ABUSE TRACKER

FAIRFAX (VA)
Courtroom News Service

August 2, 2019

By Joan Hennessy

As the Catholic Church digs itself out of a global sex abuse scandal, some priests are heading to court to contend they were wrongfully accused of misconduct and defamed when the church published their names on lists of “credibly accused” clergy members.

Seventeen years have passed since The Boston Globe documented widespread abuse by Catholic clergy. In the years that followed, victims all over the country sued the church and 19 dioceses and religious orders filed for bankruptcy protection, according to the National Catholic Reporter.

The church’s legal troubles reignited a year ago when a Pennsylvania grand jury report detailed abuse by priests in six state dioceses. The same month, a Pennsylvania bishop released a list of clergy accused of abuse. Other dioceses have done the same.

In February, when the Richmond diocese published its list of clergy members accused of sexual misconduct, Oliver Joseph Smalls, Jr.’s name was on it.

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

TULSA (OK)
NewsOn6.com

August 2, 2019

The Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma said they are asking anyone with knowledge of possible sexual misconduct on the part of a Tulsa priest to come forward. Father Joe Townsend continues to be on administrative leave due to allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor.

A news release from the Diocese states that an ongoing, third-party investigation has provided them with a “better understanding” of the allegation made against Father Townsend, prompting the call for people to come forward. They can contact law enforcement or call the Pastoral Hotline at 918-307-4970.

The allegation against Father Townsend involves St. Pius X Church and School community almost 30 years ago, according to Father Richard Bradley, Pastor of St. Pius X Catholic Church.

“We understand the need to fully investigate the allegation in order to bring to light any abuse that may have occurred, and we pledge our support of the investigative process. At the same time, we affirm that there are many students from that era as well as their parents, who remember Father Joe fondly and favorably. We pray for a peaceful and speedy resolution to this matter,” he said in a news release.

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WARSAW (POLAND)
Reuters via Today Online

August 2, 2019

Poland’s Catholic Church has doubled down on the anti-gay rhetoric that has become the nationalist ruling party’s dominant theme in recent weeks, drawing a rebuke from liberal politicians who compared an archbishop’s remarks to incitement to genocide.

In a sermon given to mark the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw uprising by Polish resistance fighters against Nazi occupation, the archbishop of Krakow, Marek Jedraszewski, described Poland as under siege from a “rainbow plague” of gay rights campaigners he compared to Poland’s former Communist rulers.

“Our land is no longer affected by the red plague, which does not mean that there is no new one that wants to control our souls, hearts and minds,” he told a mass in the medieval St. Mary’s Basilica, one of the most important churches for Poles.

“Not Marxist, Bolshevik, but born of the same spirit, neo-Marxist. Not red, but rainbow,” he was quoted as saying by private TVN24 broadcaster.

Robert Biedron, an openly gay politician from the progressive Wiosna party, denounced the sermon.

“We already had such people, politicians who used similar words and that lead to huge slaughters, genocide. This is an incitement to crime, to hatred,” he told news website wirtualnapolska.pl.
Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/world/liberals-fear-unrest-poland-catholic-church-doubles-down-anti-gay-rhetoric

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
GoLocalProv.com

August 3, 2019

By Carlene Casciano-McCann

Sex abuse victims stories need to be told, says Carlene Casciano-McCann

With the recent high-profile stories exposing sexual abuse and exploitation of children, many of us are incensed that this type of exploitation continues unabated.

We are outraged at perpetrators of sexual abuse, yet how often do we really think about the victims – the loss of innocence, trust and control over their own bodies; the burden of potential lifelong mental health issues. With the recent disclosure of credibly accused priests in the Catholic Diocese and Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest for trafficking children, we have evidence of abuses that have occurred in secrecy, with others being complicit in covering up and/or engaging in the illicit activity.

The stories sensationalize the perpetrator and do not tell the full story in order to protect the victim’s identity and privacy. Yet the crisis is revealed in the victim’s story which is what needs be told. Infants and toddlers are sexually molested – children irreparably harmed before they even have words to describe the assault. Pre-teen children and teenagers are sexually abused and the emotional trauma can make it difficult to find the words to tell others. Children carry the shame of sexual abuse despite it being the behavior of an adult perpetrator.

Sexual abuse is a difficult crime to prosecute. There is rarely physical evidence of an assault.

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NOLA.COM
New Orleans (LA)

August 3, 2019

By Ramon Antonio Vargas and Jerry DiColo

Steve Gegenheimer had struggled for decades to process what happened to him — in a rectory, in a parked car, in the woods and in hotels in Mississippi — over a two-year period in the 1970s, when he was a teenage altar boy on the West Bank.

In November, the priest he says sexually abused him decades ago was publicly named as a suspected child molester by New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond. Days later, Gegenheimer finally called a lawyer.

Over the next five months, at the archdiocese’s request, Gegenheimer wrote out a narrative explaining the abuse. He filled out the rest of a detailed questionnaire. He met with diocesan attorneys over several hours one emotionally draining day.

And after signing settlement documents that resulted in an undisclosed payment, he received a letter inviting him to speak and pray with the archbishop himself.

Gegenheimer had not taken up Aymond on his offer when he spoke about the experience this summer, but he said the invitation and payment — taken together — helped him to finally move past his abuse.

“You … carry a secret for 30, 40 years,” said Gegenheimer, who explained he later became a priest but left the clergy after entering into a relationship with a woman whom he ultimately married. “I wanted it to be over.”

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PORTLAND (OR)
OPB

August 2, 2019

By Conrad Wilson

The Archdiocese of Portland has agreed to settle eight claims of sexual abuse involving former North Bend priest Rev. Pius Brazauskas.

Together the settlements add up to nearly $4 million.

The alleged abuse stems from about 1975 to 1985 involving boys who at the time of the abuse were between 5 and 16 years old. At the time, Brazauskas was in his 70s.

Brazauskas died on March 1, 1990. He was 84 years old.

A January 2018 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon identified three victims as J.B., S.R. and S.F. They were the first sexual abuse allegations against Brazauskas.

After the lawsuit was filed, five more men came forward, said Peter Janci, attorney for the victims.

“We think there are a lot of other victims out there,” Janci said. “He was somebody who had an insatiable proclivity to abuse kids. In my career, representing hundreds of victims of child sexual abuse I don’t usually see individuals who develop that inclination in their 70s.”

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

August 3, 2019

By Claire Giangravè

An Italian priest known for involvement in his community was placed under house arrest by local authorities on Wednesday, on charges of allegedly drugging and sexually abusing adult members of his parish.

“The news of the arrest of Father Stefano Segalini and the precautionary measures applied by the judiciary pain us deeply,” said Father Luigi Chiesa, Vicar General of the Diocese of Piacenza-Bobbio in northern Italy where the events allegedly took place, in an August 1 statement.

“The pain of those who declare themselves to be victims of abuse, as well as the pain of he who finds himself accused of such a great crime, requires first of all our closeness and prayer,” Chiesa said.

Segalini led the church of San Giuseppe Operaio, the most frequented parish in the northern Italian town of Piacenza, until last May when he suddenly retired. An arrest warrant issued by a judge after preliminary investigations claims that Segalini allegedly abused adults not in the parish, but during spiritual retreats and evening activities.

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TULSA (OK)
Associated Press via KRMG Radio

August 3, 2019

[Tulsa diocese’s statement about Joe Townsend is posted on the diocesan Facebook page, linked here.]

The Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma says the alleged sexual misconduct involving a minor by a priest started shortly after he was ordained.

The diocese said in a statement Friday that “a non-frivolous allegation of sexual misconduct with a minor” against Father Joe Townsend date to his time as associate pastor at St. Pius X Catholic Church in Tulsa from June 1988 to June 1991. The statement says Townsend denies the allegation and is cooperating with an investigation.

The diocese website says Townsend was ordained May 27, 1988.

The diocese announced July 5 that Townsend had been placed on administrative leave.

The diocese last year identified two other priests who were facing credible accusations of abusing minors. Both men are no longer associated with the Tulsa diocese.

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MODESTO (CA)
Modesto Bee

August 1, 2019

By Erin Tracy

Modesto’s CrossPoint Community Church settled a lawsuit with a woman who said the church covered up the sexual abuse of her and others by pastors for years.

CrossPoint, formerly First Baptist Church, must pay Jennifer Roach $267,500 and was released of any liability or wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

“Sexual abuse is soul-crushing, and its impact is far reaching,” Roach said in an email. “Victims often end up delaying or abandoning their education, which impacts their ability to earn throughout their lifetime. Financial settlements don’t change the fact that the abuse happened, but they can restore some of what was stolen from the victim.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

August 2, 2019

As recently as last year a former Catholic deacon defrocked after allegations of child sexual abuse had leadership roles in a Louisiana Catholic group. Even worse, he had access to children for decades despite his history. Now, church officials must take responsibility for this troubling revelation.

This is just the latest example of how Catholic leadership continues to talk a big game publicly, but privately does not do all they can to ensure accused perpetrators are kept from the vulnerable. We call on New Orleans law enforcement officials to investigate this situation to see if any crimes were committed, and we call on local parishioners to demand answers and transparency from their church officials.

This is one reason why we in SNAP clamor for lists of accused clerics – posted permanently and prominently on diocesan websites — so it will be easier for parishioners, staff, and the public to identify perpetrators who keep gravitating towards children. Had New Orleans church officials revealed such a list years and years ago – instead of in 2018 – it is likely that George Brignac never would have had the access to children that he enjoyed for years.

Now that this information has been exposed, we believe that Archbishop Greg Aymond should investigate and then disclose publicly how this was allowed to happen, and finally take action against those who put children in harm’s way. That is the only way such incomprehensible behavior will be stopped.

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SAN BERNARDINO (CA)
San Bernardino Sun

August 1, 2019

By Joe Nelson

Less than a year after a former youth pastor at Wildomar’s Faith Baptist Church was accused of molesting three teenage girls, another former staff member has been arrested for allegedly sexually abusing a student at the church’s school nearly 30 years ago.

Laverne Paul Fox, the former principal at Faith Baptist Academy and former bus director for the church, was arrested Monday in Erie, Pennsylvania, and extradited to California, where he was held at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside on $120,000 bail.

Laverne Paul Fox, a former principal at Faith Baptist Academy in Wildomar and former bus director at the affiliated Faith Baptist Church, was arrested Monday in Erie, PA. after begin charged with three felony counts of child molestation involving a student at the school in 1990.

Fox, 60, posted bail Tuesday and is scheduled for arraignment Oct. 2 at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta, according to online booking records.

Riverside County prosecutors charged Fox on June 21 with three felony counts of child molestation involving a girl under the age of 18. The alleged sexual abuse occurred about July 1990, according to the criminal complaint.

“I feel like I’m finally getting justice 27 years late,” said Fox’s alleged victim, Kathy Durbin, on Wednesday. She said she reported the alleged abuse to church pastor Bruce Goddard in 1992, but he never reported it to police.

While the Southern California News Group does not typically disclose the names of victims of sexual abuse, Durbin has allowed her name to be published.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Agency

August 2, 2019

By Ed Condon

This story is the second part of a two-part series about how one victim of sexual abuse found healing. The first part was published Aug. 1.

When Michael* was 15 years old, he was abused by a priest at his Catholic high school. He told CNA recently about the suffering he endured, and about how, seven years after his abuse, he confided in another priest – only to have his faith in God and the Church shattered again.

For nearly three decades, Michael struggled with the pain and trauma of his abuse. He spent years, and tens of thousands of dollars, in therapy. He was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He needed help.

The therapy was a beginning. But Michael told CNA he found the most healing in the Church and faith that his abusers had driven him from. Healing did not come not easily.

Michael says he wants to see real reform in the Church, and to ensure no one suffers like he did. But, he urges caution against what he calls “predatory advocacy groups” and an “industry that trolls for victims.”

Michael spoke to CNA about his experiences with such groups.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

August 1, 2019

By Peter Smith

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh has received formal notice of more than 400 people who either have filed or may file claims for financial compensation for alleged sexual abuse by its clergy.

And early returns are in for claims that have already been filed. The diocese has so far paid about $4 million in total to 26 victims, or roughly $150,000 per person, according to the fund’s administrators.

Wednesday was the deadline for people who hadn’t previously reported abuse to the diocese to register formally with the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program, which the diocese launched in the wake of a 2018 grand jury report on sexual abuse by priests in the diocese over the past seven decades.

By midnight Wednesday, some 372 registrations had been filed, said Camille Biros, who is administering the fund along with Washington, D.C., attorney Kenneth Feinberg.

