ABUSE TRACKER

SAN VICENTE (ECUADOR)
El Universo

May 23, 2018

Spanish priest investigates alleged cases of abuse

El vicario judicial de la Arquidiócesis de Santiago de Chile, Jaime Ortiz de Lazcano, llegó ayer a la ciudad para reunirse con familiares de supuestas víctimas de abuso sexual atacadas presuntamente por el sacerdote César C. M., con el cual también prevé un encuentro.

El religioso de origen español investigó en Chile los casos Karadima y Precht.

El arzobispo Marcos Pérez cedió a la presión de parientes que pidieron saber qué labores cumpliría Ortiz de Lazcano. Refirió que escuchará versiones y determinará si “existen o no indicios de culpabilidad para continuar con un juicio canónico en el Vaticano”.

En la Arquidiócesis existe un tribunal eclesiástico que podría tomar las versiones, pero Pérez dijo que se prefirió llamar a un delegado externo para que analice el caso con la mayor imparcialidad y confianza posible.

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
Yahoo Sports

May 21, 2018

By Ryan Young

Olympic swimmer and former world-record holder Ariana Kukors filed a lawsuit on Monday against USA Swimming, alleging that officials knew her coach Sean Hutchinson sexually assaulted her while she was a minor.

The lawsuit, filed in Orange County, California, alleges that USA Swimming covered up the abuse and manipulated its background check system so that Hutchinson wouldn’t fail the test.

“We are here today to force USA Swimming, the national governing body of the sport of swimming in America, to accept responsibility for allowing, and in fact, enabling a known predator coach to sexually molest for almost a decade, my client Ariana beginning when she was just a young child,” Kukors’ attorney Robert Allard told the Seattle Times on Monday.

Kukors, 28, accused Hutchinson of sexually assaulting her starting when she was 16 and continuing to have sexual contact with her until she was 24. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that Kukors alleges that he took nude photos of her when she was a teenager. Kukors told police that Hutchinson sexually assaulted her both on trips and while training in Seattle, and that he used his position as her coach at the Seattle club to “groom her” for sexual assault starting when she was 13.

Kukors said that in 2005, when she was 15 or 16, USA Swimming officials — including former director Chuck Wielgus — knew that she was involved in an inappropriate relationship with Hutchinson, according to USA Today.

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UNITED STATES
CNN

May 22, 2018

By Emanuella Grinberg

Former world champion swimmer Ariana Kukors Smith says it was an “open secret” among USA Swimming’s leadership that her coach sexually abused her as a teen.

The former Olympian says in a lawsuit that Sean Hutchison sexually molested her for the first time in 2006 when she was 16. Hutchison has previously denied the allegations.

Instead of acting on the information, the lawsuit says, officials engaged in a cover-up to shield Hutchison from consequences.

Hutchison and USA Swimming, the governing body for competitive swimming in the United States, are among those named in a lawsuit filed Monday in California alleging sexual abuse of a minor, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. USA Swimming declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Smith, 28, first went public with her account in January. In the lawsuit, she says Hutchison of kissed, fondled and performed oral sex on her when she was a minor, before they had intercourse for the first time when she was 18. She also accuses him of taking nude photos of her as a minor.

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

WASHINGTON (DC)
The Associated Press

May 22, 2018

Two-time Olympic champion Steven Lopez complained to the U.S. Olympic Committee that he was subject to an “institutionalized witch hunt” designed to undermine his success — a piece of Congressional testimony offered by USA Taekwondo to undercut the notion that the organization was unwilling to discipline its top athletes for sexual abuse and other cases.

Lopez is currently under suspension while the U.S. Center for SafeSport investigates a case against him. His brother and coach, Jean, has been permanently banned for sexual misconduct.

Lopez wrote a letter last June to then-CEO Scott Blackmun of the USOC referencing three attempts by USA Taekwondo from 2013 to 2015, all overturned in arbitration, to ban Jean Lopez for actions that weren’t related to the sex abuse cases.

Lopez said the attempts were designed “to create the best possible conditions for my failure.”

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
ESPNW

May 24, 2018

By Dan Murphy

USA Gymnastics CEO Kerry Perry plans to offer an apology Wednesday to the gymnasts whom Larry Nassar abused when she addresses a House subcommittee tasked with examining the Olympic community’s role in recent sexual assault scandals.

In her first public comments since taking over in December, Perry plans to update the representatives on the changes that USA Gymnastics has made in 2018 to repair a culture in which warning signs of abuse went unheeded for years.

The subcommittee started its probe in the wake of a sentencing hearing for Nassar, the former national medical coordinator for USA Gymnastics who admitted to using his position to molest his patients — most of whom were young female gymnasts. Nassar is serving 60 years in federal prison on child pornography charges before he begins a sentence of up to 175 years for sexual assault charges.

“I want to apologize to all who were harmed by the horrific acts of Larry Nassar,” Perry wrote in an opening statement that she plans to read at Wednesday’s hearing, which was first reported by USA Today. “… Let there be no mistake; those days are over. USA Gymnastics is on a new path, with new leadership, and a commitment to ensure this will never happen again.”

Perry says in her statement that the organization hopes to resume settlement talks in August for the hundreds of civil lawsuits it faces from women who say Nassar abused them. USA Gymnastics is one of several defendants in those lawsuits, along with the U.S. Olympic Committee, Michigan State University and Twistars, a Michigan gym where Nassar treated patients on a weekly basis for many years.

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

NEW YORK (NY)
The Daily Beast

May 22, 2018

By Amy Zimmerman

In the new A&E series ‘Cults and Extreme Beliefs,’ ex-NXIVM member Sarah Edmondson opens up about a horrific branding ceremony at ex-‘Smallville’ star Allison Mack’s house.

NXIVM, the star-studded sex cult that recently landed actress Allison Mack under house arrest, is already getting the TV treatment. The new A&E series Cults and Extreme Belief is premiering next Monday with an episode on the controversial self-help group. Led by Keith Raniere, NXIVM has been accused of vile crimes within a sub-sorority known as “Dominus Obsequious Sororium,” which loosely translates to “master over slave women.”

The indictment against Mack and Raniere charge the leader and his second in command with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and forced labor conspiracy. In a statement, United States Attorney Richard P. Donoghue claimed that, “Allison Mack recruited women to join what was purported to be a female mentorship group that was, in fact, created and led by Keith Raniere… The victims were then exploited, both sexually and for their labor, to the defendants’ benefit. This Office and our law enforcement partners are committed to prosecuting predators who victimize others through sex trafficking and forced labor.”

In a letter on the NXIVM website, Keith Raniere insisted that the sorority “is not part of NXIVM” and denied any association with the group.

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

PENNSYLVANIA
GoErie

May 24, 2018

By Ed Palattella

The 884-page document covers investigation of Erie, five other Roman Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania. Public release is set for late June.

The Catholic Diocese of Erie on Thursday received a copy of a statewide grand jury’s investigative report on clergy sexual abuse, giving Erie Bishop Lawrence Persico an opportunity to review and respond to the 884-page document before its expected public release in late June.

The court order authorizing the advanced release of the report to the Erie diocese and others allows for general comments but prohibits the recipients from commenting on the contents of the report until it is made public, said Mark Rush, a lawyer for the diocese, who said he received the report on behalf of the diocese.

With a judge’s authorization, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office on Thursday also provided copies of the report to the other five Roman Catholic dioceses that the office has been investigating since mid-2016 by presenting evidence and testimony to the grand jury, Rush said.

The report covers all six dioceses, Rush said. The other dioceses are those for Allentown, Greensburg, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Scranton. The 40th Statewide Investigative Grand Jury, which met in Pittsburgh, ended its term on April 30, signaling the release of its report would come soon.

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.

BOISE (ID)
Idaho Statesman

May 24, 2018

By Ruth Brown

[See also the article as it appeared on the front page of the Idaho Statesman.]

For two decades, Mark Holden kept the secret of the man who abused him: a man he believed was next to God, a man he thought was untouchable.

Holden met the Rev. James McSorley in 1971 at Boise’s Sacred Heart parish. In public, Holden served McSorley as an altar boy. In private, Holden said, the 50-year-old priest soon became exploitive, using secluded time with the children to fondle Holden — and possibly others — on multiple occasions over the course of a year.

McSorley bought Holden’s silence with beer, cigars and money. Holden knew the priest’s behavior was wrong — he just wasn’t sure how to end it.

The 12-year-old couldn’t tell his parents, he thought at the time, in part because he’d been drinking beer. Calling police didn’t even occur to him. Only some of the other altar boys knew of the priest’s actions, including his older brother.

“They robbed my faith — and everyone’s faith,” said Holden, now 58. “…That person was supposed to be the person I could turn to when I feel in trouble. Yet, he was causing my trouble.”

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.

BOISE (ID)
Idaho Statesman

May 24, 2018

By Ruth Brown

The following is a list of people named in the Statesman’s May 2018 report on alleged child abuse committed by former Catholic Rev. James McSorley.

Bishops of the Diocese of Boise

Bishop Peter Christensen: Bishop since 2014.

Bishop Michael Driscoll: Bishop from 1999-2014. Died Oct. 24, 2017.

Bishop Tod Brown: Bishop from 1989-1998, now age 81 and a retired bishop in the Diocese of Orange in California.

Bishop Sylvester Treinen: Bishop from 1962-1988. Died in 1996.

Priests

Rev. James McSorley, priest at Sacred Heart Catholic Church from 1971-1975. Abused Mark Holden in 1971-2. He died in 2005.

Rev. John Donoghue, priest at Sacred Heart in the early 1970s. He died in 2009.

Rev. W. Thomas Faucher, a priest at Sacred Heart and St. Mary’s in Boise, as well as several other churches across the world. Faucher knew Mark Holden and knew about Father McSorley’s abuse. He’s currently in the Ada County Jail on suspected child porn possession and distribution charges.

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

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
La Segunda

They all arrived young at the parish in El Bosque: The lived experience of the former disciples of Karadima who will now be received by the Pope

Priests were victims of the “abusive system”: invitation of the Pontiff is a “consolation”

May 23, 2018

Javier Barros B., Eugenio de la Fuente, Sergio Cobo y Alejandro Vial han declarado contra el ex párroco de El Bosque.

Cuatro de los cinco sacerdotes que serán recibidos por el Papa conocieron de cerca de Fernando Karadima, el religioso condenado y recluido por abuso sexual y de poder perpetrado mientras era párroco del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús en Providencia. Javier Barros Bascuñán, Eugenio de la Fuente, Sergio Cobo Montalva y Alejandro Vial Amunátegui encontraron su vocación religiosa mientras eran feligreses en El Bosque. Francisco Astaburuaga, en cambio, jugó un rol clave al apoyar a James Hamilton, una de las víctimas de Karadima, a proseguir con su acusación y lo volvió a conectar con Juan Carlos Cruz para que éste diera su testimonio.

De todos ellos, quizás el que presenció actos de forma más reiterada fue De la Fuente. Actual párroco de Nuestra Señora de la Medalla Milagrosa (Quinta Normal), entre 2001 y 2009 fue vicario de El Bosque y dormía en la pieza contigua a la de Karadima. Más aún, cuando estalló el escándalo en 2010, según aparece en el libro «Los secretos del Imperio de Karadima», de Mónica González, Juan Andrés Guzmán y Gustavo Villarrubia, visitó al empresario Jorge Said a fin de que apoyara económicamente la defensa del acusado sacerdote. Claro que ese mismo año, en agosto, firmó la carta que marcó el quiebre del círculo de Karadima. De la Fuente apoyó ahí a los denunciantes.

Un poco antes de esa carta, en julio, De la Fuente declaró ante el fiscal Xavier Armendáriz – el primer instructor del caso en los tribunales ordinarios – y ahí le contó que “el padre (Karadima) tenía gestos con los jóvenes que íbamos a la parroquia como, por ejemplo, tocar los genitales. Y a veces, al acercarse para dar un beso, como se haría con un padre, él sacaba la lengua y se la pasaba por la mejilla. Y también había un vocabulario ambiguo, como de contenido sexual latente o implícito, como la palabra cueto”.

Google Translation: Javier Barros B., Eugenio de la Fuente, Sergio Cobo and Alejandro Vial have testified against the former parish priest of El Bosque.

