Documenting the Catholic Sexual Abuse and Financial Crisis – Data on bishops, priests, brothers, nuns, Pope Francis, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Tuesday, May 5, 2026
ABUSE TRACKER
A digest of links to media coverage of clergy abuse. For recent coverage listed in this blog, read the full article in the newspaper or other media source by clicking “Read original article.” For earlier coverage, click the title to read the original article.
WEST VIRGINIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Thursday, March 9, 2016
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
A serial Pennsylvania predator priest – who was described by law enforcement officials as a “monster” who may have “molested hundreds” – was quietly sent to work in West Virginia, according to a just-released grand jury report.
We want West Virginia’s Catholic bishop to alert his flock about this pedophile, Fr. Francis McCaa. (Links below)
We strongly suspect he also hurt kids in West Virginia.
For the healing of victims, we call on West Virginia Bishop Michael Bransfield – and every Catholic church employee and church member in the state – to aggressively reach out to anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes by Fr. McCaa or cover ups by his colleagues or supervisors.
Church staff should use diocesan websites, church bulletins, and pulpit announcements to warn his flock about living predator priests and educate them about deceased predator priests. That’s the way kids can be protected, victims can be healed and the church can move forward.
In 2004, Altoona Catholic officials paid $3.7 million to settle 21 cases of abuse against 11 priests, including Fr. McCaa. Fr. McCaa, now deceased, was at one time the chancellor of the Altoona diocese.
In 2003, Fr. McCaa reportedly lived in West Virginia. He died in 2007.
According to a Pennsylvania newspaper: The report calls McCaa “a monster” who groped and “fondled the genitals of numerous children” who attended or served at Holy Name Church, Ebensburg; “Numerous former altar boys reported that McCaa would make them take their pants off under their cassocks” and then “reach under their religious vestments to touch and squeeze their genitals”; one boy reported the abuse to his mother, who slapped him and said the priest “was just being friendly”; the grand jury identified as many as 15 victims, and said McCaa was “a formidable figure and the boys felt like there was no escape”; the report accused Bishop Hogan of having full knowledge of McCaa’s action.
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.
Brent Lang
Senior Film and Media Reporter
@BrentALang
A little Oscar love goes a long way.
Fresh off its best picture victory at this year’s Academy Awards, “Spotlight” has gotten a box office boost both domestically and in foreign markets, where a talky drama about a sex abuse investigation would otherwise be a hard sell. Stateside, ticket sales enjoyed a 140% uptick, taking in $1.8 million last weekend and pushing the North American total to nearly $42 million. That’s particularly impressive considering that “Spotlight” has been available on home entertainment platforms since Feb. 23.
“It’s a movie that a lot of people want to see in theaters,” said Jason Cassidy, chief marketing officer at Open Road, the indie label that had domestic rights. “It’s a profoundly emotional experience that people respond to when they see it on a big screen.”
He added that the film was the best performing picture or second best performing picture in several complexes. “Spotlight,” an account of the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning reports on the Catholic Church’s cover-up of wide spread sexual abuse by its priests, also won a best original screenplay Oscar. Its victory over “The Revenant” in the top category was seen as a major upset.
Overseas, box office has also been robust. The picture closed the weekend with another $5.8 million in the bank, an increase of more than 100% from the previous weekend. “Spotlight’s” foreign total stands at $33.2 million.
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.
A man charged with raping a seven-year-old girl at a Christian mission in West Australia’s South West in the 1970s has faced Bunbury Magistrates Court.
Philip Howard Street, 74, was charged last month by a specialist police taskforce.
It is alleged Street, who is from Albany, sexually assaulted the young girl multiple times while he was employed at the Roelands Christian Mission in 1974 and 1975.
The man made a brief appearance in court charged with two counts of rape and four counts of indecent treatment of a child under 14 years of age.
He was not required to enter a plea and was granted bail to reappear in court on May 23.
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.
[Pedophile priest scandal: “Maybe I was wrong … Let justice to tell me,” proclaimed Cardinal Philippe Barbarin.]
Le cardinal Barbarin dans la tourmente… L’archevêque de Lyon, accusé d’avoir couvert un prêtre pédophile, se défend sans totalement convaincre. Difficile en effet de persuader quand on affirme, comme il le fait dans Le Parisien : “Il y a 25 ans, on était dans une autre mentalité par rapport à la pédophilie”. Aujourd’hui, deux victimes du père Bernard Preynat portent plainte contre Philippe Barbarin. Ces anciens scouts affirment qu’il avait été alerté dès 2007 sur ces faits des années 80. Pourtant, il a fallu attendre l’année dernière pour que le prêtre soit suspendu et sanctionné. Malgré cela, Mgr Barbarin reste droit dans ses bottes.
“Quand j’ai rencontré le père Preynat, il y avait déjà des bruits qui courraient. Je l’ai appelé pour lui demander : ‘Comment de telles choses sont possibles ?’. Il m’a répondu que je ne comprendrais pas”, rapporte le cardinal. Ce dernier assure ensuite avoir demandé au prêtre s’il s’était passé la moindre chose avec des enfants. Devant la réponse négative et certaine du prêtre, le cardinal a préféré ne pas donner suite à l’affaire tout en ajoutant “mais peu-être ai-je eu tort, que la justice me le dise”.
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.
[Cardinal Phillippe Barbarin said Father Bernard Prenat assured him he had never abused minors.]
Le cardinal Barbarin, accusé d’avoir couvert en 2007 un prêtre mis en examen en janvier dernier pour des agressions sexuelles sur des enfants, se défend ce jeudi sur RMC. L’archevêque de Lyon explique qu’il a fait confiance au père Preynat, qui lui a assuré que les bruits qui courraient sur ces actes commis dans les années 80 n’étaient que des rumeurs malveillantes.
Le cardinal Barbarin a-t-il couvert le père Preynat, qui a reconnu des d’agressions sexuelles sur des scouts de Sainte-Foy-les-Lyon (Rhône) entre 1986 et 1991 ? Non, répond ce jeudi sur RMC l’archevêque de Lyon, qui s’est peu exprimée sur cette affaire depuis sa mise en cause pour “non-dénonciation de crimes”. Il est pointé du doigt par plusieurs victimes qui l’accuse depuis 2007 d’avoir caché ce prêtre pédophile, ses agissements et de l’avoir laissé en poste, toujours auprès d’enfants, dans diverses paroisses de la région sous son autorité, malgré les soupçons de pédophilie.
Le père Bernard Preynat, qui a quitté ses paroisses du Roannais fin août 2015 après avoir été relevé de ses fonctions par le diocèse, a été mis en examen le 27 janvier après avoir reconnu les faits d’agressions sexuelles sur moins de 15 ans. Il a également été placé sous le statut de témoin assisté pour des viols qu’il a avoués en garde à vue.
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.
This year’s Oscar-winning Best Picture, “Spotlight” focused on a team of reporters who exposed a coverup of pedophile priests by the Catholic church.
In one scene from the film, a Boston Globe reporter discovers a group home for defrocked priests accused of sexual abuse in his own neighborhood.
The troubling revelation causes the journalist to place his own kids on high alert as he warns them to stay away from the home.
Chilean writer-director Pablo Larrain explores similar territory in his chilling new film, “The Club,” as four defrocked priests and a former nun take residence in a seaside home located in La Boca, Chile.
The two-story house serves as a rehab facility where the former clergy do penance for their sins while mostly avoiding the general public. Sister Monica (Antonia Zegers) serves as the caretaker and warden of the disgraced priests, but later in the film, its revealed that she also has a sordid past that involves the abuse of a child, physical not sexual.
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.
THE principal of a Catholic boys’ school has hit out at child abusers and those that covered up for them.
St Aloysius’ College principal Mark Tannock made his feelings clear in a newsletter to parents in light of the Royal Commission.
“The extent of this abuse … shames the church and all (including me) who love it,” he wrote.
“The criminal deeds of the past deserve to be exposed by the Royal Commission and, if sustained by the burden of proof in a criminal court, the perpetrators should be called to account by the law.”
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
A 66-year-old man has been charged with a number of historical sexual offences in children’s care homes and a church.
Philip Temple, of no fixed address, was charged by the Metropolitan Police with 27 counts of historical sexual assault and two counts of perjury.
Mr Temple was remanded in custody until later in April, when he will appear at Croydon Crown Court.
Scotland Yard has said that the sexual assault charges relate to allegations of abuse against 12 victims, who were all aged under 16 at the time of the alleged offences.
The alleged offences are thought to have taken place between 1971 and 1998 in children’s care homes managed by Christ the King Monastery on Bramley Road in Southgate, Wandsworth local authority and Lambeth local authority, according to police.
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.
The Canberra-Goulburn Archdiocese’s new expert body to deal with child sexual abuse is a “huge step” towards transparency, but it cannot address the core problems of the Catholic Church, a child sex abuse campaigner says.
The archdiocese’s Institute for Professional Standards and Safeguarding is headed by former NSW police detective Matt Casey and former lawyer Jane Cronan.
Mr Casey, the institute’s director, said the body was charged with investigating allegations of child sex abuse from anywhere in the archdiocese.
“There was a tendency, within not just the church in our archdiocese but in other organisations, to minimise things and to not recognise the objective seriousness of the behaviour that was being complained about,” he said.
“With the institute, there will always be a level of expertise that enables us to respond to the objective seriousness of any complaint that comes to us.”
He said the institute would start with a presumption in favour of the complainant.
The institute would not facilitate compensation, which would be organised through the survivor and the church’s legal representatives.
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.
Rosanna Savone
CEO | Attorney | Best Selling Author | Screenwriter
Felt let down by Spotlight too?
Being reared in the Roman Catholic religion, I was particularly interested in watching the film since it’s release in theaters back in November.
I personally left the church the first moment I could at the age of eighteen largely because of its antiquated, sexist and unequal treatment of women.
My decision was affirmed just a few years later, when the Boston Globe literally shined a “spotlight” on the dysfunction that embodies this religious institution and its hierarchy of ecclesiastical rulers.
After all, who else but dysfunctional men would knowingly put as many as 5,000 children into harm’s way to protect their own reputation? And these are the guys that claim to know something I don’t about God?
But I wasn’t the only one particularly interested in seeing Spotlight.
My monthly film club gathering of four women (including myself) had readily agreed (twice in a row, which is a record) on the same movie.
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.
Steve EsackContact Reporter
Call Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG — Breathing deeply to control his anger and shame over his childhood rape, a state lawmaker called on prosecutors and the Legislature to use the power of their offices to safeguard children and punish the Catholic Church and other institutions that protect sex abusers they employ.
For decades, the Catholic Church has shielded predatory priests, said Rep. Mark Rozzi, D-Berks, a victim of clergy abuse. The most recent evidence of those “systematic cover-ups,” Rozzi said, is outlined in last week’s state grand jury report that accuses two bishops overseeing the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown of allowing at least 50 priests and other religious leaders to sexually abuse hundreds of children for decades.
It must end now, Rozzi said at a news conference Wednesday in the state Capitol.
Rozzi, along with Rep. Tim Murt, R-Montgomery, called on the state’s 67 county district attorneys to conduct grand jury investigations into their local Catholic dioceses and set up phone hotlines to allow victims to step forward.
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.
First, it was Penn State. Then it was the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Now, just when you think that scandals involving the sexual abuse of children can’t get any worse, we learn about yet another one.
After a prolonged and extensive investigation, authorities have uncovered literally mounds of evidence of child sexual abuse and cover-ups by Roman Catholic Church officials. The Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown reportedly protected priests who were known child molesters. The diocese, through church connections and pathetic public officials, protected the child-molesting priests from law enforcement and prosecution.
Perhaps the worst crime the diocese committed was never taking subsequent action to protect children from these child-molesting priests. When a priest was found to have sexually abused a child, the normal protocol was to simply move the priest to another parish, offer a cash payment to the family and/or send the child-molesting priest on retreat, only to have him returned to ministry in the future.
As ugly and painful as the latest clergy sex-abuse scandal is, this is not the last one about which we will hear. While many victims are finding the strength to come forward, we have yet to hear from the thousands of child sex-abuse victims who are still hiding in shame and humiliation. The true shame and humiliation, however, is not theirs at all. That belongs to Pennsylvania’s legislators who still collectively refuse to take action to reform the statute of limitations as it relates to child sex abuse.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.
