ABUSE TRACKER

SPRINGFIELD (MA)
The Republican

June 28, 2019

By Anne-Gerard Flynn

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield is investigating an allegation of sexual misconduct against a deceased priest by a former Berkshire County resident that dates back to the early 1970s when the woman was a high school sophomore.

The allegation against the Rev. James D. McKenna was reported Thursday by the Berkshire Eagle, which quotes the woman, who now lives in Ohio, as alleging McKenna would get her drunk on a weekly basis and press her to engage in sexual activity that stopped short of intercourse in a parish rectory.

It quotes a letter the woman is said to have sent Bishop Mitchell Rozanski in September detailing the alleged abuse saying that the priest “would get me drunk until I could no longer fight back his advances. He is the reason I have been an alcoholic for a good part of my life.”

The woman is said to have received a response from Rozanski in October, thanking her, as reported by the Eagle, for “having the courage to write to me and share this painful experience with me” and urging her to contact the intake person at the time in the diocesan office for reporting claims of clergy sex abuse.

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

WASHINGTON (DC)
Fox News

June 28, 2019

By Lauren Green

Is the devil behind the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis?

In his new book ‘Infiltration, The Plot to Destroy The Church From Within,’ Dr. Taylor Marshall attempts to get at the spiritual roots of the clergy sex abuse crisis as well as other problems in the church, claiming the devil is to blame. Dr. Marshall joins Lauren Green to discuss his book, the sex abuse scandal and share his thoughts on what has contributed to the spiritual decay within the church.

New York’s Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan described last year’s months of revelations about decades of clerical sexual abuse as “the summer of hell.” It’s a figure of speech that one author believes may have more bite than bark. In other words, demonic forces may have played a large part in the Catholic Church’s crisis.

A warning here: If you don’t believe that Satan and his spiritual band of evil malcontents are on the prowl in this world, don’t bother reading his book – per his request.

Author Taylor Marshall said, “We have to remember from the Christian point of view going back from well before the beginning of time, there is the fall of the angels. Lucifer and a third of the angels fell. And then all the way up to the time of Christ, there was all of these betrayals that were spiritual in nature.”

In his new book, “Infiltration, The Plot to Destroy the Church From Within,” Marshall attempts to get at the spiritual roots of the clergy abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.

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

RICHMOND (VA)
Richmond Times-Dispatch

June 27, 2019

By Andrew Adkins

The Catholic Diocese of Richmond added six priests to a list of clergy who served in the diocese and were accused of sexual abuse against a minor, bringing the total to 49.

Five of the six men whose names were announced Thursday are dead, while the status of one priest is unknown, the diocese said.

One of the men, Stanley F. Banaszek, served as a priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Blacksburg and as a chaplain at Virginia Tech in 1974-75, according to an advocacy group for victims of clergy sexual abuse.

That brings to seven the number of former clergy on the Richmond diocese list with past ties to the region spanning from Bedford to Blacksburg.

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

NEW ULM (MN)
Catholic News Service

June 28, 2019

The Diocese of New Ulm has reached a $34 million settlement with 93 survivors of clergy sexual abuse.

In a letter to Catholics of the diocese, Bishop John M. LeVoir said he believes the settlement “we have reached is a fair one” for abuse survivors and also allows the diocese to continue its ministry to those it serves throughout south and west-central Minnesota.

“(It) represents years of respectful negotiations with those representing victims and survivors in order to come to a fair resolution of claims while continuing essential church ministry,” he said June 26. “I believe the settlement agreement we have reached is a fair one.”

News reports quoted Jeff Anderson, an attorney for many of the New Ulm claimants, as saying that reaching the settlement was “a big day for survivors.”

“Throughout this process, all of the survivors have demonstrated tremendous courage and patience,” he said. “They have advanced the child protection movement and made their communities safer for kids.”

A June 26 diocesan news release on the agreement said the funds for the settlement “are made up of insurance coverage settlements and cash and property contributions from the diocese and parishes, including parishes that do not have claims against them.”

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.

INDIANAPOLIS (IN)
CNN

June 25, 2019

By Jason Hanna, Carma Hassan and Daniel Burke

Two Catholic high schools in Indianapolis were facing the same instruction from an archbishop: Fire a teacher who is in a same-sex marriage, or lose the archdiocese’s recognition as a Catholic institution.

One refused last week, and is keeping its gay, married teacher. But officials at the other have announced they are firing theirs.

Adding to the tense situation: the two teachers have been married to each other since 2017, multiple sources have told CNN. Their marriage, which the couple shared on social media, led a local Catholic to complain to the archdiocese, the sources said.

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

RICHMOND (VA)
Richmond Diocese

For Immediate Release: June 27, 2019

Catholic Diocese of Richmond Adds Names to Clergy List

(RICHMOND, Va.) – Today, the Diocese of Richmond announces six names have been added to its list of clergy that have a credible and substantiated claim of sexual abuse against a minor. The names were added after additional information was brought forward and a review was completed in consultation with the Diocesan Office of Safe Environment and the Diocesan Review Board. The names of the individuals with credible and substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse, as well as additional information, can be located on the Richmond Diocese website: www.richmonddiocese.org.

The six priests added are below:

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JOHNSTOWN (PA)
WJACTV

June 27, 2019

By Travis Gary

A Northern Cambria priest has been placed on leave from public ministry after being accused of sexual misconduct involving a minor in the 1980s, according to a release from the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.

According to the release, Father Donald Dusza was pastor of Prince of Peace Parish.

The 63-year-old Twin Rocks native was ordained as a priest in 1983 and has served various parishes throughout the diocese.

Dusza became pastor of Prince of Peace in 2017.

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.

PROVIDENCE (RI)
Providence Journal

June 26, 2019

By Katherine Gregg

The Rhode Island General Assembly has passed legislation to give the victims of sexual abuse more time to sue the priests, teachers, coaches and others who molested them when they were children.

After a weeks-long standoff over conflicting versions of the bill, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved a version of the bill introduced by Rep. Carol Hagan McEntee on behalf of her sister, Annie, with only one significant change. Shortly afterward, the full Senate unanimously voted to approve the legislation. The House then voted, 70-to-1, to send the bill to the governor.

Rep. Brian Newberry, R-North Smithfield, was the only lawmaker to vote no.

“This is Annie’s bill,″ said an emotional McEntee, who introduced the legislation in the name of her now 66-year-old sister, Ann Hagan Webb, who was sexually molested repeatedly by their family’s parish priest in West Warwick for a period of seven years that began, she has testified, when she was 5 years old.

“This is a scourge on our society,″ McEntee said. “You’ve seen it all over the country, all over the globe, and we’re not different here in Rhode Island,” but now “we are giving the victims their day in court, the day they so much deserve after so much wrong has been committed on them.”

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.

LANSING (MI)
WILX News 10

June 28, 2019

The Michigan Attorney General’s office has released an update on the defendants charged in the Clergy Abuse Investigation.

Patrick Casey had a probable cause conference on May 30. The defendant waived his preliminary exam before the Wayne County 18th District Court Judge Mark A. McConnell. An arraignment on information is scheduled for July 18 in the Wayne County 3rd Circuit Court. The defendant is out on bond.

Timothy Crowley is being extradited from Tempe, Arizona and will be delivered to Washtenaw County Jail in early July.

Vincet DeLorenzo has been extradited from Marion County, Florida and delivered to Genesee County Jail on June 17 and was arraigned on June 18. His probable cause conference was adjourned to Aug, 1 for discovery. The defendant is out on bond.

Neil Kalina was extradited from Los Angeles County, California and delivered to Macomb County Jail. He was arraigned on June 20 in the Macomb County District Court. A probable cause conference is scheduled for July 2 and a preliminary exam has been set for July 9.

Jacob Vellian has been charged and we are working with federal authorities to extradite him.

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FLAGSTAFF (AZ)
KNAU Radio

June 28, 2019

By Zac Ziegler

Of the 22 identified, 18 are dead, one is in prison for sexual abuse, and the whereabouts of three are not definitively known.

Jeff Anderson is with Anderson and Associates, the firm that released the report.

“There has not been a full accounting by the Catholic Diocese in Phoenix of all the names that should have been disclosed by the Catholic Bishops past and present.”

The Diocese of Phoenix issued a statement, saying it’s reviewing the report, and that none of the accused are in active ministry in Arizona.

It encourages victims to come forward and contact law enforcement.

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.

ITTLE ROCK (AR)
Bilgrimage blog

June 26, 2019

By William Lindsey

It might seem obvious that a church facing a crisis of legitimacy caused by clergy raping children would show more humility when claiming to hold ultimate truths about human sexuality.

Instead, in the past month alone, a Rhode Island bishop tweeted that Catholics shouldn’t attend gay pride events because they are “especially harmful for children”; a Vatican office issued a document that described transgender people as “provocative” in trying to “annihilate the concept of nature”; and a Catholic high school in Indianapolis that refused to fire a teacher married to a same-sex partner was told by the Archdiocese of Indianapolis that it can no longer call itself Catholic.

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.

PARIS (FRANCE)
LaCroix International

June 28, 2019

By Father Amado Picardal

At the root of clergy sex abuse is the “dark side” of leadership. To overcome the dark side, a priest must be aware of it and acknowledge its existence. This requires spending time in solitude, silence and prayerful reflection.

This is a time spent for examining his life and conscience. This should be done regularly and be part of the rhythm of his life. This is a time for introspection — to examine the lights and the shadows of his exercise of leadership.

This is the time to see the ulterior motives behind deeds and behavior. The question that one must constantly ask is: “Which temptation am I most vulnerable to? How far have I succumbed to the temptation of the dark side?”

Acknowledging that he is a sinner and have submitted to domination from the dark side is the first step. There is a need to recognize and struggle against his personal demons.

This requires going through a process of conversion (metanoia) — a conversion to Christ, a moral conversion — to change how he behaves and how he lives.

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.

Patheos blog

June 27, 2019

By Mary Pezzulo

I have just finished reading a thought-provoking book by my friend Adam A. J. DeVille.

The book is entitled Everything Hidden Shall Be Revealed: Ridding the Church of Abuses of Sex and Power. It provides some intriguing ideas on how to reform and heal the Church from the horrendous culture of abuse that we’ve seen revealed in the news again and again for a year now. Deville is an Eastern Catholic pointing out ways in which the Latin church could benefit from changing her canons to be run and disciplined more like the East, or more like the Latin Church was at some point in her past. The changes he suggests are in the bureaucracy of our church, not in her teaching. And while they are relatively drastic changes, DeVille gives very solid theological reasoning for all of them.

One of DeVille’s major premises is that the laity are not just a lesser breed of Catholic, destined only to blindly follow clerics here and there. He refers to the laity as “laics” and stresses that they themselves are ordained to a sort of priesthood– not the same as the priesthood of the clergy, but not a lesser Catholic either, only a different member of the Body of Christ. And this is something I agree with one hundred per cent. If we are ever to reform the Church and recover from the sex abuse crisis, we must end the idolatry of clericalism and the arrogant contempt that priests in general have shown for the laics.

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.

ROANOKE (VA)
Roanoke Times

June 28, 2019

By Andrew Adkins

The Catholic Diocese of Richmond added six priests to a list of clergy who served in the diocese and were credibly accused of sexual abuse against a minor, bringing the total to 49.

Five of the six men whose names were announced Thursday are dead, while the status of one priest is unknown, the diocese said.

The priests were accused of sexually abusing a minor either while working in the Catholic Diocese of Richmond or elsewhere. The diocese did not release specific details of the abuses “out of respect for the privacy of survivors,” the statement said.

One of the men, Patrick J. Cassidy, was a priest of the Diocese of Richmond and had nine assignments in Virginia, including Holy Comforter Catholic Church in Charlottesville, according to a list published on the diocese’s website. He was ordained in 1947 and died in 2003.

The diocese initially published the list of clergy in February. The new names were added after “additional information was brought forward and a review was completed in consultation with the Diocesan Office of Safe Environment,” it said in a statement.

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

ALTOONA (PA)
Atoona Mirror

June 28, 2019

By Dave Sutor

The pastor of Prince of Peace Parish in Northern Cambria has been placed on leave from public ministry by Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown Bishop Mark Bartchak.

