ABUSE TRACKER

SOUTH BARRINGTON (IL)
The New York Times

August 8, 2018

By Laurie Goodstein

The lead pastor and the entire board of elders resigned on Wednesday night from Willow Creek Community Church, one of the nation’s most influential evangelical congregations, saying that they had made a mistake by failing to believe the women who accused the Rev. Bill Hybels, the church’s founding pastor, of sexual harassment.

“To all the women who have come forward,” said Missy Rasmussen, one of nine elders, speaking to the hushed congregants, “we are sorry that we added to your pain.”

“We have no reason to not believe any of you. We are sorry that our initial statements were so insensitive, defensive and reflexively protective of Bill,” she said, while some in the church’s cavernous auditorium, in South Barrington, Ill., wept openly. “We exhort Bill to acknowledge his sin and publicly apologize.”

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

August 9, 2018

By Steve Limtiaco

A seventh person has accused Guam Archbishop Anthony Apuron of sexual abuse – a man who said Apuron assaulted him in the 1990s when he lived with Apuron and attended Father Duenas Memorial School.

The accusations are spelled out in a lawsuit filed this week by “D.M.”, stating D.M. was a Saipan resident who lived with Apuron on the weekends during the 1994-1995 school year.

A five-member Vatican tribunal in October 2017 found Apuron guilty of “certain of the accusations” of sexually abusing minors and stripped Apuron of his office and prohibited him from living at the Archdiocese of Guam. The verdict was not made public until March 2018.

Apuron appealed, which means the penalties are suspended, pending final resolution by the Vatican.

Archbishop Michael Byrnes, who has been named as Apuron’s eventual replacement, on Thursday said he prays for D.M. and all who have come forward recently with claims of being abused by Guam Catholic clergy.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Penn Live

August 8, 2018

By Ivey DeJesus

Two advocacy groups for victims of child sex abuse on Wednesday jointly filed an amicus brief urging the state’s highest court to reject the arguments of clergy seeking to have their names redacted from the upcoming report.

In their filing to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, CHILD USA and BishopAccountability.org noted that as a result of the state’s narrowly defined statute of limitations, victims have limited avenues for publicly exposing predators.

“Parents deserve to know who is endangering their children and how. Pennsylvanians only know about the child sex abuse in the Philadelphia and Johnstown/Altoona dioceses, at Penn State, and at the Solebury School, because prosecutors took the lead and issued grand jury reports detailing the dangers that children had suffered,” said Marci Hamilton, CEO and a director of CHILD USA.

Last week, the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers filed an amicus brief in support of the petitioning clergy.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
The Daily Item

August 7, 2018

By Eric Scicchitano

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg released an updated list Monday documenting clergy and seminarians accused of sexual abuse of a child, revealing 30 priests served at Susquehanna Valley parishes.

A previous examination by The Daily Item revealed 17 of the priests served in the region.

The updated list includes assignments for all of the accused, something the diocese hadn’t released in the days after its initial report released last week. The assignments are key to showing local connections because some of the accused served as far back as 1926.

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VISALIA (CA)
Visalia Times-Delta

August 8, 2018

By Luis Hernandez

No prison time for priest who embezzled $200K

A former reverend at Tulare’s St. Rita’s Catholic Church was sentenced Wednesday to five years of probation, a recommendation from the county’s probation department and a request from the Fresno diocese.

The sentencing was issued despite Tulare County District Attorney Tim Ward asking for a stiffer penalty.

Ignacio Villafan, 52, pleaded guilty to one felony count of grand theft of personal property with the special allegation that the financial amount was more than $200,000.

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INDIA
The News Minute

August 8, 2018

The priest had allegedly acquired loans by forming self-help groups under various names and forged documents to avail the loans from different banks in Alappuzha.

Father Thomas Peelianickal, who is an accused in connection with an agricultural loan scam in Kuttanad in Kerala, was asked to step down from his priestly duties by the Changanassery diocese on Wednesday.

The decision to suspend the former executive director of the Kuttanad Vikasana Samithi(KVS) office in Alappuzha was taken by the diocese lead by the Changanassery Bishop Mar Joseph Perumthottam as the priest was facing investigation in connection with the scam.

Father Thomas, who was earlier arrested on June 19 in connection with the scam, was later let out on bail.

He is accused in six cases of loan fraud,out of which Kerala High Court had earlier granted him anticipatory bail in two cases.

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FORT WORTH (TX)
The Dallas Morning News

August 9, 2018

By Julieta Chiquillo

A Catholic priest in Prosper was forced to resign under duress for urging a fellow clergyman to stop having an affair with a church worker and to report his actions to church authorities, according to a letter the priest’s attorney has sent to the bishop of Fort Worth that is circulating widely in Catholic circles in the far northern suburbs.

Bishop Michael Olson made the wrong decision to force the resignation of Rev. Richard Kirkham earlier this summer, Kirkham’s attorney John Walsh wrote.

“The actions of your office mirror the same destructive actions by other Catholic bishops over the past 40 years that embroiled the Catholic Church in the priest sexual abuse scandal that irreparably harmed the Church’s reputation,” Walsh wrote to Olson in a June 9 letter.

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OKEMOS (MI)
Catholic Herald

August 8, 2018

By Rhina Guidos

The postponement came after the priest’s attorney withdrew

A judge has postponed a mid-August trial for a priest accused of embezzling more than $5 million from a parish in Okemos, in central Michigan, part of the Diocese of Lansing.

Fr Jonathan Wehrle was facing trial on August 13, but his attorney in the criminal case told the Lansing State Journal he was withdrawing, prompting the judge to push the trial to January 2019 to give new defence attorneys time to prepare, the newspaper said.

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AUSTRALIA
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

August 8, 2018

By Richard Willingham and Ben Knight

Disgraced former governor-general Peter Hollingworth has been named in several complaints to the Anglican diocese of Melbourne over his continuing status as a bishop in the church.

The complaints have been made by survivors of abuse at the hands of Anglican clergy and teaching staff in the Brisbane diocese, where Dr Hollingworth served as archbishop in the 1990s.

He was forced to resign as governor-general in 2003 after an inquiry found he allowed paedophile priest John Elliot to continue working until retirement, despite Elliot admitting to Dr Hollingworth that he had sexually abused two boys.

Last year, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found Dr Hollingworth made a “serious error of judgement” in allowing Elliot to continue in the ministry, and that Dr Hollingworth failed to take into account a psychiatrist’s advice that Elliot was an “untreatable” paedophile who posed a risk of re-offending.

Yet just months after Dr Hollingworth gave his evidence to the royal commission in 2016 — including an apology to an abuse victim — his permission to officiate as Bishop was renewed by Australia’s most senior Anglican, Archbishop Philip Freier.

It was the fourth time Dr Freier had renewed Dr Hollingworth’s permission to officiate since 2007.

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LEEDS (ENGLAND)
The Yorkshire Post

August 9, 2018

Sexual abuse at two leading Catholic schools over four decades was likely to be “considerably” more widespread than conviction figures reflect, a report has found.

Monks at Ampleforth in North Yorkshire and Downside in Somerset hid allegations of “appalling sexual abuse” against pupils as young as seven to protect the church’s reputation.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) made the claims in a withering report on the English Benedictine Congregation, which has 10 monasteries in England and Wales.

Ampleforth and Downside are two schools linked to the monasteries, run at times by “secretive, evasive and suspicious” church officials who avoided reporting misconduct to police and social services.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Penn Live

August 9, 2018

By John L. Micek

Good Thursday Morning, Fellow Seekers.

Just about any day now, Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s office is expected to drop a bombshell report on clergy sex abuse within Pennsylvania’s Roman Catholic dioceses that will have repercussions for years to come.

Pennsylvania’s two candidates for United States Senate, Democrat Bob Casey and Republican Lou Barletta, both Roman Catholics, had very different reactions when a Pittsburgh television station asked them about the report’s imminent release.

The station specifically asked the two candidates for their reaction to the abuse report and, critically, the role of government in handling the cases.

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EMMAUS (PA)
Runner’s World

August 7, 2018

By Taylor Dutch

Christian Griffith bottled up his trauma for 30 years. Now, he’s encouraging others to speak, too.

From the inside of an RV parked along the road in Ely, Nevada, Christian Griffith took a well-deserved break from running to answer the call from Runner’s World.

He’d already put in some serious mileage during the day, and he wasn’t done yet. Earlier in the morning, he ran 15 miles while climbing a peak through the desert. At 8:00 p.m., he would embark on 16 more. The 30 plus-mile day is one of many since March that has put him closer to completing his cross-country goal: to complete a 3,000-mile run across the United States.

He’s logging those miles for all those who have survived childhood sexual abuse—himself included, from his mother and multiple men when he was in his teens. For over 30 years, Griffith internalized the painful memories of his past. But then, two years ago, he sought treatment, and in doing so, became inspired to help other victims.

And there are a lot out there: Every eight minutes, child protective services finds evidence for a claim of child sexual abuse, according to RAINN. The effects can be long-term. Victims of child sexual abuse are also four times more likely to develop symptoms of drug abuse, and are four times more likely to experience post traumatic stress disorder as adults.

Griffith is making it his mission to raise awareness to the often-silent issue that affects so many people around the world by running across the entire country. He’s partnered with Help For Children, a nonprofit that works to prevent and treat child abuse. His goal? To raise $1 million for the charity.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

August 8, 2018

By Paddy Clancy

Former Irish President Mary McAleese has revealed an old bid by the Vatican to prevent Ireland accessing Catholic Church documents.

It wasn’t pursued when she expressed the view that the secrecy would place the church “flat on its back.”

She told The Irish Times that the attempt in 2003 was “one of the most devastating moments in my presidency.”

It occurred during a state visit to Italy when she had a private meeting with the then-Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano.

McAleese said, “He indicated that he would like, and the Vatican would like, an agreement with Ireland, a concordat with Ireland. I asked him why and it was very clear it was because he wanted to protect the Vatican and diocesan archives. I have to say that I immediately said the conversation had to stop.

