NEW BRUNSWICK (NJ)
Bridgewater Courier News

June 18, 2019

By Nick Muscavage

Four people — three men and one woman — have filed a lawsuit against a longtime Presbyterian minister, claiming he indulged in sexual behavior to exorcise evil spirits from them.

The Rev. Dr. William Weaver, the former minister of Linden Presbyterian Church for 39 years, is accused of sexual assault, aggravated assault, sexual battery, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress, misrepresentation and gross negligence, in the 105-page lawsuit filed Tuesday by Toms River attorney Robert Fuggi in Middlesex County Superior Court.

The lawsuit also names as defendants the Linden Presbyterian Church, the Presbytery of Elizabeth and the Presbyterian Church (USA).

No criminal charges have been filed against Weaver. The Union County Prosecutor’s Office could neither deny or confirm any information relating to Weaver

Fuggi said in an email that Weaver used his abilities and position “for evil.” He also said that although Weaver was a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary — one of the leading Presbyterian seminaries in the country — he broke all tenets of the faith “by using his position of pastoral authority to harm and manipulate these victims for his own twisted desires.”

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ERIE (PA)
Erie Times

June 18, 2019

By Ed Palattella

Man claims retired Erie Catholic bishop failed to address concerns over abusive priest when he was at Buffalo diocese.

Retired Erie Catholic Bishop Donald W. Trautman was accused Tuesday of mishandling complaints that a priest in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo was abusing teenagers when Trautman was chancellor in that diocese more than 30 years ago.

Flanked by lawyers at a news conference in Buffalo, the accuser, James Bottlinger, 50, said that he was in high school when the Rev. Michael Freeman molested him when Freeman was at St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Lancaster, New York.

Bottlinger said Trautman and others knew of previous complaints about Freeman, but that Freeman was moved around in the diocese and eventually abused Bottlinger.

“He’s got a lot of answering to do,” Bottlinger said of Trautman.

The lawyers said Bottlinger intends to sue the Diocese of Buffalo over the abuse after he recently rejected a $650,000 settlement that the diocese offered him as part of its $17.5 million program to compensate victims who, as children, suffered clergy sexual abuse.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Daily Hampshire Gazette

June 18, 2019

By Jacquelyn Voghel

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield has announced the launch of a “newly reorganized” Safe Environment & Victim Assistance Office in the wake of a report that the diocese attempted to cover up molestation accusations leveled by a former altar boy against a longtime bishop.

The office’s responsibilities will include “building on a system” that includes measures such as CORI checks; abuse awareness training for clergy members, religious and lay employees, and all church volunteers; and other church education and awareness programs, Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski said at a press conference at the diocesan pastoral center Tuesday afternoon.

Jeffrey Trant, a social worker whose background focuses on children and vulnerable adults affected by trauma, will lead the office.

The diocese already undergoes annual audits to check its compliance with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, Rozanski said, but he added, “We know we can do better.”

There are “aspects of our response that clearly need improving,” Rozanski said.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

June 18, 2019

The below resource was created by our friends from the For Such a Time as This rally. This resources contains information and frequently asked questions on the topics of clergy/minister abuse, different types of abuse, best practices in responding to abuse, information on how to report, and more.

Click here to view and read this valuable resource, and thanks again to the leaders and organizers at the For Such a Time a This rally for sharing!

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Sojourners Magazine

June 18, 2019

By Greg Williams

“Come, Holy Spirit. Give us the strength to humbly match the courageous witness of those abuse survivors with a boldness of reform for the Church in the United States. This week we continue a journey that will not end until there is not one instance of sexual abuse within our Church.”

With those words, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, the current president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, opened their 2019 General Assembly this week. The most recent revelations about systemic sexual abuse and harassment have lent particular urgency to this attempt to standardize and apply the same standards to bishops as to priests: Theodore McCarrick, former Archbishop of Washington, D.C., was defrocked after credible allegations of abuse and misconduct surfaced, and Michael J. Bransfield, former Bishop of West Virginia, was forced to step down in the fall while under investigation for systemic sexual harassment and corruption, as revealed by the Washington Post.

The new rules the bishops passed did not, despite strong encouragement from advocates inside and outside the Church, mandate independent lay involvement in investigations of bishops. The Conference did overwhelmingly approve a policy stating that laity should be involved in the process of investigations.

Last November, Catholic bishops gathered in Baltimore determined to act on problems raised by gaps in the 2002 “Dallas Charter” for the Protection of Children and Young Adults – most notably that it did not explicitly extend to bishops. Then, as their deliberations were about to begin, they abruptly stopped on the request of the Vatican. There was going to be an international consultation and a new set of rulings from Pope Francis to help the whole Church deal with the sex abuse crisis – even in jurisdictions outside the U.S. where a wave of accusations has not yet hit the Church.

That hope was realized in part with a February gathering in Rome and a motu propio last month from Pope Francis, which spells out new global policies on clergy abuse and cover up. This week, the bishops met in Baltimore again, to set up more stable and better procedures for dealing with abuse from a bishop.

Pope Francis’ motu propio states simply that investigations of bishops may involve lay experts, rather than declaring that they must involve lay experts. The responsibility to investigate lies in the hands of the metropolitan bishop, the head of the local region of bishops (or his assistant bishop in cases of accusations against the metropolitan).

Many activists are skeptical of this model. As Bob Hoatson, president of Road to Recovery and an advocate for survivors of sexual abuse puts it, “I think the Church is inherently incapable of policing itself. It’s only since the attorneys general of the United States have gotten involved in the investigations that we’ve made progress.”

Even lay members of the institutional apparatus of the Church are calling for expanded lay involvement. Dr. Francesco Cesareo, the head of the National Review Board (NRB), which investigates the Church’s compliance with its commitments to fight sexual abuse, puts it this way in his report to the USCCB’s General Assembly: “The NRB remains uncomfortable with allowing bishops to review allegations against other bishops as this essentially means bishops policing bishops. The metropolitan will gain greater credibility if a lay commission is established when allegations come forward to assist in the process as has been the case with lay review boards on the local level.”

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BUFFALO (NY)
WJET TV

Jun 18, 2019

A man in Buffalo New York speaks openly for the first time about sexual abuse suffered at the hands of a priest, also naming Erie’s Bishop Emeritus Donald Trautman.

During today’s news conference, James Botlinger alleged Father Michael Freeman sexually
abused him as a minor from 1983 to 1987, while a member of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo.

During that news conference, Bishop Donald Trautman was mentioned as someone who had
been told at least two times about Father Freeman’s abusive behavior.

Botlinger also mentioned that he had met Trautman in the personal residence of Freeman, after being alerted about his behavior.

Botlinger’s lawyer saying that the compensation fund offered him 650 thousand dollars, but Botlinger turned it down to bring his case to the courts.

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CHICAGO (IL)
WGN Chanhnel 9

June 18, 2019

By Ben Bradley

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has closed its investigation into sexual abuse claims against Rev. John Smyth, the well-known charismatic former leader of Maryville Academy in Des Plaines; but that’s not an exoneration.

A DCFS spokesperson told WGN Investigates that Smyth’s death in April means he can’t be considered a current threat to children, and therefore the agency has no reason to investigate.

“The investigation into Father Smyth was closed following his death,” said DCFS spokesman Jassen Strokosch. “Over the course of the investigation, Smyth no longer had access to children and did not meet the criteria for the Department to conclude the investigation as Indicated.”

DCFS would typically only investigate old claims of abuse to determine whether children are currently in danger. A source said investigators found no evidence of recent abuse by Smyth, who continued to live near Maryville Academy after his retirement. Following the allegations, the Archdiocese removed Smyth from ministry and said he could no longer live in the rectory at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe while the claims were investigated.

Father Smyth led Maryville Academy in Des Plaines and Notre Dame College Prep high school in Niles prior to his retirement in 2014. Earlier this year, two men came forward and accused Smyth of molesting them when they were teenagers living at Maryville in the early-2000s. Des Plaines police reportedly found no credible evidence of abuse. However, a Chicago attorney said 10 men have come forward claiming they were molested by Father Smyth going back to the 1960s. No lawsuit has been filed. Rev. Smyth’s attorney told the Chicago Tribune in April the claims were bogus and based on a desire for a payout.

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Friendly Atheist blog

June 18, 2019

By Hemant Mehta

68-year-old Stephen L. Dunn has had a lot of job titles during his 48 years in Christian ministry.

He has worked at a seminary, was a denominational president, and served as pastor at eight difference churches in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. He was director of Bridgebuilders Ministries and designed a program to help churches convert their “unchurched neighbors.”

And he’s apparently also a guy who just got arrested for this:
During a search of Dunn’s home, investigators found 50 printed-out pictures in Dunn’s bedroom dresser drawer, according to court documents. These images had transposed images of Dunn’s face and what appears to be images of girls of varying ages transposed into bondage and other sado-masochistic scenarios.

An on-site forensic preview of the images found that 10 of the images found involved children, according to court documents.

Nothing to see here. Just another Christian pastor downloading child porn.

How did they even know to search his home?

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JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
Catholic Missourian

June 17, 2019

By Bishop W. Shawn McKnight

I am returning to our Diocese believing the bishops of the United States have done the right thing in their work this week to make us more accountable to the lay faithful and priests. We had a robust discussion regarding how to strengthen our response to Pope Francis’ document, “Vos Estis Lux Mundi,” which concerns how bishops and others responsible for the “right ordering” of our Church respond to allegations of abuse, including abuse of power and direct sexual abuse.

I was one of many bishops pressing for this reform simply because it is the Catholic thing to do:

In the preamble of “Vos Estis Lux Mundi,” the Holy Father addresses the attitude we bishops should have with regard to the exercise of power and authority of our apostolic office in light of the breach of trust. He does this by quoting “Lumen Gentium” no. 27. But we could also look to “Lumen Gentium” no. 37, in which the Council Fathers declare that the laity “by reason of the knowledge, competence or outstanding ability which they may enjoy are permitted and sometimes even obliged[emphasis added] to express their opinion on those things which concern the good of the Church.” Archbishop Christophe Pierre, in his opening remarks to the bishops on June 11, pointed out the Scriptural basis for consulting the whole Church as seen in the Acts of the Apostles. And, it is the Catholic thing to do, because, unlike most Protestant denominations who do not have a hierarchy as we do, it is all the more important to find a way to bring the laity into solving the mess we as bishops created. If we do not use both laity and hierarchy, we are forcing ourselves into a congregationalist mentality.

Lay involvement should be mandatory to make darn sure we bishops don’t do any more harm to the Church. It’s necessary to ensure victim survivors are cared for and are treated with the respect they deserve.

Lay involvement is necessary in the event an innocent bishop were to be falsely accused. It would build credibility in a process by which a finding of “not credible” is reached. We cannot rely on “trust the metropolitan.”

Finally, lay involvement is necessary to repair the broken relationship between the bishops and their priests. Ever since the 2002 Charter, many priests feel the failure to include bishops in the Charter was like throwing the priests under the bus. And now that we have experienced this horrible year of bad bishops, the laity, too, are rightly demanding that something must change.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
WAMC Radio

June 18, 2019

By Paul Tuthill

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield has restructured the department responsible for overseeing clergy sex abuse allegations.

Springfield Bishop Mitchell Rozanski said the newly-named Office of Safe Environment and Victim Assistance will have a free hand to review practices and policies and conduct an independent examination of past cases to see if anything was overlooked or mishandled.

“Our goal is to deal compassionately and justly with those who come forward to us,” said Rozanski.

Along with a new name for the former office of Child & Youth Protections come new people.

Jeffrey Trant, a licensed social worker and certified psychiatric rehabilitation practitioner, is the director of the new department. Li-Ling Lam-Waller has been hired as compliance officer. She previously worked in the finance office at the diocese.

The restructuring follows a series of meetings Rozanski held earlier this year in parishes throughout the four western Massachusetts counties in response to concerns about how the diocese handles clergy sex abuse allegations.

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BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News

June 18, 2019

By Jay Tokasz

A man offered $650,000 by the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo after he accused the Rev. Michael Freeman of sexually abusing him in the mid-1980s said he turned down the offer because “it just didn’t feel right.”

“That’s not going to help. It’s not going to change any policies. It’s not going to help any kids,” said James Bottlinger. “For what I went through, that was pretty insignificant.”

James Bottlinger, 50, spoke publicly for the first time Tuesday about the alleged abuse and the $650,000 offer, the largest settlement award in the diocese’s recently concluded $17.5 million program compensating childhood victims of clergy sex abuse.

“I was going to take this to the grave,” he said of the secret he kept for three decades.

Now Bottlinger said he intends to sue the diocese under the Child Victims Act, which gives plaintiffs a one-year window to file court claims in sex abuse cases that previously were time-barred by statutes of limitations.

“There needs to be a story behind that money,” he said of rejecting the $650,000 offer. “I don’t want the church to determine here’s some money, go away. I’d like the trial to happen to see how much of the story we can get out. To get the church to come to the table and admit the wrongdoings.”

He said diocese officials, including former Bishop Donald Trautman, who served as the Buffalo Diocese’s auxiliary bishop before being named bishop of the Erie Diocese in 1990, knew he was being molested by Freeman but did nothing to stop it. He said Trautman once saw him on a couch in Freeman’s bedroom at the rectory of St. Mary of the Assumption Church in Lancaster, and did nothing.

“Monsignor Trautman knew Father Mike was a pedophile,” he said. “He’s not the only monsignor that knew Father Mike was a pedophile.”

“The church purposely covered this up. There were victims before me,” Bottlinger said.

He said Freeman was allowed to remain a priest – and abused other children – even after he told diocese officials about what Freeman did to him.

Bottlinger was 14 or 15 at the time of the abuses, which are alleged to have occurred while Freeman was associate pastor of St. Mary of the Assumption Church.

In his application last year to the diocese’s compensation program, Bottlinger said that Freeman pointed a gun at him and provided absolution of his sins following acts of abuse.

Bottlinger and attorneys Steve Boyd, Jeff Anderson and J. Michael Reck met with reporters Tuesday inside WNED-TV studios.

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LOS ANGELES (CA)
Angelus News

June 18, 2019

By Archbishop José H. Gomez

Last week I was in Baltimore to take part in the annual spring assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

It was an important meeting, and our four days together were dedicated almost entirely to the issue of how we as bishops should carry out our responsibilities in handling allegations of clergy sexual abuse against minors.

The scourge of abuse in the Church continues to be the bishops’ most urgent priority.

Here in Los Angeles and across the country, the Church has made enormous progress in these areas, perhaps far more than any other organization or institution in America.

In the last year alone, the Church nationwide trained nearly 4 million children and 2.6 million adults, in addition to conducting background checks on Church workers.

The nation’s dioceses have offices to receive claims of abuse and ensure that victim-survivors are treated with dignity and compassion and given the assistance and resources they need to find healing.

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Open Tabernacle blog

June 18, 2019

By Betty Clermont

On June 2, Pope Francis completed his visit to a third Balkan country this year and the sixth in that region during his pontificate, but not Croatia. Since his election, the pope has also traveled to ten Latin American nations but not Argentina, and three in Africa but not Rwanda.

Nevertheless, the millions who were tortured and killed must not be forgotten.

CROATIA

During World War II, Jasenovac was the third largest concentration camp in Europe by number of victims. It was operated by the German-allied and Catholic Ustaša government “whose sadistic cruelty outdid Nazi tortures,” as noted by the Jasenovac and Holocaust Memorial Foundation.

The Holocaust Education and Research Team wrote about Jasnovac:

Here the most varied forms of torture were used. Finger and toe nails were pulled out with metal instruments, eyes were dug out with specially constructed hooks, people were blinded by having needles stuck in their eyes, flesh was cut and then salted.

People were also flayed, had their noses, ears and tongues cut off with wire cutters, and had awls stuck in their hearts. Daughters were raped in front of their mothers; sons were tortured in front of their fathers.

The prisoners had their throats cut by the Ustaša with specially designed knives, or they were killed with axes, mallets and hammers; they were also shot, or they were hung from trees or light poles. Some were burned alive in hot furnaces, boiled in cauldrons, or drowned in the River Sava.

“The acts of violence and depravity committed in Jasenovac were so brutal that General von Horstenau, Hitler’s representative in Zagreb, wrote: ‘The Ustaša camps in the NDH are the Epitome of horror!’” stated the Holocaust Research Project.

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COLUMBUS (OH)
The Columbus Dispatch

June 18, 2019

Confession being good for the soul, it is a step in the right direction that both the Southern Baptist Convention and U.S. Catholic bishops met last week to deal with allegations of sex abuse within their ranks.

Both churches have announced measures to deal more effectively with abuse complaints going forward.

The Dispatch hopes their efforts help to put all clergy — as well as others in positions of trust with vulnerable populations — on notice that preying on innocent victims no longer will be tolerated or shielded from public view.

For too long, the repeated pattern in the Catholic Church — and, unfortunately, in other institutions — has been to put the well-being of the institution ahead of the well-being of abuse victims.

But both victims and the institutions have been further harmed by misplaced loyalties.