HARRISBURG – Lawmakers are divided over legislation that would grant adults who were sexually abused as children a two-year window, beginning when the law takes effect, to file civil lawsuits against people who they allege assaulted them decades ago.
“Memories fade, the evidence changes, or there may be no more witnesses,” said Stephen Miskin, a spokesman for House Republicans, highlighting concerns about the constitutionality of reviving charges that expired under the state’s statute of limitations.
The House in the next few weeks is likely to take on stalled legislation to extend the limitations on such offenses in a move made a week after a statewide grand jury report found at least 50 priests abused hundreds of children for more than 40 years in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.
“The Judiciary Committee plans to work expeditiously to move legislation to strengthen our laws already in place and send it to the House floor for a full vote,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Ron Marsico, R-Dauphin County, wrote in a statement.
“We, in the legislature, will always fight to protect children, and I certainly support doing more to continue to support the victims of these horrendous crimes,” Marsico said. “While there are only a very few states with a longer window for their civil statute of limitations, I support fully abolishing the criminal statute of limitation for future criminal prosecutions.”
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.
A new lawsuit against the Diocese of New Ulm alleges a priest years ago sexually abused a boy while at St. John’s Church in Darwin, the first time a sex abuse case has been linked to a Meeker County parish.
Parishioners at St. John’s received a letter from the diocese last month stating a priest at the church from 1965 to 1969 has been accused of sexual abuse.
The priest, Charles Stark, retired in 1987 and died in 1991, according to the diocese.
The lawsuit alleges Stark abused an 11-year-old altar boy, who helped Stark with day-to-day church activities, including Mass, funerals and weddings. The boy was a Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, or CCD, student, and he was also paid to do “odd jobs” like mowing the lawn and edging sidewalks, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges Stark in 1969 “engaged in unpermitted sexual contact” with the plaintiff, who is not identified in the suit.
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.
HUBER HEIGHTS, Ohio (WDTN) — A court date has been set for a former priest who served at St. Peter Catholic Church in Huber Heights.
Rev. Earl Simone is scheduled to appear in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Thursday afternoon before Judge Dennis Langer.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati told 2 NEWS they fully cooperated with investigators in this case and will not comment on the matter until after Thursday’s proceedings.
St. Peter came under investigation for financial irregularities after the Archdiocese of Cincinnati received an ethics complaint in February 2015.
“We move forward as the church has always moved forward. We look to the future rather than to the past. It’s unfortunate that this happened but it is in our past. They survived through the whole thing. As I just said, ministry has only increased even with money going out,” said Father Tony Cutcher, current pastor of St. Peter.
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EDINBURG — A former priest accussed of killing a McAllen beauty queen nearly 56 years ago is being extradited to Texas and is expected to be booked into the Hidalgo County jail as early as Wednesday.
John Feit, 83, was arrested in Scottsdale on Feb. 9 and charged with the 1960 murder of Irene Garza, a 25-year-old elementary school teacher.
“Why,” asked Noemi Sigler, who was 10 years old at the time of her cousin Garza’s death. “That question just kept going through my head, ‘why, why.’ Now maybe we’ll know why that happened to Irene.”
Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez said during a news conference Wednesday that investigators had uncovered new evidence in the decades-old murder, but he declined to comment on what was presented to the grand jury.
Garza disappeared after going to confession at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen on April 16, 1960. Authorities allege that Feit, who was a 27-year-old priest at the church, murdered Garza after her confession. Her body was discovered days later in a canal. She had been beaten, raped while unconscious, and asphyxiated.
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PHOENIX – Authorities said Wednesday they used new evidence to help revive a more than half-century-old murder case in which an 83-year-old former priest is accused of killing a Texas teacher and ex-beauty queen, but they declined to give details.
John Feit , who had been jailed in Phoenix since his arrest last month, was turned over to Texas authorities earlier Wednesday and was headed back to South Texas, Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez said. He will be held in the county jail.
“Today we can say that after a long wait of approximately 56 years, is the beginning of bringing justice to … the victim and the community,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez and other officials at a news conference declined to comment on what evidence was presented to grand jurors to indict Feit, only saying “we do have new facts and evidence.” Rene Guerra, the former longtime Hidalgo County district attorney who had previously investigated the murder but never brought charges, has said there was no DNA evidence.
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It’s been one day since a sexual abuse victim’s advocacy group held an open forum in Blair County. Now they are making plans to start a permanent support group in the area. SNAP, the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests has been vocally critical about the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, since the release of a gut-wrenching grand jury report.
Tuesday afternoon, supporters of SNAP held a rally on the lawn of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. This mini-protest was meant to inspire people to attend their open forum that was held Tuesday night.
“It was heartwarming to see that people feel like there was a place they could go,” said Judy Jones, SNAP Midwest associate director.
Jones said nearly a dozen people showed up to the forum. SNAP respectfully requested that no media be present to allow a safe space for any potential victims to come forward. And they did. Later, 6News spoke with one survivor who said he was abused all throughout high school.
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.
A City of London priest who asked a vulnerable male for a lewd act of fellatio and then tried to prosecute his victim for publicly revealing the embarrassing fact has had his complaint thrown out, after the cleric was said to have “lied and lied and lied and lied”.
Rev. William Campbell-Taylor who is also a councilor in the London City Hall had claimed he had been caused “distress and alarm” because of the embarassment of his victim talking publicly in the British Parliament about his abuse experience at the hands of the priest. But after multiple flaws of Campbell-Taylor’s truthfulness came to light before trial, the public prosecution service (equivalent of the DA’s office) decided to “offer no evidence” – and the charges were dismissed by the Court.
In what has been claimed by groups representing victims of clergy abuse as “a victory for the free speech of survivors”, the Court while partially restraining future contact between the parties at the same time positively upheld the right to free debate in public meetings.
Campbell-Taylor, who has an openly bisexual history, denied the abuse with the vulnerable male, and rejected any suggestion that he had any close personal relationship with the victim. But the untruthfulness of the priest was demonstrated when dozens of letters from the cleric to the victim since came to light in which Campbell-Taylor signs off messages with kisses and “love, William” and “W x” or “yr brother Muffin”. The victim writes to Campbell-Taylor challenging him about “your sexuality and past experience that has wreaked havoc in our personal relationship” and asks about the time “you said [to me] ‘How about a b**w job then?’”. In response, the priest evades the question and strangely writes back “you have been on my mind today because I know it is your birthday” and “I would like to be in a position to stand in solidarity in public with you as a friend” and again signs off “love William”. The victim further referred to characteristic phrases used by the priest such as “a stirring in the loins”.
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.
MISSISSIPPI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
Mississippi Bishop William Houck died today. He headed the Jackson diocese until 2003. We hope his passing brings some comfort and closure to those who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups during his years in office.
[Washington Times]
For immediate release: Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
Mississippi Bishop William Houck died today. He headed the Jackson diocese until 2003. We hope his passing brings some comfort and closure to those who saw, suspected or suffered clergy sex crimes or cover ups during his years in office.
During Houck’s tenure, a number of out-of-state predator priests were quietly welcomed into Mississippi, including Fr. William Wiebler, a notorious Iowa child molesting cleric and Brother William Leimbach of Rhode Island.
Though Houck’s successor claims he’s “reformed” how Catholic officials deal with abuse reports, we are skeptical. We believe those with knowledge of or suspicions about clergy sex crimes and cover ups should speak up but inform secular authorities, not church officials.
During Houck’s tenure, a number of out-of-state predator priests were quietly welcomed into Mississippi, including Fr. William Wiebler, a notorious Iowa child molesting cleric and Brother William Leimbach of Rhode Island.
Though Houck’s successor claims he’s “reformed” how Catholic officials deal with abuse reports, we are skeptical. We believe those with knowledge of or suspicions about clergy sex crimes and cover ups should speak up but inform secular authorities, not church officials.
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.
Fallout from the findings of a grand jury report released last week showing that the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese for decades knew and concealed the sexual abuse of hundreds of children at the hands of priests spilled into the Capitol on Wednesday.
Three state legislators called on all district attorneys across the commonwealth to aggressively pursue abusive Catholic priests.
They also took their gloves off after years of fighting to reform laws designed to empower victims of child sex abuse and vowed to once and for all advance reform legislation.
At a news conference in the state Capitol, state Reps. Mark Rozzi (D-Berks) and Tom Murt (R- Montgomery/Phila.) urged district attorneys throughout the state to pursue every possible lead that may lead to evidence in the investigation and prosecution of abusive priests.
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A spokesman for Bishop Mark Bartchak had few answers Tuesday for demands pushed by demonstrators outside the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona–Johnstown offices. Carrying photos of children who reported abuse by priests, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests demonstrators called for the removal of the diocese victim advocate and the entire Allegation Review Board. The Tribune Democrat reports that during a hastily-called press conference Tuesday, diocese spokesman Tony DeGol was asked if any additional clergy would be removed as a result of a grand jury report. “I can’t comment on that because it’s a ongoing investigation,” DeGol said.
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MCALLEN – Hidalgo County officials announced there are new facts and evidence in the 1960 murder of Irene Garza.
During a press conference this afternoon, Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez said the information will be presented at the appropriate time in court.
Garza’s body was found in a canal in April 1960. She was last seen five days earlier at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen. John Feit was a priest at the time. He was long considered a person of interest.
Two people claim Feit confessed to killing Garza. Last month, an Hidalgo County grand jury indicted him in the case.
In today’s press conference, McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said, “We have been very clear at the city of McAllen Police Department that we’ve always believed there was probable cause for John Feit to face charges in the death of Irene Garza.”
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Hidalgo District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez and law enforcement officials did not take questions during a news conference Wednesday in Edinburg regarding the extradition of John Feit.
Feit, a former priest with Sacred Heart Catholic Church, was arrested by the Texas Rangers, Hidalgo County District Attorney’s Office investigators and McAllen police last month in Arizona to face murder charges in the death of 25-year-old beauty queen Irene Garza in 1960.
Feit did not fight extradition to return to Texas.
Wednesday, law enforcement officials would not say when or where Feit would return to the Rio Grande Valley, but he is expected to land in the Valley on Wednesday.
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HOLLIDAYSBURG – A spokesman for Bishop Mark Bartchak had few answers Tuesday for demands pushed by demonstrators outside the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona–Johnstown offices.
Carrying photos of children who reported abuse by priests, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests demonstrators called for the removal of the diocese victim advocate and the entire Allegation Review Board.
During a hastily-called press conference Tuesday, diocese spokesman Tony DeGol was asked if any additional clergy would be removed as a result of a grand jury report.
“I can’t comment on that because it’s an ongoing investigation,” DeGol said.
DeGol gave the same response when asked why the diocese did not contact law enforcement about suspected abuse under Bartchak’s predecessor, Bishop Joseph Adamec.
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.
The allegations contained in a grand jury report about child sexual abuse in the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese are beyond appalling. They are horrifying.
For decades, the grand jury found, priests in the diocese sexually abused hundreds of children. Two bishops covered up the abuse, transferring priests accused of abusing children to other parishes. The grand jury found a shocking, and documented, pattern of criminal behavior that is simply unimaginable. That an institution that claims moral authority would behave so immorally is more than unsettling. It is terrifying.
And yet, that wasn’t even the worst of the grand jury report. The worst is that, despite the evidence, authorities and victims had no recourse. The statute of limitations has expired for prosecuting any of the cases and for victims to seek recompense in civil court.
In short, the cover-up worked. Yes, the alleged crimes have been exposed, but there is nothing that can be done to dispense any measure of justice in these cases.
For that reason, the grand jury recommended abolishing the criminal and civil statute of limitations in child sexual abuse cases and establishing a two-year window for previous victims to seek justice in civil court.
Those recommendations make a lot of sense, especially when you consider the circumstances.
In cases of child sexual abuse, experts say, it often takes years for victims to come to terms with what happened to them and muster the courage to come forward. In cases involving powerful institutions – be it the Catholic Church or Penn State – that process takes even more time because victims are intimidated into silence by the institution’s power.
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MONTGOMERY COUNTY – A longtime local priest faces charges that he stole $1,500,000 from a catholic church in Huber Heights. Montgomery County Prosecutors said today, that Rev. Earl F. Simone stole the money from Saint Peter Catholic Church between January 2008 and March 31, 2008.