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STANFORD (CA)
NBC Bay Area

August 8, 2018

By Paul Elias

He filed an appeal in December seeking a new trial, arguing that the evidence presented at his trial didn’t support his convictions

An appeals court on Wednesday rejected a former Stanford University swimmer’s bid for a new trial and upheld his sexual assault and attempted rape convictions.

The three-judge panel of the 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose ruled Wednesday that there was “substantial evidence” that Brock Turner received a fair trial.

In 2016, a jury convicted Turner of sexually assaulting an intoxicated and unconscious woman outside an on-campus fraternity party.

The case got national attention after the victim’s powerful statement, which she read in court before Turner was sentenced, was shared widely online.

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SACRAMENTO (CA)
ChurchMilitant.com

August 8, 2018

by Anita Carey

Court documents from sex abuse lawsuits are exposing the extent to which several California bishops covered up for serial abusers, while faithful Catholics are outraged that known gay priests are still being protected.

Court documents released in the 2005 settlement show Sacramento Bp. Jaime Soto, Bp. William Johnson, then-auxiliary Bp. Michael Driscoll (all in the diocese of Orange) and Tijuana bishop Emilio Berlie all knew and covered up for priests known to be abusers.

By 2009, the diocese of Orange had the distinction of doling out the third-highest payout to victims of sexual abuse in the U.S. Church, topped only by two other California dioceses: Los Angeles and San Diego. In the mid-2000s, these three dioceses alone were ordered to pay over $1 billion to almost 800 victims.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
CBS NEWS

August 9, 2018

The first Pennsylvania statewide investigation into abuses by Catholic priests is expected to be released any day now. The grand jury report details allegations against more than 300 priests in six dioceses, covering more than 1.7 million parishioners. Attorney General Josh Shapiro led the 18 month-long investigation.

CBS News’ Nikki Battiste spoke with several victims who are sharing their stories for the first time. Survivors and their families tell us they’ve suffered through decades of trauma, and believe the report’s release will be an important milestone in their fight for justice.

Shaun Dougherty, Juliann Bortz, Jim Vansickle, Mary McHale, James Faluszczak and Judy Deaven are among the more than one hundred people who spoke to the Pennsylvania grand jury. Their stories fill a nearly 900-page report.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
The Associated Press

August 9, 2018

A British inquiry has concluded that sexual abuse at two leading Roman Catholic schools in Britain was considerably higher than is reflected by conviction figures, with monks hiding allegations to protect the church’s reputation.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse issued a scathing report Thursday, saying that monks at Ampleforth in North Yorkshire and Downside in Somerset hid allegations of “appalling sexual abuse” against pupils as young as seven.

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POTTSVILLE (PA)
WNEP

August 8, 2018

By Carolyn Blackburne

For Catholics around the Commonwealth, the wait will soon be over.

An investigation into child sexual abuse by priests and members of the clergy is set to be released any time between now and next Tuesday.

The report identifies more than 300 “predator priests” across the state.

People in Pottsville said their Diocese is no stranger to the problem.

One man we spoke to didn’t want his face shown on camera, but said his friend was sexually assaulted by a priest in Schuylkill County when he was 12-years-old.

“I said to him, ‘Why don’t you say something?’ He said, ‘Well I’m too old now and I don’t want to get him in trouble,’” the man said.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

August 8, 2018

By Melissa Davey

Child sexual abuse survivors’ group asks why Hollingworth was not asked to resign after royal commission report

The Anglican diocese of Melbourne has rejected criticism it is ignoring complaints about Bishop Peter Hollingworth, as questions were raised about the independence of the diocese’s office of professional standards.

Hollingworth admitted to the child sexual abuse royal commission in 2016 that he poorly handled a complaint of sexual abuse by a priest, and he apologised to the victim. He also accepted that he failed to protect child sexual abuse victims within the church. Hollingworth was head of the Brisbane diocese from 1990 to 2001.

A report from the child abuse royal commission found Hollingworth misled the commission when he said he believed a report of abuse made to him about pedophile priest John Elliot at the Church of England Grammar School in 1993 was an “isolated incident”.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Chestnut Hill Local

August 8, 2018

By Sue Ann Rybak

Rev. Mark Plaushin, a priest at Our Mother of Consolation, was placed on administrative leave on July 16, following an allegation of sexual abuse.

In a statement by The Philadelphia Archdiocese Office of Communications and read to Our Mother of Consolation [OMC] parish by Michael Murray, assistant provincial for the Wilmington-Philadelphia Province of Oblates of Saint Francis de Sales, church officials said they were not aware of the allegation against Plaushin.

“Before Monday, neither the leadership of the Oblates, nor Archdiocesan administration, nor Father Bazzoli” were aware of the allegation “that he [Plaushin] sexually abused a minor in Monroe County, Pennsylvania, in 1985, four years prior to his ordination to the priesthood,” the statement reads.

Plaushin, who has been at OMC parish since the summer of 2013, has denied the allegations. He has not been charged with a crime. In a Local profile in December 2017, Plaushin discussed his military service, which included multiple tours as an army chaplain in Iraq and Kuwait in the early 2000s. He retired from the army as a colonel in 2015.

According to the statement from the archdiocese, church officials moved to remove Plaushin from active service as soon as they learned of the allegation.

“The allegation was reported to the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office by church officials in the Diocese of Scranton who also notified the Provincial Office of Oblates of Saint Francis de Sales,” the statement reads. “Following that notification, we immediately notified the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and Father Plaushin was placed on administrative leave, including loss of his faculties to function as a priest, pending the outcome of this matter.”

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YORK (PA)
York Daily Record

August 8, 2018

By Susan Blum

Back in the ’60s at the height of the war in Vietnam, my husband was drafted into service. Like his grandfather in WWI and dad in WWII who loves his country, he served in the military for almost five years. He was offered the opportunity to flee to Canada but he is a man of integrity.

Today we thank soldiers for their service, but not so for those coming home during the Vietnam era. It was a confusing and heartbreaking time for those that served. It was not a time to be seen in public in a uniform when the news that other servicemen were responsible for atrocities in which children were killed. The innocent veterans were often spat upon in public

Two years ago, this newspaper featured my story as survivor of childhood clergy sexual abuse. The recent announcement of over 70 priests and deacons who have been accused reopened some of the old wounds. I am still on a healing path. Their sexual violation when we were children killed our souls.

The continued opposition of the church to reform of the statue of limitations for victims continues to protect so many non-clergy perpetrators in our communities is the biggest source of my pain and anger. I have pledged to fight until my dying breath to protect children from theses monsters.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times

August 7, 2018

By Richard Winton

A former student sued the elite Brentwood School on Monday in the wake of a female teacher being charged with repeatedly having sex with the minor, alleging that other faculty members encouraged the unlawful behavior and failed to report it to authorities.

The lawsuit accuses the private school, whose students include the children of many of Hollywood’s elite and L.A.’s powerful, of acting negligently and allowing Aimee Palmitessa to abuse and batter the teenager sexually.

The suit alleges that the student was abused in summer 2017 after one of the school’s counselors offered words of encouragement to the then-17-year-old, identified in the suit as only John Doe, to engage in an illegal relationship with the teacher.

The school allowed Palmitessa, a teacher with a reputation for inappropriate conduct with students, to groom the teen in 2016 before eventually subjecting him as an 11th-grader to repeated sexual acts on the campus, at an upscale hotel, and his and her homes last year, the lawsuit alleges.

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YORK (PA)
FOX 43

August 6, 2018

By Jack Eble

One Pennsylvania native, who says he testified for the grand jury report on child sex abuse within the six Roman Catholic Diocese in the commonwealth, worries its contents won’t be available for the public to read.

He wants to make sure he can share his story.

“This is not an easy story to tell,” the source said, choosing to remain anonymous.

He said the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg was a central part of his childhood.

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ERIE (PA)
GOErie

August 7, 2018

By the Editorial Board

Retired Erie Catholic Bishop Donald W. Trautman was right to step away from the secret legal battle to alter the contents of a sweeping clergy sexual abuse grand jury report before its public release.

From court records and what Trautman told reporter Ed Palattella, we now know that Trautman objected at least to a handful of damning statements in the report made generally about Pennsylvania bishops. We understand.

He wanted those claims to be asserted with more precision, making clear, for example, that he specifically did not cover up for or enable offenders and endanger children. State Attorney General Josh Shapiro agreed to a series of stipulations indicating that some general characterizations of bishops’ appalling conduct were not specifically directed at Trautman.

We are glad to hear it. But that is not to say we have any illusions that reading the report, covering the handling of clergy child sex abuse in six Roman Catholic dioceses, including the Erie diocese, will be an affirming experience when it is finally released as early as Wednesday.

Erie Catholic Bishop Lawrence Persico, in keeping with the humble, rightly focused leadership he has consistently shown amid this overdue reckoning, has told us it won’t. Persico said the report contains explicit, shocking details and described the anger and hostility he witnessed in the grand jurors who were forced to weigh for two years testimony about the church’s handling of child sexual abuse at the hands of its ministers.

He has let us know also that his own conduct in the Erie diocese and in the Greensburg diocese, where he previously served, is scrutinized. And he has further helped ease the blow by taking the unprecedented step of releasing in advance of the report’s release the names of clergy and laity credibly accused of abuse or other misconduct with minors.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
The Associated Press

August 7, 2018

Pope Francis has praised Chilean bishops for reflecting on their failure to listen to victims of clerical sex abuse.

The pontiff said in a letter to the Chilean church’s Episcopal Conference that he is “impressed by the reflection, discernment and decisions” taken by bishops when they met last week.

“May the Lord reward you abundantly for this communal and pastoral effort,” the pope said in the letter, which is dated Aug. 5. “The decisions (of the bishops) are realistic and concrete. I’m sure that they will decidedly help on this process.”

