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.

February 19, 2020

Bankruptcy filing probably means less compensation for Scout victims who ‘wanted their day in court,’ attorney says

DALLAS (TX)
Dallas Morning News

February 18, 2020

By LaVendrick Smith and Catherine Marfin

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2020/02/19/bankruptcy-filing-probably-means-less-compensation-for-scout-victims-who-wanted-their-day-in-court-attorney-says/

The Irving-based Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday as it faces a wave of sexual abuse lawsuits.

By Tuesday afternoon, Paul Mones said his inbox had at least 400 new emails, many of them from men who were upset they’ll never see their day in court.

Mones represents hundreds of men nationwide who say they were sexually abused as children in the Boy Scouts of America.

The Irving-based organization filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday as it’s facing a wave of sexual abuse lawsuits. The move puts those clients’ cases on hold and forces victims to seek compensation through a claims system.

“A lot of them are very angry,” Mones said of his clients. “A lot of them are feeling resentful that the Boy Scouts didn’t take care of the problem when they were a viable organization when they could have. And now they’re left to file in a cold and calculated climate.”

The bankruptcy filing comes after years of sexual abuse accusations against BSA and declining membership. The organization said that by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and establishing a trust for payments, it will “ensure that victims of past abuse in Scouting are equitably compensated.”

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

How Boy Scouts’ bankruptcy is bad news for sex abuse victims

ALLENTOWN (PA)
Morning Call

February 19, 2020

By Paul Muschick

I never thought anyone would find a way to treat sexual abuse victims worse than the Catholic church, but the Boy Scouts of America has done it.

By filing for bankruptcy Tuesday, the Boy Scouts likely blocked victims from being able to confront their accusers in court and force them to confess their sins and divulge their secrets. That’s because the bankruptcy halts all litigation, nationwide.

There aren’t many lawsuits in Pennsylvania because, unlike in some other states including New Jersey and New York, state lawmakers haven’t opened a window for retroactive lawsuits by people who were abused as children and lost their right to sue because of the statute of limitations.

And that’s at least partly because of the church’s influence.

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

Church liable for sex assaults

BRANDON (MANITOBA, CANADA)
Brandon Sun

February 19, 2020

By Erin DeBooy

[The Anglican C]hurch is liable for the sexual assaults a woman experienced more than 50 years ago at the hands of a priest.

“It is clear that the Anglican Church of Canada did not and does not condone the sexual abuse of children by priests acting on their behalf. However, that fact is not determinative in deciding if the Diocese of Brandon should be held vicariously liable for the sexual assaults inflicted on the plaintiff by (Jack) Hopper,” Justice John Menzies wrote in his decision delivered last month.

“The sexual abuse committed by Hopper and the placement of Hopper as priest in the community of Grand Rapids by the Diocese of Brandon are strongly connected. I have little hesitation in finding that the Diocese of Brandon is vicariously liable for the sexual abuse inflicted on the plaintiff by Hopper.”

In the lawsuit against The Anglican Church of Canada, The Diocese of Brandon filed in 2014, the plaintiff, now 63, claimed she was sexually assaulted twice by Hopper, an Anglican priest, in the basement of an Anglican church in Misipawistik Cree Nation (Grand Rapids First Nation).

The woman told the court during a three-day trial for the lawsuit in Brandon Court of Queen’s Bench in September that Hopper assaulted her on two occasions after Sunday school a few months apart.

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

Reformers’ ideas gain momentum in German synodal way

KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

February 19, 2020

By Donald Snyder

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Germany’s defense minister, agrees with advocates of radical change in the nation’s Roman Catholic Church.

Kramp-Karrenbauer, 57, often known as “AKK” in German media, a member of the governing Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told journalists on Feb. 3 that she wished there were many more women in church leadership, beginning with their serving as deacons.

“And I am for the abolition of celibacy. It would help to make more people enthusiastic to serve the church,” she said, adding that the decision to live without a family poses too great an obstacle for those wanting to dedicate their lives to the church.

Kramp-Karrenbauer’s fellow CDU member, Heribert Hirte, said in a telephone interview that AKK entered a political minefield when she called for an end to celibacy in the priesthood. He said the church opposes such political intervention into its internal affairs. Still, he praised Kramp-Karrenbauer for her courage in making a public statement.

*

The original impetus for the dialogue was concern about a massive sexual abuse scandal documented in a 2018 report, which had come under immediate attack from conservatives like the bishop of Regensburg, Rudolf Voderholzer, who charged that the study was unscientific and unprofessional.

“It was an aggressive challenge to the accuracy of the sexual abuse study, and an attempt to destroy the Frankfurt meeting,” said Philipp Gessler, a Berlin resident who was formerly a religion editor at Deutschlandfunk, German public radio. Gessler is the author of three books on 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.

The Catholic Difference: Beyond Amazonia

HYATTSVILLE (MD)
Catholic Standard – Archdiocese of Washington

February 19, 2020

By George Weigel

The post-synodal apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia [Dear Amazonia] did not accept or endorse the 2019 Amazonian synod’s proposal that viri probati – mature married men – be ordained priests in that region. So until the German Church’s “synodal path” comes up with a similar proposal (which seems more than likely), a period of pause has been created in which some non-hysterical reflection on the priesthood and celibacy can take place throughout the world Church. Several points might be usefully pondered in the course of that conversation.

The first involves celibacy and the Kingdom.

Christians live, or ought to live, in a different time-zone because the Kingdom of God is among us, by the Lord’s own declaration in the gospels. Different vocations in the Church bear radical witness to that truth and remind the rest of us of it. The vocations that live the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience in a consecrated way do that. So should the celibate priesthood.

It was said openly during the Amazonian synod, and it’s often muttered in other contexts, that celibacy makes no sense to many people. Which is quite true – if those people are living in pagan societies that haven’t heard the Gospel or post-Christian societies that have abandoned the Gospel and haven’t been re-evangelized. Celibacy, a total gift of self to God, only makes sense in a Kingdom context. So if celibacy doesn’t make sense in Amazonia or Dusseldorf or Hamburg, that likely has something to do with a failure to preach the Gospel of the inbreaking Kingdom of God in Amazonia, Dusseldorf, and Hamburg.

All of which is to say that the failures of Catholic Lite and Catholic Zero aren’t going to be addressed by lighter Catholic Lite or less-than-zero Catholic Zero.

The second point to ponder involves celibacy and the broader reform of the priesthood.

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

This Indiana bill could possibly help victims of priest sex abuse

EVANSVILLE (IN)
Courier & Press

February 19, 2020

By Jon Webb

It’s been more than a year since a former Evansville man stood before the Indiana Senate to share something private and devastating.

On Feb. 13, 2019, Chris Compton told the Judiciary Committee that the late Rev. Raymond Kuper had sexually abused him while Compton was a 9-year-old student at Christ the King.

He was there to advocate for a Senate bill that would have given accusers of childhood sexual abuse more time to pursue civil cases in incidents that had long eclipsed the statute of limitations.

Now, a similar-but-compromised bill is working its way through the legislature.

SB 109 blitzed through the Senate 44-2 earlier this month. And Wednesday morning, it landed in front of the House committee on courts and criminal code, chaired by Evansville-area Rep. Wendy McNamara.

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

February 18, 2020

Iglesia de EU financió a curas pederastas de Argentina

SAN RAFAEL (ARGENTINA)
La Razón de México [Ciudad de México, México]

February 18, 2020

By LA_RAZON_ONLINE

Read original article

El veterano excardenal estadounidense, Theodor McCarrik, cuyo prestigio se desplomó en 2018, cuando fue destituido al hallarse evidencia creíble de su conducta sexual con seminaristas y menores de edad durante décadas, volvió al centro del escándalo después de que la Arquidiócesis de Washington revelara que también financió, en secreto, la congregación de un amigo suyo en Argentina, quien, como él, enfrenta señalamientos por pederastia.

De acuerdo con documentos de la contabilidad de la Iglesia estadounidense, obtenidos por The Washington Post, en los años previos a su retiro, McCarrick donó un millón de dólares a la agrupación argentina Instituto del Verbo Encarnado.

Los registros de la Arquidiócesis dan cuenta de cómo el excardenal envió docenas de cheques, algunos de hasta 50 mil dólares, al sacerdote Carlos Miguel Buela —fundador de Verbo Encarnado—, entre 2004 y 2017, desde una cuenta caritativa.

En esos años, Buela desafió las sanciones del Vaticano por su conducta sexual con seminaristas, pues su congregación “obstruyó sistemáticamente” los esfuerzos de Roma para supervisar sus actividades, según un texto citado por el Post.

“Usted ha sido un verdadero padre para nuestra familia religiosa, cuidándonos y guiándonos. Una vez más, Su Eminencia, sinceramente deseo agradecerle”

Instituto Verbo Encarnado

Carta de 2005

Una revisión de autoridades vaticanas descubrió que los lazos financieros entre McCarrick y el grupo de Buela eran mucho más extensos de lo que se conocía.

En diciembre pasado, el diario estadounidense también informó que durante casi dos décadas McCarrick desvió 600 mil dólares del “Fondo Especial del Arzobispo” a clérigos de alto rango, incluidos asesores papales y dos papas (Juan Pablo II y Benedicto XVI), algunos de los destinatarios eran responsables de evaluar las denuncias de abuso sexual en su contra.

En un comunicado, el Vaticano informó que había emitido varias órdenes a Carlos Buela, debido a su “negligencia en el cumplimiento de las disposiciones” impuestas en 2010 por conducta inapropiada con seminaristas adultos, algunos menores de edad. Según el boletín de prensa, el sacerdore argentino fue finalmente trasladado a un monasterio en España.

El Vaticano también indicó que de manera reciente había nombrado a un cardenal para encargarse de investigar “los problemas del Instituto Verbo Encarnado”.

Buela formó el instituto en Argentina, en 1984, con el fin de difundir ideas católicas ultraconservadoras. La congregación creció rápidamente, resultado de intensas campañas para reclutar a jóvenes.

En su sitio de Internet, el Verbo Encarnado afirma que tiene presencia, con sacerdotes, monjes y seminaristas, en 88 diócesis de 38 países.

Desde su fundación, el grupo de Buela fue controvertido por su impulso a ideales radicales de derecha, incluso se le asocia con la dictadura militar en el país sudamericano, que dejó 30 mil desapariciones, asesinatos, torturas, violaciones, apropiación de menores y exilios forzosos.

“El trabajo del Vaticano para examinar a Verbo Encarnado fue obstruido (por Carlos Buela). Se le ordenó vivir bajo estrecha supervisión en un monasterio en España”

Vaticano

Comunicado 2019

Buela también creía que la Iglesia católica estaba “siendo invadida por marxistas”, entre quienes señalaba al actual Papa Francisco, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, quien durante su acción en Argentina se negó a ordenar sacerdotes del Verbo Encarnado, por los señalamientos contra su fundador.

De acuedo con el diario Página 12, a fines de la década de 1990, clérigos de alto rango en Argentina, incluido el Papa Francisco —entonces arzobispo de Buenos Aires— pidieron a Juan Pablo II que cerrara los seminarios del Verbo Encarnado, cuando la congregación ya se expandía en EU, con seguidores de habla hispana.

Exmiembros de estos grupos reconocieron que el excardenal Theodor McCarrick fue instrumental en esa expansión.

En 2005, asignó a la agrupación una propiedad en Maryland, para que fundara un seminario. McCarrick se retiró al año siguiente, pero continuó recaudando dinero para esa causa; documentos revelan generosas contribuciones, con más de 200 mil dólares de 2006 a 2009, un momento en que Buela enfrentaba la creciente presión por irregularidades sexuales.

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

Catholic Diocese of Richmond sets up program to help, pay people sexually abused by clergy

NORFOLK (VA)
13 News Now

February 17, 2020

https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/local/virginia/catholic-diocese-of-richmond-sets-up-program-to-help-pay-people-sexually-abused-by-clergy/291-c24063a9-a4e2-49ca-86f5-3e5addada847

The Independent Reconciliation Program allows people who were abused sexually as children to submit claims. They may be eligible to receive a monetary payment.

Richmond VA – The Catholic Diocese of Richmond said it set up a program to help people who were children when they were abused by clergy members.

The Independent Reconciliation Program is administered independently by BrownGreer PLC, which is based in Richmond. The diocese said the firm specializes in settlement administration.

The program has its own website which allows people to file a claim if they were abused by the Catholic clergy in the diocese. The claims administrator will review the claims and determine any monetary payment the filer should receive. The Richmond Diocese will not reject or change the administrator’s decision in any way.

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

Windsor woman calls Pope’s vows a ‘failure,’ one year after sex abuse summit

TORONTO (ONTARIO, CANADA)
CBC News

February 18, 2020

It’s been about one year since Pope Francis vowed to confront sexual abusers in the Catholic church with “the wrath of God,” end the coverups by their superiors and prioritize the victims of this “brazen, aggressive and destructive evil.”

Now, a Windsor, Ont. woman and a group of victims of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy are heading back to Rome to take stock of the promises made at last year’s summit on the issue.

“[Pope Francis] came out strong. He came out hard, with a lot of promises to the world that he was going to put an end to this and put safety measures into place to ensure that there was no more — or to prevent future coverups,” said Brenda Brunelle, who was abused from age 12.

“Speaking as a survivor and an advocate for those abused by priests, I’m afraid to say that my report card — our report — card is a failure.”

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

Pope says new Vatican finance laws, norms are working

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service via National Catholic Reporter

February 17, 2020

By Cindy Wooden

The decade-long process of updating the laws of Vatican City State is part of the Vatican’s support for international commitments to protect people and safeguard vulnerable groups, who are “frequently the victims of new, odious forms of illegality,” Pope Francis said.

Retired Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis have made major changes to Vatican City legislation to strengthen laws against money laundering, tax evasion, child sexual abuse and child pornography.

Meeting officials of the Vatican City State court Feb. 15, Francis repeated his conviction that the latest financial scandal being investigated by the Vatican City police and tribunal is a sign of progress because the report of suspicious activity originated with the Vatican general auditor.

While the investigation continues into the financing of a London real estate investment and while the parties involved have the right to a presumption of innocence, the pope said the flagging of the irregular activity “shows the efficacy and efficiency of the counter-actions as requested by international standards.”

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

Will compulsion succeed where conversion has failed on Vatican financial reform?

DENVER (CO)
Crux

February 18, 2020

By John L. Allen Jr.

Rome – When Pope Francis recently addressed the ongoing financial reform of the Vatican, he couched the argument in largely spiritual, pastoral and moral terms.

Financial breakdowns recently brought to light, the pope said, “beyond their possible criminality, are hard to reconcile with the nature and purpose of the Church, and they’ve created confusion and worry within the community of the faithful.” He was speaking to Vatican judges on the occasion of the opening of their judicial year.

Though the pope avoided specifics, the reference almost certainly was to a recent contretemps involving a $220 million land deal in London (mostly financed by collections from Peter’s Pence) in which the Vatican’s Secretariat of State allegedly tried to skirt reporting requirements for a loan intended to buy up the remaining shares of the property. That’s an especially alarming development, given that the Secretariat of State also bears the lion’s share of responsibility for enforcing the Vatican’s own accountability and transparency measures.

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

Facing a Wave of Sex-Abuse Claims, Boy Scouts of America Files for Bankruptcy

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

February 18, 2020

By Mike Baker

The nonprofit group, which counts more than two million youth participants, follows Catholic dioceses and U.S.A. Gymnastics in seeking bankruptcy protection amid sex-abuse cases.

The Boy Scouts of America, an iconic presence in the nation’s experience for more than a century, filed for bankruptcy protection early Tuesday, succumbing to financial pressures that included a surge in legal costs over its handling of sexual abuse allegations.

Founded in 1910, the Boy Scouts have long maintained internal files at their headquarters in Texas detailing decades of allegations involving nearly 8,000 “perpetrators,” according to an expert hired by the organization. Lawyers have said in recent months that former scouts have come forward to identify hundreds of other abusers not included in those files.

The bankruptcy filing, in Delaware, is expected to disrupt continuing litigation and establish a deadline for when former scouts can pursue claims.

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

Boy Scouts of America files for bankruptcy amid hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits

ATLANTA (GA)
CNN

February 18, 2020

By Laura Ly

The Boy Scouts of America has filed for bankruptcy, according to a court document filed in Delaware bankruptcy court early Tuesday.