According to the church, Simone had been a priest at Saint Peter from 1992 until 2015. We first reported what Huber Heights police called “financial irregularities” in March of 2015. The Cincinnati Archdiocese gave the tip to police about the irregularities after there was an ethics complaint at Saint Peter Catholic Church.
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – A retired Roman Catholic bishop in Jackson has died.
Current Bishop Joseph Kopacz says Bishop William Houck died early Wednesday at St. Dominic’s Hospital of complications following heart surgery.
Houck, 89, led the diocese covering 65 counties in central and northern Mississippi from 1984 to 2003. …
His tenure was marred by lawsuits against the diocese over sexual abuse by priests.
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[Cardinal Müller “We should restrain ourselves with self-righteous teachings”.]
Von Joachim Frank
28.02.16
Herr Kardinal, Sie haben in Köln unter dem Titel referiert, „Die Wahrheit wird euch frei machen“. In vielen Ländern sitzen Regimegegner in Haft, weil sie die Wahrheit gesagt haben, viele Journalisten, auch ein Whistleblower wie Edward Snowden. Wem gilt eigentlich Ihre Botschaft?
Es geht in diesem Bibelwort aus dem Johannes-Evangelium um die existenzielle Freiheit des Menschen, die aus dem Glauben an Gott kommt: die Freiheit von der Angst um sich selbst, Freiheit von Sünde und der Verfallenheit an das Nichts. In diesem Sinn kann ein ungerecht Gefangener innerlich freier sein als seine Peiniger. Männer wie Pater Maximilian Kolbe oder Dietrich Bonhoeffer bezeugen uns das. Oder heute auch die Christen, die vom IS enthauptet worden sind, weil sie ihrem Glauben treu bleiben wollten.
Wie wollen Sie vermeiden, dass aus dieser Sicht – die Opfer sind freier als die Täter – ein Freifahrtschein für Diktatoren und Terroristen wird?
Ich versuche, es konkret zu machen: Dietrich Bonhoeffer hat sich dem Unrechtsregime der Nationalsozialisten aktiv entgegengestellt. Der Kampf gegen Ungerechtigkeit ist notwendig. Aber es kann die Stunde der Ohnmacht kommen. Dann gilt es, sich nicht vom Bösen überwältigen zu lassen, sondern die innere Freiheit zu bewahren; wie Jesus sagt, sich nicht vor denen zu fürchten, die zwar den Leib, aber nicht die Seele töten können (Matthäus 10,28). Beides kommt im Titel von Bonhoeffers wichtigstem Werk zum Ausdruck: „Widerstand und Ergebung“.
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HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – A group of state lawmakers will call on district attorneys across the state to lead tougher child sexual abuse investigations.
State Reps. Mark Rozzi (D-Berks), Tom Murt (R-Montgomery/Philadelphia) and Frank Burns (D-Cambria) will make the call at a news conference Wednesday afternoon at the Capitol.
They want prosecutors to follow every lead possible that may may lead to evidence in child sex abuse cases. This includes conducting grand jury investigations whenever there are multiple allegations.
This is in response to a grand jury report on child sexual abuse in the Catholic diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. Investigators said 50 priests abused hundreds of children for at least 40 years. Two bishops are accused of covering up their behavior.
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The Diocese of Crookston will ask the Court during Thursday’s scheduled hearing at the Polk County Justice Center to dismiss a lawsuit filed on behalf of a sexual abuse survivor, Doe 19, who was sexually abused as a young boy by Father J. Vincent Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald worked as a priest at St. Anne’s in Naytahwaush, MN, where he allegedly abused Doe 19.
Prior to working at St. Anne’s in the Diocese of Crookston, Fitzgerald also worked at St. Catherine’s parish in Squaw Lake, MN, in the Diocese of Duluth, where he sexually abused another young boy, Bill Weis. In November 2015, a Ramsey County jury reached a verdict in favor of Weis, concluding the Diocese of Duluth was negligent in failing to supervise Fitzgerald.
Doe 19’s trial is set for July 2016.
Doe 19’s lawsuit was filed in November 2013 under the Minnesota Child Victims Act which allows survivors of sexual abuse to sue their offenders and the institutions who protected the offenders. The deadline for sexual abuse survivors to file a lawsuit is May 25, 2016.
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WASHINGTON
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release – Monday, March 7, 2016
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
A few weeks ago, Yakima Catholic officials said they MIGHT post names of predator priests on a church website this month. (Last week, a Pennsylvania bishop pledged to do this too.)
This move is long overdue. It’s the quickest, easiest way to warn parents, police, prosecutors, parishioners and the public about predator priests. It’s the very least bishops should do, since they recruited, educated, ordained, hired, trained, transferred and shielded these predators for years, often helping them evade prosecution by keeping their crimes secret until the statute of limitations expired.
Over the past dozen years or so, more than 30 US bishops have released such lists. http://www.bishop-accountability.org/AtAGlance/lists.htm
In January, the Seattle Catholic archdiocese released a list of 77 child molesting clerics who worked there.
That same month, the Yakima Republic reported that Yakima church officials may do the same thing in March.
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Nueve párrocos de ese Estado del sur de México acusaron a otro cura de abusar de casi 100 niños, por lo cual dos fueron suspendidos y el resto ha recibido amenazas
Nueve sacerdotes católicos de Oaxaca acusan haber sido amenazados de muerte y al menos dos de ellos han sido suspendidos del sacerdocio por pedir a su obispo y al Vaticano su intervención en el caso de un párroco que ha abusado de unos 100 niños indígenas en Oaxaca, sureste de México. El pederasta incluso ya está preso pero la Iglesia se niega a castigarlo o siquiera reconocerlo como abusador….
El párroco Gerardo Silvestre Hernández está acusado de abusar sexualmente de un centenar de niños. Cuatro de las víctimas se lo contaron a otro cura en confesión y él decidió poner al tanto al arzobispo José Luis Chávez, quien solucionó el problema cambiando al pederasta de parroquia y callando la voz acusadora. Pero los abusos continuaron en la siguiente iglesia y en otras cinco. El acusador, Apolonio Merino, mantuvo el apoyo a los menores y sus familias, hasta que fue suspendido junto con otro sacerdote que se unió a esa causa. El Vaticano absolvió al abusador mientras los sacerdotes suspendidos temen por su integridad y la de sus familias.
“La mayoría de los sacerdotes que hemos impulsado esta causa en Oaxaca estamos siendo objeto de amenazas, persecución y hostigamiento de parte del arzobispo y de su equipo. Ratifico lo que me dijeron en confesión pero no lo voy a ventilar por ética profesional, lo que sí puedo decir es que hubo abusos muy graves en esa parroquia. Eran adolescentes de entre 13 y 14 años, sólo de Santiago Camotlán son 45 menores y en las otras calculamos otros 45, alrededor de 100 en total”, dijo Apolonio Merino a El País.
El otro sacerdote suspendido es Ángel Noriega, quien fuera responsable de la parroquia de Santiago Camotlán, de donde fue desalojado en julio de 2015 sin una orden ni aviso previo de la arquidiócesis. Merino afirma que recibe llamadas anónimas en las que le dicen que se cuide, que “se lo va a cargar la chingada, que le van a dar donde más le duele”, es decir, su familia. Ambos firmaron, junto con otros siete curas, una carta dirigida a la Santa Sede en la que le informan de los abusos contra los niños y de la omisión del arzobispo Chávez Botello, pero su acción sólo derivó en suspensiones y amenazas.
Esta es la carta de respuesta que envió el Vaticano.FONI OAXACA
“Sobre el reverendo Silvestre no pesa denuncia verosímil que justifique la intervención de este Dicasterio en su ámbito de competencia, por lo que la causa queda desestimada en su mérito. A su vez, se invita al diálogo sereno que redunde en un mayor bien de cohesión y unidad pastoral”, fue la respuesta enviada por el Vaticano a Oaxaca en 2011.
Otra de las personas que acusó a Silvestre es Narcisa Mendoza, madre de una de las víctimas. La señora presentó una denuncia penal contra el párroco y escribió una carta al Papa Francisco en noviembre de 2015 para pedirle su intervención en el caso, sin respuesta hasta ahora.Únete a EL PAÍS para seguir toda la actualidad y leer sin límites.
“Cuando me entero que el cura los llamaba al cuarto y los emborrachaba y así abusaba de ellos, entonces fui a quejarme ante las autoridades”, relató Mendoza en su carta, escrita de puño y letra y difundida por la red defensora de la infancia oaxaqueña ‘Foni’. “Yo sí le pido justicia por los niños zapotecas y que no se vuelva a repetir porque es un sufrimiento muy grande, muy terrible que a nadie se le desea”.
Esta es la carta que Narcisa Mendoza escribió al papa Francisco.FONI OAXACA
Mendoza acudió con la autoridad local para denunciar a Silvestre, pero la respuesta que obtuvo fue que “ya habían notificado al arzobispo y éste no les había hecho caso”, así que interpuso su denuncia a nivel estatal. Gracias a su denuncia y la de otra decena de madres y padres, Silvestre Hernández fue detenido en 2013 y está en espera de una sentencia por abuso sexual contra menores de edad.
Por su parte, el arzobispo de Antequera, José Luis Chávez Botello, está en espera también de la decisión del pontífice sobre su permanencia en la arquidiócesis, pero no por su presunta complicidad en los abusos contra los niños, sino porque recién cumplió 75 años y el Derecho Canónico obliga a los obispos a renunciar a esa edad, dejando su cargo a consideración del Papa.
En México no existe una cifra exacta de niños abusados por sacerdotes porque todavía es una mayoría la que no denuncia, según el activista contra la pederastia Alberto Athié. El caso más notorio es el del fundador de la Legión de Cristo, Marcial Maciel, acusado no sólo de pederastia sino de tener hijos con varias mujeres e imponer un voto de silencio extraordinario a sus congregados para evitar que lo denunciaran. Maciel murió en 2008 a los 87 años de edad, sin haber enfrentado ningún proceso penal o canónico.
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Sometimes you don’t have to see the movie. Sometimes it’s not a movie at all.
A letter arrived at my house last week that, right away, caught my attention. Now I don’t know about you, but there’s something about an attorney’s return address on an envelope addressed to me that makes finding out what’s inside a lot more important than the latest missive from Publisher’s Clearinghouse. So I stood there, barely in the door, coat still on and read, “We are sending this letter to anyone who may have attended a parish or school in the Diocese of Winona …”
The letter was from Jeff Anderson & Associates, a reminder that “anyone who was sexually abused by a priest, deacon teacher, or anyone else associated with the Diocese of Winona … must bring a claim by the May 25, 2016 deadline.”
I put the letter down and took off my coat. I hadn’t been abused.
But I could have been. When I was a boy the Bishop of Winona moved Thomas Adamson, one of the accused priests, into the rectory three blocks from my house.
I was fortunate. My friend and classmate was not so lucky.
He wasn’t the first. The bishop knew that when he sent Adamson to our town.
He knew.
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Just a week after a Grand Jury report detailing decades of sexual abuse and cover-up within the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese a group rallies to support victims. A small group held a rally Tuesday outside the Diocese in Hollidaysburg and clutching photos of innocent children asking the Diocese for change. This biggest issue is the cover up and that needs to get stopped in order for kids to get help. These young faces are important, they are the faces of survivors at the age they were abused. Those in the photos allow snap, the Survivors Network of those abused by Priests show their faces to tell their story about sexual abuse at the hands of church leaders. And for Pam Erdely this mission is personal. I was sexual abused by a nun in my high school in 1972. Erdely made the two hour drive from Pittsburgh to stand on this lawn to stand up for what she believes in. Abuse is like a knife in your heart and a bullet in your brain. It is very dark and depressing. My main message today is, I just want to tell victims there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
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(ANSA) – Cremona, March 9 – Two of five alleged child sexual abuse victims on Wednesday requested damages in a trial against 66-year-old Father Mauro Inzoli, who stands accused of several counts of sexual assault on minors.
Inzoli headed up the Cremona chapter of conservative lay Catholic movement Communion and Liberation (CL) for 30 years. He founded the Food Bank charity and is also known as Father Mercedes thanks to a passion for luxury cars.
