Documenting the Catholic Sexual Abuse and Financial Crisis – Data on bishops, priests, brothers, nuns, Pope Francis, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Friday, September 18, 2026
ABUSE TRACKER
A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking “Read original article.” For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.
Note to Our Readers: We are doing routine system maintenance. During this week, the Abuse Tracker entries for July 20 through August 7 will be temporarily off-line. When maintenance is complete, those weeks will be restored. Thank you!
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last month in Bostock v. Clayton County gave advocates for LGBTQ rights a reason other than Pride to celebrate. In a 6-3 decision written by President Donald Trump’s first Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, the court held that “an employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender violates Title VII.” Gay and transgender people can now sue under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act if they suffer adverse employment actions based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Much of the commentary after the decision followed a familiar script: religious conservatives lamented that Republican-appointed judges had yet again betrayed the cause; progressives welcomed a rare Trump-era victory; major corporations signaled their approval. Reactions in the Catholic press were similarly unsurprising, and sometimes seemed to be not only about the legal merits of the majority opinion, but also a referendum on Church teachings about sexuality and gender.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A recently released report into the sexual abuse and cover-up by a former Springfield bishop has had serious ripple effects at the diocesan level. Once again, this report and any acrimony that arises from it is further proves to us that diocesan review boards are ripe for corruption and bias. The only proper investigatory authority is an unbiased secular agency, such as the District Attorney, the Attorney General, or an impaneled Grand Jury.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Media commentary surrounding the Australian High Court appears to have surged in 2020. Controversial decisions such as the Indigenous “aliens” case and overturned Pell conviction provoked fiery responses from commentators on all sides of politics, as well as damning chatter among the Australian public. Almost everyone has two cents to throw in. But what impact does this have on the esteem of our highest court?
Most legal professionals have had a turbulent year in 2020. The seven-judge bench of the Australian High Court is no exception. In February, the court had to decide whether Aboriginal Australians could be deported as “aliens” under the Constitution. Barely two months later, it grappled with the high-profile conviction of Australia’s highest catholic, Cardinal George Pell, for historic child sex abuse. And in recent months, it faced twin challenges to the constitutional validity of closing Queensland and Western Australian borders amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
It has been hard to ignore the media firestorms that these decisions ignited.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
– Cardinal George Pell revealed he was spat on and verbally abuse by inmates
– Pell, 78 said he almost gave up appealing his conviction in the High Court
– The cardinal was released from jail in April after convictions were quashed
– Pell was convicted in December 2018 of five charges of child sexual abuse
Cardinal George Pell says he was spat on and abused while in jail for alleged child sex offences and almost abandoned his appeal until a prison boss urged him not to give up.
Pell has opened up for the first time about his 405 days behind bars during which he says he received the disdain of even murderers.
Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic was convicted in December 2018 of five charges of child sexual abuse relating to allegations he raped a 13-year-old choirboy and molested another at St Patrick’s Cathedral in 1996.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A day after a court in Kerala’s Kottayam issued a non-bailable warrant against Jalandhar’s former Catholic bishop Franco Mulakkal, accused of sexually assaulting a nun between 2014 and 2016, for failing to appear before it, it was told that he has tested Covid positive on Tuesday.
The case at the court was posted on July 1, but Mulakkal, presently based in Jalandhar, failed to appear. The explanation given was his lawyer there tested positive, and since Mulakkal had visited the lawyer, he was asked to go for 14 days isolation.
It was on Tuesday that Mulakkal turned positive.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A new First Things essay by the former prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy contains a number of interesting reflections on both life in prison and Cardinal Pell’s spiritual life.
First Things has posted an essay, simply titled “My Time in Prison”, by Cardinal George Pell. It contains a number of interesting reflections on both life in prison and Cardinal Pell’s spiritual life, beginning with the observation that “I was fortunate to be kept safe and treated well. I was impressed by the professionalism of the warders, the faith of the prisoners, and the existence of a moral sense even in the darkest places.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Last year, 43-year-old James Hook was found in the back of a car, underneath a blanket, with a 15-year-old girl. The description of what happened made it clear he had sexually assaulted her. Separate from that, he had given her a ring symbolizing who-knows-what about their “relationship.” He was eventually sentenced to six months in jail followed by 4.5 years of probation.
All of that is disturbing enough. Now here’s the additional twist: Hook worked at Bellevue Baptist Church, one of the largest churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, as a paid volunteer coordinator. The 15-year-old girl was one of the volunteers.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
The church is facing a lawsuit after a former employee was found sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl
The 16-year-old victim’s attorney, Gary K. Smith, said the church did nothing to stop its former employee, James Hook, from abusing the girl in 2019. He said the lawsuit is to hold Bellevue Baptist Church accountable for not protecting the teenage girl.
Smith said the organization was negligent in this case because it was warned of Hook and told not to let him near children and especially the victim, referred to as “Janet Doe.” Doe was also a volunteer at the church and frequently worked with Hook.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Two recent incidents shocked the Catholic Church in Indonesia’s eastern islands of Timor and Lembata, both in East Nusa Tenggara province.
In the Timor case, police on July 3 arrested Felix Nesi, a lay activist and fiction writer, reportedly for property destruction at Bitauni Presbytery. Nesi was angry that a priest, allegedly involved in sexual misconduct with a woman in his previous parish, was moved to a vocational school where there are many female students. He was worried that the girls at the school might become sexual victims of the priest. Nesi was a member of the local community of Bitauni.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Prosecutors have reduced charges against an Amish bishop accused of not notifying law enforcement about a church member’s alleged confession in the sexual assault of three girls.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Lancaster County prosecutors on Monday reduced a felony charge against 63-year-old Levi Esh Sr. to a misdemeanor. He now faces two misdemeanor counts.
Pequea Township police earlier alleged that Esh failed to report the church member’s confession about sexual assaults that occurred around 2012 and 2013. They cited witnesses within the Amish community who said that while Esh’s church excommunicated the member, he had the matter “handled internally” in order to keep it quiet.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
WASHINGTON D.C.
Catholic News Service via Catholic Philly
July 13, 2020
By Julie Asher
The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ domestic policy committee said the federal emergency “bridge loans” that dioceses, parishes and other Catholic entities applied for provided a lifeline, allowing “our essential ministries to continue to function in a time of national emergency.”
“The Catholic Church is the largest nongovernmental supplier of social services in the United States,” said Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City. “Each year, our parishes, schools and ministries serve millions of people in need, regardless of race, ethnicity or religion.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A retired Lansing police captain is overseeing a newly created Criminal Investigations Division in the state Attorney General’s Office.
Thomas Fabus retired in March after more than 24 years with the Lansing force. He took over in April as chief of investigations for Attorney General Dana Nessel.
Nessel said she’s realigned her office so that special agents work out of a single division responsible for investigating a broad range of matters, including clergy abuse, cold-case homicides, consumer protection, officer-involved shootings and child support issues.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A media report on sexual abuse in the Catholic schools of Fiji has caused “great shame,” according to the Pacific island state’s archbishop.
Television New Zealand’s 1 News spoke to several Fijians who said they were abused and raped as children by New Zealand and Australian priests, brothers and teachers working in Fiji’s Catholic schools.
“As head of the Fiji Catholic Church, I feel ashamed with the behavior of our church personnel. I feel angry. There is a heaviness in my heart yesterday and today,” said Archbishop Peter Loy Chong of Suva in a July 13 statement.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
The coronavirus pandemic brought out the best in some people. New Yorkers who, in desperate times, worked with and for those in need – even as many were under incredible stress themselves. But not everybody stepped up – in fact, some players across the New York political sphere seemed to step down. We’re calling them the Zeroes.
Glenn Nussdorf
The CEO of Quality King Distributors on Long Island probably thought he could make a quick buck by doubling the price of Lysol disinfectant during the pandemic. But the attorney general called his “profiteering” “appalling” and sued him for price gouging.
Elon Musk
The tech exec talked a big game about manufacturing ventilators when New York was in dire need. That was more flash than substance, and he just ended up donating some BiPAPs, medical machines that weren’t as helpful.
Yaron Oren-Pines
This Silicon Valley mini-Musk talked New York into giving him $69 million to procure ventilators. But Oren-Pines didn’t have any experience, and when he couldn’t deliver, the state had to claw back the money.
Randy Garutti
Americans can debate who should be getting federal Paycheck Protection Program loans, but everyone seemed to agree the massively popular, well-funded Shake Shack should not. After hearing the backlash, its New York-based CEO returned the money.
Edward Scharfenberger
Despite filing for bankruptcy in response to more than 250 lawsuits accusing the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo of being complicit in sexual abuse, the bishop leading it applied for a federal PPP loan. So the diocese didn’t get much sympathy when the loan was denied.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
BACK in 2015, a lawsuit was launched against New York priest Rev Peter Miqueli that alleged he’d stolen nearly $1 million to pay a male prostitute for kinky S& M sex and buy a house in Ocean County. This led to a flurry of lurid headlines and photos linking him with a rent boy named Keith Crist.
Now it’s being reported that Miqueli, 57, who resigned in 2015 as pastor of St Frances de Chantal parish in Throggs Neck, was found dead at his home last week.
Two years after the lawsuit was launched by 14 St Francis parishioners, an investigation by the church found no evidence of him having stolen that amount, and no action was taken by the 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.
On June 30, Father Manuel Cociña, a Spaniard, became the first priest belonging to the personal prelature of Opus Dei to be found guilty and sentenced by the Vatican of sexual abuse. He has 15 days to appeal, though sources have told Crux he’s not planning on doing so since appeals usually end worse for those found guilty.
Cociña, 72, was found guilty of molesting one young man, who was 18 when the abuse began in 2002. He’s been sentenced to five years of suspended ministry. He’ll have to spend the time in prayer in the residence where he lives, and after that, when he’s allowed back to ministry, he won’t be able to have contact with people under 30.
His victim was an Opus Dei member at the time of the abuse. Today he lives in Chile, is married, and remains a Mass-going Catholic. He spoke first with a Spanish news outlet and then with Crux, not out of “animosity towards the Church, nor the Work,” he said on Wednesday, using the colloquial term for Opus Dei, which is Latin for “Work of God.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
[“The priest Gabriel Ghilardini violated my trust and abused me”]
JUNIN, BUENOS AIRES (ARGENTINA)
Diario Junin
July 12, 2020
Eugenia Castagnaro, una joven de 32 años denunció por abuso sexual agravado consumado a Gabriel Ghilardini, cura de Florentino Ameghino que actualmente sigue en contacto con menores de edad.
[GOOGLE TRANSLATION: Eugenia Castagnaro, a 32-year-old girl, denounced Gabriel Ghilardini, a priest of Florentino Ameghino who is currently in contact with minors, for consummate aggravated sexual abuse.]
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
[Santa Fe: Accused archbishops justify concentration of reports of sexual abuse in the Church]
SANTA FE (ARGENTINA)
El Ciudadano
July 10, 2020
Usurpación de la Justicia: El Arzobispado de Rosario no tardó en salir al cruce de la demanda presentada por el letrado Carlos Ensinck. “La implementación del sistema responde a lo dispuesto por el Papa Francisco”, argumentó el monseñor Martín. Desde la capital provincial también se pronunció al respecto el arzobispo Fenoy.
[GOOGLE TRANSLATION: Usurpation of Justice: The Archbishopric of Rosario did not take long to counter the demand presented by the lawyer Carlos Ensinck. “The implementation of the system responds to the provisions of Pope Francis,” argued Monsignor Martín. Archbishop Fenoy also spoke in this regard from the provincial capital.]
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A few months back I wrote about my experience meeting Archbishop Nelson Perez as a survivor and the area representative of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests). In the commentary I also wrote about my shortcomings and having served a period of incarceration in Bucks County for an offense against the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
If someone had told me 10 years ago that one day I would be sitting in the same Court of Common Pleas to watch one of my abusers being sentenced, I would have had a laugh. Incredibly, that is exactly what happened.
Francis X. Trauger, 75, had been removed from active ministry in 2003, laicized in 2005 following allegations of sexual abuse of minors. Charges of indecent assault and corruption of minors in Bucks County were brought in September 2019 and this past week Trauger was sentenced to prison.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A report commissioned by San Jose’s Presentation High School revealed a pattern of sexual abuse and misconduct spanning four decades.
Several teachers named in a sexual abuse report at an elite South Bay Catholic high school have continued to work as educators in the Bay Area, The San Jose Mercury News reports.
