ABUSE TRACKER

ILLINOIS
Voices

By Mitch Armentrout
@mitchtrout | marmentrout@suntimes.com

The Diocese of Joliet is facing another lawsuit claiming a now-deceased Catholic priest from a west suburban parish sexually abused three boys more than 30 years ago.

The three alleged victims were between 6 and 11 years old when they were abused by the Rev. Leonardo Mateo starting in about 1980, according to the suit filed Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court.

Mateo never faced criminal charges, and he died in 2004. The Joliet Diocese deemed allegations of abuse against him credible, according to diocese documents released in April.
The boys — two of whom are brothers — and their parents were parishioners at Immaculate Conception Parish, 134 Arthur St. in Elmhurst, when Mateo started inviting the children out for ice cream and fast food, the suit said. He also would take the boys to swim at the YMCA in Elmhurst, where he allegedly molested them in the pool or locker room.

Toward the end of the summer in 1982, a sister of the brothers witnessed Mateo abusing the boys at the YMCA and told her mother about it, the suit claims. Their parents went to Elmhurst police but didn’t press charges, instead demanding that Mateo leave the parish, the suits said.

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

AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Australian Associated Press
theguardian.com, Thursday 18 September 2014

The newly appointed Catholic archbishop of Sydney is “committed to playing a leading role in regaining the confidence of the community and of our own members” after the clerical sex abuse scandal.

Pope Francis on Thursday appointed bishop of Parramatta Anthony Fisher to succeed Cardinal George Pell, who left the position in February to become the Vatican’s finance chief in Rome.

Fisher, who is expected to follow Pell’s orthodox approach, said he was determined to do everything he could to make sure the abuse didn’t happen again.

“There can be no more excuses, no more cover-ups and the victims have to be put first,” he said.

“The Catholic church in Australia is going through a period of public scrutiny and self-examination.

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

WASHINGTON (DC)
Fox 5

[with video]

By Paul Wagner, FOX 5 Reporter

WASHINGTON –
The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia is urging the D.C. city council to eliminate the 15-year statute of limitations on sex crimes.

U.S. Attorney Ron Machen says advances in DNA have erased the need for such a law. But a bill that would wipe the statute off the books has gone nowhere since being introduced early last year.

Since at least 2004, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has repeatedly asked the D.C. city council to eliminate the statute of limitations on sex crimes. The council members have listened. But other than increasing the statute from six to 15 years, they have refused to eliminate it.

Machen says the time is now and at least two city council members agree.

D.C’s top prosecutor says there are many reasons to eliminate the statute of limitations in the District of Columbia. But if he could cite one example, it would be the case of Kirk Odom. He is a man wrongfully convicted in a 1981 rape who served 20 years in prison.

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.

MICHIGAN
Grand Haven Tribune

BECKY VARGO
GRAND HAVEN

Father Bill Langlois, 68, is taking time away from the St. Patrick’s/St. Anthony’s Parish in Grand Haven for “prayer, reflection and counseling,” said Carl Apple, spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids.

Apple declined to say where Langlois was headed, only that he would be gone for six months.

“He didn’t do anything illegal,” Apple said. “There’s no criminal activity of any kind.”

Apple said the reason the relationship is called inappropriate is because Langlois took a vow of celibacy when he entered the priesthood.

“Priests lead a chaste life,” he said.

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

CONNECTICUT
Fox CT

[with video]

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014, BY MIKE KRAFCIK

HARTFORD– An organization made up of people who were abused by priests spoke out in the capital city today.

They gathered because of unrest over recent actions of Hartford’s Catholic Archdiocese.

The Archdiocese of Hartford is asking the state Supreme Court to overturn a verdict for a man who claimed he was abused by Ivan Ferguson, a Roman Catholic priest, at a school in Derby in the early 1980s.

In 2012, a jury found Hartford Archdiocese officials negligent and reckless in handling abuse reports against Ferguson and awarded the victim a $1 million judgment.

archbishopAmong other claims in a recently filed motion, the archdiocese contends the law that extended the statute of limitations for such lawsuits is unconstitutional.

It’s a move that has set off a fire storm, especially with victims of clergy sex abuse.

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MICHIGAN
MLive

By Brandon Champion | bchampio@mlive.com
on September 18, 2014

GRAND HAVEN, MI – A Catholic priest at a prominent Grand Haven church is taking a six-month leave of absence.

Fr. William Langlois, 68, has served as priest at the St. Patrick-St. Anthony Parish since 1996.

According to Carl Apple, director of communications for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids, Langlois requested for a leave of absence after he had an inappropriate relationship with a woman.

The woman was an adult and nothing illegal took place, Apple added.

“His request was granted by the Bishop,” Apple said. “He’s taking some time away for reflection, prayer and counseling.”

Langlois’ leave will take effect immediately. Parishioners at St. Patrick-St. Anthony were informed of his decision at four different masses earlier this week.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Spectator

Damian Thompson

Here is a picture of Cardinal Raymond Burke, whose grand title of Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura is matched only by the magnificence of his ecclesiastical dress. He is famous for his willingness to don the cappa magna, the astonishingly long silk cloak often worn by bishops before the Second Vatican Council but now confined to traditionalist ceremonies. The mere sight of this garment is like a scarlet rag to Catholic liberals, and they especially resent it being worn by Burke, who is (a) very conservative in matters of faith and morals and (b) the most powerful American cardinal in the Vatican.

It’s is true that, judging by the all those photographs of him looking as if he’s just stepped off the set of The Borgias, one would not infer that Burke is personally the most humble of cardinals. But he is. There are few more devout and obedient priests in the Vatican than Raymond Burke, which makes it all the more distressing that this week he is being ritually humiliated.

The legendary Italian Vatican blogger Sandro Magister reported yesterday that Cardinal Burke is about to be ‘decapitated’. He will lose his job as head of the Vatican’s ‘Supreme Court’, which has the power to overrule unjust decisions by other curial departments. According to Magister, he will instead become patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, an honorary position normally reserved for ancient retired cardinals. Burke, a former Archbishop of St Louis greatly admired by Benedict XVI, is only 66 – a mere teenager in Vatican years. The ultra-traditionalist blog Rorate Caeli says this would be ‘the greatest humiliation of a curial cardinal in living memory’, and for once it is not overstating its case.

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

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

[with audio]

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Sep 18, 2014

Seeking to force St. John’s Abbey and the Diocese of St. Cloud to disclose information on priests and brothers accused of sexually assaulting children, attorney Jeff Anderson today filed suit against the two institutions.

The lawsuits, filed in Stearns County District Court, rely on the same legal strategy Anderson used in a landmark lawsuit against the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Diocese of Winona. Anderson’s efforts in that case led a judge to order church officials to release a list of “credibly accused” priests and thousands of internal documents from clergy files.

Anderson’s latest suits accuse St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville and the Diocese of St. Cloud of creating a public nuisance by not releasing the names and files of all abusers. Anderson said their decision to withhold information continues to put children at risk.

In a statement, St. John’s Abbey officials dismissed Anderson’s claim as “absurd,” saying it “represents fear-mongering at its worst.”

However, those same officials are aggressively trying to keep some information secret. In another clergy sex abuse suit filed by Anderson against St. John’s Abbey, church lawyers on Wednesday notified the attorney that they plan to ask a judge to seal the files on individual monks so that they cannot be released to the public. ​
The Diocese of St. Cloud did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Emily Gurnon
egurnon@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 09/18/2014

Years ago, he was a young Minnesota priest — and alleged rapist

St. John’s Abbey and two clerics — one who worked at the Church of St. Bernard in St. Paul — were sued Thursday by men claiming they suffered sexual abuse as children.

Attorney Jeff Anderson said at a news conference that the abbey in Collegeville, Minn., and the Diocese of St. Cloud made promises to two of those men 12 years ago: All abusive clergy would be taken out of ministry and closely restricted, and new policies would be put into place. But those promises were broken, Anderson said.

Current Bishop Donald Kettler and Abbot John Klassen of St. John’s Abbey told the St. Cloud Times editorial board in January that priests identified as abusers were being kept away from children.

“We have one priest (in St. Cloud) who has been removed from ministry completely,” Kettler told the newspaper, as seen in a video clip played by Anderson. “We are constantly taking care and observing that he … is not in any contact with any young people.”

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.

VATICAN CITY
International Business Times

By Umberto Bacchi
September 18, 2014

Pope Francis is reportedly set to demote a prominent US cardinal who recently spoke out against the pontiff’s views on divorce and abortion.

The Pope is planning to exile Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke – who currently holds the powerful seat of head of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s top court – from the Holy See. He would then position him in the prestigious but mainly ceremonial role of head of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Vatican analysts have suggested.

Burke, 66, would replace 80-year-old Paolo Sardi, L’Espresso magazine reported. If the decision is confirmed Burke will be removed from the Curia and left with little power just weeks before a key meeting of the Catholic Church.

A hard-line conservative, Burke is one of five cardinals who have come out against reforming attitudes to divorce and other family issues in the Catholic doctrine.

Headed by Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the former Roman Inquisition that oversees the adherence to doctrinal orthodoxy, the group is against the Pope’s vision of a more inclusive and compassionate church, as revealed in a book that is to be published in October.

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VATICAN CITY
Crux

By Francis X. Rocca
Catholic News Service September 18, 2014

VATICAN CITY — The extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family will not open until Oct. 5, but some of its most prominent members are already publicly debating what is bound to be one of its most controversial topics: the eligibility of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion.

In an interview published Thursday, a proponent of changing church practice to allow such Catholics to receive Communion answered criticism from some of his fellow cardinals, suggesting they are seeking a “doctrinal war” whose ultimate target is Pope Francis.

“They claim to know on their own what truth is, but Catholic doctrine is not a closed system, but a living tradition that develops,” German Cardinal Walter Kasper told the Italian daily Il Mattino. “They want to crystallize the truth in certain formulas … the formulas of tradition.”

“None of my brother cardinals has ever spoken with me,” the cardinal said. “I, on the other hand, have spoken twice with the Holy Father. I arranged everything with him. He was in agreement. What can a cardinal do but stand with the pope? I am not the target, the target is another.”

Asked if the target was Pope Francis, the cardinal replied: “Probably yes.”

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MICHIGAN
WZZM

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WZZM) — A Catholic priest serving a lakeshore parish is on leave for six months.

A spokesman for the Diocese of Grand Rapids says Fr. William Langlois is taking leave from his duties at St. Patrick-St. Anthony Parish for having an inappropriate, but not illegal, relationship with a woman. The spokesman said the leave is an opportunity to heal.

The diocese describes Fr. Langlois as a very popular priest, and leaders hope he returns to his duties after his leave.

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UNITED STATES
The Worthy Adversry

Posted by Joelle Casteix on September 18, 2014

Slut-shaming, fat-shaming, victim-shaming, political shaming … we are a society in love with shame. And our children pay the price.

Note: Guilt is the nasty and usually appropriate feeling people have when they have DONE something bad. Shame is the nasty and usually inappropriate feeling people have when they believe that they ARE bad. In cases of slut-, fat-, victim and political shaming, the “shamer” is telling the target that he or she IS a bad or inadequate person.

Social media only adds very public fuel to the fire—in places like Twitter, 20 people with the proper hashtags can suddenly sound like they number in the millions. On Facebook, it can get far more personal.

Sex abuse victims, especially those in the Catholic Church and other religious organizations, know shame and shaming firsthand. Many victims who reported to church officials were told that their accusations were sinful and brought shame upon themselves and their families (unfortunately, this is still very true and common in the Latino community). Even now, Catholic spokespeople try to shame advocacy groups into silence through name calling, minimizing abuse, and victim-shaming. In the Protestant community, victims have been met with physical threats and even child victims of convicted sex offender Greg Kelly are being openly shamed on Twitter.

And there is a reason that people LOVE to use shame: It works. Want to know the #1 reason child sex abuse victims don’t come forward? Shame. Want to know the #1 reason many victims become self-destructive, addicts, violent, depressed and/or suicidal? Shame.

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TEXAS
NBC 12

By Ray Daudani

TARRANT CO., TX (WWBT) –
A former Richmond pastor accused of sexually assaulting two young children is scheduled to go on trial in Texas in November.