The Rev. Donald W. Dusza, a 63-year-old Twin Rocks native, is not permitted to function as a priest while on leave. An administrator will be named for the parish.

“The action follows an accusation of sexual misconduct involving a young person,” the diocese stated in a press release. “The alleged incident dates back to the 1980s.”

A call was placed to the church for comment. A man, who did not give his name, declined to talk and suggested contacting a diocese spokesperson.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
University of Southern California
June 27, 2019

By Susan Bell

The first advice the Reverend Najuma Smith-Pollard gives male pastors is not to use terms of endearment when addressing women clergy.

“What I tell them is, number one, she’s not your baby, she’s not your boo, she’s not your sweetie-pie. She needs to be Reverend or Elder or Minister or Miss,” she said. “Recently, I’ve had pastors self-correct, so where before they would have said ‘baby,’ now they say, ‘Oh, Reverend Najuma.’”

Two years ago, Smith-Pollard, a pastor and program manager with the USC Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement at USC Dornsife’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture (CRCC), says those conversations were not happening with anywhere near the same level of concern. The catalyst, says Smith-Pollard, whose work and expertise focuses on the African-American Church, has been the #MeToo movement, which has gathered momentum since late 2017 following the scandal surrounding widespread allegations of sexual abuse by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and other well-known, powerful men.

Like #MeToo, the nascent #ChurchToo movement is starting to mobilize and empower women to address long histories of abuse. Smith-Pollard says concerns are growing in the African-American church that #ChurchToo will reveal widespread sexual and physical abuse of women within the black church — revelations that, as they ripple out across congregations, could be devastating for many church communities and their leaders.

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PITTSFIELD (MA)
Berkshire Eagle

June 27, 2019

By Larry Parnass

Katherine Finn Diaz waited decades to tell her story of Catholic clergy abuse. Then she could delay no longer.

Diaz says that when she was a high school sophomore in Berkshire County in the early 1970s, the Rev. James D. McKenna lured her into a sexual relationship by plying her with alcohol. His assaults began after she volunteered to play the organ and help direct a youth choir associated with the former St. Francis Church parish in South Lee.

Over the course of 18 months in 1973 and 1974, Diaz says, McKenna regularly served her alcohol from a bar in the rectory’s living room, then pressed her to engage in sexual contact that she felt unable to fight off and now terms sexual abuse.

“He led me up the stairs and started kissing and fondling me,” Diaz said, speaking of how the assaults began.

Diaz blames her routine consumption of alcohol with McKenna for the start of a drinking problem that followed her into adulthood.

“I became an alcoholic. His purpose was to get me drunk. Very drunk. He did that every time I went to church by myself, which was every week,” Diaz said during the course of several telephone interviews from the Columbus, Ohio, area, where she lives.

The sexual contact initiated by McKenna never resulted in intercourse and was carried out while both remained dressed, said Diaz, who at the time was known as Kerry Finn.

After decades concealing what she experienced, Diaz detailed the priest’s actions in a letter last fall to the Springfield Diocese, for which McKenna served. She said she also reported McKenna’s behavior to the Berkshire District Attorney’s Office and to state police.

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HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Public Media

June 27, 2019

By Alvaro ‘Al’ Ortiz

A Montgomery County grand jury has indicted Catholic priest Manuel Antonio La Rosa-Lopez with three additional counts of child indecency, arising from child sexual abuse allegations, according to court records. La Rosa-Lopez was a priest at Conroe’s Sacred Heart Church and had already been indicted with two counts of indecency with a child.

Tyler Dunman, special crimes bureau chief at the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, told News 88.7 Tuesday there are three victims so far.

On May 13, La Rosa-Lopez was arraigned on the two initial counts at the Montgomery County 435 District Court in Conroe and entered a not guilty plea.

The new counts against the priest are related to two acts that allegedly occurred in February 1999 and one act that allegedly occurred in June 2000.

La Rosa-Lopez was originally charged in Montgomery County on September 10, 2018. He is one of the 42 clergy included in a list of priests who have been credibly accused of sexually abusing a minor released by the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston in January.

On November 28, 2018, the Conroe Police Department, Texas Rangers, Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office and other agencies executed a search warrant at the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

It was the fourth search warrant executed in the joint law enforcement investigation of La Rosa-Lopez.

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LITTLE ROCK (AR)
THV11

June 27, 2019

The Catholic Diocese of Little Rock responded to a settlement between the church and five men who say they were sexually abused by a priest in the 1970s.

The victims, represented by a North Little Rock attorney, said Father John McDaniel sexually abused them when they were students at Holy Souls Catholic School located in Little Rock.

Each of the boys were between 12 and 15 years old at the time.

In a list released last year, Bishop Anthony Taylor named priests credibly accused of sexual abuse, one of the names was Father John McDaniel.

The list also urged any other victims to come forward.

The Dioceses’ statement outlines the payments it made to settle this case out of court. Diocesan Spokesperson Dennis Lee said the settlement was mediated by a mutually agreed upon third party in May.

Since there was no confidentiality agreement, the victims, the attorneys, and the church are all allowed to release details at any point.

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

June 28, 2019

By John Winer

After what seemed like a brief lull, various Dioceses throughout the United States are facing a steady stream of accusations from adults who, as children, were sexually abused by clergy in the Catholic Church. And, there seems to be a great deal of willingness on the part of elected officials to help streamline the process, something that did not exist in previous generations.

Throughout the country there seems to be a reawakening of these allegations as District Attorneys in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and elsewhere have either brought new charges or released the names of priests and others accused of child sex abuse. Archdiocese of New York named 120 clergy who were “credibly accused” of child sex abuse and a law firm released another 300 names accused of abuse in New Jersey.

There is reason to believe the California government will change the civil statute of limitations standard currently in place. The change will allow adult survivors of sexual abuse while a minor to bring claims up to their 40th birthday. At the same time, the statute of limitations for sexual abuse of adults will be changed from two years to 10 years. This will allow California sexual abuse victims to have a far larger window to bring a civil case for monetary damages.

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LITTLE ROCK (AR)
Arkansas Democrat

June 28, 2019

By Youssef Rddad

The Catholic Diocese of Little Rock confirmed Thursday night that it paid nearly $800,000 to five men who say an Arkansas priest sexually abused them when the men were boys in the early 1970s.

North Little Rock attorney Josh Gillispie filed a legal claim on behalf of the men that said the Rev. John J. McDaniel sexually abused them while the men were students at Our Lady of the Holy Souls Catholic Church in Little Rock.

Dennis Lee, a spokesman for the Diocese of Little Rock, confirmed the diocese agreed to pay $790,000 to settle the case after reaching an agreement with the men through a third-party mediator last month.

The settlement is the first publicly acknowledged payment by the Diocese of Little Rock since the diocese released a list of clergy who worked in Arkansas at some point and had credible or substantiated claims of sexual abuse against them.

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BRIDGEWATER (NJ)
Courier News

June 28, 2019

Nick Muscavage

Bishop James F. Checchio of the Diocese of Metuchen participated in a series of three separate votes to hold bishops accountable for instances of sexual abuse of children or vulnerable persons, sexual misconduct, or the intentional mishandling of such cases.

The votes, which took place June 13 at the Spring General Assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in Baltimore, were based on and consistent with the new universal laws for the reporting and handling of complaints against bishops, as set forth in the Motu Proprio “Vos estis lux mundi” – or “You are the light of the world” – issued by Pope Francis in May.

The Motu Proprio is a legislative text that modifies or adds to church law, known as canon law, which applies universally to the Catholic Church throughout the world. The Holy Father’s Motu Proprio calls for a mandatory process – not voluntary – for church investigations of complaints against bishops, not just priests and deacons, for allegations of sexual abuse of a minor.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Fortune

June 27, 2019

By Mary Pilon

Jan. 24, 2018, Rachael Denhollander walked into a Michigan courtroom to speak about the sexual abuse she suffered as a child from Larry Nassar. She was the last in an extraordinary procession of nearly 150 women to offer an impact statement at the sentencing hearing of the longtime USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor.

Standing at a podium facing Nassar as her words were beamed out worldwide, Denhollander, a former gymnast—and now herself an attorney, an advocate for child safety, and a 34-year-old mother of four—concluded her statement with a question:

“How much is a little girl worth?”

For decades, Nassar’s work as a doctor treating athletes at Michigan State University (MSU) and for USA Gymnastics helped give him unfettered access to girls and young women that he serially sexually abused. Since Denhollander became the first survivor to publicly accuse the doctor of abuse, in September 2016, an estimated 500 women have come forward saying that they, too, were abused by Nassar. Some experts on the case think that number could eventually pass 1,000. In July 2017, Nassar pleaded guilty to child pornography charges, and months later, he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of sexual assault of minors. He will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. In May 2018, MSU agreed to pay a $500 million settlement to victims who had sued the university, among the largest sums ever paid in relation to sex-abuse claims.

As a consequence of that financial victory, Denhollander’s question has taken on a painfully literal meaning.

While the settlement represented the end of one long, difficult story, it signaled the beginning of another. Survivors like Denhollander have been deep in negotiations with lawyers and mediators over the disbursement of the settlement funds. In a process that involves an awkward combination of apologetic recognition, dispassionate mathematics, and, often, a torturous recounting of abuse, hundreds of women are learning what their suffering was “worth” in dollar terms.

Roughly a year into the mediation process, many of the survivors have now received their answers—in decisions about their payouts, known as allocations. For one woman, it was a low five-figure sum that will help her retire credit card debt and relocate; for another, it was an amount in the high six figures, enough to cover bills related to her mental health treatment and to enable her to work with other survivors. For a third, it’s a donation to a nonprofit she cares about. For each, the check will be worth considerably less than its face value, after taxes and attorneys’ fees. And for many, the money itself is a hurtful reminder of the abuse that took place.

The idea of a process that attaches financial value to acts of abuse is appealing to no one, presenting a challenging tangle of money, law, and trauma. Advocates and survivors are the first to say that settlements are more about a sense of justice than about money; no sum could ever compensate for the damage done. At its worst, the process can feel like an invasive haggle that reduces the experience of profound harm to a flat dollar figure. “It’s the trauma you went through, basically, being ranked against [that of] other girls,” says Grace French, a ­Nassar survivor who works in marketing and is a cofounder of the Army of Survivors, a nonprofit that helps those who have experienced abuse. “I do think a lot of girls are still struggling with that after getting that number.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Catholic

June 27, 2019

By Michelle Martin

A review of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s policies and procedures on the prevention of sexual abuse of minors, the way the archdiocese reports and investigates allegations and how it supports victims showed many strengths, as well some areas that could be improved.

Monica Applewhite, an internationally recognized expert on sexual abuse and the development of policies and procedures to deal with it, was hired last year to evaluate what the archdiocese has done and could do better.

The review was not sparked by any particular incident in the archdiocese, Applewhite said. Rather, she was asked to look at the systems that were in place to prevent and respond to clerical sexual abuse and suggest any further steps the archdiocese can take.

William Kunkel, the archdiocese’s general counsel, said the archdiocese has asked outside experts for help evaluating and strengthening its sexual abuse prevention and response policies since they were first instituted in 1992.

However, this was the first time a U.S. Catholic diocese has asked Applewhite for this kind of review, she said. She has worked with other dioceses on developing and implementing policies, and from 2003 to 2007 she oversaw the response to the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People by religious communities in the United States, helping them develop their own accreditation policies and directing the accreditation process.

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Patheos blog

June 27, 2019

By Deacon Greg Kandra

From press release from the Diocese of Richmond:

On the same day six names were added to the Catholic Diocese of Richmond’s list of clergy with credible and substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse, Bishop Barry C. Knestout initiated a policy directing all diocesan institutions, schools and parish buildings to only identify themselves with the following: the names of saints, the mysteries of the faith, the titles of our Lady or of our Lord, or the place where the ministry has been established. They will no longer be named after an individual bishop, pastor, founder or individual.

The policy goes into effect today, June 27, 2019.

“Overcoming the tragedy of abuse is not just about holding accountable those who have committed abuses, it is also about seriously examining the role and complex legacies of individuals who should have done more to address the crisis in real time,” said Bishop Knestout. “The continued honorific recognition of those individuals provides a barrier to healing for our survivors, and we want survivors to know that we welcome and support them in our diocese.”