The Mercury News report names three former Presentation High School instructors who have worked or currently work as educators in the Bay Area listed in a report commissioned by the school alleging a pattern of abuse spanning four decades.
Former Presentation teachers Dave Garbo, Jeff House and Kris White are named in a probe the school commissioned a Sacramento law firm to conduct.
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The Newark Archdiocese on Monday was slapped with nine new lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by seven clerics, including one who has never before been publicly accused, NorthJersey.com reports.
The suits were filed under a new law that expands the limitation period for claims by adults sexually abused while minors, and went into effect Dec. 1, 2019.
Included in the new set of lawsuits is Peter Russell, who has not been named in any suits up until now, NorthJersey.com says. He is accused of abusing a boy while stationed at St. Joseph’s Regional High School in Montvale, in the 1980s. That suit also accuses Brother John Dagwell of abuse at the school.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Nine lawsuits were filed against the Newark Archdiocese on Monday alleging sexual abuse by seven clerics , including one man who belongs to a religious order and who has never before been publicly accused.
In some other cases, the accusations brought out new information about priests who have been listed as credibly accused by church officials.
Kenneth Martin, a former Bayonne priest, was accused in court papers of abusing a boy from 1981 to 1984. The alleged abuse took place at about the same time another survivor has said he told priests and church officials about being abused by Martin, who remained in ministry until 2002 — when he was removed amid a national sex scandal in the church.
Mark Crawford, the head of the New Jersey chapter of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, said he went to church officials about Martin in the early 1980s and received a settlement from the archdiocese in the mid-1990s. He said his brother also was abused by Martin.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Elders at Menlo Church in Menlo Park, California, have launched a “supplemental independent investigation” into concerns raised about the circumstances under which a volunteer, revealed as the pastor’s son, was allowed to work with children despite confessing to having an attraction to minors.
“While many of you know that the Board took immediate action upon learning of these concerns, we understand our initial investigation could have gone further and included specific expertise in child safety and sex abuse issues, and it could have been informed by conversations with a wider group of people,” the elders said in a statement to the 4,000-member congregation on Saturday. “Based on the feedback we’ve received, we are initiating a supplemental independent investigation into concerns raised about the volunteer.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
Can we separate the art from the artist? This is one of the questions raised by the removal of seven songs by Catholic composer David Haas from the forthcoming Voices Together hymnal. Haas is credibly accused of sexual misconduct, which he denies.
The question brings to mind a similar one that some Mennonites have thought carefully about: Can we separate the theology from the theologian? This question is asked about John Howard Yoder, whose sexual abuse of women contradicted his identity as the leading Mennonite ethicist of the 20th century.
These questions have two answers: 1) Yes, some people can separate them; and 2) Those who decide about publishing the works should not separate them.
The first answer recognizes every person’s freedom to decide whether an artist’s or writer’s personal life matters. The words and music themselves contain whatever value anyone finds in them. Most worshipers don’t know or care about the source of a song. The reader of a theology book knows the author’s name but might not be interested in the author’s life.
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Faced with empty churches and an unprecedented drop in weekly donations, all five of New Jersey’s Catholic dioceses used a special exemption to apply for taxpayer-funded loans through a federal program designed to help keep small businesses afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Archdiocese of Newark and the dioceses of Metuchen, Paterson, Trenton and Camden received loans through the federal Paycheck Protection Program to help pay employees in their parishes, schools and administrative offices, church officials told NJ Advance Media.
Spokespeople for the five dioceses did not respond when asked how much of the taxpayer-backed aid they have received so far, but said the help was sorely needed.
The Associated Press reported Friday that the U.S. Catholic Church has received between $1.4 billion and $3.5 billion in federal coronavirus aid with millions going to dioceses that recently filed for bankruptcy protection or paid large settlements related to the clergy sexual abuse allegations.
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A Macomb County Sheriff’s detective’s claim that a suspended Detroit Catholic priest sexually assaulted an altar boy when he served in Mount Clemens decades ago has been determined to be false and defamatory, according to a court-advisory panel.
A three-person case evaluation panel Friday recommended that $125,000 be awarded to the Rev. Eduard Perrone for Detective Sgt. Nancy LePage’s false report to the Archdiocese of Detroit that Perrone sodomized the boy between 1978 and 1981 while associate pastor for St. Peter Parish in Mount Clemens.
The Archdiocese in July 2019 suspended Perrone with pay from his duties at Assumption Grotto Church on Gratiot Avenue in Detroit, where he served for 25 years. The organization issued a news release announcing the suspension.
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The Kottayam Additional District Court Monday cancelled the bail of rape-accused Catholic Bishop Franco Mulakkal after he failed to appear on numerous occasions before the court despite several warnings.
The Kottayam Additional District Court Monday cancelled the bail of rape-accused Catholic Bishop Franco Mulakkal after he failed to appear on numerous occasions before the court despite several warnings. The court proceeded to issue a non-bailable arrest warrant against him.
When the case came up for hearing today, the Bishop, through his counsel, informed the court that he would not be able to appear in person as he was on the primary contact list of a person who tested positive for coronavirus in Jalandhar in Punjab where he is currently based. Mulakkal is the former Bishop of the Jalandhar diocese of the Catholic Church.
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Head of the Catholic Church of Fiji is yet to comment on claims of any sexual abuse cases against children within the Catholic Church.
TV 1 News in New Zealand had last night reported that it investigated claims of historic sexual abuse against children in Fiji within the church.
The Media outlet claimed to have spoken to Fijian victims who are alleged to have suffered at the hands of catholic priests, brothers and teachers.
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Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) abuse are demanding an audit be performed on the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
The call for an audit has been triggered by reports the Church received money from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program.
“The Catholic Church is not a small business. It’s an enormous conglomeration,” says Kevin Bourgeois, licensed social worker and member of SNAP. “I don’t think it’s fair that they received these funds through a loophole. I think that we deserve to know since it was our taxpayer funds that were funneled to the church. I’m calling for an audit and an accounting of where every nickel of that money went.”
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Un reciente informe del diario peruano La República denuncia una presunta red de acoso y abusos sexuales de sacerdotes contra diversos jóvenes y seminaristas, así como el supuesto encubrimiento y negligencia de obispos, entre ellos el Arzobispo de Trujillo y presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal Peruana (CEP) y del Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano (CELAM), Mons. Héctor Miguel Cabrejos Vidarte.
Si bien el informe hace equivocadamente referencia a casos de “pederastia” -el abuso sexual específico de niños-, el centenar de denuncias se refieren a adolescentes y jóvenes –efebofilia-, que señalan a una docena de sacerdotes de la Arquidiócesis de Trujillo y de una de sus sufragáneas, la Prelatura de Huamachuco, en el norte del Perú.
Según la investigación, fue un grupo de sacerdotes que acogió las denuncias y las llevó ante las autoridades eclesiásticas y civiles, y ahora ante la prensa local. Sin embargo, de acuerdo al informe, los denunciantes fueron sancionados por la jerarquía eclesial.
Los supuestos abusos se remontan a la década de 1990, pero otras denuncias fueron presentadas en 2005, 2010 y 2015.
En una carta remitida en julio de 2010, una presunta víctima denunció ante el entonces Prelado de Huamachuco, Mons. Sebastián Ramis Torrens, que durante una reunión en la que bebieron alcohol “el Padre Marco Antonio Tito Valle me besó, abrazó y llevándome a su habitación realizando las mismas actitudes frente a mi persona”. El joven huyó a su habitación y se encerró: “puse cadena para que no pudiera ingresar a pesar que tocó y tocó con insistencia”.
De acuerdo a La República, una investigación encomendada por la Prelatura de Huamachuco concluyó que el P. Tito Valle no habría cometido delito, porque el joven no era menor de edad, así que no presentaron la denuncia ante las autoridades civiles.
En 2016, Mons. Ramis Torrens reincorporó al P. Tito Valle a su parroquia.
En 2015, el P. Manuel Mendoza Ruiz, entonces secretario de Cancillería de la Prelatura de Huamachuco, fue acusado de tocar los genitales de un adolescente de 15 años.
Según recoge La República, el joven recordó que durante un viaje, en el marco de un retiro espiritual, “me desperté porque el padre estaba metiendo su mano debajo de mi pantalón. Yo lo primero que hice fue moverme para que retirara su mano. Él se sobresaltó y me pidió perdón. La segunda vez me volví a despertar porque él volvía a intentar meter sus manos. Dijo: ‘perdón, hijo, te desperté’. Asumí que no era un accidente y simplemente no pude dormir”.
De acuerdo al diario peruano, otra de las denuncias, de un sujeto identificado como “Andrés”, hoy de 39 años, apunta a que entre 1996 y 1998, los sacerdotes Tulio Montenegro, Emeterio Castañeda, Segundo Fernández, William Costa y Ricardo Angulo habrían organizado o participado “de fiestas, los fines de semana por las noches, en distintas parroquias de Trujillo y en la casona de un ciudadano llamado Daniel Hoyle –ya fallecido–, donde tenían sexo con menores de edad a cambio de dinero”.
El P. Esteban Desposorio Fernández, uno de los principales denunciantes de los presuntos abusos y encubrimiento, dijo a La República que “son muchas víctimas que nos han contado cosas horribles de muchos, mal llamados, sacerdotes. Tanto de Huamachuco como de Trujillo”.
“No me importa si me botan de la Iglesia. Lo que quiero es que todo esto se sepa”, señaló.
Las acusaciones incluyen supuestas fiestas sexuales organizadas por sacerdotes de Huamachuco y Trujillo junto a menores de edad, a quienes se les habría pagado entre 6 y 10 dólares por tener relaciones.
Consultada por ACI Prensa, la Prelatura de Huamachuco señaló que está trabajando en un comunicado que podría hacerse público en las próximas horas.
Kurth Mendoza, jefe de Prensa y Comunicaciones de la Conferencia Episcopal Peruana (CEP) dijo a ACI Prensa que no tiene información sobre un posible pronunciamiento por el momento.
La Arquidiócesis de Trujillo aseguró el 12 de julio en un comunicado que “siempre ha actuado de manera inmediata” ante denuncias de abusos, y aseguró que desde que Mons. Cabrejos Vidarte “ha llegado al Arzobispado de Trujillo en septiembre de 1999, no ha recibido ninguna denuncia concreta”.
Además, señaló que las denuncias de abusos presuntamente cometidos por dos sacerdotes de la Arquidiócesis de Trujillo “habrían sucedido en la década del 90 siendo Arzobispo de Trujillo Mons. Manuel Prado Pérez-Rosas, SJ, de los cuales no existe ningún informe sobre el particular”.
Además, “en junio del 2017 la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe con sede en Roma, órgano competente para atender este tipo de casos, nos hizo saber que había cerrado el caso de ambos sacerdotes de Trujillo”.
En el caso del P. Ricardo Angulo Bazauri, que fue Vicario General de Mons. Cabrejos Vidarte y a quien en el informe de La República se le señala como uno de los supuestos participantes en fiestas en las que se habría prostituido a menores, se asegura que no se ha recibido “denuncia de ningún tipo, y no ha sido denunciado ni en lo civil ni en lo canónico”.
Por ley, en Perú las Cajas Municipales de Ahorro y Crédito tienen que incluir en su directorio un representante del clero, designado por la diócesis local.
A pesar de las explicaciones publicadas el 12 de julio, el informe de La República asegura que el Arzobispo de Trujillo no respondió las consultas realizadas por una comisión del Congreso del Perú que investigó en 2018 denuncias de abusos sexuales en el país.
Sobre el caso del P. Angulo Bazauri, La República indicó que un representante del Arzobispado de Trujillo “se comprometió a entregarnos ‘todo lo que tenemos’, pero hasta el cierre de esta investigación no había entregado un solo documento”.
Los denunciantes destacaron ante la prensa peruana el apoyo que han recibido de parte del Nuncio Apostólico en el Perú, Mons. Nicola Girasoli, y aseguraron que seguirán buscando justicia, porque “esto es algo que debe terminar de una vez”.
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A Special Prosecutor today deposed before the court that the Jalandhar Civil Lines, where he lives, is not listed as a containment zone.
Kottayam: Rape accused Bishop Franco Mulakkal’s bail has been canceled by Kottayam
Additional District Court and a no-bail arrest warrant has been issued against him. The Bishop was not present for the hearing today; his counsel stated that be had to go into quarantine as one of his lawyers had tested coronavirus positive.
However, on July 1 also, the Bishop had skipped the hearing, with his counsel telling the court that he was stuck in a containment zone.
