ABUSE TRACKER

IRONDALE (AL)
National Catholic Register

By Father Raymond J. de Souza

For more than 30 years, Archbishop Chaput has been a model of creativity and collaboration in preaching and preserving the Gospel.

The news was reported this week as one voice. Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, a “conservative” — sometimes styled a “prominent conservative” or “archconservative” — was retiring after having reached the age of 75.

This paper has already profiled the remarkable three decades that Archbishop Chaput ministered in Rapid City, Denver and Philadelphia. Yet the term “conservative” bears examination. Does it apply to Chaput?

The New York Times characterized Chaput as a “theological and political conservative.”

The first may well apply, as it is commonly used. For example, Chaput would interpret Amoris Laetitia in continuity with St. John Paul II’s encyclical on the moral life, Veritatis Splendor. Pope Francis wrote Amoris Laetitia as if Veritatis Splendor was never written; there is no mention of it whatsoever, despite the nearly 400 footnotes. Does that mean that Chaput is conservative and the Holy Father is liberal?

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Catholic News Service via Catholic Philly

January 23, 2020

Hagatna, Guam – In an investiture ceremony Jan. 19, Tanzanian Archbishop Novatus Rugambwa, apostolic delegate to the countries of the Pacific Ocean, conferred the pallium on Archbishop Michael J. Byrnes of Agana.

The ceremony took place during Mass at Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica in Hagatna.

Archbishop Byrnes originally received the pallium from Pope Francis at the Vatican last June during the annual pallium Mass celebrated in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The Guam prelate was among 30 newly named archbishops from throughout the world who traveled to Rome to concelebrate the Mass, with Pope Francis presiding. The pope blessed the palliums, which were then to be conferred on the archbishops in their respective dioceses.

*

Archbishop Byrnes was an auxiliary bishop of Detroit when Pope Francis sent him to Guam in October 2016 as the coadjutor bishop with special powers in the midst of accusations of sexual abuse and financial mismanagement against Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron.

The former Archbishop Apuron was later found guilty of abuse against minors by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. On April 4, 2019, the congregation rejected his appeal and upheld its guilty judgment — and fully affirmed Archbishop Byrnes’ leadership as the shepherd of the Catholic faithful on Guam and the metropolitan archbishop of Agana.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Commonweal

January 23, 2020

By Massimo Faggioli

The publication of From the Depths of Our Hearts, Cardinal Robert Sarah’s book on clerical celibacy “co-authored” with Pope Benedict XVI, illustrates once more the problem with the institution of the emeritus papacy as it’s currently functioning. Much has already been said about this aspect of the latest controversy, but less about what Benedict’s contribution to the book signifies in terms of his continued revisionist thinking on Vatican II, where he played a significant role as a theological expert. Italian theologian Andrea Grillo has astutely remarked that “Benedict is one of the fathers of Vatican II, but full of remorse.” Indeed, the defense of clerical celibacy put forth in From the Depths of Our Hearts is built on a view of Scripture, liturgy, and the church that makes no reference whatsoever to the documents of Vatican II.

Of course, it’s hard to know at this point just how direct a hand the “pope emeritus” has had in the writing that has appeared under his name in the past year (including his musings on the genesis of the abuse crisis last April). Nevertheless, it fits within a pattern of theological drift dating back much farther than Francis’s papacy. Some see signs of Ratzinger distancing himself from the council as early as August 1965, while Vatican II was still underway and the pastoral constitution Gaudium et spes was taking shape. Others date it to the student protest movement in Germany in 1968 and 1969, when he was teaching at Tübingen before moving to the quieter University of Regensburg in Bavaria. The German national synod of 1972–1975 seems to have contributed to his disillusionment.

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MALTA
Independent

January 23, 2020

https://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2020-01-23/local-news/Carnival-float-linking-Archbishop-Church-home-to-child-abuse-draws-widespread-condemnation-6736218779

A Carnival float linking Archbishop Charles Scicluna and a Church home to child abuse has drawn widespread condemnation, and will not be allowed to participate in Carnival, reports read

The float features the Archbishop, flanked by two babies with devil’s horns and pointy teeth, in front of St Joseph children’s home, with the writing ‘Jude’s hell.’ Jude is Archbishop Scicluna’s middle name.

The Facebook post was accompanied by the following text: ‘Carnival 2020 loading … Let the children come to me … shhh don’t tell them anything.”

Lovin Malta reports that Minister for National Heritage, Arts and Local Government, José Herrera confirmed that Festivals Malta will be communicating with the float owner, and it will be prevented from participating.

Archbishop Scicluna earlier in the day told Times of Malta that, while he is not against satire, the float is “highly inappropriate”, especially for an event attended by children.

Fr Louis Mallia MSSP, who runs St Joseph Home, said he was concerned by the reaction children could have if the float is paraded through Valletta next month. He invited the float builders to visit the children’s home, to see that the real situation was very different from that depicted in the float.

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MALTA
Malta Today

January 24, 2020

By Matthew Vella

Social workers say banned carnival float was homophobic and minimised gravity of crime of child abuse with gratuitous links to Vatican prosecutor of sex abuse cases

The Maltese Association of Social Workers has said a carnival float linking Archbishop Charles Scicluna to the historic St Joseph Home child abuse saga was likely to cause distress to the home’s residents by depicting it as unsafe.

The carnival float was banned for participation in the Maltese carnival defilé by the minister culture for juxtaposing the Catholic archbishop with two-horned cherubs and the name ‘St Joseph Home’, as well as inserting an LGBTQI rainbow in the pastiche.

The St Joseph Home was the site of repeated child abuse of orphans who resided there in the 1980s until police investigated the case in 2003. In 2011, Carmelo Pulis, then 69, and Godwin Scerri, then 78, were defrocked and jailed for five and six years respectively after a court found them guilty of sexually abusing ten boys in their care in the 1980s.

The home still houses orphaned residents.

But even Lawrence Grech, one of the survivors who has been repeatedly denied compensation from Scicluna’s archdiocese, yesterday insisted the carnival float should not be banned.

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MALTA
The Malta Independent

January 25, 2020

A float linking Archbisop Charles Scicluna and a Church home to child abuse, caused a whole uproar this past week, with many arguing that it is in bad taste.

The float features the Archbishop, flanked by two babies with devil’s horns and pointy teeth, in front of St Joseph children’s home, with the writing ‘Jude’s hell.’ Jude is Archbishop Scicluna’s middle name. The float also contains a wedding cake with two men holding hands.

Festivals Malta took a decision to ban the float in its current form, and in this newsroom’s opinion this was the right move. While Freedom of Expression is of course sacred, there are defamatory considerations which must also be made. Archbishop Scicluna is a man who has spearheaded the fight against child abuse in the church, and depicting in such a way can be seen as linking the Archbishop to such abuse.

Scicluna is considered to be the Vatican’s main investigator into priestly sexual abuses, with the Maltese Archbishop being sent to countries like Chile and Poland to deal with such cases. He also led a Vatican summit which was aimed to draw up guidelines for the church to tackle this subject.

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ALBANY (NY)
Times Union

January 23, 2020

By Cayla Harris

Six months after the Child Victims Act went into effect, survivors and lawyers say hundreds of lawsuits have stalled in the pre-trial discovery stages.

In August, the act opened a one-year look-back period temporarily eliminating the civil statute of limitations on child sex abuse cases, allowing survivors of all ages to lodge lawsuits against their alleged offenders. The first filing day, Aug. 14, saw more than 400 lawsuits – and there have been about 1,000 more statewide in the months since.

But as attorneys await evidence from defendants, several cases have reached an impasse, leaving survivors waiting far after the closure of the look-back window to take their cases to trial or pursue settlements. Only a handful of cases have been settled, and the earliest trials are expected to take place in 2021 – but some have been scheduled as far as out 2023, attorneys said.

“We hear mostly from clients – in any case – it’s a longer process than a person who’s not in the legal system expects or wants,” said Jennifer Freeman, an attorney with Marsh Law Firm, which has offices in Manhattan and White Plains. “You think you can go to trial in a few months, and it just doesn’t work like that.”

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Bleacher Report

January 24, 2020

By Adam Wells

A court-appointed special master will hear arguments from the New Orleans Saints to prevent the release of emails from team executives that reportedly show them offering public relations help to the city’s Roman Catholic archdiocese as it dealt with multiple allegations of sexual abuse against its clergy members.

Per Jim Mustian of the Associated Press on Friday, attorneys for the 12 plaintiffs in the lawsuit found through discovery that the Saints “aided the Archdiocese of New Orleans in its ‘pattern and practice of concealing its crimes.'”

A full list of Saints executives involved wasn’t listed, but the team’s senior vice president of communications Greg Bensel was mentioned. “Multiple” team personnel were also said to have used their team-affiliated email addresses to advise church officials about their messaging and “how to soften the impact of the archdiocese’s release of a list of clergy members ‘credibly accused’ of sexual abuse.”

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UNITED STATES
Patheos

January 23, 2020

By Mary Pezzulo

I want to say a few words about gaslighting, and about how abusive people manipulate their communities.

The other day on Facebook, I met a woman who has been the victim of some extreme domestic violence. For the record she’s not the same domestic violence survivor as the one we all helped with a gift registry in December; this is a new friend of mine. She’s told her own story publicly for the very first time this week. It’s extremely graphic and horrifying, and she promises there’s a lot more that she’s left unsaid which she’ll reveal later. But what there is now is terrible enough. You can see it yourself on facebook, complete with a picture of her burned arm.

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BAD AXE (MI)
Huron Daily Tribune

January 23, 2020

By Scott Nunn

Ventline scheduled for sentencing Feb. 6

Former priest and Port Austin resident Lawrence Ventline, 70, pleaded no contest to indecent exposure Jan. 15.

Ventline had been charged following a complaint made by an area business that he had exposed himself. He was scheduled for jury trial Jan. 28.

According to Huron County Prosecutor Timothy Rutkowski, the complainant stated that Ventline walked around the business for approximately 10 minutes exposing himself. Rutkowski said he had a video clip of the incident from the surveillance that was about 30 seconds in duration. In his statements to the police Ventline alleged the exposure was due to a medical issue.

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UNITED STATES
SNAP

January 22, 2020

Catholic officials in Rome have opened an abuse investigation into a New York prelate who three months ago they had selected to lead an abuse investigation of his own. This situation is a clear example of the need for external, secular investigations instead of church-run ones.

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio was accused of abuse in a lawsuit filed in November of last year, alleging that he had abused a boy while he was a priest in Jersey City. That accusation came after Bishop DiMarzio had been tapped by Vatican officials to lead an investigation into Bishop Richard Malone, the former head of the Diocese of Buffalo who resigned in December in disgrace.

The fact that a Bishop accused of abuse was the man investigating another Bishop’s cover-up abuse is a clear example of why internal, church-run investigations cannot be counted on to get to the bottom of clergy abuse crimes and cover-ups. Too many prelates – as many as 130 sitting bishops, according to a Boston Globe and Philadelphia Inquirer investigation – have been accused of mishandling abuse allegations or being abusers themselves for internal investigations to have any merit. There is an obvious need for oversight and investigations to come from external, secular sources.

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UNITED STATES
SNAP

January 23, 2020

Philadelphia has a new Archbishop, a man who is tasked with the tall order of bringing transparency and openness to an archdiocese that has long taken an antagonistic position towards survivors of clergy abuse.

Nelson Perez, the former Bishop of Cleveland, has been elevated to the Archbishop of Philadelphia by Pope Francis. He replaces Archbishop Charles Chaput, a man whose signature achievements included actively fighting against legislation that would benefit survivors and wantonly ignoring the church’s zero tolerance policy for priests accused of abuse.

Archbishop Perez has a lot of work in front of him. We have concerns that, as a product of St. Charles Seminary in Philadelphia and as one who knows how the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has repeatedly failed victims, he may adopt a “business as usual” approach. We hope for the complete opposite and that we see Archbishop Perez be true to his motto, “trust and hope,” two things that survivors in Philadelphia have long found wanting in their Catholic leadership. The archbishop has the opportunity to, as he said many times in Cleveland, “do the right thing.”

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UNITED STATES
SNAP

January 22, 2020

Another priest has been added to the Oklahoma City Archdiocese’s list of abusers. We call on Catholic officials to do outreach in every community where this priest worked to encourage other possible victims to come forward and make a report.

The case of Fr. Martin Leven is another example of the Church’s playbook to avoid scandal and minimize abuse allegations. Fr. Leven was first accused of abuse in 1993 and was sent to a church-run treatment facility in 1995. However, since the archdiocesan list does not include assignment dates or additional information on the allegation, we are unclear as to when the abuse was alleged to have occurred, only where.

The treatment facility found the allegation “possible.” Their recommendation was that the priest have no unsupervised contact with minors and seek intensive outpatient psychotherapy. Fr. Leven was then returned to parish ministry with the instruction that he “not be permitted to have ministerial contact with minors unless other adults are present.”

We do not know whether that instruction was actually enforced, or who was in charge of supervising its implementation. We do know that a recommendation is not enough to protect children from abuse, and that a second allegation of abuse by the priest, apparently from the same time period as the first, has also been “substantiated.” We are not told when the archdiocese received the second allegation, but Fr. Leven remained in parish ministry until 1999, in hospital ministry until 2013, and only had his faculties removed this year.

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Un exseminarista venezolano denunció a un sacerdote mexicano de haber abusado sexualmente de él cuando tenía 13 años. Le ha seguido la pista por Chicago, La Habana, Ciudad de México. Al presunto perpetrador se le vio en la Basílica de Guadalupe haciendo trabajo eclesiástico para los paulinos.

La congregación religiosa Sociedad de San Pablo, conocida como Paulinos, resguarda en México al sacerdote católico Juan Huerta Ibarra, acusado penalmente de abuso sexual y pederastia ante la justicia venezolana, país al que fue enviado para realizar funciones eclesiásticas.

Pese a que el proceso penal en su contra sigue abierto en la ciudad de Mérida, territorio ubicado en el nacimiento de la cordillera andina, al norte de Venezuela, el religioso retornó a México y desde julio de 2019 realiza actividades sufragadas por la congregación y la jerarquía Paulina, que han rechazado diversas solicitudes periodísticas para hablar del caso.