Currently, the only school building, parish or diocesan location that requires a change because of this new policy is Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School located in Virginia Beach. The school returns to its former name of Catholic High School which it was named in 1993 when it moved to its Princess Anne Road location. For more on the history, founding and naming of the school, visit: https://www.chsvb.org/about/history.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
The Republican

June 27, 2019

By Anne-Gerard Flynn

Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski’s recent meeting with a man who says he was sexually abused by the late Bishop Christopher Weldon may test new church guidelines on how to handle claims against a bishop, as well as deliver justice for an alleged victim.

A statement released by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield following the June 20 meeting said that the alleged victim’s remarks had been documented and an initial report filed with the Hampden County District Attorney’s Office. Further, it referenced “the courage it takes any person, including this individual, to share such a traumatic story of abuse.”

The Springfield Diocese noted that Rozanski was “seeking guidance on how this complaint should now be handled in light of the new policies and procedures agreed upon last week by the U.S. bishops but not yet implemented.”

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TORONTO (CANADA)
Catholic Register

June 27, 2019

By Michael Swan

The Vatican put a discussion about married priests on the agenda for the Oct. 6-27 Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region. The working document for the Rome meeting calls for “ministry with an Amazonian face” and greater access to the Eucharist in remote communities that rarely see a priest.

Like the Amazon, Canada’s north faces a severe shortage of priests and a complete absence of Indigenous priests.

“The people really do appreciate the sacraments. At this point, they just can’t do that without a priest,” said Bishop Jon Hansen of the Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith.

Hansen’s diocese covers 1.5 million square kilometres and 30,000 Catholics with six parishes, 27 churches and no incardinated priests. Priests currently serving in Canada’s north are on loan for periods of anywhere from six months to two years.

“So I’m constantly on the lookout,” Hansen said.

A conversation in Rome this fall about ordaining married, Indigenous priests for service in their own communities — priests who could offer the Mass fluently in Indigenous languages — has certainly perked up Hansen’s ears.

“I think it would continue to be of interest to me, so I will follow it closely,” he said.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Wall Street Journal

June 27, 2019

By Francis X. Rocca

This October, bishops meeting at the Vatican will consider the possibility of ordaining married men to serve as priests in remote parts of the Amazon region. If the Synod of Bishops recommends such a move to ease celibacy rules and Pope Francis approves, it will be the first time in a thousand years that the Roman Catholic Church has routinely ordained married men as priests.

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

June 27, 2019

We applaud lawmakers in Rhode Island, especially Rep. Carol McEntee, for advancing needed reform to the civil statutes of limitations for child sexual abuse. The bill that these legislators have now forwarded to Gov. Gina Raimondo for her signature will help create safer, more informed communities in Rhode Island.

We are especially grateful to Ann Hagan Webb, a powerful speaker, advocate, and survivor whose efforts were central to the passage of this bill. Rep. McEntee, the sister of this dynamic advocate, said to the press that “this is Annie’s bill.” Ann’s willingness to share her story of abuse publicly and work with survivors and legislators was critical to building momentum for this reform and we applaud her effort.

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

June 27, 2019

The Diocese of Richmond has added an additional 6 names to their list of clergy accused of abuse. We call on Bishop Barry Knestout to personally visit each parish where these men worked or spent time and urge witnesses, whistleblowers, and survivors to come forward and make a report to law enforcement.

The more information that is added to these lists, the more information that gets into the hands of parents and parishioners, leading to safer communities for children and vulnerable adults. These updates can also help bring comfort to survivors who previously may have believed they were alone. For those reasons, we are glad Richmond catholic officials have added these names. But there is still more information that is needed for these lists to be as helpful as possible.

First, the diocese should ensure that as much information related to allegations as possible is released. This includes not only names of the accused and their current status, but also a full listing of the locations they worked, a picture, and information related to when the allegations were first received and what was done in response. Similarly, these lists should be expanded and updated to include not only priests, but also deacons, nuns, bishops, or any other church staff that has been publicly accused.

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BOSTON (MA)
The Pilot

June 26, 2019

By Greg Erlandson

For those who say the Church doesn’t get it, or the Vatican doesn’t get it, I offer up Msgr. John Kennedy. Msgr. Kennedy has perhaps the most unenviable job in the Church today. He is head of the Vatican office that investigates allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy.

“I can honestly tell you that when reading cases involving sexual abuse by clerics, you never get used to it, and you can feel your heart and soul hurting,” he said recently. “There are times when I am poring over cases that I want to get up and scream, that I want to pack up my things and leave the office and not come back.”

Msgr. Kennedy made this remarkable admission in a speech to a room full of Catholic communicators and journalists during the 2019 Catholic Media Conference. His speech lasted more than an hour, during which you could have heard the proverbial pin drop. At its end, he received a standing ovation.

The ovation was not for his rhetorical skills, but for his honesty. He spoke frankly about the excruciating purgatory of his work.

“One of the worst things is seeing photographs and exchanges of chats or messages that are often presented in the acts of the case,” he said. “In all honesty, this work has changed me and all who work with me. It has taken away another part of my innocence and has overshadowed me with sadness.”

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

June 27, 2019

By Elise Harris

Italian Bishop Francesco Cavina has resigned from his post in the Diocese of Carpi following a flood of media allegations accusing him of mingling ecclesial and political affairs during the election of the city’s mayor earlier this year.

In April an article appeared in the Italian magazine L’Espresso accusing Cavina of “electoral corruption,” saying he participated in a campaign to defame his city’s mayor and accepted favors from the deputy mayor, Simone Morelli, in exchange for helping Morelli get votes from the Church.

Cavina was reportedly being investigated by police for being part of an alleged system of favors and patronage with city officials. According to the magazine, police wiretapped some 10 phone calls in which he was allegedly mingling in political affairs, ensuring a electoral victory to Morelli, who reportedly offered gifts to the Church in exchange.

The report also alleged that Cavina accepted too many gifts from faithful in his diocese, at times receiving quasi-romantic notes from a woman he reportedly referred to as ‘an angel’, and that he intervened using contacts in the Holy See to stop proceedings against a young priest accused of pedophilia.

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FLINT (MI)
Flint Journal

June 27, 2019

By Roberto Acosta

A court hearing has been postponed weeks for a former Flint-area priest accused of sexually assaulting a young boy at a Burton Catholic church.

Vincent DeLorenzo, 80, was scheduled for a probable cause conference on Thursday, June 27 in Genesee District Court after being formally arraigned last week on three counts each of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Mike Manley, DeLorenzo’s attorney, made a brief appearance in court Thursday afternoon when it was decided the hearing would be moved to early August. DeLorenzo was not in court.

The charges against DeLorenzo and four other priests were announced May 24 by Attorney General Dana Nessel.

A five or six-year old boy who attended primary school at a Catholic Church in Burton from 1995 – 2000 is the alleged victim of sexual assault by a former Flint-area priest, according to an affidavit released by the Attorney General’s Office.

The victim, listed as “John Doe” in charging documents, is not being identified.

The boy attended the primary school Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Burton starting when he was five or six years old in 1995, when the misconduct is said to have begun. The abuse lasted for five years, according to officials.

During this time, DeLorenzo allegedly penetrated, fondled and caressed the boy during blessings and while praying, according to the affidavit. Some of the incidents are said to have taken place in the less visible areas of the Holy Redeemer Church.

In taking on the case, Manley said he’s defending DeLorenzo “to ensure he receives a fair trial.”

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PHOENIX (AZ)
Associated Press

June 27, 2019

By Bob Christie

Victims of sexual abuse and attorneys representing them on Wednesday called for the Phoenix Diocese of the Catholic church to disclose the names of all priests who have been accused of child sex crimes.

The demand came at a news conference where Minnesota-based attorney and longtime clergy abuse victim advocate Jeff Anderson released a report with the names of 109 clerics he says have been accused of crimes against children.

The Phoenix Diocese has publicly released a list of 43 names of clergy who have been “credibly accused” of abuse since the diocese was formed in 1969 and removes them from their clerical duties. Priests accused before that year are disclosed by the Tucson and Gallup, New Mexico, dioceses, which oversaw parts of the region before the new diocese was created.

The diocese said it appeared the list contained names of priests identified on its website and those maintained by other dioceses and religious orders, and that none of those identified by Anderson are in an active Phoenix-area ministry. The Associated Press located one of the names left off the Phoenix list as one maintained on a list by the Gallup diocese.

But Anderson and other advocates say the Phoenix diocese owes victims complete transparency and should disclose every name, including those that have worked for other religious orders allowed to work in the diocese.

He said he believes the diocese has underreported the number of priests who have worked and been accused of child sexual molestation.

“It is time for transparency, and it’s time for disclosure,” Anderson said. “And this is our best effort to begin the process of full disclosure here,” he said of the list he released .

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RICHMOND (VA)
WTVR TV

June 27, 2019

By Nick Boykin

Six names have been added by the Catholic Diocese of Richmond to a list of clergy who have credible and substantiated accusations of sexual abuse of a minor against them.

The six names added by the Diocese are Stanley F. Banaszek, Anthony M. Canu, Patrick J. Cassidy, Leonardo G. Mantei, Thomas D. Sykes and Vincent The Quang Nguyen. The only one not known to be dead already is Vincent The Quang Nguyen.

The list, which was first released by the Diocese in February, contains names of priests and their status in the Church. Some have passed away and others are listed as removed, laicized, convicted or suspended if their status is known.

“Back in February, when we published a list of clergy against whom there are credible and substantiated claims of child sexual abuse, we acknowledged the list would be updated,” said the Barry C. Knestout, bishop of Richmond. “As we continue to engage with survivors of abuse and learn more about the history of our diocese, we continue our commitment to transparency. It is my sincere hope that the additions of these individuals will help provide healing for anyone who suffered at their hands.”

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PHOENIX (AZ)
Phoenix Business Journal

June 27, 2019

By Tanner Puckett

Attorneys with Jeff Anderson & Associates released a report June 25 containing the names, photos and information of 109 clergy accused of sexual abuse in the Diocese of Phoenix.

“It is time for transparency, and it is time for disclosure,” said Jeff Anderson, whose Minnesota-based law firm advocates for victims of clergy sexual abuse.

“The reason why we are here today and disseminating this information is because there has not been a full accounting by the Catholic diocese in Phoenix of all the names that should have been disclosed by the Catholic bishops, past and present.”

The report includes assignment histories and details of accusations. Also included are those who were assigned to or living within the Dioceses of Gallup and Tucson before the formation of the Diocese of Phoenix in 1969.

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NEW ORLEANS (LA)
The Advocate

June 27, 2019

By Ramon Antonio Vargas

The list of Catholic clergymen who served in the Archdiocese of New Orleans and are faced with credible claims of sexually abusing minors grew by four names this week.

Robert Poandl, Christopher Springer, Lawrence Dark and Archibald McDowell were all added Monday to a list that had initially been released Nov. 2 and consisted of 55 priests as well as two deacons.

Poandl and the three others had been religious-order priests who were assigned to work in the archdiocese decades ago. While the archdiocese said it was later notified of sexual misconduct claims against them, their orders were in charge of investigating the cases and determining whether they were credible.

Archdiocesan spokeswoman Sarah McDonald said her organization was “recently” notified that the accusations against all of them had indeed been deemed credible, leading to the decision to add all four to a list which now includes 61 clergymen who are suspected of child sexual abuse.

The archdiocese didn’t further address the timing of the updates to its list. It came shortly after the nation’s Catholic bishops met in Baltimore to pursue stronger accountability and transparency on complaints pertaining to the decades-long clergy sexual abuse crisis.

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VIRGINIA BEACH (VA)
News Channel 3

June 27, 2019

By Nick Boykin

Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School in Virginia Beach will no longer have Bishop Sullivan in its name.

The move was announced by Bishop of Richmond Barry C. Knestout, who stated that the school will return to its former name of Catholic High School.

Buildings in the Diocese will now only be named after saints or titles with other Catholic meanings, not after individuals.

Catholic High School is the only building in the Diocese that currently requires a name change. “Overcoming the tragedy of abuse is not just about holding accountable those who have committed abuses, it is also about seriously examining the role and complex legacies of individuals who should have done more to address the crisis in real time,” Knestout said.