However, the Public Prosecutor today argued that the Bishop’s house and the area around it in Punjab was not listed as containment zone and that his no-show is a deliberate attempt to prolong the case.
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Cardinal George Pell has revealed he was spat on and abused by fellow prisoners while serving time in jail for historical child sex offences and that, in his darkest hours, he contemplated abandoning his fight to clear his name.
Opening up about his time behind bars, Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic also said the fact he was despised by many of his fellow inmates for being a convicted child sex offender actually helped restore his faith in the natural “existence of right and wrong”.
“All of us are tempted to despise those we define as worse than ourselves,” he said. “Even murderers share in the disdain toward those who violate the young.
“However ironic, this disdain is not all bad, as it expresses a belief in the existence of right and wrong, good and evil.”
Cardinal Pell was sentenced to six years in prison in March 2019 after being found guilty of sexually abusing two 13-year-old choir boys at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in the 1990s.
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The operators of Archbishop Walsh High School in Olean thought they had a deal last December with the Buffalo Diocese to pay $150,000 for the building where the high school has been located since 1959.
But a committee that represents survivors of childhood sex abuse is saying not so fast.
The deal that would have transferred title for the two-story, 55,000-square-foot on North 24th Street to the high school’s foundation immediately was put on hold when the diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Feb. 28.
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These siblings were ordained priests on the same day, but what drives two young men to give their lives over in service to God and the Catholic Church in 2020? I asked the two young men from Mobile, Alabama.
Why have you committed to a life of celibacy, obedience and service?
Fr Connor:
I’d be crazy if I said I haven’t weighed issues including sexual abuse, long hours and loneliness in discernment, but at the same time, in the midst of so much turmoil and very few worldly compensations, the Holy Spirit is the only answer. The Holy Spirit calling me to be a priest is it. But that’s not the whole story. The reason I answered the call to priesthood is because I know I am called to it, which means, I know that I will have the greatest amount of joy, peace and meaning in my life by being a priest. This is my vocation. This is how God is calling me to follow Him.
Fr Peyton:
I think what drives a man to pursue priesthood in this day and age is quite simply the impulse I believe to be at the heart of every man, which is the impulse to fight and even die for something valuable. Everyone wants to spend themselves for the sake of a greater goal. Fathers sacrifice daily for their families, soldiers die for their countries, and even athletes train tirelessly for excellence. For me, all of the inconveniences and pains of priesthood are simply the cost of uniting myself to Christ on the cross, the suffering by which the whole world was saved. Nothing is more worthy of sacrifice than that, in my humble opinion.
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An 84-year-old man will face Perth Magistrates Court on Monday, charged over historical child sex abuse allegations dating back to the late 70s and early 80s.
Police claim the man indecently assaulted a girl, who was between six and seven years old at the time of the first offence, while he was a Catholic priest providing pastoral care from 1979-1982.
The man, who is from the Mandurah district, has been charged with six counts of indecent treatment of a child under 14 years old.
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WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Australian Associated Press via Yahoo.com
July 13, 2020
Historical child sex abuse charges have been laid against a former West Australian priest
An elderly man has denied repeatedly sexually abusing a young girl when he was a Catholic priest in Western Australia dating back about four decades.
Richard Joseph Doyle, 84, was providing pastoral care when he allegedly abused the girl between 1979 and 1982.
The girl was aged between six and seven at the time of the first offence, police say.
Doyle faced Perth Magistrates Court on Monday where he pleaded not guilty to six counts of indecent treatment of a child.
He was released on a $5000 bail until his next court appearance on September 21.
Police say their investigation is ongoing and anyone with information should contact Crime Stoppers.
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Sometimes the truth gets lost in the failure to give contexts to “facts.” This is the case with last week’s widely-circulated Associated Press article, “Catholic Church lobbied for taxpayer funds, got $1.4B.”
AP’s editors and writers wanted to use the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program for businesses hit hard by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, to put the Catholic Church in the United States in a bad light.
The first paragraph showed AP’s remarkable bias in leaving out significant details: “The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups.
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Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver was in Fiji just before lockdown and spoke to some of the victims of the alleged abuse.
[VIDEO]
The abuse began when he was seven.
He among other young children kept the abuse quiet by the priests and brothers working and living near the Marist Brothers Primary School he attended in Fiji.
The sexual abuse happened so repeatedly the children thought it was normal.
“[There] were two main ones that would do it to us regularly. Almost like a daily thing,” the victim, who wishes to remain anonymous, told 1 NEWS.
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Retired Buffalo Bishop Edward U. Kmiec, who led a historic and tumultuous reorganization of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo and also had to confront allegations of abuse against some priests, died Saturday after a brief illness.
Kmiec, who served as bishop of Buffalo from 2004 until his retirement in 2012, had been in declining health the past several months and died peacefully Saturday just before midnight, the diocese announced on Sunday.
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The Catholic Church of Fiji says it will conduct an investigation after reports of alleged sexual abuse of children within the Church.
TVNZ’s One News reported last night that it investigated claims of historic sexual abuse of children at the hands of catholic priests, brothers, and teachers.
The media outlet has spoken with Fijians who claim to have been victims.
One News reports the alleged abuse was carried out by New Zealand priests and brothers who were moved to the Pacific and involves decades of alleged abuse, deceit, and cover-up.
Catholic Archdiocese of Suva Vicar-General, Father Sulio Turagakacivi says they will look into these claims and if anyone is implicated, they will be referred to the relevant authorities.
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CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — A former church youth leader and Boy Scout leader is taking to social media to admit he is a child molester. In a Facebook post Sunday Bill McKell said “My name is Bill McKell, and I am a child molester…. There is no excuse for what I have done. I sincerely apologize and seek forgiveness of each person I have caused to suffer hurt and shame.”
McKell said he abused young boys and teenagers for decades in the 80s and 90s.
ABC 6 reached out to the Boy Scouts of America about McKell and received the following statement:
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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service via Christianity Today
July 12, 2020
By Bob Smietana
Leadership apologizes for lack of transparency that eroded trust.
Earlier this week, megachurch pastor John Ortberg claimed his congregation had “extensively investigated” concerns about his youngest son and found “no misconduct.”
Now elders at Menlo Church, a Northern California congregation of 5,000, say their initial investigation fell short and have announced plans for an additional “supplemental” investigation.
“While many of you know that the board took immediate action upon learning of these concerns, we understand our initial investigation could have gone further and included specific expertise in child safety and sex abuse issues, and it could have been informed by conversations with a wider group of people,” church elders said in an email to the congregation Saturday, July 11.
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Imputaciones. Sacerdotes católicos de la Prelatura de Huamachuco, un expárroco y presuntas víctimas de abuso sexual han enviado más de 40 cartas a líderes de la Iglesia católica y funcionarios públicos. Denuncian delitos sexuales cometidos por religiosos y encubrimientos de curas, vicarios y obispos de La Libertad. Esta investigación revela por primera vez el contenido de todos estos documentos.
En 2018, un sacerdote visitó La República. Era Esteban Desposorio, párroco de la Prelatura de Huamachuco, norte de Perú. Llevaba un fólder con documentos que señalaban delitos sexuales por parte de sacerdotes de la prelatura, así como del arzobispado de Trujillo.
Asimismo, mostró cartas firmadas por él mismo y otros sacerdotes, dirigidas a líderes de la Iglesia católica. Reclamaban por atención a las denuncias, por encubrimiento de obispos y vicarios, además informaban de castigos que los dirigentes católicos llevan a cabo contra sacerdotes que, como ellos, visibilizan a presuntos abusadores sexuales.
Desposorio también relató que, desde 1999, decenas de jóvenes le han confiado sus historias a él y a los religiosos Nery Tocto, Agustín Díaz, Elmer Acuña, así como al expárroco y periodista Antonio Campos.
En 2016, estos religiosos conformaron la Comisión de Escucha a las Víctimas de Abusos Sexuales de la Prelatura. Una de sus acciones ha sido el envío de cartas, donde cuentan lo que saben a autoridades de la iglesia en Lima, Chimbote y La Libertad, así como a funcionarios públicos e instituciones estatales del departamento norteño. La mayoría no han sido respondidas.
En 2019 la autora de este reportaje recibió una carta. Está firmada por Desposorio y otro religioso que, por amenazas, pidió que no hiciéramos pública su identidad. En ella, se menciona a 12 curas (nueve de Huamachuco y tres de Trujillo) que estarían implicados en casos de abuso sexual.
El documento detalla que los religiosos escucharon a más de 100 jóvenes, quienes les contaron sobre abusos sexuales cometidos por sacerdotes católicos. Algunos de ellos les permitieron revelar sus nombres y dar paso a una denuncia en Fiscalía; otros, la mayoría, pidieron mantener sus identidades bajo reserva.
Círculo de encubrimientos
Algunas denuncias quedaron registradas en varios escritos enviados a Sebastián Ramis, entonces obispo de la Prelatura de Huamachuco, acusado de favorecer a curas denunciados por pederastia. Como se lee en una carta de enero de 2016, le reclamaban por apoyar a Tulio Montenegro, Emeterio Castañeda, Marco Tito, Manuel Mendoza y Walter Reátegui, sobre quienes, según los religiosos denunciantes y documentos a los que tuvimos acceso, ya había acusaciones de delitos sexuales.
Para informar que Ramis tiene trato diferenciado y encubre abusos sexuales, los religiosos denunciantes enviaron cartas al obispo de la Diócesis de Chimbote, Ángel Francisco Simón; a los franciscanos de la Tercera Orden Regular (TOR), sede en Salamanca, Lima; al entonces cardenal de la Iglesia católica del Perú Juan Luis Cipriani, y al expresidente de la Conferencia Episcopal Peruana Salvador Piñeiro. Aseguran que sus cartas jamás fueron respondidas.
En febrero de 2016, en el programa periodístico Punto Final, fueron revelados testimonios de presuntas víctimas del sacerdote Tulio Montenegro y del párroco Marco Tito. A raíz de ello, Ramis creó una comisión indagatoria. En el decreto para formarla, aseguró que recién había tomado conocimiento de estas acusaciones. Sin embargo, un par de cartas revelan que tenía conocimiento de abusos desde hacía casi 9 años.
Ramis nombró como integrante de la comisión a José Gómez, franciscano de la TOR, al igual que él. Pocos días después lo hizo vicario general. No obstante, en diciembre de 2018, Desposorio envió una carta al obispo Emiliano Cisneros, sucesor de Ramis, donde denunciaba a Gómez por haber abusado de un seminarista.
Gómez dijo que la denuncia de Desposorio fue “por envidia”, porque la fecha de la acusación coincide “con el momento de cambio de obispo y todos pensaban que yo sería el siguiente”.
Por otro lado, Manuel Mendoza firmó, en 2016, el decreto de formación de la comisión indagatoria creada por Ramis. Lo hizo como secretario de Cancillería de la Prelatura de Huamachuco. Sin embargo, antes de que se formalizara dicha comisión, Ramis ya había sido informado, a través de una carta de enero de 2016 enviada por los religiosos denunciantes, que Mendoza estaba acusado por abusos sexuales.
Asimismo, en 2017, hubo una denuncia en la Fiscalía Mixta Penal Corporativa de Sánchez Carrión contra Mendoza, por actos contra el pudor a un muchacho de 15 años de edad, y contra Ramis, por omisión de denuncia. La presunta víctima nos relató que los tocamientos indebidos se dieron durante un viaje en bus, al retornar de un retiro espiritual. Sobre este tema, Mendoza nos respondió: “en ningún momento la Iglesia me ha encontrado culpable”.
En abril de 2016, “Andrés” –pidió que no reveláramos su identidad– denunció haber sido prostituido por William Costa y Segundo Fernández, quienes pertenecían al arzobispado de Trujillo. Relató que, entre 1996 y 1998, Tulio Montenegro, Emeterio Castañeda, Segundo Fernández, William Costa y Ricardo Angulo organizaban y/o participan de fiestas, los fines de semana, en distintas parroquias de Trujillo y en la casona del ciudadano Daniel Hoyle, donde tenían sexo con menores de edad a cambio de dinero.
Según “Andrés”, entre los menores que iban a estas fiestas estaba el presidente de la Asociación de Víctimas de Abusos Sexual del Perú, Héctor Reyes, quien ya había hecho público, en Punto Final, que Montenegro lo violó. Además, en 2016, en la misma emisión, afirmó que uno de los miembros de la comisión que investiga abusos sexuales en el Arzobispado de Trujillo, el cura Ricardo Angulo, también participaba de dichas fiestas.
