ABUSE TRACKER

CALIFORNIA
Friendly Atheist

May 20, 2019

By Hemant Mehta

Earlier this year, California State Sen. Jerry Hill filed a bill to remove clergy members from a list of those exempt from reporting child abuse.

As it stands, if someone walks into a confessional booth and admits to molesting a child, the priest doesn’t have to do anything with that information. Just say a couple of Hail Marys and be done with it. Compare that to public school teachers, who are required by law to tell a social worker if they learn about (or suspect) a child being abused.

The Church, of course, doesn’t want to play by those rules. Vatican officials claim the “seal of confession” is sacrosanct. Anything said in a confessional booth must be kept secret no matter what.

That leads to absurd consequences. In Australia, for example, a priest confessed to committing 1,500 instances of molestation (not a typo) to 30 separate priests over 25 years. Because of the sacred seal, though, no one ever reported his crimes, allowing the abuse to continue.

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.

BUFFALO (NY)
Law and Crime

May 20, 2019

By Jerry Lambe

A general view of a mass for a canonization ceremony of Pope Paul VI and the martyred Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican, on October 14, 2018.

A police department received “marching orders” not to arrest Catholic priests but to instead alert the bishop’s office to any potentially illegal activities involving the priests, according to former a Buffalo Police Detective. This policy “only extended to Catholic priests.” “If we caught clergy from other religions, we arrested them,” he said.

Former vice squad Detective Martin Harrington and other retired Buffalo PD officers revealed this an explosive story published Sunday by Buffalo News. The interviews come just months after the Buffalo Diocese publicly identified 80 priests whom it determined were credibly accused of sexual misconduct with a minor, a number that would soon inflate to over 100.

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.

MONROVIA
Front Page Africa

May 20, 2019

Report by Tecee Boley, New Narratives Senior Justice Correspondent

One of the priests in the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church in Liberia has blasted parishioners for what he terms as a betrayal of the church. The Administrator of the Sacred Heart Cathedral, Rev. Father Alphonsus Momoh told parishioners in the Sunday service of his church that accusations by Fr. Gabriel Sawyer that Archbishop Lewis Zeigler and Bishop Andrew Karnley had bullied and abused him for more than a decade after he rebuffed their sexual advances, were nothing but an effort to taint the church.

“What you are hearing is because an individual is hurt and decided to smear the image of the church. One day the truth will be told by the one who told the lie. Some believe it, some don’t and some are standing firm. But there are some of you here taking notes and recording on your phones to send the recording to them,” Fr. Momoh said.

This is the first public statement coming out of a Liberian clergy since allegations of sex-based misconduct and abuse of power was made public in the media.

Fr. Momoh, in a further rebuke of Sawyer, claimed that it was a quest for material and financial gains that Sawyer and others are ruining the church. “Because of greed! Everybody wants to get rich. Nobody wants to go through the proper channel. You will go and tarnish the name of the institution (s) you belong to. There is no trust. We find in our midst- pulling down each other.”

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.

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Catholic News Service

May 17, 2019

By Pablo Kay

A bill making its way through the California Legislature would make the state the first since 1999 to require priests to choose between violating the law or violating the seal of the confessional.

At issue is the serious matter of child sexual abuse. Seven states right now require priests to violate the seal to report child abuse based on legislation passed in the 1970s and through the 1990s.

While many states have tried since 2002 to pass laws resembling the California Senate measure, S.B. 360, none have been successful. Instead, lawmakers around the country concluded similar bills would not protect children and would be a violation of religious liberty.

The summer of 2018 — with its Pennsylvania grand jury report on alleged abuse by priests and other church workers (with many claims decades old), the revelations of sexual misdeeds by then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington and investigations by state attorneys general into clergy abuse records — brought the battle against sexual abuse back to the confessional.

In California, priests, along with teachers, social workers, doctors and other professionals, are “mandated reporters.” That means they are required by law to report any case of suspected abuse to authorities. Currently, there is an exemption in the law for any clergy member “who acquires knowledge or a reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect during a penitential communication.”

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.

HARRISBURG (PA)
WHTM

May 16, 2019

By Thomas LeClair

The Catholic Conference, a lobbying division of the church in Pennsylvania, is apologizing after a comment it made on Facebook in response to a victim of clergy abuse.

The conference recently posted on Facebook in support of a proposed limitation to abortion.

Carolyn Fortney is a Dauphin County survivor of clergy sexual abuse. She responded to the post with, “Up next, how about statute of limitations reform?”

The Catholic Conference replied, “Why do you have to troll here Carolyn? Don’t you get enough media attention?”

That surprised Fortney.

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.

HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle

May 16, 2019

By Nicole Hensley

Authorities used a lock pick to open a “bank vault” containing a trove of clergy files that the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston failed to hand over following a subpoena, according to court documents.

The picking tool helped Conroe Police Department investigators access the documents last November during a raid at the church’s Houston headquarters, Detective Joe McGrew said while describing the church’s lack of cooperation with their criminal probe. The agency was looking for evidence in the case against indicted priest Manuel La Rosa-Lopez and other clergy members who may have committed a crime.

A Dallas investigator said he contacted the Conroe Police Department and Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office regarding their search warrants. A sworn statement states that McGrew told his North Texas counterpart, David Clark, that after issuing a subpoena, his agency later “learned the Diocese of Galveston-Houston did not turn over everything” involving the priest in their investigation.

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.

HYATTSVILLE (MD)
Catholic News Service

May 20, 2019

By Julie Asher

Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory will have a lot of things on his plate when he becomes the newest leader of the influential archdiocese situated in the nation’s capital: the sexual abuse roiling the Catholic Church, the tense political climate on the Hill and the challenges that come with learning about a new archdiocese.

The newest archbishop of Washington knows what his first priority will be however.

The “first and most important thing” is “getting out in the field and meeting the people,” Archbishop Gregory said in a May 17 interview.

He has six listening sessions scheduled with priests of the Washington Archdiocese, and “I’m trying to fill up my calendar right now with moments when I can be in the parishes with the people,” he said. Like “a Sunday supply priest,” he wants to visit local parishes to say Mass and afterward stand at the back of church and greet people.

Archbishop Gregory has “no fancy requirements” for such visits, nor would he expect any “fancy preparation.” He just has “the real desire to be there as a listener,” he said, adding that “it is that casual encounter with people that often proves to be the most fruitful.”

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.

CALIFORNIA
Angelus News

May 20, 2019

By Pablo Kay

Catholic officials are urging Catholics to continue to oppose a California bill that would force priests to disclose information about child sexual abuse that they hear in the sacrament of confession, which is advancing in the state legislature.

Current California law requires clergy to report suspected abuse or neglect unless the information about the abuse was obtained during confession.

Senate Bill 360, authored by Bay Area Democrat Sen. Jerry Hill, seeks to eliminate this so-called “exemption” for “penitential communication.”

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.

INDIA
UCANews

May 20, 2019

By Cynthia Stephen

Rape charges against Jalandhar bishop force Indian Church to face its own demons, vindicate long-silenced nuns and lay women

Early in April, when police in India filed rape charges against Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar, he became the first bishop in history to face court proceedings for raping a Catholic nun.

The charges were filed nine months after the nun complained to police of prolonged sexual abuse from the bishop, who also served as the patron of the diocesan women’s congregation the nun had led for several years.

The nun and her supporters faced severe repression in the convent for going against the bishop. But the nun’s public protest in Kochi, in southern India, last September forced the government, which had dragged its feet for weeks, to act. The bishop was arrested. A special team was constituted to probe the case. And finally, on April 9, a charge-sheet was filed in Pala, Kerala.

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.

FRESNO (CA)
KQED

May 19, 2019

By Alexandra Hall

More than 20 years after a man first reported he was abused by a Central Valley priest, the Catholic Diocese of Fresno is revisiting the allegation after several other individuals have come forward accusing the same priest. The diocese and Fresno County law enforcement officials had previously said the claim, first raised in 1998, was unsubstantiated.

The man, who has chosen not to disclose his identity, says that Bakersfield priest Monsignor Craig Harrison — who is currently on leave while under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct — inappropriately touched him when he was a teenager in Firebaugh.

According to the man’s attorney, Joseph George, the alleged abuse happened over the course of a year from 1992 to 1993 while the man was living at the rectory of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Firebaugh.

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)
NPR

May 19, 2019

Heard on All Things Considered

NPR’s Michel Martin speaks with writer James Carroll, a former Catholic priest, about his piece in The Atlantic, titled “Abolish the Priesthood.”

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

NEW YORK (NY)
The New York Times

May 17, 2019

By Marc Santora and Joanna Berendt

WARSAW — Anna Misiewicz was just 7 years old when she was invited into the private chambers of her parish priest, in the small village of Topola in southwest Poland. She thought he wanted her to count church donations.

Instead, she found herself alone with a predator, identified only as Father Jan A. He touched her chest, stroked her body and forced her to use her hands to masturbate him.

Decades later, the smell of milk disgusts her still, she said, “because the priest would drink milk and the taste stayed on his mouth and lingered in mine.”

In a powerful new documentary that is rocking this deeply Roman Catholic nation, Ms. Misiewicz recalls these childhood nightmares, and then goes farther. She summons the courage to knock on the door of her abuser, a feeble old man but still a priest, and pose a simple question: Why?

“I should never have done it,” the priest says quietly in a moment captured on secretly recorded video. It was “some stupid passion,” he says. He then offers an apology and asks to kiss her hand. She can barely contain her disgust.

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.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
KPBS

May 16, 2019

By John Carroll

Victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests cautioned Thursday against accepting a church-sponsored program to financially compensate them.

At a news conference, several victims gathered with their lawyer and said the program does not hold the church accountable. The victims sat at a table with a banner featuring pictures of young victims and the words “stolen souls.”

One victim named Dede said she wanted people to understand the pain victims suffer at the hands of clergy.

“Do you know what it feels like to be terrorized, tormented, abused and knowing that you can’t do anything about it, that nobody believes and nobody’s gonna care?” she 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.

PHOENIX (AZ)
Phoenix New Times

May 20, 2019

By Elizabeth Whitman

When Annette Schuster was a child, she spent afternoons after school at an uncle’s house. He was kind to her, or so it seemed for a time. She recalled that he made her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, gave her a bed to nap in, and rubbed her back, among other places.

At the age of 12, Schuster informed her mother that she would never return to that uncle’s house, citing the abuse. Schuster’s mother told her never to lie like that again, she said. Schuster closed her mind to what had happened and concentrated on graduating from high school.

In later years, she confronted family members, including the uncle, hoping for answers. She was repeatedly dismissed. The uncle’s ex-wife said he never would have done anything to hurt Schuster. The uncle himself told Schuster that he had done no wrong, that he had done nothing Schuster didn’t want, she remembered.

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.

AUSTIN (TX)
Claims Journal

May 15, 2019

By Clarice Silber

Former U.S. national team gymnasts backing a Texas bill that would allow victims of sexual abuse more time to sue in civil court on Monday urged the state’s lawmakers to restore a key provision allowing those individuals to sue institutions.

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 JERSEY
North Jersey Record

May 17, 2019

By Deena Yellin

The ink was still wet on the law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy last Monday extending the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse when it was put into use:

A former altar boy announced Tuesday morning that he was filing a lawsuit against the Diocese of Camden and his former parish, alleging he was sexually abused as a child by the late Rev. Brendan Sullivan, a priest at St. James Roman Catholic Church in Ventnor City.

More lawsuits are likely to come. The question is whether there will be a flood or more like a trickle.

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.

BOSTON (MA)
WBUR

May 20, 2019

With Meghna Chakrabarti

A Harvard law professor who was part of Harvey Weinstein’s defense team is out as an undergraduate faculty dean after student protests. We look at #MeToo justice and campus culture now.

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.

MINNESOTA
Legal Reader

May 17, 2019

By Ryan J. Farrick

Three of the plaintiffs are brothers–and this is their third time suing the Holy See.

Five Minnesota men who claim to have been abused as children by Roman Catholic clergy are suing the Vatican, accusing it of concealing the identities of thousands of sex predator priests.

The lawsuit, filed by three brothers and two other men, was filed in the U.S. District Court in St. Paul. The complaint claims that the Vatican has files on at least 3,400 clergy accused of sexual abuse, including some high-ranking officials.

Reuters notes that the Roman Catholic Church has been embroiled in a global scandal regarding child sex abuse since 2002.

In the past several years alone, dioceses in New York and California—as well as other states and U.S. territories—have paid out billions to settle with victims of abuse.

According to Reuters’ recap, the three brothers claim to have been molested by former Minnesota priest Curtis Wehmeyer for over a half-decade, between 2006 and 2012.

Another plaintiff says they were molested by another priest, Thomas Adamson, in the early 1980s. The remaining man, states the suit, was assaulted by former California clergyman Fidencio Silva-Flores sometime between 1978 and 1984.

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.

PENNSYLVANIA
CNHI News Service

May 19, 2019

By Dave Sutor

Politics, religion, law and finances were all linked in the process that led to the creation of compensation funds for victims of clergy sexual abuse in seven of Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses.

For years, when priests, parishes and dioceses faced allegations of abuse, the matters were often handled in secret — with victims being required to accept non-disclosure agreements as part of settlements.

But then, in 2018, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General released a grand jury report that provided details about how at least 300 priests allegedly abused thousands of children across six of the commonwealth’s dioceses.

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.

SUNBURY (PA)
Daily Item

May 19, 2019

By Rick Dandes

For some Valley Catholics, the litany of revelations about widespread sexual abuse of children within the six dioceses of the Church in Pennsylvania, and the subsequent cover-up, compounds their pain.

But their core faith, they said, has not been shaken.

“I wish it had all come out at once,” said Eleanor O’Conner, who attends Sacred Heart Church in Lewisburg. “There has been so much bad news. My fear is that all the good work done by the Church will be overshadowed by this scandal. I’m not downplaying the betrayal of trust, and it makes me angry to think about it. I’m praying for the victims. I have two grandchildren, and I want them to continue as Catholics.”

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.

JOHNSTOWN (PA)
Tribune-Democrat

May 19, 2019

By Jocelyn Brumbaugh

Brooke Rush sat in a crowded Cambria County courtroom and listened as more than a dozen women shared details of their abuse at the hands of a former Johnstown pediatrician.