“It is my hope and prayer that the policy change is another way to assist survivors of abuse in their healing, especially those who have, in any way, experienced the failure of Church leadership to adequately address their needs and concerns,” he said.

The change comes after a push by a survivor named Thomas Lee. He’s been calling for the school’s renaming for about 10 years. He says he was abused at St. John Vianney Seminary in Goochland County by Fr. John Leonard and says Bishop Sullivan covered up facts to allow Leonard to continue to serve as a priest.

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SANTA ROSA (CA)
Press Democrat

June 26, 2019

By Mary Callahan

He left his abuser behind when he departed Hanna Boys Center, a graduate at 18, onto another life.

But the anguish of what happened — six years of sexual abuse at the hands of his case worker at the Sonoma Valley residential facility for troubled boys — nearly took him down anyway.

“It was a very, very dark feeling,” said Robert Kennedy, 25, identified until Wednesday in civil and criminal court proceedings only as a John Doe.

His abuser, Kevin Scott Thorpe, who was promoted to clinical director at Hanna months before his June 2017 arrest, is now serving 21 years in state prison in the San Joaquin Valley. Kennedy, one of his victims, kept his story to himself until coming forward two years ago, detailing his claims to law enforcement and later filing a civil suit against Thorpe.

“I felt like I was suffering in silence, and if I did speak that it wouldn’t even matter,” Kennedy said. “That’s what I kept telling myself.”

On Wednesday the Santa Rosa man spoke for the first time outside of court about his experience, standing at a press conference outside the Hanna Boys Center and later in an exclusive interview. The account he shared followed news on Tuesday that he and his brother, another of Thorpe’s victims, had reached a $6.8 million settlement in their pair of lawsuits against Hanna Boys Center and the affiliated Santa Rosa Diocese of the Catholic Church.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Sun

June 27, 2019

By Betsy Schindler

I opened the Baltimore Sun recently and saw a page of articles on childhood sexual abuse. Southern Baptist Church delegates were meeting in Birmingham, Ala., to begin addressing years of sexual abuse by pastors and youth ministers. And Catholic bishops were meeting in Baltimore to discuss the next steps in addressing the ongoing problem of decades of sexual abuse. I felt exhausted by the overwhelming evidence of abuse everywhere you look, but also hopeful that finally something can be done to prevent future abuse.

I attended the Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse symposium in April, and there was much discussion of prevention, but also of the lifelong damage inflicted on survivors. It was estimated that survivors spend at least $300,000 in therapy over their lifetimes, but I was thinking of the personal cost to myself.

I thought about how things could have been different if my step grandfather had never entered our family. If my family had never attended two particular churches. I imagine I wouldn’t have temporarily dropped out of college because of an eating disorder. I would have still had student loans to pay off, but maybe I would have paid them off before the age of 50, because I wasn’t spending so much money on therapy and surviving.

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PHOENIX (AZ)
Arizona Mirror

June 26, 2019

By Jerod MacDonald-Evoy

Lawyers and victims gathered in a hotel conference room Wednesday afternoon to release a report they hope will help survivors of childhood sexual abuse by Catholic priests to come forward.

The report consists of 109 priests and other clergymen who have been accused of sexual predation in Arizona, specifically those in the Phoenix Diocese.

“It is time for transparency and it is time for disclosure,” Jeff Anderson, an attorney who has been representing victims for more than 30 years, said while introducing what he and his firm are calling the Anderson Report.

In a written statement on the press conference held by Anderson’s firm, the Phoenix Diocese encouraged victims to call local law enforcement.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Religion News Service

June 26, 2019

Joey Piscitelli was angry when Kamala Harris emerged as a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. It brought back the frustration he felt in the 2000s, when he was a newly minted spokesman for clergy sex abuse victims and Harris was San Francisco’s district attorney.

Piscitelli says Harris never responded to him when he wrote to tell her that a priest who had molested him was still in ministry at a local Catholic cathedral. And, he says, she didn’t reply five years later when he wrote again, urging her to release records on accused clergy to help other alleged victims who were filing lawsuits.

“She did nothing,” said Piscitelli, today the Northern California spokesman for SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Survivors of clergy abuse and their attorneys say that Harris’ record on fighting sex abuse within the Catholic Church is relevant as the U.S. senator from California campaigns for the presidency as a tough-on-crime ex-prosecutor who got her start prosecuting child sexual abuse cases. They complain that Harris was consistently silent on the Catholic Church’s abuse scandal — first as district attorney in San Francisco and later as California’s attorney general.

In a statement to The Associated Press, the Harris campaign underscored her record of supporting child sex abuse victims but did not address her silence regarding victims abused by Catholic clerics.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
ITV News

June 26, 2019

A vicar has been found guilty of sexually assaulting an American male student on a transatlantic flight. A jury returned a unanimous verdict at Newcastle Crown Court.

The Reverend Peter McConnell, who was a vicar at Longhorsley, in Northumberland, had denied the claim.

The 23-year-old PhD student said he was subjected to “sleazy comments” and groped under a blanket on overnight flight 0066 from Philadelphia to Heathrow in March 2017.

The 64-year-old clergyman, who was vicar at St Helen’s Church, in Longhorsley, Northumberland, had been in the USA to visit his sister after she suffered a serious illness. The court heard he’d had up to five quarter bottles of wine during the flight, although he denied he was drunk.

The student said he reported what had happened to the airline and the Church of England. The police became involved as a result.

McConnell will be sentenced on 29 July 2019.

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

June 26, 2019

The Diocese of Fargo has potentially kept children and vulnerable adults in harm’s way for months by not publicly disclosing a child sex abuse accusation against a local priest. We call for the responsible party or parties to be disciplined by Church officials, both in the US and in Rome.

According to the media report, more than a year ago a woman reported to the Diocese of Fargo that she was molested as a child by Fr. Jack Herron. However, we know this only because she had the strength and courage to disclose this horror to a newspaper. We call on the Diocese to explain why it would endanger the faithful and the public, as well as violate Church policies and promises, by hiding this information for months.

Informed communities are safer communities, and in choosing to keep this information internal, Catholic leadership in the Diocese of Fargo have put children and vulnerable adults within their borders at risk.

Members of the public who have been around an accused child molesting priest for decades need and deserve to know who and where he is. This kind of secrecy only protects wrongdoers while leaving others at risk. We are glad that the press broke this story, and we hope that others with information or suspicions about Fr. Herron – or any other priest, nun, deacon, or church staffer – will call independent sources of help, like police, prosecutors, therapists and support groups like ours.

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

June 26, 2019

Today, the names of more abusive clergy who worked and lived in Arizona will be revealed at a press conference. We are grateful to Jeff Anderson and his team for getting this important information out to the public. At the same time, we are disappointed that this transparency did not come from church officials themselves.

Informed communities are safer communities, and the more information about accused clergy that church officials share with parents and parishioners, the more knowledgeable and vigilant they will be. This helps protect children and vulnerable adults. Similarly, when church officials release information about abusers, the communities where those abusers served in will know to look deeper in their midst for survivors who may not have come forward but are still in need of help.

Simply put, transparency is good for everyone.

So we are glad that independent reports continue to be publicized and that this important information gets released. We hope that in the future, church officials will live up to their promise to be “open and honest” regarding cases of clergy sex abuse and will release this kind of information on their own.

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MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
Star Tribune

June 26, 2019

By Paul Walsh

A tentative settlement announced Wednesday between the Catholic Diocese of New Ulm and 93 people who allege they were sexually abused by clergy as children calls for the claimants to receive roughly $34 million.

The agreement in principle now goes for approval to U.S. Bankruptcy Court, where the south-central Minnesota diocese filed for protection from its creditors in March 2017.

“This is a big day for the survivors,” Jeff Anderson, attorney for many of the New Ulm claimants. “Throughout this process, all of the survivors have demonstrated tremendous courage and patience. They have advanced the child protection movement and made their communities safer for kids.”

Anderson also represents clients in negotiations with dioceses in St. Cloud and Winona-Rochester. He said last month that litigation against the Crookston diocese is going forward after settlement negotiations broke down.

The Diocese of Winona-Rochester claimed bankruptcy in November of 2018 and set a deadline in April 2019 for those wishing to file a claim of sexual abuse. A total of 121 claims had been filed against the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, naming 17 priests. Many of them were filed as a result of the state’s Child Victims Act, which lifted the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse for three years. At the time, Bishop John Quinn said bankruptcy was necessary to ensure the victims are able to get justice and heal.

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Legal Examiner blog

June 26, 2019

By Joseph Saunders

For the second time in six month’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, refuses to remove a priest accused of sexual abuse. The latest incident involves Monsignor John Paddack, stationed at Church of Notre Dame on W. 114th St. in Manhattan.

The priest has been accused of sexual abuse by eight different individuals and the Archdiocese, and specifically Cardinal Dolan, has known about the allegations since 2012 but has stubbornly refused to take action.

Five accusers leveled abuse allegations against Paddack in March, with one former student at Cardinal Hayes High School recalling how he went to the priest for counseling over suicidal feelings. Rafael Mendoza said Paddack instead asked him to strip naked and examined him with a stethoscope.

The abuse occurred when Mendoza was a freshman in 1996.

“He would take me to his office and he would tell me to remove my shirt, unbuckle my pants. I can remember the coldness of the knob of the stethoscope while he’s checking my heartbeat and all around my chest and slowly going down to my genitals,” Mendoza said. “Just seeing his face turn bloodshot red while doing this, I go back now and think he was getting something out of this.”

Paddack also worked at St. Joseph By the Sea on Staten Island and the Church of the Incarnation in Manhattan.

According to Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, this is the second time in the past year that Cardinal Dolan kept the vulnerable in harm’s way. Just six months ago it was revealed that Fr. Donald Timone, himself twice-accused of abuse, was able to stay on the job even though Catholic officials paid one of his victims a six figure settlement.

Cardinal Dolan has spoken publicly about his concern for survivors of sexual abuse by priests but his actions belie his words. When the NY state legislature was considering helping survivors by enacting statute of limitations reform, the Cardinal had his lobbyists spending money and fighting vigorously against the measure. Fortunately, this year, the legislation finally passed and NY sex abuse survivors can now hold the Archdiocese of New York and other dioceses in NY accountable for aiding and abetting abusive priests.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The Atlantic

June 26, 2019

By Hannah Giorgis

In the United States, about one-third of child-sexual-abuse victims come forward with their allegations before adulthood. Another third disclose far later in life—the median age is 52—and the rest never reveal their past trauma at all. In recent years, many children’s advocates have looked to shift these low reporting numbers (and correspondingly low rates of prosecution) by addressing a legal hurdle that lies in the way of many victims seeking court-based justice: the statute of limitations.

Speaking yesterday at the Aspen Ideas Festival, co-hosted by the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic, the lawyer Kathryn Robb, who serves as the executive director of CHILD USAdvocacy, noted a clear gap between lawmakers’ understanding of abuse and their visions of justice. “There’s a lot of ignorance about the nature of trauma, why victims don’t disclose, and the idiocy of statutes of limitations, their arbitrary unfairness,” Robb said. “That’s a bit of a frustration, just trying to educate legislative leaders and governors across the [country].”

As of this year, 38 states (as well as the District of Columbia) are reconsidering their statute of limitations for sexual-abuse cases. Robb and her fellow panel speaker Marci Hamilton—the founder, CEO, and academic director of CHILD USA—spent 16 years attempting to persuade New York state legislators to pass laws that would lift restrictions on victims who come forward with allegations later in life. In New York, the criminal statute of limitations for felony sexual abuse of a minor has been extended to age 28; for misdemeanors, survivors can come forward until they reach the age of 25. For civil cases—against people and institutions—the statute of limitations now extends to age 55.

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LOUISVILLE (KY)
Courier Journal

June 26, 2019

By Billy Kobin

The Archdiocese of Louisville said it followed proper procedures while investigating a priest at a Highlands church who was accused of taking inappropriate photos of students.

But a national support group for survivors of clergy sexual abuse is calling on Vatican officials to discipline Archbishop Joseph Kurtz — the head of Louisville’s Catholic diocese — for “recklessly and secretively” handling the investigation into the priest, who was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing.