“Es falso, como se ha demostrado en la falta de capacidad de poder probar una cosa tan grave ante la fiscalía que investigó el caso”, nos dijo Angulo.
Tenemos en nuestro poder un documento donde Angulo denuncia por asociación ilícita a Reyes, al exsacerdote Antonio Campos y a su hermana Gregoria Campos. Después, amplió su denuncia contra Nery Tocto, y también contra “Andrés”. A mediados de 2018, los acusados ganaron el proceso.
En marzo de 2018, cuando Miguel Cabrejos ya era presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal Peruana, Héctor Reyes escribió una carta preguntándole por qué permitía que un sacerdote le pusiera una denuncia y le hiciera temer con la cárcel. También agradece por una audiencia que por fin le ha sido dada para reclamar por la falta de atención a los abusos sexuales. Según Reyes, Cabrejos no acudió a la reunión. En su lugar estaban dos representantes del arzobispo, quienes tomaron nota, pero nunca dieron respuesta a sus demandas.
La Fiscalía Mixta Penal Corporativa de Sánchez Carrión archivó el caso de “Andrés” por prescripción. También fue archivado a nivel eclesiástico por falta de pruebas. Según el Arzobispado de Trujillo, los sacerdotes Costa y Fernández continúan suspendidos.
Entrevistamos a Costa, quien afirmó que “Andrés” hizo la denuncia por dinero. Le preguntamos cuánto le solicitaron y quiénes. “No le puedo decir la cantidad, pero era demasiado”, respondió. También intentamos, sin éxito, una entrevista con Fernández.
Solicitamos una entrevista con Miguel Cabrejos. Respondieron dos de sus asesores: el vicecanciller Jorge Manrique Catalán, y el juez eclesiástico Alejandro Preciado Muñoz, ambos de la de la Arquidiócesis de Trujillo. Con ellos hablamos de los casos relatados en esta investigación.
Sobre el tema de Angulo, dijeron que no hubo denuncia, ni víctima, porque solo se trató de “un dicho”. A pesar de ello, crearon una comisión; sin embargo, aseguraron que “no hubo investigación eclesiástica. No hubo investigación preliminar”. Les pedimos el acta o informe de esa comisión y contestaron que no sabían si existía ese documento y se comprometieron a entregarnos “todo lo que tenemos”. Nunca recibimos un solo documento.
“Tus días están contados”
Los religiosos denunciantes dijeron que padecieron amenazas cuando Ramis era obispo y cuando llegó su sucesor, Emiliano Cisneros. Antonio Campos relató que recibió en su domicilio dos pedazos de papel que decían: “Vas a morir. No ladres a la Iglesia. Tu hijo está vigilado” (junio 2019) y “Perro resentido, tus días están contados” (noviembre 2018).
En una carta de 2016, Ramis recomienda al alcalde distrital de Huaylillas que no se deje sorprender, ni él ni los pobladores, por Nery Tocto, Agustín Díaz y Esteban Desposorio, porque están suspendidos y no pueden ejercer el sacerdocio.
Desposorio afirmó que nadie de la Prelatura de Huamachuco ni del Arzobispado de Trujillo se interesó por el tema, pese a las cartas que enviaron, y que tenemos en nuestro poder. No obstante, afirmó que el nuncio Nicola Girasoli, representante del papa en el Perú, fue el único que mostró interés. Viajó a Huamachuco y gracias a él le levantaron la suspensión sacerdotal que tenía desde el 2016.
Los religiosos denunciantes aseguran que seguirán luchando, de lo contrario no habrá armonía ni paz para las víctimas. “Justicia, eso es lo que quiero lograr. Esto es algo que debe terminar de una vez”, finalizó Esteban Desposorio.
Aún se espera sus respuestas
Para esta investigación solicitamos entrevista con Sebastián Ramis, pero nunca dio respuesta a nuestra petición vía WhatsApp.
Además, nos comunicamos con Marco Tito, Emeterio Castañeda y otros curas acusados, pero, hasta el cierre de esta investigación, no hubo respuesta de ninguno de ellos.
Cartas de los denunciantes
El 18 de marzo de 2019, la autora de este reportaje recibió una carta de los religiosos denunciantes. Está firmada por el cura Esteban Desposorio y otro cura que, por amenaza de muerte, pidió que no hiciéramos pública su identidad. En ella se informa que sacerdotes de la Arquidiócesis de Trujillo y de la Prelatura de Huamachuco han cometido abusos sexuales, y que, pese a las denuncias, no hubo sanciones. Indican que son más de 100 víctimas y 12 curas vinculados al delito. Todos los acusados negaron las imputaciones.
El 18 de marzo de 2019, la autora de este reportaje recibió una carta de los religiosos denunciantes. Está firmada por el cura Esteban Desposorio y otro cura que, por amenaza de muerte, pidió que no hiciéramos pública su identidad. En ella se informa que sacerdotes de la Arquidiócesis de Trujillo y de la Prelatura de Huamachuco han cometido abusos sexuales, y que, pese a las denuncias, no hubo sanciones. Indican que son más de 100 víctimas y 12 curas vinculados al delito. Todos los acusados negaron las imputaciones.
El presidente de la Asociación de Víctimas de Abuso Sexual del Perú, Héctor Reyes, exige una explicación al arzobispo de Trujillo, Miguel Cabrejos, sobre por qué permite que el clero de Trujillo le haga denuncias de persecución a él y a otras personas, y les hagan temer con cárcel.
El presidente de la Asociación de Víctimas de Abuso Sexual del Perú, Héctor Reyes, exige una explicación al arzobispo de Trujillo, Miguel Cabrejos, sobre por qué permite que el clero de Trujillo le haga denuncias de persecución a él y a otras personas, y les hagan temer con cárcel.
*Esta es una investigación realizada por La República en alianza con CONNECTAS. El trabajo se ha realizado en el marco de la iniciativa para el Periodismo de Investigación de las Américas, del International Center For Journalists (ICFJ) (Centro Internacional para Periodistas)
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In 2011, the Jesuit Order in the Northwest settled a bankruptcy case for $166 million. It’s one of the largest settlements in Catholic church history. A small fraction of that money — less than $500 every month — is going to a man who spent most of the last year behind bars at the Anchorage Correctional Center. His criminal history includes a lot of alcohol-related violence and he blames much of his record on an experience he had with a Catholic priest when he was still a child.
“I was young, I was innocent,” said the man, now 31, back in January. He wore yellow prison-issued scrubs. He alleges a Jesuit named Father Brad Reynolds, S.J., sexually abused him when he was a child. “Ever since then I’ve been a violent person,” he said. His V-neck shirt revealed a sea of tattoos: references to marijuana and other drugs, a demonic Virgin Mary, and the words “trust no bitch.” He said he got that one after a girlfriend broke his heart. Days later, he was out on bail.
Father Brad Reynolds was never officially assigned by his religious order, the Jesuits, to work in Alaska, but he visited a number of Alaska Native villages frequently. For more than 20 years, he’d come north to take photos of daily village life and write about the people here. In 1990, National Geographic published an article he wrote about life in Interior Alaska.
In 2008, that man in prison and another male relative filed a lawsuit in Bethel Superior Court. They allege Reynolds sexually abused them, when they were nine and eleven years old. The Anchorage Daily News has agreed not to identify the village where they grew up or the people in this story because of privacy concerns for survivors of sexual abuse.
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There are people who still care about the who, what, when, where, why and how of the scandal that brought down former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, at one time the most press-friendly and influential cardinal in the United States of America.
In a way, it’s even more important to know more about the rise of McCarrick in church circles in and around New York City and then learn the details of his networking years in Washington, D.C. Who were McCarrick’s disciples and to what degree did they protect him, during the years when rumors were thick on the ground about — to be specific — his unique personal style when dealing with seminarians.
It’s totally understandable that the McCarrick investigation has faded from view. The year 2020 has, after all, served up challenge after challenge for journalists and church leaders, alike. McCarrick was shipped off to western Kansas and, now, it appears that he has moved to a safe house of his own choosing.
The former cardinal is now an afterthought.
But not for everyone. The other day, J.D. Flynn of the Catholic News Agency produced a thoughtful essay on what this silence means and the long term effects it could have on Catholic laypeople and their trust of the church hierarchy. It’s worth reading — even as the year 2020 rages around us.
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BRISBANE (QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA)
Catholic Leader – Archdiocese of Brisbane
July 12, 2020
Concern and frustration with delayed and failed responses to abuse scandals in Poland culminated in a desperate appeal to Pope Francis to help “rebuild our church.”
More than 600 Polish lay Catholics pooled together enough money to buy an ad in an Italian newspaper at the end of June in a last-ditch effort to make sure the Pope would hear their plea.
But together with assurances of his prayers and acknowledgment of their appeal, the Pope’s steadfast position was repeated – It is going to take everybody in the Catholic Church doing everything possible to make sure Church law is applied, abuse is exposed and those guilty of these serious crimes are punished.
In other words, fighting abuse and ensuring accountability cannot be a one-man operation; this global, insidious problem needs a pope backed by a global army.
Gabriel DyLiacco, a psychotherapist and one of the initial members of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, said when Pope Francis met with commission members in 2017, he told them to tell everyone, “‘I cannot do this alone, I need your help’. The Holy Father has no illusions about his capacity as a single person.”
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Late last summer, thousands of people across New York state were granted something they thought would never be offered: A chance for justice.
The Child Victims Act aimed at expanding the number of child sexual assault victims who could seek legal redress against their abusers, whether the source of that abuse came from people or institutions. It did so by not only moving the age cap on victims from 24 to 55, but it also provided a one-year “lookback” period, where victims of any age could file suit against institutions or individuals who they say committed or facilitated sexual abuse against them, no matter how long ago the abuse took place.
The lookback window opened Aug. 14, and was originally set to expire next month. However, because of the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended that window in May.
“Because of the reduction in court services, we want to extend that window, and we will extend it an additional five months, until Jan. 14,” Cuomo said at the time. “Because people need access to the courts to make their claim, because justice too long delayed is justice denied.”
For some — especially here, closer to home — that justice already had been long deferred.
In late 2017, former students emailed allegations about Stanley Rosenfeld, a former teacher and assistant principal at Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy, to Rabbi Binyamin Krauss, according to a report published by the school. Those allegations prompted the school to hire an outside investigative company to interview nearly 40 witnesses and alleged victims.
Those investigators concluded Rosenfeld may have sexually abused as many as 12 students during the time he worked at the school between 1974 and 1977, and again for a short time a decade later.
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A Ukrainian-born Jewish woman who said her foster father raped her sued him, New York City and the Orthodox agency that placed her in his home.
The plaintiff, whose legal name at the time was Yana Nikolayeva but is listed as Jane Doe in the court documents, is suing Milton Jacobs for sexual assault and battery and both Ohel and the city for negligence on the grounds that Ohel didn’t check on her as legally mandated.
“There are important reasons why the law required Ohel to check on this foster child at least monthly,” Eric Hecker, her lawyer, said in an interview. “The law did not allow Ohel to assume that a Jewish foster father would never hurt a Jewish child.”
The plaintiff is suing for damages, but Hecker would not disclose their estimated monetary value.
“I still have flashbacks during the day and nightmares at night,” the plaintiff said in an interview. “But it’s the sense of deep shame that I continue to carry that has damaged my life the most.”
The lawsuit is one of about 1,700 filed in New York State under the Child Victims Act, passed in January after a long battle with both Catholic and Jewish organizations to extend the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse cases.
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Wheaton College has just released details about the alleged sexual misconduct and racial comments that led to the recent dismissal of its chaplain, Timothy Blackmon. This comes after Blackmon reportedly threatened legal action against the school on Wednesday.
According to a report in the Daily Herald, Blackmon said in a statement that it “pains” him to think of taking legal action against Wheaton, but it might be necessary. Blackmon added that he was “completely blindsided” by Wheaton’s Title IX investigation, which he said stemmed from public comments Blackmon made in 2015 and 2016.
“Moreover, there were no allegations of flirtation, inappropriate relationships, sexual misconduct or any sexual action towards anyone,” Blackmon added. “At no time did anyone, either the complainant or any witness, communicate offense or discomfort.”
Yet in an email to faculty and staff today, Wheaton President Philip Ryken disputed Blackmon’s account.
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In the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin said, “New Jersey is like a beer barrel, tapped at both ends, with all the live beer running into Philadelphia and New York.”
Those twin pulls still persist today. The Giants and Jets may play in the Meadowlands, but they are still considered New York teams. And Manhattan and Philadelphia television stations cover northern and southern New Jersey, but there is no statewide television station.