The trial of Geronimo ‘Pastor G’ Aguilar is set to begin on November 10 and could last for a week or more, according to the Tarrant County, Texas prosecutors.

The 43-year-old former-pastor of the Richmond Outreach Cent

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CANADA/GUATEMALE
The JC

By Adam Feinstein, September 18, 2014

The 230 Jews who were forced to leave the remote Guatemalan village of San Juan la Laguna for the capital, Guatemala City, earlier this month were members of the Charedi sect Lev Tahor, which has allegedly engaged in human trafficking and harboured sex abusers, according to search warrants issued by authorities in Quebec.

The Canadian documents detail a criminal case built against the group by Interpol and Israeli police before its members fled to Guatemala in March with its leader, Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans.

The warrants, issued in January, include allegations by former Lev Tahor members – among them, Helbrans’ own brother, Nathan – of physical beatings, poor hygiene, forced ingestion of drugs, under-age marriage and sexual assault.

The group has vigorously denied all the allegations.

Helbrans founded Lev Tahor in Israel in the late 1980s and ran it both there and in Brooklyn, New York – where he was convicted of kidnapping – and then for a decade near Montreal.

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UNITED STATES
Washington Post

By Ben Brenkert September 17

I’ve come out as gay three times in my life. Most challenging was not telling my conservative family, at 14, but rather a group of men who promised to love and to labor alongside the materially and spiritually poor — my class of Jesuit novices, men who would someday become Jesuit priests or brothers.

Even as a teen, I felt called to join the priesthood. I attended mass daily and studied the stories of saints like St. Anthony, medieval missionaries like Matteo Ricci and mystics like Hildegard of Bingen. I wanted to be like them. And I was drawn to the opportunities to serve God by helping others. I worked as a religious education teacher with students with disabilities.

Over time, I prayed and reflected about working with LGBT youth who felt lost and rejected by those closest to them, alienated by a Church that made them foreigners. It was a feeling I knew too well.

In 2005, I joined the Jesuits, one of Catholicism’s most progressive religious orders. I was nervous, at first, that being gay would be a problem. After all, the church opposes gay marriage; many members of the church believe practicing homosexuality is a sin.

But I was open and transparent about my sexual orientation from the beginning. Before I committed, I talked to my vocation director. He was a gay Jesuit; he assured me I’d be welcomed into the Society of Jesus, that I wouldn’t have to go back into the closet. I met other gay Jesuits who told me the same. I hoped that I might be able to help nudge the church in a more accepting direction, pushing it to accept and support its gay and lesbian members.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Daily News

[with video]

VINNY VELLA, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER VELLAV@PHILLYNEWS.COM, 215-854-2513
LAST UPDATED: Thursday, September 18, 2014

AN ASSISTANT basketball coach at Archbishop Wood High School was fired last night because of alleged involvement in last Thursday’s savage attack on two gay men in Center City.

The coach, identified by a source close to the team as Fran McGlinn, had been “serving as a coach on a contract basis,” said Kenneth Gavin, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

McGlinn, 25, along with several other former Wood students, allegedly participated in the attack on a gay couple as the men were walking near Rittenhouse Square.

“He was terminated this evening and will not be permitted to coach in any archdiocesan school,” Gavin said. “We expect all those who work with students in our schools to model appropriate Christian behavior at all times.”

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Daily Mail (UK)

Catholic high school coach fired after ‘being identified as part of mob’ that brutally beat gay couple in Philadelphia

By CHARLENE ADAMS FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 11:42 EST, 18 September 2014

A Philadelphia Catholic high school basketball coach has been fired after he was allegedly identified as being part of the group that brutally attacked a gay couple.

Fran McGlinn, 25, is said to have been among about dozen men and women in their twenties who participated in the attack on a 28- and 26-year-old gay couple, according to Philadelphia Daily News.

One of the victims told CBS Philadelphia that three men started ‘pummeling’ him and knocked him to the ground.

The two men were walking near 16th and Chancellor streets in the Center City area of Philadelphia just before 11pm on September 11 when the group of men and women confronted them, the 28-year old told CBS Philadelphia.

His 26-year-old boyfriend said that the men in the group asked if the two were a couple and, when he confirmed, the men began to pummel them both.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia

“A key part of a Catholic education is forming students to respect the dignity of every human person whether we agree with them or not. What students do with that formation when they enter the adult world determines their own maturity and dignity, or their lack of it. Violence against anyone, simply because of who they are, is inexcusable and alien to what it means to be a Christian. A recent beating incident in Center City allegedly involved, in some way, a part-time coach at Archbishop Wood High School. After inquiries by school leadership, the coach was contacted regarding the matter and he resigned. Archbishop Wood’s handling of the matter was appropriate, and I support their efforts to ensure that Catholic convictions guide the behavior of their whole school community, including their staff.”

# # #

Contact
Kenneth A. Gavin
Director of Communications
215-587-3747

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Yahoo! News

By MARYCLAIRE DALE

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An assistant coach at a Roman Catholic high school has resigned over his role in a beating that left two gay men injured, church officials in Philadelphia said Thursday.

About a dozen young adults were linked to the Sept. 11 encounter after police released surveillance video Tuesday and social media users mined online posts, including a group photo taken at a restaurant, to try to match the faces with names.

“Violence against anyone, simply because of who they are, is inexcusable and alien to what it means to be a Christian,” Archbishop Charles Chaput said Thursday in a statement.

No arrests have been made, but some of the young men and women seen in the video have submitted to voluntary interviews with police, a spokesman said Thursday. …

The large group included former students at Archbishop Wood, located in the Philadelphia suburb of Warminster, the archdiocese said. The part-time coach had worked at the same school but now is banned from coaching anywhere in the archdiocese, the church said.

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MINNESOTA
The Chronicle of Higher Education

September 18, 2014 by Nick DeSantis

A professor at the University of St. Thomas who was accused of sexually abusing a teenage girl more than a decade ago has resigned from the Minnesota university’s faculty, the Star Tribune reported.

The Rev. Michael J. Keating, an associate professor of Catholic studies, was accused of abusing the girl while he was studying to be a priest. He has denied any wrongdoing.

The university announced his resignation this week and posted his resignation letter on its website.

“After careful consideration of my current situation in light of my employment options and longstanding goals, I have decided to resign my faculty position with the University of St. Thomas, effective immediately,” his letter stated. “I have greatly enjoyed my time at the university and take with me fond memories of the St. Thomas community.”

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

By Dave Unzedunze@stcloudtimes.com September 18, 2014

ST. PAUL – A lawsuit filed Thursday in Stearns County District Court accuses St. John’s Abbey and the Diocese of St. Cloud of creating a public nuisance with their handling of clergy sex abuse allegations against their priests and monks.

The lawsuit, announced at a press conference by attorney Jeff Anderson, accuses the diocese of lying about how it supervises a priest who abused children and references statements that Bishop Donald Kettler made to the St. Cloud Times Editorial Board.

It also accuses Abbot John Klassen of failing to follow through on promises he made as part of the settlement of several claims in 2002 and in 2011. Among the promises that Anderson said the abbey failed to keep was making public the complete list of abbey monks or priests who have been credibly accused of inappropriate sexual conduct.

Anderson again is asking the abbey and diocese to provide complete lists of those credibly accused and to provide to him all files the religious orders have on those credibly accused.
.

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UNITED STATES
The Open Tabernacle: Here Comes Everybody

Posted on September 18, 2014 by Betty Clermont

Considering that leaders of the Catholic Church made the decisive difference in the reelection of Pres. George W. Bush; after coming close to denying Americans affordable health insurance, theirs is the power and money obstructing women’s health care; and, having failed to stop same-sex marriage in this country, are going global to persecute gays (NOM is Opus Dei); one would think more would be concerned about the absence of critical information about the institution and its leader. But like its secular counterpart, the Catholic media have yielded to idolatrous obsequiousness towards Pope Francis.

Because Catholic insiders are the most dependable source of accurate reports about the institution and its leaders, the loss of reliable and accurate data has been sorely missed in the 18 months since his election. Befuddled Catholics can only surmise that previously neutral publications such as Commonweal and National Catholic Reporter have bowed to restrictions imposed by their advertisers. Oh, it’s alright to report on problems in the Church, they just can’t be attributable to the absolute monarch who is maintaining the status quo. To be fair, since Francis’ election, NCR has published a handful of articles with some factually negative information, but 99% of papal coverage is adulation. Even the comments section is edited.

There is only one source which presents “news and analysts of every position and persuasion” – Abuse Tracker. It has no advertisers. Begun in March 2002 “to help reporters keep up with fast-breaking coverage of the [Catholic] sexual abuse crisis,” the website has expanded to include news about the sexual torture of children around the world and in other denominations and religions as well.

Here we find that priests are still raping and sodomizing children, bishops are still aiding and abetting these criminals, and the perpetrators are still escaping justice by fleeing to other countries; and that almost every U.S. prelate appointed and promoted by Pope Francis has a poor record in this area. A year before the New York Times reported on the alleged sexual abuse of poor boys in the Dominican Republic by papal ambassador Archbishop Joseph Wesolowski, Abuse Tracker had the first-hand reports from that country. The reactions of their own national press to Cardinal Pell’s testimony before a government commission, the horrendous fates of the girls and women, their babies and children, in Irish homes run by religious women, the Catholic institutional sexual and physical violence against children in a multitude of countries are made available.

Abuse Tracker has expanded further and fills in the reporting gaps about the Catholic Church with news and opinion (including mine) concerning the pope and his men from numerous sources in other areas such as finance as well as other ecclesial events and opinion from around the world.

The website is sponsored by BishopAccountability.com which keeps a “full ‘account’ of the bishops’ responsibility for the sexual abuse crisis, both individually and collectively,” on every American bishop and Pope Francis when he was an Argentine prelate. They are expanding their documentation globally.

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CONNECTICUT
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014

Statement by Claudia Vercellotti of Toledo, Northern Ohio leader of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 419 345 9291, SNAPtoledo@aol.com )

For years, in Ohio, Leonard Blair succeeded in keeping child sex abuse victims from gaining the chance to expose predators in court. Now, in Connecticut, he is trying to revoke the chance that child sex abuse victims here have long had to expose predators in court. Like hundreds of others who care about vulnerable children and wounded adults, I sorely hope he doesn’t prevail. If he does, Connecticut may as well roll out the red carpet for those who would sexually assault youngsters.

I’m honored to be here today with men and women who are abuse victims and members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including an Ohio woman who exposed clergy sex crimes and cover ups by Hartford’s archbishop when he headed the Toledo diocese for a decade (2003-2013).

Hartford’s Catholic archbishop wants the Connecticut Supreme Court to make it much harder for victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to protect children, inside and outside of the church. He wants the court to toss out a widely-praised 12 year old state law that gives victims more time to expose those who commit and conceal child sex crimes through civil litigation.

He also wants to have his cake and eat it too. He wants to claim he’s not coddling child molesters. But he wants to roll back Connecticut law so he can keep coddling child molesters. He wants to pretend he doesn’t protect predators any more. But he wants the law help him protect predators. He wants to say he cares about kids. But he wants courts to enable more pedophiles to hurt more kids.

Here’s who loses if Blair wins:

Innocent kids will lose, because more child molesters will hurt more kids.

Concerned parents will lose, because fewer of them will learn about adults who commit or conceal child sex crimes.

Wounded adults will lose, because fewer of them will get the healing and validation they need and deserve.

Catholics will lose, because their church will be more unsafe.

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.

CONNECTICUT
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014

Statement by Beth McCabe of SNAP ( 860 335 8187, thirdmccabe@comcast.net )

We as victims of childhood sexual trauma fought too long and hard to reform awful and outdated statutes of limitations to let one Catholic official roll back Connecticut law and help predators remain hidden. We desperately hope that our state’s Supreme Court will side with kids who are at risk and adults who are suffering, and against a powerful public figure who wants to avoid the inconvenience and humiliation that come with clergy sex abuse trials, depositions, and discovery.

If Hartford Catholic officials have really reformed and are no longer hiding the crimes of Catholic clergy and the complicity of church supervisors, why would they fear letting the courthouse doors remain open to child sex abuse victims?