The youth organization, which celebrated its 110th anniversary February 8, listed liabilities of between $100 million and $500 million, but $50,000 or less in assets.

The bankruptcy filing comes at a time when the organization faces hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits, thousands of alleged abuse victims and dwindling membership numbers. As a result of the filing, all civil litigation against the organization is suspended.

Paul Mones, a Los Angeles-based attorney representing “hundreds of sexual abuse victims in individual lawsuits,” called the organization’s bankruptcy filing a “tragedy.”

“These young boys took an oath. They pledged to be obedient, pledged to support the Scouts and pledged to be honorable. Many of them are extremely angry that that’s not what happened to them and the Boy Scouts of America did not step up in the way they should have,” Mones said.

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

Boy Scouts files Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the face of thousands of child abuse allegations

McLEAN (VA)
USA Today

February 18, 2020

By Cara Kelly, Nathan Bomey, and Lindsay Schnell, and Alexis Arnold

Boy Scouts of America filed for bankruptcy protection early today amid declining membership and a drumbeat of child sexual abuse allegations that have illuminated the depth of the problem within the organization and Scouts’ failure to get a handle on it.

After months of speculation and mounting civil litigation, the Chapter 11 filing by the scouting organization’s national body was unprecedented in both scope and complexity. It was filed in Delaware Bankruptcy Court overnight.

The exact effects on Boy Scouts’ future operations are unknown, leading to speculation about the organization’s odds for survival, the impact on local troops and how bankruptcy could change the dynamic for abuse survivors who have yet to come forward. Some fear that at a minimum it will prevent survivors from naming their abuser in open court.

“They’re going into bankruptcy not because they don’t have the money,” said Tim Kosnoff, who has tried thousands of child abuse cases, including many against the Boy Scouts and Catholic Church. “They’re going into bankruptcy to hide … a Mount Everest in dirty secrets.”

In a statement, the organization said: “The BSA cares deeply about all victims of abuse and sincerely apologizes to anyone who was harmed during their time in Scouting.”

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

Medical Update

GREENCASTLE (IN)
On This Rock

February 13, 2020

By Fr. John Hollowell

As you are aware, a one day trip to the Mayo Clinic this week has turned into a four day trip. I want to begin by saying I have so much gratitude in my heart for the wonderful medical professionals I’ve been able to work with through this entire process…such a great blessing in our country, and the Mayo Clinic is certainly a bright spot in our world. My family doctor, Dr. Keith Landry has been wonderful, as well as my cardiologist, a Roncalli dad, Dr. Michael Barron. I have a nurse, Lauren Alcorn, that has been such a kind help through all that has come up these past 12 months. That care has continued here at Mayo. Each person has played a key role in this process, and I am very thankful and amazed by the state of medicine in the US in 2020.

*
One request: When the scandals of 2018 broke out, most of you know that they have affected me deeply, as they have most of the Church. I prayed in 2018 that if there was some suffering I could undertake on behalf of all the victims, some cross I could carry, I would welcome that. I feel like this is that cross, and I embrace it willingly. I would love to have a list of victims of priestly abuse that I could pray for each day. I would like to dedicate each day of this recovery/chemo/radiation to 5-10 victims, and I would like, if possible, to even write them a note letting them know of my prayers for them. IF YOU KNOW OF A PERSON OR YOU ARE A VICTIM YOURSELF, with the victims permission, please send me the name and, if possible, a mailing address so that I can send them a note, that would be much appreciated. my email address is fatherjohnhollowell at gmail.

Also, I would like to pass this word on to SNAP, so if you know someone that is in leadership for SNAP, please let them know I’m interested in speaking with them to see if there’s some way I could get the names of people to pray for and, if possible, send a note to in the midst of all of this.

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

Priest with brain tumor ’embraces it willingly’ for victims of clergy abuse

DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency via Catholic Herald

February 18, 2020

When Fr John Hollowell went to Mayo Clinic for brain scans after what doctors thought was a stroke, he received a shocking diagnosis. The scans revealed that instead of stroke, he had a brain tumor.

While it is a serious diagnosis, Hollowell, a priest of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, said he believes the tumor was an answer to prayer.

“When the scandals of 2018 broke out, most of you know that they have affected me deeply, as they have most of the Church,” he wrote in his blog, On This Rock.

“I prayed in 2018 that if there was some suffering I could undertake on behalf of all the victims, some cross I could carry, I would welcome that. I feel like this is that cross, and I embrace it willingly.”

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

McCarrick was a ‘devourer of souls,’ former priest secretary tells parish

DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

February 15, 2020

Washington D.C. – A priest who was the personal secretary of former cardinal Theodore McCarrick said he is sickened by manipulative fundraising tactics employed while McCarrick was Archbishop of Washington. The priest called McCarrick a “manipulator” and a “devourer of souls.”

“For a portion of my priesthood, I worked directly for the foremost fund-raiser in the Church – in the whole Church, the universal Church.”

“He was a master of the art, and knew every technique and tactic to its finest point. He paired with that an extraordinary, even preternatural sense of people, what they wanted and what they needed,” Monsignor K. Bartholomew Smith wrote Feb. 15 on a blog he maintains for parishioners of St. Bernadette’s parish in Silver Spring, Maryland.

“My stomach churns at the recollection, and not only because of how successful he was at this; but also because of what he obtained by this. He received the gratitude, the affection, and the emotional dependence of untold numbers of people high and low, rich and poor, because he made himself the bestower of the approval that they craved, told them that they were good and God Himself was grateful to them, and delivered them from the authentic demands of Jesus and His Gospel.”

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

Priest sexually abused student more than 100 times decades ago at N.J. Catholic school, suit says

NEWARK (NJ)
NJ.com

February 18, 2020

By Anthony G. Attrino

The Diocese of Paterson is facing a lawsuit accusing a priest who taught at the now-shuttered Don Bosco Technical High School of sexual abusing a student more than 100 times in the 1970s.

Former priest Sean Rooney abused the student at various locations including the Paterson school from 1973 to 1975 beginning when the victim was 13 years old, according the suit filed Feb. 7 in Superior Court in Bergen County. The victim, identified only by his initials in the suit, is now a Florida resident.

Rooney is not on the list of 188 priests and deacons deemed “credibly accused” of sexual abuses involving children released last year jointly by New Jersey’s Catholic dioceses. The Diocese of Paterson, which did not return messages seeking comment on the suit Monday, had 28 names on that list.

The website bishop-accountability.org, a group that tracks allegations against priest, includes Rooney and notes he was accused in a 2013 lawsuit of a sexually abusing a 14-year-old seminary student at a retreat house in Massachusetts and at a seminary in New York. The Catholic church has been criticized for leaving hundreds of names off its list of credibly accused priests.

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Priest accused of abuse in New Jersey moved to Alabama

BIRMINGHAM (AL)
AL.com

February 17, 2020

By Greg Garrison

A Catholic priest who was accused of sexually abusing a minor more than 100 times in the 1970′s in New Jersey was later assigned by his religious order to Birmingham, where he lived and worked for 20 years and helped run a youth outreach to the Marks Village housing project.

The Diocese of Paterson, N.J., is facing a lawsuit accusing the priest, who taught at the now-defunct Don Bosco Technical High School, of molesting a student, according to a report by NJ.com.

Sean Rooney was assigned in 1983 by his religious order, the Salesians of Don Bosco, to Birmingham and remained in residence as an administrator through 2003. The Salesians for decades maintained a priest residence in Gate City next to Holy Rosary Catholic Church and ran a youth oratory, an outreach to young people in the nearby housing project. Salesian priests were assigned to oversee both Holy Rosary and St. John Bosco Catholic Church in Woodlawn.

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

Court evidence suggests abuse cover-up by high ranking Legionaries of Christ

DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

February 18, 2020

By Jonah McKeown

Milan, Italy – Evidence to be presented in an upcoming criminal trial suggests an elaborate cover-up of sexual abuse allegations against a former priest of the Legionaries of Christ whom an Italian court has convicted of sexual abuse of a minor.

The case, set to begin in March, names four Legion priests and a Legion lawyer who are accused of attempting to obstruct justice and extort the family of a sex abuse victim, according to reporting by the Associated Press.

The names of the priests and lawyer in question have not been released, and the Legion did not respond to CNA’s request for comment.

The Legion of Christ, a religious congregation consisting of fewer than 1,000 priests worldwide, was long the subject of critical reports and rumors before it was rocked by Vatican acknowledgment that its charismatic founder, Father Marcial Maciel, lived a double life, sexually abused seminarians, and fathered children. Maciel abused at least 60 minors.

In 2006 the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, with the approval of Benedict XVI, removed Maciel from public ministry and ordered him to spend the rest of his life in prayer and penance. The congregation decided not to subject him to a canonical process because of his advanced age, and he died in 2008.

Benedict XVI appointed Cardinal Valasio De Paolis, a highly respected canon lawyer, to lead the religious order in 2010.

De Paolis, who died in 2017, has faced criticism for leaving much of the leadership of the congregation from Maciel’s time in place and failing to investigate claims of cover-up.

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

Little progress since Vatican’s sexual abuse summit, say activists

ROME (ITALY)
The Guardian

February 17, 2020

By Angela Giuffrida

Pope yet to implement crucial reforms to canon law one year on from summit

The Vatican has done little to seriously address the problem of clerical sexual abuse one year on from an unprecedented summit at which bishops and cardinals heard the testimony of victims, activists have said.

Pope Francis closed the four-day summit last February promising that the Catholic church would “spare no effort” to bring to justice paedophile priests and the bishops who covered up their crimes, but so far he has failed to implement crucial reforms to canon law that would allow that to happen.

About 190 bishops and cardinals attended the summit, where they heard traumatic testimony from people who had been raped and molested by priests, and about the indifference that the Catholic church’s hierarchy had shown towards them.

Anne Barrett Doyle, a co-founder of Bishop Accountability, which tracks clergy sexual abuse cases, said that while the summit did a tremendous amount of good by raising the profile of the issue, increasing media coverage of cases and encouraging victims to come forward, it had not led to a “zero-tolerance” policy.

“By that I mean ‘one strike and you’re out’ for abusers, at least out of the ministry, and ‘one strike and you’re out’ for enablers,” Doyle said on the sidelines of a press conference in Rome on Monday.

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Survivor advocacy group accuses pope of cherry-picking abuse reforms

ROME (ITALY)
Crux

February 18, 2020

By Elise Ann Allen

As the one-year mark of Pope Francis’s landmark summit on child protection approaches, survivors of clerical abuse are arguing that the pope, while taking positive steps, is inconsistent in his response to the problem.

Survivors have also called for the publication of the report on the Vatican’s lengthy investigation into former cardinal Theodore McCarrick and criticized Francis for apparently backing out of a commitment to a zero-tolerance approach to the issue.

In the past year, zero tolerance has “dropped out of the pope’s lexicon,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, co-director of the Bishops Accountability advocacy group, who spoke to journalists Feb. 17.

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Pope Francis has done ‘too little’ on sexual abuse crisis, victims say

ROME (ITALY)
DPAInternational.com

February 17, 2020

Activists representing the victims of predatory priests in the Catholic Church said that Pope Francis and the Vatican had failed to properly address the clergy sex abuse crisis.

Abuse survivors’ groups held a news conference in Rome to pass judgment on the Vatican’s record a year after a global bishops’ summit in which Francis promised bold action.

What has been done since is “too little and too late and still not enough,” said Matthias Katsch, a spokesman for German abuse survivors’ organisation Eckiger Tisch.

“This crisis affects the whole church worldwide. It will not end until all stories have been told and have been heard, all crimes have been solved and all victims have been compensated,” he added.

Phil Saviano, a victim and campaigner from the U.S. who helped uncover the infamous “Spotlight” abuse cover-up scandal in Boston, also addressed reporters.

Speaking on behalf of the Bishop Accountability group, he said that studies in the U.S., Australia and Germany suggest that the percentage of child molesters within the Catholic clergy is at least 5 per cent.

He called it “a highly believable number.”

At the end of last year’s summit, Francis said the Catholic Church would stop covering up the crimes of paedophile priests “as was usual in the past.”

He followed up with two key reforms: He made it compulsory for clergy to report cases of abuse or cover up to their church superiors (but not to police), and abolished Vatican secrecy laws for such cases.

But according to Anne Barrett Doyle, Co-director of Bishop Accountability, church rules are still not strict enough.

“It is entirely possible today, as it was a year ago, for a bishop to knowingly keep an abuser in ministry or return him to ministry and for neither one of them to suffer a consequence under canon law,” she said.

“It is preposterous that a global organisation that cares for millions of children still finds it OK to return a child molester to his job under certain circumstances,” Barrett Doyle said.

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Las víctimas consideran que el Vaticano está a “medio camino” para acabar con los abusos

[Victims believe that the Vatican is “halfway” to end abuses]

ROME (ITALY)
Vida Neuva Digital (Spain)

February 17, 2020

“Sabemos que la Iglesia por sí misma no va a cambiar las cosas, la opinión pública tiene que presionarla”, sostiene Matthias Katsch, de la red ‘Ending Clergy Abuse’

Los responsables de Bishopaccountability.org aplauden los pasos dados un año después de la conferencia sobre protección de menores, aunque consideran que queda mucho por hacer

[We know that the Church itself will not change things, public opinion has to press it,” says Matthias Katsch, of the ‘Ending Clergy Abuse’ network

[Those responsible for Bishopaccountability.org applaud the steps taken a year after the conference on child protection, although they believe that much remains to be done]

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Missbrauchs-Opferverbände vom Vatikan enttäuscht

[Abuse victim associations disappointed by the Vatican]

ROME (ITALY)
Deutsche Welle

February 17, 2020

Auch ein Jahr nach dem Gipfel im Vatikan zum sexuellen Missbrauch tut sich die katholische Kirche bei der Aufklärung schwer. Kardinäle und Bischöfe reagieren oftmals erst auf öffentlichen Druck hin, wie Opfer monieren.

[Even a year after the Vatican Summit on Sexual Abuse, the Catholic Church is struggling to educate. Cardinals and bishops often only respond to public pressure, victims complain.]

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February 17, 2020

Religiosos. Sin castigo por delitos sexuales en México

CHIHUAHUA (MEXICO)
El Universal [Mexico City, Mexico]

February 17, 2020

By Montserrat Peralta

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De 2009 a 2019, hubo 156 carpetas en fiscalías, pero sólo hay registro de seis sentencias

En una comunidad indígena de Oaxaca, uno de los cerca de 50 casos de violencia sexual presuntamente cometidos por el padre católico Gerardo “N” y detectados por un grupo de sacerdotes salió a la luz a principios del siglo XXI. Un traje de monaguillo develó la agresión sexual que sufrió Leonardo —nombre ficticio— cuando cursaba la primaria, y de la que no habló durante años.

Uno de sus familiares narró que cuando fue a la parroquia a entregar la prenda que el niño usaba en misa, se enteró de que él podría estar dentro de las víctimas del religioso: “Hablé con el nuevo sacerdote y me preguntó por el niño. Le platiqué que intentó suicidarse, que tuvo unos cambios de comportamiento muy feos y raros. No dimos con lo que tenía… Así fue como nos platicó que hubo casos de pederastia”.

Entre lágrimas, Leonardo confirmó los hechos. Su familia se sintió traicionada porque le tenía confianza al sacerdote, le abrió las puertas de su casa e incluso comió con él.

Nadie lo consideró un riesgo porque se llevaba bien con los jóvenes: “En ese momento había un paro magisterial aquí en Oaxaca y no estaban yendo a clases, considerábamos que la iglesia era el mejor lugar”, recordó.

Ocho estados castigan la pederastia

A nivel federal y en Baja California, Colima, Chiapas, Durango, Guerrero, Veracruz, Tabasco y en Sonora —que, aunque no lo nombra así, lo reproduce del Código Penal Federal— se contempla la pederastia como un delito.

En el resto del país es considerado un agravante de la pena en algunos delitos de violación, abuso, acoso y hostigamiento sexual, cuando es cometido por una persona que sostiene un vínculo religioso con la víctima, aunque en seis entidades esta relación no se contempla textual, arrojó un análisis de los 32 códigos penales y el federal.