Four of the five priests to be received by the Pope met closely Fernando Karadima, the religious convicted and held for sexual abuse and power perpetrated while he was pastor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Providence. Javier Barros Bascuñán, Eugenio de la Fuente, Sergio Cobo Montalva and Alejandro Vial Amunátegui found their religious vocation while they were parishioners in El Bosque. Francisco Astaburuaga, on the other hand, played a key role in supporting James Hamilton, one of the victims of Karadima, to continue with his accusation and reconnected him with Juan Carlos Cruz so that he could give his testimony.

Of all of them, perhaps the one who witnessed acts more consistently was De la Fuente. Current parish priest of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal (Quinta Normal), between 2001 and 2009 he was vicar of El Bosque and slept in the room next to Karadima’s. Moreover, when the scandal erupted in 2010, according to the book “The Secrets of the Empire of Karadima” by Mónica González, Juan Andrés Guzmán and Gustavo Villarrubia, he visited the businessman Jorge Said so that he would financially support the defense of the accused priest. Of course, that same year, in August, he signed the letter that marked the break of the Karadima circle. De la Fuente supported the complainants there.

A little before that letter, in July, De la Fuente declared before the prosecutor Xavier Armendáriz – the first instructor of the case in the ordinary courts – and there he told him that “the father (Karadima) had gestures with the young people who were going to the parish, for example, touching the genitals, and sometimes, when approaching to give a kiss, as would be done with a father, he would stick out his tongue and rub it across his cheek, and there was also an ambiguous vocabulary, latent or implicit sex, like the word cueto “.

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

SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Ciper

Karadima: the history of his abuse of priests and seminarians

May 23, 2018

By Mónica González, Juan Andrés Guzmán y Gustavo Villarrubia

Full text of Chapter VI of the book Los secretos del imperio de Karadima (The Secrets of the Karadima Empire)

A propósito de la invitación extendida por el Papa Francisco a tres sacerdotes que sufrieron los abusos de Fernando Karadima en la parroquia de El Bosque, CIPER reproduce el capítulo VI del libro “Los secretos del imperio de Karadima” (editado por CIPER en alianza con la UDP y Catalonia)­. El capítulo, titulado “La iglesia de Karadima”, cuenta en detalle cómo el ex párroco aprovechó su condición de guía espiritual para manipular a decenas de sacerdotes y seminaristas. Además de los abusos sexuales a los que sometió a aspirantes al sacerdocio, Karadima utilizó a los miembros de la Pía Unión Sacerdotal para extender sus tentáculos hasta el seminario, promovió el nombramiento de sus leales en diversos puestos de poder, desprestigió a sus críticos y pulverizó -mediante verdaderos linchamientos de imagen en juicios secretos- a aquellos que se apartaban de su influencia.

LA IGLESIA DE KARADIMA

La primera semana de julio de 2011, Juan Carlos Cruz recibió un email de su abogado Juan Pablo Hermosilla en el que le anunciaba que el 18 de ese mes tenía que estar en Santiago. El motivo: carearse con Fernando Karadima. Juan Carlos sintió vértigo. El momento por el que tanto había batallado estaba al alcance de la mano. Se imaginó al cura en el tribunal, acusado, solo. Se imaginó diciéndole «aquí estoy, no me destruiste, cura de mierda», y tantas cosas más que había planeado desde que en agosto de 2009 lo denunció ante la justicia eclesiástica, e incluso desde antes, tal vez desde las mismas noches en que Karadima lo forzaba a besarlo y Juan Carlos se sentía indefenso, atemorizado y se aferraba a la idea de que algo pasara, de que alguien interviniera para que eso se acabara de una vez.

Desde que se inició el juicio civil, Karadima se había negado terminantemente a ese careo diciéndole al fiscal Xavier Armendáriz que su salud no le permitía enfrentar a los denunciantes a quienes, sin embargo, perdonaba. Su abogado, Luis Ortiz Quiroga, en un escrito al tribunal, argumentó además que el sacerdote había sido demasiado maltratado por una prensa sesgada que «ha logrado hacer trizas el prestigio y reputación de un sacerdote que ha dado su vida por la Iglesia». Exponerlo a un careo, aseguraba Luis Ortiz ante el primer juez del caso, Leonardo Valdivieso, «constituye una oportunidad inmejorable para transformar una diligencia judicial reservada en una actuación de carácter público y noticioso, ajena al control del tribunal y sometida a presiones propias de una noticia. El tratamiento público de la diligencia solo ocasionará la humillación de nuestro representado». El juez acogió ese planteamiento en noviembre de 2010 y acto seguido, sorpresivamente, cerró la investigación sin acceder al careo, argumentando que «ya se encontraba extinguida la responsabilidad penal del sacerdote».

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NEW YORK CITY (NY)
New York Times

May 21, 2018

By Adam Baidawi

Melbourne, Australia – An Australian archbishop was convicted on Tuesday of covering up a claim of sexual abuse dating back decades, and now faces a prison sentence of up to two years.

Philip Wilson, the archbishop of Adelaide, is the highest-ranking Catholic official in the world to be convicted of concealing such crimes.

The decision comes in the midst of a global reckoning for the Roman Catholic Church, as it grapples with a history of child sexual abuse and cover-ups. Cardinal George Pell, also an Australian and the Vatican’s de facto finance chief, was ordered last month to stand trial on charges of “historical sexual abuse.”

Archbishop Wilson, 67, was accused of covering up abuse by a priest, Jim Fletcher, in the state of New South Wales in the 1970s.

The case against the archbishop was especially surprising, given his reputation for acknowledging and apologizing to the victims of pedophile priests.

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NEW YORK CITY (NY)
New York Times

May 23, 2018

The abuse of minors by pedophile priests has been among the most painful sagas of our time, the horror compounded by the knowledge that hierarchs could have stopped the predators if only they had not chosen, for so long, to cover up their actions. Now, at long last, Pope Francis seems to have glimpsed the depth of the global crisis.

The catalyst was a scandal in Chile, one of Latin America’s most staunchly Catholic countries, where for years the church establishment failed to act on multiple complaints of sexual abuse against an influential priest, Fernando Karadima. On a trip to Chile in January, the pope condemned Father Karadima’s actions but then refused to meet with his victims and dismissed allegations of inaction by bishops as “slander.”

In the outrage that followed, the pope appointed two investigators who produced a damning report confirming systematic efforts by the Chilean Catholic hierarchy to conceal clerical sexual abuse. That led to an apology by Pope Francis for the “grave errors” in Chile and an emergency meeting last week with Chile’s bishops at which all 34 submitted their resignations and asked forgiveness for the “pain they caused the victims, the pope, the people of God and our country.”

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SURRY HILLS (AUSTRALIA)
news.com.au

May 23, 2018

By Ally Foster

South Australia’s highest ranking Catholic Church official, Philip Wilson, will stand down from his duties after being convicted of covering up sexual abuse.THE highest ranking official in South Australia’s Catholic Church will stand aside from his duties after being found guilty of landmark charges that he covered up a priest’s sexual abuse of altar boys.

The Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Edward Wilson, 67, was convicted yesterday in a Newcastle Local Court for the cover up of child sex abuse during the 1970s in NSW Hunter region.

Magistrate Robert Stone handed down the verdict following a magistrate-only trial, finding him guilty of concealing a serious indictable offence of another person.

In a statement issued by the Catholic Church on Wednesday, Wilson said it was appropriate for him to stand aside in light of Magistrate Stone’s findings against him.

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WILKES BARRE (PA)
The Citizen’s Voice

May 24, 2018

Scranton Bishop Joseph Bambera and bishops of five other Catholic dioceses in Pennsylvania will not attempt to block the impending public release of a statewide grand jury’s report on an investigation into sexual abuse among clergy and their dioceses’ handling of it.

The grand jury, which met in Pittsburgh and has been investigating since former Attorney General Kathleen Kane launched it in 2016, ended its term in April. Its report could be released in June. It subpoenaed records and interviewed witnesses from all of the dioceses — Scranton, Erie, Allentown, Harrisburg, Greensburg and Pittsburgh. Investigations of the two other dioceses in the state, Philadelphia and Altoona-Johnstown, were handled individually.

According to state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, Greensburg Bishop Edward Malesic and Harrisburg Bishop Ronald Gainer recently changed their minds about filing legal challenges to the report’s release. The other bishops already had agreed.

The report will not be a purely historical document.

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Daily Mail

May 24, 2018

The Catholic Church faces legal action from multiple child sex abuse victims after one of its most senior Australian leaders was found to have swept past transgressions under the rug.

Catholic Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Edward Wilson, 67, was found guilty on Tuesday of covering up priest James ‘Jim’ Fletcher’s sexual abuse of altar boys throughout the 1970s and 80s.

On Wednesday, Wilson announced that he would be stepping down – thought not resigning – from his role.

Now the victims of Fletcher’s abuse are seeking to launch legal action against the Church and seek compensation for their trauma, Adelaide Now reports.

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BLACKPOOL (CORK, IRELAND)
Irish Examiner

May 24, 2018

As well as being a likeable and accessible Church leader, Pope Francis exhibits all the characteristics of an exemplary human being.

Unlike Benedict, his immediate predecessor, Francis comes across as warm, gracious and truly humble, with a capacity for empathy than not even John Paul II displayed.

Yet his papacy continues to be haunted by clerical sex abuse scandals, largely because he is still unable to grasp the enormity of the problem.

He has yet to respond in any meaningful way to the criminal conviction in Australia of the archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, the most senior Catholic in the world to be found guilty of concealing child sex abuse.

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NEW YORK CITY (NY)
New York Times

May 22, 2018

By Sam Roberts

[See also the 9/8/01 letter from Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos to Bishop Pican.]

Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, a vigorous conservative voice in the Vatican and influential figure in the Latin American church who drew attention for seemingly playing down the church’s sexual abuse scandal, died on Friday in Rome. He was 88.

* * *

Before a worldwide reckoning with sexual abuse within the clergy erupted in Boston in 2002, Cardinal Castrillón had suggested as early as 2000 that such abuse was generally an unavoidable fact of life, and that it was being unfairly focused on by lawyers and the media. Was it not contradictory, he asked at a meeting requested by English-speaking bishops, for people to be so outraged by sexual abuse when society also promotes sexual liberation?

A decade later, it was revealed that he had sent a letter in 2001, with the approval of Pope John Paul II, praising a French bishop for facing prison rather than delivering a pedophile priest to civil courts. The priest was later sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment, and the bishop received a three-month suspended sentence.

Cardinal Castrillón also opposed the zero-tolerance standard toward abusive priests embraced by bishops in the United States because, he said, it disregarded a fundamental principle of forgiveness. He described the rapport between a bishop and his priests as “not professional but a sacramental relationship which forges very special bonds of spiritual paternity.”

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DETROIT (MI)
Detroit News

May 23, 2018

By Jonathan Oosting

Lansing – House panel changes to a measure allowing retroactive lawsuits in sexual assault cases amounts to a “pedophile priest loophole,” a state lawmaker said Wednesday as the legislation advanced to the floor.

Rep. Tim Griemel, D-Auburn Hills, blasted the scaled-back proposal in a statement released by his campaign for Michigan’s 11th Congressional District. Rep. Klint Kesto, R-Commerce Township, is also running for the post and chairs the committee that spent weeks debating bills inspired by the Larry Nassar sexual assault crisis at Michigan State University.

One measure in the 28-bill package would extend the window for childhood sexual assault victims to file lawsuits over future abuse. But the House shortened a window approved by the Senate and virtually eliminated a provision allowing retroactive lawsuits for abuse dating back to 1997 by limiting it to cases involving physicians like Nassar who tried to pass off assault as medical treatment.

“All victims of sexual assault deserve the protections of this bill,” Greimel said, accusing Kesto of caving to Michigan Catholic Conference lobbyists and “putting the interests of priests who’ve been criminally convicted of sexually abusing children over the victims’ ability to seek justice.”

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SAULT STE. MARIE (ONTARIO)
SooToday

May 23, 2018

By Darren MacDonald

Father William Hodgson Marshall was former principal at St. Mary’s College

Less than a month after a Toronto judge awarded a Sudbury man $2.5 million for compensation for the abuse he endured at the hands of a Catholic priest, lawyers for the church announced they were appealing the verdict.

In a statement on their website, the Basilian Fathers write they don’t believe the monetary award is “legally sound or justified.”

