TEXAS
Denton Record-Chronicle
07:18 AM CST on Monday, December 18, 2006
We are all of us sinners, and in desperate need of forgiveness. Forgiveness and redemption are cornerstones of the world’s great religious faiths, and are God’s gift to imperfect humankind. But silence and reflexive, uninformed absolution are not the same as true forgiveness, and they pose terrible dangers to the innocent among us.
Two Denton County ministers have been accused in civil lawsuits of sexually abusing young girls in their congregations. One suit has been settled out of court with a payment to the female plaintiff, now an adult. The other, also filed by an adult woman alleging abuse as a teenager, is pending, but court documents show that the accused minister has admitted fathering a child with his alleged victim. As this is being written, both ministers still occupy pulpits in their respective churches, both of them Baptist congregations, one of them associated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
The Baptist General Convention keeps a registry of clergy members involved in sexual misconduct, but it is pretty much a “don’t ask, don’t tell” proposition. If a congregation does not wish to report an incident of misconduct, it doesn’t have to. If another congregation doesn’t wish to inquire if a prospective pastor is on the list, there is no requirement that it do so, though the convention recommends it.
It should be remembered that if the women who filed these lawsuits had taken action at the time of the alleged offenses, they would have been investigated as criminal felonies — rape and sexual abuse of a child — with penalties of up to life in prison. But as we have learned from the Catholic Church scandals in recent years, such victims often remain silent as children; they are unable to handle the guilt and fear that accompanies such abuse.
PORTLAND (OR)
Reuters
PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, will pay about $75 million to settle at least 170 claims of sexual abuse by its priests as part of a revised bankruptcy reorganization plan, according to legal documents.
The new plan was filed on Monday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Portland. It calls for 143 people who claimed they were abused to receive about $40.7 million.
About $13.75 million will be set aside for 26 people who may either settle or sue the archdiocese and $20 million will cover future sex abuse claims.
Insurance companies will pay $51.75 million and the remainder will come from archdiocese holdings and loans. No parish or school property will be used to pay the settlement.
CHICAGO (IL)
NBC 5
CHICAGO -- An NBC5 exclusive report Tuesday looked at a new controversy over the Rev. Daniel McCormack, a Chicago Catholic priest accused of abusing five boys at a West Side church and school.
Now, the principal of that school is accusing the Archdiocese of Chicago of trying to make her the scapegoat for the scandal.
NBC5's Kim Vatis said that the controversy is brewing as McCormick awaits trial.
"They're still blaming other people for what they did not do. And I'm angry about it and I'm just fed up," said Barbara Westrick, principal of Our Lady of the Westside School at St. Agatha Catholic Church.
In a letter to the principal's file dated Oct. 6, the archdiocese's superintendent of schools points to a "serious administrative error" for not reporting a conversation Westrick had with the mother of a victim who went to the principal after McCormick's first arrest. Westrik only notified her boss, McCormick, of the parent's comments.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times
December 19, 2006
BY LISA DONOVAN Staff Reporter
The Archdiocese of Chicago has reprimanded the principal of Our Lady of the Westside School for allowing her boss, the Rev. Daniel McCormack, to teach and coach at the elementary school even after sex abuse allegations came to light, NBC 5 reported Monday night.
An angry Barbara Westrick, still principal at the North Lawndale school, fired back on the 10 p.m. broadcast, saying the letter of reprimand is proof the archdiocese -- including Cardinal Francis George -- is using her as a scapegoat.
"For them to accuse me of not taking care of my kids, how dare they," she said, breaking down in tears. "They're the ones who put my kids at risk."
Westrick said she was never told about a recommendation to remove McCormack from ministry, made before his arrest this year, or about his alleged troubled past.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
My Fox
St. Louis, MO --
The survivors network of those abused by priests, or Snap, protests outside of a south St. Louis church.
Snap claims Reverend Carl King of the Watson Terrace Christian Church had inappropriate contact with a mentally challenged congregant.
The group handed out court documents to churchgoers, including a restraining order filed on behalf of the woman. Reverend King has not been charged with any crime, but Snap says he was stripped of his Presbyterian ordination for previous misconduct at an Illinois church.
David Clohessy, SnapAbuse Tracker Director said…”In many states its illegal for a minister to have a sexual involvement with a member of their congregation, he's done it twice, in one case with a mentally challenged woman by no stretch of the imagination could consent to a sexual involvement.”
COLUMBUS (OH)
Beacon Journal
Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A priest convicted of killing a nun was taken from prison to a hospital earlier this month for a problem related to his kidneys, but his condition is not life-threatening, a state prisons spokeswoman said.
The Rev. Gerald Robinson was taken to the Ohio State University Medical Center Dec. 7 from the Hocking Correctional Facility in Nelsonville. Andrea Dean, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, declined to elaborate further on why he was hospitalized.
Information about when he was expected to be discharged was also unavailable.
In May, a Toledo jury found Robinson guilty of killing Sister Margaret Ann Pahl, who was choked and stabbed to death while she was preparing a hospital chapel for Easter weekend services in 1980. He was sentenced to a mandatory term of 15 years to life in prison.
PORTLAND (OR)
Yahoo!
By WILLIAM McCALL, Associated Press Writer
PORTLAND, Ore. - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland has filed a bankruptcy reorganization plan that would pay about $75 million to settle nearly 170 claims of priest sex abuse.
Insurance companies have agreed to pay nearly $52 million under the proposal, with the rest of the money coming from various archdiocese assets — but not its parishes and schools.
The reorganization plan, filed just before midnight Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, said that 143 claims had been settled for $40.7 million.
It would require the archdiocese to provide up to $13.75 million to pay a remaining 26 claims that have not yet been settled. It also would set up a $20 million fund to pay future claims.
CANADA
Whitehorse Star
By STEPHANIE WADDELL
“It is time to move on for Indian residential school survivors who want to bring closure to a very dark chapter in the ongoing relationship between Canada and its aboriginal people.”
Yukon Supreme Court Judge Ron Veale made the statement in his recently-released 25-page decision approving the nation-wide residential schools settlement package for the territory.
For the settlement to take effect, nine courts across the country must approve it. Nunavut and the Northwest Territories are the only remaining regions that have yet to decide. Other jurisdictions have granted their approval.
Earlier this year, over three days, a packed Yukon Supreme Court heard from lawyers and residential school survivors, all recommending the deal be accepted.
A total of 28 survivors addressed the court, sharing stories of their experiences in the school system which took first nation children out of their communities and away from their families. At the schools, they weren’t allowed to speak their languages nor practise their cultures, Veale noted in his decision.
The common package would see survivors from all approved residential schools between 1920 and 1997 receive $10,000 for the first year they were there and $3,000 for each year after.
PINEVILLE (MO)
News-Leader
The Associated Press
Pineville — The wife of a church official is the fourth person ordered to stand trial in a case of alleged sex abuse of young girls at two southwest Missouri church communes.
Laura Epling was bound over for trial Monday by Associate Judge Gregory Stremel, after a preliminary hearing in McDonald County Circuit Court during which a former member of the church testified about the alleged abuse, the court clerk's office said.
Epling faces one count of second-degree statutory sodomy for allegedly helping the Rev. Raymond Lambert molest a then-16-year-old girl at the Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church, a commune-like farm in rural McDonald County in far southwest Missouri. Epling previously pleaded not guilty.
CANADA
The Chronicle Herald
By BILL POWER Staff Reporter
Sunday mass at the Shubenacadie Indian residential school in the 1940s and ’50s was something of a treat for some English-speaking Catholic residents of neighbouring rural communities.
"The non-natives would come up Sunday mornings from the village to attend mass . . . to see the children singing their hearts out in the choir," former school resident Nora Bernard of the Millbrook First Nation said Monday.
"A non-native not familiar with the structure and the abuse would think everything was on the up and up," Ms. Bernard recalled in an interview.
Few local people knew that the children were regularly denied food and clothing and a proper education as well as acceptable health care, not to mention documented cases of sexual abuse, she said.
"The abuse was horrible," said Ms. Bernard, whose Shubenacadie Indian Residential School Association fought for compensation in this province.
FRESNO (CA)
Fresno Bee
By Pablo Lopez / The Fresno Bee 12/19/06 04:13:28
A jury will continue deliberations today in the Fresno County Superior Court civil trial of a Fresno priest accused of molesting an altar boy nearly 20 years ago.
So far, jurors have deliberated 27 1/2 hours over six days in the trial that pits Father Eric Swearingen, pastor of Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Woodward Park, against former altar boy Juan Rocha.
Rocha, now 31 and an Army sergeant first class, has accused Swearingen of molesting him at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Bakersfield and at St. Alphonsus parish in southwest Fresno when Rocha was between 12 and 15 years old.
During the trial, Swearingen testified that he never molested Rocha, but allowed the former altar boy to stay temporarily in the two rectories.
PENNSYLVANIA
The Express-Times
Tuesday, December 19, 206
By ANDREA EILENBERGER
The Express-Times
North Hunterdon/Voorhees Regional High School officials are dismayed by last week's arrest of a physical education teacher now charged with sexually assaulting a former student at a Somerset County school.
They hired Pamela Balogh last year after a thorough review process, according to a letter the district released Monday.
The statement is posted on the district's Web site and is intended to keep the community informed, North Hunterdon Principal Michael Hughes said.
"We want to guarantee the lines of communication are open," Hughes said.
Balogh, 39, of Bethlehem, is accused of sexually assaulting the girl over a 10-month period while she was her coach and teacher at Immaculata High School in Somerville, N.J.
TOLEDO (OH)
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
December 18, 2006
By now, many people are at least marginally familiar with the Father Gerald Robinson case in Toledo, Ohio. Robinson was convicted on May 11, 2006 of murdering Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in a hospital chapel in 1980. He is serving a sentence of 15 years to life.
David Yonke, religion editor of The Toledo Blade, has written a book about the case; it's titled Sin, Shame and Secrets.
The following excerpt of Yonke's book (p. 176) contains an allegation that could be described as a bombshell:
On September 17 (2004), detectives Forrester and Ross again marched into the Catholic Center and went straight to the fourth-floor chancery, this time demanding access to the files in Father Billian's office.
They reviewed a number of files that were marked 'Privileged,' but found nothing related to the investigation of Father Robinson.
The detectives left the chancery empty-handed.
Officially, Sergeant Forrester said the privileged files involved cases of sexual abuse of children by priests. Off the record, a number of insiders, including a diocesan priest, said the files contained reports of abortions paid for by the diocese.
BOSTON (MA)
The Daily News Tribune
By Boston
Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - Updated: 01:16 AM EST
BOSTON - The Archdiocese of Boston reinstated a Waltham priest yesterday after an investigation found no evidence to support a single allegation that he sexually abused a minor about 20 years ago.
The Rev. Roger N. Jacques, former pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Waltham, was placed on administrative leave in October 2002 pending an archdiocese review of the complaint.
"The allegation was found to be unsubstantiated and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has confirmed this finding," according to a statement from the archdiocese.
The findings were immediately communicated to Jacques, who has been reinstated as a priest in good standing, archdiocese spokeswoman Kelly Lynch said. He remains unassigned.
LONG ISLAND (NY)
Newsday
BY JOHN MORENO GONZALES
Newsday Staff Writer
December 19, 2006
Suffolk prosecutors are investigating an allegation of sexual misconduct against a Roman Catholic priest in Mattituck, who has also been placed on administrative leave by the diocese, both the church and district attorney's office confirmed late yesterday.
The "credible allegation" against the Rev. Peter Allen of Our Lady of Good Counsel Church came from a single person and appears to involve one incident, Diocese of Rockville Centre spokesman Sean Dolan said yesterday, declining to provide further details.
Suffolk district attorney's office spokesman Robert Clifford confirmed that Allen was the subject of a sexual misconduct probe involving one alleged victim, but also declined to offer more information.
"In terms of criminal charges being levied, that has not happened," Clifford said. "The case is under investigation."
FRESNO (CA)
ABC 30
By Liz Harrison
12/18/06 - Action News has learned a majority of jurors in a sexual abuse trial of a Fresno priest believe he is guilty. However, because it's a civil trial, the priest and the Catholic Diocese of Fresno can still win the case.
Just half an hour into deliberations Monday morning the jury in the sexual abuse case told the judge their progress toward a verdict had stalled. The jury has been deliberating since Thursday, December 7 but had to start over last week when one of the jurors was dismissed.
It's a case of alleged sexual abuse that allegedly took place over 20 years ago. Juan Rocha was an altar boy, Father Eric Swearingen was his priest.
Rocha, who is currently a sergeant in the U.S. Army, claims Father Swearingen molested him while he stayed overnight at two different church rectories, one in Bakersfield and one in Fresno.
The jury is being asked to answer four different questions. All four must be answered for a verdict in Rocha's favor.
PINEVILLE (MO)
Neosho Daily News
By John Ford / Daily News Associate Editor
Published: Monday, December 18, 2006 4:07 PM CST
PINEVILLE - A preliminary hearing for one McDonald County church leader facing a child sexual abuse charge was postponed, while a judge ruled there was probable cause to continue proceedings against the wife of another leader.
Proceedings against Paul Epling, 53, were postponed as his accuser could not be in McDonald County Circuit Court this morning due to illness. Epling faces an unclassified felony charge of rape dating back to Nov. 7, 1978.
Dan Bagley, assistant McDonald County prosecutor, said the witness had been admitted to the emergency room over the weekend for a stomach virus, but did not require hospitalization.
Newton County Division II Associate Circuit Court Judge Greg Stremel set the preliminary hearing for 9 a.m. Jan. 29. Stremel is presiding in the case after McDonald County Associate Circuit Court Judge John LePage recused himself from hearing the case.
CANADA
Calgary Sun
Mon, December 18, 2006
By KEVIN MARTIN, CALGARY SUN
The Pentecostal church is being sued by a Calgary couple after one of its ministers allegedly had a torrid three-year affair with a member of his flock.
A husband and wife are seeking $200,000 in general damages and an unspecified punitive amount over her sexual relationship with the pastor.
Their statement of claim, a copy of which was obtained today by the Sun, says the pastor used his influence as spiritual leader to seduce the city woman.
“(She) at all times felt controlled and manipulated by (the pastor) for sexual favours,” the lawsuit states.
“The frequency of the sexual encounters at the beginning of the situation was very often,” it says.
“There was ... sexual intercourse or other sexual activities between the parties at least one to two times a week.
BOSTON (MA)
Boston Herald
By Associated Press
Monday, December 18, 2006 - Updated: 05:47 PM EST
BOSTON- The Archdiocese of Boston reinstated a Waltham priest Monday after investigation found no evidence to support a single allegation that he sexually abused a minor about 20 years ago.
The Rev. Roger N. Jacques, former pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Waltham, was placed on administrative leave in October 2002 pending an archdiocese review of the complaint.
“The allegation was found to be unsubstantiated and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has confirmed this finding,” according to a statement from the archdiocese.
Jacques was among 58 Boston-area priests who signed a letter questioning the credibility of Cardinal Bernard F. Law and asking him to resign after a string of priests were accused of sexually abusing minors.
LINCOLN (NE)
National
By TOM CARNEY
Nicole Sotelo, codirector of national Call to Action, said her organization intends to mount a letter-writing campaign to Lincoln, Neb., Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, with copies to Bishop William Skylstad, bishop of Spokane, Wash., and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Vatican has upheld the 1996 excommunication of Call to Action Nebraska by Bruskewitz.(See related story.)
Sotelo said the letters will protest Bruskewitz's refusal to comply with the bishops' conference policies on child abuse by clergy, she said. Asked about the timing of the campaign, just after an announcement that the Vatican has upheld the excommunication of the Lincoln chapter of Call to Action, she said it would counter Bruskewitz's "attempts to silence" the organization.
"Justice cannot be silenced," she said.
LINCOLN (NE)
National
By TOM CARNEY
The Vatican has upheld the 1996 excommunication of Call to Action Nebraska by Lincoln Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz.
Call to Action Nebraska president Rachel Pokora said her organization met Dec. 9, the day after the affirmation was announced. With help from the national group, she said, Call to Action Nebraska intends to appeal the decision to the Apostolic Signatura — the Vatican equivalent of the Supreme Court — and is seeking an English-speaking canon lawyer to be its advocate in Rome.
Bruskewitz's excommunication of the group, a local chapter of the national Call to Action church-reform movement, resulted in nationwide publicity a decade ago, with mentions on "NBC Nightly News," CBS' "60 Minutes," and comments by talk show host Rush Limbaugh. The action also prompted public comments from several prelates, including the late Cardinal Joseph Bernadin of Chicago, who said he would not take the kind of action Bruskewitz took.
PINEVILLE (MO)
KansasCity.com
Associated Press
PINEVILLE, Mo. - The wife of a church official is the fourth person ordered to stand trial in a case of alleged sex abuse of young girls at two southwest Missouri church communes.
Laura Epling was bound over for trial Monday by Associate Judge Gregory Stremel, after a preliminary hearing in McDonald County Circuit Court during which a former member of the church testified about the alleged abuse, the court clerk's office said.
Epling faces one count of second-degree statutory sodomy for allegedly helping the Rev. Raymond Lambert molest a then-16-year-old girl at the Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church, a commune-like farm in rural McDonald County in far southest Missouri. Epling previously pleaded not guilty.
CANADA
Anglican Journal
Solange De Santis
staff writer
Dec 18, 2006
An agreement that will compensate former Indian residential school students and limit legal liability for the churches that ran the institutions took a step closer to finalization on Dec. 15 when seven courts approved the arrangement.
Courts in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and the Yukon released decisions. Two courts – Nunavut and the Northwest Territories – have yet to rule, but their decisions are expected early in the new year.
It is the first time so many courts have been involved in the approval of a class action. In his judgment, Ontario Superior Court Justice Warren Winkler wrote that the parties “have asked the courts to depart from the normal practice and approve, as a term of the settlement, the combining of all outstanding litigation relating to the residential schools in a single class action which will effectively be filed in each jurisdiction in Canada if approval of the settlement is granted.”
BOSTON (MA)
WHDH
BOSTON -- The Boston Archdiocese (pictured) has reinstated a priest, saying investigators found no evidence to support a complaint that he sexually abused a minor 20 years ago.
The Reverend Roger Jacques, former pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Waltham, was placed on administrative leave in October 2002.
Cardinal Sean O'Malley says the allegation was unsubstantiated.
The archdiocese says Jacques is now a priest "in good standing." It did not indicate where he would be assigned.
FRESNO (CA)
Fresno Bee
By Vanessa Colón / The Fresno Bee 12/18/06 05:18:26
Groups of parishioners have been praying around the clock for a court verdict that would exonerate a pastor of Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Fresno's Woodward Park.
Churchgoers began praying in shifts Dec. 10 in support of Father Eric Swearingen, who is accused in a Fresno County Superior Court civil trial of molesting an altar boy 20 years ago. Swearingen has denied the allegation.
On Sunday, following a Life Teen Mass tailored for youths, about a dozen teens gathered outside the church to show their faith in Swearingen. They held signs with drawn hearts reading, "We [love] you Father Eric."
"I think it's absolutely ridiculous. There's no way in a million years this could have ever happened," said 16-year-old Brianne Torres of Fresno.
BLANCO (TX)
American-Statesman
By Molly Bloom
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Friday, December 15, 2006
James Wright Jr.'s parents sent their 15-year-old son to Christ of the Hills monastery in Blanco County because he was acting out. They thought the Russian Orthodox monks there would give him spiritual enlightenment and maturity.
Instead, three of the monks sexually abused him over a period of 11 months from 1998 to 1999, according to a suit Wright filed against three of the monks, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and the nonprofit Ecumenical Monks Inc., which owns the monastery's land.
The church, monastery founder Samuel Greene Jr. and monk William Hughes settled with Wright on Wednesday without admitting that they did anything wrong, said Mark Long, Wright's attorney.
Wright received about $500,000 in the settlement, said Lin Hughes, an attorney for the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Monk Walter Christley and Ecumenical Monks Inc. have not settled with Wright, Long said.
The church broke ties with the monastery in 1999 after an earlier criminal investigation into a 13-year-old boy's claim of abuse by two monks.
ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
By Aisha Sultan
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
12/18/2006
A victims' activist group targeted a minister at Watson Terrace Christian Church on Sunday, distributing leaflets that alleged sexual misconduct in his previous positions.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests distributed a thick dossier on the Rev. Carl King, including copies of court documents of a 2005 restraining order, parts of his divorce proceedings and records about his departure from the Presbytery of Southeastern Illinois.
Church members refused to let a reporter enter the building or talk to King regarding the allegations.
While the Watson Terrace church is a member of the Disciples of Christ denomination, King is not a recognized ordained minister of the denomination, according to the Rev. Penny Ross-Corona, an area minister for the Southeast Gateway Area of the Christian Church.
UTAH
The Spectrum
It's not too often that Southern Utah steps into the national spotlight. Sure, the St. George area is well known for being a retirement destination, and the Utah Shakespearean Festival has helped gain Cedar City notoriety.
Both of those are things to be proud of.
But our region hit the national stage again this week when the preliminary hearing for polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs wrapped up with an order for Jeffs to stand trial beginning in April on charges of rape as an accomplice.
That's not so good.
It's important that Jeffs finally gets his day in court. The rumors have been floating around for years about sexual abuse of young girls and welfare fraud running rampant among at least some members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. At least in this one case - in which a woman has accused Jeffs of forcing her to have sexual relations with her 19-year-old cousin when she was just 14 - Jeffs gets the opportunity to refute the charges and stand up for his faith.
IRELAND
Spiked
Michael Fitzpatrick
There is an old Irish joke, retold here by Richard Dawkins, about somebody in Northern Ireland who responded to a survey question about religious affiliation by declaring himself an atheist. ‘Would that be a Protestant atheist or a Catholic atheist?’ came the insistent reply. Faced with a similar inquiry, I would be obliged to declare myself a Catholic atheist. By this I mean that I am an atheist by conviction, but a Catholic by upbringing and tribal affiliation.
I know that some people raised as Catholics blame the Church of Rome for their difficulties in later life, nourishing a particularly degenerate literary genre. As a child taught by nuns and brothers, I endured a fair amount of pious claptrap and casual corporal punishment and some inappropriate sexual interest. But any detriment suffered was far outweighed by a sound education and by exposure to a rich cultural heritage – of art and music, scripture and ritual. For this I retain gratitude, affection and respect.
Though as an atheist I feel I should welcome Dawkins’ diatribe against religion, as a Catholic atheist, I find myself repelled by his crass polemic – and I am not alone (1). In his comments on Catholicism, Dawkins reveals a combination of old-fashioned Protestant anti-Popery with the fashionable contempt of the liberal intelligentsia for any kind of religious faith. Thus he refers to the ‘semi-permanent state of morbid guilt suffered by a Roman Catholic possessed of normal human frailty and less than normal intelligence’ (p167). Discussing the consequences of clerical sexual abuse in Ireland, he suggests that ‘horrible as sexual abuse no doubt was, the damage was arguably less than the long-term psychological damage inflicted by bringing the child up Catholic in the first place’ (p317). These are statements of such unmitigated prejudice – and indeed absurdity – that it is shocking to find them in a serious book by a reputable author.
AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
Geesche Jacobsen
December 19, 2006
"IN OUR community we really treat each other as if we are really, really close friends," the 10-year-old girl explained to the police officer.
The girl was talking about her religious community, the Exclusive Brethren.
And she was explaining how she came to stay with a man who digitally raped and repeatedly indecently assaulted her sister.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was yesterday found guilty in the District Court of four counts of indecent assault and a charge of sexual intercourse with a child under 10.
Judge Helen Murrell told the Downing Centre jury he was convicted last year of sexual offences against the girl's sister. She refused to continue his bail, pending his sentencing in January.
WASHINGTON (DC)
The New York Sun
By Associated Press
December 18, 2006
WASHINGTON — The Archdiocese of Washington has agreed to pay $1.3 million to 16 men who said they were sexually abused by eight priests between 1962 and 1982.
Although the men began pursuing claims three years ago, no lawsuits were filed in part because the statutes of limitation had expired in the jurisdictions where the acts allegedly occurred, an attorney for the group, Peter Gillon, said.
"Our clients were in severe distress, emotionally, psychologically, financially, and spiritually, and felt that a settlement was appropriate at this time," Mr. Gillon said as the agreement was announced Friday.
The allegations raised by the men stemmed from events that occurred between 24 and 44 years ago, and two of the men receiving settlement money already had lost legal claims against the archdiocese. All eight priests involved in the allegations have been removed from ministry; seven were prosecuted, and one was acquitted.
CULPEPER (VA)
Richmond Times Dispatch
BY LIZ MITCHELL
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE Dec 18, 2006
CULPEPER -- A Baptist minister signed a plea agreement last week that resulted in his conviction on one felony and six misdemeanor charges related to child abuse.