El abogado venezolano José Leonardo Araujo Araque, actualmente de 31 años, denunció penalmente a Huerta Ibarra en 2019.Lo acusa de haber abusado sexualmente de él en reiteradas ocasiones, cuando tenía tan sólo 13 años de edad y Huerta Ibarra era superior y fundador de la comunidad “Reina de los Apóstoles”, casa de formación de los aspirantes a ingresar a la congregación.

La Sociedad de San Pablo conoció oficialmente la denuncia del joven por correos electrónicos enviados a Roma al superior general Valdir José De Castro. También informó a José Faustino Hernández Estévez, superior provincial de México-Cuba, quien se comprometió a investigar a fondo. 

Dr. José Rafael Bastos
Fiscal Superior del estado Bolivariano de Mérida
Su despacho-
Denuncia: Abuso sexual contra un adolescente
Partes: José Leonardo Araujo Araque Vs. Sacerdote Juan Huerta Ibarra
Sr. Fiscal Superior:
Yo, José Leonardo Araujo Araque, titular de la cédula de identidad N9 V-18124059,
soltero, abogado en ejercicio; domiciliado actualmente en la ciudad de Caracas, Distrito
Capital; y aquí de tránsito, ante usted con la venia de estilo y como mejor procede en
derecho, acudo en este acto a denunciar conforme a la legislación penal nacional al
sacerdote JUAN HUERTA IBARRA, mexicano, nacido en fecha 29 de noviembre de
1954, residenciado actualmente en el departamento de Chicago, Estados Únidos de
Norteamérica; perteneciente a la congregación religiosa de Derecho Pontificio,
Sociedad San Pablo, fundada en Venezuela como ASOCIACIÓN CIVIL SOCIEDAD SAN
PABLO DE VENEZUELA, Asociación Civil sin fines de lucro, inscrita por ante el Registro
Público del Segundo Circuito del Municipio Libertador del Distrito Capital y bajo el N°6,
Folio 15, Protocolo Primero, Tomo 1, en fecha 5 de Abril de 1954 y cuya última
actualización de su junta directiva fuera registrada por la Oficina de Registro antes
mencionada en fecha 7 de mayo de 2018, bajo el N°45, Tomo 19, Protocolo
Transcripción, suficientemente facultado por los estatutos sociales de la Asociación en
el Capítulo Ill, e inscrita en el Registro de Información Fiscal (RIF) bajo
el
No. J000638357, cuyo presidente es el Religioso Vittorio Favaretto Scapinello, titular de
la cédula de identidad N° V-6913875, domiciliada en la ciudad de Caracas; por haber
cometido abuso sexual contra mi persona conforme a la narración de los hechos que a
continuación expondré:

Página 1 de la denuncia presentada por Leonardo Araujo.

CHICAGO, LA HABANA, MÉXICO

La nunciatura apostólica en Venezuela, al conocer la denuncia, respondió que el responsable de la investigación sería el cardenal Baltazar Porras y recomendó que no era oportuno “que muchas personas entren en casos así de delicados, con el riesgo de complicar las cosas”.

Huerta Ibarra, nacido en Jalisco en 1954, fue ordenado sacerdote en los años ochenta. Desde entonces se integró a la Sociedad de los Paulinos y en el 2001 fue nombrado Superior y fundador de la comunidad Reina de los Apóstoles.

José Leonardo, quien ha recorrido todas las instancias oficiales de la iglesia católica para presentar su denuncia, ha dado seguimiento a los traslados del padre Huerta Ibarra.

En entrevista vía Skype con EMEEQUIS y Sexta W, recuerda que su perpetrador fue enviado de Mérida a Caracas en misión pastoral en 2002 y que, durante varios años, desconoció su paradero. Pero en noviembre de 2018 lo ubicó en Chicago, Estados Unidos, a través de mensajes de WhatsApp en los que el religioso acepta los abusos.

“El padre Huerta nunca niega lo sucedido. De hecho, él me dice que  iba a juntar dinero para que yo fuera a México y pedirme perdón frente a la Virgen de Guadalupe, pero él no quería que yo sufriera más por él. Después, él me pedía, porque así me lo dijo, él era quien hacía las llamadas desde Estados Unidos… me pedía que le protegiera su ministerio”.

Ahora bien, es el caso, que en el año 2017, especificamente a partir del mes de octubre
comencé a presentar una serie de malestares físicos y emocionales, tales como llanto,
dolencias físicas, insomnio, ansiedad; lo que fue diagnosticado como un estado
depresivo mayor, con una pronunciada ideación suicida. Inclusive, se dieron intentos
de suicidios, felizmente frustrados por mis familiares. En la actualidad padezco un
trastorno de ansiedad, originado por aquel triste episodio en mi vida, siendo
actualmente, paciente de psiquiatría, sexología e intervenciones terapéuticas
continuas.
En fecha 18 de noviembre del año 2018, le escribi a través del servicio de mensajería de
whatsapp al número +1 32.
,122 del sacerdote JUAN HUERTA IBARRA, donde le
manifesté todo lo acontecido y él no negó estos hechos. Por el contrario, los acento.
Dejo a disposición del experto que decida competente, la revisión y verificación de mi
teléfono celular, así como pueden llamar al número de teléfono antes indicado y
constatar que efectivamente lo posee el precitado ciudadano; con el fin de constatar la
certeza de estos hechos. Asimismo, podrían llamar al Pbro. Victor Manuel Angulo Peña
y/o al Pbro. John González y corroborar que el número de teléfono antes indicado
pertenece al Sr. Huerta Ibarra.
En el mismo orden de ideas, en fecha 22 de marzo del corriente, presenté ante el
despacho de su Excelencia el Dr. Baltazar Cardenal Porras Cardozo, la denuncia por
escrito contra este sacerdote, cuya copia simple acompañada de su original consigno
acompañada de este escrito constante de trece (13 folios), quien remitió al seno de la
congregación religiosa el escrito para que sea examinado y se inicien los procesos en
instancias canónicas. Recibi dos (2) correos electrónicos de la Sociedad San Pablo,
indicando que se iniciarian los procedimientos prescritos en la iglesia católica para
llegar a un acercamiento de la verdad. No obstante, es mi obligación denunciarlo ante
esta instancia a fin de que sea penado, conforme a las regulaciones penales.

Página 5 de la denuncia en la que se describe el contacto por Whatsapp

José no fue la única víctima. Recuerda que no sólo abusaba de él, sino de otro joven: “Hubo un muchacho que era de tez oscura, robusto él, le decía el Goldo. Lo llevaba a su habitación. Era mayor que yo, quizá tendría unos 15 años. Lamentablemente no recuerdo el nombre de ese muchacho, pero él lo llevaba a su habitación”.

El religioso llegó a Chicago en diciembre de 2015, para atender el Centro Bíblico de San Pablo, distribuidor de las ediciones paulinas, además de prestar servicios eclesiásticos.

Otro lugar en donde fue comisionado para atender la librería paulina fue La Habana, Cuba, con estancias cortas. Finalmente, su traslado a la Provincia de México se da en julio de 2019.

El Papa Francisco, en la Carta Apostólica en forma de Motu Proprio ‘Vosotros sois la luz del mundo’ giró instrucción expresa a todos los superiores eclesiásticos del catolicismo, para que inicien investigación y separen inmediatamente de sus funciones a presuntos abusadores.

LA COSTUMBRE: TRASLADARLOS DE CIUDAD

La víctima de abuso sexual Jesús Colín y el especialista en religión Bernardo Barranco aseguran en entrevistas con Sexta W y EMEEQUIS que trasladar a los pederastas de un lugar a otro se ha convertido en una verdadera práctica sistemática de la iglesia católica, paraque los sacerdotes acusados de delitos sexuales evadan la justicia.

Como reconocieron los Legionarios de Cristo en noviembre de 2019, al revelarse el caso del sacerdote Fernando Martínez Suárez, denunciado por abusos desde 1969 en el Instituto Cumbres Lomas, éste fue trasladado a diversas ciudades en México, posteriormente a España y a Roma. Y después de 50 años se inició un proceso canónico en su contra.

Otro caso más reciente es el del padre Nicolás Aguilar, acusado de abusar de niños en 1986 enTehuacán, Puebla. En 1987 fue trasladado a Los Ángeles, California, en donde también abusó de por lo menos 26 niños más. Al ser acusado de esos delitos, es trasladado a México, a donde llega en enero de 1988.

La Arquidiócesis de México le dio cobijo en los templos del Perpetuo Socorro y en la parroquia de San Antonio de las Huerta. En ese mismo sitio, el sacerdote violó a un menor más, el monaguillo Joaquín Aguilar, para finalmente ser denunciado en Tehuacán por violar a niños al atender a los fieles de las iglesias de la Virgen de Juquilita y San Vicente Ferrer. Es prófugo de la justicia desde 2006; actualmente tiene 78 años de edad.

La llegada a México de Huerta Ibarra sería responsabilidad del entonces Provincial de los Paulinos, Faustino Hernández Estévez, quien tiene su oficina en la alcaldía de Iztapalapa, en la Ciudad de México.

Hernández Estévez conoció la denuncia de abusos cometidos a José Leonardo Araujo. 

En abril 2019 confirmó haberla recibido: “Las reclamaciones de esta naturaleza serán investigadas a fondo. El asunto será supervisado por nuestro asesor legal para que las partes estén protegidas”, dijo.

Se buscó a Hernández Estévez para hablar sobre este asunto, vía telefónica en sus oficinas de la casa provincial. Se negó a contestar o dar respuesta escrita a la solicitud de entrevista.

SE LE VIO EN LA BASÍLICA

Entre el 3 y el 11 de agosto de 2019, el sacerdote Huerta Ibarra fue visto en México: estaba designado como responsable de atender al público que asistió al pabellón de las ediciones Paulinas en la XXI Feria del Libro Católico, celebrada en el atrio de la Basílica de Guadalupe.

El religioso fue visto en México el año pasado en esta Feria del Libro. Foto: Eugenia Jiménez Cáliz

Ahí pudo comprobarse también que el sacerdote convivía con seminaristas. Según el Motu Proprio “Vosotros sois la luz del mundo”, mientras un sacerdote está sometido a proceso de investigación canónica, no debe permitirse que tenga acercamiento con jóvenes.

Este detalle se suma al hecho de que en agosto pasado estuvo en México el Superior general de los Paulinos, Valdir José de Castro, quien vive en Roma, para presidir el XIII Capítulo General, donde se estableció el Plan de Acción de la congregación, en el cual se designó como nuevo provincial al padre Oliverio Mondragón.

La congregación Paulina en México no es muy numerosa: son cerca de 70 integrantes, pero en la Ciudad de México hay aproximadamente 23, por lo que es probable que Castro estuviera enterado de la presencia del sacerdote Huerta Ibarra durante su visita. 

“EL PADRE ME MANOSEABA…”

A la edad de 13 años, como miembro de la Cofradía del Santísimo Sacramento de la parroquia Inmaculada Concepción de la Azulita, Araujo acudió a la ciudad de Mérida a una asamblea de ese movimiento eclesial. De ahí se trasladó a la librería San Pablo donde conoció al sacerdote Huerta.

El siguiente relato forma parte de ladenuncia No MP-186133-2019 presentada por José Leonardo Araujo Araque ante la Fiscalía 10ª del Ministerio Público Superior de la Circunscripción Judicial del Estado Mérida, en Venezuela, el 25 de julio de 2019:

A partir de este momento, relata José Leonardo, comenzaron a realizarse una serie de encuentros, a los cuales fue invitado, bajo la premisa de ser aspirante a ingresar como formando a la comunidad.

“Durante estos encuentros se fueron generando nexos a tal punto que el Sr. Huerta, visitó en dos oportunidades mi hogar: donde era atendido sin ningún tipo de miramientos, dada la autoridad moral que como sacerdote ostenta”.

En esa época el clérigo tenía 46 años de edad y había sido nombrado superior y fundador de la comunidad que fungía como casa de formación para los aspirantes a ingresar a la congregación en la ciudad venezolana. Su nombramiento entonces corrió a cargo del Superior de los Paulinos, Gabriele Celadin. 

“Durante aquellos momentos se fue acrecentando la amistad entre nosotros, entregándome obsequios tales como franelas, medallas, libros religiosos, lámparas, llaveros, invitaciones a viajes a la ciudad de San Cristóbal, Estado de Táchira y a la ciudad de Caracas. 

“Mis padres, atendiendo a la condición de clérigo y considerándolo como una persona respetuosa, me autorizaban para que realizara estos viajes, tanto fuera de la jurisdicción emeritense, como al Valle Estado de Mérida, sitio donde se hallaba la casa de formación religiosa”.

En el relato que elabora José Leonardo, el padre Huerta fue escalando los niveles de intimidad con adolescente, precisamente en esos viajes fuera de la ciudad de Mérida.

“En una de las ocasiones que yo pernoctaba en el sitio, me invitó a su habitación personal y me pidió que durmiera allí, lo cual repitió durante un año. Durante estos encuentros, que se dieron de forma continuada, se suscitaron una serie de hechos donde él me hablaba, pues yo dormía en una cama que estaba bajo la suya y me conminaba a acostarme al lado suyo:

“El padre Huerta me manoseaba mis genitales con sus manos, provocándome erecciones, besaba mis labios e introducía su lengua dentro de mi boca, frotaba los genitales hasta que él eyaculaba. Tomaba mis manos y las conducía hasta sus genitales para masturbarse, todo esto con una intención manifiestamente libidinosa”.

En la denuncia detalla pormenores de la habitación, así como elementos decorativos, un clóset de madera, una computadora de mesa y sobre ésta un teléfono que recibía faxes, “como prueba de certeza de los lamentables hechos que empañaron mi niñez y hasta el día de hoy llevo”. 

Araujo en una imagen reciente mientras exponía su caso a los medios. 

“ABSOLUCIÓN DEL CÓMPLICE”

La narración es precisa y contundente en la descripción de los sucesos: “La última vez que lo realizó fue el 27 de marzo del 2002, en la iglesia de la población de Chacantá: me tomó en la sacristía y me besó en idénticas condiciones supra expuestas, friccionando sus genitales con los míos.