As the Courier Journal first reported Tuesday, the Rev. Jeff Gatlin resigned earlier in June as pastor at St. Francis of Assisi, 1960 Bardstown Road, to deal with health issues, according to the Archdiocese of Louisville.

Previously: Louisville priest resigns after being accused of ‘inappropriate’ photos

Gatlin, 51, had been accused of “inappropriate picture taking” of students during a May 13 field day celebrating the end of the parish school year, officials said.

The church’s school serves students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.

Archdiocesan spokeswoman Cecelia Price told the Courier Journal in an email that officials received one “specific complaint about a possibly inappropriate photo and some general concerns from other parents.”

Price said the photos were intended to be used for an eighth-grade video and that the photo related to the specific complaint “showed nothing inappropriate.”

“It was a shot of two students in a conference room working on room set-up,” Price said, declining to provide more specifics on the complaint.

One week after the field day, St. Francis of Assisi School principal Steve Frommeyer shared an email with parents in which Gatlin wrote that a “number of concerns have been raised and accusations have been made about my actions of taking pictures of students at the field day activities.”

“Though I do not believe I have done anything wrong, I have asked Archbishop Kurtz to appoint a temporary administrator so that I can cooperate with a review of what occurred, as well as my overall ministry as pastor of Saint Francis of Assisi Parish,” Gatlin wrote.

His comments were also included in a May 24 bulletin sent to parishioners.

“You are in my prayers. Please keep me in your prayers,” Gatlin wrote.

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SAVANNAH (GA)
The Associated Press

June 25, 2019

By Russ Bynum

A former Catholic priest who pleaded guilty last year to raping two boys decades earlier has died just several months into a 20-year prison sentence in South Carolina.

Wayland Yoder Brown, 75, died at a hospital June 8 from what appear to be natural causes, South Carolina Corrections Department spokeswoman Chrysti Shain said Tuesday. The ex-priest had been imprisoned since his guilty plea last October.

“It’s too soon to have an official ruling, but it was expected,” Shain said of Brown’s death. “There’s nothing suspicious.”

Brown had already been dismissed from the priesthood and served five years imprisoned in Maryland for sexually abusing two other boys when he was indicted by South Carolina prosecutors in 2017.

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NEW ULM (MN)
Anderson Advocates

June 26, 2019

(New Ulm, MN) – A settlement has been reached in the Diocese of New Ulm bankruptcy case, which involves 93 claimants who were sexually abused as children by clergy and others in the Diocese.

The Diocese and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (“Creditors Committee”), comprised of clergy sexual abuse survivors, have reached an agreement in principle toward a resolution of the bankruptcy. The settlement calls for payment of approximately $34 million to the 93 sexual abuse claimants. The Diocese previously agreed to the release of names of credibly accused priests.

“This is a big day for the survivors,” said Jeff Anderson, attorney for many of the New Ulm survivors. “Throughout this process, all of the survivors have demonstrated tremendous courage and patience. They have advanced the child protection movement and made their communities safer for kids.”

The Creditors Committee and the Diocese will submit a Disclosure Statement and Plan of Reorganization to the United States Bankruptcy Court. These documents are subject to approval by the Bankruptcy Court. Once the documents are approved, the 93 survivors will be sent ballots and vote on the Plan. The Bankruptcy Court must then approve the Plan the survivors approve by balloting. After that, the claims are evaluated by a claims reviewer to determine award amounts.

The settlement includes contribution of $8 million from the Diocese and its parishes with the rest of the approximately $34 million being funded by insurance carriers for the Diocese.

Contact: Jeff Anderson: (651)227-9990 (office); (612)817-8665 (cell)
Mike Finnegan: (651)227-9990 (office); (612)205-5531 (cell)
Molly Burke: (651)227-9990 (office); (651)283-7606 (cell)

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ROME (ITALY)
CATHOLIC HERALD

June 26, 2019

By Aaron Benavides

Archbishop Charles Scicluna said that his life may be been saved by a victim of sexual abuse after he developed gall bladder trouble during a visit to Chile.

In an interview with a Maltese radio station, Scicluna said the incident occurred during his February 2018 trip to investigate the cover-up of sexual abuse by Bishop Juan Barros.

Scicluna was tasked by Pope Francis to interview victims of sexual abuse, but was feeling unwell and experiencing abdominal pain during the visit.

During one of the interviews, a victim who works as a medical consultant questioned Scicluna about his symptoms and recommended he go to the hospital for testing.

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PHOENIX (AZ)
3TV/CBS 5

June 26, 2019

A group of survivors, advocates and their lawyers will release the names of 109 clerics accused of sexually abusing kids in the Diocese of Phoenix Wednesday afternoon.

They will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Phoenix.

The report will include the names, histories, photographs and information of all 109 clerics accused.

The report comes after the Arizona Legislature passed legislation that extended the age limit for sexual abuse survivors to bring claims against a perpetrator and the institution that may have protected the perpetrator, according to a news release.

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HOUSTON (TX)
HOUSTON CHRONICLE

June 25, 2019

By Samantha Ketterer and Nicole Hensley

The auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston has temporarily stepped aside from public priestly duties after being hit with what the archdiocese has termed a “false allegation” of sexual abuse from 1971.

Several chancery departments and at least one pastor received letters addressed to Bishop George Sheltz, containing an accusation of molestation, archdiocesan officials said in a statement dated Friday.

The letter writer, who said she was a minor in 1971, also expressed anger that her current pastor was being moved to another parish. She indicated she would go public with her accusation against the auxiliary bishop if he went forward with the re-assignment.

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PORTLAND (ME)
Press Herald

June 16, 2019

The Diocese of Portland has created a 24/7 hotline to receive complaints about priests or other church employees who are accused of misconduct that violates church ethics rules.

The reporting system is operated by an Akron, Ohio-based Red Flag Reporting and will take reports about fraud, misconduct, harassment or substance abuse among clergy, the diocese said in a statement Tuesday.

However, the system is not intended to be a way for the public to report clergy sexual abuse, the diocese said, encouraging anyone with information about sexual misconduct in the church to contact “civil authorities.”

“Several months ago, after hearing from people around the state, the diocese started the process of establishing this system for individuals to express their concerns in an easily accessible way,” Bishop Robert P. Deeley said in the statement. “The system is organized to ensure that these reports will be handled in a timely and thorough manner.”

The diocese said the company “ensures accountability at the diocesan level by overseeing the handling of each complaint,” the statement said. Posters will be placed in churches, diocesan schools and buildings with the hotline number. Complaints can be received in English or Spanish, or can be submitted online.

People who report misconduct also will be granted whistleblower protection.

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NEW DELHI (INDIA)
UCA News

June 26, 2019

India’s Cardinal Oswald Gracias and two of his auxiliary bishops have asked Bombay High Court to quash a case that accused them of failing to report to police alleged child sex abuse by a Catholic priest.

The top court of Maharashtra state on June 25 postponed hearing the case to July 1.

“The charge against the cardinal and his deputies is that they failed to initiate action, but it is incorrect. And therefore the police case is challenged in the High Court,” the clerics’ counsel Jayant Joseph Bardeskar told ucanews.com on June 25.

Mumbai police filed the case against Cardinal Gracias of Bombay and Bishops Dominic Savio and John Rodrigues accusing them of not acting against an archdiocese priest accused of molesting a child despite complaints from the child’s father.

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FARGO (ND)
In Forum

June 26, 2019

By April Baumgarten

A woman who says she was sexually abused by a Fargo priest in the 1970s is sharing her story.

The woman, who asked not to be named, has reported the allegations against retired Father Jack Herron, who was a priest at St. Anthony of Padua, to the Catholic Diocese of Fargo and the Fargo Police Department. She told The Forum Herron groped her and touched her inappropriately in the church’s rectory.

“I have to deal with this. It’s kind of like how your life is a puzzle,” she said. “I’ve dealt with everything else in my life that were struggles except this one corner piece.”

The woman was 15 to 16 years old when the alleged inappropriate contact occurred, according to a January letter to the diocese. The letter, which was obtained by The Forum, was from her attorney and described how she had sought Herron’s help in answering questions about the Catholic faith.

Though the alleged abuse didn’t happen immediately, the letter details inappropriate touching. At times, Herron called her “his little lady,” the letter alleged. The priest allegedly asked her to keep the interactions a secret.

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ALTOONA (PA)
Tribune Democrat

June 26, 2019

By Dave Sutor

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona–Johnstown has challenged the ruling in a case that – if upheld – could significantly expand the ability of alleged childhood victims of clergy sexual abuse to file civil claims against the church.

In December 2017, Blair County Judge Jolene Kopriva dismissed a case brought by Renée Rice against the diocese, then-retired (now deceased) Bishop Joseph Adamec, the estate of deceased Bishop James Hogan and the Rev. Charles Bodziak because the abuse she alleged Bodziak committed, from 1975 or 1976 through 1981 when they were both at St. Leo’s Church in Altoona, was past the commonwealth’s statute of limitations.

A three-judge Superior Court of Pennsylvania panel overturned the decision earlier this month, stating that if a jury finds a confidential relationship existed that resulted in fraudulent concealment of information, then defendants cannot gain rulings in their favor based upon the statute of limitations expiring.

Rice’s attorney in the original hearing, Richard Serbin, argued that his client could not have known the full level of the diocese’s alleged effort to protect predator priests until the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General released a grand jury report that provided details about the alleged decades-long coverup.

He believed the conspiracy lasted until Bodziak was placed on leave in January 2016 or maybe even until the grand jury report was issued in March 2016.

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PARIS (FRANCE)
LaCroix International

June 26, 2019

Catholic bishops in the Africa nation of Ivory Coast have announced the creation of a national body to protect minors and vulnerable persons from clerical sex abuse.

The establishment of such a mechanism is one of many new requirements aimed at combatting the scourge that Pope Francis outlined on May 9.

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SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
NBC News Bay Area

June 26, 2019

By Pete Suratos

One of the largest settlements has been reached for sexual abuse cases involving a diocese in the North Bay.

The news comes on the heels of Catholic Church officials calling on state lawmakers to reconsider a bill that would penalize priests for not reporting the sexual abuse of minors told to them during confessions.

A letter was sent by the president of the Catholic League calling the bill unjust and even threatening to sue.

The bill would penalize priests for not coming forward with sexual abuse claims involving minors told to them in the confessional by a coworker or another priest.

While the Catholic League believes priests should be held accountable for their actions, the bill — if passed — would violate a sacrament of the church.

The letter comes as lawyers for two brothers sexually abused by a clinical director for a Sonoma Valley boys home reached a $6.8 million settlement. The home is affiliated with the Santa Rosa Diocese of the Catholic Church. It’s the largest single settlement in more than a quarter-century for the area.

As of May, the diocese has paid out more than $30 million in settlements for clergy abuse.

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PARIS (FRANCE)
LaCroix International

June 26, 2019

The clerical sex abuse phenomenon has become a global crisis in recent years. Local Churches have been asked to address it. It is the responsibility of bishops’ conferences, dioceses and religious congregations. It also requires the active involvement of the laity.

Before coming out with concrete measures, it is important to clarify what the crisis or problem is all about, its extent and causes. Before any prognosis, a diagnosis is necessary. There are questions that need to be answered. What is clerical sex abuse all about? How widespread is it?

There are many who see it as the sexual abuse of children or minors by the clergy that has been covered up and allowed to continue due to clericalism.

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JACKSON HOLE (WY)
Jackson Hole News

June 26, 2019

By Emily Mieure

The first name on a list of Wyoming priests accused of sexually abusing young boys is former Jackson clergyman Gerald Chleborad.

When reached by phone at his home in Colorado, 84-year-old Chleborad refused to comment about the serious claims.

“I don’t have anything to say,” Chleborad said Thursday before hanging up.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne released the list earlier this month after internal investigations revealed “substantiated allegations of sexual abuse.”

Three adolescent males reported being sexually abused by Chleborad, according to the list, in 1984-85, 1995 and 2003.

Chleborad moved to Jackson in the early ’90s and served as a priest at Our Lady of the Mountains and Sacred Heart Chapel in Grand Teton National Park, according to newspaper archives.