Their stories matched her experiences, but she couldn’t testify because she was past the statute of limitations – age 30 for child sexual abuse.

“Even though the words weren’t coming out of my mouth, my story was still being told,” she said.

Rush said she was 11 years old when, in the late 1980s, Dr. Johnnie “Jack” Barto abused her during an office visit.

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.

GUAM
Pacific Daily News

May 16, 2019

By Haidee Eugenio

A priest sexually abused a Catholic school student multiple times in the early ’80s “under the guise of horseplay and affection,” according to a lawsuit filed in local court on Thursday.

The plaintiff in the sex abuse case is identified in court documents only by the pseudonym A.A. to protect his privacy, according to the lawsuit.

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DALLAS (TX)
The Legal Herald

May 15, 2019

By Paul Amess

Dallas Police searched Catholic Diocese of Dallas headquarters and several other church properties as part of their sexual abuse investigation into local churches.

According to a search warrant affidavit, the police say that the diocese has failed to provide full information on sexual abuse allegations against multiple priests. In some cases, the warrant says, the church gave authorities incomplete records on accused priests.

This investigation began with the issue of an arrest warrant for priest Edmundo Paredes, who formerly served at St. Cecilia’s Parish in Dallas. He is currently considered a fugitive.

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PORTLAND (ME)
Portland Press Herald

May 20, 2019

By Eric Russell

The Salvation Army says it terminated the officership after Gary Crowell was accused of abusing a teenage girl who lived with him and his wife in New York, but the alleged victim says the organization failed to tell the police.

A Saco man and former high-ranking officer in the Salvation Army in New York has been accused of sexually assaulting a teenager who lived with him for several years in the 1990s.

Nicole Sprout, who lives on Long Island, N.Y., held a press conference last week in front of the Salvation Army headquarters in Manhattan to levy accusations against Gary Crowell.

According to coverage from two local television stations, Sprout said Crowell and his wife, Carol Beth Crowell, took her into their home at age 11 after her mother, who lived with mental illness, could not care for her. Sprout said the abuse started shortly thereafter and progressed to sexual intercourse. It continued until she was 16, often two or three times a week.

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ALBANY (NY)
Jeff Anderson & Associates

May 20, 2019

On Tuesday in Albany, two sexual abuse survivors and the law firms of Jeff Anderson & Associates and LaFave, Wein & Frament, PLLC, will:

· Release a report containing the identities, histories, photographs and information on 83 clerics accused of child sexual abuse in the Diocese of Albany;

· A sexual abuse survivor will speak publicly about his abuse by a priest at St. Anthony of Padua in Troy, NY;

· A second sexual abuse survivor will speak publicly about her abuse by a religious cleric Bishop Gibbons High School in Schenectady, NY;

· Demand full disclosure by the Diocese of Albany and the religious orders, regarding all clergy accused of sexual abuse who worked in the diocese, including their current whereabouts, photographs and histories.

WHEN: Tuesday, May 21, 2019 at 1:00PM ET

WHERE: Hilton Albany – Chambers Room, 40 Lodge Street, Albany, NY 12207

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GRAND RAPIDS (MI)
WOOD TV

May 17, 2019

By Ken Kolker

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she would support a law to open a legal window in Michigan for survivors of Catholic priests and other molesters to sue over childhood sexual assaults.

In other states, including Minnesota and California, so-called “window” laws, which pauses the statute of limitations, have led to multi-million dollar settlements between survivors of decades-old assaults and the Catholic church.

“I do support expanding the rights of victims to bring lawsuits, for prosecutors to bring charges,” Whitmer told Target 8 on Friday. “I think that’s something that’s really important. So I do personally support it. We’ve got a legislature that drafts and writes the laws that come to my desk. I would certainly look favorably if they took that action.”

State Sen. Winnie Brinks and State Rep. David LaGrand, both Democrats, said they were disappointed last year when window legislation failed in Michigan.

The Catholic church was among those who lobbied against it.

Target 8 recently revealed that 14 priests had molested at least 33 kids in the Grand Rapids Catholic Diocese over the decades, most without consequence.

Some of the priests are still living in West Michigan, collecting pensions.

But, because of the statute of limitations, survivors have no legal recourse.

The office of Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is investigating allegations of priest abuse and cover-ups dating back decades at the state’s seven Catholic dioceses. Her office said it expects to file criminal charges soon.

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OMAHA (NE)
KETC Channel 7

May 20, 2019

A rally will be held outside the Omaha Archdiocese Monday morning.

Leaders from the advocacy group for victims of clergy and institutional sex abuse, also known as SNAP, will gather at 11 a.m. to commend the state’s attorney general and urge other survivors of clergy sexual abuse to come forward, make a report to law enforcement, and assist the AG in his investigation.

Several members of the organization will be present, along with a victim, who is sharing his story of abuse at the hands of Rev. James Kelly for the first time.

SNAP is calling on other Nebraskans to take steps to prevent future cases of abuse while demanding transparency and justice from the state’s Catholic officials.

SNAP is encouraging Nebraskans across the state to take three steps that can make a difference:

First, survivors of abuse, make a report to AG Peterson’s abuse hotline by calling 1-800-652-1999.

Second, contact the county’s District Attorney and urge them to actively reach out to local communities, urging survivors to come forward and make a report of their abuse. District Attorneys can also encourage witnesses and whistleblowers to share any information they might have related to past or ongoing cases of clerical sexual abuse.

Third, contact state representatives and senators and urge them to create or sponsor legislation that will protect children, benefit survivors, and prevent future cases of abuse. For example, reforming statutes of limitations can help survivors find justice where none existed previously and can get important information about abusers into the hands of the public.

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.

[12 Colombian priests on U.S. list of abusers]

COLOMBIA
El Tiempo

May 14, 2019

Varios salieron de Colombia con denuncias en su contra, cinco fueron deportados al país.

La comunidad católica en Baltimore, Estados Unidos, quedó desconcertada cuando le notificaron que existían denuncias por abuso infantil contra el sacerdote colombiano Fernando Cristancho, quien oficiaba misas en las parroquias El Buen Pastor y San Ignacio. Y la sorpresa fue mayor cuando, en octubre de 2017, su arquidiócesis le confirmó que acababa de ser arrestado, por porte y producción de pornografía infantil. Además, que en 2002 se enteraron de que había engendrado trillizos con una mujer, a través de fertilización ‘in vitro’, y que un tribunal lo acusó de abusar de dos de ellos. Por eso, desde ese año estaba expulsado de la iglesia.

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RIO DE JANEIRO (BRAZIL)
The Rio Times

May 18, 2019

Bishop Vilson Dias de Oliveira of Limeira (SP) is under investigation for alleged extortion and cover-up of sexual abuse, Brazilian media report.

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Brazilian bishop Vilson Dias de Oliveira, according to the Vatican.

The Vatican did not explain in a statement on Friday what prompted the resignation of the bishop who, according to media reports in Brazil, is under investigation for alleged extortion and cover-up of sexual abuse.

In April, the bishop confessed to police that he had taken US$4,000 from parish funds for personal use, telling them he did so because he was having financial difficulties, according to reports.

The Catholic Church has been rocked by a global clerical pedophilia scandal, with victims coming forward in countries ranging from Australia to Chile, Germany, and the U.S.

Pope Francis passed a landmark new measure this month to oblige those who know about sexual abuse in the Church to report it to their superiors, in a move which could bring countless new cases to light.

As a result of the decree, bishops will be held directly accountable for sexual abuse or covering it up.

But crimes admitted during the sacrament of confession will remain exempt from the new church law.

Survivors’ groups have called for the Vatican to make reporting of suspected abuse to police mandatory – but the Vatican says church law cannot override local civil law.

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.

[United Methodist bishop declines to discuss accusations of sexual abuse cover-up]

CHILE
BioBioChile

May 19, 2019

By Emilio Lara and Oscar Cáceres

La mañana de este domingo, el obispo de la Iglesia Unida Metodista Pentecostal, Juan Ormeño, declinó referirse a las acusaciones de encubrimiento de abuso sexual que pesan en su contra. Lo anterior, por la denuncia que realizó hace más de dos años una joven de 17 años, por los hechos ocurridos en abril de 2017, en contra del pastor Salomón Morales, de la iglesia de San Joaquín, quien fue denunciado por tocaciones las que él mismo calificó como un impulso.

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Patheos blog

May 20, 2019

By Deacon Greg Kandra

A few commenters on social media were upset and even angry over the news that Father Jonathan Morris has asked to leave the clerical state. I remarked that this is not, from all appearances and from the statement of Father Morris, scandalous — unlike some other high profile priests who have followed a similar path. I take him at his word that there is no present relationship involved that has led him to this decision, and that he wishes to remain a faithful and committed Catholic — albeit, one who can marry and have a family.

Some readers objected. No, they replied, this is a scandal. One reader told me to look again at the definition of scandal.

Okay. From the catechism:

2284 Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense.

2285 Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized. It prompted our Lord to utter this curse: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others. Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep’s clothing.

2286 Scandal can be provoked by laws or institutions, by fashion or opinion.

Therefore, they are guilty of scandal who establish laws or social structures leading to the decline of morals and the corruption of religious practice, or to “social conditions that, intentionally or not, make Christian conduct and obedience to the Commandments difficult and practically impossible.” This is also true of business leaders who make rules encouraging fraud, teachers who provoke their children to anger, or manipulators of public opinion who turn it away from moral values.

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BAKERSFIELD (CA)
The Californian

May 20, 2019

By Jose Gaspar

While separate criminal investigations are carried out by police in Firebaugh and Merced into allegations that Monsignor Craig Harrison sexually molested minors, there’s another internal investigation being done by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno. This one is based on a set of rules adopted by the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops in June 2002 aimed to “repair the breach” with those sexually abused by church ministers.

Article 2 of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People states that “Dioceses are to have policies and procedures in place to respond promptly to any allegations where there is reason to believe that sexual abuse of a minor occurred.” And perhaps the most controversial requirement states, “Any credible allegations (against a priest or deacon) of sexual misconduct with a minor will result in immediate administrative leave” while an internal investigation is completed. Some priests find a problem with that.

“It’s like Marshall law,” said Monsignor Stephen Frost of Christ the King Church in Oildale. Under this process, Frost says due process goes out the window and the accused is accorded none or very little information about the allegations or who the accuser might be. Further, by removing the priest from his parish leaves the perception the priest is guilty before an investigation is begun.

“For those of us who have a sense of justice, it’s a scandal the church would treat people like that and not give them any recourse for defense,” said Monsignor Frost. In the case of Monsignor Harrison, Frost points out the allegations are many years old, and Harrison is no longer an immediate threat to any of his accusers who are now adults so there was no need to pull him out.

According to the Charter, placing a priest on administrative leave “…does not imply guilt, but is necessary for the good of God’s people. All appropriate steps shall be taken to protect the reputation of the cleric during the investigation.”

“I understand what the perception is,” said Teresa Dominguez, Chancellor and Director of Communications of the Diocese of Fresno. Removing an credibly accused priest is necessary for several reasons including preserving the integrity of the investigation said Dominguez. “An administrative leave is also for his protection. It basically gets him out of the way of the investigation,” she said. I can see her point. If the diocese had not put Harrison on administrative leave, that could leave parishioners feeling uneasy about taking their children to St. Francis as a cloud of suspicion hovers over Harrison’s head. Others believe the removal of a priest is similar to other cases.

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.

BROCKWAY (PA)
Clearfield Progress

May 18, 2019

Local priest Msgr. Charles Kaza has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation of an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor.

The Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General forwarded the allegation against Kaza, the pastor of St. Tobias Parish in Brockway and president of the DuBois Central Catholic school board, to the Diocese of Erie, according to a press release received from the diocese Saturday.

K&L Gates, the diocese’s law firm, has conducted a preliminary investigation.

The diocese placed Kaza on administrative leave, restricting him from active ministry, effective May 13, while further investigation is underway. During the investigation, Kaza will not be in residence at St. Tobias Parish; he will be living at a private home with family.

The abuse is alleged to have taken place while Kaza was serving at St. John the Baptist Parish, Erie, in the 1980s.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information related to this case is asked to contact the Pennsylvania Attorney General at 1-888-538-8541 and K&L Gates at ErieRCD@klgates.com.

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.

CHARLOTTE (NC)
WFAE Radio

May 20, 2019

By Tommy Tomlinson

The Catholic Diocese of Charlotte is crawling into the 21st century. They should get some credit for finally moving forward. But they should also understand that there’s a long way to go.

For years – for decades – the diocese refused to name its clergy members who had been accused of sexually abusing children. But now the diocese plans to publish a list of those clergy by the end of the year.

That’s probably because some of those names have started coming out anyway. In February, the diocese in Richmond published its own list that included two Benedictine monks who had worked in the Charlotte area. One had been accused of sexual abuse at a Gastonia parish in the 1970s. And both had worked at Belmont Abbey College.

Then in March, the second-in-command of the Charlotte diocese resigned. He was facing allegations of sexual misconduct toward an adult student at Belmont Abbey in the 1980s.

All of this belongs in the bigger context of the gut-wrenching global scandal involving Catholic priests and sexual abuse. The church knew for decades that thousands of its priests had been credibly accused of abusing members of their flocks, often children. The vast majority of the cases never became public – instead, a priest might just disappear from a parish one day, only to surface in another one two or three states away.

Pope Francis recently announced a new church law on sexual abuse. Priests and nuns around the world are now required to report all cases they know about to church authorities — even ones that happened long ago.

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.

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Crux

May 20, 2019

By Inés San Martín

Chile, a Latin American nation of 18 million people where the Catholic Church dominated society for centuries and was revered for decades as the main source of moral opposition to Pinochet, more recently has been home to what is arguably the single most intense clerical sexual abuse crisis anywhere in the world.

If you don’t know the story of what’s happened in Chile, it’s hard to appreciate just how massive, and painful, this crisis has been.

In May 2018, every Chilean bishop presented their resignation to Pope Francis, who so far has accepted 9, five of them from prelates who are under the age of 75, meaning they cannot claim the pope released them from their duties because they’re over the retirement age.

Many locals suspect they know why the pontiff yanked these bishops, including Gonzalo Duarte of Valparaiso, who’s long been accused of covering up crimes allegedly committed in his local seminary, and who’s been summoned by the prosecutor’s office to testify on those charges and also on charges that he abused his position, demanding massages, hugs and kisses from unwilling seminarians.