The prelate is accused of abusing his authority to sexually assault underage boys, both in his office where he led spiritual exercises and in hotels in summer resorts during CL-organized youth holidays.
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Jerome Christenson wrote an excellent column about the sexual abuse cover up in the Roman Catholic Church (Daily News, March 2). While that column may have been motivated viewing the recent award-winning movie, “Spotlight,” it was much more personal and real. In that column, Jerome says, “We owe it to the children never to forget.”
He is so right.
My wife and I attended the movie “Spotlight” about two weeks ago. We came out of the theater in silence. Everyone who was there was silent. I’ve never left a theater where it felt like everyone was dumbstruck by the events of the movie.
As many of you may know, I have been vocal in a very public way about the Catholic Church’s response to the sexual abuse crisis. I wrote my first public letter in the Daily News on the subject in May 2007, but I was still unaware of the absolute corruption that was the coverup in Boston…until seeing this movie.
Today — 15 years after the Boston story hit the papers, 30, 40, 50, 60 years after the “modern” sexual abuse coverup scandal began — the Roman Catholic hierarchy still does not get it.
Even as I write this, Cardinal George Pell (formerly of Australia) and retired Bishop Joseph Adamec (Pennsylvania) are defending their illegal behaviors. Cardinal Law remains safely in the Vatican and has not been called to account for his illegal activities.
Perhaps even more incredulous is that newer bishops not involved in the previous coverup activities in their dioceses are actively defending the behaviors of their predecessors, in many instances driving their dioceses into bankruptcy in order to do so. Apologies are shallow or two-faced. For instance: Archbishop Jerome Listecki (Milwaukee) appears to have “reached out” to sexual abuse survivors simply as a tactic to ensure that his bankrupt archdiocese would not be obligated in any way to those who came forward.
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Lord Janner faced allegations that he had abused 30 victims from the mid-1950s until the late 1980s, the first preliminary hearing of a public inquiry into child abuse has heard.
The inquiry, overseen by Justice Lowell Goddard, began by looking at abuse claims against the former Labour MP, including claims he took alleged victims to the houses of parliament.
Wednesday’s hearing was the first of Goddard’s public investigations in her independent inquiry into institutional failures to protect children from abuse over many decades in England and Wales.
Janner, a former Leicester MP, was charged with 22 sexual offences dating back to the 1960s, but died in December at the age of 87 before a trial of the facts could take place in a criminal courtroom.
In her inquiry, Goddard will be asked to decide whether or not the allegations are well founded, to discover any institutional failings, and to look at why so many children who complained of abuse were left within his reach for so long.
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In a courtroom that has hosted some of the most significant and dramatic public inquiries of the last 20 years, a New Zealand judge will take her seat to begin a journey into one of the darkest corners of British life.
What emerges over the coming months and years in Court 73 of the Royal Courts of Justice, will be difficult to face, not only for social workers, local government officials, teachers, religious leaders, senior politicians and the police, but for society as a whole.
The first of Justice Lowell Goddard’s 25 public investigations, in her independent inquiry into institutional failures to protect children over many decades in England and Wales, will focus on the late Greville Janner. The former Labour MP was charged with 22 sexual offences dating back to the 1960s, but died before a trial of the facts could take place in a criminal courtroom. It will be her job to decide, having considered the allegations, whether or not they are well founded, and to probe why so many children who have complained of abuse were left within his reach for so long.
For the few hours that she sits in court on Wednesday, Goddard will hear from lawyers, as most victims plan to stay away from what is a preliminary hearing. But for these survivors – vulnerable children in the care of Leicestershire county council, now grown into middle-aged men – and many others, it will be a hugely symbolic moment.
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Pope Francis’ proposed Vatican tribunal to judge bishops who covered up for pedophile priests is going nowhere fast.
Despite fresh focus from the Oscar-winning film “Spotlight” on how Catholic bishops protected priests who raped children, Francis’ most significant sex abuse-related initiative to date has stalled. It’s a victim of a premature roll-out, unresolved legal and administrative questions and resistance both inside and outside of the Holy See, church officials and canon lawyers say.
The surprise proposal made headlines when it was announced on June 10 as the first major initiative of Francis’ sex abuse advisory commission. A Vatican communique said Francis and his nine cardinal advisers had unanimously agreed to create a new judicial section within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to handle “abuse of office” cases against bishops accused of failing to protect their flocks from pedophiles.
But the proposal immediately raised red flags to canon lawyers and Vatican officials alike.
For starters, the congregation, which since 2001 has been the clearing house for all church abuse cases around the world, wasn’t consulted or even informed. As is, the congregation is understaffed and overwhelmed processing hundreds of backlogged cases of priests who molested children, advising dioceses on how to proceed.
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THE FACT OF THE DAY. We met Tuesday Archbishop Philippe Barbarin. The Archbishop of Lyons, accused of having protected a pedophile priest responds to victims who file complaints against him. “The resignation, for me, is not relevant. If I am guilty, then we’ll see, “he says.
In front of the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière Tuesday afternoon on the heights of Lyon, a few dozen meters from his archbishop, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin argues, relaxed, with an old parishioner. True to himself, he collects big hand gestures as if he had Italian blood.
Since it is specifically referred to two complaints from victims of pedophile priest Bernard Preynat for not denouncing these acts, he did not personally expressed. The day before, his entourage has informed us that he could not respond positively to our request for interview. But when we decide to question him directly on the square, the Primate of the Gauls, currently in turmoil, finally agrees to deliver. And to face the accusations of the alleged victims of Father Preynat who reproach him for not having alerted justice since 2007 when it experienced the past pedophile of scouts priest. What do you say to the victims of the father Preynat? M GR BARBARIN . In 2007, these are rumors and these are very old facts. I have not seen anyone at that time. When, in 1991, the priest was moved to another parish, Archbishop I’m not, I’m not responsibilities. And then, there are twenty-five years, we must not forget that we are also in a different mentality compared to pedophilia. Have you thought in 2007 to prevent the judiciary? I do not even think. Again, I hear things about the past of the priest but that’s it. How to improve the warning system? Maybe Consider later we have external advisors in this type business.
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Victims of child sexual and physical abuse will no longer face restrictive limitation periods when seeking compensation in NSW.
State parliament on Wednesday voted to remove the limitation periods that have previously blocked claims made more than three years after abuse occurred.
About 22,000 people are expected to benefit from the change, which was one of 99 recommendations made by the abuse royal commission last year.
Greens MLC David Shoebridge said the bill delivered a measure of real justice for victims of historic abuse.
“We know that it can take decades for survivors to be able to talk about their experiences, let alone find the courage to bring a claim for damages, and this reform reflects that reality,” he said.
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METUCHEN — A new bishop will be installed in the Diocese of Metuchen in May, replacing Paul Bootkoski who has served as bishop there for 14 years.
The Rev. Monsignor James Checchio, 49, was introduced Tuesday morning at a press conference in the auditorium of the St. John Neumann Pastoral Center in Piscataway, which was filled with priests, and other members of the diocese he will soon lead.
“I’m looking forward to making this my home for a very long time,” Checchio said.
Bootkoski will remain in charge of the diocese until Checchio’s installation, according to a diocese statement.
Checchio spent the last 12 years as the rector for the Pontifical North American College in Rome, but he is originally from Collingswood in Camden County.
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Vatican City, 8 March 2016 – The Holy Father has appointed Msgr. James F. Checchio as bishop of Metuchen (area 3,688, population 1,383,217, Catholics 636,217, priests 204, permanent deacons 154, religious 304), United States of America. The bishop-elect was born in 1966 in Camden, United States of America and was ordained a priest in 1992. He holds a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Rome, and has served in a number of pastoral roles, including parish vicar, defender of the bond in the tribunal of Camden, director of the diocesan Public Relations and Communications Office, parish administrator and moderator of the Curia. He is currently rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome. He succeeds Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon reaching the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.
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An Anglican priest charged last month with sexually assaulting five youths in Edmonton during the 1980s is facing more charges after police say more victims came forward.
In February, Edmonton police charged Gordon William Dominey, 63, with five counts of sexual assault and five counts of gross indecency in connection with incidents that allegedly occurred at the Edmonton Youth Development Centre from 1985 to 1989.
He now faces 18 sexual assault charges and nine gross indecency charges in relation to the alleged assaults, which are reported to have happened at the incarceration facility.
Dominey was employed at the centre at the time.
The new charges come after four more men came forward in the last month to report allegations of sexual assault at the facility during the same time period, Edmonton police say.
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BY OTIENA ELLWAND
FIRST POSTED: TUESDAY, MARCH 08, 2016
An Anglican priest accused of sexually assaulting teenage boys at an Edmonton youth jail in the 1980s faces 17 additional charges after four more complainants came forward to police in the past month.
Edmonton police announced Tuesday that Gordon William Dominey, 63, is now facing a total of 18 sexual assault charges and nine gross indecency charges in relation to incidents that allegedly occurred while he was employed as a priest at the Edmonton Youth Development Centre.
Dominey was initially charged with five counts each of sexual assault and gross indecency in February after two complainants came forward to police in September and then three other alleged victims were identified later.
Those complainants were allegedly abused at the youth centre between 1985 and 1989, when they were between the ages 14 to 17.
Dominey was arrested Feb. 4 in Coquitlam, B.C., and is believed to have lived in British Columbia since 1990. While living there, Dominey was employed as a parish priest.
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When she arrived at the Donnybrook laundry, Sara was given a number and told to remember it. The number 100. This was her new identity.
In her survivor testimony for Justice for Magdalenes’ (JFM’s) submission to the Inter-Departmental Committee set up to investigate state involvement in the Magdalene laundries, Sara W described the conditions in the Donnybrook laundry between 1954 and 1956, before she was moved to another Magdalene laundry, in Cork.
“At nine o’clock every night you were locked into that cell,” she says. “The windows used to be up very high, like a small little window . . . and I used to climb up the top of the bed to look out.”
“I never seen daylight for two years,” she continues. “The only bit of freedom — we were allowed to walk up and down a place called ‘the bleach’, where they put out the sheets in the summertime, clothes lines and all that. You’d walk up and down there. That was your freedom.”
Sara’s crime? She didn’t commit one.
At 15, she was working at a bed and breakfast. As she recalls it, members of the Legion of Mary promised her a better job and brought her to the Donnybrook Laundry. There, they told her they were putting her in the institution for her own safety.
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TAMPA (FOX 13) – For 40 years, a man named in a new lawsuit as John Doe has been hiding allegations that he was sexually abused as a child at Tampa Catholic school Mary Help of Christians.
The school is now defunct, but the religious order that ran it, the Salesians of Don Bosco, does operate a church on the school’s old property in East Tampa.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Hillsborough County names Brother John Casula as the abuser.
Casula was an auto shop teacher and religious leader at the school. He died in 1994.
Casula’s accuser says the abuse began in 1976 when he was 12 and continued for two years. During that time, the accuser says Casula touched and fondled him on nearly 20 separate occasions in a secluded auto shop at the school. The lawsuit alleges the school knew about other abuse allegations against Casula and other brothers or priests, but did not report the abuse and protected the abusers.
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THE Church of England is standing firm over its handling of the George Bell case despite fierce criticism from its former head.
On Monday The Argus reported how the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey had lambasted the church after it publicly settled a claim of historic sex abuse against Bell and apologised to the victim of the former head of the church in Sussex.
In a letter to Bell’s niece, Lord George Carey said he felt the revered wartime bishop had been denied the right to a fair trial and he was looking for “ways of reopening” the matter.
His intervention was met with resolve from the Church of England on Monday, reiterating its reasons for the way it handled the case.
The spokesman told The Argus: “Where allegations are made against a deceased person, as is the case with Bishop Bell, they are treated seriously and dealt with accordingly, however uncomfortable this may prove, or however high profile the individual may be.
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A former Catholic Brother has fronted Wollongong court accused of sexually abusing a young male student at Edmund Rice College in the late 1980s.
John Vincent Roberts was a teacher at the prestigious single-sex school when he allegedly repeatedly molested and raped the 12-year-old boy while on school grounds.
Police charge sheets presented in court claim Roberts’ carried out several acts of indecency upon the child, including fondling his penis and anus, and masturbating him.