Another oft-repeated pattern is for the full accounting of misdeeds to be revealed by those outside the institutions and then followed by an inadequate institutional response.

In a number of high-profile cases across the country, it has been local newspapers that have brought into daylight widespread cases of abuse allegations being ignored or downplayed, sometimes leaving perpetrators free to harm others. …

… Sadly, Columbus has not been immune from allegations of clergy abuse, and The Dispatch has helped to bring more of the picture into public view. Reporter Danae King analyzed assignment records of 40 priests that the Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus says were credibly accused of sexually abusing minors in cases dating from 1992 and earlier.

The analysis showed that those priests had a high rate of reassignments and had served in more than two-thirds of the diocese’s 105 parishes. While Catholic priests generally are known to serve a parish about six years at a time, the 40 credibly accused priests averaged nine assignments in 32 years — spending about half the usual time in one place.

The Dispatch created a searchable online database noting where the credibly accused priests served and when, at dispatch.com/priestdatabase as part of ongoing coverage online at dispatch.com/catholicsecrecy.

We hope no new allegations arise as churches stand up to sexual abuse by their leaders.

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PROVIDENCE (RI)
Up Rise Rhode Island

June 18, 2019

By Steve Ahlquist

Representative Carol Hagan McEntee (Democrat, District 33, South Kingstown, Narragansett) and Senator Donna Nesselbush (Democrat, District 15, Pawtucket) have been working for years to pass bills that would extend or eliminate the statute of limitations for victims of childhood sexual abuse. “importantly, the legislators are advocating for legislation that will allow victims to bring lawsuits against both perpetrators and the institutions that protected them or allowed the abuse to occur.

Last year, shortly after the General Assembly closed for the year without passing such legislation, a grand jury in Pennsylvania released a staggering report on the extent of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in six out of eight dioceses. Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin, whose lobbying efforts had quashed the bill here in Rhode Island, was the auxiliary bishop of Pittsburgh at that time. In the Providence Journal, Tobin said he was “aware of incidents of sexual abuse when they were reported to the diocese” but, “[e]ven as an auxiliary bishop, I was not primarily responsible for clergy issues.”

Suddenly, General Assembly leadership in both houses looked very, very foolish and shortsighted, promising that next year legislation would get their careful attention. This year the legislation seemed on its way to passage, but now that easy path to passage seems to have stalled. The House and the Senate have passed different versions of the bill. In order for legislation to actually become law, the same bill needs to pass both chambers.

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GRAND RAPIDS (MI)
Grand Rapids Press

June 18, 2019

By Julie Mack

The state is continuing its investigation into sexual abuse by Catholic priests and more criminal charges are likely to be filed, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said.

“We’re continuing to review documents and information, including information we’ve received on our tip line,” Nessel said during a visit to Kalamazoo Monday. “I think we’ll be seeing some additional charges.”

She praised state lawmakers for their support of more funding for the investigation. “That’s very helpful,” she said, allowing her office to have more staff dedicated to the statewide investigation, which began in August 2018 under then-Attorney General Bill Schuette.

That investigation is looking into alleged sexual abuse by Catholic priests dating back to 1950 in Michigan’s seven Catholic dioceses, including cases that were possibly covered up by church leaders.

Last month, Nessel announced charges that five men who were priests in Michigan have been charged with 21 counts of criminal sexual conduct.

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CHICAGO (IL)
Journal & Topics

June 17, 2019

By Todd Wessell

Charges by two men that former Maryville Academy Executive Director and Notre Dame High School President Father John Smyth sexually abused them while they were 12 and 13-years-old, have been determined to be “unfounded,” according to the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services (DCFS). “The case is now closed,” said a DCFS spokesperson when contacted by the Journal & Topics Media Group on Monday.

The Chicago Catholic Archdiocese announced in mid-January that Cardinal Blase Cupich had asked Father Smyth to step aside from his ministry after the church had received allegations that the Catholic priest had sexually molested two teens around 2002 and 2003. The alleged abuse was done at a Maryville facility in Des Plaines.

An investigation launched by the Archdiocese at that time was halted when the DCFS began its own probe in late January.

Smyth, Maryville’s assistant executive director and then its executive director, was associated with the institution that housed and cared for youths, died in mid-January at age 84. He was also founder of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine located on the Maryville grounds, and the Standing Tall Foundation that also helps youths.

When the charges of sexual abuse surfaced, hundreds of Smyth’s friends, including many alumni of Maryville, rushed to his aid saying the accusations are wrong and outrageous.

The spokesperson for the DCFS said the agency’s policy is not to comment further on the investigation.

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LIVONIA (MI)
Veracity News

June 10, 2019

In the United States, the Catholic Church operates as a 501c(3) corporation. As such, sexual abuse perpetrated by priests and employees under its control can be legally attributed to the corporation.

The United States Sentencing Commission says corporations can be found guilty of crimes and tortuous acts in a court of law.

According to an overview of the organizational guidelines, criminal liability can attach to an organization “whenever an employee of the organization commits an act within the apparent scope of his or her employment, even if the employee acted directly contrary to company policy and instructions.”

It continues by saying “an entire organization, despite its best efforts to prevent wrongdoing in its ranks, can still be held criminally liable for any of its employees’ illegal actions.”

Intent is not needed to convict a corporation of a crime and the Catholic Church would not be able to remain silent behind fifth amendment protections.

If indicted and brought to trial, the Church would need to produce all policies, procedures, protections and actions that the Church and its employees have taken to prevent failures, both past and present.

This might include the repeated sexual abuse of children and adults as well as continued prohibited financial transactions.

If convicted, the courts would require the Catholic Church to change how she prevents organizational crime, to compensate victims, or face total asset forfeiture.

This tactic has been successfully used before in Minnesota.

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OWENSBORO (KY)
WFIE TV

June 17, 2019

By Joseph Payton and Jill Lyman

Friday, a Bowling Green man and two members of the SNAP organization were in Owensboro to shed light on an issue they have with Bishop William Medley.

Michael Montgomery says he has court documents and memos (unverified by 14 News) that show Bishop Medley may have covered up sexual abuse.

He says these documents refer back to the early 90′s when Medley was the Director of Clergy Personnel in the Archdiocese of Louisville.

Montgomery says Medley assisted in moving priests to different parishes who had sexual abuse allegations made against them.

Montgomery says he has been working to get answers that could prove or disprove these documents, but has not received any clarification.

“Remember the Pope has asked for transparency. The Pope has asked for accountability. As a layperson, I am doing what I think is right,” said Montgomery.

Montgomery and the advocates from SNAP also believe the list of priests with sexual allegations that Bishop Released earlier this year is incomplete.

We reached out to the Owensboro Diocese on Friday. We received a statement late Monday afternoon.

“Bishop William F. Medley has previously met with Mr. Montgomery and is aware of the concerns raised regarding his position as clergy personnel director from 1989-1993 in the Archdiocese of Louisville. At this time Bishop Medley has not received any directives from the Papal Nuncio in regards to this matter. At last week’s meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), the bishops adopted new protocols for reporting concerns such as these. Bishop Medley awaits further direction.”

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

June 14, 2019

A Catholic religious order has released names of 50 credibly accused child molesting clerics and 21 of them worked or lived in Oregon. Now that same order must update their list to include full work histories and whereabouts of the accused.

Information quietly posted last Friday on the Oakland CA, based Franciscan website shows that twelve of these clerics were in Portland, eight were in Salem, four were in Tigard, and two were in Troutdale.

For 13 of 17 years (1958-1975), at least one predatory cleric assigned to Ascension parish in Portland, and five of those years had two abusers working there simultaneously.

For 12 of 15 years (1955-1969), at least one credibly accused child molesting cleric worked at Serra Catholic High School in Salem.

Now, the Franciscans and Oregon’s bishops must do more to show that they are living up to their promise to be open and honest. Why, for example, do they decline to list the complete work-histories of these credibly accused priests, and especially when it comes to men like Gus Krumm, a particularly prolific abuser? Franciscan officials should remedy this situation immediately by including every parish each of these men worked at so that each community knows to look more deeply for survivors who may be suffering in silence in their midst.

A list of the accused clerics and their whereabouts are below:

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

June 6, 2019

Victims of a predatory billionaire are being asked their views on how to remedy an unprecedented, insensitive and reckless non-prosecution agreement (NPA), which “was concealed from the victims and their counsel and violated the law.” We applaud this move and agree with attorney Sigrid McCawley who calls this remedial effort “a watershed for victims’ rights.”

In 2007, a secretive deal was struck between Jeffrey Epstein and former federal prosecutor Alexander Acosta, letting Epstein to plead guilty to a pair of minor state charges. We share the view of the Epstein victims who reportedly want:

–the government to open the record, making public the entire federal case file, including external communications and internal discussions within the prosecutor’s office on Epstein,
–Acosta to “step down” as US Secretary of Labor,
–“a public hearing with mandatory attendance by Acosta and Epstein” and
–the immunity provisions that ultimately protected Epstein and his co-conspirators—who allegedly recruited and even abused the victims themselves—from federal charges” revoked.

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LEEDS (ENGLAND)
Yorkshire Evening Post

June 18, 2019

A Catholic priest has “voluntarily withdrawn” from service temporarily amid a “safeguarding procedure”, the Bishop of Leeds has confirmed.

The Reverend Fr Patrick Smythe, who has conducted services in the Our Lady of Kirkstall parish since 2006, has been referred to authorities, said the Diocese of Leeds.

In a statement delivered at the end of masses during the weekend, the Right Reverend Marcus Stock, Bishop of Leeds, told parishioners: “In accordance with the safeguarding procedures adopted by the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Fr Patrick Smythe, parish priest of Our Lady of Kirkstall parish, Leeds, has voluntarily withdrawn from ministry temporarily following a referral to the statutory authorities.

“Temporary withdrawal from ministry is a procedural requirement and does not imply any prior determination of the outcome of the referral.

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FRESNO (CA)
Fresno Bee

June 17, 2019

By Yesenia Amaro

A Catholic priest currently working in Reedley was accused Monday of sexual misconduct involving four alleged victims dating back to at least the mid-1980s in Bakersfield.

The allegations were launched Monday during a news conference in Bakersfield.

Sylvia Gomez Ray claimed Monsignor John Esquivel, who is a priest at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Reedley, allegedly sexually assaulted her when she was a teenage girl.

The allegations come on the heels of other priests recently being placed on administrative leave.

Teresa Dominguez, chancellor at the Diocese of Fresno, confirmed Esquivel works at St. Anthony of Padua.

Esquivel couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Monday.

Joey Piscitelli, with SNAP in Northern California, which organized the news conference, said they filed a complaint with the state Attorney General’s Office recently linking Esquivel with at least four alleged victims. Ray was the only alleged victim to speak out Monday.

Esquivel has not been accused of wrongdoing by law enforcement.

Ray, now 52, told reporters Esquivel began “grooming” her in the mid-1980s after she joined a youth group at St. Joseph’s in Bakersfield. She said she was abused after she became a church secretary when she was around 17 or 18 years old. She said she reported the abuse to multiple adults but said nobody believed her.

“I buried what happened but I never forgot,” her statement reads. “When another of Monsignor’s victims contacted me with her own story, we decided it was time to come forward.”

Joseph C. George, an attorney representing Ray, said he made a report to the California Attorney General’s Office within the last 10 days about the latest allegations. He said the news conference “was an opportunity for the victim to speak directly to any other potential victims.”

“Sylvia hopes that the diocese will certainly look into the allegations,” George said on Monday.

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CANTON (MI)
Canton Observer

June 18, 2019

By Susan Vela

Patrick Casey, a former priest in Canton and Westland, returns to court on Thursday because of apparent sexual conduct during another man’s confession.

A preliminary examination is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. in 18th District Court.

Casey, 55, faces a felony charge of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. According to an affidavit, he engaged in sexual acts, including oral sex, with a man in his 20s whom he was counseling during confession at the now-closed church.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel named Casey as one of five men once priests charged with 21 counts of criminal sexual conduct in May. He faces 15 years in prison if convicted.

According to an affidavit, Case became an ordained priest in 1997. He served as pastor of the St Thomas a’Becket Catholic parish in Canton before moving to St. Theodore of Canterbury in Westland in August 2012.

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GLASGOW (SCOTLAND)
STV News

June 18, 2019

Bernard Ponsonby

The Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh has spoken candidly about the lurid revelations that led to the resignation of his predecessor Cardinal Keith O’Brien.

O’Brien resigned in 2013 after allegations of inappropriate and predatory sexual behaviour towards four men, three of whom were serving priests.

Leo Cushley, a former Vatican diplomat, said he watched with great dismay from Rome as the crisis surrounding O’Brien engulfed the Scottish catholic hierarchy.

Archbishop Cushley described the crisis as one of the greatest for the church in Scotland since the Reformation.

He told STV: “Some thought he had been traduced and he had been maltreated. Others said ‘it’s a disgrace and I’ll never be back’.”

Shortly after succeeding O’Brien, Archbishop Cushley spoke with the Pope about the crisis, agreeing that Archbishop Charles Scicluna prepare a report for the Vatican.

Cushley told STV: “Some of his (O’Brien’s) rights were taken from him as a result of this process.

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JOHNSTOWN (PA)
Tribune Democrat

June 11, 2019

By Dave Sutor

Johnstown-area native Shaun Dougherty, once again, is scheduled to meet with one of the highest officials in the Roman Catholic Church to share his thoughts about the issue of clergy sexual abuse.

He expects to talk with Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, on Wednesday in Baltimore.

In February, Dougherty, a Westmont resident and internationally known advocate for victims, met with organizers of “The Protection of Minors in the Church” gathering held at Vatican City, where he also unsuccessfully tried to get an audience with Pope Francis.

“Just like I wanted to speak to the pope when I was in Rome, as the head of the church, the next best thing, in my opinion, is the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,” Dougherty said. “What they decide will be directly related to what’s going on in our country. To have the ear of the president of that organization, yeah, I think it’s a big step.”

A request for a comment from DiNardo was made to the media department of his Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.

No statement about his scheduled meeting with Dougherty was provided.

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DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

June 17, 2019

While the spring meeting of the U.S. bishops’ conference has only just concluded, some bishops are already looking to the election of new conference officers at their November meeting. While the elections are still five months away, bishops are already discussing their options – particularly in light of the scandal the Church in the U.S. has faced in the last year.

It is widely expected that Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, the bishops’ conference vice president, will be elected to succeed Cardinal Daniel DiNardo as conference president. Gomez has several factors working in his favor. Most notably is the sheer force of custom: With only one recent exception, the conference vice president has been elected president as a matter of course. That Gomez has served in the second slot for the last three years is likely sufficient by itself for him to secure the votes of most bishops.

Within the conference, Gomez is perceived to cut across traditional ideological and social lines. He was ordained a priest of Opus Dei, and he has a long history of leadership on pro-life and marriage issues. But, an immigrant himself, he is also among the most outspoken advocates for the conference’s call for just immigration reform and advocacy for the poor. He is, in short, difficult to pigeonhole into a partisan camp, and at a time when the Church is increasingly segmented by politics, many bishops see that as an important advantage.

Some bishops have also mentioned to CNA the symbolic significance of electing a Hispanic archbishop, a Mexican-American immigrant, in advance of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. While the bishops have a working relationship with the Trump administration on issues pertaining to abortion, marriage, and religious liberty, they remain strongly opposed to the president’s immigration policies, and if Trump wins a second term, they will likely be at odds with him over that issue throughout. Gomez is seen to be the right voice to lead advocacy on behalf of their immigration agenda.

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WINSTON SALEM (NC)
Winston Salem Journal

June 18, 2019

Southern Baptists said many of the right things about sexual abuse during their recent Convention, but they didn’t take enough of the right actions.

The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest assembly of Baptists in the world, has been shaken by reports of sexual abuse on the part of clergy and church volunteers. Last year, a woman went public with allegations that her church’s youth pastor sexually assaulted her when she was 17.

Then, earlier this year, two Texas newspapers published detailed accounts of abuse involving 380 church leaders and volunteers and more than 700 victims, over 20 years.

Southern Baptists are facing the same challenge that the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts and other groups have confronted: What should they do to atone for years of sexual abuse and, possibly, cover-ups of that abuse? And, even more important, what should they do to keep it from happening again?

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

June 18, 2019

By Donald Cozzens

“In the course of half a century,” the weathered scholar wrote in Tell the Next Generation, “I have seen more Catholic corruption than you have read of. I have tasted it. I have been reasonably corrupt myself. And yet I joy in this Church — this living, pulsing, sinning people of God.”

Carroll admits to an ocean of grief from the corruption now painfully evident in the church, not the church understood as the people of God, but the hierarchical church. His grief is oceans away from what we might term reasonable, from the mostly petty corruptions of people like Burghardt and the rest of us. The corruption that so saddens Carroll is mortally grave because, as he sees it, the toxic clericalism at its roots has over centuries embedded itself in the very structure, the very bones, of the hierarchical, institutional church. As such, he no longer looks for reform from church leaders found to be at the very center of the corruption.