The 372 registrations, however, haven’t been reviewed yet for initial eligibility. They include some duplicate registrations, and they may also include allegations not covered by the compensation program, such as abuse by lay teachers or religious-order priests. The program only covers abuse by clergy (priests or deacons) who were ordained by the diocese.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
WCPO 9onyourside

August 2, 2019

By Craig Cheatham

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati has placed two priests on administrative leave, which church officials say is the “strongest action” a local bishop can take on his own against a priest.

Parents learned this week of Rev. Geoffrey Drew’s suspension from St. Ignatius School in Green Township, but the WCPO I-Team discovered the existence of a second priest that the Archdiocese had placed on administrative leave by searching the ‘Protecting Our Children’ page on the Archdiocese’s website.

The Archdiocese declined to answer WCPO’s questions about the allegations against Father Clarence Heis. The Archdiocese website only refers to a “pending investigation” of Heis. It also does not indicate when the Archdiocese placed Heis on administrative leave.

“Anytime they go to the extraordinary action of suspending or removing a priest – or anybody in their employment – it means there’s a serious concern,” said Dan Frondorf, the leader of the Cincinnati chapter of the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests, also known as SNAP.

This is the second time the Archdiocese has suspended Father Heis.

It also placed him on leave in 2006 after Heis pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct and resisting. A police officer arrested Heis in 2005 for allegedly having sex with two adult men in a public park in Fairborn, near Dayton. The Archdiocese reinstated Heis in 2009, according to The Catholic Telegraph, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Since his reinstatement, Heis has worked out of the main office of the Archdiocese, according to his LinkedIn account and issues of the Official Catholic Directory.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

August 2, 2019

By Michael J. Iafrate

Two months after the U.S. Catholic Church was hit by a major scandal surrounding a West Virginia bishop, church officials are telling us it’s time to move on. But for many of us Catholics in West Virginia, that message feels like a punch in the gut. Serious reasons remain for Catholics everywhere to pause and demand much more transparency surrounding the case of former bishop Michael Bransfield.

Those reasons have to do with who oversaw the production of the investigative report on Bransfield, what the report said about allegations of child sexual abuse, and the fact that the document has never been made public.

Bransfield retired in September just as U.S. church officials announced an investigation into alleged sexual and financial misconduct during his tenure. In June, we learned details of those allegations when The Washington Post reported on the contents of the secret church report: massive financial mismanagement and lavish spending of church money, officials’ ignoring of Bransfield’s sexual misconduct, and the fact that top leaders in the United States and Rome had received cash gifts from Bransfield, including William Lori, the archbishop who oversaw the probe.

Two weeks ago, the Vatican handed down penalties suspending Bransfield from public ministry and immediately named a new bishop, Mark Brennan. But for many Catholics in West Virginia, it’s not time to move on. There are a few reasons for that.

Church officials in West Virginia and Baltimore have mischaracterized a key part of their own report. Throughout the investigation, when Lori and diocesan officials would discuss the Bransfield allegations, they generally used the term “sexual harassment” of priests and seminarians. However, The Post’s coverage cites the report as describing something that appears to go beyond harassment. It quotes a seminarian who says Bransfield pulled the young man against him and ran his hands over the seminarian’s genitals.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal

July 30, 2019

By Katherine Gregg

A freedom-of-information coalition in Rhode Island is raising red flags over the “blanket” secrecy Attorney General Peter Neronha promised the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence in a “memorandum of understanding” aimed at gaining access to diocesan records dating back to 1950 of alleged child sex abuse by clergy.

“Troubling precedent,″ wrote Linda Lotridge Levin, the retired University of Rhode Island journalism professor who is president of Access/RI, a coalition that counts, among its board members, representatives of the Rhode Island affiliate of the ACLU, Common Cause Rhode Island, the League of Women Voters of Rhode Island and the New England First Amendment Coalition.

Levin acknowledged, in her Monday letter to Neronha, that his “goal in entering [into] this MOU, as opposed to convening a grand jury, is to allow you to be more transparent with the public about your findings by eschewing the broad secrecy requirements that would enshroud grand jury proceedings.”

Unable to convince Rhode Island lawmakers to give a grand jury here the power a Pennsylvania grand jury had when it exposed decades of clergy abuse and coverups, Neronha went this route: voluntary disclosure by the diocese.

The review, in conjunction with the Rhode Island State Police, is meant to identify any prosecutable cases and make sure that no credibly accused clergy members are in active ministry, according to an earlier statement from the attorney general’s office.

“We greatly appreciate that and applaud your goal,” Levin wrote. “At the same time, we fear language in the MOU may establish a precedent that is itself problematic.”

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Fox 43 News

August 1, 2019

By Jack Eble

One year ago Thursday, Bishop Ronald Gainer and the Diocese of Harrisburg revealed decades of sexual abuse allegations against priests, deacons and seminarians.

Bishop Gainer apologized to survivors, “the Catholic faithful,” and “the general public” for the abuse and the inaction by past Diocese leadership.

The list includes more than 70 names of clergymen, nearly 30 more than its counterpart in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report that was released roughly two weeks after the Diocese of Harrisburg released its list.

Mike Barley, a spokesperson for the Diocese of Harrisburg, said they believe their decision came at the right time after compiling all of the known names accused, trying to show transparency as the Grand Jury Report loomed.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The Christian Century

August 2, 2019

By Peter W. Marty

There’s probably never been a time when emotionally insecure people could thrive in ordained ministry. But the current moment may be more challenging than ever given dwindling public esteem for the profession. Not since Gallup began charting the reputation of occupations in 1977 has respect for clergy been so low.

New polls by Gallup and by the Associated Press-NORC Center reveal that only 36 percent of Americans express high regard for the honesty and ethical standards of ministers. Although frequent churchgoers still hold clergy in high regard, only 52 percent of those who attend church on a monthly basis consider clergy to be trustworthy.

Pastors may not yet feel as irrelevant as travel agents, parking lot attendants, or necktie sales clerks, but the influence of clergy has shrunk notably in the last two decades. Only 13 percent of regular churchgoers regularly seek advice from their clergy on ethical dilemmas or big decisions. Eighty-eight percent of people who infrequently attend church “rarely” or “never” seek clergy input.

Scandals that have rocked the church for decades no doubt contribute significantly to the drop in confidence in clergy. Clergy sexual abuse problems persist, especially in traditions with male-dominated leadership that resist structural change. Conservative evangelicals have unapologetically shaped faith claims around party politics, attracting many critics in the process. Unscrupulous greed on the part of prosperity gospel preachers has further harmed the reputation of faith communities.

Nobody wants to be irrelevant. Yet how much can pastors really do to reverse the increasing lack of interest in organized religion and religious practice that shapes attitudes toward clergy? Their position can seem like that of a piano salesman trying to convince people to revive the household sing-alongs that animated family life several generations ago. It’s an uphill slog.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

Augusts 2, 2019

By Rachel L. Swarns

Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, one of the oldest Roman Catholic girls’ schools in the nation, has long celebrated the vision and generosity of its founders: a determined band of Catholic nuns who championed free education for the poor in the early 1800s.

The sisters, who established an elite academy in Washington, D.C., also ran “a Saturday school, free to any young girl who wished to learn — including slaves, at a time when public schools were almost nonexistent and teaching slaves to read was illegal,” according to an official history posted for several years on the school’s website.

But when a newly hired school archivist and historian started digging in the convent’s records a few years ago, she found no evidence that the nuns had taught enslaved children to read or write. Instead, she found records that documented a darker side of the order’s history.

The Georgetown Visitation sisters owned at least 107 enslaved men, women and children, the records show. And they sold dozens of those people to pay debts and to help finance the expansion of their school and the construction of a new chapel.

“Nothing else to do than to dispose of the family of Negroes,’’ Mother Agnes Brent, the convent’s superior, wrote in 1821 as she approved the sale of a couple and their two young children. The enslaved woman was just days away from giving birth to her third child.

Nuns disposing of black families? I have been poring over 19th-century church records for several years now and such casual cruelty from leaders of the faith still takes my breath away. I am a black journalist and a black Catholic. Yet I grew up knowing nothing about the nuns who bought and sold human beings.

For generations, enslaved people have been largely left out of the origin story traditionally told about the Catholic Church. My reporting on Georgetown University, which profited from the sale of more than 200 slaves, has helped to draw attention in recent years to universities and their ties to slavery. But slavery also helped to fuel the growth of many contemporary institutions, including some churches and religious organizations.

Historians say that nearly all of the orders of Catholic sisters established by the late 1820s owned slaves.

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LAKE CHARLES (LA)
KPLC TV

August 1, 2019

By Theresa Schmidt

Three months ago, the Diocese of Lake Charles released a list of credibly accused clergy which included the names of eleven priests, eight of whom are dead.

But some complain the list is far from transparent and have asked the Louisiana attorney general to investigate.

In 2016, ex-priest Mark Broussard was convicted of sexual offenses against children and is serving two life sentences plus fifty years. When the Diocese released its list of credibly accused priests, it said allegations regarding Broussard were received by the Diocese in 1994 and 2009. Yet some say the diocese knew sooner.

Richard Windmann, himself a victim, is the Louisiana leader of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, also called SNAP.

They advocate for full disclosure statewide.

“These priests, that have been entrusted with the church, they don’t own the church. The administrators, the governance of the church, it’s the people in the pews that are the church. And when they leave there’s not going to be a church. And it won’t be because of the actions of victims and survivors. It will be because of the actions of priests and archbishops and bishops who cover it up,” said Windmann.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Associated Press

August 2, 2019

By Jim Mustian and Kevin McGill

A former Roman Catholic deacon barred from the ministry in New Orleans because of sexual abuse allegations maintained access to schoolchildren and held leadership roles as recently as last year in the Knights of Columbus, despite promising three decades ago to avoid young boys “for the good of the Church,” according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

George Brignac, 84, was defrocked as a deacon in 1988 after a 7-year-old boy accused him of fondling him at a Christmas party. That allegation came on top of previous claims that he had abused other boys, including one that led to his acquittal in 1978 on three counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile. The Archdiocese of New Orleans settled several lawsuits against Brignac, including one for more than $500,000.

Still, he remained involved in the church as a lay minister who read the gospel during Mass until last year, when news reports about his past prompted officials to remove him.

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ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Service

August 2, 2019

While deceased Jesuit Father Renato Poblete Barth was known publicly as a champion of the poor in Chile, an internal investigation funded by the Jesuits revealed that the famed clergyman abused more than a dozen women over a span of nearly 50 years.

The results of the six-month independent investigation, which were announced July 30 by Jesuit Father Cristian del Campo, provincial superior of Chile, concluded that “the abuses of power, of conscience, sexual and other crimes committed by Renato Poblete Barth were sustained by a sort of double life, protected by his public image of a good person.”

“The abuse, transversely, was carried out from a position of power that gave him that image, his enormous network of contacts, and the economic power that he had by autonomously handling important sums of money during many years,” the report said.

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INVERELL (AUSTRALIA)
Inverell Times

August 1, 2019

By Andrew Thomson
.
The Catholic church has demanded a clergy sex abuse victim, who was raped as a nine-year-old in a confessional box, provide a copy of the church’s own rules in Latin.

A south-west victim of notorious pedophile priest Gerald Ridsdale is pursuing civil damages through the Victorian Supreme Court from Bishop of Ballarat Paul Bird, on behalf of the diocese.

In May, Supreme Court Justice Michael McDonald asked the church’s legal team for an explanation in relation to the church denying knowledge of Ridsdale’s pedophile activities with a view to determining if costs should be awarded to the victim.

That led to the church sacking its legal team and calling in the lawyers who acted for now jailed Arch Bishop George Pell.

The victim’s lawyers have been asking the church hand over archive documents.

Under 1917 Canon Law which applied at the time of the offending, the church was required to keep an archive of all important documents, including sex assault allegations against clergy members, and a record of who had seen the documents and what documents had been destroyed.

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LANCSASTER (ENGLAND)
Lancaster Live

August 1, 2019

By Paul Britton and Dominic Moffitt

Two men who were sexually abused by a priest in Lancashire have received praise from The NSPCC.

The charity called their actions ‘brave’ after the two men, who were sexually abused as teenagers by a paedophile priest, gave evidence that led to his conviction – and an 18-year prison sentence.

One stood up in court twice to detail his suffering at the hands of Catholic priest Michael Higginbottom in separate trials.

The charity said their ‘courageous actions’ in reporting the abuse and recalling their experiences to a jury showed ‘the passage of time is no protection for abusers’.