Just removing bishops, however, seems unlikely to satisfy Chileans scarred by the scandals.

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.

COLUMBUS (OH)
Columbus Dispatch

May 20, 2019

By Danae King

While a recent mandate on child sexual abuse from Pope Francis made headlines worldwide and garnered praise from Catholic leaders and some skepticism from victim advocates, not much about how abuse is reported in the United States will likely change.

The new church law, which was released on May 9 and goes into effect June 1, states that all Catholic priests and nuns have to report clergy abuse of minors and adults to church authorities. However, the edict, called a Motu Proprio, gives precedent to existing local practices, said Deacon Bernie Nojadera, executive director of the Secretariat for Child and Youth Protection with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In the United States, those practices were set by a 2002 document called the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People that instructs clerics to report suspected abuse to local authorities first, before telling church officials, Nojadera said.

“We are ahead of the curve on that,” he said of the United States’ practices. “From 2002 on, with the charter it’s been very clear that law enforcement is contacted.”

The charter also established training guidelines for people in the church involved with children, including clergy members, other church officials and volunteers. And they are trained on mandated reporting laws in their state.

Ohio is one of 28 states that names clergy as mandated reporters, and it’s a misdemeanor offense in the state if mandated reporters don’t report suspected child abuse to law enforcement, which could be police or children’s services agencies.

Under the pope’s edict, there are no penalties for not reporting sexual abuse — of minors, sexual misconduct with adults and knowing of or covering up any abuse — to the church.

Although clerics are mandatory reporters in Ohio, there are some exceptions to when they are required to report, including “privileged conversations” that take place during the Catholic sacrament of confession.

Columbus Bishop Robert J. Brennan released a written statement on the mandate, praising it as a “significant step” that will provide a framework for the diocese in the future. The diocese released a list of 34 clergy members who had been “credibly accused” of child sexual abuse in its more than 150-year history in early March, shortly before Brennan succeeded Bishop Emeritus Frederick Campbell as Columbus’ 12th bishop.

The most recent abuse case on the list occurred more than 25 years ago. The diocese has added two more names to the list since its release, bringing the total to 36, and diocesan officials said it is still subject to changes and revision.

″(Pope Francis’) order provides standards, expectations, and procedures that will assist the Church in addressing this worldwide problem,” Brennan said in the statement. “It affirms our current commitment to offer spiritual care for survivors and their families, to provide full compliance with all civil laws regarding reporting of allegations of sexual abuse to authorities, to uphold the right of any person to report these crimes, to guarantee prompt and objective investigations, and to assure strong lay involvement.”

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.

DALLAS (TX)
Morning News

May 19, 2019

Catholics across the area wrestled with sadness, disappointment and outright anger after last week’s raid on the Dallas diocese, which police say hasn’t fully cooperated with a sexual abuse investigation.

The news was devastating to Becky Autrey, a 30-year member of North Dallas’ St. Rita Catholic Community who was already struggling with her feelings about the church.

“I think this has lost me for good,” she said. “I really don’t have that deep faith anymore.”

But the Rev. Martin Moreno told parishioners Sunday at the packed St. Cecilia Catholic Church that the raids shouldn’t shake their beliefs.

“If this news means you have to go, then leave already,” he said. “Those of us that remain will have true faith.”

The Oak Cliff church was one of the places authorities raided Wednesday, but Moreno said he wasn’t worried.

“Everything that I have, I have given police,” he said. “The peace that comes from transparency, nobody can take that from you.”

Police say the diocese has hidden records of complaints about priests, including former St. Cecilia pastor Rev. Edmundo Paredes.

Even as some say the new developments continue to test their beliefs, there are Catholics who say the church needs their support more than ever during this latest crisis, expressing almost familial obligations.

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 YORK (NY)
Irish Central

May 19, 2019

On 20 May 2009, Ireland made international headlines when the Report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) was published.

The Ryan Report, as it was to become known, quickly entered the Irish national lexicon as bywords to the Church and State’s shameful treatment of children in institutional care over a period of decades.

The report detailed in shocking detail, the scale of physical, sexual and emotional abuse suffered by children in institutions run by a range of Catholic Orders but which were funded and inspected by the Department of Education.

Abuse was reported by over 1,000 men and women in over 200 residential settings between 1914 and 2000.

The settings included industrial and reformatory schools, children’s homes, hospitals, national and secondary schools, day and residential special needs schools, foster care and a small number of other residential institutions, including Magdalene laundries.

The report identified some 800 known abusers.

The report concluded that physical and emotional abuse were features of the institutions examined while sexual abuse “occurred in many of them” — in particular boys’ institutions.

It found that the Department of Education had a “deferential and submissive attitude” towards the congregations that ran the institutions to the extent that it compromised its ability to carry out its statutory duty of inspection and monitoring of the schools.

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.

Queerty

May 18, 2019

Last week, Jerry Falwell Jr. made national headlines when it was reported that Michael Cohen allegedly helped stop the release of x-rated photos of the antigay activist shortly before he endorsed Trump for president in 2016.

According to Reuters, Falwell contacted Cohen in 2015 seeking assistance regarding an “embarrassing personal matter” involving him, his wife, and their 20-something pool boy, er, pool attendant from Miami.

Related: Jerry Falwell Jr.’s alleged x-rated photos could get him fired from his own university

Rumor had it, the pool boy possessed dirty pictures of Falwell and was using them to blackmail the evangelical leader to the tune of $1.8 million. Falwell denied any such photos existed, and the pool boy denied blackmailing him, but neither denied the $1.8 million payment, which remains unexplained.

Of course, Falwell is hardly the first antigay church leader to find himself embroiled in a bizarre sex scandal, alleged or confirmed.

Here are six other antigay church leaders who were recently exposed for hypocrisy…

Ernest Angley
The 97-year-old former leader of the Grace Cathedral Church in Akron, Ohio, who made his career out of preaching homophobia and scamming people with dementia out of their life savings, had a scandalous decades-old recording of himself leaked to the media earlier this year.

In the recording, which was made in 1996, Angley is heard admitting to getting naked and masturbating with an unnamed man in his bed, but he insists the encounter wasn’t gay because “I didn’t make him cum.”

“I didn’t ejaculate him,” Angley says. “I didn’t make him cum. … [And] he didn’t make me cum. No, he didn’t!”

Matthew Dennis Patterson
Perv pastor
The 45-year-old pastor of Nolensville Road Baptist Church in Nolensville, Tennessee and self-proclaimed “vocal opponent” of LGBTQ rights was ousted from his post in April 2018 after congregation members began complaining about his requests to “engage in strange activities” with their children.

Patterson was accused of asking numerous boys to strip down to their underpants and sit on his face over the course of 20 years. Police didn’t say how old the children were at the time of the alleged abuse; however, Patterson was indicted on eight counts of aggravated sexual battery with each count being linked to a different child.

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.

ASHTABULA (OH)
Star Beacon

May 19, 2019

By Jon Wysochanski

If sexual assault or abuse occurred many years ago, victims have limited recourse in Ohio when filing criminal complaints or civil suits — as is the case with many of those victimized by priests.

In Ohio, lawmakers have not eliminated the statute of limitations for rape or sexual battery, though the statute was extended in recent years from 20 to 25 years from the time the offense was committed — when there is an indictment based on DNA evidence.

This change was a response to an overwhelming amount of rape DNA kits that had never been sent to labs, many of which would not have been admissible in court because the crimes were committed more than 20 years ago, said state Rep. John Rogers, D-Mentor-on-the-Lake.

“This created a window that would enable the prosecution of cases in which DNA could identify a possible perpetrator,” Rogers said.

Rogers, a former prosecutor who has handled a myriad of sexual assault cases, said he supports the idea of delving into this “window of opportunity” concept more and reviewing Ohio’s laws.

Prosecution of rape must commence within 25 years after it is committed, or within 25 years after a person turns 18 in the case of minors, and the statute of limitations varies for other sexual-related crimes such as gross sexual imposition.

Civil claims in sex cases involving juveniles must be brought within 12 years from when the child turns 18, meaning they have until they are 30 years old to file suit. There is also a $250,000 to $350,000 cap on damages that can be awarded to victims bringing forth such civil suits. Rep. Kristin Boggs, D-Columbus, said Ohio has one of the lowest damage caps in the country and it is the only state with a cap applied to victims of sexual violence.

Though Boggs said she supports examining the statute of limitations in such cases and revisiting the cap on civil claims, legislation hasn’t been introduced this session. Lawmakers several times had sought to eliminate the statute of limitations in rape cases, most recently by adding an amendment to the abortion ban bill, which lawmakers voted down, Boggs said.

State Rep. John Patterson, D-Jefferson, said statute of limitations laws are not something he has examined, and he deferred questions to Rogers.

Boggs said she fully supports removing the statute of limitations for rape, but only if it were to apply to all victims and is not based on whom the offender was. For example, some states have carved out laws to deal with specific instances of large-scale systemic abuse in institutions like the Catholic Church, which changes statutes of limitations for victims in those cases but not others, Boggs said.

“If we’re going to do this we should do it equally for everyone,” she said.

Church abuse, response

In October, the Youngstown Diocese released a list of 34 priests credibly accused of sexual abuse and a dozen of the clergy members named had an assignment passing through Ashtabula County at some point in their careers.

Robert Hill is the most well known, having spent time in prison after being convicted of paying a minor for sex. He spent time at Assumption of Mary in Geneva as well as St. Joseph in Jefferson.

Thomas Crum, who spent most of his career in the Youngstown area, was defrocked in 2009 after admitting to 30-year-old allegations that took place at least a decade prior to Crum’s service in St. Mary in Orwell, which dated from 1988 to 1991.

Robert Reidy, who in 2002 admitted to abusing two Austintown boys in the 1960s when he was at St. Nicholas in Struthers, had a previous assignment at St. Mary in Conneaut.

The Rev. Monsignor John Zuraw, Catholic Diocese of Youngstown, said the Diocese list is always updated when people are credibly accused. The diocese does not release the names of victims or where they live, he said, and since releasing the list of priests credibly accused in October, one person has come forward with allegations about a priest named on the list.

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.

JOHNSTOWN (PA)
Tribune-Democrat

May 19, 2019

If the Republican leaders in the Pennsylvania Senate won’t step up and take action on behalf of sexual abuse victims who are beyond the statute of limitations, then others – including Wayne Langerholc of Richland Township – must push their stubborn colleagues aside and drive this important issue.

As Sunday’s CNHI in-depth report “The Cost of Abuse” shows, several options have been put forth to give those victims a pathway to justice.

Proposals in Harrisburg would address the plight of abuse victims – including those whose attackers were members of the clergy – through either a legislative change in the law or a movement to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution.

State House reporter John Finnerty’s relentless efforts to interview the Senate’s GOP leadership for this project garnered a repeated “no thanks” from Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, while Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre, commented only when cornered in a Capitol hallway.

Corman called any change in how the state handles cases of adults who were sexually abused as children “special legislation” that would need to be referred to the Senate judiciary committee.

Last year, the state House overwhelmingly approved a bill that would provide a two-year window for abuse victims to file civil action. The statute of limitations now denies victims who have reached the age of 30 that right – and age 50 for criminal cases.

The 2018 bill never made it onto the Senate floor for a vote.

But we’re seeing some signs in 2019 that a subtle shift is happening in the Senate.

Republican Langerholc said he “would support a window. I’ve been on record with that before. We need to come together to get something done. It’s something that’s been languishing and needs to be addressed.”

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.

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
KQED Radio

May 19, 2019

By Alexandra Hall

More than 20 years after a man first reported he was abused by a Central Valley priest, the Catholic Diocese of Fresno is revisiting the allegation after several other individuals have come forward accusing the same priest. The diocese and Fresno County law enforcement officials had previously said the claim, first raised in 1998, was unsubstantiated.

The man, who has chosen not to disclose his identity, says that Bakersfield priest Monsignor Craig Harrison — who is currently on leave while under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct — inappropriately touched him when he was a teenager in Firebaugh.

According to the man’s attorney, Joseph George, the alleged abuse happened over the course of a year from 1992 to 1993 while the man was living at the rectory of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Firebaugh.

Harrison worked as a priest at St. Joseph from 1992 to 1999.

The man said that Harrison would inspect his genitals each night when he returned home under the pretext of checking to see if the teen had used drugs. He was 16 and 17 years old at the time.

In 1998, the man filed a report about the alleged abuse with the Firebaugh Police Department and the case was referred to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, George said.

A spokesman for the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office said Harrison was questioned but not arrested. The sheriff’s office ultimately declared the allegation “unsubstantiated.”

A case against Craig Harrison was submitted to the Fresno County District Attorney’s Office’s sexual assault unit that same year, according to a spokesperson, but no charges were filed.

Four years later, the man went to the Fresno Diocese to again report the alleged abuse. Diocesan administrative officials interviewed him at the time.

“The interview is curious to say the least,” George said, referring to a transcript he said his client received from diocesan staff when they recently met with him in his home. “It’s biased.”

During the interview, George said, the former director of human resources and former chancellor of the Fresno Diocese questioned the man and described his allegations as “harassment.”

They also pointed out that the man’s parents had given their son permission to live in the rectory and that Harrison had spoken to the man’s parents. According to the transcript, the man replied that his parents only spoke Spanish, George said.

“He felt put off,” George said, “and said, ‘at some point I think I’m gonna read about this in The Fresno Bee when other people come forward. […] This happened to others. I’m sure I’m not alone.’”

California law requires that clergy and church records custodians report suspected abuse or neglect of children to law enforcement.

“There’s no way that the information that was conveyed to the diocese in 2002 would not create a reasonable suspicion of child abuse,” George said.
Sponsored

George said the man also provided diocesan personnel with the names of other potential victims.

“He said he never — capital ‘N’ — heard back from the diocese until this current flurry of reported allegations,” George said.

Since mid-April, three other men have come forward alleging Harrison touched them inappropriately or engaged in other sexual misconduct with them as teenagers. Two allege Harrison inspected their genitals under similar circumstances. Another alleges Harrison pinned him against a wall and rubbed his erect penis against his body through clothing.

All of the allegations were reported to have occurred in Firebaugh, Merced and Bakersfield, cities where Harrison worked as a priest at different points in time since the late 1980s.