Existen 156 averiguaciones previas y carpetas de investigación por dichos delitos sexuales agravados, pederastia, corrupción de menores y atentados contra el pudor, que pueden contener una o varias víctimas mayores y/o menores de edad de 2009 a 2019.

De los expedientes, 152 son del fuero estatal y cuatro del federal, indican datos de las fiscalías y procuradurías estatales, así como de la Fiscalía General de la República (FGR), obtenidos vía transparencia por EL UNIVERSAL.

Entre los señalados como presuntos agresores sexuales se encuentran sacerdotes, pastores, maestros de catecismo, músicos de las iglesias e integrantes de diversas asociaciones religiosas.

En entrevista, Alfonso Miranda Guardiola, secretario General de la Conferencia del Episcopado Mexicano (CEM) y obispo auxiliar de Monterrey, dijo que “los sacerdotes o clérigos que han sido notificados al Ministerio Público en el caso de la CEM son 106”.

Sin embargo, a principios de este año indicó en una conferencia que la cifra ascendía a 271 investigados. Se le buscó nuevamente para hablar de la discrepancia, pero no se obtuvo respuesta.

En cuanto a la colaboración de la Iglesia en estos casos, Alberto Athié, exsacerdote y activista por los derechos de las víctimas de abuso sexual, explicó que ésta siempre argumenta: “Sí voy a contribuir para ver qué hacemos, pero no te voy a decir los nombres, quiénes son, dónde están, qué penas están purgando, qué Ministerio Público les está llevando el asunto. Es más, quieres tú saber de un caso, vete a la diócesis y pregunta allá. Si ellos quieren decirte de quién se trata, ellos verán”.

Cuatro fiscalías y procuradurías indicaron que tienen registro de seis sentencias por los delitos analizados para este reportaje.

“Tenemos un sistema judicial que no es confiable, políticos en general que no quieren tener broncas y así sucesivamente. Entonces, en ese sentido, las víctimas están totalmente desprotegidas”, señaló Elio Masferrer Kan, antropólogo de las religiones.

En 2010, un grupo de sacerdotes envió una carta a Roma, dirigida a la Sagrada Congregación para la Doctrina de la Fe, en la que pidió intervención por casos de pederastia presuntamente cometidos por el cura Gerardo “N” en las parroquias de Santiago Camotlán y Villa Alta en Oaxaca, documentos a los que este diario tuvo acceso.

Se indicó que desde 2009, los padres advirtieron de la situación a los entonces arzobispo y obispo auxiliar. Asimismo, señalaron que tuvieron conocimiento de que el sacerdote Gerardo “N” les hacía caricias obscenas a los jóvenes y a uno le practicó sexo oral.

En 2011, la conclusión indicó que “de la investigación llevada a cabo no se desprende que el Rev. [Gerardo “N”] haya cometido los delitos que se le imputan”. Decidieron apelar y solicitaron que la investigación se realizara escuchando directamente a las víctimas, a sus familiares y a los pueblos afectados. No obtuvieron respuesta.

La comunidad de Leonardo no tomó a bien que alzaran la voz por la agresión del padre Gerardo “N”, porque pocas personas creyeron lo que sucedió.

“Quedamos en pelear, en tratar de hacer algo para que [el abuso] no se repitiera con otros jóvenes. Por desgracia, el problema a nosotros como familia nos rebasa. Nos estábamos debatiendo con un gigante que era la Iglesia”, dijo un familiar de Leonardo.

Casos insostenibles

En 1976, Fernando “N” figuró en una carta que redactó Juan José Vaca para renunciar a la orden y en la que expuso una serie deabusos sexuales de los que fueron víctimas él y un grupo de jóvenes, perpetrados por el líder de la congregación de los Legionarios de Cristo, Marcial Maciel.

El sacerdote Fernando “N” estuvo en la Ciudad de México, Coahuila y Quintana Roo, pero tras denuncias de violación a menores de edad fue enviado a Salamanca, España.

“Se convierte en abusado, encubridor —promotor para que Maciel abuse de otros— y en victimario”, afirmó en entrevista Fernando Manuel González, sicoanalista.

Fernando “N” pasó más de dos décadas en España y en 2016 se trasladó a Roma, donde —a sus 80 años— se encuentra en una casa religiosa. La única consecuencia por sus actos fue quedarse sin ministerio sacerdotal, lo anterior de acuerdo con un comunicado de los Legionarios de Cristo.

Gerardo “N” fue movido en las comunidades de San Pablo Huitzo, Santiago Camotlán, Villa Alta, San Juan y Santa María Ozolotepec, en Oaxaca, indicó información del Foro Oaxaqueño de la Niñez. En 2017, el padre fue sentenciado a 16 años y seis meses de cárcel por el delito de corrupción de menores, por el caso de dos niños, pero no por el de Leonardo.

Alberto Athié enfatizó que lo que falló en estos casos fue el mecanismo de protección y de encubrimiento, porque, al final, lo que hacen es soltarlos cuando ya ven que no les queda de otra, los entregan a otros grupos de poder, de autoridad o, como en el caso de Maciel, los mandan a su casa sin un castigo.

“Pederastas preparan el escenario”

Ricardo tenía 13 años cuando entró de monaguillo a la parroquia de San Francisco Javier, en Chihuahua. Al sacerdote Juan José “N” ya lo ubicaba de vista porque lo veía los domingos cuando iba a misa con su familia. Con el paso de los días, notó que el hombre lo trataba distinto, le daba privilegios en la misa y le ofrecía llevarlo a su casa.

El primer abuso sexual ocurrió a los pocos meses de conocerlo, durante una función de cine: “Me tocó la pierna y de repente ya tenía su miembro de fuera y puso mi mano ahí”. Al final de la función, el religioso le dijo: “Lo que hiciste está mal, yo soy sacerdote, no lo vuelvas a hacer”. Eso hizo sentir al adolescente culpable y tuvo miedo.

“[Los pederastas] van preparando el escenario, examinando el terreno, conociendo los puntos de vulnerabilidad de su víctima, su familia y sus espacios. Van diseñando cómo van a actuar para tener toda esta libertad, porque si tuviera la claridad de que yo iba a decir algo, que mi familia iba a actuar de alguna manera, te aseguro que no hubiera pasado”, explicó Ricardo.

Las agresiones de Juan José “N” fueron escalando hasta que violó a Ricardo a lo largo de varios años. Él denunció en 2017, pero la Fiscalía General del Estado de Chihuahua determinó el no ejercicio de la acción penal por la prescripción de los delitos. Sin embargo, un año después se integró una nueva denuncia con apego a tratados internacionales que indican que los delitos contra menores no deben prescribir.

La Provincia Mexicana de la Compañía de Jesús señaló en 2018 que Juan José “N” fue suspendido en el oficio de sus ministerios y se notificó a Roma del caso de Ricardo. Posteriormente, el sacerdote salió de la congregación.

“Algo que le ha costado mucho trabajo a la Iglesia ver y se le ha tenido que imponer es que se trata de delitos graves contra niños. No son conductas inmorales o indecentes, eso es otra cosa”, explicó Alberto Athié.

Enfatizó que en otros países se tiene muy clara la diferencia entre delito y pecado. Si se trata del primero, la persona tiene que ser investigada.

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Parroquia Sagrada Familia celebrará aniversario resaltando la labor de la mujer

DURANGO (MEXICO)
Diócesis de Torreón [Torreón, Coahuila]

February 17, 2020

By Unknown

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Cumple 60 años de vida

BUENA NUEVA.- Situada en el poniente de Torreón, la Parroquia Sagrada Familia cumplirá 60 años de haber sido erigida. La comunidad llega a este aniversario resaltando y agradeciendo el papel que ha desempeñado la mujer en cada una de las actividades que se llevan a cabo, y que han permitido que el templo continúe dando un servicio pastoral de calidad a niños, jóvenes y adultos. 

La Parroquia, misma que se sitúa en la Col. La Unión, ha superado diversas pruebas como los periodos de violencia, el desempleo, y la pobreza. Las familias de esa zona se mantienen con la fe y la esperanza de que solo con el amor de Dios se superan las diversas pruebas que  se anteponen en el día a día. 

Historia

La bendición del templo de la Sagrada Familia,  se realizó el 8 de enero de 1956 por parte del señor obispo de Saltillo, don Luis Guízar Barragán, pero fue el 28 de febrero de 1960 que, bajo el pastoreo del primer obispo de la Diócesis de Torreón en la figura de don Fernando Romo Gutiérrez, se erigió cómo parroquia.

En ese entonces la cabecera parroquial era la Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, pero debido al crecimiento poblacional en el sur-poniente de la ciudad, se vio la necesidad de erigir otras parroquias, entre ellas «La Sagrada Familia».

El padre Agustín Cerda Berlanga guiaba esta comunidad realizando actividades en pro de la parroquia. El 20 de mayo de 1960 llega a tomar el lugar de párroco el padre Jesús Genaro Santillán Cuevas, quien es recordado con cariño y respeto por la comunidad, por el arduo trabajo y actividades dentro de su ministerio sacerdotal. 

El padre Santillán permaneció durante 28 años al frente de la parroquia. Durante su estadía fundó el Instituto Unión, en el que se impartía la instrucción primaria y secundaria. Además de la construcción de los templos «Divina Providencia» y «Señor de los Rayos», y los anexos del templo parroquial. De esta forma, continuó su pastoreo y promoción vocacional hasta el año de 1988, fecha en la que fue enviado a la parroquia de Cristo Rey. El padre Santillán fue un gran promotor de vocaciones a la vida consagrada y sacerdotal.

Para el año de 1988 la comunidad recibe como párroco al Pbro. Javier Cisneros, quien sirvió por 2 años a la comunidad. En 1990 se nombra párroco de la Sagrada Familia al Pbro. Xavier Díaz Rivera Rodríguez, el cual es recordado como promotor de  la obra de restauración de los templos, así como obras de asistencia social, unido a su trabajo evangelizador.

En 1992 se nombra párroco al Pbro. Salvador Gómez Domínguez. Él fomentó la catequesis infantil, juvenil y familiar; ofreciendo también un gran apoyo a las Comunidades Eclesiales de Base (CEB´s),  sirviendo a la comunidad por un período de 14 años.

El 29 de octubre de 2006 la Parroquia de la Sagrada Familia recibe a su nuevo pastor en la persona del padre Gerardo Franco Zapata. Realizó obras como el programa de superación «Crece Conmigo», además de trabajar los aspectos espirituales y psicológicos de la comunidad, debido a que durante años el lugar donde trabajó pastoralmente, fue uno de los sectores donde la ola de violencia azotó a la Comarca Lagunera. También llevó a cabo retiros espirituales y kerigmáticos, fiestas patronales y convivencias familiares. El padre Gerardo sirvió por 12 años en la Parroquia.

Finalmente, el 8 de octubre de 2018 llega el Pbro. Eduardo Gerardo Garay Rodríguez, para guiar como pastor a esta iglesia, quien actualmente se encuentra al servicio de la comunidad parroquial. Su trabajo está centrado en la renovación pastoral dentro de la parroquia y la promoción del laicado.

Actividades por el 60 aniversario  

Del 24 al 28 de febrero se impartirán conferencias sobre el papel de la mujer en la vida de Iglesia. Los temas serán presentados por Marilú Rojas Salazar, coordinadora del Departamento de Estudios de Género de la Comunidad Teológica de México, cofundadora del espacio Teólogas e Investigadoras Feministas de México y forma parte del consejo editorial de las revistas Christus y Sofía.

Lunes 24: 18:00 Hrs. «El papel de la mujer en el Antiguo Testamento».

Martes 25: 18:00 Hrs. «Jesús y las mujeres que servían con él».

Miércoles 26: 16:00, 16:30, 17:00, 17:30, 18:00, 18:30, 19:00, 19:30 y 20:00 Hrs. Celebración e imposición de ceniza.

Jueves 27: 18:00 Hrs. «La mujer en la vida de la iglesia».

Viernes 28: 17:00 Hrs. «La mujer y la Familia».

Viernes 28: 18:30 Hrs. Eucaristía presidida por Mons. Luis Martín Barraza Beltran.

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I Have a Story for Pope Francis about Priestly Celibacy

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

February 13, 2020

By Mimi Bull

Who pays the price when a priest breaks his vow?

Want the human story on priestly celibacy? Talk to someone who’s paid the price.

I am bitterly disappointed by the news that Pope Francis will not be relaxing priestly celibacy rules in remote parts of the Amazon. The idea — intended to make it easier to recruit priests in underserved areas — was supported by a Vatican conference in October, but in his papal document, released on Wednesday, Francis ignored their suggestion.

My interest in this isn’t the mild curiosity of a lapsed Catholic. I am the child of a priest who broke his vow of celibacy and left a legacy of secrecy that was devastating to him, to my mother and particularly to me.

To hide my father’s broken vow, I was told that I was adopted. I did not know until I was 35 that my “adoptive mother” was actually my grandmother and my “adoptive sister” was, in reality, my mother. But even then, I wasn’t told the whole truth. At the time, I was told my father had been a businessman from Pennsylvania.

If only I had known that my real father was the beloved young pastor of our local Polish parish in Norwood, Mass. He was a regular guest in our home, and we attended weekly Mass in his church. He died at the end of my freshman year at Smith College. I didn’t find out until the age of 50, on the day of my birth mother’s funeral, that the man I adored as “Pate” — my own nickname, short for the Latin “pater” — and the community knew as “Father Hip” was my father.

I was more fortunate than most children of priests. The man and woman I now know to have been my birth parents, chose to raise me, nurture me and, in the depths of the Depression, give me as normal a life as they could manage within a complex web of secrecy. My father chose to be involved in my life; he referred to himself as my “guardian,” and I found out after my mother died that he had held this title legally.

Nonetheless, all the secrecy took a toll on a sensitive child. I knew I was somehow different. I knew instinctively that there were things I could not mention casually — the frequency with which my mother, Pate and I got together alone, for instance, including trips to Boston for dinner. Secrecy became second nature.

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Bills would give more time to punish pedophiles

SIOUX CITY (IA)
Sioux City Journal

February 17, 2020

By Rod Boshart

Des Moines – Iowa lags behind other states when it comes to aiding childhood victims of sexual abuse by adults — oftentimes family members, teachers, clergy or other close associates, according to experts.

“We would love to see Iowa step forward from being one of the worst in the country to being one of the best,” said Marci Hamilton, chief executive officer and academic director for Child USA, a Philadelphia nonprofit think tank working nationally to end child abuse and neglect.

Iowa ranks among the worst states in terms of its statute of limitation on child abuse laws and is “in the middle of mediocre land” for limits on child abuse civil actions. Meanwhile, it can takes years for abuse survivors to fully understand wrongs that were perpetrated against them, Hamilton said.

Last year saw a flurry of changes spurred by public outrage over a series of high-profile abuse situations. Twelve states eliminated their criminal statutes of limitations and nine — including Iowa — extended their time frames. A number of states extended or eliminated their civil provisions, and nine provided windows for victims to seek redress for alleged abuses that occurred before the period to bring claims had “timed out.”

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The Conspiracy of Catholicism

ALACHUA (FL)
Alachua Today

February 2, 2020

By Robert Wilford

Dear Most Holy Father:

Thank you for attempting to humanize the office of pope.

The majority of Catholics have blindly viewed pontiffs as God-like and incapable of making mistakes because of being infallible.

Your actions, so far, do give me hope. I pray you will lead us toward renewal (retaining the good stuff), reformation (discarding the bad stuff), and rebirth (uncompromising justice and renewed spirituality).

I first contacted John Paul II in 1993, and again in 2002. I contacted Benedict XVI several times during his papacy.

I challenged them to reform an indifferently corrupt and a conspiracy-driven theocracy for the innumerable crimes the hierarchy had committed for centuries.

Mandated priest celibacy, the murder of Joan of Arc, persecution of Martin Luther, imprisonment of Galileo, unjust inquisitions and crusades and the coddling of clergy sexual predators are examples of the church’s abuse of power.

The current crisis is attributable to the disreputable leadership of John Paul and Benedict for not putting the needs of victims first over predator priests.

John Paul and Benedict shamefully elected to shelter sodomizers and the institution of Catholicism itself above all else.