If this horrific scandal has taught us anything, it is that nothing exposes predators and protects children better than our justice system. It’s not perfect, but it’s far more effective and fair than letting self-serving Catholic officials keep dealing with heinous crimes “in house.” So let’s not go backwards. Let’s keep safeguarding the vulnerable by using our time-tested, impartial, and open court system to bring child sex crimes out of the darkness and into the light.

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VATICAN CITY
Breitbart

by THOMAS D. WILLIAMS, PH.D. 18 Sep 2014

The church reforms promised by Pope Francis continue their inexorable march forward, and now the Vatican will begin revamping its public relations operations.

In a briefing on September 17, Father Federico Lombardi, head of the Vatican Press office announced that the first meeting of the Commission on Vatican Media will be held from September 22-24, at the Sancta Martha residence, within Vatican City.

Lombardi said that the meeting will be devoted to bringing commission members—several of whom are unfamiliar with the Vatican communications operations—up to speed on the situation, planning the work to be done over the coming months, and adopting a common work method.

Lombardi also noted that the commission itself will have to establish its own communications strategy for keeping the public informed, and so interviews would not be given prior to the meeting.

This latest reorganization follows on the now well-advanced reform of the Vatican Bank, as well as the ongoing reform of the Vatican’s administrative departments, or curia.

Last December the Vatican hired the US-based global consulting firm McKinsey & Company to analyze and propose a re-organization of the Vatican’s fragmented communications departments, including its newspaper, television, press office, and radio station to make them “more functional, efficient and modern.”

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TEXAS
KSAT

By Courtney Friedman
VJ, Reporter

SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio police said the Rev. Alberto Torres Trevino, 63, is being held in the Bexar County Jail on indecent exposure charges.

Trevino was arrested just before 2 p.m. on Tuesday at Olmos Park.

Investigators said undercover officers with the San Antonio Parks Police noticed Trevino sitting on a park bench touching his genitals.

The undercover officer said he spoke with Trevino and Trevino began to pleasure himself.

Officers arrested him on the spot.

KSAT has confirmed Trevino is a priest at the local chapter of Missionaries of the Holy Family (MHF).

Higher priests from the MHF organization say Trevino is a Formation Director — the person who helps prepare anyone who want to become a priest or brother.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Sunderland Echo

THE Bishop of Durham has addressed an international conference on child protection within the church.

The Right Reverend Paul Butler spoke to delegates at The Churches’ Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS) event in London.

In his speech, Bishop Paul, chairman of the Church of England’s Safeguarding Board, said: “We are all very conscious of how much the world of safeguarding has changed over the past decades, and the rapid changes of recent years.

“The UK Church has come a long way in safeguarding over the past decades. There is much for which we can be thankful. We are in a better place than we were.”

But he admitted ‘there is much from our past that we have to face up to seriously’ and talked about the wider concerns of institutional abuse, including recent high-profile cases like that of serial paedophile Jimmy Savile and the Rotherham report.

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CONNECTICUT
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Sept. 18, 2014

Statement by Jim Hackett, Connecticut co-leader of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 203-710-0968, SNAPct@cotse.net )

Deterrence. That’s what I want to stress: current Connecticut law deters wrongdoing. That’s why current Connecticut law should be preserved.

The message our current law sends is this: “Don’t try to hide child sex crimes. With our smart and just statute of limitations, you won’t succeed in keeping it under wraps long enough to escape detection. So when abuse reports surface, act promptly and responsibly and protect kids.” That’s the message we should keep sending. That’s the message Archbishop Blair doesn’t want to hear. He wants to go back to the old days when a tight, unfair statute of limitations stopped victims who wanted to show the public, through judicial channels, who the molesters were and who their enablers were.

It’s tough for a supervisor to call 911 when he or she suspects an employee is assaulting boys or girls. But in Connecticut, that supervisor knows those boys or girls, even decades later, may file lawsuits. They may prove to the public that trusted authority figures acted improperly. That’s a strong disincentive for a supervisor who’s tempted to act selfishly. That’s a strong prod to a supervisor to act responsibly.

A restrictive statute of limitations will save complicit Catholic officials money. More importantly, it will save complicit Catholic officials’ reputations and power and careers. We think this is the real reason Blair wants to overturn Connecticut’s statute of limitations. And we think this is terribly dangerous and unwise. We hope he fails and kids win.

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TEXAS
KENS

SAN ANTONIO — A Catholic priest in San Antonio was arrested Monday after allegedly exposing himself to an undercover officer at a park on the city’s near north side.

Police said 63-year-old Father Alberto Trevino was taken into custody for indecent exposure at Olmos Park in Alamo Heights.

According to a police report, Trevino exposed himself to a park officer who was dressed in plain clothes.

Investigators said Trevino pleasured himself in front of the officer and while in plain view of an unidentified person at the park. Trevino then exposed and solicited himself to the officer, according to the San Antonio Police Department.

When asked if he had protection, the priest replied that he didn’t. The officer then walked to his unmarked car and drove off, signaling nearby officers to make the arrest.

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TEXAS
San Antonio Express-News

BY DREW JOSEPH : SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

SAN ANTONIO — A Catholic priest arrested Tuesday for allegedly exposing himself to an undercover police officer at Olmos Park has been temporarily banned from working as a priest, according to the religious group he was a member of.

The priest, Alberto Torres Trevino, 63, was charged with indecent exposure.

“His faculties to serve as a priest have been temporarily removed until this legal matter is fully addressed,” said Rev. James Wuerth, a spokesman for the Missionaries of the Holy Family, which describes itself as a global Catholic congregation with over 900 priests.

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MINNESOTA
KSTP

[documents – Jeff Anderson & Associates]

By: Jennie Olson

Three new clergy abuse civil lawsuits are expected to be announced Thursday.

Attorney Jeff Anderson is filing the lawsuits in Ramsey and Stearns County on behalf of four people who say they were sexually abused.

The Order of St. Benedict and St. John’s Abbey, the Diocese of St. Cloud, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, and Richard Eckroth are all named as defendants.

During a news conference Thursday in St. Paul, Anderson is also expected to ask the Diocese of St. Cloud and St. John’s Abbey to release all files of clerics who have been credibly accused of abuse. St. John’s has already named 22 clerics, and the Diocese of St. Cloud has named 33.

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MINNESOTA
Jeff Anderson & Associates

[with video and live stream]

4-15-11 St. John’s Alumni Letter
12-9-13 Statement from St. John’s Abbey
2002 St. Johns Response to Allegations of Sexual Misconduct
2011 OSB non-monetary actions
Abbots of St. John’s photo
Doe 39 Summons and Complaint
Doe 40 Summons and Complaint
Fr. Cosmas Dahlheimer photo
Fr. Richard Eckroth photo
St. Johns List of Credibly Accused Priests
Thoennes 2014 Deposition- REDACTED
Vogels Summons and Complaint

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AUSTRALIA
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney

Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
18 Sep 2014

The Most Rev Anthony Fisher OP has been appointed as the new Archbishop of Sydney
Pope Francis has appointed the Most Rev Anthony Fisher OP as the new Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.

He has been Bishop of Parramatta since 2010.

Archbishop-elect Anthony Fisher will be the ninth Metropolitan Archbishop of Sydney. He succeeds Cardinal George Pell who was appointed to a new senior role in the Vatican earlier this year.

“The Catholic community in the Archdiocese of Sydney is delighted to welcome Most Rev Anthony Fisher OP as the ninth Archbishop of Sydney,” says Bishop Peter Comensoli, Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Sydney.

“He has a great breadth and depth of experience beyond Sydney, having engaged extensively in key areas of Australian life, including family, education, healthcare and young people. He combines this significant contribution to the wider community with his fine pastoral leadership of the Diocese of Parramatta over the past 4 years,” he adds.

Following the announcement by Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Pope’s representative in Australia, Archbishop Anthony said he was “deeply honoured” by the appointment.

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TEXAS
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, September 18, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

A priest has been arrested on “indecent exposure” charges. We hope San Antonio area Catholic officials will help police and prosecutors in this case by aggressively seeking out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered sexual crimes or misdeeds by Fr. Alberto Trevino.

He belongs to a Catholic religious order called Missionaries of the Holy Family. But San Antonio’s archbishop also bears responsibility here. An archbishop is responsible for the safety of all Catholics in his archdiocese.

It’s tempting, but wrong and complacent, to assume that this is Fr. Trevino’s only sex crimes. He may well have committed even more hurtful crimes. The best way to find out is for Catholic officials to use parish bulletins, pulpit announcements and church websites to beg others with information or suspicions about Fr. Trevino to call police.

To the local church hierarchy, we plead: Don’t be passive. Don’t split hairs. Act responsibly and help law enforcement prosecute this case by using your massive resources to locate and help others who may have been hurt by Fr. Trevino.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

TESS LIVINGSTONE THE AUSTRALIAN SEPTEMBER 19, 2014

POPE Francis last night promoted the Bishop of Parramatta, ­Anthony Fisher, 54, as the new Archbishop of Sydney to replace Cardinal George Pell.

Bishop Fisher, a member of the Dominican Order of Preachers, is the first religious order priest appointed to Australia’s most senior church job since ­English Benedictine Roger Bede Vaughan in 1877.

Bishop Fisher, a qualified lawyer with a doctorate in Bioethics from Oxford University, attended St Ignatius College, Riverview, in Sydney where he was dux. He grew up in Lakemba in western Sydney when it was “an ordinary working class Anglo suburb”. His father, Colin Fisher, who turned 80 earlier this year, ran a pharmacy in the suburb and saw it change over the years to become a stronghold for Vietnamese migrants and later the Muslim community. His mother, Gloria Fisher, has a Spanish background and grew up in China and the Philippines. “Like many people in Parramatta and Sydney, I come from a multicultural background,’’ he said.

Last night, Bishop Fisher asked “all Catholics and other people of good will to pray for me that I might be a good shepherd after the heart of Jesus Christ”.

He said the Catholic Church in Australia was going through a period of public scrutiny and self-examination. “I hope it will emerge from this purified, humbler, more compassionate and spiritually regenerated,’’ he said.

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MINNESOTA
CBS Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A priest and full-time faculty member of the University of St. Thomas has announced he will resign from his position in the school’s department of Catholic studies.

The university announced Father Michael Keating’s resignation Thursday morning. He has been with the school since 2005.

“After careful consideration of my current situation in light of my employment options and long-standing goals, I have decided to resign my faculty position with the University of St. Thomas effective immediately,” he said in a statement. “I have greatly enjoyed my time at the university and take with me fond memories of the St. Thomas community.”

Last year, Keating went on a leave of absence after he was sued for alleged sex abuse. A woman filed a report with the Chisago County Sheriff’s Department, claiming that Keating touched her inappropriately when she was 14 or 15 years old.

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NEW YORK
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, September 18, 2014

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 sentencing of an Albany Catholic deacon for child sex crimes shows again that church officials continue to side with accused clerics over innocent children and, as a result, more children are hurt.

Albany Catholic officials defrocked Angel Garcia after reports that he sexually abused a minor in the early 1990s. We suspect that’s all they did. We strongly doubt that they gave full information to and worked hard to help police and prosecutors. We strongly doubt that they held a news conference to announce that accusations against Garcia were founded or begged victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to call police. We strongly doubt that they aggressively warned parishioners about Garcia on parish websites, church bulletins and pulpit announcements. We strongly doubt that they put and kept Garcia’s name and photo on their diocesan website so that moms and dads would know to keep their kids away from him.

And we strongly suspect, in this case like thousands of others, Catholic officials did the bare minimum – at best – and may not have even met that very low bar.

Had they acted with courage and compassion, Garcia might have had a tough time getting access to more kids. He might have even been prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned, years ago, so that he could not have assaulted another child.

But this didn’t happen. And the result is that at least one more family has been devastated by the horror of child sexual abuse.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com )

Altoona-Johnstown’s Catholic Bishop Mark Bartchak should write his Central American colleagues and urge them to aggressively reach out to others who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes or misconduct by a priest who has just been put on leave because federal agents raided his church and home. And Bartchak should use his own parish bulletins, church websites and pulpit announcements to persuade his flock to share what they know or suspect about this priest with law enforcement.

Fr. Joseph Maurizio says he has “traveled to 100 countries and has worked with orphanages in El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Haiti, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Peru,” according to Tribune Review.