Charles Shifflett, pastor of First Baptist Church of Culpeper, had been scheduled for four trials beginning Jan. 17 on seven felony charges of physical and sexual abuse against children.
After months of negotiating, prosecution and defense lawyers came to an agreement that is signed by Shifflett, 55, and the victims. The case was added to Thursday's docket days earlier, when Shifflett decided to sign the plea.
Shifflett entered an Alford plea, which means he does not admit guilt but acknowledges that the prosecution has sufficient evidence for a conviction. If the cases had gone to trial, Shifflett could have faced as much as 35 years in prison.
TEXAS
Denton Record-Chronicle
01:46 AM CST on Sunday, December 17, 2006
By Donna Fielder / Staff Writer
A support group for victims of sexual abuse by clergy members is lobbying the General Baptist Convention of Texas to make public a list the convention keeps of Baptist ministers involved in sexual misconduct.
Members of Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests or Clergy (SNAP) handed out pamphlets at the November Baptist General Convention of Texas outlining the problem with the “secret list” and the reasons they believe the ministers’ names should be made public.
But Texas Baptist officials are adamant that the list be kept confidential.
Emily Row, coordinator of leader communication with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, said there are several reasons.
“This is not a list of people, but a file that includes incidents of clergy misconduct reported by the churches that cooperate within the convention,” Row said. “Baptists don’t have denominational structure like most denominations. Churches choose to participate or not, and we have no overarching hierarchical system.”
TEXAS
Denton Record-Chronicle
01:44 AM CST on Sunday, December 17, 2006
By Donna Fielder / Staff Writer
It is not unusual for victims who were sexually abused as children to wait until adulthood to make the abuse public, experienced counselors say. Feelings of confusion, betrayal and guilt often are so overwhelming that they are suppressed, and sometimes it takes years for a victim to be able to confront what happened, psychologists say.
Dr. Karen Cogan is a licensed psychologist with a private practice who also works at the University of North Texas Counseling and Testing Center.
“This has been one of my areas of expertise for many years now,” Cogan said. “Often it takes the victim many years to come to terms with what has happened and understand it enough to come forward and tell people. They may have tried and not been believed by other adults in their lives. Who wants to deal with that, having people think it didn’t happen or that they brought it on themselves?”
Telling the story is reliving it, Cogan said.
TEXAS
Denton Record-Chronicle
11:08 AM CST on Sunday, December 17, 2006
By Donna Fielder / Staff Writer
Two Denton-area Baptist ministers have apologized in the wake of lawsuits filed by women who allege the ministers molested them as teenagers.
Larry Reynolds, pastor of the Southmont Baptist Church in Denton, and Dale “Dickie” Amyx, pastor of the Bolivar Baptist Church near Sanger, were accused in separate lawsuits filed in June of molesting girls who sought their counseling when the girls were 14. Each also was accused of continuing to sexually exploit his position of trust with the girls for several years.
Different women made the allegations, and the lawsuits are not connected.
Reynolds said he could not comment for this story, and Amyx gave a one-sentence response when reached by telephone Thursday.
“I talked to my lawyer and he said to refer all questions to him,” Amyx said.
Each man is accused in the civil lawsuits of crimes that would have been first-degree felonies with possible life sentences had the girls told authorities at the time. Neither girl told anyone about the incidents until the statute of limitations had passed for criminal prosecution. In cases involving juveniles, victims can report a crime until 10 years after their 18th birthday. Both women are now older than 28.
TEXAS
WFAA
09:34 AM CST on Sunday, December 17, 2006
By DONNA FIELDER / Denton Record-Chronicle
Two Denton County Baptist ministers have been sued by women who accuse the pastors of sexual abuse when the women were teenagers.
Larry Reynolds, pastor of Southmont Baptist Church in Denton, and Dale "Dickie" Amyx, pastor of Bolivar Baptist Church near Sanger, were accused in separate lawsuits filed in June.
Different women made the allegations, and the lawsuits are not related. The suit against Dr. Reynolds has been settled; the one against Mr. Amyx is ongoing.
Dr. Reynolds said he could not comment.
"While I would very much like to be able to tell you my side of the story concerning the allegations that were made against me, I am not allowed to do so," Dr. Reynolds wrote in an e-mail to the Denton Record-Chronicle.
Mr. Amyx, 61, referred all questions to his lawyer, James Harrison, who said it would not be appropriate to comment during pending litigation.
MASSACHUSETTS
Boston Herald
By O’Ryan Johnson
Sunday, December 17, 2006 - Updated: 01:01 AM EST
Governor-elect Deval Patrick yesterday named former Essex District Attorney Kevin Burke and former state Rep. Suzanne Bump to his cabinet.
Burke was named head of the Executive Office of Public Saftey, while Bump was selected as director of the Department of Workforce Development.
Burke, 60, a Beverly resident, served as Essex County’s top prosecutor from 1979 to 2002. Among many high-profile cases, Burke prosecuted defrocked Haverhill priest Ronald Paquin for child sex crimes. Paquin later pleaded guilty. Burke now works for Burke and Mawn, LLC, a public safety consulting firm.
American Chronicle
Chris Stevenson
December 16, 2006
How Churches, Police, Grand Juries, and Judges can work together.
The mistake they (Jehovah’s Witnesses) made was when they began to handle child abuse as an ordinary infraction in the congregation rather than [calling the police] - Barbara Anderson, a former top Watchtower publications researcher and writer
Early last September a Hunterdon County (NJ) Grand Jury did their job. They indicted a former Pastor of what the Express-Times called “a close-knit congregation of about 630 families.” The sub-human’s name is “the Reverend.” John Banko. He is already in the middle of a 15-year sentence for plugging an Alter boy in ’93. According to the Express: “About a year before the new accusations claim, he sexually assaulted a 2nd child,” whom attended his church. This charge is for the sexual assault of an 11-year-old who was a member of the lopsided named St. Edward the Confessor Roman Catholic Church. How about renaming it St. Edward the Molester Roman Catholic Church? Oh never mind. Some faiths urge their followers to be silent, so they can handle this internally. Here are 3 simple rules to go by if your church is confronted with such a problem:
1-Don’t let anyone tell you that this is only a “Church matter,” a “congregational matter,” a “Clergy,” “Elder,” or doctrinal matter: Your Church heads are as qualified to handle criminal offenses as your cable-guy is qualified to run a nuclear power plant. I hate to sound crude, but it is what it is. Simply contact your local law enforcement agency; police dept. Sheriff’s dept. FBI etc. This is not rocket science. Yes God is merciful, but God isn’t stupid, he does not want scum representing him. Police Forensic Experts can determine the validity of any accusation. If confirmed as true, he is to be promptly removed from his position (that’s right, leave him hanging) and left to the judgment of the only organization he now belongs to, the state or federal judicial system, and the tattooed muscle-bound Aryan Nations brotherhood in San Quentin, Attica, or hopefully Ft. Leavenworth, who await him with open arms.
MISSOURI
NPR
by Doualy Xaykaothao
Weekend Edition Saturday, December 16, 2006
This week, NPR aired several reports about cases of alleged child sexual abuse involving a couple of church leaders in Southwest Missouri. The accusers are church members, most of whom are related to the accused by blood or marriage. All of the accused deny all the charges against them. In this reporter's notebook, NPR's Doualy Xaykaothao shares how challenging it was to gather the story.
I first saw this story in the summer. It seemed to be unusual because of the familial ties between most of the accused church leaders and the accusers. It was also interesting because their place of worship was on a 100-acre-farm in the Ozarks -- a beautiful part of this country that I knew little about. NPR producer Art Silverman and I traveled to Missouri to report on the alleged child sexual abuse cases.
At an October preliminary hearing in Newton County, a judge swore in an accuser before she testified against one church leader: 63-year-old Pastor George Johnston. He denies all the charges against him. The hearing took place in a small court-room on a rainy day. Apart from the courtroom staff and the lawyers, there were only a handful of observers in the public seating area.
SANTA ANA (CA)
CBS 2
(AP) SANTA ANA, Calif. A judge ruled this week that a Roman Catholic high school at the center of a sexual abuse lawsuit must release information about alleged sexual misconduct between teachers and students over a ten-year period ending in 1997.
Lawyers for a former student say documents about any incidents involving a former assistant basketball coach at Mater Dei High School could show that school administrators covered up sexual abuse.
The judge also ruled that the former dean of Mater Dei High School must answer questions from lawyers of a woman who says a former school coach molested her.
The ruling is part of a lawsuit by a former Mater Dei student who alleges she was abused by coach Jeffrey Andrade for two years starting in 1995.
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 12/17/06
BY CHAD HEMENWAY
SOMERVILLE (NJ)
Ashbury Park Press
GANNETT NEW JERSEY
SOMERVILLE — A former Immaculata High School physical education teacher and coach, once described by an assistant as the "Vince Lombardi" of girls basketball at the school, was arrested and charged Thursday with sexually assaulting a female student, Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne J. Forrest said.
Pamela Balogh, 39, of Bethlehem, Pa., was arrested and charged with first-degree aggravated sexual assault, second-degree sexual assault, third-degree aggravated criminal sexual contact, fourth-degree criminal sexual contact and third-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
The female victim reported the sexual assaults, which usually occurred in Balogh's office at Immaculata High School, began in December 2004 and continued through September 2005, Forrest said.
FORT COLLINS (CO)
CBS 4
(AP) FORT COLLINS, Colo. A 43-year-old former Roman Catholic priest has pleaded not guilty to sexually molesting a Fort Collins teen.
Timothy Evans entered the plea in Larimer District Court Friday. He is accused of molesting the teen between 1998 and 1999 while he was assigned to Saint Elizabeth Seton Church.
He also is accused of providing the teen alcohol. His trial is set to begin March 19.
WASHINGTON (DC)
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 17, 2006
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington has agreed to pay $1.3 million to 16 men who said they were sexually abused by eight priests from 1962 to 1982.
Although the men began pursuing the claims three years ago, in many instances the statutes of limitation had expired in the jurisdictions where they said the abuse had occurred, said Peter M. Gillon, a lawyer for the group. In addition, two of the men had already lost legal claims against the archdiocese.
“Our clients were in severe distress, emotionally, psychologically, financially and spiritually, and felt that a settlement was appropriate at this time,” Mr. Gillon said as the agreement was announced Friday.
All eight priests accused by the men have been removed from ministry; seven were prosecuted and one was acquitted.
UNITED KINGDOM
Guardian
Antony Barnett, investigations editor
Sunday December 17, 2006
The Observer
The Catholic church faces fresh allegations of turning a blind eye to paedophilia after an Observer investigation revealed that one of its priests was allowed to continue working despite warnings he posed a danger to children.
The priest, Father David Crowley, went on to rape a 10-year-old altar boy, whom he continued to abuse until 1995. Now the victim has spoken publicly for the first time about his ordeal in order to expose the 'scandalous' way he says the church has behaved. He has accused the Rt Rev David Konstant, former Bishop of Leeds, of failing to stop Crowley despite having evidence that the priest was a sex risk to children. In 1997 Crowley was jailed for nine years after pleading guilty to abusing boys for more than a decade.
Konstant was Bishop of Leeds for 19 years, chairman of the Catholic Education Service and headed the church's international affairs committee under Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster.
Documents show that in 1987 while Konstant was Bishop of Leeds, he was told of an incident where Crowley had 'facilitated' sexual activities between young boys in Huddersfield after allowing them to drink alcohol. A letter seen by The Observer shows that on 12 March that year, Konstant wrote to Crowley telling him that 'the grave scandal' means 'it will not be possible for you to work again as a priest in this diocese'.
ARIZONA
East Valley Tribune
By Gary Grado, Tribune
December 16, 2006
A former Chandler priest was sentenced Friday for having sex with a teenage parishioner 23 years ago, but the man received credit for almost a year of pretrial incarceration and will likely walk out of prison within a few days.
Judge Warren Granville sentenced the Rev. Joseph Briceno, former associate pastor at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, to almost 23 months in prison and three years probation — the maximum penalty available under the plea deal reached in October.
“The trust that was afforded you ... by the community is different than it is for parents and teachers, and you breached that trust,” Granville said. “You admitted to breaching that trust.”
NEW LONDON (CT)
The Day
By Karen Florin, Day Staff Writer
Published on 12/16/2006 in Region » Region News
As his wife, daughter and two former parishioners watched in disbelief, former Norwich Assembly of God pastor Charles L. Johnson Jr. gave his Bible and other personal belongings to his attorney.
Found guilty Friday morning of sexually assaulting a young girl, Johnson then departed meekly with judicial marshals.
The six members of the jury had entered the room with grim expressions, and one, who works with young children, sobbed as Court Clerk Martha Morrarty polled each juror to confirm the guilty verdicts for first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor.
Judge Stuart M. Schimelman raised Johnson's bond from $150,000 to $500,000 and set sentencing for Jan. 26.
MISSOURI
NPR
by Doualy Xaykaothao
All Things Considered, December 15, 2006
For decades, the windswept hillside known as Grand Valley Farm -- in the extreme southwestern corner of Missouri -- was home to a small, tight-knit religious community.
But recently, the farm has gained unwanted attention amid allegations of child sexual abuse. Most of the accusers and the accused are related by blood or marriage. All were members of the small family church.
All of the accused have pleaded not guilty. Of the several cases, only one trial date has been set for early next year. Whatever the outcome of the legal process, life has changed dramatically for members of the community.
GRAYSON (KY)
Kentucky.com
Associated Press
GRAYSON, Ky. - A former youth minister from northeastern Kentucky pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree sexual abuse in connection with the alleged rapes of two underage girls in 2003 and 2005.
Eric B. Porter, 31, was a youth pastor at Gregoryville Christian Church when the crimes occurred, and the victims, ages 16 and 15 at the time, were church members. Porter entered the plea Thursday.
When he was arrested nearly a year ago, Porter was initially charged with two counts of first-degree rape, three counts of first-degree sodomy and one burglary charge. The sex crimes were Class A felonies, which carry a sentence of 20 years to life in prison.
"That's the offer he pleaded to," Carter County Commonwealth's Attorney David Flatt told The Independent of Ashland. "He hasn't been sentenced yet so, obviously, the judge could come back and decide not to accept it."
TEXAS
Times Record News
By Jessica Langdon/Times Record News
December 16, 2006
Delfina Martinez has attended Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church for 75 years. It's the church where her husband, Agapito - "Pete" - was baptized in 1927.
She expects sadness to touch this weekend's Masses, and she also hopes the services will shed some light on the situation that stunned her when she heard it Thursday night. Bishop Kevin Vann with the Diocese of Fort Worth removed Father Gilbert Albert Pansza - Father Gil - from active ministry after church leaders discovered an admission in his file concerning an incident of sexual abuse in the 1970s.
"I was very, very shocked. Very shocked," Martinez said. "I thought, 'Why didn't we know about this before?' "
Pansza, 55, was ordained as a priest in May 2000. He came to Our Lady of Guadalupe in July, after serving as pastor from August 2002 to June 2006 for churches in Bridgeport, Decatur and Jacksboro.
NEW LONDON (CT)
Norwich Bulletin
By GREG SMITH
Norwich Bulletin
NEW LONDON --A guilty verdict in the sexual molestation trial of Charles Johnson Jr. was met with tears and disbelief Friday by friends and supporters of the longtime pastor at the Norwich Assembly of God.
A six-member jury found Johnson guilty of first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor, which means Johnson, 53, will serve at least two years in prison.
Held on $500,000 bond, Johnson will be sentenced Jan. 26 in New London Superior Court, where he faces a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
Some vowed continued support despite the verdict.
"It's such an injustice. It's wrong, terribly wrong," said family friend and church member Bonnie Nicholson through tears. "This man is not capable of such a thing."
Johnson of Norwich was convicted on charges he inappropriately touched a young girl whose family was involved in the church and had twice lived with the Johnsons in Norwich.
OHIO
Cleveland Plain Dealer
David Briggs
They are still here among us, the victims of sexual abuse whose courage will not let us turn away.
In kitchens and living rooms in Avon Lake and Brook Park, in Cleveland Heights and Parma and Lakewood, they revealed what for so long so many of us did not want to hear: the young girl who was raped by a clergyman and then accused by her disbelieving father of being a whore; the teenage boys seduced by religious leaders with simple acts such as movie outings and swimming trips; the silent suffering of scores of boys and girls, now men and women, who were too ashamed even to tell spouses or family members of the violations that have haunted them since childhood.
Consider how many times these wounded people tried to speak up and were mercilessly turned away by church officials, fellow congregation members and even relatives who refused to acknowledge that a pastor in their church could commit such acts.
And yet they continued to take leaps of faith, bringing the issue to light by sharing their painful odysseys with reporters including me and my Plain Dealer colleague James McCarty and, before us, Karen Henderson.
Throughout the country and in Northeast Ohio, the courage of the victims and their families in coming forward has produced great strides toward healing survivors and protecting children. Several denominations have put into place policies for reporting abuse to both civil and religious authorities.
Often, when The Plain Dealer published the name of a religious leader accused of abusive behavior, Jim and I would hear from abuse survivors who were thankful to learn they were not alone. Some would tell how the victim's bravery gave them the courage to share their burdens with spouses and friends.
NEW JERSEY
Courier News
By CELANIE POLANICK
Staff Writer
North Hunterdon-Voorhees High School officials have suspended a physical education teacher who has been charged with sexually assaulting a student at her previous job.
Before she came to North Hunterdon-Voorhees High School, Pamela Balogh, 39, of Bethlehem, Pa., worked at Immaculata High School in Somerville as a physical education teacher and coach.
Balogh was arrested Thursday and charged with first-degree aggravated sexual assault, second-degree sexual assault, third-degree aggravated criminal sexual contact, fourth-degree criminal sexual contact and third-degree endangering the welfare of a child, Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne J. Forrest said. He declined to comment on other details of the investigation.
WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 16, 2006; Page
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said yesterday it has reached a $1.3 million settlement with 16 men who were sexually abused by priests between 1962 and 1982.
Both the total dollar figure and the amount per victim -- an average of about $81,000 before legal fees -- are small compared with the sums negotiated by some other Catholic dioceses, particularly in California, where two recent settlements totaled $160 million and topped $1 million per victim.
But the victims in the Washington archdiocese were in a weaker legal position, because all of their potential claims were beyond the statute of limitations for civil lawsuits. In California, the legislature has allowed victims of child sexual abuse to sue for damages no matter how long ago the abuse occurred.
"We feel the amount received by each victim was fair, given the legal defenses raised by the archdiocese," said the victims' attorney, Peter M. Gillon of the firm of Greenberg, Traurig. "These men are all truly suffering psychologically, financially and spiritually, and therefore we all agreed it was best to reach a settlement at this time, even if the amounts were not large." ...
Terry McKiernan, who tracks sex abuse cases and statistics for bishopaccountability.org, a Boston-based group, said he is skeptical of claims that Washington, or any other diocese, has a much cleaner record than the church as a whole.
"I think the variation is not so much in performance as in availability of data" on individual dioceses, he said. In places such as Boston, Cleveland, Philadelphia and Manchester, N.H., where grand juries have investigated the church's handling of sex abuse cases, the percentage of abusers appears to be higher, he said.
CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times
By Jennifer Delson, Times Staff Writer
December 16, 2006
Reaffirming a previous court decision contested by Mater Dei High School, an Orange County Superior Court judge ruled this week that the school must release information about allegations of sexual misconduct between teachers and students during a 10-year period ending in 1997.
The ruling Thursday was part of a 2005 lawsuit filed by a former student who alleged that former Mater Dei assistant basketball coach Jeff Andrade sexually abused her for a year, beginning when she was 15.
Andrade admitted he had sexual intercourse with the girl, according to court documents.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Jonathan H. Cannon ruled that the Santa Ana school had to provide the documents about any alleged incident during the period Andrade worked at the school. The student's lawyers had argued that allegations could show a pattern of high school administrators covering up sexual abuse.
WILMINGTON (DE)
The News Journal
By BETH MILLER, The News Journal
Posted Saturday, December 16, 2006
WILMINGTON -- Delaware's civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse was in the crosshairs again Friday as two men who say they were sexually abused by priests at Catholic schools called for lawmakers to change the law.
The men, Eric Eden and Navy Cmdr. Kenneth Whitwell, and their attorney, Thomas S. Neuberger, held a news conference Friday morning to press lawmakers to give victims of abuse more than two years to sue.
On those points, the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington agrees and also believes the statute should change, diocese attorney Tony Flynn said.
State Sen. Karen A. Peterson, D-Stanton, and Rep. Greg Lavelle, R-Sharpley, who sponsored legislation to change the law this year, said Friday they plan to do so again after the General Assembly reconvenes in January. The final version of the bill, granting victims 25 years after their 18th birthday, ran into a limitation of its own in Dover -- the end of the legislative session.
CHICAGO (IL)
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
December 15, 2006
From a Dec. 14, 2006 story in the Chicago Sun-Times:
Two brothers who were sued for defamation last month by a Roman Catholic priest who they say sexually abused them more than 20 years ago responded Wednesday by suing Cardinal Francis George.
The brothers — known in court records as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 — claim the Rev. Robert Stepek abused them in the 1980s at St. Symphorosa parish on Chicago's South Side when they were about 9 and 16 years old.
In November — acting on the recommendation of a review board that concluded there was reasonable cause to suspect the abuse occurred — George removed Stepek as pastor of St. Albert the Great parish in Burbank.
Following church protocol, George then referred Stepek's case to the Vatican for guidance about further action the archdiocese should take.
But Stepek denied having abused anyone, claiming the brothers had a "vendetta" against him, and he filed a defamation lawsuit against the two last month seeking more than $1 million in damages....
The following is the text of the defamation complaint filed on behalf of Father Robert Stepek:
ARIZONA
The Arizona Repub lic
Jahna Berry
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 16, 2006 12:00 AM
A former Chandler associate pastor who pleaded guilty in October to two felony counts of sexual conduct with a minor likely will serve only weeks behind bars under the laws that were in effect at the time of his crimes.
On Friday, a judge sentenced Joseph Briceño to nearly two years in prison and three years probation. Briceño, 60, also must register as a sex offender.
However, since Briceño's crimes were committed in the 1980s, he will have to serve only a fraction of that sentence, about 90 days, his attorney, Karla Momberger said. advertisement
Since he has been incarcerated for about a year, that more than satisfies the sentence, she said.
Briceño was tried this year on charges of abusing then-teenager Joaquin Bustamante, who attended St. Mary's Catholic Church.
ARIZONA
Arizona Daily Star
By The Associated Press
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.16.2006
PHOENIX — A former Catholic priest was sentenced to prison Friday for sexually abusing a teen more than 20 years ago.
Joseph Briceno, who pleaded guilty in October on two felony counts of sexual conduct with a minor, received the maximum sentence possible under a plea agreement with prosecutors. Besides serving 1.875 years in prison, he will be on probation for three years and also must register as a sex offender, said Barnett Lotstein, special assistant county attorney.
The county attorney previously dismissed four other counts of sexual conduct with a minor, one count of attempted sexual contact and one count of sexual abuse.
The incidents happened in 1982 and 1983 while Briceno was a priest at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Chandler.
ARIZONA
Tucson Citizen
The Arizona Republic
A former Roman Catholic parish priest in Chandler who pleaded guilty to two felony counts of sexual conduct with a minor will likely serve only about three months behind bars under laws that were in effect at the time of his crimes.
On Friday, a judge sentenced Joseph Briceño to nearly two years in prison and three years' probation. Briceño, 60, must also register as a sex offender.
But because Briceño's crimes were committed in the 1980s, he will have to serve only a fraction of that sentence, about 90 days, his attorney, Karla Momberger, said.
Because Briceño has been incarcerated for more than a year, that more than satisfies the sentence, she said.
ROME
Los Angeles Times
By Tracy Wilkinson, Times Staff Writer
December 16, 2006
ROME — The pope's official pastor Friday called for a worldwide day of fasting and penance to seek forgiveness for the sexual abuse by some priests of "the smallest members" of the Roman Catholic Church.
Speaking to Pope Benedict XVI and his top associates in a pre-Christmas sermon, Father Raniero Cantalamessa said that the church had paid a high price for "abominations" committed by abusive priests but that deeper atonement was necessary, including a public expression of sorrow and solidarity with victims.
"The time has come to do the most important thing: cry before God," Cantalamessa said.
As preacher of the papal household, his formal title, Cantalamessa is the only cleric who pronounces sermons to the pope. In his meditation Friday, he touched on a topic that, while receiving enormous attention in the United States, is only occasionally addressed in public in Rome.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
From a Times Staff Writer
December 16, 2006
A deal has been finalized for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles to pay 45 victims of clergy sexual abuse $60 million.
Plaintiffs' attorney Raymond P. Boucher announced that the settlement of the victims' legal claims is official, and said they received payment Thursday and Friday. Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, who heads the archdiocese, announced the agreement Dec. 1.