Specifically, they are appealing the $500,000 awarded in punitive damages and $1.58 million in lost income.

“The Basilian Fathers are not appealing the awards for general and aggravated damages, nor for the amount awarded for counselling costs,” the statement said.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
KMOV

May 23, 2018

Several parents of students at St. Gabriel the Archangel School are angry over the re-assignment of Father Joseph Jiang.

“It has a lot of parents very upset,” said a parent of a St. Gabriel the Archangel School student.In 2013, the 32-year-old was accused of touching a 16-year-old.

According to police, the victim says the 32-year-old fondled her on four different occasions at her home in Old Monroe, Missouri. In 2015, a woman claimed Jiang sexually abused her son in a bathroom at St. Louis the King Elementary School.

“He’s obviously exhibited horrible judgment,” said a parent of a St. Gabriel the Archangel School student.

Criminal charges were eventually dropped in both cases and soon, Father Jiang will be walking the halls of St. Gabriel.

“I absolutely don’t think he belongs here,” said a parent of a St. Gabriel the Archangel School student. “He should be assigned a duty that has no children anywhere near it and the Catholic church should know that.”

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ERIE (PA)
Erie Times-News

May 24, 2018

I have been a subscriber to the Erie Times-News for more than 50 years, but I am thinking about canceling my subscription. I realize that the local priest abuse scandal is an important story that has to be covered. I have been a Roman Catholic all of my life and the story is very difficult for me and my family. It also brings shame to my church as well as all of the Catholics in our country.

I believe Bishop Lawrence Persico is doing his best to give full disclosure with a complete list of all priests and laypeople who have been involved. The Times-News is doing its job, also going far beyond that to a high degree. For the last week, you have run constant articles, most of which begin with front-page, above-the-fold leads instead of more important stories. On May 19, for example, there was a story about the our bishop adding six new names to the credibly accused list. Yes, that is a story, but not worthy of front-page, above-the-fold treatment when an article about a gunman killing 10 children in a Texas school was on the same page. The school shooting got three paragraphs and the abuse story got a heavy bold headline with a sad-looking photo of Persico and copy running all the way across the top of the page.

There are thousands of good Catholic people in the Erie area who are very hurt by what is happening in their church, but it’s very unfair, and even cruel, that the Times-News keeps overdoing this awful story.

I recently posted some of these thoughts on social media because I felt that my letter to the editor would never be used. I hope I’m wrong.

— Paul Jenkins, Harborcreek

Crime Victim Center offers services to abuse victims

In light of the recent letter to the editor expressing concern for victims of clergy sexual abuse and also the increasing visibility of the #MeToo movement, we at the Crime Victim Center wish to reassure Erie County residents that we are here for all victims of crime, including sexual violence, with free and confidential counseling.

Whether a crime happened yesterday or decades ago, in Erie County or somewhere else, our counselors provide supportive, trauma-focused counseling to help victims work toward recovery. CVC has been Erie County’s rape crisis center for 45 years and as a nonprofit agency, we are dedicated to providing help freely to all who need it.

Our professional counselors and advocates meet victims in local police stations and emergency rooms and accompany them during forensic exams. We provide crisis counseling, restitution and Crime Victim Compensation information, and assistance with filing claims. When victims participate in adult or juvenile court proceedings, our court advocates and counselors accompany them through every step of the court process.

Through partnerships with Gaudenzia Erie Inc., Safe Harbor Behavioral Health of UPMC Hamot, Hope on Horseback, yoga instructor Terry Flynn Henry, and Northwestern Legal Services, CVC is also able to connect victims with programs and civil legal aid directly related to reported crimes. Victims can come to our main offices at 125 W. 18th St., Erie, or schedule appointments at one of our five satellite offices in Corry, Edinboro, Girard, North East or Union City.

Victims of crimes and their loved ones deserve help. They can call our hotline anytime at 814-455-9414 or visit our website at www.cvcerie.org. We are here to listen, to help, and to work with all victims on their paths toward hope, health and healing.

— Paul A. Lukach, executive director, Crime Victim Center

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BERLIN (GERMANY)
Associated Press via National Post

May 24, 2018

Swiss authorities say they have arrested a Catholic priest under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct that was brought to their attention by church leaders.

Maurus Eckert, a spokesman for canton (state) prosecutors in Graubuenden, said Thursday that the priest was taken into custody amid an ongoing investigation of alleged sexual abuse of an adult victim. He declined to provide any further details.

The Chur diocese, in eastern Switzerland, said in a statement on its website that it had itself filed a complaint against the priest, who was an administrator based in Tujetsch.

Further details were not immediately available.

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BOISE (ID)
Idaho Statesman

May 24, 2018

By Ruth Brown

The Catholic Church’s former habit of moving priests suspected of child abuse apparently stymied a 1990s investigation in Boise.

The account of the Boise Police detective who pursued the case offers an example of how the church’s former policies complicated even police efforts to investigate abuse claims.

The Rev. James Worsley was accused of molesting altar boys in the 1970s.

In 1993, Boise Police Detective Bob Mack spoke with one of those boys, who claimed he was abused at St. Paul’s Catholic Center. The victim, by then 27, told Mack of “approximately 100 episodes of genital fondling and fellatio” between 1975 and 1980, according to a copy of the police report.

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BELFAST (NORTHERN IRELAND)
BBC

May 23, 2018

By David Thompson

The Catholic Diocese of Dromore left Canon Francis Brown in ministry for six weeks after it was informed about a serious sexual abuse allegation against him, the BBC understands.

The Nolan Show has spoken to the alleged victim and confirms the allegation relates to a period when the priest was in St Colman’s College, a boys’ school in Newry.

Canon Brown vehemently denies any wrongdoing.

A police investigation is ongoing.

A Nolan Show investigation has established that when the allegation was brought to a member of the diocese, they failed to record even basic details, as diocesan child safeguarding protocols required.

The complaint was then passed to the Diocese of Dromore’s child safeguarding officer, Pat Carville, who informed the police immediately.

However, she could not do anything about the other member of the diocese’s earlier failure to record basic details of the allegation, which meant she was only able to pass scant information onto the PSNI.

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LANSING (MI)
Associated Press via Ottumwa Courier

May 23, 2018

Michigan lawmakers are at odds over a decision to scale back the proposed expansion of the state’s mandatory reporter law after the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal.

A House committee on Wednesday is expected to pass a bill that would add physical therapists and physical therapist assistants to the list of professionals who must report suspected child abuse or neglect. House legislators backed away from adding youth coaches, athletic trainers and university employees due to costs and other concerns.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Catholic News Service via National Catholic Reporter

May 22, 2018

The Baltimore Archdiocese said May 22 it has removed a 77-year-old priest from ministry after learning of allegations of child sexual abuse against him dating to the 1970s.

Fr. Luigi Esposito, pastor at Our Lady of Pompei Church in Baltimore, was serving as associate pastor at Our Lady of Pompei when the alleged abuse occurred.

The alleged victim claims the abuse began at age 14 and occurred multiple times while the minor was at Our Lady of Pompei. The priest has denied the abuse occurred.

The archdiocese said in a news release it has been cooperating with the civil authorities.

“On May 17, after receiving permission from civil authorities to make contact with Father Esposito, representatives of the archdiocese met with him to discuss the allegations,” the archdiocese said in a statement. “He denied all the allegations against him. The archdiocese spoke a number of times with the alleged victim and the allegations were consistent.”

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Catholic Herald

May 21, 2018

By Francis Phillips

If Humanae Vitae was a 20th Century watershed moment in the Catholic laity’s response towards unchanging Church teaching on contraception, the sex abuse scandals which have battered the institution in recent decades have been an occasion for painful self-examination within it. They have brought about heart-searching, shame and humiliation. News that Cardinal George Pell, the most senior member of the hierarchy in Australia, is to stand trial for alleged sex abuse or that the entire Chilean episcopacy has offered its resignation to the Pope over scandals involving the church in Chile indicates that cover-ups and accusations still continue in this long-running explosive area.

I have just been reading The Burden of Betrayal: Non-Offending Priests and the Clergy Child Sexual Abuse Scandals by Barry O’Sullivan, published by Gracewing, a book that reveals another aspect to this painful saga: how the fall-out from the scandals has affected innocent members of the clergy. Ever since the news first broke of criminality and concealment in the Church, my thoughts and sympathy have gone not only to the young victims but to those affected by the collateral damage: all those conscientious, loyal, faithful men who have given their lives to their vocation only to see the priesthood torn to shreds by the media and in the eyes of the public.

Fr O’Sullivan, a priest in the Salford diocese, with long experience as the Salford diocesan child protection coordinator as well as ministering to priests in prison for sexual offences, has tried to address this aspect. Starting in 2012 he conducted lengthy interviews with six randomly selected priests, asking questions such as “Can you tell me about the experience of being a priest in the shadow of the child abuse scandal? And “How do you think the hierarchy dealt with this issue?”

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BONN (GERMANY)
Deutsche Welle

May 23, 2018

A Chilean bishop’s office in Rancagua has dismissed 14 priests suspected of covering up cases of child abuse by pedophile priest Fernando Karadima in the 1980s and ’90s. The scandal has rocked Pope Francis’ papacy.

ourteen priests engulfed in Chile’s Catholic church sex abuse scandal were stripped of their priestly duties Tuesday, the bishop’s office in the city of Rancagua announced Tuesday.

“Fourteen priests no longer are allowed to carry out their duties… These priests have taken part in actions that may be civilian crimes as well as within the church,” the bishop’s office said in a statement.

The moves comes after 34 bishops offered on Friday to resign en masse over the child sex abuse scandal after being summoned to meet with Pope Francis in the Vatican — the first time a country’s entire senior Roman Catholic prelate has offered step aside all at once.

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TULSA (OK)
Tulsa World

May 23, 2018

[With link to docket and several court documents.]

A former Catholic priest ordained in Tulsa has been charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy in a suburban Chicago hotel in 2001 after police reopened an investigation that had been dormant for more than a decade.

Kenneth Lewis, 56, of Arvada, Colorado, is charged with felony criminal predatory sexual assault. He posted bail after a court hearing in Chicago on Saturday.

Evanston Police Commander Ryan Glew says the alleged assault occurred when the then-priest accompanied the boy and his family on a trip from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Evanston, Illinois. He says the family reported the incident in 2004 but prosecutors declined to charge Lewis.

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GLASGOW (SCOTLAND)
Scottish Sun

May 22, 2018

By David Meikle

A beast priest who abused a 12-year-old girl in Lanarkshire while her mum was moments away is living in isolation after being forced to move three times.

Father Michael Maher, 74, resigned as parish priest at St Isidore’s in Biggar after confessing his guilt over the sickening crimes.

He is now living in the cottage of an acquaintance in Stobo, Peeblesshire, after being driven away from three previous addresses.

Maher was close friends with the his victim’s parents and regularly called at their Lanarkshire home.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philly Voice

May 22, 2018

By Daniel Craig

The results of a nearly two-year long investigation into alleged sex abuse within six Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses will be made public this summer, Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Monday.

Shapiro said that church officials in the Greensburg and Harrisburg dioceses reversed their previous positions and will no longer try to stop the results from being made public.

“Now all of the dioceses support the release of the investigation’s findings and results,” Shapiro said. “The only thing that could stop these findings from becoming public at that time is if one of the bishops or dioceses would seek to delay or prevent this public accounting.”

The grand jury investigation, which began in 2016, has also probed the dioceses of Allentown, Scranton, Pittsburgh and Erie. Shapiro said he expects to speak publicly about the investigation’s findings around the end of June.

The investigation has already led to the arrests of two priests. Most recently, Rev. David Poulson, a priest in the Diocese of Erie, was charged with indecent assault, endangering the welfare of children and corruption of minors.

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HILVERSUM (NETHERLANDS)
RTL Nieuws

​No independent investigation into sexual abuse at Jehovah’s Witnesses

May 22, 2018

​Geen onafhankelijk onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik bij Jehovah’s Getuigen

Er komt geen onafhankelijk onderzoek naar seksueel misbruik bij de Jehovah’s Getuigen in Nederland. Dat heeft de geloofsgemeenschap laten weten aan minister Sander Dekker van Rechtsbescherming. Dekker die op een onafhankelijk onderzoek had aangedrongen toen RTL Nieuws meldde dat er meer dan 150 meldingen waren binnengkomen over misbruik, noemt dat ‘teleurstellend’.