Higginbottom, 76, was found guilty of five counts of serious sexual assault and seven counts of indecent assault following a re-trial.

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BRISBANE (AUSTRALIA)
The Catholic Leader

August 2, 2019

By Mark Bowling

CELIBACY for priests, the role of women, and the inclusion of divorced and remarried Catholics were among “strongly discussed” topics contained in the Plenary Council 2020’s latest report.

The final report of the council’s Listening and Dialogue phase captures the voice of more than 222,000 Australians and provides insights into 17,457 individual and group submissions.

Plenary council president Perth Archbishop Timothy Costelloe said the 314-page document was the result of the listening process that had produced “an extraordinary treasure of ideas and proposals which represents the heartfelt response of many people”.

“The great challenge ahead of us now is to ‘catch’ the voice of the Holy Spirit within the passionate, hopeful but sometimes contradictory voices of God’s people.”

Among the wide-ranging list of submissions were those calling for ways to improve the sacraments to increase Church attendance and “allow the fullness of a Catholic life to flourish”, and addressing the clerical child sex abuse scandal.

The structure of Church life “drew a great deal of attention” around leadership and governance, the need for greater listening between leadership and the laity, and the need to “modernise Church teachings to bring them in line with Australian society in t

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PORTSMOUTH (ENGLAND)
Portsmouth News

August 2, 2019

A PRIEST has been struck off for life for having a sexual relationship with a married parishioner who turned to him for help.

Former Emsworth-with-Warblington parish rector Simon Sayers admitted ‘betraying his calling’ in a letter to a private tribunal that eventually found him guilty of inappropriate conduct this week.

It comes after he was previously banned from his ministry for five years in 2016 over two sexual incidents with a 16-year-old school girl.

The tribunal, which Mr Sayers did not attend, was told he began a sexual relationship with the parishwoman when she approached him for pastoral support.

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DENVER (CO)
National Catholic Register

August 1, 2019

By Msgr. Andrew Baker and Fr. Carter Griffin

Many Catholics, understandably, have grown skeptical of seminary formation. After all, it is priests and bishops who have caused the scandal of clergy sexual abuse, and every one of them is a product of seminaries.

Sometimes it is presumed that little has changed in seminaries since the time, decades ago, when the vast majority of those abusive priests were formed. Professor Janet Smith recently published a commentary that rightly asks whether seminary reforms are authentic and lasting or simply “window dressing.”

As the rectors of two seminaries forming men for the priesthood today, we would like to offer our own perspective in order to throw some light on the present situation — because, in fact, a great deal has changed.

Admittedly, the complexities of any topic as sprawling as the formation of Catholic priests cannot be covered in a short essay like this. Our remarks apply mainly to diocesan seminaries in the United States and the North American College in Rome, for example, since we are most familiar with those. Even among those seminaries, reforms have not been uniform; some changes have probably been merely superficial, as Janet Smith surmises. Furthermore, even the most wholesome seminary environment does not guarantee that graduates will remain faithful, any more than a good family guarantees that every child will turn out well. We are therefore painting with a broad brush.

Nevertheless, despite these caveats, we emphatically believe that any impartial observer with all the facts would come to the same conclusion: Seminary admissions are far more stringent, and formation far more rigorous, than they were when the great majority of clerical sexual abusers were ordained. We believe this to be a source of hope and encouragement for us all.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
KDKA TV

July 25, 2019

By Andy Sheehan

The church scandal has left Bishop David Zubik with two monumental tasks.

He must compensate the victims of alleged clergy sexual abuse while keeping the diocese out of bankruptcy.

To do that, he’s looking to a defunct orphanage in the South Hills, and its endowment of close to $9 million to help fund his victim’s compensation fund.

“We’re working through the proper channels to make sure that we have access to those funds, and we can use them for the IRCP fund,” the bishop said.

But Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro — whose report detailed the abuse of minors at the hands of diocesan priests — is telling the diocese not so fast.

In papers filed in Allegheny County Orphan’s Court — his office said orphanage founder, James L. Toner, “would never have intended his charitable gift to be used for this purpose.”

When Toner died in 1899, he left the diocese $140,000 to build and operate the Toner Institute, which became a home and school for orphans and troubled boys from 1921-77. The Toner Institute is gone, but the Toner Trust has now grown to between $8 and $9 million.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
KDKA TV

August 1, 2019

By Andy Sheehan

More people than anticipated have registered to file sexual abuse claims with the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.

On the floor around attorney Alan Perer’s desk are the files of clients that allege abuse from the Diocese of Pittsburgh Catholic priests.

He said many have come out of the shadows to talk about what happened to them as children.

“I think the scope is far greater than what the grand jury said,” Perer said. “I have people calling me every day saying I never told anyone about this my whole life.”

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Cleveland Scene

August 1, 2019

By Sam Allard

For a man who purports to be so boldly committed to truth, American missionary and Christian pastor Tom Randall has been at the center of – in fact, may be the chief architect of – a long and wicked deception.

Randall is a gregarious man with an earnest, unsophisticated preaching style. He stands 6’5″ and ambles about with the busted-knee hitch of a former serious athlete. He has never fully conquered his Rs, but the speech impediment has endeared him to friends, colleagues, golfers on the PGA Senior Tour, where he served for several years as chaplain, and megachurch congregations nationwide. To these audiences and others he has told versions of the same story about himself: He grew up as a thief on the inner-city streets of Detroit and was shepherded to Christ by a college basketball coach.

These days, the 65-year-old Randall lives in Stow, Ohio, with his wife Karen and preaches from time to time at the nondenominational Hudson megachurch Christ Community Chapel, where he has been on the payroll since 2014, shortly after he returned to the states from a brief and highly sensationalized stint in a Manila detention center.

The Philippines. That’s where Randall lived as a missionary for years, purportedly playing professional basketball and spreading the word of God “through sports, recreation [and] competition.”

In January 2014, Randall was back in the Philippines on a semi-regular mission trip when he was arrested during an early morning raid of Sankey Samaritan Orphanage, the children’s home he founded in 1998. Randall, the facility’s Filipino manager Toto Luchavez and Toto’s son Jake were handcuffed and taken into custody.

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PORTLAND (OR)
The Oregonian

August 1, 2019

By Maxine Bernstein

The Archdiocese of Portland will pay nearly $4 million to settle claims by eight men who say they were sexually abused when they were boys in the 1970s and 1980s by a priest on the Oregon coast.

The Rev. Pius Brazauskas, who died in 1990, abused three of the men when they were between ages 5 and 12, according to a lawsuit they filed in January 2018. Brazauskas French kissed them, groped their genitals and pressed himself against them, they said.

The suit marked the first time anyone publicly named Brazauskas as an alleged child abuser, said their lawyer Peter B. Janci of Portland. After the suit was filed, five other men came forward to allege similar abuse.

Brazauskas was assigned to Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in North Bend at the time.

The initial plaintiffs in the case, identified only by initials as J.B., S.R. and S.F., will receive $675,000 each under the settlement. They are now in their 40s.

Of the five others, S.S. will receive $675,000, J.N. $475,000; B.S., $440,000, A.S. $125,000 and D.G. $100,000, according to court documents.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Episcopal News Service

August, 1, 2019

By Egan Millard

A woman is suing the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, saying one of its priests sexually assaulted her and others in New York in the 1970s, and the diocese knowingly allowed him to serve as a priest there anyway. However, two other dioceses that have licensed the priest in question say their background checks never turned up any allegations of sexual misconduct.

The Rev. Paul Kowalewski, 71, is retired but had been serving as an occasional supply priest at the Church of St. Paul in the Desert in Palm Springs, California, and his ministry has been suspended, the Rt. Rev. Susan Brown Snook, bishop of San Diego, told Episcopal News Service. Though the church is in the Diocese of San Diego, he is canonically resident in the Diocese of Los Angeles, and served as the rector of a large Los Angeles parish from 2005 to 2013.

Patricia Harner, the plaintiff, says Kowalewski sexually assaulted her in 1971, when she was a 19-year-old parishioner at St. Amelia Catholic Church in Tonawanda, New York, and he was a seminarian preparing to be ordained in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo.

In response to questions from ENS, the Diocese of Central New York – the first Episcopal diocese in which Kowalewski served as a priest – said there is no record that indicates the diocese knew of any sexual abuse allegations against him when he was received or during his tenure there. The diocese conducted a background check on Kowalewski in 1990, which turned up no indication of sexual misconduct, according to their records.

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NEW YORK (NY)
NBC 4 News

August 1, 2019

Though the Archdiocese of New York released its own list of 120 priests and deacons that it said had been credibly accused of sexual abuse or the possession of pornography, or whose behavior had led to compensation claims being paid in April, the victims’ rights attorney said it compiled a more extensive, yet “incomplete” list of the accused witht he help of individuals across the country.

Survivors and victims’ advocates joined the firm Jeff Anderson & Associates in releasing the report on sexual abuse in the Archdiocese and calling Archbishop Timothy Dolan and religious orders to fully disclose the accused who have worked in the Archdiocese.

“It’s time to release more information about the real peril that does exist and has existed in the Archdiocese of New York and the failure of this cardinal and his predecessors to reveal the full truth,” lawyer Jeff Anderson said.

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AUGUSTA (BA)
Augusta Chronicle

August 1, 2019

By Jozsef Papp

No probable cause for criminal charges was found against a priest accused of exchanging explicit pictures with a juvenile in Aiken.

According to the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office, an investigation was started Tuesday after receiving information from the Aiken Department of Public Safety about a possible pornography case involving Father Raymond Flores, 33, of Saint Mary’s Help of Christians Church.

Investigators discovered Flores was having an online conversation with a juvenile on Grindr, an online adult dating application, during which they exchanged photos of their genitalia. An investigation revealed the juvenile indicated on Grindr he was 18 years old.

Flores, the juvenile and his family and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston fully cooperated in the investigation. According to the sheriff’s office, the investigation revealed there was no evidence that would have risen beyond the initial complaint and established probable cause for criminal charges.

The findings were presented to the 2nd Circuit Solicitor’s Office and the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office. The juvenile’s family told investigators they did not want to pursue any further investigation.

Flores was placed on administrative leave without the ability to perform priestly duties for behavior inappropriate of a priest, according to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston.

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MANILA (PHILIPPINES)
ABS-CBN News

August 1, 2019

By Maria Tan

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle is asking Catholics to pray for bishops and priests who are “persecuted and falsely accused,” according to an official of the Archdiocese of Manila on Thursday.

“Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle, is asking all of us, priests, religious men and women, and lay faithful in the Archdiocese of Manila, to offer our Masses and prayer for all our bishops and priests, especially those who suffer because of persecutions and false accusations,” Fr. Reginald Malicdem, Manila Archdiocese chancellor, said in a statement.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

August 1, 2019

The Diocese of Manchester, NH has released a list of priests accused of sexual abuse. Now that church officials have taken this first step, we call on them to update the list to include critical information that has been left off, and to explain these omissions.

Releasing a list of names is important to acknowledging the depth and breadth of clergy abuse in New Hampshire. Unfortunately, as we have come to expect, the list of names and details released today is incomplete and inadequate.

For example, church officials in Manchester have omitted the names of priests that spent time in the Diocese of Manchester but were accused of abuse and listed elsewhere. To us, this omission makes no sense because clergy that abused children will likely have victims everywhere they worked.

Similarly, key details related to the allegations were left off the list. Church officials can and should include information related to when the allegations were first received, what steps the diocese took in response to those allegations and —critically — when those actions were taken and by whom. These facts are necessary to understanding not only the scope of abuse, but also the scope of any cover-up that may have occurred within the diocese.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

August 1, 2019

A survivor has stepped forward in Mississippi to report the abuse she suffered at the hands of a Mississippi priest. We would like to thank this courageous survivor for coming forward and reporting these crimes committed against her.

We would also like to encourage other survivors to come forward and report crimes committed against themselves. Report to the police first, regardless of how long ago these crimes were committed. The Church should be the last institution notified about such crimes.

The ‘credible’ list of names released by church officials in March was years overdue.

Furthermore, delaying the addition of Balser’s name to this list because of some arbitrary internal Church procedure is a travesty. This delay harms the survivor as well as many others. Stating that there was no intercourse only serves the Church in its effort to minimize this crime. Crimes of this nature are damaging to children no matter what took place. Shame on Bishop Kopacz, his fitness board, the church lawyers and any other Church official who participated in downplaying this crime.

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SEATTLE (WA)
The Seattle Times

July 31, 2019

By Katherine Khashimova Long

When Traci Moran, an observant Jewish woman living at Joint Base Lewis-McChord with her enlisted husband, came to Army Chaplain Capt. Michael Harari in August 2018, she was looking for spiritual guidance, she said.

