ABUSE TRACKER

PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Star

By Dave Warner

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – A priest and a former parochial school teacher were found guilty on Wednesday of sexually attacking a former altar boy, the latest chapter in the child sexual abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Rev. Charles Engelhardt, 66, faces the possibility of 37 years in prison, and Bernard Shero, 50, faces a maximum sentence of 57 years in prison following the guilty verdicts by a jury in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia.

Engelhardt and Shero were accused of molesting an altar boy who was 10 years old at the time at St. Jerome’s parish in the Northeast section of Philadelphia.

A grand jury report in 2011, which detailed child sex abuse in the archdiocese, the nation’s sixth largest with 1.5 million members, said the altar boy was “in effect passed around” from one molester to another in 1998 and 1999.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

[The Philadelphia Archive – BishopAccountability.org]

Joseph A. Slobodzian, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Posted: Wednesday, January 30, 2013, 6:48 PM

In a verdict prosecutors hailed as another victory for the victims of child sexual abuse, a Philadelphia jury has returned guilty verdicts against a Philadelphia priest and a former Catholic schoolteacher charged with the serially sexual assault of a 10-year-old Northeast altar boy in 1998 and 1999.

The Common Pleas Court jury deliberated about 20 hours since getting the case Friday afternoon before returning the verdicts today in the trial of the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and Bernard Shero.
Engelhardt, 66, a priest for more than four decades, was found guilty of four of the five charges against him: child endangerment, corruption of a minor, indecent assault and criminal conspiracy. …

Both defense lawyers said they will appeal.

In a news conference after the verdict, District Attorney Seth Williams praised the verdict and noted that one out of four women and one out six men under the age of 18 have been sexually abused.

“The message for me is that we have to listen to children,” Williams added.

Engelhardt and Shero were charged in February 2011 with serial rape of the boy while he was in the fifth and sixth grades in the St. Jerome’s parish school.

The victim – named “Billy Doe” in the 2011 grand jury report about sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests – alleged that Engelhardt, the Rev. Edward V. Avery, 70, and Shero serially raped him when he was in fifth and sixth grades at St. Jerome’s.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
ABC News

By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA January 30, 2013 (AP)

A jury on Wednesday convicted a priest and teacher in a pivotal church-abuse case that rocked the Philadelphia archdiocese and sent a church official to prison for child endangerment.

The verdict upholds the stunning account by a 24-year-old policeman’s son that he was sexually abused as a boy by two priests and his sixth-grade teacher. One priest pleaded guilty before trial while the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and former teacher Bernard Shero were convicted at trial. …

“I’m overjoyed that there was a conviction, mostly because of this victim. I really didn’t expect it,” said Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams, an active Catholic who revived efforts to prosecute the archdiocese after taking office three years ago.

The accuser, now a gaunt young man, has battled heroin abuse since his teens and still has a drug case pending. And details of his story changed frequently over the years, even about whether Shero raped him in the classroom or in a parked car.

“The victim was demonized, cross-examined, … dehumanized. I would understand how a jury could come to a different verdict,” Williams said.

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MICHIGAN
Click on Detroit

Author: Matt Morawski

Published On: Jan 30 2013

TROY, Mich. –
A Catholic priest accused of embezzling from a Troy church now faces even more scrutiny for purchasing a $500,000 condo.

Father Edward Belczak was removed from his post at St. Thomas More last week while he is accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the church.

Now, a church employee is no longer employed with St. Thomas More after selling her $500,000 condo to the pastor.

Records show the condo in Florida was purchased in 2005 by Belczak from former church administrator Janice Verschuren. It’s unclear how Belczak paid for the home.

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NEW YORK
Democrat and Chronicle

[with video]

Written by
Jeffrey Blackwell
Staff writer

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester is calling on local parishioners to complete a $14 million fund-raising campaign designed to support young priests in training and older priests in retirement.

With more than 110,000 Catholic households in the 12-county Diocese, church officials are hoping to bring in at least $3.5 million to add to donations of $10.5 million already raised for the “Our Legacy, Our Future, Our Hope” campaign.

“I know the good and gracious people of God share my pride at our priests, who serve them at every stage of their lives,” said The Rev. Robert Cunningham, Bishop of Syracuse and Apostolic Administrator of the Rochester Diocese. “We must support these men as much as we can.”

The fund will be split with $7 million to support seminarians seeking ordination to the priesthood. There are 25 seminarians from the Rochester Diocese currently in school, the largest class in years, church officials said.

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UNITED STATES
National Catholic Reporter

by Joshua J. McElwee | Jan. 30, 2013

The U.S. bishops’ staffer behind several controversial criticisms of Catholic theologians in recent years is stepping down.

Capuchin Fr. Thomas Weinandy, head of the bishops’ office tasked with upholding church teaching, is to leave his post as executive director for the bishops’ Secretariat of Doctrine in August. Mercy Sr. Mary Ann Walsh, director of media relations for the U.S. bishops’ conference, confirmed the departure Wednesday.

Weinandy has led the secretariat, which carries out the work of the nine prelates who are members of the U.S. bishops’ doctrine committee, since 2005.

During his tenure, the bishops’ committee has issued public rebukes of five prominent U.S. theologians. Those rebukes have been the subject of wide criticisms — including from both of the primary membership societies of U.S. theologians — because they came without pursuing consultation or dialogue with the theologians.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
ABC News

By MARYCLAIRE DALE Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA January 30, 2013 (AP)

A jury on Wednesday convicted a priest and teacher in a pivotal church-abuse case that rocked the Philadelphia archdiocese and sent a church official to prison for child endangerment.

The verdict supports accounts by a 24-year-old policeman’s son that he was sexually abused by the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and sixth-grade teacher Bernard Shero in about 1999.

The accuser’s 2009 complaint describing abuse by two priests and the teacher led to Monsignor William Lynn’s landmark conviction last year for endangerment. Lynn is serving three to six years in prison for his role transferring an admitted pedophile priest to the accuser’s parish in northeast Philadelphia.

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OHIO
Youngstown Vindicator

WARREN

A support group for victims of clergy sex abuse will have a news conference at 1 p.m. today in Detroit to call attention to what it says it has learned about another of the places where Brother Stephen Baker worked as a Franciscan friar.

The Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests issued a statement saying Baker was assigned three years to a Catholic prep school in Orchard Park, Mich., from 1983 to 1985.

SNAP says it will hold signs and childhood photos outside of the Detroit Archdiocese headquarters in Detroit to discuss what has been learned about Baker, who committed suicide Saturday in Hollidaysburg, Pa., after being accused of committing sexual assaults against students at Warren John F. Kennedy High school between 1986 and 1991 and at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown, Pa. from 1992 to 2000.

SNAP will ask Detroit area people to report anything they know about any offenses Baker may have committed in the Detroit area to authorities, the press release says.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on January 30, 2013

We are glad to learn that Fr. Charles Engelhardt, and ex-teacher Bernard Shero were found guilty of child sexual abuse. Children are safer and justice is served with these men behind bars.

Engelhardt and Shero were found guilty of sexually assaulting a now 24 year old man when he was a child. Engelhardt and Shero tried to avoid justice by claiming the victim was not credible. We are glad their hurtful and malicious legal tactic did not work.

We hope this verdict will give hope and encouragement to others who saw, suspect, or suffered child sex crimes to come forward, no matter what their personal background is.

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CANADA
CBC News

The federal government is obliged to turn over its archival records on Indian residential schools to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an Ontario court decided Thursday.

In his decision, Justice Stephen Goudge said the obligation to provide the materials is clear from the settlement agreement that established the commission.

“The plain meaning of the language is straightforward,” Goudge said. “It is to provide all relevant documents to the TRC.”

The decision comes in an increasingly acrimonious dispute between Ottawa and the commission over millions of government documents the commission says it needs to fulfil its core mandate.

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UNITED STATES
Catholic Sentinel

Catholic News Service

The clergy sexual abuse scandal that has plagued the Catholic Church in recent years is not an easy subject to approach dispassionately.

For faithful Catholics, especially those with firsthand knowledge of the wonderful work carried out by the vast majority of upstanding priests, the topic is a source of deep shame and distress. For those alienated from the church, it can provide another reason to keep their distance. And for those intent on curbing the church’s moral influence in society, it provides a readymade, pre-emptive weapon with which to short-circuit all debate.

So it’s disappointing, though hardly surprising, to find that the documentary “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” which focuses on students molested at a school for the deaf, is a grab-bag in which facts get mixed up with poorly founded accusations and inflated rhetoric. Filmmaker Alex Gibney’s uneven study, which had a limited theatrical release last fall, premieres on the HBO pay-cable service Monday, Feb. 4, 9-11 p.m. EST.

Gibney’s narrative begins with the straightforward — and harrowing — testimony of four men who endured abuse at the hands of Father Lawrence C. Murphy, a priest of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, during the late Father Murphy’s long tenure (1950-74) on the staff of St. John’s School for the Deaf in St. Francis, Wis.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
NBC 10

By Dan Stamm and Maryclaire Dale

Wednesday, Jan 30, 2013

A Philadelphia jury returned guilty verdicts on child-sex charges against a Roman Catholic priest and former Catholic school teacher.

The jury found Rev. Charles Engelhardt guilty on 4 of 5 charges but they were deadlocked on a charge of involuntary deviant sexual behavior with a minor. Teacher Bernard Shero was found guilty on all charges including corruption of minors.

A 24-year-old policeman’s son and longtime heroin addict says he was sexually assaulted as a child by both defendants. His complaint led to last year’s landmark prosecution of a church official convicted of child endangerment for transferring a suspected predator priest.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Fox 29

PHILADELPHIA –
The priest and a Catholic school teacher accused of sexually assaulting a Northeast Philadelphia boy were found guilty on all but one count, FOX 29 has learned.

FOX 29’s Chris O’Connell reports bail was revoked and both men were led off to jail.

The charges were made against Rev. Charles Engelhardt and teacher Bernard Shero. Earlier the city jury said it had resolved most counts against the two but wanted to try to avoid a deadlock on one remaining count.