I met Carroll over 50 years ago when we were both young priests. We are friends who view the dark side of the church and priesthood through the same lens. I’ve been nourished by his poetry and novels, informed by his historical works, challenged by his commentaries as a columnist and essayist, and moved by his memoir, An American Requiem. Carroll has named for me what continues to unsettle my soul — the superior status and lofty identity the church claims for its priests, cultivated and sustained by clerical celibacy and the withholding of meaningful leadership roles from the laity, especially women. But beyond touching into my personal struggle to find some semblance of integrity in a morally and structurally flawed church, Carroll’s analysis of its present dark night of scandal is painfully incisive and compelling.

Immediately after the publication of his Atlantic essay, however, his prescription — or treatment plan — for the reform and renewal of his diseased and corrupted church drew fire, both from conservative and progressive Catholics. Carroll, I suspect, may simply be a step ahead of us.

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OWENSBORO (KY)
Owensboro Messenger

June 17, 2019

By Katie Pickens

The Survivors Network of Victims Abused by Priests (SNAP) have filed a formal complaint against Diocese of Owensboro Bishop William Medley, arguing that he covered up abuse of the diocese’s children by reassigning priests with credible allegations.

The Survivors Network of Victims Abused by Priests (SNAP) held a press conference in Owensboro on Friday to reveal the details of a formal complaint against Diocese of Owensboro Bishop William Medley. The 10-page complaint argues Medley covered up the abuse of children by assigning at least one priest with credible allegations of sexual abuse to a parish where children were expected to be less present.

The complaint was filed by Bowling Green native Michael Montgomery — a lifelong Catholic — and will be presented to Kentucky’s highest-ranking Catholic official, Louisville Archbishop Joseph Kurtz. The complaint will also be presented to one of Pope Francis’s top U.S. officials. These alleged actions occurred when Medley was serving as the personal director for the Diocese of Louisville during the 1990s.

Montgomery’s filed complaint reveals a memo written by Medley, detailing a Louisville priest that was reassigned to a Catholic parish with fewer children given the priest’s “history” and subsequent six-month therapy.

Former Missouri-based SNAP Director and spokesman David Clohessy said Friday’s formal complaint is extremely rare.

“Very, very few of these are turned in,” he said. “Sadly, the overwhelming majority of Catholics don’t speak up against this issue. The inaction of most Catholics has been distressing. However, things are beginning to change. The overwhelming majority of Montgomery’s complaint comes directly from the official church records from court, and from Medley’s records.”

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ALBUQUERQUE (NM)
Associated Press

June 18, 2019

By Susan Montoya Bryan

Monday marked the deadline for filing claims against New Mexico’s largest Catholic diocese as it wades through a bankruptcy prompted by the clergy sex abuse scandal.

Lawyers for hundreds of people who are submitting claims are hopeful the case will shed more light on a scandal that has rocked parishes across the globe.

The case against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe is about more than reparations, said Levi Monagle, an attorney with an Albuquerque-based law firm that has represented hundreds of clients in a state that was once home to a treatment center where church authorities sent priests accused of abuse.

As much as they are looking for peace, Monagle said his clients want more transparency and accountability from the church.

“This crisis has devastated our state, and it has left open wounds in our state,” he said in an interview. “There has to be a serious and diligent effort on behalf of the archdiocese to begin rebuilding trust with the communities of New Mexico, and my hope is this process will be an avenue for that.”

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe shocked parishioners across much of New Mexico when it filed for Chapter 11 reorganization last year, joining nearly two dozen dioceses around the United States that have been struggling with the fallout from the abuse scandal.

Archbishop John Wester has said it was the equitable thing to do as church reserves dwindled. The archdiocese says $52 million in insurance money and its own funds have gone to settling 300 claims over the years.

There are expected to be around 300 claims filed as part of the bankruptcy case, with nearly all of those relating to allegations of abuse. Officials expect to release the total later this week.

The claim forms , which include numerous questions, will be sealed and remain confidential unless the person filing it indicates otherwise.

Just days ahead of the deadline, Wester put out a request for prayers, acknowledging the need for emotional and spiritual healing.

The archdiocese said in a statement Friday that it wanted to assure people of its desire and efforts to make sure that such crimes never happen again.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
WWLP TV

June 18, 2019

By Taylor Knight

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield is continuing its efforts to become more transparent in regards to clergy sexual abuse. Bishop Mitchell Rozanski is scheduled to hold a news conference on the subject Tuesday afternoon.

The bishop’s news conference will discuss his formal introduction of the new “Safe Environment and Victim Assistance Office.” According to Diocesan spokesperson Mark Dupont, the announcement comes just days before Rozanski is set to meet with a man who has accused the late Bishop Christopher Weldon of sexual abuse.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

June 17, 2019

Joseph J. Henn, a former U.S. Salvatorian priest who was extradited from Italy to face charges of child sex abuse in Arizona, is seen in a June 14, 2019, police photo. Italian police arrested Henn May 28 after Italy’s highest court confirmed his extradition to the United States to face allegations of child sexual abuse in Arizona. CNS photo/ Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office via Reuters

Henn, now 70, was accused of molesting at least three boys under the age of 15 between 1979 and 1981 when he was living and working in Phoenix. He served at St. Mark Parish in Phoenix from 1978 to 1982 as a Salvatorian priest.

In 2003, Arizona’s Maricopa County indicted him on 13 counts related to child molestation. He fled to Italy, where he was arrested in 2005. That country’s highest court confirmed his extradition to the United States to stand trial, but he disappeared before he could be extradited. Henn was expelled from his order and removed from the priesthood in 2006.

In late May, Michele Gentiloni, Henn’s attorney, said his client was taken into custody after trying to use his expired U.S. passport as identification to pick up some medicine he needed. A spokesman for the Carabinieri, the Italian police force that apprehended Henn, disputed that version of events, claiming instead that the priest had requested assistance at a city-run immigrant assistance center using a false name.

In a May 31 statement about Henn’s arrest, the Diocese of Phoenix said it was pleased he had been apprehended. The diocese also said it supported the efforts of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to extradite Henn and return him to the United States “to face the criminal charges against him.”

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ALLENTOWN (PA)
Morning Call

June 17, 2019

By Peter Hall

A former Albright College student has dismissed her lawsuit claiming she was harassed and stalked by a defrocked Roman Catholic priest who taught at the Berks County school, court records show.

Rachel Youse filed the lawsuit in federal court in January seeking more than $100,000 in damages, claiming she suffered psychological trauma and was forced to withdraw from classes as a result of harassment and threats by former priest James Gaffney, one of more than 300 Pennsylvania clergy members named in a report on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

Youse’s attorney Joseph Bambrick said Monday that he could confirm only that the case is over. A spokeswoman for Albright also said the matter has been resolved, but did not provide details. An attorney for Gaffney did not return a call Monday.

Youse alleged Gaffney made lewd and suggestive comments, including requests to meet her off campus at a building he owned, according to the lawsuit. Gaffney allegedly threatened Youse, who was enrolled in Gaffney’s English class, by reminding her he controlled her grades and allegedly made inappropriate advances that constituted serious misconduct.

Bambrick said when the suit was filed that there was no physical contact between Youse and Gaffney.

The lawsuit claimed that Youse and her lawyer asked to speak with Albright’s dean about the harassment and that he refused to meet with them. Youse also alleged another faculty member told her to be quiet about the teacher’s alleged misconduct because her claims would not be good for the college’s reputation and that the college refused the student’s request to pay for counseling.

The report on sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, released in August by the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office, describes accusations that Gaffney engaged in improper and sexual relationships with women through the 1980s and 1990s. He was twice placed on sick leave at the Servants of The Paraclete, a New Mexico treatment center for priests, according to the report.

The report details accusations by women who told Allentown Diocese officials that Gaffney had sexual contact with them as teenagers when he was assigned to St. Ursula’s Church in Fountain Hill, Reading Central Catholic High School and St. Catherine of Siena in Mount Penn, Berks County. The woman who accused Gaffney of abusing her at Reading Central Catholic filed a civil lawsuit against the diocese in 2004, but it was dismissed because it was filed too long after the alleged misconduct.

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PARIS (FRANCE)
LaCroix International

June 17, 2019

By Céline Hoyeau 

The Holy See has approved new statutes for the Regnum Christi Movement in the wake of the sexual abuse scandal centered on its late Mexican founder, Marcial Maciel Degollado.

This movement brings together priests from the Legionaries of Christ, which was also established by Marcial Maciel, as well as consecrated and lay people from the community.
New statutes covering the Regnum Christi approved by the Holy See are scheduled to come into force on September 15 for a trial period of five years.

It was not until Marcial Maciel was elderly that it was revealed that he had sexually abused boys and young men.

After his death in 2008, it emerged that he also fathered as many as six children and there were allegations that he abused two of these children as well.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

By Jesse Bogan, Nassim Benchaabane and Erin Heffernan

June 16, 2019

SHREWSBURY — On the bad days, when St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson wished he was doing something else, his mind drifted to the thought of raising golden retrievers for a living.

“Dogs don’t talk back,” he said.

The four dogs he showed up with here in 2009 have since died. Now, he has a Missouri dog, Maggie, who will follow him into retirement.

“I don’t want to go to committee meetings,” he said.

Carlson, leader of the largest faith group in the region, must submit a resignation letter to Pope Francis on June 30. He’s turning 75, mandatory retirement age for the powerful position.

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CINCINNATI (OH)
The Catholic Telegraph

June 17, 2019

By Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr

Dear Friends in Christ,

Over the last several months, many of us have been outraged and horrified by revelations of sexual abuse and cover-ups of such abuse perpetrated by some bishops in our country. This past week, I, along with the other bishops of our nation, gathered in Baltimore for the spring general assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The very important work of debating and voting on measures to eradicate the grave evil of sexual abuse from our Church, which we had planned to accomplish last fall at the plenary assembly, was finally able to be addressed. With the release of Pope Francis’ apostolic letter Vos estis lux mundi in May, we were ready at this assembly to take concrete steps forward and implement important procedures for accountability throughout the hierarchy of the Church in the United States.

At this most recent meeting, the bishops of our country approved three documents related to reporting and investigating claims of abuse or the intentional mishandling of such cases by bishops. These newly approved directives establish the following:

• Protocols to deal with bishops who were removed from office or resigned their office for reasons of sexual abuse or intentional mishandling of cases.

• Reaffirmation of the commitment bishops make to live according to the Gospel and to place themselves under the same high standards applied to their priests, deacons and lay personnel.

• Direction for dealing specifically with reporting and investigating complaints against bishops.

The bishops also approved the creation of a third-party reporting system designed to receive confidentially reports of sexual abuse or the intentional mishandling of abuse cases committed by bishops. The independence of such a system is meant to help prevent any member of the hierarchy from interfering in the investigation of alleged misconduct. Please see the attached press release from the USCCB for more information regarding this third-party reporting system. Currently in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, we have a reporting system already in place to handle abuse and misconduct allegations of all types, EthicsPoint. To make a report call, 1-888-389-0381.

These steps implemented by the USCCB are important in our response to the sin and crime of sexual abuse, but they are not the end. Until the scourge of sexual abuse is completely eradicated from the life of the Church, we will still have work to do. As members of the Church, we are all called to lives of holiness and meant to become saints in God’s Kingdom. There is absolutely no place in the Church for toleration of any kind of sexual abuse, especially committed against people who are particularly vulnerable for reasons of age, ability, or status. As your bishop, I promise to continue to do everything in my power to ensure a safe environment for all people – children and adults – involved with any of our various ministries.

I ask you to join me in praying for all the victims of sexual abuse and for a renewed commitment on the part of all of us to follow Christ more closely, so that the Church may once again shine out as a light to the nations by the witness of her holiness.

Sincerely yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Dennis M. Schnurr
Archbishop of Cincinnati

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

June 17, 2019

Two priests in the Diocese of Buffalo who had previously been removed from ministry for “unwanted sexual advances” towards adult parishioners have been reassigned, leading to outrage from area parishioners.

The simple question is, why take the risk? If these men have violated their sacred vow of celibacy and crossed personal boundaries in the past, how do we know that they will not do it again or with a more impressionable or pliable victim?

An internal diocesan review apparently determined that Frs. Gatto and Giangreco were suitable to return to ministry. But did that ministry need to be at a parish with a school? Are there not other diocesan tasks that would have better suited a person with a history of sexual misconduct? Surely there were more appropriate assignments?

We understand the confusion of parents in Buffalo and empathize with them. Hopefully their outcries in this case will lead to a change in how Church officials evaluate placement for clergy when their “improper conduct did not rise to the level that would require removal from active priestly ministry,” and will force them to be more thoughtful about these cases in the future.

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BAKERSFIELD (CA)
The Californian

June 17, 2019

By John Cox

A woman spoke out publicly Monday accusing the Rev. John Esquivel, a former priest at St. Joseph Catholic Church, of sexually abusing her when she worked at the church as a secretary during the mid-1980s.

Silvia Gomez Ray, now 52, said at a news conference in front of the church that she was 17 or 18 years old when she was groped and verbally abused by Monsignor Esquivel, who now works as a priest at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Reedley.

A representative of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, which advocates for victims of abuse within the Roman Catholic Church, said he has been contacted by three others who allege they were sexually abused by Esquivel, and that two of the accusers were 16 at the time. The representative, Joey Piscitelli, said he has filed allegations on their behalf with the state Attorney General, as well as with police in Bakersfield and Reedley.

Esquivel and a representative of the the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno, which oversees St. Joseph and St. Anthony of Padua, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday morning.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

June 17, 2019

A Pennsylvania bishop has reportedly kept hidden a second abuse report against one of his priests. We call on the prelate to learn from this serious mistake, and to aggressively seek out other victims who may still be suffering in shame and self-blame.

Greensburg Bishop Edward Malesic apparently did not tell parishioners, parents and the public that Monsignor Michael Matusak – who has already been removed from ministry because of one accusation – is now facing a second.

Why does this matter?

First, in the eyes of many, the difference between one accusation and two accusations is considerable. It is more likely that people would trust a cleric who faces one allegation than one who faces two, so for the safety of the vulnerable all allegations should be made public.

Second, this information could be helpful to police and prosecutors. The more information that law enforcement has about a case, the greater the probability of successfully charging, convicting and jailing those who commit or conceal these crimes.

We note that in this case the Diocese reportedly contacted the civil authorities “immediately” after receiving the second allegation. However, Church officials could have done more to help with the investigation by also making that accusation public, and by begging anyone with information to come forward.

Third, it is important for the well-being and healing of this second accuser. We can only imagine the pain that must be felt by a survivor when they see their allegation ignored publicly, but it must seem as though that person and their suffering do not matter at all to Church officials.

Finally, it is important for the credibility of Catholic Church. On the heels of yet another week of “reform” by American bishops, stories like this help illustrate how far the hierarchy still has to go in responding properly to cases of abuse. If prelates want to avoid undercutting their own credibility and that of their colleagues, they must learn from situations like this and learn quickly.

We hope every person who may have seen, suspected or suffered crimes or cover ups in the Greensburg diocese – whether by Msgr. Matusak or any other church official – will come forward, make a report to police, and start healing.

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ST. LOUIS (MO)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

June 17, 2019

Church members are prohibited from suing church officials, according to contracts that some large Protestant churches are asking congregants to sign. These contracts – often called ‘covenants’ – are dangerous documents that will make it even harder to expose church staff who commit or conceal crimes like sexual abuse.

Major evangelical churches in Dallas, Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. – and likely elsewhere – apparently urge new members to sign away their legal rights when they join up. We hope, as information on these contracts becomes more widely available to the public, that no parishioner will sign one of these these pro-secrecy contracts and that any church considering their use will decline to pursue this idea.

The New York Times last week reported on The Village Church in Texas using these stunning contracts.

According to VICE News, it’s “difficult to estimate just how ubiquitous these documents were in the American evangelical world, which according to Pew includes roughly a quarter of the population and nearly a fifth of millennials.” But according to the Wartburg Watch, it is happening in other places, too.

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Patheos blog

June 16, 2019

By Barry Duke

THE Pope believes that some of his ambassadors (nuncios) are stabbing him in the back – and he wants them to stop immediately.

According to this report, he addressed more than 100 nuncios in on Thursday, reminding them that they have a responsibility as papal representatives not to criticise him or to join groups hostile to the Roman curia.

It is therefore irreconcilable to be a pontifical representative criticizing the Pope behind his back, having blogs or even joining groups hostile to him, to the curia and to the Church of Rome.

Pope Francis said that he desired to share some simple precepts to help the papal diplomats live out their mission, referring to a 4,000 word document which is a “Ten Commandments” of sorts for nuncios and their co-workers throughout the world.

One of the ten precepts outlined in the document is titled, “The Nuncio is a man of the Pope.” The section states that:

Certainly every person could have reservations, likes and dislikes, but a good nuncio cannot be hypocritical.

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NEW YORK (NY)
VICE News

May 3, 2019

By Barry Meier

Helen W. wasn’t born a Mormon, but she embraced the religion when she was 17 and it embraced her back.