“La noche del Jueves Santo de aquella Semana Santa yo me sentía mal por lo que pasaba, pues vengo del seno de un hogar católico, mis padres eran humildes agricultores, pero nos educaron y nos enseñaron que nada de eso era correcto, por lo tanto yo, apesarado por lo que pasaba, me confesé, escribí mis pecados, su pregunta fue si estaba arrepentido y sin miramientos me absolvió de la falta…”. 

Esta acción en el Derecho Canónico se denomina “absolución del cómplice” y es un pecado, el cual se castiga con la excomunión “latae sententiae” (inmediata) del sacerdote y está reservada a la Santa Sede, según se establece en el canon 1378§ del Código de Derecho Canónico.

De acuerdo con la denuncia, el entonces adolescente padeció una serie de afectaciones emocionales y ha llevado “una vida entristecida por estos hechos,sintiendo vergüenza ante los demás, sintiendo asco conmigo, sintiéndome sucio, vulnerado, incluso llegando a evitar cualquier contacto sexual por la vergüenza que tengo, surgiendo; inclusive, dudas acerca de mi sexualidad”.

José Leonardo señala que en octubre del 2017 comenzó a presentar una serie de malestares físicos y emocionales, como llanto, dolencias físicas, insomnio, ansiedad, que le fueron diagnosticados como un “estado depresivo mayor, con una pronunciada ideación suicida”.  Incluso se dieron intentos de suicidio. 

“En la actualidad padezco un trastorno de ansiedad, originado por aquel triste episodio en mi vida, siendo actualmente, paciente de psiquiatría, sexología e intervenciones terapéuticas continuas”.

DEDIRLICA BOLIVARIANA DE VENEZUELA
MINISTERIO DEL PODER POPULAR PARA
RELACIONES INTERIORES, JUSTICIA Y PAE
VICEMINISTERIO DEL SISTEMA INTEGRADS
DE INVESTIGACION PENAL
SERVICIO NACIONAL DE MEDICINA Y CIENCIAS FORENSES ) MUD!
MERIDA. ESTADO MERID/
MEC
SIGUE…
Degle hace 7 años desempeña labres como abogado, actualmente coordinador de juicios laborales en
CANTV caracas,
Desde hace 1 año y 3 meses recibe atención psiquiátrica y psicológica debido a presentar cuadros de
depresión, acivalmente bajo medicación
V.- INSTRUMENTOS UTILIZADOS,
ENTREVISTA CLINICA.
VI.-RESULTADOS:
AREA INTELECTUAL:
Para el momento de la evaluación. el funcionamiento cognitivo del consultante se encuentra comprendido
dentro de los limites que definen a la Inteligencia como Normal Promedio. Atención y Concentración sin
alteraciones.
ARA EMOCIONAL-SOCIAL:
Cal consultante, adulto de 31 años de edad, se muestra abordable y colaborador. Emocionalmente evidencia
eginslantemente. Por otro lado refiere, insomnio bajo medicación, rabia, senlimientos de culpa, rechazo hacia
conductes ejercidas por el denunciado e incapacidad para establecer retaciones de pareja de manera formal
y plena capacidad para diferenciar entre el bien y el mal. Socialmente con lendencia a la introversión
VIl.- DIAGNÓSTICO (Según CIE-10):
Trastorno de Estrés Post – Traumático (F43.1)
VIll.-CONCLUSIONESYRECOMENDACIONES:
Posterior a la evaluación psicológica forense se concluye que la ciudadana José Leonardo Araujo Araque, de
personalidad estruciurada, presenta un trastorno de Estrés Post – Traumático, que surge como consecuencia
de los hechos que narra, manteniendo conservadas sus capacidades de juicio y discernimiento. Recomiendo
brindar medidas de protección y resguardo, asi como, atención por psiquiatria y psicología clinica.
LIC. CAR
LAMANNAS
PSICÓLOGO FORENSE
CICkcic
Gobierno
Bolivariano
de Venezuela
Ministerio del Poder Popular
para Relaciones Interiores, Justicia y Paz

Diagnóstico en el que se recomienda atención psicológica para el afectado. 

ESTRÉS POSTRAUMÁTICO

La Fiscalía Venezolana solicitó a sus especialistas practicar una evaluación psicológica y psiquiátrica a José Leonardo. En las conclusiones de las evaluaciones entregadas en octubre por Carla Ceballos Vivas, psicólogo forense, en el documento No 356-1428-P-0897-2019, se precisa:

“Presenta un trastorno de estrés post traumático que surge como consecuencia de los hechos que narra, manteniendo conservada sus capacidades de juicio y discernimiento. Recomiendo brindar medidas de protección y resguardo, así como de atención por psiquiatría y psicológica clínica”.

Recomendación que coincide con la del psiquiatra Javier Piñero Alvarado, de la misma autoridad.

Después de la denuncia penal, José Leonardo solicitó a los paulinos sufragar los gastos de los medicamentos y el pago del psiquiatra, requerimiento que fue aceptado.

En entrevista, José Leonardo Araujo expuso que el proceso penal continúa y se investiga si se puede precalificar como violación presunta, “puesto que él llevó mis manos a sus genitales para masturbarse; ese delito no está prescrito y debe ser enjuiciado en Venezuela”. Porque la denuncia de violación por actos lascivos que presentó en junio ya prescribió. También comenta que “la Fiscalía lleva adelante las investigaciones útiles y necesarias para esclarecer el caso, (y) actúa con determinación”.

INVESTIGACIÓN ECLESIAL

En noviembre de 2018, José Leonardo entró en contacto, vía la aplicación WhatsApp, con el padre Huerta Ibarra, a quien le comentó sobre sus malestares psicológicos y su estado depresivo.

A través de los mensajes establecieron “un acuerdo amistoso” en donde el religioso reconocería el daño ocasionado por el abuso sexual y pediría perdón. Además de ofrecer una indemnización a cambio de no perjudicarlo en su ministerio sacerdotal.

Pero el religioso incumplió. Para comprobar estos hechos el joven entregó a la Fiscalía su teléfono celular para que revisara los mensajes. También reconoció que “fue un error tratar de recomponer esa situación tan dramática”.

Por el incumplimiento del acuerdo, el joven estableció contacto con el abogado del padre Huerta, quien se identificó como Gregory Ryan, del despacho Ryan & Associates de Los Angeles, Estados Unidos. Al intercambiar emails el 20 de marzo de 2019, éste respondió:

“La Sociedad toma sus acusaciones seriamente y las rechaza por completo. No hay evidencia independiente, ni siquiera un testigo neutral, disponible que respalde sus afirmaciones. Además, ni usted ni ninguna otra parte informaron los supuestos incidentes en los últimos 18 años”.

Y en otro email, agrega: “No ha habido admisiones de conducta ilícita. El supuesto acuerdo nunca fue firmado aprobado o ratificado por P-Huerta. No se realizó ningún pago en virtud del acuerdo ejecutado”. 

Desde mayo 2019 el joven venezolano perdió comunicación con ese despacho.

El 22 de marzo del 2019, presentó la denuncia canónica en el despacho del cardenal Baltazar Porras Cardozo de Venezuela, por “actos lascivos continuados, administración y absolución del pecador como autor” en contra del religioso.

El 6 de agosto del 2019, el padre Hernando Jaramillo Osorio, superior regional de Sociedad de San Pablo en Venezuela, le envió una carta mediante la cual le informa que Arturo Peraza Celis, sacerdote jesuita y abogado, será el responsable de la investigación y que el padre Huerta pertenece “actualmente a la Provincia de México”.

Al asumir la representación legal, Peraza Celis se entrevistó con el denunciante, quien le solicitó tomar el testimonio de cinco testigos, entre ellos dos sacerdotes.

¿EPISCOPADO MEXICANO LO SABE?

 juan huerta 7

Captura de pantalla del mail enviado a la Conferencia del Episcopado Mexicano. 

El asunto pudiera agravarse ante el indicio de que el Episcopado Mexicano, máxima autoridad eclesiástica en México, conoce el asunto.

En un correo electrónico enviado al arzobispo Rogelio Cabrera, presidente de la Conferencia del Episcopado, el joven venezolano advirtió que el religioso estaba en México.

En el correo, cuya captura de pantalla obra en poder del afectado, se solicita la colaboración de la máxima jerarquía católica mexicana para “poner a este sacerdote a la orden de las autoridades locales” de Venezuela. 

Añade: “Resulta para mí preocupante que este sacerdote siga en el ejercicio de sus funciones; particularmente tratando con niños, sé de su modus operandi y con toda propiedad Monseñor Cabrera puedo decir que existieron otras víctimas que están en el anonimato”.

La comunicación fue enviada el pasado 16 de diciembre de 2019 a las 01:46 horas, directamente a la cuenta de correo de la Arquidiócesis contacto@arquidiocesismty.org, que está vigente y habilitada.

No recibió respuesta.

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ENCINITAS (CA)
The Coast News

January 23, 2020

By Tawny McCray

Alleged victims of childhood sexual abuse by now-deceased priests who operated throughout San Diego County, including in Encinitas, are looking for a little bit of closure as they pursue legal action against the Catholic Diocese of San Diego.

Six lawsuits were filed Jan. 2 against the Diocese and numerous local parishes on behalf of the 20 alleged victims — 14 of them male and six of them female.

The suits allege that the abuse took place in the 1960s and 70s and involves accusations of priests engaging in inappropriate behavior with minors that includes touching, fondling and massaging; kissing; oral copulation; masturbation; and simulated anal intercourse.

The victims were previously unable to pursue legal action against the Diocese, but recently enacted AB 218 expands the statute of limitations and opened a three-year window, starting this year, for victims to file suit.

Attorney Irwin Zalkin, whose office filed the six lawsuits, said his clients are seeking some sort of monetary compensation for the harm that’s been done.

“For these victims they’ve lived a life of incredibly difficult emotional distress, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxieties, depression, difficulties in relationships, and substance abuse,” Zalkin said Jan. 20. “The impact of child sexual abuse is devastating, it’s lifelong and it really derails the normal development of a human being.”

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WOODLAND PARK (NJ)
NorthJersey.com

January 23, 2020

By Kaitlyn Kanzler

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/essex/verona-cedar-grove/2020/01/23/newark-archdiocese-sued-victim-alleged-sex-abuse-verona-priest/4540653002/

Chris Rodgers is no longer a man of faith.

After struggling for years just to get up each morning after allegedly being sexual abused by a man he trusted, Rodgers’ faith is limited to believing there is a spiritual side to things.

Rodgers, who now lives in New York, is among the latest to file suit against the Catholic Church after New Jersey extended its civil statute of limitations on Dec. 1, allowing survivors a two-year window to bring a sex abuse case. Rodgers filed his suit against the Archdiocese of Newark for alleged sexual abuse by the Rev. Eugene Heyndricks, a former priest at Our Lady of the Lake in Verona.

Heyndricks, who died in 2007, was already on the list of credibly accused priests that the Archdiocese of Newark released last year. Heyndricks was placed on administrative leave in the early 2000s after he was caught in a police sting in Montreal soliciting an underage male prostitute. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to two years of unsupervised probation.

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GRAND RAPIDS (MI)
M Live

January 23, 2020

By Cole Waterman

Bad Axe MI – A former Catholic priest has pleaded no contest to a criminal charge stemming from him exposing himself in public.

Lawrence M. Ventline, 70, on Jan. 15 appeared in Huron County District Court and pleaded no contest to the lone count he faced, that of indecent exposure. The charge is a one-year misdemeanor.

Huron County Prosecutor Timothy J. Rutkowski said his office had surveillance video footage recorded the morning of Aug. 26 showing Ventline inside Murphy’s Bakery, 110 W. Huron Ave. in Bad Axe, with his privates exposed.

In pleading no contest as opposed to guilty, Ventline did not admit to having committed a crime. The presiding judge relied on court documents to enter a conviction on the record.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

January 23, 2020

By Jack Lyons

South Bend IN – As dioceses across the country continue to face multi-million dollar payouts related to clerical sex abuse, some bishops have relied on advice from lawyers to reconfigure the property of their dioceses into charitable trusts.

The practice – which has been implemented by several dioceses after the clerical sex abuse revelations of the early 2000s – creates significantly different outcomes for dioceses and abuse victims in the case of bankruptcies.

Critics say the moves shield assets that could be paid to victims of clerical abuse and may even be illegal. However, Church officials defend the practice, saying their actions were intended to better align the dioceses’ corporate status with canon law. Other dioceses say they acted to ensure the long-term viability of the Church.

In the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis’s bankruptcy, which was resolved in 2016, the archdiocese calculated its assets at $45 million, while advocates for abuse victims argued that other church entities brought the sum up to $1.7 billion. That means individual victims could receive tens of thousands of dollars more in a bankruptcy settlement depending on how courts define the assets of the archdiocese.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

January 23, 2020

By Elizabeth Dias and Jason Horowitz

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, who was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2011, has long been known as a theological and political conservative, often at odds with Pope Francis.

Washington – Pope Francis, facing growing conservative opposition to his papacy from Catholics in the United States, on Thursday replaced the popular archbishop of Philadelphia, one of his most prominent critics and a prelate admired by church traditionalists.

Pope Francis announced in a statement that he had accepted the resignation of Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia, who had reached retirement age, and that he would elevate Bishop Nelson J. Perez of Cleveland, a Cuban-American born in Miami and relative newcomer to the national scene, to the role.

The move is a sign that the pope, who has installed key allies in Chicago and Newark, is still intent on changing the ideological direction of the American church by setting a new tone in one of its most traditionalist dioceses.

Though Archbishop Chaput will move to an emeritus role, he plans to maintain an active speaking presence around the country. That means he will almost certainly remain influential as a prominent conservative thought leader in the church.

*
[Perez] also acknowledged the complexities of his new assignment, apologizing directly to victims of clergy sexual abuse, and he addressed Hispanic Catholics, at times in Spanish, raising concerns about anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States.

*
Archbishop Chaput was also a firm administrator, tapped to reform a region in financial and spiritual disarray after extensive allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy in the area. A county grand jury in 2005 reported that leaders of the Philadelphia archdiocese, including two cardinals, had covered up extensive sexual abuse of minors.