The charges stem from the complaint of a 24-year-old who claimed he was sexually assaulted as a boy by both defendants.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Joseph A. Slobodzian, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Posted: Wednesday, January 30, 2013,

A jury has found a Catholic priest and a former parochial school teacher guilty of charges involving the serial sexual assault of a 10-year-old altar boy at St. Jerome’s parish school.

The Rev. Charles Engelhardt was found guilty on all but one count. Former parochial schoolteacher Bernard Shero was found guilty on all counts. Both men were taken into custody late this afternoon. Sentencing will be April 18.

The verdict came after after nearly three full days of deliberations.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
KTAR

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A jury has convicted a priest and teacher in a church abuse case that has rocked the Philadelphia Archdiocese.

The verdict Wednesday supports claims by a 24-year-old policeman’s son that he was abused by the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and sixth-grade teacher Bernard Shero in about 1999.

His 2009 complaint describing abuse by two priests and the teacher led to a church official’s conviction last year for felony child abuse. Monsignor William Lynn is in prison for his role in transferring an admitted pedophile priest to the accuser’s parish in northeast Philadelphia.

Defense lawyers attacked the credibility of the accuser. He gave varying accounts of where and how the alleged abuse occurred.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) –A Philadelphia jury today returned “guilty” verdicts on most counts against a former priest and a former lay teacher in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Father Charles Engelhardt and lay teacher Bernard Shero were charged with sexually molesting the same boy in 1999 and 2000 (see related stories).

Earlier this afternoon, the jury told the judge that it was deadlocked on one of the charges but had reached a decision on all the others.

The judge, not willing to let the jury declare itself hung on that one remaining charge, sent the panel back to continue its deliberations.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The jury in the latest Philadelphia priest sex abuse case this afternoon told the judge that it is deadlocked on one of the charges but has reached a decision on all the others.

The judge, not willing to let the jury declare itself hung on that one remaining charge, sent the panel back to continue its deliberations.

It was not known for which count, or for which defendant, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, nor what the decisions were for the other counts.

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AUSTRALIA
The Tablet

Fr Peter Day, guest contributor
30 January 2013, 9:00

With the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse upon us, society at large, and especially the Catholic Church, is set for a distressing time; one in which we will be asked to further confront the reality that evil, both individual and institutional, is closer to home than we like to think, or want to acknowledge.

We like to think that evil is what others do in other places and in other times. But what about my trusted priest and church, my trusted teacher and school? My God, what about my parents, my siblings, my uncle, my home?

Thus, after decades of broken trust, shameful tales, jailed clergy, and persistent calls for a broader inquiry, on Friday 11 January 2013, Quentin Bryce, Governor-General of Australia, appointed a six-member Royal Commission to investigate the scourge of child abuse within institutions.

Meanwhile, the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference has established a lay-led Truth, Justice, and Healing Council to coordinate the Church’s response and advise its leaders.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
CBS Philly

By Tony Hanson

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The jury in the latest Philadelphia priest sex abuse case this afternoon told the judge that it is deadlocked on one of the charges but has reached a decision on all the others.

The judge, not willing to let the jury declare itself hung on that one remaining charge, sent the panel back to continue its deliberations.

It was not known for which count, or for which defendant, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict, nor what the decisions were for the other counts.

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DETROIT (MI)
The Detroit News

By Oralandar Brand-Williams
The Detroit News

Detroit — Metro Detroit activists want the Archdiocese of Detroit to investigate whether a priest who killed himself last weekend in Pennsylvania was accused of molesting youngsters while serving at an Oakland County school in the mid-1980s.

Franciscan brother Stephen P. Baker, who was assigned to St. Mary’s Prep in Orchard Lake from 1983-85, was found dead Saturday of reported self-inflicted stab wounds to the chest.

Baker’s suicide in the St. Bernadine Monastery in Newry, Pa., occurred a week and a half after a legal settlement by 11 men who said Baker sexually abused when they were youngsters and he served as a priest in Ohio and Pennsylvania. After the settlement was announced Jan. 16, 60 more accusers came forward, said Matt Jatczak, a representative of the Detroit area office of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Jatczak was joined at a news conference by a SNAP member from Canada who accompanied him to try to deliver a letter Wednesday at the Archdiocese of Detroit’s downtown office on Washington Boulevard. The letter asks Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron to investigate whether Baker molested any students while employed by St. Mary’s.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Albany Times Union

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press

Updated 3:01 pm, Wednesday, January 30, 2013

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A verdict may be near in a church-abuse case that rocked the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The city jury says it has resolved most counts against the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and teacher Bernard Shero.

But they’re back at work trying to avoid a deadlock on one remaining count.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

Monday, Jan. 21, 2013

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. —

6 News is taking a closer look at a cleric accused of sexually assaulting minors while he worked at Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown more than a decade ago.

Brother Stephen P. Baker had first been accused of molesting minors at a school in Ohio. Allegations in Cambria County hadn’t surfaced until 2011.

Baker had been known at McCort as “trainer Steve,” because he served a role as an athletic trainer. But as 6 News reporter Maria Miller uncovered, there’s no evidence he was certified for that position.

“These young guys are shocked that what was relayed to them as therapeutic treatment was actually just probably a creative ruse for a sexual assault or molestation,” said Johnstown Attorney Michael Parrish.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Joseph A. Slobodzian, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Posted: Wednesday, January 30, 2013, 12:57 PM

Deliberations continued into a third full day in the child sex-assault trial of a Catholic priest and former parochial school teacher with no sign that the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury is near a verdict.

Unlike previous days of deliberations in the case against Rev. Charles Engelhardt and former parochial schoolteacher Bernard Shero the jury today has asked no questions of Judge Ellen Ceisler.

Shortly before noon, the jury of eight men and four women made its first public appearance in days when – poker-faced and staring straight ahead – they were escorted by court officers out of the building for some fresh air.

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DETROIT (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on January 30, 2013 ·

Dear Archbishop Vigneron:

We are members of a support group called SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. Our mission is to protect the vulnerable and heal the wounded.

In June 2002, you and your brother bishops formally pledged to be “open and transparent” in clergy child sex abuse and cover up cases.

Tragically, this promise was made belatedly, grudgingly, and only because of pressure. Worst of all, it was made only after tens of thousands of kids were sexually violated. Still, that pledge gave some Catholics hope. Over the past decade, however, that hope has often and largely been dashed.

You and your brother bishops have kept that promise only very sporadically and again, only in the face of public pressure. Consider your own recent actions.

1. In November 2011, you refused to warn your flock about Fr. Richard James Kurtz even though he was arrested for sexually assaulting a 10 year old boy outside Denver.

2. In May 2012, you refused to warn your flock about Fr. Thomas D. Williams who returned to the Detroit area after exploiting a woman and fathering her child (a child neither he nor his Catholic supervisors are supporting).

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RUSSIA
Radio Free Europe

An Anglican priest from Colombia was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport on January 30 on suspicion of smuggling drugs. The suspect, identified as Fabio Ricardo Rodriguez, a priest in the Holy Catholic Church-Western Rite in Bogota, was taken to a hospital where 13 condoms stuffed with cocaine were extracted from his stomach and intestines. Five more containers of cocaine were found in his luggage. Officials said they were alerted to the smuggling attempt by the priest’s sickly appearance and nervous behavior.

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YOUNGSTOWN (OH)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on January 30, 2013

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is blasting Youngstown Bishop George Murry over what they call his “continued secrecy and deception” in the case of a credibly accused Catholic cleric.

Leaders of SNAP have discovered that Br. Stephen P. Baker – who is accused of molesting dozens of boys in Ohio and Pennsylvania – has also worked in Michigan and Virginia, a fact that Youngstown church officials have kept hidden in recent discussions of Baker’s history.

“Any official with real compassion would want every victim of Baker – no matter where they live or where they were hurt – to get help,” said Judy Jones, SNAP’s Midwest Associate Director. “There’s only one reason he’d keep quiet at this point about other places Baker works: he wants to continue protecting other corrupt Catholic officials and prevent other suffering victims from stepping forward.”

Today, outside the Detroit Archdiocesan headquarters, SNAP members are holding a news conference. They’re calling on the archbishop there to reach out to others who “saw, suspected or suffered” crimes by Baker when he worked at St. Mary’s Prep., Orchard Lake, MI between 1983-1985.

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IRELAND
RTE News

The 67th Catholic Bishop of Cloyne has been appointed at a ceremony at St Colman’s Cathedral in Cobh.

Bishop William Crean told the congregation that he was renewing his commitment to continue the work of healing and reconciliation that is so necessary in the diocese, while acknowledging it will take time, understanding and patience.

Bishop Crean was appointed to replace Dr John Magee who stepped down in 2010 after it was found he had not followed proper child protection procedures in the Catholic diocese.

Bishop Crean was appointed at a special ceremony in the Cathedral by the Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Charles Brown, assisted by the Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, Dr Dermot Clifford, and the Bishop of Kerry, Rev William Murphy.

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IRELAND
Irish Central

Newly ordained Bishop of Cloyne promises reconciliation in diocese badly affected by clerical abuse

By
PATRICK COUNIHAN,
IrishCentral Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, January 30, 2013

The new Bishop of Cloyne has vowed to bring about reconciliation in one of the dioceses worst hit by clerical sex abuse scandals.

Dr William Crean made the pledge at his inauguration at Cobh Cathedral when he paid tribute to Archbishop Dermot Clifford for his role in ensuring the diocese meets child protection safety standards.

The Irish Times reports that Bishop Crean told his congregation: “We can be confident that the best practice now prevails and will be subject to continual renewals.

“Today I renew my commitment to continue the work of healing. This work will take time, understanding and patience.”

He also told the paper that he believed it would take a long time for healing to take place but that he was determined to do all he could to bring about reconciliation.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

A petition has been filed asking President Obama to set up a national investigation commission into the sexual abuse of children by priests, rabbis and other religious leaders. Please take 30 seconds to sign it no matter where in the world you live. This is a worldwide epidemic. Just click on the below link at:

[Click here for the petition site.]