"Forty-five people now have a chance to move forward," said Boucher, who is the lead counsel representing victims. "Thank God for that."
The deal includes cases that occurred when the archdiocese was not insured or was self-insured. Boucher noted that more than 500 cases remain to be resolved and urged the insurance companies expected by the archdiocese to cover much of the remaining liability to complete negotiations quickly.
MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald
BY JAY WEAVER
jweaver@MiamiHerald.com
Ernest Durante kept a low profile as a guidance counselor at St. Thomas Aquinas High School -- until allegations about his priestly past resurfaced this fall.
A Philadelphia woman who once knew Durante contacted the Fort Lauderdale school to report that he was an ex-priest who had been identified in a 2005 grand jury report on Catholic clergymen accused of sexually abusing children.
Durante was not charged with any crime, but the report said he ''sometimes watched'' as a fellow priest sexually abused a 14-year-old male student in 1967 at a Catholic high school in Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia grand jury report said Durante and the colleague, the Rev. John Schmeer, took the boy to homes they shared in the Philadelphia area and the New Jersey Shore, where they gave him Playboy magazines and introduced him to a teenage girl.
FORT WORTH (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
12/16/2006
Associated Press
While Gilbert Pansza was still studying to become a clergyman, he admitted sexually abusing a child in the 1970s to Catholic Bishop Joseph Delaney.
Two years after Pansza's 1998 admission, Delaney ordained him into the priesthood.
Despite a 2002 agreement by bishops nationwide to keep known abusers from serving in the ministry, Pansza continued working. He was eventually promoted to pastor and went on to work at parishes in Fort Worth, Bridgeport, Decatur, Jacksboro and Wichita Falls.
A 2004 order required the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese to hand over records on priests accused of sexual abuse. But nothing about Pansza was surrendered.
The decisions were made by a previous diocesan administration, said John Crumley, an attorney for the diocese. He didn't learn about Pansza's admission until a few days ago, when Delaney's successor found out, Crumley said.
FORT WORTH (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
12:00 AM CST on Saturday, December 16, 2006
By BROOKS EGERTON / The Dallas Morning News
In 1998, Gilbert Pansza admitted to Fort Worth Catholic Bishop Joseph Delaney that he had sexually abused a child decades earlier.
Two years later, Bishop Delaney ordained him to the priesthood anyway. In 2002, the nation's bishops agreed that no known abuser could serve in ministry. Father Pansza went on working despite this "zero tolerance" policy and soon was promoted to a pastor's job.
In 2004, a judge ordered the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese to surrender all its records on priests accused of sexual abuse. It turned over nothing about Father Pansza.
An attorney for the diocese, John Crumley, said Friday that he couldn't explain any of it.
The diocese's spokesman, Jeff Hensley, continued his recent practice of not responding to inquiries from The Dallas Morning News.
VATICAN CITY
Boston.com
By Philip Pullella, Reuters | December 16, 2006
VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict's personal preacher yesterday urged the pope to call a worldwide day of fasting and penitence to ask forgiveness for the clergy sexual abuse scandals.
The Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, whose official title is "preacher of the papal household," made the suggestion during a pre-Christmas sermon at a Vatican chapel. Benedict was not present.
Cantalamessa said the church had "wept and sighed" recently over "abominations committed by her very ministers and pastors." He said the time had come for the church to "weep before God," to publicly express remorse, and to show solidarity with the victims.
The clergy abuse scandal has affected Catholic dioceses across the United States.
Many priests have been prosecuted and millions has been paid to victims. Scandals have also hit churches in Ireland, among other countries.
VATICAN CITY
Mercury News
By Victor L. Simpson
Associated Press
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI's personal priest asked the pontiff Friday to declare a day of fasting and penance to express the Roman Catholic Church's solidarity with the victims of clerical sex abuse.
In a strongly worded lecture, the Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa denounced the ``abominations'' committed inside the church ``by its own ministers and pastors'' and declared that the church has ``paid a high price for this.''
``The moment has come, after the emergency, to do the most important thing of all: to cry before God,'' said Cantalamessa, in a pre-Christmas talk delivered in a Vatican chapel. The pope was in the audience. ...
An advocacy group for victims of sexual abuse by clergy said the church should do more than call for penance and fasting.
``Decisive action protects kids, not nice gestures,'' Barbara Blaine, national president of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, said in a statement. ``We'd much rather the pope discipline complicit bishops instead, because that's what is just, appropriate and effective.''
Blaine alleged that hundreds of bishops have covered up thousands of sex crimes.
Mary Pat Fox, president of Voice of the Faithful, a lay U.S. Catholic reform group created in response to the molestation scandal, said the comments were a hopeful sign that Vatican leaders were beginning to understand the depth of the crisis. However, Fox said church officials should go further by punishing bishops who sheltered guilty clergy.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Lompoc Record
LOS ANGELES - Attorneys representing 45 people who sued the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, accusing clergy members of sex abuse, signed off Friday on a $60 million settlement, according to the lead plaintiffs' lawyer.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles said this month that it would pay $60 million to settle 45 cases that dated from prior to the mid-1950s and after 1987 _ periods when the archdiocese had little or no sexual abuse insurance.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said the archdiocese had gone public with the agreement before all the accusers and their attorneys had reviewed and signed the documents. That process was finished Friday, Ray Boucher, the lead plaintiffs' attorney, said in a statement.
MALTA
MaltaMedia News
Dec 16, 2006, 12:43 CET
Pope Benedict XVI's personal priest, Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, asked the pontiff on Friday to declare a day of fasting and penance to express the Roman Catholic Church's solidarity with the victims of clerical sexual abuse, reported Associated Press.
The plea follows Malta being in the limelight after United States Republican Congressman Mark Foley’s claims that he was molested by a clergyman. Gozitan Fr. Anthony Mercieca, had later come forward saying that he had an "intimate relationship" with Mark Foley in the 1960s.
Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa denounced the "abominations" committed inside the church "by its own ministers and pastors". He added that the church has "paid a high price for this," according to Associated Press. The Vatican said it had no immediate comment on the speech. Although Pope Benedict XVI’s reaction was not immediately known, the pontiff recently said the church must urgently rebuild confidence and trust damaged by clerical sex abuse.
FORT COLLINS (CO)
The Coloradoan
By LAURA BAILEY
LauraBailey@coloradoan.com
A former Fort Collins priest accused of sexually molesting a minor pleaded innocent in Larimer District Court on Friday.
Timothy Joseph Evans, 43, pleaded innocent to charges stemming from incidents alleged to have occurred with a teenager during his tenure at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, 5450 S. Lemay Ave., where he served from 1998 to 2002.
Evans is accused of having sexual contact with a boy in the parish who was between the age of 15 and 18 on separate incidents between September 1998 and 1999. He is accused of supplying the youth with alcohol on at least one occasion.
Charges against Evans include two counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, one count of sexual assault on a child - pattern abuse and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Judge Jolene Blair set Evans' Larimer County trial to begin March 19.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Friday, December 15, 2006
(12-15) 17:34 PST Los Angeles (AP) --
Attorneys representing 45 people who sued the nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese, accusing clergy members of sex abuse, signed off Friday on a $60 million settlement, according to the lead plaintiffs' lawyer.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles said this month that it would pay $60 million to settle 45 cases that dated from prior to the mid-1950s and after 1987 — periods when the archdiocese had little or no sexual abuse insurance.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs said the archdiocese had gone public with the agreement before all the accusers and their attorneys had reviewed and signed the documents. That process was finished Friday, Ray Boucher, the lead plaintiffs' attorney, said in a statement.
Tod Tamberg, an archdiocese spokesman, welcomed the news. "We had an agreement two weeks ago," he said. "The archdiocese is glad to hear that the ink is dry."
gospelcom
St. Peter Damian was a man with a mission.
The church reformer was appalled by the sexual immorality of his fellow clergy and their superiors, who often refused to warn the faithful and allowed the guilty to go unpunished. He condemned all sexual immorality, but especially the priests who abused boys after hearing their confessions.
Damian poured his concerns into a volume called the Book of Gomorrah, which ended with an appeal to Pope Leo IX for reform.
The year was 1051. The pope praised Damian, but declined to take decisive action. A later pope tried to suppress the book.
"Anyone who thinks the problems the church has today are new just doesn't know history," said psychotherapist A.W. Richard Sipe, a former Benedictine monk who has served as an expert witness in more than 200 cases of clergy sexual abuse. "There has always been a temptation to try to protect the image of the church, which usually means covering up scandals involving priests and bishops."
VATICAN CITY
Reuters
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The only man allowed to preach to Pope Benedict on Friday told the Pontiff he should call a worldwide day of fasting and penitence to ask forgiveness for the Roman Catholic Church's priestly sexual abuse scandals.
Father Raniero Cantalamessa, whose official title is "preacher of the papal household", made the suggestion during a pre-Christmas sermon to the Pope and Vatican officials.
Cantalamessa said the Church had "wept and sighed" recently over "abominations committed by her very ministers and pastors".
The top news, photos, and videos of 2006. Full Coverage
A U.S. sexual abuse scandal which erupted in Boston in 2002 spread to almost every Catholic diocese in the country. Many priests were prosecuted and payments of millions of dollars were made to scores of victims.
NEW YORK
Kings Courier
By Thomas Tracy 12/14/2006
Police arrested Midwood Rabbi Joel Kolko (above) on sex abuse charges last week.
A Midwood rabbi who had already been accused of being a pedophile was arrested last week for allegedly sexually assaulting a nine-year-old student, officials said.
Joel Kolko, 60, of the 1200 block of East 22nd Street, was charged with four counts of sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a minor on December 7.
The rabbi’s arrest has Kolko’s past alleged victims believing that no one can run away from their past.
NEW LONDON (CT)
Norwich Bulletin
Former Norwich pastor Charles Johnson Jr. this morning was found guilty of first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor by a six-member jury.
Johnson faces a maximum of 30 years in prison, according to assistant state's attorney Theresa Anne Ferryman. Held on $500,000 bond, Johnson is to be sentenced Jan. 26 in New London Superior Court.
Johnson, 53, of Norwich was accused of inappropriately touching the girl at his home when she was 9 or 10. At the time, he was pastor at Norwich Assembly of God.
With no physical evidence, prosecution relied heavily on testimony from the alleged victim, members of her family and investigators.
FORT COLLINS (CO)
The Coloradoan
By LAURA BAILEY
LauraBailey@coloradoan.com
A Fort Collins priest accused of sexually molesting a minor pleaded not guilty in Larimer County Court today.
Timothy Joseph Evans, 43, pleaded not guilty to four charges stemming from incidents alleged to have happened with a teenager during Evans' tenure at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, 5450 S. Lemay Ave., where he served from 1998 to 2002.
The counts include two counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, one count of sexual assault on a child – pattern abuse and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Judge Jolene Blair set Evans’ Larimer County trial to begin March 19.
WILMINGTON (DE)
The News Journal
By BETH MILLER, The News Journal
Posted Friday, December 15, 2006 at 12:29 pm
WILMINGTON — Two men whose lawsuits against religious-order Catholic priests are pending in state and federal courts called for Delaware lawmakers to resume efforts to change the state’s civil statute of limitations for child sexual abuse – and give those previously blocked by it their day in court.
Eric Eden, a former student at Salesianum School, and Navy Commander Kenneth Whitwell, who had attended Archmere Academy, who say they were abused by priests when they were students, called for the changes during a press conference at the office of their attorney, Thomas S. Neuberger.
Several lawmakers introduced a bill earlier this year to change the civil statute, which limits the amount of time a person can sue for damages. At present, Delaware law allows suits to be filed for two years after the injury.
NEW LONDON (CT)
The Day
By Karen Florin
Published on 12/15/2006 in Region » Region News
A New London Superior Court jury found former Norwich Assembly of God Pastor Charles Johnson guilty this morning of sexually assaulting a young girl five years ago.
One juror, a female day-care provider, wept as the jury was polled by the court clerk.
Johnson was taken into custody after Judge Stuart M. Schimelman raised is bond from $150,000 to $500,000.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
NOTORIOUS paedophile ex-priest Oliver O'Grady walked into a Dublin shop to buy coloured paper "like a child would have".
The convicted sex offender, who is believed to have abused 23 young people including a nine-month-old infant, admitted he was the shamed former cleric in a "very open, almost brazen" manner when asked by the Phibsborough shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper, called Aidan, told RTE's 'Liveline' programme yesterday that he refused to serve the 60-year-old Limerick-born paedophile and found him to be a "bit strange".
"I had seen his face a few weeks ago when he was splashed over the papers," Aidan said. "He came in yesterday. He was acting kind of peculiar. He was inquiring about buying a particular type of paper a kid might have, a coloured paper. He used that phrase, which I thought strange because he's an old man.
KANSAS CITY (MO)
The Kansas City Star
By TONY RIZZO
The Kansas City Star
A lawsuit filed Thursday accuses a former Kansas City area priest of molesting a 12-year-old boy during a 1978 trip to Texas.
The suit, filed in Jackson County Circuit Court, also alleges that the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph knowingly ignored and concealed the priest’s misconduct.
The former priest, John R. Tulipana, resigned in 1994 after The Kansas City Star reported that the diocese had paid $150,000 in 1989 to a man who alleged that he was molested by Tulipana in 1980 and 1981.
Bishop Raymond J. Boland, who headed the diocese in 1994, said at the time that his predecessor had received two complaints involving Tulipana. Like the one reported by The Star, the other was handled by a financial settlement.
In both cases, plaintiff’s attorneys required the diocese to sign confidentiality agreements to protect the identities of the alleged victims, officials for the diocese said Thursday. Tulipana underwent psychological evaluations and was cleared to return to the ministry after those complaints.
PENNSYLVANIA
The Express-Times
Friday, December 15, 2006
From staff and wire reports
NESQUEHONING | A former Lehigh Valley priest who had been accused of offering to pay for sex died Wednesday morning after a car wreck in Carbon County.
Nesquehoning Borough police said Monsignor Stephen Forish was traveling north on Route 93 across Broad Mountain when he lost control of his Buick LeSabre at 9:31 a.m., according to the Standard-Speaker newspaper in Hazleton, Pa.
An officer at the wreck just south of the Packer Township line said Forish might have lost control after being stricken by a medical condition. Police said the car veered into the southbound lane "and then off the road into several trees," according to the Standard-Speaker.
PENNSYLVANIA
The Morning Call
By Kathleen Parrish and Daniel Patrick Sheehan Of The Morning Call
The troubled life of Stephen Forish, an Allentown Catholic Diocese priest twice accused of soliciting sex on the street, ended Wednesday morning in a one-car crash on a rain-slicked road in Carbon County.
Forish, 61, who had left active ministry and was living in his hometown of McAdoo, Schuylkill County, was northbound on Route 93 about 9:30 a.m. when his car veered across the other lane and hit several trees, Nesquehoning police officer Jeff Ohl said.
''Whether it was driver error or medical, we don't know,'' Ohl said. ''He did have a history of being diabetic. He could have gone into shock or had a heart attack.''
Carbon County Coroner Bruce Nalesnik pronounced Forish dead at the scene of multiple injuries. The results of toxicology tests are pending.
UNITED KINGDOM
The Irish Times
A former priest and a paedophile rights campaigner will be sentenced today in London after a massive child pornography collection was found in a secret vault.
Irishman Thomas O'Carroll (61) a one-time teacher-turned-journalist, of Leam Street, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, pleaded guilty to two charges of distributing child porn images between January 1994 and July, 2005.
The library of magazines, videos and slides took years to amass and contained nearly 50,000 illicit images.
He is a founder member of the now defunct Paedophile Information Exchange, as well as its successor, the International Paedophile Child Emancipation Group, both of which he used to campaign for the legalisation of sex between adults and children.
His co-defendant, millionaire Michael Studdert (67), a ex-churchman, admitted 20 charges of making indecent images of children between January 2001 and the beginning of this year, one of distributing them and one of possession.
ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union
By MARC PARRY, Staff writer
Last updated: 4:29 p.m., Thursday, December 14, 2006
ALBANY -- A City Court judge on Thursday sentenced disgraced cantor Philip Friedman to six years probation for molesting an 11-year-old girl.
The former cantor at Albany's Temple Israel must also register as a sex offender under the sentence imposed by Judge William Carter.
``I wish to apologize to the members of Temple Israel, to Rabbi Paul Silton, and, most of all, to my students,'' Friedman said in court, according to his lawyer.
BLANCO (TX)
Houston Chronicle
Associated Press
BLANCO, Texas — The insurance company for the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia has settled a claim by a man who says he was abused as a teenager by monks at a monastery here.
The settlement agreement, which included a monetary payment, was finalized on Wednesday, church attorney Lin Hughes said today. She declined to disclose how much James Wright Jr. received.
Wright sued the church, which is no longer associated with the Christ of the Hills monastery, along with San Antonio-businessman-turned-monk Samuel Greene Jr. for abuse. Two other monks and a nonprofit founded by Greene also were named in the lawsuit.
Wright said he was sexually abused about a decade ago at the Christ of the Hills monastery after being sent there as a teenager for "acting out."
TEXAS
MOSNEWS
The insurance company for the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia has settled a claim by a man who says he was abused as a teenager by monks at a monastery in the United States, The Associated Press reports.
The settlement agreement, which included a monetary payment, was finalized on Wednesday, church attorney Lin Hughes said Thursday. She declined to disclose how much James Wright Jr. received. Wright sued the church, which is no longer associated with the Christ of the Hills monastery, along with San Antonio-businessman-turned-monk Samuel Greene Jr. for abuse. Two other monks and a nonprofit founded by Greene were also named in the lawsuit.
Wright said he was sexually abused about a decade ago at the Christ of the Hills monastery after being sent there as a teenager for “acting out.”
Calls by The Associated Press to attorneys for Wright and Greene on Thursday evening were not immediately returned.
CULPEPER (VA)
Star Exponent
Liz Mitchell
Staff Writer
Friday, December 15, 2006
It was a yearlong fight for validation, protection and justice.
And now it’s over.
The victims in the Charles Shifflett case, bonded by their life changing experiences kept secret for 15 years or more, feel a bittersweet sense of relief.
In Circuit Court Thursday, Liz Bailey, Woody Leake and Robert Hammonds quietly sat in the courtroom watching their former preacher plead guilty to child abuse charges.
While Shifflett will carry the designation of a convicted felon for the rest of his life, the victims wish a harsher sentence had been imposed.
But ensuring a conviction with a compromise was better than risking a jury trial and a possible not guilty verdict, they said.
VATICAN CITY
The Ledger
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON
Associated Press Writer
VATICAN CITY
Pope Benedict XVI's personal preacher asked the pontiff Friday to declare a day of fasting and penance to publicly declare repentance and express solidarity with the victims of clerical sex abuse.
In a strongly worded lecture, he denounced the "abominations" committed inside the Roman Catholic Church "by its own ministers and pastors" and declared that the church "paid a high price for this."
"The moment has come, after the emergency, to do the most important thing of all: to cry before God," the Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa said in the first of a series of pre-Christmas lectures in the presence of the pope in a Vatican chapel.
Cantalamessa suggested that the church "indicate a day of fasting and penance, at local and national level, where the problem was particularly strong, to publicly express repentance before God and solidarity with the victims."
GOOSE CREEK (SC)
ABC News 4
Thursday December 14, 2006 10:48pm Reporter: Courtney Ward Posted By: Courtney Ward
Goose Creek, SC - Tyrone Moore, the North Charleston pastor accused of molesting several minors, was back in court Thursday afternoon - facing several charges of criminal sexual conduct and lewd act on a minor.
At first members of Full Word Ministries were saying they didn't believe the charges against their pastor and that they stood being him 100%. Now, a source close to the investigation says several of the church's pastors and ministers have resigned.
If you blinked, you missed it. Tyrone Moore's bond hearing lasted just minutes. Charged with one count of criminal sexual conduct and three counts of lewd act on a minor under 16 - for three alleged victims - the judge set Moore's bond at an $800,000 surety bond.
CULPEPER (VA)
Star Exponent
Liz Mitchell
Staff Writer
Friday, December 15, 2006
Charles Shifflett admitted in court Thursday that it was better to take a deal and plead guilty than face a trial.
The 55-year-old pastor of First Baptist Church of Culpeper was scheduled for a series of four trials, beginning Jan. 17, on seven felony charges of physical and sexual abuse against children.
Dressed in a blue jacket, gray pants, a white shirt and red tie, Shifflett stood before Judge J. Howe Brown Jr. in Culpeper Circuit Court and pleaded guilty to one felony and six misdemeanors related to child abuse.
In previous proceedings, his case has attracted a large crowd. But this time, it ended quietly with only a few attending.
The highly publicized case was added to the docket only days before, when Shifflett decided to sign the plea.
NEW LONDON (CT)
Norwich Bulletin
By GREG SMITH
Norwich Bulletin
NEW LONDON -- Former Norwich pastor Charles Johnson Jr. awaits a jury's decision on claims he sexual molested a young girl.
A six-member jury failed to reach a verdict Thursday and will continue deliberations today in New London Superior Court.
Johnson, 53, of Norwich is accused of inappropriately touching the girl at his home when she was 9 or 10. At the time, he was pastor at Norwich Assembly of God.
"The state is asking you to make a decision based solely on the credibility of one person -- a child," said defense attorney Peter Bartinik Jr. Thursday in closing arguments.
With no physical evidence, prosecution is relying heavily on testimony from the alleged victim, members of her family and investigators.
By TOM CARNEY
National
Nicole Sotelo, codirector of national Call to Action, said her organization intends to mount a letter-writing campaign to Lincoln, Neb., Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, with copies to Bishop William Skylstad, bishop of Spokane, Wash., and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Vatican has upheld the 1996 excommunication of Call to Action Nebraska by Bruskewitz.(See related story.)
Sotelo said the letters will protest Bruskewitz's refusal to comply with the bishops' conference policies on child abuse by clergy, she said. Asked about the timing of the campaign, just after an announcement that the Vatican has upheld the excommunication of the Lincoln chapter of Call to Action, she said it would counter Bruskewitz's "attempts to silence" the organization.
GOOSE CREEK (SC)
The Post and Courier
Friday, December 15, 2006
BY NOAH HAGLUND
GOOSE CREEK - Congregants from Full Word Ministries embraced outside a courtroom Thursday after their senior pastor appeared in bond court on more charges of sexually assaulting teenage and pre-teen boys.
About a dozen members of the nondenominational church watched as Municipal Judge Shirley Johnson set Tyrone Moore's bail at $800,000 on the four new charges. Some family members of alleged victims also attended, wearing blue ribbons for child-abuse awareness.
Shackled and wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, Moore said little during the hearing. His attorney, Eduardo Curry, acknowledged that some members have left the North Charleston church recently.
"As always, you have members who come and go, you have differences of opinion," Curry said. "It's like every other family when your leader is absent."
OAKLAND (CA)
Contra Costa Times
By Rebecca Rosen Lum
STAFF WRITER
A national officer for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will take over as chancellor for the 87-parish Oakland Diocese, which covers Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
The move will mean a return to the Bay Area for Sister Glen Anne McPhee, secretary of education for the national organization, who grew up in Berkeley and attended St. Mary Magdalene Parish there.
She starts work Jan. 2. As chancellor, she will oversee schooling and communications for the Diocese. ...
She will oversee Catholic schools, the Catholic Youth Organization, communications, public relations, evangelization and catechetics, or teaching, and the lay ecclesial ministers council. She also will supervise outreach to victims of clergy sexual abuse, including "No More Secrets," a program Flannery created.
POTTSVILLE (PA)
Reading Eagle
By Mike Urban
Reading Eagle
POTTSVILLE A Schuylkill County judge on Thursday delayed deciding whether to move the trial of a former teacher and coach accused of molesting an athlete and videotaping students undressing in a Pottsville high school.
Daniel M. Shields Jr., 62, a former Nativity BVM High School physical education teacher and track and football coach, is charged with molesting a female member of his track team several times in 2004 and 2005.
Shields of Pottsville also is charged with videotaping that woman and two other females in a school locker room several times from November 2004 to May 2005.
TEXAS
Times Record News
By Jessica Langdon/Times Record News
December 15, 2006
Less than four months after Bishop Kevin Vann of Fort Worth installed Father Gilbert Albert Pansza - "Father Gil" - as pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Wichita Falls, Vann removed Pansza from active ministry because of a sexual abuse admission stemming from the 1970s, a release from the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth said.
Vann wrote that it was his "sad duty" to announce Pansza's removal, but he made the move to correspond with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.
A review of the diocese's files uncovered an admission from Pansza related to an incident involving the sexual abuse of a minor in the 1970s, which was before Pansza entered the seminary, the release said.