Most of the victims came from low-income, Latino families, according to George.

The diocesan review board is now reconsidering the allegation first reported in 1998 and again in 2002, along with an unknown number of other claims of sexual abuse by Fresno Diocese clergy dating back to 1922.

Fresno Diocese chancellor and spokeswoman Teresa Dominguez said she recently visited the man at his home to apologize.

“I personally expressed my concern for him; told him that I believe him, and apologized for the pain this matter has caused him. I told him that I will support him and be an advocate for him in any way that I can,” said Dominguez in an email.

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

May 17, 2019

By Hemant Mehta

James Carroll was a Catholic priest from 1969 to 1974. He was raised in a Catholic family and was proud of that… until he could no longer be. The sex abuse scandals were the tipping point, but the fundamental Catholic beliefs didn’t help either. Carroll says the exclusion of women from leadership, the requirement for celibacy among priests, and the opposition to LGBTQ rights have helped him realize the Church’s problems are far too large to overcome.

Now, in a cover story for the June issue of The Atlantic, Carroll says the Church should “abolish the priesthood.” In other words, the Church should eliminate the tradition that has arguably been the root cause for most of its biggest problems.

What Vatican II did not do, or was unable to do, except symbolically, was take up the issue of clericalism — the vesting of power in an all-male and celibate clergy. My five years in the priesthood, even in its most liberal wing, gave me a fetid taste of this caste system. Clericalism, with its cult of secrecy, its theological misogyny, its sexual repressiveness, and its hierarchical power based on threats of a doom-laden afterlife, is at the root of Roman Catholic dysfunction. The clerical system’s obsession with status thwarts even the merits of otherwise good priests and distorts the Gospels’ message of selfless love, which the Church was established to proclaim. Clericalism is both the underlying cause and the ongoing enabler of the present Catholic catastrophe. I left the priesthood 45 years ago, before knowing fully what had soured me, but clericalism was the reason.

I heard the confessions of young people wracked with guilt not because of authentic sinfulness but because of a Church-imposed sexual repressiveness that I was expected to affirm. Just by celebrating the Mass, I helped enforce the unjust exclusion of women from equal membership in the Church. I valued the community life I shared with fellow priests, but I also sensed the crippling loneliness that could result from a life that lacked the deep personal intimacy other human beings enjoy. My relationship with God was so tied up with being a priest that I feared a total loss of faith if I left. That very fear revealed a denigration of the laity and illustrated the essential problem. If I had stayed a priest, I see now, my faith, such as it was, would have been corrupted.

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.

ERIE (PA)
YourErie.com

May 18, 2019

By David Belmondo

A preliminary investigation is opened against a Catholic Priest after allegations of sexual abuse surface.

Msgr Charles Kaza, Pastor of St Tobias Parish in Brockway, and president of Dubois Central Catholic School Board is accused of sexual abuse while serving at St John the Baptist Parish in Erie in the 1980’s.

An allegation of sexual abuse was forewarded to the Diocese of Erie and its independent investigators by the Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General.

Bishop Lawrence Persico has placed Kaza on administrative leave restricting him from active ministry effective May 13th.

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LA CROSSE (WI)
WSAW TV

May 18, 2019

A retired La Crosse priest, who has a history of sexual misconduct, is once again in legal trouble. Monsignor Bernard McGarty faces charges of fourth degree sexual assault.

According to WKBT, the CBS affiliate in La Crosse, surveillance video from the La Crosse library supports the criminal complaint which alleges the 94-year-old offered a woman money for sex, tried to kiss her, and took her hand and put it on his genitals on May 11.

In a statement to WKBT, the Diocese of La Crosse says: “On May 16, 2019, the Diocese of La Crosse learned of a recent situation at the La Crosse Public Library involving Msgr. Bernard McGarty, 94, a retired priest of the Diocese of La Crosse. According to diocesan policy Msgr. McGarty, from this moment forward, is on a leave of absence from public ministry while this current situation is being investigated. Due to this being an ongoing investigation, the Diocese of La Crosse has no further comment at this time.”

McGarty has been released on a signature bond.

In 2014, McGarty was cited in Wausau for disorderly conduct after exposing himself to a massage therapist in a salon.

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HUDSON COUNTY (NJ)
Jersey Journal

May 19, 2019

By Rev. Alexander Santora/

Eight days this month — May 6 to 13 — may turn out to be the most consequential in the state for the next phase of the long-running clerical sex abuse scandal.

First, Anderson & Associates released a list of 311 clergy and religious accused of abuse in New Jersey. Then, Pope Francis codified changes for the worldwide church to address sex abuse and hold people accountable. Lastly, Gov. Murphy signed into law legislation that ensures a longer period for victims of sexual abuse to sue and he made it retroactive, as well.

“The Anderson Report on Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese and Dioceses in New Jersey,” released May 6, is more than twice as long as the list of 188 names released by the Catholic church earlier this year. Anderson’s list is longer because it includes religious — including three nuns, deacons and priests from New Jersey — who abused elsewhere in the country.

The law firm’s introduction in the report asserts that it relied on “publicly available sources,” like media reports and court cases. It also claims that these mostly are “just allegations” and everyone is “innocent until proven guilty.”

I found listed a priest from the Archdiocese of Newark whose allegation was false and a grand jury declined to indict him. Including him with others whose cases are probably credible is a gross injustice.

Asked about it, Patrick J. Wall — an advocate with Anderson’s L.A. office and former Benedictine priest who was in the order for 12 years — could not explain why the priest was included.

“We include all open cases as the litigation moves forward,” he said. Yet, in this case, the case was closed.

In 2010, a detective from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office along with a town policeman went to the priest’s rectory to inform him of an allegation. The priest hired his own lawyer and appeared before a grand jury. Months later, an abuse victim advocate showed up in town seeking dirt on the priest so he informed his parishioners and the archdiocese that he was never charged. It made the newspapers and that apparently justified Anderson including his name.

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.

BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

May 19, 2019

By Dan Herbeck

Hardly any of the more than 100 Buffalo area priests implicated as child molesters spent so much as one day in jail.

For years, most of their victims were too scared or embarrassed to make complaints.

But Buffalo Police had marching orders not to arrest Catholic priests, according to former vice squad Detective Martin Harrington and other retired officers. Instead they alerted the bishop’s office to any illegal activities.

“The department’s unwritten policy was that Catholic priests did not get arrested,” said Harrington, who investigated vice crimes for 17 years and retired in 1995. “I never had any experience with priests who molested children. I never heard of any priests molesting children. But we had priests we caught with pornography, or masturbating in the city parks, and our orders were to turn them over to the Buffalo Diocese. The diocese would deal with them … but they would not be arrested.”

The policy “only extended to Catholic priests,” Harrington recalled. “If we caught clergy from other religions, we arrested 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.

[Archbishop of Cali asked for forgiveness following pedophilia case]

COLOMBIA
El Tiempo

May 16, 2019

Abogado de cuatro víctimas de sacerdote dice que no se ha cumplido con reparación.

La vida de cuatro niños, entre ellos dos hermanos, cambió en el 2009 en la parroquia de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria del barrio Alfonso Bonilla Aragón. Es un humilde sector del Distrito de Aguablanca, en el oriente de Cali, donde muchos de los jóvenes que allí crecen se exponen a ser reclutados por bandas delincuenciales y pandillas.

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[Former priest on accusations against Renato Poblete: “I knew he was not a saint and that he had weaknesses”]

CHILE
Emol

May 18, 2019

By Leonardo Vallejos

Renato Hevia, quien se retiró del sacerdocio para casarse con Clara Szczaranski, habló con Revista Sábado de su amistad con el acusado jesuita. “Qué culpa tiene él de ser picado de la araña, porque lo era”, dijo.

Renato Hevia, ex sacerdote que dejó la Compañía de Jesús para casarse con Clara Szczaranski, la ex presidenta del Consejo de Defensa del Estado, ha sido llamado a declarar en la causa por denuncias de abusos que hay contra el fallecido Renato Poblete. “Sabía que no era un santo y que tenía algunas debilidades (…) No creo que Renato Poblete sea un psicópata ni un pervertido sexual ni un sádico (…) Qué culpa tiene él de ser picado de la araña, porque lo era. Debió haberse controlado más”, señaló.

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[“The temptation is greater:” priest who defended himself against sex abuse complaint is removed from clerical state]

ARGENTINA
Uno Entre Ríos

May 3, 2019

La Justicia canónica le quitó el cargo de sacerdote a Fernando Yánez, que cuidaba chicos en un hogar. Pero no fue por esa acusación sino por otros delitos.

El Obispado de San Rafael, provincia de Mendoza, le quitó el cargo de sacerdote a Fernando Yáñez quien fue recientemente absuelto de las acusaciones de abuso sexual a un menor de edad. “Uno está rodeado de varones y necesita cariño”, se le escucha decir al presbítero en un audio que habría sido grabado a escondidas por dos personas que trabajaban en el instituto que dirigía. Sin embargo, la decisión de la Iglesia no es por esta denuncia sino por otros delitos canónicos.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post

May 17, 2019

By Tim Busch

Catholics are excited for the new head of the church in the nation’s capital. Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory, who will be installed as the leader of the Archdiocese of Washington on May 21, is widely recognized as a principled reformer who seeks the truth and does what’s right. That kind of leadership is desperately needed after a year of disturbing revelations and scandals about senior church leaders, especially ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

In April, Gregory promised that transparency would be at the top of his agenda, a positive sign after the past year. Last June, McCarrick — the city’s archbishop from 2001 to 2006 and one of the church’s best-known leaders — was credibly accused of sexually abusing a teenager earlier in his career. In the months that followed, further allegations arose against him involving abuse of seminarians, new priests and boys as young as 11 years old. McCarrick’s successor, Cardinal Donald Wuerl , reported at least one such accusation to the Vatican.

As these discoveries unfolded, Catholics demanded accountability. Last summer, Pope Francis accepted McCarrick’s resignation as cardinal, a first. The Vatican defrocked McCarrick in February, removing him from the priesthood after an internal investigation. Most recently, Pope Francis unveiled a historic new policy that expedites investigations of allegations against bishops, archbishops and cardinals. Catholics everywhere welcomed these moves.

But the faithful wanted more than punishments doled out after closed-door deliberations. We also wanted to shine a light into the darkness: Who knew what, when did they know it, what did (or didn’t) they do, and how deep does this rot run?

Gregory is the kind of leader who can address these concerns. In 2002, as head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops , he oversaw the creation of the Dallas Charter, which enacted strict policies to stop abusive priests and support victims. This gives Catholics hope about what he’ll do to restore the faithful’s trust as the archbishop of Washington.

Catholics have more questions than answers about McCarrick’s actions and the church’s response to (and knowledge of) them. Over the past year, the archdiocese has said little about its internal workings and the handling of accusations, largely telling the media that it either knew nothing about specific allegations or had found no relevant documents in its records. Gregory could let Catholics review all relevant records to verify the church’s claims.

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New York (NY)
Americ Magazine
.
May 17, 2019

By James Martin, S.J

In the Dec. 11, 2000, issue of The New Yorker, the magazine’s revered literary critic James Wood began his review of the writings of J. F. Powers with a blunt question, “Does anyone, really, like priests?” I read that article a few months after my ordination to the priesthood. I found it hard to understand not only how an intelligent person could write a sentence like that, but how a prestigious magazine could print it.

It does not take too much creativity to imagine what the reaction might have been had The New Yorker’s literary critic written, “Does anyone, really, like imams?” Or “Does anyone, really, like rabbis?” Firestorms of denunciations would likely have followed. In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, we saw a flurry of thoughtful articles distinguishing Islam from the terrorists who committed the atrocities (and the clerics who encouraged them), with commentators correctly making judicious distinctions between the actions of a few and the morality of the many.

But when it comes to priests, it is O.K. to hate them. Or at least wonder if anyone, really, likes them.

I thought of that article when I saw the cover of the latest edition of The Atlantic, which features a darkened photo of St. Patrick’s Cathedral above the headline, “Abolish the Priesthood.”

The cover was bad enough; the accompanying article, by James Carroll, was even more disappointing. If this is The Atlantic’s “deep dive” into the clergy abuse crisis, it represents something of a disservice to readers and the general public. Essentially, Mr. Carroll’s lengthy (and, admittedly, in some places careful) examination of the clergy abuse crisis can be boiled down to: It’s priests. He states his thesis with admirable concision at one point: “The very notion of priesthood is toxic.” Using the old dictum that what is easily asserted is easily denied, I would respond: “No, it is not.”

Mr. Carroll, an astute social critic and often brilliant writer, should know better. The problem is not the priesthood; the problem is clericalism, that malign brand of theology and spirituality that says that priests are more important than laypeople, that a priest’s or bishop’s word is more trustworthy than that of victims (or victims’ parents) and that the very selves of priests are more valuable than those of laypeople. Catholic theology is sometimes used to support this kind of supremacism. At his ordination a priest is said to undergo an “ontological” change, a change in his very being. The belief that this change makes him “better” than the layperson lies at the heart of clericalism and much of the abuse crisis.

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DALLAS (TX)
Morning News

May 16, 2019

By Cassandra Jaramillo

In their search-warrant affidavit that allowed officers to seize boxes of files from Dallas Catholic Diocese offices Wednesday, Dallas police launched a salvo of accusations against church officials about their handling of sexual abuse allegations.

Among them: Diocese’ leaders over the years hadn’t properly reported allegations to Child Protective Services.

State law requires anyone who suspects child abuse and neglect to make a report to the Department of Family Protective Services, which oversees the CPS.

But children’s advocates and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — known as SNAP — said Thursday that the diocese’s reporting efforts appeared minimal, and that officials should’ve better involved proper law enforcement agencies from the beginning.

“If someone tells you about a crime that was committed, you tell the police,” said Zach Hiner, SNAP’s executive director.

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DALLAS (TX)
Diocese of Dallas

May 17, 2019

On May 15, 2019, the Dallas Police Department, supported by an affidavit sworn to by Detective David Clark, executed a search warrant on three properties related to the Diocese of Dallas. While there are a number of technical issues in the affidavit that will be addressed by lawyers and the Dallas Police Department, I feel a need to respond, as a shepherd of this Diocese, to many of the larger claims and implications made within that affidavit. Before I begin, though, I want to make it clear that the sexual abuse of minors is one of the most egregious sins any human being can commit. I am responding to this affidavit so that the faithful may know how important the issue of eradicating the sexual abuse of minors is to me, particularly with respect to how the Church responds to it. There are a number of important areas that I would like to address:

The fact that the Diocese is not in possession of certain names or information in some of its files does not mean that the Diocese has hidden or concealed those names or information.