When her son Alex was born with a heart defect and developmental disabilities, it was the Mormon Church that paid for his operations and treatments. When her second son, Zachary, was born eighteen months later, it was the members of her Martinsburg, West Virginia, congregation who helped find babysitters. And when Helen and her husband needed life guidance or wisdom, they turned to their bishop.

Bishops of the Mormon Church — or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as it’s formally called — are laymen, not professional clerics. Helen’s bishop, Donald Fishel, had worked full-time as a utility company lineman before his retirement. But as a Mormon bishop, he played an all-encompassing role in his congregants’ lives.

A bishop oversees the spiritual well-being of his followers, instructing them how to act in accordance with the teachings of Mormonisms; and he oversees tithing, the practice of giving 10 percent of one’s income to the church. He also tends to their everyday needs, providing marriage counseling, arranging for financial aid, finding jobs for the unemployed, mentoring teenagers, and filling other roles. A bishop is “your go-to for everything,” says Helen. “You have a problem, you have a concern, financial concerns, anything. The bishop’s door is always open. You go to your bishop and ask their advice.”

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Patheos blog

June 15, 2019

By Sarahbeth Caplin

The annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention took place this week on the heels of multiple stories about how sexual abuse thrived in Southern Baptist churches. Making matters even more complicated is the fact that these churches effectively run independently; there’s no “Baptist Pope” who can force them to follow a certain set of rules. Within the faith, the most damning thing that the SBC can do is kick out a problematic church.

But having a culture where victims are taken seriously and defended, even when the abuser is a church leader, is one way to prevent many of the problems. And that’s why abuse survivors planned a peaceful protest outside the Alabama building where the annual meeting took place.

Among the changes they demanded were a centralized database of sex offenders among the SBC’s 47,000 churches, mandatory abuse prevention training for all Southern Baptist leaders and volunteers, and a solid commitment to respecting women. (The Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News created an SBC offender database as part of a major investigation into the denomination, but it’s telling that the database came from outsiders and not the SBC itself.)

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NEW YORK (NY)
VICE News

Jun 17, 2019

By Carter Sherman

Two months ago, when he was still a Southern Baptist pastor, Stephen Bratton testified in favor of a Texas bill that could have allowed women who get abortions to be charged with homicide, a crime punishable by death in the Lone Star State.

On Friday, the 43-year-old was charged with continuous sex abuse of a child. He stands accused of molesting a teenage relative for two years, including “sexual intercourse multiple times a day or several times a week,” a Harris County deputy said this weekend, according to the Houston Chronicle.

Bratton posted a $50,000 bond on Saturday, the Chronicle reported. The Associated Press could not locate a phone number for Bratton, nor find his attorney, on Sunday.

The charges against Bratton also come just a week after Southern Baptist leaders gathered in Birmingham, Alabama, to discuss sex abuse reform after recent reports found hundreds of clergy and staff were accused of sexual misconduct over the past 20 years. The pastors voted to form a committee to examine allegations that churches failed to adequately deal with claims of sex abuse, and to make it clear that the Southern Baptist Convention can expel churches for mishandling such claims.

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NEW YORK (NY)
WBGO TV

June 17, 2019

By Joe Hernandez

A compensation fund for New Jersey victims of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church will begin accepting claims on Saturday.

The first-of-its-kind fund in the Garden State will offer financial settlements to survivors of clergy sex abuse and comes amid an investigation by state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal into possible sexual abuse and cover-ups in the Catholic Church.

“Some survivors are really intimidated by a court proceeding process. You have to really think about the traumatic impact this sort of institutional abuse has had on someone,” said Patricia Teffenhart, executive director of the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

“On the other hand, not all survivors will want to go back to the institution that caused them harm,” she added.

The compensation fund opens just a few weeks after New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law expanding the state’s civil statute of limitations on sexual abuse and giving survivors who were previously time-barred from suing two years to file a claim in court.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

June 17, 2019

By Inés San Martín

While much attention has been paid over the past days and weeks to the ins and outs of the spring meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, that doesn’t mean the rest of the Church simply went on “pause” while the Americans did their thing.

In fact, the past week has been a busy period all over the Catholic map. Here’s a small sampling from the Church south of the border, offering a reminder that the word “Catholic” does indeed mean “universal.”

The upcoming Synod on the Amazon
On Monday, after this week’s Angelus went to print, the Vatican released the working document for an upcoming summit of bishops from the Amazon region, which will take place in Rome this October, bringing together prelates from countries that make up a vast region considered one of the world’s two lungs.

Speaking about the synod, Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, the general relator (more or less, chairman), said that if the bishops request it, Pope Francis would be open to ordaining “viri probati,” married men of proven virtue, as priests.

“The shortage of priests and, therefore, the absence of the Eucharist in the Amazonian communities, is a great limitation,” Hummes said last week while he was in Francis’ native Argentina. “In fact, for its inhabitants the Eucharist is something rare, not part of their daily life.”

However, he said, for the Catholic Church the Eucharist is “fundamental and necessary” to develop a community faithful to Jesus Christ.

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LITTLE ROCK (AR)
Bilgrimage

June 16, 2019

By William Lindsey

This is a continuation of an essay by Ruth Krall, the first half of which was posted a few days ago. As that previous posting noted, this essay, entitled “Religious Leader Sexual Abuse: A Pan-Denominational Approach,” continues Ruth’s analysis of religious leader sexual abuse of vulnerable individuals from the standpoint of public health. It proposes that “any effort to eliminate sexual abuse as a public health problem must, therefore, be both a national and an international effort. It must also be pan-denominational — reaching into multiple religious communities.” Here’s the second half of Ruth’s outstanding essay — note that footnote numbers begin in medias res because this part of Ruth’s essay links to the part previously posted:

Organizational Management Equivalencies

The equivalent here for me is financial embezzlement. Let’s say a bank employee is emptying the cash drawer on a regular basis for his own use. This behavior would not be tolerated. The individual would be (1) fired and (2) reported to civil law enforcement agencies. Given the magnitude of the theft, she or he would also be publicly outed by means of news media.

Many years ago now, I watched as one of my alma maters became aware of financial embezzlement by its business manager. He was fired on the spot and an announcement was placed in the annual alumni newsletter so that all alums would have accurate information about what had occurred. I am guessing — but do not know — that this institution’s governing board and president wished to forestall rumor-mongering among its alums as well as in the larger community in which the school was located.

In another situation, as a very young mid-level administrator, I watched a narrative of embezzlement unfold inside my organization. A subordinate financial officer reported his department head boss to the governing body of this institution. The subsequent — and very quiet — investigation revealed that the mid-level administrator was indeed cooking the books. He was fired on the spot and immediately escorted off the premises. A brief and very terse announcement was made to local media by the organization’s president. I learned of this episode the way my neighbors did — by televised news reports that evening. By the next day, many more internal details were visible inside the organization’s various departments.

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FRESNO (CA)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

She speaks publicly now for the first time

Her alleged abuser is still in active ministry

At least four other victims have come forward

SNAP calls on Diocese of Fresno to “aggressively reach out” to other victims

What:
At a news conference, a child sex abuse victim who was sexually abused by a Reedley priest will name her abuser publicly for the first time and share her experiences as an abuse victim within the Diocese of Fresno.

When:
Monday, June 17 at 10:45am

Where:
Outside of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, 1515 Baker St. in Bakersfield, CA

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

June 17, 2019

By Inés San Martín

When the bishops from the Amazon region gather in Rome next October, they will discuss the ordination of “elderly people,” preferably indigenous, to guarantee that the remote communities in the region have access to the sacraments.

“Affirming that celibacy is a gift for the Church, it is requested that, for the most remote areas of the region, the possibility of priestly ordination for elderly people is studied,” says a document preparing the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the Amazon.

The document goes on to say that the elderly people ordained in remote areas should “preferably [be] indigenous people, respected and accepted by their community, even if they already have a family that is established and stable, in order to ensure the Sacraments that accompany and sustain the Christian life.”

Though the three language versions of the document speak of “people” and not men, it is referring to the ordination of what are known as the viri probati, married men of proven virtue, many of whom already serve as permanent deacons.

The shortage of priests in the Amazon region has long been at the center of debate, as has been the possibility of ordaining the viri probati. However, whenever he’s been approached about the issue, Pope Francis is clear that priestly celibacy is not up for grabs, despite the fact that it is a discipline the Catholic Church and not doctrine.

History’s first Latin American pope has been particularly attentive to the argument in favor of the viri probati in the Amazon or the Pacific Islands, where the mostly indigenous faithful can go months without seeing a priest.

As the debate over the ordination of “proven men” in remote areas reignites, it is worth noting that many eastern rite Catholic Churches allow married men to be ordained. In addition, the Catholic Church allows some married Protestant clergy who convert to remain in priestly ministry.

The document released by the Vatican on Monday, known as the “instrumentum laboris,” will set the ground work for the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon, that will take place in Rome Oct. 6-27.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

June 14, 2019

By Andrew Goldstein

An attorney Friday criticized Greensburg Bishop Edward Malesic for failing to tell the public that a monsignor — who was removed from ministry because of a credible allegation of sexual abuse — faced at least one other accusation.

But the Catholic Diocese of Greensburg said the second allegation against Monsignor Michael Matusak is under investigation, and he had already been removed from ministry when the accusation was made.

Adam Horowitz, an attorney recognized nationally for representing victims of sexual assault and abuse, said Bishop Malesic misled the public by withholding information.

“This is another example of America’s bishops failing at their promises of transparency and openness — and the importance of the public and the media in holding them accountable,” Mr. Horowitz said in a statement. “Public safety depends upon it, and survivors deserve better.”

He said he represents a woman who accused Monsignor Matusak of sexually abusing her from 1973 to 1976 while he was a deacon preparing for his ordination at St. Hedwig in Franklin Township. Fayette County. He said the alleged abuse continued after Monsignor Matusak’s ordination.
The woman also said Monsignor Matusak stalked and harassed her for nearly 20 more years, even telling her that he would leave the priesthood for her, according to Mr. Horowitz.

Jerry Zufelt, a spokesman for the Greensburg diocese, said Mr. Horowitz reported the second allegation to the diocese in March. He said the diocese immediately contacted PA ChildLine and law enforcement, and the investigation is ongoing.

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BIRMINGHAM (AL)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

June 14, 2019

I’m honored, truly honored, to be among you. Thanks so much for having me here. By way of background, I was molested by a priest as a kid. So were four of my brothers. One of them went on to become a priest. And he went on to molest kids himself. And now you know why, for more than 30 years, I’ve been with SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

It’s ironic that we’re in ALABAMA – the state in which Rosa Parks sat down. She sparked an amazing movement.

And this movement – the Baptist child safety movement – was sparked by someone else who’s with us in Alabama today: our dear friend and trusted mentor and guiding light and moral force – Christa Brown.

It’s also ironic that we’re in BIRMINGHAM, with the Baptists. Both have a sordid history of treating vulnerable groups poorly.

With Birmingham, of course, it was African Americans. Exhibit A: It’s nickname. Some used dynamite to intimidate the vulnerable so often, that the city was once known as “Bombingham.”

With the Baptists, of course, it’s innocent kids, vulnerable adults and wounded victims. Exhibit A: the meanest public comment ever made about SNAP came from a high ranking Baptist official. A decade ago, Paige Patterson said that our group SNAP is “just as reprehensible as sex criminals.”

Think about the mind-set behind that remark: abuse victims are “just as reprehensible as sex criminals.”

https://ethicsdaily.com/sbc-seminary-president-labels-clergy-sex-abuse-victims-group-evil-doers-cms-12262/

But change is coming. Mahatma Gandhi knows about change. He said “First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.”

Congratulations on reaching the third phase: Baptist officials are fighting you. And you will win.

Now, a quick observation and a quick question.

The observation: Not coincidentally, it was mostly women who organized both movements: Ella Baker, Unita Blackwell, Fannie Lou Hamer, and of course the many women who put together this terrific rally.

If these names don’t ring a bell, I hope you’ll look them up. Unita Blackwell, for instance, just passed away. There’s a terrific NYT obit. It’s on my fridge at home. It’s on line too. You’ll find it inspiring, I guarantee it.

And if you don’t know the names of the rally organizers, I hope you’ll meet them. They too are inspiring.

Now, the quick question: What do you think you’ll get when you put a microphone in front of an old white guy who’s been doing the same thing for 30 years? Advice of course. Here it comes: 30 years of advocacy summed up in 15 words of advice, ready?

Fixate on prevention. Ignore church officials. Ignore church promises. Create outside pressure. Make heads roll.

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BIRMINGHAM (AL)
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests

June 14, 2019

Wow. Look at all of you! Back in 2007, when David Clohessy and I stood outside the SBC annual meeting in San Antonio, just a few steps from the Alamo, there were 10 of us that day.

And now – look at you. HERE is where hope resides. Right here. It’s not over there with those religious leaders. No. It is here with you.

For those who don’t know me, I was sexually abused as a kid by a Southern Baptist pastor … but THAT was only the beginning of the nightmare. I also survived all the horrific aftermath of what so many others did in trying to silence me and bully me. I wrote a book about it all … but in truth, my story is dreadfully common.

It is a bloody awful road that SO MANY OF US have traveled in this blind-eyed faith group.

Almost every Baptist survivor I’ve ever spoken with has said that the trauma from the INSTITUTIONAL betrayal far exceeded the trauma from the abuse itself.

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CHARLESTON (WV)
The Intelligencer

June 16, 2019

Editor, News-Register:

While Catholics lament the behavior of our leadership, I have hope for the future. Profligate spending is difficult to digest. Abusive behavior from leaders cannot be tolerated and victims must receive justice from their church.

We have a right to be angry.

While attending a conference at Franciscan University of Steubenville, we began with discouragement. By the end of the weekend, we left with renewed hope. It was apparent the Catholic Church is thriving at FUS and throughout our country. We met people from dioceses nationwide who shared outstanding things happening in their churches. We concluded the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston is being purified by fire and new growth will rise from the ash heap.

In the early 1200s, God called St. Francis of Assisi to “Rebuild My Church.” In the spirit of St. Francis, consider encouraging one another and the faithful clergy to rebuild once again!

It may take time, but the blood of martyrs over the last 2,000 years and today worldwide creates fertile conditions for fresh growth. Scandals will likely continue as long as people are in charge, but I cannot forget our church’s positive influence on the world: orphanages; hospitals; education systems; the defense of all forms of life; artwork; music; and, the largest charitable organization on the globe.

The foremost reason I could never leave the Catholic Church is the peace I receive in the Eucharist, established by Jesus at the last supper, and offered in mass every hour of every day around the planet.

St. Augustine, bishop in North Africa, said a prayer in the late 300s that was on target: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” There is hope.

John Faini, Wheeling

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

Jun 17, 2019

By Paulina Guzik

It was a very hot day when Archbishop Charles Scicluna, the Vatican’s point man on the fight against clerical sexual abuse, met Polish bishops on June 14. The temperature was as high as expectations that the word “dismissal of bishops” would come out of his mouth.

In the end, his visit may inaugurate Poland as the testing ground for the new Vatican norms on sexual abuse and cover-up.

Vox estis lux mundi (“You are the light of the world”), the new pontifical law that came into life on June 1, “for the first time in the history of the Church – creates a positive obligation to denounce”- told the Maltese archbishop in an interview for Polish Television. It also protects those who report.

The title of the document was the mantra of Scicluna’s two-hour long speech and his Q&A session for Polish bishops. It may also become a sword that Scicluna brought to Poland. He thoroughly explained the law that will eventually cut heads off bishops who put their reputation first and ignore victims.

“Victims are not enemies of the Church,” Scicluna told the Polish episcopate, “but wounded sheep.”

Scicluna praised the plans and procedures decided by the episcopal conference throughout the years. But then he asked: “What are the facts?”

“He forced us to examine our conscience,” a Polish bishop told Crux after Scicluna’s speech.

Victor, survivor of clerical sexual abuse told TVP in an interview on Sunday: “What I want from the bishops is that their actions don’t deny their words. If they don’t decide to be shepherds – he stressed – it’s better that they give away their purple caps,” adding that he feels betrayed by Polish hierarchy.

Scicluna was invited by the Polish bishops last year, and many, including survivors, thought he may bring a message from the pope to the country shaken by sex abuse and abuse of power scandals revealed in the movie “Tell No One,” in which victims confront their abusers on camera.

Ten days before his trip, Scicluna had a private audience with Pope Francis.

“The pope knew I was coming to Poland, and he asked me to greet Polish people in a special way on his behalf,” he told Polish Television – “but I’m not here as his envoy.” He then added that his long-planned visit providentially happened in an important moment of the history of the Church in Poland.

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BALTIMORE (MD)
Crux

June 17, 2019

By Christopher White

When the U.S. Catholic bishops gathered for their semi-annual meeting last week, the burning outsider question was what steps they would take to combat the clerical sexual abuse scandals that are once again scarring the Church in America.