Bartchak will no doubt be tempted to do nothing. That’s wrong. He has a civic and moral duty to help police investigate and perhaps help prosecutors pursue Fr. Maurizio. He should not passively sit back and evade responsibility. Fr. Maurizio was likely recruited, educated, ordained, trained and transferred by Altoona-Johnstown Catholic officials. They can’t wash their hands of him now.

And we hope that every individual with knowledge of Fr. Maurizio’s wrongdoing – in Pennsylvania or elsewhere – will find the courage to speak up, call law enforcement, and help get this troubling situation resolved.

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MAINE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Thursday, Sept. 18, 2014

Statement by Barbara Dorris of St. Louis, Outreach Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 503 0003, SNAPdorris@gmail.com )

A Maine priest admits that he committed child sex crimes. The question now is what will his congregants do now? Will they actively help police and prosecutors? Or will they sit passively back and force the brave victim to carry the burden of pursuing a predator alone?

We beg current and former staff and members of the Saint George Greek Orthodox Church in Bangor to aggressively seek out others who may have seen, suspected or suffered child sex crimes by Father Adam Metropoulos.

That’s the best way to protect kids. That’s the responsible course of action. That’s what Jesus would do, we believe.

But in most cases, colleagues and congregants of credibly accused child molesting clerics do little or nothing. They leave it up to a wounded victim and overworked police and overwhelmed prosecutor to keep a predator away from kids. Then they express shock and horror when the predator’s shrewd lawyer gets him or her off on a technicality or gets a short sentence and later re-offends.

So we beg every person associated with Saint George to show courage and try hard to find and console others with information about or suspicions about Fr. Metropoulos’ crimes. That’s the right thing to do.

And we beg high ranking officials with the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the jurisdiction to which Saint George belongs, to do likewise and to immediately open an investigation into how someone with a prior sex offense was allowed to both enroll in seminary and obtain a position of authority in the Church.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Leicester Mercury

The Bishop of Leicester has apologised to the victims of a choirmaster who was jailed for sexually abusing choirboys in the city.

The Rt Revd Tim Stevens has issued the apology after John Bellamy was jailed for two years last week.

Bellamy, 72, was convicted of offences against five boys aged nine to 14 when he was choirmaster at St James the Greater Church in London Road.

The Right Rev Stevens said: “I deeply regret the pain and anguish, and the profound effect on the lives of all those affected by the offences for which John Bellamy was sentenced last week relating to a time in the 1970s when he was choirmaster in a parish church.

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IRELAND
The Guardian

[This World: Ireland’s Lost Babies]

Lucy Mangan
The Guardian, Wednesday 17 September 2014

There’s no point, really, in even trying to prepare yourself mentally or emotionally for a programme entitled This World: Ireland’s Lost Babies (BBC2). The bald facts, laid out by presenter Martin Sixsmith as he made his way between the emerald isle and the US, were bad enough. Between 40,000 and 60,000 babies were – by legal standards today and moral standards any time – involuntarily given up for adoption in the 1950s and 60s by Roman Catholic Irishwomen who became pregnant outside marriage. The treatment of the “fallen women” at the mother and baby homes run by fiercely unforgiving nuns was appalling. The vetting procedures for potential adoptive parents were worse. Catholic? Moneyed? You’re in. Take your pick.

It didn’t matter, as Mike Hawkes and his twin sister found out, if you were the brother of a paedophile priest who would rule your family with a rod of iron. “Going against his will was not healthy. Not healthy at all.” It didn’t matter, Mary Monaghan soon knew, if your new father was a sadistic paedophile himself. “My memories,” she says, “are terrible.” Nor if you had been rejected as adopters in your own country, as Kathy Deasey discovered. She was sent to the US at the age of five to a couple who wanted her as a companion to their biological daughter. When that daughter, years later, went to college in California, they turfed Kathy out, spent her college fund, sold their home and followed what suddenly stood revealed as their only beloved child to California. “It was horrible to say goodbye,” said Kathy, trying not to cry 40 years later, “because they’re the ones who said hello to me!” Her voice rose slightly, still in disbelief, as well it might.

Lily Boyce’s mother threw her out when Lily – so ignorant about sex that she didn’t realise she could be pregnant until she was nearly full term – went into labour. She walked her to the Castlepollard mother and baby home and left her on the steps. “Now you can do your own dirty work,” she said, and left. She gave birth to a boy called Joseph. “I would have loved to have kept him,” she says. “The longer I had him, the harder it was.” She had him for 17 months. You wonder how anyone bears the pain. And, rightly, you were largely left to wonder as Sixsmith’s admirably restrained and unsensationalist film continued wisely without attempting to resolve any of the ineffable mysteries suffusing it – faith, conscience, our capacity for endurance, grief, evil and forgiveness – into words.

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NEW YORK
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

For those of you who haven’t been following, let me summarize in brief. Cardinal Dolan has given what I consider to be a poorly reasoned, condescending and annoyingly folksy rationalization of his decision to serve as Grand Marshal of New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, which will now show the children along the route a group of “gay Irish” marching under a banner identifying themselves as such. Dolan rightly points out that we condemn the sin, not the sinner – and of course gays have been marching in parades for centuries (though not parading about as gays). He wrongly points out that if a man or a woman marches under a Gay Pride banner, it’s merely a way of indicating his or her sexual identity, and is in no way an endorsement of the sins that such a sexual identity seeks out. …

Today, however, Kevin Tierney comments on the Dolan Situation at Red Cardigan’s blog (my emphasis)…

Maybe we have to consider the unpleasant possibility that His Eminence knows exactly what he is doing, he is not the fool, and that these are conscious choices.

Too many events have happened in Dolan’s history to suggest naivete or [foolishness]. There’s something else at work here.

No, it’s not him being a heretic, modernist, or whatever you want to say. Plain and simple, Dolan is a careerist. All of his controversial decisions from the Sheen dustup, to his role in the abuse scandals, to Holy Innocents, to now the parade have been about what’s best for the bottom line … his bottom line. What advances his profile is what is best for business.

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VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Register

by ANDREA GAGLIARDUCCI/CNA/EWTN NEWS 09/18/2014

VATICAN CITY — As Pope Francis’ council of cardinals for Curia reform gather this week in Rome, the newly-created Pontifical Commission for Protection for minors will soon meet to finish creating its statutes.

Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican’s press office, announced in a briefing with journalists Sep. 17 that the commission will hold its next meeting Oct. 4-5.

Msgr. Robert Oliver was appointed secretary of the commission Sep. 10, and that same day Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston was confirmed president of the commission.

As the commission takes shape, Father Lombardi underscored that “in the next few weeks other very important aspects will be specified regarding the statutes and further members of the commission.”

Msgr. Oliver immediately stressed that his first effort will be that of identifying new members for the commission, in order to include Asia, Africa and South America and thus represent all the world geographical areas.

The new secretary will also work on the statutes, harmonizing with the work of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which he left to assume his new post.

Speaking on the sixth gathering of the cardinals’ council, which took place Sept. 15-17, Father Lombardi said that a draft introduction of the new constitution for general Curia reform “was also drawn up and distributed.”

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IRELAND
Irish Times

Patsy Mcgarry

Thu, Sep 18, 2014

An enhanced role for the laity in Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese grows apace with the announcement that, for the first time ever, lay people will now be able to take part in deanery meetings.

It follows an agreement by Dublin’s Council of Priests and as adopted by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. Up to this such meetings were mostly attended only by priests.

From this week the archdiocese’s 16 deanery groupings will include participation by parish pastoral workers, deacons, religious, chaplains and representatives from each parish pastoral council.

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VATICAN CITY/AUSTRALIA
Vatican Radio

[with audio]

(Vatican Radio) It’s only been one week since the 54 year old bishop of Paramatta, Australia, Anthony Fisher OP received a visit from Apostolic Nuncio who informed him that the Pope was appointing him to lead the nations’ ‘Mother Church’, the Archdiocese of Sydney.

In his own words, he still ‘hasn’t got over the shock’: “As a boy, as a young man at university I used to go to Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral …and I never would have dreamed that I would be on the other side of the altar one day, there at the cathedral”.

Listen to his full interview with Emer McCarthy:

But shock aside, Pope Francis’ appointment is a homecoming for the Dominican who is a Sydney native and served as an auxiliary to the Archdiocese under Cardinal George Pell. Cardinal Pell has since been called to Rome to head the newly established Secretariat for the Economy.

Sydney may be Australia’s Mother Church, but it is also the most culturally diverse of its cities. This week the issue of coexistence came to the fore after counter terrorism police raided dozens of homes and detained 15 suspects, sparking angry protests from Sydney’s Muslim community.

“I think it’s a time that we need to hear the loving wisdom of Christ and his Church about peace and restraint on people’s anger and vengefulness” says Bishop Fisher. “The Catholic Church knows better than any institution in the world that people of different backgrounds can live together and love together…and I very much hope that Sydney can re-learn that right now”.

Another challenging facing the newly appointed Archbishop is the sexual abuse crisis which is being investigated by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Bishop Fisher says he is well aware of these challenges ahead and that his aspiration for his episcopal ministry is perhaps best explained by his chosen motto: Veritatem facientes in caritate’ Speaking the truth in love’.

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UNITED STATES
dotCommonweal

Mollie Wilson O’Reilly September 17, 2014

Something outrageous is happening in Rome: a new pope who was reportedly elected with a clear mandate to reform the curia has, over the course of a year and a half in office, been reappointing curial officials and moving bishops around in order to assemble a team that shares his priorities and can help implement his program for reform.

What’s that? You’re not outraged? I must have put it wrong. Let me try again: an upstart newcomer pope with no respect for tradition is carrying out a reign of terror at the Vatican, virtually executing respected princes of the church by denying them their God-given right to a high-status curial berth for life — right under the nose of the defenseless pope emeritus who appointed them. Madness!

Sandro Magister, Vatican journalist and gloomy observer of the Franciscan papacy, is taking the latter view, as evidenced by his breathless report on rumors that Cardinal Raymond Burke is about to be removed from his position as Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura and reassigned to a largely honorary post, Prefect of the Knights of Malta, at the tender age of 66.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

AAP SEPTEMBER 18, 2014

THE LIFE OF SYDNEY’S NEW CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP, ANTHONY COLIN FISHER

* born in Sydney in 1960 to Colin and Gloria Fisher.

* started school in 1965 at St Therese’s, Lakemba parish school, then at St Michael’s Lane Cove, Holy Cross College Ryde and St Ignatius’ College Riverview.
* graduated with arts and law degrees from the University of Sydney
* practised law at city firm Clayton Utz
* entered the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) in 1985
* ordained in 1991
* completed a doctorate in bioethics at the University of Oxford.
* lecturer at the Australian Catholic University from 1995 to 2000
* director of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family, Melbourne from 2000 to 2003

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

September 18, 2014

Richard Blackburn

The Bishop of Parramatta, Anthony Fisher, has been appointed the ninth Archbishop of Sydney, replacing the controversial Cardinal George Pell.

The Vatican announcement comes several months after Cardinal Pell was appointed to a newly created Secretariat for the Economy in Rome, charged with cleaning up the Vatican’s finances.
Bishop Anthony immediately committed the church to “doing better” in its response to victims of sexual abuse at the hands of priests and brothers.

“Victims of abuse and all young people must come first – no excuses, no cover-ups. The Church must do better in this area and I am committed to playing a leading role in regaining the confidence of the community and of our own members,” he said.

The comments come after Cardinal Pell was widely criticised for his appearance last month at the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, where he likened the Catholic Church’s responsibility for child abuse to that of a “trucking company”. If a driver sexually assaulted a passenger they picked up along the way, he said, “I don’t think it appropriate for the leadership of that company be held responsible.”

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OSTERREICH
Kathweb

[Admont regrets a process delay in in the abuse lawsuit.]

Graz (KAP) Das Stift Admont hat im Fall einer Zivilrechtsklage eines ehemaligen Zöglings am Landesgericht Leoben gegen zwei Admonter Patres und das Stift bedauert, dass sich die am Montag begonnene Neuverhandlung aufgrund eines Befangenheitsantrages des Klägers erneut verzögere. Das Stift sehe den Antrag und dessen nun erforderliche Prüfung durch den Senat des Landesgerichts als unbegründet, hieß es in einer Stellungnahme des Stiftes gegenüber “Kathpress”.