The fundamental premise of the affidavit is that because a piece of information discovered in an entirely independent police investigation is not in the Diocese’s files, the Diocese must have hidden or concealed that information and is continuing to hide or conceal that information, so that it warrants a raid of religious offices. The affidavit consistently implies that information was not included in files that were turned over and from this fact concludes that the Diocese has, for presumably nefarious reasons, held that information back. But in reality, the Diocese cannot turn over what it does not have. All of the files for the names in the affidavit have been turned over, and the Diocese was working directly with Police on this, spending hours combing through thousands of files, some of which were decades old. In total, we reviewed 115,216 files, encompassing over 221,855 pages, that covered 70 years. Within this process, after files were being submitted to the police, the Diocese discovered additional files, identified by Detective Clark as an “additional 51 pages” in the affidavit. These 51 pages, out of the over 221,855 pages being reviewed, were immediately turned over to the police upon discovery. To imply that these documents were intentionally withheld in any capacity is to truly misrepresent the nature of our correspondence with the Dallas Police Department. In the case of many of the accused, the Diocese had even sought to help find more information not in its possession, tracking down dozens upon dozens of witnesses dating back decades so that additional information might be discovered by the Dallas Police. In fact, the Dallas Police Department was able to gather this additional evidence because of the information the Diocese had given to police in their efforts.

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NEW YORK (NY)
NBC News

May 17, 2019

By Daniella Silva and Chelsea Damberg

Self-help guru Tony Robbins has been accused of making inappropriate sexual advances on fans and staff and berating abuse victims in an investigation published by BuzzFeed News on Friday.

BuzzFeed said its report stemmed from an investigation that was based on leaked recordings, internal documents related to Robbins’ work and a series of interviews with fans and insiders. The allegations include sexual misconduct or harassment that took place in the 1990s and early 2000s, before he married his second wife, as well as claims Robbins berated victims of rape or domestic abuse during his self-help sessions.

NBC News has not been able to speak to BuzzFeed’s unidentified sources. It was not clear how many women BuzzFeed spoke to for its report.

Robbins vehemently denied the claims in a response on the website Medium on Friday, saying in part that the news outlet was publishing an “inaccurate, agenda-driven version of the past, pierced with falsehoods.”

“It is intended to disparage me personally, my family, my life’s work, and the efforts of the millions of individuals around the globe who have taken this journey with me over the last 40-plus years,” Robbins wrote.

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WICHITA (KS)
KSNW TV

May 16, 2019

By Stephanie Bergmann

While the priest sex abuse scandal has dominated headlines lately, churches of all denominations are dealing with another dangerous dilemma, whether to allow sex offenders seeking forgiveness to attend services where kids are present.

A church in Derby had to decide whether redemption is worth the risk of welcoming a convicted pedophile into the congregation.

“The prevalence (of child sex abuse) is unbelievable, how much is going on,” said Dr. Gary Hackney, a clinical psychologist.

While it’s impossible to know for sure how many kids are molested, estimates range from one in 10 to one in three.

Experts like Hackney, who work with pedophiles to try to keep them from re-offending, say the temptation is always there.

“That’s what people have to understand, it doesn’t go away,” said Hackney.

That’s why St. Mary Catholic Church in Derby took action, when convicted sex offender, Al Rocheleau, started going to Mass there.

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ROME (ITALY)
Washington Post

May 18, 2019

By Chico Harlan

His missions begin with a phone call from the Pope. “Do me a favour,” Pope Francis tends to say, and then Archbishop Charles Scicluna steels himself, packs his bags and books a flight to another country where something terrible has happened.

Within a church besieged by clerical abuse cases, Scicluna, 59, has become the Vatican’s emergency investigator — a priest and lawyer turned sex crimes specialist who is dispatched to scandal zones.

“Nothing prepares you for the wounds,” Scicluna said. “You don’t get used to it.”

He is sent to places where cardinals or bishops are accused of committing abuse; where officials are suspected of burying evidence or systematically ignoring victims; where the church has profoundly failed and squandered trust. Over the past decade and a half, he has led at least four major investigations on four continents, interviewing hundreds of victims, during feverish days he likens to an “ant working in summer.”

For most of that time, he has operated out of public view, refusing to speak about cases, returning to Rome from his missions with dossiers meant for the eyes of the Pope. But recently, with the church facing outside pressure to reform, Scicluna was vaulted by Francis into a broad and public role. The archbishop helped to plan a major anti-abuse summit in February and has worked on subsequent reforms.

As the Roman Catholic Church attempts to prove it can credibly police itself, it is presenting Scicluna as an example of how rigorous and caring it can be.

In interviews in his home country of Malta and inside the Vatican — where documents on the table are labelled in Latin “secreta” — Scicluna said he “hoped and prayed” that the institution, during his lifetime, can “become an example of best practices” for responding to and preventing abuse.

“But we will not solve the problem,” he said, calling abuse a pervasive global issue that goes beyond the church. “This will not go away.”

Scicluna has developed a reputation — even among some wary abuse victims and advocates — as one of the rare Vatican officials who appreciates the seriousness and scale of the church’s abuse crisis. Victims say Scicluna presents himself as a listener and fact-finder, sensitive but also meticulous in pinning down dates and specifics.

“He cared. It mattered to him,” said Juan Carlos Cruz, a whistleblowing Chilean abuse victim now living in the United States, who met with Scicluna last year. Cruz had volunteered to speak with Scicluna via Skype. Instead, Scicluna flew to New York and spoke with Cruz for four hours.

“I’ve been telling my story and dealing with church officials forever,” Cruz said. “It was the first time I felt empathy.”

Scicluna points to past papal quotes as guiding wisdom for handling the crisis. He chides the church gently, prescribing reforms for handling complaints, urging prelates to listen more openly to victims. He speaks about the importance of transparency and encourages church officials to co-operate with civil authorities, but his own investigations are fully in-house, and not even summaries of his findings are made public.

He has carried out special investigations on behalf of both Francis and his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, and he considers his missions a “service” for the pontiff.

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ROME (ITALY)
Catholic News Service

May 16, 2019

By Carol Glatz

Pope Francis’ new norms on protecting minors and strengthening accountability are the latest steps in driving home the message that the days of keeping abuse allegations covered up or ignored are over, said the Vatican’s top abuse investigator.

“The good of the church requires condemnation” to the proper authorities when it comes to abuse of minors and abuses of power, said Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, told reporters.

The archbishop spoke to reporters about Pope Francis’ latest apostolic letter, “Vos estis lux mundi” (“You are the light of the world”) at a May 9 news conference. The new document establishes and clarifies norms and procedures for holding bishops and religious superiors accountable when it comes to safeguarding minors as well as abuses carried out against adults with violence, threats or an abuse of authority.

The new norms are important, Archbishop Scicluna said, because they clearly tell people they have an obligation to report already existing crimes, negligence and inappropriate behavior to church authorities.

That obligation “has always been there, but experience shows us that either a closed-shop mentality or a misplaced interest in protecting the institution was hindering disclosure,” he said.

The now-universal law of mandating all clerics, as well as men and women religious, to report to the competent ecclesiastical authorities the abuses of which they become aware is important, he said, “because it makes disclosure the main policy of the church.”

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Crux

May 18, 2019

By Inés San Martín

Though it’s been diminishing for a while, more so in some places than others, the influence of the Catholic Church across Latin America is still undeniable. Chile is no exception, especially given that the Church here was at the forefront of the defense of human rights during the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

The Church’s standing in Chile right now, however, is taking a historic beating.

According to the latest poll by the International Social Survey Program, the credibility of the Church among Chileans is today at a historic low, going from 51 percent of trust in 1998 to 13 percent in October 2018.

In May of last year, Pope Francis diagnosed part of the problem: a culture of clerical sexual abuse and cover-up.

According to Joaquin Silva, a lay man and Dean of the Faculty of Theology of Chile’s Catholic University, the Chilean Church today is in “shock” and cannot overcome its “perplexity” over the pope’s diagnosis.

“As a consequence, the necessary changes, the [pope’s] call to conversion and renovation, doesn’t take the shape of a concrete restructuring of the hierarchy, the ecclesial configuration and the understanding of the priesthood as a ministry,” he told Crux.

On the contrary, Silva said, the shock has led the Church to simply enact some “legal and protocol changes” which, even though they were necessary, don’t address the heart of the problem.

“People don’t commit crimes because we don’t know what’s good and what’s bad, or because we don’t have a protocol in place when a person abuses a minor,” Silva argued. “It takes time to assume the gravity of the problem of clerical sexual abuse, and it’s not only the abuses themselves – the problem of the Church in Chile is much deeper.”

Among the roots of the problem, Silva said, is the way members of the Church interact with one another, the Church’s understanding of society and the Church’s relationship with money, all of which, Silva noted, are also problems of the universal Church.

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JOHNSTOWN (PA)
Tribune Democrat

May 18, 2019

By Bill Bowman

At least two priests who served in the Harrisburg Diocese went onto other rolls involving youth after they left the church.

One who served a parish in Sunbury was removed as a part-time instructor for a Lehigh Valley-based drum corps last year. Another worked for more that two decades as a caseworker in the Mental Health/Intellectual and Development Disabilities section of the Human Services department in York County.

Donald Cramer served at St. Monica parish in Sunbury until the school closed in 2012. According to the diocese report, Cramer was investigated for possible child pornography possession, but the Department of Homeland Security found nothing criminal and didn’t investigate further.

Cramer is alive and, according to the Penn State World Campus website, is listed as a faculty member in labor and employment relations.

Cramer was let go by Youth Education in the Arts, the parent organization of the Cadets, in August, according to a report in the Allentown Morning Call. Leaders of the drum corps – which has members between the ages of 15 and 25 – said Cramer passed background checks since he was not charged in the investigation.

Cramer served St. Monica in Sunbury from June 2010 to August 2012, the year he took a leave of absence. Cramer requested and was granted dispensation from the priesthood by Pope Francis in 2014.

Between his leave of absence and dispensation, the Department of Homeland Security investigated Cramer for child pornography after he communicated online with an unidentified person later arrested on child pornography charges about wanting to “rent” boys in Mexico. The investigation closed after investigators found no evidence of child pornography on his computer. Some of the allegations against Cramer are redacted.

In York County, a priest who served in the Harrisburg diocese until his removal in 1990 spent more that two decades as a caseworker in the Mental Health/Intellectual and Development Disabilities section of the Human Services department according to published reports.

Father David H. Luck was named in last summer’s grand jury report. The grand jury report alleges Luck raped one boy and molested another. He was fired from his job with York County last September, according to the York Daily Record.

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DALLAS (TX)
Morning News

May 18, 2019

When they showed up to Catholic diocese office doors with search warrants in hand Wednesday, the Dallas Police Department seemingly broke with tradition.

Except in rare occasions, priests in recent decades have avoided prosecution in Dallas and across the country for sexual abuse — even when criminal evidence came to light as a result of civil lawsuits.

Zach Hiner, executive director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, said he believes police and district attorneys have generally respected the wishes of local church leaders to handle their own dirty laundry.

“Historically, there has been a lot of deference paid to religious institutions by our secular officials,” Hiner said. “They haven’t really wanted to get involved.”

And even if authorities did so, Hiner said, “they didn’t have all the information they needed.”

But increasingly, law enforcement agencies across the country are no longer sitting on the sidelines. And they’re not waiting for church higher-ups’ cooperation — a change that has heartened victims’ advocates and prompted cries of, what took so long?

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SIOUX FALLS (SD)
Argus Leader

May 17, 2019

By Patrick Anderson

A top advocate for clergy sex abuse survivors across the United States is set to visit Sioux Falls on May 24 to push for better protections for victims.

Tim Lennon is president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, a nonprofit that works to expose institutional abuse, seek justice for survivors and advocate for better laws to protect children.

Lennon hopes to draw attention to South Dakota’s statute of limitations law during his Sioux Falls visit. He also plans to meet with survivors who said they were abused at the state’s Catholic-run boarding schools.

“It is exceptionally restrictive, and the reasons politicians are giving for not bringing this into the modern world are pretty bogus reasons,” Lennon said Friday.

Dozens of Native Americans filed lawsuits against the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls, alleging numerous instances of rape and sexual molestation by priests, nuns and staff at three separate Indian Mission schools between the 1940s and 1980s.

The lawsuits eventually failed after a last-minute bill, written by a defense attorney for one of the schools being sued, passed through the Legislature and became law in 2010. It hurt the ability of child sex abuse victims to seek legal action against institutions responsible for their trauma.

Louise Charbonneau Aamot and her sisters still remember when former-Gov. Mike Rounds signed the bill, damaging their case against the Sioux Falls diocese and other Catholic institutions responsible for operating St. Paul’s Indian Mission school in Marty. She hopes Lennon’s visit will support the work she and other victims have been doing in Pierre since the current statute of limitations became law.

“To have them coming and supporting what we’ve been trying to do for so many years is a blessing,” Aamot said. “It is a huge blessing because we have someone who understands, and we have someone who would listen.”

SNAP has been a vocal advocate for survivors across the U.S., opening a national office in Chicago following 2002 reporting by the Boston Globe.

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DALLAS (TX)
CBSDFW TV

May 17, 2019

Catholic Diocese of Dallas Bishop Edward Burns has posted a video rebuttal on Friday with documentation to counter details in a Dallas Police search warrant on Wednesday.

“We were surprised, dismayed and even disappointed by the actions taken on Wednesday,” Bishop Burns said in the video. “That is why I’m saddened that this Wednesday, DPD carried out a highly-publicized search based on an affidavit that contained multiple factual errors.”

“Any suggestion that the Diocese was not cooperating in good faith is simply not true. For this reason, I have prepared a document that shows in detail an outline of the many misstatements made in the affidavit and reported in the media when the affidavit was made public,” Bishop Burns said.

The warrants were related to allegations of clergy abuse against Edmundo Paredes, who was a priest at Saint Cecilia Catholic Church in North Oak Cliff for 27 years, and other suspects.