Roberts is also accused of rubbing his own erect penis over the boy’s body at least twice in an 18 month period.
Police allege Roberts’ sexual attention towards the boy escalated into rape on several occasions.
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[Cardinal Phillipe Barbarin, who is being investigated by the court for failing to report a suspect abusive priest, said his resignation is not being considered.]
L’archevêque de Lyon Philippe Barbarin, mis en cause par une association de victimes d’un prêtre pédophile, a indiqué que sa démission n’était “pas une question d’actualité” sans toutefois l’écarter s’il était “fautif” aux yeux de la Justice, dans une interview au Parisien.
“La démission, pour moi, n’est pas une question d’actualité.
Si je suis fautif, si je suis +occasion à scandales+, alors là on verra. La justice va faire son travail”, déclare le cardinal.
“Je porte les souffrances terribles provoquées par ce prêtre”, ajoute le Primat des Gaules, assurant penser “aux victimes tous les jours”.
Le parquet de Lyon a ordonné une enquête préliminaire pour des faits de non-dénonciation et de mise en péril de la vie d’autrui au sujet d’agressions sexuelles commises par le père Bernard Preynat, sur de jeunes scouts lyonnais entre 1986 et 1991 pour lesquelles le religieux a été mis en examen.
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[Facing reporters, Cardinal Barbarin defended his not having informed the authorities when he was made aware of the actions of the priest Preynat who is accused to abusing scouts but he said he thinks every day of the victims.]
Dans la tourmente, le cardinal Philippe Barbarin, qui fait face à deux plaintes pour “non-dénonciation” d’un prêtre pédophile, a répondu aux questions du Parisien qui l’a rencontré sur le parvis de la basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière, à Lyon.
Face aux journalistes, Mgr Barbarin défend le fait de ne pas avoir prévenu les autorités au moment où il a été mis au courant des agissements du père Preynat, le curé des scouts, tout en affirmant penser “tous les jours” aux victimes.
“Si je suis fautif, on verra”
“En 2007, ce sont des bruits qui courent et ce sont des faits très anciens (entre 1986 et 1991, ndlr). Je n’ai vu personne à ce moment-là”, explique l’archevêque de Lyon. “Encore une fois, j’entends dire des choses sur le passé du prêtre, mais c’est tout. ”
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Ballarat Grammar says it has assisted a number of former students to report allegations of historical sex abuse at the school to the police and the child abuse royal commission.
The Anglican school’s headmaster Adam Heath said the school wrote to former students late last year asking them to come forward if they had experienced abuse in the past.
“The school decided to be as proactive as possible,” he said.
“That was really a measure by the school to do everything possible to offer support to any former students who had been subjected to abuse.”
Mr Heath said a number of students had since approached the school, to report instances of abuse relating to the 1970s and early 80s.
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A film about a landmark sexual abuse case for damages against an Anglican school is shooting in Queensland with an impressive cast headed by Rachel Griffiths, Jack Thompson, Aden Young and Jacqueline McKenzie.
Director Tori Garrett calls Don’t Tell a “riveting” courtroom drama that tells an important story that triggered new regulations and contributed towards the creation of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
“The material is so strong,” Garrett says. “The stuff that we’re talking about in the courtroom is straight from the court transcripts, so it’s all word for word true.”
Don’t Tell is based on a book by lawyer Stephen Roach (Young), who represented a 22-year-old woman known only as Lyndal (Sara West) when she took action against Toowoomba Preparatory School in 2001.
The school had denied she was sexually abused by a boarding house master, played by Gyton Grantley, a decade earlier. As a result of the case the Anglican Archdiocese of Brisbane paid her compensation of more than $800,000.
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Personalising political campaigns may not guarantee success but usually enhances the case being made.
Personalised advocacy can be extremely effective in politics. Cardinal George Pell was at the centre of the recent hearing conducted in Rome by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, but it was the Ballarat survivors of church abuse whose personal presence and shocking stories have created added momentum and political pressure for apologies and redress. The survivors were living testimony of the damage inflicted by the abuse. Pell, on the other hand, failed the test of personal empathy.
In other commission hearings into institutional child sex abuse where the passing of time means that there are no surviving personal stories, or where privacy demands that the identity of the victims is hidden from view, the issues can appear much more abstract and so lack the same political impact.
The general point is that personalised advocacy is one of the main characteristics of many of the major social campaigns now crowding the political agenda. Making the political personal may not guarantee success but it usually enhances the political arguments that are being made. Such personalised arguments can put the other side very much on the back foot.
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Jonathan Rosenblatt, the modern Orthodox rabbi who found himself at the center of a controversial firestorm at the Riverdale synagogue that he has led for decades, has now announced that he will be stepping down from his post as spiritual leader.
The prominent rabbi of the Riverdale Jewish Center drew harsh rebuke from congregants for taking boys as young as 12 years of age along with young men to join him in naked sauna visits. Reports indicate that during the 1980s and 90s, Rosenblatt, now 59, would engage his young charges in deep discussions about their lives and faith in G-d. The sauna sessions would generally take place after playing squash in the synagogue gym. Rosenblatt would shower with the boys and then enter the sauna or hot tub. While nothing sexually untoward occurred, a 2015 article in the New York Times renewed an ongoing debate as to whether his conduct was appropriate as several of the boys in question, who are now in their 40s had said that Rosenblatt made them feel uncomfortable by looking at their naked bodies and commenting on them.
In 2011, Rosenblatt reached an agreement with the Rabbinical Council of America, which oversees American Orthodox rabbis, to stop taking congregants to the sauna altogether.
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AUSTRALIA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn
[with release download]
Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn, Christopher Prowse announces the new Institute for Professional Standards and Safeguarding in the Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn.
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The Catholic Church has established a new body to handle sexual abuse complaints in the ACT region.
Archbishop Christopher Prowse from the Canberra and Goulburn Archdiocese has launched the Institute for Professional Standards and Safeguarding.
Archbishop Prowse said the move was in response to the recent focus on the church’s responses to child sexual abuse through the royal commission.
“Too many [survivors], regrettably, have spoken of being confronted by a brutal and defensive church governance structure that refused to take responsibility,” Archbishop Prowse said.
“The aim is to support survivors with the reassurance that all our communities are safe, our children and vulnerable people are truly cared for, and the spiritual dimension of all we do is not compromised by unethical and criminal behaviour.”
Archbishop Prowse said the institute would be headed by a lawyer and former senior police officer.
“The manager [Jane Cronan] is a wonderful woman with a legal background, particularly in this area,” he said.
“The director [Matt Casey] is a former senior detective.”
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By Phil Ray (pray@altoonamirror.com) , The Altoona Mirror
Four representatives of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, on Tuesday called for an end to the statute of limitations for child sexual abuse offenses and asked the bishops of the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown and other Pennsylvania dioceses to publish the names and photographs of clergy and other employees who have been identified as child predators.
Judy Jones, the assistant director of SNAP’s midwestern office in St. Louis, said, “There are many victims out there suffering in silence.”
SNAP invited area victims to attend a confidential meeting at the Bellwood-Antis Public Library on Tuesday evening. The SNAP representative said the meeting was held to allow victims to discuss the abuse they suffered while being consoled by other victims.
Pam Erdely, who said she was sexually abused at age 17 by a nun at Canevin High School in Pittsburgh, said she joined SNAP because she wanted to “stand in solidarity” with other victims and help them heal as a group.
At first she didn’t realize the magnitude of what had happened to her. She said it took time for her to realize that a crime had been commited and “that it wasn’t my fault.”
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THE Catholic Church across America has been mired in scandal for nearly 20 years — since reports of widespread abuse of children by its priests first surfaced. The Seattle Archdiocese is no different.
As an attorney, I have represented hundreds of Catholics who were abused by priests, brothers and lay employees in Seattle and across Washington. My clients have been men and women, young and old, rich and poor, from both stable and troubled families. These survivors of abuse have a unique and important perspective on the actions of the Seattle Archdiocese with regard to how it handles complaints of abuse, and its claims of apology and accountability.
On Jan. 15, the Archdiocese released the names of 77 individuals who it deemed had been credibly accused of sexually abusing children. Almost immediately, survivors of abuse and their advocates began to call on the Seattle Archdiocese to release all of its files pertaining to the 77 abusive priests, nuns and clerics it identified.
The Archdiocese of Seattle maintains files and a “secret archive” regarding abusive priests in its ranks, including many of the 77 individuals it recently identified. Under canon law, which governs the Catholic Church, every bishop and archbishop is required to keep “secret files” that contain information regarding misconduct by his priests. The secret files include information regarding priests who are accused of sexually abusing children, including internal correspondence that often sheds light on how the church allowed the abuse to happen.
Each bishop and archbishop has the authority to make his secret files public. A number have exercised that authority and released the files regarding priests credibly accused of sexually abusing children, including the archbishop of Chicago, who oversees the third largest archdiocese in the United States.
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HARRISBURG — A deputy attorney general requested a grand jury investigation of child sexual abuse allegations against Altoona-Johnstown area Catholic priests in January 2013, but superiors turned him down, the Attorney General’s Office said Tuesday.
It was rejected about a year before a grand jury investigation was initiated based on a stronger case referred by Cambria County District Attorney Kelly Callihan, said Chuck Ardo, spokesman for Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
Ardo confirmed that Deputy Attorney General Daniel Dye requested a grand jury investigation the month Kane was sworn into office based on a referral late the previous year from Callihan on a case involving child abuse allegations against the Rev. George Koharchik.
He was later called a “child predator” in a grand jury report released last week that found hundreds of victims had been abused by as many as 50 priests over 40 years in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown. No one was charged as a result of expired statutes of limitations, deaths and reluctant witnesses. The grand jury investigation began in April 2014.
“There’s no question” the Attorney General’s Office could have used the 2013 referral from Callihan to launch a grand jury investigation, said Marci Hamilton, a professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City. Why it did not do so remains unclear, she said.
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First, it was Penn State. Then it was the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Now, just when you thought that scandals involving the sexual abuse of children couldn’t get any worse, we learn about yet another one.
After a prolonged and extensive investigation, law enforcement professionals have uncovered literally mounds of evidence detailing countless cases of child sexual abuse and a multiyear cover-up by Roman Catholic Church officials in the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.
The diocese was found to have willingly protected priests who were known child molesters. Through church connections and pathetic public officials, the diocese protected the child-molesting priests from law enforcement and prosecution.
Perhaps the worst crime they committed was never taking subsequent action to protect children from these child-molesting priests. In the diocese, when a priest was found to have sexually abused a child, the normal protocol was to simply move the priest to another parish, offer a cash payment to the family and/or send the offending priest on retreat, only to have him returned to ministry in the future.
The grand jury report reads even more graphic, sickening and disgusting than the grand jury report that concerned the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. If you have the stomach for it, you can find it on the Internet. The link will caution you about the graphic nature of what you are about to read.
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Monsignor John A. Zuraw, chancellor of the Diocese of Youngstown, responded Tuesday to issues raised by Road to Recovery, a New Jersey-based support group for victims of sexual abuse by priests and other clergy.
Robert Hoatson, support-group president, led a news conference Sunday near diocesan offices that included Barbara Aponte, mother of Luke Bradesky, a student from 1990-94 at John F. Kennedy High School in Warren and a victim of the late Stephen Baker, who abused a group of JFK students.
The Sunday news event was prompted by the release of findings by Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane. That investigation of Altoona-Johnstown Diocese revealed former bishops covered up or didn’t respond to allegations of abuse by more than 50 priests from 1966 to 2011. Baker was implicated in some cases.
Baker was in the religious order of the Third Order Regular Franciscans, the monsignor explained. “Baker was not a diocesan priest under the bishop. He was a religious brother under a local religious superior,” he said. When the religious order’s ranks dwindled, members were reassigned.
“The diocese had no knowledge of Baker’s misbehavior until it learned of the alleged abuse,” Monsignor Zuraw said. In January 2013, letters from the bishop were sent to all students who attended JFK when Baker was a teacher, coach and trainer there seeking information on abuse. And in November 2013, questionnaires went to JFK teachers and staff asking questions on Baker’s behavior and how it might have put youth in danger. The response was that nothing was observed.
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HOLLIDAYSBURG — Supporters of those who were abused by priests kept pressure on Roman Catholic church leadership Tuesday, calling for swift action against those identified in an investigation.