In der Neuverhandlung geht es darum, ob der Rechtsweg der Klage zulässig ist oder nicht. Unstimmigkeiten gab es dabei vor allem bei der Frage, ob es in einer etwaigen unbeaufsichtigten Freizeit des Schülers oder aber im dienstlichen Bereich wie etwa während der Schul- oder Internatszeit zu den behaupteten Vorfällen gekommen ist, was Folgen für Haftungsfragen hätte. Das Stift betonte in seiner Stellungnahme, dass auch in der Freizeit des Schülers dessen von rechtswegen verpflichtende allgemeine Aufsicht stets gewährleistet gewesen sei. Dass der Kläger niemals Freizeit hatte, hätten die Patres entgegen dessen Darstellung nicht behauptet.

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OSTERREICH
Religion@ORF.at

[Summary: A plaque to commemorate victims of abuse has been installed at Kremsmuenster in the Kirchdorf district of Austria. Students were abused by clergy for decades.]

Das Stift Kremsmünster (Bezirk Kirchdorf) hat nach dem Missbrauchsskandal, der 2010 bekannt wurde, nun eine Gedenktafel. Jahrzehntelang wurden im Stiftsgymnasium Schüler durch Geistliche missbraucht.

„Mit dieser Gedenktafel wollen wir das Leid der Opfer anerkennen“, so Abt Ambros Ebhart in einer Presseaussendung am Mittwoch. Die Tafel befindet sich im Durchgang vom äußeren Stiftshof zum Gymnasium und zur Sternwarte. Die zentrale Figur in der Missbrauchsaffäre, der ehemalige Konviktsdirektor, war im Sommer 2013 zu zwölf Jahren Haft verurteilt worden. Das Urteil ist aber nicht rechtskräftig, derzeit liegt der Akt beim Obersten Gerichtshof (OGH), der im Oktober darüber entscheiden wird, wie er auf APA-Anfrage mitteilte.

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Media Advisory
September 17, 2014

St. Paul News Conference Thursday
Sexual abuse survivors to speak and bring legal action

What: At a news conference on Thursday in St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson will:

• Announce the filing of three civil lawsuits filed in Ramsey and Stearns Counties on behalf of four sexual abuse survivors. Defendants named in the lawsuits include: The Order of St. Benedict a/k/a and d/b/a St. John’s Abbey; the Diocese of St. Cloud; the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis; and Richard Eckroth.

• Discuss the experiences of two survivors who previously settled with St. John’s. These men, abused as young boys by Richard Eckroth and Cosmos Dahlheimer, will speak publicly at the press conference.

• Request St. John’s and the Diocese of St. Cloud release all the files of clerics credibly accused of sexual abuse. St. John’s has publicly named 22 clerics and the Diocese of St. Cloud has named 33 clerics with credible allegations of child sexual abuse.

WHEN: Thursday September 18, 2014, at 11:00AM CDT

WHERE: Jeff Anderson & Associates
366 Jackson Street, Suite 100
St. Paul, MN 55101

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IRELAND
YouTube

Published on Sep 17, 2014

In 2013 the movie Philomena was shown in cinemas across the world and earned four Oscar nominations. The film was based on the true story of Philomena Lee, who was forced by the Catholic Church to give up her illegitimate son for adoption, and detailed her journey with journalist Martin Sixsmith to find her child 50 years later.

In the weeks and months after the film went out, Martin was contacted by other mothers who had their own stories to tell. Now, Martin Sixsmith goes on a journey to investigate the Irish Catholic Church’s role in an adoption trade which saw thousands of illegitimate children taken from their mothers and sent abroad, often with donations to the Church flowing in the other direction. In Ireland and in America, Martin hears the moving stories of the parents and children whose lives were changed forever and discovers evidence that prospective parents were not properly vetted – sometimes with tragic consequences.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse will hold its first public hearing in Darwin commencing Monday 22 September 2014 at 10:00am ACST.

Date: Monday 22 September 2014
Venue: Court 11, Supreme Court Building, State Square, Darwin
Hearing hours: 10:00am – 4:00pm ACST.

The scope and purpose of the public hearing is to:

1. Hear the experience of men and women who were sexually abused as children at the Retta Dixon Home in Darwin, Northern Territory between 1946 – 1980.

2. Inquire into the response of the Australian Indigenous Ministries (formally the Aborigines Inland Mission) and the Northern Territory and Commonwealth governments to allegations of child sexual abuse against AIM workers who were employed at the Retta Dixon Home.

3. Inquire into the response of the Northern Territory’s Police Force and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in 1975 and 2002 to allegations raised by residents of the Retta Dixon Home against Donald Henderson.

4. Inquire into the current laws, policies and procedures governing children in out-of-home care in the Northern Territory today.

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AUSTRALIA
Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

18 September, 2014
The Royal Commission is holding a public hearing in Sydney from 7 October 2014 at 10.30am.

The public hearing will inquire into the responses by Australian Christian Churches (a Pentecostal movement in Australia) and two affiliated churches to allegations of child sexual abuse.

The scope and purpose of the public hearing is to inquire into:

1. The response of the Sydney Christian Life Centre and Hills Christian Life Centre (now Hillsong Church) and Assemblies of God in Australia (now Australian Christian Churches) to allegations of child sexual abuse made against William Francis “Frank” Houston.

2. The response of the Northside Christian College and the Northside Christian Centre (now Encompass Church) in Bundoora, Victoria and Assemblies of God in Australia (now Australian Christian Churches) to allegations of child sexual abuse made against former teacher Kenneth Sandilands.

3. The response of Australian Christian Churches to allegations of child sexual abuse made against Jonathan Baldwin.

4. The systems, policies, practices and procedures for the reporting of and responding to allegations of child sexual abuse of:
a. Australian Christian Churches,
b. Hillsong Church, and
c. Northside Christian College and Encompass Church.

5. Any other related matters.

Any person or institution who believes that they have a direct and substantial interest in the scope and purpose of the public hearing is invited to lodge a written application for leave to appear at the public hearing by 23 September 2014.

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AUSTRALIA
SBS

AAP

Parramatta Bishop Anthony Fisher has been appointed to succeed George Pell as Catholic Archbishop of Sydney.

The newly appointed Catholic Archbishop of Sydney is “committed to playing a leading role in regaining the confidence of the community and of our own members” after the clerical sex abuse scandal.

Pope Francis on Thursday appointed Parramatta Bishop Anthony Fisher to succeed Cardinal George Pell, who left the position in February to become the Vatican’s finance chief in Rome.

Archbishop-elect Fisher, who’s expected to follow Cardinal Pell’s orthodox approach, said he was determined to do everything he could to make sure the abuse doesn’t happen again.

“There can be no more excuses, no more cover-ups and the victims have to be put first,” he told AAP.

“The Catholic Church in Australia is going through a period of public scrutiny and self-examination.

“I hope it will emerge from this purified, humbler, more compassionate and spiritually regenerated.”

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Anthony Fisher to the Archdiocese of Sydney.

It will be a homecoming for the 54 year old Dominican, who was born in Sydney and served as an auxiliary there before being appointed to the diocese of Paramatta. He takes over pastoral leadership of the Archdiocese from Cardinal George Pell who has been appointed Prefect of the new Vatican Secretariat for the Economy.

Bishop fishers Episcopal motto is : Veritatem facientes in caritate’ Speaking the truth in love.

Born in Sydney in 1960 to Colin and Gloria Fisher, he was baptised Anthony Colin Joseph at St Thérèse Church, Lakemba, and attended the parish school in 1965 and 1966.

Thereafter, he attended St Michael’s School Lane Cove, Holy Cross College Ryde, and St Ignatius’ College Riverview.

At the University of Sydney he received degrees in History and Law before practising law in a city firm.

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MINNESOTA
KARE

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A St. Thomas University professor who was sued for alleged child sex abuse, has resigned. The University announced Father Michael Keating’s resignation on Wednesday.

Keating has been on a leave of absence since last October, after the allegations became public. The lawsuit accuses Keating of abusing a woman in the 1990’s when she was in her early teens.

Keating wrote in his resignation letter to St. Thomas, “After careful consideration of my current situation in light of my employment options and long-standing goals, I have decided to resign my faculty position with the University of St. Thomas effective immediately. I have greatly enjoyed my time at the university and take with me fond memories of the St. Thomas community.”

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MINNESOTA
Pioneer Press

By Tad Vezner
tvezner@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 09/17/2014

A University of St. Thomas professor accused of molesting a young girl when he was studying to be a priest has resigned.

Father Michael Keating, who has been a member of the Catholic Studies department since 2005, “has informed the university of his decision to resign from St. Thomas,” according to a release posted Wednesday on the university’s website.

A statement by Keating said:

“After careful consideration of my current situation in light of my employment options and long-standing goals, I have decided to resign my faculty position with the University of St. Thomas effective immediately. I have greatly enjoyed my time at the university and take with me fond memories of the St. Thomas community.”

In October, a lawsuit was filed in Ramsey County District Court by a Chisago County woman referred to as Jane Doe 20. She alleged that in 2006, when she was 13, Keating — who was studying to be a priest and nearly 30 years her senior — repeatedly molested her in her home.

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TEXAS
San Antonio Express-News

BY MARK D. WILSON : SEPTEMBER 17, 2014

SAN ANTONIO — A Catholic priest who allegedly exposed himself to an undercover police officer at Olmos Park was arrested Tuesday.

Alberto Torres Trevino, 63, was charged with indecent exposure after the incident, which happened just before 2 p.m. in the 600 block of Devine Road.

A San Antonio Police Department report said the area is known for having a high rate of sex crimes.

Trevino allegedly rubbed his genitals while sitting on a park bench, then began pleasuring himself on a nearby embankment, the report said.

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TEXAS
Fox 29

By Randy Escamilla
Fox San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio Catholic priest with the religious order Missionaries of the Holy Family has been arrested by the San Antonio Park Police Covert Operations Unit.

The arrest happened Monday in the City’s Olmos Park. Police say Father Alberto Trevino, 63, exposed himself to an undercover officer.

San Antonio Police Department Spokesman Sgt. Javier Salazar previously worked as an undercover officer arresting men for sex crimes in the city’s parks.

Salazar says consensual sex between adults in private is not a crime, however, it becomes criminal when it happens in a public forum and parks are not the place.

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UTAH/LOUISIANA
Standard-Examiner

By ANDREAS RIVERA Standard-Examiner staff

SOUTH OGDEN — A former resident of Louisiana was extradited from Utah after investigators charged him with the sexual abuse of two young girls nearly 15 years ago.

Matthew Todd Wallis, a South Ogden resident, was arrested in August and extradited to Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana to face charges related to aggravated sexual abuse involving a girl as young as 4 years old at the time, according to a press release from the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff’s Office.

The alleged crime happened in Belle Chasse, a suburb of New Orleans, between 1999 and 2000. Police began looking into the allegations in May 2014 after the alleged victim came forward.

The girl told police that Wallis repeatedly abused her and on one occasion, recorded it with a camcorder. Other witnesses said the video was destroyed by Wallis’ mother in an attempt to “make it all go away,” according to the release. Wallis’ parents then admitted to police that they burned the tape in order to protect their son, police said.

Another witness told police that a second victim came forward to the bishop of Wallis’ LDS Church congregation in Louisiana. Officers said Wallis confided in the bishop about the abuse, who set him on a “repentance program.” There was no indication that the bishop, who has since died, ever told police about Wallis’ confession.

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NEW YORK
New York Daily News

BY MICHAEL O’KEEFFE
Tuesday, September 16, 2014

The lawyers hired by Yeshiva University in January 2013 to investigate allegations that the Washington Heights school had covered up decades of sexual abuse didn’t leave any stone unturned.

The investigators spent 6,300 hours on the case, interviewing more than 145 people, including victims and school employees accused of sexual abuse. They reviewed millions of emails and thousands of pages of documents, including personnel records, legal files and board meeting minutes.

The investigation was led by Karen Patton Seymour, the former chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, now a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell, the Manhattan white-shoe law firm with offices across the globe. Seymour and S&C brought in Lisa Friel and her security firm, T&M Protection Resources, to assist with the probe.