Earlier this year, Francis publicly denounced a “culture of abuse and cover-up” in Chile’s Catholic Church. He also said he was ashamed that neither he nor Chilean church leaders truly ever listened to victims as Chile’s abuse scandal spread.

In May, 31 bishops offered their resignation to the pope. So far Francis has accepted the resignations of five.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Catholic News Service

August 6, 2018

By Jane Chambers,

Chile’s bishops acknowledged they had “failed to fulfill our duty by not listening, believing, attending or accompanying the victims of grave sins” after a five-day meeting to discuss the clergy sexual abuse crisis rocking the country.

Bishop Santiago Silva of the Military Diocese of Chile, president of the bishops’ conference, also apologized to abuse survivors for the bishops’ failure to “react in time to the painful sexual abuse and abuse of power and authority” as the general assembly concluded Aug. 3 in Punta de Tralca on the Pacific Coast.

He outlined a series of steps the bishops would take as they released “Declaration, Decisions and Commitments of the Bishops Conference of Chile,” a set of national guidelines for responding to abuse allegations. The guidelines were developed during the assembly.

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IRELAND
The Guardian

August 7, 2018

By Harriet Sherwood

Mary McAleese says approach came while inquiries into child abuse involving Catholic church were under way

The Vatican sought a deal with the Irish state in 2003 to keep church archives closed, according to former president Mary McAleese.

The approach from the Vatican came at a time when two statutory inquiries were under way into child abuse involving the Catholic church.

McAleese said the matter was raised with her during a private meeting with a high-ranking Vatican official while she was on a state visit to Italy.

It was “one of the most devastating moments of my presidency”, she told the Irish Times.

According to McAleese’s account, Angelo Sodano, then Vatican secretary of state, “indicated he would like, and the Vatican would like, an agreement with Ireland, a concordat with Ireland”.

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RAYMORE (MO)
FOX 4

August 7, 2018

By Alana LaFlore

A metro youth minister facing child sex abuse charges violated bond conditions by being around children, court documents say.

Devin Caruthers is charged with two counts of sodomy, one count attempted child molestation and one count domestic assault.

Raymore Police found out about the violation because someone posted photos on Facebook showing Caruthers around children at the Second Missionary Baptist Church in Grandview.

Court records say, as a term of his bond, Caruthers cannot have contact with his alleged victims or any child under 17 expect for his own child.

Raymore Police handed photos over the the Cass County Prosecutor’s Office. On Tuesday, that office filed a motion to revoke Caruthers’ bond and immediately take him into custody.

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NEW YORK (NY)
CNNMoney

August 8, 2018

By Julia Carpenter

After an incident of harassment in the workplace, after the complaint is made, after the punishment is handed down, even after a suspension is enacted, what happens next?
With some kinds of claims — singular instances, for example, or non-physical offenses — an accused harasser may be sent to training or put on suspension. But after that, they can sometimes return to work.

Much of the aftermath depends on how the company handles that initial incident, as well as any that came before it, and whether the employer has an explicit policy on harassment, or just figures it out as the need arises.

“I can’t emphasize how much the organization sets the tone,” says Elissa Perry, professor of social-organizational psychology at Columbia University. “People often like to talk about harassment as though it’s only between two people … the context is so important to understand what dynamic will play out when this person returns.”

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Chambersburg Public Opinion

August 7, 2018

By Jim Hook

Child sexual abuse allegations against the Catholic church leadership in Pennsylvania include priests who served in parishes in Franklin County.

The Diocese of Harrisburg recently published a list of present and past clergy with allegations of sexual abuse against them. While the claims were substantiated, according to the diocese, the list does not assess credibility or guilt.

Ten priests were assigned to churches in and near Franklin County during their careers. All are deceased. One’s service dates to 1934.

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FORT WORTH (TX)
The Star-Telegram

August 8, 2018

By Nichole Manna

The attorney for a former Prosper priest who was asked to resign after writing a letter that Bishop Michael Olson deemed intimidating, manipulative and inappropriate says there was no justification for removing the Rev. Richard Kirkham from St. Martin de Porres parish.

Kirkham was also accused by Olson, bishop of the Fort Worth diocese, of not reporting knowledge he had of alleged sexual misconduct and predatory sexual harassment in the workplace regarding a Dallas-area priest.

In June, Olson learned that Kirkham wrote a letter to the Dallas-area priest threatening to turn him in for having an affair with a woman involved in that priest’s parish.

The letter includes explicit details of the priest’s alleged sexual preferences, the woman he was accused of having an affair with and details of the type of sex they reportedly had. The letter also alludes to the priest masturbating at his work desk and having problems with alcoholism.

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MUMBAI (INDIA)
Crux

August 7, 2018

By Nirmala Carvalho

A television news channel in India has revealed that a nun who has accused a bishop of rape wrote two letters to the Vatican representative to India about her complaints.

Bishop Franco Mulakkal of Jalandhar – in the Indian state of Punjab – was accused in June of repeatedly sexually assaulting the sister belonging to the Punjab-based Missionaries of Jesus religious congregation. The alleged assaults took place on 13 different occasions between 2014-2016 at the nun’s order’s convent in the state of Kerala.

On Tuesday, Mirror Now, an Indian English-language news network, revealed that it had received copies of two letters allegedly sent by the nun to Vatican representatives.

The letters include allegations of threats and intimidation, and said the bishop harassed the nun’s brother (who is a priest) and other members of her family.

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NEWINGTON (VA)
St. Raymond of Peñafort Catholic Church

August 6, 2018

By Fr. John De Celles

In today’s second reading, St. Paul writes: “I…urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received…”

Each of us is called in Baptism to live a life of love for God and neighbor, and keeping the commandments. Even so, sadly, all of us, from time to time, fail “to live in a manner worthy of the call [we] have received.”

But some of us have special callings in the Church, and for the Church. In particular, I think of priests, bishops and popes. Each of these are men have a special obligation to strive to live in a manner worthy of their very special calling, for the good of the whole Church. And when they fail, it has wider effects, and hurts the whole Church, which as St. Paul reminds us today is “one body.”

Now all priests will fail in smaller ways, and even larger ways that are not uncommon among men,

ways that may disappoint us, but not cause us to give up on them. But sometimes, some priests fail miserably and in repulsive ways, ways that seem to, as Scripture says, “cry out to God for vengeance.”

In the last few weeks we’ve heard in the news that the former Archbishop of Washington, one of the most powerful Cardinals of the Church, Theodore McCarrick, has been accused of such failures – terrible crimes and reprehensible grave sins. Although the Pope suspended him from public ministry until the investigations are concluded, McCarrick has publicly denied all accusations.

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 STATES
EOnline

August 7, 2018

By Natalie Finn

When you think of a cult, or at least going by what you’ve seen on TV and in movies, you think of poor, lost souls who while at their most vulnerable were invited to join a tight-knit community—a community inevitably led by one charismatic person who claims to have all the answers and, if you abide, is going to share them with you.

Paramount TV’s recent Waco did an engrossing job humanizing the people who fell under David Koresh’s spell in the 1980s (and successfully illustrated how the situation was in no way as simple as “crazy cult vs. law enforcement”), but the series primarily took place once the Branch Davidians were already all living together at their Texas compound in the months leading up to a disastrous 1993 FBI siege in which 76 men, women and children were killed. Much has been written about Koresh and how he was able to convince so many people that his way was the right way, but it was widely concluded that he had preyed on the vulnerable.

And before the tragedy at Waco, no one knew who those people were. The same goes for Charles Manson’s “family,” and the murderous group—ostensibly lost souls under the sway of a magnetic leader—might have been but a blip on the end-of-the-1960s radar if actress Sharon Tate hadn’t been one of their victims.

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.

MECHANICSBURG (PA)
Penn Live

August 8, 2018

Pennsylvania is preparing to release a long-awaited, 900-page grand jury report on hundreds of predatory priests.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court had set a deadline of Aug. 7 for petitioners seeking to have their names redacted could appeal to the court. An unspecified number of clergy on Tuesday filed challenges to the latest version of the report, according to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The state now has until Aug. 14 to release the report, per a court order.

According to unsealed excerpts of the grand jury report, more than 300 “predator priests” identified by name are accused of committing criminal or morally reprehensible conduct. The vast majority of those named will be publicly identified in the report.

Victim advocates say it’s the most exhaustive review of clergy sex abuse by a U.S. state. The state’s other dioceses had previously been the subject of grand jury probes.

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.

LEBANON (PA)
Lebanon Daily News

August 7, 2018

By Daniel Walmer

Fourteen priests accused of sexual misconduct served at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lebanon, according to a detailed list of parish assignments provided Monday by the Diocese of Harrisburg.

That is the highest total for any one church on the list.

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HELENA (MT)
The Associated Press

August 6, 2018

By Amy Beth Hanson

A Montana legislative panel on Monday advanced a policy prohibiting lawmakers from harassing or discriminating against each other and others participating in the legislative process.

The policy initially approved on a subcommittee’s 4-0 vote calls for mandatory training, encourages prompt reporting, sets a process for investigating complaints and would make information about substantiated complaints available to the public.

It allows for an outside investigator, if necessary, and if an investigation turns up any suspected criminal activity, it must be immediately be reported to law enforcement.

The full Legislative Council will consider the policy on Aug. 23.

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CORVALLIS (OR)
Fox News

August 8, 2018

By Ryan Gaydos

Former Oregon State star pitcher Luke Heimlich, who pleaded guilty at age 15 to sexually abusing his 6-year-old niece, had his new contract with an Asian team disallowed Tuesday.

Heimlich signed a contract with the Lamigo Monkeys of the Chinese Professional Baseball League last week after failing to latch on with a Major League Baseball team.

It would be “truly regrettable if a potential first-round pick player has no place to showcase his talent,” Lamigo general manager Justin Liu said after the signing, according to Focus Taiwan News Channel.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

August 8, 2018

By Rhina Guidos

A judge has postponed a mid-August trial for a priest accused of embezzling more than $5 million from a parish in Okemos, in central Michigan, part of the Diocese of Lansing.