For insiders, however, that question took on a highly specific focus: Would anyone finally sit in Ted McCarrick’s chair?

In reality, there is no chair formally designated for the disgraced former priest and cardinal whose downfall opened the floodgates for the latest wave of the abuse crisis, but, symbolically, his empty chair during recent meetings has come to represent something more.

McCarrick’s absence – once a towering figure in this august body – was a reminder of the betrayal many feel, and his name has become synonymous with the failings of the collective body of bishops and the source of rage for Catholics across the country.

In a room full of hundreds of chairs – none of which are actually reserved – one chair was just be assumed to be off-limits. It was his chair, where he had sat for years.

As a reporter focused on the Catholic Church, many people often ask me what it’s like to cover the U.S. bishops. Each year they hold two national meetings – gathering every November in Baltimore for a general assembly, and again in June at a rotating location – and making sense of their seating habits has been just one facet of coming to understand the customs and routines of this body of men.

At the level of public perception, the conference is often taken to be the governing body of the Catholic Church in America. In reality, the conference has little real power, since under Church law there’s no authority between the individual bishop and the pope. Nevertheless, decisions taken here matter, because most bishops make a good-faith effort to abide by them.

There are 441 Catholic bishops in the U.S., more than 270 of whom are in active ministry, making the U.S. body one of the largest conferences in the world. Retired members are also invited to attend – although after a decision taken at last week’s meetings, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), can now bar emeriti bishops who have been removed from office for grave reasons.

Ann Rodgers, the director of communications for the diocese of Pittsburgh, told me that the work of “mapping the room” where the U.S. bishops meet is one of the first essential tasks during the formal meetings of the USCCB.

Rodgers, who began attending these meetings in 1988 when she was a newspaper reporter and since going to work for a diocese in 2013 has helped the USCCB’s communication team when the bishops get together, said that as soon as the meetings get underway she and several other staffers go row by row to determine who is occupying each seat.

Once the chart is completed, USCCB president Cardinal Daniel DiNardo and General Secretary Monsignor Brian Bransfield draw on that list when bishops hold up a card seeking to make an intervention during the meeting.

“Sometimes you watch the president calling on someone ten rows back and you might think, ‘Gosh, he has a great memory.’ In reality, he’s using the list,” said Rodgers.

The seating chart also serves other purposes – namely, to locate bishops when the hundreds of interview requests from reporters like myself are submitted.

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When It Is In Your Power

June 11, 2019

By April C. Armstrong

Last May, I publicly revealed what it was like as a female student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from 2004-2007 when Paige Patterson was president. Anonymous stories had appeared before mine, but as far as I know, mine was the first to come out with a name attached. Telling a deeply personal truth in a very public way is not easy to do, but every alternative seemed worse. Continued silence was unthinkable. I could not tell it anonymously for a variety of reasons. I had always had a good reputation among most people at Southwestern, so I wasn’t afraid of what people I knew would say about me in response. It ultimately extended far beyond my circle, however.

After reading what I had to say, Beth Moore tweeted at me that I was “brave” and had acted “not out of bitterness but out of love for Jesus & the church.” She was partly right. I don’t consider myself bitter; a great deal of emotional labor over the past dozen years has ensured that you can’t apply that adjective to me, though I believe we should avoid both praise and criticism for any survivor’s emotional responses. And if courage is doing something you find frightening, then I suppose what I did was a form of bravery, though I had less fear doing it than not doing it. And yes, I did this out of love. But I didn’t do this out of love for the church, per se.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

June 14, 2019

By Carol Zimmerman

The gathering of U.S. bishops June 11-13 in Baltimore was anything but business as usual.

“The spring meetings are usually more pastoral, and the November meeting has a heavier agenda,” said Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, who said this meeting had a “sense of urgency” and momentum to it, both in the smaller group gatherings and when the bishops were all together.

“We were here for specific task … and by God’s grace we will move forward,” he said during a June 12 news conference.

The bishops typically meet twice a year as a body. The spring meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is usually in June at different locations each year, and sometimes it is a retreat. The fall meeting in recent years has always been in Baltimore. This year’s spring meeting was switched somewhat last minute to the Baltimore location where the bishops were not the only ones in the hotel space but were adjacent to other conference gatherings.

The other time a spring bishops’ meeting was almost entirely devoted to the church crisis was the 2002 meeting in Dallas, just months after the church was reeling from a clergy sexual abuse crisis that made headlines in The Boston Globe.

But where that meeting focused on misconduct by priests, this year’s meeting looked at responding to the misconduct of some bishops and the failure of some bishops to properly address abuse.

Since their two general assemblies last year, the bishops have been confronted with an overwhelming need to prove to U.S. Catholics that abuse within their own ranks won’t be tolerated. They were hit with allegations last summer that one of their own, former Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, had committed abuses over decades. Then just a week before the spring meeting, details emerged from the Vatican-ordered investigation of retired Bishop Michael J. Bransfield of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia, highlighting financial and sexual improprieties.

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GLASGOW (SCOTLAND)
The Scottish Sun

June 15, 2019

By Laura Paterson

THE Catholic Church in Scotland have been urged to create independent safeguarding watchdog to “rebuild trust” following abuse scandals.

The Independent Review Group (IRG) believes it would be a “crucial step to promote transparency and restore credibility” of the church.

They are also calling for the church to provide more support for abuse survivors within the community.

The group found a good start had been made on implementing the McLellan Commission recommendations but much more needs to be done.

IRG was set up by the church in 2017 to monitor its response to a major review of safeguarding and child protection.

They want each diocese to have a clear policy statement on access and support for survivors, an independent person they can approach for advice, and to consider including survivor representation on safeguarding decision-making bodies.

It also recommends further refining safeguarding audits, which should be independently scrutinised, and having a national training plan on the issue.

The report states: “The Bishop’s Conference of Scotland should give detailed and urgent consideration to the creation of a strengthened, resourced and independent SCSS with appropriate professional support as a crucial step to promote transparency and restore credibility.”

It continues: “Much still needs to be done to ensure victims of abuse are seen, heard and supported by the church and the process of healing begins to take place.

“Improvement in policy and openness to learning from the audit process will start to shift culture.

“However, investment is required to develop a properly resourced professional safeguarding service.

“Commitment to create a dedicated, independent safeguarding service which supports the development needs of the eight dioceses; drives consistency; is empowered to independently investigate concerns or complaints and can act without bias in all its affairs is critical to rebuilding trust with congregations and the general public.”

Group chairwoman Baroness Helen Liddell said: “The problem of how the church is perceived is a universal one and signals the need for real and far-reaching change.

“The vigour with which change is brought about, and is seen to be brought about, will determine whether credibility and trust can ever be restored.

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WARSAW (POLAND)
Catholic News Agency

June 14, 2019

As the Catholic Church in Poland continues to respond to sex abuse by clergy, Archbishop Charles Scicluna, a leading Vatican expert on prosecuting sex crimes under church law, attended the bishops’ plenary assembly to discuss child and youth protection.

Scicluna told the Catholic news source KAI that he wanted to encourage the bishops “to implement the very good guidance points that they themselves adopted” in 2013, Reuters reported.

“I have a great hope that Polish bishops will do what is needed…I hope this situation can be repaired,” said Scicluna, who took part in a June 14 session of the 383rd Plenary Assembly of the Polish Bishops’ Conference in Walbrzych.

“My very strong message to the bishops of Poland this morning was – we need to pass from very good documents to an example of best practice,” the archbishop said.

He said rules alone are not enough unless they are implemented. Parishioners need to know to whom they can report suspected abuse.

Scicluna urged anyone aware of a coverup to report it to Church authorities. In cases where high-ranking bishops are involved, they should report the coverup to Poland’s papal nuncio, the Associated Press reported.

In a May 22 letter, the Polish bishop’s conference spoke out against clergy sexual abuse and pledged both to continue to “eliminate factors conducive to crime” and to adopt a more sensitive attitude toward victims.

“We admit that as shepherds of the Church we have not done everything to prevent these harms,” they said, thanking the victims who have come forward and urging those who have not to report their abuse to both Church and state authorities.

A documentary about clerical sex abuse in Poland, titled “Tell No One,” was produced and recently released by filmmaker brothers Tomasz and Marek Sekielski. Millions of viewers have watched it on YouTube.

Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan, President of the Polish bishops’ conference, thanked the filmmakers on May 13. He said he was “deeply moved and saddened” by the film.

“I am convinced that this film, too, will result in an even more stringent compliance with the guidelines for the protection of children and young people in the Church,” he said, noting Pope Francis’ recent instructions in the document “Vos estis,” which includes rules on the prevention of and response to sexual abuse by clergy.

Close to 400 Polish priests were accused of sexual abuse of minors, with alleged incidents dating as far back as 1950 with as many as 625 potential victims, according to a study commissioned by the Episcopal Conference of Poland and released in March 2019. These accusations were submitted to Poland’s bishops starting in the year 1990 until 2018.

The study covered data collected from the more than 10,000 parishes in Poland, and included religious orders.

According to the report, 382 priests were accused of abuse during the time covered. Of the clerics accused, 284 were diocesan priests, and 98 belonged to a religious order. Figures provided by the Holy See Press Office in 2016 reported there are 156 bishops and some 30,661 priests in Poland.

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CHARLESTON (WV)
Gazette Mail

June 14, 2019

By Jennifer Haselberger

America’s Catholic bishops are gathering this week to debate new measures to hold bishops and cardinals more accountable in cases of clergy sex abuse. They’ll likely say the problem is largely in the church’s past. What they won’t say is that they already know how to largely eliminate sexual misconduct with minors but won’t do it: Get out of youth ministry.

During the nearly 10 years I spent working as a canon lawyer in different dioceses in the United States, I saw firsthand that the U.S. church accepts the sexual abuse of minors as the cost of doing business the American way.

The American church’s business model relies on programs aimed at children and young males who might become priests. Those youth ministry programs, which happen outside the core worship experience, are where abuse happens. U.S. church officials know this, and they could reduce the abuse that still happens by getting out of the youth ministry business, but they won’t.

It is well established that Catholic scouting, summer camps, retreats, youth days and other programming designed to, as one upcoming Wisconsin program’s brochure called “Totally Yours” puts it, “ignite the hearts” of young Catholics create contexts in which young people are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and mistreatment. There is ample evidence that, even in the post-”Spotlight” era, predators among the clergy and the laity seek out these opportunities to connect with Catholic youth.

The Vatican’s own press kit for the pope’s global “Meeting On the Protection of Minors” in February described a timeline of the church’s response to abuse. It noted that in Slovenia’s communist dictatorship, from 1945 to 1992, “Catholic education was almost nonexistent and for this reason the potential abusers did not have direct contact with minors.”

Yet, since 2002 the Catholic Church has doubled down on these forms of outreach, prioritizing its need to evangelize and develop the next generation of Catholics over the safety and well-being of the same.

It also turns a blind eye to the ongoing problem of clergy singling out some children for special attention under the guise of fostering vocations to the priesthood or religious life.

This remains a concerning factor in many of the cases of abuse that have occurred post-2002. Yet, the church does little, if anything, to combat this. Instead, it uses wording like this on a Seattle archdiocesan vocations blog, telling priests to “draw a young man aside” and use praise and “sincerity” to encourage him to consider the priesthood.

In any other context, this would be labeled grooming.

However, the church needs to address its priest shortage. As a result, parents and other guardians are socialized to relinquish oversight and even good judgment when it is a question of encouraging a child along this path.

There are countless other examples of the Catholic Church prioritizing its methods of operating over the safety of children.

The lack of willingness to confront the problem of clergy sex abuse of minors, and yet the drive to cover it up, are what led me to resign in 2013 as the chancellor for canonical affairs for the Archdiocese of Minneapolis-St. Paul and bring everything I saw into the light as a whistleblower.

Dioceses like my own could delay expanding youth programming until it has fully functional, empirically supported and evidence-based methods in place for ensuring the safety of these programs. Instead, it continues to create new programs, like the annual archdiocesan Youth Day, which was first held in 2013. The archdiocese had learned about abuse by the Rev. Curtis Wehmeyer in 2012, and although it had years worth of information about the potential danger the priest posed, it pretended that it had no indication of any potential for harm. I went public with my information the week before the event, and the county attorney launched an investigation that resulted in charges.

We don’t know if expanding the priesthood beyond an all-male, celibate clergy would eliminate sexual abuse, but the Catholic Church has made it clear that it won’t consider it even if it did. Likewise, the church is unwilling to embrace a shared-governance model including its laity, even though the primary agenda item for this week’s meeting is developing a means of addressing the frequent abuses and misuses that result from its current narrow concentration of power. Also, advocates for children continue to be outraged by the Catholic Church’s refusal to embrace seemingly common-sense reporting requirements because of some competing evangelization goal. For example, the church is fighting state laws requiring clerics to report sexual abuse they hear in the confessional, claiming such proposals violate religious freedom. As a canon lawyer, I can tell you such proposals can be easily accommodated within Catholic theology.

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

WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

June 25, 2019

Using social media, preaching, newspaper columns and letters read at Mass, the Los Angeles Archdiocese and California’s other Catholic dioceses planned a special push over the June 15-16 weekend asking Catholics to urge their representatives in the state Assembly to reject a confession bill.

S.B. 360 — which passed in the California Senate May 23 in a 30-2 vote — would force priests to disclose information about child sexual abuse that they learn when they are hearing another priest’s confession or when hearing the confession of a co-worker.

The bill is expected to have a vote in the lower house, the California State Assembly, in September.

“Our lawmakers have good intentions. They want to prevent child abuse,” Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said in a letter he issued June 10 that is to be read at all June 15 and 16 Masses in the archdiocese. “But there is no evidence that this legislation will do that. Instead, it threatens a practice that is essential to our faith and religious identity.”

“We need your help to protect this sacrament of the church and to keep confession sacred,” he said. “And we need to continue our commitment to building a society where every child is loved, protected and safe.”

The Catholic Church in California set up a new website, KeepTheSeal.com, which is a hub that gives people easy access to materials about S.B. 360 as well as a way to send emails to their legislators.

As it is in many U.S. states, California requires priests, teachers, social workers, doctors and other professionals to be “mandated reporters.” That means by law they are required to report any case of suspected abuse to authorities.

There is currently an exemption in California law for any clergy member “who acquires knowledge or a reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect during a penitential communication.”

For Catholics, that penitential communication would be in the confessional.

“The sacrament of penance and reconciliation, what we call confession, was the first gift that Jesus gave to the world after rising from the dead,” Archbishop Gomez said in his letter. “On the first Easter night, he breathed his Holy Spirit into his apostles, his first priests, and he granted them the awesome power to forgive sins in his name.

“Jesus gave us this gift so that we could always come to him, personally, to confess our sins and seek his forgiveness and the grace to continue on our Christian journey.”

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

BALTIOMORE (MD)
Reality Asserts Itself

June 13, 2019

PAUL JAY: Welcome back to Reality Asserts Itself. I’m Paul Jay. We’re continuing our discussion with former Catholic priest, and now Episcopal priest, Matthew Fox. Thanks for joining us again.

MATTHEW FOX: Thank you, Paul.

PAUL JAY: And as you’ve been–if you’ve been watching, and you really should go back to Part 1 to understand where we’re at–but Matthew was a Catholic priest who got in the crosshairs of the Inquisition, led by Cardinal Ratzinger, and was first–well, first of all silenced, and then asked to leave the Dominican order; more or less turfed, and continued to speak out. And here he is speaking out.

You’ve been–when we first interviewed, Pope Francis had just been appointed. And you, and I have to say I, were pretty dubious about Francis in terms of his history in Latin America. Some connections to not Opus Dei directly, but an Italian version of something like Opus Dei that Francis seemed to have some connection of. And the whole history of the last 30 some-odd, 40 years. You describe the Catholic Church as being as decrepit as the Borgias. But he surprised you. And he seemed to have surprised a lot of people with his positions on climate change and his speaking out on inequality, and other kinds of issues. And essentially a kind of social democrat.

But you’ve not been satisfied with his response on the issue of the church and the covering up of crimes of priests of pedophilia. So what has been the Pope’s response and why are you not satisfied with it?

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PARIS (FRANCE)
LaCroix International

June 16, 2019

Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta is the man Pope Francis trusts to lead the world-wide fight against pedophilia in the Church.

And that’s just as well because he is set to meet with bishops of the powerful Polish Catholic Church, which is facing a wave of revelations about sexual abuse by priests.

A plenary session has been scheduled for June 14 in Swidnica, south western Poland, at which the bishops will meet Archbishop Scicluna.

When on May 16 they announced the visit, the Polish bishops were careful to specify that he was responding to an invitation made a year earlier. But it is difficult not to make the link between this visit and the release on May 11 of a documentary implicating several Polish bishops in the alleged protection of pedophile priests.

Directed and produced by two brothers, Tomasz and Marek Sekielski, ‘Tell No One’ is highly critical of Polish church authorities.It explicitly names alleged attackers, as well as bishops suspected of having remained silent, and cites evidence to back-up various claims.