And for the Catholic church, the five New Jersey Roman Catholic dioceses are headed by bishops not native to the dioceses they lead. In fact, four of five aren’t even from New Jersey. (Bishop James Checchio is from Camden but heads Metuchen.)
And for the most diverse state in the union, four are of Irish ancestry.
If there’s any doubt that Franklin was right, consider what happened last month in the Diocese of Paterson. Bishop Arthur Serratelli’s retirement was accepted by Pope Francis, who appointed a Brooklyn priest, Bishop Kevin Sweeney, to succeed him.
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At first, New Jersey was considered, well, what else, part of the New York diocese. Then in 1853, the entire state became its own diocese, Newark.
The first bishops and archbishops alternated between New York priests and native Newark priests with the last being Thomas Boland. But since 1974, they have all be outsiders: Peter Gerety, a native of Connecticut; Theodore McCarrick, New York; John Myers, Illinois; and now Joseph Cardinal Tobin, Michigan.
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Nancy Shirley Peters met Dr. Robert J. Herzog, a family friend, back in the early 1970s when she was hired to babysit his children.
After about a year, during moments when they were alone, Herzog began telling her how much he cared for her, kissing and groping her and suggesting he could teach her how to enjoy sex, according to Peters. She said she was 15 years old when this started.
Then over a period of two or three years, while she was still underage, Peters claims Herzog had sex with her on several occasions at his home and in a room at his office. Peters said she never told anyone at the time and it was years before she could grapple with the emotional pain of what she says Herzog did.
Now, Peters has filed a Child Victims Act lawsuit against Herzog. She agreed to an interview and to let The Buffalo News identify her.
“When you’re abused you carry tons of shame, like it’s your fault. And I don’t have that (anymore). I’m the person I am because of what happened to me, but I’m not ashamed because it wasn’t my fault,” Peters said. “And I want other people out there to realize it’s not their fault.”
Peters said she fears that there may be other victims of Herzog, a longtime soccer coach at Nardin and Mount St. Mary academies whose dental license is still active.
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Dear Members of the Presentation High School Community,
We are writing to you today to express our profound sadness regarding the sexual misconduct and subsequent regrettable ineffective action, or in some cases, lack of action at our dearly loved Presentation High School. They run contrary to everything the Sisters of the Presentation believe in – and stand for, most critically, promoting a society which respects the dignity of all persons.
In addition, they do not reflect the core beliefs on which our school was founded in 1962.
Particularly distressing to the Presentation Sisters is the pain these actions have caused the survivors. We are grateful for their courage in coming forward, recognizing how difficult it must have been.
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This Report summarizes the information gathered, and sets forth our findings and conclusions. We have endeavored to keep the Report as succinct as possible, while providing enough information to explain and support our findings and conclusions. Below, we provide an Executive
Summary of key points.
• None of the individuals who we determined engaged in sexual misconduct or abuse are currently employed at Pres.
• We sustained allegations of sexual misconduct or abuse as to five former faculty members and one former coach, for conduct that took place from the early 1980s to 2013. These individuals are identified in this Report because we received sufficient information to form a good-faith belief the alleged conduct occurred, applying the standards outlined herein.
• This Report also details allegations against six additional Staff members, none of whom are currently employed at Pres. These individuals are not named because we received less supporting evidence for the claims, and/or after a full review of the information collected, we determined the conduct asserted, while in some cases inappropriate or unprofessional, did not meet the definition of sexual misconduct, as defined. For these, the Report details information we received regarding Pres’ knowledge of and response to the claims. We also list additional claims for which, despite best efforts, we could not obtain enough information to meaningfully analyze or assess the allegations.
• Some of the conduct was reported to former Principals Marian Stuckey or Mary Miller or other Staff at the time, but no action – or ineffective action – was taken. In several instances, there was a concerning lack of curiosity about information which was shared, resulting in a failure to adequately investigate or act timely on information which may have led to more immediate and effective responses. In other cases, the conduct was
appropriately addressed by Pres. In some instances, the allegations were not known to the Principal or other Staff at the time.
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In September 2019, Presentation High School launched a thorough and impartial investigation into past reports of sexual abuse and misconduct and the handling of such allegations throughout the history of the school. Read the Sept 26, 2019 community announcement here. This process stemmed from upsetting stories about past reports of sexual abuse and misconduct.
On July 9, 2020 we shared the investigation report with the community. We know that the findings are difficult to read and to digest, however, this investigation was necessary to examine our past to build and maintain a safe and thriving environment for all students past, present, and future, and to ensure we do not repeat any mistakes.
To the survivors of abuse, we deeply and sincerely apologize. The stark truth is that our school did not live up to its commitment to protect you. We added further harm when we responded defensively when reports of past abuse began to surface in 2017. We understand that words cannot measure our regret or erase the harm that you endured. You were hurt, and we can only hope to make amends by caring for you now and doing everything within our power to ensure that students now and in the future will be cared for and safe.
We thank everyone who participated in the investigation and are grateful for your bravery and honesty. Without you, we would not be able to confront our past to ensure this does not happen again. We also recognize this investigation may not have revealed all instances of prior misconduct. Anyone with information about inappropriate conduct may contact Holly directly at helkins@presentationhs.org, call the hotline at (800) 490-7513, or reach out to Anne Maas, Investigation Coordinator, at amm@vmlawcorp.com.
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A former Presentation High School student’s Washington Post op-ed precipitated the investigation.
San Jose – An elite South Bay all-girls Catholic school has issued a public apology after an independent investigation it launched last year revealed a pattern of sexual abuse that goes back decades, NBC Bay Area reports.
San Jose’s Presentation High School initiated the probe in September of last year after former Presentation student Kathryn Leehane wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post alleging sexual abuse at her former school.
Presentation issued a public apology that appears on its website’s homepage acknowledging the “hurt” sexual abuse survivors experience, and that “the stark truth is that our school did not live up to its commitment to protect you.”
The probe, conducted by Van Dermyden Maddux, a Sacramento law firm, revealed a pattern of sexual abuse spanning four decades, from the early 1980s through 2013, the report said.
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Nearly three years after an explosive op-ed in the Washington Post during the height of the “Me Too” movement snowballed into an avalanche of sexual misconduct allegations at San Jose’s Presentation High School, a prestigious all-girls Catholic school, a months-long independent investigation “sustained allegations of sexual misconduct or abuse” against six former staffers and found school officials at times failed to report allegations of abuse to authorities and inappropriately retained teachers accused of misconduct.
The report found the abuse occurred over a span of decades, from the early 1980’s through 2013, although it did not delve into a 2004 allegation from a former student who said she was sexually abused by her theater teacher because the claim was at the center of a lawsuit that has since been settled. That teacher was later forced to register as a sex offender when we was caught by police at another school with child pornography on his computer.
“Some of the conduct was reported to former Principals Marian Stuckey or Mary Miller or other Staff at the time, but no action – or ineffective action – was taken,” the investigation conducted by Sacramento law firm Van Dermyden Maddux concluded. “In several instances, there was a concerning lack of curiosity about information which was shared, resulting in a failure to adequately investigate or act timely on information which may have led to more immediate and effective responses.”
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San Jose – Decades after the first complaint, Presentation High School officials admitted Thursday their premier San Jose educational institution failed some of its students.
“I’m relieved. Because it just validated everything I’d been saying for three years,” said former student Kathryn Leehane.
She first penned an op-ed article about her alleged abuse at the school in the 1990s. That led to almost two dozen victims coming forward, who said administrators did not report instances of sexual abuse and assault stretching back more than three decades.
“It just goes to show deep and vast this cover-up was. To think that we started this well over a year ago, and their reaction at the time was to blast the messenger,” said childhood sexual abuse attorney Robert Allard.
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‘Good faith belief’ six former Presentation High staff members abused girls
Nearly three years after a former student exposed sex abuse complaints dating back decades at San Jose’s Presentation High School for girls, its leaders released a damning outside investigation Thursday that found administrators failed to seriously pursue credible allegations against six former staffers.
Investigators the school hired in September found sufficient information “to form a good faith belief that sexual misconduct or abuse occurred by five former faculty members and one former coach” for conduct that took place from the early 1980s to 2013, the school’s president and board chair said in a statement.
“It is with heavy hearts that we are writing to you today to share the results of the investigation,” wrote Holly Elkins, Presentation’s president, and Sister Pam Chiesa, who chairs the schools board of directors. “To the survivors of abuse, we deeply and sincerely apologize. The stark truth is that our school did not live up to its commitment to protect you. We added further harm when we responded defensively when reports of past abuse began to surface in 2017.”
The report drew praise from Kathryn Leehane, who graduated from the school in 1991, disclosed abuse by her former Spanish teacher in a guest column for the Washington Post in 2017 and led other alleged victims in a campaign to hold the school’s leaders accountable.
“I am incredibly satisfied with their response,” Leehane said Thursday. “Holly Elkins’ compassionate and moral leadership is exactly what the school needed.”
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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service/USCCB via NCR
July 7, 2020
Cleveland – A grand jury indicted a Catholic priest on federal charges involving child pornography and the sexual exploitation of children.
The July 2 indictment charged Fr. Robert McWilliams, 40, a priest of the Diocese of Cleveland, with two counts of sex trafficking of a minor, three counts of pornography-related charges involving children and three counts of sexual exploitation of children.
McWilliams was arrested Dec. 5 at St. Joseph Parish in suburban Strongsville where he had been serving as parochial vicar. He continued to be held without bond July 6.
The diocese said in a statement it was “grateful to those in law enforcement who have worked diligently to investigate this matter. As the criminal case against McWilliams proceeds, let us continue to pray for justice to be served and healing for those who have been harmed by sexual abuse.”
Officials of the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force arrested McWilliams in December while serving a warrant to search the living and office spaces of the priest at the parish. The raid led to the seizure of electronic equipment, which had child pornography stored, according to court records.
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Two weeks ago, NCR published a report by Soli Salgado on David Haas, the Catholic composer who has been accused of sexual misconduct. The following week, NCR columnist Jamie Manson responded to the allegations, writing that “Part of the doubt cast on Haas’ victims is rooted in our theological tradition that trains us to not believe women.” Following are letters to the editor that have been edited for length and clarity.
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Thank you for publishing Soli Salgado’s important and informative article about David Haas.
While victims of Haas may not wish to have charges pressed against him, I am disappointed to learn that so far none are at least considering civil action against him. The justice system could offer a measure of empowerment to those he has disempowered and, by filing civil suit, victims may influence event organizers to stop inviting him and, thus, protect women he would otherwise prey upon.
Language is also important. Although the term “sexual misconduct” is frequently used to describe sexual assault of adults, this crime is nonetheless a form of sexual abuse and should rightly be called this. Sexual misconduct sounds like mere naughtiness but it’s much, much more. Just because a person has reached their 18th birthday, this does not protect them from being deeply harmed by sexual assault, whether that be kissing, fondling or outright rape. Abuse is abuse!
Rosemary Anderson
Vancouver, British Columbia
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I believe in being innocent until proven guilty but it sounds like the sheer number of cases lean towards David Haas as being a sexual deviant.
My heart goes out to the young women who claim to have been molested, assaulted, and the victim of lewd comments and behavior at the hand of Haas. I, too, enjoyed his music until I saw this article.
Julie Haugen
Oakdale, Minnesota
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Colorado churches got millions in federal money through PPP loans
As small businesses fought for much-needed loans from the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) through the Small Business Administration (SBA), national retail chains cashing in on these funds sparked outrage and forced some businesses to return the money.
Now, we’re learning Colorado churches and faith-based organizations received millions of dollars in coveted PPP loans.
Denver7’s Rebound team followed the money and found at least 45 faith-based organizations received more than $150,000 in PPP loans, according to newly released government data.
The SBA released special guidance in April that said “faith-based organizations are eligible to receive SBA loans regardless of whether they provide secular social services.” But Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont, questioned if churches should have been allowed to do so.
“So often we hear from our religious institutions that they don’t want the federal government messing with them and now we’re seeing that these same churches are going with their hat in hand to the federal government saying we want your help,” Singer said. “You know, there’s certainly an ounce of hypocrisy there.”
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Roman Catholic parishes and organizations in the Archdiocese of Chicago received between $24.4 million and $63.6 million in loans through the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program that was designed to save jobs amid the economic shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to federal records.
The money was mostly applied for by individual parishes, so archdiocese officials said they did not immediately know the total of money received here.