I urge you to stand on your perch at Saint Peter’s this Ash Wednesday and declare:

“We, the popes, cardinals, bishops and priests of the Roman Catholic Church have been grievously and sinfully wrong since the very beginning of the church’s history in protecting predator priests at the expense of the victims of clergy sexual abuse. Humbly, we openly admit our culpability, and, in professing our shame, ask for forgiveness from God and all humanity for the unspeakable crimes we have committed against victimized children and their families for nearly 2,000 years.”

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Menlo Church pastor allowed volunteer attracted to minors to work with children

PALO ALTO (CA)
Daily Post

February 7, 2020

By Emily Mibach

A popular pastor at Menlo Church in downtown Menlo Park was put on leave for two months because he allowed a volunteer who had unwanted thoughts about children to continue volunteering with the youth in the church.

The congregant told pastor John Ortberg in July 2018 that he had “an unwanted thought pattern of attraction to minors,” according to a letter from church Elder Board Chair Beth Seabolt to church members.

The congregant claims to have not acted on this attraction attraction, and was seeking Ortberg’s support, according to the letter. Ortberg prayed with the church member and provided referrals for counseling, the letter says.

“However, John failed to take the required steps to prevent the person from volunteering with minors at the Menlo Park campus and did not consult anyone else at Menlo Church about the situation,” the letter says.

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A Sin or a Crime?

LITTLE ROCK (AR)
Bilgrimage

February 5, 2020

By Ruth Krall

Sentence: 38-76 years of imprisonment: This means that Smucker will likely die in jail. The crime: 20 felony counts for sexually molesting children, i.e., rape, of his grandchildren.

I have been following this case by means of media coverage. Mennonites often idealize the Amish —while not wanting to be Amish. I have never done this kind of idealizing.

I don’t know what my Lutheran father knew but he was quite clear with me that many Amish men and many Mennonite men were not nice men and that, as I began to date, I needed to protect myself. It was an explicit message about not dating and not marrying a Mennonite man.

Even as a very young girl I absorbed the warning and protected myself. As I became a teenager on the cusp of adult life he was much more explicit with me about the need to protect myself when he could no longer do this as my father — because he was not going to be present as I matured into young adult life.

My answer, therefore, to the sin or crime dilemma is that sexual abuse of children and adolescents, i.e., rape, by their grandfather, is a crime and a sin phenomenon. It is a sin problem for the perpetrator’s religious community to manage and it is a crime problem for the perpetrator’s secular community to manage. It is, therefore, simultaneously both a sin and a crime problem. For the victims of child or adolescent sexual abuse, the act of sexual violation is a sin against them and it is also a crime act against them.

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Disgraced religious order tried to get abuse victim to lie

MILAN (ITALY)
Associated Press

February 17, 2020

By Nicole Winfield and María Verza

The cardinal’s response was not what Yolanda Martinez expected – or could abide.

Her son had been sexually abused by one of the priests of the Legion of Christ, a disgraced religious order. And now she was calling Cardinal Valasio De Paolis – the Vatican official appointed by the pope to lead the Legion, and to clean it up – to report the settlement the group was offering, and to express her outrage.

The terms: Martinez’s family would receive 15,000 euros from the order. But in return, her son would have to recant the testimony he gave to Milan prosecutors that the priest had repeatedly assaulted him when he was a 12-year-old student at the order’s youth seminary in northern Italy. He would have to lie.

The cardinal did not seem shocked. He did not share her indignation.

Instead, he chuckled. He said she shouldn’t sign the deal, but should try to work out another agreement without attorneys: “Lawyers complicate things. Even Scripture says that among Christians we should find agreement.”

The conversation between the aggrieved mother and Pope Benedict XVI’s personal envoy was wiretapped. The tape – as well as the six-page settlement proposal – are key pieces of evidence in a criminal trial opening next month in Milan. Prosecutors allege that Legion lawyers and priests tried to obstruct justice, and extort Martinez’s family by offering them money to recant testimony to prosecutors in hopes of quashing a criminal investigation into the abusive priest, Father Vladimir Resendiz Gutierrez.

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West Michigan dioceses refuse to release pedophile priests lists

GRAND RAPIDS (MI)
WOOD TV 8 NBC

February 14, 2020

By Ken Kolker

Kallmazoo MI – n the face of an ongoing Michigan Attorney General’s investigation, most of the state’s Catholic dioceses have released lists of priests credibly accused as pedophiles.

Those lists include 135 names, 85 of which are in the Detroit archdiocese alone.

The only two of the state’s seven dioceses that haven’t released their lists: Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo.

Church leaders in Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids have refused not only Target 8’s request to release the lists, but the requests of a survivor support group and survivors themselves.

For survivor Ann Phillips Browning, it raises questions:

“Do you care about little kids? Do you really care about us survivors? Do you care that there might be other survivors out there that are living in pain and shame because they think they’re the only one?”

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Boris Johnson sacked him, but Julian Smith is a hero to us, the victims of abuse in church care

LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

February 15, 2020

By Margaret McGuckin

Ex-Northern Ireland secretary pushed through law promising justice for children abused in orphanages

Regardless of what the prime minister thinks of the minister he swiftly sacked last week as Northern Ireland secretary, for victims of institutional abuse Julian Smith remains our guardian angel.

For those who have been campaigning for justice, Julian’s brief time in Belfast should be remembered for championing our struggle. Julian did more to ensure survivors of sexual and physical abuse in state-funded institutions got recompense and recognition than any other politician over many years.

He had the drive and the decency to single-handedly push the Historical Institutional Abuse (Northern Ireland) Act through the House of Commons in November – only a few months after becoming secretary of state. This will create a redress board that will compensate the victims/survivors of abuse that occurred in places such as orphanages and care homes here.

I have been campaigning for an inquiry into institutional abuse in Northern Ireland since 2008, on hearing about the Ryan report into the serial abuse of children in the Republic of Ireland. No matter how much I tried not to listen or read of the horrific accounts of child sexual and physical abuse, neglect and humiliation, in those harsh and very dark places, in the south of Ireland, something finally took hold of me. I had to face a painful truth: this was what I had endured from the age of three to 11.

I listened to one BBC report from Dublin where a lady talked of being almost drowned in baths of disinfectant, beaten, starved, humiliated, neglected, and horrifically abused in so many ways, as had her brothers, sexually, physically, mentally and emotionally.

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Editorial: One year, six months: Survivors have a closing window to seek justice long-denied

NEW YORK (NY)
Daily News

February 16, 2020

Friday was the one-year anniversary of Gov. Cuomo coming to the Daily News, which led a drumbeat of survivor advocacy over the last few years, to sign the Child Victims Act into law. The statute is bringing a modicum of justice to those sexually abused as minors by extending the statute of limitations for many offenses on both the criminal and civil side.

Friday also marked the midway point of a key CVA provision: a year-long lookback window permitting survivors previously blocked by the statute of limitations to file lawsuits against abusers and the institutions that allowed abuse to happen or subsequently covered it up.

Since the window opened on Aug. 14, there have been 1,547 CVA court filings statewide. Given New York’s population, that’s not an outrageous number. Some supporters already are calling for the lookback extended beyond next August’s end date. So far, it’s a bit premature to make that call.

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NY’s Child Victims Act at the midpoint: Syracuse Diocese sued nearly 40 times so far

SYRACUSE (NY)
Syracuse.com

February 14, 2020

By Julie McMahon

Today marks the halfway point for a “look-back” window in New York’s Child Victims Act, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse already has been sued nearly 40 times.

The Child Victims Act, passed by the state legislature in January 2019, gave child sex abuse victims previously barred by statutes of limitations more time to sue. It also created a one-year window for victims who had previously been barred from suing. The window opened Aug. 14 last year.

Former Boy Scouts, school districts and an elite youth volleyball coach have faced claims here in Onondaga County.

An analysis by Syracuse.com shows the vast majority of Child Victims Act cases filed locally were against the Syracuse Catholic Diocese. Syracuse.com found 45 cases filed under the Child Victims Act, mostly in Onondaga County.

Across the state, the Syracuse diocese was named in 38 cases.

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Few abusers are sued as Child Victims Act lawsuits target institutions

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

February 16, 2020

By Jay Tokasz

Twenty-five years after being sent to prison for sexually abusing his 10-year-old daughter, Thomas D. Skowronski faces more legal fallout over his crimes.

Andrea D’Alimonte, now 35, recently sued Skowronski, her father, under the state’s Child Victims Act. D’Alimonte also named her mother, Patricia L. Saar, as a defendant. D’Alimonte said suing her parents gives her a chance finally to set the record straight about the abuse and its lifelong impact on her.

“I don’t want the pity. I am who I am because of what happened, but I want to be the voice to it,” she said.

D’Alimonte’s case is a rarity.

Halfway into a one-year window under the Child Victims Act that allows victims of childhood sex abuse from decades ago to press their claims in court, more than 95% of the 350 lawsuits filed in Western New York have targeted institutions such as the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, school districts and the Boy Scouts of America.

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February 16, 2020

Update Regarding A Case From The Report 1941-2019: Vladimir Reséndiz

MEXICO CITY (MEXICO)
Legionaries of Christ [Roswell GA]

February 16, 2020

By Unknown

Read original article

The Legionaries of Christ in the North American Territory release the below communications from Italy, originally published in Spanish in 2018, 2019 and 2020, regarding the case of Vladimir Reséndiz Gutiérrez, who studied as a philosopher in Thornwood, New York from October 1997 – June 1998 and October 2002 – July 2003.

Italy, November 16, 2018 

The Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ release the following communication regarding the case of Vladimir Reséndiz Gutiérrez, former member of the Congregation:

1. Vladimir Reséndiz Gutiérrez, a Mexican citizen, entered the novitiate of the Congregation on September 14, 1993. He made his perpetual vows in 2001 and was ordained to the priesthood in 2006.

2. The first accusation of sexual abuse against Vladimir Reséndiz was received by a priest of the Congregation on March 6, 2011. The accusation referred to events which occurred between 2006 and 2008 at the minor seminary of the Congregation in Gozzano, Novara, Italy. Reséndiz was in Venezuela when the accusation was received.

  • 2.1. On March 8, 2011, the news of this accusation reached the General Directorate of the Congregation.
  • 2.2. On March 10, 2011, Vladimir Reséndiz was removed from his ministry in the minor seminary in Venezuela and   from pastoral work with minors.
  • 2.3. On March 18, 2011, he was removed from all active priestly ministry after being questioned by his religious superior. He admitted to also abusing another minor outside of Italy. (1)
  • 2.4. On June 27, 2011, after collecting the necessary information, the Legionaries of Christ presented the case of Vladimir Reséndiz to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

3. In April 2013, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith removed Vladimir Reséndiz from the clerical state, and from that moment he ceased to be a member of the Legionaries of Christ.

4. There are currently two criminal trials in the courts of Novara, Italy. The trials have not yet reached a verdict.

  • 4.1. A criminal trial against Vladimir Reséndiz for child abuse.
  • 4.2. Another trial against several members of the Congregation, and other individuals, for attempted extortion against the family of one of the minors, in which the accused have pleaded not guilty.Once a verdict is issued by the court, an update to this communique will be issued.

5. The Congregation apologizes to those who have suffered abuse and for all the pain caused, knowing that this request for forgiveness will never be enough to heal the deep wounds caused. We recognize that any abuse by a cleric causes great pain to those who have suffered, to their family and also to the Church.

6. Aware of our responsibility as part of the Church and of our institutional history, we firmly commit to continue implementing our safe environment policy against the sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults who have contact with people involved in our apostolic, educational and pastoral activities. For this reason we also take responsibility for accompanying our seminarians in a mature discernment during their formation process that ensures, as far as possible, they live faithfully to their vocation as Catholic priests.

(1) Update March 19th 2021

UPDATE: On March 27, 2019, in a criminal trial of Vladimir Reséndiz Gutiérrez, the judge of the preliminary hearing in Novara, Italy, convicted him in the first degree with a sentence of seven years in prison and payment of reparations. The court has 90 days to publish the sentence.

UPDATE: On January 8, 2020, in the criminal trial of Vladimir Reséndiz Gutiérrez, the Second Chamber of the Court of Appeals of Turin, Italy, confirmed the sentence given in March 2019 in the first trial and reduced the penalty to six years and six months in jail. The trial is not over yet.

UPDATE: On July 23, 2020, on July 23, 2020, the Supreme Court declared inadmissible the appeal filed against the judgement by Second Chamber of the court of appeals. Therefore, the sentence has acquired the force of res iudicata and the criminal judicial process has concluded.

(2) Update October 3rd, 2022

The Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ reports on the conclusion of a process before the Ordinary Court of Milan, Italy involving three priests of the Congregation and two other people.

All of the defendants have been fully acquitted (“con formula piena”) of the crime of attempted extortion because such an attempt did not occur (“il fatto non sussiste”).

(3) Update October 5th, 2022

Regarding the accusation of aiding and abetting (“favoreggiamento”), one defendant has been acquitted for not having committed the offense (“per non aver commesso il fatto”). Additionally, the judge declared that they could not proceed (“non doversi proceede”) in relation to the other four defendants because the statute of limitations (“per intervenutta prescrizione”) had elapsed.

The judge will announce the reasons for the decision within 90 days. The accusations arose in 2013 in the context of a relationship with a family who had denounced the abuse committed by Vladimir Reséndiz Gutiérrez.

We encourage anyone who has been abused by a member of the Legionaries of Christ to contact the appropriate authorities, regardless of when the alleged abuse occurred, and to contact the Legionaries of Christ’s pastoral care advocate for the United States, Abby Saunders.

Abby Saunders, Pastoral Care Advocate
Email: asaunders@arcol.org
Phone: (678) 467-9348

The Congregation has also established a channel for listening to concerns and responding to accusations at 0abuse.org.

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‘I told him about my problems’: Priest’s confession of child abuse used to boost case against Catholic Church

TORONTO (ONTARIO, CANADA)
CBC News

February 15, 2020

By Scott Anderson, Lynette Fortune, Mark Kelley

Questions raised over why police and justice officials haven’t pursued church hierarchy

The confession a Quebec priest made just before he died in prison is being used by his victims to try to hold the Catholic Church accountable for decades of child abuse.

Defrocked priest Paul-André Harvey alleged that over a 20-year period when he served in parishes in the Saguenay region, his direct superiors were not only aware of his crimes against children, but they also enabled his abuse and covered up for him.

“I wish to inform you of the circumstances regarding the multiple charges of sexual assault over a period of 20 years,” Harvey wrote in 2017. “I was a priest in many parishes in the diocese of Chicoutimi. My victims were female minors.”

The lawyer for the archdiocese of Chicoutimi dismissed the confession in La Presse as “the lonely tale of a deceased pedophile who, sadly, will never be cross-examined.”

But an investigation by CBC’s The Fifth Estate and the Radio-Canada program Enquête into Harvey’s years of unchecked child abuse raises wider questions about why police and justice officials have not pursued the church hierarchy in Canada.

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New Jersey dioceses push victims fund deadline to Feb. 29

TRENTON (NJ)
Associated Press

February 14, 2020

By Mike Catalini

New Jersey’s Roman Catholic dioceses have given a two-week extension to childhood victims of sexual assault considering filing for compensation from a fund the church set up, the account’s co-administrator said Friday.

Camille Biros, the co-administrator of the fund covering all five dioceses, including the Archdiocese of Newark, said in a phone interview that so far more than $10 million in 81 different cases has been paid out. The previous deadline for submissions to be filed with the fund was Feb. 15. It is now Feb. 29.

This is the second time the deadline had been extended.

Biros said the reason for the extensions was simple.

“We just wanted to extend it to get as many people into the program,” she said.

According to Biros, 593 claims have been filed are are being reviewed. Eight were deemed not eligible for a variety of reasons, including that the clergy were either not diocesan priests or the victim was not a minor, she said.

The fund does not cover abuses by religious order priests, such as Jesuits, who may serve in parishes or schools but are not ordained by the diocese.

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Father Josh: A married Catholic priest in a celibate world

DALLAS (TX)
Associated Press

February 14, 2020

By Tim Sullivan

The priest wakes up at 4 a.m. on the days he celebrates the early Mass, sipping coffee and enjoying the quiet while his young children sleep in rooms awash in stuffed animals and Sesame Street dolls and pictures of saints. Then he kisses his wife goodbye and drives through the empty suburban streets of north Dallas to the church he oversees.

In a Catholic world where debates over clerical celibacy have flared from Brazil to the Vatican, Joshua Whitfield is that rarest of things: A married Catholic priest.