"We are taking this action on the basis of our discovery of this information in the files," the document continued. "We have removed Fr. Pansza from active ministry because it is the right thing to do in protecting God's people from any potential harm."
The Diocese of Fort Worth reported that it had not received any accusations against Pansza involving abuse of children since he was ordained as a priest on May 27, 2000.
FORT WORTH (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
12:00 AM CST on Friday, December 15, 2006
By BROOKS EGERTON / The Dallas Morning News
The Fort Worth Catholic Diocese's sexual abuse cover-up scandal widened Thursday, as Bishop Kevin Vann said church officials had left a priest on duty until this month despite his admission that he sexually abused a child in the 1970s.
The bishop said at a hastily called late-afternoon news conference that officials discovered the admission from the Rev. Gilbert Pansza only recently while "continuing to review the files of the diocese" and now have removed him from his pastor's job in Wichita Falls.
A Tarrant County judge ordered the diocese to review all clergy files in 2004 and turn over all records of abuse allegations to Dallas lawyer Tahira Khan Merritt, who had filed a lawsuit accusing the diocese of covering up such matters. Those files included nothing about Father Pansza.
Ms. Merritt reacted angrily Thursday night to Bishop Vann's announcement that the church had left Father Pansza on duty, despite the admission of sexual abuse.
"This so-called sudden discovery of an additional file raises in my mind serious questions about whether the judicial process was abused," she said.
"How many more files are yet to be discovered?"
DELAWARE
The News Journal
By BETH MILLER, The News Journal
Posted Friday, December 15, 2006
The Rev. Paul Daleo was "very charismatic with the kids" as a part-time teacher, a brother who knew him recalls.
Sean Dougherty went to a parish school in the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington. His family attended church at Holy Child Catholic Church and his mother, Barbara, worked in the diocesan chancery office for a while.
But the priest Dougherty says abused him when he was an eighth-grader at St. Mary Magdalen School was not a diocesan priest. The Rev. Paul Daleo was a member of a religious order, the Capuchin Franciscans, so his name didn't appear last month when the diocese released the names of 20 priests with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse against them. Bishop Michael A. Saltarelli left the release of the names of seven religious-order priests up to their orders.
When Dougherty saw the list, he called the Capuchins and the diocese. Release Daleo's name, he urged them. Then he called The News Journal.
"I'm not going to be silent anymore," he said.
FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram
By TERRY LEE GOODRICH
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
FORT WORTH -- Bishop Kevin Vann of the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese removed a Wichita Falls priest from active ministry on Thursday because of the priest's admission of sexual abuse of a minor in the early 1970s.
Vann said at a news conference that the decision was made after a review of diocese personnel files. They showed that the Rev. Gilbert Pansza, 55, of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Wichita Falls admitted to the abuse in 1998, before his ordination in July 2000.
Vann said he has reported the incident to law enforcement authorities, including Fort Worth police.
The abuse occurred before Pansza entered the seminary, Vann said. The late Bishop Joseph Delaney of the Fort Worth diocese consulted with psychological experts, a former chancellor and a former vicar general before ordaining Pansza, said the Rev. Michael Olson, vicar general.
ST. GEORGE (UT)
TheBostonChannel.com
ST. GEORGE, Utah -- A polygamist church leader accused of forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry and have sex with an older cousin in 2001 was ordered Thursday to stand trial.
Warren Jeffs, 51, pleaded not guilty Thursday in state district court to two counts of rape by accomplice. The leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints could face up to life in prison if convicted. A trial was set for April 23.
Prosecutors said the girl had no choice but to obey Jeffs, whose influence over his followers has been described as extraordinary, dictating everything from where they live to whom they should marry.
The girl "expressed her disdain, reluctance, opposition and total dislike of sexual relations," Judge James Shumate said.
DELAWARE
The News Journal
By BETH MILLER, The News Journal
Posted Friday, December 15, 2006
Much has happened in the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington since October, when a retired Delaware priest was arrested in Syracuse, N.Y., and charged with molesting a teenager over several years.
Last month, Bishop Michael A. Saltarelli broke with his previous policy and released the names of 20 priests -- including the Rev. Francis G. DeLuca, 77, of Syracuse -- against whom there were substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of minors.
Saltarelli chose to release the names of diocesan priests, he said, because of concerns after DeLuca's arrest.
Diocese officials said seven religious-order priests also have credible allegations against them. But Saltarelli left it to the orders to release those names, saying in a letter that he would support them if they chose to do so.
CANADA
Ottawa Sun
Thu, December 14, 2006
By Canadian Press
CORNWALL — A man who says he was sexually abused by a city priest broke down in tears after taking the stand Wednesday at an inquiry probing the institutional response to allegations of systemic child sexual abuse in the Cornwall area.
John MacDonald was answering questions about a letter he wrote in 1995 in which he publicly disclosed the alleged abuse for the first time.
The letter was written to Rev. Kevin Maloney of St. Columban’s Church, and in it MacDonald named Rev. Charles MacDonald as his alleged abuser.
One part of the letter suggests he may have told his parents about the abuse but Wednesday he said he knows that wasn’t the case.
LONG ISLAND (NY)
Herald
By JUDY RATTNER December 14, 2006
Jury selection began Monday Dec. 4 in a $150 million civil lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre. Two people are suing, claiming they were molested by a youth minister at St. Raphael Roman Catholic Church in East Meadow for three years.
The youth minister, Matthew Maiello, then of Lynbrook, pleaded guilty in 2003 to rape and sodomy of the two plaintiffs, a man and a woman who were 15 at the time of the abuse in 1999, and two others. He served just over two years in prison for his crimes. He now lives upstate in Gilboa, New York. At the time Maiello was sentenced, his victims said they believed his sentence was too lenient. Prosecutors said at the time that Maiello was punished as severely as possible.
The civil trial, before State Supreme Court Justice R. Bruce Cozzens Jr., in Mineola, is set to call Bishop William Murphy to testify. Murphy was appointed after the abuse by Maiello, but Michael G. Dowd, of Manhattan, attorney for the victims, says he should be held accountable now as the leader of the church.
In addition to calling both plaintiffs, Dowd said he will present videos that Maiello took of the youths having sex with him and with each other.
NEW YORK
New York Post
By PATRICK GALLAHUE and ALEX GINSBERG
December 14, 2006 -- For the second time in a week, a respected Brooklyn rabbi has been accused of sexually abusing a boy student at a religious school.
A suit filed Tuesday in Brooklyn Supreme Court accuses Avraham Mordecai Lazerewitz, described as the spiritual supervisor at the Geres Misivta Bais Yisroel school, of touching a student in April. Lazerewitz groped and improperly touched the victim during a one-on-one help session in the rabbi's office in the Borough Park secondary school, says the unidentified boy's lawyer, Eric Green.
UNITED KINGDOM
This is Lancashire
By Staff Reporter
A Catholic priest has appeared in court to face a catalogue of child abuse charges against schoolboys in Bury.
John McCollough, aged 61, appeared at Bury Magistrates' Court charged with 12 counts of indecent assault and gross indecency with children during the 1980s and 1990s.
The offences are alleged to have taken place while McCollough was an Anglican rector at Christ the King with Holy Trinity Church in Spring Street.
Dressed in a light grey sports jacket and dark trousers, he spoke only to confirm his name and personal details during the 10-minute hearing.
FRESNO (CA)
The Fresno Bee
By Pablo Lopez / The Fresno Bee 12/14/06 04:13:28
A juror in the civil trial of a Fresno priest accused of molesting an altar boy nearly 20 years ago was dismissed Wednesday after he said he overheard shoppers discussing the plaintiff's offer to settle the case for $1.
On the fourth day of deliberations, the juror told Judge Donald Black that the $1 settlement offer and the plaintiff's demand that Father Eric Swearingen leave the priesthood would influence his judgment.
Black replaced the male juror with an male alternate, retaining a jury made up of seven women and five men. But with a new juror, the entire panel had to start over on its deliberations.
The trial in Fresno County Superior Court pits Swearingen, pastor of Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Woodward Park, against former altar boy Juan Rocha, now 31 and an Army sergeant first class.
BOSTON (MA)
The Boston Independent Media Center
by Sophie Yon-Gharbi
12 Dec 2006
Just like they have done Sunday after Sunday, right after mass, for the past 4 years, the “sidewalk protesters” gathered once again in front of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston’s South End.
Except it is 1:30 on a Tuesday afternoon and today’s mass is not your usual Sunday one: Reverend John Dooher – a high-ranking chancery officer who coordinated sexual misconduct matters, alongside Bishop John McCormack- is being elevated to Auxiliary Bishop overseeing the Boston Archdiocese’s South Region. It is believed that as a coordinator, John Dooher helped create housing for abusive priests and by remaining silent about the issue, participated in covering-up the sexual abuse.
Holding signs with the words "Speak Truth To Power" or pictures of children who had endured years of abuse, the protesters manifested their disappointment that once again, the Church was not promoting a "clean Priest".
Amongst the 15 people watching the stream of priests come in and out of the Cathedral, was Ruth Moore, Co-coordinator of STTOP, one of the organization behind today’s protest. "All these Bishops gathered today for the elevation of Dooher… It tells the world that they are complacent of the crimes,” she said.
NEW LONDON (CT)
The Day
By Karen Florin
Published on 12/12/2006 in Region
The mother of a girl who accuses former Norwich Assembly of God Pastor Charles L. Johnson Jr. of molestation testified Monday that she learned of the incidents after finding journal-like writings in her daughter's room that contained “sexual things.”
“It was about a man pushing her down and putting his hands in her clothes in inappropriate ways,” the woman said in New London Superior Court.
She and her husband confronted their daughter, who told them of the incidents but adamantly refused to report them to authorities, according to testimony from both parents.
Johnson, 53, is on trial for allegedly molesting the girl, now 15, at his Norwich house in 2000 or 2001. Unbeknownst to the six-member jury that will decide his fate, the girl's mother had also complained that Johnson touched her in inappropriate ways. He resigned from the church after 22 years because of allegations of inappropriate sexual contact by the mother and other adult women, though criminal charges were never filed.
MISSOURI
NPR
Morning Edition, December 14, 2006
Early next year, the first of several child-sexual abuse cases involving church leaders is expected to be heard in a courtroom in southwest Missouri. The sex charges were filed this summer by women who grew up in a religious community deep in the Ozarks. Most of the accusers and the accused are related by blood or marriage.
The five women who have pressed charges are all now adults. They attended Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church in Washburn, Mo. If what they say is true -- and that's still to be proven -- they were lured into sexual conduct by some of their church leaders when they were children, one as young as 8.
NORWICH (CT)
Norwich Bulletin
By GREG SMITH
Norwich Bulletin
NORWICH -- Former Norwich church pastor Charles Johnson Jr. has no shortage of support -- as evidenced this week by the number of character witnesses testifying in his defense.
The defense rested its case Wednesday after five more people took the stand in New London Superior Court to paint a picture of a man who befriended scores of families and children during his years in Norwich.
Alisha Malerba, neighbors with the Johnsons for 13 years and friends with Charles Johnson's daughter, said the charges are simply unbelievable.
"He was like a second father to me," she said from the stand Wednesday in court.
GOOSE CREEK (SC)
The Post and Courier
Thursday, December 14, 2006
BY GLENN SMITH
Goose Creek - Police plan to file additional criminal charges today against Pastor Tyrone Moore after three more boys accused the minister of molesting them in recent years, authorities said.
Moore, 39, already is charged with sexually assaulting three other young men who attended his church, Full Word Ministries in North Charleston.
Police in North Charleston and Goose Creek are looking into other potential victims, and investigators said more charges are possible.
Among the latest victims is a 15-year-old who accuses Moore of molesting him since he was 13, authorities said. Another boy, now 14, alleges Moore molested him since he was 12. The third boy, now 12, told police he was molested at age 11, police said.
UNITED STATES
FindLaw
By MARCI HAMILTON
Thursday, Dec. 14, 2006
There is an emerging civil rights movement for children in the United States, which is to say that children are finally actually getting a seat at the public policy table. Moreover, looking back at the past year shows a significant amount of progress on that front. City and state child protective service agencies in various states, such as New York, have been under close and critical scrutiny when children have been brutally treated; there is an initiative to create conditions in the schools that will help to abate the child obesity epidemic; and there has been a legislative focus on children, at both the federal and state levels.
This is not to say, however, that 2006 exhibits an unmixed record when it comes to children's needs. We had both victories for children, and disheartening defeats.
Victories in the Movement for Children's Civil Rights
Here are some of the victories:
Charges of statutory rape in a polygamous community were taken seriously by public officials. Notorious polygamist Warren Jeffs, whom I discussed in a previous column, and who is accused of orchestrating "marriages" between underage girls and much older men, was apprehended by authorities and is being tried in Utah.
Pennsylvania passed useful legislation in the wake of the Philadelphia Archdiocese child abuse scandal. Following the Philadelphia District Attorney's Grand Jury Report on the cover-up of child abuse within the Philadelphia Archdiocese, which I discussed in a prior column, D.A. Lynn Abraham turned to the legislature to repair the holes in Pennsylvania law that had made it impossible for her office to go forward, despite copious evidence of the Archdiocese's culpability. Her proposals spanned both criminal and civil solutions, all of them likely to be effective in bringing greater safety to children, and less comfort to child predators and their facilitators.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times
December 14, 2006
BY CATHLEEN FALSANI Religion Reporter
Two brothers who were sued for defamation last month by a Roman Catholic priest who they say sexually abused them more than 20 years ago responded Wednesday by suing Cardinal Francis George.
The brothers -- known in court records as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 -- claim the Rev. Robert Stepek abused them in the 1980s at St. Symphorosa parish on Chicago's South Side when they were about 9 and 16 years old.
A 'vendetta'
In November -- acting on the recommendation of a review board that concluded there was reasonable cause to suspect the abuse occurred -- George removed Stepek as pastor of St. Albert the Great parish in Burbank.
Following church protocol, George then referred Stepek's case to the Vatican for guidance about further action the archdiocese should take.
CHICAGO (IL)
Daily Southtown
December 14, 2006
By Stephanie Gehring Staff writer
Saying Cardinal Francis George has fallen short in protecting the two men who have accused a Burbank priest of sexual abuse, attorneys for the two men filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Archdiocese of Chicago.
"In my 23 years I have never seen a cardinal do so little," said Jeff Anderson, who represents the two grown men.
"The problem is that Stepek went on attack, and (George) has failed miserably in protecting these victims that he promised he'd protect," Anderson said.
The suit is "designed to make (George) step up" and order Stepek to withdraw the defamation lawsuit he filed against the two men last month, Anderson said.
The lawsuit Anderson filed Wednesday in civil court ultimately aims to make the archdiocese responsible for any damages that Stepek is seeking from the two men, he said.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
By Margaret Ramirez
Tribune religion reporter
Published December 14, 2006
Two weeks after a Roman Catholic priest filed a defamation lawsuit against two brothers who said he sexually abused them, an attorney for the alleged victims struck back Wednesday by suing the priest and the Chicago archdiocese.
Rev. Robert Stepek, former pastor of St. Albert the Great Church in Burbank, was removed from ministry last month after an archdiocesan review board determined there was reasonable cause to suspect that sexual abuse of minors occurred. Shortly after his removal, Stepek filed a $4 million lawsuit against his accusers, stating that the sexual abuse allegations were false andretaliation for disagreements between the priest and the two men.
According to Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Stepek is one of about a dozen priests who have sued their accusers. But victim advocates said the countersuit is believed to be the first ever filed in the U.S. against clergy. The suit filed in Cook County Circuit Court states that Stepek's actions have led the two accusers "to suffer severe and permanent emotional distress, embarrassment, loss of self-esteem and loss of religious faith." The suit also states that any damage suffered by Stepek was not caused by the accusers but by the archdiocese, which permitted confidential abuse information to become public.
Attorney Jeff Anderson, who is representing the accusers, said he is calling on Cardinal Francis George to order Stepek to withdraw his lawsuit and cease and desist from all further action until Vatican proceedings in his case conclude.
NEW YORK
The Jewish Press
By: Shlomo Greenwald, Jewish Press Staff Reporter
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, 60, was arrested Thursday night in his home in Midwood, Brooklyn, and arraigned Friday on four counts of sexual abuse and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.
Kolko, a former first-grade rebbe and assistant principal at Yeshiva Torah Temimah, was released in time to go home for Shabbat after bail was posted.
On Wednesday, the parents of one of the two alleged victims filed a $10 million suit against the yeshiva, claiming it retained Kolko as a teacher despite knowing about sexual abuse allegations against him.
JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
Columbia Daily Tribune
Published Wednesday, December 13, 2006
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - A priest who was serving in Meta has been relieved of his duties for allegations of sexual misconduct, the Jefferson City Diocese announced.
The Rev. John Schutty, who was serving at St. Cecilia Church in Meta, was removed from his ministry, effective immediately, after a diocesan review board found credible evidence of the accusations.
Schutty, 74, who served the Meta church since 1988, was placed on administrative leave on March 29 after a complaint of sexual misconduct involving a minor more than 20 years ago.
FORT WORTH (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
12/13/2006
By ANGELA K. BROWN / Associated Press
Local Catholics should not donate to the Fort Worth diocese until its bishop disciplines church officials who concealed sexual abuse, two leaders of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests said Wednesday.
They said people should donate to groups that help — not hurt — children.
"It's clear that where the church hierarchy won't take action to protect kids, then the lay people have to," David Clohessy of St. Louis, national director of SNAP, said outside the administrative offices of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth. "It is a monarchy, so the options for lay people to pressure a bishop are precious few."
Clohessy and Kristopher Galland, director of SNAP's DFW chapter, also urged Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann to give authorities all documents revealing any church leader's sexual misdeeds.
In a statement released Wednesday, diocese spokesman Jeff Hensley said the diocese was aware of "many concerns about the issues surrounding accusations of sexual abuse. We are actively pursuing these matters."
NEW LONDON (CT)
The Day
By Karen Florin, Day Staff Writer
Published on 12/13/2006 in Region » Region News
Former Norwich Assembly of God Pastor Charles L. Johnson Jr. loved children and children — including the girl who now claims Johnson molested her five years ago — loved him, according to several friends who testified on his behalf Tuesday in New London Superior Court.
The defense portion of Johnson's sexual assault trial got under way with about a dozen character witnesses who said he was a man of integrity who took in people in need, traveled to Honduras to comfort orphan children and treated members of his church like family.
“I've never seen the man do anything that I think is inappropriate,” testified Bonnie Nicholson, who said she has known Johnson for 20 years.
“I'm telling you, I don't think the man could do this. I've watched him many years,” she said.
MASSACHUSETTS
PBS
FRONTLINE presents
HAND OF GOD
Tuesday, January 16, 2007, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS
www.pbs.org/frontline/handofgod
In recent decades, more than 10,000 children were reportedly sexually abused by Catholic priests in the United States. In Hand of God, airing Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings), filmmaker Joe Cultrera explores the very personal story of how his brother -- Paul -- was molested in the 1960s by their parish priest, Father Joseph Birmingham, who allegedly abused nearly 100 other children. Producer Joe Cultrera tells the story of faith betrayed and how his brother Paul and his family fought back against a scandal that continues to afflict scores of churches across the country.
"I was inspired by my brother's strength of spirit in surviving his abuse," says Joe Cultrera. "His story was unlike any I had seen in the media. I thought a detailed film about his and my family's experience would prove healing and freeing for others."
Paul Cultrera and his siblings were raised in an Italian-Catholic family in Salem, Mass., and attended an all-Catholic school from kindergarten through high school. From an early age, Paul and his siblings were immersed in the beliefs and teachings of the Catholic Church.
WISCONSIN
The Daily Telegram
Ron Brochu and Shelley Nelson, The Daily Telegram
Published Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Roman Catholic Church officials in Superior today may have become the first nationwide to be served with a wrongful death lawsuit related to sexual abuse by a priest.
But neither Bishop Raphael Fliss nor diocese spokesman the Rev. Philip Heslin were available to accept the document, filed by parents of James Ellison, who they believe he was fatally shot on Feb. 5, 2002, by the Rev. Ryan Erickson at a Hudson mortuary. Carsten and Sally Ellison of Barron seek unspecified damages for the loss of their 22-year-old son, claiming church leaders knew about the priest’s unusual behavior but did nothing to stop it.
The lawsuit complaint was presented by Bob Schwiderski, Minnesota director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. With Fliss hospitalized in Duluth for hip surgery and Heslin recovering from hip surgery, the civil complaint was presented to their secretary Pat Wildenberg, who declined comment.
EUGENE (OR)
The Register-Guard
Published: Wednesday, December 13, 2006
The word "mediation" is hardly sufficient to describe the effort required to forge Monday's announced settlement resolving nearly 150 lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland. The suits were filed by people claiming to have been sexually abused by priests in Western Oregon.
Because of an unnecessary gag order on attorneys and all parties involved in the case, details of the settlement and the bankruptcy reorganization of the archdiocese won't be available until later this month. But the mere fact that U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan and Lane County Circuit Judge Lyle Velure managed to resolve all but 20 claims and to complete a reorganization plan that could allow the archdiocese to resume normal operations after three years of bankruptcy represents a remarkable achievement.
Consider the formidable challenges that confronted Hogan and Velure when they began secret talks with parties in the case last August: Two judges with very different temperaments and working across jurisdictional lines found themselves confronted with a disparate group of plaintiffs and an archdiocese that had very different ideas about what constituted just compensation for victims of sexual abuse by priests.
The legal landscape could hardly have been more jumbled with obstacles. There were claims filed on insurance policies written three decades ago. There were the complexities of Roman Catholic canon law, which the archdiocese claimed prevented it from selling individual parishes' property and schools to satisfy judgments. There were the claimants who insisted on their cases going to trial, and the possibility of claims that have yet to be filed.
HUDSON (WI)
Hudson Star-Observer
Jana Hollingsworth and Judy Wiff, Forum Communications,
Published Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Carsten and Sally Ellison hope to prevent the kind of abuse that they believe led to their son's death.
The parents of 22-year-old James Ellison, who was shot to death at a Hudson mortuary Feb. 5, 2002, have filed a wrongful death suit against the Catholic Diocese of Superior.
The complaint alleges that Ellison was killed by Father Ryan Erickson, probably because he saw Erickson shoot his supervisor, mortician Dan O'Connell. It also claims that the Superior Diocese knew about an alleged sexual assault committed by Erickson and never disclosed the information.
In the civil lawsuit, filed Tuesday, the Ellisons of Barron, Wis., are asking for an unspecified amount of damages for medical expenses, funeral costs and loss of society and companionship. Wisconsin lawsuits don't generally ask for a specific dollar amount.
PHILLIPS (WI)
The-Bee
Patti Wenzel, patti.wenzel@mx3.com
THE-BEE
Wednesday, December 13th, 2006 12:24:01 PM
It is not unusual to have questions, doubts and fears following the revelation of accusations of alleged abuse on the part of Fr. Terrence Fitzmaurice, the cleric who served Phillips Roman Catholic community from 1986-1999.
"It would be uncommon to not hear more accusations after something like this comes out," said Peter Isely, Midwest Regional Director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
Isely and SNAP's national director, David Clohessy, said the first thing someone who suspects clergy abuse should do is know they're no alone.
"They have to know they are not alone," Clohessy said. "And that something like this is never, ever their fault."
GRAND RAPIDS (MI)
The Daily News
By Elisabeth Waldon - Daily News staff writer
GRAND RAPIDS — No incidents of sexual abuse have been reported by a priest who served Greenville’s St. Charles Catholic Church from 1979 to 1988.
Father Michael McKenna, 60, a priest for more than 30 years in West Michigan, has been removed from public ministry after accusations that he sexually abused boys prior to coming to Greenville. Bishop Walter Hurley of the Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids said McKenna no longer may wear clerical garments or present himself as a priest as of Dec. 5.
McKenna no longer has duties within the church, according to diocese spokeswoman Mary Haarman. He “will be expected to live a life of prayer and penance,” the diocese said in a written statement.
“We do know that there were more than one,” Haarman said of McKenna’s victims.
McKenna could not be reached for comment. Haarman said she did not know his whereabouts.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
(12-12) 16:22 PST San Francisco (AP) --
A former dean at University of San Francisco's School of Education pleaded guilty Tuesday to a child pornography charge under a deal with prosecutors that likely will send him to prison for more than five years.
William T. Garner, 66, of San Francisco, acknowledged in the plea deal, reached last month, that he knowingly possessed more than 15,000 images of minors engaged in sexually explicit acts, including images of prepubescent children and violent sexual conduct, federal prosecutors said.
In addition to serving a 63-month prison sentence, Garner also agreed to pay a $50,000 fine to the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center.
If convicted at trial, he had faced a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
COLUMBUS (OH)
Toledo Blade
COLUMBUS - The State Board of Education yesterday revoked the decades-old teaching certificate a defrocked Cincinnati area priest was allowed to hold despite being convicted and jailed 15 years ago on child molestation charges.