Bij een meldpunt voor slachtoffers van seksueel misbruik binnen de gemeenschap van de Jehovah’s Getuigen kwamen in twee maanden tijd 151 meldingen binnen, meldde RTL Nieuws in januari.

Voorbij aan belang erkenning

Dekker laat vandaag weten niet blij te zijn met de reactie van de Jehovah’s Getuigen. “Door het afwijzen van een onafhankelijk onderzoek gaat het bestuur van de Jehova’s Getuigen ook voorbij aan het belang van erkenning voor slachtoffers, dat uit een dergelijk onderzoek kan volgen. Deze slachtoffers willen nu juist worden gehoord door de gemeenschap.”

Minister Dekker heeft geen wettelijke mogelijkheid om ze te verplichten mee te werken aan onafhankelijk onderzoek. De Rooms-Katholieke en de sportverenigingen deden na meldingen wel onafhankelijk onderzoek. Slachtoffers kunnen wel gewoon aangifte doen van het misbruik bij de politie, onderstreept Dekker.

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HOLY SEE
Vatican News

May 23, 2018

By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, FSP

The Holy See’s Press Office announces that Pope Francis will meet with a second group of Fr Fernando Karadima’s victims from June 1-3 2018.

In a communication issued on Wednesday by the Holy See’s Press Office, other victims of Fr Fernando Karadima’s abuse, or that of his followers, at the parish of Sagrado Corazón de Providencia (“El Bosque”) in Chile will meet with Pope Francis at the beginning of June.

Members of the group

Among the group are 5 priests who were victims of “abuse of power, of conscience and sexual abuse”, as well as another 2 priests who “have assisted the victims throughout the juridical and spiritual process, and 2 lay people involved in this suffering”. The group will be provided hospitality in the same Casa Santa Marta where the Pope lives

The communique reported that most of those coming also took part in the meetings that took place in Chile with Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Bishop Jordi Bertomeu in February. Others collaborated in the weeks after their visit.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
Tele 13 Radio 103.3 FM

Priest who defended Karadima acknowledges that he was wrong: “I am a victim of abuse of power”

May 23, 2018

Samuel Fernández conversó con Tele13 Radio sobre la invitación que hizo el Vaticano a cinco sacerdotes, quienes fueron víctimas del ex párroco de El Bosque.

El Vaticano dio a conocer ayer martes que cinco sacerdotes de la Iglesia de El Bosque ligados a Fernando Karadima, y que son víctimas de él, van a ir a Roma para encontrarse con el Papa Francisco, en un formato parecido al que los denunciantes de Karadima tuvieron a mediados del mes pasado.

Samuel Fernández fue uno de los sacerdotes del círculo cercano de Fernando Karadima en El Bosque, quien terminó apoyando y validando los testimonios de las víctimas de abusos sexuales de su ex formador.

Este miércoles afirmó en Tele13 Radio que la invitación del Papa es “una gran oportunidad para visibilizar la gravedad del abuso de poder, la manipulación de consciencia, porque efectivamente, dentro de las personas que van, algunos habrán sido objeto de abusos sexuales, pero otros fueron por sufrir de abuso de poder y abuso de consciencia y no abusos sexuales”, agregando que el abuso de poder “de una u otra manera, siempre” es la puerta de entrada del abuso sexual.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
El Dínamo

Auxiliary Bishop [Galo Fernández] of Santiago: “Karadima leads a very hard and painful existence”

May 22, 2018

A raíz de la reunión que sostuvo el Papa con los obispos chilenos para tratar los casos de abuso sexual al interior de la Iglesia Católica, el obispo auxiliar de Santiago, Galo Fernández, se refirió al hecho que resultó ser la hebra de una práctica sistemática dentro del clero chileno.

En conversación con Radio Cooperativa, Fernández aseguró que “Fernando Karadima ha sido condenado y lleva una existencia muy dura y dolorosa. Que la Iglesia no lo haya suspendido absolutamente del Ministerio tiene también una cosa estratégica, porque es para asegurar detenerlo”.

El obispo reiteró que “la Iglesia no tiene cárceles, eso le corresponde al Estado y sin embargo al mantenerlo como sacerdote lo ha mantenido prácticamente recluido en una existencia muy dolorosa, una vida de penitencia y oración por los graves daños que él ha cometido. Tengo certeza de lo dura y amarga que es la vida que tiene hoy día Karadima”.

Hay “miembros de la Iglesia que han dañado a quienes buscaron en ella la palabra de Dios y de algún modo encontraron abuso, encontraron cosas que los dañaron a ellos (…) la asamblea estaba muy conmovida por todo lo que ha aparecido en la prensa”.

Con respecto a la cita con Francisco I en el Vaticano, indicó que “habían muchas preguntas, hacían suyo el dolor, también la rabia (…) El papa nos ha invitado a un proceso, en que todos y cada uno pueda asumir su propia responsabilidad. Ciertamente el papa tiene esta visión de que no basta buscar quien es el chivo expiatorio, quien es el que concentra toda la responsabilidad”.

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SANTIAGO (CHILE)
ADN 91.7

Chilean Catholic Church was unaware of Vatican invitation to [priests] abused by Karadima

May 22, 2018

Conferencia Episcopal señaló en conferencia de prensa “nosotros nos acabamos de enterar ahora”.

La Conferencia Episcopal de Chile realizó una conferencia de prensa para volver a pedir perdón por su responsabilidad en materia de abusos por parte de sacerdotes como Fernando Karadima, señalando que “no recuperaremos la confianza de un día para otro. Lo tendremos que demostrar con concretas acciones reparatorias”.

Cuando le preguntaron al presidente de la Conferencia Episcopal, monseñor Santiago Silva, sobre la nueva invitación del Papa Francisco al Vaticano a víctimas de abusos, el sacerdote respondió que no sabían: “no tenemos antecedentes, nosotros nos acabamos de enterar ahora”.

Por su parte el obispo de San Bernardo, Juan Ignacio González, explicó que los obispos pese a poner sus cargos a disposición del Papa, “seguimos todos en plenas funciones en nuestras diócesis” hasta que se conozca la decisión de Bergoglio.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

May 22, 2018

By Paula Reed Ward

An expert in grand jury proceedings testified Tuesday that former Penn State University general counsel Cynthia Baldwin violated attorney-client privilege and failed to competently represent three top officials at the school during the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse investigation.

Philadelphia-area attorney David Rudovsky was the first witness called Tuesday as part of the Office of Disciplinary Counsel’s case before the Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board against Ms. Baldwin for professional misconduct. The case is being heard in an Allegheny County Orphans’ Court courtroom in the Frick Building Downtown.

If the panel finds that Ms. Baldwin violated the rules, it can recommend to the state Supreme Court discipline ranging from reprimand to disbarment. The court can then accept the recommendation, reject it or change it.

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ALLENTOWN (pa)
Morning Call

May 23, 2018

By Steve Esack and Tim Darragh

The Allentown and Scranton Catholic dioceses will not attempt to stall publication of a statewide grand jury report expected to detail decades of clergy sex abuse.

Officials at the two dioceses made the announcements Thursday, two days after Erie’s bishop said he would not try to prevent the report’s pending release.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office is finishing the report of a grand jury investigation started in 2016 into six of the state’s eight Catholic dioceses: Allentown, Harrisburg, Scranton, Erie, Greensburg and Pittsburgh. It has not said when it will be released.

“The Diocese of Allentown continues to cooperate fully with the Office of the Attorney General,” spokesman Matt Kerr said in a statement Thursday. “We will not challenge the release of the grand jury report.”

Scranton Diocese spokesman William Genello issued a similar statement.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

May 23, 2018

By Marie Rohde

As former Milwaukee Archdiocese attorney, prominent Democrat had role in cover-up, critics say

Matt Flynn, a prominent Wisconsin Democrat running for governor, has come under attack by critics who say he participated in allowing abusive priests to continue in ministry and for aggressively pursuing legal fees against their victims who sued the Milwaukee Archdiocese.

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Flynn was the chief counsel handling sex abuse matters for the archdiocese from 1989 until 2004.

Flynn joined the archdiocesan team shortly after some abuse cases made headlines in the late 1980s. Several were settled in civil court before going to trial. But in 1992, eight former students of the St. Lawrence Seminary preparatory school told The Milwaukee Journal about widespread abuse at the school. Although the school is operated by the Capuchins, a number of priests from the order had served in archdiocesan parishes. One of those abused was Peter Isely, a therapist who went on to become one of the founders of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. SNAP kept the matter in the headlines across the country.

A number of lawsuits were in the courts in 1995 when the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed with Flynn’s arguments that the archdiocese was not responsible for the actions of its priests. That resulted in a number of cases being dismissed, even though the archdiocese had been earlier made aware of allegations and had not removed the priests from ministry.

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MADISON (WI)
WISC-TV

May 22, 2018

By Jenna Middaugh

People who attend St. John Vianney in Janesville were shocked to hear accusations against a former priest.

Janesville – People who attend St. John Vianney in Janesville were shocked to hear accusations against a former priest.

William Nolan is facing six charges of second-degree sexual assault of a child in Jefferson County after accusations that he assaulted a Fort Atkinson altar boy more than 100 times.

On Monday, the Diocese of Madison released a statement saying the church is investigatingan additional allegation against Nolan that’s reported to have happened in Janesville in 2009.

Nolan served at St. John Vianney in Janesville from 1989 to 1994.

Matthew McDonald said his family has attended the parish for more than 40 years. His siblings went to the Catholic school while Nolan was the priest, McDonald said.

“I really liked him,” McDonald said. “He has always been kind and worked really hard to promote the gospel message of Jesus, love and mercy toward others — toward everyone.”

According to the diocese, a third party raised concerns about Nolan in 2009. When an official with the diocese contacted the alleged victim, the man said he did not accuse Nolan of any sexual misconduct. The man reached out to the diocese again five years later but still did not accuse the priest.

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MECHANICSBURG (PA)
PennLive

May 23, 2018

By Ivey DeJesus

Late last week, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie added six names to the list of clergy and staff that have been credibly accused of child sex molestation.

The names joined the list of 51 other names that in April were first made public by the head of the diocese, Bishop Lawrence Persico.

It’s become the modus operandi for a cleric fast earning the moniker of a reformer: the idea, that is, of a bishop who offers up a measure of transparency from within an institution known for its historically secretive and guarded confines.

“His philosophy is ‘We are going to protect the children of the diocese,'” said Mark Rush, an attorney with Pittsburgh-based K&L Gates law firm, who has been working with the diocese throughout the ongoing grand jury investigation into clergy sex abuse.

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WATERTOWN (NY)
Watertown Daily Times

May 23, 2018

By Jaime Cook

Alexandria Bay – After receiving an offer of funds from the Diocese of Ogdensburg intended “to assist victims of clergy sex abuse in their healing process,” one recipient says that the Catholic Church must either change or cease to be.

“When I opened it, I thought it was a joke, a cruel joke,” said Jim Cummings, a 58-year-old man who lives in Alexandria Bay with his family. “Prior to me receiving this letter, I was coping quite well, and so was the other victim I know. Occasionally something would remind me, but now, since that letter, every day I cry because they do not get it. The bishop does not get it — at all.”

The letters follow the creation of the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program at the Diocese of Ogdensburg March 1. Its two-person panel, Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros, will determine if the 38 victims claiming sexual abuse by priests in the diocese should be financially compensated.

Mr. Cummings said he was sexually abused by the Rev. Paul F. Worczak in the early 1970s. The incidents took place when Worczak was a priest at Holy Family Church, Watertown.

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LANCASTER (PA)
Lancaster Online

May 23, 2018

By Jeff Hawkes

The bishop for a Catholic diocese that includes Lancaster County says a Pennsylvania grand jury’s findings about sexual abuse by priests and lay leaders should be made public.

The Diocese of Harrisburg has joined five other Pennsylvania dioceses under investigation in saying they won’t challenge the release of the report sometime next month.

A grand jury investigation into widespread abuse began in 2016. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Monday that he expects to announce the findings by the end of June, now that all six dioceses support making a report public.