The Roman Catholic church has demanded celibacy of its priests since the Middle Ages, calling it a “spiritual gift” that enables men to devote themselves fully to the church. But as a shortage of priests becomes a crisis in parts of the world, liberal wings in the church have been arguing that it’s time to reassess that stance. On Wednesday, Pope Francis sidestepped the latest debate on celibacy, releasing an eagerly awaited document that avoided any mention of recommendations by Latin American bishops to consider ordaining married men in the Amazon, where believers can go months without seeing a priest.

Even the most liberal of popes have refused to change the tradition.

It is “the mark of a heroic soul and the imperative call to unique and total love for Christ and His Church,” Pope Paul VI wrote in 1967.

Then there’s Josh Whitfield.

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No Sexual Abuse Charges Against Fresno Priest Despite ‘Credible’ Allegations from 1990s

LOS ANGELES (CA)
KTLA

February 15, 2020

Despite “credible” allegations of sexual abuse against a central California priest, prosecutors said Friday that they are unable to file charges against him because the statute of limitations has expired.

Monsignor Craig Harrison was placed on administrative leave from the Diocese of Fresno last April after an alleged victim, now an adult, claimed the priest molested him when he was a teenage altar boy.

“While the allegations made against Monsignor Harrison appear credible to investigators, they reportedly occurred in the 1990s. These allegations were not reported to law enforcement until April of 2019,” the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

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List of Catholic priests suspected of abuse is incomplete

GRAND FORKS (ND)
Grand Forks Herald

February 15, 2020

By Jim Shaw

Fargo – The Catholic Dioceses of Fargo and Bismarck should be commended for finally releasing the dozens of names of clergy and religious members who have been accused of sexually abusing children. Better late than never. Full disclosure: One of the priests on the list has been a longtime family friend, and co-officiated my wedding.

“I first ask forgiveness for the shameful acts of those clergy who caused harm to young people and abused the trust placed in them by God and the faithful,” Fargo Bishop John Folda said in a statement. “No excuse can be made for these actions, nor does this release of names fully address the pain of victims of abuse.” Folda’s comments are sincere, direct and comforting.

Fargo attorney Tim O’Keeffe represents several victims of sexual abuse committed by area Catholic Church officials. “It’s a good first step,” O’Keeffe said. “We’ve waited a long time for this list.”

Nancy (not her real name) was sexually abused by a North Dakota priest when she was 12-years-old. “It was so scary,” Nancy said. “He told me not to tell anybody.”

Nancy is still receiving therapy for the abuse, and that abuse permanently changed her. “I’m still afraid of people,” Nancy said. “I used to be outgoing, but now I’m introverted. I still feel the horror.”

Seeing the name of the priest who abused her finally publicly identified by the diocese means a lot to Nancy. “I’m not the bad person anymore for accusing him,“ Nancy said. “Now, I feel so relieved. I feel totally vindicated.”

Still, O’Keeffe is not satisfied. He said the dioceses need to release more information, such as the dates of the misconduct, the parish assignments of the offenders, and where they are living. He also said the list is incomplete. “We know of more cases of priests who should be on that list,” O’Keeffe said.

Attorney Mike Bryant agrees. He represents four clients in North Dakota, who are victims of sexual abuse from priests. Bryant said the church is not naming priests involved in fairly recent incidents because the dioceses don’t want any more lawsuits.

“They clearly held names back,” Bryant said. “These are all old offenses. There are no names from the last 30 years. The idea that nothing happened recently is ludicrous.”

Bryant said one of his clients, from Fargo, was abused by a priest whose name was not on the list, and he’s still serving as a priest. “I’m 100% convinced that she was sexually abused,” Bryant said. “I’m convinced because of her story, her emotion, and the way the church has dealt with it.”

In his statement, Folda said he considers the list of clergy “complete for now,” but “not a closed list.” He went on to say, “I am encouraged that there have been very few substantiated cases of abuse in recent decades.”

However, Folda has declined to answer any questions about the list. The issues raised by O’Keeffe and Bryant deserve answers.

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‘Secrets in our culture’: Victims of child sex abuse urge lawmakers to take action

PRATT (KS)
Pratt Tribune

February 15, 2020

By Sherman Smith

Kathryn Robb wanted lawmakers to know about the monsters.

Her voice rising in volume and urgency, Robb delivered a sermon on the evils of child abuse in a legislative hearing Tuesday. She focused fury at coaches, religious leaders, pediatricians and others who have preyed on hundreds of victims apiece.

“Folks who have access to children are abusing children at alarming rates,” Robb said. “So now we’re learning. We’re learning that things were not the way we thought they were — that there are secrets in our culture, there are secrets in our society, there are secrets in our institutions that we’re just now learning about. We are in the midst of a worldwide epidemic.”

She is the executive director of Child USAdvocacy and a survivor of childhood sexual abuse.

Robb and others testified in support of legislation that would lift the statute of limitations on civil lawsuits filed in response to child sex abuse. Current law requires lawsuits to be filed within three years after the victim turns 18.

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Editorial: Child crimes should have no statute of limitations

TAHLEQUAH (OK)
Daily Press

February 15, 2020

When the child molestation scandal in the Roman Catholic Church was at its height several years ago, many Americans were mortified to learn that statutes of limitation across the country precluded prosecution of predatory priests. Some states quickly made adjustments in their criminal law to deal with that injustice.

For some reason, Oklahoma lawmakers have only turned a tentative corner in that regard, but not for lack of trying on the part of Carol Bush, R-Tulsa. She introduced legislation in 2017 to remove the statute of limitations on sex crimes against children, as well as prosecution of child-trafficking cases. This year, her repeat bill passed the House Judiciary Committee, but its chances for passage looked good in 2017, too – until revamps on the bill changed the statute of limitation to expire at age 45 for victims.

This time around, maybe the Legislature will see fit to remove all obstacles to punishing those who harm our most precious and vulnerable citizens: our children.

Bush explained what most people already know – that sometimes, because of the nature of these crimes and the trauma they cause, victims often don’t come forward until many years later. In fact, sometimes they block the terrible memories of the abuse. It takes emotional maturity to face the chain of events that lead to prosecution, not to mention the abusers themselves – and that type of maturity takes many years to acquire. In fact, Bush pointed out, the average victim doesn’t report the crime until he or she is 52.

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‘I kept my story quiet.’ They were abused as children, but will Kansas let them sue?

WICHITA (KS)
Wichita Eagle

February 16, 2020

By Jonathan Shorman

One detailed how her father sexually abused her decades ago. Another recalled a priest fondling him as a teenager. And yet another remembered walking directly back to class after a priest raped her in the fourth grade.

One by one, they pleaded with lawmakers. Their main message: Please help us. Please help victims.

Kansas generally gives victims of childhood sexual abuse three years to file lawsuits once they turn 18. The limited window shuts out a vast array of victims, including many struggling well into adulthood.

But legislators are weighing whether to eliminate the time limit. And victims are pushing for a “lookback” window allowing lawsuits to be brought over abuse that occurred decades ago. Researchers are in widespread agreement that child victims frequently don’t disclose their abuse until adulthood.

As more states move to reform their statutes of limitations for child sex abuse lawsuits, victims are watching to see whether Kansas will be next. Can the change they desperately want advance all the way through the legislative process and become law amid the swirl of election-year politics and other issues demanding attention?

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Judge refuses to lower bond for former Dallas priest accused of sexually abusing children

DALLAS (TX)
Fox 4 KDFW

February 16, 2020

A judge refused to reduce the bond of a former Dallas Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting children.

Bond for Richard Thomas Brown is still $100,000.

The arrest affidavit describes psychologist reports from the 1990s in which Brown admitted to abusing several children during his time with the Dallas Catholic Diocese.

Brown was arrested last month in Missouri.

He is among 32 priests the diocese lists as “credibly accused” of sexually abusing children over the past 70-years.

Some of those priests are no longer living.

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Mandatory reporting laws for religious institutions come into effect

MELBURNE (VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA)
The Age

February 16, 2020

By Sumeyya Ilanbey

Laws requiring clergy to report child abuse to authorities — even if it’s heard in the confession box — will come into effect on Monday, ending the “special treatment” for Victoria’s religious institutions.

The seal has now been lifted for the suspected sexual abuse of children, with spiritual and religious leaders required to report the abuse or face up to three years in prison.

“From [Monday], our promise to put the safety of children ahead of the secrecy of the confession is in full effect and there is no excuse for people who fail to report abuse,” said Attorney-General Jill Hennessy.

The changes bring religious and spiritual leaders in line with teachers, police, medical practitioners, nurses, school counsellors, and early childhood and youth justice workers, who are required to report the abuse and mistreatment of children.

The Catholic Church was a staunch critic of requiring priests to break the seal, with Melbourne Archbishop Peter Comensoli publicly declaring he would rather go to jail.

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Former Richmond priest accused of child sex abuse

RICHMOND (VA)
WTVR CBS 6

February 14, 2020

They say the representative of a deceased victim has shared allegations of sexual abuse by reverend Raymond Barton.

The Richmond Catholic Diocese has added another clergyman’s name to their list of priests accused of sexually abusing a minor.

Diocese officials said Friday the representative of a deceased victim has shared allegations of sexual abuse by Rev. Msgr. Raymond Barton.

A representative of the victim came forward with a report detailing allegations of child sex abuse by Barton.

The report claims the abuse happened back in the early 1970s when the victim was a minor.

Church officials say Barton has been a pastor at six catholic churches across Central Virginia and Hampton Roads since 1966.

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Retired priest accused of sexual and physical assaults

LONDON (ENGLAND)
BBC

February 14, 2020

A retired priest has been charged with 18 offences allegedly committed at schools in the Highlands and East Lothian between the 1950s and 1980s.

Robert MacKenzie, 87, from Cupar, Saskatchewan, in Canada, has been accused of sexual and physical assaults.

The offences allegedly took place at Fort Augustus Abbey and a preparatory school in North Berwick.

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February 15, 2020

An abusive priest was ordered not to wear clerical garb or celebrate Mass. He did anyway

LOUISVILLE (KY)
Courier-Journal

February 14, 2020

By Andrew Wolfson

When the Archdiocese of Louisville in 2005 confirmed that the Rev. J. Irvin Mouser had molested five boys — several at drive-in movies — the Vatican ordered him to stop functioning as a priest.

The Holy See commanded Mouser to live a life of “prayer and penance,” meaning he could no longer wear clerical garb, celebrate Mass publicly, administer the sacraments or present himself publicly as a priest.

But Mouser did all of those things, The Courier Journal found.

While the archdiocese listed him in its ministers directory as “retired” and “removed from public ministry,” the Sisters of Loretto, which is south of Bardstown in Marion County, put him to work as the chaplain in its motherhouse.

There, according to photos on its website, while wearing full clerical garb, Mouser gave blessings and celebrated Mass.

“My role is to meet the spiritual needs of this ever-growing community,” he was quoted in the winter 2018 issue of Loretto Magazine.

On Friday, just a few hours after The Courier Journal asked the order why it was allowing Mouser to serve as chaplain — and provided links to photographs of him in clerical robes — a spokeswoman said it was removing him from the community.

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Retired local Catholic priest accused of child sexual abuse

NORFOLK (VA)
WTKR

February 14, 2020

A retired priest for the Catholic Diocese of Richmond who served in Hampton Roads has been accused of child sexual abuse. according to a statement by the Diocese of Richmond.

According to the diocese, a representative for a deceased victim came forward with a report sharing allegations of child sexual abuse by Rev. Msgr. Raymond Barton, who was ordained in 1966. The incident is alleged to have occurred in the early 1970s.

Barton served as an associate pastor at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Richmond, and as a faculty member at St. John Vianney Seminary, Goochland. He was a pastor at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Norfolk; Saint Nicholas Catholic Church in Virginia Beach; and Holy Comforter Catholic Church in Charlottesville.

He also served as a co-pastor for Church of the Holy Apostles in Virginia Beach.

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More suits claim sex abuse by late Orange County priest

MIDDELTOWN (NY)
Times Herald-Record

February 14, 2020

By Chris McKenna

At least 10 people who say they were sexually abused as children by a priest who worked in Orange County for a dozen years in the 1980s and ’90s have now sued the Catholic Church under a recent law that gave them the ability to file those cases.

The latest lawsuit involving Father Edward Pipala, who died in 2013 after serving seven years in prison, was brought by two Orange County men who say he abused them many times while they were parishioners at Sacred Heart Church in Monroe, where Pipala worked from 1981 to 1988 and ran the youth ministry.

One victim says Pipala began abusing him when he was 13 and did so about 150 times over five years.

The other estimates Pipala assaulted him as many as 200 times while the priest was at Sacred Heart and then at St. John the Evangelist in Goshen, which he led as its pastor until 1992.

The assaults took place in the church basement and rectory at Sacred Heart and at a Jersey Shore condo where Pipala used to bring groups of boys for overnight stays, according to a case the two plaintiffs jointly filed on Monday against Sacred Heart and Catholic Archdiocese of New York in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.

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Retired Bishop Clark to be deposed within next 30 days, judge rules

ROCHESTER (NY)
WHAM

February 11, 2020

A federal judge has ruled retired Bishop Matthew Clark will be deposed amid ongoing bankruptcy proceedings against the Diocese of Rochester.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy last year amid the filing of lawsuits under the Child Victims Act.

Attorneys had asked a judge to put the retired bishop on the stand. They say Clark, who presided over the diocese for more than three decades, knows the answers to questions only he can answer related to “his knowledge of sexual abuse”, “transfers of sexual abusers” and how complaints against priests were investigated.

In September, the diocese announced Clark had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The diagnosis was announced less than a month after lawsuits began to be filed under the Child Victims Act, and less than two weeks before the diocese declared it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Attorneys for CVA victims said it was critical Clark answer questions related to their cases “before he is no longer able to testify.”

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St. Rocco’s priest’s legacy is questioned: Sexual abuse victim calls for removal of name from church

GARDEN CITY (NY)
Long Island Herald

February 13, 2020

By Ronny Reyes

The Rev. Eligio Della Rosa served the parish of the Church of St. Rocco for more than 15 years. Although he first arrived in Glen Cove in 1965 for a four-year stay, it wasn’t until he returned in 1975 that he solidified his legacy in the city by reinstating the famous Feast of St. Rocco’s, a five-day festival celebrating the church and the city’s Italian-American heritage.

The annual festival, known locally as the “Best Feast in the East,” attracts hundreds of visitors to the city. For Della Rosa’s work at St. Rocco’s, the church named a parish center after him. Della Rosa died while serving at the church in 1991.

While he is remembered for his service in Glen Cove, an allegation of sexual abuse against him recently resurfaced: The attorney for a man who claims the priest abused him more than 50 years ago, at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Rocky Point, is demanding that the priest’s name be removed from the St. Rocco parish center. The attorney, Mitchell Garabedian — who was portrayed by actor Stanley Tucci in the Oscar-winning film “Spotlight,” about the Boston Globe’s series of stories detailing the abuse allegations against priests in Boston — said he had reached an out-of-court, low-six-figure settlement with the Diocese of Rockville Centre last September for Della Rosa’s alleged abuse of the man when he was a teenager in 1964, a year before Della Rosa came to Glen Cove.

“He asked my client to meet him in the pews of the church, and my client did,” Garabedian said by phone at a news conference outside the Church of St. Rocco on Feb. 5. “And that’s where my client was sexually abused by Father Della Rosa, by Father Della Rosa instructing my client to perform oral sex on Father Della Rosa at the age of 14.”

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Philly’s Catholic archdiocese paid a six-figure clergy sex-abuse settlement

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

February 14, 2020

By Mensah M. Dean and Jeremy Roebuck

https://www.inquirer.com/news/mitchell-garabedian-clergy-sex-abuse-archdiocese-philadelphia-john-bradley-20200215.html

The Archdiocese of Philadelphia last year paid a six-figure settlement to a man who alleged he was abused by the Rev. John J. Bradley at St. Charles Borromeo parish in the 1980s. But the accuser’s lawyer and church officials couldn’t agree Friday on which John J. Bradley was accused.

The issue, a church spokesperson said, is that two priests by that name worked at the Drexel Hill parish — one between 1963 and 1968, the other between 1977 and 1996. The archdiocese maintains that its victim compensation fund settled the case over the alleged conduct of the latter priest, who died more than two decades ago.