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ROME (ITALY)
Daily Beast

June 16, 2019

By Barbie Latza Nadeau

There are few scandals in the sordid history of the American Catholic church more painful than the saga of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a high-ranking prince of the church who fell from grace amid a slew of lies and cover-ups.

McCarrick was forced to resign and later defrocked after credible allegations that he sexually abused a boy from the age of 11 until the young man was 29, starting long before the Boston Spotlight probe and Pennsylvania Grand Jury report came to define priests behaving badly.

It was well known in certain Catholic circles that the cardinal liked to entertain six or more seminarians in his five-bedroom New Jersey beach house with the assumption that the odd man out would share his bed.

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SPRINGFIELD (MA)
The Republican

June 16, 2019

By Anne-Gerard Flynn

Springfield Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski will meet Thursday with an alleged clergy sex abuse victim, who says he told a diocesan Review Board a year ago that he had been sexually abused decades ago by the late Bishop Christopher J. Weldon.

The Review Board has disputed that his June 2018 testimony included allegations of direct abuse by Weldon, though three individuals present say he named Weldon.

Rozanski, who was in Baltimore this past week for a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting where clergy abuse was among the topics discussed, was said to have found the allegations involving Weldon “deeply troubling.”

It is unclear what resolution will come from the meeting between the alleged victim and Rozanski, but the situation highlights the difficulty for those coming forth with accusations of sexual misconduct involving a deceased bishop.

An area of legal conflict in the Springfield diocese has been how far back it was aware of clergy sex abuse. This has been an issue particularly associated with Weldon’s 27 years as bishop and any allegations made against clergy at that time. There are concerns as well that pertinent files kept by Weldon may have been destroyed after his death in 1982 by the executor of his will — who had himself faced claims of sexual abuse.

E.J. Fleming’s book “Death of an Altar Boy” makes the argument that Weldon knew early on from detectives that then diocesan priest Richard Lavigne — who pleaded guilty in 1992 to molesting two boys and was later removed from the clerical state by the Vatican — was a suspect in the unsolved 1972 murder of 13-year-old altar boy Danny Croteau.

The diocese has argued it was not aware until 1986 of an accusation of abuse against Lavigne, who was the subject of at least 37 claims of abuse of a minor, and continued to minister as a priest until 1991.

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LONG ISLAND (NY)
Newsday

June 16, 2019

By Bart Jones

The Diocese of Rockville Centre is holding off on releasing a list of clergy members accused of sexual abuse, a decision that shows the delicate balance of speed and accuracy.

Most victims advocates argue the diocese has had plenty of time — years — to pull together an accurate list. A few activists, though, along with church analysts point out that getting the list right should be a top priority, regardless of how long it takes.

Bishop John Barres hasn’t commented directly; a diocesan spokesman, Sean Dolan, described the release of a list now as “premature.”

“The tradition of American Justice affords all persons the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. Therefore, the diocese cooperates with law enforcement on all accusations and also engages additional independent, professional investigations,” Dolan said in a statement.

New York’s seven other dioceses and two-thirds of the 198 nationwide have released lists. Rockville Centre serves 1.4 million Catholics, making it the eighth largest in the country.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

June 16, 2019

By Chaz Muth

Church scholars assert the concept of the seal of confession was given to the apostles by Jesus, eventually morphing into the sacrament of penance, providing the faithful with an opportunity to confess their sins and to be reconciled with God.

The soul-cleansing, sacred practice is private, confidential and repeatable.

Governmental leaders have challenged the priest-penitent privilege of the seal of confession since at least the 14th century, prompting priests to sacrifice their freedom and sometimes their lives protecting that confidentiality.

In the wake of renewed attention on the clergy child sexual abuse scandals, 21st-century lawmakers in Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Chile, and the U.S. have introduced measures that would compel priests to report to civil authorities information related to child abuse and neglect learned in the confessional.

“There are many reasons why we are seeing challenges to the seal of confession today,” said Father Ronald T. Kunkel, theology professor at Mundelein Seminary at the University of St. Mary of the Lake in Illinois, near Chicago.

The Church has suffered “self-inflicted wounds” to its reputation and credibility from the clergy sex abuse crisis, making the seal of confession vulnerable to governmental intrusion, Kunkel told Catholic News Service in an April interview.

“There have been terrible sins and crimes that have been committed, including by members of the hierarchy,” he said. “But, I think in many cases this is being used as an excuse in order to further marginalize the Church in our society today.”

That reaction has been echoed by countless theologians, canon lawyers, priests and penitents throughout the U.S., particularly in California, where a bill is making its way through the state legislature that attempts to amend its mandatory reporting laws to require priests to provide civil authorities with information about child abuse or neglect confessed by priests or co-workers during the sacrament of penance.

Critics of that legislation, S.B. 360, call it governmental overreach that clearly violates religious freedoms enjoyed in the U.S., as well as its tradition of separation of church and state. Some also fear that authorities could send someone in to confess to abuse in order to prosecute the priest for failing to report it.

Supporters of the California bill say it closes a loophole in a law that provides cover for pedophile priests – and other criminals – who receive absolution from the sin of child sexual abuse without being held accountable by society. They believe it emboldens such penitents to continue to victimize others.

Laws making it an offense for a priest’s failure to report the confessions of child sex abuse have already been passed in three Australian states and similar acts are being considered in Chile.

“I think it’s worth noting that the mandatory reporting statutes, the clergy-penitent privilege, and the seal of confession, these three doctrines if you will, are all in tension with each other,” said Mary Graw Leary, a professor of law at The Catholic University of America in Washington and a former prosecutor specializing in the abuse and exploitation of children and women. “They all serve very positive social goods. But, these kinds of circumstances bring them in tension with each other and it’s a very difficult problem to solve.”

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STATEN ISLAND (NY)
June 16, 2019

By Joseph Ostapiuk

To some it was a safe haven, an environment where struggling children put their lives back on track.

Others, however, claim it was a place where predators preyed upon their vulnerabilities.

Former residents of the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin, Mount Loretto, are embroiled after a bombshell court filing alleged that a woman who attended the haven suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of several nuns and at least one lay person.

Sly Francis, 61, a former NYPD detective and a resident of Mount Loretto from 1963 to 1972, said that he never previously heard of allegations or rumors that nuns sexually abused any of the residents.

“I can’t dismiss her allegations,” said Francis, who attended Mount Loretto from the ages of 6 to 15, “but I never witnessed anyone or never heard of anyone — a female or male — being sexually abused by the nuns.”

While Francis admitted that both nuns and priests at the school doled out discipline to students “because of behavior,” he said that he was never abused.

Francis, a chronic runaway as a child after his parents divorced, said that his time at the manor “saved” his life.

At only five years old, Francis would go into the street “for weeks at a time” and said that he often ended up “in strange people’s houses” before being told he would be forced to go to a reform school. However, a priest at Mount Loretto reached out to Francis’ mother, and he soon after attended the mission.

“The kids that were there became my family, and it put me on the right path,” Francis said.

The court filing was made by Robin Campbell, whose maiden name is Robin Miller. Miller lived at the Pleasant Plains mission between the ages of 6 and 11, from 1960 through 1966, according to documents filed in Manhattan state Supreme Court.

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CHICAGO (IL)
CBS TV

June 15, 2019

A priest at Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish in Chicago was reinstated Saturday after he was accused of sexual abuse and asked to step aside from his duties in January.

Cardinal Blase Cupich said Father Patrick Lee cooperated with civil authorities and the Archdiocese of Chicago during the investigation.

Cupich said both state officials and the independent review board of the archdiocese determined the allegations against Lee were unfounded.

In an email to the Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish, Cupich said:

“These have been difficult days and months for you as a parish. You have shown great patience as each jurisdiction has completed its process. I thank you for doing so. Father Lee has also suffered, as you well know, but he has offered that suffering freely, convinced of the need for us as a Church to keep our word that the protection and safety of our children remains the priority.”

Cupich shared his letter with other parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago and the media to “see that Father Lee’s good name is restored.”

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Patheos blog

June 15, 2019

By Msgr. Eric Barr

The U.S. Bishops had an unimpressive week at their biannual meeting. That means this first paragraph will be boring. But take heart! It shall get better. They approved three measures to help alleviate last year’s iteration of the sex abuse crisis, namely, the ex-cardinal Theodore McCarrick controversy. First, they approved a way for a bishop to discipline another bishop within his diocese. Next, they approved norms to codify Pope Francis’ February Conference on Sex Abuse results. And finally, they approved a non-binding agreement to deal with bishops and have the same expectations of bishops as they do of their priests and deacons. Yawn. Boring and not very satisfying, and fairly useless in fixing the bishops’ mistakes concerning the sex abuse crisis.

FIRST, LET’S KILL ALL THE LAWYERS–OKAY, NOT REALLY
For sure, the measures will be somewhat helpful. But they do not undue the first mistake the bishops ever made concerning the issue of sexual abuse. That was the embrace of the legal system, both ecclesiastical and civil, as the first response to the crisis. Sexual abuse by priests did not begin in 2002, but the Church stood on the cusp of a major decision that year. How would the episcopacy treat this concern? The bishops tried their best but failed. Why? Of all the choices before them on how to handle the situation they decided to lawyer up. They forsook their role as shepherds and cast their lot with lawyers, seeing themselves as CEOs with a need to protect the institution.

What happened next was not the lawyers’ fault. They were simply doing what they had been asked to do by the Church. Apply civil law, protect the institution, and keep the amounts dictated by lawsuits low enough to not bankrupt individual dioceses. The bishops, of course, also tried to apply pastoral justice, trying to care for the victim and punishing the perpetrator. It did not work out very well. Casting their lot with the lawyers simply exacerbated a trend that had appeared decades before. The bishops were relinquishing their role as shepherds and becoming CEOs, executives of their individual companies (dioceses) under the umbrella corporation of the Universal Catholic Church. Simply take a look at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ meetings. In their black suits and with somber demeanor, the bishops do not look or act like shepherds. They look like Chief Executive Officers at worst and at best like those elderly bankers in the original Mary Poppins movie, totally out of touch with real life, anxious only to protect the wealth of the bank. That sounds terribly harsh but the optics are clear–these meetings stress law and order, not pastoral care and practice

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

LOS ANGELES (CA)
Catholic News Service

June 15, 2019

Using social media, preaching, newspaper columns and letters read at Mass, the Los Angeles Archdiocese and California’s other Catholic dioceses planned a special push over the June 15-16 weekend asking Catholics to urge their representatives in the state Assembly to reject a confession bill.

S.B. 360 – which passed in the California Senate May 23 in a 30-2 vote – would force priests to disclose information about child sexual abuse that they learn when they are hearing another priest’s confession or when hearing the confession of a co-worker.

The bill is expected to have a vote in the lower house, the California State Assembly, in September.

“Our lawmakers have good intentions. They want to prevent child abuse,” Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said in a letter he issued June 10 that is to be read at all June 15 and 16 Masses in the archdiocese. “But there is no evidence that this legislation will do that. Instead, it threatens a practice that is essential to our faith and religious identity.”

“We need your help to protect this sacrament of the Church and to keep confession sacred,” he said. “And we need to continue our commitment to building a society where every child is loved, protected and safe.”

The Catholic Church in California set up a new website, KeepTheSeal.com, which is a hub that gives people easy access to materials about S.B. 360 as well as a way to send emails to their legislators.

As it is in many U.S. states, California requires priests, teachers, social workers, doctors and other professionals to be “mandated reporters.” That means by law they are required to report any case of suspected abuse to authorities.

There is currently an exemption in California law for any clergy member “who acquires knowledge or a reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect during a penitential communication.”

For Catholics, that penitential communication would be in the confessional.

“The sacrament of penance and reconciliation, what we call confession, was the first gift that Jesus gave to the world after rising from the dead,” Gomez said in his letter. “On the first Easter night, he breathed his Holy Spirit into his apostles, his first priests, and he granted them the awesome power to forgive sins in his name.

“Jesus gave us this gift so that we could always come to him, personally, to confess our sins and seek his forgiveness and the grace to continue on our Christian journey.”

Catholics confess their sins not to a man but to God – the priest “stands in the place of Jesus,” he said, and the confessor’s words are “addressed to God.”

“That is why the priest has the sacred duty to keep the seal of the confessional and never to disclose what he hears in sacramental confession for any reason,” Gomez added. “This ancient practice ensures that our confessions are always intimate communications with Jesus alone.”

He added, “We cannot allow the government to enter into our confessionals to dictate the terms of our personal relationship with Jesus. Unfortunately, that is what this legislation would do.”

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

HOUSTON (TX)
Houston Chronicle

June 15, 2019

By Nicole Hensley

Former Grace Family Baptist Church pastor Stephen Bratton, 43, was arrested Friday and charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child.

The former pastor of a Southern Baptist church in north Harris County has been arrested in connection with an allegation that he molested a teenage relative for about two years, court records show.

Stephen Bratton, who stepped down from the Grace Family Baptist Church in Cypress Station last month, has since been released from custody at the Harris County Jail after posting a $50,000 bond.

The investigation began on May 16 after Bratton allegedly confessed to three Southern Baptist clergy members that he abused the child, according to court documents. Two of Bratton’s co-pastors, Aaron Wright and Erin Frye, called the Harris County Sheriff’s Office to their church on Bammel Westfield Road to take a report that same day, while the third pastor, David Shiflet, said he referred the complaint to the Department of Family Protective Services.

Bratton, 43, was charged Friday with continuous sexual abuse of a child, Senior Deputy Thomas Gilliland said Saturday.

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ST. PETERSBURG (FL)
Florida Politics

June 15, 2019

By Michael Sheedy

The bishops of the United States just concluded their annual summer meeting. One of the key topics was Pope Francis’ Apostolic Motu Proprio, modifying norms in response to sexual abuse.

In her June 11 opinion piece, Sen. Lauren Book cited this directive, noting that the Holy Father’s recent directive does not include a requirement to report allegations of abuse to law enforcement.

Existing Church law in the United States already requires notifying public authorities.

The U.S. Church has had such a policy since 2002 when the bishops adopted the “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.”

Pope Francis’ modification applies to the universal Church worldwide and, in some countries, unfortunately, calling the police is not a safe thing to do.

The type of internal Church law outlined by Pope Francis is separate from any investigation by civil authorities. In no way does a Church investigation interfere with or replace a civil investigation.

The Motu Proprio does not replace the Charter. Rather, it strengthens protections already in place and supports current policies to create a safe environment for children and vulnerable adults, discipline offenders, and assist with healing for victims and survivors.

Since 2002, the Charter with its zero-tolerance provision, as well as requirements for background checks and safe environment training for employees and volunteers is working.

While Catholic leaders have had to confront painful, shameful yet historical failures and to facilitate healing for those harmed, the changes implemented have significantly decreased incidences of sexual abuse by clergy or church personnel.

While the bishops continue to be open to improving practices as they did in response to Pope Francis’ Moto Proprio, what the Church is doing right can help others in eliminating the scourge of sexual abuse that has harmed so many children and their families.

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RALEIGH (NC)
WRAL TV

June, 14, 2019

By Laura Leslie

A bill to extend the statute of limitations for victims of childhood sexual abuse to sue their abusers is moving forward in the state House after a passionate debate Wednesday pitting victims’ rights against concerns about business liability and false accusations.

House Bill 37 would extend the civil statute of limitations, currently at three years – a period set during the 19th century – to 20 years after a victim of child sexual abuse becomes an adult at 18.

Under criminal law, there is no statute of limitations for prosecuting child sexual abuse. But the standard of proof is higher, and prosecutors often won’t take older cases because of the difficulty of presenting evidence beyond a reasonable doubt of a crime two or three or several decades old.

Rep. Dennis Riddell, R-Alamance, argued that lengthening the window to age 38 would give victims the chance to mature and settle into their own lives, which is when many begin to come to terms with abuse they suffered in childhood.

Rep. Sarah Stevens, R-Surry, tried to amend the bill to lower the age to 28, offering a 10-year window instead of 20. She said it would be “nightmare” for an accused person to prove he or she didn’t commit a crime alleged to have occurred so many years ago.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Catholic News Service

June 15, 2019

As the U.S. Catholic bishops met in Baltimore to discuss new mechanisms to hold themselves accountable on sex abuse, the Southern Baptist Convention was wrestling with the same vexing issue at its annual meeting June 11-12 in Birmingham, Alabama.

Rocked by media reports that revealed Southern Baptist pastors, church employees and volunteers sexually abused more than 700 people, most of them children, over the past two decades, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination took new steps to expel member churches that cover up or mishandle sexual abuse allegations.

“This was a defining moment for the Southern Baptist Convention,” said the Rev. J.D. Greear, the pastor of The Summit Church in Durham, North Carolina, who serves as president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Greear told reporters that the Southern Baptist Convention wants to ensure that its member churches are safe environments for children and vulnerable people, and that the convention will consider “all solutions” that could include advocating for legislation to amend statute of limitations on sex abuse crimes.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
Sojourners Magazine

July 2019

By Jenna Barnett

DURING REV. HEIDI Hankel’s interview for the lead pastor position at Philadelphia’s Bethesda Presbyterian Church, she learned that one of the church’s deacons was under investigation by law enforcement for allegedly sexually abusing a member of the youth group. Hankel was later offered the job.