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PARIS (FRANCE)
National Catholic Reporter

June 26, 2019

By Elisabeth Auvillain

As the Catholic Church of France is coming to terms with scandals of clergy sexual abuse and abused women religious, other victims of canon law have been asking for recognition. They are the sons and daughters of priests.

Following a promise made in February, three children of priests met June 13 with Bourges Archbishop Jérôme Beau, president of the French bishops’ Commission for Ordained Ministers and Lay Ecclesial Ministers.

“This was a very encouraging meeting, said Anne-Marie Mariani, one of the three members who were representing the group she founded, Enfants du Silence or “Children of Silence.”

She said the meeting with Beau is just the beginning and that another is planned for October.

“The church has agreed to open its archives and help children of priests know more about their fathers,” she said. Children of priests “often find out the truth only upon their [father’s] death,” she noted. “We are now hopeful that these situations won’t happen again.”

She added there is no way to know how many children of priests there are in France.

Beau said, “What matters is first to listen to these children of silence who express their suffering and to understand what is at stake.”

This meeting comes at a time when the French Catholic Church is trying to regain credibility after damaging revelations of numerous sexual and spiritual abuses by priests toward children and women religious.

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Patheos blog

June 26, 2019

By Captain Cassidy

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) just had its big Annual Meeting this year. There, they featured three main messages. First, they registered dim awareness of the huge sex-abuse scandal engulfing their denomination. Second, they outlined their response to that scandal. And third, they drilled down harder than ever on their culture wars–and sent a firm message to those clamoring for changes. Today, let me show you how we know where their real priorities are, what their real message was, and why they had to send it.

The Scandal Heats Up.
Early this year, two Texas newspapers released a story called “Abuse of Faith.” It detailed the sex abuse scandal erupting in the SBC. Even more, it had the potential to do to the SBC what the Spotlight stories had done to the Catholic Church, and for the same reasons, and in the same ways.

In “Abuse of Faith,” hundreds of victims shared stories of abuse at the hands of many dozens of SBC church ministers. Those victims also openly discussed the many ways that the SBC’s biggest denominational leaders had tried to bury those stories, silence them, and pretend nothing bad was happening.

After the story broke, the SBC dithered about what to do. A few leaders cried copious crocodile tears, including J.D. Greear, their current denominational president. Clearly they all hoped it would just blow over. But it didn’t. It got worse and worse.

When Greear insisted on an “investigation” into some of the churches named in “Abuse of Faith,” the resulting circus farce only drew attention to the SBC’s shortcomings. (See endnotes. This one runs deep.)

Addressing a Scandal, Sort Of.
Having failed utterly to quell outrage, of course, the SBC’s top leaders now felt they had to say something about the scandal at their Annual Meeting. They couldn’t just ignore it.

But they sure came as close as they humanly could to it.

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BELLEVILLE (IL)
News Democrat

June 26, 2019

By Teri Maddox

Bishop Edward K. Braxton turns 75 on Friday, prompting supporters and critics to wonder how much longer he will be leading the Catholic Diocese of Belleville.

Canon law requires bishops to submit resignations at age 75, but it’s up to Pope Francis whether to accept them.

“The ministry of a bishop in a diocese requires a total commitment of energy, and anything, including age, that decreases the ability to dedicate oneself fully to serving the church and the faithful is the reason that retirements are offered at 75,” said Monsignor John T. Myler, diocesan spokesman and rector at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Belleville.

Braxton plans to submit his resignation on Friday, Myler said, but nothing will change with day-to-day operations until the Pope makes a decision.

“Sometimes the Pope may ask a diocesan bishop to remain for a certain period — months, a year, even several years,” Myler said.

The Rev. James “Clyde” Grogan predicts it won’t be long for Braxton. The retired priest is among those who believe the bishop has been rigid, insensitive, arrogant and non-transparent during his 14 years in Belleville.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Salon

June 25, 2019

By Ashlie D. Stevens

Last Sunday, Cathedral High School in Indianapolis, Ind., posted an open letter on their website addressed to the “Cathedral Family.” In it, the school’s president Rob Bridges and board chair Matt Cohoat announced the school would be terminating the employment of an openly gay teacher.

“Archbishop Thompson made it clear that Cathedral’s continued employment of a teacher in a public, same-sex marriage would result in our forfeiting our Catholic identity, due to our employment of an individual living in contradiction to Catholic teaching on marriage,” Bridges and Cohoat wrote.

This decision caught the attention of national media, especially as another Catholic school in Indianapolis, Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School, had severed ties with the archdiocese just days before, after refusing to fire their openly gay teachers.

The Cathedral decision is the result of a months-long deliberation process that reveals building tension between progressive Catholics — especially younger ones — and conservative church leadership, and raises questions about what Catholic communities, and politics in those communities, will look like in the coming decades.

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CAMARILLO (CA)
Ventura County Star

June 25, 2019

By Tom Kisken

A former Catholic priest removed from ministry and convicted of molestation was reportedly presiding at home Masses in Fillmore, according to a May 30 alert from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

The notice from the archdiocese’s Vicar for Clergy Office to priests, deacons and parish life directors warns that Carlos Rene Rodriguez has no permission to act as a Roman Catholic priest. It said parishioners reported Rodriguez was celebrating Masses held at residences in Fillmore and surrounding areas.

Archdiocese officials said Rodriguez was removed from ministry in 1987 after being accused of abusing a teenager at St. Vincent Church in Los Angeles when he was part of the Vincentian religious order. After treatment and a return to limited ministry at a Santa Barbara retreat center, he left the religious order in 1993 ending his authority to serve as a priest in the archdiocese.

Archdiocese officials said he was laicized — removed from the priesthood — in 1998. The archdiocese includes Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties and is the largest in the nation.

In 2004, he pleaded guilty to multiple counts of molestation from 1988 to 1993 — beginning after Rodriguez was sent to the retreat center — involving brothers from Santa Paula. He was incarcerated in 2004 and released in 2008, according to archdiocese officials in a written statement.

Archdiocese officials also said Rodriguez presented himself as a priest in 2016, using the name of Father Carlos Ramirez at a church not affiliated with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The May notice from the Vicar for Clergy Office said he was removed from ministering at the church.

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SAVANNAH (GA)
Savannah Morning News

June 25, 2019

By Jan Skutch

Former Savannah Catholic priest Wayland Yoder Brown has died just months after he began serving a 20-year sentence for sexually assaulting two Savannah boys while still a priest.

South Carolina Department of Corrections official said Brown, 76, died at a hospital on June 8.

Brown pleaded guilty on Oct. 23 in Beaufort County, S.C., to nine charges including six counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, second degree and three counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, first degree.

“I do not expect the defendant to live through that sentence,” Judge Robert Hood said in imposing the 20-year sentence.

South Carolina 14th Judicial Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone, who prosecuted Brown, said he hoped prosecuting Brown before he died gave his victims “at least some measure of peace.”

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HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle

June 25, 2019

By Samantha Ketterer

The auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston has temporarily stepped aside from public priestly duties after being hit with a “false allegation” of sexual abuse from 1971, according to the archdiocese.

Several chancery departments and at least one pastor received letters addressed to Bishop George Sheltz, containing an accusation of molestation, archdiocesan officials said in a statement dated last Friday.

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CLEVELAND (OH)
Fox 8 News

June 25, 2019

By Bill Sheil

A national organization that represents clergy sex abuse victims is calling on the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland to release records of an exhaustive 2002 grand jury investigation into the priest-pedophile scandal.

“We think the time is now for church officials in Cleveland to lift the cover of secrecy and release these records to the public,” says Zach Hiner, the executive director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

Last Friday, the diocese released the names of 22 more clerics against whom have been made substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse – most of them are now dead – bringing the total number of names released in Cleveland to 51.

In 2002, as the abuse scandal exploded nationwide , FOX 8 did a series of reports focusing on the Cleveland Diocese.

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

June 25, 2019

A New York City priest is still on the job even though seven men say he molested them. This kind of inaction only further endangers children and vulnerable adults and we call on Vatican officials to punish and demote him.

Making matters worse, this is the second time in the past year that Cardinal Dolan kept the vulnerable in harm’s way. Just six months ago it was revealed that Fr. Donald Timone, himself twice-accused of abuse, was able to stay on the job even though Catholic officials paid one of his victims a six figure settlement.

In today’s case, Monsignor John Paddack is accused of molesting eight boys between 1984-2002. Lawyers for the survivors of Msgr. Paddock said that Cardinal Dolan first learned of the charges back in 2012, according to the Daily News. Yet Paddock was allowed to remain in ministry, in a move that defies common sense.

Msgr. Paddack is less the issue now than Cardinal Dolan. Most credibly accused predator priests profess innocence. And thanks to the courage of these eight men, the public, police, prosecutors, parishioners and parents are now warned about Msgr. Paddack.

But top Catholic officials must take action now against Dolan, the head of the second largest archdiocese in the US, who has repeatedly put children and vulnerable adults in harms way. Under Pope Francis’ new edict and the new system for reporting developed by church officials in Baltimore earlier this month, Cardinal Dolan would be one of the men tasked with investigating accusations against other bishops.

Given Cardinal Dolan’s actions in the past year, we do not believe he would be up to this task. The Vatican should remove him from his post and send a clear and strong message that this kind of inaction will not be tolerated.

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PENSACOLA (FL)
Ring of Fire Radio

June 24, 2019

By Mike Papantonio

Via America’s Lawyer: Mike Papantonio and Trial Magazines Editor Farron Cousins discuss a new report showing that the Catholic Church has spent millions of dollars lobbying against the efforts to hold their own clergy members liable for molesting children.

Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Mike Papantonio: A new report shows that the Catholic Church has spent millions of dollars lobbying against the efforts to hold their own clergy members liable for molesting children. You know, I look at this, I’m look at this story. Everyday you go to the newspaper when you see another molestation story and you hear the, you hear this, the same thing. Oh, we feel terrible about this as the Catholic Church. We apologize. We’re trying to turn a new leaf on this. We’re so sorry.

While they’re saying that they’re spending five, six, $7 million state by state, trying to make sure that the statute of limitations doesn’t change, so they’re old priest can’t be held responsible for, for going after little boys. I mean, and that’s that, that’s the Catholic Church. That’s this, that is this crazy culture, this, this, this, this cult like thing that we call the Catholic Church nowadays. We accept as a church. It’s a cult.

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BERKSHIRE (MA)
Berkshire Eagle

June 25, 2019

The acknowledgment by the Springfield Diocese that former Catholic Bishop Christopher J. Weldon has been credibly accused of sexually abusing an altar boy is welcome, yet overdue. As is too often the case with dioceses across the nation, Springfield had to be pushed into doing what it should have done at the first opportunity.

Last week, the diocese filed an initial report of a claim of abuse with the office Hampden County District Attorney Gilluni (Eagle, June 22). This came the same day that the Most Rev. Bishop Rozanski met with a Chicopee man who says Bishop Weldon was one of several members of the clergy in the Springfield Diocese who abused him in the 1960s when he was 9 or 10. The Springfield Diocese includes Berkshire County.

The meeting and the referral came three weeks after the diocese denied it had received a credible accusation against Weldon. In response to an Eagle story by Larry Parnass reporting that a diocesan review board had notified the bishop last September that it found the alleged victim’s story about his molestation by Bishop Weldon to be “compelling and credible,” the chairman of the review board, John M. Hale, asserted in a statement released through the diocese that the former altar boy did not accuse Bishop Weldon of abuse to the review board, so the board could not have found that he engaged in improper conduct. This dismayed three people in attendance who recalled hearing the specific allegation made, one of whom, a practicing Catholic and clinical psychologist, accused the diocese of lying as part of a cover-up.

It remains unclear how the chairman of the review board could deny the contents of a letter to the bishop that he presumably signed off on. It is clear, however, that in-house diocesan review boards, which are supposedly independent, aren’t the best way to get at the truth of allegations that directly impact the diocese.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Religion News Service

June 25, 2019

By John Gehring

If Catholic bishops hope to reclaim their moral credibility after revelations about covering up clergy sexual abuse, the hierarchy might start by sending a simple but potent message: Church leaders should take a year of abstinence from preaching about sex and gender.

It might seem obvious that a church facing a crisis of legitimacy caused by clergy raping children would show more humility when claiming to hold ultimate truths about human sexuality.