But at a news conference outside the archdiocese’s Center City offices Friday, the accuser’s lawyer and an activist blamed the other priest, who is still alive, and criticized the archdiocese for letting him retire quietly to an archdiocesan home in Darby Borough.

Three hours later, they admitted they had accused the wrong man after The Inquirer raised questions about the discrepancies between their account and that of archdiocesan officials.

“I believe that the sexual abuser in this matter was the late Father John J. Bradley and not any other priest, given the recent admission by the representative of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia,” Mitchell Garabedian, the accuser’s attorney, said three hours after the news conference.

Either way, neither Bradley appears on the archdiocese’s public list of credibly accused priests, raising questions over how comprehensive and transparent it is.

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In this time of great scandal, faithful priests need your love more than ever

McLEAN (VA)
USA Today

February 15, 2020

By Tim Busch

In this time of great scandal, faithful priests need your love more than ever

After suffering the anguish of the abuse among their ranks, priests across our nation are battling feelings of profound defeat.

There’s a crisis in the Catholic Church that no one’s talking about. It’s not abuse. It’s not cover-ups. It doesn’t spring from Vatican infighting. It starts much closer to home, with the shepherds who guide the flock. Many good and godly Catholic priests are struggling with their vocation.

I realized this in January after hosting a conference for nearly 200 American priests. At a similar event in 2019, I could tell that morale was low. It hadn’t been that long since the summer of shame, when the Pennsylvania grand jury report peeled back the curtain on terrible abuse mostly during the 20th Century and former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was removed from ministry for abusing children and seminary students. It was a low point for every Catholic, including — or perhaps, especially — priests. I assumed that the mood would improve over the year. It got worse.

Nearly every priest I spoke with in January admitted it’s a tough time. Father John Riccardo, a Midwestern priest whose job includes encouraging his peers, told me “it’s never been this bad.” They’re also beat down by the sins of priests who perpetrated terrible crimes. Most priests already deal daily with struggling and suffering parishioners, so they particularly feel the wounds inflicted on God’s people.

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Federal judge: Archdiocese seeking counsel of Saints PR man on priest abuse list was my idea

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
NOLA.com

February 14, 2020

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey says the PR man — Greg Bensel — is a longtime, trusted personal friend and a skilled practitioner of his craft

A federal judge in New Orleans said Friday that he gave Archbishop Gregory Aymond the idea of bringing in the Saints’ top public relations executive to advise the archdiocese as it prepared to release a list of allegedly abusive clergymen.

Jay Zainey, a devout Catholic who has sat on the U.S. District Court bench in New Orleans since 2002, said he told Aymond before the November 2018 release of the list that Greg Bensel, the NFL team’s vice president of communications and a longtime friend of Zainey, could help manage the latest flare-up in the abuse scandal and ensure that parishioners and the public understood that safety measures were now in place to prevent “sins of the past” from recurring.

Zainey offered the suggestion during a chance encounter with Aymond at a Mass, he said.

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Valley Catholic priest accused of abuse will not face charges

FRESNO (CA)
ABC 30

February 14, 2020

By Corin Hoggard

A Catholic priest accused of abuse by people across the Valley will not face criminal charges in the last active investigation.

The Fresno County district attorney’s office released a statement late Friday afternoon announcing they will not file a sex abuse case against Monsignor Craig Harrison, despite a police report filed by a man in Firebaugh deemed credible by their investigators.

Police in Bakersfield and Merced have previously announced they would not pursue charges against Harrison for abuse reports in their jurisdictions.

Both Fresno County prosecutors and Merced police mentioned the statute of limitations as an issue with their investigations.

The state only allows prosecutors to file most sex abuse cases until the victim turns 40 years old unless there’s DNA evidence or “independent corroborating evidence.”

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Priest accused of abuse won’t face charges in Fresno County

FRESNO (CA)
KMPH

February 14, 2020

The Fresno County District Attorney’s Office has decided it will not file sexual assault charges against Monsignor Craig Harrison, citing the statute of limitations.

Even so, “the allegations made against Monsignor Harrison appear credible to investigators,” a news release from the District Attorney’s office reads.

The office had been investigating sexual misconduct accusations dating back to the 1990’s, while Harrison had been assigned to a church in Firebaugh.

But the allegations were not reported to law enforcement until April of 2019.

“The District Attorney’s decision is based upon the statute of limitations that applies to criminal cases. A different statute of limitations may apply to civil actions,” says a news release.

In November, the Merced County District Attorney decided not to file charges.

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Saskatchewan priest sent back to Scotland to answer for decades old sexual abuse charges

SASKATOON (SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA)
Saskatoon Star-Phoenix

February 14, 2020

By Alec Salloum

https://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/saskatchewan-priest-sent-back-to-scotland-to-answer-for-decades-old-sexual-abuse-charges/wcm/8862c9bd-ab05-446e-9a5c-6ea86b62ec3a

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina was informed on Thursday afternoon that Robert MacKenzie was extradited.

A Catholic priest who spent decades serving in Saskatchewan has been extradited to Scotland to face a slew of sexual abuse charges.

On Friday the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina confirmed that Robert MacKenzie, 87, had been sent back to the United Kingdom. The BBC has reported he made no plea at a private appearance on the charges.

According to previously reported information, MacKenzie faces allegations spanning 30 years — between the 1950s and 1980s — when he served as a Benedictine monk at two boys’ boarding schools.

Eric Gurash, director of communication for the Archdiocese, said they were told on Thursday afternoon that MacKenzie had left the country.

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February 14, 2020

Former Priest Convicted in Cold-Case Murder Dies in Prison

PASADENA (CA)
Courthouse News

February 13, 2020

By Erik De La Garza

Edinburg TX – John Feit, the former Catholic priest who spent more than five decades shrouded in suspicion for his involvement in the 1960 murder of McAllen schoolteacher Irene Garza, died in prison on Tuesday. He was 87.

Preliminary reports indicate that Feit, who resided in Scottsdale, Arizona, before being extradited to Texas in 2016 to face murder charges for Garza’s Easter weekend suffocation death, died of cardiac arrest, said Robert Hurst, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Hurst said Thursday evening that Feit was pronounced dead at 5:38 a.m. Tuesday at Huntsville Hospital after being found unresponsive just before 5 a.m. in his cell at the Estelle Unit.

*
Terence McKiernan, president of the watchdog group BishopsAccountability.org who attended Feit’s trial in Edinburg called Garza a “saintly person” whose life and death inspired activists to bring Feit to justice. Feit preyed upon Garza’s devout Catholic beliefs, and her rape and murder “is especially important and heartbreaking,” McKiernan said.

“This case brings together many essential aspects of the clergy abuse crisis. Despite his crime, Feit was transferred away from McAllen, and he had a second career as an important priest of the Servants of the Paraclete in Jemez Springs, New Mexico,” McKiernan said.

In that role, Feit formulated and implemented a “disastrous” policy allowing pedophile priests in treatment with the Servants to work and reoffend in surrounding communities, according to McKiernan. That policy led to former Catholic priest James Porter’s sexual abuse of dozens of children, for which he was convicted of in the 1990s, with Feit in the center of a new phase in the abuse crisis.

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For Denver Comedian Ben Roy, Opening Up About His Abuse in the Catholic Church Was About Standing Up for Himself

CENTENNIAL (C0)
Colorado Public Radio

February 14, 2020

By Xandra McMahon

https://www.cpr.org/2020/02/14/for-denver-comedian-ben-roy-opening-up-about-his-abuse-in-the-catholic-church-was-about-standing-up-for-himself/

Ben Roy was 7-years-old when the abuse first took place at his Catholic summer camp.

He didn’t tell his parents until years later. But no action was taken — until now.

Roy, a Denver comedian, spoke with CPR in 2018 about the abuse he endured at a New Hampshire summer camp run by the Diocese of Manchester called Camp Fatima.

He’s part of a wave of survivors demanding acknowledgment in some form from the church of the abuse they endured.

For some survivors in Colorado, that means financial reparations. The state’s Catholic Church has paid out about a million dollars to nine survivors of abuse since the Jan. 31 deadline to submit claims.

The reparations are one of the few ways abuse survivors can pursue justice in Colorado if their abuse happened before the ’90s, when the statute of limitations was much more limited.

But for survivors like Roy whose abuse occurred in other states, the windows are left open for decades, allowing criminal cases to be made.

Since his initial interview, Roy was contacted by the New Hampshire Attorney General and an investigation was opened.

He returned to Colorado Matters to talk about what it’s like to pursue legal action decades after abuse, and how the results might not be what survivors expect.

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Cardinal Tobin says he wants transparency, but is silent about result of some sex abuse cases

WOODLAND PARK (NJ)
NorthJersey.com

February 14, 2020

By Abbott Koloff

A Catholic church tribunal has arrived at a long-awaited decision in the case of Monsignor George Trabold — more than five years after he stepped down as pastor of a Millburn parish amid allegations of child sex abuse from decades earlier during his time at a parish in Bergen County.

But the Newark Archdiocese declined last week to reveal the verdict in the internal canonical trial.

The archdiocesan response underscored what victims’ advocates said has been a continuation of secretive policies even as Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, the leader of the Newark Archdiocese, has promised to be more open generally and about sex abuse cases in particular.

Last year, the cardinal said that the Catholic Church’s credibility was “shot” in the aftermath of new revelations of sex abuse and cover-ups, and said the archdiocese would take steps to be more transparent to regain public trust. The church, he said, needed a better way forward.

So far, some victims’ advocates say, those words have not translated into substantial action, with parishioners and survivors continuing to be left in the dark as secret internal church investigations churn on for years. Tobin, they said, has done little to improve on the performance of his predecessor, Archbishop John J. Myers, when it comes to openness about such cases.

“This is just another example of not being open and honest and transparent,” said Mark Crawford, the New Jersey director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP. “We’ve come to expect this type of behavior of Cardinal Tobin. If his true intention is to be better than his predecessor, we want more.”

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Defrocked Catholic priest appeals sex abuse conviction

SALEM (MA)
Associated Press via Salem News

February 13, 2020

Alfred ME – A defrocked Massachusetts priest is appealing his conviction of sexually abusing a young boy during trips to Maine in the 1980s.

A judge ordered Ronald Paquin, 77, to serve 16 years in state prison in Maine in May after he was found guilty of 11 counts of gross sexual misconduct in 2018. He had already served more than 10 years in prison in Massachusetts for sexually abusing another alter boy in that state.

In a hearing on Wednesday, Paquin’s attorney argued that the trial judge in the Maine case should have required the prosecutor to disclose the details of the victim’s criminal record, the Portland Press Herald reported.

He also said the judge should have barred an expert witness from testifying that male victims often wait to disclose sexual abuse they’ve experienced.

Paquin was charged with assaulting two boys between 1985 and 1988 in Kennebunkport when the victims were 14 years of age or younger. He was released from prison in 2015 after completing his sentence in Massachusetts and then taken into custody in Maine.

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Retired Bishop with Alzheimer’s will testify in Rochester Diocese bankruptcy case

ROCHESTER (NY)
WROC

February 11, 2020

By Kayla Green

Retired Rochester Bishop Matthew Clark will deposed to testify in an upcoming hearing for the Diocese of Rochester’s bankruptcy case, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

Clark’s deposition will happen in the next 30 days.

The Diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September of last year, less than one month after a flurry of lawsuits were filed against the Catholic organization related to the Child Victims Act.

The Child Victims Act opened a one-year litigation window in New York allowing people to file civil lawsuits that had previously been barred by the state’s statute of limitations, which was one of the nation’s most restrictive before lawmakers relaxed it in 2019.

The federal judge ruled that within the next 30 days, Clark will be deposed, despite the former Bishop’s battle with Alzheimer’s.

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Bankruptcy judge rules sexual-abuse victims’ attorney can question bishop emeritus

ROCHESTER (NY)
Catholic Courier – Diocese of Rochester

February 12, 2020

By Mike Latona

A federal bankruptcy judge ruled Feb. 11 that — with specific limitations — an attorney for sexual-abuse victims may question Bishop Emeritus Matthew H. Clark under oath about his knowledge of sexual abuse during his years as leader of the Rochester Diocese. The ruling was issued during a hearing in the diocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.

In January, victims’ attorneys had filed a motion requesting the right to interrogate the 82-year-old prelate about extent of his knowledge of abuse during his 33-year tenure as Rochester’s Catholic bishop, which concluded with his retirement in 2012.

Bishop Clark’s attorney, Mary Jo S. Korona, argued during the Feb. 11 hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court that the bishop is not competent to give a deposition, having been diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease in July 2019. The bishop made his diagnosis public approximately one month later.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Paul R. Warren ruled that Bishop Clark could be questioned by an attorney representing the unsecured creditors’ committee in the bankruptcy case. Acknowledging the possibility that the bishop’s medical condition could cause him to become forgetful or confused, Warren said the deposition must take place within 30 days of his ruling; be conducted in a single day; last no more than three hours and include breaks; and take place with only one attorney each representing the diocese and the unsecured creditors’ committee, plus Bishop Clark’s attorney. No attorneys representing insurers were permitted.

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Power shift in Senate could reignite push to help adult survivors of childhood sex abuse

SUNBURY (PA)
Daily Item

February 13, 2020

By John Finnerty

Harrisburg – The retirement of Senate President Pro Tem Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, will mean the departure from the Capitol of the most prominent opponent of efforts to open a window to immediately let adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse sue when their cases are beyond the statute of limitations.

Advocates for adult survivors of abuse say Scarnati’s departure will provide an opportunity for Pennsylvania to pass the window legislation that has already passed in other states, in many cases, states that acted in response to the public outcry inflamed by the Pennsylvania grand juries into the handling of priest abuse by the Catholic Church.

“We clearly will revisit the issue,” said Kathryn Robb, executive director of ChildUSA Advocacy, a Philadelphia-based think tank focused on child sexual abuse and statute of limitations reform. “Why should victims suffer in perpetuity but predators are protected by the passage of time?”

Scarnati announced late Wednesday that he is not seeking re-election to a sixth term in office when his term ends at the end of 2020. He has been Senate President Pro Tem for the past 14 years.

“After many conversations with family and close supporters, I have made a personal, and not political, decision that I will not be filing my petitions” to seek re-election,” Scarnati said.

Shaun Dougherty, an adult survivor of abuse by a Johnstown priest, said Scarnati was “the biggest hurdle to justice” for abuse survivors.

Dougherty is now running for Senate as a Democrat in the 35th Senatorial District, represented by state Sen. Wayne Langerholc, R-Cambria County.

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A Pedophile Writer Is on Trial. So Are the French Elites.

NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

February 12, 2020

By Norimitsu Onishi

For decades, Gabriel Matzneff wrote openly of his pedophilia, protected by powerful people in publishing, journalism, politics and business. Now cast out, he attacks their “cowardice” in a rare interview.

Paris – Gabriel Matzneff, the French writer under investigation for his promotion of pedophilia, was holed up this month inside a luxury hotel room on the Italian Riviera, unable to relax, unable to sleep, unable to write.

He was alone and in hiding, abandoned by the same powerful people in publishing, journalism, politics and business who had protected him weeks earlier. He went outside only for solitary walks behind dark sunglasses, and was startled when I tracked him down in a cafe mentioned in his books.

Hiding is new for Mr. Matzneff. For decades, he was celebrated for writing and talking openly about stalking teenage girls outside schools in Paris and having sexual contact with 8-year-old boys in the Philippines.

He was invited to the Élysée Palace by President François Mitterrand and socialized with the far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. He benefited from the largess of the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner, the business tycoon Pierre Bergé.

But Mr. Matzneff has been summoned to appear in a Paris court on Wednesday, accused of actively promoting pedophilia through his books. Mr. Matzneff could face up to five years in prison, yet the case is also an implicit indictment of an elite that furthered his career and swatted away isolated voices calling for his arrest.

In a widening investigation, prosecutors announced Tuesday morning that the police would start seeking witnesses to find other possible victims of Mr. Matzneff.

The support of Mr. Matzneff reflected an enduring French contradiction: a nation that is deeply egalitarian yet with an elite that often distinguishes itself from ordinary people through a different code of morality, a different set of rules, or at least believing it necessary to defend those who did.