Believing parents and innocent children have too often been betrayed by religious leaders they trusted too much. The obscene revelations of child sexual abuse from Boston, Philly, Milwaukee, Kansas City, St.Louis, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, Manchester, Salt Lake City and many other U.S. cities confirm this cancer cannot be curtailed effectively by local political leaders and prosecutors. They seem frequently incapable and/or unwilling to apply or amend a hodgepot of inconsistent laws, often outdated and inadequate, to powerful religious organizations.

The new award winning HBO documentary, “Mea Maxima Culpa”, that begins airing internationally in English and Spanish on next Monday evening, February 4, shows, for example, graphically and incisively how local governmental authorities and the Catholic Church hierarchy in the USA and in the Vatican failed for decades to protect over 200 defenseless deaf boys from sexual abuse allegedly by a single Milwaukee priest.

Instead of being made to account for child endangerment on their watch, leaders like Cardinals Mahony, Law, Levada, Rigali, Egan and, earlier Bevilacqua, sail off into well funded retirements, leaving high priced lawyers behind to clean up the mess they leave behind. Abuse survivors often must fend for themselves. Trusting Catholics, whose children were at risk of priest sex abuse and whose churches and schools are ruthlessly being closed, are expected to fund the billions spent by the Catholic hierarchy on a flawed and shameful legal strategy aimed mainly at protecting the hierarchy from prosecution.

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DETROIT (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on January 30, 2013

■Serial predator priest worked near Detroit
■He committed suicide on Saturday in PA
■More than 80 kids say he molested them
■Eleven settlements were just disclosed last week
■Church officials in four states concealed allegations
■SNAP: “How many other child molesting clerics are still hidden?”
■Group asks challenges local archbishop: “Come clean re secret deals here”

WHAT
Holding signs and childhood photos at a sidewalk news conference, clergy sex abuse victims and their supporters will disclose that a recently “outed” and credibly accused child molesting cleric worked in Detroit Archdiocese for three years. He killed himself on Saturday and has allegedly assaulted at least 80 children in two states. The group will urge Detroit Catholic officials to

–explain why they’ve been secret about accusations against and settlements involving the cleric,
–disclose whether he’s allegedly molested any Michigan kids, and
–start aggressively seeking out others in Michigan who he may have molested.
They will also
–urge victims, and whistleblowers to contact secular authorities, not church officials, and
–beg anyone who may have seen, suspected, or suffered clergy crimes in Detroit (by this cleric or others) to come forward, call police, expose wrongdoing, protect kids and start healing.

WHEN
Wednesday, Jan. 30 at 1:00 p.m.

WHERE
Outside the Detroit Archdiocese headquarters (“chancery office”), 1234 Washington Blvd. in Detroit, MI

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IOWA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on January 30, 2013

We applaud these brave women who are continuing their fight for justice after being abused by Rev. Patrick Edouard. Valerie and Anne Bandstra deserve praise for continuing forward with their lawsuits despite apparent attempts from church leaders to undermine the abuse that the Bandstra women suffered.

Sexual contact with a priest or reverend – someone who is supposedly God’s envoy on earth – involves an inherent power imbalance that undermines it and prevents it from being a true relationship. The fact that Rev. Edouard used this position and assumed authority as a counselor in order to groom and abuse these women – both sexually and financially – is indicative of exactly why this is a form of sexual abuse. We are disappointed, but not surprised, that church leaders in Pella refuse to acknowledge this.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on January 30, 2013

A support group for clergy sex abuse victims is blasting Altoona-Johnstown Bishop Mark Leonard Bartchak over what they call his “continued secrecy and deception” in the case of a credibly accused Catholic cleric.

Leaders of SNAP have discovered that Br. Stephen P. Baker – who is accused of molesting dozens of boys in Ohio and Pennsylvania – has also worked in Michigan and Virginia, a fact that Altoona-Johnstown church officials have kept hidden in recent discussions of Baker’s history.

“Any official with real compassion would want every victim of Baker – no matter where they live or where they were hurt – to get help,” said Judy Jones, SNAP’s Midwest Associate Director. “How can Bartchak justify telling only part of the truth. There’s only one reason he’d keep quiet at this point about other places Baker works: he wants to continue protecting other corrupt Catholic officials and prevent other suffering victims from stepping forward.”

Today, outside the Detroit Archdiocesan headquarters, SNAP members are holding a news conference. They’re calling on the archbishop there to reach out to others who “saw, suspected or suffered” crimes by Baker when he worked at St. Mary’s Prep., Orchard Lake, MI between 1983-1985.

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DEUTSCHLAND
Westfalische Nachrichten

Seit dem letzten Zwischenbericht, den die zuständige Kommission des Bistums Münster 2010 vorlegte, sind nach jüngsten Angaben keine neuen Fälle sexualisierter Gewalt bekannt geworden. 60 Priester (1,5 Prozent von ungefähr 4000 Priestern im gesamten Zeitraum) waren zwischen 1949 und 2010 in Fälle sexueller Gewalt verstrickt.

Bekannt wurde die Zahl von 106 Opfern. In 82 Fällen wurde nach Auskunft von Domkapitular Bernd Köppen eine Entschädigung gezahlt, in den anderen Fällen wurde dies nicht gewünscht. Die überwiegende Zahl der Täter (56) wurde zwischen 1949 und 2001 registriert, 27 der Beschuldigten waren bereits verstorben. Zwischen 2001 und 2010 erhielt die Kommission Kenntnis von vier neuen Beschuldigten. Die Verfahren dauern teilweise an.

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AUSTRALIA
Brisbane Times

January 31, 2013

Barney Zwartz

Australia now has two inquiries into the sexual abuse of children by clergy. Will they be the circuit-breaker that triggers the changes so many Catholics want or will the church retreat behind a wall of obstruction and concealment?

CARDINAL Bernard Law of Boston was the first, and so far only, archbishop to resign over public revulsion at his handling of child sex abuse by his clergy. Named in hundreds of lawsuits, subject of dramatic public protests, and publicly rejected by 58 of his priests, Law resigned in December 2002.

Pope John Paul II’s response, widely seen as a gesture of blatant contempt for Boston’s faithful, was to appoint Law archpriest of one of Rome’s four great basilicas, Santa Maria Maggiore.

The message to the disgraced cardinal was clear: ”You are one of us, and we will look after you.” To many inside and outside the church, protecting the church and its clerics has always been the Vatican’s priority – and, they say, it still is.

John Paul II also protected and promoted notorious abusers such as Marcial Maciel, founder the of Legionaries of Christ movement. Indeed, the Pope’s first response to the expanding American crisis was to blame a ”hostile” media, and his fallback position was to claim clergy abuse was purely an anglophone issue.

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PHILADELHIA (PA)
Big Trial

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

By Ralph Cipriano
for bigtrial.net

The jury in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia sex abuse case today made the mistake of asking for too much.

First, the jury asked to see defendant Bernard Shero’s suicide note. No objections were voiced to that request by either the prosecution or the defense.

Shero tried to commit suicide in 2011 by taking sleeping pills when detectives from the district attorney’s office came to arrest him. When Shero didn’t answer the door, the cops summoned firefighters to break in, and detectives placed the groggy Catholic school teacher under arrest.

The jury also asked to see Detective Andrew Snyder’s notes. Snyder was the detective from the district attorney’s office who arrested Shero. He was also the detective in 2010 who first interviewed “Billy Doe,” the former 10-year-old altar boy who claimed he was raped by both Shero and Father Charles Engelhardt, the other defendant in the case.

Defense lawyer Burton A. Rose, representing Shero, objected, saying that Snyder’s notes focus on “one aspect of evidence,” presumably the attempted suicide.

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MICHIGAN
The Desert Sun

Troy pastor under embezzlement investigation bought $500,000 Florida condo from his church manager

The charismatic Catholic pastor removed last week from his parish in Troy amid an embezzlement investigation bought a half-million-dollar condo in Florida from his longtime church administrator, the Free Press has learned.

Adding another layer to the case that has shocked and captivated metro Detroit Catholics, the St. Thomas More administrator, Janice Verschuren, is no longer employed by the parish, according to the Archdiocese of Detroit.

The church’s parish council was told on Monday about the departure of Verschuren, who has worked at the parish since 1994, archdiocese spokesman Ned McGrath said Tuesday.

In March 2005, Rev. Edward Belczak, the pastor at the church, purchased the property in Wellington, Fla., for $500,000 from Verschuren, the church’s administrator and facilities manager, and her then-husband, Michael Verschuren, according to public records in Palm Beach County. In 2011, Belczak, 67, transferred the property to a trust in his name, according to documents reviewed by the Free Press.

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IRELAND
RTE News

A former school principal and priest has been remanded in custody after being found guilty of indecently assaulting a boy in Waterford over 30 years ago.

Con Desmond, 77, with an address at Woodlands, Kilrush Road, Ennis, denied 13 charges of indecent assault between 1977 and 1980 at the St Stephen’s De La Salle national school in Waterford city.

Barrister Elaine Morgan, representing Desmond, applied for sentencing to be adjourned until 19 February.

This was granted by Judge Donagh McDonagh to allow for the preparation of character evidence and medical evidence.

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UNITED STATES
Failed Messiah

Chabad’s Rabbi Manis Friedman tries to clarify his position on child sexual abuse in a new video released tonight. But is what Friedman says on this new video clip enough? Is it an apology for the hurt he caused with the video publicized yesterday? Does it explain and correct his offensive remarks in that video? Is it an honest acknowledgement that he was wrong, that he made mistakes, that he hurt victims, and that he’s sorry? In short, is it teshuva, repentance as defined by the Jewish law Friedman is paid to represent?

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UNITED KINGDOM
Mirror

Orthodox Jewish leaders have been protecting child abusers, a TV documentary will claim tonight.

Dispatches found 19 cases where crimes were not reported as the community prefers to deal with it internally.

The show will claim that those who go to authorities face being spat at and driven out of their area.

It will show senior Rabbi Ephraim Padwa order an alleged victim to stay away from the police because the force is “non-Jewish”.

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UNITED KINGDOM
The Independent

Tom Peck

Wednesday 30 January 2013

A senior British rabbi has been filmed telling an alleged victim of child sexual abuse not to go to the police.