A second grand jury in 2011 accused the archdiocese of not stopping the abuse, and Pope Benedict appointed Archbishop Chaput to lead the archdiocese about five months later.

Archbishop Chaput removed priests accused of abuse, closed 49 schools and sold the archbishop’s mansion for $10 million as part of a plan to reduce the operating budget deficit.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
MassLive

January 23, 2020

By Jackson Cote

https://www.masslive.com/news/2020/01/9-catholic-priests-1-church-employee-within-fall-river-diocese-accused-of-sexually-abusing-children-decades-ago-attorney-says.html

Nine Catholic priests and one church employee within the Diocese of Fall River were accused of child sexual abuse, an attorney announced this week.

The 10 men allegedly sexually abused at least one minor during a span of nearly 40 years, from 1947 to 1986, attorney Mitchell Garabedian said in a statement.

The diocese announced Sunday that two other retired Catholic priests, James F. Buckley and Edward J. Byington, were suspended from the ministry over allegations of child sexual abuse committed decades ago.

“I believe that the Catholic Church, although saying the right things, has not made meaningful changes to protect children and help victims try to heal,” said Garabedian, who is representing one of Byington’s alleged victims.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
WPRI

January 21, 2020

By Bill Tomison and Kim Kalunian

Fall River MA – Dr. Robert Hoatson drove up to Massachusetts from New Jersey with one goal: demand the Diocese of Fall River release a list of clergy members who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse against minors.

Hoatson is the president of Road to Recovery, a group for sexual abuse survivors. On Tuesday, he stood outside the Diocese’s Chancery Office and held a sign reading, “Bp. da Cunha release abusive clergy list.”

“We think it is outrageous that victims in Fall River are continuing to live with the fact that secrecy continues and cover-up continues,” he said. “The longer that Bishop da Cunha does not release the list of abusive clergy in this Diocese, the less safe children are and the more revictimized victims are.”

Hoatson is a former priest and has been running Road to Recovery since 2003. He said he served with Bishop Edgar da Cunha in the Archdiocese of Newark.

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COLUMBUS (OH)
The Columbus Dispatch

January 24, 2020

By Danae King

Bishop Robert Brennan, of the Diocese of Columbus, has started a task force to look into diocesan policies regarding sexual abuse of minors by priests. The diocese has also hired a local law firm to look into its records and see if more priests should be added to a list of 50 clergy members who have been accused thus far.

Columbus Bishop Robert Brennan says he wants to look at the sexual abuse of minors by clergy members with “new eyes.”

Since being installed as the 12th bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus in March 2019, Brennan has started establishing what he calls a baseline of knowledge about the topic.

Brennan said he has hired a law firm to audit diocesan files to see whether more priests should be added to a list of clergy members accused of child sexual abuse that was released on March 1, 2019. He also has started a task force to examine diocesan policies related to sexual abuse and how the diocese reaches out to survivors to help them heal.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer

January 22, 2020

By Cory Shaffer

A Strongsville Catholic priest pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Cuyahoga County court to a 21-count indictment that charged him with possessing child pornography.

The Rev. Robert McWilliams, who is also charged with possessing child pornography in Geauga County, made his first court appearance since a grand jury last week handed up the indictment.

Common Pleas Court Judge Shannon Gallagher continued McWilliams’ original bond of 10 percent of $50,000.

McWilliams is also under a $150,000 bond that a Chardon Municipal Court judge set at his first appearance in that courtroom on Jan. 8. McWilliams will have to post that bond in order to be released from custody.

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AUSTRALIA
ABC

January 22, 2020

By Eliza Borrello

An elderly man who was sexually abused by the Christian Brothers as a child has described the pain and fear he experienced being repeatedly raped as a nine-year-old boy at a group home for vulnerable children.

WARNING: This story contains material that some readers may find upsetting

Perth man John Thomas Lawrence, 75, has become the first child sex abuse survivor to testify about his ordeal in court since Western Australia removed time limits on such cases being heard.

Today, he detailed to the court the protracted abuse he suffered at the hands of Christian Brother Lawrence Murphy.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
ChurchMilitant

January 22, 2020

By William Mahoney, Ph.D.

Peter’s Pence donors invited to join lawsuit

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is being sued for obtaining millions of dollars in charitable donations under false pretenses and privately investing that money into ventures such as luxury condominium developments and Hollywood movies.

Texas-based legal firm the Stanley Law Group filed a class-action lawsuit against the USCCB on Wednesday, alleging the organization fraudulently promotes Peter’s Pence as a papal charity when recent reports show as little as 10% of donations are used for its stated purpose.

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RHODE ISLAND
LifeSiteNews

January 22, 2020

By Lianne Laurence

The suit alleges that US bishops ‘actively’ misled Catholics into believing their millions of dollars in donations to Peter’s Pence would be used to help the poor.

A Dallas law firm filed a class action lawsuit Wednesday against the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for “unlawful, deceptive and fraudulent practices” in promoting and collecting funds for the papal charity Peter’s Pence.

The suit alleges the American bishops “actively” misled Catholics into believing their millions of dollars in donations to the collection would be used to help “victims of war, oppression, natural disaster, or disease,” when in fact much of the money was funneled into private investments, such as Hollywood’s sexually explicit Elton John biopic, “luxury condominium developments” and “hefty, multi-million dollar commissions” to fund managers.

Stanley Law Group filed the lawsuit January 22 in the United States District Court in Rhode Island on behalf of David O’Connell, a parishioner at Sacred Heart Church in East Providence, who is seeking a jury trial, it stated in a press release.

“USCCB must come clean and give back the money it took from well-intentioned people who thought they were giving urgently-needed funds to help the destitute around the world,” said lead attorney Mark Stanley.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Associated Press

January 23, 2020

The bishop of Cleveland will become the new leader of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the Vatican announced Thursday, making him the first Hispanic archbishop to lead the region’s 1.3 million-member flock.

Nelson Perez, who spent most of his early pastoral career in the Philadelphia area, was introduced Thursday in a news conference at the archdiocese’s Philadelphia headquarters. He will succeed Archbishop Charles Chaput, a conservative culture warrior who is stepping down after turning 75 last year, the traditional retirement age for Catholic bishops.

Chaput welcomed Perez to his new post, which he will assume Feb. 18. He called his successor “a man who already knows and loves the church in Philadelphia.”

Perez shared his enthusiasm for the city, saying “it’s awesome to be back in Philadelphia with people who are faith-filled, who love the Lord, love the church.” Perez also praised Chaput’s tenure in the diocese, saying he faced challenges in Philadelphia with “great courage and steadfastness.”

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MEXICO
Catholic Herald

January 22, 2020

By Christopher Altieri

A new scandal shows that only the ‘nuclear option’ will help to restore the Church’s credibility

The Legion of Christ is back in the news, with AP reporting on a gruesome story in Mexico, not only of abuse and cover-up, but also of failure to reform in the wake of revelations regarding the outfit’s founder: a charismatic sociopath called Fr Marcial Maciel. He started the Legion, which served him as a front for his perverse criminal double-life. He also founded a lay arm, Regnum Christi, which served as his cash cow.

“The papal envoy who ran the Legion starting in 2010,” AP reports, “learned about the case [in Mexico] nearly a decade ago and refused to punish or even investigate the priest or the superiors who covered up his crimes, many of whom are still in power and ministry today.”

AP noted that the story “has been corroborated by other victims and the Legion itself” and “has sparked a new credibility crisis for the once-influential order, 10 years after the Holy See took it over after determining that its founder was a pedophile”.

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LA CROSSE (WI)
WKBT/NEWS8000

January 22, 2020

By Martha Koloski

As the La Crosse Diocese releases names of credibly accused clergy…. a survivor tells his story of faith and forgiveness

It’s been 18 years since the Catholic Church announced a zero-tolerance policy in hopes of ending sexual abuse by clergy.
But just this past weekend, the Diocese of La Crosse released its own list of credibly accused clergy.

And this past December Pope Francis made an important change to something called the “Pontifical Secret.” It is the church’s highest level of confidentiality.
He abolished its use in cases of clergy committing violence or sexual assaults against minors or anyone under their authority.

The new policy also includes cases related to a lack of reporting abuse and attempts to cover up accusations.

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El Sacerdote Misael Alberto Morales Armenta, abusó sexualmente de un menor de 15 años de edad, cuando se encontraba en El Salto, cabecera municipal de Pueblo Nuevo.

Una investigación emprendida tras la denuncia de la víctima, en septiembre de 2018, permitió encarcelarlo ya que fue encontrado culpable.

Ayer la Fiscalía General del Estado (FGE) informó sobre la sentencia que el Presbítero recibió por parte del Juez.

Por el delito de abuso sexual agravado estará 10 años en prisión, pagará una multa por 75 mil pesos y seis mil 300 pesos por reparación del daño causado.

Sobre el caso, la Fiscalía estableció que el 17 de septiembre de 2018, Morales Armenta abusó del adolescente de 15 años cuando se encontraba al interior de su habitación. “Momento en el que el ahora sentenciado ingresó y abuso sexualmente de él, para posteriormente darse a la fuga”.

El menor narró lo sucedido a su madre, quien inmediatamente acudió ante al Agente del Ministerio Público para interponer la denuncia. Pasaron cinco meses para que los agentes ubicaran al sacerdote, fue el 17 de febrero del año pasado cuando se ejecutó la orden de aprehensión en su contra.

Elementos de la Policía Investigadora de Delitos (PID), adscritos a la Unidad de Mandamientos Judiciales lo arrestaron, aunque la Fiscalía no informó el sitio en el que se llevó a cabo el aseguramiento.

Luego de 11 meses de indagatorias, en un Procedimiento Abreviado el Presbítero admitió que abusó sexualmente del menor.

Un dato que no se aportó por parte de la Fiscalía, toda vez que se aseguró que sería violatorio a la ley, es en qué lugar ocurrió el delito sexual, si en la casa del menor o en la del Sacerdote. Pero de acuerdo con información recabada por este medio de comunicación el delito se registró en el Seminario Menor en la Prelatura de El Salto, ya que el adolescente era estudiante, ahí el sacerdote habría entrado a la habitación de la víctima y abusó de él.

Se desconoce si hay más denuncias en contra del sentenciado, que en sus redes sociales asegura tener su domicilio en Guasave, Sinaloa.

Sobre la sentencia que el abusador ha recibido, como El Siglo de Durango le ha informado el sistema penal local permite la reducción de la condena a quien reconozca que cometió el delito.

Fue el caso del Sacerdote quien en un Procedimiento Abreviado se admitió como abusador, de ahí que el Juez le impusiera la pena mínima por abuso sexual agravado, es decir 10 años de cárcel. La máxima son 20 años.

Aunque cabe mencionar que el Juez pudo reducir la pena hasta un tercio como lo permite el Código Penal local, pero no lo consideró.

Misael Alberto, es uno de dos sacerdotes detenidos el año pasado por delitos sexuales contra menores en Durango.

Ruth Medina Alemán Fiscal General del Estado informó que el otro acusado fue detenido con apoyo de autoridades de Sonora, aunque no ofreció más información.

Destacó que en una reunión con fiscales de Estados Unidos y de otros estados mexicanos, acordaron enviar una carta a la Arquidiócesis de México para “decirle que estamos dispuestos a investigar cualquier asunto que ellos recibieran como un asunto eclesiástico”.

Ya que al tener conocimiento sobre un delito contra una persona deben informarlo a las autoridades investigadoras, tal como lo hace la Secretaría de Salud cuando atiende a una víctima de delito sexual.

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VATICAN CITY
Holy See Press Office

January 23, 2020

Resignation of archbishop of Philadelphia, U.S.A., and appointment of successor

The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the archdiocese of Philadelphia, United States of America, presented by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.

The Pope has appointed as metropolitan archbishop of Philadelphia, United States of America, Bishop Nelson Jesus Perez of Cleveland, Ohio.

The Archbishop-elect Nelson Jesus Perez was born on 16 June 1961 in Miami in the archdiocese of the same name, in Florida. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Montclair State University in New Jersey (1983) he taught at the elementary school, at the Colegio la Piedad in Puerto Rico. He carried out his ecclesiastical studies at the Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary in Overbrook, Pennsylvania, where he obtained a master’s degree in theology (1985 to 1989).

He was ordained a priest on 20 May 1989 for the archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Since priestly ordination, he has held the following offices: parish vicar of the Saint Ambrose parish in Philadelphia (1989 to 1993); vice director of the archdiocesan office for Hispanic faithful (1990 to 1993); director and founder of the Catholic Institute for Evangelization (1993 to 2002); parish priest of the Saint William parish in Philadelphia (2002 to 2009); and parish priest of the Saint Agnes parish in West Chester (2009 to 2012). In addition, he has been member of the presbyteral council of the archdiocese of Philadelphia (2003 to 2005), and professor of psychology and religious studies at the La Salle University in Philadelphia (1994 to 2008).

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Whispers in the Loggia

January 22, 2020

By Rocco Palmo

Now 212 years into our life as a local church, God’s People here in Philadelphia came to accrue an odd distinction in American Catholicism… well, one among others: given the insularity of this place, we’ve become the last major Stateside diocese that only ever had white bishops….

That is, until now – and the streak ends with a memorable splash onto the Chair of St John Neumann.

Per three Whispers ops, Pope Francis is set to name Nelson Perez – the 58 year-old son of Cuban exiles, until now the bishop of Cleveland, ordained a priest of Philadelphia in 1989 – as his adopted home’s 10th Archbishop on Thursday, 23 January.

The move comes four months after the 75th birthday of Archbishop Charles Chaput OFM Cap., who widely aired his wish to be retired quickly after 32 years as an active prelate, the last eight of them embroiled in attempting to rescue the 1.1 million-member Philly fold from a financial and managerial free-fall – an ongoing plate which now includes an unprecedented Federal investigation into clergy sex-abuse across the entire province (i.e. state) his successor will inherit.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

January 23, 2020

By Jeremy Roebuck

Pope Francis announced Thursday that the bishop of Cleveland, Nelson Perez, will be the next head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, making him the first Hispanic archbishop to lead the region’s 1.3 million-member flock.