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WISCONSIN
WKOW

By Tony Galli

May 22, 2018

Police report gives new details on interaction between priest and alleged victim

MADISON (WKOW) – Critics of the catholic Diocese of Madison’s release of information on the past of a priest accused of child sex crimes say the diocese was secretive about what they knew.

After 64-year old William Nolan was arrested, criminally charged and released on bond in Jefferson County last week for allegedly sexually assaulting a Fort Atkinson altar boy in 2006, a statement from Bishop Robert Morlino on Nolan’s past noted “…the Diocese had received no allegations of misconduct connected to any of his assignments.”

But after 27 News reported Monday Janesville Police officials contacted the diocese about Nolan in 2015, a new statement from the diocese said the diocese was aware of the man who sparked Janesville’s investigation into Nolan, because they had contact with the man twice in the past, but with no representation the priest had harmed the man. Diocese officials said the man had again contacted them Monday, this time with an accusation of sexual misconduct against Nolan.

“Their first statement about him – and it appears he has prior history – and they knew about this, and they didn’t say it,” says Peter Isely of the Wisconsin chapter of the Survivors Network Of Those Abused By Priests (SNAP). “They should have immediately been transparent,” Isely says.

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WISCONSIN
Fox 6

MAY 22, 2018

BY THEO KEITH

MILWAUKEE — Democratic candidate for Wisconsin governor Matt Flynn denied any role in the transfer of sex abuser priests to new assignments within the Catholic church, comparing accusations against him to McCarthyism and telling a survivor of abuse to “knock it off.”

Flynn and Peter Isely, a founding member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, had a heated, eight-minute exchange during a forum held in downtown Milwaukee on Tuesday, May 22.

Flynn has been dogged on the campaign trail for weeks about what he knew and did as outside counsel for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee from 1989 to 2004. He is among a crowded field of Democrats vying for the party’s nomination in the Aug. 14 primary.

“You have something to show me? Fine. If you think I transferred the priests in the Archdiocese, you’re wrong. Knock it off,” Flynn told Isely during the exchange.

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WISCONSIN
Wisconsin Public Radio

May 22, 2018

By The Associated Press

A group of Wisconsin activists are asking political candidates to commit to reforming child sexual abuse laws this election season — and some candidates have already voiced their support for changes to the statute of limitations.

Peter Isely, founding member of the Midwest’s chapter of The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is one of the people leading the push with Women’s March Wisconsin.

Sarah Pearson is the state co-chair of Women’s March Wisconsin, which favors lifting time limits and creating a grace period through the Child Victims Act.

“What that would do is remove the Civil Statute of Limitations for victims of child sex abuse and open a three-year window in which victims of child sex abuse who were previously barred from filing civil claims could do that so they could finally receive justice in court,” she said.

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AUSTRALIA
KTLA

CNN

MAY 22, 2018

An Australian archbishop convicted of concealing child sex abuse by a fellow priest will step down from his position.

Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson announced his decision on Wednesday, the day after he was found guilty of concealing the abuse of altar boys by a pedophile priest colleague.

Wilson, who is the highest ranking Catholic official globally to be convicted of the offense and faces up to two years in prison, said he will stand aside on Friday.

“It is appropriate that, in the light of some of his Honour’s findings, I stand aside from my duties as Archbishop,” he said in a statement.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

May 23, 2018

by Michael Sean Winters

Only twice in history has a pope asked for the resignation of an entire episcopate: Last week, when the entire episcopate of Chile offered their resignations to the pope, and in 1802, when Pope Pius VII removed both the orthodox, validly installed bishops of France and the rival slate of schismatic bishops never recognized by Rome and installed by the revolutionary regime. In 1945, seven bishops who had collaborated with the fascist Vichy regime were sacked.

Covering up the sexual abuse of children, therefore, has now joined collaborating with Robespierre or Hitler as one of the things that forces a pope to take the extraordinary step of removing a bishop from office. In all three instances, the hierarchy earned the odium plebis, the hatred of the people, which warranted their removal. They had proved themselves to be not shepherds but wolves, or wolf-helpers.

In the Gospel of Luke we read: “Jesus said to His disciples, ‘It is inevitable that stumbling blocks will come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.’ ” The Holy Father’s scorching commentary on the behavior of the Chilean bishops resonates with this kind of fervor. It is a pastoral fervor, to be sure, whipped into righteous indignation.

I do not share the desire that the pope accept all the resignations he was just offered, but I understand why so many sex abuse victims and victims’ advocates entertain that desire. Fr James O’Connell told NCR, “If it’s an attempt by all the bishops to just be a team together, then it’d be so impractical that the pope cannot really accept all of those resignations,” worrying that the mass resignation might be a kind of “ploy.”

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SCOTLAND
STV

May 23, 2018

Catherine Sheridan

A man has told an inquiry how the sexual abuse he suffered as a child was “whitewashed” during his time at a children’s home.

Whilst giving evidence, the man described how the sexual abuse started during his time at the Nazareth House, Midlothian, when he was seven years of age, and lasted for a couple of years.

He described to the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) that when he tried to report the abuse to the nuns at the home, he was beaten or told to “stop telling lies”.

The inquiry further heard how the man was abused by older boys, priests, and care assistants during his two year stay at the home in the 1960s.

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SCOTLAND
Scottish Sun

By Hilary Duncanson

22nd May 2018

A SEX abuse victim has told how he’d have fled “with the devil” to escape his kids home hell.

The witness revealed he was molested by priests, helpers as well as older boys at the facility run by nuns when he was as young as seven.

He claimed his complaints were “whitewashed” at Nazareth House in Lasswade, Midlothian.

He added: “If the devil had come and said ‘I’m taking you away from this place’, I’d have gone with him just to get out.

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AUSTRALIA
The Tablet (UK)

May 23, 2018

‘If at any point it becomes necessary or appropriate for me to take more formal steps, including by resigning as Archbishop, then I will do so’

Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide has announced he is to stand down – and may resign later after almost 17 years as leader of South Australia’s Catholics – a day after he was convicted in a New South Wales court of concealing child sexual abuse.

The day after Magistrate Robert Stone found him guilty of covering up the sexual abuse of altar boys by the late Fr James Fletcher in the 1970s, Archbishop Wilson said he would stand down on Friday (25 May), having considered the magistrate’s reasons for his decision.

“I am still considering those reasons together with my legal advisors,” the 67-year-old prelate said in a statement issued today (23 May). “While I do so, it is appropriate that, in the light of some of his Honour’s findings, I stand aside from my duties as Archbishop.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Trib Live

May 21, 2018

By Debra Erdley

A grand jury report on sexual abuse in six Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses is scheduled to be released in late June.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro led the 18-month investigation that has led to the arrest of one priest each in the Greensburg and Erie dioceses. On Monday, he said the leaders of two holdout dioceses — including Bishop Edward Malesic of Greensburg — joined four other dioceses in supporting the public release of investigation results. Also supporting the release was Bishop Ronald Gainer of Harrisburg.

“I commend Bishop Malesic and Bishop Gainer for doing the right thing,” Shapiro said.

Greensburg diocesan spokesman Jerry Zufelt confirmed Shapiro’s comments.

“The Diocese of Greensburg supports the release of the grand jury report with due process,” Zufelt said.

The Rev. Nicholas S. Vaskov, director of communications for the Pittsburgh diocese, said church officials there welcome the attorney general’s report.

“Throughout this investigation, the Diocese of Pittsburgh has never acted or even considered taking action to silence the voices of victims. With regard to the grand jury report, our only concern is to make sure the process is conducted fairly,” he said.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Trib Live

May 22, 2018

By Debra Erdley

A statewide grand jury report on sexual abuse within Catholic dioceses, including the ones in Greensburg and Pittsburgh, could be an opening for another effort to abolish Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations for child sexual assault.

At least that’s what state Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks County, said he intends to push for when the widely-anticipated report is released.

“It’s definitely going to be a battle,” Rozzi said. “There are people who need this.”

The 47-year-old lawmaker, who accused the late Rev. Edward Graff of molesting him in his Berks County Catholic school when he was 13, believes everyone who has lived through sexual abuse deserves more time to take their case to court.

Texas authorities arrested Graff in October 2002 on charges of molesting a teenage boy. He died a month later at age 73.

Rozzi testified before the statewide grand jury that scrutinized records from six Catholic dioceses across Pennsylvania. The panel is expected to release its report in June.

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CANBERRA (AUSTRALIA)
The Associated Press

May 22, 2018

By Rod McGuirk

An Australian archbishop on Tuesday became the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in the world convicted of covering up child sex abuse in a test case that holds to account church hierarchy that kept silent in the face of an international pedophile crisis.

Magistrate Robert Stone handed down the verdict against Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson in Newcastle Local Court, north of Sydney, following a magistrate-only trial.

Wilson, 67, had pleaded not guilty to concealing a serious crime committed by another person — the sexual abuse of children by pedophile priest James Fletcher in the 1970s.

He had made four attempts in the past three years to have the charge struck out without a trial.

The conviction is another step toward holding the church to account for a global abuse crisis that has also engulfed Pope Francis’ financial minister, Australian Cardinal George Pell.

Frank Brennan, an Australian Jesuit priest, human rights lawyer and academic, said Wilson had to stand aside as archbishop of the South Australian state capital.

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ROME
CRUX

May 22, 2018

By Inés San Martín

Continuing efforts to clean up the Catholic Church in Chile, whose leadership is charged with covering up cases of clerical sexual abuse, abuses of power and conscience, Pope Francis will welcome more victims of the country’s most infamous abusive priest to Rome as papal guests.

On June 1-3, a group of nine people, including seven priests and two lay people, will stay at the Vatican’s Santa Marta residence where Francis has been living since the beginning of his pontificate. The Vatican confirmed the meeting in a statement released late Tuesday Rome time.

“With this new meeting, scheduled a month ago, Pope Francis wants to show his closeness to abused priests, to accompany them in their pain and to listen to their valuable views to improve the current preventive measures and the fight against abuses in the Church,” the statement said.

“This concludes this first phase of meetings that the Holy Father wanted to have with victims of the abusive system established several decades ago in the aforementioned parish,” the Vatican said. “These priests and lay people represent all the victims of abuses by the clergy in Chile, but it is not ruled out that similar initiatives may occur in the future.”

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AUSTRALIA
CNN

May 22, 2018

By Samantha Beech, Sarah Faidell and Bard Wilkinson

An Australian archbishop is facing up to two years in prison after being convicted of concealing child sex abuse by a fellow priest in the 1970s.

Archbishop Philip Wilson is the highest ranking Catholic official to be convicted of covering up sexual abuse, part of a global scandal which has dogged the Vatican for decades.

The 67-year-old archbishop of Adelaide was found guilty of having concealed the abuse of altar boys by a pedophile priest colleague, James Fletcher, in the 1970s, when he was an assistant parish priest in the state of New South Wales.

Magistrate Robert Stone ruled the “offense proven.”

As part of his defense, Wilson’s legal team argued that as child sexual abuse was not considered a serious crime in the 1970s, it was not worthy of being reported to authorities, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

In a statement issued by the church on Wednesday, Wilson said he was “obviously disappointed” with the verdict.

“I will now have to consider the reasons and consult closely with my lawyers to determine the next steps … I do not propose to make any further comment at this stage,” he added.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

May 22, 2018

By Haidee V. Eugenio

A former Archdiocese of Agana priest on Monday corrected a previous court filing by inserting the word “alleged” in defending himself from an allegation that he sexually abused a girl from Saipan when she vacationed on Guam in 1963.

“While making this correction, defendant takes the added opportunity to again deny the accusation of clergy sex abuse which he supposedly did on ‘B.T.’, and requests — and looks forward to — a trial by jury at the earliest,” former priest Andrew San Agustin said in a May 21 court filing.

San Agustin, who voluntarily left the priesthood and is now known as Joe R. San Agustin, is representing himself in the case. He had said he can’t afford legal counsel.

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GUAM
Pacific Daily News

May 22, 2018

By Haidee V. Eugenio

A third child sex abuse lawsuit was filed Tuesday against Father Adrian Cristobal, who hasn’t obeyed Archbishop Michael Jude Byrnes’ repeated directives to return to Guam since the first allegation came out in April.

The latest lawsuit was filed by a former altar boy identified in court documents only as J.E. to protect his privacy.

J.E., in his lawsuit, said Cristobal sexually molested and abused him when he served as an altar boy at San Vicente Ferrer/San Roke Catholic Church in Barrigada from about 1995 to 1997. He was about 10 to 12 years old at the time.