Friel assumed an even bigger stage on Monday, when embattled NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced that he had hired the former chief of the Manhattan district attorney’s sex crimes unit to advise him on criminal cases and violations of the league’s personal conduct policy.

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CALIFORNIA
ABC 30

[with video]

By Mariana Jacob
Friday, September 12, 2014

VISALIA, Calif. (KFSN) — The community in Visalia feels betrayed by a member of their own congregation who is now accused of molesting a child.

Visalia police have arrested a 34-year-old man for sexually abusing a child under ten years old.

Daniel Sisk is now being held at the Tulare County Jail. Investigators say he molested the young victim at a local church.

According to his pastor Brandon Hall the 34-year-old worshipped at The Road Church in Visalia and also volunteered to work with kids there. Now the pastor is stunned Sisk is suspected of molesting a young girl.

“From the church community it really shocks our conscious because there are things that are just not supposed to happen in life. Kids are so vulnerable,” said Hall.

Investigators were tipped off last month when the victim’s family came forward.

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CALIFORNIA
Visalia Times-Delta

Eric Woomer, ewoomer@visaliatimesdelta.com September 17, 2014

A volunteer accused of molesting a child at a Visalia church has been charged by the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office.

Daniel Sisk, 34, of Visalia was charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14 and a special allegation that there was substantial sexual conduct.

If convicted, he faces 10 years in prison. He would be required to serve his sentence in state prison and his charges prohibit a judge from ordering felony probation.

The victim was a girl at The Road Church on Aug. 20 during an adult Wednesday evening Bible study. That’s when the alleged incident occurred. Sisk was arrested more than three weeks later on Sept. 11.

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UNITED STATES
Religion News Service

Autumn Miles | September 17, 2014

(RNS) Too often, it can be easy to assume that some issues are less prevalent in the church. We forget that, as a collective of individuals shaped by the culture at large, sin is indiscriminate in whom it touches. Many church leaders do not realize that all evils are present in their congregations, especially sins that carry a heavy culture of silence.

A new LifeWay Research poll shows that 74 percent of pastors misjudge the prevalence of sexual and domestic violence within their congregations. Considering that the World Health Organization estimates that 35 percent of women globally have experienced sexual or physical abuse, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that this statistic for men is 25 percent, it is past time pastors learned how to recognize the signs of domestic abuse and effectively address it.

After TMZ’s release of the video showing NFL running back Ray Rice assaulting then-girlfriend and now-wife Janay Rice in an elevator, pundits have criticized NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s handling of the case — specifically, that he suspended Rice indefinitely from the league only after the video became public (and after initially suspending him for a mere two games).

Victims advocates, sports columnists and legal experts alike have condemned Goodell for interviewing Janay and Ray Rice together during the disciplinary process, which took place after Ray Rice had been indicted by a grand jury on an assault charge. Asking a victim’s opinion of her abuser — while he is in the same room — parallels a broader concern about abuse victims not being supported or empowered to voice the crimes being committed against them.

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TEXAS
KLTV

From the Mount Pleasant Police Department:

MOUNT PLEASANT, TX – The Mount Pleasant Police Department arrested L.C. Terry, 84 years of age of Titus County, on four counts of Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Disabled Individual, a First Degree Felony on Wednesday September 17, 2014.

The assaults are believed to have occurred over several months at an assisted living facility located in Mount Pleasant. Allegations about the crimes were reported to the police department on September 13, and warrants were subsequently obtained for the offenses after criminal investigators developed probable cause for the arrest. Terry was booked into the Titus County Jail after his arrest. Bond has not been set.

Due to the nature of the offenses committed, the Police Department is not releasing the identity of the victim, location of the offenses, or any additional information about the alleged crimes committed.

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TEXAS
Daily Tribune

MOUNT PLEASANT, Texas (AP) — An elderly East Texas man has been charged with felonies for allegedly sexually assaulting a disabled person at an assisted living facility.

Mount Pleasant Police Chief Wayne Isbell says 84-year-old L.C. Terry was arrested Wednesday and charged with four counts of first-degree aggravated assault of a disabled individual. He says the assaults occurred over several months at the Mount Pleasant facility and were reported on Saturday.

Isbell has not released other information about the alleged assaults.

Terry is being held at the Titus County Jail. Bond has not been set and online jail records didn’t indicate an attorney.

The Mount Pleasant Daily Tribune reports Terry is the pastor of the Spring Hill Missionary Baptist Church.

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AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald

September 18, 2014

Rachel Browne
Social Affairs Reporter

The popular Hillsong Church will come under the scrutiny of the child sexual abuse royal commission when it examines Australia’s Pentecostal institutions at its next public hearing in October.

It will look at allegations made against Frank Houston, who admitted sexually abusing a boy in New Zealand in the 1970s.

Houston was sacked by his son Brian Houston, now the Hillsong Church’s senior pastor, when the allegations became public in 2000. The disgraced evangelist died in 2004.

Frank Houston, widely regarded as the father of Australia’s Pentecostal movement, admitted sexually abusing a boy in New Zealand in the 1970s.

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AUSTRALIA
The Guardian

Helen Davidson
theguardian.com, Thursday 18 September 2014

Child abuse allegations against a preacher who helped build Australia’s Pentecostal movement will be investigated by the royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse, it was announced on Thursday.

The commission will examine how the Sydney Christian Life Centre and Hills Christian Life Centre (now Hillsong Church) and Assemblies of God in Australia (now Australian Christian Churches) treated allegations against the Pentecostal Christian pastor William Francis “Frank” Houston and two other men.

Houston, who died in 2004, confessed in 2000 to sexually abusing a boy in New Zealand more than 30 years earlier. He was immediately sacked by his son, Brian Houston, the high-profile founder of Hillsong.

Further allegations have been made in recent years, including that Houston sexually abused a trainee pastor in the 1980s in an attempt to “cure” him of homsexuality.

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AUSTRALIA
Sky News

Child sex abuse allegations against the man who founded the pentecostal movement which became the Hillsong Church will be examined by a national inquiry.

The sex abuse royal commission will examine how the Sydney Christian Life Centre and Hills Christian Life Centre, (now Hillsong Church) and the Assemblies of God in Australia, (now Australian Christian Churches) treated allegations against the Pentecostal christian pastor Frank Houston and two other men.

Houston, who died in 2004 aged 82, was considered the father of Sydney’s Pentecostal churches.

He was a Salvation Army officer in his native New Zealand and founded his first Assemblies of God ministry at Lower Hutt in 1960. He later became superintendent of the New Zealand Assemblies of God before moving to Sydney in 1977.

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AUSTRALIA
Christian Today

Child abuse allegations against Frank Houston, the father of Hillsong’s lead pastor Brian Houston, are to be investigated by a national inquiry, the Guardian reports.

In particular, Australia’s royal commission on sexual abuse will examine the way in which the churches Houston was linked with dealt with the abuse.

Originally trained as a Salvation Army officer, Frank Houston later became a Pentecostal pastor in the Assemblies of God. He founded Sydney Christian Life Centre, which was in 1999 merged with his son Brian’s church – Hills Christian Life Centre, now known as Hillsong.

He is therefore credited with building a movement that became one of the largest megachurches in the world.

Before his death in 2004 aged 82, Houston confessed to sexually abusing a boy in New Zealand three decades earlier, and was immediately removed from ministry by Brian

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NEW YORK
Albany Times Union

ALBANY — A defrocked deacon was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison, the Albany County District Attorney’s Office announced.

Judge Stephen Herrick also ordered Angel Garcia, 61, of Albany to register as a sex offender and submit to 10 years of post-release supervision.

A jury found Garcia guilty on Aug. 14 of two felony counts of sexual abuse of a 6-year-old girl in 2003.

He was defrocked in 2010 for unrelated child molestation allegations. At the time, he was at the Church of the Holy Family on Central Avenue.

Each of the sex abuse counts carried a possible sentence of up to 7 years in prison.

The trial was not related to the allegation that Garcia sexually abused a minor in the early 1990s before his ordination as a deacon. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, which found reasonable grounds to believe the earlier allegations, defrocked Garcia.

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MINNESOTA
St. Cloud Times

ST. PAUL – Four survivors of sexual abuse, some at the hands of St. John’s Abbey monks, will be at a news conference Thursday where lawsuits will be announced against St. John’s Abbey and the Diocese of St. Cloud.

Abbey monk Richard Eckroth also will be named as a defendant, according to clergy sex abuse attorney Jeff Anderson. Two survivors who previously settled lawsuits with St. John’s Abbey are expected to discuss their experiences at the news conference.

They were abused by Eckroth and the Rev. Cosmas Dahlheimer. It’s expected that Anderson will file a lawsuit that accuses St. John’s Abbey and the Diocese of St. Cloud of creating a public nuisance by their handling of allegations against their monks and priests.

Anderson plans to ask St. John’s and the Diocese of St. Cloud again to release all the files of clerics credibly accused of sexual abuse. St. John’s has publicly named 22 clerics, and the Diocese of St. Cloud has named 33 clerics with credible allegations of child sexual abuse against them, according to Anderson.

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CALIFORNIA
Manteca Bulletin

By Rose Albano Risso
City Editor ralbanorisso@mantecabulletin.com 209-249-3536
POSTED September 18, 2014

The Diocese of Stockton received 34 claims of sexual abuse in the three months prior to the Aug. 15 submission deadline related to the filing of bankruptcy protection by the diocese.

The Chapter 11 reorganization process is continuing right on schedule, said Sr. Terry Davis, Director of Communications for the Diocese, in a statement sent out to media outlets. The nearly three-dozen abuse claims that were filed do not identify any priest currently in active ministry, she reported.

The Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection was described by Bishop Stephen Blaire earlier this year as “the only way we can fulfill our responsibilities to the victims of sexual abuse and our responsibilities to the parishes and communities we served.” It was a “painful but necessary decision,” he added, and that it came only after months of “careful consideration, consultation and prayer.”

The key to the bankruptcy proceeding is to determine exactly what claims the Diocese will face which will enable the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of California to distribute the remaining assets of the diocese as fairly as possible, explained Davis at that time.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Review

By Richard Gazarik
Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014

A Roman Catholic priest was placed on indefinite leave because federal agents raided his Somerset County church office and residence last week.

Bishop Mark Bartchak of the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese suspended the Rev. Joseph Maurizio Jr., 69, of Windber, diocesan spokesman Tony DeGol said on Wednesday.

Maurizio has been pastor of our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Central City, near Indian Lake Resort, since 2003, according to the diocese.

His suspension occurred because neighbors said they saw agents from Homeland Security searching his rectory office and his Windber home, carting off boxes of records.

Maurizio has extensive connections in Central and Latin America through orphanages that he supports financially, according to tax records.

DeGol said the diocese is not aware of Maurizio’s nonprofit organizations and has no idea what the probe involves.

“Obviously, this is a federal investigation, and we’re not privy to that,” he said.

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MAINE
WCSH

Grady Trimble, WLBZ September 17, 2014

BANGOR, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — Father Adam Metropoulos of St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Bangor admitted to investigators that he inappropriately touched two teenage boys five years ago at his home. He also admitted to recording two women showering at his home over the years. This information is from a police affidavit filed in the case.

According to one police officer’s statement, “Mr. Metropoulos told me that while the boys were sleeping, he felt both of them in the genital areas…”

Affidavit: Priest admits to touching boys

Metropoulos was arrested Saturday for allegedly recording a woman in the shower. He is charged with violation of privacy and possession of child pornography, which police said they seized after searching his computers.

Metropoulos’ bail is set at $100,000 cash. Bail conditions include that Metropoulos is not to have contact with children under 18 and he is not to use or possess any devices that can access the internet. He will be subject to random searches for internet devices.

The Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts said it is too early to tell if he will face any other charges.

“If he’s somebody who’s a predator, who’s used his position in the church to gain the trust of children and parents and families to engage in this conduct, that’s just horrific,” Roberts said. “If he’s somebody who’s got issues of his own and has made a mistake here, but isn’t necessarily a predator, that’s a completely different situation, but we have to err on the side of caution and assume, given his history, particularly with an earlier conviction, that this may be a predator that we need to take very seriously.”