No one would blame even the bravest of pastors for turning it down, but fortunately for that small Presbyterian church, Hankel is a reverend who likes to hop down in the trenches to be with her parishioners. She was afraid, she said, but also propelled by her faith to address the violence openly and holistically. She took the job.

“I didn’t know if they would fire me,” said Hankel. “But I felt at least I could stand before God one day and say I handled this well.”

Hankel had a simple answer for why it is so important for church leaders to loudly and actively work to prevent and address abuse: “God isn’t silent. And if God isn’t silent, we as his body—his hands and feet—should not be silent.”

During the past couple of years, silence has given way to a chorus of abuse accusations against Christian leaders across the country: More than 300 priests in Pennsylvania, 100-plus Southern Baptist youth pastors in Texas, a handful of megachurch pastors across the country. While Christians have grieved these revelations of violence, those in leadership have often prioritized the perpetrators over the victims—the reputation of the church over its mission. In summer 2018, reports emerged that the then-president of a prominent Southern Baptist Convention seminary, Paige Patterson, had counseled abuse victims to stay with their violent husbands, once advising a survivor of rape to forgive the assailant instead of reporting the violence. In response, the seminary thanked Patterson for his longstanding commitment to the SBC and appointed him president emeritus—with compensation. (A week later, after an outcry, the seminary board stripped him of that title and of all “benefits, rights, and privileges.”)

Before Hankel was hired, the pastor and appointed lay leaders of Bethesda Presbyterian had already taken a few important steps to support the victim. First, they ensured separation of the perpetrator and the victim, though this was made easy when the perpetrator submitted a formal letter of membership resignation. The church offered to pay for professional counseling for the victim and the victim’s family, which Hankel considers an important form of reparations in sexual abuse situations. And they informed the denominational leadership.

Around the time that Hankel began her position as head pastor, law enforcement’s investigation closed, with the abuser accepting a plea deal. Until that point the abuse had been kept confidential within the church’s leadership team. But after talking with the victim and the family, Hankel decided that members of the church needed to know what had happened. Without disclosing the victim’s identity or gender, Hankel called a congregational meeting to tell them how the church failed and the specific steps they would take to try to ensure no one was ever victimized again.

That was precisely the moment when Bethesda Presbyterian distinguished itself from other churches: Where other churches have tried to cover up this type of violence, relocate the perpetrator, or dismiss a leader without explanation, this small church insisted on pulling back the curtains on the abuse to bring it fully into the light. That kind of light leaves no room for ambiguity about God’s preferential favor to the vulnerable and abused. It is an Ephesians 5 kind of light: “for while it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly, everything exposed by the light becomes visible, and everything that becomes visible is light.”

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DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Service

June 15, 2019

Representatives of lay organizations expressed caution over the steps taken by U.S. bishops to boost accountability and transparency in dealing with clergy sexual abuse, saying future actions by the bishops will determine how successful the initiatives ultimately will be.

Full collaboration with laypeople will be the key to the success of the measures adopted by the bishops, they said in a series of statements following the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ spring general assembly in Baltimore June 11-13.

“Catholics are looking for robust actions and long-term solutions to the twin crises of abuse and leadership failures,” Kim Smolik, CEO of the Leadership Roundtable, said in a June 13 statement.

“While the bishops took important initial steps, more remains to be done to address the root causes and create a new culture of leadership that values accountability, transparency and co-responsibility with clergy and laity,” she said.

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Patheos blog

June 12, 2019

By Michael Stone

Father Dominic Valanmahal, a Catholic priest in India, is under fire after claiming that autistic children are animals caused by porn, masturbation, homosexuality, and adultery.

Father Valanmahal, a Catholic priest from the state of Kerala, recently delivered a fiery sermon where he claimed that autistic children were animals, while blaming autism and hyperactivity on parents who engage in pornography, masturbation, homosexuality, and adultery.

In his sermon Father Valanmahal asked:

Why does this generation have autism and hyperactivity? That is to say, mentally retarded children are in abundance?

Father Valanmahal continued:

Adultery, masturbation, homosexuality, porn, if you are addicted to these, I say to you in the name of God. . .when you get married and have children, there is a high possibility of bearing these type of children.

They lead an animal-like life. They copulate like animals. They bear children like animals. Therefore those children also, will be like animals.

The remarks from the insensitive and intellectually incompetent priest have been met with righteous outrage. In particular, there has been an outpouring of support for preventing Father Valanmahal from leading a Catholic retreat in Ireland.

The Irish Times reports:

An invitation sent to controversial priest Fr Dominic Valanmahal to lead a retreat in Ireland should be withdrawn, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said.nHUs

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Wartburg Watch

June 13, 2019

By Dee Parsons

I am still recuperating and catching up on some interesting things which will see the light in posts in the coming weeks. However, I realized that I wanted to look again at membership convenants in light of the Matt Chandler scandal in the NYT: Attorneys Boz Tchividjian and Mitch Little Help a Sex Abuse Victim in Her Quest to Hold Matt Chandler and The Village Church Accountable

Please reread the NYT (link in above post) and pay particular attention to the statements surrounding the “You can’t sue the church, you signed the *covenant.*”

I plan to write more on this subject and have someone helping compile a number of comments regarding Chandler coming out of the conference. Chandler appeared and made a statement about his *problem* at the convention that was promptly removed from the website. Thankfully, Leonardo Blair posted it on You Tube. I found Chandler’s statement to be self indulgent. Maybe that’s why the SBC removed the video. They are beginning to understand “optics.*

After viewing the video, you may want to read an old post which I added below the video. It was one of many post I wrote proving that membership covenants are legal documents to help the church prevent you from suing them when they do something really, really bad. It also allows them to do some really, really bad things to you.

In that post, if you are concerned that you have signed one of these contracts, we have a suggestion on how to get out of it.

Folks, do not sign these things. Caveat emptor and all that jazz.

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NEW YORK (NY)
VICE News

June 13, 2019

Evangelical megachurches are leaning on a favorite tool of corporations to protect themselves from liability in the MeToo era.

In Alabama, leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the country, gathered for their annual meeting, with sex abuse squarely atop the agenda. Meanwhile, 900 miles to the north, in Baltimore, US Catholic bishops met to discuss next steps in addressing the same problem, which has become a festering institutional crisis across the globe. But whereas sexual violence in the Catholic Church has been on the national radar for decades, similar crimes in the evangelical community didn’t hit the mainstream until the past year or two, exploding in February with a six-part investigative series by the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News that documented 400 Southern Baptist leaders and volunteers accused of misconduct. Following the articles’ release, the Southern Baptist Convention put out the “Caring Well” report, an acknowledgement of past lapses that offered some guidance on how to deal with abuse allegations. It was presented at the Tuesday meeting as well, where congregants voted on amendments aimed at curbing sexual abuse and racism.

The Southern Baptists met again Wednesday, praying at length after being inundated with horrific stories of criminal sexual abuse. But among the items some members of the faith hoped they might address was something you wouldn’t expect to find in either Testament: the use of binding arbitration to settle disagreements between churches and their parishioners.

In the New York Times on Monday, Elizabeth Dias reported that The Village, one of the most prominent evangelical churches in America, has new members sign agreements containing language that could prevent them from suing, and potentially force those with complaints into binding arbitration, which almost always happens in private. Such deals, which have become well-known in recent years for helping shield corporate abuses (sexual and otherwise), have an air of relative novelty in a religious context. Certainly, it’s hard to imagine Billy Graham asking someone to sign one.

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ALBANY (NY)
News Channel 13

June 13, 2019

For the first time ever, a 49-year-old father is going public with his story of alleged priest sex abuse decades earlier.

NewsChannel 13 exclusively obtained “complainant’s statements” submitted by Michael Harmon to the lawyers for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, which confirmed it had forwarded to state prosecutors for review. According to Harmon’s statements, throughout his teenage years he was molested by a former priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany named Edward Pratt. Additionally, Harmon claims he was threatened with arrest when he went to the bishop at the time for help.

Now decades later, Harmon and others are starting to speak out as attorneys across New York State and beyond are preparing lawsuits under the recently passed Child Victims Act.

Mary DeTurris Poust, a spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Diocese in Albany, told NewsChannel 13, “Edward Pratt was permanently removed from ministry by Bishop Howard J. Hubbard in 2002 following credible allegations of sexual abuse against minors. We continue to be horrified by reports of child sexual abuse, even years after the fact. We want to walk with survivors and try to help them bring some measure of healing to the scars we know can never be completely removed from their lives. Each time we have to revisit a story like this, we are angered and saddened anew by the way these survivors were robbed of their innocence and their childhoods, the way their families and their futures were ripped apart. Know that Bishop Edward Scharfenberger and the Diocese of Albany are actively working to do whatever we can to bring healing and justice to those who were sexually abused by clergy in this Diocese.”

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INDINAPOLIS (IN)
Indianapolis Star

June 14, 2019

By Emily Sabens

When writer Norbert Krapf returned to his home state of Indiana after spending more than 30 years in Long Island, he finally felt ready to confront the abuse he experienced from his church’s priest as a young boy in Jasper.

During a one-year span, Krapf wrote 325 poems, many of which were published in his book “Catholic Boy Blues” in 2015.

“It was almost volcanic,” Krapf said. “I felt like I was finally able to write about it, and the poems just kept coming over that year.”

Krapf said he always pictured transforming the poems into a play. (He even mentioned it in the preface of his book.) Now, that dream is becoming a reality this weekend at IndyFringe.

The play version of “Catholic Boy Blues” features a cast of five who tell the story of James, who is based on Krapf, as he attends therapy and confronts the abuse he experienced as a child.

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WINNIPEG CANADA)
CBC News

June 14, 2019

A Winnipeg man is suing a Roman Catholic archdiocese, alleging he was sexually abused by an official at a former Catholic school more than 50 years ago.

The abuse is alleged to have taken place at the former Sainte-Marie School on Des Meurons Street in Winnipeg in September or October, 1964, when the man was a young student there.

It names the school, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Boniface and two unnamed school officials as defendants.

The plaintiff, who CBC is not naming, alleges a priest who served as the school’s “spiritual advisor” made sexual advances on him, facilitated by a nun who was the plaintiff’s teacher. The plaintiff doesn’t know their names, the suit says.

The suit alleges the advances led to “an incident of masturbation involving the [advisor].”

The man, who is Métis, also alleges the nun publicly chastised, demeaned and humiliated him because of his heritage for the following two years, until 1966, while she was his teacher.

The sexual abuse and humiliating attacks left the man with psychological issues that continue to this day, including panic attacks and nightmares, the suit says.

The allegations have not been proven in court.

Richard Fréchette, a spokesperson for the archdiocese, confirmed Friday the organization has been served with the lawsuit.

Fréchette said in a news release, the archdiocese began an internal investigation after it was contacted by an individual who shared a story of abuse in the summer of 2018.

He said the church stands in solidarity with victims of sexual abuse.

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PHOENIX (AZ)
KTAR TV

June 14, 2019

A former Phoenix Catholic priest is facing multiple sex crime charges after being returned to Maricopa County by U.S. Marshals from Italy.

Joseph John Henn, 70, is facing multiple counts of child molestation, attempted child molestation, sexual conduct with a minor and attempted sexual conduct with a minor for crimes allegedly committed in the late 1970s to early 1980s.

During the time of the reported crimes, Henn was a Father in the Salvatorian Order of the Catholic Church in Phoenix.

“Pursuing justice for crime victims is a constant source of motivation for law enforcement and prosecutors no matter how long it may take or how far we have to go,” Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said in a press release.

“The recent arraignment of Joseph Henn illustrates our commitment to justice and further reflects the reality that neither position nor title will shield someone who harms children from accountability.”

Henn, who was originally indicted on charges in 2003, fled to Italy to avoid prosecution. He was arrested in Rome in 2005 before he was able to escape extradition.

On May 29, however, Italian law enforcement officials found Henn in Rome, taking him into custody. Deputy U.S. Marshals traveled to Rome where they took Henn back to Arizona.

“Child sexual abuse is a major issue in the United States and the world,” David Gonzales, U.S. Marshal for the District of Arizona, said in a press release.

“The United States Marshals Service will always place a high priority on assisting federal, state, local, and foreign law enforcement agencies in locating and apprehending fugitive sex offenders.”

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DENVER (CO)
Catholic News Agency

June 15, 2019

Two priests accused of sexually abusing minors at a school for deaf children in Argentina will stand trial Aug. 5.

The priests and a former employee at the Antonio Provolo institute will face charges of the abuse of more than 20 children, the AP noted.

One of the priests involved is Fr. Nicola Corradi, who is a member of the Company of Mary, an Italian religious community which operates schools for deaf children in several countries, including Argentina and Italy. The schools are named for Antonio Provolo, a nineteenth-century Italian priest who founded Corradi’s religious community.

Corradi was arrested in 2016 along with Fr. Horacio Corbacho and other employees in connection with the abuse allegations, and the school was closed down.

Sr. Kosako Kumiko, a religious sister with the school, was arrested in May 2017 for charges of facilitating and covering-up sexual abuse at the school. Some students have also accused the sister of sexual abuse, though she has maintained her innocence.

Corradi, now 83, was first accused of abuse in 2009, when 14 Italians reported that they had been abused by priests, religious brothers, and other adults at the Provolo Institute in Verona, over the course of several decades.

After an investigation, five priests were sanctioned by the Vatican. Corradi, then living in Argentina, was among those accused of abuse, but was not arrested or otherwise sanctioned.

In 2014, Corradi was the subject of a letter sent to Pope Francis from victims of sexual abuse who were concerned about the priests ongoing ministry, despite the accusations against him. In 2015, the group handed a list of priests accused of abuse to the Pope in person, according to the Washington Post.

The group reportedly did not hear back from Pope Francis, but did hear from a Vatican official, Archbishop Giovanni Becciu, who wrote to the group in 2016 to tell them that he had informed the Italian bishops’ conference of their request for an investigation.

Later that year, Corradi, as well as Corbacho and another employee of the school, were arrested. However, according to a Washington Post report, it was civil authorities who decided to take action against Corradi and remove his access to children, while the Church in Argentina was not fully cooperative with the investigation, according to local officials.

“I want Pope Francis to come here, I want him to explain how this happened, how they knew this and did nothing,” a 24-year-old alumna of the Provolo Institute told the Washington Post in February.

Prosecutors in the case told the Washington Post that children at the school were “fondled, raped, sometimes tied up and, in one instance, forced to wear a diaper to hide the bleeding. All the while, their limited ability to communicate complicated their ability to tell others what was happening to them. Students at the school were smacked if they used sign language.”

“They were the perfect victims,” Gustavo Stroppiana, the chief prosecutor in the case, told the Washington Post, because the students were typically from poor families and had communication limitations.

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WASHINGTON (DC)
NPR All Things Considered

June 14, 2019

By Tom Gjelten

Catholics and Southern Baptists have both faced clergy sex abuse allegations. Leaders of both denominations met this week to discuss their problems.

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LITTLE ROCK (AR)
Bilgrimage blog

June 13, 2019

By William Lindsey

I recently had the privilege of publishing an essay by Ruth Krall entitled “Prolegomena: An Act of Re-Thinking” (here and here). That essay challenged readers to re-think how we’ve come to view the phenomenon of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable people in religious contexts, and to consider applying terms and concepts from the realm of public health (e.g., epidemic, endemic, or pandemic) to this phenomenon.

“Prolegomena” is the first in a multi-part set of essasys on which Ruth has been working, with the title (for the entire series), “Recapitulation: Affinity Sexual Violence in a Religious Voice.” In her manuscript gathering essays together under that title, Ruth includes a dedicatory note acknowleding the influence of her father Carl S. Krall on her life, work, and thought. It reads,

In Memory, Carl S. Krall, 1901-1963

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SUNBURY (PA)
Daily Item

June 15, 2019

The U.S. Catholic Bishops establishing their own hotline for reporting sexual abuse allegations within the Church and the Church in Pennsylvania spending millions of dollars in legislative lobbying efforts relating to legal rights for abuse victims are both inappropriate, especially in the face of evidence that more than 1,000 children were molested by hundreds of predator Roman Catholic priests in six Pennsylvania dioceses.

U.S. Catholic Bishops on Wednesday voted to establish a hotline for reporting allegations that church leaders are involved in abuse or covering up for priests. Hotline operators would relay allegations to regional supervisory bishops, according to The Associated Press.

“I’ve been completely unsatisfied with their response,” said Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who presented the landmark clergy abuse case to a grand jury last year.

“Their big idea was to set up a hotline coming back to the church, that’s covering up the cover-up,” he said during an interview this week with CNHI newspapers, including The Daily Item.

Shapiro also blasted church funding for efforts to sway state legislation relating to the time limits victims have to bring lawsuits against alleged abusers. New York and New Jersey, among other states, have passed laws creating avenues for adult victims of child sex abuse to file lawsuits even if the statute of limitations in their cases have expired.