Now 33, J.E. said in his lawsuit that Cristobal on numerous occasions instructed him to massage his back. This was at the Barrigada parish and the priest’s residence, the lawsuit says.

“Afterwards, Father Adrian would grope, fondle and squeeze J.E.’s private parts, which caused J.E. extreme pain and eventually led to J.E. repeatedly urinating on himself,” the lawsuit says.

J.E., represented by Attorney David Lujan, demands $5 million in minimum damages.

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AUSTRALIA
National Catholic Reporter

May 22, 2018

by James Dearie

Archbishop Philip Wilson of Adelaide, Australia, was found guilty of failing to report child sexual abuse in Newcastle Local Court May 22.

Wilson is scheduled to be sentenced June 19. The prosecution is asking for a jail sentence.

“I am obviously disappointed at the decision published today,” Wilson said in a statement the morning of the ruling. “I will now have to consider the reasons and consult closely with my lawyers to determine the next steps.”

Wilson, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in November but refused to resign, claims that he does not recall a 1976 conversation with a then 15-year-old victim of Fr. James Fletcher in which the victim had detailed abuse allegations, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported the morning of the decision.

Fletcher was convicted on several charges of child abuse in 2004. He died in jail in 2006.

Magistrate Robert Stone said that he was “satisfied” that the victim had made a report to Wilson, who “knew he was hearing a credible allegation of abuse,” but “wanted to protect the church and its reputation.”

Brian Coyne, the editor and publisher of the online journal Catholica.com.au, told NCR that “this is a hugely significant decision by a civil court. Archbishop Wilson is the most senior Catholic leader in the world to have faced such a conviction.”

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LONDON (ENGLAND)
Anglican Communion News Service

May 22, 2018

By Garth Blake SC

The chair of the Anglican Communion’s Safe Church Commission, Australian barrister and Senior Counsel Garth Blake, reflects on its latest meeting.

The second face to face meeting of the Anglican Communion Safe Church Commission has taken place in the South African city of George. The meeting took place against the background of the recent public disclosure of complaints of sexual abuse against clergy in provinces (Southern Africa, Nigeria and Hong Kong) and government inquiries in Australia and England revealing inadequate responses to victims of child sexual abuse by Anglican churches.

There is a growing recognition in many provinces that some clergy and lay church workers have used their power to abuse and then to silence their victims, who are mainly women and children. This abuse has taken a variety of forms such as sexual, physical, emotional and / or spiritual. Sometimes abuse occurs though social media. The resulting harm done to these victims and others such as family and church members, is often far reaching, impacting on an individual’s view of themselves, their relationships and their faith.

Established in May last year, the Commission has 14 members from different parts of the Anglican Communion. Its principal function is to develop guidelines to enhance the safety of all persons especially children, young people and vulnerable adults, within the provinces of the Anglican Communion for consideration by the Anglican Consultative Council at its ACC-17 meeting next year in Honk Kong.

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TASMANIA (AUSTRALIA)
Australian Broadcasting Corporation

May 22, 2018

By Peta Carlyon and Rhiana Whitson

Tasmania will opt in to the national redress scheme for the state’s survivors of child sexual assault.

Attorney-General Elise Archer made the announcement on the floor of State Parliament this morning.

The national redress scheme comes into effect around the country on July 1.

It was a major recommendation of the royal commission into child abuse and is the first compensation scheme to cover all survivors of abuse in Tasmanian churches, state and non-state institutions.

Ms Archer said the decision had come after months of discussions with the Federal Government.

“The need to ensure that the scheme is best able to achieve its stated purpose has always been at the forefront of my mind,” she said.

“It is is to provide support to people who are sexually abused as children whilst in the care of an institution.”

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AUSTRALIA
The Washington Post

May 22, 2018

By Amanda Erickson

Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson knew, the men told the court.

He knew that the Rev. Jim Fletcher had been sexually abusing young altar servers. He knew because they told him. He knew because they asked him for help.

Now, Wilson is going to jail.

The Roman Catholic leader was convicted of failing to act on reports of child sex abuse. He faces as much as two years in prison. The 67-year-old is the most senior Catholic leader to ever be charged with concealing abuse.

In the courtroom, Peter Creigh testified that Fletcher made him strip and kneel as he masturbated. He was abused at 10, he said, and he told Wilson about it in 1976, when he was 15. Wilson was a parish priest at the time. Another former altar boy said he brought his concerns to Wilson, as well. (Fletcher was found guilty of multiple counts of sexual assault of boys in 2004 and died two years later in prison.)

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UNITED KINGDOM
Forbes

May 22, 2018

By Emma Woollacott

Google’s autocomplete function is causing the company problems once again by revealing information that’s legally protected.

The company’s been accused of displaying the names of rape victims through its Autocomplete and Related Search functions – even when the victims have been granted anonymity by the courts.

The problem is that both features use data gathered from previous searches to predict what information the user is looking for and make suggestions. If enough people know a victim’s name and use it as one of their search terms, Google’s algorithm will provide a helpful prompt to those that don’t.

In the US, there’s no legal prohibition on publishing the names of rape victims, although the media tend to avoid doing so. In many countries, however, it’s against the law. And the UK’s Times newspaper has uncovered several cases in which Autocomplete and Related Search have revealed the names of rape victims and others who have official anonymity.

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UNITED STATES
The Guardian

May 22, 2018

Popes rarely admit their own mistakes. But Pope Francis has now done so, spectacularly, in a case of child abuse

Popes hardly ever pronounce infallibly: in fact they have only ever done so twice; on the other hand it is almost as rare that they admit to making mistakes. Last week all 34 bishops of the Roman Catholic church in Chile sent in their resignations to Pope Francis after he got the report of an investigation into the hierarchy’s attempts to suppress a child abuse scandal there. That’s shocking enough, if not entirely unprecedented: in 1801 Pope Pius VII demanded, and got, the resignation of all the French bishops as part of his deal with Napoleon. What may not ever have happened before is for a pope to admit to freely and so publicly that he himself had been wrong on a matter of great importance. Only five months ago the pope had been outspoken in defence of the bishops.

The church in Chile had been badly damaged, like many others, by sex abuse scandals. A powerful and charismatic priest, Fr Fernando Karadima, preyed for years on young men and boys from the country’s elite. He was protected by Fr Juan Barros. Pope Francis appointed Fr Barros a bishop in 2015, three years after Fr Karadima had been removed from public ministry by the Vatican when the criminal case against him collapsed. This appointment was furiously protested by both laity and clergy, but the pope doubled down on his visit to Chile this year, describing the allegations against Bishop Barros as “slander”, and being photographed embracing him. This led to even greater and more outraged protests around the world so Pope Francis sent the Maltese archbishop Charles Scicluna to investigate the story. Archbishop Scicluna served for many years as the Vatican’s chief prosecuting counsel in child abuse cases, and the 2,300 page report he delivered to the pope was the result of interviewing 64 people.

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UNITED STATES
Associated Press

May 22, 2018

DAVID CRARY

NEW YORK (AP) — Energized by the #MeToo movement, two national advocacy groups are teaming up to lodge sexual harassment complaints against McDonald’s on behalf of 10 women who have worked at the fast food restaurant in nine cities.

The workers — one of them a 15-year-old from St. Louis — alleged groping, propositions for sex, indecent exposure and lewd comments by supervisors. According to their complaints, when the women reported the harassment, they were ignored or mocked, and in some cases suffered retaliation.

The legal effort was organized by Fight for $15, which campaigns to raise pay for low-wage workers. The legal costs are being covered by the TIMES UP Legal Defense Fund, which was launched in January by the National Women’s Law Center to provide attorneys for women who cannot afford to bring cases on their own.

The complaints, filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, are being announced on Tuesday, two days ahead of the company’s annual shareholder meeting in Oak Brook, Illinois.

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GLOBAL
BBC News

From Australian country towns, to schools in Ireland and cities across the US, the Catholic Church has faced an avalanche of child sexual abuse accusations in the last few decades.

Recent high-profile cases and harrowing testimony given to public inquiries have kept the issue in the headlines.

Meanwhile alleged cover-ups continue to dog the Church, and victims groups say the Vatican has not done nearly enough to right its wrongs.

Here’s what you need to know – in about 500 words.

How did this all come to light?

Although some accusations date back to the 1950s, molestation by priests was first given significant media attention in the 1980s, in the US and Canada.

In the 1990s, the issue began to grow, with stories emerging in Argentina, Australia and elsewhere. In 1995, the Archbishop of Vienna, Austria, stepped down amid sexual abuse allegations, rocking the church there.

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NEW YORK (NY)
New York Times

May 21, 2018

By Jason Horowitz

Leer en español: Dios te ama así’, asegura Juan Carlos Cruz que le respondió el papa cuando le habló de su homosexualidad

Rome – A Chilean survivor of clerical sex abuse has said that Pope Francis told him in a private meeting this month that God had made him gay and that both God and the pontiff loved him that way, a remarkable expression of inclusion for the leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

“He said to me, ‘Juan Carlos that’s not a problem,’ ” said Juan Carlos Cruz, the abuse survivor, describing having told the pope he was gay in a long meeting in the Vatican. “You have to be happy with who you are. God made you this way and loves you this way, and the pope loves you this way.”

The Vatican declined to comment on the pope’s private remarks.

Mr. Cruz had already said that Francis had apologized in the meeting for the large-scale sexual abuse scandal involving Chilean clergy members, but over the weekend, he also told the Spanish newspaper El País about the pope’s remarks about his homosexuality. In a separate interview Sunday night, Mr. Cruz, through tears, explained that he had told Francis in their nearly three-hour private meeting that he had maintained his Catholic faith even though Chilean bishops had apparently told the pope that he had left the church “for a life of perversion.”

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GLASGOW (SCOTLAND)
The Herald

May 21, 2018

By Stephen Naysmith

Abuse survivors have criticised the Catholic Church for tokenism and a “lack of humility” and called for priests accused of child abuse to be named, as the Bishops Conference attempted to draw a line under the issue.

The comments came as the Church published new guidelines, titled “In God’s Image“, as a final response to the the 2015 McLellan Commission and its findings.

The independent commission, headed by former moderator of the Church of Scotland the Very Reverend Dr Andrew McLellan, called for sweeping changes to the church’s practices for protecting children and vulnerable people in parishes and demanded a prioritising of support for survivors.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune

May 22, 2018

A man who was a Catholic priest at the time has been charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy at a hotel in Evanston in 2001, police announced Monday.

The former priest, Kenneth Lewis, 56, was arrested on a warrant by federal agents earlier this month when he arrived at the Atlanta airport on a flight from Ecuador, according to Evanston police. The Cook County sheriff’s police fugitive unit brought Lewis back to Illinois, and he was taken into custody by Evanston police Friday, authorities said.

The alleged abuse occurred while Lewis, then a priest in Tulsa, was on a trip to the Chicago area with the family of the victim, who was also a resident of the Oklahoma city at the time, Evanston police said in a news release.

Officials said the alleged 2001 assault was reported to Tulsa police in 2004 but that Lewis “could not be charged as part of the initial investigation.”

However, the case was reopened last year by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and the Evanston police Juvenile Bureau, and authorities were able to secure a warrant for Lewis’ arrest just after Christmas, Evanston police said. They did not elaborate how authorities were able to bring charges this time.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Sun

May 21, 2018

By Meredith Cohn

The Archdiocese of Baltimore said Monday it has relieved a priest of his duties at Our Lady of Pompei in Highlandtown following accusations by a parishioner of abuse in the 1970s.

The alleged victim was not identified. The person accuses Father Luigi Esposito, 77, of abuse beginning when the alleged victim was 14 and occurring multiple times while the person was a minor.

Esposito denies the allegations, according to Sean Caine, a spokesman for the archdiocese. He said the priest was being cared for per church law at a private location and would not be available for comment.

Caine said the alleged victim made a complaint to the church earlier this month and the church reported it to the Baltimore Police Department. He said church officials did not approach Esposito so they would not interfere with any investigation.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
WHTM

May 22, 2018

By Thomas LeClair

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro says the bishops of two Catholic dioceses are reversing their positions on a sexual abuse investigation.

Shapiro says the bishops of the Greensburg and Harrisburg dioceses have agreed to make public the results of a grand jury investigation of “widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic church.”