Protestors from the Survivors Network of those Abused By Priests, or SNAP, stood at the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese administration complex to push for changes following last week’s release of a scathing grand jury report by state Attorney General Kathleen Kane.
“We are here because we want Bishop (Mark) Bartchak to fire a nun who was in the grand jury report for being a victims’ advocate,” said Judy Jones, SNAP’s midwest associate director. “It turns out she was more of an advocate for the defense attorneys for the diocese.”
Jones also called for the removal of all members of the diocese Allegations Review Board and for the bishop to work with the attorney general’s office to select replacements on the board.
Jones singled out the Rev. Joseph Byrnes, a board member who refused to answer the grand jury’s questions.
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When Martin Amos was announced as the eighth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport, it was two days after the diocese became the fourth in the United States to declare bankruptcy because of clergy abuse lawsuits.
Amos moved to Davenport from Cleveland, Ohio, city of his birth and his home for six decades. Weeks before he moved, he sat with a reporter from the Quad-City Times and promised he would work to promote healing among abuse victims and also to restore financial health to the diocese.
Ten years later, the diocese still is recovering from the bankruptcy, trying to meet the spiritual needs of nearly 100,000 Catholics in the 78-parish diocese that covers 22 counties in the southeast part of Iowa.
Amos knew of the bankruptcy decision before he left Ohio. He accepted the decision “with humility and concern for the survivors of abuse and for the diocese,” according to spokesman, Deacon David Montgomery.
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There was an obvious irony in the timing of Cardinal Pell’s evidence to the royal commission last week, coinciding as it did with the awarding of the Oscar for best film to Spotlight, the searing expose of the Boston Church’s failure in relation to its own sexual abuse crisis.
The Commission put the spotlight on the Cardinal in relation to what he knew and did not know about the multiple cases of sexual abuse in the Ballarat diocese while he was a young priest working there.
This was not the Cardinal’s first evidence to the commission. He has been under considerable scrutiny over the John Ellis case and the Melbourne Response, his own attempt to deal with sexual abuse within the Melbourne Diocese.
The Ellis case in particular was very damaging, with contradictory evidence given by the Cardinal and key figures in his offices about who knew what and when. We are yet to see the findings of the commissioner, Peter McClellan, in relation to that conundrum.
The latest interrogation had a focus on the case of the out-of-control pedophile Gerald Ridsdale. Evidence has been received of person after person who seems to have had some knowledge of Ridsdale’s offending: bishops, priests (one of whom went on to become a bishop), religious and laity.
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Survivors and supporters of church sex abuse victims are renewing calls for a Royal Commission into sex abuse throughout New Zealand.
They say Australia is facing up to its past by having an inquiry, and New Zealand should too.
John* still has the scars on his hands where he was hit with a cane by Catholic school teachers.
Now in his early fifties, he also suffers from PTSD and anxiety as he was the victim of sex abuse for six years at Christchurch’s Maryland’s school from the age of six.
John, other survivors and their supporters, are now calling for a Royal Commission into New Zealand’s Catholic Church sex abuse.
Ken Clearwater, from Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse, says he’s been fighting for an independent inquiry since the Boston Globe uncovered huge abuse within the Catholic Church around the world, as seen in Oscar award-winning film Spotlight.
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KOCHI: The Christian priest accused in the Puthenvelikkara rape case exploited his position and sexually abused the minor girl for several months.
The chargesheet in the case, filed before the Special Court for cases related to atrocities and sexual violence against women and children, states that Fr Edwin Figarez, who was priest of the Puthenvelikkara Lourde Matha Church, sexually abused the 14-year-old victim for one-and-half year.
Meanwhile, Ajitha, the government doctor who has been named the fourth accused in the case, was booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act), in a first of its kind arrest in the State. According to the chargesheet, Ajitha failed to inform the matter to the police after learning about the sexual abuse of the minor girl. The doctor came to know about the crime when the victim along with her mother approached her for treatment, while the former was working at the Puthenvelikkara Community Health Centre.
In addition to Fr Figarez and Dr Ajitha, four others brothers and cousins of the priest have been included as accused on charges of harbouring the offender. Thrissur-native Fr Figarez, 41, had served in the church for about three years. Silvestar Figarez, 58, brother of Fr Figarez, is the second accused, while 54-year-old Stanli Figarez, another brother of the priest, is the third accused. His cousin Bencharin Figarez, 22, is the fifth accused, while relative Clarenz De Coutha, 62, is the sixth accused.
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ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) — A grand jury report that found two former bishops helped cover up the sexual abuse of hundreds of children by more than 50 priests in a Pennsylvania diocese has prompted a sitting judge to resign from a Catholic school board and the current bishop to remove cathedral banners that celebrate former bishops.
Bishops James Hogan and Joseph Adamec, who headed the diocese from 1966 until 2011, were criticized by the report. Hogan died in 2005 and Adamec’s attorney has denied he did anything wrong.
Diocesan spokesman Tony DeGol said Bishop Mark Bartchak ordered the banners removed from the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament because he “feels this is a time of humility for the diocese and the focus should be on the victims of abuse.”
Meanwhile, Cambria County Judge Patrick Kiniry has resigned from the board of a Catholic high school. The grand jury report said Kiniry, a former prosecutor, helped Hogan transfer an alleged molester rather than pursue criminal charges in 1985. That priest, Francis McCaa, was described as a “monster” who fondled altar boys who were told to go without pants under their cassocks, according to the grand jury.
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Everyone loves an underdog story, especially a surprise one, and ripples of delight over “Spotlight’s” win for best picture spread out from the Dolby Theater on Sunday night into the after-party beyond.
At the Governors Ball, the first stop for many on the post-Oscars party circuit, there was a discernible hop in many people’s steps — even in the ones who had not won. A relaxed, beaming Bryan Cranston (“Trumbo”) lolled outside the party’s entrance, chatting with Louis C.K., looking wholly unperturbed about losing the best actor Oscar to Leonardo DiCaprio for “The Revenant.” (Mr. Cranston had long acknowledged he wasn’t the favorite to win.) …
Next it was off to the Palihouse in West Hollywood, where the party for “Spotlight” was hitting a delighted fever pitch, so thrilled was everyone there for the film’s victory. The cast was not in attendance, but the writer and director Tom McCarthy was, and he was absolutely over the moon.
Laura Kim, of Participant Media, which produced the film, had just taken Phil Saviano, a survivor of clergy abuse whose story is depicted in “Spotlight,” to the emergency room. Before the Oscars, Mr. Saviano had suffered a blood clot that required he be hospitalized, but, against medical advice, had checked himself out to attend the ceremony, and afterward checked himself back in (reportedly he was faring well).
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HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa.– Exactly one week after a gut-wrenching grand jury report that detailed decades of sexual abuse and a cover-up within the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, a group rallies to support victims.
Clutching photos of innocent children, a small group rallied outside the diocese in Hollidaysburg asking for change.
“This biggest issue is the cover up and that needs to get stopped in order for kids to get help,” Judy Jones, SNAP’s Midwest associate director said.
The young faces are on photos are important. They are the faces of survivors at the age they were abused. Those in the photos allow SNAP, the Survivor’s Network of those Abused by Priests, show their faces and to tell their story about sexual abuse at the hands of church leaders. For protester Pam Erdely this mission is personal.
“I was sexual abused by a nun in my high school in 1972,” Erdely said.
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PINELLAS PARK — For almost 40 years, a former student at the Mary Help of Christians School in Tampa kept his secret. To tell would have meant a life of shame and an afterlife in hell.
The man, whose name was not released because of the nature of the incidents that happened to him four decades ago, filed a lawsuit as John Doe on Tuesday against the Salesian Society, a Catholic order that operated the boarding school in the East Lake area of Tampa.
He spent his life wondering why he was singled out by Brother John Casula, who died in 1994. All those years the man believed he was the only one who suffered sexual abuse by the ordained brother.
He was only 12 years old at the time and the abuse continued until he was 14.
“This is something that has stayed with me for many years,” he said in the conference room of his attorney Tuesday afternoon.
– See more at: http://www.tbo.com/news/breaking-news/another-victim-of-sexual-abuse-suing-former-tampa-catholic-school-20160308/#sthash.kIi6IvoO.dpuf
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Joe Bergantino
Co-founder and executive director of the New England Center for Investigative Reporting
Terry Knopf makes an important point in her article in the Columbia Journalism Review about Boston news coverage of the Catholic Church: for years, many reporters — in print and broadcast media — did not cover the Catholic archdiocese in the same way they covered government or other big institutions. Their reverence and respect for the Catholic religion — in many cases, the religion of their childhood — blinded them to possible wrongdoing inside the institution itself.
But that changed on the first Thursday in May in 1992, 10 years before the Globe’s reporting depicted in the movie Spotlight.
The lead story on WBZ-TV’s six o’clock newscast that night was the I-Team’s investigative report on former priest James Porter. The story revealed that Porter, while a priest in southeastern Massachusetts in the 1960s, had molested large numbers of children, that the Catholic Church moved him from parish to parish knowing that he was a serial pedophile, that the Cardinal at the time was made aware of Porter’s crimes and did little or nothing to stop him, and that even law enforcement had turned a blind eye to Porter’s rampage.
In that story, viewers heard Porter’s voice for the first time. In a recorded phone interview, I asked him how many children he had molested. His answer, without a trace of remorse or emotion: “50 or 60, I guess.” Porter didn’t know that the statute of limitations was frozen the moment he left Massachusetts more than 20 years earlier. In 1993, Porter pleaded guilty to molesting 28 children and spent the rest of his life behind bars.
The I-Team’s May 1992 story unleashed a torrent of local and national coverage focused on Porter and other pedophile priests in Boston. Within days, I, along with investigative producer Paul Toomey, began getting phone calls about other priests including John Geoghan, the priest who was the focus of the Spotlight coverage 10 years later.
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HAVERHILL — The Rev. Frederick Sweeney, the beloved priest who blew the whistle on a fellow clergyman at St. John the Baptist Parish during the Catholic priest sex abuse scandal, has died.
Sweeney died peacefully Sunday, March 6, at Sancta Maria Nursing Facility in Cambridge, according to an obituary posted online by Boyle Brothers Funeral Home in Framingham.
A Worcester native, he was 88.
Sweeney was hailed by many as the priest who, along with the Rev. Dennis Nason of All Saints Parish, forced out former St. John’s Rev. Ronald H. Paquin amid allegations of child sexual abuse.
Nason, the founding pastor of All Saints Parish of Haverhill, died Oct. 4, 2010 at Merrimack Valley Hospice House in Haverhill after a battle with cancer. He was 71.
After pleading guilty in 2002 to raping and molesting an altar boy in Haverhill as many as 50 times from 1989 to 1992, Paquin was sentenced to 12 to 15 years at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Cedar Junction in Walpole. He was released last October.
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A former Connecticut priest plead guilty to providing a teenager with ammunition and explosives powder in 2012, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Paul Gotta, 58, who was charged with seven counts of sexual assault two years ago, faces up to ten years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of willfully distributing an explosive material to an individual under the age of 21 years old, according to prosecutors.
In 2012, Gotta aided a 17-year-old with purchases thousands of rounds of ammunition and on two occasions purchased two pounds of explosives powder in East Windsor for the same teenager, according to court documents.
Gotta served as administrator of St. Philip Church in East Windsor and St. Catherine Church in Broadbrook until he left in 2012 after being accused of sexual abuse.
Gotta was indicted on six charges including aiding and abetting the unlawful transport of a firearm in interstate commerce, aiding and abetting the possession of a handgun by a juvenile, aiding and abetting the possession of ammunition by a juvenile, distribution of explosive material to an individual under the age of 21, aiding and abetting the attempted manufacture of a pipe bomb, and obstruction of justice but only plead guilty to one charge, prosecutors said.
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It was written by an attorney whose clients, all of them victims of sexual molestation and rape at the hands of priests from the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, were seeking some form of redress – either criminal charges or at the very least an investigation into their allegations.
The letter was addressed to three law enforcement officials: Cambria County District Attorney David Tulowitzki, who today is a county judge; Karen Arnold, then-assistant district attorney in Centre County; and Catherine Miller, then-assistant district attorney in Blair County.