Father Jonathan Wehrle was facing an Aug. 13 trial but his attorney in the criminal case told the Lansing State Journal he was withdrawing, prompting the judge in early August to push the trial to January 2019 to give new defense attorneys time to prepare, the newspaper said.

According to the newspaper, the announcement from Wehrle’s attorney came after Michigan State Police said in a news release that investigators from its Special Investigation Section discovered more than $63,000 in cash stashed above the ceiling tiles of the basement of the priest’s home during a July 17 search. A July 18 news release from Michigan State Police says officers found the words “For deposit only – St. Martha Parish and School,” the name of the parish where he served from 1988 until June 2017, on the cash bundles.

The priest faces six felony counts of embezzlement of $100,000 or more.

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UNITED STATES
The Conversation via CBS News

August 7, 2018

By Elizabeth C. Tippett

Elizabeth C. Tippett is an associate professor at the School of Law at the University of Oregon.

If you were worried that the #MeToo movement might fade away, fear not. It has been carved into one of the most immovable objects in human history.

Legal boilerplate.

And not just any boilerplate. But the language in giant merger agreements, used when one company is buying out another company.

Basically, corporate lawyers have been adding a sentence that forces companies to disclose allegations of sexual harassment. On Wall Street, it has come to be known as the “Weinstein clause.”

That’s new. In my years as an employment lawyer, I worked on more than 50 corporate acquisitions. The work somehow managed to be both boring and stressful, as I rapidly sifted through masses of personnel documents to figure out what needed to be disclosed.

Although it was common to disclose ongoing lawsuits or threats of litigation, “allegations” or even internal complaints of harassment were not on anyone’s radar.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Good Morning America

August 8, 2018

By Karma Allen

University of Southern California president steps down amid sex abuse scandal originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

University of Southern California President Max Nikias stepped down on Tuesday, effective immediately, amid criticism over how he handled sexual abuse allegations levied against a former campus doctor.

Nikias agreed to resign in May, after at least 200 faculty members signed a petition calling for him to step down, but he hadn’t relinquished his duties.

He will transition into the role of president emeritus and life trustee of the university, according to a statement released by the school on Tuesday.

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LINCOLN (NE)
LifeSiteNews

August 7, 2018

By Lisa Bourne

Fallout continues from allegations of sexual misconduct leveled recently against clergy in the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Lincoln Bishop James Conley has had to issue a subsequent statement following the diocese’s August 1 acknowledgement of reports of misconduct from the 1990’s against its deceased former vocations director. The statement comes after additional more current allegations surfaced related to a current priest in the Lincoln diocese.

Conley wrote the faithful on August 4 conceding the result of the new abuse stories left many feeling they’d been lied to and asking for forgiveness for “the potential betrayal of the good people of the diocese.”

And following Conley’s second statement Saturday, yet further allegations came to light Monday against another priest in the diocese. All of this is the latest chapter in a component of the Church’s sex abuse crisis illustrating that actively homosexual clergy, sexual abuse, and abuse of power can occur anywhere, even in a diocese known for its orthodoxy and strong vocations numbers.

In his August 4 statement Conley directly named the late Msgr. Leonard Kalin, the diocese’s former vocations director and head of the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska, explaining that the diocese had received just one complaint against him before now, back in 1998.

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LINCOLN (NE)
LifeSiteNews

August 4, 2018

By Lisa Bourne

The Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, has acknowledged reports of misconduct by its deceased former vocations director, after an op-ed published by a former priest alleged the sexual behavior and other scandal involving the director.

The diocese did not address the allegations from Peter Mitchell, posted August 1 at Rod Dreher’s blog on The American Conservative, but said in a statement that the diocese “is aware of past reports of conduct contrary to prudence and moral law by Monsignor Leonard Kalin, deceased in 2008.”

“The diocese addressed these allegations of misconduct directly with Msgr. Kalin during his time in priestly ministry,” the statement said. The diocese added that is not aware that Kalin had broken any civil laws.

“The Diocese of Lincoln is also aware of past reports of conduct contrary to prudence and moral law by former Diocese of Lincoln priest Peter Mitchell,” the statement said further. “The diocese addressed these allegations of misconduct directly with Mitchell during his time of ministry in the Diocese of Lincoln.”

Mitchell was a seminarian in the Lincoln diocese from 1994 to 1999, and eventually transferred to Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin. He was laicized in 2017 for breaking his vow of celibacy on multiple occasions.

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LINCOLN (NE)
The American Conservative

August 6, 2018

By Rod Dreher

Stan Schulte, a 37-year-old chiropractor in Lincoln, Nebraska, comes from a sprawling Catholic family that’s a pillar of its Nebraska diocese. The Diocese of Lincoln has long enjoyed a national reputation for vigorous Catholic orthodoxy. He was raised in Blessed Sacrament parish, where his mother was a secretary. He graduated from Pius X High School. His uncle, Jim Benton, 71, is a veteran priest of the diocese.

Father Benton also molested him as a child, according to Schulte, who is revealing it here publicly for the first time. In an emotional phone conversation late Sunday night, Schulte alleged that on a rectory sleepover in Seward, when he was an adolescent, his uncle attempted to sexually assault him.

“I woke up to him grinding up against me with a vise grip over me, dry-humping me. I didn’t know what was going on,” says Schulte, through tears [UPDATE: Schulte writes to say that he was on the rectory floor, not in his uncle’s bed]. “I was able to throw him off, and I sat in a chair in the room all night, staring at him. I couldn’t sleep. My brother was sleeping next to him. I wanted to get my brother and run out of there, but I was a minor. What was I supposed to do? As a kid, you’re taught not to go against priests. You feel like you’re the bad person.

“I buried that,” Schulte says. “I buried it until this year.”

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IRELAND
The Avondhu

August 8, 2018

By Donal O’Keeffe

The Catholic Church is simply not serious about confronting its shameful history of abuse. That’s why media-savvy Pope Francis isn’t stopping here long enough to engage in any meaningful way with Irish survivors, says Donal O’Keeffe.

Did you watch Spotlight on RTÉ1 last Wednesday? It’s a powerful, deeply intelligent 2015 film, directed and co-written by Tom McCarthy, and featuring a top-notch ensemble cast.

It dramatises the story of the Boston Globe’s 2001-2002 ‘Spotlight’ investigation into clerical child abuse in the Boston archdiocese, something Irish viewers will watch with a sense of déjà vu.

If Spotlight could be said to have a villain, it’s the Catholic Church, personified by the late Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston (played by Len Cariou).

There’s a scene early on in Spotlight in which Boston Globe reporter Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo) meets lawyer Mitchell Garabedian (Stanley Tucci). Garabedian is representing several victims of clerical abuse, and alleges that Cardinal Law had known Father John Geoghan was a serial child rapist and had done nothing to stop him. Garabedian is doubtful the Globe can challenge the Catholic Church.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

August 8, 2018

By Daniel Bice

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Matt Flynn has pleaded ignorance about the transfer of pedophile priests during his 15 years as lawyer for the Milwaukee Archdiocese.

“I did not know about it,” Flynn said of priest reassignments on a video produced by his campaign. “I was not involved in it. I was not asked about it. I did not condone it.”

His boss at the time, then-Archbishop Rembert Weakland, went even further, saying no lawyers were involved in the reassignments.

Strong words.

But a 26-year-old case raises serious doubts about each of those claims.

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METUCHEN (NJ)
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

August 8, 2018

By Kelly Heyboer

One of New Jersey’s Catholic dioceses is bringing together a group of senior advisers to consider changing how priests can report sexual misconduct by fellow priests, church officials said Tuesday.

Bishop James Checchio, head of the Diocese of Metuchen, said the recent resignation of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has raised questions about whether his diocese needs to make big changes.

McCarrick is accused of sexual abuse and misconduct with young seminarians and priests, including some who said they feared retaliation if they reported him to church authorities because he was a high-ranking Catholic leader.

One of McCarrick’s alleged victims, a former priest, said last month he endured McCarrick’s sexual advances in part because the Catholic Church lacked the type of human resources departments and anonymous reporting systems that exist in the corporate world for those reporting abuse by co-workers.

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MECHANICSVILLE (PA)
Penn Live

August 7, 2018

By Ivey DeJesus

The worldwide clergy sex abuse crisis is poised to implode anew in this country as Pennsylvania prepares as early as Wednesday to release a long-awaited grand jury report on hundreds of predatory priests.

Members of the clergy had until Tuesday to appeal to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to have their names redacted from the 900-page report. The court had set a deadline of Aug. 7 by which petitioners seeking such a redaction could appeal to the court.

Under the court order, the state can between Wednesday and Aug. 14 release the report. At the time this report was published, it was not clear if any members of the clergy had filed challenges to have their names removed from the report.

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ALLENTOWN (PA)
Morning Call

August 8, 2018

By Paul Muschick

Pope Francis made headlines last week by saying the Catholic Church would work to abolish the death penalty globally. The church should focus on cleaning up its own house before preaching to others how they should dish out punishment.

* * *

But I thought about it again last weekend, after seeing the latest turn in the church’s sex abuse scandal in Pennsylvania. And I concluded the church isn’t in a position to be telling others how to apply justice.

A court filing alleged Pennsylvania church leaders went all out to keep allegations of clergy sexual abuse against children from being investigated by law enforcement authorities or becoming public.

That wasn’t a surprise, either. It still was sickening to see.

“The main thing was not to help children, but to avoid ‘scandal,’’’ the court filing quoted the unreleased grand jury report as saying.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Inquirer

August 7, 2018

By John Baer

[See the 2005 Philadelphia Grand Jury report.]

In anticipation of findings, however redacted, of a statewide grand jury investigation into sex abuse in six Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses, I revisited a 2005 grand jury report on the same topic in Philadelphia.

Thirteen years later, it’s as horrific as it was back then.

Findings included “how dozens of priests (at least 63) sexually abused hundreds of children” and “how Philadelphia Archdiocese officials – including Cardinal Bevilacqua and Cardinal Krol – excused and enabled the abuse.”