Rabbi Ephraim Padwa, who is leader of the UK’s Strictly Orthodox Jewish community, told the alleged victim that it was “mesira”, or forbidden, to report a suspected Jewish sex offender to a non-Jewish authority.

His advice, which was secretly recorded as part of a Channel 4’s Dispatches investigation to be shown tonight, will reignite the controversy about the cover-up of child sex abuse by religious groups following global scandals surrounding the Roman Catholic church

Strictly Orthodox Jewish people, known as Charedi, number 40,000 people, around a sixth of the Jewish population in Britain.

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AUSTRALIA
The Age

January 30, 2013

Barney Zwartz

Victoria’s clergy sex abuse inquiry is likely to recommend at least six state laws be reformed to hold the Catholic Church to account, including removal of the legal ”shield” it has used to avoid being sued by victims.

Chairwoman Georgie Crozier said the committee already had a good idea of the sort of recommendations it would make. Fairfax Media understands the committee is eager for several laws to be changed this year.

The Victorian inquiry does not need to await the outcome of the royal commission into the sexual abuse of children, set up by the Gillard government and yet to take formal evidence. Ms Crozier said she expected the state inquiry to be of great use to the commission.

Enabling the church to be sued, mandatory reporting of suspected abuse, concealing crimes and extending the statute of limitations for child abuse are all issues that could be dealt with by the Victorian government.

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IOWA
Des Moines Register

Written by
Jeff Eckhoff

An ex-Pella pastor found to have sexually exploited four of his former parishioners now is embroiled in a wide-ranging lawsuit with accusations that include assault, damaged reputations and harassment.

Patrick Edouard, convicted in October of pressuring women for sex after they allegedly sought his counsel, was sued two months later by two of his former victims and their husbands. The women, sisters-in-law Valerie Bandstra and Anne Bandstra, also target the former leaders of Edouard’s church, whom the women accuse of defaming them by publicly dismissing accusations of rape as mere marital infidelity.

“You are not victims,” court papers quote church elder Clarence Hettinga as repeatedly telling the Bandstras. The lawsuit later quotes Hettinga as saying, “Unless he was holding a knife to her throat, it wasn’t rape.”

Edouard, who has always insisted the sex was consensual, in his own court papers accuses the Bandstra families of smearing his reputation by harassing his family with prank pizza orders, throwing a brick through his son’s window, and creating a fake posting on Craigslist that listed his house for sale.

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IRELAND
Irish Times

CONOR KANE

A former religious brother and priest was in custody last night after being found guilty of 13 counts of indecently assaulting a schoolboy over 30 years ago. Con Desmond (77), with an address at Woodlands, Kilrush Road, Ennis, Co Clare, had denied 13 charges of indecently assaulting a boy at the St Stephen’s De La Salle national school in Waterford city, between 1977 and 1980.

After a five-day trial, a jury of seven women and five men returned majority 10-2 guilty verdicts on all 13 charges at Waterford circuit court yesterday.

The complainant, who was aged eight, nine and 10 at the time of the alleged offences, told the trial that Con Desmond – then known as Br Cornelius – abused him a number of times in the principal’s office of the school.

The accused showed no emotion in court as the verdicts were read out, while the victim wept quietly and held hands with his partner and other family members.

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WISCONSIN
SNAP Wisconsin

Statement by Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director
CONTACT: 414.429.7259

Only after having been discovered by a victim’s advocacy group, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has finally confirmed today that they have returned to ministry Fr. John Schreiter after he was removed a second time from a Waukesha parish for allegedly sexually assaulting teenagers (story posted below). Schreiter, who was pastor of a parish in Waukesha, has “retired” and left the state, presumably, to Arizona. He goes as a priest in good standing, according to Listecki, who can continue in Arizona or anywhere else to work, counsel and pray with children and families.

“Why would Archbishop Listecki want to keep secret his decision and belief that Schreiter is innocent?

Perhaps, because as detailed in the SNAP release last week, Listecki appears to have the troubling history of exonerating more priests with sexual assault reports than any bishop in the United States.

A national study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice shows that even the US Bishops have maintained that the number of falsely accused priests is nine percent. In Listecki’s former diocese of La Crosse, and now it seems in his new Archdiocese of Milwaukee, the number of falsely accused priests or mysteriously “unsubstantiated” reports (i.e., “the victim is lying”) is truly miraculous, near 70 percent, or six times the national average. That’s by far the highest clearance rate for priests who may have harmed youngsters in the United States.

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MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Jan. 29, 2013

The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee, which faces more than a dozen civil fraud lawsuits over its handling of clergy sex abuse cases, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January. As the case proceeds, we’ll have updates, analysis, documents and more.

A Waukesha priest accused of sexually abusing a minor three decades ago has been cleared by Archbishop Jerome Listecki of any wrongdoing and returned to ministry earlier this month, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee confirmed this week.

Father John Schreiter had been placed on leave in June, two weeks before he was to retire from St. John Neumann Parish. The allegation had surfaced as part of the archdiocese’s bankruptcy. …

The advocacy group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests criticized the move as secretive and reflective of the policy in La Crosse – where Listecki last served – to side with priests over victims. They point to a 2004 review by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which found that La Crosse exonerated clergy in 64% of cases from 1950 to 2002, compared with the national average of below 10%.

Topczewski would not say how many cases are pending before the review board. The archdiocese generally does not release information about cases to protect the reputations of priests whose charges are unsubstantiated, according to Topczewski. The exception is when a priest is removed from an active ministry, he said, “because there is no way around it.”

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MINNESOTA
BishopAccountability.org

Summary of Case: McGrath was accused in the early 1990s of having sexually abused two girls, ages 16 and 14, in the late 1960s. The girls worked in the church office and rectory at the Minneapolis parish where McGrath was an assistant priest. McGrath was a priest of the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese through 1994.

Ordained: 1957
Incardinated: St. Paul and Minneapolis

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PORTLAND (OR)
United States Attorney’s Office, District of Oregon

Mail Fraud Scheme Falsely Claimed Child Sex Abuse by Priests 35 Years Ago

Portland, Ore.—A federal grand jury in Portland has returned an indictment against Shamont Sapp, 49, charging him with mail fraud in a five-year scheme involving false claims of child sex abuse by Catholic priests in four dioceses. Sapp, originally from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is alleged to have used “legal mail” while an inmate of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to file, pursue and litigate the false claims in federal courts from 2005 through 2010. According to the indictment, the false claims caused the dioceses, their representatives, several courts and other entities to expend money, time and other resources to investigate and resolve the claims, which were ultimately denied or dismissed.

The indictment states that the four fraudulent claims sought money damages, and each alleged similar sexual assaults by specified priests when Sapp was a minor in 1978-79. It charges that Sapp had not been sexually assaulted by the priests and, indeed, had not even been present in the dioceses as alleged in his claims.

Fraudulent claims listed in the indictment involved the dioceses of Tucson, Arizona; Covington, Kentucky, and Spokane, Washington, as well as the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon. In the Covington and Spokane cases, the indictment notes that Sapp falsely alleged sexual assaults by priests in two different cities on the same day, August 18, 1978.

Sapp initially will appear in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where the government will seek his removal to Portland to face trial on the indictment.

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OREGON
The Oregonian

By Tom Hallman Jr., The Oregonian
on January 29, 2013

A federal prisoner has been indicted for mail fraud in connection with what authorities describe as a five-year scheme to get money from the Catholic Church by falsely claiming he had been sexually abused by priests when he was a child nearly four decades ago.

Shamont Sapp, 49, finishing up a prison term in Pennsylvania for bank robbery, will appear in U.S District Court in Harrisburg, Pa. and then be sent to Portland to stand trial, said Stephen Peifer, assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Oregon.

“He will make his first court appearance there and then be turned over to Oregon,” Peifer said.

A federal grand jury indictment accuses of Sapp of using the mail while a prisoner to “file, pursue and litigate the false claims in federal courts from 2005 through 2010.”

In his claims, Sapp named priests in Arizona, Kentucky, Oregon and Washington who he said abused him.

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PORTLAND (OR)
KPTV

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) –
A man accused of making false claims of child sex abuse involving Catholic priests has been charged with mail fraud.

A federal grand jury in Portland returned an indictment against Shamont Sapp, 49, of Pennsylvania, on Tuesday.

He is accused of a five-year scheme involving false claims of abuse in four dioceses. Investigators said he used the U.S. Postal Service while he was a prison inmate to file, pursue and litigate the false claims in federal courts between 2005 and 2010.

Dioceses listed in the indictment are in Tucson, AZ, Covington, KT, Spokane, WA, and Portland.

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OREGON
KGW

by JONATHAN J. COOPER Associated Press

Posted on January 29, 2013

SALEM — Prosecutors say an inmate in a federal prison falsely claimed he was abused as a child by priests in four Catholic dioceses.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Portland said Tuesday that a grand jury has indicted 49-year-old Shamont Sapp on charges of mail fraud.

The indictment alleges that Sapp filed claims in courts over a five-year period alleging abuse by specific priests in the dioceses of Tucson, Ariz.; Covington, Ky.; and Spokane, Wash., as well as the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore.

It says the priests Sapp named didn’t abuse him, and his claims were dismissed or denied.

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OREGON
The Oregonian

By Nancy Haught, The Oregonian
on January 29, 2013

Although he’s known for almost two weeks that he would be the next Archbishop of Portland, Alexander King Sample, 52, has yet to watch his first episode of “Portlandia.”

“Maybe it’s just as well,” he said to a roomful of archdiocesan staff members who were chuckling at his admission.

The bishop of Marquette, Mich., for the past seven years, Sample will succeed Archbishop John G. Vlazny, 75, who plans to retire to Beaverton after his 15 years as leader of Western Oregon’s 400,000 Catholics.

“This is the age of Google,” Sample said in his first news conference and informal staff meeting at the archdiocesan pastoral center. He said he’d used Google maps to turn St. Mary’s Cathedral around on his computer screen and figured out the correct pronunciation of Willamette and Oregon.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

The Associated Press
Updated: 01/29/2013

PHILADELPHIA—A Philadelphia jury has asked for a teacher’s suicide note as they weigh abuse charges against the teacher and a Roman Catholic priest.