George J. Cooley, 58, was officially removed from the priesthood in 1998 after spending 18 months in prison. But, until now, he continued to hold a certificate to teach in private and parochial schools.
Cooley opted not to fight the state action, voluntarily surrendering his certificate.
He was the seventh current or former priest to do so since they were brought to the state's attention by The Blade along with two other priests and a nonpriest teacher and coach. Investigations into the latter cases continue.
MEXICO
The Herald
Cardinal Norberto Rivera told Mexican radio Monday that he was willing to cooperate with the courts in his country and in the United States to clear up some cases of alleged sex abuse of minors in which priests were involved.
"I´m ready to collaborate with any authority because I believe in justice and will always defend children above all others," said Cardinal Rivera, who is also archbishop of Mexico City.
"We all have to cooperate so that justice is done in Mexico, and of course it grieves me deeply if a Mexican priest has molested children in the United States, so I´m ready to cooperate" with the authorities of that country, he said.
The cardinal said that he has not yet been summoned to testify in the Los Angeles court that is trying a case of a supposed international conspiracy to protect priests suspected of sexually abusing children in the United States and Mexico.
SYRACUSE (NY)
The News Journal
By BETH MILLER, The News Journal
Posted Wednesday, December 13, 2006
The sexual abuse case against former Delaware priest the Rev. Francis G. DeLuca proceeded this week with a pretrial conference in Onondaga County Court in Syracuse, N.Y., prosecutors said Tuesday.
No plea agreement has been offered, but it remains a possibility, Assistant District Attorney Kari Armstrong said. The next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 23, she said.
DeLuca, who ministered in the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington for 35 years, was arrested in October for sexually abusing a Syracuse teen. The teen, now 18, told his parents DeLuca had molested him over a period of five or six years. Syracuse police say DeLuca confessed after they arrested him.
DeLuca was removed from ministry in 1993 by former Diocese of Wilmington Bishop Robert E. Mulvee and allowed to retire in Syracuse, his hometown, after similar allegations arose in Delaware.
CONNECTICUT
Hartford Courant
December 13, 2006
Susan Campbell
Do you know why you're here? the nurses ask.
And then they wait quietly.
Sometimes - especially if the child is young - there's no answer. The child simply has no words for what happened. And sometimes the child will say, "Because my daddy [uncle, brother, teacher, pastor] touched me."
Do you know why you're here?
In June, Hartford pastor Modesto Reyes was charged with raping a then-11-year-old member of his church, who later gave birth. DNA tests say with 99 percent certainty that Reyes is the baby's father. But during a summer court appearance, Reyes pled not guilty; he's due back in court next week.
At the time of his arrest, Hartford police said they suspected Reyes had sexually assaulted other neighborhood children, and they asked people to come forward.
SAN BERNARDINO (CA)
The Press-Enterprise
10:00 PM PST on Tuesday, December 12, 2006
The Press-Enterprise
During the past two years, the Diocese of San Bernardino trained more than 105,000 adults and children on preventing sexual abuse of children, bringing the Inland diocese into full compliance with child-protection reforms mandated by the nation's Catholic bishops, independent auditors have concluded.
The audit findings were released this week by diocesan officials. As part of its programs, the diocese provided 8,000 children at its Catholic schools and another 85,000 children who attend parishes in Riverside and San Bernardino counties with age-appropriate training about sexual abuse, personal safety and recognizing perpetrators, said Sister Cathy White, the diocese's coordinator of charter initiatives.
The audit was part of an annual report commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to determine whether the nation's 187 dioceses and eparchies -- Eastern-rite dioceses -- are meeting the goals outlined in a sweeping charter approved by the bishops in June 2002 as they sought to cope with the clergy sexual-abuse scandal gripping the church.
PITTSFIELD (MA)
WPRI
PITTSFIELD, Mass. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield squared off against seven of its insurance carriers in court yesterday over the disclosure of thousands of pages of church documents.
The diocese is suing the insurance companies to get them to provide coverage for claims by 57 people who said they were sexually abused by priests.
The insurers argued in Berkshire Superior Court that the documents will better enable them to see how the diocese handled allegations of sexual abuse by its priests and whether the church fulfilled its obligations to protect the public.
PENNSYLVANIA
Reading Eagle
By Holly Herman
Reading Eagle
Pre-trial publicity would prevent a fair trial in Schuylkill County Court for a former Pottsville physical-education teacher and coach accused of molesting an athlete and videotaping others who were undressing, defense lawyers argued Wednesday.
Reading lawyers Emmanuel H. Dimitriou and Kurt B. Geishauser asked Schuylkill Judge John E. Domalakes to move the trial or have an out-of-county jury hear the case involving Daniel M. Shields Jr.
Shields, 62, a former Nativity BVM High School teacher and football and track coach, is accused of molesting a member of the girls track team, who graduated in 2005, several times during 2004 and 2005.
He also is accused of videotaping the girl and two other female athletes undressing in a school locker room from November 2004 to May 2005.
Shields is charged with aggravated indecent assault, sexual abuse of children and related offenses.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
CBS 2
(CBS) LOS ANGELES A judge's ruling Tuesday clears the way for some lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests to move toward trial, possibly in March, according to an attorney for some of the accusers.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Haley J. Fromholz issued a 53-page ruling that left intact most of the allegations made by the plaintiffs, including negligence, sexual battery and sexual assault.
Although Fromholz's ruling directly related to a relatively small number of cases that have not settled, the judge told attorneys they can expect it to be applied to the 700 to 800 other related lawsuits, as well, said Raymond P. Boucher, the lead counsel for the plaintiffs.
"These cases are going to be rapidly moving down the road," Boucher said.
GRAND RAPIDS (MI)
WWMT
December 12, 2006 - 6:38PM
GRAND RAPIDS (NEWS 3) - The Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids is releasing more information about a sanctioned priest and its revamped process for dealing with sexual abuse allegations.
The church removed Father Michael McKenna for his involvement with young men in the 1970s. The diocese has handed over the accusations to prosecutors in three counties.
As for the church's involvement, the bishop says it's a closed case - the product of a new investigative process.
More than 30 years after starting out at St. John Vianney church, McKenna is out of the Catholic Church, prohibited from wearing clerical clothes or presenting himself as a priest.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Sioux City Journal
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Investigators have identified a second man molested as a child by a now-defrocked Catholic priest, and additional charges will be filed this week, a prosecutor said in court Tuesday.
Michael Stephen Baker, 58, has pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing a boy while the priest was living at a rectory. Prosecutors contend he molested the boy for more than a decade until 1995, beginning when he was 7.
The Los Angeles County prosecutor's office investigated and determined that a second victim was involved, Deputy District Attorney Marc Beaart said in Superior Court.
Outside court, Beaart declined to provide details but said the accuser did not come forward voluntarily.
HUDSON (WI)
St. Paul Pioneer Press
BY KEVIN HARTER
Pioneer Press
Frustrated with what they see as inaction and lack of concern for victims of clergy sexual abuse, the family of one of the two men likely killed by a Hudson priest in 2002 "reluctantly" filed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday against the Diocese of Superior.
The attorney for Carsten and Sally Ellison filed the lawsuit in St. Croix County Circuit Court seeking unspecified damages from the Roman Catholic diocese. The Barron, Wis., family hopes to use any money from a verdict or settlement to establish the James Ellison Foundation for the Protection of Children.
"We do not want blood money. No proceeds will ever be used for our personal use," said Carsten Ellison, noting that the statute of limitations for filing was near. "If we didn't do something, it just all goes away. We felt we needed to do something for James. It was such a terrible crime. Someone needs to be accountable, to take responsibility for the deaths of our son and Dan O'Connell."
Diocese officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
PITTSFIELD (MA)
The Republican
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
By FRED CONTRADA
fcontrada@repub.com
PITTSFIELD - With 57 claimants awaiting the outcome, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield faced off against seven of its insurance carriers yesterday over the disclosure of 7,500 pages of church documents.
Berkshire Superior Court was full of lawyers debating issues such as spiritual counseling privilege, Constitutional religious rights and attorney-client privilege. The diocese is suing the insurance companies to get them to provide coverage for claims by 57 people who said they were sexually abused by priests. In 2004, the diocese settled a suit involving 46 other claimants for more than $7 million.
The insurers argue that the documents will enable them to see how the diocese has historically handled claims of sexual abuse by its priests and whether it fulfilled its own obligations to protect the public.
"The operative question is: What did the diocese know about clergy sexual abuse, and when did it know it?" said John Egan, who is representing Lloyds of London. "Were these claims 'accidents' as defined in the policies?"
According to lawyers, the documents involve the laicization of some priests and show how the diocese counseled those priests and handled complaints of sexual abuse. John J. Egan, a lawyer for the diocese, said the 7,500 pages fall under a state statute protecting the right to spiritual counseling. Egan told Judge John A. Agostini that the counseling pertained to the sacrament of Holy Orders because some of the priests faced the prospect of being defrocked.
HUDSON (WI)
Green Bay Press Gazette
The Associated Press
HUDSON — The family of one of two men believed killed by a Roman Catholic priest nearly four years ago filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Catholic Diocese of Superior on Tuesday, claiming church leaders knew about the priest's questionable behavior but did nothing.
Carsten and Sally Ellison, of Barron, seek unspecified damages for the loss of their 22-year-old son, James, said their attorney Jeff Anderson.
"Their goal is to hold the diocese accountable," Anderson said.
If the Rev. Ryan Erickson had been removed from the priesthood or reported to police, "neither of these young men would have lost their life," he said.
James Ellison, an intern, and funeral director Daniel O'Connell, 39, were fatally shot Feb. 5, 2002, at the O'Connell Family Funeral Home in Hudson.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Jessica Garrison, Times Staff Writer
December 13, 2006
Prosecutors announced Tuesday that they intend to seek additional molestation charges against defrocked priest Michael Stephen Baker on behalf of a second alleged victim.
Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Beaart said he would file an amended complaint next week against Baker, whose case Cardinal Roger M. Mahony has said is the one that "troubles me the most."
Baker, who was arrested while returning from Thailand last January, has pleaded not guilty to molestation charges in the earlier case and remains in jail.
Two sources said separately on condition of anonymity that investigators had been led to the second alleged victim in part through information from Baker's personnel file. The Los Angeles Archdiocese had vigorously fought turning over the personnel files to prosecutors, going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court before losing that fight in April. The archdiocese turned over the files soon after.
GRAND RAPIDS (MI)
The Grand Rapids Press
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
By Charles Honey
Press Religion Editor
GRAND RAPIDS -- Prosecutors who reviewed allegations of sexual abuse against the Rev. Michael McKenna say the accusations warranted further investigation and possible prosecution if the state statute of limitations had not long since expired.
A day after the Grand Rapids Catholic Diocese announced McKenna had been removed from ministry for "substantive" allegations of abuse, prosecutors said the evidence indicated a teen boy or boys had been sexually abused by McKenna in the 1970s.
Bishop Walter Hurley said McKenna is accused of abusing several boys but would not say how many.
Ed Lis, assistant Kent County prosecutor, said his office reviewed the allegations of a man who said he was abused by McKenna between 1975 and 1978, when the victim was 12 to 15. The man said the incidents occurred in Kent, Muskegon and Newaygo counties, Lis said.
Despite coming nearly 30 years after the alleged incidents, the accusations were quite detailed, Lis said.
PORTLAND (OR)
Reuters
PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - The Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, has settled most of the 175 sex abuse claims filed against it, bringing it closer to emerging from bankruptcy, judges involved in mediating the claims said on Monday.
The archdiocese was the first in the United States to file for bankruptcy facing claims of sex abuse by some of its clergy.
Without providing financial details of the settlement agreement, U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan told reporters in Eugene, Oregon, the archdiocese's resources "are ample to fund this joint plan."
In July 2004, the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy on the same day a lawsuit stemming from sex abuse allegations was set to begin trial. The lawsuit sought $135 million.
WISCONSIN
Yahoo!
ST. PAUL, Minn., Dec. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- A Wisconsin couple whose son was murdered by a bizarre and sexually abusive Catholic priest is "reluctantly" filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the Superior Diocese that ordained and hired the cleric. Carsten and Sally Ellison of Barron, Wisconsin, filed a civil lawsuit today in St. Croix County Court, Wisconsin, Court File No. 06CV938 assigned to Judge Lundell seeking unspecified damages for the loss of their 22-year-old son, James Ellison. He and Daniel O'Connell were shot and killed at the O'Connell Family Funeral Home in Hudson by Fr. Ryan Erickson in February 2002. Days earlier, O'Connell had apparently confronted Erickson, his parish priest, about allegations that Erickson was molesting local children.
The murders were unsolved for more than two years. During interviews with Hudson police in 2004, Ryan Erickson disclosed details about the crime scene that had not been released to the public; as police began to strongly suspect Erickson, he hanged himself outside the church he was then serving in Hurley, Wisconsin. Through their extensive investigation the police learned that for years Erickson had engaged in a variety of suspicious and disturbing behaviors, such as allegations of sexual assault; excessive alcohol use; violence against animals, including his own dog; as well as a fascination with guns, usually carrying one on his person. This evidence was presented to St. Croix County Judge Eric Lundell at a hearing in October 2005, who ruled there was probable cause to believe Erickson had killed O'Connell and Ellison in a "premeditated" fashion.
OREGON
The Register-Guard
By Bill Bishop
The Register-Guard
Published: Tuesday, December 12, 2006
No Catholic parish property or school will be sold or encumbered in a far-reaching bankruptcy reorganization of the Archdiocese of Portland announced Monday that will settle as many as 170 legal claims by victims of sexual abuse by priests.
The reorganization will resolve the nation's first bankruptcy involving a Roman Catholic diocese in response to sexual abuse lawsuits. It also ends the possibility that the parish and school properties could be ruled the legal possessions of the archdiocese, and therefore be used to pay millions of dollars in claims to abuse victims.
Details of the reorganization plan and the total cost of legal settlements to date will not be released until the plan is filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court next Monday.
BIRMINGHAM (AL)
WSBTV
POSTED: 10:45 am EST December 12, 2006
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- A former pastor of Spanish ministries at the First Baptist Church of Pelham pleaded guilty to charges of sexual abuse involving young girls.
66-year-old Luis Federico Garcia of Alabaster faces three charges of first-degree sexual abuse involving three girls younger than 12.
He entered the guilty pleas without reaching a sentencing agreement with the district attorney's office.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
KNX
LOS ANGELES, CA (CNS) -- A preliminary hearing is scheduled for a reviled ex-priest who allegedly went on to molest, even after confessing to Cardinal Roger Mahony that he was a child abuser.
Defrocked priest Michael Stephen Baker was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport in January as he returned from a vacation in Thailand and has been in jail on charges of molesting a boy. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment earlier this year.
The preliminary hearing set to start is intended to help a judge determine if there are grounds for Baker to stand trial.
The 58-year-old Baker, whose case Mahony calls the one that ''troubles me the most," according to the Los Angeles Times, is one of the most reviled ex- priests in a scandal that has implicated dozens of clergy and generated 562 claims of abuse against the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation's largest.
NEW JERSEY
The Star-Ledger
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
BY JEFF DIAMANT
Star-Ledger Staff
James Hanley, the former Catholic priest who admitted molesting about a dozen boys in what was New Jersey's most notorious clergy sex abuse case, declined a prosecutor's plea offer yesterday on charges in an unrelated March inci dent at a Secaucus motel.
Hanley, 70, appeared yesterday afternoon in Hudson County Superior Court for a brief hearing, shackled and wearing a green jail uniform and walking with a cane. He has been jailed since late October, when a warrant was issued for his arrest for missing a court date, Assistant Prosecutor Howard Bell said.
Hanley was indicted in June on charges of possessing a weapon for an unlawful purpose and making terroristic threats, Bell said. He will remain in jail until his next court date, Jan. 22, unless he can post his $50,000 bail, which has a 10 percent cash option.
Authorities say that on March 10 Hanley swung a bat at three employees at the Extended Stay Motel in Secaucus. An officer drew his gun and ordered Hanley to drop the bat, but Hanley did not, prosecutors say. Instead, Hanley turned around and started to walk away, still holding the bat, prosecutors say.
The officer put his gun back in his holster, kicked Hanley's legs out from under him and arrested him, prosecutors say.
EUGENE (OR)
The Oregonian
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
ASHBEL S. GREEN and STEVE WOODWARD
EUGENE -- The Archdiocese of Portland is likely to emerge from nearly three years of bankruptcy and return to normal operations next spring, according to a deal announced Monday by mediators.
The amount of the settlement won't be made public until next week at the earliest, but insurers for the archdiocese will chip in more than $50 million toward the cost to resolve priest sex-abuse claims, said U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan, one of two mediators.
Nearly 150 cases have been settled during more than three months of mediation. About 20 cases remain unresolved. Hogan expressed confidence that most of the remaining claimants would settle, but said anyone who did not agree to deals would have the right to a jury trial.
Although Hogan would not discuss financial details, he said the settlement would not include using schools and parishes as collateral. The settlement also includes a fund for priest accusers who come forward in the future.
The new plan, scheduled to be submitted next week, must be approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court as well as a majority of the creditors.
HUDSON (WI)
Pioneer Press
BRIEFING: HUDSON, WIS.
Four months after a lawsuit was filed against nearly 200 Catholic bishops seeking names and church reforms, it was amended Monday to focus on identifying priests accused of molestation.
St. Paul attorney Jeff Anderson said the suit was amended to simplify and streamline the lawsuit seeking the names of more than 5,000 priests by the families of Dan O'Connell and James Ellison.
The goal is to publicize the list, which is only known to the church, according to the lawsuit.
While an effort seeking priest recruitment changes and other reforms was removed from the suit, Tom O'Connell Jr. said the families will continue to push for them, but wanted the lawsuit to be clearer and more straightforward.
NEW JERSEY
Dail Record
BY ABBOTT KOLOFF
DAILY RECORD
James T. Hanley, a former priest who has admitted to sexually abusing children decades ago in Mendham, appeared in a Hudson County courtroom Monday on charges from an incident in which he allegedly brandished a bat during an argument with a hotel manager.
Hanley spent the past month in Hudson County jail, where he is being held on $50,000 bail after being indicted on third-degree charges of making terroristic threats and possession of a weapon, law enforcement officials said Monday. Hanley has said he was using the bat as a walking cane.
Howard Bell, an assistant Hudson County prosecutor, said Monday's court appearance was a routine status conference. The public defender representing Hanley did not return a phone call.
Hanley, former pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Mendham, has been accused of molesting children in Mendham and elsewhere decades ago. He was a central figure in a lawsuit involving more than two dozen victims who received a $5 million settlement from the Paterson Roman Catholic Diocese in 2005.
NEW LONDON (CT)
Norwich Bulletin
By GREG SMITH
Norwich Bulletin
NEW LONDON -- Immediately after taking the witness stand Monday, the mother of a girl who claims she was molested by her church pastor broke down in tears.
The Willimantic woman cried, pausing before completing the spelling of her first name while she was sworn in. She testified about finding her daughter's written account of alleged molestation at the hands of family friend Charles Johnson Jr., former pastor at Norwich Assembly of God.
Johnson has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor. His trial started Monday with testimony from the alleged victim.
The woman, along with her husband, said she confronted their daughter while living in California, but decided at the daughter's request they would not go to authorities. The mother said her daughter was embarrassed and "adamantly said she didn't want anything done. She didn't want to confront anyone."
AUSTRALIA
The Courier-Mail
Renee Viellaris
December 12, 2006 11:00pm
FUTURE Anglican Church clergy will endure tough new psychological profiling to weed out potential pedophiles.
Under a rigorous initiative to be adopted by the Brisbane diocese, about 200 existing clergy, including Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, also will face regular reviews.
The measures, which could be introduced by next year, are being delayed as psychologists, lawyers and key clergy try to agree on the wording of a questionnaire that addresses intimate personal habits.
Plans for the strategy, called the safe ministry check, come four years after the diocese was ordered to pay $834,800 to a woman sexually abused as a child by a boarding master at a Toowoomba school. Revelations emerged at the time that former Brisbane archbishop Peter Hollingworth ignored allegations of sexual abuse, forcing his resignation as governor-general in 2003.
Diocese professional standards director Rod McLary said the new procedures would be among the first in Australia.
GRAND RAPIDS (MI)
WOOD
By PATRICK CENTER
GRAND RAPIDS - More than 10,500 people nationwide have come forward with stories of being sexually assaulted by priests.
Fr. Michael McKenna was ordained in 1973, but Monday the Roman Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids permanently removed him from the ministry after substantiated claims of sexual abuse with at least one minor.
24 Hour News 8 talked with the diocese's Bishop Walter Hurley about McKenna. He said the civil authorities were notified in 2003 about the situation.
"The victims were offered assistance," Bishop Hurley said, "and at this point the parishes have been notified and other victims have been invited to come forward if there are any."
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Jessica Garrison and John Spano, Times Staff Writers
December 12, 2006
Less than two weeks after Cardinal Roger M. Mahony announced a landmark deal to settle lawsuits brought by 45 people who said they were molested by Catholic priests, the focus of the Southern California clergy sex scandal moves back to the criminal courts.
Former priest Michael Stephen Baker is due in court today for a hearing; he has been charged with molesting a boy after he had confessed to the cardinal that he was an abuser. He pleaded not guilty at an arraignment earlier this year.
Baker, whose case Mahony has said "troubles me the most," is one of the most reviled ex-priests in a scandal that has implicated dozens of clergy in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, generated 562 claims of abuse and touched three out of every four parishes in the largest Roman Catholic archdiocese in the nation.
Mahony has acknowledged leaving 16 priests in the ministry after parishioners complained about inappropriate behavior with children. Baker is one of five who went on to molest.
DES MOINES (IA)
Des Moines Register
By MICHAEL MORAIN
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Basically, it's her word against his.
She's a prickly old nun, the principal at a Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964. He's a popular young priest.
She claims he messed around with a 12-year-old boy, the school's first black student. He claims he did nothing wrong.
Neither has a scrap of proof.
"Doubt," the play that begins a five-day run Wednesday at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines, unfolds with all the tension of a jury trial.
Only, there's no verdict.
SYRACUSE (NY)
WMDT
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) -
A Syracuse, New York, court appearance for a 77-year-old priest accused of sexual abuse was adjourned yesterday until January 23rd.
The Reverend Francis DeLuca, a retired priest from Wilmington (Delaware) was charged in October with five misdemeanors accusing him of repeated sexual contact with a boy in Syracuse.
Syracuse police say DeLuca confessed to molesting the boy, who is now 18, over a five-year period.
EUGENE (OR)
Myrtle Beach Sun News
JEFF BARNARD
Associated Press
EUGENE, Ore. - Roman Catholic church and school property are not expected to be part of the settlement agreement reached with the Archdiocese of Portland and 150 people who claim to have been sexually abused by priests who once worked in Western Oregon.
Ownership of parish and school property had been a major issue in the bankruptcy case the archdiocese filed in July 2004, when it became the first Catholic diocese in the nation to seek protection from creditors as the trial was set to begin in a massive lawsuit over alleged abuse.
The archdiocese contended that parish and school property was held in trust and not subject to claims, while attorneys for alleged victims argued the archdiocese was the owner and could sell property if necessary to pay any claims.
U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan, however, said Monday that all current and future claims could be covered by the archdiocese without selling off property held by parishes and schools.
EUGENE (OR)
Chicago Tribune
By Jeff Barnard
Associated Press
Published December 12, 2006
EUGENE, Ore. -- About 150 people who alleged they were molested by priests have agreed to settle their lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland for an undisclosed amount.
U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan announced the agreement Monday but would not give a dollar amount. He told reporters the archdiocese, which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, could cover all current and future claims without selling off property held by parishes and schools.
The judge said the archdiocese has more than $50 million from settling litigation with insurance companies, plus sufficient real estate and other assets to cover the claims.
Portland was the first archdiocese in the nation to seek protection from creditors when it went to federal bankruptcy court to head off lawsuits claiming sexual abuse by Rev. Maurice Grammond, who has since died. Other priests also were accused of abuses.
FRESNO (CA)
Fresno Bee
By Pablo Lopez / The Fresno Bee 12/12/06 03:53:22
A judge presiding over a civil trial in which a former altar boy has accused a Fresno priest of sexual abuse has issued a gag order to prevent lawyers from swaying jury deliberations.
Judge Donald Black issued his order after Juan Rocha's lawyer, Larry Drivon, said his client had offered to settle the lawsuit in Fresno County Superior Court for $1 — provided Father Eric Swearingen leaves the priesthood.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno immediately rejected the offer, made Thursday, on the first day of jury deliberations.
Jurors will return to court today for a third day of deliberations.
