s lead cleric, Archbishop Gerhard Müller, that the new pope had reaffirmed the mandated reform of the their organization.

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
National Survivor Advocates Coalition

The National Survivor Advocates Coalition (NSAC) salutes the hard but profoundly successful work of Minnesota survivors and supporters to protect children through the passage of a bill in the state Senate yesterday that will, if signed by the Governor, eliminate the statute of limitations on sexual abuse going forward. The Minnesota House recently passed the measure and the same hard work by survivors and supporters took place before the House vote. If a conference committee is not required, it will move directly to Governor Mark Dayton. It is expected that he will sign the measure.

The legislation also provides for a three year window for those for whom the previous limiting statute had passed. We are pleased that they will have an opportunity for justice.

Minnesotans have been at work on this legislation for 13 years. We are particularly and extremely proud of our own Bob Schwiderski, a founding member of NSAC and a SNAP leader, for his dedicated and preserving noble work in this effort to build a coalition of supporters that crossed religious and political boundaries coming together to protect children.

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
Newcastle Herald

By JASON GORDON May 9, 2013

A KEY senior figure within the Catholic diocese of Maitland-Newcastle has warned ‘‘bitter truths are coming’’ for the Church which must continue to work towards healing victims of abuse.

Father Brian Mascord, the diocese’s vicar-general, has distributed a statement to churches and their congregations regarding the Special Commission of Inquiry into the handling of child sex abuse allegations by Newcastle police and the Catholic Church.

‘‘It is possible that allegations of cover-ups and conspiracy may be made against priests and members of the laity [during the inquiry],’’ Father Mascord said.

‘‘Please do not rush to judgment.

‘‘We believe there will be some bitter truths coming. Many of these truths are already known, others may come as fresh revelations, and again be of great concern for all of us.

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
Huffington Post

Michael D’Antonio

Often lost in the shadow of the Archdiocese of New York, and its larger-than-life cardinal, Timothy Dolan, the Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., is attracting national attention these days for all the wrong reasons. It is now the site of one of the more pathetic episodes in official Catholicism’s sex abuse scandal, a case so badly mishandled that it reveals, by example, why the hierarchy can’t seem to ends its long running crisis.

As reported by the state’s largest newspaper, the Star-Ledger of Newark, the case began with a 13-year-old boy’s complaint that he had been sexually abused by the Rev. Michael Fugee in 2001. Father Fugee confessed, then recanted, and was subsequently convicted of aggravated criminal sexual contact. This verdict was overturned in 2007 by an appellate court that found the jury had not been properly instructed by the trial judge. To avoid a retrial, Fugee and archdiocese officials signed an agreement with prosecutors that required he never again minister “to any minor/child under the age of 18 or work in any position in which children are involved.”

The world may have never again heard the name Michael Fugee if his superiors hadn’t allowed him to return to ministry where he regularly worked with minors. He heard their confessions and traveled overnight with groups of children and youth ministers from a parish in the town of Colts Neck, which is actually in the neighboring diocese of Trenton. A priest friend also invited him to work at a parish within the archdiocese of Newark where, according to reports, he also violated the terms of his agreement with prosecutors by acting as a priest with children.

What is remarkable about the Fugee case is not the fact of a man violating the terms of an agreement with criminal authorities, although this is egregious. More troubling is the lack of supervision by Fugee’s archbishop John J. Myers and the church’s official reaction to the Star-Ledger’s reporting. At first church authorities challenged the accuracy of the reports. Then they claimed Fugee had actually been closely supervised. Both positions have seen been reversed.

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.