A Tacoma rabbi, Zalman Heber, had been sending her sexually explicit text and voice messages for almost a month despite Moran asking more than once that he stop, the messages showed.

Harari was her husband’s unit chaplain — meaning he was responsible for the spiritual well-being of the unit’s families — and the only rabbi on base. And he and Heber were part of the same Hasidic organization, Chabad, that runs synagogues and cultural centers around the world.

All of that meant, Moran said, that Harari was “in an incredibly unique position to take my report and tailor counseling to my specific religious views.”

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UNITED STATES
Yahoo Sports

August 1, 2019

By Liz Roscher

Figure skater Ashley Wagner wrote a powerful first-person essay that appeared on USA Today on Thursday, bravely recounting her sexual assault. In the essay, she says that the man who assaulted her was now-deceased figure skater John Coughlin.

Wagner says that the assault happened in June of 2008, when she had just turned 17. She went to her first party while she was at a figure skating camp in Colorado Springs, a house party thrown by several local athletes. She and her friends were offered beds in the house when they couldn’t find rides back to their hotel at the end of the night, and Wagner said that she felt “safe” because she was with her friends.

In the middle of the night, Wagner wrote that she woke up when Coughlin, who was 22 at the time, came into the room and got into bed with her. She said that he started kissing her neck and touching her, and pretending to be asleep didn’t make him stop.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

August 1, 2019

Today in Manhattan, survivors, advocates and the law firm of Jeff Anderson & Associates will:

Release The Anderson Report on Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese of New York containing the identities, histories, photographs and information on 310 clerics accused of child sexual abuse in the Archdiocese of New York;

Demand full disclosure by the Archdiocese of New York, Archbishop Timothy Dolan, and the religious orders, of the identities, histories, and current whereabouts of all clergy accused of child sexual abuse who worked in the Archdiocese;

Discuss a new law, the New York Child Victims Act, which opens a one-year “window” in mid-August for survivors of child sexual abuse to take legal action against the perpetrator and the institution that may have protected the perpetrator, regardless of when the abuse occurred.

WHEN: Today – Thursday, August 1, 2019 – at 11:00 AM ET

WHERE: Courtyard Marriot – Manhattan/Central Park
Belvedere Room
1717 Broadway, New York, NY 10019

Notes: The press conference will be live-streamed via YouTube https://www.youtube.com/andersonadvocates and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AndersonAdvocates/.

Contact: Jeff Anderson: Office: (646)759-2551; Cell: (646)499-3364
Mike Reck: Office: (646)759-2551; Cell: (646)493-8058
Trusha Goffe: (646)759-2551; Cell: (646)693-6862

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SCRANTON (PA)
Citizens Voice

August 1, 2019

By David Singleton

One phase of the Diocese of Scranton’s program to compensate victims of clergy child sexual abuse is over. Now it’s on to the next.

The window for victims who had not previously reported the abuse to the diocese to register for the Independent Survivors Compensation Program closed midnight Wednesday.

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BAKERSFIELD (CA)
The Californian

Aug. 1, 2019

By John Cox

An investigation report released this week by the Bakersfield Police Department paints two seemingly irreconcilable pictures of the Rev. Craig Harrison: a hands-off father figure who preached tough love while rewarding good behavior, or a sexual predator who groomed his victims using guilt and gifts.

In the end, there was no need to decide which view was more accurate because a detective assigned to the case concluded he could not find corroborating evidence the popular priest had touched anyone inappropriately.

Adding to the ambiguity, the recently closed investigation of the priest’s actions in Bakersfield ended with a finding that certain “inappropriate acts” Harrison was accused of were actually legal. Plus, a determination was made that some acts Harrison was alleged to have committed occurred too long ago to be prosecuted.

The report’s conclusions appear to fall short of the full vindication Harrison and his supporters have claimed as they await the results of investigations police in Firebaugh and Merced are conducting into similar accusations allegedly stemming from his time as a clergyman in those cities.

Harrison and his attorneys maintain he has never acted inappropriately and that the accusations against him originate with a group of people set on destroying his reputation and collecting payments from the Catholic Church.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Reuters

August 1, 2019

By Shannon Stapleton

Thousands of child sexual abuse lawsuits are expected to flow into New York State courts in the coming weeks exposing decades-old misconduct at schools, hospitals, churches and youth clubs, according to lawyers for victims.

On Aug. 14, the Child Victims Act takes effect, giving people one year to sue over allegations of sexual abuse, regardless of when they said it occurred.

Under the law signed by Governor Andrew Cuomo in February, New York has gone from one of the toughest states to bring a case because of its strict statute of limitations to one of the easiest, potentially unleashing decades of unresolved claims.

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BALLARAT (AUSTRALIA)
The Courier

August 1, 2019

By Andrew Thomson

The Catholic Church continues to challenge a clergy sex abuse victim of notorious priest Gerald Ridsdale.

After last month arguing to delay the civil compensation trial by at least 120 days, it has now demanded the victim, who was raped as a nine-year-old in a confessional box, provide a copy of the church’s own rules in Latin.

The victim’s lawyers have been asking the church to hand over archive documents.

Under 1917 Canon Law which applied at the time of the offending, the church was required to keep an archive of all important documents, including sex assault allegations against clergy members and a record of who had seen the documents and what documents had been destroyed.

It’s not known what is included in the archive file of Ridsdale, arguably Australia’s most notorious paedophile priest with past convictions for assaults on more than 50 children.

“For the church to ask me to provide a copy of their 1917 Canon Law was bad enough, but we offered to give it to them even though you can buy it on the internet,” he said.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Catholic Herald

August 1, 2019

By Ruairidh MacLennan

Bishop John Keenan has led the Diocese of Paisley since 2014. Prior to this he served as Catholic chaplain to the University of Glasgow for 14 years, and as vocations director for the Archdiocese of Glasgow. He has emerged as a strong proponent of the New Evangelisation, and of a renewal of faith in Britain. I spoke to him in St Mirin’s Cathedral, Paisley.

Bishop Keenan, what are the main challenges facing the faith across Britain today? Could you offer a diagnosis?

Bishop John Keenan Britain is one of the most secularised countries in the Western world. It has bought into the idea that it became a modern state by winning out against religion and the Church. People see their dignity as being that which enables them to determine their own identity and morals, particularly in the realm of sexuality. This has become such a widely held view that anyone who holds an opinion to the contrary – namely, that there is an objective truth about ourselves and our lives given to us by God – is considered to be an enemy of the modern state. The Catholic Church is now the one institution in Britain which still believes that there is a God who gives us our human nature and identity, and who has made known to our reason what sort of lives we should be living in order to truly be free and fulfilled.

I am reminded of the comments which the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, made in 2018 in which he suggested that certain rights – mandated by the state – “trumped” other rights.

JK It is a new manifestation of what Orwell said: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” This is where we are now. All rights are “equal”, be they religious rights or LGBT rights … but some are more equal. Orwell used that as a parody of communism, and eventually he identified this as the fatal flaw which would bring about its downfall. It was predicated on a contradiction, as is postmodern society. He said that of the Eastern Bloc, but it now equally applies to the politics of the West. You cannot have equality for all and say that some are more equal. Ultimately it ceases to be about truth, but about power. It is built on sand, not nature, or reason. It is built on the will to power.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Catholic Herald

August 1, 2019

By Jordan Bloom

Trust is easily broken and repaired only with difficulty in a place like West Virginia, whose south-west corner is most closely associated with the notoriously grudge-prone Hatfield clan. (The Hatfield–McCoy feud, a bloody land dispute between two rural families, raged from 1863 to 1891.) The incoming Bishop Mark Brennan (pictured) of West Virginia – or of the diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, which is coterminous with the state – will have his work cut out repairing the damage done by his predecessor.

Bishop Michael Bransfield, it is alleged, used his position as shepherd of one of the most economically distressed parts of the country to live not like a successor to the Apostles but as an orange liqueur-swilling sybarite – doling out patronage money to his episcopal allies when he wasn’t making sexual advances towards seminarians. Bransfield, who protests his innocence, was once head of the board of trustees of the Papal Foundation, Theodore McCarrick’s slush fund.

One detail that has emerged during the scandal is the diocese’s possession of land in Texas from a bequest decades ago, which has become a significant source of revenue from oil leases. The $15 million figure cited as its annual revenue could do a lot of good in a place like West Virginia.

The revelations of Bransfield’s extraordinary spending habit – $4.6 million to renovate his house, more than $2 million on travel – are all the more incredible for having happened in a place where a dollar goes much further than in New York or Washington.

Bransfield was reportedly fond of pointing at diocesan property and saying, “I own this.” Well, not any more.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Guardian blog

July 31, 2019

By Sian Cain

Joshua Harris was just 22 in 1997 when he published I Kissed Dating Goodbye, a dating guidebook for young Christians that advised them to do anything but. Dating was a “training ground for divorce”, he argued in the book, which sold almost 1m copies worldwide. It also made Harris a superstar in the Christian purity movement, a pro-abstinence crusade that began in evangelical churches in the 1990s and became well-known in the purity ring-wearing hands of Jessica Simpson and the Jonas Brothers. Many authors came after Harris – John and Stasi Eldredge, Hayley DiMarco, Tim and Beverly LaHaye – all of them in the US, where religious publishing is worth $1.22bn (£1bn) a year.

Now 44, Harris made headlines this week when he revealed he no longer considers himself a Christian. He has been issuing apologies for his own books over the last decade, even making a documentary called I Survived Kissing Dating Goodbye. On his Instagram this week, he wrote: “I have lived in repentance for the past several years – repenting of my self-righteousness, my fear-based approach to life, the teaching of my books, my views of women in the church, and my approach to parenting to name a few.”

Dianna E Anderson, who left the purity movement in her 20s and is the author of Damaged Goods: New Perspectives on Christian Purity, says its relationship guides have inflicted lasting damage on young people desperate to preserve their holiness while battling hormones.

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Patheos blog

July 31, 2019

By Fred Clark

I included this story in the “postcards” link round-up, but I’m still so gobsmacked by it that I’ve got to visit it again. It’s from this RNS report by Bob Smietana, “Video links Beth Moore, Russell Moore, James Merritt to ‘Trojan horse of social justice.’“

Owen Strachan, associate professor of theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and former president of The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, also appears in the video, arguing that “liberal Christianity” is invading the evangelical church and a spiritual battle is underway.

“We are always having the principalities and powers exert pressure on us,” said Strachan.

An image that appears to be of Rachael Denhollander, an abuse activist who spoke at the SBC’s annual meeting, is intercut with [those] comments.

That angered Jacob Denhollander, Rachael’s husband.

He told Ascol and Founders Ministries on Twitter that their use of “my wife’s image in your video and the insinuation that she is part of the principalities and powers attacking the church is cowardly, grossly dishonest, and bearing false witness.”

These guys looked around the whole world for an iconic symbol of nefarious “powers and principalities” they regard as invading the church and attacking their faith in a spiritual battle, and the person whom they chose to represent all of that was Rachael Denhollander.

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Get Religion blog

July 31, 2019

By Clemente Lisi

The Vatican press office may be second only to the White House communications department when it comes to ranking the world’s busiest public relations operation.

Like President Donald Trump, Pope Francis and the Holy See are in some serious need of daily damage control. The resurfacing of the clergy sex abuse scandal — year after year for decades — and the allegations that led to the downfall of former cardinal Theodore McCarrick have been the Vatican’s biggest PR headaches over the past year.

Responsible for handling the Holy See’s messaging on the clergy scandal and a host of other issues will be a retooled press office. Much of the turmoil that has surrounded the pope and the Catholic church over the past year called for an overhaul of the Holy See’s press operation.

The past two weeks has seen a flurry of announcements, including the naming of a new press office director and vice director (more on this position further down), two of the biggest jobs at the Vatican held by lay people.

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Get Religion blog

July 31, 2019

By Terry Mattingly

If there was an omnipresent reader who had somehow managed to follow my 30-plus years of work linked to the Catholic clergy sex crisis, I think that she or he would have spotted at least one overarching theme.

The big idea: This is a scandal that cannot be divided according to liberal and conservative prejudices. Anyone who tried to do that would have to avoid too many case studies, too many tragedies, too many people — on the left and right — hiding too many crimes. I have argued that wise, patient reporters will listen to liberal and conservative activists and then search for issues and ideas that they share in common.

Hold that thought, because I will end with that.

Every now and then, we see an important story produced by journalists (often in the mainstream press) who seem to think the scandal is all about the sins of conservatives or (often in some independent Catholic publication) all about the sins of liberals.