Those reforms have stalled in the Pennsylvania Legislature over opposition from the insurance industry and lobbyists for the Catholic church.

“What I find unconscionable is that the bishops are lobbying to stop these reforms from passing,” Shapiro said. “They’ve spent millions of dollars of parishioners’ money to lobby lawmakers to have less accountability and less protections for victims.”qr0tronceefg

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ROCKLAND (NY)
Rockland/Westchester Journal News

June 13, 2019

By Nancy Cutler

Retired acting New York State Supreme Court Judge Charles Apotheker said he struggled with his decision to identify himself as a victim of accused serial sexual predator Dr. Reginald Archibald, who is believed to have abused thousands of children during his tenure as an esteemed pediatric endocrinologist at Rockefeller University Hospital.

The 72-year-old Apotheker, though, knew he could help other victims. He knew his own “outing” would make it more difficult to ignore accusations about decades of molestations by the now-deceased doctor.

“I was angry. I was angry there were naked pictures of me and hundreds of others that no one can find. I was angry for parents, like mine,” said Apotheker, reflecting on his father, who died 30 years ago, and mother, who he lost five years ago, and their trust in this doctor who was so highly recommended. “They would feel so guilty.”

Retired acting New York State Supreme Court Judge Charles Apotheker in his Stony Point office June 12, 2019. He was a victim of Rockefeller University Hospital Dr. Archibald, who has been accused of molesting young boys.Buy Photo
Retired acting New York State Supreme Court Judge Charles Apotheker in his Stony Point office June 12, 2019. He was a victim of Rockefeller University Hospital Dr. Archibald, who has been accused of molesting young boys. (Photo: Peter Carr/The Journal News)

So, Apotheker — a former Haverstraw Town Court and Rockland County Court judge who served in drug court and then was supervising judge for town and village justice courts in the 9th Judicial District — came forward. He wrote a compelling op/ed in the New York Law Journal that was published this month.

Apotheker remembers going on the bus with his mom, traveling from the Bronx to Rockefeller in Manhattan. He was 13 and it was around 1960. He remembers going into the hospital, into Archibald’s office, posing for pictures, naked, for the doctor, who then measured his penis. Then, Apotheker said, everything goes blank. He cannot recall going home. He cannot recall another appointment with the doctor two years later. He only knows about the appointment because he petitioned to get his hospital records after he and other Archibald patients were contacted in early October 2018.

Archibald, who lived for years in Westchester County, treated approximately 9,000 children over his 40 years at Rockefeller. Like Apotheker, those children were often treated for stunted growth an

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NEW YORK (NY)
Daily Beast

June 14, 2019

By Pilar Menendez

As a New Jersey priest in the 1970s and 1980s, John Capparelli liked to arrange wrestling matches for parish boys. He gave them skimpy Speedos to wear, took pictures of them grappling, and even joined in—using the rough-housing as an excuse to sadistically grope the kids.

“Capparelli kind of played the role of being that cool adult that you hung out with,” one of his victims, Rich Fitter, told the Daily Beast last week. “I have no doubt in my mind now that he was a sociopath.”

After his sexual abuse came to light in the late 1980s, Capparelli was sent to a rehab for clergy with sexual problems, removed from parish ministry and eventually suspended from performing priestly duties. However, he continued to teach—while secretly running a porn website that featured young wrestlers.

It took two decades and several lawsuits to finally defrock Capparelli and get him ousted from the classroom. By then, he had left New Jersey and moved to a two-bedroom home in a quiet neighborhood in Henderson, Nevada, where neighbors noticed he always had a steady stream of young male visitors.

Then, three months ago, there was a shocking development in the saga of the predator priest: He was found shot dead inside his home by police who were asked to check on the 70-year-old. The motive was initially unclear, raising the obvious question of whether his death could somehow be related to his sordid past.

The answer, it turned out, was no—and yes.

The person police say murdered Capparelli was not one of the teens he molested so many years ago. But the investigation revealed that while Capparelli had left behind New Jersey and his collar, he did not abandon his obsession with wrestling.

According to police, the disgraced clergyman was killed by a young man who answered his online ad seeking out “young and good looking men” willing to wrestle for him.

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PITTSBURGH (PA)
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

June 13, 2019

By Peter Smith

A Haitian court is hearing allegations that a worker for a large Ohio-based international aid ministry allegedly sexually abused minors in Haiti.

Christian Aid Ministries of Berlin, Ohio — which is supported by various Mennonite, Amish and related groups — said in a statement Tuesday it became aware of “serious allegations” against the worker several weeks ago, when it “promptly discharged” him. It said it has been cooperating with authorities.

The ministry said the alleged perpetrator — which the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has separately confirmed to be Jeriah Mast — left Haiti for the United States amid the allegations. He has not yet appeared before the Haitian court in the city of Petit-Goave to face the allegations.

“We understand that the individual made a confession to leaders in his local church in the U.S. and has reported himself to Ohio state legal authorities,” the Christian Aid Ministries statement said.

Mr. Mast’s church in Holmes County, Ohio, confirmed his confession in a statement Wednesday.

“He confessed multiple instances of immoral sexual relationships with boys, which began in his youth,” the online statement from Shining Light Christian Fellowship said. “He acknowledged to living a life of deception and hypocrisy. He also confessed that he lied to cover up his sins.”

Mr. Mast also met with local law enforcement in Holmes County, the church said, and provided investigators with the names of his victims. Holmes County is home to Christian Aid Ministries and to Ohio’s largest concentration of conservative Mennonites and Amish.

The church statement said that Mr. Mast is no longer allowed to be alone with boys, is going to a licensed counselor for treatment and will be “accounted for at all times” by a support team.

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PHILADELPHIA (PA)
WHYY Radio

June 14, 2019

By Joe Hernandez

A compensation fund for New Jersey victims of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church will begin accepting claims on Saturday.

The first-of-its-kind fund in the Garden State will offer financial settlements to survivors of clergy sex abuse and comes amid an investigation by state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal into possible sexual abuse and cover-ups in the Catholic Church.

“Some survivors are really intimidated by a court proceeding process. You have to really think about the traumatic impact this sort of institutional abuse has had on someone,” said Patricia Teffenhart, executive director of the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

“On the other hand, not all survivors will want to go back to the institution that caused them harm,” she added.

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OWENSBORO (KY)
WEHT TV

June 14, 2019

By Amanda Mueller

A Bowling Green man has filed a complaint with the Vatican against Diocese of Owensboro Bishop William Medley.

The Survivors Network of victims abused by Priests, or SNAP, presented the details in a news conference in Owensboro on Friday.

The complaint questions Bishop Medley’s actions while he served as the personnel director for the Diocese of Louisville in the 1990’s.

“A moment of silence to remember our brothers and sisters […] who are no longer with us.”

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests asked for a moment of silence for victims before calling for action.

“We’re calling on the Kentucky Attorney General to launch a statewide investigation into clergy sex crimes and coverups here,” stated Missouri SNAP director David Clohessy.

The call comes after Michael Montgomery of Bowling Green filed a formal complaint, alleging Owensboro Bishop William Medley was “complicit in the covering up of abuse of the diocese’s children by assisting in assigning priests with credible allegations of sexual abuse to positions where children were expected to be involved.”

“To sit up there, and not address these… the statute of limitations is long gone,” said Montgomery.

The accusations stem from memos Medley sent during his time in the Diocese of Louisville.

One of those memos discusses placement of Father Joseph Stoltz who was receiving treatment at the time.

The memo reads in part “I think if we wanted to unofficially assign him to Saint William, pending the outcome of his six month therapy, he might be open to this.”

It goes on to say “Given Joe’s history, Saint William might be a very good assignment, in that there are so few youth and children who participate in that parish.”

SNAP and Montgomery also allege that two priests were left off the list of “credibly accused priests” released by the Owensboro Diocese in April.

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ROME (ITALY)
Crux

June 15, 2019

By Claire Giangravè

More people have come forward to accuse Archbishop Luigi Ventura, the papal representative to France, of inappropriate behavior and groping. The Vatican diplomat currently is entrenched in a scandal after three men accused him of the same behavior earlier this year.

“We spoke with the Nuncio and he kept putting his hands on our legs while speaking with us, especially to the youngest priests who were with me,” said one alleged victim in a phone interview with Crux June 13.

The meeting took place in November 2018 at the Vatican’s embassy in Paris. The man was accompanied by a deacon and a priest, who at first thought that Ventura’s behavior “could have been normal” and even “paternal.”

However, when the time came to take a picture, the nuncio’s intentions became clear.

“I took my mobile phone, to see what the perfect angle was to take the picture. He came behind me as if to look at how the picture was. That’s when he put his hands on my buttocks for about five seconds,” said the man, who wishes to remain anonymous.

“I was so shocked I couldn’t react,” he added.

An Italian, Ventura was appointed as a papal representative to France in September 2009 by emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.

The incident at the nunciature is similar to that described by Paris City Hall employee Mathieu de La Souchère, 27, who was the first to come forward accusing Ventura of inappropriate touching during a January 2019 New Year’s Eve event.

“When Monsignor Ventura’s car arrived, I came to pick him up and he started saying that I looked very beautiful, that he thought I was a very handsome man and he kept groping me,” De La Souchère told Crux in a June 12 phone interview.

“He did so with insistence, it wasn’t something nice. He was very determinate,” he said, adding that the event to him qualified as sexual abuse.

De La Souchère claims to have been groped on the buttocks three times by Ventura. The first time when he greeted the nuncio at his car, the second while going up the elevator and the third time as he accompanied the bishop toward the mayor’s office, where – being the veteran diplomat – he was supposed to initiate the celebrations.

The last time, there were four eyewitnesses who work at Paris City Hall who claim to have seen the groping take place.

“He was groping. There was no doubt about that,” one of the eyewitnesses told Crux, “we could not believe it.”

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KANSAS CITY (MO)
National Catholic Reporter

June 15, 2019

By Christine Schenk

During this season of Pentecost I find myself searching for hope in the midst of horrific stories about financial corruption by a West Virginia bishop, priests who raped and sexually abused my religious sisters, and bishops from eight states in the Northeast who spent over 10 million dollars lobbying against sex abuse victims.

I am outraged to learn that Baltimore Archbishop William Lori — who was delegated by the Vatican to investigate Wheeling-Charleston Bishop Michael Bransfield — had accepted over $10,500 in gifts from him. In his final report to Rome, Lori decided to delete his own name as well as those of ten other influential prelates who had also accepted financial gifts from the Wheeling bishop.

Bransfield bestowed his monetary gifts over ten years while young priest assistants were simultaneously complaining (to no avail) that he was sexually harassing them.

Lori told the Washington Post that if he had included the names of high-ranking churchmen (among whom were Cardinals Donald Wuerl, Timothy Dolan and Kevin Farrell) it could suggest that there were “expectations for reciprocity” but he had found “no evidence to suggest this.”

After the Washington Post story, nine of the prelates involved, including Lori, pledged to return the money to the Wheeling-Charleston diocese.

Along with the still-unfinished scandal involving defrocked Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, it is difficult to ignore ever-mounting evidence that the clerical system governing the Catholic church is in a significant state of decay.

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

BAKERFIELD (CA)
Bakersfield Californian

June 15, 2019

By Robert Price

Reader: This article (“Suspended priest Craig Harrison, back from self-exile, formulates his defense,” June 9) is a load of crap. Once again Robert Price is doing Monsignor Craig Harrison’s bidding. Is this what The Californian is about now? Trying to protect an alleged child predator before the investigation even completes?

Has this paper ever, in its entire history, gone to interview a person suspected of child abuse before charges were filed to see how they are handling the suspicion and planning out their defense? Of course not. This is absolutely, mind numbingly, insane.

This paper and reporter have zero credibility. So done.

Tell me what the purpose of this article was, if not to give Craig some helpful, fluffy PR? Literally, what are the need-to-know facts this hot take is dishing us? Nothing. That’s what.

— Bran Ram, from Facebook

Price: If I’m doing Monsignor Harrison’s bidding (once again?), it has to be news to him. For the two weeks prior to that column’s publication, I had been trying to convince him, through his attorney, to sit down with me and talk about his circumstances. He finally agreed, but with no small amount of trepidation. I guess you could say he relented and did my bidding.

You might be correct that The Californian has never interviewed a person suspected of child abuse before charges were filed. Why? Because we rarely learn about cases of alleged child abuse until after charges are filed. That’s what makes this case unique and therefore, in my mind, worthy of special attention. Harrison has not been charged but, as your words seem to confirm, has been saddled with a presumption of guilt. The aspect of the story that struck me was the extrajudicial limbo in which he finds himself. Guilty or innocent, his life is in a holding pattern. My intent was to portray that state of affairs. Not paint him innocent, not paint him guilty — just illustrate his awkward purgatory.

Reader: What an absolutely pathetic article. Are there now six victims or just five? Are there unknown victims? How deep is the investigation going? But yet, The Californian wants to support the alleged suspect and to hell with all the victims.

— Steve Loftus, from Facebook

Price: The Californian wants to support the alleged suspect and to hell with all the victims? Well, we’d better make some changes because the weight of “con” stories vs. “pro” is way out of whack.

By my count we have published 20 staff-written articles that provide details or background on one or more of the accusations against Harrison. We broke the story in the first place. We tracked down and were the first to interview the two men whose accusations precipitated Harrison’s suspension. Parishioners and other supporters of Harrison’s were every bit as livid about that coverage, especially the work of reporter Stacey Shepard, as today’s critics appear to be.

By my count we have published four staff-written articles that shed a different light on the situation without dwelling on the specifics of the accusations. One was our coverage of the rally of support held at Harrison’s parish. Our story mentioned the anti-abuse demonstrators who showed up for the occasion, so it was hardly a strictly pro-Harrison story, even though I’ll label it as one for our present purposes. Another was my interview with Roy Keenan, one of Harrison’s sons, whose personal story is tragically harrowing in its own right. Another was Harrison’s statement about the accusations against him. And now we’ve got the column of mine you’re referencing.

Twenty to four might indeed strike many as biased — in precisely the opposite direction you suggest.

Reader: Bakersfield Californian, stop doing spin stories on this man. It’s clear you have some hidden reason. He is accused of sexually abusing children and you do stories on him like he is the victim. Sick and tired of hearing about this person.

— Linda Flores, from Facebook

Price: As soon as you come up with the hidden reason, please share.

I’m sorry you’re sick and tired of hearing about Craig Harrison. One like-minded reader phoned me to declare that no one is interested in hearing more about him (even though she said she read every word of that column herself). The fact is, this Craig Harrison-comes-home column is one of The Californian’s most-read stories of the year thus far. Our analytics show readership in Ao Nang, Thailand; Medellin, Colombia; Melbourne, Australia; the Santuario di Bom Jesus di Monte pilgrimage site in Portugal; Minato, Tokyo, Japan; the Borgomanero commune of northern Italy; and Budapest, Hungary. Including North America, I count five continents.

•••

Reader: Thanks for your article about Monsignor Craig. It was interesting and well written. I am a casual friend of Monsignor Craig and a strong supporter. I am very concerned that revealing that he is “living in his home on 20th street in Bakersfield” (with a photo) may lead some anti-Catholic, anti-Craig person to go there.

— Allan Wilson

Price: Fair point. The photo caption specified his street; my story was more vague about the location of his home. Perhaps the caption should have been fuzzier, but there are probably a hundred houses on Harrison’s very long street. Our standard phrasing in reporting locations is, for example, the 100 block of Maple Street – but that’s for crime stories and obviously this is a different animal.

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

PHOENIX (AZ)
Arizona Republic

June 15, 2019

By Lauren Castle

Two Catholic religious orders recently released lists naming 65 clergy accused of sexual abuse against minors dating back decades; 27 of the men served in Arizona.

The newly released information comes as American bishops met this week in Baltimore for a conference that focused on how to respond to the church’s sex-abuse crisis, which has increasingly caught the attention of state prosecutors across the U.S.

The Franciscan Friars of the Province of Saint Barbara, based in Oakland, California, released its list of credible abuse claims in late May. The claims stretch as far back as the 1930s, and the most recent claim is from the 1980s. More than two dozen on the list had assignments in Arizona, from St. Mary’s in Phoenix to St. Xavier del Bac near Tucson. Most of the accused have long since died.

In a letter, Father David Gaa, provincial minister for the Franciscan Friars of Saint Barbara, said the list is a commitment to transparency and accountability. “The victims, their families, and the People of God deserve transparency,” the letter says.

A Catholic religious order that founded University of Notre Dame and Holy Cross College in Indiana released a list of credible sex abuse claims involving minors on Wednesday. The Congregation of Holy Cross’ list dates back to the 1940s.

Two of the accused clergy served in Phoenix.

“Over the last two decades, but particularly in the last year, we have all become more aware of the problem of sexual abuse of children within the Catholic Church and its mishandling,” Rev. William Lies, the provincial superior of the order, said in a letter published with the list.

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