The jury is set to return Wednesday for a fifth day of deliberations.

The 24-year-old accuser says he was raped as a child at a northeast Philadelphia parish by the Rev. Charles Engelhardt and sixth-grade teacher Bernard Shero.

In the suicide note, Shero apologizes to his parents for the notoriety of the looming abuse charges. He took sleeping pills before his 2011 arrest, but survived.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia Weekly

[Click here for the story.]

Standing on the steps of the Capitol in Harrisburg last week, advocates and legislators announced they’re doubling down on the battle to reform Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations on child sex abuse.

In Pennsylvania, statute of limitation reform bills have been stalled, buried and blocked for many years. Most recently, Rep. Ronald Marsico (R-Dauphin) and Rep. Thomas Caltagirone (D-Berks) bent parliamentary procedures into Cirque de Soleil-worthy formations in order to defeat last year’s bills, ultimately passing watered-down versions that accomplished far less than the original sponsors proposed. The criminal statute of limitations was abolished and the statute was extended 50 years old for civil charges, yes — but the initiative that’s far more important to advocates, and far more controversial, was completely struck from the law as passed: the “window” provision. That’s a temporary window of time, usually one or two years from the date enacted, wherein victims of a crime can file civil charges even though the statute of limitation has run out.

A civil window is vital because raising (or abolishing) the age on a statute of limitation does not allow grandfathering in. It’s confusing, but if a person who was abused as a kid didn’t file charges before the arbitrary statute age of 18, or 23, or 50 years old isn’t suddenly allowed to prosecute when the age limit is upped or abolished. So effectively, raising the age and even now abolishing it entirely only helps the future generation–and criminal windows are unconstitutional.

The champion of the cause is 79-year-old Rep. Louse Bishop (D-Philadelphia), who, in the wake of the Penn State scandal, revealed last fall that her stepfather had raped her starting from when she was 12 years old.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer

Joseph A. Slobodzian, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Posted: Tuesday, January 29, 2013

The Philadelphia jury in the child-rape trial of a priest and ex-Catholic schoolteacher continued deliberations today, submitting a series of questions to the judge about the allegations against Bernard Shero.

The Common Pleas Court jury of eight men and four women asked for a rereading of testimony involving the alleged 1999 rape of a sixth-grader who was in Shero’s English class at St. Jerome’s parish school in the Northeast.

In addition to the testimony of the now-24-year-old victim, the jury also asked to hear the testimony of Philadelphia Police Det. Andrew Snyder about his investigation of the incident.

But after reviewing the questions with prosecution and defense lawyers, Judge Ellen Ceisler ruled that the transcripts would be too lengthy. She sent a note back to the jurors saying it was up to them to arrive at a collective memory of the testimony.

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WISCONSIN
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

By Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel

Jan. 29, 2013

A Waukesha priest accused of sexually abusing a minor three decades ago has been cleared by Archbishop Jerome Listecki of any wrongdoing and returned to ministry earlier this month, the Archdiocese of Milwaukee confirmed this week.

Father John Schreiter had been placed on leave in June, two weeks before he was to retire from St. John Neumann Parish. The allegation had surfaced as part of the archdiocese’s bankruptcy.

Schreiter denied the allegations.

His case was turned over to the local district attorney’s office, which declined to prosecute, presumably because it was beyond the statute of limitations. However that could not be immediately confirmed. And the archdiocese’s abuse review board, headed by former Lt. Gov. Margaret Farrow, found the allegations to be unsubstantiated, said Jerry Topczewski, Listecki’s chief of staff.

Schreiter, who has moved to Arizona, retired as scheduled in June. Listecki notified him of his reinstatement on Jan. 17, according to an announcement in the St. John Neumann parish bulletin. There was no public announcement by the archdiocese.

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PORTLAND (OR)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland

Date: January 29, 2013

For More Information Contact:
Bud Bunce (503) 233-8373
Director of Communications

Place: Archdiocesan Pastoral Center
2838 E. Burnside Street
Portland, OR. 97214

TIME: 10:00 a.m.

SUBJECT: Press Conference: Appointment of an Archbishop for Western Oregon.

A press conference will be held to introduce the newly appointed Archbishop of Portland in Oregon. The newly appointed Archbishop will be introduced by Archbishop John G. Vlazny, Archbishop Emeritus. Pope Benedict XVI has selected Bishop Alexander K. Sample of the Diocese of Marquette, MI to be the eleventh Archbishop of Portland in Oregon.

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MICHIGAN
Roman Catholic Diocese of Marquette

After spending the past seven years as bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Marquette, the Most Reverend Alexander K. Sample is heading back west. Today (Jan. 29) the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict XVI has appointed him archbishop of Portland in Oregon.

Archbishop-Designate Sample, who was born Nov. 7, 1960 in Kalispell, Montana and graduated from Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, Nevada in 1978, will be installed as Archbishop of Portland on April 2, 2013. He will succeed Archbishop John Vlazny, who turned 75 years old, the canonical age of retirement for bishops, on Feb. 2, 2012.

In a prepared statement to the Church in the Diocese of Marquette, Archbishop-Designate Sample stated, “Even as there is excitement and joy at taking up this new challenge that God has placed before me, I would be less than honest if I did not say that I will leave the Church in the U.P. with a certain heaviness of heart. I will profoundly miss the people, the clergy and religious of the diocese. I will miss my brother priests in a special way, since I was chosen from among them to be their bishop.

“I have always tried to be obedient to the will of God and to accept whatever the Church asks of me to be God’s will. It is in this spirit that I have said ‘yes’ to the Holy Father’s request for me to serve the Church in a new place in western Oregon. I ask the prayers of all the clergy, religious and faithful of the Diocese of Marquette. They will always be in my heart and prayers. Venerable Frederic Baraga, pray for us!” he wrote.

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OREGON
Catholic World Report

January 29, 2013

By Catherine Harmon

The Vatican announced this morning that Bishop Alexander Sample of Marquette, Michigan will be the new archbishop of Portland, Oregon, succeeding Archbishop John Vlazny. From the Vatican’s statement on the new appointment:

Bishop Sample, previously bishop of Marquette, Michigan, USA, was born in Kalispell, Montana, USA, in 1960, was ordained to the priesthood in 1990, and received episcopal ordination in 2006. In the national bishops’ conference he currently serves on the Subcommittees on Native American Catholics and on the Catechism. He is also vice-postulator for the cause for canonisation of Venerable Frederic Baraga, first bishop of the Diocese of Marquette.

At the time of his episcopal ordination, Bishop Sample was the youngest Catholic bishop in the US, and the first to be born in the 1960s. He also made headlines in 2009 when he asked retired Detroit auxiliary bishop Thomas Gumbleton to not speak within the Diocese of Marquette because of Gumbleton’s dissenting views on homosexuality and women’s ordination.

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PORTLAND (OR)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by David Clohessy on January 29, 2013

We’re sad that, once again, the Pope has promoted a bishop who has dealt poorly with pedophile priests and their wounded victims. During his tenure in Marquette, Bishop Sample has done nothing to distinguish himself from the overwhelming majority of Catholic officials who continue to minimize and hide clergy sex crimes.

At least eight Marquette priests have been credibly accused of sexually assaulting kids. We see no evidence that Sample took any real steps to warn families about them or aggressively seek out others who they may have hurt. In each case, as best we can tell, Sample did the absolute bare minimum.

Vlazny, however, has a terrible record in abuse cases.

Just last year, he made extraordinarily deceitful and hurtful remarks about a pedophile priest Fr. Angel Armando Perez and his victim.

He also called the predator “respected and well-liked,” A gratuitous remark that rubs even more salt into the already deep and still fresh wounds of child sex abuse victims. It hurts when a powerful figure publicly praises an arrested, imprisoned and credibly accused child molester. And it’s hurtful and deceptive for Vlazny to call this boy who was assaulted a “young man.” Such deceit is just one of the many ways Catholic officials callously try to minimize the severity of their clerics’ crimes – by misstating the age of their victims.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
AlterNet

January 28, 2013

Confidential letters between Los Angeles Catholic church officials that had been withheld for decades–despite long efforts by victims to obtain them and stonewalling by the Church–were released Monday after becoming part of a civil court case against a priest accused of molesting 26 Los Angeles children in the 1980s.

The notes from then-Archbishop Roger M. Mahony and Monsignor Thomas J. Curry, published by the Los Angeles Times, have provided even more insight as to how sexual- abuse accusations against priests have been covered up for years. The notes detail plans by the two men to keep police from discovering that children were being molested in Los Angeles parishes, with Curry suggesting the predator priestsnot see therapists who could then alert authorities; instead, he wanted to give priests out-of-state assignments to avoid criminal charges. Curry was the chief advisor to the Archbishop on sex-abuse cases at the time.

One priest discussed in the released files was Msgr. Peter Garcia, who tended to abuse undocumented children because he could keep them quiet by threatening to have them deported. He went to a treatment center for pedophile clergy in New Mexico, but left the priesthood in 1989 after returning to Los Angeles and refusing to take medication to contain his sexual urges toward children. Never prosecuted, he died in 2009.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

January 29, 2013

WASHINGTON—Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Bishop John G. Vlazny, 75, from the pastoral governance of the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon, and named Bishop Alexander K. Sample of Marquette, Michigan, 52, to succeed him.

The appointment was publicized in Washington, January 29, by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Alexander Sample was born Nov. 7, 1960 in Kalispell, Montana. He studied for the priesthood at the College of St. Thomas (St. John Vianney Seminary) St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio. He holds bachelor of science and master of science degrees in metallurgical engineering from Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan, and a licentiate in canon law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome.

He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Marquette in 1990, and was named chancellor of the diocese in 1996. In 2005, he was named bishop of Marquette.

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PORTLAND (OR)
Catholic Sentinel

Ed Langlois
Staff Writer

The next Archbishop of Portland uses modern social media in the cause of proclaiming Jesus.