“In addition to the allegations against Mr. Paredes detectives are investigating at least five additional allegations of child abuse against other suspects. These investigations stem from additional allegations made after the case against Mr. Paredes became public,” Dallas Maj. Max Geron said at a morning press conference. “In furtherance of these investigations today we obtained and executed multiple search warrants to collect any data or documentation of previous reports or records of abuse that may be held by the Dallas Catholic Diocese.”

Major Geron said Dallas detectives are “working to complete a through investigation into each allegation – independent of any other entity – to ensure that each victim has a voice within the legal system.”

In the video post on the Diocese website, Bishop Burns lays out his case, saying he believes the affidavit that sparked the investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by priests is filled with factual errors.

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit Free Press

May 17, 2019

By Ann Zaniewski

Allegations of child sexual abuse against a priest who died in 1984 have been deemed credible, the Archdiocese of Detroit announced Friday.

Ned McGrath, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Detroit, said the archdiocese received a complaint more than a decade ago — but still after Tyminski’s death — about him sexually abusing a minor.

A different victim stepped forward within the last few months with a new complaint, McGrath said. That sparked an investigation by the Archdiocesan Review Board. The board, which investigates and considers allegations of clergy sexual abuse and makes recommendations to the archbishop, found the allegations to be credible.

Tyminski was ordained in 1935 in Poland and served in three parishes there. Five years after his ordination, he was incarcerated in concentration camps during World War II.

Tyminski arrived in the U.S. in 1950. He spent a year at SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake and then was assigned in 1951 to St. Andrew, in 1954 to Resurrection, in 1963 to SS. Peter & Paul (Westside), in 1966 to St. Cunegunda and in 1969 to Immaculate Conception. He retired in 1976.

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LITTLE ROCK (AR)
Arkansas Democrat

May 17, 2019

By Youssef Rddad, Kat Stromquist

A former Arkansas priest is accused of molesting at least one boy in the 1980s while serving as dean of a Catholic school in Subiaco, with accusations coming to light through court records filed this week in Texas alleging abuse by clergy members.

Authorities say the Rev. Jeremy Myers sexually assaulted a boy several times in Arkansas and Texas while he was dean of the students’ dorm at Subiaco Academy, according to an affidavit supporting a search warrant. The document states the abuse started in 1986 at the all-boys school in Logan County — two years after Myers’ ordination as a priest — and continued when the boy visited the priest in Texas.

None of the church members in the document was criminally charged, but the filing explicitly describes allegations of sexual misconduct.

Myers is one of five clergy members under investigation as part of an investigation into alleged abuse within the Dallas Diocese. Police on Wednesday searched the church’s offices and storage buildings in the Dallas metro area, and church officials have said they are cooperating with the investigations.

The document alleges numerous instances in which Myers performed sex acts with the boy in Subiaco and then later in Texas.

Subiaco Academy headmaster David Wright said in a statement Thursday that the school and Subiaco Abbey “are aware of, and have cooperated with, the investigation of Jeremy Myers. Because this investigation is ongoing, and to avoid any possible interference with it, we cannot comment further at this time.”

Wright encouraged staff members and students to report any abuse, and said the school and abbey have “a duty to work to bring the truth to light.”

Subiaco Abbot Leonard Wangler, who was headmaster at Subiaco Academy at the time, reportedly told Myers to speak to his alleged victim about the claims when they surfaced, an affidavit said.

Students at the school reported concerns about Myers’ relationship with the boy after a witness saw the boy sitting on the priest’s lap wearing only a towel, records show.

Myers reported back to Wangler that the victim said he was lying about any sexual contact, according to the document.

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NEW YORK (NY)
The Atlantic

May 17, 2019

By James Carroll

To feel relief at my mother’s being dead was once unthinkable, but then the news came from Ireland. It would have crushed her. An immigrant’s daughter, my mother lived with an eye cast back to the old country, the land against which she measured every virtue. Ireland was heaven to her, and the Catholic Church was heaven’s choir. Then came the Ryan Report.

Not long before The Boston Globe began publishing its series on predator priests, in 2002—the “Spotlight” series that became a movie of the same name—the government of Ireland established a commission, ultimately chaired by Judge Sean Ryan, to investigate accounts and rumors of child abuse in Ireland’s residential institutions for children, nearly all of which were run by the Catholic Church.

The Ryan Commission published its 2,600-page report in 2009. Despite government inspections and supervision, Catholic clergy had, across decades, violently tormented thousands of children. The report found that children held in orphanages and reformatory schools were treated no better than slaves—in some cases, sex slaves. Rape and molestation of boys were “endemic.” Other reports were issued about other institutions, including parish churches and schools, and homes for unwed mothers—the notorious “Magdalene Laundries,” where girls and women were condemned to lives of coercive servitude. The ignominy of these institutions was laid out in plays and documentary films, and in Philomena, the movie starring Judi Dench, which was based on a true story. The homes-for-women scandal climaxed in 2017, when a government report revealed that from 1925 to 1961, at the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, in Tuam, County Galway, babies who died—nearly 800 of them—were routinely disposed of in mass graves or sewage pits. Not only priests had behaved despicably. So had nuns.

In August 2018, Pope Francis made a much publicized visit to Ireland. His timing could not have been worse. Just then, a second wave of the Catholic sex-abuse scandal was breaking. In Germany, a leaked bishops’ investigation revealed that from 1946 to 2014, 1,670 clergy had assaulted 3,677 children. Civil authorities in other nations were launching investigations, moving aggressively to preempt the Church. In the United States, also in 2018, a Pennsylvania grand jury alleged that over the course of 70 years, more than 1,000 children had been abused by more than 300 priests across the state. Church authorities had successfully silenced the victims, deflected law enforcement, and shielded the predators. The Pennsylvania report was widely taken to be a conclusive adjudication, but grand-jury findings are not verdicts. Still, this record of testimony and investigation was staggering. The charges told of a ring of pedophile priests who gave many of their young targets the gift of a gold cross to wear, so that the other predator priests could recognize an initiated child who would not resist an overture. “This is the murder of a soul,” said one victim who testified before the grand jury.

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

LITTLE ROCK (AR)
Arkansas Democrat

May 17, 2019

By John Lynch

A former assistant principal and music teacher whose supporters include the bishop of the Episcopal Church in Arkansas was sentenced to a year in prison Thursday for running over an off-duty Little Rock police officer and a prisoner in a past-midnight collision.

Keith Alan Hearnsberger, 37, did not testify at the sentencing hearing before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza. He pleaded guilty in February to two felony charges — second-degree battery, reduced from first-degree battery, and failure to stop and render aid.

Prosecutors also withdrew a first-degree battery charge related to the prisoner’s injuries in exchange for the guilty plea. Hearnsberger faced up to 12 years in prison, but as a first-time offender was eligible for probation.

More than a dozen supporters submitted written character endorsements for Hearnsberger, citing his compassion, his dedication to his Christian faith and hopes of becoming a priest.

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.

SAN DIEGO (CA)
NBC 4 News

May 17, 2019

By Melissa Adan

The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego created a new compensation fund for victims of clergy sexual abuse, and several victims are speaking out against it.

On Tuesday, the Diocese of San Diego joined five other California dioceses with a compensation fund program for victims abused by clergy members.

“Do you know what it’s like to be terrorized, tormented, abused and knowing that you can do nothing about it?” said one victim named Dede.

On Thursday, four victims shared how they were abused by their priest when they were children.

“You’re nine years old — but you have to be a horrible person, otherwise, why would they do it?” Dede said to a room full of media.

The victims came together through attorney Irwin Zalkin and the Survivor Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, to speak against the new victim compensation fund.

Zalkin has represented more than 100 victims of childhood sexual abuse involving clergy members.

“What happened to me and others is a crime and should be treated as a crime,” said Bill, a victim of abuse.

Bill said he was first abused by his neighbor and considers himself collateral damage when he confided this with his priest.

He said after sharing his abuse, the priest told him his neighbor had done nothing wrong and then began to abuse him.

“What’s going to stop the abuse is mandatory reporting. What’s going to stop the abuse is a statute of limitations extension. What’s going to stop the abuse is opening up a window, so older people who didn’t come forward because of shame, because of feeling a failure that somehow they were to blame,” Bill said.

Esther Hatfield Miller, a member of SNAP, said the compensation fund will not work because survivors will not get their day in court nor be able to expose wrongdoings of coverups or enforce accountability.

“A compensation fund like this does not reform statues of limitations. We need to reform those ancient laws,” Miller said.

Aida Bustos with the Diocese of San Diego said victims can decide to accept the compensation and seek other legal remedies.

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.

ROME (ITALY)
Crux

May 17, 2019

By Inés San Martín

Father Jonathan Morris, a former member of the Legion of Christ who was at one time among the most prominent Catholic priests in America as a contributor to Fox News, has asked to be dismissed from the clerical state, indicating he wants to be free to “marry and have a family” though saying it’s not about an “existing relationship.”

In a statement released Friday, Morris writes that the decision has filled him “with newfound joy,” though he says he knows some people won’t understand his decision to leave the priesthood.

“After taking some months of sabbatical to be with family and to dedicate more time to prayer and retreat, I have decided to ask the Holy Father, Pope Francis, to release me from the duties and responsibilities of the clerical state,” Morris said in a statement, which he made available to Crux.

Morris left the troubled Legion of Christ in 2009, three years after the Vatican suspended its founder, Father Macial Marciel, from his priestly duties, having found Maciel guilty of various forms of sexual abuse and misconduct as well as abuse of power. Morris was incardinated into the Archdiocese of New York with the support of Cardinal Timothy Dolan.

He’s appeared on several TV networks and is best known for his role with Fox News, though he was also a theological adviser to Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of the Christ”, and was the program director for “The Catholic Channel,” a project of the Archdiocese of New York, on the Sirius XM radio network for three years.

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.

ROME (ITALY)
National Catholic Reporter

May 17, 2019

By Joshua J. McElwee

The Vatican’s highest court has dropped its investigation into a former Vatican official accused of soliciting a woman for sex in the confessional.

The Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura confirmed the acquittal of Fr. Hermann Geissler in a brief release May 17, following a statement from the priest’s order that acknowledged the accusation but said a panel of five judges from the tribunal had found “no crime” in the case.

Geissler, who is a member of a religious community known colloquially as “the Work,” is an Austrian theologian. He resigned as a department head at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in January, after NCR and other outlets reported on Doris Wagner’s accusation that he had solicited her during confession in 2009.

Geissler has denied the accusation. In its statement announcing his resignation in January, the doctrinal congregation said the priest had made the decision to step down in order to “limit the damage already done” to his employer.

The Apostolic Signatura is the highest judicial authority in the Catholic Church, apart from the pope himself. It has been led since 2014 by French Moroccan Cardinal Dominique Mamberti.

In its release, the court said the panel of five judges evaluating the case had been constructed from among its 19 cardinal and bishop members. It said the panel had issued an acquittal decree May 15 after it could not prove “with due moral certainty … the alleged ‘grave delict.’ ”

Wagner, a former member of Geissler’s religious community, provided NCR with copies of her communications with the Signatura over the past several months as the court was pursuing its investigation of the priest.

The correspondence, conducted via postal mail and containing the identifying official stamps of the court, indicates that the Signatura was asked to pursue the case Jan. 10 by Pope Francis, likely to avoid the doctrinal congregation having to investigate one of its own former officials.

Although Wagner was allowed to submit a written testimony detailing her accusations against Geissler and was initially asked to make herself available for a deposition, the materials indicate the Signatura later decided such a deposition would be unnecessary for its process.

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.

ROME (ITALY)
National Catholic Reporter

May 17, 2019

By Joshua J. McElwee

The Vatican’s highest court has dropped its investigation into a former Vatican official accused of soliciting a woman for sex in the confessional.

The Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura confirmed the acquittal of Fr. Hermann Geissler in a brief release May 17, following a statement from the priest’s order that acknowledged the accusation but said a panel of five judges from the tribunal had found “no crime” in the case.

Geissler, who is a member of a religious community known colloquially as “the Work,” is an Austrian theologian. He resigned as a department head at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in January, after NCR and other outlets reported on Doris Wagner’s accusation that he had solicited her during confession in 2009.

Geissler has denied the accusation. In its statement announcing his resignation in January, the doctrinal congregation said the priest had made the decision to step down in order to “limit the damage already done” to his employer.

The Apostolic Signatura is the highest judicial authority in the Catholic Church, apart from the pope himself. It has been led since 2014 by French Moroccan Cardinal Dominique Mamberti.

In its release, the court said the panel of five judges evaluating the case had been constructed from among its 19 cardinal and bishop members. It said the panel had issued an acquittal decree May 15 after it could not prove “with due moral certainty … the alleged ‘grave delict.’ ”

Wagner, a former member of Geissler’s religious community, provided NCR with copies of her communications with the Signatura over the past several months as the court was pursuing its investigation of the priest.

The correspondence, conducted via postal mail and containing the identifying official stamps of the court, indicates that the Signatura was asked to pursue the case Jan. 10 by Pope Francis, likely to avoid the doctrinal congregation having to investigate one of its own former officials.

Although Wagner was allowed to submit a written testimony detailing her accusations against Geissler and was initially asked to make herself available for a deposition, the materials indicate the Signatura later decided such a deposition would be unnecessary for its process.

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.

DALLAS (TX)
Judicial District Court, Dallas County

May 15, 2019

By Detective David Clark

5. I am currently employed by the Dallas Police Department (DPD) as a police officer. I have been so employed for approximately 20 years and have been a detective assigned to the Child Exploitation Unit, Crimes Against Persons Division, of said department for approximately the last nine years. I am responsible for the investigation of molestation and sexual assault cases involving children and strangers. During my employment as a police officer, I have used a variety of methods during various types of investigations, including, but not limited to, visual surveillance, general questioning of witnesses, defendants, and the use of search warrants, and electronic interceptions. Based on my training and experience relating to the investigation of child exploitation and human trafficking cases, and based upon interviews I conducted with defendants and witnesses, I am familiar with the ways that child sexual abusers groom their victims. My familiarity includes the various means and methods by which sexual predators single out their victims, attempt to befriend their parents and other family members, as well as use their position of power to convince their victims not to tell anyone of the sexual molestation that occurred between the defendant and victim. I have interviewed hundreds of victims of child sex abuse and understand these victims sometimes take several months, years, or sometimes never tell anyone about being a victim of sexual abuse as a child. I have presented an investigative topic on how to effectively investigate child abuse cases at several Child Abuse Conferences across the country.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVESTIGATION

6. On February 28, 2018, the Chancellor of the Diocese, Mary Edlund, contacted the Dallas Police Department’s Child Exploitation Unit regarding allegations against a then-serving priest, Paredes. Chancellor Edlund advised the allegations regarded Paredes sexually abusing, over a period of years, several juvenile members of St. Cecilia Church. I was assigned this case and I made contact with Bill Sims, an attorney representing the Diocese. Mr. Sims stated the Diocese and the victims were in a monetary settlement process and he believed the victims did not want to pursue criminal allegations.