The Associated Press just produced a story of this kind, a report that raises important issues and was built on tons of journalism legwork to get solid sources. It’s a valid and important story. But it appears that these journalists only saw half of a larger tragedy. The headline: “Unmarked buildings, quiet legal help for accused priests.”

Yes, secrets were uncovered. But stop and think about that headline. Is the assumption that all Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse are, in fact, guilty? Is it possible to imagine that some Catholics might support efforts to research and clear the names of priests who they believe have been falsely accused and have valid reasons to do so? And are all these efforts on the right? Just asking.

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CRANSTON (RI)
Cranston Herald

July 31, 2019

Earlier this month, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence released a list of priests and clergy members found to have been “credibly accused” of sexually abusing children since 1950.

It represented an important step forward for survivors of abuse, as well as for the broader community. As Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin said, acknowledging these cases through the recent disclosure represented a “difficult but necessary moment in the life of our diocesan church.”

In terms of both transparency and accountability, however, much more work remains to be done. Now, it is poised to proceed.

Attorney General Peter F. Neronha last week announced a memorandum of understanding has been reached with the Diocese granting his office and Rhode Island State Police with access to “all complaints and allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy dating back to 1950 – whether deemed credible by the Diocese or not.”

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AIKEN (SC)
WYFF TV

July 31, 2019

A Catholic priest in South Carolina has been accused of exchanging sexual photos with a minor on a social media app that church officials and authorities say is intended for adults.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston sent a statement to news outlets Tuesday saying 33-year-old Father Raymond Flores of the St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church has since been placed on leave and can’t perform his priestly duties. The diocese says the priest’s behavior did not involve physically touching a minor.

An Aiken County Sheriff’s Office report says Flores exchanged the explicit photos with the underage boy on an adult social media app. Authorities and officials didn’t immediately name the app.

No charges have been filed at this time. Sheriff’s Capt. Eric Abdullah says an investigation is ongoing.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Patriot Ledger

July 31, 2019

By Ivey DeJesus

The investigations into clergy sex abuse in this country have generally gone back several decades.

Last year’s grand jury report into widespread clergy sex abuse in Pennsylvania, for instance, went back as far as the late 1940s.

On Wednesday the revelations of an 85-year-old victim out of the Diocese of Scranton points to the sobering possibility that the crisis dates far back into other centuries.

The woman, who is being referred to as “Jane Doe,” was six years old in 1940 when the late Rev. Martin J. Fleming began to sexually molest her, according to her attorney, Mitchell Garabedian.

Fleming, who at the time was assigned to Holy Name Parish in Swoyerville, was ordained in 1898. Jane Doe was a parishioner at Holy Name Parish.

Jane Doe is not filing a lawsuit, but wanted to make public the priest’s name, said Garabedian, who has represented hundreds of victims in the Archdiocese of Boston.

“She wanted her perpetrator’s name out there,” he said. “He was ordained in 1898. There is no telling how many children he molested. It’s indicative of how far back the clergy sex abuse crisis goes back.”

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ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Service

July 31, 2019

By Carol Glatz

Vatican City State will have its own reporting system in place before the end of the year for flagging suspected cases of the abuse of minors and vulnerable people and instances of cover-up or negligence in handling such cases, the Vatican said.

In the meantime, U.S. Msgr. Robert Oliver was appointed to be the contact person for people with information or concerns about potential cases of abuse and cover-up within the Vicariate of Vatican City State, the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, reported July 30.

Oliver, a canon lawyer who worked as the promoter of justice at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and in a number of dioceses in the United States, is the secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

He was appointed in June, the newspaper said, to be the contact person for anyone who “may have information or suspicions that a minor or a vulnerable person may be at risk of abuse or may have been subjected to it as part of pastoral activities of the vicariate as well as knowledge of any act of negligence by authorities,” it said.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

July 31, 2019

By Claire Giangravè

A large mural depicting Australian Cardinal George Pell shadowed by a demonic figure while handcuffed and wearing a prison tracksuit appeared on Tuesday about 50 yards away from the Vatican.

The mural is the work of Australian artist Scott Marsh, well known in his country for his oversized and over-the-top murals of public figures. Marsh posted a video on Instagram showing the Pell mural with the hashtag #locationlocationlocation.

The goal of the mural, Marsh said in an interview with the Australian news outlet SBS News, “is to highlight the hypocrisy of the Church and combat its attempts to sweep under the rug its past abuses.”

The artist named his work “Prey Round Two” on Instagram.

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ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Service

July 31, 2019

By Junno Arocho Esteves

While deceased Jesuit Fr. Renato Poblete Barth was known publicly as a champion of the poor in Chile, an internal investigation funded by the Jesuits revealed that the famed clergyman abused more than a dozen women over a span of nearly 50 years.

The results of the six-month independent investigation, which were announced July 30 by Jesuit Fr. Cristian del Campo, provincial superior of Chile, concluded that “the abuses of power, of conscience, sexual and other crimes committed by Renato Poblete Barth were sustained by a sort of double life, protected by his public image of a good person.”

“The abuse, transversely, was carried out from a position of power that gave him that image, his enormous network of contacts, and the economic power that he had by autonomously handling important sums of money during many years,” the report said.

Born in 1924 in Antofagasta, on the northern Chilean coast, Poblete lived in Bolivia for most of his childhood until age 16. His family moved to Santiago in 1940, and toward the end of high school he met St. Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga, founder of Hogar de Cristo – one of the country’s largest charities – and the Jesuit who inspired him to join the Society of Jesus.

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DETROIT (MI)
CBS DETROIT/AP

July 31, 2019

A woman who says she was sexually assaulted by a priest in 1977 burned his book outside the archdiocese headquarters in downtown Detroit.

Jeanne Hunton says she’s starting a local chapter of SNAP, which stands for Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Hunton says she was 14 years old when she was assaulted by a priest during a summer job at Assumption Grotto church in Detroit.

The 57-year-old Hunton said Tuesday it’s too late to pursue criminal charges. But she wants to get the word out in case there are other victims.

Hunton says the priest is in his 90s. She told state police that she confronted him in 2010 and he claimed to have no recollection. The Associated Press isn’t identifying the priest because he hasn’t been charged.

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MANCHESTER (NH)
Union Leader

July 31, 2019

By Mark Hayward

Catholic Church leaders in New Hampshire announced Wednesday that they have added to their website the names of dozens of priests accused of child sexual abuse going back to 1950.

The “Restoring Trust” website provides the year each priest was ordained, his parish assignments and his status, which ranges from convicted of crimes to “assigned to a life of prayer and penance.” Seventy-three names in total are listed.

The link to the list, however, is hard to find. It is at the bottom of the “Restoring Hope” page of the Church website.

“This is meant as an act of ownership and accountability. It is my hope that by making this information available, we are holding ourselves accountable to the evils of the past, and offering timely assistance, support and resources to those individuals and families who have been affected by the sexual abuse of a minor,” said Bishop Peter Libasci in a statement released Wednesday morning.

He also said “On behalf of my predecessors and the Church in New Hampshire, I am sorry. I seek your forgiveness for the grave sins of abuse and betrayal of trust that representatives of the Church committed.”

That contrasts with the words of his predecessor — retired Bishop John McCormack — who famously said “mistakes were made” when it came to the priest-sex abuse crisis, which unfolded in New Hampshire in the early 2000s under his watch.

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WINNIPEG (CANADA)
The Canadian Press

July 31, 2019

A former Winnipeg priest who was convicted of sexual abuse and was facing more charges has died.

Saul Simmonds, a lawyer for Ronald Leger, says the 82-year-old had been in palliative care and died Tuesday.

Leger was accused of abusing four boys who were between 10 and 12-years old when the alleged crimes began in 1981.

Simmonds says the case was to go to trial in September.

He expects a stay will now be entered in the case.

Simmonds says his client had maintained his innocence on the charges from the outset.

“Based upon our investigation, many witnesses had come forward who would support his recollections of the event and he was vigorously intending to defend himself,” said Simmonds.

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KINGSTON (JAMAICA)
RJR News

July 31, 2019

Some church leaders are disputing claims that they have not been vocal enough in speaking out against members of the clergy who have been proven to be involved in sexual abuse.

The Jamaica Council of Churches and the Jamaica Evangelical Alliance are asserting that the church has been vocal, but the public may not have been paying enough attention to their efforts.

This issue took on greater prominence this week following the entering of a guilty plea by Kenneth Blake, pastor of Harvest Temple Apostolic Church in Kingston.

Blake was charged in 2017 with rape, forcible abduction, grievous sexual assault, having sex with a person under 16 years old, and sexual touching.

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PHOENIX (AZ)
The Catholic Sun

July 30, 2019

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted

We come now to the sixth and final column of this series addressing the recent scandals that have so hurt the Church. The title of this series comes from the words of the Second Vatican Council which eloquently explained that “the Church, however, clasping sinners to her bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly the path of penance and renewal” (“Lumen Gentium” 8). These prophetic words issued in a time of relative calm and stability more than 50 years ago speak truth that can stabilize and encourage us today.

Having looked squarely at the scandals and underlying causes, then at current questions regarding the priesthood, signs of renewal as well as the work being done to ensure the safety of youth and vulnerable adults, I would now like to look toward the renewal of the priesthood in light of one underlying virtue that will be important for its healing: the virtue of reverence.

While the word “reverence” may recall ideas about attire or behavior at church, it includes much more. In a broad sense, reverence is the virtue by which we acknowledge mystery in creation, ourselves, our neighbors and, most especially, in God. Reverence is a fundamental disposition of anyone who is seeking life’s deepest meaning. It is the humble recognition that there is more to life than we can see and feel and control.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Christian Broadcasting Network

July 31, 2019

By Emily Jones

Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago is calling on their founding pastor Bill Hybels to “repent” after repeated allegations of sexual misconduct forced him to resign from decades of ministry.

“God has blessed Willow Creek Community Church to have a profound impact for His kingdom. Bill Hybels served and contributed to Willow for more than 40 years. Simultaneously, unchecked sin and intimidating behavior resulted in harm that is still felt in this present day. Christ died to free us from the power of sin. It is in that spirit that we appeal to Bill to reflect on his years in ministry, repent where necessary, and seek to live out the ministry of reconciliation,” Willow Creek’s new elder board said in a recent statement. https://www.willowcreek.org/en/blogs/south-barrington/elder-update-july-…

An Independent Advisory Group investigated the claims of “sexually inappropriate words and actions” brought against Hybels and found them to be credible in a 17-page report released in March.

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Tricycle blog

July 31, 2019

By Patricia Ullman

The other day I was talking with a friend about the sexual abuse in my former spiritual community, and she said that she didn’t think so-and-so was doing any favors for those trying to make their voices heard because so-and-so was going on and on and, in effect, ranting. My friend said she thought people would be able to hear so-and-so better if she toned it down and spoke more selectively and in a less inflammatory way, instead of getting people’s backs up and making them feel attacked.

I said that I thought everyone has to express these horrifying things in their own ways, which may not necessarily be completely diplomatic or “nice.” I said that so-and-so had gone through periods of being suicidal, of many years of therapy, of dropping out of her Ph.D. program because she couldn’t focus, and, like most of us, losing many of her friends who feared that associating with her would be a blot on their need to appear loyal to the offending organization. I reminded my friend about how crazy-making all of this can be, when someone is finally trying to understand their own abuse.

Later on, as I thought back on this conversation, I began to wonder why so-and-so was perceived to be yelling and screaming (figuratively, through her writing), and why so many of us, no matter how we present our stories, are accused of being angry whiners, disrupters, unhappy people, aggressive “feminazis,” revenge seekers, complainers, man-haters, and on and on. And, aside from all that, I wanted to try to express why we do yell and scream and why, yes, we absolutely have the right to do so.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KWMU Radio

July 31, 2019

By Lexi Cortes

Catholic church leaders in the Belleville Diocese promoted a priest they knew as a danger to children until he was in charge of their largest parish and its grade school, where he is accused of sexually abusing students, according to a civil suit filed earlier this month.

Joseph Schwaegel, who was first accused of child sexual abuse in a 1999 lawsuit, has been named in a new complaint filed against the diocese July 19 in St. Clair County Circuit Court.

Schwaegel died in 2016. During his career, diocese officials had given him the elevated title of monsignor and eventually made him rector of Belleville’s St. Peter’s Cathedral and superintendent of Cathedral Grade School.

He was added to the diocese’s list of accused priests who were removed from their churches in 1994.