Instead, in the past month alone, a Rhode Island bishop tweeted that Catholics shouldn’t attend gay pride events because they are “especially harmful for children”; a Vatican office issued a document that described transgender people as “provocative” in trying to “annihilate the concept of nature”; and a Catholic high school in Indianapolis that refused to fire a teacher married to a same-sex partner was told by the Archdiocese of Indianapolis that it can no longer call itself Catholic.

There is an unmistakable hubris displayed when some in the church are determined to make sexuality the lynchpin of Catholic identity at a time when bishops have failed to convince their flock that they are prepared to police predators in their own parishes.

Even before abuse scandals exploded into public consciousness more than a decade ago, many Catholics were tuning out the all-male hierarchy’s teachings on sexuality. Surveys show the vast majority of Catholics use birth control and nearly 70 percent now support same-sex marriage.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Law office of Jeff Anderson

June 25, 2019

A Survivor Who is a New York Priest to Reveal Identity of Priest
Who Sexually Abused Him and Others as Children;
Name of Priest Continues to be Held Secret by Cardinal Dolan

Msgr. John Paddack Still in Ministry After 7 Reports of Child Sexual Abuse;
Survivor Abused by Paddack to Speak Publicly for the First Time Tuesday

At a press conference Tuesday in New York City, a sexual abuse survivor and the law firm of Jeff Anderson & Associates will:

• Reveal an Archdiocese of New York priest’s full account of abuse as a teenager by a serial offender whose identity will be made public tomorrow for the first time and expose how survivors are re-victimized by the Archdiocese’s Compensation Program;
• Introduce a survivor of Msgr. John Paddack who will speak publicly for the first time about his abuse by Paddack;
• Demand the Archdiocese of New York and Cardinal Dolan remove Msgr. Paddack from ministry at the Church of Notre Dame in New York.

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DENVER (CO)
National Catholic Register

June 25, 2019

By Jennifer Roback Morse

The clergy sexual abuse and cover-up scandal evokes powerful emotions. Some people become protective of their views of interecclesial politics. Others become defensive of the Church in general. And the subject of clergy sex abuse itself is intrinsically revolting. Precisely because of these varied and visceral emotions, we must examine the facts with as much sobriety and objectivity as we can muster.

In “Receding Waves: Child Sexual Abuse and Homosexual Priests Since 2000,” Father Paul Sullins finds surprising changes in both the victims and the perpetrators of clerical sexual abuse — and also, more generally, from the more general standpoint of today’s Catholic priesthood. Every one of these changes is sure to upset someone’s preconceived notions about what is going on and what we ought to do.

First, let’s take a look at the victims of clergy sexual abuse since 2000.

Fewer males are being abused: The most striking finding in this new report is the decline in proportion of male victims. The percent of abuse victims who were male plummeted from 74% in 2000 to only 34% by 2016. In 1985, males comprised 92% of victims and averaged 82% from 1950 to 1999 (Figures 3 and 4). This finding may disturb those who think that getting the active homosexuals out of the priesthood will solve all the problems. We will still have to be vigilant to protect girls from abuse. The data clearly show a steady number of female victims, year in and year out.

On the other hand, reducing the number of homosexually active clergy will solve a big chunk of the problems. The data show pronounced changes in the numbers of male victims over time. In fact, the changes in male victims pretty much account for the changes in total victims (Figure 14).

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MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA)
Crikey Magazine

June 25, 2019

By Suzanne Smith and Georgia Wilkins

In their own words, the Marist Brothers are “dedicated to making Jesus known and loved through the education of young people, especially those most neglected.” It’s an admirable mission statement, but one that is hard to reconcile with the evidence delivered to the 2016 royal commission into child sexual abuse:

154 Marist Brothers were officially accused of child sexual abuse between 1980 and 2015, and many of them have been convicted or had claims paid out to victims.

20% of the Marist Brothers order between 1950 and 2010 were paedophiles.

Claims of abuse against the Marist Brothers accounted for a quarter of all claims received by religious institutions.

486 people made a claim of abuse against the Marist Brothers between 1980 and 2015.
The average age of claimants at the time of the abuse was 12.

89% of these claims identified one or more religious brothers as a perpetrator.

Founded by the French priest St Marcellin Champagnat in 1817, the Marist Brothers religious order has run 95 Australian schools, including 12 boarding schools, since 1972. Over this period, Marist brothers trained hundreds of male teachers who were posted to its schools across the country every year. Among these Marist Brothers were many fine teachers who didn’t abuse children. But there were many who did.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
National Catholic Reporter

June 25, 2019

by Fr. Peter Daly

James Carroll argues in a recent issue of The Atlantic that the priesthood needs to be abolished before the church can be reformed. Garry Wills, in his 2013 book Why Priests?, says that priests are a self-perpetuating clique and a medieval power grab, contrary to the equality of all believers.

These writers join a chorus of voices, stretching back to the Reformation, arguing that we should do away with priests.

I wouldn’t go that far. But after nearly four decades as first a seminarian and then a priest, I do think the priesthood needs reform — fundamental reform. We don’t need window dressing. We don’t need just some changes in policy and procedure. We need to change the whole culture of the priesthood and episcopacy. If we don’t, we will continue to decline and ultimately collapse in our own irrelevance and scandal.

I don’t think that our bishops get it. They think that a few changes in procedure and policy are enough. Then it’s back to business as usual. Their recently concluded meeting in Baltimore showed their lack of urgency. Basically, they did nothing. There will be no real external accountability and no answering to laypeople. They will supervise themselves and be accountable only to each other, which ultimately means not accountable at all.

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NEW YORK (NY)
Daily News

June 25, 2019

By Larry McShane

An alleged sexual abuse victim went public Tuesday with charges against a veteran Catholic priest, becoming the eighth accuser to identify the cleric who remains active in a Manhattan parish.

“I never thought I would have to come to this moment,” said accuser Joseph Caramanno, 34, at a Manhattan news conference. “I thought that everything would be settled, and he would be removed, and that’s it. … I’m putting my name out there, putting my face out there, so be it. I truly hope something is done. Something that should have been done years ago.”

Caramanno, joined by his attorney Jeff Anderson, accused Monsignor John Paddack of molesting him during a predatory stretch where the priest supposedly targeted his victims between 1984-2002. Lawyers for the victims said the Archdiocese of New York first learned of the charges back in 2012.

Previous accusers alleged that Paddack, currently stationed at the Church of Notre Dame on W. 114th St., steered them away from classmates with an offer of private advice — only to grope the boys.

“We are here to sound the alarm about the present practice being employed by the top priest in the archdiocese, Cardinal Tim Dolan, and the very perilous and reckless decisions he chooses to make … and to hide what he knows to be a very dangerous situation,” said Anderson.

Paddack, interviewed by the Daily News in March, denied all the allegations against him.

“Nothing happened, believe me,” he said. “I have a 50-year record of teaching. And it’s a good record, believe me. I think they’re seeing the advertisements on television and in the paper, and a chance to make money. Very sad, and it could ruin a reputation.”

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FARGO (ND)
KFGO TV

June 25, 2019

By Joe Radske

A woman who claims that she was sexually abused by a Fargo Catholic priest decades ago says she hopes her story will encourage other victims to step forward.

The woman, who wants to be called “Jane”, was a teenager in the 1970’s when she says the abuse happened in the rectory at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church. In an interview with KFGO News, “Jane” says over the course of about three months, she was inappropriately touched by Fr. Jack Herron.

“He pulled me to his lap, smoking his cigar, holding me and all that kind of stuff and before you know it, there’s kissing and hugging and touching. Inside, I was having a battle in my mind, thinking ‘Oh God, I’m dirty, I’m dirty, I’m dirty. No one knows this secret. I’m dirty. I’m dirty.”

“Jane” says she reported the abuse to the Diocese of Fargo in the spring of 2018. She says the diocese treated her with compassion and says that her faith in the Catholic Church has not been shaken.

“I gave them my account of what happened and where it had happened. I described where the rectory was, the bedroom was, where his office was at and where his chair was. Probably the only thing I didn’t know was what kind of cigar he smoked.”

Diocese of Fargo Communications Director Paul Braun says Herron has not been allowed to perform his duties as a priest until the allegations against him can be investigated.

“Fr. Herron, who was retired and serving in a hospital as a chaplain outside of the Diocese of Fargo when the allegation was reported to us, had his faculties for the exercise of priestly ministry removed pending the outcome of any civil and canonical investigations” Braun said. “Our canonical investigation is still in progress, so we have no further comments.”

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ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Service

June 25, 2019

By Junno Arocho Esteves

Millions of Catholics live their faith through their association with lay movements and Catholic groups, but some also have lost their faith when they were sexually abused in those groups and felt they had nowhere to turn.

While much of the church’s recent focus has been on clerical sexual abuse and the accountability of diocesan bishops, the Vatican is making child protection a priority for new movements and lay associations, too.

The Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life brought together close to 100 representatives of Catholic associations and movements for a meeting June 13 on abuse prevention and procedures for reporting and handling allegations.

Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Vatican office, told the representatives that by the end of December every movement and association in the Church must turn in formal guidelines and protocols for reporting and preventing cases of abuse.

Catholic movements and associations for laypeople, which are given official recognition through the cardinal’s office, were told in May 2018 to draft abuse guidelines.

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LOUISVILLE (KY)
Louisville Courier Journal

June 25, 2019

By Billy Kobin

A priest at a Catholic church in the Highlands resigned after he was accused of taking “inappropriate” photos of students during a field day at the end of the school year.

The Rev. Jeff Gatlin, pastor at St. Francis of Assisi, 1960 Bardstown Road, was accused of “inappropriate picture taking” of students during a May 13 field day celebrating the end of the parish school year, according to emails sent by church and Archdiocese of Louisville officials that were obtained by the Courier Journal.

The church’s school serves students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.

Additional details on the alleged “inappropriate picture taking” were not released by the archdiocese. An archdiocesan spokeswoman was out of the office Tuesday and not available for comment until Wednesday, officials said.

In an email that St. Francis of Assisi School principal Steve Frommeyer shared with parents on May 20, Gatlin wrote “a number of concerns have been raised and accusations have been made about my actions of taking pictures of students at the field day activities.”

“Though I do not believe I have done anything wrong, I have asked Archbishop Kurtz to appoint a temporary administrator so that I can cooperate with a review of what occurred, as well as my overall ministry as pastor of Saint Francis of Assisi Parish,” Gatlin wrote.

His comments were also included in a May 24 bulletin sent to St. Francis of Assisi members.

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OTTAWA (CANADA)
Ottawa Citizen

June 25, 2019

By Andrew Duffy

Defrocked Catholic priest Barry McGrory has been found guilty of sexually abusing two teenage boys in a church rectory during the early years of his long and sordid clerical career.

McGrory, 85, showed no emotion as Superior Court Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin delivered her verdict Monday.

“I find that Mr. McGrory preyed on the vulnerability of these complainants,” O’Bonsawin said in finding McGrory guilty on two counts of indecent assault and two counts of gross indecency.

“Mr. McGrory used his position as a parish priest,” she said, “to exploit vulnerable and naïve young men for his own sexual satisfaction.”

Based on evidence in the case, O’Bonsawin found that McGrory used alcohol to groom one troubled young victim, and medication to “destabilize” another.

“Mr. McGrory’s crimes were all the more serious because of his trusted position in the community,” the judge said. “He infiltrated their families and used their faith in him to take advantage of the complainants.”

McGrory had pleaded not guilty to the charges, which were laid in connection with two historic sex abuse complaints dating to the late 1960s.

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OLEAN (NY)
Olean Times Herald

June 25, 2019

By Tom Dinki

Following months of criticism, Buffalo Bishop Richard Malone will be in Olean this weekend to listen to parishioners’ concerns about the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo’s clergy sexual abuse crisis.

The “listening session” will be held from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Archbishop Walsh Academy and feature Malone praying with parishioners, hearing their thoughts and comments, and offering summary remarks regarding the mission of the diocese, according to the diocese.

It will be the fourth of seven listening sessions held throughout Western New York over the next two months. The events are a byproduct of Malone’s discussions with The Movement to Restore Trust, an initiative of lay people led by Canisius College President John J. Hurley.