Shapiro says now all of the dioceses support the release of the investigations’s findings and results.

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UNITED STATES
First Things

by Philip Lawler

5 . 22 . 18

With the mass resignation of 34 Chilean bishops, we have reached the decisive moment of the Francis pontificate. How Pope Francis responds to this unprecedented gesture will determine how history judges him. Obviously, these dramatic resignations test the pontiff’s commitment to resolving the sex-abuse crisis. But there is even more at stake.

The resignations switch the focus of public attention from the Chilean hierarchy—which had clearly failed in its duties—to the pope. The Chilean bishops explained that they had decided to put their future “in the hands of the Holy Father and will leave it to him to decide freely” which prelates should step down. Now, which bishops will the pope dismiss, and which (if any) will he allow to remain in office?

Presumably some of the Chilean bishops are innocent of the “grave negligence” uncovered by the pope’s belated investigation. For now, they share in the general humiliation. Will they be exonerated? And will those who have been guilty of outright dishonesty (the pope cited the “destruction of compromising documents”) be identified and denounced? Or will the pope merely accept some resignations, and decline others, without public explanation?

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GUAM
The Guam Daily Post

May 22, 2018

Mindy Aguon | The Guam Daily Post

A third complaint alleging sexual abuse against former Archdiocese of Agana Chancellor Adrian Cristobal was filed Tuesday in the District Court of Guam.

J.E., 33, who used initials to protect his identity, alleges he was abused for two years while he was an altar server at San Vicente Ferrer/San Roke Catholic Church in Barrigada.

The victim, who now lives in Virginia, said the abuse began when he was 10 years old when Cristobal served as a priest at the parish.

The lawsuit alleges J.E. was instructed to massage Cristobal’s back at the parish and at the priest’s residence. After the massage Cristobal allegedly groped, fondled and squeezed the boy’s private parts causing extreme pain, the lawsuit states.

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ARIZONA
KTAR

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

MAY 22, 2018

PHOENIX — Prosecutors said Monday they will not file criminal charges against an Arizona judge who was investigated on allegations that he sexually abused a girl from when she was 13 until she reached adulthood.

Charges will not be filed against Pinal County Superior Court Judge Steven Fuller because prosecutors don’t have the level of evidence needed to win a conviction, said Alan Goodwin, who leads the special victims bureau at the Pima County prosecutor’s office, which reviewed the investigation.

The alleged victim, now 25, told investigators last year that Fuller touched her genitals and buttocks repeatedly and also showed her pornography, according to a police report. Fuller, through his attorney, had vehemently denied the allegations.

The woman said she and the judge knew each other before the alleged abuse occurred but the Associated Press is not identifying her because it generally does not name alleged sexual assault victims.

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AUSTRALIA
NEPR

May 22, 2018

By SCOTT NEUMAN

Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson has been found guilty of concealing child sex abuse by a fellow priest that he first learned of in the 1970s.

Wilson, 67, the senior-most Catholic cleric ever to be charged with concealing abuse, has been diagnosed with early stage Alzheimer’s disease. He denied under oath last month that two former altar boys told him of abuse by another priest, Father Jim Fletcher, in the 1970s, at a church in East Maitland, New South Wales. Fletcher, who was found guilty on multiple counts of sexual assault of boys in 2004, died of a stroke in jail two years later.

Wilson’s verdict was handed down by Magistrate Robert Stone in Newcastle Local Court at the conclusion of the eight-day trial.

The archbishop showed no emotion as the verdict was read inside a packed courtroom, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Catholic Herald

Christopher Altieri

21 May 2018

With their resignation en masse late last week, the bishops of Chile have put Pope Francis between a rock and a hard place. Basically, he has three options: accept all of them; accept some of them; accept none of them.

If he accepts them all, he leaves the Church in Chile headless, while owning utterly every awful thing that may yet emerge as the crisis unfolds – there is a great deal more in the way of awful things that must come out, if the Church in the country is to recover – and the Chilean crisis is far from over.

If he accepts some, his every decision will be scrutinised, and he is bound to make mistakes – and if he takes his time and does it right, as he ought to, the Church will remain paralysed in the meantime and the evil men he has heretofore at least tacitly (though not always tacitly) supported will have time and opportunity to maneuver. A few – like bishops Juan Barros of Osorno, Horacio Valenzuela of Talca, and Tomislav Koljatic of Linares – are no-brainers. These men were protégés of the disgraced celebrity paedophile priest, Fernando Karadima: they were just the sort of men abusers seek systematically to insinuate into power structures for their own protection and advancement. Others are not.

If he accepts none of them, he will have to try some of them. Those trials will presumably take place under the procedural rules laid out in the Apostolic Letter motu proprio, As a Loving Mother, though the dispositions given in that letter remain essentially untried. There will be a learning curve. There will also need to be significant investment in the Vatican court system, which is already overloaded, underfunded, and not exactly bursting at the seams with enthusiasm for the work. Confidence in the ability of the Vatican to administer justice is therefore also very low, indeed.

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AUSTRALIA
CBS News

May 22, 2018

NEWCASTLE, Australia — An Australian archbishop on Tuesday became the most senior Roman Catholic cleric in the world convicted of covering up child sex abuse and faces a potential two years in prison when he is sentenced next month. Magistrate Robert Stone handed down the verdict against Archbishop of Adelaide Philip Wilson in Newcastle Local Court, north of Sydney, following a magistrate-only trial.

Wilson, 67, had pleaded not guilty to concealing a serious crime committed by another person — the sexual abuse of children by pedophile priest James Fletcher in the 1970s.

Stone told the court that Wilson had concealed the abuse of two altar boys in the Hunter Valley region, north of Sydney, by Fletcher by failing to report the allegations to police.

Stone said he was satisfied one of the altar boys, Peter Creigh had been a “truthful and reliable” witness.

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WISCONSIN
Channel 3000

May 22, 2018

FORT ATKINSON, Wis. – A retired priest in residence at Our Lady Queen of Peace in Madison is facing more allegations since being charged with felony sexual assault last week.

According to a release Monday from the Diocese of Madison, William A. Nolan, 64, is being accused of sexual misconduct toward an adult male in 2009, two years after retiring from priesthood in 2007.

Diocese officials said during an initial investigation in 2009, the victim denied the allegations after someone else reported it.

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AUSTRALIA
The New Daily

Adelaide Archbishop Philip Wilson should be sent to jail for covering up child sex abuse by a pedophile priest, a NSW court has been told.

Wilson, the most senior Catholic official in the world to be charged with the offence, was on Tuesday found guilty in Newcastle Local Court of failing to report to police the repeated abuse of two altar boys in the 1970s.

Magistrate Robert Stone accepted the two boys told Wilson in 1976 that priest James Fletcher had repeatedly abused them in the NSW Hunter region but the clergyman did nothing.

Wilson faces a maximum two years in prison.

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AUSTRALIA
The Tablet (UK)

May 22, 2018

Australian Archbishop Philip Wilson has been found guilty of concealing child sexual abuse by a fellow priest in the 1970s

The Archbishop of Adelaide, Philip Wilson, has been found guilty of concealing child sexual abuse by a fellow priest.

He was convicted of concealing abuse by Fr James Fletcher in the 1970s, when the Archbishop was a young priest in his home Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle in New South Wales.

Magistrate Robert Stone announced his verdict in a 59-page judgement delivered to a packed courtroom at Newcastle Local Court, north of Sydney, today (22 May).

Archbishop Wilson, the most senior Catholic cleric to date to be convicted on a charge of concealing child abuse, faces up to two years in jail when sentenced on 19 June. Mr Stone has the option of suspending the sentence, but prosecutors are seeking a custodial sentence.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Sharon Herald

By DAVE SUTOR The Tribune-Democrat

May 21, 2018

HARRISBURG — Dioceses in Allentown, Scranton, Erie and Pittsburgh had already said they support releasing the findings of the investigation that has been underway since 2016.

“Today, in a reversal of their position, the bishops and dioceses of Greensburg and Harrisburg agreed to make public the results of a grand jury investigation of widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. I commend Bishop (Edward) Malesic and Bishop (Ronald) Gainer for doing the right thing,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Monday.

“Now all of the dioceses support the release of the investigation’s findings and results.”

Robert Hoatson, founder of Road to Recovery, a support group for victims, expects there will be some “very damning conclusions from the grand jury.”

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AUSTRALIA
ABC News

May 22, 2018

The verdict in the case of Archbishop Philip Wilson — the most senior Catholic to be charged with concealing child abuse — is already being declared a “landmark” case, with one legal expert predicting it could trigger a flood of other prosecutions.

Wilson — who became the Archbishop of Adelaide in 2001 — was found guilty of covering up abuse by priest Jim Fletcher in the NSW Hunter region in the 1970s.

Magistrate Robert Stone told the court he did not accept Wilson could not recall a 1976 conversation with the victim.

Prominent defence lawyer and co-chair of the South Australian Law Society’s criminal law committee Craig Caldicott said today’s verdict was important because of the precedent it set.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call

May 21, 2018

Tim Darragh
Of The Morning Call

The release of a report detailing decades of sexual abuse within six Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses, including Allentown, was cleared Monday after two other dioceses gave up legal challenges.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Monday that the dioceses of Greensburg and Harrisburg were backing off legal challenges that could have possibly blocked release of the report.

“Today, in a reversal of their position, the bishops and dioceses of Greensburg and Harrisburg agreed to make public the results of a grand jury investigation of widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic church,” Shapiro said in a statement.

He commended Greensburg Bishop Edward Malesic and Harrisburg Bishop Ronald Gainer “for doing the right thing.”

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PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PETER SMITH
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

MAY 21, 2018

EBENSBURG — Two dioceses reversed their position on a statewide grand jury investigating sexual abuse Monday, according to state Attorney General Josh Shapiro. The announcement came after a closed-door hearing before the presiding judge of the grand jury

“Today, in a reversal of their position, the bishops and dioceses of Greensburg and Harrisburg agreed to make public the results of a grand jury investigation of widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. I commend Bishop [Edward C.] Malesic and Bishop [Ronald W.] Gainer for doing the right thing,” Mr. Shapiro said in a statement.

“Now all of the dioceses support the release of the investigation’s findings and results.”

The announcement followed a hearing in which Cambria County Judge Norman Krumenacker III presided. It was just days after statements from the diocese of Greensburg and Harrisburg calling for due process with the imminent release of a grand jury report.

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PENNSYLVANIA
PennLive

May 21, 2018

By Ivey DeJesus idejesus@pennlive.com

The Diocese of Harrisburg – one of six dioceses under state investigation for clergy sex abuse – on Monday walked back the suggestion that it might oppose the findings of a grand jury investigation.

In a statement to the media Attorney General Josh Shapiro applauded the decision, which was also taken by the Diocese of Greensburg.

Shapiro commended Bishops Ronald Gainer of Harrisburg and Bishop Edward Malesic of Greensburg for “doing the right thing.”

“Victims of this sexual abuse deserve the right to tell their stories to the people of Pennsylvania,” Shapiro said. “That is why my legal team and I have worked tirelessly to have each diocese agree to give victims the opportunity to be heard.”

The decision from the heads of the Harrisburg and Greensburg dioceses means that all six dioceses are in support of the release of the investigation’s findings and results and that the bishops will not stall the process.

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ARGENTINA
Yahoo!

AFP

May 21, 2018

Buenos Aires (AFP) – An Argentine court sentenced a Catholic priest to 25 years in jail on Monday for sexually abusing seven children over a period of years.

Justo Jose Ilarraz had initially been held under house arrest until the 25-year sentence was confirmed on appeal.

Ilarraz, 57, carried out the abuse at a diocesan school in the city of Parana, 600 kilometers (400 miles) north of Buenos Aires, where he was in charge of discipline and spiritual guidance.

Prosecutors said the victims, aged 13 and 14, were boarders at the seminary school and cut off from their families, whom they saw once a month.

The boys were sexually abused by Ilarraz at the seminary between 1985 and 1993, the prosecution said.

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VATICAN CITY
The Atlantic

May 21, 2019

EMMA GREEN

The Vatican is working through an extraordinary series of events related to child sex abuse. Last month, Pope Francis apologized for “grave errors” in the way the Catholic Church handled sex-abuse cases in Chile, where a bishop, Juan Barros Madrid, was accused of covering up the crimes of another priest, Fernando Karadima. On Friday, following an emergency meeting in Rome with the pope, all 34 Chilean bishops offered their resignation over their handling of the allegations, an apparently unprecedented move.