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Sept. 17

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, SNAPclohessy@aol.com, davidgclohessy@gmail.com )

[Minnesota Public Radio]

Fr. Keating’s resignation achieves virtually nothing. It’s incumbent on Archbishop John Nienstedt to quickly announce whether Twin Cities Catholic officials find the child sex abuse accusations against him credible. And before that, it’s incumbent on Nienstedt to use pulpit announcements, parish bulletins and church web sites to aggressively seek out anyone who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes or misdeeds by Fr. Keating.

And it’s deceitful for St. Thomas university officials to ignore the credible child sex abuse allegations against him. They too have a civic and moral duty to do outreach, especially to their staff and alums, about Keating.

The archdiocese’s clergy review board recommended that Fr. Keating not be allowed to mentor teenagers and young adults, according to Minnesota Public Radio. But Fr. Keating did just that. “It’s unclear whether (archdiocesan staff) rejected the recommendation and never passed it along to the university or if university officials knew of the recommendation and disregarded it,” MPR reported.

Every single staffer at the university and at the archdiocese should be up in arms until top officials at each institution until they disclose which one of them acted recklessly and ignored the board’s recommendation. Such secrecy is unhealthy and irresponsible.

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MINNESOTA
Makato Free Press

Posted: Wednesday, September 17, 2014

By Dan Nienaber dnienaber@mankatofreepress.com

An abusive priest, who a top church official with the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis described as one of the “most abusive” to work in the archdiocese, spent time serving parishes in Gaylord and Sleepy Eye.

That description of the Rev. Louis Heitzer, who served as a priest from 1942 until he died in 1969, was made by former Vicar Gen. Kevin McDonough, the next highest-ranking official after the archbishop. He was responding to a letter written to him in 2002 by a woman concerned about the sexual abuse her brother and other boys experienced while Heitzer was working in Franklin from 1950 to 1954.

“As I have come to know more about what Louis Heitzer did, I believe he was perhaps the most abusive priest to ever be a part of this archdiocese,” McDonough’s letter said. “I now believe he abused boys every place he went.”

The letter was in Heitzer’s priest file, which had been provided by the archdiocese for a court case where an abuse victim is being represented by the Jim Anderson & Associates law firm. The firm is working with many victims throughout the state and has been leading an effort to have Catholic leaders release all the information they have about abusive priests who work, or have worked, in Minnesota.

There are 185 pages of information in the Heitzer file showing he spent much of his time as a priest working in churches that are now part of the New Ulm Diocese. The documents also show archbishops were very aware of numerous allegations against him by parishioners and their children. As the allegations arose Heitzer was moved to different churches.

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.

TEXAS
News 4

Updated: Wednesday, September 17 2014

By Randy Escamilla SAN ANTONIO — A San Antonio Catholic priest with the religious order Missionaries of the Holy Family has been arrested by the San Antonio Park Police Covert Operations Unit.

The arrest happened Monday in the City’s Olmos Park. Police say Father Alberto Trevino, 63, exposed himself to an undercover officer.

San Antonio Police Department Spokesman Sgt. Javier Salazar previously worked as an undercover officer arresting men for sex crimes in the city’s parks.

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KENTUCKY
WLKY

PULASKI COUNTY, Ky. —A former Louisville Catholic school teacher and football coach who faces sex abuse charges in Jefferson County was arrested again Sunday evening in Pulaski County.

According to the Pulaski County Jail website, Dale Anderson was arrested Sunday on charges of second-degree sodomy, first-degree sodomy and first-degree sexual abuse.

Anderson, who now lives in Somerset, was arrested last month in Louisville and accused of abusing a student between the ages of 11 and 14 sometime between 1981 and 1993. At the time, he was a teacher at St. Raphael and a football coach for Trinity.

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ALABAMA/TEXAS
Associated Baptist Press

By Bob Allen

A former Southern Baptist youth minister arrested Aug. 20 in Texas on a warrant has returned to Alabama to face charges of sexual abuse.

Charles “Kyle” Adcock, 31, appeared Sept. 12 in Colbert County District Court in Tuscumbia, Ala. He waived extradition from Frisco, Texas, and was transferred to Alabama on Wednesday, according to local media.

Adcock is charged with 22 counts of second-degree rape and nine counts of second-degree sodomy stemming from his time as youth minister at Woodward Avenue Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals, Ala.

Police say Adcock had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a girl in the church youth group between 2010 and 2012 beginning when she was 14. The alleged victim, now an adult, claims the incidents occurred at the church, Adcock’s home and a third location.

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

MINNESOTA
Minnesota Public Radio

Madeleine Baran St. Paul, Minn. Sep 17, 2014

The Rev. Michael Keating, who was sued for alleged child sex abuse last year, has resigned from his position as a Catholic Studies professor at the University of St. Thomas, according to a statement published Tuesday on the university’s website.

Keating had been on a leave of absence since October 2013.

“After careful consideration of my current situation in light of my employment options and long-standing goals, I have decided to resign my faculty position with the University of St. Thomas effective immediately,” Keating wrote in his resignation letter, according to the statement. “I have greatly enjoyed my time at the university and take with me fond memories of the St. Thomas community.”

A university spokesman declined to comment.

The university’s statement does not refer to the abuse allegations against Keating. They became public in October 2013, when a woman sued the priest, claiming that he sexually abused her in the late 1990s when she was about 13 to 15 years old. The lawsuit remains unresolved.

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.

MAINE
WABI

[with video]

By John Krinjak

A Bangor priest accused of possessing child pornography made his first court appearance Wednesday.

We also learned that he may also have had sexual contact with children in Bangor.

52-year-old Adam Metropoulos has been suspended from his duties at St. George Greek Orthodox Church after his arrest this week on child porn and violation of privacy charges.

The investigation began after a woman told police she was photographed while taking a shower at the priest’s home.

Penobscot County Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts says they found child porn on a computer in the home and Metropoulos also admitted to having sexual contact with children in Bangor.

“During the context of this investigation, when the police interviewed him, he acknowledged that a few years ago he had touched a couple of teenaged boys,” said Roberts.

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

MINNESOTA
Star Tribune

Article by: JEAN HOPFENSPERGER , Star Tribune Updated: September 17, 2014

The Rev. Michael Keating said he was resigning in light of “employment options and long-standing goals.”

The Rev. Michael Keating, sued last year for allegedly sexually abusing a Twin Cities girl more than a decade ago, has resigned from his teaching position at the University of St. Thomas.

Keating, a full-time faculty member in the Department of Catholic Studies at St. Thomas since 2005, took a leave of absence last fall.

The university website posted his letter of resignation Tuesday.

“After careful consideration of my current situation in light of my employment options and long-standing goals, I have decided to resign my faculty position with the University of St. Thomas effective immediately,” wrote Keating.

“I have greatly enjoyed my time at the university and take with me fond memories of the St. Thomas community,” Keating wrote.

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IRELAND
Telegraph (UK)

The sinister side of the Catholic Church was laid bare in Martin Sixsmith’s documentary about Irish mothers whose babies were taken from them, says Michael Hogan

4 out of 5 stars

By Michael Hogan 17 Sep 2014

I’m probably the wrong person to review This World: Ireland’s Lost Babies (BBC Two). As a new-ish father, I’ve become enormously soppy, especially when it comes to emotional stories about parents and children – welling up during the news, dabbing my eyes at adverts, snivelling in an undignified manner during episodes of ITV’s Long Lost Family. Must be hormones or something. I’m also half-Irish (full name: the none-more-Irish Michael Joseph Hogan), just to throw some extra emotion into the equation. So it was with some trepidation that I sat down to watch journalist Martin Sixsmith’s companion documentary to last year’s feature film Philomena.

That Bafta-winning, Oscar-nominated Hollywood production, starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, dramatised Sixsmith’s efforts to to help Philomena Lee find her long-lost son Anthony, taken from her as a baby in the Fifties by the Catholic church and sent off to America for adoption. Naturally, that had me in floods too.

This follow-up saw the silvery, sincere Sixsmith meeting other Philomena figures and illuminating the wider story. He travelled across Ireland and America to hear touching stories of lives irrevocably changed, while investigating the Catholic Church’s role in a huge, horrible adoption racket which saw thousands of “illegitimate” children taken from their “fallen” mothers and packed off abroad, often with generous donations to the Church flowing in the other direction. Buying and selling babies by another name.

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MAINE
Bangor Daily News

Bail set at $100,000 for suspended Bangor priest charged with possession of child pornography

By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff
Posted Sept. 17, 2014

BANGOR, Maine — A district court judge set bail Wednesday at $100,000 cash or surety for the suspended Greek Orthodox priest arrested earlier this week on charges that he allegedly possessed child pornography and surreptitiously photographed a woman taking a shower in his bathroom.

Bail for Adam Metropoulos, 52, of Bangor originally was set at $10,000 cash. Since his arrest Monday, he has been held at the Penobscot County Jail unable to post bail.

Judge John Lucy set the bail recommended by Michael P. Roberts, deputy district attorney for Penobscot County, and Metropoulos’ attorney, Marvin Glazier. Lucy said the bail could be reviewed at a later date.

Conditions include no unauthorized contact with minors, no Internet access and not possessing a device that can take photographs.

Metropoulos is next due in court on Nov. 5.

Roberts said outside the courthouse after Metropoulos’ first court appearance that the high bail was warranted given the suspended priest’s 1983 conviction on a sex charge in Michigan and his admission to police that a few years ago, he “touched two 15-year-old boys inappropriately.”

The prosecutor also said that, so far, no sexually explicit photos or videos of local children had been found on Metropoulos’ computer.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com )

Today, despite repeated pledges of “openness and transparency,” in a gathering closed to the public and to journalists, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is co-sponsoring a meeting that we suspect will largely focus on the church’s on-going clergy sex abuse and cover up crisis.

This week, the International Congress of Canon Law gathers at Catholic University in Washington DC to discuss “Crime and Punishment: Nature, Problems and Perspectives of Canonical Penal Law and Its Relation to Civil Law.”

According to the group’s website, “The conference is an academic conference and is not open to the press.”

This is a key component of the crisis in a nutshell: Catholic officials meet in private with other Catholic officials to discuss how Catholic officials should deal with child molesting clerics (and perhaps, with complicit church supervisors). We hope the USCCB and the ICCL will quickly reconsider their decision to keep their deliberations private.

Catholic officials have held thousands of meetings about this crisis. But words and discussion won’t fix it. Only decisive action will protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded. What is needed is clear: those who commit and conceal clergy sex crimes must be quickly and publicly exposed, disciplined, and turned over to law enforcement. Catholic officials must post names of proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting clerics on their websites. They must personally and promptly go to every parish where sex offender clerics worked, publicly name them, and beg anyone who saw, suspected or suffered their crimes to call police and get help.

They must demote, not promote, their colleagues and employees who endanger kids by protecting predators, through acts of omission or commission. They must lobby for – not against – reforms to archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly secular statutes of limitations.

The event began today at 8.00 a.m. at Catholic University of America and runs through Sept. 21. Participants are apparently staying at the Double Tree Hotel, 8727 Colesville Road in Silver Spring.

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CONNECTICUT
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

He’s trying to overturn “great” child safety law, they say
SNAP to prelate: “Stop protecting predators & hurting kids”
Group urges him to drop appeal before state Supreme Court
Hearing is set for Sept. 22 in pedophile priest/cover up lawsuit
They prod Catholic officials to post names of child molesting clerics

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will
–blast Hartford’s Catholic archbishop for trying to overturn a state law that protects kids and exposes predators,
–reverse himself and drop his appeal to the state’s highest court, and
–safeguard children by posting predator priests’ names on parish and archdiocesan websites.

WHEN
Thursday, Sept. 18 at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
Outside the Supreme Court building, 231 Capitol Avenue (corner of Lafayette St.) in Hartford CT

WHO
Eight-ten men and women who are abuse victims and members of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAPnetwork.org), including an Ohio woman who exposed clergy sex crimes and cover ups by Hartford’s archbishop when he headed the Toledo diocese for a decade (2003-2013)

WHY
Hartford’s Catholic archbishop is asking the Connecticut Supreme Court to make it much harder for victims, witnesses and whistleblowers to protect children, inside and outside of the church. He wants the justices to toss out a widely-praised 12 year old state law that gives victims more time to expose those who commit and conceal child sex crimes through civil litigation.