The trial pits Swearingen, pastor of Holy Spirit church, against former altar boy Rocha, now 31 and a decorated Army sergeant first class.
BALTIMORE (MD)
Towleroad
CNN Anchor Thomas Roberts expressed disappointment at a decision by Baltimore County Circuit Judge John G. Turnbull II to approve a request from Roman Catholic priest Jerome F. Toohey Jr. to serve out the final eight months of an 18-month prison sentence for sexual abuse in home detention rather than in prison.
Toohey pleaded guilty in 2005 to sexually abusing Roberts between 1987 and 1989 when Roberts was a student at Calvert Hall College High School, a Catholic school for boys. At that time, evidence from a previously dismissed suit by another former student, Michael Goles, was used to obtain a stricter sentence for Toohey. That sentence has all but been erased.
Said Roberts: "I was let down by a trusted system (the Roman Catholic church) years ago. I fear today that I will be let down again. This was a lenient sentence."
Goles expressed dismay at the recent decision: "Thomas and I don't get early release. We're stuck with life sentences for what we suffered."
Toohey, whose behavior his lawyer claimed was the "byproduct of severe alcoholism", has been kept in solitary confinement because of threats of violence from other prisoners.
EUGENE (OR)
Jackson News-Tribune
By JEFF BARNARD, Associated Press Writer
EUGENE, Ore. - About 150 people who claimed they were molested by priests have agreed to settle their lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland for an undisclosed amount.
The judge said the archdiocese has more than $50 million from settling litigation with insurance companies, plus sufficient real estate and other assets of its own to cover the claims.
Three other dioceses — Tucson, Ariz.; Spokane, Wash.; and Davenport, Iowa — also have sought bankruptcy court protection from a flood of lawsuits by people alleging sexual abuse by priests. Tucson emerged from the process in 2005.
"These are expensive lessons," Hogan said. "All of our hope is, including the archdiocese, is that they have been learned."
David Clohessy,Abuse Tracker Director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, who is not a party of the agreement, said in a statement that he hoped the agreement would bring healing to the victims.
IRELAND
Irish Independent
AN IRISH paedophile cleric who celebrated Mass and abused his victims while wearing women's underwear regularly took the female lead roles in theatrical productions at his seminary college.
The revelation came in documents, lodged in a court in California last week, which aim to make an Irish archdiocese financially liable for abuse committed overseas.
The Irish Independent has learned that the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly has sought to have the case dismissed on jurisdictional grounds, but this has been vehemently opposed by the plaintiff who was abused by Fr Oliver O'Grady.
The documents lodged in the California Superior Court for San Joaquin have been described by legal experts as stunning.
They include claims that:
* Fr O'Grady, who abused the children of parishioners in their homes or while they served as altar boys, was himself abused as a child.
GRAND RAPIDS (MI)
WOOD
Updated: Dec 11, 2006 11:11 AM EST
GRAND RAPIDS - A Catholic priest was permanently removed from all ministry duties after allegations he abused at least one child in the 1970s.
Bishop Walter Hurley this morning released a statement announcing that Fr. Michael McKenna is prohibited from wearing clerical clothes and presenting himself as a priest.
McKenna, 60, was given a medical leave nearly four years ago, and during that time, allegations surfaced about the alleged sexual abuse approximately 30 years ago. After a review, the diocese found the allegations believable.
McKenna was ordained in 1973 and was assigned to St. John Vianney in Wyoming. He stayed there for three years, and then was transferred to five different parishes in rapid order. McKenna was a parish priest at Sacred Heart in Muskegon Heights from 1976-77, then spent a month at St. Dominic in Grand Rapids. He spent eight months at St. Francis Xavier in Conklin before moving to Our Lady Consolation in Rockford in 1978. The following year he was transferred to St. Charles in Greenville.
CALIFORNIA
San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, December 10, 2006 10 02 PM
(12-10) 22:02 PST Sonoma, Calif. (AP) --
A Roman Catholic bishop once threatened with criminal charges for failing to report child abuse allegations returned to lead Mass in the accused priest's parish for the first time since the scandal erupted in May.
Most Rev. Daniel Walsh, bishop of Santa Rosa, asked St. Francis Solano Church parishioners for forgiveness Saturday for not telling authorities sooner about the alleged misconduct of Rev. Xavier Ochoa, a one-time priest at the church who fled to Mexico before he could be arrested.
"The time comes when you have to start the healing process," Walsh said after the service.
Ochoa, 68, admitted his misconduct during an April meeting with Walsh and two other church officials, but Walsh said nothing to investigators until five days after the meeting.
ISRAEL
Haaretz
By Tamar Rotem
It was a normal evening in early November. In Netivot, the town of memorial celebrations for saintly rabbis, quiet is something tangible - actually rare. Perhaps this was the reason why there was something disturbing about the quiet that prevailed outside. The little ones were already lying in bed in their pajamas when suspicious shadows were seen in the garden outside S.'s kitchen. Looking through the window, she made out three figures, and she felt something bad was about to happen. She knew these were the thugs of Rabbi Yoram Aberjil. At that very moment, her husband, A., was at the police station, filing a complaint of attempted assault by people he identified as the rabbi's followers. She was alone with her small children. "I knew that the outer door of the kitchen was not locked. That's how it is in Netivot. My whole body trembled."
S. pushed the stove against the door and ran to the "safe" room (reinforced against rocket attacks). She frantically emptied the wall closet and put the children into it. Meanwhile, the thugs entered the building. They hammered wildly at the door and shouted over and over for her to open it. A neighbor yelled from above: "What do you want here?" They said: "We've come to kill her."
"I took a carving knife and held it ready. The children started crying. I told them: 'Quiet. If you cry, it will be the end of us.' I held my hand over the mouth of the youngest child. One of the children said: 'Mommy, it's like in the Holocaust.'" The intruders continued to bang on the door and shout. Someone called the police, and when they heard the sirens, they ran off. "That night we packed our bags and fled," she related.
Until a few months ago, Rabbi Aberjil was the rabbi of S. and her husband. The two are in their late 20s, and, like all the members of the community, are newly religious. Over the last year, they decided to move away from the crowded community. They found an apartment outside of the area in which the community is concentrated, and moved the children to schools not identified with Rabbi Aberjil.
In the second week of September, S. relates, the telephone rang, and it was Rabbi Aberjil on the line. "I want you to know that your children are precious to me," he said. "I won't let anyone pick the fruit I planted. The next conversation will be really painful. I will follow you. I have ways of making you disappear in a hit-and-run accident. I will curse your children. I'm telling you, I have powers. Your children will be orphans."
At the end of October, they asked for help from a series of rabbis, among them the town's chief rabbi, Rabbi Pinhas Cohen. They unwittingly opened a Pandora's box. Other families of yeshiva students also came to Rabbi Cohen and told of threats made by Rabbi Aberjil. As a result of conversations with women, two files of evidence were compiled about what could be regarded as sexual harassment. Rabbi Cohen passed the complaints on to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (the country's leading Sephardic rabbi) and to the Chief Rabbinate. Rabbi Yosef gave instructions to establish a special religious court to examine the complaints.
NORTHERN IRELAND
The Northern Echo
FRUSTRATED parishioners still do not know why their priest was suspended - two years after the Catholic church removed him.
On December 10, 2004, Father Michael Higginbottom was withdrawn from St Augustine's Roman Catholic Church, Darlington, pending an investigation by the Hexham and Newcastle diocese child protection officer.
Two years on, the congregation do not know why he was suspended, when he will return, or if he will return. ...
Father Dennis Tindall, the diocese child protection officer leading the investigation, said: "No information can be given at this time. When there is something to report, there will be a statement from the diocese and Fr Michael."
DOVER (DE)
newszap
By Randall Chase, Associated Press
DOVER — Catholic church officials in Wilmington have released the names of 20 suspected pedophile priests and dedicated the Advent season to victims of clergy sexual abuse, but state lawmakers say more needs to be done for victims of child sexual abuse.
Legislators plan to pursue action when the General Assembly reconvenes next month to allow victims of child sexual abuse more time to file civil lawsuits against their alleged abusers.
“We’re still stuck with a lousy statute of limitations, and it needs to be fixed,” said state Rep. Greg Lavelle, R-Wilmington.
A New Castle County judge opened the door for victims a little further last week, ruling that the current two-year statute of limitations for civil claims does not apply to a man who allegedly suppressed memories of years of abuse by a Wilmington priest until 2002, when the church sex abuse scandal made headlines.
PORTLAND (OR)
The Seattle Times
By WILLIAM McCALL
The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. — More than two years after the Archdiocese of Portland became the first Roman Catholic diocese in the nation to declare bankruptcy, a settlement with alleged victims of priest sex abuse may be near.
A pair of judges who have been mediating settlement talks between the archdiocese and attorneys for alleged victims since September have scheduled a news conference for today at the federal courthouse in Eugene, Ore.
U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan and Lane County Circuit Judge Lyle Velure imposed a strict gag order on attorneys and all parties involved with the case, so there was no confirmation whether a settlement would be announced or any indication of terms, if an agreement had been reached.
NEW JERSEY
Home News Tribune
Erick Wakiaga
The archbishop is in the house.
Well, sort of.
Emmanuel Milingo, a Roman Catholic archbishop from the African nation of Zambia, who was excommunicated for ordaining married men as priests, is on a mission. He's been in New Jersey to continue his campaign against celibacy of the clergy by ordaining married priests.
But Milingo, 76, is not new to stirring up the pot from within.
In the 1970s, he drew the wrath of some bishops through his exorcism and healing ministry.
Again, Milingo got in trouble with Pope John Paul II in 2001 when he married Maria Sung in a mass wedding performed by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church. Moon is the Korean known for uniting thousands of couples holding photographs of future spouses in mass weddings. ...
These are the men — and women — that Milingo wants the Roman Catholic Church — tainted by sex-abuse scandals — to welcome.
For the record, the Roman Catholic Church in the United States has spent more than $1 billion to settle the sex scandal.
Our own Diocese of Metuchen had its share of the scandal. Some of you may remember the case of a priest who was accused of abusing an 11-year-old altar boy in a Hunterdon County church.
DAVENPORT (IA)
Des Moines Register
ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 11, 2006
Davenport, Ia. - The Davenport Diocese is selling its headquarters and the home of its new bishop to raise money for victims of sexual abuse.
The diocese filed for bankruptcy in October as protection against dozens of claims of sexual abuse by its priests. Now it's liquidating its assets to pay those victims.
"This is a first step," said Richard Davidson, the diocese's bankruptcy attorney with the Lane & Waterman law firm.
St. Vincent's Pastoral Center and three homes were part of a sales plan discussed this month by diocese officials, Davidson said.
The most expensive property is the tree-filled St. Vincent's, valued at $4.1 million. The other properties include a home built in 1820 that includes 25.5 acres, valued at $110,630. Another home, built in 1900, is valued at $81,740.
WASHINGTON
The Olympian
"Hand of God," a documentary about an altar boy abused by his priest during the 1960s, will be shown tonight, only. Cultrera, who as an adult confronted the Archdiocese of Boston about what happened to him, is the subject of the film and the brother of filmmaker Joe Cultrera. Paul Cultrera will visit the Capitol Theater to speak about the film and his experiences.
"It's a heavy subject," Thornton said. "But it has some humor."
"Bad things happen to people, but it doesn't mean that they lose their humor or they lose their smiles," said Joe Cultrera of New York. "I don't like films that try to manipulate you.
"The fact that Paul retained his sense of humor has gotten him through this whole thing."
The film, which will be shown on PBS's "Frontline" next month, is a personal story about a family, the filmmaker said.
MASSACHUSETTS
Gloucester Daily Times
By Gail McCarthy , Staff writer
Gloucester Daily Times
Paul Cultrera lived with a secret for decades.
The Salem native moved to Gloucester as a young man and he ran the Cape Ann Food Cooperative, a place residents frequented for nourishing foods.
As a young teenager, he and his family attended St. James Parish in Salem, where the late Joseph Birmingham served as a priest, one eventually accused of sexual abuse of boys in several parishes, including Salem and Gloucester.
Cultrera stands among the dozens of victims.
But the process of revealing his story began on Gloucester's Main Street one evening after dinner about 15 years ago while he was having a conversation with his ex-wife, Hartley Ferguson, a local artist and language teacher. The two were sitting in a car outside the restaurant.
"I told her," Cultrera said. "It was the first time I had uttered anything about it. I was surprised I answered her honestly. But I'm glad she asked because I began to open up."
His younger brother, Joe Cultrera, a filmmaker, asked if he could create a film about his brother's ordeal. The result was "Hand of God," a documentary, which has won numerous awards, on how the clergy sex abuse scandal affected one family.
DOVER (DE)
WMDT
DOVER, Del. (AP) -
State lawmakers say more needs to be done for victims of child sexual abuse.
They plan to pursue action when the General Assembly reconvenes next month to allow victims more time to file civil lawsuits against their alleged abusers.
Currently, the statute of limitations stands at two years. State Representative Greg Lavelle says that needs to be fixed.
DAVENPORT (IA)
KWWL
DAVENPORT, Iowa The Davenport Diocese is selling its headquarters and the home of its new bishop to raise funds for victims of sexual abuse.
The diocese filed for bankruptcy in October as protection against claims of sexual abuse by its priests.
Now it's liquidating its assets to pay those victims.
Richard Davidson, the diocese's attorney, says selling the headquarters and the bishop's home is just the first step.
The diocese also plans to sell some other property, including a 110-thousand dollar home built in 1820 that includes 25 acres. The most expensive property is the tree-filled Saint Vincent's center, valued at four-point-one (m) million dollars.
PORTLAND (OR)
The Seattle Times
By WILLIAM McCALL
The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. – More than two years after the Archdiocese of Portland became the first Roman Catholic diocese in the nation to declare bankruptcy, a settlement with alleged victims of priest sex abuse may be near.
A pair of judges who have been mediating settlement talks between the archdiocese and attorneys for alleged victims since September have scheduled a Monday news conference at the federal courthouse in Eugene.
U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan and Lane County Circuit Judge Lyle Velure imposed a strict gag order on attorneys and all parties involved with the case, so there was no confirmation whether a settlement would be announced or any indication of terms, if an agreement had been reached.
If there is a settlement, it will likely require a new reorganization plan for the archdiocese that will have to be approved by a judge. Creditors, including alleged victims, will have to vote to adopt the revised plan.
NEW YORK
Playfuls.com
Rabbi Joel Yehuda Kolko, 60, former teacher and assistant principal at Yeshiva-Mesivta Torah Temimah on Ocean Parkway in Midwood, was arraigned Friday on four counts of sexual abuse and one count of endangering the welfare of a child, a boy who was 6 at the time. Among the three adults is a man, 31. Both incidents took place inside the school.
Both the school and the rabbi face another lawsuit by two former students who say Kolko molested them 25 years ago. "There may be other charges with other complainants, and there is an ongoing investigation regarding Kolko," Assistant Brooklyn District Attorney Marc Fliedner said in Brooklyn Criminal Court.
Marc Fliedner, assistant DA, said Rabbi Kolko placed his hand on a 6-year-old student’s penis during school hours in October 2003. In January 2005, Mr. Fliedner said, Rabbi Kolko forced an adult to place his hand on the rabbi’s penis, also inside the school. Apparently there are at least other three adult victims.
NEW JERSEY
Daily Record
BY ABBOTT KOLOFF
DAILY RECORD
Anthony Padovano knew what he wanted to do with his life when he was a teenager sitting up in bed one night, unable to sleep. He says he had a "quasi-mystical experience," a calling from God, and afterward told his parents he wanted to become a priest.
He used another word to convey urgency.
"I need to be a priest," he told his parents.
Technically, and he says spiritually, he remains a Catholic priest 32 years after he left his church ministry to marry a nun he met while teaching a graduate course on theology. Once ordained, priests always are priests, even though married priests are not allowed to function as clerics within the church. That creates some internal stresses, Padovano said. ...
Theresa Padovano, 65, his wife, also has become a prominent church critic. She co-founded the northern New Jersey chapter of Voice of the Faithful, formed to provide support to victims of clerical sex abuse and to promote discussions about changes in the church. She said a group of married priests and their wives used to get together to provide support for one another. They expected the church to change its stand on celibacy for priests -- but Pope John Paul II closed discussion of the issue.
NEW LONDON (CT)
The Day
By Karen Florin, Day Staff Writer
Published on 12/9/2006 in Region
A 15-year-old girl who alleges that former Norwich Assembly of God Pastor Charles Johnson Jr. molested her two times when she was 9 or 10 testified Friday in New London Superior Court that she disclosed the incidents to an English teacher last year as the class studied a novel about a teen who had been raped and killed.
Speaking calmly and articulately on the witness stand, the girl said that reading “The Lovely Bones,” by Alice Sebold, had caused “some emotional difficulties.”
The teacher asked the students to write an essay about the book, but the girl said she never completed the assignment. “The more I thought about it, the more it just made me sick,” she said.
She said her teacher asked what was wrong and that she told her that Johnson had molested her. Teachers are so-called “mandatory reporters” of suspected sexual assault, so the girl's disclosure sparked a police investigation that ended with Johnson's arrest on charges of first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor.
BURLINGTON (KY)
Cincinatti Enquirer
BY JIM HANNAH | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER
BURLINGTON - Almost $3 million has been paid to people abused by Covington Diocese priests as part of a settlement reached last year.
That's the figure contained in a report dated Dec. 6 and filed with the Boone Circuit Court Clerk's Office.
The report, the sixth that has been submitted since the settlement was reached, states that 117 claims have been decided and that 13 claims were pending.
Additional claims are being processed almost every day. As many as 350 people could be eligible to submit a claim, according to previous court records.
About $1.2 million was distributed in October. The amount given out increased by $1.7 million for November. That includes a 22 percent attorneys' fee set by a judge.
FRESNO (CA)
San Francisco Chronicle
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno rejected a former alter boy's offer to settle a lawsuit for $1 on the condition that the priest who allegedly molested him resign.
Juan Rocha, 31, a decorated Army sergeant first class, filed a civil lawsuit against the diocese and Father Eric Swearingen. He alleges that the priest sexually abused him from ages 12 to 15 when he was an alter boy in churches in Bakersfield and Fresno.
The priest said he let Rocha live in the two church rectories with him temporarily so the boy could get away from a troubled home, but denied molesting him.
Authorities in Fresno and Kern counties investigated Rocha's allegations, but no criminal charges were ever filed against Swearingen, the diocese said.
The Fresno diocese has settled two other sex abuse cases for $875,000 and $650,000. Rocha's $1 offer during the first day of jury deliberations Thursday in Fresno County Superior Court supported his claim that "this case was never about money," said his lawyer Larry Drivon.
IOWA
Quad-City Times
By Deirdre Cox Baker | Saturday, December 09, 2006
The home of Bishop Martin Amos and the headquarters of the Catholic Diocese of Davenport top the list of assets to be sold to raise funds to help victims of sexual abuse.
“As I was doing some ‘housework’ over the weekend, I knew this was much more space than I needed,” Amos wrote Friday in an e-mail message to the Quad-City Times. “I’ve asked that rather than try to purchase back this property, we look for something smaller as the bishop’s residence.”
Amos could live close to his office in a “fixer-upper” home, a place where he would put his carpentry skills to use. “It’s just less for him to take care of” attorney Richard Davidson said, noting that the bishop has no housekeeping staff.
Three residences and the St. Vincent’s Pastoral Center were considered in a proposal discussed Dec. 4 by the Diocesan Corporate Board and its Finance Council, said Davidson, the diocese’s bankruptcy attorney, who is with the Lane & Waterman law firm in Davenport.
OREGON
The Oregonian
Saturday, December 09, 2006
STEVE WOODWARD and ASHBEL S. GREEN
The two judges mediating the Archdiocese of Portland bankruptcy have scheduled a news conference Monday morning in Eugene after more than three months of secret negotiations over priest sex-abuse claims.
Though a gag order has kept a lid on the proceedings, the judges are expected to announce a multimillion-dollar settlement of more than 100 claims of child sex abuse by priests and other employees of the archdiocese.
A media advisory announcing the news conference says only that the purpose "is to discuss legal matters pertaining to the pending bankruptcy petition. . ."
UTAH
KVOA
SALT LAKE CITY -- The chief law enforcer in two Utah-Arizona border towns is accused of misconduct after writing a letter in which he warmly referred to the leader of a polygamous sect as "Uncle Warren" and pledged "our desire to stand with you and the priesthood."
"I am praying for you to be protected and yearn to be with you again," wrote Fred Barlow, who referred to himself as a "servant" to Warren Jeffs.
Jeffs is the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which has 10,000 members in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. Barlow is the marshal who oversees officers in the towns.
The letter was written in October 2005 while Jeffs was on the run from criminal charges.
SANDY (UT)
Deseret Morning News
By Ben Winslow
Deseret Morning News
SANDY — Police officers in the polygamous border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., are under investigation by the agency that disciplines cops.
The Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training Council voted Wednesday to put the entire Hildale/Colorado City Town Marshal's Office under investigation over their loyalties to Fundamentalist LDS Church leader Warren Jeffs.
"We feel like this police department is Warren Jeffs' private goon squad on taxpayer dollars," lawyer Zachary Shields told the council. He is representing the court-appointed special fiduciary of the FLDS Church's financial arm, the United Effort Plan Trust.
Jeffs is currently in Washington County's Purgatory Jail awaiting a preliminary hearing on charges of rape as an accomplice, a first-degree felony. He is accused of arranging a child bride marriage between a 14-year-old girl and her 19-year-old cousin. Jeffs is scheduled to be back in St. George's 5th District Court for a preliminary hearing next week.
NEW YORK
Staten Island Advance
12/8/2006, 8:15 p.m. ET
The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — A rabbi at an all-boys Orthodox school was charged Friday with sexually abusing a young student, prosecutors said.
Joel Kolko, 60, was ordered held on $10,000 bond or $5,000 cash bail, a spokesman for the Brooklyn district attorney's office said. The charges handed down in Brooklyn criminal court include sexual abuse in the first, second and third degrees as well as endangering the welfare of a child.
Kolko, who was arrested Thursday night, taught at the private school, Yeshiva-Mesivta Torah Temimah, for years. The accuser, now age 9, reported he was abused during 2002 and 2003, police said.
Yaakov Applegrad, executive director of the school, said Kolko was no longer working there.
"If something did indeed happen, we sympathize with the child and are confident that the judicial system will handle it appropriately," he told WINS-AM 1010.
NEW YORK
New York Daily News
BY NANCIE L. KATZ and BRENDAN BROSH
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Prosecutors warned yesterday that a Brooklyn rabbi accused of sexually abusing two victims - including a young boy - may face more charges.
Joel Yehuda Kolko, 60, a former teacher and assistant principal at Yeshiva-Mesivta Torah Temimah on Ocean Parkway in Midwood, was released on $10,000 bail after he was arraigned yesterday on four counts of sexual abuse and one count of endangering the welfare of a child.
He was required to surrender his passport before he was allowed to return to his Midwood home in time for Sabbath observations.
The charges against him involve the alleged molestation of a 6-year-old boy and a 31-year-old man.
"There may be other charges with other complainants, and there is an ongoing investigation regarding Kolko," Assistant Brooklyn District Attorney Marc Fliedner said in Brooklyn Criminal Court.
NEW YORK
New York Post
By HEIDI SINGER, ALEX GINSBERG, MURRAY WEISS and JOHN MAZOR
December 9, 2006 -- A Brooklyn yeshiva covered up a rabbi's long history of child molestation and threatened parents and children who tried to end the abuse, it was charged yesterday.
Officials of Yeshiva Mesivta Torah Temimah knew of Rabbi Joel Kolko's attacks on young boys but ignored them because he was cleared by a rabbinical court, said lawyer Jeffrey Herman, who represents some of the alleged victims.
Details of Kolko's lurid past rocked the close-knit Jewish community yesterday as the rabbi was arraigned on new sex abuse charges yesterday.
They involved a 6-year-old boy - and a 31-year-old man, who says he was abused as a boy and again when he went back to visit the school last year.
The yeshiva denied a coverup.
NEW YORK
The New York Times
By DARYL KHAN
Published: December 9, 2006
A rabbi charged with sexual abuse of a minor at a school in Brooklyn walked out of criminal court yesterday after posting $5,000 bail.
Rabbi Joel Kolko, 60, a former teacher and assistant principal at Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Temimah, an all-boys private school on 555 Ocean Parkway in Midwood, was arraigned on two counts of sexual abuse in the first and second degree and one count of endangering the welfare of a child in two separate episodes — one with a boy who was 6 at the time, the other with a man, 31.
During the arraignment, an assistant district attorney, Marc Fliedner, said Rabbi Kolko placed his hand on a 6-year-old student’s penis during school hours in October 2003. In January 2005, Mr. Fliedner said, Rabbi Kolko forced an adult to place his hand on the rabbi’s penis, also inside the school. Neither of the complainants was named in court papers because of the nature of the allegations.