Born in Miami, raised in New Jersey and ordained at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Perez, 58, served as a parish priest for more than two decades in West Chester and the Olney and Lawncrest sections of Philadelphia before being elevated to the hierarchy as an auxiliary bishop in Long Island, N.Y. in 2012.

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Chaput, who arrived from Denver in 2011, has been credited with stabilizing an archdiocese roiled at the time by financial shortfalls and fallout from a damning grand jury report that implicated the city’s church hierarchy in covering up decades of sexual abuse.

During his time here, his frank rhetoric and willingness to engage in secular political debates on issues including divorce, statute-of-limitations reform, and gun control have earned him a following among conservative U.S. Catholics, while occasionally putting him at odds with the likes of Mayor Jim Kenney, some clergy sex-abuse victims, and — seemingly, at times — Francis himself.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

January 22, 2020

By Jay Tokasz

A Buffalo priest who was accused in a Child Victims Act lawsuit of sexually abusing a boy in the 1980s is firing back with a lawsuit of his own that alleges his accuser lied about the abuse and slandered the priest.

The Rev. Roy T. Herberger, former longtime pastor of SS. Columba & Brigid Church, filed the defamation suit Tuesday in State Supreme Court in Erie County. The lawsuit is the first known defamation case in Western New York filed against a person over allegations made in a Child Victims Act suit.

Herberger said he wanted “to take a stand” to prevent people from making false claims.

“Know that you can be sued. It’s not just so simple that you can make an accusation,” Herberger said in an interview with The Buffalo News.

The Buffalo Diocese put Herberger on administrative leave in June 2018 after receiving a complaint that the priest had sexually abused an 8-year-old boy in the 1980s. Herberger vehemently denied the allegation in a letter to parishioners and friends. Following a diocese investigation that determined the allegation was unfounded, he was returned to active ministry in December 2018.

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FRESNO (CA)
Fresno Bee

January 22, 2020

By Yesenia Amaro

A longtime San Joaquin Valley Catholic priest died over the weekend.

Supporters called the Rev. Eric Swearingen a great man, but sexual misconduct allegations dogged him for years and key questions remained unanswered at the time of his death.

Swearingen, 58, died Saturday after a lengthy illness. Church officials declined to comment on his medical condition.

“Our focus, and sole focus, is on comforting the family, friends and parishioners that are deeply mourning the passing of Fr. Eric Swearingen,” Teresa Dominguez, chancellor for the Diocese of Fresno, said in an emailed statement.

His more than three decades of service included postings in Fresno, Bakersfield, Atwater and Lemoore and, most recently, Visalia.

Swearingen’s death comes seven months after he was placed on leave amid renewed investigations into decades-old sexual abuse allegations. Dominguez declined to say whether Swearingen was still on administrative leave at the time of his death.

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JOHNSTOWN (PA)
WJAC

January 21, 2020

By Crispin Havener

Lawyers filing a civil lawsuit alleging fraud and conspiracy against a local catholic school, the diocese, and a religious order over allegations of sexual abuse made by a former student have amended their lawsuit.

The plaintiff, listed in the complaint as “A.L.”, said the abuse by an unnamed “priest and athletic trainer” employed by Bishop McCort Catholic High School in Johnstown, the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, and the Third Order Regular Friars, Province of the Immaculate Conception of the United States, started after the student suffered an injury during a freshman day camp. The athletic trainer, according to the complaint assaulted the student on and off campus over a two-year period.

Adam P. Murdock of Robert Peirce & Associates tells 6 News the changes to the lawsuit, filed in October 2019, better reflect the name of the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular, Province of the Immaculate Conception of the United States and their proper address in Hollidaysburg. Murdock said the initial complaint “inadvertently identified the incorrect Franciscan party” as the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular, Province of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus in Loretto but they were in no way involved in the case.

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SUMMIT (NJ)
Patch

January 22, 2020

By Caren Lissner

‘The Archdiocese of Newark takes very seriously any and all credible complaints of sexual misconduct,’ said a spokeswoman.

A priest who once worked in law enforcement in New York City is now on leave from a Catholic school in Summit pending an investigation into “complaints issued in the past several days,” according to a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Newark.

Spokeswoman Maria Margiotta would not elaborate on the nature of the complaints against Rev. Salvator “Sal” DiStefano, who was serving as a chaplain at Oratory Catholic Preparatory School. But she said in a statement, “The Archdiocese of Newark takes very seriously any and all credible complaints of sexual misconduct or sexual abuse of minors by members of the clergy, religious, lay staff and volunteers of the Archdiocese.”

She confirmed he has been placed on administrative leave. “The Archdiocese also stresses that Fr. DiStefano’s leave should not be interpreted as punishment and he continues to have the presumption of innocence until proven otherwise,” she said. “At the conclusion of a review and external investigation by civil authorities, a determination will be made regarding Fr. DiStefano’s status.”

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VISALIA (CA)
Legacy and Visalia Times Delta

January 22, 2020

Surrounded by his loving family and many friends, Rev. Eric V. Swearingen completed his early mission on January 18, 2020, having served as a Catholic Priest of the Diocese of Fresno for more than 32 years.

Eric Van Swearingen was born August 8, 1961 in Visalia, California. He was the second son of Richard and Connie (Goodreau) Swearingen. His early years were spent on the Westside of the San Joaquin Valley, where his family farmed in the Riverdale/Five Points area. Those early lessons of farming, working side-by-side with people of diverse cultures, languages and backgrounds would serve him well in his later life of ministry. He was blessed with the opportunity for a Catholic education first at Mary Immaculate Queen school in Lemoore and then George McCann Memorial Catholic School in Visalia. After completing his high school years at Redwood High School in Visalia, the realization that he might be called to the Catholic priesthood led him to St. John’s Seminary College in Camarillo. Having earned his Bachelor Degree in Philosophy, he was sent to complete his theological studies at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, OH. On May 23, 1987 he was ordained a priest for service in the Diocese of Fresno.

Fr. Swearingen served in various parish assignments throughout his more than 32 years of priestly ministry, including: Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, Bakersfield; Our Lady of Victory, St. Alphonsus, St. Helen and Holy Spirit Parishes, Fresno; St. Anthony Parish, Atwater; St. Jude Parish, Easton; St. Peter the Apostle Parish, Lemoore; and the united Catholic communities of Good Shepherd Parish, Visalia.

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VATICAN CITY
NBC News

January 21, 2020

By Celia Viggo Wexler

Failing to empower women narrows the church’s vision and makes it less equipped to be a force for good in the world.

Recently, the Catholic Church took two small steps for womankind: This month, Pope Francis named the first woman to a managerial position in the Vatican’s most important office, the Secretariat of State. And in October, the world’s bishops suggested that Francis reconvene a commission he had created, at the urging of nuns, to study the ordination of women as permanent deacons — church ministers who are able to perform some of the duties of priests, but not to say Mass or hear confessions.

Yet these reforms only make clear how little power women hold in the church, where they constitute about half of Catholicism’s 1.2 billion adherents. Not only are women barred from ordination to the priesthood, they are not even allowed to vote at Vatican synods, convened to advise the pope about challenges facing the church.

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ISRAEL
The Jerusalem Post

January 21, 2020

By Maayan Hoffman

Suicide note indicates at least one girl was leaving faith and feared disappointing her family.

One of the two young cousins who jumped to their deaths from the top of a Jerusalem building overnight Sunday may have been sexually abused by a relative, Channel 12 reported Tuesday.

Hani Solish, 19, from Netanya, and Sarah Klapman, 24, from Jerusalem, jumped from the top of the Mercaz Sapir building in Givat Shaul. The young women, both members of the Chabad movement, were found by Magen David Adom paramedics.

They left behind a suicide note explaining why they wanted to die.

Channel 12 said that the relative who had abused one of the girls was arrested and convicted for abuse, and sentenced to service. He was released on parole a decade ago. It was also reported that the young woman had sought therapy but stopped going for treatment due to family pressure shortly after the incident.

Also, one of the two women had recently been struggling with commitment to her faith, according to news reports. The suicide note allegedly included that one of the girls feared disappointing her parents.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
Herald News

January 21, 2020

By Deborah Allard

Victim advocate and former priest Robert M. Hoatson of New Jersey held a one-man protest outside the Fall River Diocese on Highland Avenue Tuesday morning to ask that Bishop Edgar da Cunha release a complete list of priests accused of sexual abuse.

“It’s outrageous that he hasn’t released this already,” Hoatson said.

Hoatson’s protest came just two days after an additional two Catholic priests, Fr. James F. Buckley and Fr. Edward J. Byington, both retired, were suspended amid allegations of two separate accounts of sexual abuse of a minor. Both served in Fall River churches and in other local towns in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

But the Fall River Diocese said it is still conducting an internal review of sexual abuse allegations of its clergy. Da Cunha in January 2019 announced the hiring of former FBI Assistant Director William Gavin to review claims as an independent consultant. A list was expected to be released last spring.

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OKLAHOMA CITY (OK)
NonDoc

January 21, 2020

By Matt Patterson

A former Catholic priest who worked in seven communities across Oklahoma has been added to a list of clergy with at least one “substantiated allegation” of sexual abuse, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City announced today.

Father Marvin Leven, 94, was accused in 1993 of sexual abuse on a 15-year-old boy by a former parishioner of Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Enid, the archdiocese said in a press release.

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BUFFALO (NY)
The Buffalo News

January 20, 2020

By Aaron Besecker

A man who went to prison for killing a convicted child molester almost 20 years ago has been charged with sexually abusing a child, according to Buffalo police and court records.

Richard Tyes, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2001 homicide of Robert J. Tatu, an aide to former Mayor James D. Griffin, has been accused of first-degree sexual abuse of a child younger than 13, according to the records.

Tyes, 39, of Grider Street, also was charged by Buffalo police with child endangerment for a Jan. 4 incident. He was being held on a parole violation before being charged Thursday. He pleaded not guilty to the new felony and misdemeanor charges Friday before Buffalo City Court Judge Kevin J. Keane and was being held at the Erie County Correctional Facility.

Tatu, 42, a former Cub Scout volunteer and Griffin aide, was found shot to death on May 22, 2001, on a staircase leading to his Elmwood Avenue apartment. He had been shot in the eye and chest.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Rolling Stone

January 21, 2020

By Seth Hettena

Giuliani and Alan Placa have long-standing personal and business ties

Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal lawyer who frequently boasts about his personal character and those of his associates, has had a long personal and business association with an accused pedophile priest.

Few people are closer to Giuliani than Monsignor Alan Placa, who is part of the former New York mayor’s innermost circle of friends and advisers. The two have been friends since childhood, and Placa played a key role in many of Giuliani’s major life events, most recently when he officiated at the 2017 wedding of Giuliani’s son, Andrew, who works at the Trump White House as a sports liaison. Placa also has had an ill-defined role at Giuliani’s consulting business, listing himself on his Facebook and LinkedIn profiles as a “senior vice president” at the firm.

Placa has long been dogged by allegations that he sexually abused children in the 1970s at a Catholic high school on Long Island. Those allegations — which Placa has long denied — were revived again in recent months when two former students sued him in previously unreported lawsuits filed in New York Supreme Court.

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PARIS (FRANCE)
The Daily Beast

January 19, 2020

By Erin Zaleski

For decades, Gabriel Matzneff got a pass from French culture mavens as he extolled the pleasures of sex with underage boys and girls. No longer.

Long before Jeffrey Epstein was shuttling underage girls to the U.S. Virgin Islands on his private jet, Gabriel Matzneff was engaging in sexual activities with young adolescents in his Paris apartment, in hotel rooms, and on trips to Southeast Asia—and then writing about his exploits.

“Once you have held, kissed, caressed, possessed a 13-year-old boy, a girl of 15,” Matzneff once wrote, “everything else seems bland, heavy, insipid.”

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UNITED KINGDOM
MAILONLINE

January 18, 2020

By Jemma Carr

– Towns and cities see drop in number unwanted pregnancies after a papal visit
– But birth rates don’t increase meaning couples abstaining or using protection
– Scientists who conducted study were led by team from University of Sussex

The Pope reduces the number of abortions when he visits a town because his presence makes people have less unprotected sex, a study found.

Scientists, led by a team from the University of Sussex, found that couples have less unprotected sex when the Pope is in town to avoid having an abortion and breaking Catholic doctrine.

Even after the pope leaves the area, his influence remains as researchers found abortions plummeted by up to a fifth for as long as 14 months after a papal visit.

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NEW JERSEY
MediaWize

January 18, 2020

By Maddy Vitale

When Cape May County Freeholder E. Marie Hayes wrote a Letter to the Editor and sent it to local news outlets, she put her private life in the spotlight, much more than any time sparring in political debates, on the campaign trail or speaking in public.

She told of how she endured pain, grief and anguish, that she was sexually assaulted, long before the “Me Too” movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault, and when she was even too young to go to school.

A family friend, now deceased, abused her when she was growing up, she said.

And although decades had gone by, nightmares continued to haunt her until Hayes, a retired law enforcement captain who helped so many people in her career, got the help she needed to live the best life she could, without hiding the past.

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ROME
The Tablet

January 21, 2020

By Christopher Lamb

Fr Hans Zollner, the Church’s leading child protection expert, wants more systematic theology done on abuse crisis

Rome is to host a summit examining how the clerical sexual abuse crisis is forcing the Church to go back to its core mission and re-think its model of the priesthood.

The gathering of around 90 theologians from across the world, hosted by the Centre for Child Protection at the Pontifical Gregorian University, will look at the ecclesiological impact of abuse, in a way that is not simply legal, or procedural. The 11-14 March meeting is to look clericalism, ecclesial reform and rediscovering the mission of Jesus in Church structures.

At a theological level, the abuse of children by priests, and the failure by bishops to respond adequately, is doubly shocking because it betrays the Church’s mission. Historians talk about it being the greatest crisis since the Reformation and for organisers of the forthcoming summit, the response to abuse requires deep soul searching about what it means to be the Church.

But Fr Hans Zollner, the centre’s director and the Church’s leading child protection expert, said that while the abuse crisis has been under discussion in the Church for 35 years there has been “very little attempt to do systematic theology” on it.