Archbishop-Designate Alexander Sample, current head of the Diocese of Marquette, Mich. maintains a Facebook page. And he kicked off the Year of Faith by tweeting throughout a 1,000-mile trip across Michigan’s far northern Upper Peninsula.

Archbishop-Designate Sample — tall and slim at 52 — made an even longer journey this week, appearing for the announcement that he’d been named spiritual leader of the 415,000 Catholics of western Oregon.

The Mass of Installation will be held on Tuesday, April 2.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 29, 2013

EBENSBURG, Pennsylvania — The state attorney general will take over the investigation of a central Pennsylvania priest suspended last year amid allegations of sexual abuse involving children in the 1970s.

Cambria County District Attorney Kelly Callihan says the her office referred the case to state prosecutors because one of her staff attended church in a parish where the Rev. George Koharchik served for several years.

The Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown in August suspended Koharchik, who had been pastor of Saint Catherine of Siena Parish in Mount Union. He also spent a decade at St. Clement Church in Upper Yoder Township, near Johnstown, and eight years at St. Casimir in Johnstown.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) On Tuesday Pope Benedict XVI appointed 52-year-old bishop Alexander K. Sample, Metropolitan Archbishop of Portland Oregon, U.S.A.

He takes over the pastoral leadership of the Archdiocese of nearly 400,000 Catholics from Archbishop John G. Vlazny who has retired.

Bishop Sample was ordained a priest of the diocese on June 1, 1990, at St. Peter Cathedral in Marquette. He served in several parish assignments before moving to Rome, Italy, from 1994-96 to earn a degree in Canon Law. Upon returning to the diocese he held a number of duties in the chancery office. He served as a member of the Marriage Tribunal, as chancellor, as a member of the College of Consultors, as director of the Department of Ministry Personnel Services, as director of the Bishop Baraga Association, diocesan chaplain to the Knights of Columbus, and was involved in many major efforts of the diocese. On January 25, 2006, by the mandate of Pope Benedict XVI, he was ordained bishop of Marquette.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Catholic Insider

BCI made a mistake in our post last week on the 2012 financial results for the Boston Archdiocese that we need to correct.

We reported that the Catholic Appeal raised $13.6M in the 2012 year, missing their goal ($14M) and raising $100K less than the year before, with a bigger staff than the prior year. Although the 2012 Annual Report showed a contribution of $13.6M from the Catholic Appeal to the Central Fund income, and it is correct they have a bigger staff then the prior year; we were wrong in saying they missed their fundraising goal of $14M.

The timing of the Catholic Appeal fundraising “year” (March to the following January) is different from the fiscal year (July 1 to June 30), so what is reported in the Annual Report for contribution of the Catholic Appeal to operating income never aligns identically with the fundraising cycle. In addition, numbers from the Catholic Appeal are described in any of a variety of ways:

Fundraising pledges: When the archdiocese announces a fundraising goal and then actually releases the result, the fundraising folks count whatever they can and want to in pledges for this year, even if all of the money does not come in right away, and some may not come in at all. For example, there could be a big gift pledged this year while the cash will arrive over subsequent years. There is provision for bad debt. So, the accountants adjust reporting on the books to allow for bad debts and the time value of pledges before they come in. Or the total amount raised by the Catholic Appeal could include pledges made to the Catholic Appeal but designated for use by related entities such as St. Johns Seminary or Catholic TV.

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Information Service

Vatican City, 29 January 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father appointed Bishop Alexander King Sample as archbishop of the archdiocese of Portland (area 76,937, population 3,296,705, Catholics 412,725, priests 300, permanent deacons 72, religious 653), Oregon, USA. Bishop Sample, previously bishop of Marquette, Michigan, USA, was born in Kalispell, Montana, USA, in 1960, was ordained to the priesthood in 1990, and received episcopal ordination in 2006. In the national bishops’ conference he currently serves on the Subcommittees on Native American Catholics and on the Catechism. He is also vice-postulator for the cause for canonisation of Venerable Frederic Baraga, first bishop of the Diocese of Marquette. He succeeds Archbishop John George Vlazny, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

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IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests

Brendan’s Hoban writes of the shame and humiliation he felt after attending Tony Flannery’s press conference on 20 January. (First published in the Western People)

When I watched Fr Tony Flannery at his press conference in Dublin, a week last Sunday, telling his side of the story I have to admit that I felt a mixture of emotions: sadness; frustration; anger, regret, sympathy. Returning that evening on the train, as I tried to unpack how I felt, these emotions had coalesced into humiliation and shame.

Here was a man who had given his whole life to the Catholic Church. He entered the Redemptorists at 17; ten years later he was ordained; and between then and his 66th birthday he has preached missions all over Ireland, written articles, published books and served the Church to the best of his ability for almost 40 years. Here he was explaining the stand-off in which he found himself with the Vatican authorities.

A year ago a few extracts from his writings were sent to Rome. As a result he was ‘silenced’, asked to carry out a number of religious exercises and to respond to the charges against him. He did all of that and the cardinal in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), William Levada, commented that his declaration of faith was ‘very fine.’ It seemed as if everyone was happy, Flannery’s declaration would be published and that was that.

It looked as if Flannery would be returned to ministry within a matter of weeks. That was June. By September, Levada had retired and a new head of the CDF, Archbishop Gerhard Muller, added a number of other points to the document, specifically a statement that he accepted that the Catholic Chuch could never ordain women and that he declare his acceptance of all Catholic moral teachings.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Tribune-Democrat

Kathy Mellott kmellott@tribdem.com

JOHNSTOWN — The criminal investigation into allegations that a priest with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johns­town molested boys while at churches in Cambria County has been turned over to the state Attorney General’s Office.

Cambria County District Attorney Kelly Callihan said her office requested that the state take over the investigation of the Rev. George Koharchik.

“We had a conflict of interest in the DA’s office,” she said. “We referred it to the AG’s office, and they’ve accepted it.”

While Callihan did not provide specifics, she said that a member of the district attorney’s staff had attended one of the Cambria County churches where Koharchik served for a number of years.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE McCARTHY
Jan. 29, 2013

THE second Australian Catholic priest charged with concealing child sex crimes “procured and aided” a Newcastle media executive to indecently assault a young male in the 1980s, police allege.

Father Lewis Fenton, 81, of Eleebana, is alleged to have been an accessory before the fact in the indecent assault of a young male at Nelson Bay between 1982 and 1984 by Francis Andrew Tully.

Tully was employed by the Post group of newspapers, owned by the Newcastle Herald. He worked as a salesman from the Bolton Street building in Newcastle.

Tully, 55 at the time of the offences, was jailed for two years in 1986 after pleading guilty to three child sex charges. He died in the 1990s.

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UNITED STATES
Failed Messiah

Another hasidic untrained and unlicensed therapist/counselor, Chabad’s Rabbi Manis Friedman, claims child sexual abuse does not damage its victims, and that not saying the rabbinic prayer to be said after eating a piece of cake is worse than something – abuse – that happened to you as a child. Victims suffer, he claims, only from the feeling that they are damaged goods. They should realize that we are all damaged goods, abused or not, he claims, and then equates the damage of child sexual abuse with the damage other people experience as children from uncaring teachers or teachers who belittled them. Friedman completely misunderstands (or is unsympathetic to) the deep psychological pain child sexual abuse causes – to the extent that even pre-verbal infants who are sexually abused can have psychological issues throughout their lives from that sexual abuse.

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ISRAEL
The Jerusalem Post

By SAM SOKOL

01/28/2013

High-profile cover-ups of sexual abuse and molestation by communal rabbis and activists have not been limited to England and the US, but take place frequently in Israel, alleged David Morris, director of Magen, a Beit Shemesh-based community child protection organization.

Magen, which works to encourage parents of sexually abused children to file reports with social services and the police, has been banned in some synagogues due to what Morris believes to be “a deepset culture of non-reporting and cover-up.”

The way that many Israeli religious communities prefer to handle such issues, he claims, is instead “dealing with child abuse within the community,” via “parents, professionals and community leaders.”

Morris’s comments come on the heels of an announcement by England’s Channel 4 that the station will be airing an investigative special entitled “Britain’s Hidden Child Abuse” on Wednesday, featuring an audio recording of prominent local Rabbi Ephraim Padwa telling a community member wearing a wire that he should not report being abused to law enforcement.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
TheMediaReport

By his very own admission, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the former archbishop of Los Angeles, tragically mishandled cases of abusive priests from decades past. As a result, many innocent youth were grievously harmed by criminal clerics. The devastation to victims has truly been immeasurable – a fact which Mahony himself has acknowledged many times.

However, a recent high-profile article in the Los Angeles Times about recently released court documents from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles only tells part of the story about how Cardinal Mahony dealt with abusive clerics during his tenure there.

The Cardinal’s early work to combat abuse

What may surprise most people is that Cardinal Mahony – who, incidentally, was himself falsely accused twice of abuse – has a notable history of trying to take a proactive approach to the problem of clergy abuse.

Mahony became archbishop of Los Angeles in September of 1985, and he was soon addressing the issue of sex abuse. By June 1989, Mahony published the archdiocese’s first formal written policies and guidelines for dealing with abusive clerics. In this respect, he was certainly ahead of many of his peers in the Catholic Church and many other organizations who oversee children.

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PENNSYLVANIA
Youngstown Vindicator

Published: 1/28/13

JOHNSTOWN, PA. — Brother Stephen Baker, the Franciscan friar accused of committing sex offenses against students at Warren John F. Kennedy and Johnstown, Pa., Bishop McCort Catholic high schools, left a suicide note saying: “I’m sorry for what I did to the church.”

The note was found near his body in his room at the St. Bernadine Monastery in Newry, Pa., Saturday morning after Baker stabbed himself in the chest.

Baker was dead at the scene, and his death was ruled a suicide.

Officials also found other letters in sealed envelopes in the room, and those letters are being given to the people whose names are on them, said Patty Ross, Blair County coroner.