Details were sickening.

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[Sebastián Piñera says the Chilean Catholic Church “must never cover a crime”]

CHILE
EFE / The Clinic Online

July 28, 2018

A juicio de Piñera, “es mejor que esto salga a la luz pública para poder corregir esta situación y enfrentarla con más verdad, con más coraje y con más justicia y no seguir barriendo bajo la alfombra”.

El presidente de Chile, Sebastián Piñera, afirmó hoy que la Iglesia católica “jamás debe encubrir un crimen”, en alusión a los abusos sexuales cometidos en el país por miembros del clero y su presunto encubrimiento por parte de la jerarquía eclesiástica.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The American Conservative

August 7, 2018

By Rod Dreher

‘You wouldn’t want to fill a seminary with people who’ve had all kinds of sexual experiences in the past, and unless you were very, very sure that they could be chaste’ said Cardinal Theodore McCarrick to USA Today in 2002. Gay hypocrite was secretly a molester of seminarians (PBS News Hour screenshot)
N., an exceptionally well-informed lay Catholic, tells me that there are two basic tribes of gay bishops and priests.

The first tribe is the Progressives — some sexually active, others not — who believe homosexuality should be normalized by the Catholic Church, and are pushing openly for the Church to change its teachings to reflect that.

The second tribe are Conservatives who live a double life. Outwardly they advocate for traditional Catholic teaching on homosexuality, but they also live homosocially (in the sense of socializing with other gay conservative priests), and some have gay sex. They therefore live in a state of cognitive dissonance.

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[Vatican sanctions former pastor of Quilpué for abuses of power and conscience]

CHILE
El Mostrador

August 7, 2018

By Tomás Molina J.

El ahora ex presbítero Jaime Da Fonseca fue sancionado por la Santa Sede, luego de una investigación canónica iniciada por el obispo emérito de Valparaíso Gonzalo Duarte. La decisión es inapelable.

Si bien había zafado de la justicia civil, en una causa por delitos sexuales cerrada en 2014, la carrera eclesiástica del sacerdote de la Iglesia Nuestra Señora del Rosario de Quilpué, Jaime Da Fonseca Hidalgo, llegó definitivamente a su fin. Este martes, el Obispado de Valparaíso comunicó la expulsión de manera inapelable del religioso, después de haber sido investigado por la Congregación para el Clero del Vaticano.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
The American Conservative

August 6, 2018

By Rod Dreher

[Note: The link to the schedule no longer functions. See the copy cached by Google.]

An angry Catholic reader writes:

Last week, Timothy Busch, the founder of the Napa Institute put out an article titled, “Our Great Commission: The Call of the Laity to Holiness & Reform in Times of Scandal.”

Busch says that he is “disheartened” by the McCarrick scandal. He invites readers to pray for “the Church hierarchy to find the courage to root out every sin and restore truth, beauty, and goodness to the Church,” and invites ideas for how the Napa Institute can contribute to the reform of the Church.

But look at the Napa Institute’s schedule for the Eighth Annual Napa Institute Conference, held July 11-15, 2018. Disgraced Archbishop John Nienstedt is the celebrant for five of the conference masses.

Archbishop Nienstedt was forced out of office in 2015 for failing to properly handle sex abuse allegations. However, there were also allegations of homosexual activity with adults, including priests and seminarians. Documents released in 2016 revealed that the then-Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, not only quashed an investigation into Nienstedt’s alleged abuse of seminarians and priests, but also ordered investigators to destroy documents.

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[Bishop of Chillán questions the “moral certainty” of abuse complaint against priest]

CHILE
BioBioChile

August 7, 2018

By Manuel Cabrera and Wilson Ponce

A través de una declaración pública, el Obispado de Chillán confirmó que concluyó la investigación preliminar en contra del sacerdote Héctor Bravo Merino, quien fue denunciado por presunto abuso sexual a un menor.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican News

August 8, 2018

By Devin Watkins

In a handwritten letter sent on Sunday, Pope Francis applauds the Chilean bishops’ efforts to reflect on their failure to listen to victims of clerical sex abuse.

Pope Francis has praised the bishops of Chile for their “decisive” efforts against clerical sex abuse following a recent meeting.

In a handwritten letter sent on Sunday, the Pope says Chile’s bishops have come up with “realistic and concrete” measures against the abuse crisis gripping the Catholic Church in the country.

He thanked the President of the Chilean Bishops’ Conference for the “edifying example” of a united Church community. The Pope also expressed his appreciation for the Chilean bishops’ reflections on their failure to respond to a clerical sex abuse crisis.

‘Concrete response’

In his letter released by the Chilean Bishops’ Conference, Pope Francis said he was “impressed by the work of reflection, discernment, and decisions” carried out to produce a document, entitled “Declaration, Decisions, and Commitments of the Chilean Bishops’ Conference” (in Spanish).

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[Vatican dismisses Chilean priest investigated for sexual abuse and harassment]

CHILE
BioBioChile

August 7, 2018

By Yerko Roa and Gonzalo Olguín

La Diócesis de Valparaíso confirmó en un comunicado que el Vaticano hizo oficial una sentencia canónica en contra del expárroco de Quilpué Jaime Da Fonseca, rebajándolo a la condición de laico. El sacerdote fue investigado tras acusaciones de acoso y abuso sexual, además de encubrimiento.

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COLUMBIA (MO)
Religion News Service

August 7, 2018

By Thomas Reese SJ

After a monthlong challenge by a few of those named in the document, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court has approved the release of a grand jury’s report on sexual abuse of minors in six Catholic dioceses across the state. The grand jury, convened in 2016, considered the cases of some 300 priests accused of being predators, as well as bishops accused of covering up the crimes.

The report, expected to be released any day, is not going to be an easy read, and at 900 pages will contain more information than many have time to digest.

Here are a few things that journalists and other interested parties should look for.

First, did the grand jury find any new prosecutable offenses?

The answer is probably no. The statute of limitations, which has protected many abusive priests from prosecution, has likely expired on many of the crimes detailed in the report. Nor is it likely that any bishops can be prosecuted for not reporting priests to the authorities, because that was not required by law until recently in most states.

Second, did the report find any priests credibly accused of abuse who are still in ministry or any bishop currently in office who kept a bad priest in ministry?

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YORK (PA)
Fox 43

August 6, 2018

By Jack Eble

https://fox43.com/2018/08/06/fox43-investigates-survivor-details-priest-abuse-accused-priest-shares-his-side-part-one/

One Pennsylvania native, who says he testified for the grand jury report on child sex abuse within the six Roman Catholic Diocese in the commonwealth, worries its contents won’t be available for the public to read.

He wants to make sure he can share his story.

“This is not an easy story to tell,” the source said, choosing to remain anonymous.

He said the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg was a central part of his childhood.

He described himself as “very involved,” and attended church regularly, had his baptism and confirmation there.

He eventually attended St. Patrick School in Carlisle through eighth grade during the 1980s

He achieved something his classmates looked forward to doing: become an alter boy.

“You got to leave and do any sort of funerals that were there. You got a free break from school. Being an alter boy was kind of a good thing.”

At an alter boy retreat in a place outside of Carlisle, he said he met a priest within the Diocese of Harrisburg: Father Herbert Shank.

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YORK (PA)
Fox 43

August 7, 2018

By Jack Eble

https://fox43.com/2018/08/07/fox43-investigates-child-sex-abuse-case-allegedly-turned-over-to-law-enforcement-survivor-alleges-abuse-at-priest-owned-cabin/

One Pennsylvania native, who is choosing to remain anonymous, says he became an “object of abuse” by Herbert Shank, a former priest within the Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, when his parents were going through hard times.

He says he was abused at the hands of Shanks for a year and a half, starting when he was 12-years old.

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Harrisburg says Herbert Shank’s case was turned over to the York County District Attorney’s Office in February 1995.

When reaching out to the York County District Attorney’s Office, we received the following statement: “As per policy, The Office of the District Attorney does not confirm or deny whether or not there is an investigation until such time charges are, or are not filed.”

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[Opinion: Announcements of the Catholic Church are insufficient measures]

CHILE
La Tercera

August 7, 2018

By Nicolás Espejo Yaksic
Lawyer and Professor, University of Oxford

Este 3 de agosto de 2018, la Asamblea Plenaria Extraordinaria del Episcopado emitió una declaración en la que se reconoce que la Iglesia Católica ha fallado en su deber al no escuchar, creer, atender o acompañar a las víctimas de graves pecados. Junto con pedir perdón a las víctimas y sobrevivientes de abuso sexual, la Conferencia Episcopal anunció una serie de medidas, entre las que destacan colaborar más activamente con la Fiscalía Nacional en las investigaciones penales, la disposición de cada obispo para encontrarse personalmente con las víctimas de abusos cometidos por clérigos, un código de comportamiento para cada ministro ordenado y una revisión estructural de las condiciones que han facilitado el abuso sexual.

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[“You are a crybaby:” The controversial Twitter attack of Senator Ivan Moreira on Karadima victim]

CHILE
La Tercera

August 7, 2018

By Claudia Soto

El parlamentario UDI utilizó la red social para responder a Juan Carlos Cruz, quien previamente había manifestado un reclamo al matinal de Canal 13 por forzar una discusión entre ambos.

Faltaba poco para las seis de la tarde de ayer, cuando el senador de la UDI Iván Moreira decidió utilizar su cuenta en Twitter para responder a Juan Carlos Cruz, víctima del ex párroco de El Bosque Fernando Karadima, quien había utilizado la misma red social previamente para acusarlo de politizar todo.

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[Senate Commission to consider revoking Ezzati’s “nationality by grace”]

CHILE
La Tercera

August 7, 2018

La iniciativa parlamentaria fue ingresada debido a los últimos cuestionamientos que pesan sobre el arzobispo de Santiago, debido a su actuar en los casos de abuso sexual al interior de la Iglesia.