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BUENOS AIRES
LifeSiteNews

January 16, 2020

The professor said he posted Vigano’s letter on Facebook ‘in order to make manifest that things are not going well in the Church.’

A Catholic professor of philosophy has been dismissed by a bishop from his teaching post at an Argentine school of theology after the scholar posted criticisms of Pope Francis made by Vatican whistleblower Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.

Bishop Gabriel Mestre of Mar del Plata, Argentina, dismissed Dr. Maximiliano Loria from the diocesan University School of Theology. According to Dr. Mario Caponnetto, a respected Catholic physician and blogger, the reason for the dismissal was because Loria posted on his Facebook page a letter by Archbishop Viganò, who once served as the Vatican’s diplomatic representative in Washington D.C. Vigano has been a vocal critic of Pope Francis and has even called for the current pontiff to resign.

According to Dr. Caponnetto’s report at the AdelanteLaFe website, Loria said that he posted Archbishop Vigano’s letter on Facebook “in order to make manifest that things are not going well in the Church. I respect the Pope,” he said, but added that many of the Pope’s words and gestures are “incomprehensible.”

As an example, Loria cited the adoration of pagan idols that the Pope countenanced in the Vatican Gardens and inside the Basilica of St. Peter during the Amazonia Synod that was held in Rome in October.

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VISALIA (CA)
Visalia Times-Delta

January 22, 2020

By James Ward

Rev. Eric Swearingen, a Tulare County native who rose through the church’s hierarchy to lead Visalia’s Catholics despite an allegation of sexual abuse, died on Jan. 18 at 58 after a long illness.

Swearingen, who was named head pastor over Visalia’s four Catholic congregations, George McCann School and the Bethlehem Center in 2014, was put on administrative leave in June 2019 after Bishop Joseph Brennan received more information about a civil case dating back to 2006 in which Swearingen was sued by an ex-altar boy for alleged sexual abuse. The boy said the alleged abuse by Swearingen occurred in the late 1980s and early ’90s.

No criminal charges were ever filed in that case but a civil jury ruled that Swearingen did abuse the victim. The lawsuit required that the jury find the abuse happened and that the diocese did not have any prior knowledge of the incident.

Because of the split decision, the judge ruled the case a mistrial. A second trial was scheduled, but the two sides agreed to binding arbitration well before the court date — a settlement that both sides agreed to keep private.

Brennan and the church did not reveal what additional information led to Swearingen’s 2019 administrative leave decision.

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ST. PAUL (MN)
Catholic Spirit, Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

January 21, 2020

By Dave Hrbacek

Gina Barthel went to a priest while in New York to find healing from childhood sexual abuse. She got the opposite.

In 2004 at age 28, a priest from a religious order listened to her stories about being sexually abused from age 4 to 9, then took her down the same path.

As the abuse took place, she moved back to the Twin Cities. Thanks to another priest, who serves in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, she not only got out of the abusive relationship, but reported it and played a role in the abusive priest being removed from ministry.

Even so, her struggles continued, and she felt unable to continue practicing her Catholic faith. Finally, six years after reporting the abuse, she found a path to healing with the help of Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens, who started meeting with her regularly in January 2014 and still does.

Barthel will share her story at an upcoming conference on restorative justice and reconciliation Jan. 23 at Holiday Inn & Suites in Lake Elmo. It will feature Archbishop Bernard Hebda and Ramsey County Attorney John Choi, who will talk about the settlement of civil charges against the archdiocese in 2015 and how the archdiocese has made changes to improve the handling of clergy sexual abuse.

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FERNDALE (MI)
Church Militant

January 21, 2020

By Bradley Eli

Self-accused cleric says multiple cardinals knew of his crimes

A self-accused pedophile in France’s biggest clergy sex abuse trial is saying multiple Catholic superiors, including certain cardinals, were aware of his crimes but did not stop him.

Bernard Preynat, a priest of the diocese of Lyon, France is blowing the whistle on his Catholic leader, who enabled him to abuse minors for decades.

“Had the church sidelined me earlier, I would have stopped earlier,” testified Preynat, at his trial taking place last week in Lyon.

The archbishop of Lyon, Cdl. Phillipe Barbarin, was in charge of Preynat since 2002, but kept silent. Barbarin was convicted by a French court in 2019 of covering for Preynat’s crimes. Allegations of sex abuse against Preynat surfaced in 1991. The 68-year-old cardinal, however, kept Preynat in active ministry until 2015.

Preynat, who is 74, testified in court that his sexual obsession for young boys began when he was in his early teens and was well-known by his supervisor at that time, while he was in the minor seminary. He also says he told his bishop of his proclivities prior to his ordination.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

January 22, 2020

By Susan Klemond

Minneapolis – Catholics may be surprised to learn that many U.S. bishops describe their lives as both all-consuming and satisfying, a priest-researcher said.

“These are guys who generally get up very, very early in the morning, pray about two hours every day and work about 10 hours a day,” said Father Stephen Fichter, a research associate at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate in Washington, which conducted the survey. “(They) just really do some interesting things and there are a lot of difficulties that they’re dealing with all the time.”

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Respondents were not asked about the clergy sexual abuse crisis, Fichter explained, because the survey was conducted before the issue arose again with the start in 2016 of a months-long Pennsylvania grand jury investigation into alleged clergy abuse and supposed cover-up by church officials in six Pennsylvania dioceses, Fichter explained.

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OKLAHOMA CITY (OK)
Associated Press via Crux

January 22, 2020

The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City said Tuesday that it has substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse against another priest.

The archdiocese said in a news release that allegations of abuse of a minor were substantiated against Father Marvin Leven by the archdiocese following an investigation by the Oklahoma City law firm McAfee & Taft. It said the allegations date to 1993, when Leven, now 94 and retired, was assigned to Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Enid.

The allegation was made by a then-15-year-old boy, who said the abuse resumed later when he was an adult at Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church in Edmond, the archdiocese said.

The archdiocese said it also substantiated a separate allegation against Leven of inappropriate behavior with a minor at the Enid church.

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OKLAHOMA CITY (OK)
Archdiocese of Oklahoma City

January 21, 2020

Archbishop Paul Coakley announced Tuesday the addition of Father Marvin Leven to the list of priests who have had a substantiated allegation of abuse of a minor. Leven, 94, is retired from active ministry.

Archbishop Coakley added Father Leven to the list following an investigation by retired Oklahoma City Police detective Kim Davis. Davis was hired by the McAfee & Taft law firm at the request of the archdiocese to investigate older allegations of abuse of a minor.

According to the investigation, the archdiocese was contacted in 1993 by a former parishioner of Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Enid who reported allegations of abuse against Father Leven that started when the man was age 15 and recurred as a young adult at Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church in Edmond.

In 1995, as part of the archdiocese’s investigation, Father Leven was sent to Saint Luke Institute for an evaluation related to sexual abuse. In a letter to the diocese, professionals at the institute stated the allegations were possible and recommended Father Leven have no unsupervised contact with minors. They also recommended he seek intensive outpatient psychotherapy.

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ENID (OK)
Enid News & Eagle

January 21, 2020

By James Neal

The Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City announced Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020, retired priest Marvin Leven, 94, who served at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in the 1990s, has been added to the list of priests who have had a substantiated allegation of abuse of a minor.

Archbishop Paul Coakley made the announcement following an investigation by retired Oklahoma City police detective Kim Davis. Davis was hired by the McAfee & Taft law firm at the request of the archdiocese to investigate older allegations of abuse of minors, according to an archdiocese press release.

Coakley commissioned McAfee & Taft in August 2018 to conduct a review and write a report on clergy sex abuse in the archdiocese after a Pennsylvania grand jury report detailed clergy abuse of more than 1,000 victims by more than 300 priests there, dating back to 1947.

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YONKERS (NY)
News 12 Westchester

January 21, 2020

Three new victims are coming forward with allegations of child sex abuse against a Catholic priest who previously pleaded guilty to forming a sex club and molesting dozens of children.

Convicted child molester Father Edward Pipala is once again at the center of a child sex abuse scandal and alleged church cover-up.

“For decades, he was given license and permission by the Archdiocese and top officials to continue one of the most predatory paths we’ve seen,” says attorney Jeff Anderson.

Anderson is the attorney who is now representing five of Pipala’s alleged victims and live-streamed a news conference Tuesday from Manhattan about three new lawsuits filed against the Archdiocese under New York’s Child Victims Act.

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OKLAHOMA CITY (OK)
The Oklahoman

January 22, 2020

By Carla Hinton and Randy Ellis

The Archdiocese of Oklahoma City has revoked the authority of the Rev. Marvin Leven to serve as a priest after substantiating allegations that he had sexually abused parishioners in Enid and Edmond, archdiocese leaders said Tuesday.

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley said an investigation has substantiated allegations that Leven, 94, sexually abused a minor in 1993 at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Enid and the same person as a young adult after moving to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Edmond.

Contacted by phone Tuesday, Leven said: “I’m not aware of what you’re talking about.”

The investigation by retired Oklahoma City Police detective Kim Davis also substantiated another allegation of “inappropriate behavior with a minor” at the Enid parish, Coakley said in a news release. He said Davis was hired by the law firm McAfee & Taft at the archdiocese’s request to investigate older abuse allegations.

Leven retired as a parish priest with the Oklahoma City archdiocese in June 1999 but served as assistant chaplain at Mercy Health Center in Oklahoma City until 2013, Coakley said in his statement. In addition to the parishes in Enid and Edmond, Leven served at Holy Trinity in Okarche, Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Altus, Holy Family Catholic Church in Lawton, Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Tulsa, St. Eugene Catholic Church in Oklahoma City and Holy Family Cathedral in Tulsa.

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OTTAWA (CANADA)
Ottawa Citizen

January 22, 2020

By Andrew Duffy

The Archdiocese of Ottawa has launched lawsuits against three insurance companies in an effort to compel them to cover the costs of 12 clergy sexual abuse cases.

The Archdiocese of Ottawa has launched lawsuits against three insurance companies in an effort to compel them to cover the costs of 12 clergy sexual abuse cases.

The civil suits, filed mostly in the past three years, involve allegations of sexual abuse that date back as far as 1971. Among the priests named in those suits are Revs. Jacques Faucher, Kenneth Keeler and Dale Crampton, the most notorious criminal in Ottawa’s clergy sex abuse scandal, who is credibly accused of abusing at least 15 children, many of them altar boys.

Two of the cases cited by the archdiocese in its insurance lawsuits were settled out of court so the alleged sexual abusers remain unknown.

The archdiocese has never released a list of priests credibly accused of sexual assault.

The Jesuits of Canada, a Catholic religious order, announced last month that it will release the names of all of its priests who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors. Dozens of Catholic dioceses in the U.S. have already released similar lists.

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ANCHORAGE (AK)
Archdiocese of Anchorage

January 16, 2020

By Bishop Andrew E. Bellisario, C.M.
Apostolic Administrator of Anchorage

I am writing to you today to report on the progress of the Independent Commission’s review of the personnel files of the Archdiocese of Anchorage.

But first, to the victim-survivors of clerical sexual abuse, I want to say that there are no words that can restore the innocence that was cruelly and unjustly stolen from you. That your trust was betrayed by a priest or other minister of the Church whom you had a right to expect would protect you compounded the harm done to you. It is with humility, sorrow, and shame that I apologize to you, your family, friends, and community in the name of the Church for the
grievous harm you suffered.

*

There is credible evidence to support the belief that fourteen people who have served in the Archdiocese of Anchorage since 1966 engaged in sexual misconduct against minors and/or vulnerable adults. I am releasing those names today.

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PARIS (FRANCE)
RFI

January 17, 2020

Interview of Christine Pedotti by Sarah Elzas

Bernard Preynat, a former Catholic Priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of boy scouts in the 1970s and 80s is on trial. In court he claimed that he himself was a victim. For Catholic activist and journalist Christine Pedotti, this trial, and that of the Bishop who covered up the abuse, reveals a systemic problem in the French Catholic Church, which has its roots in the masculine domination of the clergy.

The trial of Preynat and that of Bishop Barbarin are part of the biggest crisis in the French Church in decades.

Christine Pedotti, the editor of the weekly Catholic newspaper Témoignage Chrétien, was part of a group calling for a commission to look into the wider problem of sex abuse in the Church. The Catholic Church set up an independent commission in February 2019, and has so far collected over 2000 stories.

Elzas: You are active as a feminist, and have questionned how the Church approaches the issue of women, and sexuality and homosexuality. How is this current crisis of sex abuse a feminist issue?

Pedotti: I see the issue of paedophilia as a symptom of an inward-focused, masculine clerical culture, in which sexuality is always seen as a sin.

What’s terrible is that deep down, some clergy consider that sexual acts with children are less serious than sexual acts with women. This shows there is a very negative view of women.

The Catholic Church doesn’t know how to talk about sexuality, because it’s incapable of seeing women as desirable. That’s where this meets feminism.

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ATTLEBORO (MA)
Sun Chronicle

January 21, 2020

By Jim Hand

An alleged victim of sexual abuse by a priest says the assault took place in a church rectory after he attended a religious retreat for teens in 1971, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Attorney Mitchell Garabedian said the victim alleges he was assaulted by the Rev. Edward J. Byington after attending a retreat called Encountering Christ in Others.

Byington allegedly offered the then-teenager a ride home but took him to a rectory in Taunton and assaulted him, Garabedian said in a statement.

Byington had previously served at St. John the Evangelist Church in Attleboro and Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Seekonk.

He and another priest, the Rev. James Buckley, were suspended by the Diocese of Fall River Sunday.

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OKLAHOMA CITY (OK)
KFOR

January 21, 2020

By Kaylee Douglas

Archbishop Paul Coakley announced Tuesday the addition of a now-retired Oklahoma City priest who served in churches across the state to the list of priests who have had a substantiated allegation of abuse of a minor.

According to the investigation, the archdiocese was contacted in 1993 by a former parishioner of Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Enid who reported allegations of abuse against Father Marvin Leven, 94, that started when the victim was age 15 and recurred as a young adult at Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church in Edmond.