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UNITED STATES
Christian Catholicism

Jerry Slevin

There has been one papal election in three decades. The next Pope could reign for decades. Current voting Cardinals were selected almost entirely either by Benedict XVI or by John Paul II while Benedict served as his key advisor. Benedict, with his Cardinal appointments, increased substantially the overall voting percentage held by Vatican based Cardinals. Significantly, he also eliminated in 2007 the majority vote “deadlock breaking” vote provision that John Paul II had introduced in 1996. This now effectively gives a one-third minority of voting Cardinals a veto over a papal election candidate, enhancing the power of the Vatican Cardinals’ voting bloc. It also helps explain, to me at least, how Benedict got sufficient Cardinals’ votes to be elected Pope in 2005.

Significantly, however, it also gives other minority voting blocs of Cardinals an opportunity to block an election until a candidate is proposed that is acceptable to them. For more explanation, please see my statement, “Is the Pope Panicking Over Sex Scandals, or Political Polls, or Both?” at http://wp.me/P2YEZ3-gg .

It seems evident, and even understandable, that Benedict is preparing for his successor, including with his Cardinal and other appointments, such as the new conservative head of the Vatican’s doctrinal commission and pro-cleric chief canon law prosecutor. Benedict has established with the Catechism and the new Liturgy his personal view of doctrine and ritual as the “law of the land”.

By beatifying John Paul II, Benedict has put a “mystical” aura on their joint program to entrench even deeper the Vatican clique’s dominant control of future doctrine and discipline, most evident currently in the ruthless inquisition of Fr. Tony Flannery and the priests union in Ireland. It seemed unthinkable that the Vatican could sink the Catholic Church’s reputation much lower in Ireland, but the tone-deaf Vatican clique has managed to do so.

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FLORIDA
Miami Herald

BY DANIEL CHANG
dchang@MiamiHerald.com

Judgment day came Monday for the Rev. Neil Doherty, a retired South Florida priest accused by several men of sexually abusing them in their youth, when a Broward judge sentenced Doherty to 15 years in state prison for the repeated sexual assault of a child in the mid- to late-1990s.

Doherty, 69, appeared frail as he stood hunched and shackled before Circuit Judge Kenneth Gillespie, who announced that he had delivered “the maximum sentence I can impose’’ under the terms of a plea bargain that the disgraced Catholic priest accepted earlier this month in Broward Circuit Court.

Doherty did not speak as Gillespie told him he also would have to register as a sex offender.

But Doherty did have to face two of his accusers, who were not the victims in the criminal case but testified in open court about the traumatic sexual abuse that Doherty had visited upon them decades ago.

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WASHINGTON
Federal Way Mirror

By ANDY HOBBS
Federal Way Mirror Editor
January 28, 2013 ·

It happened right under the mother’s nose: a youth minister at church was molesting her 3-year-old daughter.

The youth minister, age 23 at the time, worked well with children and seemed destined for a career in that capacity.

The mother shrugged off rumors about the minister’s past conviction as a sex offender. After all, the church was supposed to be a safe and forgiving place of acceptance, and the youth minister was popular in the church family. He gained the mother’s trust as he helped around the house, played with the girl and mentored her older son.

“He was so good with the kids,” said the mother, a local resident whose name is being withheld to protect her privacy.

A red flag surfaced when she came home one day and noticed the daughter was less excited about her mother’s return and more interested in the minister leaving. She spotted more odd behavior, including the minister’s eagerness to spend time with her daughter. She asked serious questions that led to the revelation of abuse.

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BOSTON (MA)
Boston Globe

The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston has named a new director of the office that provides counseling and other services available to clergy sexual abuse survivors, their families, and their parishes. Vivian Soper, who has been regional director for Catholic Charities of Boston since 2003, will direct the Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach, the archdiocese said Monday. “I am humbled and blessed to have the opportunity to be part of this important ministry of the church,” Soper said. As director, Soper will also oversee the Office of Child Advocacy and the Office of Background Screening, a spokesman for the archdiocese said.

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BOSTON (MA)
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston

Braintree, MA (January 28, 2012) – The Archdiocese of Boston announced today that Vivian Soper has been appointed Director of the Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach (OPSO). She succeeds Barbara Thorp, the long-time director of the office, who concluded her service to the Archdiocese in September 2012. Ms. Soper will begin her new role in mid February 2013.

OPSO is dedicated to providing pastoral and outreach services to survivors of clergy sexual abuse and their families as well as parishes and all those impacted.

Most Reverend Robert P. Deeley, J.C.D., Auxiliary Bishop of Boston, Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia said, “We are grateful that Vivian has agreed to lead the Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach in the work of serving survivors of clergy sexual abuse and their families. This important work of helping survivors heal is a commitment of the Church and we are fortunate that we are able to have someone of Vivian’s substantial gifts and background available to oversee this ministry. I also want to express my appreciation to Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, Secretary for Health and Social Services, for conducting a careful search process and for the members of the search committee who treated this responsibility with sincerity and great care for all impacted by sexual

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MISSOURI
Courthouse News Service

By JOE HARRIS

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (CN) – The president of the Missouri State Board of Education, a Baptist pastor, resigned Friday, three days after a woman filed a lurid lawsuit against him, claiming he sexually abused her while she was a child and he was her pastor.

Jane Doe DL sued the Rev. Stanley Arnold Archie and the Christian Fellowship Baptist Church on Tuesday, Jan. 23, in Jackson County Court.

Archie sent a letter of resignation to Gov. Jay Nixon on Friday. Archie had been a member of the board since 2006 and began his term as president this month.

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BOSTON (MA)
The Patriot Ledger

Posted Jan 28, 2013

By Lane Lambert

BRAINTREE —

The Boston Archdiocese has appointed a Weymouth woman to be the new director of the office that provides counseling to survivors of clergy sexual abuse and their families.

Vivian Soper will become director of the Office of Pastoral Support and Outreach in February. She’ll succeed the office’s longtime director Barbara Thorp.

The Archdiocese announced Soper’s appointment Monday afternoon.

Soper has been a Catholic Charities regional director since 2003, and has worked for the agency since 1986.

She’s the sister of Rev. Paul Soper, who’s pastor of St. Albert the Great parish in Weymouth and director of the Archciocese’s pastoral planning commission.

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PENNSYLVANIA
WJAC

By Maria Miller

JOHNSTOWN, Pa. —

6 News uncovered new details Monday in the case against a friar accused of sexually abusing students at Bishop McCort High School in the ’90s.

Brother Stephen Baker was found dead in his room at the St. Bernadine Monastery in Hollidaysburg, Blair County. Investigators ruled it a suicide.

On Monday, 6 News found out the reason why Baker was removed from Bishop McCort in 2000 in the first place. According to the Rev. Patrick Quinn, who’s a member of the Franciscan Order to which Baker belonged, an allegation against Baker surfaced in Minnesota. Once the order got wind of it, friars removed him from Bishop McCort.

Allegations involving McCort students didn’t surface until more than a decade later. In 2011, Bishop Mark Bartchak of the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese said he immediately alerted authorities. Johnstown police said Monday they were made aware of two cases, but couldn’t take action.

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CANADA
Toronto Star

The Canadian Press

MONCTON, N.B.—A former Supreme Court of Canada judge says his final report on sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests in the Moncton area will be delayed until at least March because more alleged victims have come forward.

Michel Bastarache was hired last year by the archdiocese of Moncton to conduct a reconciliation and compensation process for alleged victims of sexual abuse involving a former priest from Cap-Pele.

The confidential process has since been expanded to hear complaints about any priests from the diocese.

Bastarache said he has already approved payments to about 50 people, ranging from $15,000 to $300,000 each.

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AUSTRALIA
The Australian

Neil Keene
From:The Daily Telegraph
January 29, 2013

A FORMER Catholic priest who allegedly covered up child sex crimes for almost 30 years has appeared in court today for the first time.

Father Lewis Dominic Fenton, 81, appeared only briefly in Newcastle Local Court in NSW this morning after his arrest earlier this month.

Officers from Strike Force Georgiana, set up to investigate allegations of child abuse within the church, allege Fenton concealed from authorities his knowledge of another man’s sexual abuse of a child between 1982 and 1984 in the Hunter Region.

Walking with the aid of a cane and wearing gold crucifixes on his shirt collar, Fenton did not enter pleas to committing an act of indecency, being an accessory before the fact to an offence and unlawfully concealing a felony.

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AUSTRALIA
7 News

ABC
Updated January 29, 2013

A retired Hunter Valley Catholic priest has faced Newcastle Local Court for the first time after being charged over the alleged cover-up of child sexual abuse.

Lewis Dominic Fenton was charged on January 4, becoming the second Australian to be charged with a child sex cover-up.

The 81-year-old is accused of concealing two alleged offences committed by another Hunter Valley man against a nine-year-old boy.

The offences are alleged to have occurred between 1982 and 1984 at Nelson Bay and Stockton.

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FLORIDA
Florida Today

FORT LAUDERDALE — A retired Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of boys for decades was sentenced to 15 years in prison Monday.

Earlier this month, Father Neil Doherty pleaded no contest in a deal that reduced the sex abuse charges from capital felonies to second-degree felonies. He will also have to register as a sex offender.

The plea comes after several more alleged victims came forward and were planning to testify in the case.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
Big Trial

By Ralph Cipriano
for bigtrial.net

She sealed the pre-trial hearings. She sealed the pre-trial motions.

Today, Judge Ellen Ceisler kept three out of four jury questions a secret, as she invited lawyers on both sides of the case back to her chambers for a couple of private discussions.

Since there’s a continuing gag order in the case, lawyers on both sides are precluded from talking to reporters.

The one jury question read out in public today was why did the older brother of “Billy Doe” not honor a subpoena from the defense, which set off an argument between the prosecutor and a defense lawyer.

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AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

By JOANNE MCCARTHY
Jan. 29, 2013

RETIRED Maitland-Newcastle catholic priest Lew Fenton has appeared in Newcastle local court
as the second Australian Catholic priest charged with concealing the child sex crimes of another person.

Mr Fenton, 81, did not enter a plea to a charge of misprision of a felony – concealing a serious crime -related to events in the mid-1980s.

He was supported in court by a small group of people and did not make a statement outside the court.

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TEXAS
Associated Baptist Press

An advocacy group says Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, should explain why in the 1980s it failed to report a confessed child molester who recently avoided prison in a plea bargain for similar crimes in another state.