The latest plaintiff to come forward with allegations against Schwaegel filed under the pseudonym John Doe.

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AUGUSTA (GA)
Augusta Chronicle

July 30, 2019

By Jozsef Papp

An Aiken priest has been placed on administrative leave after being accused of sharing explicit images with a juvenile.

Father Raymond Flores, 33, of St. Mary Help of Christians Catholic Church, was placed on leave without the ability to perform priestly duties. According to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston, the suspension is a result of behavior inappropriate of a priest but did not involve the touching of a minor.

According to an Aiken County Sheriff’s Office incident report, Flores had an online conversation with a male juvenile via an adult social media application during which photographs of genitalia were exchanged. The complainant reportedly told police the victim’s family does not wish further investigation.

The diocese said in a statement Tuesday that it followed all legal and appropriate protocols, including prompt notification of law enforcement. No charges have been filed.

Lt. Jake Mahoney with the Aiken Department of Public Safety said his department took the report originally since the church is within city limits, but the case was sent to the Aiken County Sheriff’s Office after it was determined the incident occurred outside city jurisdiction. According to the Aiken Public Safety incident report, officers received a call from the complainant July 21.

Capt. Eric Abdullah with the sheriff’s office said they received a report from the Aiken Department of Public Safety on Monday and have opened an investigation.

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DRYDEN (MI)
Patheos blog

July 31, 2019

By Mark Shea

DRYDEN, Mich. (AP) — The visiting priests arrived discreetly, day and night.

Stripped of their collars and cassocks, they went unnoticed in this tiny Midwestern town as they were escorted into a dingy warehouse across from an elementary school playground. Neighbors had no idea some of the dressed-down clergymen dining at local restaurants might have been accused sexual predators.

They had been brought to town by a small, nonprofit group called Opus Bono Sacerdotii. For nearly two decades, the group has operated out of a series of unmarked buildings in rural Michigan, providing money, shelter, transport, legal help and other support to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse across the country.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

July 31, 2019

A report from a U.S. Senate subcommittee has called out several organizations for a “cover-up” related to the serial abuse of hundreds of girls and young women by a now-disgraced and jailed former U.S. Olympic team doctor. Our hearts ache for these survivors and we hope that this report will lead to a fundamental shift in the way we view institutional accountability in cases of sexual violence.

According to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Trade, and Consumer Protection and ranking member of the Senate subcommittee overseeing the Olympics, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Michigan State University, USA Gymnastics, and the US Olympic Committee not only failed to protect athletes from Dr. Larry Nassar but also engaged in a “cover-up,” which resulted in more women and girls suffering abuse.

As survivors and advocates with experience in the clergy sexual abuse crisis, the news of continuing and ongoing cover-ups is both unsurprising and incredibly disappointing. Instead of learning from the moral and criminal failings of Catholic Church officials when it comes to cases of institutional sexual violence, it appears instead as if officials at MSU USA Gymnastics, and the USOC copied their playbook instead. We hope that accountability continues at these organizations, and that criminal proceedings continue to investigate the officials who failed in their duty to protect these girls and young women.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Times Picayune

July 25, 2019

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

The lawyers for a man who alleges he was sexually abused by former Catholic deacon George Brignac decades ago have sent a subpoena to the New Orleans Saints for copies of any communications between club officials and the local archdiocese.

According to attorneys Richard Trahant and John Denenea, the move came after the discovery process turned up documents and emails which, they contend, showed at least one member of the Saints’ administration — longtime public relations chief Greg Bensel — was advising the archdiocese on how to publicly address local claims pertaining to the Catholic Church’s ongoing clergy abuse crisis.

The lawsuit, filed in late October, alleges that the unidentified plaintiff is due damages because Brignac molested him when he was an altar boy at a local church in the late 1970s and because the Archdiocese of New Orleans failed to protect him. Brignac has denied wrongdoing, and the archdiocese has been litigating the claims.

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WASHINGTON (MO)
Washington Missourian

July 29, 2019

There is at least one priest who served locally named Friday by the St. Louis Archbishop who has a substantiated claim of sexual abuse of minor.

Dennis B. Zacheis, known here locally as Father Dennis, served as pastor at St. Gertrude Parish, Krakow, from 1994 to 2003, and St. Anthony Parish in Sullivan from 2005-09.

The Rev. Robert J. Carlson, archbishop of St. Louis, made public the names of 44 priests who had a claim filed against them while alive. The also were 11 priests with allegations made against them after their death.

There were five additional clergy members named with claims that “occurred in the Archdiocese of St. Louis or elsewhere,” and another three priests with claims against them of possession of child pornography.

Zacheis has been retired from ministry without priestly faculties since 2010, due to alleged irregularities in finances for which he was responsible for as pastor of St. Anthony’s in Sullivan.

Father Zacheis served as associate pastor at St. Mary Magdalen Parish in south St. Louis from 1979-85; Christ, Prince of Peace in Manchester from 1985-88; and St. Matthias in Lemay from 1988-92.

In addition, he was pastor at St. Alban Roe in Wildwood from 2003-04.

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DETROIT (MI)
WXYZ TV

Jul 30, 2019

By Kim Russell

A local woman says a Catholic priest abused her as a child. Tuesday, she burned a book just outside the Archdioceses of Detroit Headquarters, then told her story publicly for the first time.

Jeanne Hunton stood with supporters outside the Detroit Archdiocese headquarters. She burned a book published by a priest recently. She then told her story of that priest.

“I was a 14-year-old,” she said. “I had taken a summer job.”

Hunton says it happened in the summer of 1977 while she worked as a housekeeper at a metro Detroit rectory. She says the priest – who has not been charged with any crime – sexually abused her. She didn’t tell anyone for decades.

“I held it in all those years because I was ashamed,” Hunton said. “I was embarrassed.”

She says she reported it to Detroit police in 2010, but learned the statute of limitations had passed. She filed another report this year with Michigan State Police when State Attorney General Dana Nessel called on people to come forward. She is hoping her story gives credibility to anyone else who is a victim who comes forward and complains about the same priest.

“I am sad for all the people out there who are still afraid to come forward,” Hunton said. “They need to get that burden off their shoulders. It is not their shame to carry.”

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SCRANTON (PA)
Citizens Voice

July 30, 2019

By Jeff Horvath

Victims of child sexual abuse within the Diocese of Scranton have until midnight Wednesday to register for a program compensating survivors of such abuse.

Through the Independent Survivors Compensation Program, the diocese already paid approximately $7 million to 44 survivors of clergy sex abuse, all of whom submitted claims for compensation under a special fund created last year.

The program officially launched in January, about five months after the release of a statewide grand jury report detailing decades of sexual abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in six Pennsylvania dioceses, including Scranton.

The Scranton diocese has publicly identified 81 individuals, mostly former diocesan priests but also members of religious communities and lay people, who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing minors. The compensation program is open to any victim, including those who never previously reported the abuse, regardless of when it occurred or whether it was committed by clergy or a lay person in the diocese or a religious order.

To be eligible for the program, survivors who have not previously reported abuse to the diocese must register before midnight at www.scrantondioceseISCP.com.

They also must report the allegation in writing to the district attorney’s office.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Religion News Service

July 29, 2019

By Emily McFarlan Miller

A young woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a youth minister at a church camp is suing the Village Church for more than $1 million for gross negligence and the emotional distress the alleged abuse has caused her.

According to the lawsuit obtained by Religion News Service, the Village Church’s former associate children’s minister, Matthew Tonne, allegedly sexually violated the woman, identified only as Jane Doe One, when she was an 11-year-old girl at a 2012 program run by the Dallas-area megachurch at the Mount Lebanon Kids Camp in Texas.

RELATED: Former staff member at Dallas-area megachurch indicted for indecency with a child

Tonne had left a meeting of adult leaders, both male and female, in a meeting area in the same cabin where the girl slept — a violation of the church’s policies and procedures, according to the suit.

That’s when the suit alleges Tonne assaulted the girl as she lay in her bed. It claims he still was wearing the yellow T-shirt indicating he was a camp counselor when the alleged abuse occurred.

“It is without question that Tonne was able to access and abuse Jane Doe One because her cabin was the designated meeting location for some of the staff debrief meetings,” the lawsuit says.

Tonne was indicted in January by a Dallas County grand jury on a charge of indecency with a child involving sexual contact. He has denied the allegations against him.

The Village Church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant Christian denomination in the United States. Dealing with sexual abuse was a main focus of the denomination’s recent annual meeting.

Its popular lead pastor, Matt Chandler, addressed the allegations at a luncheon during that meeting.

“We just did the best we knew how to care for them. These issues are far more complex than one would imagine,” Chandler said.

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WILMINGTON (DE)
Salisbury Daily Times

July 25, 2019

By Rose Velazquez

A pastor accused in March of sexual misconduct with a teenager in Delaware nearly 40 years ago has been removed from ministry.

A Thursday statement from the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington shows Rev. William J. Porter, 71, has been pastor at Holy Name of Jesus in Pocomoke City, Maryland, since 2003.

The diocese said he was accused March 1 of sexual misconduct 38 years ago at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in New Castle.

Porter’s accuser was a teenager at the time the allegations occurred, according to the statement. After the diocese notified Delaware State Police and the Delaware Attorney General’s Office, police launched an investigation.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
The Associated Press

July 26, 2019

By Jim Salter

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. Louis on Friday released the names of 61 clergy facing what it determined to be “substantiated” allegations of sexual abuse of children.

The archdiocese published the names online and said it planned to also put the list in a special edition of its newspaper and distribute it to 150,000 Catholic households. The archdiocese said none of the priests are currently in ministry. The list separately named three additional priests accused of possessing child pornography.

In a letter posted on the archdiocese’s website, Archbishop Robert Carlson wrote that he has witnessed the “devastating impact” sexual abuse has had on the lives of victims and their families.

“It will be painful for all of us to see the names of clergy accused of behavior we can barely allow ourselves to imagine,” Carlson wrote. “But publishing their names is the right thing to do.”

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WASHINGTON (DC)
ChurchMilitant.com

July 25, 2019

By Christine Niles, M.St. (Oxon.), J.D.

Catholics have launched a petition demanding the investigation of Msgr. Walter Rossi, rector of the National Shrine of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.

“Whereas Monsignor Walter Rossi has been credibly accused of sexual harassment by a former Catholic University of America (CUA) student, we strongly urge President John H. Garvey to open an investigation to determine the veracity of these allegations,” states the petition, authored by Winnie Obike and launched by the group Catholic Laity for Orthodox Bishops and Reform. “In the meantime, we call on Monsignor Rossi to step down from the CUA Board of Trustees while the result of the investigation is pending.”

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the papal nuncio-turned-whistleblower, confirmed in June that he received complaints of homosexual predation and harassment by Rossi when Viganò was nuncio.

“Monsignor Rossi is, without a doubt, a member of the ‘gay mafia,'” Viganò said in remarks to Italian journalist Marco Tosatti on June 15.

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BUFFALO (NY)
6ABC

July 26, 2019

By David Wright

Bishop Richard Malone says his congregation’s darkest days are in the past.

The embattled spiritual leader has faced calls for his resignation over his handling of sexual abuse allegations against clergy members in the Diocese of Buffalo, where a public reckoning that started as a local scandal became a national headline.

A whistleblower, Malone’s own former secretary Siobhan O’Connor, leaked internal church documents to Charlie Specht, an investigative reporter for ABC’s Buffalo affiliate WKBW, sparking months of stories about whether there had been efforts to conceal the extent of the problem from the public.

Malone admits that he has made some mistakes, but stresses that he “inherited a decades old horrific problem,” one that extends far beyond the limits of his city, and is now “trying to be part of moving us beyond it” by, among other things, purging pedophiles from their midst.

The Diocese of Buffalo’s list of credibly accused priests has grown from 42 to 132 in a little more than a year, and Malone expects that more names will be added before their work is done.

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BUFFALO (NY)
ABC News

July 26, 2019

By David Wright, Pete Madden, Cho Park, and Shannon K. Crawford

Bishop Richard Malone says his congregation’s darkest days are in the past.

The embattled spiritual leader has faced calls for his resignation over his handling of sexual abuse allegations against clergy members in the Diocese of Buffalo, where a public reckoning that started as a local scandal became a national headline.

A whistleblower, Malone’s own former secretary Siobhan O’Connor, leaked internal church documents to Charlie Specht, an investigative reporter for ABC’s Buffalo affiliate WKBW, sparking months of stories about whether there had been efforts to conceal the extent of the problem from the public.