A decade ago, Dominique Strauss-Kahn was forced out as the leader of the International Monetary Fund after being accused of sexually assaulting a hotel housekeeper. A supporter dismissed it as “trussing a domestic,” a comment that recalled France’s feudal past.

“We’re in a very egalitarian society where there is a pocket of resistance that actually behaves like an aristocracy,” said Pierre Verdrager, a sociologist who has studied pedophilia.

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Readers Say Our Database of Accused Priests Is Incomplete. They’re Not Wrong. Here’s Why.

NEW YORK (NY)
Pro Publica

February 11, 2020

By Lexi Churchill

Since we published a database of Catholic priests deemed “credibly accused” of sexual abuse and misconduct, we’ve heard from dozens of frustrated Catholics and readers who want fuller transparency and more complete lists from the church.

Two weeks ago, ProPublica launched the first-ever searchable database of clergy deemed “credibly accused” of sexual abuse and misconduct by the Catholic Church in the United States.

The database has gotten more than a million views since it was published, and we have received a steady stream of feedback from users. Dozens of them have written to us with questions and concerns. Often, they’ve sent us missing data about individual clergy in our database. Sometimes, they’ve suggested priests they believe belong on our list.

We have not added anything to our database outside of the information released by dioceses about credibly accused clergy. You can find out why by reading our questions and answers about what is included in our database.

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Christ the King priest says Buffalo Diocese should have handled closing news differently

BUFFALO (NY)
WGRZ

February 12, 2020

By Danielle Church

https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/special-reports/diocese-in-crisis/christ-the-king-priest-says-buffalo-diocese-should-have-handled-closing-news-differently/71-eb00de43-e894-4ea1-a505-a8fe172ea840

The staff was told last Tuesday at a meeting that it would ceasing operations in May.

East Aurora NY – Last week the seminarians and staff at Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora found out it’ll be closing in May, after operating there for more than 45 years.

The Buffalo Diocese says the plan to cease operations was approved by the seminary’s board of trustees and the five governing members of the corporation.

It means 30 staff members and seminarians will be without a job.

One of them is Rev. John Mack who says the news was “devastating” to everyone, especially because they had no idea it was coming.

“A staff of folks who included people who had been in the seminary for long terms were somehow dumbfounded because they had never been consulted, they had never been involved in the decision,” Mack said.

A spokesperson for the Diocese says that’s not true saying “contrary to implication, the Seminary community was the first to learn of this decision, prior to communicating to the media or the broader public.”

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Likelihood of Diocese bankruptcy prompts questions for other Catholic nonprofits

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo Business First

February 11, 2020

By Tracey Drury

With a bankruptcy filing expected soon by the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, other Catholic-based local nonprofits find themselves working to preserve donors and their financial position by highlighting their independent status.

The likelihood of bankruptcy was cited in a financial report by the Central Administrative Offices of the Diocese and posted in the February edition of the Western New York Catholic newsletter. It’s tied to the hundreds of lawsuits filed in the wake of a state law that opened a window for past victims of sexual assault to sue for damages.

But though they were also founded on Catholic ideals and it’s part of their name, Catholic Health and Catholic Charities of Buffalo are not legally or financially tied to the diocese and will be unaffected by a bankruptcy filing. Still, confusion remains for donors, especially those from other states where such programs are often part of the local diocese.

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As Buffalo Diocese’s bankruptcy looms, Catholic Health not at risk

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

February 14, 2020

By Matt Glynn

The Buffalo Catholic Diocese is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the near future, due to its dire financial situation stemming from a slew of sexual abuse lawsuits.

But if the diocese takes that step, Catholic Health – one of the region’s largest health care systems – would not be impacted, Catholic Health leaders say.

“Catholic Health institutions have been serving the health care needs of our community for more than 170 years and that will continue, apart from the challenges facing the diocese,” said Mark Sullivan, Catholic Health’s president CEO.

While the two organizations share a mission related to the Catholic Church, they operate separately.

Here’s a look at the reasons:

Q: Why wouldn’t a bankruptcy filing by the diocese affect Catholic Health?

A: The health system and the diocese are separate entities. Catholic Health fully owns its assets and those are separate from the diocese, Sullivan said.

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Op-Ed: Buffalo Diocese needs to be transparent with its finances

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

February 13, 2020

By Michael S. Taheri

When asked by parishioners and the media, Diocese of Buffalo officials have steadfastly refused to fully disclose the costs associated with the decadeslong clergy sex scandal. The recent Buffalo News article succinctly explained the decrease in parishioner donations.

While we know that approximately $17 million has been paid through the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, parishioners remain completely in the dark about the total cost to the diocese, and ultimately the loss suffered to various vital ministries in this community.

For example, how much has been paid out in parishioner funds for undisclosed settlements over the past five decades? How much has been paid to the diocese lawyers and investigators? To clinics, hospitals and treatment facilities on behalf of priests for sexual-related issues? This list is not exhaustive.

Is the diocese being a responsible steward of parishioner gifts and donations, spreading the teachings of Jesus Christ such as feeding the hungry, caring for the sick and welcoming the stranger?

Or, is this diocese merely a large institutional organization generating revenue for purposes unrelated to Christ’s teachings?

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February 13, 2020

Columbus Diocese adds priest to sex-abuse list

COLUMBUS (OH)
Columbus Dispatch

February 11, 2020

By Danae King

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus has added a new name to its list of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus has added a name to its website list of priests credibly accused of the sexual abuse of minors.

The list was initially released on March 1 with 34 names. On March 5, the diocese added two names. Fourteen names were later added, making the total 50.

Now the diocese has added the name of the Rev. Richard J. McCormick, 79, a member of the Salesians of Don Bosco order of priests, to the credibly accused list. His name was put on the list on Monday after the diocese confirmed information contained in an anonymous letter it received.

McCormick’s name was added under the category of external or religious clergy members who served in the Columbus diocese but were accused elsewhere. That means the alleged abuse happened outside the diocese, according to the list.

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Former Dallas priest accused of sexually assaulting a child makes first court appearance

DALLAS (TX)
WFAA

February 10, 2020

By Rebecca Lopez

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/crime/dallas-ex-priest-accused-sexually-assaulting-child-first-court-appearance/287-6e64bf62-616e-4f45-8cca-cc9670c5a187

A frail Richard Brown appeared in a Dallas court Monday wearing shackles and handcuffs.

The 78-year-old former priest was arrested in January in Missouri on a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child.

Visiting Judge Mike Snipes asked Brown in court if he understood the charge against him.

“Yes,” Brown answered.

It was the first court appearance by an accused priest in Dallas County since Rudy Kos was convicted in 1998 of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to life in prison.

Brown was booked into jail in Dallas on Feb. 6. He is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

He is accused of molesting a girl he met at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in Plano.

Brown’s attorney wants him released on bond. There will be another hearing Thursday morning to determine whether Brown can be released from jail before trial.

Court records link him to dozens of other assaults.

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NFL team’s deep Catholic ties behind role in abuse crisis

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Associated Press via WWLP

February 12, 2020

By Jim Mustian, Reese Dunklin, and Brett Martel

Why would an NFL team, even one called the Saints, strike a behind-the-scenes alliance with the Roman Catholic Church on an issue as emotionally fraught as clergy sex abuse?

It’s a question even die-hard Saints fans in this heavily Catholic city are asking, and the answer appears to lie in the powerful bond that the team’s devoutly Catholic owner, Tom Benson, and his now-widow Gayle built for years with church leaders.

An Associated Press review of public tax documents found that the Bensons’ foundation has given at least $62 million to the Archdiocese of New Orleans and other Catholic causes over the past dozen years, including gifts to schools, universities, charities and individual parishes.

Along the way, Archbishop Gregory Aymond, who knew the couple separately before they married in 2004, has become almost a part of the team, thought by some to bring the beloved Saints help from a higher power.

Aymond has been spotted on the field at Saints games and inside the team’s Superdome box and has flown on the owner’s private jet. He is known for celebrating stirring pregame Masses, including one before the team’s lone Super Bowl appearance in 2010, when he correctly predicted victory and joined in a rendition of “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

The archbishop arranged a 2011 meeting of the Bensons with Pope Benedict XVI in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square, where Tom Benson kissed the pontiff’s ring and flashed his own Super Bowl ring. A few years later, he served as a witness to the signing of the will that cut out Tom Benson’s estranged daughter and grandchildren and gave third wife Gayle control of a business empire that included ownership of both the Saints and the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans.

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Arizona church sued over decades-old abuse allegations

PHOENIX (AZ)
Associated Press

February 13, 2020

By Jacques Billeaud

Two children were sexually abused by Catholic priests about 40 years ago in an Arizona parish and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix covered up the problem, according to newly filed lawsuits.

Both lawsuits were brought Monday under a 2019 state law that extends the right of people who say they were abused as children to sue until their 30th birthday — a decade longer than before.

The law also opened a one-time window for people who missed the cutoff. They now have until the end of this year to file suit.

Robert Pastor, one of the attorneys who filed the new lawsuits, said the law will help hold the church accountable.

“We are able to uncover the pattern and practice of transferring (sexually abusive) priests,” he said.

In one suit, a man alleged he was sexually abused by the then-Rev. Joseph Henn in the St. Mark Roman Catholic Parish in Phoenix during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

In addition to the civil claim, Henn faces child molestation and other sex charges. Authorities say Henn, who has been defrocked, fled Arizona for Italy in 2003 after being charged with the crimes. He was returned to Arizona last year.

The other lawsuit was brought by a woman who alleges that the Revs. Donald R. Verhagen and James Bretl sexually abused her in the same parish around the same period. Verhagen died in 2001, and Bretl died in 2010.

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Why Catholics should welcome ProPublica’s clergy sex abuse database

NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

February 11, 2020

By Kathleen McChesney

Transparency can be hard to look at.

On Jan. 28, the nonprofit news organization ProPublica published a report headlined “Catholic Leaders Promised Transparency about Child Abuse. They Haven’t Delivered.” This report contains the names of the 5,800 priests and deacons who have been publicly identified by the bishops or superiors of 174 dioceses and religious orders as having had credible allegations of sexual abuse of a minor made against them in recent decades. In other words, ProPublica has created the only “List of Lists” of Catholic clergy abusers in the United States.

The names of many of the men on this list were previously known through the decades-long, dedicated work of BishopAccountability.org or discoverable in various open-source websites and blogs. But ProPublica has developed a new, comprehensive, interactive database whereby anyone can identify a “credibly accused” priest, deacon or brother who has been previously reported by his diocese or religious order, simply by searching his name. A handy “sounds like” function is included to assist in looking for someone whose exact name is unknown. The site also allows one to search by the name of a parish, diocese or religious order, and it provides a spreadsheet of any known data about an individual’s year of birth, ordination, status and assignment.

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Defrocked priest appeals conviction for sex crimes in Maine

PORTLAND (ME)
Press-Herald

February 12, 2020

By Megan Gray

Last year a judge ordered Ronald Paquin to serve 16 years in prison for sexually abusing a boy on trips to Maine in the 1980s.

A former Catholic priest is appealing his conviction for sexually abusing a young boy on trips to Maine in the 1980s.

Ronald Paquin, now 77, was found guilty in 2018 of 11 counts of gross sexual misconduct. A York County jury acquitted him of similar charges related to a second boy. A judge sentenced him last year to 20 years in prison with all but 16 years suspended.

Paquin was one of the priests exposed in the early 2000s by a sweeping Boston Globe investigation into clergy sex abuse. He pleaded guilty in 2002 in Massachusetts to repeatedly raping an altar boy between 1989 and 1992, beginning when the victim was 12. He spent more than decade in prison and was defrocked in 2004. Once he was released, he was indicted on criminal charges in Maine, and he was arrested in 2017.

Paquin is now incarcerated at the Maine State Prison in Warren, and he did not attend oral arguments Wednesday at the Maine Supreme Judicial Court hearing in Portland.

His attorney, Rory McNamara, raised multiple issues on appeal, but the justices focused on two during the hearing Wednesday.

McNamara argued first that the trial judge should have required the prosecutor to disclose the victim’s criminal history to the defense attorneys, saying that information was not available to the defense attorneys, but should have been available to the prosecutor through a federal database. The details of the victim’s criminal record were not disclosed during the trial or the appeal hearing.

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Parishioners sue Detroit Archdiocese over ouster of priest

DETROIT (MI)
WXYZ

February 13, 2020

Parishioners at Assumption Grotto Catholic Church are demanding their priest return to worship. They have now filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit against their own archdiocese.

Father Eduard Perrone was barred in July of 2019 after sex abuse allegation.

*
The lawsuit names the Archdiocese of Detroit, Roman Catholic Archbishop and Mike Bugarin. The lawsuit claims Bugarin is an internal sex abuse investigator for the church. The parishioners said in the lawsuit they’ve been defrauded.

“There’s a catholic service appeal fund that the archdiocese rusn and they expect,” said Christopher Kolomjec, the attorney representing the parishioners. “Every parish throughout the archdiocese contributes to these fund[s], its mandatory, it’s like a tax, and that’s the fund used to run the operations and programs including these investigations.”

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Video: Defrocked Priest Convicted of Sex Abuse Files Appeal in Maine

BOSTON (MA)
News 10

February 13, 2020

Portland ME – A former priest [Ronald Paquin] found guilty of abusing boys in Maine and Massachusetts after a sex abuse sweep in the early 2000s is [seeking to appeal] his conviction.

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Bishop prohibits priest from broadcasting opinion after criticizing sex abuse scandals

LYNCHBURG (VA)
WSET

February 12, 2020

By Laura Taylor and Caroline Eaker

Martinsville VA – A local Catholic priest broke his silence on the way the church handled one of the biggest controversies.

The Catholic Diocese of Richmond has released the names of more than two dozen priests that are facing ‘credible and substantiated’ allegations of sexual abuse against a minor in February of 2019.

The priest at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church is refusing to stay silent despite the threat of losing his priesthood.

Father Mark White’s blog led Bishop Barry Knestout to order White’s silence.

“He said that he thought what I had written was disrespectful and not appropriate so he ordered me to remove everything that I had on the internet and to be silent on the internet from now on under pain of being removed as the pastor if I do not obey,” said White.

White voiced his frustration and disgust about how the church responded to the many sexual abuse scandals, particularly the cases involving former Cardinal Theodore Edgar McCarrick.

“I was hoping that as a church we could live in our truth and believe in our Lord Jesus Christ that he came to allow us to live in our truth and find our way by doing that and of course what we are all about it believing in something and we need to be a church that people can believe in,” said White.

Parishioners of St. Joseph’s in Martinsville said they stand behind White.

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Detroit Catholic church parishioners sue to get back ousted priest accused of molestation

DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press

February 13, 2020

By Tresa Baldas

After 41 years in the priesthood, Father Eduard Perrone wasn’t prepared for the hellfire that tore through his parish last summer: he was accused of molesting an altar boy decades earlier, and ousted from his church.

The sex abuse claim blindsided the pastor’s loyal flock, though they believe he is innocent — and have launched an unorthodox crusade to clear his name.

In an unprecedented lawsuit in Michigan, and possibly the country, 20 parishioners from Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Detroit are suing the Detroit archdiocese for $20 million, claiming it caused them emotional distress by taking away their priest.

The lawsuit alleges church officials “fabricated” a rape charge against Perrone because they didn’t like his conservative views and wanted him out, and because they wanted to avoid bad press. Perrone was removed from the clergy one month after reporters started asking questions about a fondling claim against him.

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Man sues Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Cardinal Mahony and ex-priest at center of abuse scandal

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

February 12, 2020

By Richard Winston

A 32-year-old man filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Cardinal Roger Mahony and an ex-priest who was returned to parish duties even after admitting to molesting children.

Mahony went on to reassign Michael Baker to several other Roman Catholic parishes, where he abused more boys, many of them immigrants.

The lawsuit is one of the first cases filed against Mahony, formerly the Archbishop of Los Angeles, since California enacted legislation last year that sets aside the state statute of limitations and provides more time for victims of childhood sexual abuse to seek civil damages.

Baker has been accused of molesting at least 23 men as young boys during his decades in the priesthood. He was convicted in 2007 of abusing two boys and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Wednesday’s lawsuit was filed by a man identified only as John Doe, who alleges he was repeatedly sexually abused from about age 6 to 10, between 1993 and 1997, at St. Columbkille Church in South Los Angeles. Baker had confided to Mahony in 1986 that he had molested two boys.