Para mañana está convocada la Comisión de Derechos Humanos, Nacionalidad y Ciudadanía para iniciar el estudio del proyecto de ley, presentado por las senadoras Adriana Muñoz y Ximena Rincón, que busca revocar la nacionalidad por gracia que tiene hoy el cardenal Ricardo Ezzati.

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[A foreigner to replace Ezzati ?: The pros and cons of the new archbishop of Santiago coming from outside]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

August 7, 2018

By Tomás Molina J.

Restablecer el “prestigio perdido” y “estabilizar lo que se desestabilizó”, son parte de las ventajas, según expertos, que podrían existir en caso de que el eventual nuevo líder de la arquidiócesis no provenga de la Iglesia chilena.

No presidirá Tedeum ecuménico de Fiestas Patrias y delegó sus atribuciones como gran canciller de la Pontificia Universidad Católica. Esas son las dos importantes decisiones que ha tomado el Arzobispo de Santiago, cardenal Ricardo Ezzati, durante los últimos días, en medio de la crisis que atraviesa la iglesia católica nacional.

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[Ezzati delegates his powers as great chancellor of Pontifical Catholic University in the midst of church crisis]

SANTIAGO, CHILE
Emol

August 6, 2018

Las atribuciones del cargo quedaron en mano del sacerdote Tomás Scherz, actual vicecanciller.

El cardenal Ricardo Ezzati delegó sus atribuciones de gran canciller de la Pontificia Universidad Católica en su segundo, el vicecanciller Tomás Scherz. Así lo informó hoy el rector de la PUC, Ignacio Sánchez, a la comunidad, solicitando “comprensión y apoyo a la decisión del gran canciller, así como su plena colaboración a la labor del padre Tomás en estas nuevas responsabilidades”.

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[Chilean prosecutor expresses support for victims of church abuse]

CHILE
Associated Press

August 3, 2018

By Eva Vergara

Durante décadas los abusos de religiosos a menores de edad fueron un secreto a voces en el seno de la Iglesia Católica chilena, pero desde que el escándalo estalló hace unos meses la indignación ha corrido como dinamita y hoy no sólo El Vaticano busca respuestas, sino también la justicia de Chile.

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PERU
Crux

August 6, 2018

By Elise Harris

[Editor’s Note: This is the third installment of a three-part series exploring ties between Cardinal Francisco Errázuriz of Chile, a close papal confidante, and Peruvian layman Luis Fernando Figari, who’s now accused of sexual abuse and abuses of power and conscience within the prominent lay movement he founded.]

At the beginning of the sexual abuse scandals in Catholicism, the best-known perpetrators were priests whose names quickly became notorious, such as John Geoghan, Lawrence Murphy and Oliver O’Grady, and the burning challenge was establishing detection and disciplinary systems to prevent such predator clergy from going undetected and unpunished.

Two decades later, those goals remain a work in progress, as the recent case of ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick illustrates. However, where the new systems for vigilance established in the years since work, they’re considered state of the art, and many child protection experts now regard the Catholic Church as a pacesetter.

Yet Catholicism is not composed entirely of priests and bishops, nor is the Church’s institutional infrastructure entirely defined by clerical organizations, dioceses and religious orders. There’s also a vast galaxy of lay movements and mixed clerical and lay institutes, which, many observers say, haven’t quite reckoned with the implications of the sexual abuse crisis in the same way as other Catholic institutions.

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NEWCASTLE (PA)
New Castle News

August 7, 2018

By Father Frank Almade

Father Frank D. Almade is pastor of the four parishes in New Castle (Mary Mother of Hope, St. Joseph the Worker, St. Vincent de Paul, St. Vitus).

Sometime in the next two weeks Pennsylvania attorney general Josh Shapiro will release a version of the grand jury report investigating clergy child sexual abuse in six Roman Catholic dioceses.

The grand jury was convened in April 2016 to review the incidents of clergy abuse in the dioceses of Allentown, Erie, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton since 1948. Shapiro wanted to release the results in June, but was blocked by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court as it heard objections from some priests and others who claim their constitutional rights to a good reputation and the due process of law are being violated. On July 26, the Supreme Court ordered a “redacted” version of the report to be issued sometime between today and Aug. 14, with the names of those challenging the report deleted.

Any public relations consultant will tell organizations to keep their message short and simple. The response of the Catholic Church to this report is and must be complex. Let me offer three brief points of response to this report.

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FORT WORTH (TX)
The Star-Telegram via The Olympian

August 6, 2018

By Nichole Manna

A priest in the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese has resigned after a letter he wrote to another priest in Dallas was deemed intimidating, manipulative and inappropriate by Bishop Michael Olson.

The Rev. Richard Kirkham, former pastor of St. Martin de Porres in Prosper, is also accused of failing to report knowledge he had of alleged sexual misconduct and predatory sexual harassment in the workplace regarding the Dallas-area priest.

Kirkham submitted his resignation letter on June 4, but later tried to rescind it. Olson said he declined Kirkham’s request.

The Star-Telegram was unable to reach Kirkham for comment.

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LINCOLN (NE)
Catholic News Service

August 6, 2018

Lincoln Bishop James Conley apologized Aug. 4 for failing to be more transparent about a pastor removed from ministry and sent to treatment last year because the priest had developed “an emotionally inappropriate, non-sexual relationship with a 19-year-old male which involved alcohol.”

He sent Fr. Charles Townsend, pastor of St. Peter Parish in Lincoln, to the Shalom Center in Houston for treatment.

“My failure at the time was the lack of transparency with the people of God about this incident,” Conley said in an open letter to Catholics of the diocese.

“Despite reports to the contrary, I did not oblige anyone to keep silent about this matter. Our priests and the parishioners of St. Peter’s were told that he went away for health reasons. I made no effort to ‘cover up’ any element of this situation, and I tried to address it with integrity,” he wrote.

“However, I did not encourage transparency. I did not encourage an open discussion about this situation with our priests, with parishioners, or with those involved,” he continued. “Even though we were not legally obligated to report the incident, it would have been the prudent thing to do.”

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

August 6, 2018

By Patsy McGarry

Mary McAleese called event ‘one of the most devastating moments in my presidency’

Former president Mary McAleese says she refused to discuss an attempt by the Vatican in 2003 to secure an agreement with Ireland that it would not access church documents.

Speaking to The Irish Times, Ms McAleese has revealed what she described as “one of the most devastating moments in my presidency”.

It occurred during a State visit to Italy when she had a private meeting with then Vatican secretary of state Angelo Sodano.

“He indicated that he would like, and the Vatican would like, an agreement with Ireland, a concordat with Ireland. I asked him why and it was very clear it was because he wanted to protect Vatican and diocesan archives. I have to say that I immediately said the conversation had to stop,” Ms McAleese said.

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IRELAND
The Irish Times

August 5, 2018

By Patsy McGarry

Organisers of visit ‘found time to go to Knock’ and should find time too to meet survivors

Pope Francis should not only meet survivors of clerical child sexual abuse on his visit to Ireland but “he also has to address what he plans to do for the future”, former president Mary McAleese has said.

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PORTUGAL
Daily Mail

August 6, 2018

By Julian Robinson

– Priest Humberto Gama, 79, was held in the town of Fatima in Sanrarem, Portugal
– He was accused of attacking a 55-year-old woman during exorcism at his home
– Priest denies claims and has been released on condition he does not contact the woman

A priest was arrested over claims he raped a woman while performing an exorcism in Portugal.

Priest Humberto Gama was held in the town of Fatima in the Portuguese district of Sanrarem after being accused of attacking a 55-year-old during a ritual at his home.

The 79-year-old, who denies the claims, allegedly tied up and raped the woman when she was lying on a bed during the exorcism. She later needed hospital treatment, it has been reported.

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SAGINAW COUNTY (MI)
WNEM

August 6, 2018

A local priest facing accusations of sexual misconduct appeared in court Monday morning.

A judge heard several motions on Father Robert DeLand’s case.

DeLand was arrested back in February on claims of assaulting two men – a then 21-year-old who said he was intoxicated when DeLand made sexual advances towards him, and a then 17-year-old who went undercover for police when he claimed assault.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
WHTM

August 6, 2018

By Myles Snyder

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg has named a 38th priest accused of child sexual abuse.

Msgr. Joseph Bradley was accused of sexual abuse after his death, the diocese said Monday.

Bishop Ronald Gainer last week released the names of 37 priests at 34 other members of the church who have had allegations made against them since the 1940’s.

The diocese said it added Bradley’s name to the list after receiving additional information.

Also, a spokesman said additional accusations have been made against church members who were on the initial version of the list.

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BREGENZ (AUSTRIA)
ChurchMilitant.com

August 7, 2018

By Stephen Wynne

In Austria, exhaustion over a decades-old clerical sex abuse scandal has forced an abbot to resign.

Depleted after years of trying to restore the Cistercian Territorial Abbey of Wettingen-Mehrerau to spiritual and financial health, Dom Anselm van der Linde tendered his resignation on July 12 and was officially released from his post by Pope Francis on Aug. 1.

At his 2009 appointment by Pope Benedict XVI, the young Cistercian monk was given charge over 21 Cistercian monasteries spread across Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and the United States.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Register

August 7, 2018

By K.V. Turley

The new Australian law is not so much a way of protecting children from abuse as an assault upon the Church

Earlier this summer, the Legislative Assembly of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) in Canberra passed new laws forcing Catholic priests to break the seal of Confession.

All three political parties in the ACT Legislative Assembly supported the bill to extend a mandatory reporting scheme that would cover churches and include the confessional. The new laws require religious organizations to report to the ACT Ombudsman allegations, offenses, or convictions related to children that have been divulged in Confession, within 30 days so that an investigation can be launched. Needless to say, there are fears that these new laws will be studied by the other States and Territory that make up the Commonwealth of Australia, bringing with it the alarming possibility of their extension nationwide.