In 2002, Connecticut lawmakers extended the statute of limitations, letting child sex abuse victims to take legal action against their predators and employers who shield them until they turn 48 years of age. (Since 2002, lawmakers have extended it even further.)

Archbishop Leonard Blair – and his predecessor Archbishop Henry Mansell – claim that the statute was unconstitutional, based on the ‘due process’ clause of the state constitution.

“Two months ago, Pope Francis said the church should ‘make reparations” to victims and “All bishops must (exercise) the utmost care in order to help foster the protection of minors,’” said David Clohessy, director of SNAP. “But Blair is doing the reverse. And worse, if he wins, he’ll be enabling child molesters in all settings to remain under the radar and keep sexually assaulting kids.”

[NPR]

In 2012, a jury found Hartford Archdiocese officials negligent and reckless in handling abuse reports against Fr. Ivan Ferguson and awarded a victim a $1 million judgment (which includes $300,000 in punitive damages). Fr. Ferguson admitted his crimes. But Blair also wants to overturn this verdict.

Fr. Ferguson has been accused before. In 1993, three men filed civil abuse and cover up lawsuits charging that they were molested by Fr. Ferguson in the1970s and that archdiocesan staff could and should have prevented the crimes.

Two were settled. In 2002, Ferguson was still a priest but had no ministerial or teaching duties. At least two cases against Ferguson were included in a 2005 $14 million settlement with Archdiocese involving 14 predator priests. At least five other cases against Fr. Ferguson have been filed since then.

From 1985 to 1993, Ferguson worked as a chaplain at Hartford Hospital. He is now deceased.2002

During his ten years as head of an Ohio diocese, SNAP charges that Blair similarly fought against statue of limitations reform there.

Finally, SNAP is urging Blair to post on his archdiocesan website the names, photos, whereabouts and work histories of the 33 publicly accused child molesting clerics who are or have been in the Hartford Archdiocese. Roughly 30 US bishops (including Bridgeport’s) have done this. In SNAP’s view, this is “the bare minimum” Catholic officials should do.

“Since bishops recruited, educated, ordained, hired, trained and transferred thousands of predator priests, the least they can do – to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded- is disclose who and where these offenders are,” said Clohessy.

[BishopAccountability.org]

[BishopAccountability.org]

The victim is represented by New Haven attorneys Tom McNamara (203 782 9241, tmacesq@gmail.com) and Hugh Hughes (203 683 1772). Over the past 22 years, McNamara has handled dozens of child sex abuse and cover up cases. The archdiocese is represented by John W. Sitarz (860 527 1141) and Wesley Horton (860 522 8338).

CONTACT
David Clohessy 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com, Claudia Vercellotti 419 345 9291, SNAPtoledo@gmail.com, Beth McCabe 860 335 8187 thirdmccabe@comcast.net, Jim Hackett 203 710 0968 SNAPct@cotse.net

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MAINE
Daily Journal

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
First Posted: September 17, 2014

BANGOR, Maine — A judge has ordered a Greek Orthodox priest held on $100,000 bail on a charge of possessing child pornography.

Deputy District Attorney Mike Roberts said Wednesday that police originally began investigating 52-year-old Adam Metropoulos when a woman complained that he’d photographed or videotaped her without her knowledge while she was showering in the priest’s parish-owned home in Bangor.

Roberts tells WZON-AM that Metropoulos acknowledged having child pornography on his computer, as well as having had inappropriate contact with a teenager in the past.

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.

NEBRASKA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com )

A Nebraska pastor has been charged with sexual assault after allegedly inappropriately touching a teenage girl. We applaud this brave girl for reporting her abuse. Other children will be safer because she had the courage to speak up.

Clifton J. Wells has been the pastor at the Church of Jesus Christ for 26 years and is a retired Omaha firefighter.

We hope this girl’s bravery will encourage anyone else who might have been hurt by Wells to come forward, contact police, and start healing.

Officials at the Church of Jesus Christ should immediately alert parishioners about Wells arrest and beg anyone who saw, suspects, or suffered abuse to come forward and report to law enforcement.

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

VATICAN CITY
Catholic News Service

By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis’ international Council of Cardinals has begun creating the first draft of a new apostolic constitution that would implement a major reform of the Vatican bureaucracy.

The so-called C9, a papally appointed group of nine cardinal members, held its sixth meeting Sept 15-17 with Pope Francis at the Vatican to help advise him on the reform of the Vatican’s organization and church governance.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told reporters Sept. 17 that the series of discussions have now begun a more “concrete” phase with “putting ink on paper” in the form of a draft for the introduction to a new constitution.

“It may be assumed that, with the next two meetings of the council — Dec. 9-11, 2014, and Feb. 9-11, 2015 — the draft constitution will reach an advanced stage of preparation, making it possible for the pope to proceed with further consultations,” the priest said in a written statement.

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UNITED STATES
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014

Statement by David Clohessy of St. Louis, Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 314 566 9790, davidgclohessy@gmail.com )

In what a noted Vatican journalist calls a “decapitation,” and “a move without precedent,” Cardinal Raymond Burke – who had a very sorry tenure running the St. Louis archdiocese (2003-2008), “is on the verge of being demoted” from head of the church’s highest court to a “purely honorary role” and an “ecclesiastically very modest title” at “the behest of Pope Francis.”

Even a staunch Burke defender says this demotion is “likely”.

“If confirmed,” writes veteran church observer Sandro Magister, “Burke would be completely removed from the curia and employed in a purely honorary position without any influence on the governance of the universal Church.”

Magister also wrote “On December 16, in effect, Pope Francis humiliated Burke by crossing him off from among the members of the congregation” and now “seems right at the point of giving the go-ahead for Burke’s second and more grave demotion.”

We are reminded of Martin Luther King’s remark that “The moral arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice.” It is just that Burke’s long troubling rise within the Catholic hierarchy has come to an end. The church will be safer and healthier as a result. Children will be better protected. And dozens of child sex abuse victims – in LaCrosse and St. Louis and elsewhere – will be comforted by the fact that such a cold-hearted prelate will have less influence.

We were sad when Pope Benedict promoted Burke to his post in Rome, one of a long string of bishops who ignored and concealed child sex crimes yet were rewarded by Vatican officials.

While in St. Louis, Burke was often reckless, deceptive and callous regarding predator priests, vulnerable kids and wounded victims. He expanded the troubling practice of importing sexually troubled priests from across the US, letting some of them work in local parishes and letting others stay in church facilities that are secretive and careless about public safety.

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MINNESOTA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, Sept. 17, 2014

Statement by Verne Wagner of Duluth, Northeast MN (Duluth, MN & Superior, WI) SNAP director ( 218- 340-1277, lwagsmn@yahoo.com )

According to just-released church records, for almost 60 years, numerous Minnesota Catholic officials concealed the crimes of a predator priest who:

– was at a church retreat house in Nevis, Minn., that let him say weekend masses at nearby parishes even though center staff had been warning in writing that he had molested children, and

– was returned to ministry as a chaplain at a nursing home in 1969 in Ivanhoe in the New Ulm diocese. (This fact had not been reported previously.)

We urge New Ulm Bishop John M. LeVoir to aggressively seek out anyone who may have been sexually assaulted by Fr. Louis Heitzer.

A Twin Cities Catholic official, Fr. Kevin McDonough, wrote in 2002 that Fr. Heitzer was “‘perhaps the most abusive priest ever to be part of this Archdiocese’ abusing kids ‘every place he went.’”

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NEBRASKA
KETV

[with video]

BELLEVUE, Neb. —A Papillion pastor is accused of sexual assault of a child.

It’s an update to our report Monday on Clifton Wells, who’s named in a criminal complaint by the Sarpy County Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors allege Wells inappropriately touched a 14-year-old girl several times.

The alleged incidents took place in July, when Wells gave the girl a ride to pick up a job application.

According to a court affidavit, the girl said Wells told her, “I am not going to treat you like a 14-year-old; I am going to treat you like a 17- or 18-year-old.”

Wells told investigators he was counseling the girl because she was misbehaving at school, telling her he was going to “speak” to her like a 17- or 18-year-old. He said any contact with her was incidental during their conversation.

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NEBRASKA
WOWT

[with video]

An arrest warrant has been issued for pastor Clifton Wells after he allegedly sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl.

In August, the girl’s mother sought a protection order against Wells. That order was denied by Judge William Zastera.

Since then, the Sarpy County Attorney’s office did file an arrest warrant and Judge Stefanie Martinez agreed to it.

Wells was the pastor of the Church of Jesus Christ (not affiliated with the Latter Day Saints).

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NEBRASKA
World-Herald

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2014
By Emily Nohr / World-Herald staff writer

A pastor who lives in Papillion has been charged with third-degree sexual assault of a child after he was accused of inappropriately touching a parishioner’s daughter, according to authorities.

According to a felony arrest warrant issued in Sarpy County, Clifton J. Wells, 61, is accused of touching the 14-year-old Bellevue girl in July while driving her to pick up a job application at a sandwich shop.

Upon the girl’s return home, according to the warrant, she told her mother about the incident, and her mother called Child Protective Services, which took a report and advised her to contact law enforcement.

According to the warrant, Wells is a pastor at a small church called the Church of Jesus Christ, which the mother told authorities is not affiliated with Latter-day Saints.

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NEBRASKA
Press & Dakotan

PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — A 61-year-old Omaha-area pastor has been charged with felony sexual assault of a child.

Sarpy County prosecutors say Clifton Wells, of Papillion (puh-PIHL’-yuhn) inappropriately touched a 14-year-old girl several times in July when he gave the girl a ride to pick up a job application. Wells told investigators he’d been counseling the girl about her misbehavior at school, and he denied that any sexual assault occurred.

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UNITED STATES
Waiting for Godot to Leave

Kevin O’Brien

I wrote this to some readers the other day …

I’m beginning to suspect that when we catch wind of something wrong in the lives of our friends or associates, it’s quite likely far worse than we suspect. People soft pedal their sins all the time, even to themselves. In our lack of faith and naivete, we say, “Oh, these priests wouldn’t be child molesters,” when in fact they may be evil to the core. They may not be, but it is only our fear and squeamishness that keeps us from seeing what may be the truth. It is only our lack of trust in God that prevents us from confronting the enormity of the darkness in our own lives and in the lives of others.

In other words, since we don’t trust God to redeem and rescue us, even from the thickest of muck and mire, we put on our rose colored glasses and pretend that everything’s OK. But sometimes things are so much more sordid and corrupt than we can imagine, and sometimes hell is hotter than we think.

The following examples illustrate this. These are all people I’ve known, though I’ve changed the names to conceal their identities.

* All the kids in junior high and high school made fun of Frank for being “gay”. He was a friend of mine, and I knew he was effeminate, but after we graduated, he finally admitted the truth. Not only was he “gay”, he had been having anonymous sex with men through the “glory hole” in the men’s room stall at the truck stop, ever since he had gotten a job there as a bus boy at the age of 14. Dozens of times a day for many years.

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MAINE
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

For immediate release: Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Statement by Melanie Jula Sakoda of Moraga,CA, Orthodox Christian Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests ( 925-708-6175, melanie.sakoda@gmail.com )

A former Brookline, MA seminarian, who was convicted of a sex crime in Michigan in 1983, has been arrested again in Maine and accused of possessing child pornography.

Father Adam Metropoulos has been charged with possessing child pornography and photographing a woman without her permission.

The clergyman was suspended “from all priestly duties” by his bishop yesterday. However, Metropoulos had been employed by Saint George Greek Orthodox Church in Bangor, Maine, from September 2001, until yesterday.

Before attending Holy Cross Seminary, Metropoulos worked as a high school chemistry teacher in Maine from 1990-1997.

We urge church officials to use their positions to reach out to the Greek communities in Bangor and Brookline and beg anyone who experienced, witnessed or suspected Metropoulos of sex crimes to contact the police.

We also urge the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the jurisdiction to which Saint George belongs, immediately open an investigation into how someone with a prior sex offense was allowed to both enroll in seminary and obtain a position of authority in the Church.

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