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The Survival of David Clohessy

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times

February 12, 2020

By Danny Wicentowski

On June 13, 2002, David Clohessy stepped into the light of history. A former altar boy in a rural Catholic church in Moberly, Missouri, he stood at a podium in a massive hotel ballroom in Dallas — and staring back at him from row up upon row of tables, packed into the room ten-deep, were some 280 Catholic bishops.

Many in that audience were already familiar with Clohessy as the national director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, the country’s longest-active support group for victims of clergy abuse. Clohessy had spent years trying to grab the bishops’ attention.

Indeed, Clohessy seemed to be quoted in every other newspaper story about a predator priest going back to the early 1990s. He’d show up at churches with fliers listing support group meetings for victims, and he’d prod reporters to cover the protest. He held press conferences with tearful victims announcing lawsuits. He insisted on calling accused priests “perps.”

He was, in a word, a nuisance to the Catholic Church. And until that moment in 2002, that’s all he had ever been.

That day, with his square-framed glasses slightly askew and his outfit of a simple gray suit and white shirt, the SNAP director looked more like an accountant than the radical victims’ rights advocate. But this meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was focused specifically on the exploding clergy abuse scandal — and it had drawn the eyes of the world.

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February 12, 2020

Successor to Father Baker accused of molesting boys in two lawsuits

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

February 11, 2020

By Jay Tokasz

A priest who for years oversaw the legacy of Father Nelson H. Baker – the Buffalo Diocese’s sainthood candidate – is accused in two recently filed lawsuits of sexually abusing boys in Our Lady of Victory programs he oversaw.

A 76-year-old Depew man alleged in one of the filings that Monsignor Joseph M. McPherson molested him in 1951, when he was 8 years old and living at St. Joseph’s Male Orphan Asylum in Lackawanna.

In the second case, a Hamburg man accused McPherson of plying him with alcohol and molesting him from 1966 to 1967, when he was 14 to 15 years old and a student at Baker Hall, a residential school for troubled youth.

The orphan asylum and Baker Hall were part of Our Lady of Victory Homes of Charity, a conglomerate of human services agencies led for years by Baker, whose legendary work on behalf of the poor and orphaned children prior to his 1936 death is the basis of a canonization cause.

The lawsuits were the first to allege abuse by McPherson, who died in 1982 at age 73. In 2018, the Buffalo Diocese added McPherson to its list of priests with substantiated allegations of abuse of a minor.

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Two new lawsuits filed Tuesday claim sexual abuse by former priests in Phoenix

PHOENIX (AZ)
ABC 15

February 11, 2020

By Mike Pelton

Two new lawsuits filed Tuesday claim sexual abuse by former priests in Phoenix.

The lawsuits, filed by unnamed plaintiffs, allege abuse by priests at St. Mark Roman Catholic Parish in Phoenix, when they were stationed there in the late 1970s and early 1980’s. The lawsuit names the Diocese of Phoenix, among others.

“That’s what these lawsuits are about,” said Jeff Anderson, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “The Catholic Diocese and the head of the Salvatorian order transferring these priests and allowing predators access to kids.”

Anderson said the lawsuits are the direct result of a new Arizona law signed last year, allowing additional opportunities for victims of child sexual abuse to file lawsuits.

“We want the lawsuits to allow the full disclosure of all the offenders known to the top officials that have been hidden and kept secret,” Anderson said.

One of the lawsuits involves allegations against Fr. Joseph Henn. He was caught in Italy last year and brought back to Arizona, after he disappeared in 2005 while facing sexual abuse charges, according to the Diocese of Phoenix.

The other lawsuit names two priests who attorneys for the plaintiffs say have not been publicly accused before. They are Fr. Donald Verhagen and Fr. James Bretl. Both have since passed away.

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Victims of priest sexual abuse respond to Saints owner’s statement on email

NEW ORLEANS (LA)
WVUE

February 11, 2020

By Chris Finch

A group of people who say they have been abused by priests want Saints owner Gayle Benson to release the emails exchanged between the Saints and Catholic officials, according to the group.

Benson sent a release Monday saying that the team wanted to clarify its stance regarding its advice to the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

The owner said her team played no role in determining which priests would be named in the list of “credibly accused.”

She also said in her statement that she did not make payments to help the church pay legal settlements to victims embroiled in the scandal.

*

The group, SNAP, said if the team has nothing to hide, it should produce the emails in question. They claim this would clear Benson and the Saints of having any malicious influence.

“We are especially concerned about this case because the archdiocese admits to 57 abusers, but independent watchdogs at BishopAccountability.org name at least 79. There obviously is a math problem in Louisiana, and this math works out to more danger for the vulnerable in the state,” SNAP said in a statement.

FOX 8, along with The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate and two of the city’s other television stations have filed a motion asking that they be allowed access to a court hearing on the question of whether emails and other communications between the Archdiocese of New Orleans and executives of the New Orleans Saints should remain confidential.

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Former Bishop Matthew Clark ordered to testify on priest abuse

ROCHESTER (NY)
Democrat and Chronicle

February 11, 2020

By Steve Orr and Sean Lahman

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Bishop Emeritus Matthew Clark must provide sworn testimony about the history of child sexual abuse in the Rochester diocese.

Clark’s attorney Mary Jo Korona had argued that his Alzheimer’s disease left him unable to competently testify and said questioning him would place him under stress and worsen his symptoms.

But after 20 minutes of oral arguments at a court hearing Tuesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Paul R. Warren interrupted lawyers to say he had decided that Clark would have to sit for a deposition of three hours’ length.

Lawyers for abuse victims had asked for at least seven hours of questioning.

It was the second significant ruling of the day in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case, in which the diocese is seeking to resolve several hundred claims of child sexual abuse while retaining enough resources to continue its ministry.

Earlier in the hearing, Warren ordered that all claims be filed with the bankruptcy court by Aug. 13.

*

The Aug. 13 bar date, as it’s called, coincides with the end of a one-year window during which people can bring suit for past child sexual abuse under New York’s Child Victims Act.

*

Warren also ruled that Clark must turn over any diaries, notes, letters or other personal written records still in his possession that shed light on past abuse.

That written material is distinct from the diocese’s confidential personnel files, often called the sub secreto files, that the bishop keeps under lock and key. Victims’ lawyers say those files often contain evidence of abuse by church ministers and attempts by higher-ups to protect the abusers.

The diocese’s lawyer, Stephen Donato, said “thousands and thousands” of these documents have been pulled from the diocese’s files and are now being reviewed by a firm in India hired to redact names of victims and other personal information.

That process should be completed in “a few more weeks,” he said, after which copies of the records will be given to victims’ lawyers.

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Pope avoids question of married priests in Amazon document

VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

February 12, 2020

By Nicole Winfield

Pope Francis declined Wednesday to approve the ordination of married men to address the priest shortage in the Amazon, sidestepping a fraught issue that has dominated debate in the Catholic Church and even involved retired Pope Benedict XVI.

In an eagerly-awaited document, Francis didn’t even refer to recommendations by Amazonian bishops to consider the ordination of married men and women deacons. Rather, he urged bishops to pray for more priestly vocations and send missionaries to the region, where the faithful living in remote communities can go months or even years without Mass.

Francis’ dodging of the issue disappointed progressives, who had hoped he would at the very least put it to further study. And it relieved conservatives who have used the debate over priestly celibacy to heighten opposition to the pope, whom some have accused of heresy.

The document, “Beloved Amazon,” is instead a love letter to the Amazonian rain forest and its indigenous peoples, penned by history’s first Latin American pope. Francis has long been concerned about the violent exploitation of the Amazon’s land, its crucial importance to the global ecosystem and the injustices committed against its peoples.

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Former Catholic “fixer” explains why accused priests come to Missouri

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Fox 2 Now

February 11, 2020

By Chris Hayes

Patrick Wall describes himself as a former fixer for the Catholic Church. The former monk says his job was to clean up after a report of sexual abuse.

“Every one of my assignments was to follow a monk who had been credibly accused of child sexual assault and they had to remove him because the knowledge became public,” he said.

*

After leaving the church, Wall started working with attorneys who sued on behalf of children who say they’ve been abused. He says many of the accused priests are finding homes around the St. Louis area.

“Missouri law has been very favorable to the church,” Wall said. “That’s why these facilities pop up.”

He’s talking about places like a Dittmer property Fox 2 featured last month, owned by the Servants of the Paraclete. It’s where priests and former priests get help and rehabilitation. Last month, a priest was arrested there – accused of abusing as many as 50 children.

“Is there proper supervision at these facilities? Those are real concerns,” Wall said. “I know the neighbors over the years, especially in Dittmer, have not been happy.”

“It’s a public safety question, you know, where are the perpetrators that have been acknowledged either by a court or by the various religious institutes? Who’s supervising them?”

A viewer pointed out there’s also a children’s camp near the Dittmer property.

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Fox Files: Accused sex offender priests find home in Missouri

ST. LOUIS (MO)
Fox 2 Now

January 30, 2020

By Chris Hayes

Dittmer MO – Dallas police arrested an accused sex offender priest in Dittmer, Missouri on Wednesday, at a retreat where priests and former priests get help and rehabilitation.

The Catholic property is owned by Servants of the Paraclete, which has a mission of providing a safe and supportive environment for rehabbing priests.

Richard Thomas Brown, 78, was wanted on charges related to his reported abuse of as many as 50 children between 1980 and 1994.

Michael Stenzhorn, who lives across the street from the Catholic property, said he’s used to it.

“I sent the Archbishop a letter last year and told him about the pedophiles walking up my neighbor’s driveway,” he said.

Stenzhorn said the church has bought every house around his.

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February 11, 2020

Clergy sex abuse class action lawsuit against Pittsburgh diocese seeks to add Greensburg, others

GREENSBURG (PA)
Tribune-Review

February 10, 2020

By Deb Erdley

Lawyers in a class action suit trying to force the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh to open its clergy abuse archives expanded their campaign to include the Greensburg, Harrisburg and Altoona-Johnstown dioceses as well as the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The move comes one month after Allegheny County Common Pleas Court Judge Christine Ward ruled the lawsuit could move forward with regard to the Pittsburgh diocese.

The suit was filed in September 2018 by a pair of Pittsburgh diocese families with children in the church’s parochial schools. It seeks the disclosure of records, rather than monetary awards.

The families who filed the complaint contend that records that were made public in a 2018 Pennsylvania grand jury report contained gaping holes that suggest the church failed to meet mandatory reporting laws and poses a public nuisance.

Now, they want the court to include the other dioceses and archdiocese in an amended complaint that includes families and abuse survivors of those church bodies.

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Priest put on administrative leave over decades-old child sex abuse allegations

ALBANY (NY)
WNYT

February 11, 2020

By WNYT Staff and Jill Konopka

The bishop of the Albany Catholic Diocese put an 81-year-old clergyman on leave over decades-old child sex abuse allegations.

The priest has been retired from active ministry in the Albany Diocese since 2008. He was cleared of similar accusations as recently as 2005.

NewsChannel 13 broke the news last week that an independent review board was investigating two recent cases involving allegations of sex crimes against children.

“I did have within the year, at least one person, you know, one or two maybe, come forward and you know say to me this happened to me in this period of time. In one case, the priest was not in active ministry,” said Bishop Edward Scharfenberger.

NewsChannel 13 now knows Albany Bishop Edward Scharfenberger was referencing 81-year-old retired Albany Diocese Reverend Daniel Maher in an interview late last month, as the priest the bishop put on administrative leave Saturday over sex abuse allegations to a minor in the 1960s and 1970s.

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There’s a whiff of a tiff when the pros try to pick the past decade’s top religion stories

OXFORD (MS)
Get Religion

February 6, 2020

By Richard Ostling

What were the past decade’s top religion stories?

In the current Christian Century magazine, Baylor historian Philip Jenkins lists his top 10 in American Christianity and — journalists take note – correctly asserts that all will “continue to play out” in coming years.

His list: The growth of unaffiliated “nones,” the papacy of Francis, redefinition of marriage, Charleston murders and America’s “whiteness” problem, religion and climate change, Donald Trump and the evangelicals, gender and identity, #MeToo combined with women’s leadership, seminaries in crisis and impact of religious faith (or lack thereof) on low fertility rates.

Such exercises are open to debate, and there’s mild disagreement on the decade’s top events as drawn from Religion News Service coverage by Senior Editor Paul O’Donnell. Unlike Jenkins, this list scans the interfaith and global scenes.

The RNS picks: “Islamophobia” in America (with a nod to President Trump), the resurgent clergy sex abuse crisis, #ChurchToo scandals, those rising “nones,” mass shootings at houses of worship, gay ordination and marriage, evangelicals in power (Trump again) as “post-evangelicals” emerge, anti-Semitic attacks and religious freedom issues.

You can see that the same events can be divvied up in various ways, and that there’s considerable overlap but also intriguing differences.

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Pennsylvania opens grand jury investigation into Jehovah’s Witnesses’ cover-up of child sex abuse

EMERYVILLE (CA)
Reveal – Center for Investigative Reporting

February 10, 2020

By Trey Bundy

For decades, leaders of the Jehovah’s Witnesses religion have kept allegations of child sexual abuse in their congregations secret from police as a matter of policy. They have maintained an internal database containing the names of alleged abusers in their U.S. congregations, but repeatedly have violated court orders to hand it over.

Still, they have avoided reckoning with law enforcement agencies – until now.

The Pennsylvania attorney general’s office has opened a grand jury investigation into how Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders handle allegations of child sexual abuse, according to three people who have been called to testify in closed-door hearings.

Mark O’Donnell, a former Jehovah’s Witness, told Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting that Pennsylvania investigators visited his home in Baltimore in June and interviewed him for three hours.

O’Donnell, 52, was a Jehovah’s Witness for 30 years. He left in 2014 after learning about child abuse cases, locally and elsewhere, that were covered up by the organization. Since then, he has become a vocal critic of the Watchtower, the religion’s parent organization, traveling around the country to observe civil court cases against the organization and publishing stories online. As a result, O’Donnell has become a popular recipient of leaked information from inside the Watchtower and local congregations, much of it pertaining to child abuse.

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Dunkirk parish mourns pastor who was cleared by diocese of child sex abuse allegations

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

February 10, 2020

By Jay Tokasz

The Rev. Dennis G. Riter, a Dunkirk pastor who was accused of sex abuse in two Child Victims Act lawsuits despite a Buffalo Diocese investigation that cleared him of the claims, died Saturday in Buffalo General Hospital after a brief illness. He was 74.

Riter was the longtime pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish in Dunkirk. He was the first active priest in the Buffalo Diocese to be put on leave in 2018 due to a newly reported child sex abuse allegation. After a three-month investigation, a diocese review board recommended that Riter be returned to the parish because the initial claim and a second that also surfaced could not be substantiated.

Riter, who was assigned to Dunkirk since 2008, maintained he was innocent.

The parish welcomed back Riter, but the allegations continued to linger, as the two men who had reported their claims to the diocese in 2018 sued under the Child Victims Act.

One of the men alleged Riter abused him in the 1990s when he was an altar boy at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in South Buffalo; the other man claimed he was abused in 1992, when Riter was assigned to a Lackawanna church.

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Child Victims Act leads to insurance woes

NEW YORK (NY)
City & State NY

February 10, 2020

By Kay Dervish

Some institutions facing or at risk of facing child sex abuse lawsuits have lost coverage.

About six months into the implementation of the Child Victims Act, more than 1,400 child sex abuse cases have been filed in New York. The law – which provides a one-year window for people to bring forward such lawsuits regardless of the statute of limitations – has resulted in a flood of lawsuits against Catholic Church in particular. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester filed for bankruptcy in the aftermath of the law’s implementation – which victims’ advocates argued allowed it to bypass scrutiny for the alleged crimes – with the Buffalo Diocese expected to follow suit soon.

But the law’s financial and logistical challenges have affected many other institutions, such as schools and nonprofits, who have faced increased insurance costs and difficulties finding old insurance providers as they confront lawsuits regarding crimes dating back decades. Some have lost coverage for sexual abuse altogether.

“What’s happening is that insurance policies from this point forward are excluding this risk from the policy,” Robert Chesler, an attorney at Anderson Kill who represents insurance policyholders, told City & State.

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