Critics of the laws have been quick to claim that the new law is not so much a way of protecting children from abuse as an assault upon the Church. As Archbishop Christopher Prowse of Canberra and Goulburn pointed out: “The government threatens religious freedom by appointing itself an expert on religious practices and by attempting to change the sacrament of Confession while delivering no improvement in the safety of children.”

So this law will be of no use to those whom it is seeking to protect and, yet, manages to criminalize those who are doing nothing illegal – in Australia a priest hearing Confession is not yet a crime.

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ORLANDO (FL)
Orlando Sentinel

August 6, 2018

By Bianca Padró Ocasio

An investigation into abuse and misconduct allegations against a pastor and a school coach reveals a pattern that spans at least two decades of several Orangewood Presbyterian Church and School leaders dismissing the claims, refusing to speak directly with alleged victims and failing to keep appropriate records of employment, according to the report.

“Attempts to discuss this matter over the years have been a twisted, convoluted, and self-aggrandizing attempt to minimize the reality of what actually occurred …,” the 35-page report shows.

One former associate pastor at the Maitland church explained to GRACE in an interview that it handled the claims “by considering it a ‘private sin’ and not a ‘public sin’.”

The accusations against Jeff Jakes — now a senior pastor who denies many of the allegations, according to the report — stem back to 1998 and were made public earlier this year in a post on Facebook by Katherine Snyder, who was 18 when she worked for Jakes. The report validated Snyder’s accusations, adding that Jakes’ assertions that he regrets “confusing” Snyder “marginalizes her dignity and robs her of the honor she deserves in bringing very painful events to light.”

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

August 6, 2018

By Manya Brachear Pashman

A day after the sudden resignation of its lead teaching pastor, Willow Creek Community Church told members Monday that a council of outside Christian leaders will oversee what the church calls an “independent investigation” of allegations against its founder, Bill Hybels.

“This has been a difficult process because of the public nature of these allegations, but we are working on finalizing this key group of people,” lead pastor Heather Larson wrote to members of the South Barrington megachurch. “This council will have full autonomy and authority to pursue and investigate any and all allegations.”

She added that an anonymous outside donor will fund the cost of the inquiry to ensure that its credibility isn’t called into question. Through a spokesman, the church declined to clarify why another investigation was necessary and whether there were more allegations in addition to those already reported.

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FALL RIVER (MA)
National Catholic Register

August 7, 2018

By Father Roger J. Landry

COMMENTARY: Now is the time to cooperate — and cooperate fully — with God’s cleansing fire for his Church.

The sad revelations about the sins of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, involving the sexual abuse of both male minors and seminarians, have brought the Church in the U.S. and beyond to a second recent phase in the necessary purification of the clergy of the Church. The first phase happened in 2002, after the disclosure that more than 4,000 (out of 110,000) priests had been accused in the U.S. of sexual abuse of minors in the previous half-century.

The U.S. bishops convened in Dallas and adopted what has overall been a heralded systemic response to root out those who have abused minors from the priesthood, protect children and care for survivors.

But there were several major problems with Dallas, however.

First, the phrase “credible accusations” was exceedingly vague and could encompass even accusations that were immediately demonstrably false.

Second, bishops exempted themselves from the policy.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
CNA/EWTN News

August 7, 2018

The Holy Father on Friday wrote to the Chilean bishops’ conference to express his approval of their newly adopted plan to prevent future instances of sex abuse within the Church.

Pope Francis Friday wrote to the Chilean bishops’ conference to express his approval of their newly adopted plan to prevent future instances of sex abuse within the Church.

“I was impressed by the work of reflection, discernment, and decisions that you have made,” the Pope wrote in his Aug. 5 letter to Bishop Santiago Jaime Silva Retamales of Chile’s military diocese, who is president of the Chilean bishops’ conference.

“May the Lord repay you abundantly in this communitarian and pastoral effort.”

“The decisions are realistic and concrete,” he said. “I am sure that they will help decidedly in this entire process. But what touched me most was the example of episcopal community united in the pastoral care of the holy, faithful People of God. Thank you for this edifying example … because it ‘builds’ the Church.”

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CHILE
Reuters

August 6, 2018

By Aislinn Laing

Pope Francis recognized on Monday measures that Chile’s bishops said they would take to assist prosecutors investigating allegations of sex abuse that have plagued the Roman Catholic Church in Chile, including that they would work to reach an agreement with prosecutors on an exchange of information.

The pontiff wrote in a letter released to media on Monday by the Chilean Church that the steps taken at a conclave last week were “realistic and concrete” and that he was confident they would make a “decisive” difference.

After a week-long leadership conclave, the bishops asked for forgiveness, saying in a statement on Friday that they had failed to aid and accompany victims who had suffered “grave sins and injustices committed by priests and clergy.”

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HARRISBURG (PA)
York Daily Record

August 6, 2018

By Brandie Kessler, Ed Mahon and Dylan Segelbaum

At least 31 of the 72 priests who have been accused of sexually abusing or inappropriately touching children have made York County parishes their homes.

Some of the county’s dozen or so parishes since the 1940s appear to not have had any of the accused assigned there.

Other parishes were home to several accused priests over the years.

St. Rose of Lima is one such parish, with a total of six.

At least three priests were named by the Harrisburg diocese on Aug. 1, who have been accused of sexually abusing or inappropriately touching children and were assigned there since the 1930s:

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NEW DELHI (INDIA)
UCANews

August 7, 2018

Bishop Prasad Gallela of Cuddapah says allegations are false and he welcomes the chance to prove his innocence

A Catholic bishop in southern India is facing multiple court cases over an accusation that he misappropriated diocesan funds to support his “wife” and teenage son, but the bishop has denied the charges.

Bishop Prasad Gallela of Cuddapah (presently Kadapa) has been served notice to appear on Aug. 18 before Lok Adalat, a government-approved forum, to amicably settle cases pending in courts.

He is accused of misappropriating millions of rupees from diocesan social welfare funds to support his “wife” and 18-year-old son by cheating the church’s administrative systems.

Two lay Catholics, 40-year-old Mesa Ravi Kumar and 65-year-old Byreddy Chinnappa Reddy, jointly moved a criminal complaint against the prelate two months ago.

A court in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh state asked Bishop Gallela to appear before it on Aug. 2 but the bishop’s lawyers pleaded for more time and the case was moved to the last week of August.

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SALT LAKE CITY (UT)
The Salt Lake City Tribune

August 7, 2018

You probably read about a woman who secretly recorded an interview with her former Missionary Training Center president regarding alleged sexual misconduct he committed. Or maybe you heard that Mormon general authorities are paid more than $120,000 a year in salary. Perhaps you wonder about the LDS Church’s vast wealth. You swear you’ve seen that it has at least $32 billion in stock holdings.

Well, if you know those newsy nuggets, it’s probably because of a website called MormonLeaks, which posts documents, recordings and videos secretly provided by church leaders, employees, sources, whistleblowers or other moles from within the Utah-based faith.

So how did MormonLeaks get its start? What is its goal? Which leaks have been the biggest? And how does it navigate often-tricky ethical waters?

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JOPLIN (MO)
The Joplin Globe

August 6, 2018

By Jeff Lehr

More charges expected in alleged molestation of church youth

A Joplin man is being held on charges that he sexually abused three boys he knew through his involvement with a church in Miami, Oklahoma.

Matthew D. Galati, 29, was arrested last week when information first surfaced regarding disclosures made by three male members of a youth group at the New Beginnings Life Church In Miami. Joplin police Capt. Trevor Duncan said interviews of the boys were conducted at the Children’s Center in Joplin, leading to the filing of charges Thursday by the Jasper County prosecutor’s office.

Galati is charged with four counts of statutory sodomy with a child under 12 years old and two counts of second-degree statutory sodomy in connection with acts committed in Jasper County. But additional victims have been identified and more charges are anticipated, according to Duncan.

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ALBANY (NY)
Roman Catholic Diocese of ALbany

August 6, 2018

Statement by Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany:

While I am heartened by my brother bishops proposing ways for our Church to take action in light of recent revelations – and I agree that a national panel should be commissioned, duly approved by the Holy See – I think we have reached a point where bishops alone investigating bishops is not the answer. To have credibility, a panel would have to be separated from any source of power whose trustworthiness might potentially be compromised.

It is time for us, I believe, to call forth the talents and charisms of our lay faithful, by virtue of their baptismal priesthood. Our lay people are not only willing to take on this much-needed role, but they are eager to help us make lasting reforms that will restore a level of trust that has been shattered yet again. In speaking with them, we all hear their passion for our universal Church, their devotion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and their hunger for the truth. They are essential to the solution we seek.

What is needed now is an independent commission led by well-respected, faithful lay leaders who are beyond reproach, people whose role on such a panel will not serve to benefit them financially, politically, or personally. These will be people with a deep understanding of the Catholic faith, but without an axe to grind or an agenda to push. It will not be easy, but it will be worth every ounce of effort, energy, and candor we can muster.

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ROME
Crux

August 4, 2018

By Elise Harris

Although most attention amid the clerical sexual abuse crisis has been on minors, recent cases of priests and bishops who have taken advantage of vulnerable adults or those under their guidance also have come to light.

One such case involves Theodore McCarrick, the 88-year-old retired Archbishop of Washington and Newark who resigned his post in the College of Cardinals following “credible and substantiated” accusations of sexual abuse of minors and multiple accounts of sexual misconduct with seminarians.

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YORK (PA)
York Daily Record

August 6, 2018

By Ed Mahon,Brandie Kessler and Dylan Segelbaum

New information released by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg shows that some parishes had multiple clergy members accused of sexual abuse or inappropriate conduct with children.

At St. Joseph of York, for instance, there were 11 clergy members who served there who had an allegation against them at some point.

The information was released by the diocese on Monday, days after it released the names of more than 70 clergy members with allegations against them. In releasing the names last week, the diocese said it was not making an assessment of guilt. Instead, it says it was releasing a list of everyone with an allegation against them that had not been proven false.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Diocese of Harrisburg

Updated August 6, 2018

[Note: At the end of this list of clergy and seminarians is a list of assignments sorted by parish.]