The Archdiocese of Chicago itself did not apply for funds because it is a large employer with thousands of employees, many more than the threshold of 500 staff laid out by the PPP program, spokeswoman Paula Waters said.
Since the federal data on who received PPP money was released this week, public scrutiny has mounted on some deep-pocketed corporate interests that received millions from the forgivable loan program.
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The privately run schools got the federal Paycheck Protection Program money though they also got their full funding from Illinois taxpayers, a Sun-Times analysis finds.
Publicly funded charter schools in Chicago and elsewhere in Illinois received a total of between $31.2 million and $74.7 million in federal loans intended to bolster small businesses and non-profits during the coronavirus pandemic, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis has found.
Thirty operators of 56 schools got the federal money even though, unlike many other employers that sought Paycheck Protection Program loans, they hadn’t lost any of their normal funding from Illinois taxpayers.
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Paycheck Protection Program loans to Illinois schools
Schools in Illinois took home over $133 million in federal coronavirus funding
This chart displays the maximum and minimum loan amounts, categorized by type of school, for institutions receiving loans over $150,000. Data is based on loan ranges provided by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Schools receiving loans less than $150,000 were not identified and are not included in this chart.
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By Caroline Hurley, Lynn Sweet, and Lauren FitzPatrick
Faith-based institutions
Faith-based organizations were eligible for PPP loans, and the Sun-Times analysis found about 475 religious-based groups in Illinois received at least $140 million. Some of the groups getting the loans provide social services or operate community centers; the list also includes houses of worship of a variety of religions. Another 170 operators of religious schools were awarded at least $70 million more.
Getting between $5 million and $10 million in PPP loans — Lutheran Social Services of Illinois in Des Plaines to cover 500 jobs and Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington for 353 jobs.
Between $2 million and $5 million — Jewish Community Centers of Chicago, for 313 workers; Jewish Child and Family Services, for 250 jobs; Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Joliet, for 258 employees.
In the $1 million to $2 million category — St. Clement Parish, 642 W. Deming, for 92 jobs. That’s the most PPP funds any individual parish received. Most Catholic parishes took loans in the $150,000 to $350,000 range. Plus, Wheaton Bible Church with 114 jobs; Anshe Emet Synagogue, 3751 N. Broadway, 225 jobs; Apostolic Church of God, 6320 S. Dorchester, 125 jobs.
In the $350,000 to $1 million range — Christ the King Parish, 9235 S. Hamilton, 67 jobs.
In the $150,000 to $350,000 range — St. Sabina Parish, 1210 W. 78th, with 26 jobs; the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, with 94 jobs.
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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield’s volunteer Diocesan Review Board has begun bleeding members in the wake of the so-called Weldon Report, with one intending to abandon the church altogether.
A 350-page analysis released in late June, authored by retired Judge Peter Velis, found the late Bishop Christopher J. Weldon repeatedly raped a young boy during the early 1960s. The victim told investigators Weldon was part of a cabal of priests who sexually passed around young boys at a rectory and campground during that era.
Weldon was leader of local Catholic churches from 1950 to 1977. He died in 1982.
The Diocesan Review Board is tasked with hearing accounts of alleged clergy abuse and assessing their credibility for church officials, who can then recommend a variety of repercussions to the Vatican.
After the report was released, there has been rancor between some board members and the diocese focused on the handling of the victim’s early disclosures. Any whiff of an attempted cover-up should be assigned to the diocese and not the board, two members argue, although a spokesman for the church says there was not one.
Longtime member Theresa Finnegan and Chairman John Hale resigned from the panel this week, contending a former diocesan investigator and diocesan staff manipulated the initial investigation and left the volunteer board to appear culpable in both the report and media coverage. strongly feel that any wrongdoing was done by the employees of the diocese and not the Review Board,” said Finnegan, an attorney from Wilbraham. “We’re volunteers giving our time to try to make the church a safer place and it’s not an easy job.”
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By Mary Louise Kelly Interviewing Michael Rezendes
Kelly: The stories have become almost commonplace by now – big companies, politically connected companies cashing in on the massive federal rescue package that was designed to help small businesses weather economic devastation wreaked by the coronavirus pandemic. Well, today we are learning, courtesy of The Associated Press, that the U.S. Roman Catholic Church managed to secure billions of dollars in loans from that rescue package through the Paycheck Protection Program. Reporter Michael Rezendes has been reporting on the Catholic Church for a long time. He is one of the reporters who has been crunching these numbers and trying to track where that money is going. Hey there. How are you?
Rezendes: Hey, not so bad. Nice to be here.
Kelly: How much money exactly are we talking about?
Rezendes: Well, what what I and my colleague, Reese Dunklin, identified – and I got to really give a shoutout to Reese here because he’s a great data reporter. But we were able to identify between $1.4 billion and as much as $3.5 billion. And the reason there’s a range here is because the Small Business Administration did not release precise loan amounts. They only released ranges of loans. And we identified 3,500 loans worth between 1.4 billion and 3.5 billion.
Kelly: OK. So a huge range, but we are talking upward of a billion. That’s billion with a B. It’s a lot of money. How has it been spent?
Rezendes: Well, it’s been spent, as far as we know. We don’t have a very clear accounting. I have to say, as usual from the Catholic Church on precisely how the money is being spent, we’re assured it’s being spent for payroll and utilities, keeping people employed. But I have to say there is no monitoring of this program. It’s self-monitoring. It’s self-certification. So we don’t actually know for sure.
Kelly: Do we know for sure whether any of it has been diverted to help cover past gaps in the finances? And I will note that many Catholic dioceses were in really bad financial shape going into the pandemic because they had to pay out these big settlements to victims of clergy sexual abuse. Does that factor into how any of this rescue money is being spent at all or do we know?
Rezendes: Well, this is one of the points we made in our story is that a lot of this money is going to dioceses that might be experiencing financial stress not so much because of the coronavirus pandemic but because of the large payouts they’ve had to make to clergy abuse survivors, sometimes in the hundreds of millions of dollars. You never hear much about these payments. You do hear a lot about supposed stress from the pandemic. And I think a lot of that stress is real. But, in effect, I think what’s happening here is you’re seeing churches who are stressed financially because of clergy sex abuse getting a break through the federal government through direct payments from the federal government that are being used to pay, actually, the salaries of priests and ministers, which is unprecedented.
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Catholicism matters, and so does its absence. In Western Massachusetts, Catholics helped make our shared history. Now shuttered parishes and empty schools leave neighborhoods a bit more impoverished. Worse, we learn that disgraced and criminal bishops and priests assaulted children and caused lifelong suffering for too many of our neighbors and friends. They left behind shattered communities, demoralized Christians, and children and grandchildren disenchanted with churches. That Catholic decline matters; we are all diminished, and rendered less hopeful, when Catholicism as we once knew it is no longer with us.
No one can defend the leaders of the Catholic Church of Western Massachusetts. One revered former Bishop, Christopher Weldon, was credibly accused of the violent sexual abuse of children. This startling news comes 16 years after another former Springfield Bishop, Thomas Dupre, was the first American bishop indicted for abuse of children. Both revelations came amid credible reports of abuse by many diocesan priests. Since the first news of clergy crimes against children came out of Louisiana in 1984, all four Massachusetts Catholic dioceses have been shaken by accounts of criminal sexual crimes by priests, blundering cover-ups by bishops and their enablers, and lifetimes of suffering of victims and their families.
Locally steps are now being taken to protect children. Full responsibility for handling reports of abuse has been turned over to the area’s three District Attorneys. And yet another committee will try to improve church procedures for handling abuse. All of this while church attendance declines, Catholic pronouncements on sex sound hypocritical, and long-standing Catholic support for immigrants, working people and the poor is smothered by highly politicized, even cruel, pronouncements about abortion and homosexuality. Many younger Catholics no longer acknowledge a religious identity — former Catholics are now America’s second-largest religious group — and the once awesome Catholic infrastructure of churches and schools, hospitals and social service agencies fades from the civic landscape.
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Springfield – The Springfield Diocese said Friday that a survivor of clergy abuse will take the helm of an internal board. That survivor, a Dalton resident, was present when his board heard allegations in 2018 against Christopher J. Weldon, one of the diocese’s most prominent bishops.
But, James A. Stankiewicz says he does not remember that other survivor’s emotional presentation to the board he now will lead — and could not say why.
In two interviews Friday with The Eagle, Stankiewicz was not able to explain why he does not recall a Chicopee man’s presentation to the board about sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of Weldon and other priests in the early 1960s.
The diocese confirmed Friday that Stankiewicz attended the survivor’s meeting with the board.
“I don’t know what to say,” Stankiewicz said.
The Most Rev. Mitchell T. Rozanski appointed Stankiewicz to lead the board this week, after its former chair, John M. Hale, stepped down after holding the post since 2018 and serving on the panel for more than a decade.
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Less than a month after the release of an independent report criticizing the Diocesan Review Board’s investigation into sexual abuse complaints against late Springfield Roman Catholic Bishop Christopher J. Weldon, that panel’s chairman has resigned.
The diocese announced Friday that John Hale, who stepped down as chairman, will be replaced by James A. Stankiewicz, a member of the panel and a survivor of clergy sexual abuse.
Stankiewicz will be the interim chairman based on an appointment by Archbishop-designate Mitchell T. Rozanski, the diocese’s apostolic administrator.
Stankiewicz assumes the position as the Independent Task Force on the Response to Sexual Abuse within the Springfield Diocese, of which he is also a member, continues to review the 373-page report issued last month by retired Superior Court Judge Peter A. Velis. The task force is supposed to work toward improving the diocese’s response to future complaints.
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Memories came flooding back for Bob Fellner this spring, when news broke that the Catholic Diocese of Belleville had expanded its list of clergymen credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors or serious sexual misconduct with adults.
One of the new names was the Rev. Arthur W. Niemeyer, who died in 1988 after serving churches in Belleville, Shiloh, Kinmundy, Salem and Cahokia. He also worked as director of St. John’s Orphanage in Shiloh in the 1950s and ‘60s, when Fellner was a seminarian who volunteered as a house parent for three summers.
Fellner, 79, of St. Louis, said he and the orphanage’s mother superior reported suspected sexual abuse of grade-school boys by Niemeyer in 1966 to Bishop Albert R. Zuroweste, now deceased, who transferred Niemeyer to another parish.
To Fellner, it seemed like the bishop was sweeping allegations under the rug without holding Niemeyer accountable.
“It kind of blew my mind,” he said last week.
Fellner went on to become a priest in 1967, despite what he believes was an attempt by Zuroweste to get him kicked out of seminary because of his involvement in the case. Fellner served at the former St. Catherine Laboure Catholic Church in Cahokia before leaving the ministry, getting married and working in the insurance business for more than 30 years. He’s now retired.
Fellner said he’s glad the truth about abusive clergymen is coming out all over the country, even though it took 54 years in Niemeyer’s case.
“Some of the things that I’ve found out since then, and some of the kids that were affected … One boy in particular, he committed suicide, which I suspect was a result of the trauma,” he said. “I still get worked up talking about it today. It did not have to happen.”
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A former school principal convicted of sexually abusing seven of his pupils has been jailed for three years.
After a trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last March, Patrick Harte (78) was convicted of 11 counts of indecently assaulting seven pupils at the Sancta Maria Christian Brothers primary school on Synge Street, Dublin between September 1968 and September 1970.
The court heard that when gardai put the victims’ allegations to Harte in 2015, the former teacher claimed they had “a vendetta against him”.
Anne Rowland SC, prosecuting, told the court that there was no evidence that any of the victims were ever in contact with each other since the offending took place. Detective Garda Garvan Ware said “as far as I’m concerned, they are all independent”.
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A former school principal convicted of sexually abusing seven of his pupils has been sentenced to three years in jail.
Patrick Harte (78) was convicted of 11 counts of indecently assaulting seven pupils at the Sancta Maria Christian Brothers primary school in Synge Street, Dublin, between 1968 and 1970.
Afterwards Fr Tony Conlon, one of the victims and who is now a Catholic priest, said he “hoped and prayed” this day would come.
Outside Dublin’s Criminal Courts of Justice, Fr Conlon said they had fought the case for seven years and that “finally vindication has come for all of us”.
He said he had not thought they could ever get justice and it shows that no matter how long ago it was “that there is justice”.
The priest called on people to come forward “if you have been abused or hurt in anyway”. He urged people not to be ashamed and said that if they come forward “you will get the best help and support”.
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Priest said the abuse had ‘a paralysing effect’ on his life and prevented him from achieving so many things in life
A child sex abuse victim of a former school principal has said he had no idea his abuser was attacking other boys in the school.