Malone admits that he has made some mistakes, but stresses that he “inherited a decades old horrific problem,” one that extends far beyond the limits of his city, and is now “trying to be part of moving us beyond it” by, among other things, purging pedophiles from their midst.

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ARLINGTON (VA)
The Arlington Catholic Herald

July 24, 2019

Since March 14, 2018, the Diocese of Arlington has provided announcements and updates regarding allegations of child sexual abuse and other inappropriate conduct against Father Michael Duesterhaus. Father Duesterhaus was placed on administrative leave pending investigations conducted by local law enforcement agencies and the Diocese of Arlington.

On January 17, 2019, the Diocese of Arlington was informed that the Stafford County Commonwealth Attorney was not pursuing criminal charges against Father Duesterhaus. This followed previous decisions in other jurisdictions that no criminal charges would be pursued.

The Diocese subsequently completed its own internal investigation of all allegations involving Father Duesterhaus. The information gathered during that investigation was presented to the Diocesan Review Board, and the Review Board reported to Bishop Michael Burbidge its determination that, based on the available evidence, a credible allegation of sexual abuse of a minor had not been made against Father Duesterhaus. Bishop Burbidge accepted the Diocesan Review Board’s determination.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The Insider

July 27, 2019

By Kelly McLaughlin

Kimberly Pollard first met Bishop James L’Keith Jones, a pastor in the Church of God in Christ, in Clovis, New Mexico, 1994. Pollard was helping her godmother make phone calls for a June youth convention organized by the church, also known as COGIC, which describes itself as “the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States,” with 6.5 million members across 63 countries.

Jones, then a 29-year-old youth group leader, was in charge of COGIC youth groups across New Mexico. During their first phone conversation, Pollard said, Jones didn’t believe how young she was — 15 — and noted her maturity and confidence.

“He was just kind of like, ‘Well, I’m gonna date you when you turn 18,'” she recently recalled. “Of course, it didn’t happen like that.” Instead, as Pollard claimed in a lawsuit she filed in 2016, the bishop pursued an on-again-off-again sexual relationship over the next decade, during which he groomed and sexually abused her.

Pollard said she waited more than 22 years to file the lawsuit because she didn’t always recognize Jones’ behavior as abusive or exploitative. Her recognition came three years ago, after she and Jones reconnected, when she witnessed him calling her six-year-old daughter ‘sexy’ in a video he sent to the child. The comment reminded her of the way he had treated her as a teen.

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DRYDEN (MI)
The Associated Press

July 29, 2019

By Martha Mendoza, Juliet Linderman and Garance Burke

The visiting priests arrived discreetly, day and night.

Stripped of their collars and cassocks, they went unnoticed in this tiny Midwestern town as they were escorted into a dingy warehouse across from an elementary school playground. Neighbors had no idea some of the dressed-down clergymen dining at local restaurants might have been accused sexual predators.

They had been brought to town by a small, nonprofit group called Opus Bono Sacerdotii. For nearly two decades, the group has operated out of a series of unmarked buildings in rural Michigan, providing money, shelter, transport, legal help and other support to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse across the country.

Again and again, Opus Bono has served as a rapid-response team for the accused.

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ROCHESTER (NY)
Ithaca.com

July 24, 2019

By Matt Butler

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester will face a potentially massive flood of lawsuits next month when New York’s child sexual abuse reporting reforms go into effect, as the local fallout continues from decades of abuse and cover-ups by priests and others in the Catholic community nationwide.

According to Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian, dozens of victims claiming abuse by clergy members in the Diocese of Rochester have come to him over the last several months to inquire about filing lawsuits. In mid-August, when a state-created window for childhood sexual abuse opens for one year, Garabedian said he will bring lawsuits on behalf of 75 victims against the diocese, with more likely in the following months once more people become aware of the new statute. Garabedian said he expects a second wave of lawsuits to come, and maybe more after that. He has been handling sexual abuse cases for decades, rising to prominence when the Catholic priest abuse scandal was revealed in Boston, in which he was deeply involved in representing victims and their families against the Catholic Church. (Garabedian was portrayed by Stanley Tucci in the 2015 movie “Spotlight” about the uncovering of the scandal.)

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DENVER (CO)
Denver Post

July 28, 2019

By Elise Schmelzer

When she was 15 years old, Candy Orona Villalba’s pastor asked her to come live with her in a Broomfield apartment.

For the next three years, the pastor, Erika Gonzalez, sexually abused the teen, convinced her to drop out of school and said that Villalba would be punished by God if she left, Broomfield police and prosecutors allege in court documents.

“I don’t think there’s ever going to be a time that I heal from it,” Villalba, now 19, said in an interview Thursday with The Denver Post.

Provided by Broomfield Police DepartmentPastor Erika Gonzalez
More than a year after she left the pastor’s apartment — and three months before a scheduled jury trial in the case — Villalba said she is telling her story publicly because she doesn’t want others to be victimized by the 36-year-old Gonzalez, who appears to have continued preaching at her church, Ministerios Rey de Reyes.

The independent Christian church with a congregation of a few dozen people is unaffiliated to any larger denomination and operates out of rented space in Broomfield, Villalba said.

Gonzalez now faces three sexual-assault counts — including sexual assault of a child by a person in a position of trust — as well as a misdemeanor charge of obstructing the use of a telephone in connection to her relationship with Villalba.

Gonzalez’s attorney declined to comment on the allegations when contacted by a reporter. In a police interview last year, Gonzalez admitted to having what she called a consensual relationship with the teen. Her trial is scheduled for October.

The case comes as inquiries into abuse by religious leaders expands outside of those in the Catholic Church, which long has been a target of scrutiny. The Southern Baptists are grappling with the issue after an investigation by local newspapers in Texas found that 250 church leaders and volunteers had been charged with sex crimes. A network of bloggers has chronicled abuse in Protestant churches. And in Colorado, leaders of a Buddhist retreat center apologized after allegations of a pattern failing to respond to sexual-abuse claims.

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WILMINGTON (DE)
WDEL

July 25, 2019

By DJ McAneny

A priest in the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington has been removed from ministry and had his faculties to exercise priestly ministries suspended following allegations he sexually abused a teen 38 years ago.

The victim made claims against Rev. William J. Porter, 71, while at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in New Castle. Delaware State Police began their investigation in March, but informed the diocese on July 19, 2019, that it had completed the investigation and the conduct had occurred outside the statute of limitations.

The suspension by Bishop W. Francis Malooly was announced Thursday, July 25, 2019.

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BAY CITY (MI)
Saginaw News

July 30, 2019

By Cole Waterman

Suspended from the ministry two months ago, a Catholic priest says his life has been ruined after a woman accused him of inappropriately touching her when she was a child and a student of his.

The Rev. Dennis H. Kucharczyk says he was made “to look like a pervert,” his reputation and credibility damaged, when the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw publicly announced his suspension from the ministry.

Professing his innocence, Kucharczyk said he’s stuck in limbo when it comes to his standing with the diocese, feeling jettisoned by an organization he’s devoted his life to after what he says is a baseless allegation.

“I have been called to serve the diocese,” said Kucharczyk, 61. “I want to continue to serve the diocese as a priest. That’s been my calling. I’m concerned about what the diocese is doing to me. What about me? What about what I have given to the diocese and the parishes? Doesn’t that matter? Doesn’t that mean anything? Don’t I matter?”

Erin Looby Carlson, the diocese’s director of communications, said the diocese and state law enforcement are, in fact, investigating Kucharczyk, so he’s still on suspension.

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GREEN TOWNSHIP (OH)
WCPO TV

July 30, 2019

There is no evidence the Rev. Geoff Drew is guilty of criminal wrongdoing, according to Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters. But some parishioners who attended a crowded Monday night meeting meant to address the St. Ignatius priest’s suspension left uneasy.

They said they still did not know exactly what Drew had been accused of doing.

“They gave us very little details,” said Mike Hausfeld, whose son attends eighth grade at St. Ignatius of Loyola School. “The questions we asked, it was shoved off, pushed off to the side, turned into another, ‘That’s not our decision. We can’t make that decision. It’s not our call.’”

Reporters were not allowed inside the meeting. According to Hausfeld, Archdiocese of Cincinnati leaders disclosed only that the allegations against Drew involved inappropriate texts exchanged with a male student at the school.

That explanation matched the archdiocese’s official statement to press earlier in the day: That Drew had been accused of behavior “contrary to the (archdiocese) Decree On Child Protection.”

Archdiocese officials at the meeting also said Drew had been under monitoring after “some concerns” surfaced during his time in Liberty Township’s St. Maximilian Kolbe parish, according to Hausfeld. They did not share whether those concerns had been related to his relocation to St. Ignatius.

They also did not share what would happen to Drew when his suspension and the accompanying investigation were finished. Hausfeld said they promised they were “making changes” but didn’t specify.

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LITTLE ROCK (AR)
Bilgrimage blog

July 29, 2019

By William Lindsey

The essay below is the second part of Ruth Krall’s essay entitled “Historical Meandering: Ideologies of Abuse and Exclusion.” The first part was published on Bilgrimage several days ago. As the introduction to the essay at the link I have just provided explains, the essay is one of a series of essays Ruth has published on Bilgrimage, under the series title “Recapitulation: Affinity Sexual Violence in a Religious Voice.” Links to the previous essays in this series appear at the link I’ve just given you above. The common theme binding these essays together is the endemic natural of religious and spiritual leader sexual abuse of followers. The current essay explores this theme by arguing that clergy sexual abuse is a global public health issue whose noxious presence can be found inside multiple language groups and national identities. The second part of Ruth’s essay, “Historical Meandering,” follows (note that footnotes begin with xiii because this essay is a continuation of the first part published previously):

Historical Meandering: Ideologies of Abuse and Exclusion

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CLINTON TOWNSHIP (MI)
Macomb Daily

July 30,2019

By Jameson Cook

A former priest at a Shelby Township church accused of sexually assaulting a boy in the mid-1980s was arrested around that time for distributing and possessing cocaine.

Neil Kalina, 63, dressed in jail garb, appeared in 41A District Court in Shelby Township on Monday for a hearing on charges he assaulted a boy when he was 12 to 14 at St. Kieran Catholic Church.

He was among five priests charged in May for sexual-conduct allegations while serving at churches in Michigan as part of a special investigation under Attorney General Dana Nessel. Four of them were residing out of state.

Kalina is charged with four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and lifetime electronic monitoring.

He and the boy spent time together while Kalina was a pastor at Kieran during the mid-1980s, according to a sworn statement by Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Rick Lutz. Kalina allegedly provided the boy with alcohol, marijuana and cocaine, and the boy awoke to Kalina fondling him during overnight stays at the St. Kieran rectory, the affidavit says.

Kalina’s accuser attended Monday’s hearing.

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JACKSON (MS)
Clarion Ledger

July 29, 2019

By Sarah Fowler

A retired priest in the Catholic Diocese of Jackson has been removed from public ministry after a credible accusation of abuse.

The Rev. Edward Balser, 90, is no longer allowed to publicly identify himself as a priest after a credible allegation of years-long inappropriate touching in the 1950’s, according to a release issued by the diocese.

The abuse first occurred in 1953, when Balser was a seminarian and continued after his ordination into the priesthood in 1956, the release stated. The female victim was a minor throughout the abuse. It did not include sexual intercourse. The extent of the touching or when the allegation was first made were not publicly available.

Attempts to reach Balser were unsuccessful Monday.

Balser, who served in Jackson, Pearl and Flowood, retired in March 2003.

Balser’s removal from the ministry makes 38 clergy—36 priests and two religious brothers—in the Jackson Diocese who have been credibly accused of abuse. The allegations date back decades, with the most recent allegations coming in the early 2000s.

In January 2019, while the Diocesan Fitness Review Board was reviewing and preparing files for the release of the list of clergy credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors, the board examined Balser’s file and the accounting of the abuse, the release stated.

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BELLEVILLE (IL)
News-Democrat

July 29, 2019

By Lexi Cortes

Catholic church leaders in the Belleville Diocese promoted a priest they knew as a danger to children until he was in charge of their largest parish and its grade school, where he is accused of sexually abusing students, according to a civil suit filed earlier this month.

Joseph Schwaegel, who was first accused of child sexual abuse in a 1999 lawsuit, has been named in a new complaint filed against the diocese July 19 in St. Clair County Circuit Court.

Schwaegel died in 2016. During his career, diocese officials had given him the elevated title of monsignor and eventually made him rector of Belleville’s St. Peter’s Cathedral and superintendent of Cathedral Grade School.

He was added to the diocese’s list of accused priests who were removed from their churches in 1994.

The latest plaintiff to come forward with allegations against Schwaegel filed under the pseudonym John Doe.