VIRGINIA
Daily Progress
By Rob Seal / rseal@dailyprogress.com | 978-7265
December 9, 2006
Authorities fingerprinted and photographed a former Charlottesville High School choir director Friday after he appeared in court on sexual abuse charges.
During a hearing, Albemarle Circuit Judge Paul M. Peatross approved a $50,000 property bond for 47-year-old Jonathan Keith Spivey, who put up his house as collateral.
On Nov. 30, a grand jury indicted Spivey on seven felony counts of custodial indecent liberties or custodial sexual abuse.
Spivey is a 19-year veteran of the city school system and was music director at Mt. Zion African Baptist Church.
OMAHA (NE)
Fremont Tribune
By JOSH FUNK
OMAHA, Neb. - A Vatican official has upheld the 1996 mass excommunication of perhaps hundreds of people affiliated with 11 groups the Lincoln Diocese considers anti-Catholic.
But local Call To Action members question whether the Vatican had accurate information because they never presented their side; the group plans to continue appealing, which will further delay enforcement of the excommunication order.
A Nov. 24 letter to Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of the Lincoln Diocese from Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re said Bruskewitz's decision "was properly taken within your competence as pastor of that diocese."
The cardinal leads the church's Congregation for Bishops.
Call To Action holds "views and positions which are unacceptable from a doctrinal and disciplinary standpoint," Re said. "Thus to be a member of this association or to support it, is irreconcilable with a coherent living of the Catholic faith."
Call To Action has long been critical of how the church handled allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests and questions the church's tradition of a male-only, unmarried priesthood.
JEFFERSON CITY (MO)
Kansas City Star
Associated Press
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - The Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City has reinstated a small-town Roman Catholic priest who was accused of sexually abusing a minor more than 20 years ago.
The diocese conducted an eight-month investigation into claims against the Rev. Louis E. Dorn of St. Joseph Catholic Church in the northeast Missouri town of Louisiana.
Bishop John Gaydos said in a release that he reinstated Dorn "with complete confidence in the work of the Diocesan Review Board."
That board found allegations made by one individual about one incident to be unsubstantiated.
"The time certainly gave an opportunity for other possible victims to step forward," said Ron Vessell, the Diocese's interim chancellor and review administrator. "We heard from no one."
BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Sun
By Jennifer McMenamin
Sun Reporter
Originally published December 9, 2006
Ten months after a former Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to 18 months in jail for sexually abusing a student, a Baltimore County judge granted the priest's request yesterday to serve the rest of his sentence on home detention - a decision his two victims criticized.
A lawyer for Jerome F. Toohey Jr., known as Father Jeff, had asked the judge to release his client either on probation or home detention because the conditions of his confinement at the county jail are "extremely tough."
Toohey, 60, the former chaplain of Calvert Hall College High School in Towson, has been kept in solitary confinement 23 hours a day for his safety because of threats made against him by other prisoners, his defense attorney, Andrew Jay Graham, told Baltimore County Circuit Judge John G. Turnbull II yesterday.
The one hour Toohey is allowed out of his cell sometimes occurs at 1:30 a.m., the lawyer said.
TEXAS
KXAN
At least five boys say they were touched or exposed inappropriately at Faith Christian Cowboy Church on Highway 281, just north of Johnson City.
KXAN's Hill Country reporter, Connie Swinney, spoke with the families who say they want to see a predator behind bars.
A group of families tells KXAN they sent their children to the church, and they believed they were safe. But a string of molestation charges has surfaced. Now, some are unhappy about the potential fate of the accused.
ROME
Tuscaloosa News
By JOSH FUNK
Associated Press Writer
December 08. 2006 4:11PM
A Vatican official has upheld the 1996 mass excommunication of perhaps hundreds of people in the Lincoln Diocese affiliated with a church reform group and 10 other organizations the diocese considers anti-Catholic.
A Nov. 24 letter to Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz in Lincoln from Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re said Bruskewitz's excommunication decision "was properly taken within your competence as pastor of that diocese."
Re leads the church's Congregation for Bishops. ...
Call to Action, which claims 25,000 members in 53 U.S. chapters, supports changes to the church including the ordination of women as priests and allowing priests to marry. It has long been critical of how the church handled allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests.
AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
December 9, 2006
Beth Heinrich's claims of sexual abuse brought down a governor-general. But it was the betrayal by a man she loved that tore her life apart, writes Linda Morris.
There are times of stress and moments of quiet when Beth Heinrich catches herself reciting an intimate prayer her one-time lover, a married member of the Anglican clergy, composed for her.
The woman at the centre of the Anglican Church's most notorious modern abuse scandal has just been asked whether she is getting on with her life.
She wonders out loud whether people prefer the truth or a sanitised version of the story, that of a victim making the best of it and moving on. Then she makes it clear that her past is forever her present.
"It's really, really scary to find myself saying 'Loving Father, Donald and I thank you', and I say to myself, 'What the f--- am I doing?"'
In August, Heinrich was paid $100,000 in compensation for sexual abuse she claims began in 1954 when she was a teenage schoolgirl in the care of the Reverend Donald Shearman in the western NSW town of Forbes.
BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Sun
By Jennifer McMenamin
Sun Reporter
Originally published December 8, 2006, 12:46 PM EST
Ten months after he sentenced a former Roman Catholic priest to 18 months in jail for sexually abusing a former student, a Baltimore County judge granted a request today from the priest to release him from custody and allow him to serve the rest of his sentence on home detention.
A lawyer for Jerome F. Toohey Jr., known as Father Jeff, had asked the judge to release his client either on probation or home detention because the conditions of his confinement at the county jail are "extremely tough."
Defense attorney Andrew Jay Graham told Baltimore County Circuit Judge John G. Turnbull II that Toohey has been kept in solitary confinement 23 hours a day for his own safety because of threats made against him by other prisoners.
Thomas Roberts, the former Calvert Hall College student whom Toohey was convicted of abusing after the then-high school sophomore sought counseling from the priest in 1987, told the judge that the 18-month jail term imposed in February was "a lenient one" and he asked Turnbull not to release Toohey.
BALTIMORE (MD)
WJZ
(WJZ) Baltimore, MD A former Catholic priest who sexually abused a high school student in Baltimore County in the 1980s has been told by a judge he can serve the eight remaining months of his prison sentence on home detention.
Jerome Toohey has served ten months behind bars since his sentencing in February. He is expected to be released from custody by tomorrow.
At the time of the abuse, Toohey was a priest and chaplain at Calvert Hall College high school in Towson.
Former Calvert Hall student Thomas Roberts went public with his allegations about Toohey. Roberts is now a news anchor for C-N-N Headline News.
NEW YORK
NY1
December 08, 2006
A Brooklyn rabbi is awaiting arraignment Friday on charges he sexually molested a 9-year-old boy at his yeshiva on Ocean Parkway.
Police charged 60-year-old Joel Kolko with four counts of sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.
They say the boy claims he was abused during the 2002-2003 school year at the private school for boys in Midwood where Kolko works.
His family filed a $10 million lawsuit against the school, claiming it protected Kolko from other sexual abuse allegations. The school denies the allegations.
NEW YORK
WCBS
Magee Hickey
Reporting
(CBS) BROOKLYN Rabbi Joel Kolko was a well-known and well-respected rabbi at the Yeshiva and Mesivta Torah Temimah, according to the Yeshiva's executive director. But Kolko, also known as Yehuda, is now facing four counts of sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a minor.
Police say a 9-year-old boy is claiming that he was sexually abused by Rabbi Kolko when he was in first grade during the 2002-2003 school year.
For 37 years, Rabbi Kolko, was a first grade Hebrew studies teacher and was also an assistant principal.
When word of these allegations of sexual abuse first surfaced last May, Rabbi Yaakov Applegrad, the executive director of the Yeshiva, said Kolko, 60, was asked to leave.
"At no time did the Yeshiva have any knowledge of anything alleged against Rabbi Kolko," said Rabbi Applegrad. "Nor did any parent ever raise a complaint against Rabbi Kolko."
SICILY
AGI
(AGI) - Palermo, Dec. 8 - A few days ago, the announcement of his imminent return to his Palermo parish had provoked a debate in church between those in favour and those against. Now the former parish priest of Santa Lucia, don Paolo Turturro, who is on trial for sexual abuse, is saving everyone from embarrassment and has announced he will step aside. The priest, who is famous for his anti-mafia battles, explained that he met Palermo's archbishop, Salvatore De Giogi: "It was a great moment," said don Turturro, who is now in Baucina, near Parlermo, "the cardinal was fatherly and very sweet. Soon I will have a new appointment, I will be a hospital chaplain."
WALES
icWales
Dec 8 2006
A VICAR has been arrested over allegations of sexual assault dating back to the 1980s.
It is also believed the Rev Alan Rabjohns, who has been vicar of St Saviours Church in the Splott area of Cardiff for the past 30 years, has been suspended from his job following the claims.
A spokesman for South Wales Police said, "Following allegations of an historical nature reported to police, a 66-year-old man from the Cardiff area was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault and has been released on police bail pending further inquiries.
TUCSON (AZ)
KOLD
by Leasa Conze, KOLD News 13 at Five Producer
A priest with the Tucson Catholic Diocese has been indicted on charges he sexually abused two boys in the 1980's.
The Reverend Gary Underwood is accused of victiming the two boys at St. Odilia's Church, on the northwest side, in 1983 and 1984.
His indictment includes 8 charges of sexual conduct with a minor and child molestation.
ILLINOIS
Chicago Tribune
By Barbara Bell
Special to the Tribune
Published December 8, 2006
A Palatine man who gambled away thousands of dollars belonging to a Buffalo Grove church while working as its business manager will spend a year on work-release in Lake County Jail and make restitution after pleading guilty Thursday to theft in Lake County Circuit Court.
Donato Suffoletto, 69, stole more than $600,000 from St. Mary Catholic Church's collection plates and from a food fund used for the needy, authorities said. He was originally charged with a felony that would have sent him to prison for at least 6 years, but the charge was reduced in a plea deal.
Although Assistant State's Atty. Matthew Chancey asked Judge James Booras to send Suffoletto to prison for 4 years, the judge declined, saying Suffoletto is in poor health. Suffoletto will be released from jail only for medical treatment or a job if he is able to find one. In addition, Suffoletto will be on probation for 4 years.
NEW YORK
New York Sun
By BRADLEY HOPE
Staff Reporter of the Sun
December 8, 2006
A Brooklyn rabbi was arrested on charges of sexual assault of a child yesterday, police officials said.
Rabbi Yehudi Kolko, 60, who taught at an all-boys school, in May was the target of a $20 million lawsuit by a former student. On Tuesday, another student filed a lawsuit seeking $10 million. Both students say Mr. Kolko sexually assaulted them.
Mr. Kolko was arrested yesterday at his home at 1249 E. 22nd St. following a long-term investigation, police said.
He was charged with four counts of sexual abuse, including two felony counts, and endangering the welfare of a child, police said.
NEW YORK
New York Daily News
BY NANCIE L. KATZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A Brooklyn rabbi who is being sued for decades of alleged sexual abuse was busted yesterday.
Joel Yehuda Kolko, 60, likely will face felony charges in the most recent case - the alleged molestation of a 9-year-old boy - as well as the abuse of an adult man, a law enforcement source said.
"The streets of New York are safer tonight," said Jeffrey Herman, a Florida lawyer who is suing the rabbi for more than $40 million on behalf of three adult victims and the child. "If the allegations are true, he's been an active predator for 30 years. Finally, justice will be served, and the children of New York will be protected."
Special NYPD child abuse cops arrested Kolko at his Midwood home about 4 p.m. yesterday, just hours after the Daily News ran a story about the latest allegation against him.
NEW YORK
New York Post
By PERRY CHIARAMONTE
December 8, 2006 -- A rabbi was arrested yesterday for allegedly molesting students at his Brooklyn yeshiva, police said.
Joel Kolko, 60, was busted at his home in Midwood after an 8-year-old male student and a former student, now grown, told cops he abused them.
Kolko was already facing sexual-abuse allegations in a $10 million lawsuit filed Wednesday against Yeshiva-Mesivta Torah Temimah.
Cops acted after seeing the court papers and interviewing the victims.
A similar abuse lawsuit was filed in May by two men who claimed Kolko molested them more than 25 years ago. It was thrown out due to the statute of limitations.
NEW YORK
WNBC
NEW YORK -- A Brooklyn Rabbi has been charged with sex abuse and child endangerment, police said.
Rabbi Joel Kolko, 60, was arrested Wednesday and charged with four counts of sex abuse and endangering the welfare of a minor, police said.
Police said the alleged victim is a 9-year-old boy who said he was sexually abused during 2002 and 2003.
The arrest comes after a the New York Daily News reported on a $10 million lawsuit that was filed by a child of "early elementary school" age.
CALIFORNIA
Sacramento Bee
By Ryan Lillis - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PST Friday, December 8, 2006
Joel Natividad was hired in early 1998 to help lead the choir at Prayer Mountain Community Church, a Pentecostal church that once sat on 23 secluded acres near Rescue. He soon developed a friendship with a 12-year-old member of the church, asking about her life and family and helping the young girl with her singing.
In the months that followed, however, Natividad transformed from a teacher and confidant to "an opportunistic predator" who groped and eventually had sex with the girl at least 55 times over the next two years, a prosecutor said during the closing arguments of Natividad's trial Thursday.
Natividad, now 46, stands charged with 23 counts in Sacramento Superior Court, ranging from lewd and lascivious acts with a child younger than 14 to unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. His case is in the hands of a jury, which will begin deliberating on Monday.
FRESNO (CA)
The Fresno Bee
By Pablo Lopez / The Fresno Bee 12/08/06 04:38:29
A former altar boy who has accused Father Eric Swearingen of sexual abuse offered to settled the civil case Thursday for $1 — provided Swearingen leaves the priesthood.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno immediately rejected the offer, made on the first day of jury deliberations in Fresno County Superior Court. Jurors will resume deliberations Monday.
The trial pits Swearingen, pastor of Holy Spirit church, one of the largest parishes in Fresno, against former altar boy Juan Rocha, now 31 and a decorated Army sergeant first class.
Rocha has accused Swearingen of molesting him at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Bakersfield and at St. Alphonsus parish in southwest Fresno when Rocha was between 12 and 15 years old. He is seeking unspecified damages from the diocese, contending he suffered emotional distress from the alleged abuse.
NEW LONDON (CT)
Norwich Bulletin
NEW LONDON — A trial starts Friday for the former pastor at the Norwich Assembly of God who is charged with sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl.
Charles Johnson Jr., 53, of 35 Fourteenth St. Norwich has denied the charges and pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor.
DALLAS (TX)
Associated Baptist Press
By Hannah Elliott
Published December 7, 2006
DALLAS (ABP) -- Recent sex scandals among Catholic and evangelical leaders are prompting renewed calls for action against clergy sexual abuse. But with research indicating such abuse is more prevalent among clergy -- including Baptists -- than other counseling professionals, abuse-victim advocates are asking if enough is being done.
Comprehensive studies are difficult to find. But a 1993 survey by the Journal of Pastoral Care found that 14 percent of Southern Baptist ministers admitted to engaging in inappropriate sexual behavior. Seventy percent said they knew another minister who had.
A 2000 Baptist General Convention of Texas report indicated more than 24 percent of ministers said they had counseled at least one person who had sexual contact with a minister. The BGCT report called the level of sexual abuse by clergy “horrific” and noted that “the disturbing aspect of all research is that the rate of incidence for clergy exceeds the client-professional rate for both physicians and psychologists.”
Christa Brown, an attorney from Austin, Texas, maintains www.stopbaptistpredators.org. She works with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, a volunteer self-help organization of survivors of clergy sexual abuse. She also recently handed out brochures at the annual BGCT convention Nov. 13 in Dallas.
MOSCOW (ID)
Times-News
MOSCOW, Idaho - A former Latah County church pastor who earlier this year pleaded guilty to two-decade-old charges of child sexual abuse in a Ventura, California, district court has hired a new attorney and may withdraw his plea.
William Malgren had been pastor for four years of the New Hope Baptist Church in Moscow, after the abuse incidents that police say allegedly occurred starting in the early 1980s.
Malgren pleaded guilty on October 18 in California to two counts of lewd acts with a child under 14 and two counts of lewd acts with a child under 16 that police say happened on separate occasions in 1983 and 1989.
WALES
icWales
Dec 7 2006
Lisa Jones, South Wales Echo
A VICAR has been suspended following allegations of sexual assault.
The Reverend Alan Rabjohns, 66, of St Saviours Church in Splott Road, in Splott, Cardiff, has been arrested following the claims, which date back to the 1980s.
A spokesman for South Wales Police said: "Following allegations of an historical nature a 66-year-old man, from Cardiff, was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault and released on police bail pending further inquiry."
A spokesman for the Church in Wales said: "The Church in Wales' diocese of Llandaff can confirm the Reverend Alan Rabjohns, Vicar of St Saviour's, Splott, Cardiff, has been arrested and is helping police with their inquiries following a complaint.
CANADA
Ottawa Citizen
Neco Cockburn, Ottawa Citizen
Published: Thursday, December 07, 2006
A publication ban to protect the name of an Alexandria-Cornwall Roman Catholic diocese employee would be a "revolutionary" step that would strike a serious blow to freedom of the press, a court heard Thursday.
Citizen lawyer Rick Dearden said the diocese employee, who was acquitted in court of sexual abuse, is "caught up in this process and doesn’t have a discretionary right to privacy" at the inquiry into historical sexual abuse in the Cornwall area.
A publication ban to protect the name of the employee, as a person who has been acquitted, would "stand on its head" the way Canadian media have reported on criminal matters, Mr. Dearden said yesterday, adding such a change is something Parliament, not the court, should decide.
A judicial review at the Ontario Divisional Court heard arguments yesterday after a diocese motion to protect the employee’s identity was dismissed last week by Commissioner Normand Glaude.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Tidings
The $60 million settlement of 45 cases in which clergy had been accused of sexual abuse is "fair and just," Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles said Dec. 1.
In a statement, the cardinal also termed the settlement "a positive step forward in the church's efforts to promote healing and reconciliation for those who have suffered abuse by members of the clergy."
He also made a personal apology to all victims of abuse by a priest, religious or deacon in the archdiocese.
"The sexual abuse of minors is both a sin and a crime, and there is no place in the priesthood for those who have abused children," he added.
CONNECTICUT
Wilton Villager
By PATRICK R. LINSEY
plinsey@wiltonvillager.com
REGION — After a priest allegedly plundered parish coffers last spring, Bishop William Lori is reforming finance practices in the Diocese of Bridgeport.
Lori and diocese Chief Financial Officer Norm Walker discussed the changes at an editorial board meeting with The Times Tuesday. Lori scheduled the meeting to "look back" on a tumultuous first five years as bishop that included the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and clergy sex abuse scandal.
"Completing five years seems like a time for a retrospective," he said.
Lori said he is working with pastors and parish finance councils to bolster congregations' confidence in church bookkeeping.
FRESNO (CA)
KGPE
Posted: 12/7/2006 6:36:29 PM
Juan Rocha's case against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno was handed over to the jury on Thursday.
Rocha claims Father Erik Swearingen molested him nearly 20 years ago. Swearingen testified during the trial that Rocha stayed overnight with him in church rectories three times in the late 1980's and early 1990's, but he denied ever molesting the boy.
The alleged incidents happened in Bakersfield, where Swearingen was a priest at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, and later in Fresno at St. Alphonsus Church.
PHILLIPS (WI)
The-Bee
Patti Wenzel
THE-BEE
Thursday, December 07th, 2006 08:41:23 AM
A priest who formerly served the Catholic community in Phillips has been accused of molesting at least 15 teenaged boys in the early 1970s when he ran a youth jobs program in partnership with the city of Chicago.
Fr. Terence Fitzmaurice, who served St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Phillips from 1986-1991 and Our Lady of the North Catholic Church from 1991-1999, was named by the men in a complaint to the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Order of St. Benedict in Lisle, Ill.
Fitzmaurice retired from active ministry in 1999 and returned to the St. Procopius Abbey in Lisle.
A spokesperson for Bishop Raphael Fliss of the Superior Diocese (which the Phillips congregations are a part of) said all inquiries about Fitzmaurice were to be directed to the Benedictine Order.
FRESNO (CA)
Fresno Bee
By Pablo Lopez / The Fresno Bee 12/07/06 04:28:20
Jurors will begin deliberations today to determine whether a Fresno priest sexually abused a former altar boy nearly 20 years ago.
The Fresno County Superior Court civil trial pits Father Eric Swearingen, pastor of Holy Spirit church, one of the largest parishes in Fresno, against former altar boy Juan Rocha, now 31 and a decorated Army sergeant first class.
Rocha has accused Swearingen of molesting him at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Bakersfield and at St. Alphonsus parish in southwest Fresno when Rocha was between 12 and 15 years old.
Rocha is seeking damages from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno, contending he suffered emotional distress from the alleged abuse.
SCOTLAND
Glasgow Daily Record
A TRAINEE priest who sexually assaulted a schoolboy was yesterday put on two years' probation.
First-aider Daniel McManus, 21, groped the youngster during treatment for a leg injury he got playing football last December.
The boy later told his mum who spoke to medical friends. They confirmed
McManus's treatment methods were wrong. McManus, of Cumbernauld, near Glasgow, last month admitted the attack on the Glasgow secondary school pupil.
UNITED KINGDOM
Manchester Evening News
Paul Britton and Nicola Dowling
A FORMER Church of England rector who became a Catholic priest has been charged with a dozen sex offences against boys.
John McCollough, 61, is accused of eight counts of indecent assault and four of gross indecency. They are alleged to have happened during his time at the Christ the King with Holy Trinity Church in Spring Street, Bury, in the late eighties and early nineties. He will appear before magistrates in Bury next Wednesday.
He was the rector there between 1985 and 1995, but is understood to have left to join the Catholic Church in 1997 amid the row over the ordination of women.
Mr McCollough, who moved to Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, is currently the priest at St Vincent's Church in Dagenham, but has been on `administrative leave' since the police investigation began.
BRIDGEPORT (CT)
Stamford Advocate
Associated Press
Published December 7 2006
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- A Superior Court judge has ruled that sealed documents from priest sex abuse cases in the Bridgeport Roman Catholic Diocese should be open to the public.
Judge Jon Alander's ruling Wednesday is the latest in a long running legal battle pitting the diocese against several newspapers.
Alander ruled that the public has the right to view sealed court documents from nearly two dozen sex abuse lawsuits against the Bridgeport diocese that were settled in 2001, saying that keeping the documents secret to ensure a fair trial is no longer relevant.
The Hartford Courant, The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, sought to have the documents unsealed in 2002.
ALEXANDRIA (VA)
Washington Jewish Week
by Eric Fingerhut
Staff Writer
The lawyer for the rabbi caught in a hidden camera sting of online sexual predators said Tuesday that he and his client are still discussing whether to appeal his conviction on sex crime charges.
A notice of an appeal must be filed within 10 days of last Friday's sentencing of David Kaye, in which Alexandria U.S. Court Judge James Cacheris sent the Rockville rabbi to prison for 78 months.
Kaye was found guilty in September of "coercion and enticement" and travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual contact with a minor. Those charges were brought after Kaye was featured in a broadcast of the Dateline NBC "To Catch a Predator" series.
Kaye lawyer Peter Greenspun said he was pleased with the sentence considering that the government had originally asked for a term of 121 months. But, the lawyer said, "that doesn't mean it's not a difficult and harsh ... sentence."
MARLBORO (MA)
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
By Elaine Thompson TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
ethompson@telegram.com
MARLBORO— A popular fall street fair will no longer bear the name of Horatio Alger Jr., the 19th century rags-to-riches children’s author who was a presumed child molester. But the likeness of the international historical figure who once lived in Marlboro could grace a mural on a downtown building someday.
The civic committee that runs the fair has decided to change the festival’s name to the Heritage Festival because of the child molestation allegations. The story was already generally known and had been reported previously, but the issue arose again when it was reported in an article recently in the MetroWest Daily News.
“He’s a part of the history of Marlboro,” said Robert J. Kane of Worcester, a key player with Olde Marlborough Inc. “The ‘witches’ are part of the history of Salem. They still celebrate that. History is history.”
Olde Marlborough, a recently formed private group, plans to use murals as an outdoor cultural-historical art gallery to promote tourism and the city’s history, beautify the central downtown area and boost the city’s economy.
“I’m very disappointed. It’s a rotten shame,” Mr. Kane said. “From everything I’ve read and researched, he was never found guilty of anything. I’m sure there’s a lot of people out there who are famous historically and have a lot of skeletons in their closet. I don’t think he had one.” ...