After a trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court last March, Patrick Harte (78) was convicted of 11 counts of indecently assaulting seven pupils at the Sancta Maria Christian Brothers primary school on Synge Street, Dublin between September 1968 and September 1970.
At his sentence hearing on Thursday the court heard that when gardaí put the victims’ allegations to Harte in 2015, the former teacher claimed they had “a vendetta against him”.
Anne Rowland SC, prosecuting, told the court that there is no evidence that any of the victims were ever in contact with each other since the offending took place. Detective Garda Garvan Ware said “as far as I’m concerned, they are all independent”.
Harte, of Glendown Park, Templeogue, Dublin had denied the charges and in a speech to the court he claimed that the State had “validated” his teaching at the time and could not now “invalidate it”.
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SYDNEY (NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
July 7, 2020
By Elle Rixon
A former Catholic priest, accused of 139 child sexual offences spanning four decades, has died awaiting trial.
David Joseph Perrett, 82, was accused of assaulting 40 victims across eight parishes between the 1960s to 1990s, and had a trial date set for January 2021.
At his last appearance in court, in November 2019, Mr Perrett pleaded not guilty to the 139 charges.
In a statement, Bishop of Armidale Michael Kennedy said Perrett’s death would bring “significant disappointment” for alleged victims.
“His death means that survivors will not get to see these charges heard in court,” Bishop Kennedy said.
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In a new motion filed this week, an alleged church sex abuse survivor is fighting to unseal church documents.His case, along with more than 30 others, was immediatey stayed and moved to Federal court when the Archdiocese filed for bankruptcy in May.
The anonymous plaintiff referred to as JW Doe says former priest Lawrence Hecker sexually abused him. The Archdiocese placed Hecker on the 2018 list of clergy credibly accused of child sex abuse. According to the new motion, “the documents are relevant to all of Hecker’s victims as well as to the Archdiocese’s policy, practice, and procedure of covering up abuse allegations and enabling predators.”
“Basically, they’re saying this stuff that has been redacted by the Archdiocese should not have been redacted by the Archdiocese, that the plaintiffs were entitled to it and judge you need to make them turn that over to us, which is all really part of the discovery issues and why they don’t want to be in bankruptcy court, they want to be back in state court, where they can get all of this discovery,” said Fox 8 Legal Analyst Joe Raspanti.
The plaintiff’s attorneys also object to the Archdiocese’s payment to certain professionals, whose names are redacted in the motion. According to the federal documents, “these ‘ordinary course professionals’ should not be allowed to be retained by the Archdiocese” without “a thorough review of the documents” and “discovery to determine the full breadth of their involvement in the various cover-ups.” The plaintiff’s lawyers add “whatever the debtor was to pay these “professionals” would be better served paying sexual abuse claims.”
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Detroit – A falsely accused Detroit priest has been vindicated, an arbitration panel unanimously finding he was the target of defamation and awarding him damages of $125,000.
“I want to express my deep gratitude to my outstanding, dedicated attorneys for this vindication of truth,” Fr. Eduard Perrone said in comments to Church Militant. “I join all those who have prayed for me in thanking God. While there is more yet to be done in my case, this award marks a notable first triumph. Thank you, all.”
“I feel completely vindicated in everything we’ve tried to do,” Kathleen Klaus, attorney for Fr. Perrone, told Church Militant, “because here are three people, complete strangers — lawyers — strangers to the facts, strangers to the parties, and all of them found unanimously that Fr. Perrone was defamed by Nancy LePage.”
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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Times Picayune / New Orleans Advocate
July 10, 2020
By Ramon Antonio Vargas
Attorneys for a man who alleges he was preyed upon by a New Orleans priest wants a federal bankruptcy judge to unseal reams of confidential documents outlining how the Archdiocese of New Orleans handled accusations against the cleric.
The plaintiff’s attorneys first asked an Orleans Parish Civil District Court judge in early March to allow for the public release of those documents, and The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate, along with WWL, WDSU and WVUE, joined in the request, arguing that the documents held information which community members could use to protect themselves from the still-living priest, Lawrence Hecker.
But the archdiocese’s decision to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections halted that push indefinitely, along with lawsuits from the plaintiff and dozens of others whose cases were automatically stayed and transferred from state court to federal court.
Late Thursday, the plaintiff’s legal team filed a motion requesting that U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill, who’s presiding over the archdiocese’s reorganization filing, make the documents “immediately available to the public.”
“Knowing the whole truth without limitation is an important part” of clergy abuse survivors’ ability to retake “control of events that caused so much pain they have been forced to carry in silence for so long,” said the motion, prepared by attorneys Richard Trahant, John Denenea and Soren Gisleson, who represent dozens of clerical molestation claimants.
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“The longer this case stays in federal court, … the more likely the pedophile priests will die before receiving civil or criminal justice.”
The plaintiff in a Catholic clergy sex abuse lawsuit halted by the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ federal bankruptcy filing is seeking to have his case moved back into state court in hopes of continuing to pursue his claims.
In a filing late Tuesday, the plaintiff’s attorneys argue that the suit revolves around matters of state law and therefore should be transferred back to Orleans Parish Civil District Court rather than handled in the federal system.
It is the first time a clerical molestation claimant has asked to return his case to state court and advance it since the archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 1. The bankruptcy automatically stayed more than two dozen unresolved clergy abuse lawsuits filed in Orleans Parish civil court, which the archdiocese separately moved to the city’s federal courthouse.
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Dozens showed up outside mass in Richmond Friday to show their support for a priest suspended after blogging about sexual abuse committed by the clergy.
Nearly 50 parishioners silently protested and prayed outside the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Richmond on Friday. Many drove over three hours to show their support for Father Mark White and stand in opposition to Bishop Barry Knestout and his decisions to suspend him.
“You know, there’s a lot of talk these days about social justice. If you want to see what social injustice looks like, just look at this case that’s going on between the bishop and Father Mark,” Joseph Karen told 8News.
Back in April, Catholic Diocese of Richmond Bishop Barry Knestout ordered Father Mark White to leave Saint Joseph’s parish in Martinsville and Saint Francis of Assisi in Rocky Mount following their criticisms about the church’s handling of clergy sexual abuse.
“I think Father Mark did what he felt God was calling him to do,” said Judy Rogers.
Supporters and parishioners protested outside mass where diocesan priests gathered to renew their commitment to the priesthood. It was a celebration that Father White couldn’t be a part of during his suspension.
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Women claim disciplinary procedure failed them after abuse and violence at the hands of their clergymen husbands
July 10, 2020
By Daniel Foggo and Katherine Rushton
The Church of England has been accused of dismissing or ignoring serious complaints about priests’ conduct which are being made by their own wives.
An investigation by The Telegraph has identified instances where Church authorities failed to take action over allegations including sexual abuse, domestic violence and adultery, even when handed apparently compelling evidence.
On Friday evening one of the women who accused her husband of rape and marital violence said the Church was “turning a blind eye to abuse and immorality in its own ranks”.
She said: “They have absolutely been ignoring abuse. The clergy just want to protect themselves. They cover for each other and it comes from the top down.”
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The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups.
The Archdiocese of Denver said it received a $1.9 million dollar loan and some individual Catholic parishes also got money.
A spokesperson for the Archdiocese said it used that money to keep its 4,000 workers employed and to keep soup kitchens and food pantries open.
Read the full statement below.
Houses of worship and faith-based organizations that promote religious beliefs aren’t usually eligible for money from the U.S. Small Business Administration. But as the economy plummeted and jobless rates soared, Congress let faith groups and other nonprofits tap into the Paycheck Protection Program, a $659 billion fund created to keep main street open and Americans employed.
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BRISBANE (QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA)
Catholic Leader – Archdiocese of Brisbane
July 10, 2020
By Mark Bowling
A group of survivors of sexual abuse have defended the Seal of Confession as a vital lifeline and aided their recovery.
Their testimonies paints the confession box as a safe place to speak and ease their trauma, and contradicts the intent of new laws across Australia aimed at compelling priests to report child sexual abuse offences disclosed during confessions.
South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory have already enacted laws that make it a criminal offence for a priest to withhold abuse disclosures.
Western Australia and Queensland are moving towards similar laws.
New South Wales has deferred any action.
A spokesman for a survivor group in Western Australia said few people realised that victims and survivors – Catholic and non-Catholic – often visited the confessional precisely because of the Seal of Confession.
“The Seal offers victims a safe, secure and watertight place where they can be listened to without cost, where they can remain anonymous, and can decide what they’re ready, and not ready, to share – and all of this in complete confidence,” spokesman James Parker said.
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The Diocese of Erie has been dropped as a defendant in a lawsuit against Bishop Donald Trautman and the Diocese of Buffalo which claims they covered up a priest’s sex abuse of a 10-year-old boy in the mid-1980s.
The suit, filed in January, concerns actions that Trautman allegedly took while serving in the curia of the Buffalo diocese. After his time in Buffalo, Trautman was Bishop of Erie.
The Erie diocese had asked to be removed from the suit, saying that the claims against Trautman concern only his time in Buffalo.
“The Erie Diocese has absolutely no relationship whatsoever to this case,” it said in a dismissal request filed May 18.
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A Berks County man claims a priest sexually assaulted him in the mid-1970s when he was an altar boy between the ages of 10 and 13 at Sacred Heart Church in Luzerne Borough, according to a lawsuit that also alleges the Diocese of Scranton covered up prior incidents of the priest sexually abusing boys.
The priest named in the lawsuit is the late Rev. Robert Caparelli, an admitted and notorious child predator who is believed to have molested multiple boys during his 30 years as a diocesan priest.
In separate cases in the early 1990s, Caparelli was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting two altar boys between 1985 and 1989, in a Pike County rectory. Caparelli pleaded guilty to the abuse and died in prison in 1994.
The diocese settled at least three lawsuits filed by Caparelli’s victims. Two were filed by the parents of the Pike County boys and alleged the priest had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, when he sexually abused their sons.
The latest lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Luzerne Court Court. Daniel F. Monahan, an attorney from Exton, represents Joseph Storz, the plaintiff from Berks County. Storz, 56, is seeking punitive damages and a jury trial.
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The U.S. Roman Catholic Church used a special and unprecedented exemption from federal rules to amass at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, with many millions going to dioceses that have paid huge settlements or sought bankruptcy protection because of clergy sexual abuse cover-ups.
The church’s haul may have reached — or even exceeded — $3.5 billion, making a global religious institution with more than a billion followers among the biggest winners in the U.S. government’s pandemic relief efforts, an Associated Press analysis of federal data released this week found.
Houses of worship and faith-based organizations that promote religious beliefs aren’t usually eligible for money from the U.S. Small Business Administration. But as the economy plummeted and jobless rates soared, Congress let faith groups and other nonprofits tap into the Paycheck Protection Program, a $659 billion fund created to keep main street open and Americans employed.
By aggressively promoting the payroll program and marshaling resources to help affiliates navigate its shifting rules, Catholic dioceses, parishes, schools and other ministries have so far received approval for at least 3,500 forgivable loans, AP found.
The Archdiocese of New York, for example, received 15 loans worth at least $28 million just for its top executive offices. Its iconic St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue was approved for at least $1 million.
In Orange County, California, where a sparkling glass cathedral estimated to cost over $70 million recently opened, diocesan officials working at the complex received four loans worth at least $3 million.
And elsewhere, a loan of at least $2 million went to the diocese covering Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, where a church investigation revealed last year that then-Bishop Michael Bransfield embezzled funds and made sexual advances toward young priests.
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Doylestown – A former Catholic priest who served for 10 years at a Lower Bucks church has been sentenced to state prison for the sexual abuse of two altar boys.
Francis Trauger, 74, of Brooklyn, New York, pleaded guilty Wednesday, July 8 to two counts of indecent assault of a person under 13, admitting to one first-degree misdemeanor for each victim charged.
He had been accused of molesting two altar boys, one in the mid-1990s and another in the early 2000s. The abuse occurred while Trauger, known in the church community as “Father Frank”, was a priest at St. Michael the Archangel Church in Tullytown.
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Judge Jeffrey L. Finley sentenced Trauger to serve 18 to 36 months in state prison, a penalty in the aggravated range recommended by state sentencing guidelines, followed by seven years of probation.
“After evading justice for decades, this defendant is headed today to state prison for molesting two boys decades ago,” said District Attorney Matthew D. Weintraub. “I hope the message to any other victims out there is clear: It is almost never too late to come forward to speak your truth.”