Then, on Monday, the Spanish newspaper El Paīs reported that Juan Carlos Cruz, a Chilean sex-abuse survivor, had spoken with Pope Francis about his gay identity during a long meeting. “It doesn’t matter that you’re gay. God made you that way and that is the way he wants you to be, and I don’t mind,” Francis said, according to Cruz. “The pope wants you this way, too, and you have to be happy with who you are.”

The quickly unfolding events suggest an aggressive redirection for Pope Francis, who elevated the Chilean scandal into a full-on crisis in January, when he vigorously defended Barros during a papal visit to Chile and Peru. As the Church continues to wrestle with the aftershocks caused by clergy sex abuse around the world, its efforts to make amends in Chile may be a sign of a new approach ahead—or the extreme difficulty of recovering from years of misconduct and mishandled allegations.

The Chilean Church has been publicly grappling with its sex-abuse scandal for more than a half decade. In 2011, the Vatican announced that it had found Karadima guilty of sexually abusing minors. Subsequent developments suggested that Chilean bishops tried to keep the voices of abuse victims from being heard. Leaked emails showed that two cardinals sought to block Cruz, the Chilean abuse survivor, from serving on Pope Francis’s commission for the protection of minors. Victims accused Barros, who spent more than 30 years working with Karadima, of witnessing and covering up the abuse. Yet in 2015, Francis appointed him bishop of a diocese in southern Chile. When protesters objected to the move, the pope called them “dumb,” saying they had no proof against Barros.

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HARRISBURG (PA)
Office of the Attorney General

May 21, 2018

“Today, in a reversal of their position, the bishops and dioceses of Greensburg and Harrisburg agreed to make public the results of a grand jury investigation of widespread sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. I commend Bishop Malesic and Bishop Gainer for doing the right thing,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said.

“Now all of the dioceses support the release of the investigation’s findings and results.”

“Victims of this sexual abuse deserve the right to tell their stories to the people of Pennsylvania. That is why my legal team and I have worked tirelessly to have each diocese agree to give victims the opportunity to be heard.”

“I expect to speak publicly on this comprehensive investigation by the end of June. The only thing that could stop these findings from becoming public at that time is if one of the bishops or dioceses would seek to delay or prevent this public accounting.”

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VATICAN CITY
America

Gerard O’Connell

May 21, 2018

Pope Francis took many Vatican watchers by surprise on Sunday, May 20, when, after reciting the Regina Coeli and praying for peace in the Holy Land and Venezuela, he announced that he would create 14 new cardinals on June 29.

It had been expected that he would hold a consistory this year since the number of cardinal electors would have decreased from 116 to 115 on June 8 when Cardinal Amato of Italy turns 80. Given that this number would not change by reason of age for the rest of the year, it was logical for the pope to decide to hold it at the end of June. In this way, he ensures that the number of electors will remain close to the full complement of 120. With Sunday’s announcement, that number stands at 126 (125 after June 8).

This will be his fifth consistory since his election as pope on March 13, 2013, and Francis has adopted the same criteria in his choice of men to be cardinals: universality; attention to “the peripheries”; humble pastors with “the smell of the sheep”; reducing the overall number of Europeans and Italians in the electoral college; abandoning the tradition that appointment to certain sees automatically brings with it a red hat; and restricting the number of Roman Curia cardinals by reserving the red hat only for the prefects of congregations (or their equivalent).

Pope Francis is trying to ensure that those who elect his successor are humble men committed to “a church of the poor and for the poor.”

By carefully choosing the new cardinals, Pope Francis is trying to ensure that those who elect his successor are humble, spiritual men committed to “a church of the poor and for the poor,” a church that is “a field hospital” and puts mercy at the heart of its mission. The pope wants “a missionary church” that reaches out to the various peripheries of the world, a church, devoid of clericalism, that involves the whole people of God. Francis has now chosen 59 of the 126 current electors—roughly 47 percent of the electoral college. Benedict XVI named 46 of the others, while St. John Paul II created the remaining 20.

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VATICAN CITY
New York Times

By The Associated Press

May 20, 2018

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis announced on Sunday that he had chosen 14 men to be the newest cardinals in the Catholic Church, among them his chief aide for helping Rome’s homeless and poor, as well as prelates based in Iraq and Pakistan, where Christians are a vulnerable minority.

“I am happy to announce that on June 29, I will hold a consistory to make 14 new cardinals,” Francis said, referring to a ceremony, in remarks to pilgrims and tourists in St. Peter’s Square.

“The countries of provenance express the universality of the church, which continues to announce the merciful love of God to all men on Earth,” he added.

The list of new “princes of the church” included names from Africa, elsewhere in Asia, and South America, as Francis continues to make the College of Cardinals less European than it had been in centuries past.

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CHILE
Catholic News Agencyi

By Elise Harris

Rancagua, Chile, May 21, 2018 / 12:23 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Over the weekend, Chilean Bishop Alejandro Goić Karmelić suspended several priests after allegations of sexual misconduct were raised against them. He apologized for not following up when the accusations were first brought to his attention.

“I would like to ask forgiveness for my actions in this case,” the bishop said in a May 19 statement.

Goić, who heads the diocese of Rancagua, said he “acted without the proper swiftness” when a woman came to him nearly a year ago with concerns regarding the conduct of Fr. Luis Rubio and other priests.

Goić’s apology came the day after a program detailing accusations against Rubio was aired on Chile’s TV13 channel, the same station that leaked Pope Francis’ 10-page letter to Chilean bishops chastising them for a systematic cover-up of clerical abuse and calling them to institute deep changes.

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ILLINOIS
WGN

MAY 21, 2018

BY BILL KISSINGER

EVANSTON, Ill. — A former priest has been charged with sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy in an Evanston hotel room nearly two decades ago.

Kenneth Lewis, 56, was arrested after returning to the U.S. from Ecuador on May 9.

Lewis was never assigned to work as a priest in the Chicago area, but he attended the St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in suburban Mundelein between 1987 and 1991.

He served as a priest in Oklahoma where he faced an extensive history of sexual abuse allegations.

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SPAIN
El Pais

CARLOS E. CUÉ

May 21, 2018

Madrid

Juan Carlos Cruz is still recovering from the shock. Three months ago, Cruz, who was a victim of sex abuse by a Chilean priest named Fernando Karadima, clashed with Pope Francis during the latter’s trip to the South American nation.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church accused Cruz of making slanderous statements without proof against Bishop Juan Barros, who had once been a protégé of Karadima. According to Cruz, Barros had been present when Karadima abused him in the 1980s, but later tried to hinder an investigation into his mentor.

The pope is taking unprecedented steps, he knows that the whole world is watching

Some time after the public spat, and following a Vatican investigation, the pontiff invited Cruz to spend at week at his own residence in Santa Marta, where he apologized and said that he now believed his story.

Since then, all 34 bishops of Chile have offered to resign over the scandal, marking a milestone in the global fight by victims of Church abuse. In a telephone interview with EL PAÍS, an emotional Cruz said he trusts that Pope Francis’ change of heart is definitive.

Question. How did you take the news about the 34 bishops’ offer to resign?

Answer. I am overcome with emotion after spending a week at the Pope’s house and talking with him for hours, as though we’d been lifelong friends, and then seeing his letter to the Chilean bishops mentioning many of the things that we’d discussed together and which he took very seriously, such as the issue of corruption among the bishops, and how he accused them of concealing documents and minimizing things…I was touched that he took our conversation so seriously. I felt that our time together was not simply a protocol thing or a public relations stunt.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

May 20, 2018

Patsy McGarry

Ireland’s Catholic bishops considered resigning en masse following the publication of the Ryan and Murphy reports into child abuse in 2009, former president Mary McAleese has said.

“I do remember, at the time of our own problems with the Ryan and Murphy reports in particular, that there was a suggestion from a very senior cleric in Ireland that the Irish bishops might consider something like that,” she said in Dublin on Saturday. “It didn’t happen. I don’t really know if it was discussed.”

Ms McAleese was speaking in the context of the mass resignation by Chile’s 34 Catholic bishops last Friday after they were summoned to Rome to meet Pope Francis in connection with cover-up of clerical child sexual abuse in that country.

In a similar context, Ireland’s Catholic bishops were summoned to Rome in February 2010 to meet Pope Benedict XVI.

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VATICAN CITY
Associated Press

By NICOLE WINFIELD

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis’ reported comments to a gay man that “God made you like this” have been embraced by the LGBT community as another sign of Francis’ desire to make gay people feel welcomed and loved in the Catholic Church.

Juan Carlos Cruz, the main whistleblower in Chile’s clerical sex abuse and cover-up scandal, said Monday he spoke to Francis about his homosexuality during their recent meetings at the Vatican. The pope invited Cruz and other victims of a Chilean predator priest to discuss their cases last month.

Cruz said he told Francis how Chile’s bishops used his sexual orientation as a weapon to try to discredit him, and of the pain the personal attacks had caused him.

“He said, ‘Look Juan Carlos, the pope loves you this way. God made you like this and he loves you,’” Cruz told The Associated Press.

The Vatican declined to confirm or deny the remarks in keeping with its policy not to comment on the pope’s private conversations. The comments first were reported by Spain’s El Pais newspaper.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian

Ruth Hunt

21 May 2018 1

It is immensely powerful to hear that Pope Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic church, reportedly told Juan Carlos Cruz, a gay man: “God made you like this and loves you like this.”

Cruz is a survivor of clerical abuse who spoke privately with the pope a few weeks ago, and has since reported his conversation to Spanish newspapers. His abuser, Fernando Karadima, was found guilty of abuse by the Vatican in 2011.

As a practising Catholic, I find it deeply moving to have Pope Francis appear to confirm what many Catholics already know to be true: God made us just as we should be, there are no mistakes.

Lesbian, gay, bi and trans people exist in every community, from every ethnic background and in every religion. However, religion can often be the area of life that people find the most difficult to reconcile with their identity. Some people will say that LGBT people can’t exist in faith communities; that faith communities don’t accept same-sex relationships or those whose gender doesn’t match the one that they were assigned at birth. Some believe that LGBT people can and should be “cured”. As a result of these beliefs, LGBT people often need to find a way to God despite their leaders, rather than because of them. But the pope’s reported words are a striking affirmation that LGBT people of faith belong in church and in religious communities.

I have never felt excluded from the church and have always been made to feel welcome. But I have met many people who have had different experiences; people who have been damaged by being told to deny their sexuality or who feel rejected by God.

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MARYLAND
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore

CATHOLIC REVIEW STAFF

MAY 21, 2018

The following news release was issued by the Archdiocese of Baltimore May 21 concerning the pastor of Our Lady of Pompei in Highlandtown:

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has learned of an allegation of child sexual abuse against Father Luigi Esposito, 77, pastor at Our Lady of Pompei Church in Baltimore. The alleged abuse occurred in the 1970s while Father Esposito was serving as Associate Pastor at Our Lady of Pompei. The alleged victim claims the abuse began at the age of 14 and occurred multiple times while the minor was at Our Lady of Pompei.

The Archdiocese has been cooperating and sharing information with the civil authorities and on May 17, after receiving permission from civil authorities to make contact with Father Esposito, representatives of the Archdiocese met with him to discuss the allegations. He denied all the allegations against him. The Archdiocese spoke a number of times with the alleged victim and the allegations were consistent. Pursuant to Archdiocesan policy, the Archdiocese suspended Father Esposito from ministry and removed his faculties to function as a priest, pending the outcome of its investigation.

Yesterday, representatives of the Archdiocese met with parishioners and staff at Our Lady of Pompei to inform them of the allegations and to answer questions. The Archdiocese is working with the parish and staff to provide pastoral care to the Our Lady of Pompei community.

In accordance with Archdiocesan policy, the Archdiocese has offered counseling assistance to those affected.

In 1964, Luigi Esposito was ordained a priest of the Congregation of the Mission of St. Vincent de Paul, a religious order also known as the Vincentians, in Naples, Italy. He was incardinated, the process whereby a diocesan or religious order priest becomes a priest of another diocese, into the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 2000.

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