“The 2019 Listening Sessions are designed for the bishop to hear the concerns of the engaged parishioners,” a diocese press release stated, “and for them to offer recommendations for future initiatives regarding pastoral care, spiritual care and ministry.”

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CORPUS CHRISTI (TX)
Caller Times

June 25, 2019

By Patti Koo

It is always disturbing when an accused cleric tries to claim he is the victim.

Eleanor Dearman’s article, “Third priest accused of sexual abuse files lawsuit against Diocese of Corpus Christi,” correctly reported that Msgr. Jesús García Hernando has never been convicted. However, he was indicted for child sexual abuse in 1996, and also faced a lawsuit by the former altar boy who filed that report and four others.

As Texas leaders for SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), we know that “false” outcries of sexual abuse are very rare. Five “false” allegations against the same clergyman would be virtually impossible. We implore the public to stand on the side of the true victims in these cases.

We also want to thank all those who have come forward, and to tell them to persist in telling their truth. Those who perpetrate child sexual abuse must be held accountable for this criminal behavior. The Catholic Church’s lists have been late in coming but they have had an affirming power. The lists shout to victims, “We listened! You are believed!”

We urge all survivors who were victimized in the Diocese of Corpus Christi or elsewhere to report to law enforcement, no matter how long ago the abuse occurred. Survivors can also contact SNAP (1-877-SNAP-HEALS, http://www.snapnetwork.org/) as they come forward. The closest SNAP leader to Corpus Christ is Patti Koo in San Antonio (snappkoo@gmail.com), where there is a monthly support group meeting.

SNAP is here for you across our great state.

Patti Koo, Canyon Lake

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MINNEAPOLIS (MN)
Law Office of Patrick Noaker

June 25, 2019

By Tyler Aliperto

Episode 9: David Clohessy, a survivor of clergy sexual abuse and the former national director of SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests), joins us again to discuss the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops fixating on “policies, protocols, and procedures” without any “actual day-to-day change in how they behave,” as well as why he thinks Bishops are spending their vast dollars “not to protect kids, not to help victims, but to protect themselves and their reputations and their careers.”

For subtitles, please view this video on our Facebook.

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Patheos blog

June 24, 2019

By Msgr. Eric Barr

So they lawyered up. That was the first mistake the bishops made in the sex abuse crisis. Deciding to be CEOs rather than shepherds. Thinking that money would solve what pastoral care would not attempt. Then the leaders of the Church made a second mistake: the bishops broke the foundational sacramental link between a bishop and his priests. What was supposed to be a firm partnership of brothers in ministering to the People of God became a standoff between a boss and his employees. Vatican II saw the priests as the sacramental extension of a bishop’s ecclesiastical shepherding outreach. Instead, they were used as pawns to buttress the wall of defense between a bishop and his people.

The Breaking Of Trust Between Bishop And Priest
To be fair, this split had already been happening for decades in the Catholic Church of the U.S.A. But it was exacerbated by the sex abuse crisis. What should have been a cooperative united attempt to heal a Church reeling from the crisis in authority occurring because of sexual abuse, became instead a circling of the wagons by the chancery, with the priests left to fend for themselves.

Priests were supposed to trust that their bishop had their backs, that the bishop would support and lift up his priests in times of crisis. The bishops did not desert the priests out of malice; rather, they fled from their priests out of fear. The laity mistakenly believed the bishops were defending priests by hiding the predators among them. Not so. They were trying to pretend those bad priests did not exist. The bishops did this to protect themselves. Now they went to the other extreme. As the crisis grew, the bishops willingly threw away the innocent as well as the guilty. There was a presumption that an allegation against a priest was true until it was proven false.

The Problem With Zero Tolerance
The bishops imposed a zero tolerance policy, which at the time made perfect sense. Sexual abuse was a heinous offense and though it came in different guises, it was bad and had to be punished. Just like a plague would be quarantined, bishops felt the contagion of sexual abuse needed similar draconian action. It is an effective way to stop an evil, but its take no prisoners attitude caused unforseen damage. In hindsight, zero tolerance, still in effect throughout the Catholic world, did and continues to do several terrible things:

First, it brands all sexual abuse as equal. Inappropriate words, conversations, touching, sexual contact, rape, pedophilia–all these were de facto considered the same offense. Understandably so, as the Church reacted to its previous denial of any type of crime inherent in these activities. But with time, new understandings have appeared. There are different levels of sexual abuse, some much more serious than others. But the penalties remain equal–total suspension of priestly ministry.

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SAVANNAH (GA)
WSAV TV

June 25, 2019

Instead of guiding children in their faith, a Savannah priest sexually abused them.

Now, the man behind those crimes is dead. Wayland Brown died in a South Carolina prison on June 8.

Officials with the Department of Corrections call his death “expected” and said there was “no foul play” involved.

Brown admitted back in October of 2018 to sexually abusing two boys — Alan Ranta and Chris Templeton — back in the early 1980s when he was a priest in the Savannah Diocese and at St. James School.

He was brought to South Carolina early that year to face criminal charges. Because of the laws in Georgia, he could not be criminally prosecuted there.

But by bringing the boys across state lines, to various areas of Hardeeville where he molested them, prosecutors were able to file charges against him.

Brown pleaded guilty in a Beaufort County courtroom and was sentenced to 20 years behind bars. He only served a little more than 8 months.

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NASHVILLE (TN)
Baptist News Global

June 24, 2019

By Bob Allen

Details behind the “break her down” comment cited by trustee leaders in last year’s firing of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Paige Patterson emerge in a lawsuit now pending in federal court.

A lawsuit in the Sherman Division of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas initiated March 12 and unsealed June 6 claims the Southern Baptist Convention seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, “had a custom of ignoring female students’ complaints of sexual harassment and stalking behavior by male student-employees.”

A former student using the pseudonym Jane Roe claims a seminary student also employed as a plumber on campus began stalking her soon after she enrolled in Southwestern Seminary as an undergraduate student in the fall of 2014. She told one of her professors, the lawsuit claims, who replied the young man could come and talk to the professor any time he wanted.

The man allegedly showed her a gun and told her not to say anything while raping her for the first time in October 2014. Subsequent attacks became physically brutal, the woman says, and twice he forced her to take a “morning after pill” – a form of contraception not covered by SBC insurance plans because the denomination’s leaders view it as morally equivalent to abortion.

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PARIS (FRANCE)
La Croix International

June 25, 2019

By Lucie Sarr

Sister Solange Sahon Sia is a member of the Congregation of Our Lady of Calvary. She is a theologian and director of the Centre for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Persons, which opened in March at the Catholic Missionary Institute of Abidjan. The institute is based in Abidjan, the thriving commercial hub in the West African nation of Ivory Coast.

In this interview with La Croix Africa, Sister Solange talks about abuse in the Catholic Church and society.

La Croix Africa: What is the reason for the opening of a Centre for the Protection of Minors and Vulnerable Persons at the Catholic Missionary Institute of Abidjan?

Sister Solange Sahon Sia: It is a way of finding an answer to a problem that is quite absent in the Church’s mission.That is, to think of a new form of evangelization that can be called the evangelization of consciences. The center tries, through training, awareness-raising, listening and accompaniment, to help the local Church in its mission to protect minors and vulnerable people.

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CafeMom blog

June 24, 2019

By Jenny Erikson

Well, this is upsetting. A former member of the Duggar family’s church in the early 2000s has come forward with disturbing details about how the family allegedly handled Josh Duggar’s molestation scandal when he was a teenager, and they’re pretty horrifying. In 2015, a police report was uncovered that revealed that Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s eldest child had allegedly molested four of his younger sisters and an underage family friend when he was a young teen.

A source told Radar Online that Jim Bob and Michelle tried to “hide” the scandal.

The insider, who claims to have been a part of the church that met in the Duggar’s home in the early 2000s, told the site that the family tried to cover up that Josh had confessed to molesting five young girls. The source explained, “Older men within the church immediately jumped in to help Jim Bob hide everything as much as possible. They all tried to hire lawyers to keep Josh’s touching of younger girls under wraps.”

The church members were allegedly told to keep quiet, and Jim Bob and Michelle reportedly tried “desperately” to “make sure no one ever heard about this.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

June 24, 2019

By Kristen McQueary

Legislation tightening reporting requirements for school districts implicated in child sex abuse cases is awaiting Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature. Following the Tribune’s “Betrayed” series last year, which revealed rampant, hidden sex abuse and assault incidents within Chicago Public Schools, lawmakers passed a bill requiring more reporting and information-sharing for all schools.

It’s a solid step forward.

But it’s also important to contextualize what led to the changes in state law. Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago Public Schools officials for months fought records requests from Tribune reporters on sexual assaults within schools. CPS only relented under threat of a lawsuit. It’s important to remember that the documents City Hall and CPS eventually provided were heavily, ridiculously, redacted. It was not an exercise in protecting students. It was an exercise in CYA. Reporters strung together police records, court files, other public documents and interviews to compile a database of abuse allegations, without the dutiful or transparent assistance of CPS, a taxpayer-funded agency.

It is most important to remember the gross, indefensible number of victims: Police investigated 523 reports that children were sexually assaulted or abused inside city public schools from 2008 to 2017, or an average of one report each week. More than 500 cases, shrouded in secrecy. Without the diligence of journalists, those cases might have stayed buried. That’s what City Hall hoped.

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

June 25, 2019

We are grateful that Scranton’s bishop is sticking by his guns and banning his disgraced predecessor from public ministry. By keeping Bishop Emeritus James C. Timlin away from the public during the past weekend of confirmation ceremonies in Scranton, Bishop Joseph Bambera is taking a small step on behalf of the wounded survivors and betrayed Catholics in his diocese.

It is likely that Bishop Bambera felt pressure from some to let Bishop Timlin help this month in the customary way with confirmations. But Timlin stayed on the sidelines, and we believe that is best for all concerned. And it sent an all-too-rare message to other clerics – if you ignore or conceal child sex abuse, you can no longer assume that your colleagues will look the other way.

We are grateful to Bishop Bambera for his small actions this past weekend and hope his display will inspire other church officials to follow in his footsteps when dealing with similar situations in their own dioceses.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

June 24, 2019

By Harold McNeil

An independent organization of Buffalo Catholics is applauding the appointments of a new chairman and three lay people to the finance council of the Buffalo Diocese.

Members of the Movement to Restore Trust, which seeks to restore trust in the church in the wake of the clergy sex abuse scandal, praised the appointments as a step toward increased “financial transparency.”

Malone recently named James J. Beardi, president and CEO of M&T Bank’s mortgage banking subsidiary, as chairman of the diocese’s finance council. Also appointed to the council were Carrie B. Frank, principal at Frank Executive Solutions; Maureen Ludwig, managing director of state regulatory matters for Deloitte LLP; and Frederick G. Attea, senior counsel with Phillips Lytle.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

June 24, 2019

By Elvia Malagon

An independent review of Archdiocese of Chicago policies on child sexual abuse found that church officials needed to improve how they spot, report and discipline “boundary violations” and other behavior that could lead to abuse.

The archdiocese announced the report’s findings Monday while Cardinal Blase Cupich met with the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board to discuss the ongoing scandal of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. The archdiocese shared a summary of the report, but it did not include the full review authored by Monica Applewhite, a Texas-based expert in abuse prevention.

Applewhite found that the archdiocese needed to improve how it responds to, investigates and documents “boundary violations and other risky behavior that often precede misconduct,” according to a archdiocese statement on the review.

While such behavior is addressed in the archdiocese’s code of conduct, Applewhite said it should be a strictly enforced policy rather than an educational guideline. Her recommendations included creating more guidance for how to report such behavior, and to outline what consequences someone would face if he or she didn’t comply.

Applewhite said identifying boundary violations — such as giving special treatment to a child or allowing him or her to break a rule — is important because the abuse of children usually doesn’t happen suddenly. Instead, perpetrators often establish a relationship with the child before the abuse starts, actions sometimes referred to as grooming.

“They are going to get closer and closer to a child and then cross that boundary once they establish that relationship,” Applewhite said.

She reviewed the policies and forms used by the archdiocese and gave church officials a list of recommendations, Applewhite said. The archdiocese said officials are “working to implement her suggestions.”

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