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Megachurch pastor’s son named as the volunteer who confessed sexual attraction to children.
A California megachurch is defending the investigation and restoration of senior pastor John Ortberg as more information emerges about his concealment of a church volunteer’s confession of unwanted sexual attraction to children.
The pastor’s son Daniel Lavery, frustrated by what he has characterized as a lack of concern for the seriousness of sexual abuse, publicly named the volunteer on Twitter in late June: his brother and Ortberg’s youngest child, 30-year-old John Ortberg III.
Menlo Church elders first learned of the concealment when Lavery wrote them in November 2019. In the letter, Lavery said he believed there was “a credible basis for a serious and thorough investigation of every aspect of my brother’s work with children.” He said his father was choosing to take the younger Ortberg at his word that he had never acted on his sexual attractions, despite a clear pattern of seeking out opportunities to be alone with children.
“In the most charitable reading possible, my parents have acted with unconscionable disregard for their responsibilities as leaders, ministers, and parents,” Lavery wrote.
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Two separate panels of the Colorado Court of Appeals both concluded that the statute of limitations for failing to report child abuse begins when a party who is required to report first learns of the abuse and does not immediately notify authorities.
“In the absence of clear legislative intent, we must conclude that failure to report is not a continuing offense,” wrote Judge Jaclyn Casey Brown, “and that the statute of limitations begins to run when a mandatory reporter has reason to know or suspect child abuse or neglect but willfully fails to make an immediate report.”
18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler, whose office brought the charges, said on Thursday he was frustrated that two former school employees in the Cherry Creek School District would face no legal consequences for allegedly talking a minor out of her sex assault accusation.
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The pre-trial hearing of the former local priest accused of sexually assaulting two boys has been pushed to Sept. 4.
Jaime Marin-Cardona, 52, is charged with three counts of fourth-degree sexual assault, three counts of risk of injury to child and three counts of illegal sexual contact. He pleaded not guilty to all nine charges.
The warrant for Marin-Cardona’s arrest alleges that he groomed two boys over the course of four years, and sexually abused one of them over the same period of time.
The alleged abuse began in 2014 — the same year Marin-Cardona became a priest at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church on Golden Hill Road.
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St. Bonaventure NY – St. Bonaventure University is pulling the name of a deceased priest off one of its buildings thanks to an article written by a Brockport High graduate and local television journalist.
Msgr. James Hopkins, the Catholic Diocese of Erie said in July 2018, was the subject of an abuse report in 1993, long after his 1957 death. His name was among those included in a grand jury’s report in August 2018 on sexual abuse in six Pennsylvania dioceses including Erie.
Hopkins attended seminary at St. Bonaventure in the late 1890s and received an honorary degree in 1950, the university said. He was pastor at St. Titus Church in Titusville, and the sex abuse allegations stemmed from his time there.
Hopkins Hall has been the name of the university’s administration building. The sign in front of the building has been removed and it will be known as the Administration Building until renaming discussions start at an undetermined time.
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A former Latter-day Saint bishop admitted in federal court Thursday to having child pornography on his cellphone.
Timothy James Hallows, 62, of Kaysville, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in an agreement with federal prosecutors. He admitted to having images of prepubescent children being sexually assaulted by adults on his cellphone and sending them to a woman in the Philippines last November.
Hallows faces up to 20 years in prison. A sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.
Hallows was bishop of the Wellington Ward in the Kaysville Utah Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he was arrested in October and later charged with eight counts of sexual exploitation of a minor in 2nd District Court in Davis County.
The state charges were dismissed June 29 after the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Davis County Attorney’s Office decided to pursue the case in federal court.
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La víctima de abuso eclesiástico fue notificada el jueves por el Arzobispado de Córdoba.
CÓRDOBA-VATICANO. A más de un año de la denuncia mediática que Daniel Vera hizo contra el ex cura cordobés Walter Eduardo Avanzini por presuntos abusos sexuales en 1986, la Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, con sede en Roma, archivó la causa.
El jueves 2 de julio Daniel Vera fue notificado por el Arzobispado de Córdoba, a través de un escrito con fecha del 29 de abril, que la denuncia fue desestimada porque “los hechos referidos en la denuncia no reúnen los extremos previstos por la ley canónica vigentes en el año 1986”. Además, porque Walter Eduardo Avanzini“ya no posee estado clerical”.
Asimismo, instaron a que Vera siga con su denuncia en la justicia ordinaria: “Visto que la ley canónica no sustituye las leyes penales del Estado argentino, le ruego haga llegar, en homenaje a la verdad y la justicia, la denuncia ante las autoridades penales del estado”. La mencionada carta está firmada por el obispo Adolfo Uriona, de la diócesis de Río Cuarto.
Tras ser notificado, el cordobés manifestó a La Voz del Interior que irá “con todo por la parte penal” para que Avanzini sea juzgado por los abusos que padeció cuando era menor de edad.
El caso
Daniel Vera conoció al cura Walter Eduardo Avanzini (quien también era médico) en 1985cuando iba a visitar en el Seminario Mayor en Río Cuarto a su hermano, el ahora también ex sacerdote Raúl Vera. “Cuando lo conocí, me pareció un dios. Era un tipo supercarismático. Yo quería ser como él”, recuerda Vera. Según la denuncia del cordobés, sufrió abusos por parte del cura cuando tenía 17 años, en 1986, en Arias, una localidad a 360 kilómetros al sudeste de Córdoba Capital.
La denuncia de Vera no es la única que involucra a Avanzini. En 1983, un seminarista lo denunció por un intento de abuso. Pese a eso, fue ordenado cura a los meses por la diócesis de Río Cuarto. Y en 1998, cuando ya llevaba 13 años en el ejercicio del ministerio sacerdotal fue grabado en un programa de televisión mientras pagaba para tener sexo con un menor en la plaza de Córdoba Capital.
Luego de ese escándalo, el religioso no fue expulsado de la Iglesia Católica, sino enviado a un retiro espiritual en San Fernando, provincia de Buenos Aires. No hubo investigación judicial ni canónica.
Después de abandonar el sacerdocio, Avanzini ingresó como docente y secretario escolar cerca de Villa Carlos Paz. En 2009, entró como empleado del Ministerio de Educación provincial. En 2011 pasó a cumplir funciones a una inspección zonal dependiente de la Dirección General de Institutos Privados de Enseñanza de la Provincia de Córdoba (Dipe).
De 2014 a la actualidad, el ex cura estudió y sumó a su curriculum un profesorado, una licenciatura y una maestría. Esta última la rindió en 2016 cuyo tema de su tesis fue “Acoso entre pares desde la mirada de los actores educativos adultos”.
La Voz del Interior/Cosecha Roja/LVM
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After years of dodging allegations of abusing children, a former Catholic priest pleaded guilty Wednesday to molesting two altar boys in Bucks County decades ago.
Francis Trauger, 74, admitted his guilt to two counts of indecent assault of a minor, and Bucks County Judge Jeffrey L. Finley sentenced him to 18 to 36 months in a state prison and seven years’ probation.
Trauger did not speak during the hour-long hearing, which played out in a mostly empty courtroom, with only a few onlookers and a huddle of journalists.
His attorney, Brian McVann, said that the defrocked priest’s conduct “cannot be defended” and that Trauger felt compelled to admit his guilt and take responsibility for his actions.
“He has done great good in his life,” McVann said. “Unfortunately, it has been lost in this case.”
Finley, in handing down the sentence, told Trauger that any good he had done during his decades-long tenure with the church had been “torn down” and destroyed by these actions.
“I don’t know that you truly understood that,” the judge said. “Or at least that you truly didn’t understand that until you were arrested.”
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Tullytown PA – A former Catholic priest pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon to sexually abusing two altar boys in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Father Francis Trauger was sentenced to 18 to 36 months in a state prison in addition to seven years probation.
Trauger served at St. Michael the Archangel in Tullytown between 1993 and 2003, when the assaults happened.
Michael McDonnell, of Bristol, was molested by Trauger in 1981. He says this is a step towards closure.
Trauger was removed from the priesthood in 2003 and two years later was named in the Philadelphia Grand Jury Report about predator priests.
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A new round of lawsuits filed against the order that runs the Delbarton School in Morris Township underscores questions about how allegedly abusive monks are being dealt with even now — with one still having voicemail at a residence on school grounds after being the subject of another lawsuit settled two years ago.
Attorneys filed six lawsuits Tuesday that contain new accusations of sexual abuse allegedly committed by five men who have been monks of St. Mary’s Abbey and the Order of St. Benedict and one former Delbarton lay teacher. This was the first wave, the attorneys said, of what is expected to be more than 20 such complaints.
The accused clerics are Timothy Brennan, Justin Capato, Donal Fox, Benedict Michael Worry and Malachy Robert Flavin. Also accused is a former teacher, Giacomo Pagano. All six men have been the subjects of prior sex abuse settlements made by the order.
Capato, Fox and Worry were accused in a 2015 civil complaint settled in 2018. Last year, a Catholic directory still listed all three as priests assigned to St. Mary’s Abbey. Worry has a phone extension at the abbey.
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When Catholic Charities of Buffalo officials announced in January they would seek to raise $10 million in the 2020 appeal, the big question was how much an anticipated Buffalo Diocese bankruptcy filing might hurt the human services agency’s fundraising.
But the agency faced an even bigger obstacle than the diocese’s February bankruptcy filing when the global coronavirus pandemic shut down parish life and Masses in 161 Catholic churches across Western New York for three months during the heart of the appeal effort.
Despite the pandemic, Catholic Charities ended up raising $8.4 million through the appeal, which ended June 30. It was $1.6 million short of the goal, but Deacon Steve Schumer, president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit, said he was very happy with the results, especially under the extraordinary circumstances of the past few months.
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The Diocese of St. Cloud has announced a deadline for claims for victims and survivors of clergy sex abuse.
The United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota issued an order Tuesday saying anyone making a claim against the Diocese for sex abuse must make a claim with the bankruptcy court no later than 5:00 p.m. October 21, 2020. This is to ensure the claim is considered for compensation if the person believes the Diocese of St. Cloud is responsible for any injury or other damages to them because they claim that they were sexually abused by a priest, a clergyman, a worker, a volunteer, an employee, or other person or entity associated with the Diocese.
If you would like to get additional information, or make a claim, click here. You can also call 520-770-8712.
The deadline is part of the $22.5 million settlement framework agreed to by clergy sex abuse survivors, attorneys, and the Diocese.
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Rochester NY – Testimony from Rochester’s former bishop is confirming he routinely reassigned to ministry priests accused of pedophilia.
In testimony released on Monday, Rochester’s Bp. Emeritus Matthew Clark admits under oath that he was aware of sexual abuse allegations against priests, who he nonetheless returned to active ministry after sending them to rehabilitation centers. Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney representing 94 sexual abuse victims suing the diocese of Rochester, says Clark’s deposition, given in March, indicates Clark did shelter known pedophile priests.
“The testimony by Bp. Matthew Clark under oath in his deposition of March 3, 2020 indicates that Bp. Clark hid pedophilia from the public for decades just as clergy sexual abuse victims had suspected,” Garabedian commented.
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Twenty new lawsuits were filed against the Diocese of Ogdensburg under the New York Child Victims Act Tuesday.
The suits collectively named 14 priests.
“The Diocese of Ogdensburg takes all allegations of abuse seriously, and these new allegations will be investigated,” Diocese of Ogdensburg Communications Director Darcy Fargo said.
“We hope and pray that victims of abuse are able to find healing and reconciliation, and that justice is served in these cases.”
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The statute of limitations for reporting sexual assaults will prevent a potential case involving a priest or pastor from being prosecuted, according to District Attorney Matt Foster.
“I tried to see if the United States Attorney’s Office would be able to prosecute, but they didn’t think they could prosecute the case either,” Foster said.
Hancock County Sheriff’s Det. Stephen McFarland last week took a complaint from a New Jersey man who reported sexual assaults were committed against him between 1978 and 1980 in Dedham.
The statute of limitations is “complex,” the detective said. “It depends on the charge, the age of victim at the time, the date of offense and laws in effect at the time.”
Foster said “basically we cannot prosecute a late report that is alleged to have occurred prior to Oct. 9, 1980 for GSA [gross sexual assault] of a child under 16.”
Whether the accused has been out of state for any period of time during the statute of limitations is another factor, Foster said. For example, any time a defendant spent out of state after the alleged crime, can be added to the statute of limitation to extend it up to an additional five years.
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