A spokesman for the diocese could not be reached for comment. The lawyers representing the plaintiff were not immediately available for comment.

From 1987, when Doe was a 6-year-old starting kindergarten, until 1989, Schwaegel would call Doe and other students out of class to be alone with him, according to the civil lawsuit. The complaint states that is when Schwaegel sexually abused Doe on the diocese’s property.

Jeph Hemmer, who had also been a student at Cathedral Grade School, said Schwaegel abused him in 1973 at the school and rectory when Hemmer was 8 years old, according to his lawsuit in federal court. Hemmer’s lawsuit, which was refiled in federal court in 2001 after a year in civil court, ended in a settlement. U.S. Magistrate Judge Clifford Proud dismissed the lawsuit against the diocese in that case. Proud died earlier this year.

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GREENGFIELD (MA)
The Republican

July 29, 2019

By Anne-Gerard Flynn

Attorney John J. Stobierski was not surprised when he read news reports this spring that a man had come forward with accusations he had been sexually molested by the late Bishop Christopher J. Weldon during the 1950s.

“During the years I represented survivors of abuse, I heard a number of references to Weldon,” said Stobierski who litigated and negotiated more than five dozen clergy sexual abuse cases with settlements totaling more than $10 million. “I am absolutely not surprised.”

Weldon served from 1950 through 1977 as the fourth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield.

Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski, the diocese’s ninth bishop, met in June with the most recent alleged victim to come forward with claims of sexual abuse by Weldon. Rozanski announced last week that retired Superior Court Judge Peter J. Velis would lead an investigation into the allegations.

Stobierski described Velis as “a man of integrity,” but added what the investigation yields will depend on what Velis has access to and what accountability is given to the public.

In short, Stobierski said, Velis “needs free rein.”

“Will he truly be an independent force?,” asked Stobierski who represented 46 alleged victims of clergy sex abuse who settled claims with the diocese for $7.75 million in 2004, and 28 of the 59 survivors in the $4.5 million settlement reached in 2008.

He added, “Will he be entitled to all information, will everyone associated with the diocese be told they are duty-bound to cooperate with him, will he have to sign a confidentiality agreement?”

“The report,” Stobierski said, “needs to be made public. Good, bad or indifferent, the investigation and its findings need to see the light of day. Lack of transparency is what continues to dog this diocese.”

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CUMBERLAND COUNTY (PA)
The Sentinel

July 29, 2019

By Tammie Gitt

Nearly a year after Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro released a comprehensive report on clergy child sexual abuse, an organization dedicated to education will hold a conference looking at the crisis.

Hosted by the St. Gabriel ministry of Saint Patrick Roman Catholic Church in Carlisle, the conference will examine the causes of the crisis and learn what is being done to promote healing and justice for the victims.

The conference, “Pro Vita 2019: Healing the Wounds in the Body of Christ,” will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 9 at Saint Patrick Church, 87 Marsh Drive.

The day begins with a light breakfast buffet and registration at 9 a.m., followed by keynote speaker Dr. Massimo Faggioli of Villanova University. Faggioli will take questions from the audience then, after a coffee break, join a panel that includes retired Pennsylvania State Police Capt. Janet McNeal, who is the safe environment coordinator for the Harrisburg Diocese, and Carlisle-based clinical psychologist Dr. Jerry Mock. The panel will be moderated by Col. Celestino Perez, a professor at the U.S. Army War College.

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Patheos blog

July 29, 2019

By Hemant Mehta

The Associated Press has discovered a secretive network within the Catholic Church, albeit with no formal affiliation, that helps people dealing with child sexual harassment. They offer money and legal assistance. They help people relocate. They say they want to do anything they can to help the victims.

But they’re not talking about the kids.

Instead, Opus Bono Sacerdotii helps the accused priests.

Martha Mendoza, Juliet Linderman, and Garance Burke learned about the network through multiple interviews with former employees, Freedom of Information requests, and hearing from priests themselves.

For nearly two decades, the group has operated out of a series of unmarked buildings in rural Michigan, providing money, shelter, transport, legal help and other support to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse across the country.

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JACKSON (MS)
Mississippi Clarion Ledger

July 29, 2019

By Sarah Fowler

A retired priest in the Catholic Diocese of Jackson has been removed from public ministry after a credible accusation of abuse.

The Rev. Edward Balser, 90, is no longer allowed to publicly identify himself as a priest after a credible allegation of years-long inappropriate touching in the 1950’s, according to a release issued by the diocese.

The abuse first occurred in 1953, when Balser was a seminarian and continued after his ordination into the priesthood in 1956, the release stated. The female victim was a minor throughout the abuse. It did not include sexual intercourse. The extent of the touching or when the allegation was first made were not publicly available.

Attempts to reach Balser were unsuccessful Monday.

Balser, who served in Jackson, Pearl and Flowood, retired in March 2003.

Balser’s removal from the ministry makes 38 clergy—36 priests and two religious brothers—in the Jackson Diocese who have been credibly accused of abuse. The allegations date back decades, with the most recent allegations coming in the early 2000s.

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PHOENIX (AZ)
Phoenix New Times

July 23, 2019

By Elizabeth Whitman

When Charles Taylor was 12 years old and growing up in Tucson in the early 1970s, a priest at the local Episcopal church began sexually abusing him. Although Taylor told the rector, and a church secretary knew about the abuse, the church did nothing.

All of that is according to a new lawsuit that Taylor, who is nearly 61, has filed against Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Tucson and the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona for the two years of sexual abuse he says he suffered as a child at the hands of Father Richard Babcock.

The suit could be the first of its kind after Arizona changed its law in May to give survivors of childhood sexual abuse more time to sue perpetrators or organizations that knew of the abuse. Survivors previously had until the age of 20. The new law gives them until the age of 30 and gives older survivors, who previously were time-barred from suing, until December 31, 2020, to file claims.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

July 26, 2019

The decision by Attorney General Peter Neronha of Rhode Island to review all files of childhood sexual abuse collected by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence since 1950 is a welcome first step toward transparency and the healing it brings to victims.

Now comes the real transparency test: making sure all relevant files are turned over, without any whitewashing by church officials.

According to a Globe report, the agreement between Neronha’s office and Bishop Thomas J. Tobin gives prosecutors and the Rhode Island State Police access to 70 years of diocesan files and records, whether or not the allegations were deemed credible by the diocese.

Again, that sounds positive. However, as Anne Barrett Doyle, codirector of the advocacy group BishopAccountability.org, points out, Neronha is not doing what law enforcement authorities are starting to do in other states — aggressively take on the church by getting search warrants and grabbing church records without prior warning to church officials.

Because the Rhode Island AG is allowing the diocese to gather the files itself, and because Tobin’s cooperation is voluntary, Barrett Doyle said she has doubts Neronha will get the full archives and worries that “the files he does get will have been sanitized.”

There’s cause for concern. On July 1, the Providence diocese published a list of nearly 50 clergy who had been accused of child sexual abuse. However, some victims said the names of some accused clergy were missing from the list. Among those upset was former Suffolk University and Lesley University president Margaret McKenna, who said a priest she had accused of molesting her was labeled “publicly accused” instead of “credibly accused.” To illustrate the difficulty in documenting the true scope of abuse, advocates at Bishop Accountability point to a 2007 court document that shows Tobin admitting to 125 accused priests between 1971 and 2006.

Mitchell Garabedian, the Massachusetts attorney who helped reveal the extent of clergy sexual abuse in the Boston archdiocese, said obtaining all relevant files is just step one for the Rhode Island AG. Then, he said, Neronha “has an obligation to follow up the review of files with questions to church officials about the criminality discovered in those files, whether it be sexual abuse or the cover-up of sexual abuse. If laws were broken, then charges must be filed.”

That’s not a given: McKenna says she and others have turned over information to the state police in the past, “but nothing happened.”

Even that initial step taken by Neronha might not be as big as some want. But both Garabedian and Barrett Doyle say it should remind Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey that the dioceses in her state require greater vigilance than she has so far exerted. Boston was the epicenter of the clergy sexual abuse scandal, and Garabedian said victims continue to contact him. Law enforcement officials in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and across the country must leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of long-overdue justice.

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ALBANY (NY)
New York Daily News

July 28, 2019

By Denis Slattery

Survivors of child sex abuse will soon have a new opportunity to seek justice.

The recently enacted Child Victims Act dramatically changed the legal landscape in New York State, empowering those who were subjected to sexual abuse at a young age and offering them new ways make things right.

Child victims of abuse are now able to seek criminal prosecution against an abuser until the age of 28, an increase from the old age limit of 23. In civil cases, victims can seek prosecution until they turn 55.

The law also opens up a one-year window that begins Aug. 14 allowing victims older than 23 to sue their abuser or any institution that helped to cover up the offense — regardless of how long ago the act occurred.

Advocates and lawmakers are launching a concerted effort to ensure survivors are aware of their options as the window approaches.

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MORRIS TOWNSHIP (NJ)
North Jersey Record

July 29, 2019

By Abbott Koloff

Eight people have received settlements over the past year after bringing sex abuse lawsuits against St. Mary’s Abbey and the Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey, which runs the Delbarton School in Morris Township and previously ran a school at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church in Linden.

One former teacher, a priest named Timothy Brennan, has been publicly accused of abuse by nine men and one woman.

The Benedictines are an international Roman Catholic monastic order who follow the teachings of St. Benedict, who was born in Italy more than 1,500 years ago. He is considered the father of Western monasticism.

St. Mary’s Abbey oversees Delbarton, an elite school for boys from seventh grade through high school. At least seven priests and two other monks of the abbey have been accused of sex abuse.

The abbey has declined to follow the lead of New Jersey’s five Roman Catholic dioceses, which have provided lists of priests credibly accused of sexual abuse.

It recently said in a statement that it was not prepared to release such a list, partly because it was “unable to comment on active litigation.” Most of the lawsuits are no longer active. At least 11 suits have been settled.

The statement said all complaints are first sent to the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office, and that the abbey is required to wait for law enforcement to complete its investigations before conducting its own reviews. “Once that work is complete, we will release a list of accused individuals,” it said.

Many of the complaints were made public years ago, and it’s not clear why the county prosecutor would still be looking at them. The Morris County Prosecutor’s Office said it would not comment on investigations that don’t result in criminal charges. In most cases involving abuse from decades ago, the criminal statute of limitations expired by the time law enforcement was contacted.

The following list of clerics associated with St. Mary’s Abbey and accused of sexual abuse has been compiled by NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey from lawsuits, most of which have been settled, as well as previous statements by St. Mary’s Abbey and past news articles by the Network.

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MORRIS TOWNSHIP (NJ)
North Jersey Record

July 29, 2019

By Abbott Koloff

T.M. says he was 15 years old when a priest served him beers at a New Year’s Eve party, and when he awoke hours later he found the cleric sexually abusing him in a maintenance barn on the Delbarton School campus in Morris Township.

T.M., as court records call him, says that more than a year later, he wrote a letter about the abuse to Abbot Brian Clarke, then head of St. Mary’s Abbey and the Order of St. Benedict of New Jersey, the Roman Catholic religious order that runs Delbarton.

He also met the abbot, who told him to keep the accusations to himself because it could cause him problems with friends at Delbarton. He was told that the priest — Richard Edward Lott — would be reined in to keep other boys safe.

Decades later, T.M. learned that another student was allegedly abused by Lott — just months after T.M.’s own meeting to alert the abbot about the priest. The other student’s accusation was made in a 2005 lawsuit, which was settled in 2006, according to records.

“I feel now you’re taking advantage of a kid, taking advantage of my naivete,” T.M. said in a recent phone interview. “I wanted to make sure they knew what happened so no one else would ever be abused.

“They lied to me,” he said.

T.M.’s lawsuit, which is ongoing, is one of at least 14 that have been filed against the Benedictine order by 15 people alleging that they, too, were abused by monks as children decades ago when they attended Delbarton or a Catholic school in Linden run by the order.
T.M. asked that his name not be used, to protect his parents from public exposure and being questioned about the allegations.

During an alumni reunion in December 2013, someone asked T.M. why he hadn’t been to other Delbarton functions. He had been reading about lawsuits brought by several men — including twin brothers Tom and Bill Crane — who said they were abused by Benedictine priests. He responded by referring to those reports.

“I was one of them,” he said.

St. Mary’s has settled eight lawsuits since last year, the latest last month. Three are still pending in Superior Court. At least nine monks, including seven priests, have been named in lawsuits over the years or have been acknowledged by abbey officials as having been accused of sex abuse.

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