The Diocese of Harrisburg publishes the following list of clergy and seminarians who served in the Diocese and who were accused of sexual abuse of a child since the 1940s. The term “accused” is emphasized to note that the list below includes summations of accusations; the list does not include assessments of credibility or guilt. For more information regarding what is included and what is not included in this list, please see Bishop Ronald W. Gainer’s letter of August 1, 2018. Further, the following list does not contain those cases where the accusation was deemed not substantiated, meaning it was an accusation which, after review by law enforcement or Diocesan reviewers, was not supported by sufficient evidence to establish the probability that the accused cleric or seminarian committed sexual abuse of a child.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Diocese of Harrisburg

August 6, 2018

On August 1, 2018, Bishop Ronald W. Gainer directed that a list of clergy and seminarians accused of sexual abuse of minors be made available at the Diocese’s new website, www.youthprotectionhbg.com. Accordingly, the Diocese published a link to a list of clergy with allegations of abuse. We again emphasize that this is a list of accusations; we did not make assessments of credibility or guilt in creating this list.

The Diocese has received additional information since the list was originally released on August 1. Accordingly, we have added the name of one additional clergy member to the list, bringing the total to 72 names. The name of Joseph Bradley was added to our list under the heading of “Cases Involving Allegations of Indecent Behavior,” for an accusation of sexual abuse of a child. Additional accusations were made involving individuals who were on the previous version of our list. Those additional accusations have been updated.

An additional document outlining years of service and assignments within the Diocese for all individuals on the list has also been posted online. As with all new allegations, each was reported directly to law enforcement immediately.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Diocese of Harrisburg

August 6, 2018

By Bishop Ronald Gainer

As many of you have read, the Diocese of Harrisburg has released information and policy changes regarding child sex abuse. I wanted to take this opportunity to express my great sadness at the horror that innocent children were the victims of egregious actions committed against them. Many of those victimized as children continue, as survivors, to suffer from the harm they experienced. In my own name, and in the name of the Diocesan Church of Harrisburg, I express our profound sorrow and apologize to the survivors of child sex abuse, the Catholic faithful and the general public for the abuses that took place and for those Church officials who failed to protect children.

As we willingly acknowledge our sinfulness, as we humbly seek the forgiveness of those who have been wronged, we pray that healing will come to the entire Church when we renew our commitment each day to respond to the call to holiness we all share and to the mission of our Church entrusted to us by the Lord Jesus himself.

While we seek forgiveness in the name of our Church, we encourage survivors to come forward so that their healing may begin.

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DENVER (CO)
Crux

August 7, 2018

By Inés San Martín

Rome – “We need for the Church to understand that those of us who come forth are not the enemy. We want to help the Church clean itself, so there are no other Mauricios drugged and raped in the seminary, so there are no other Sebastians forced to massage a bishop so he feels pleasure, so there’re no other Marcelos forced to receive oral sex, and so there’re no other Johns raped by their spiritual directors.”

The stories are real. They belong to Mauricio Pulgar, Marcelo Soto, Sebastian del Rio and a fourth person, who will be described as “John Doe.” He’s asked not be identified because he’s not ready to go public with the allegations, but he represents many others.

Crux spoke with the four victims, and several others, in the past week. All are former seminarians of the Chilean diocese of Valparaiso, some 60 miles from Santiago, the country’s capital. They’ve provided the complaints that they handed to ecclesiastical authorities over a period from 2010 until this June, when a papal representative was in the country to look into Chile’s clerical sexual abuse crisis.

Crux also has obtained a copy of a letter by a Chilean bishop acknowledging that as of 2008, the Holy See had an allegation against a brother bishop. In addition, Crux has also obtained video and audio recordings and an email of one of the priests acknowledging guilt and trying to buy one of his victims’ silence.

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FLINT (MI)
ABC 12 WJRT

August 6, 2018

By Rebecca Trylch

Saginaw – A former Catholic priest accused of sexually assaulting three young men appeared in court Monday for a series of legal motions.

Robert DeLand Junior’s attorney, Alan Crawford, was trying to get the cases dismissed using a variety of arguments.

“It’s our position in this matter that the District Court judge abused their discretion in binding this matter over. And the reason that they abused their discretion is because we’re dealing with an alleged victim in this matter who there’s questions as to his memory of what occurred on this particular night,” Crawford said.

Circuit Court Judge Darnell Jackson denied Crawford’s first motion to quash that specific charge.

There were a total of 14 motions between the defense and prosecution.

The Saginaw County Prosecutor’s Office asked Judge Jackson to join the cases moving forward.

Police in Tittabawassee Township and Saginaw Township investigated DeLand’s actions. The prosecutor decided to issues charges in four different cases, involving three young men.

One of the men was 21 when the alleged actions took place, the other two young men were teenagers.

“All considered collectively demonstrate a common single scheme or plan by the defendant to sexually assault young males,” said Saginaw County Assistant Prosecutor Melissa Hoover. “All of these instances involve a certain level of trust in the defendant, based on him befriending his victims, and we have isolation, we have control, and we ultimately have the culmination of all of these with the sexual assaults that result.”

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SUNBURY (PA)
The Daily Item

August 6, 2018

By Joe Sylvester

http://www.dailyitem.com/news/local_news/area-catholic-priests-offer-apologies-ask-forgiveness-for-child-sexual/article_82ca4813-a53d-5824-8d1e-f27c188a0e10.html

Area Roman Catholic priests relayed their bishop’s apologies to parishioners on Sunday over the child sexual abuse accusations against clergy and seminarians. At least a couple pastors offered apologies of their own.

“I’m so deeply saddened by these terrible sins,” said the Rev. Mark Wilke, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Lewisburg, where three of the accused served at various times.

Wilke offered his comments to his congregation after reading a letter from Harrisburg Diocese Bishop Ronald Gainer at the end of Mass.

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DUBLIN (IRELAND)
Irish Times

August 6, 2018

By Marie Collins

Saying sorry it happened, sorry you were hurt, does not cut it any more

When Pope Francis comes to Ireland in two weeks’ time it will be 39 years since the last visit by a head of the Catholic Church. Since then the status of the church in Ireland has declined dramatically.

Those identifying as Catholic are down by 20 per cent, according to the last census. Mass attendance has fallen away, seminaries and religious houses have closed, and parishes are now often run by a single priest.

The majority of people no longer look to the church for guidance in their everyday lives. When the leadership speaks out on current issues as during the two recent recent referendums many, particularly the young, are antagonistic or indifferent. The church in Ireland has lost respect and credibility.

A main reason for this has been due to actions by the church itself, including the way in which its clerics and religious have abused their power. The guilty are those who destroyed the lives of untold numbers of men, women and children in orphanages, industrial schools, reformatories, Magdalene laundries, mother and baby homes, and through sexually assaulting children in parishes.

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SAN DIEGO (CA)
The San Diego Tribune

August 6, 2018

By Peter Rowe

In 2010, a Catholic priest from the San Diego diocese sexually assaulted Rachel Mastrogiacomo.

This story would be all-too-familiar except for one fact: Mastrogiacomo was 24, a grown woman.

For years, the clergy sex scandal has focused on abused children. Now, the #MeToo movement and a growing recognition of the pervasiveness of sexual power plays is encouraging victimized adults to come out of the shadows.

“Finally,” said Esther Miller, who led an adult victims workshop at last month’s national convention of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), “women are coming together and saying no more.”

Going public, though, can mean facing skeptical questioning. Women and men endure many of the same pressures that discourage children — shame, confusion, the unwillingness to confront a spiritual leaders who are admired and even revered.

Another question is posed only to victimized women and men: why are sexual encounters between two apparently “consenting” adults considered crimes? But in many states, including Minnesota where Mastrogiacomo took her abuser to trial, it’s a crime to have with sex with adults who are incapable of voluntary consent “due to a particular vulnerability or due to the special relationship between the actor (perpetrator) and the victim.”

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CHILE
La Croix

August 6, 2018

By Mélinée Le Priol

They also promised to involve greater participation of lay people, particularly women, in the decision-making bodies of the Chilean Church

Concluding their five day extraordinary assembly, Chile’s 32 Catholic bishops apologized for “failing in their duties” in managing sex abuse cases.

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LANCASTER (PA)
Lancaster Online

August 5, 2018

THE ISSUE

Bishop Ronald W. Gainer of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg held a press conference Wednesday to apologize for the sexual abuse of children by priests and others in the church over decades. The Harrisburg diocese also released a list of 71 clergy members and seminarians alleged to have sexually abused children since 1947. LNP reported Friday that the list included the late Monsignor Francis Joseph Taylor, who served as Lancaster Catholic High School’s principal from 1958 to 1975, and the late Rev. Thomas Ronald Haney, who was the assistant to the principal at LCHS from 1961 to 1964 and directed the school’s athletic program. According to LNP records, Haney previously had served three years as assistant pastor at St. Anne Catholic Church in Lancaster; later in his life, he was known to many local Catholics as the executive editor of The Catholic Witness, the diocesan newspaper, and as a spokesman for the diocese.

In April 2014, soon after he was installed as the 11th bishop of the Diocese of Harrisburg, Gainer told LNP that the way the Catholic Church had handled child sexual abuse cases in the past was “a disgrace” and “a wound for our church.”

He was right, of course.

Before he took over the Diocese of Harrisburg, Gainer was criticized by SNAP, or the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, for the way he had handled sexual abuse allegations against two priests while leading the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky.

Last week, however, Gainer seemed genuinely intent on reversing the church’s past mistakes.

And he made strides toward that aim when, at his press conference and in a column LNP published on Friday’s front page, he expressed his “great sadness at the horror that innocent children were the victims of egregious actions committed against them.”

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
CBS Cleveland

August 2018

The Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese prepared parishioners Sunday for a scathing grand jury report that’s about to be released about sex abuse in the church; KDKA’s Bob Allen reports.

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