In 1995, as part of the archdiocese’s investigation, Father Leven was sent to Saint Luke Institute for an evaluation related to sexual abuse. In a letter to the diocese, professionals at the institute stated the allegations were possible and recommended Father Leven have no unsupervised contact with minors. They also recommended he seek intensive outpatient psychotherapy.

Father Leven was returned to the parish with the instruction that he “not be permitted to have ministerial contact with minors unless other adults are present.”

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NEW BEDFORD (MA)
South Coast Today

January 21, 2020

By Kiernan Dunlop

Fall River – The Diocese of Fall River is being pressured to release a list of clergy credibly accused of sexually abusing a minor.

On Tuesday, Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, well known for representing sexual abuse victims in claims against the Archdiocese of Boston, released his own list of nine priests and one Catholic Church employee within the Diocese of Fall River that he says have been “accused of sexually abusing one minor in which this office has successfully brought child abuse claims against.”

In a statement he sent with the list, Garabedian said “As a matter of moral responsibility, it is time for Bishop da Cunha to immediately publicly list the names of credibly accused priests and Catholic Church employees who sexually abused minor children when working within the Diocese of Fall River.”

Not releasing the list, Garabedian said, is a re-victimization of sexual abuse victims, whereas releasing it will help sexual abuse victims try to heal and empower other victims.

In January 2019, the diocese announced plans to release a list of credibly accused clergy following an external review of their documents conducted by former FBI Assistant Director William Galvin.

The review has since been taken over by Kinsale Management Consulting.

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ANKARA (TURKEY)
Anadolu Agency

January 21, 2020

By Cindi Cook

Lyon was setting for trial of Bernard Preynat in alleged abuse of at least 80 young boys in 1980s and 1990s

Paris – The four-day trial of a former priest who, accused of sexually abusing at least 80 Boy Scouts in the 1980s and 1990s, was concluded on Friday in Lyon, France.

Bernard Preynat, 74, is charged with committing lecherous acts against the young boys between 1971 and 1991, when he served as scout chaplain in the Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon region of eastern France.

The prosecutor of the Republic, Dominique Sauves, requested a prison sentence “which is not less than eight years” against the ex-priest.

Preynat faces a possible decade in prison and a 150,000-euro (nearly $167,000) fine.

He is accused of abusing dozens of young boys during his time in charge, although only 10 of the abused testified against him in the trial last week. Those who came forward have also charged the church leadership with covering up the acts, therefore allowing Preynat to remain in contact with youths.

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NEW YORK (NY)
NBC 4

January 21, 2020

Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio is accused of molesting a child while he was a parish priest in New Jersey

The Vatican has ordered an investigation of a sexual abuse allegation against Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, who was previously named by Pope Francis to investigate the church’s response to clergy sexual abuse in Buffalo.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York received instructions on Jan. 7 to begin an investigation of allegations that DiMarzio molested a child while he was a parish priest in New Jersey in the mid-1970s, according to a statement released over the weekend by Dolan’s spokesman Joseph Zwilling.

“As is our practice, the Cardinal will rely on outside professional forensic investigators to assist him in this matter,” Zwilling said.

Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian notified church officials in November that he was preparing a lawsuit on behalf of his client, who alleges to have been repeatedly abused by DiMarzio and a second priest as an altar boy at St. Nicholas Church in Jersey City.

DiMarzio denied the allegation, telling The Associated Press “I am confident I will be fully vindicated.”

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HYANNIS (MA)
Cape Cod Times

January 20, 2020

By Jessica Hill

Two retired priests who previously served in parishes on the Cape have been suspended from ministry after separate allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, according to a statement from the Diocese of Fall River.

The Revs. James F. Buckley and Edward J. Byington have denied the allegations, which stem from incidents said to have occurred decades ago, the statement says.

Buckley was ordained in 1959. Among his assignments were St. Joan of Arc Parish in Orleans, St. Augustine Parish in Vineyard Haven, St. Margaret Parish in Buzzards Bay and Holy Redeemer Parish in Chatham, the statement says. He retired in 2001.

Byington, ordained in 1970, was assigned to 10 parishes, including St. Francis Xavier Parish in Hyannis, before he retired in 2006.

Although neither priest is currently assigned to a parish, both have assisted with the celebration of Mass in various churches since their retirement, the statement says. Byington also has taught German classes at St. Joseph’s School in West Warwick, Rhode Island, and the Fall River Diocese has notified the Diocese of Providence about his suspension, according to the statement.

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NEW BEDFORD (MA)
SouthCoastToday

January 20, 2020

By Kiernan Dunlop

Fall River – Details are coming to light about allegations of sexual abuse against a retired priest recently suspended by the Diocese of Fall River.

On Monday, Attorney Mitchell Garabedian, well known for representing sexual abuse victims in claims against the Archdiocese of Boston, sent out a statement detailing a claim against the Rev. Edward J. Byington.

Byington was one of two priests named by the Fall River diocese Sunday as having been suspended from ministry due to separate allegations of sexual abuse of a minor going back several decades.

Garabedian said he represents a sexual abuse victim “who claims he was sexually abused by Father Byington when he was approximately 16 to 17 years old.”

According to Garabedian, that abuse occurred in 1971 when Byington offered his client a ride home from the ECHO (Encountering Christ in Others) retreat, but instead drove him to the rectory of Sacred Heart Church in Taunton even though Byington was not assigned to that church at the time.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
MassLive

January 20, 2020

By Jackson Cote

https://www.masslive.com/news/2020/01/diocese-of-fall-river-suspends-retired-catholic-priests-james-buckley-edward-byington-over-claims-of-child-sex-abuse.html

Two retired Catholic priests were suspended from the ministry over allegations they sexually abused children decades ago, the Diocese of Fall River announced Sunday.

The suspended priests, James F. Buckley and Edward J. Byington, are not assigned to a parish but have assisted with masses at various churches since their retirements in the 2000s, the Diocese of Fall River said in a statement.

Byington has also taught German classes at St. Joseph’s School in West Warwick, Rhode Island. The Diocese of Providence was notified of Byington’s suspension, according to the Diocese of Fall River.

“Nothing is more important than the welfare of all members of our diocesan community, especially anyone who has been harmed or impacted by abuse in any way,” Bishop Edgar da Cunha said in the diocese’s statement. “The Diocese of Fall River remains committed to resolving these matters in as fair and as transparent a process as possible and to ensuring the safety of all youth and vulnerable adults.”

The separate claims of abuse, denied by both priests, are unrelated and remain under investigation by the diocese. The allegations were also referred to law enforcement. Suspension is required by diocesan policies, the statement said.

A man accused Byington of sexually abusing him in the 1970s when he was roughly 16 years old. The alleged victim was not Catholic but was introduced to the priest at Encountering Christ in Others, a weekend retreat program for Christian teenagers on the Cape and Islands. The man was invited by two friends to attend the retreat with them, according to attorney Mitchell Garabedian.

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MEXICO CITY (MEXICO)
Associated Press

January 20, 2020

By Maria Verza and Nicole Winfield

The administrator of the elite Catholic school in Cancun, Mexico, used to take the girls out of class and send them to the chapel, where the priest from the Legion of Christ religious order would sexually abuse them.

“As some were reading the Bible, he would rape the others in front of them, little girls aged 6 to 8 or 9,” said one of his victims, Ana Lucia Salazar, now a 36-year-old Mexican television host and mother of three.

“Afterward, nothing was the same, nothing went back to the way it was,” she said through tears at her home in Mexico City.

Salazar’s horrific story, which has been corroborated by other victims and the Legion itself, has sparked a new credibility crisis for the once-influential order, 10 years after the Holy See took it over after determining that its founder was a pedophile.

But more importantly, it has called into question the Vatican reform itself: The papal envoy who ran the Legion starting in 2010 learned about the case nearly a decade ago and refused to punish or even investigate the priest or the superiors who covered up his crimes, many of whom are still in power and ministry today.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
BBC

January 14, 2020

A former French priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of Boy Scouts has admitted “caressing” children in ways he knew were wrong, at the beginning of his trial in France.

“It could be four or five children a week,” Bernard Preynat, 74, told the court in Lyon on Tuesday.

He is accused of assaulting at least 80 young boys in the 1980s and 1990s and faces ten years in prison if convicted.

Ten of his accusers are expected to give evidence in the four-day trial.

The men were all aged between seven and 15 at the time of the alleged abuse.

This is the first time that Mr Preynat has appeared in a French court to answer questions about these allegations.

What happened at the court?

Speaking on the first day of his trial, Mr Preynat said he did not initially see his actions as “committing sexual assault, but giving caresses… hugs”.

He admitted to the court, however, that the interactions – which frequently occurred at a scout camp he organised at weekends – “did bring me sexual pleasure”.

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LYON (FRANCE)
Associated Press via WTOP

January 19, 2020

One of the first people to notice Bernard Preynat’s unhealthy obsession for young boys was the supervisor at the seminary where, still a teen, the future priest started training for his career in the church.

“At 14, 15 years old, I became interested in the youngest boys and the supervisor summoned me to tell me that I was abnormal and sick,” the self-confessed child abuser said at his trial in France this past week. “I explained this to the bishop.”

And yet, after a two-year church-imposed course of psychotherapy, Preynat was still ordained into the priesthood. This chance, the first of many, to keep him away from children was spurned by the church hierarchy, which instead consistently — and successfully — long kept his abuses under wraps.

Now, at Preynat’s trial in the city of Lyon, a fuller picture of the damage he wrought on dozens of boys and their families is emerging. Four days of hearings also gave a long-overdue airing to the enabling role played by French church officials. Aware of his abuses, Lyon cardinals told him to stop but didn’t report him to police, he said.

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LA CROSSE (WI)
WKBT

January 19, 2020

By Mal Meyer

A report on clergy sexual abuse released by the Diocese of La Crosse shows the clergy members moved around several times. They served in churches, hospitals and schools throughout its 19 county area, and some served outside the Diocese.

A total of 25 clergy members with ties to the diocese were named in the child sexual abuse report released this weekend. They spent time in the Diocese of La Crosse, which has parishes throughout much of Western and Central Wisconsin.

The report goes on to list where these priests and deacons served. A number of those accused worked at the same places at some point, such as St. Joseph the Workman, Holy Trinity, St. James the Less and Aquinas High School in La Crosse.

Others had pastoral assignments with the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis or at the Diocese of La Crosse as curia staff. Two of the clergy members were assigned to the Veterans Administration Hospital in Tomah.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

January 18, 2020

By Elise Harris

Rome – At the beginning of the week, the insider Catholic universe imploded when news broke that retired Pope Benedict XVI and Guinean Cardinal Robert Sarah had co-authored a new book defending priestly celibacy just as Pope Francis is considering an exception to the rule proposed during the Amazon synod.

In the fierce and polemical debate that ensued, the role of a pope emeritus was questioned while Catholicism’s conservative and progressive camps exchanged arguments over Benedict XVI’s intentions with the book, titled From the Depths of Our Hearts: Priesthood, Celibacy and the Crisis of the Catholic Church, which hit shelves Jan. 15 in France.

The saga culminated with Archbishop Georg Ganswein, personal secretary for Benedict XVI, saying the emeritus pope had asked that his name be withdrawn as a coauthor and removed from the book’s introduction and conclusion. Citing the Chicago Manual of Style, however, the English-language publisher, Ignatius Press, said it considers the publication “coauthored.”

Though unprecedented is perhaps the wrong word to describe the bizarre episode, it was certainly odd, as Sarah, an active sitting cardinal who heads the Vatican’s liturgy office, took to social media to defend his credibility, issuing several statements and publishing correspondence between himself and Benedict – things that heads of Vatican departments don’t typically do.

However, this week’s episode could well have been Sarah’s “last hurrah,” as the Guinean cardinal is set to turn 75 in June, meaning he will be required to submit his resignation after having reached the formal age of retirement for bishops and cardinals.

Sarah is just one of many possible shakeups that could take place around the Vatican this year as Francis’s reform of the Roman Curia unfolds, with several major department heads already 75 or older, who have yet to step down.

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BROOKLYN (NY)
The Tablet of the Diocese of Brooklyn

January 19, 2020

By Adriana Rodriguez

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio has categorically denied the allegation against him. He will vigorously defend himself against this false claim and is confident the truth will prevail. As the Church investigation is a Vos estis lux mundi probe, it does not require that Bishop DiMarzio step aside during the preliminary investigation. As such, his status has not changed.

Since the allegation was announced two months ago, there has been a tremendous outpouring of support for Bishop DiMarzio, from here in the Diocese of Brooklyn and from the people he has served throughout his 50-year ministry, including parishioners from his time as parochial vicar at St. Nicholas Church in Jersey City.

Bishop DiMarzio is recognized as a leader in the fight against sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. Even before the mandates of the 2002 Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, Bishop DiMarzio created protocols when he was the bishop in the Diocese of Camden from 1999-2003 to ensure that children were protected and that victims received the care they need.

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DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

January 19, 2020

Brooklyn’s Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio has issued a statement welcoming an investigation into an accusation of sexual abuse made against him last year.

In a statement released to CNA on Sunday Jan. 19, the Diocese of Brooklyn said that Bishop DiMarzio had done nothing wrong and had no intention of stepping aside during the Vatican-ordered enquiry into the allegation, which dates back to the 1970s and DiMarzio’s time as a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark.

“Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio has categorically denied the allegation against him,” the statement said. “He will vigorously defend himself against this false claim and is confident the truth will prevail.”

On Jan. 18, the Archdiocese of New York confirmed that Cardinal Timothy Dolan had been asked by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to conduct an investigation into the allegations of 56-year-old Mark Matzek.

Matzek alleges that DiMarzio and another priest, now deceased, repeatedly abused him when he was an altar server at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in the Diocese of Newark in the 1970s.

Although lawyer Mitchell Garabedian sent a letter to the Archdiocese of Newark in November saying he was preparing a lawsuit on behalf of Matzek seeking $20 million, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn diocese told CNA on Sunday that no suit had yet been filed.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
Diocese of Fall River

January 19, 2020

The Diocese of Fall River has announced that two retired priests have been suspended from ministry due to separate allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, said to have occurred decades ago.