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.

DALLAS (TX)
Judicial District Court, Dallas County

May 15, 2019

By Detective David Clark

5. I am currently employed by the Dallas Police Department (DPD) as a police officer. I have been so employed for approximately 20 years and have been a detective assigned to the Child Exploitation Unit, Crimes Against Persons Division, of said department for approximately the last nine years. I am responsible for the investigation of molestation and sexual assault cases involving children and strangers. During my employment as a police officer, I have used a variety of methods during various types of investigations, including, but not limited to, visual surveillance, general questioning of witnesses, defendants, and the use of search warrants, and electronic interceptions. Based on my training and experience relating to the investigation of child exploitation and human trafficking cases, and based upon interviews I conducted with defendants and witnesses, I am familiar with the ways that child sexual abusers groom their victims. My familiarity includes the various means and methods by which sexual predators single out their victims, attempt to befriend their parents and other family members, as well as use their position of power to convince their victims not to tell anyone of the sexual molestation that occurred between the defendant and victim. I have interviewed hundreds of victims of child sex abuse and understand these victims sometimes take several months, years, or sometimes never tell anyone about being a victim of sexual abuse as a child. I have presented an investigative topic on how to effectively investigate child abuse cases at several Child Abuse Conferences across the country.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVESTIGATION

6. On February 28, 2018, the Chancellor of the Diocese, Mary Edlund, contacted the Dallas Police Department’s Child Exploitation Unit regarding allegations against a then-serving priest, Paredes. Chancellor Edlund advised the allegations regarded Paredes sexually abusing, over a period of years, several juvenile members of St. Cecilia Church. I was assigned this case and I made contact with Bill Sims, an attorney representing the Diocese. Mr. Sims stated the Diocese and the victims were in a monetary settlement process and he believed the victims did not want to pursue criminal allegations.

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.

SIOUX FALLS (SD)
Sioux Falls Argus Leader

May 16, 2019

By Patrick Anderson

DESPITE RECENT ATTEMPTS AT TRANSPARENCY BY SOUTH DAKOTA’S CATHOLIC AUTHORITIES, NATIVE AMERICAN ABUSE VICTIMS ARE STILL WITHOUT ANSWERS.

MARTY—There is a feel to the old place that still haunts her.

Even with construction crews working the earth and birds chirping noisily in the trees above, she can feel the silence.

Behind the silence, sadness and horror.

Louise Charbonneau Aamot rested her fist on the church windowsill as her eyes welled with tears. Its gray steeple cutting into the sky, the church towered over the grounds of the old St. Paul’s Indian Mission boarding school..

The school, tucked away in a woodsy expanse of the Yankton Reservation, is where her childhood was destroyed.

Aamot is not silent.

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.

SIOUX FALLS (SD)
Sioux Falls Argus Leader

May 16, 2019

By Patrick Anderson

DESPITE RECENT ATTEMPTS AT TRANSPARENCY BY SOUTH DAKOTA’S CATHOLIC AUTHORITIES, NATIVE AMERICAN ABUSE VICTIMS ARE STILL WITHOUT ANSWERS.

MARTY—There is a feel to the old place that still haunts her.

Even with construction crews working the earth and birds chirping noisily in the trees above, she can feel the silence.

Behind the silence, sadness and horror.

Louise Charbonneau Aamot rested her fist on the church windowsill as her eyes welled with tears. Its gray steeple cutting into the sky, the church towered over the grounds of the old St. Paul’s Indian Mission boarding school..

The school, tucked away in a woodsy expanse of the Yankton Reservation, is where her childhood was destroyed.

Aamot is not silent.

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.

WILKES-BARRE (PA)
FOX 56

May 15, 2019

By Amanda Hoskins

Victims of sexual abuse by a Pennsylvania doctor are asking for their chance to file suits against him and the institutions they say covered it up.

Backing a Senate bill introduced in April, the victims took their stories to the state capitol Wednesday.

Just this week New Jersey’s governor signed a statute of limitations bill into law, making it the 11th state to do so.

Victims hope the more they share their stories, the more pressure it will put on lawmakers in Pennsylvania to act too.

“He fondled and penetrated me as an 11 year old,” explained Ashley Krzanowsky.

She said what happened to her inside Dr. Johnnie Barto’s office 22 years ago has scarred her.

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.

WILKES-BARRE (PA)
FOX 56

May 15, 2019

By Amanda Hoskins

Victims of sexual abuse by a Pennsylvania doctor are asking for their chance to file suits against him and the institutions they say covered it up.

Backing a Senate bill introduced in April, the victims took their stories to the state capitol Wednesday.

Just this week New Jersey’s governor signed a statute of limitations bill into law, making it the 11th state to do so.

Victims hope the more they share their stories, the more pressure it will put on lawmakers in Pennsylvania to act too.

“He fondled and penetrated me as an 11 year old,” explained Ashley Krzanowsky.

She said what happened to her inside Dr. Johnnie Barto’s office 22 years ago has scarred her.

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.

NEWARK (NJ)
CNA

May 14, 2019

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law this week a bill relaxing the state’s statute of limitations for child sex abuse victims.

The law will allow increased time for civil action and will permit victims to seek compensation from institutions as well as individuals.

The Archdiocese of Newark objected to certain portions of the bill, but stressed that overall, the Catholic Church is in favor of its crucial goal of bringing justice and healing for victims.

“While we disagreed on specific elements of this legislation, the Catholic community, the legislature, and the Governor sincerely agree on one key position – the need to restore justice for the victims of sexual abuse in New Jersey,” the archdiocese said in a statement.

Currently, the statute of limitations in New Jersey restricts sex abuse lawsuits to when the victim is 20 years old or two years after they first realize that they were harmed by abuse. In December, the new legislation will allow child victims of sexual assault to file civil lawsuits until they turn 55 or until seven years from the time they become aware of the injury, whichever comes later.

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.

NEWARK (NJ)
CNA

May 14, 2019

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law this week a bill relaxing the state’s statute of limitations for child sex abuse victims.

The law will allow increased time for civil action and will permit victims to seek compensation from institutions as well as individuals.

The Archdiocese of Newark objected to certain portions of the bill, but stressed that overall, the Catholic Church is in favor of its crucial goal of bringing justice and healing for victims.

“While we disagreed on specific elements of this legislation, the Catholic community, the legislature, and the Governor sincerely agree on one key position – the need to restore justice for the victims of sexual abuse in New Jersey,” the archdiocese said in a statement.

Currently, the statute of limitations in New Jersey restricts sex abuse lawsuits to when the victim is 20 years old or two years after they first realize that they were harmed by abuse. In December, the new legislation will allow child victims of sexual assault to file civil lawsuits until they turn 55 or until seven years from the time they become aware of the injury, whichever comes later.

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 JERSEY
Campus Safety

May 15, 2019

By Katie Malafronte

The extension will allow victims of sexual abuse more time to sue their attackers and seek damages from institutions.

Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey signed a law on Monday to extend the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse.

Victims will now have more time to seek civil action for their sexual abuse and an easier time seeking damages from institutions, such as a church that may have covered up abuse, reports northjersey.com

Under the state’s current law, survivors of sexual abuse have only two years to pursue litigation and a victim of child sexual abuse has until age 20.

Now, victims of child sexual abuse have up until the age of 55 to sue their abusers, or within seven years of their realization that the abuse caused them harm.

Survivors who were prevented from taking their abusers to court due to the statute of limitations will now have the opportunity to do so. The new law will allow victims two years to file lawsuits and seek damages.

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 JERSEY
Campus Safety

May 15, 2019

By Katie Malafronte

The extension will allow victims of sexual abuse more time to sue their attackers and seek damages from institutions.

Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey signed a law on Monday to extend the statute of limitations for victims of sexual abuse.

Victims will now have more time to seek civil action for their sexual abuse and an easier time seeking damages from institutions, such as a church that may have covered up abuse, reports northjersey.com

Under the state’s current law, survivors of sexual abuse have only two years to pursue litigation and a victim of child sexual abuse has until age 20.

Now, victims of child sexual abuse have up until the age of 55 to sue their abusers, or within seven years of their realization that the abuse caused them harm.

Survivors who were prevented from taking their abusers to court due to the statute of limitations will now have the opportunity to do so. The new law will allow victims two years to file lawsuits and seek damages.

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.

TRENTON (NJ)
CBS3

May 13, 2019

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has signed legislation that eases restrictions on when childhood sexual abuse victims can seek damages in court. This comes after a wave of details last year about the abuse of minors in the Roman Catholic Church.

The legislation allows child victims to sue up until they turn 55 years old, or are within seven years of their first realization that the abused caused harm to them.

“This legislation allows survivors who have faced tremendous trauma the ability to pursue justice through the court system,” said Governor Phil Murphy

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.

TRENTON (NJ)
CBS3

May 13, 2019

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has signed legislation that eases restrictions on when childhood sexual abuse victims can seek damages in court. This comes after a wave of details last year about the abuse of minors in the Roman Catholic Church.

The legislation allows child victims to sue up until they turn 55 years old, or are within seven years of their first realization that the abused caused harm to them.

“This legislation allows survivors who have faced tremendous trauma the ability to pursue justice through the court system,” said Governor Phil Murphy

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.

ST. PAUL (MN)
The Associated Press, News Partner

May 16, 2019

The lawsuit attempts to trace a direct line from clergy sex abuse victims to the Vatican, through Minnesota church officials.

Three brothers who were sexually abused by a priest from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the Vatican, claiming the Holy See bears responsibility because the case was mishandled by former Archbishop John Nienstedt and the Vatican’s former ambassador to the United States.

The lawsuit attempts to trace a direct line from clergy sex abuse victims to the Vatican, through Minnesota church officials. Luke, Stephen and Ben Hoffman were abused by former priest Curtis Wehmeyer, roughly between 2009 and 2012.

“I have too many nieces and nephews to let something like this happen to anybody else,” Stephen Hoffman said about his decision to come forward.

Nienstedt and the former ambassador, Carlo Maria Viganò, have previously denied the allegations raised in the lawsuit. The Vatican’s U.S. lawyer, Jeffrey Lena, had no immediate comment. In the past Lena has described sex abuse lawsuits against the Vatican as publicity stunts.

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.

ST. PAUL (MN)
The Associated Press, News Partner

May 16, 2019

The lawsuit attempts to trace a direct line from clergy sex abuse victims to the Vatican, through Minnesota church officials.

Three brothers who were sexually abused by a priest from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the Vatican, claiming the Holy See bears responsibility because the case was mishandled by former Archbishop John Nienstedt and the Vatican’s former ambassador to the United States.

The lawsuit attempts to trace a direct line from clergy sex abuse victims to the Vatican, through Minnesota church officials. Luke, Stephen and Ben Hoffman were abused by former priest Curtis Wehmeyer, roughly between 2009 and 2012.

“I have too many nieces and nephews to let something like this happen to anybody else,” Stephen Hoffman said about his decision to come forward.

Nienstedt and the former ambassador, Carlo Maria Viganò, have previously denied the allegations raised in the lawsuit. The Vatican’s U.S. lawyer, Jeffrey Lena, had no immediate comment. In the past Lena has described sex abuse lawsuits against the Vatican as publicity stunts.

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.

CALIFORNIA
Insurance Journal

May 16, 2019

Six Roman Catholic dioceses in California are creating a program to compensate people who were sexually abused by priests as children, in return for them promising not to sue.

The program announced Tuesday includes the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the dioceses of Fresno, Orange, Sacramento, San Bernardino and San Diego. Together, they cover 36 counties and some 10 million Catholics, or about 80 percent of the state’s Catholics.

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.

CALIFORNIA
Insurance Journal

May 16, 2019

Six Roman Catholic dioceses in California are creating a program to compensate people who were sexually abused by priests as children, in return for them promising not to sue.

The program announced Tuesday includes the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the dioceses of Fresno, Orange, Sacramento, San Bernardino and San Diego. Together, they cover 36 counties and some 10 million Catholics, or about 80 percent of the state’s Catholics.

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.

CAMDEN (NJ)
North Jersey Record

May 17, 2019

By Deena Yellin

The ink was still wet on the law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday extending the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse when it was put into use:

A former altar boy announced Tuesday morning that he was filing a lawsuit against the Diocese of Camden and his former parish, alleging he was sexually abused as a child by the late Rev. Brendan Sullivan, a priest at St. James Roman Catholic Church in Ventnor City.

More lawsuits are likely to come. The question is whether there will be a flood or more like a trickle.

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.

CAMDEN (NJ)
North Jersey Record

May 17, 2019

By Deena Yellin

The ink was still wet on the law signed by Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday extending the statute of limitations for victims of child sexual abuse when it was put into use:

A former altar boy announced Tuesday morning that he was filing a lawsuit against the Diocese of Camden and his former parish, alleging he was sexually abused as a child by the late Rev. Brendan Sullivan, a priest at St. James Roman Catholic Church in Ventnor City.

More lawsuits are likely to come. The question is whether there will be a flood or more like a trickle.

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.

SACRAMENTO (CA)
ABC 10 News

May 17, 2019

The Sacramento Diocese announced on Tuesday, May 14, 2019 the creation of a new victim compensation fund for people who have been abused by members of the clergy.

Sacramento is one of five dioceses across the state launching the fund in an effort “to own and atone for the Church’s failure to protect children and young people abused by Catholic priests,” according to Bishop Jaime Soto’s statement.

In April, the Diocese published a list of forty-four priests and two deacons credibly accused of perpetrating sexual abuse. The Diocese defined a credible allegation as one in which, “with the information we have, is it more likely than not that the allegation is true.”