By Bob Allen

A mother who says her son was molested more than 20 years ago by a then-staff member at one of the Southern Baptist Convention’s largest churches says the congregation’s leaders need to come clean about what a victims’ advocacy group calls a cover-up of child sexual abuse by clergy.

The anonymous woman said her family endured “indescribable” hurt after learning her son was molested for months by John Langworthy, a staff member at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas from 1984 until 1989.

Langworthy, who went on to serve 22 years as associate pastor of music and ministries at Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton, Miss., recently received a 50-year suspended sentence in Mississippi for molesting multiple boys as young as 6 he met through local churches while a student at Baptist-affiliated Mississippi College from 1980 until 1984

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VATICAN CITY
Vatican Insider

Calcagno and Sandri could substitute Nicora and Tauran in the commission which controls the Vatican Bank. Former director Gotti Tedeschi’s dismissal is still being disputed

Andrea Tornielli
Vatican City

Last June, the appointment of a new president of the Vatican Bank (IOR) in September 2012, after the Pope returned from his trip to Lebanon, was said to be a dead cert. The new president will succeed banker Ettore Gotti Tedeschi who was dismissed in a way that had never been seen before in the history of the Holy See. Then the appointment was postponed to the end of the year. Last 10 December, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, Carl Andersson – a member of the IOR’s board of lay members and author of the harsh indictment against Gotti Tedeschi, which was deliberately leaked to the press – said it was up to Cardinal Bertone to decide and that the new president would be nominated in January. Now that January is almost over there is word going round that the president will be appointed next month. But probably after the turnover of the Commission of Cardinals that oversees the IOR, which expires on 23 February. The Secretary of State explained that this is a routine change that takes place every five years as in the dicasteries. In this case the turnover could be of crucial importance to the choice of Gotti’s successor.

On 23 February 2008, Benedict XVI renewed the Cardinals’ Commission that oversees the Institute for Works of Religion for another five years, appointing Secretary of State and Camerlengo, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and Attilio Nicora – who was president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) at the time – as its heads. Cardinals who were chosen again included Frenchman Jean-Louis Tauran (President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue), Telesphore Placidus Toppo (Archbishop of Ranchi, in India) and Odilo Pedro Scherer (Archbishop of São Paulo, in Brazil). In September the following year, 2009, cardinals renewed the IOR’s board of lay members which elected Ettore Gotti Tedeschi as the bank’s president. Gotti Tedeschi was called to develop the bank’s objective of transparency and bring it in line with international anti-money laundering laws as requested by the Pope and Cardinal Bertone.

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UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News

A police sex abuse probe at a top Catholic school has now uncovered more than 50 possible victims and witnesses.

As the sheer scale of the investigation became apparent, the detective leading the enquiry into St Ambrose College in Hale Barns said he was determined to ensure ‘justice is done’.

Police have received a steady stream of former pupils alleging they were sexually abused by teachers from the school since the M.E.N. exclusively revealed the probe last year.

Some ‘old boys’ who have been in touch with officers have alleged they were molested both in the school and at the homes of teachers.

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PENNSYLVANIA
The Tribune-Democrat

JOHNSTOWN — The Franciscan friar who was the subject of an alleged sex scandal at Bishop McCort Catholic High School died from a single knife wound to the chest, an autopsy showed.

Blair Coroner Patricia Ross said Brother Paul Stephen Baker used a knife long enough to puncture his heart, an injury authorities believe quickly killed him Saturday.

He suffered no other injuries, Ross said.

Baker, 62, was living at St. Bernardine Monastary, Hollidaysburg, when a resident found him fatally injured Saturday.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
The Republic

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 28, 2013

PHILADELPHIA — Jurors in a church-abuse case in Philadelphia have gone home Monday without a verdict, but first asked about a missing trial witness.

The jury wants to know why the accuser’s brother did not testify as planned for the defense.

The accuser, a 24-year-old policeman’s son, says two Roman Catholic priests and his sixth-grade teacher raped him, starting at age 10. He blames the abuse for his descent heroin addiction.

He testified that he first tried drugs at age 11 when his brother took him to a party.

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CALIFORNIA
Channel 3000

Author: William R. Wineke, Special to Channel 3000

Published On: Jan 28 2013

Just keep this in mind before you read further: Retired Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony will be one of the Roman Catholic prelates who chooses the next pope should Pope Benedict XVI die before 2016.

Why is that important? Because, according to documents released during the past couple of weeks, Cardinal Mahony actively conspired with his chief adviser on sexual abuse to hide diocesan priests from criminal prosecution.

The fact that Los Angeles was a hotbed of predator priests is not news. The archdiocese has already committed $616 million – more than a half-billion dollars! – to compensate victims of that abuse. But church officials tried strenuously to keep their records of child abuse secret and, at the least, to have names of church officials dealing with the offending priests blacked out from public view.

Now we know why.

The records show that the cardinal and his chief adviser on sexual abuse, one Monsignor Thomas Curry, were well aware of what their priests were doing and that those activities were illegal.

They didn’t just ignore the abuse; they sent the offending priests for psychiatric treatment at an out-of-state center – but they did make sure that any therapy done was not done in California, where the therapist would be mandated by law to report the crime.

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on January 28, 2013

KC’s Catholic bishop is criticizing the one religious publication that has heroically protected kids, exposed corruption and deterred wrongdoing – the National Catholic Reporter.

No church publication – and few secular ones – has done more than the NCR to make innocent kids and vulnerable adults safer. And few bishops have done more than Bishop Finn to endanger families and deceive parishioners.

Bishop Finn wants to have his cake and eat it too. When forced, he issues, through his public relations staff, a terse and vague apology for enabling Fr. Shawn Ratigan to sexually violate more children. But most of the time, he continues his pathetic quest to deflect attention and blame others – therapists, journalists and even victims – for his own irresponsible, selfish secrecy.

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FLORIDA
Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests

Posted by Barbara Dorris on January 28, 2013

We are glad that Fr. Neil Doherty was given the maximum sentence possible. Kids are always safer when predators are behind bars. Given that Fr. Doherty has been accused in dozens of abuse cases over the past decade, it is clear that kids in Miami are better off now that he is off the street.

While we are glad that Fr. Doherty has been brought to justice, the sad fact remains that top diocesan staff who repeatedly ignored warnings and allegations have escaped punishment. Only when those who enable child sex abuse are punished alongside the abusers will the epidemic begin to wane.

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FLORIDA
Sun Sentinel

By Rafael Olmeda and Tonya Alanez, Sun Sentinel
12:20 p.m. EST, January 28, 2013

A retired priest convicted of molesting a young boy and accused of preying on dozens of others was sentenced Monday to 15 years in Florida State Prison.

Neil Doherty, 69, pleaded no contest earlier this month to criminal charges brought against him on behalf of one victim, a man who grew up across the street from St. Vincent’s Roman Catholic Church in Margate, where Doherty was the pastor. The man accused Doherty of drugging him and having sex with him.

As part of a plea negotiation, Doherty faced a maximum 15-year prison sentence, though he pleaded for leniency through his lawyer, David Bogenschutz, who argued that Doherty’s age and frail condition made him unlikely to offend again.

Broward Circuit Judge Kenneth Gillespie was unmoved, sentencing Doherty to the maximum allowable term.

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FLORIDA
WSOC

The Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. —

A retired Roman Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of boys for decades has been sentenced to 15 years in prison in Fort Lauderdale court.

Father Neil Doherty was sentenced Monday after pleading no contest in a deal that reduced the sex abuse charges from a capital felony to a second-degree felony. He will also have to register as a sex offender.

The plea comes after several other alleged victims came forward and were planning to testify.

Attorneys for the victims say Doherty befriended troubled young boys for years, plied them with drugs and alcohol then sexually abused them.

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CANADA
Winnipeg Free Press

By: The Canadian Press

MONCTON, N.B. – A former judge says his final report on sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests in the Moncton, N.B., area will be delayed until at least March because more alleged victims are coming forward.

Michel Bastarache was hired last year by the Archdiocese of Moncton to conduct a reconciliation and compensation process for alleged victims of sexual abuse involving a former priest from Cap-Pele.

The confidential process has since been expanded to hear complaints about any priests from the diocese.

Bastarache says he has already approved payments to about 50 people, ranging from $15,000 to $300,000 each.

The allegations that have been made have not been proven in a court.

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CALIFORNIA
Daily Breeze

By Tracy Manzer and Dana Bartholomew, Staff Writers
sgvtribune.com
Posted: 01/26/2013

The case files of Father Santiago Tamayo and Father Angel Cruces read like lurid dime-store novels.

Appropriately enough, the tales of how Tamayo, Cruces and five other priests sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl were fodder for the tabloids in the 1980s, which dubbed it “Snow White and the Seven Priests.”

The tale went public when victim Rita Milla came forward after becoming pregnant at age 19. Milla, a parishioner at St. Philomena church in Carson, told church officials in 1983 she was pressured by Tamayo to have an abortion, and she eventually went to the Philippines to have her daughter.

One of the documents in the newly released files includes a denial by Tamayo that he encouraged an abortion.

Also included is a letter the teen gave to church officials in 1983 but never sent to the priest who she believed fathered the child, Father Valentine Tugade. Tugade’s paternity was finally proven by a DNA test in 2003, but in 2007 Milla’s attorney, Gloria Allred, told reporters they did not know if he was still alive. | Related: Exhibit 50, Page 3

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IRELAND
National Catholic Reporter

by John Cooney | Jan. 28, 2013

Dublin —
An estimated 250 protesters demonstrated Sunday evening in Dublin at a vigil outside the papal nunciature in support of the restoration to ministry of Irish Redemptorist Fr. Tony Flannery.

A letter addressed to the papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown, was handed in by the Irish branch of the We Are Church lay movement.

The protesters were mainly in their 60s or older, and two-thirds of them were women. They carried a banner that read “Dialogue Yes. Silence No.” and sang the 1960s protest song of the civil rights movement, “We Shall Overcome.”

The letter stated that the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith had acted unjustly in its treatment of Flannery and should now restore him to his full priestly ministry.

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