The four-page letter detailed accounts from young men who said they had been molested or abused by six parish priests in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese — some over the span of years. One young man was nine years old and serving as an altar boy at Holy Name Church in Ebensburg when Monsignor Francis McCaa began to molest him. The abuse lasted four years.
Richard Serbin, the attorney who wrote the letter to those three officials, never heard back from them.
Now, 14 years later, a grand jury investigation has found that the preponderance of law enforcement authorities to pass on allegations of clergy sex abuse further enabled more than 50 priests to molest hundreds of children over four decades across the diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.
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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Tuesday, March 8
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com)
Cambria County senior officials ignored reports of clergy sex crimes for over a dozen years allowing children to be needlessly placed at risk and we fear dozens upon dozens to be sexually assaulted. Attorney Richard Serbin first wrote county officials in 2002 about young men in six parishes who had been molested.
Law enforcement could have and should have acted sooner. Call on prosecutors and police to come clean about their complicity in clergy sex crimes and cover-ups and to work harder than ever now to expose wrong doers in every way possible. They should also use their “bully pulpit” to prod more victims, witness and whistleblowers to come forward and try again to report these horrific crimes.
They should join growing chorus of voices pushing for a civil window in Harrisburg allowing cases to move forward on their merits rather than automatically being time barred.
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TAMPA — A lawsuit claiming that a former student of the now-defunct Mary Help of Christians School was sexually abused by a teacher in the 1970s was filed in Hillsborough Circuit Court on Tuesday.
The case is the latest in a string of several lawsuits filed in the last decade alleging sexual abuse against Mary Help students. The lawsuit names the Salesians of Don Bosco, a religious order of brothers that dedicate their lives to helping children, which ran the boarding school until it closed in 2006.
According to the 26-page complaint, the victim, identified only as John Doe, started attending the boarding school at age 12 in 1976 when he met brother John Casula, the auto shop instructor.
“He was from a single parent family that lived in a very rough neighborhood in Tampa,” the complaint says. “His mother worked long hours and boarded him at the school for his safety, education, and religious training.”
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EDINBURG, Texas – Authorities say an 83-year-old Arizona man accused of killing a Texas teacher and ex-beauty queen when he was a young priest in 1960 is set to be extradited to Texas.
McAllen Police say its officers as well as members of the Texas Department of Public Safety Ranger Service expect to take John Feit into custody on Wednesday in Phoenix and fly him to South Texas. He will be booked into the Hidalgo County Jail in Edinburg.
A news conference is scheduled for 3 p.m. Wednesday in Edinburg after Feit’s return.
Feit was arrested in Scottsdale on Feb. 9 after he was indicted in Hidalgo County for the killing of Irene Garza, a 25-year-old school teacher.
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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Ted Cruz gives role to “victim hater”
He appointed clergyman to advisory board
That minister called a support group “evil-doers”
“They’re just as reprehensible as sex criminals,” TX preacher said
He heads Ft. Worth seminary and has been a national Baptist official
A presidential hopeful has named a prominent Baptist minister to an advisory board even though the clergyman once called a support group for clergy sex abuse victims “evil-doers.”
Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has tapped Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, to the candidate’s Religious Liberty Advisory Council, despite Patterson’s calling the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) “just as reprehensible as sex criminals.”
The appointment came in the same week that “Spotlight” won two Oscars, including “Best Picture.” The film shows how SNAP played a helpful role in exposing more than 250 child molesting Boston area clerics.
“Patterson made a hurtful, mean-spirited and Trump-like effort to bully suffering victims into staying silent,” said SNAP director David Clohessy. “To equate child molesters to child sex abuse victims may be most vicious comparison possible.”
“In our 27 years, we’ve been insulted often, but virtually never with such vitriol from such a prominent and purportedly ‘Godly’ man like Patterson,” Clohessy said.
At the time of Patterson’s remarks, SNAP had raised questions about his actions in the child sex abuse case of Darrell Gilyard, “a pastor whom Patterson had mentored,” according to Christa Brown of StopBaptistPredators.org. “By the time Gilyard was convicted on child sex charges in Florida, over forty young women and underage teens had made allegations against him. According to the Dallas Morning News, many of those claims had been reported directly to Patterson, but to no avail,” Brown wrote.
Cruz should reverse himself and oust Patterson from his panel, SNAP maintains.
Clohessy also urged victims of Baptist child molesters to ignore Patterson’s “self-serving sentiments” and speak up so that “kids will be safer and cover ups will be prevented.”
“We urge every single person who saw, suspected or suffered child sex crimes and cover ups in Baptist churches or institutions – especially at Patterson’s Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary – to protect kids by calling police, get help by calling therapists, expose wrongdoers by calling journalists, get justice by calling attorneys, and get comfort by calling support groups like ours. This is how kids will be safer, adults will recover, criminals will be prosecuted and cover ups will be deterred and the truth will surface.
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HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. (CNS) — Reminding people that God’s everlasting mercy “will always be greater than any sin,” Bishop Mark L. Bartchak of Altoona-Johnstown called upon parishioners to find peace in God as the diocese deals with the fallout of a grand jury report detailing hundreds of incidents of clergy sexual abuse.
“God has not abandoned us, nor will God forget any of us at this time or at any time,” he said in a letter to the diocese that was read at Masses the weekend of March 5-6.
The letter recalled the story of the prodigal son, the Gospel reading for weekend, in urging parishioners to remain faithful and not to abandon the church.
“No matter how much God experiences the heartache of a father, God our heavenly father keeps watching out for his children, even those who are separated from him and his church,” the letter said.
Bishop Bartchak said he had heard from people who felt betrayed and were considering leaving the Catholic Church in the days after the grand jury report was released March 1 by Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane. He stressed, however, that embracing mercy is the call of God as Pope Francis teaches.
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An Oklahoma missionary who volunteered at a children’s home in Kenya was sentenced to 40 years in prison Monday for sexually assaulting three girls and a boy while working at the facility, according to court documents.
Matthew Lane Durham, 21, was sentenced to four decades in prison by Judge David L. Russell on four counts of “engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places,” according to court documents.
“In a span of just 33 days,” prosecutors wrote to the court, Durham “raped three girls — ages 5, 9 and 15 — at least eight times. During that same time period, he sexually molested a 12-year-old boy twice.”
The prosecutors said that Durham “not only forcefully sexually abused these children,” but “he psychologically damaged them by taking advantage of their trust he received from the children.”
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Oklahoma missionary Matthew Durham sentenced to 40 years in prison for raping children at African orphanage
Matthew Lane Durham, 21, was sentenced to four decades in prison by Judge David L. Russell on four counts of “engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places,” according to court documents.
“In a span of just 33 days,” prosecutors wrote to the court, Durham “raped three girls — ages 5, 9 and 15 — at least eight times. During that same time period, he sexually molested a 12-year-old boy twice.”
The region of the eastern African nation that Durham volunteered in has also been shaken, prosecutors say.
In a sentencing memorandum to the court in February, they wrote that Durham’s actions “have had a chilling effect on the lives of dozens of foreign volunteers in Kenya and elsewhere who must now live under the cloud of suspicion … there is a real perception among Upendo’s local Kenyan community that more pedophiles lurk among the volunteers, especially the male volunteers.”
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NEW JERSEY
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (314 566 9790, 314 645 5915 home, davidgclohessy@gmail.com
A new bishop has been picked to head the Metuchen diocese (where there are at least 13 publicly accused predator priests). We are not optimistic about his handling of child sex abuse and cover up cases.
Msgr. James Checchio has been in Rome for at least a decade. Sadly, the mindset of most Catholic officials in Rome, when it comes to the safety of children, is distressing.
We have seen no evidence that Checchio has done or said anything noteworthy to protect kids and deter cover ups by exposing those who commit or conceal heinous crimes against children.
The last two heads of the seminary which Checchio, now-Cardinals Edwin O’Brien and Timothy Dolan, have been anything but open and compassionate about this continuing crisis.
So we are disappointed in Checchio’s promotion.
Roughly 30 US bishops have posted predator priests’ names on their websites. Sadly, Metuchen is not one of them. We hope this will be Checchio’s first move in Metuchen.
His second move, we hope, will be to put a New Jersey Catholic cleric who was just charged with having and watching child porn into a treatment center.
Br. John B. Spalding is accused of endangering the welfare of a child and possession and viewing of pornographic material, primarily child pornography. He’ll soon return to Rhode Island, where he’s from. That’s wrong. His Catholic supervisors should insist he live far away in a professionally run facility so kids will be safer. Why let him live among unsuspecting families and vulnerable children?
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MISSOURI
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests
For immediate release: Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, 314 566 9790,davidgclohessy@gmail.com
The dispute over these so-called “religious objection” laws – here and elsewhere – involves more than adults with differing beliefs. It also involves innocent young kids and wounded adult victims who suffer when claims of “religious freedom” are used to protect clerics who commit and conceal heinous child sex crimes.
Time and time again, in civil courts across the US, unscrupulous church officials cite Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) laws to block child sex abuse lawsuits and prevent records about child molesting clerics from being disclosed. These self-serving church officials – fixated on protecting their careers, comfort and reputations – exploit these laws to make sure their reckless and callous decisions to hire, promote, transfer and protect child predators are not exposed or scrutinized.
We urge every lawmaker to resist pressure to vote for these bills. We applaud the legislators who are filibustering now in Missouri. And we urge judges to help make sure that these laws don’t help corrupt church officials keep hiding their complicity in child sex crimes.
Remember: In the US, we adults are free to believe whatever we want. But we’re not free to do whatever we want, especially when the safety of precious children and vulnerable adults is at stake.
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MCALLEN – McAllen police and DPS troopers are expected to travel to Arizona to take custody of a suspect in a 1960 murder case as early as tomorrow.
John Feit is accused of killing Irene Garza. She was last seen on April 16, 1960 at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen. Her body was found five days later. Feit was a priest at the time.
A grand jury indicted him in the murder last month. (Related Link: Ex-Priest Arrested for 1960 Murder)
Feit currently lives in Arizona. He waived his right to an extradition hearing.
Once Feit arrives in Hidalgo County, he’ll be booked into the Hidalgo County jail, pending his arraignment. Hidalgo County officials are planning a press conference for tomorrow at 3 p.m.
For now, Feit is being held at the Lower Buckeye Jail in Arizona.
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Former Priest John Feit — the man long suspected of killing McAllen beauty queen Irene Garza — may return to McAllen on Wednesday to face the murder charge against him.
Investigators plan to take custody of Feit on Wednesday, according to news releases from the McAllen Police Department and Hidalgo County District Attorney’s Office.
District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez, Sheriff Eddie Guerra and McAllen police Chief Victor Rodriguez plan to hold a news conference 3 p.m. Wednesday at the Hidalgo County Courthouse.
Irene Garza vanished on April 16, 1960, after driving to Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen for confession. Days later, volunteers pulled her body from an irrigation canal.
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HARRISBURG — Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane today announced approximately 150 calls have been made in the last week to a hotline established for people to provide information relating to the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown.
The hotline — 888-538-8541 — is being manned by investigators who worked directly on the Office of Attorney General’s two-year investigation of the Diocese.
That investigation included the use of a statewide investigating grand jury. After reviewing evidence and testimony, the grand jury issued a 147-page report that detailed the sexual abuse hundreds of children endured over a period of at least 40 years. Dozens of religious leaders and priests assigned to the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown were responsible for the abuse and some were instrumental in covering it up, the grand jury found.
“The victims need to be heard,” Attorney General Kane said. “In many cases, they have waited years to speak about the abuse they suffered. We want to assure them that they will be taken seriously.”
The hotline went live last week on the same day that Attorney General Kane released the grand jury’s report. The hotline is being manned from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Many calls have been placed by victims, including numerous senior citizens, who had yet to speak with investigators. Many stated they were abused by religious leaders associated with the Diocese. Their calls have further confirmed the findings in the grand jury’s report.
Investigators answering the calls also are working to connect victims with counseling and therapy assistance. Investigators have encouraged victims to contact the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, which works to put victims in touch with counseling and therapy services.
PCAR maintains a statewide listing of service providers for victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence. Victims also are encouraged to call 888-772-7227 to find a local rape crisis center.