In the following weeks, the Bishop also made public the Diocese’s commitment to cooperate with California Attorney, General Xavier Becerra’s investigation into whether California dioceses complied with their mandatory reporting of sexual abuse to law enforcement.

Since the list was made public, some have questioned whether it is complete and if there are more than the 130 victims reported in it.

Kurt Hoffman told ABC10 about the sexual assault he suffered while attending Sacramento Jesuit High School in 1987 when he was 14 years old.

“I was shocked and to my dismay, he wasn’t included on the list,” said Hoffman of Brother William Farrington, the school’s swim coach at the time.

Kevin Eckery, a spokesperson for the Sacramento Diocese told ABC10 that “the name of Mr. Hoffman’s abuser was published by the Jesuits on December 7th of 2018 and distributed widely. There are currently efforts underway to add his name to the Sacramento list.”

He added that, “Nuns or brothers may be added later. Staff or volunteers may be added at some point, but no decision has been made.”

Hoffman said that after he made the accusation, school authorities fired Brother Farrington and told his parents the man would never work with young people.

Fifteen years later, “in 2002 when the church scandal erupted, I googled him… To my dismay, shock, and outrage, I found out he was working at Loyola Marymount University,” said Hoffman.

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.

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

May 16, 2019

By Jeremy Roebuck

As a teenager committed to her Roman Catholic faith, she thought she was doing everything right.

She volunteered as an altar server at her Roxborough parish. She sang in the choir and worked nights and weekends as a fill-in secretary at the church office.

And even when, at 16, she gave in to the sexual advances of her priest — the Rev. Armand Garcia — she said she believed him when he told her that God had put him in her life to take care of her.

Then came the time she refused.

“He came up from behind me and pushed me up against a wall. He held my arms down and spread my legs apart,” the now 21-year-old testified in a Philadelphia courtroom Thursday. “I was wearing my school uniform. I didn’t know what to do.”

That alleged 2014 sexual assault in the rectory of Immaculate Heart of Mary parish now forms the basis of one of the first criminal prosecutions of an area priest since the Archdiocese of Philadelphia recommitted itself to cracking down on sexual offenses after a scathing 2011 grand jury investigation that led to charges against six clerics.

The testimony of the woman — offered publicly for the first time Thursday — serves as the backbone of the government’s case. The Inquirer is withholding her name because she is an alleged victim of sexual assault.

Her composed and self-assured account convinced Municipal Court Judge Wendy L. Pew to hold Garcia for trial on charges including rape, sexual assault, and corruption of a minor.

Prosecutors also have charged the 50-year-old priest with filming a sex act involving a child — counts tied to cellphone video his accuser said he shot of their encounters on at least two occasions.

“He said he wanted to have something to remember it by,” the woman recalled. “I could only watch a few minutes. I was very uncomfortable.”

Garcia, who spent much of Thursday’s hearing with his head bowed and hands clenched in his lap, has denied the charges.

But unlike many of the cases of sexual misconduct involving priests that have kicked off a new wave of the global clergy abuse crisis in the last year, Garcia’s alleged assault was preceded by what his lawyer, William J. Brennan, described Thursday as a “long-standing, consensual sexual relationship” with his accuser.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald

May 16, 2019

That law, lawyers and victims say, dissuades sexual abuse victims from coming forward.

“It’s a real slap in the face,” said a 64-year-old man, who was sexually abused by a scoutmaster in Hyde Park, Dedham and Walpole in the late 1960s. He was 12 at the time of the abuse.

“The cap minimizes what happened,” added the victim, whose name the Herald is withholding because he is a sexual assault victim. He received $20,000 a few years ago after suing the Boy Scouts.

“It should be more, especially if it happened to a minor,” he added. His lawyer, Carmen Durso, confirmed the details of the case to the Herald.

Bay State attorneys and lawmakers are looking to abolish the charitable immunity limit on cases against nonprofits. New York, New Jersey and the majority of other states have eliminated the cap.

“We’re usually the leader,” said state Rep. Carmine Gentile, a Sudbury Democrat. “This is one of those rare instances where the rest of the country got the message, but we haven’t yet in Massachusetts.”

Gentile has filed legislation to scrap the charitable immunity cap in Massachusetts, home of the lowest in the country. Other Massachusetts lawmakers have filed bills to raise the $20,000 cap on charities and universities, along with getting rid of the $100,000 cap for medical malpractice resulting in serious injury or death.

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JOHNSTOWN (PA)
Tribune Democrat

May 14, 2019

By Dave Sutor

Back in 2014, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown announced plans to sell the bishop’s residence in Blair County.

An acknowledgment was made that some undefined amount of money was needed because of costs associated with legal matters involving clergy sexual abuse. The decision was also presented as a choice by Bishop Mark Bartchak to live in simpler accommodations at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament’s rectory.

At the time, the extent of the financial impact of Altoona-Johnstown’s scandal was not really known outside of the diocese’s inner-most circle, excluding a few instances, such as a settlement in the Michael Hutchinson v. Rev. Francis Luddy case.

But now, a half-decade later, the sale of the property might have been a foreshadowing of the fate that awaits the state’s seven other dioceses – Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Scranton – as they attempt to deal with compensating victims.

All of those dioceses started funds that run during different time periods in 2019.

The programs were established after Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro released a grand jury report in August that provided details about decades of sexual abuse and coverup in six of the commonwealth’s dioceses.

Many unknowns remain, though, concerning what will be the total financial impact to the dioceses, including whether any will need to sell off assets.

“The question is who they’re going to pay and how much,” said Richard Serbin, a Blair County attorney who has represented hundreds of victims of clergy sexual abuse in the state. “And what is the limit and what is the minimum. We don’t know any of that. None of that is transparent.

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JOHNSTOWN (PA)
Tribune Democrat

May 14, 2019

By Dave Sutor

Politics, religion, law and finances were all linked in the process that led to the creation of compensation funds for victims of clergy sexual abuse in seven of Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses.

For years, when priests, parishes and dioceses faced allegations of abuse, the matters were often handled in secret – with victims being required to accept non-disclosure agreements as part of settlements.

But then, in 2018, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General released a grand jury report that provided details about how at least 300 priests allegedly abused thousands of children across six of the commonwealth’s dioceses.

In response, the Philadelphia Archdiocese and dioceses in Pittsburgh, Erie, Scranton, Allentown, Harrisburg and Greensburg opened their own individual compensation funds with the goal of providing financial assistance to victims. Erie Bishop Lawrence Persico, when announcing his diocese’s program earlier this year, said he wants the fund to “provide some measure of justice, closure and validation for the terrible acts that victims endured.”

Harrisburg Bishop Ronald Gainer called his diocese’s fund an acknowledgment that “terrible abuses did occur.”

But some victims advocates have pointed out that the dioceses only started the funds after the coverups were publicly exposed and when legislators began considering changing the state’s statute of limitations to include a two-year window during which victims could file civil claims for assaults that occurred in the past.

“Victims deserve to get compensation, but what is a better scenario is if the statute of limitations gets lifted and there gets to be a window of opportunity for old cases to come forward,” said Judy Jones, a Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests regional leader.

“We mostly think the church officials want to do the compensation thing so that people won’t sue. The reason they don’t want them to sue is not so much about the money. They don’t have trouble spending parishioners’ money. It is they don’t want to go to trial.”

Differences by diocese

Seeking compensation can be both straightforward and nuanced, according to individuals who have dealt with the process.

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JOHNSTOWN (PA)
Tribune Democrat

May 14, 2019

By Dave Sutor

Camille Biros and Kenneth Feinberg are arguably the most influential people involved in the process of financially supporting victims of child sexual abuse perpetrated by Roman Catholic priests in Pennsylvania.

The two attorneys from Washington, D.C., administer compensation funds for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and the dioceses of Pittsburgh, Erie, Scranton and Allentown. They determine what – if any – money victims receive.

But Biros and Feinberg play another role – beyond merely financial decisions – as their reputation is used to assuage concerns that the dioceses might be controlling the decisions. They have handled numerous high-profile funds, including ones related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Boston Marathon bombings.

Harrisburg and Greensburg compensation funds are being administered by Commonwealth Mediation and Conciliation Inc. from Massachusetts, while Altoona-Johnstown is the only diocese in the state without a fund.

“I’m not familiar with the Massachusetts fund administrators,” said Richard Serbin, a Blair County attorney, who has represented victims of clergy sex abuse in Pennsylvania for decades. “But Feinberg and Biros I do not feel – given their reputation – that they would allow the dioceses to control the day-to-day decisions.”

Biros described herself and Feinberg as “totally independent.”

“They hire us with the understanding that we’re going to run these programs, and we’re going to make these determinations, and we’re going to offer amounts of money that we deem to be appropriate,” Biros said. “And they have really nothing to say about it. That’s the agreement.”

But “nevertheless, the diocese has a great deal of control,” according to Serbin.

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KIANA (ALASKA)
Anchorage Daily News/Pro Publica

May 16, 2019

By Kyle Hopkins

Village Police Officer Annie Reed heard her VHF radio crackle to life in the spring of 2018 with the familiar voice of an elder. I need help at my house, the woman said.

Reed, who doesn’t wear a uniform because everyone in this Arctic Circle village of 421 can spot her ambling gait and bell of salt-and-pepper hair at a distance, steered her four-wheeler across town. There had been a home invasion, she learned. One of the local sex offenders, who outnumber Reed 7-to-1, had pried open a window and crawled inside, she said. The man then tore the clothes from the elder’s daughter, who had been sleeping, gripped her throat and raped her, according to the charges filed against him in state court.

Reed, a 49-year-old grandmother, was the only cop in the village. She carried no gun and, after five years on the job, had received a total of three weeks of law enforcement training. She had no backup. Even when the fitful weather allows, the Alaska State Troopers, the statewide police force that travels to villages to make felony arrests, are a half-hour flight away.

It’s moments like these when Reed thinks about quitting. If she does, Kiana could become the latest Alaska village asked to survive with no local police protection of any kind.

An investigation by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica has found one in three communities in Alaska has no local law enforcement. No state troopers to stop an active shooter, no village police officers to break up family fights, not even untrained city or tribal cops to patrol the streets. Almost all of the communities are primarily Alaska Native.

Seventy of these unprotected villages are large enough to have both a school and a post office. Many are in regions with some of the highest rates of poverty, sexual assault and suicide in the United States. Most can be reached only by plane, boat, all-terrain vehicle or snowmobile. That means, unlike most anywhere else in the United States, emergency help is hours or even days away.

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
News & Review

May 16, 2019

By Stephen Magagnini

During his more than 35 years in the ministry, Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto has never shied away from controversy, always standing up for what he believes is right, whether he’s fighting for immigration reform or a more inclusive view of all Catholics regardless of sexual orientation.

The 63-year-old cleric again finds himself in the eye of a spiritual storm—of sexual abuse revelations breaking over Sacramento and the rest of the Catholic world.

“Every week it seems that there are new revelations about the depth and horror of the scourge of sexual abuse,” Soto told SN&R last week. “I am committed to confronting this ugly past. We failed to protect you as children, we failed to tell you the truth as adults.”

On April 30, Soto released a list of 44 priests and two deacons who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors and young people in the Diocese of Sacramento.

The list covered incidents between 1955 and 2014 “and is a necessary reckoning for our local church,” Soto said. None of the priests identified are still working for the diocese; many have died.

Based on a comprehensive outside review of nearly 1,500 clerics throughout the diocese, the victims who reported being sexually abused include 39 girls, 91 boys or young adults and three men.

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests has been urging Soto to issue such a list, which includes photos of clerics, their whereabouts and full work assignments

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NEW YORK (NY)
America Magazine

May 16, 2019

When the Vatican summit on clerical sex abuse concluded in February, the editors of this magazine argued that its effectiveness would be demonstrated by what happened after it was over. Would it prove more than a public-relations exercise? Would the searing testimony of abuse survivors send bishops home determined to undertake the work of accountability and reform? Would Pope Francis actually deliver the “concrete measures” he indicated were forthcoming? Not all of these questions can be fully answered yet. But just three months after the summit’s conclusion, Francis has proved that at least his own words were not empty promises, handing down Vos estis lux mundi (“You Are the Light of the World”), a motu proprio that establishes universal laws for reporting and investigating sex abuse.

The first section of the document states that bishops, priests, and members of religious orders must report to church officials both abuse and the cover-up of abuse. This applies to the abuse not only of minors, but also of vulnerable adults, including those forced “to perform or submit to sexual acts” through threats or “abuse of authority”—a clear reference to seminarians preyed on by those with power over them. The motu proprio takes effect this month, and within a year, “public, stable, and easily accessible” systems for submitting reports of abuse must be instituted in dioceses where they do not currently exist.

The document also provides protections for those who report abuse. Any retaliation or discrimination against whistleblowers is prohibited. The document underscores that reporting abuse does not violate “office confidentiality,” and that those who submit a report have no obligation to “keep silent” about their claims.

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

May 16, 2019

As a SNAP Leader in Philadelphia and one who works very closely with survivors of clergy sex abuse here in Pennsylvania, I am appalled at the remarks made on a social media platform of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference towards Ms. Carolyn Fortney. The comment lacked professionalism, public opinion etiquette, and good taste, as well the promoted Catholic principles. We stand in solidarity with Carolyn and all other survivors and advocates who have felt insulted or besmirched by the posting.

This remark demonstrates the continued disdain that Catholic lobbyist employees have for survivors fighting for justice and for their lives. No survivor should ever be treated with such disrespect, ever, especially after already suffering harm from the Church. The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference should apologize publicly to Carolyn, and take formal disciplinary action on the person responsible.

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PHOENIX (AZ)
3TV/CBS 5

May 15, 2019

By Dennis Welch

As children, Tim Lennon and Mary O’Day were sexually abused by members of the Roman Catholic Church.

Now they are lending their voices to a fight at the Arizona Legislature over a childhood sexual assault bill.

Written by Sen. Paul Boyer, the proposal grants victims more time to sue their abusers in civil court.

The current law bars survivors from suing after they turn 20 years old.

Boyer proposes giving them seven years after they disclose as adults to file a civil claim. That could happen decades after they were abused.

“We have to give children their voice. Whether they are 12 or 42, the child still needs a voice,” O’Day said Wednesday at the Capitol.

Her comments came a week after Boyer made a dramatic stand on the Senate floor.

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