The suspended priests are Father James F. Buckley and Father Edward J. Byington. The separate, unrelated claims of abuse were referred to the appropriate law enforcement authorities and remain under investigation by the Diocese. Both priests have denied the allegations. The suspension from ministry is required by Diocesan policies. The Diocese is committed to resolving both cases in a fair and expeditious manner.

Both priests are retired and are not assigned to a parish (see service records at the end of this release). However, both have assisted with the celebration of Masses in various parishes since their retirements. The Diocese was informed that Father Byington has also taught German classes at St. Joseph’s School in West Warwick, Rhode Island and has, in turn, notified the Diocese of Providence about his suspension.

“Nothing is more important than the welfare of all members of our diocesan community, especially anyone who has been harmed or impacted by abuse in any way,” said Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha, S.D.V. “The Diocese of Fall River remains committed to resolving these matters in as fair and as transparent a process as possible and to ensuring the safety of all youth and vulnerable adults.”

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FALL RIVER (MA)
Associated Press via U.S. News and World Report

January 19, 2020

Two retired Catholic priests in Massachusetts have been suspended amid separate allegations of sexual abuse.

Two retired Catholic priests in Massachusetts have been suspended amid separate allegations of sexual abuse.

The Diocese of Fall River said Sunday that Fathers James Buckley and Edward Byington have been accused of abusing minors decades ago.

The diocese didn’t specify the nature of the abuse other than to say they are separate, unrelated claims and have been referred to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.

Both priests deny the allegations, according to the diocese.

Buckley and Byington have not been assigned to a specific parish since their retirement, but have assisted in church services in various communities, the diocese said.

Buckley was ordained a priest in 1959 and retired in 2001 after serving in Fall River, Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard, according to the diocese.

Byington was ordained 1970 and retired in 2006 after serving in churches across southeastern Massachusetts and nearby Rhode Island.

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CRANSTON (RI)
WJAR 10 NBC

January 19, 2020

Fall River, Mass. – The Diocese of Fall River announced Sunday it has suspended two retired priests after sexual abuse allegations were made against them.

The separate, unrelated accusations against Father Edward J. Byington and Father James F. Buckley are said to have happened decades ago and are under investigation by law enforcement.

Both priests have denied the allegations. The suspension from ministry is required by Diocesan policies, the Diocese of Fall River said in a statement.

Both priests are retired and are not assigned to a parish, the statement said. However, both have assisted with the celebration of Masses in various parishes since their retirements.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
WPRI 12

January 19, 2020

By Jacqui Gomersall and Brittany Schaefer

Fall River, Mass. – Two retired Catholic priests in Southeastern Massachusetts have been suspended from ministry due to separate allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, according to the Diocese of Fall River.

The diocese identified the priests as Father James F. Buckley and Father Edward J. Byington.

The allegations date back decades and both priests have denied them.

The unrelated allegations have been referred to law enforcement and remain under investigation by the diocese.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Daily Mail

Jan. 19, 2020

By Chantalle Edmunds

A professor whose vicar sexually assaulted her while saying ‘this is what God wanted’ 40 years ago has today condemned him as a ‘predator’ who had taken advantage of her faith.

Brave Julie Macfarlane has waived her right to anonymity to speak out against disgraced Church of England priest Meirion Griffiths, who was this week convicted of molesting her when she was a teenager.

The university law professor, now 61, was subjected to a year-long campaign of ‘disgusting’ and ‘repulsive’ repeated sexual abuse.

Griffiths, 81, now faces jail after he was convicted on Monday of indecently assaulting Prof Macfarlane and another woman from his congregation in the 1970s and 1980s.

Griffiths was a rector from the Diocese of Chichester, West Sussex, at the time and Portsmouth Crown Court, Hants, heard he grew ‘obsessed’ with his victims before ‘systematically’ abusing them.

Prof Macfarlane, who has since moved to Canada and lectures at Ontario’s University of Windsor, said she turned to Griffiths when she was 17 and had doubts with her faith.

She said: ‘He was a very big authority figure for me. I was a very earnest Christian girl.

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DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

January 18, 2020

New York City – Cardinal Timothy Dolan is conducting an investigation into Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, following an allegation of sexual abuse.

The investigation is being conducted under the provisions of Vos estis lux mundi, the Church law issued by Pope Francis last year on dealing with accusations against bishops.

In a statement released Jan. 18, Joseph Zwilling, director of communications in the Archdiocese of New York, confirmed the investigation.

“As directed by Vos estis, Cardinal Dolan earlier notified the Holy See of the allegation that was raised concerning Bishop DiMarzio from his time as a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark. On January 7, 2020, the Cardinal received instruction from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that he is to begin an investigation.”

On Nov. 13, 2019, DiMarzio publicly announced that he was the subject of an allegation of sexually abusing a minor, dating back to his time as a priest in the 1970s in Jersey City.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian

January 19, 2020

By Angela Giuffrida

Benedict and his inner circle are accused of intervening to halt Pope Francis relaxing celibacy rules as the battle between conservative and liberal factions takes a new twist

The pilgrims filing into the papal audience hall last Wednesday were mostly oblivious to the saga enveloping the Vatican over an explosive new book that pits the retired Pope Benedict XVI against the reigning Pope Francis. But they were clear on who their favourite is.

Director Fernando Meirelles and Jonathan Pryce as Pope Francis during the filming of ‘The Two Popes’.
FacebookTwitterPinterest Director Fernando Meirelles, and Jonathan Pryce as Pope Francis, during the filming of ‘The Two Popes’. Photograph: Peter Mountain/AP
“I would not have come all this way for Benedict,” said Marisol Durán Vergora, a first-time visitor to the Vatican from Spain. “He is an extremist, whereas Francis is more human and closer to the people.” Another pilgrim, who wished to remain anonymous, speculated after being briefed on the goings-on: “Benedict decided to abdicate and should keep his promise of staying silent.”

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Benedict has come forward on a variety of issues over the past seven years, most controversially writing last year that the sexual revolution of the 1960s and “homosexual cliques” among priests were to blame for the church’s paedophile-priest scandals. The opinion came two months after an unprecedented Vatican summit on tackling clerical sexual abuse, and sharply contrasted with that of Francis, who blamed the scandals on a clerical culture that elevates priests above the laity. Benedict also wrote a letter complimenting Cardinal Joachim Meisner – a fierce critic of Francis who spoke out against the pontiff allowing remarried divorcees to receive holy communion – who died in 2017.

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FRONT ROYAL (VA)
LifeSite News

January 18, 2020

By Maike Hickson

In first public appearance since McCarrick report in 2018, Archbishop Viganò participates at Munich prayer event

In his first public appearance since going into hiding over a year ago, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò joined other prominent Catholics in Munich today in prayer and protest against the German Episcopal Conference and its President Cardinal Marx. The Vatican whistleblower joined Catholic laity to oppose the German prelates’ plan to embark on a “synodal path” that critics say would create a “new church” that departs from Catholic teaching on priestly celibacy, contraception, homosexuality, and fornication.

Viganò had gone into hiding after he published on August 25, 2018 his McCarrick report accusing Pope Francis of ignoring Pope Benedict XVI’s earlier restrictions on then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick on account of McCarrick’s preying upon and abuse of seminarians. Viganò said that Francis should resign.

Pope Francis abolished the pontifical secret with regard to sex abuse cases in December 2019. He issued a decree according to which the pontifical secret binding Church officials to confidentiality in specific matters, “does not apply to accusations, trials and decisions” concerning sexual abuse of adults, minors and vulnerable persons, and the production, possession and distribution of pornography (cf. Vos estis lux mundi, art. 1). This will enable a person who files an accusation of sexual abuse, for example, as well as “the person who alleges to have been harmed and the witnesses shall not be bound by any obligation of silence with regard to matters involving the case.”

It is perhaps in light of this new decree that Archbishop Viganò feels less restrained in appearing in public. In any event, he continuously raised his voice with regard to important moral and doctrinal aspects of the current Church crisis, such as the clerical sex abuse crisis, some problematic developments during and since the Second Vatican Council, the important role of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as well as the recent 6-27 October 2019 Amazon Synod in Rome.

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LA CROSSE (WI)
Diocese of La Crosse

January 18, 2020

By Bishop William Patrick Callahan

My dear sisters and brothers in Christ:

The Protect and Heal initiative of the Diocese of La Crosse, our response to the clergy sexual abuse crisis, now includes a most essential ingredient: the disclosure of the names of clergy with a substantiated allegation of child sexual abuse.

This disclosure of names is an important step: the Church must again confess to this evil and pledge our prayers and support to all victims and their families. To all victims and their loved ones, everywhere: I and so many others continue to offer prayers and assistance. I realize that our promise of continued prayer and support may not seem to be enough; for your pain, suffering and anguish will always be a part of you. I am sorry, however, for all you’ve suffered.

The disclosure of names is a necessary step. Victims inform us that it assists in their healing process and it provides them with no small sense of justice. Victims and their loved ones must no longer suffer in silence and isolation.

This is also a painful step. It’s painful to all victims, certainly, for their nightmare resurfaces yet again with this public release; and it is painful, too, for all good and faithful laity and clergy who continue to feel anger and humiliation for the abuse of both power and conscience committed by these men.

Even with that, the disclosure of names is the right thing to do, for all of us!

The list of names of clergy with a substantiated allegation of child sexual abuse, found on the Protect and Heal page on our website, will remain public and up-to-date: names will be added if and when future allegations are sufficiently confirmed. As promised and as needed, prudent transparency has replaced unacceptable secrecy.

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LA CROSSE (WI)
Diocese of La Crosse

January 18, 2020

The following clergy on this list have had a substantiated allegation of child sexual abuse. None are in public ministry.

An allegation is deemed to be substantiated if it has been sufficiently confirmed so as to believe that abuse occurred. This determination follows a process of consultation and is not a legal judgment.

The fact that a specific parish is on the list does not mean that an act of abuse occurred at said parish. It’s only significance is that a priest on our list once served at that parish.

Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this list. Questions about this list should be in writing and directed to the Office of Safe Environment, Diocese of La Crosse, P.O. Box 4004, La Crosse, WI 54602-4004.

The names on this list are divided into three categories:

(1) Diocesan clergy
(2) Non-Diocesan clergy with a substantiated allegation in the Diocese of La Crosse
(3) Non-Diocesan clergy who spent time in the Diocese of La Crosse and whose name appears on a list in another diocese or religious order

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WAUSAU (WI)
Wausau Daily Herald

January 18, 2020

By Laura Schulte

[Photo caption] David Clohessy, of St. Louis, who is the Missouri director and former national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, holds a list of Catholic priests who have been credibly accused of sexual abused and have spent time in the Diocese of La Crosse on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2019, at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Wausau, Wis.

La Crosse – At least 25 priests who served in the Diocese of La Crosse over the past several decades sexually assaulted children, the diocese disclosed Saturday.

The disclosure, posted at 4 p.m. on the diocese website at diolc.org, brings the total number of Catholic priests with substantiated accusations of sexual abuse in Wisconsin to nearly 160.

The La Crosse diocese serves nearly 200,000 Catholics in counties across central and western Wisconsin, including those in Marathon, Portage and Wood counties.

The list was published after an audit of the diocese clergy files dating back to 1868 by the Texas-based firm Defenbaugh & Associates Inc..

The list included 18 clergy members who were part of the La Crosse diocese:

Bruce Ball, Raymond Bornbach, Eugene Comiskey, Thomas Dempsey, James Ennis, James Finucan, John Thomas Finucan, Tom Garthwaite, Richard Herrmann, William Hertzenberg, Thomas Langer, James E. Mason, Garland Muller, Charles Rasmussen, Albert Sonnberger, James Stauber, Patrick Umberger and Raymond J. Wagner.

The diocese also named two priests who were part of other Catholic orders but were accused of abuse while serving in the La Crosse diocese: Timothy Svea and Bogdan Werra.

The list also included five priests who spent time in the diocese and whose names appeared on other Catholic diocese and religious order lists of suspected abusers: Dennis Bouche, Daniel Budzynski, Orville Munie, Joseph Smetana and Francis Zimmerer.

In addition to the 25 names, the diocese released the service history for each priest including ordination date, pastoral assignments and their current status, including dates of death. Most of the priests are now dead, and the diocese said none of the surviving abusers is serving in the ministry.

Parish leaders across the diocese also were instructed to read a letter from La Crosse Bishop William Patrick Callahan during Masses this weekend. Callahan did not make himself available for reporter interviews Saturday.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Post

January 18, 2020

By Sara Dorn

The Vatican has ordered Timothy Cardinal Dolan to probe allegations that Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio sexually abused an altar boy at a New Jersey church in the 1970s, The Post has learned.

On Jan. 7, “the Cardinal received instruction from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that he is to begin an investigation. As is our practice, the Cardinal will rely on outside professional forensic investigators to assist him in this matter,” said New York Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling.

“Cardinal Dolan earlier notified the Holy See of the allegation that was raised concerning Bishop DiMarzio from his time as a priest in the Archdiocese of Newark,” the spokesman said in a statement.

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LA CROSSE (WI)
WXOW-TV (Channel 19)

January 17, 2020

On Saturday, the Diocese of La Crosse plans to publish a list of clergy with substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse.

The diocese said it would release the list on its website Saturday at 4 p.m.

In a statement Friday, the diocese said as the list is released, a pastoral letter from Bishop William Callahan will be read at all weekend Masses in the diocese.

According to the diocese, the list was created after an audit of clergy files dating back to 1868 when the diocese was founded.

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MADISON (WI)
Channel 3000

January 17, 2020

The Diocese of Madison announced Friday that sexual abuse allegations against a former priest who served parishes near the Wisconsin River were determined to be credible.

According to a news release, Rev. Patrick Doherty, 85, will be placed on the diocese’s list of priests or former priests who have been credibly accused of acts of sexual abuse against minors. Doherty has been out of ministry since 1993.

Doherty previously worked in a number of smaller parishes along the Wisconsin River, including St. Barnabas, Mazomanie and St. John the Baptist.

Doherty’s accuser, who does not want to be named, said the abuse happened over 40 years ago. The release said Doherty has had struggles with alcoholism and reported disreputable behaviors with adult men that were known to the public.

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