None of the criminal conduct outlined in the grand jury’s report can be prosecuted at this time. That is because of the statute of limitations being expired, abusers being deceased or because traumatized victims are unable to testify in a court of law.
Nonetheless, Attorney General Kane stressed the investigation of this matter is ongoing. The Attorney General’s investigators will pursue new investigative leads as they become available.
One call could change everything,” Attorney General Kane said. “The right information could create a new lead for our investigators. That is why it is so important for those with information to reach out to us.”
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HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) – The state attorney general’s office says it has received about 150 calls since the release of a grand jury report that found widespread child sexual abuse in the Altoona-Johnstown diocese.
Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s office said many of the calls to a hotline established last week were from victims, including numerous senior citizens previously unknown to investigators.
Kane’s office said many callers reported they were abused by religious leaders associated with the diocese.
The grand jury’s 147-page report alleges hundreds of children were abused by priests and other religious leaders assigned to the diocese for at least 40 years, and that two former bishops worked to cover up the crimes.
Kane said last week that none of the crimes in the grand jury’s report can be prosecuted, partly because of the state law that sets a time limit on filing most criminal charges.
However, she said the investigation is ongoing and prosecutors will pursue new leads as they become available.
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In the week since a grand jury report detailed decades of sexual abuse in the Altoona-Johnstown diocese, about 150 calls from victims and others have been made to a hotline, according to Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s office.
“We’re getting calls from all over the country,” said Chuck Ardo, spokesman for the office. People from as far as California have called. He noted that the calls have mostly come from victims of sexual abuse who have a connection to the Altoona-Johnstown diocese and who have moved out of the area.
He said none of those calls that he knew of came from people saying they were abused within the Harrisburg diocese, which includes, York, Adams, Franklin and Lebanon counties, among others.
Many of the people are elderly, Ardo said, so the statute of limitations for them has expired. Still, their calls are important. It broadens the office’s investigation, which is ongoing, he said.
And, victims who call are put in touch with services.
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By Eyewitness News | enews@pahomepage.com, Jayne Ann Bugda | jbugda@pahomepage.com
Published 03/08 2016
HARRISBURG, DAUPHIN COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) A special hotline received more than 150 calls since last week’s report of alleged sexual abuse by priests in a Central Pennsylvania Diocese.
According to a grand jury report, many of those calls are from victims themselves.
Attorney General Kathleen Kane announced on Tuesday the fallout continues after the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown was cited in a grand jury repor
The investigation detailed hundreds of cases of abuse over the past four decades.
Members of the “Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests” (SNAP) are also lending their support to victims today.
They plan to rally this afternoon outside the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese headquarters.
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Written by Brandie Kessler, York Daily Record | Mar 8, 2016
(Undated) — When a grand jury last week issued a report alleging child sexual abuse over four decades by more than 50 priests in the Altoona-Johnstown diocese, the grand jury said Pennsylvania’s statutes of limitations for child sex crimes needs to change.
Although the abuse alleged in the grand jury report included rape of a child and other alleged acts by priests, a news release from the attorney general’s office said none of the criminal acts can be prosecuted, in part because the statute of limitations has passed.
In Pennsylvania, the statute of limitations for criminal and civil charges vary. For criminal charges, a victim of child sexual abuse who turned 18 years old after Aug. 27, 2002, has until their 50th birthday to report the abuse. The statute of limitations for anyone who had their 18th birthday on or before Aug. 27, 2002, has already expired, since the law allows them to report only until their 30th birthday.
For civil charges, child victims have only until their 30th birthday to file, regardless of when the abuse occurred.
Advocates say that’s a problem for a number of reasons.
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The child sex abuse royal commission is likely to recommend changes to Catholic Church governance and canon law to target vulnerabilities exposed by the hearings in the Ballarat diocese, an academic says.
La Trobe University lecturer Timothy Jones said there could be room for further changes regarding mandatory reporting and oversight of bishops. “There was no simple recourse when a bishop wasn’t willing to act,” he said. “I think one of the biggest problems that emerged was the lack of review of bishops’ decisions, but also a sort of secrecy with which matters of that kind are supposed to be held which is at the heart of protecting abusers.
“(It’s) enshrined in canon law; until there’s strong evidence of an offence, a priest’s reputation is privileged.”
The inquiry heard evidence in Ballarat that then bishop Ronald Mulkearns knew of offending priests and moved them between parishes without calling police.
Mr Jones said there had been a greater centralisation in the church in recent decades and an increase in Vatican authority.
Serious crimes are now referred to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which instructs bishops on how to act.
Western Sydney priest John Doherty said canon law had been updated in 2001, so that an accusation against a cleric must be referred to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith after a preliminary investigation by the bishop’s appointee.
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Just days after the Oscar for Best Picture went to Spotlight, the movie detailing how the Boston Globe pursued the child sexual-abuse scandal and cover-up by the local archdiocese, a similar story was reported out of Western Pennsylvania. A grand jury investigation into the Archdiocese of Altoona-Johnstown revealed that hundreds of children were sexually abused by priests over a span of 40 years. And, once again, church officials were accused of participating in a massive cover-up.
It’s mind-numbing. But this problem isn’t limited to the institutionally sanctioned abuse within the Catholic Church. You may not realize it, but someone you see on a daily basis may have been sexually traumatized as a child. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network reports that “as many as one out of four girls and one out of six boys will experience some form of sexual abuse before the age of 18.” Most of these victims will later lead ordinary, private lives as adults. But others will be known only by their destructive coping mechanisms or psychiatric diagnoses, their histories obscured by outrageous behavior. And still other victims will become lightning rods for speaking out.
Most child sexual abuse is done by someone the victim knows and trusts, someone who is already an integral part of the victim’s family or community. It can be an enormous challenge for parents when someone they hold in high regard — perhaps a beloved family member — is linked to such a heinous crime. Children, especially young ones, don’t make this stuff up, but to collude in silencing a child is a simple matter. Facing the truth and seeking justice can be psychologically devastating and legally complicated, fracturing once-solid relationships.
As Spotlight attests, most perpetrators are not the suspicious, antisocial losers we want them to be. This crime thrives behind a wholesome public persona — witness former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky.
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About 150 calls have been made to a hotline to report information related to abuse by religious leaders in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane said today.
The phone line, manned by investigators from the attorney general’s office, was established last week when a 147-page grand jury report was released detailing child sexual abuse by dozens of priests over at least 40 years and allegedly concealed by diocese leaders. The report included priests who served at State College and Bellefonte churches.
“The victims need to be heard,” Kane said. “In many cases, they have waited years to speak about the abuse they suffered. We want to assure them that they will be taken seriously.”
Kane said many of the calls have been placed by individuals who had not previously spoken with investigators and said they were abused by religious leaders in the diocese. Numerous calls were from senior citizens.
The hotline — 888-538-8541 — is answered by investigators from 8 a.m.-9 p.m.
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[Three professors of the Catholic Congregation of the Marist in Barcelona confessed to sexually abusing his students, one of the biggest scandals of pedophilia in this country which is unaccustomed to such cases.]
Barcelona. AFP. Tres profesores de la Congregación católica de los Maristas en Barcelona confesaron haber abusado sexualmente de sus alumnos, en uno de los mayores escándalos de pederastia en este país, poco acostumbrado a dichos casos.
“No sé por qué razón lo hice (…). Era como un juego de críos”, confesó a una de sus víctimas uno de los docentes, en un video grabado con cámara oculta y difundido este lunes por el diarioEl Periódico de Cataluña.
Según el relato de la víctima, no desmentido por el presunto agresor, esta fue violada en decenas de ocasiones en los años 80, cuando él tenía entre 8 y 14 años. Los hechos ocurrieron en la Escuela Marista Sants-Les Corts, epicentro del escándalo.
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[Father Luciano Massaferro was sentenced to seven years in prison for abusing minors but the Vaticans wants to give him absolution and assign him as chaplain in a convent.]
Il 29 dicembre 2009 don Luciano Massaferro, conosciuto come don “Lu”, parroco della chiesa di San Vincenzo di Alassio, comune in provincia di Savona, fu arrestato con l’accusa di aver compiuto abusi su una minorenne, chierichetta della Chiesa. Dopo essere stato condannato definitivamente a 7 anni e 8 mesi di carcere, il sacerdote avrebbe dovuto lasciare la cella nell’estate del 2017 ma grazie agli sconti per buona condotta è uscito quasi un anno e mezzo prima. In totale ha scontato 3 anni in carcere e 1 anno ai domiciliari dopodiché è stato affidato in prova ai servizi sociali.
I giudici, fino alla Cassazione, lo hanno riconosciuto colpevole, ma per don Lu i processi non sono finiti: manca l’ultima sentenza, quella del processo canonico. In caso di assoluzione il sacerdote potrà tornare a fare il prete, a tutti gli effetti. Secondo quanto riportato dal Secolo XIX, l’ipotesi più accreditata è proprio quest’ultima: monsignor Guglielmo Borghetti, infatti, ai collaboratori avrebbe detto che “si va verso l’assoluzione“. Il vescovo coadiutore di Albenga, scelto a gennaio dello scorso anno da Papa Francesco dopo i gravi e numerosi scandali all’interno della diocesi ligure, secondo il quotidiano genovese, ha promesso a “don Lu” anche un alloggio e un lavoro in caso di assoluzione. Così presto il sacerdote potrà riprendere la sua vita così com’era prima della condanna. L’intenzione della Curia sarebbe quella di farlo diventare cappellano in un convento.
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[Don Mauro Inzoli, leading member of Communion and Liberation, is accused of abuse of eight children but the Vatican continues to be opaque on the issue.]
Via al processo a don Mauro Inzoli, esponente di spicco di Comunione e liberazione, accusato di violenze su otto bambini. Ma il Vaticano continua a essere poco trasparente
di Federico Tulli
Ricordate don Mauro Inzoli? Sebbene a giugno 2014 fosse stato «invitato» dalla Congregazione per la dottrina della fede «a una vita di preghiera e di umile riservatezza, come segni di conversione e di penitenza» per gli «abusi su minori» affidati alla sua cura, il 17 gennaio 2015 fu immortalato sorridente al convegno organizzato dalla Regione Lombardia per tutelare i valori «della famiglia tradizionale». L’ex parroco di Crema, esponente di spicco di Comunione e liberazione, fondatore del Banco Alimentare e dell’Associazione della fraternità, si godeva lo spettacolo in seconda fila. Davanti a lui sedevano il governatore Roberto Maroni e il predecessore, Roberto Formigoni, di cui, Inzoli, si dice sia stato il confessore. Condannato – si fa per dire – dalla Santa Sede «alla pena medicinale perpetua» per lo Stato italiano era un uomo libero. Il 9 marzo le cose potrebbero cambiare.
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Roma – Non solo foto hard, don Dino ha anche avuto rapporti con minori. Il tribunale del Riesame conferma le ipotesi della procura di Roma, secondo quanto riportato dal quotidiano “Il Tempo” di Roma.
L’ex parroco di Montecalvello, al secolo Placido Greco, era stato arrestato lo scorso maggio nell’inchiesta sul giro di baby prostituti della stazione Termini nell’operazione Meeting point (L’arresto di don Dino: video 1 – video 2).
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Presseerklärung der Abtei Münsterschwarzach und des Priorats Damme: Im Jahr 2014 erfuhr die in der Abtei Münsterschwarzach seit 2003 bestehende Arbeitsgruppe zur Aufarbeitung und Prävention sexueller Gewalt von Hinweisen, dass es in den Jahren 1966 bis 1974 im Bereich des Internats Damme zu Fehlverhalten durch einen Pater gekommen sei. Die Rede war von Grenzverletzungen sowie möglichem sexuellen Missbrauch. Da der Pater bereits verstorben war, konnte er selbst nicht mehr dazu befragt werden. Mitbrüder, die damals im Internat Damme tätig waren, konnten die Hinweise nicht bestätigen. Auch der mehrfache Kontakt mit ehemaligen Schülern erbrachte keine verwertbaren Verdachtsmomente.
vergrößern
m Rahmen eines Treffens mit ehemaligen Internatsschülern von Damme im November 2015 konkretisierte sich der Verdacht gegen den Pater. Betroffene oder Zeugen eines massiven Fehlverhaltens oder Missbrauchs durch den Pater haben sich bislang jedoch bei uns nicht gemeldet.
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