Mrs. Boyle said that organizers learned a couple of years after the fair started a dozen years ago of the allegation that Mr. Alger sexually molested two boys in his parish in the mid-1860s, when he was minister at a Cape Cod church.
DELAWARE
Fox Carolina
DOVER, Del. A New Castle County judge has ruled that a Delaware man who claims he was repeatedly molested by a Roman Catholic priest as a child can proceed with a lawsuit against his alleged abuser and other church officials.
Superior Court Judge Calvin Scott did, however, dismiss Bishop Michael Saltarelli of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington as a defendant in a 2004 lawsuit filed by Eric Eden.
Scott said genuine issues of fact exist regarding personal injury and breach of contract claims by Eden, who claims he was molested hundreds of times by the Reverend James O'Neill.
GOOSE CREEK (SC)
WCBD
Jenny Fisher
Crime Reporter
Another person has come forward, accusing a local pastor of sexual abuse. Tyrone Moore, the senior pastor of Full Word Ministries in North Charleston appeared before a bond court judge Tuesday on more charges involving sexual activity with minors in his church congregation.
Goose Creek police charged Moore with a lewd act on a child. The 39 year-old was given a $50,000 surety bond. Moore must wear a sattelite monitor and cannot come into contact with children under the age of 17. Visits with his four children must be supervised.
Also, Moore cannot step within one mile of Full Word Ministries Church. However, even with bond granted, Moore will remain in jail in Moncks Corner because Goose Creek police are planning on serving him with additional arrest warrants Wednesday.
PINEVILLE (MO)
News-Leader
The Associated Press
Pineville — Some charges have been dropped in a case involving five leaders of a southwest Missouri church commune accused of abusing young girls from their congregation as far back as the late 1970s.
One of the defendants, church deacon Tom Epling, had all counts of statutory sodomy dismissed against him.
But charges remain against the other four defendants, including Raymond Lambert, 51, the pastor of Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church, and his wife, Patty Lambert, 49.
The Lamberts appeared Tuesday in McDonald County Circuit Court and waived formal arraignment in the upper division of the court. He still faces seven felony counts of child sexual abuse, and she faces one count of child molestation.
GOOSE CREEK (SC)
The Post and Courier
Thursday, December 07, 2006
BY GLENN SMITH
GOOSE CREEK - The mother of a teenage boy choked back tears Wednesday as she accused Pastor Tyrone Moore of betraying her trust and stealing her son's innocence.
Investigators say Moore raped and fondled the boy over a two-year period at the pastor's Applebee Court home. The victim, who attended Moore's church, was just 11 years old when the attacks began, according to arrest affidavits.
The boy's mother told a judge that her son was an innocent before the abuse began. She said she trusted Moore with her child and now there is nothing she can do to reverse the damage. She urged Moore to get help and admit whatever wrong he has done.
"I don't hate Pastor Moore. I love him," she said, struggling to keep her emotions in check. "But justice needs to be served."
FRESNO (CA)
ABC 30
by DeAnna McQueen
12/6/2006 - The child sexual abuse trial against a Fresno catholic priest is set to go to the jury. Juan Rocha's attorney isn't giving a figure. But, says his client is deserving of full, fair and adequate compensation.
Bishop John Steinbock believes Father Eric Swearingen is innocent and showed his support by attending closing arguments. He says, "I am not going to make any comment until after the verdict comes out."
Army SSG Juan Rocha claims Swearingen molested him when he was an altar boy, over a period of three years. Rocha says it happened while he stayed with the priest at two different rectories; one in Bakersfield and in Fresno at Saint Alphonsus Church. Rocha says the case didn't have to go to trial.
*Plaintiff Juan Rocha says, "I'm just sad. When I reached out to the church, they just turned away."
Swearingen, who's now a priest at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in north Fresno , testified he never molested Rocha. In closing arguments, Swearingen's attorney, Carey Johnson, told jurors the biggest issue in the case is Rocha's credibility and says rewarding Rocha money will hurt the entire Diocese.
Swearingen's attorney says, "It's more than money that's at stake in my view."
TUCSON (AZ)
Tucson Citizen
By A.J. FLICK
Tucson Citizen
A former Tucson priest was indicted last month on charges of molestation and sexual conduct with two boys in the 1980s.
A Pima County grand jury indicted the Rev. Gary Edward Underwood on one count of molestation of a child and two counts of sexual conduct with a minor under 15 in one case and six counts of molestation of a child and one count of sexual conduct with a minor under 15 in the other case.
Underwood served at St. Odilia Catholic Church, 7570 N. Paseo Del Norte, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson from March 1983 through September 1987, said Fred Allison, diocese spokesman.
Underwood, who was assigned to the Archdiocese of the Military USA in September 1987 by the Tucson diocese, has been placed on leave by the diocese because of the allegations, Allison said. The military diocese provides chaplains to members of the military.
The diocese was given information about possible misconduct in June and immediately contacted the Pima County Attorney's Office, Allison said.
LOUISIANA
The Shreveport Times
December 7, 2006
By John Andrew Prime
jprime@gannett.com
and Diane Haag
dhaag@gannett.com
A major who served as a Catholic chaplain at Barksdale Air Force Base for just more than a year has been indicted in Arizona on charges that he sexually abused two boys there in the 1980s.
The Rev. Gary E. Underwood, a priest assigned to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson, Ariz., was arraigned Nov. 17 on eight counts of sexual conduct with a minor and child molestation.
The allegations involve two boys under the age of 15 for acts said to have occurred in 1983 and 1984 while Underwood served as a priest at St. Odilia's Catholic Church in Tucson, Pima County Deputy Attorney Kathleen Mayer said. Underwood served at St. Odilia's from 1982 to 1988, she said.
"(Maj.) Chaplain Underwood has been the senior Catholic chaplain for the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base since 2005," said Col. Daniel Charchian, the wing's commander.
DELAWARE
The News Journal
By BETH MILLER, The News Journal
Posted Thursday, December 7, 2006
A Superior Court judge Wednesday ruled that a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by a former principal of Salesianum School may go to trial.
The ruling gives former Salesianum student Eric Eden a rare opportunity to present evidence to a Delaware jury and try to prove his allegations that a priest sexually abused him. Most such allegations have not made it to court -- criminal or civil -- because of Delaware's statutes of limitations.
Judge Calvin L. Scott Jr. ruled that Eden could not sue for a 1985 incident he reported to his parents because Delaware's two-year civil statute of limitations had expired. But, Scott ruled, Eden can sue for the 900 incidents he did not report because, according to a psychiatrist's report, Eden had repressed the memory of those alleged assaults until clergy sexual abuse emerged as a national scandal in 2002.
CHICAGO (IL)
Daily Southtown
December 7, 2006
By Barbara Blaine and David Clohessy
It may sound trite, but one question keeps coming to mind since the Rev. Robert Stepek sued two men who say he molested them as kids: What would Jesus do?
Two men are alleging that the former Burbank pastor sexually abused them years ago. They did what every Catholic bishop asks every victim to do: report the crimes to church officials.
Now they're being sued for more than $1 million by their former pastor.
Since 1950, more than 5,000 priests have proven to be, admitted to or been credibly accused of being child molesters. Only a dozen have sued their accusers. Not one of these 12 has prevailed in court. In at least two instances, the priests have been forced to pay damages to the individuals they sued.
So if history is any guide, Stepek will not get the money he so desperately wants.
FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram
By DARREN BARBEE
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
At least three more people say they were sexually abused by an Arlington priest, the late Rev. James Reilly, when they were minors.
Tahira Khan Merritt, an attorney who represented 11 men who previously accused Reilly of sexual abuse, said she has been recently contacted by three men who accuse him of abuse.
Merritt was uncertain whether any of the men who contacted her also went to the diocese.
The Rev. Michael Olson, diocese vicar general, said Wednesday that the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese received information from two people about Reilly after last week's court-ordered release of confidential diocese files concerning six priests, including Reilly, who were accused of such abuse.
TUCSON (AZ)
The Shreveport Times
December 6, 2006
The Associated Press
TUCSON, Ariz. -- A chaplain at Barksdale Air Force Base has been indicted on charges that he sexually abused two boys in the 1980s in Arizona.
The Rev. Gary E. Underwood, a priest assigned to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson and a major in the Air Force, was indicted on eight charges of sexual conduct with a minor and child molestation, the Pima County attorney's office said.
The diocese lists Underwood as being on leave and serving at Barksdale. But under diocese policy, he has been suspended from the priesthood.
DELAWARE
The News Journal
By BETH MILLER, The News Journal
Posted Wednesday, December 6, 2006 at 4:34 pm
A Superior Court judge ruled today that a lawsuit alleging sexual abuse by a former principal of Salesianum School may go to trial.
Judge Calvin L. Scott Jr. ruled that former Salesianum student Eric Eden could not sue for the 1985 incident he reported to this parents because the statute of limitations had expired. But, Scott ruled, Eden can sue for the more than 930 incidents he did not report because he may have repressed the memory of them.
The suit, filed in 2004, alleges that the Rev. James W. O’Neill molested Eden, formerly Eric Mazzetti, twice a week from 1976 to 1985.
According to the lawsuit, Eden told his parents of the abuse in 1985 and they confronted the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, the religious order that runs the private Catholic school.
PACIFIC PALISADES (CA)
Palisadian-Post
December 06, 2006
Max Taves , Staff Writer
When the Los Angeles Archdiocese pays $60 million to settle sexual abuse claims, millions will go to the alleged and confirmed victims of two former Corpus Christi priests.
The victims of Fathers George Neville Rucker, 86, and the alleged victim of Richard Martini, 51, were among 45 accusers who said they were sexually abused by L.A. priests. No known victims were members or students of Corpus Christi.
Thirty-eight females have accused Rucker, the former Corpus Christi pastor, of molesting them as children from 1947 to 1980, making him the most cited priest since the L.A. Archdiocese began recording abuse claims in 1930.
One man said that Father Martini showed 'inappropriate conduct' with him when he was a student at Our Lady Queen of Angels Seminary in the early 1990s. Although the archdiocese settled with the accuser, it disputes the man's account. Martini is an active priest, working at Transfiguration Catholic Church in Los Angeles.
TUCSON (AZ)
KOLD
TUCSON, Ariz. A priest assigned to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson has been indicted on charges he sexually abused two boys in the 1980s.
The Reverend Gary E. Underwood was indicted on eight charges of sexual conduct with a minor and child molestation.
The diocese lists Underwood as being on leave and currently serving as a chaplain at Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana.
But under diocese policy, he has been suspended from the priesthood.
He's accused of victimizing two boys under the age of 15 in 1983 and 1984 while serving as a priest at St. Odilia's Catholic Church in Tucson.
FORT WORTH (TX)
Bishop Accountability
Star-Telegram [Fort Worth TX]
November 29, 2006
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/16121798.htm
[See related articles on the Fort Worth files, and the accused priests Hanlon, Hoover, Howlett, Reilly, and Rentería. See also the documents on which this series is based, with links to assignment records and background information.]
[Note from BishopAccountability.org: We have provided links to the documents quoted and referenced in this article. Our additions are in square brackets. See here for the original article without links to the documents. See also all the released Magaldi documents in batches, and a list of links to selected Magaldi documents.]
FORT WORTH (TX)
Bishop Accountability
On this page we provide the all the files from the Fort Worth diocese's secret archive that were released by State District Judge Len Wade, with selected articles about the documents and links to key documents, beginning with Rev. Philip A. Magaldi. Judge Wade released the 700 pages of disputed documents about accused priests Hanlon, Hoover, Howlett, Magaldi, Reilly, and Rentería on November 28, 2006, after two area newspapers – the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Dallas Morning News – filed suit to have the documents released.
IRELAND
The Irish Times
The former principal of one of the biggest primary schools in the southeast of Ireland has pleaded guilty today to six charges of indecent assault.
Con Desmond (71) appeared at Waterford Circuit Criminal Court today accused of indecently assaulting a boy at his school.
Mr Desmond was principal of De La SalleAbuse Tracker School in Waterford at the time of the assaults. He later became a priest and was living in Cooraclare, Co Clare at the time of his arrest.
FRESNO (CA)
Fresno Bee
By Pablo Lopez / The Fresno Bee 12/05/06 13:25:43
A church secretary testified today that if she knew a child was staying repeatedly overnight in Father Eric Swearingen’s living quarters she would have reported him to his superior.
Beverly Chavez told a Fresno County Superior Court jury that she knew there were rules against having children stay overnight in the rectory at Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in Bakersfield.
Tuesday, Swearingen tried to counter Juan Rocha's accusations that Swearingen molested him at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Bakersfield and at St. Alphonsus parish in southwest Fresno when Rocha was between 12 and 15 years old.
Swearingen denied molesting Rocha, but said he did allow the 12-year-old boy to stay in the two church rectories. He also testified that he asked Chavez to call Rocha’s mother to see whether her son could spend the night in Swearingen’s living quarters. He said the church secretary told him it was OK.
FRESNO (CA)
Fresno Bee
By Pablo Lopez / The Fresno Bee 12/06/06 04:13:25
Providing the chief testimony on behalf of a Fresno priest accused of molesting a former altar boy, a church secretary said Tuesday she can only recall one night when the boy stayed in the rectory.
Plaintiff Juan Rocha, now 31 and a decorated Army sergeant first class, contends that he spent 30 days over a period of a year and a half sharing a room with Father Eric Swearingen nearly two decades ago.
In a civil trial that began last week, Rocha has accused Swearingen of molesting him at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Bakersfield and at St. Alphonsus parish in southwest Fresno when Rocha was between 12 and 15 years old.
He said he allowed Swearingen to molest him because he felt "it was the price I had to pay" to receive gifts from Swearingen and a place to stay.
HARRISBURG (PA)
The Herald-Standard
By Alison Hawkes, For the Herald-Standard
12/06/2006
HARRISBURG - Now that criminal laws against child sex abuse have been tightened, victims' advocates are using that political foothold to try to open the Roman Catholic Church and other groups to civil lawsuits and potentially multimillion-dollar damage awards.
Advocates are pleased that the new criminal laws, requiring reporting of child abuse and extending the time victims have to make criminal complaints to age 50, will help with the prosecution of new child abuse cases.
But what's left outstanding are the old abuse cases, including the hundreds of victims identified in the 2005 grand jury report on the Philadelphia Archdiocese, which never have had legal closure.
Advocates say in the new legislative term they will push for a one-year window for victims to file civil lawsuits for past abuses. The idea was one of the grand jury's seven recommendations. It faltered in the Legislature this year even as the recommended criminal changes advanced.
MILWAUKEE (WI)
Pioneer Press
BY JOHN HARTZELL
Associated Press
MILWAUKEE — A 78-year-old nun was charged with two counts of indecent behavior with a child Tuesday in connection with incidents involving male students at a Milwaukee elementary school where she taught and served as principal during the 1960s.
The complaint filed against Norma Giannini in Milwaukee County Circuit Court said many of the incidents took place at a church convent and the St. Patrick's School office.
One of the boys was 13 when the abuse began, and the other was in the seventh grade, according to the complaint.
The first count quoted one of the boys as saying that the nun told him in 1965, when he was 13 years old, to open the buttons of her habit, but he was shaking so badly he could not do so. He said she opened her buttons and instructed him to feel her breasts, grabbing his hands and showing him how.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Sun-Times
December 6, 2006
BY KIM JANSSEN Daily Southtown
Catholic Church leaders were warned more than a decade ago about a former Chicago nun who was charged Monday with sexually abusing two Milwaukee boys, the president of Chicago's Sisters of Mercy community said Tuesday.
But Sister Betty Smith said a confidentiality agreement with the man who made the allegations against Sister Norma Giannini in 1992 meant that the order of nuns couldn't contact police at the time.
Giannini, who taught at four Sisters of Mercy schools in the Chicago area and was principal of two, faces two counts of indecent behavior with a child dating to her time as principal of a Milwaukee Catholic school in the late 1960s.
She abused the boys, who were both 13 when the abuse began, more than 160 times over four years, according to the charges. They allege Giannini urged one of the boys to remove her habit and feel her breasts, with the abuse progressing to having sexual intercourse with both boys.
PRATVILLE (AL)
WSBTV
POSTED: 6:02 am EST December 6, 2006
PRATVILLE, Ala. -- A church elder has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing his niece.
Roberto Soto Colon admitted touching his niece, Teresa Rivera Ward, inappropriately more than 25 years ago causing her emotional pain and Monday's plea almost assures prison time.
64-year-old Colon was an elder in the Prattville congregation of the Jehovah Witnesses at the time the abuse occurred.
A one-year jail sentence is likely. Colon pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge in place of a jury trial, where he could have received more than eight years in state prison if found guilty.
Circuit Judge Sibley Reynolds accepted the plea and asked Colon to describe what he did to his niece.
NEW GUINEA
TheAbuse Tracker
WE can only hope that the story which ran on our front page yesterday relating to a Vanimo pastor preying on young girls did not happen.
Police are conducting investigations after a young girl, barely in her puberty, is alleged to have gone to a church to “confess her sins” and is reported to have ended up being raped by the pastor, the person she least suspected.
That is her story to the police and police alleged further that the same person might have committed many similar crimes.
While we are not at liberty to comment on whether or not he is guilty of the crimes he is being investigated for, the report prompts a general concern about those members of our communities who abuse their positions of trust and responsibility.
MARLBOROUGH (MA)
MetroWest Daily News
By Jon Brodkin/ Daily News Staff
Wednesday, December 6, 2006
MARLBOROUGH -- Horatio Alger's past as a child molester did not stop him from becoming a famous author in the 19th century, but organizers of a Marlborough street fair have decided to drop his name from an annual event formerly held in his honor.
The Horatio Alger Street Fair in downtown Marlborough has been held each of the last 11 years, most recently on Oct. 1. The fair, sanctioned by the office of Mayor Nancy Stevens and organized by the Marlborough Regional Chamber of Commerce, will be renamed the "Heritage Festival" for next October's event, officials said.
"It sounds like there's obviously going to be a lot less controversy with a name like that," said City Council President Arthur Vigeant. "I know that the group that does it had the best intentions...and they've run a great fair over the years."
Alger is famous for writing "rags-to-riches" novels about young boys who succeed under the tutelage of rich older men who take a liking to them.
Prior to his successful writing career, Alger was a minister at the Unitarian Church of Brewster, a post he was forced to leave in 1866 when church officials said they discovered he had molested two boys.
CHARLESTON (SC)
The Times and Democrat
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
CHARLESTON, S.C. - A minister who is a registered sex offender threatened to bury a young church member alive if he said anything about alleged sexual assaults, according to an arrest affidavit.
Tyrone Moore, 39, was charged last weekend with second-degree criminal sexual conduct, which involves threatening a victim with physical harm, North Charleston Police Department spokesman Spencer Pryor said.
Moore is accused of sexually abusing the man, now 21, over the past four years at the pastor's Goose Creek home, according to an arrest affidavit.
The man was a member of Moore's church, Full Word Ministries in North Charleston.
CALIFORNIA
Ventura County Star
By Raul Hernandez, rhernandez@VenturaCountyStar.com
December 6, 2006
A judge Tuesday granted a request by the lawyer of a former Thousand Oaks pastor who pleaded guilty in October to four counts of sexually abusing a girl at church events and on the church's school grounds to postpone sentencing.
William Alan Malgren, 52, is facing up to 11 years and four months in prison.
Attorney Brandon De Jonge of Downey told the judge that he was just hired by Malgren to represent him and needed more time to look at the case.
Ventura County Superior Court Judge Bruce Clark set Jan. 16 as the new sentencing date.
Malgren is in custody on $1 million bail. In October, he pleaded guilty to two counts of lewd acts on a child under 14 and two counts of lewd acts on a child under 16. The sexual abuse took place between 1988 and 1989, police said.
GOOSE CREEK (SC)
The Post and Courier
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
GOOSE CREEK - A North Charleston pastor accused of sexual abuse has been charged with another crime, and authorities say there are more charges to come.
Tyrone Moore, 39, pastor of Full Word Ministries, appeared in Goose Creek Municipal Court on Tuesday on a charge of performing a lewd act on a child, according to a release from the city of Goose Creek. A judge set his bail at $50,000. Stipulations on bail include no contact with children under 17 except for supervised visits with his children, wearing a satellite monitoring device and not going within one mile of his Gordon Street church.
North Charleston police arrested Moore, a registered sex offender, Nov. 21 on charges of performing sex acts on a 17-year-old male churchgoer in 2002 and 2003.
MILWAUKEE (WI)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
By DERRICK NUNNALLY and BOB PURVIS
dnunnally@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 5, 2006
A 78-year-old nun who was principal of a grade school at a south side Milwaukee parish in the 1960s was charged Tuesday with having repeated sexual contact with two boys who attended the school.
AdvertisementNorma Giannini can be prosecuted for the allegations 40 years later because she didn't remain in Wisconsin long enough for the six-year statute of limitations then in place to elapse, according to a criminal complaint filed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. Giannini moved to Illinois in 1970, the complaint states.
"I thought I was in love with both of them," Giannini told a panel of the Milwaukee Archdiocese Response to Sexual Abuse in 1996 about sex acts with each of her two accusers while they were under 18 and enrolled in the school at St. Patrick's Congregation, 723 W. Washington St., the complaint says.
"Once I left Milwaukee nothing ever happened. . . . I still don't understand it," Giannini told the panel.
The account of her interview with the panel surfaced, according to the complaint, in a Sept. 26 John Doe hearing before Circuit Judge Jeffrey Conen. Records from the hearing remain sealed.
FRESNO (CA)
KGPE
Posted: 12/5/2006 7:05:41 PM
Father Eric Swearingen took the stand Tuesday for the second time in Juan Rocha's civil lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno.
Swearingen testified that Rocha stayed overnight with him in church rectories three times in the late 1980's and early 1990's, but he denied ever molesting the boy. The incidents took place in Bakersfield, where Swearingen was a priest at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, and later in Fresno at St. Alphonsus Church.
Although the church had rules against guests in the rectory, Swearingen said he wasn't aware of them and was just trying to help Rocha, who came from a troubled family.
Rocha is suing the Diocese for damages because of the alleged sexual abuse he says he endured. If the jury finds the Diocese is responsible, Rocha could be awarded financial damages.
TUCSON (AZ)
Tucson Daily Star
By Stephanie Innes
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.06.2006
advertisementA Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson priest is facing criminal charges for accusations that he sexually abused boys more than 20 years ago.
The Rev. Gary E. Underwood has been indicted on counts of sexual conduct with a minor and child molestation, the Pima County Attorney's Office said.
He's accused of victimizing two boys under the age of 15 in 1983 and 1984, Deputy Pima County Attorney Kathleen Mayer said Tuesday.
"He's innocent and we look forward to litigating," Underwood's attorney, Dan Cooper, said. Cooper said Underwood is currently free on bond, but he would not say where the priest is living.
Mayer says the molestations occurred while Underwood, now in his early 50s, was a priest at St. Odilia's Catholic Church, 7570 N. Paseo del Norte, on Tucson's Northwest Side.
MIAMI (FL)
Miami Herald
BY AMY SHERMAN
asherman@MiamiHerald.com
The Archdiocese of Miami is fighting to keep Archbishop John C. Favalora from being deposed in a civil lawsuit alleging that a retired Margate priest sexually abused a boy in the 1990s.
Favalora was archbishop during the time that the Rev. Neil Doherty of St. Vincent Catholic Church is accused of molesting the boy. Favalora was also at the helm when the archdiocese placed Doherty on leave in 2002.
But the archdiocese argues in a September court motion that the plaintiff's attorney, Jeffrey Herman, is trying to harass Favalora.
Herman said the archdiocese is dodging.
''They do not want Favalora to have to tell the truth under the oath,'' said Herman, who has filed about 40 sexual abuse cases involving priests in Florida. ``What are they hiding? I think they are running from the truth.''
CHICAGO (IL)
Daily Southtown
December 6, 2006
The issue: Anniversary party was publicized in church bulletin and tickets sold through the parish rectory.
We say: While abuse allegations are being investigated, church must avoid appearance of bias or favoritism toward one side. Use of parish resources to promote party should have been avoided.
Many of the parishioners of St. Albert the Great in Burbank still think the world of the Rev. Robert Stepek. He's been referred to as "a great priest" who in his seven years as pastor has connected with his community and completely tended to the spiritual needs of a most vibrant southwest suburban Catholic parish.
These same parishioners have remained loyal to Stepek as he has undergone the greatest crisis of his priesthood. In May, as Stepek was about to celebrate his 25th anniversary as a priest, accusations were leveled that he had molested two brothers in the 1980s. Last month, an Archdiocese of Chicago review panel found "there was a reasonable cause to suspect that sexual abuse of minors occurred." Stepek's case now will be reviewed by the Vatican, and he could be defrocked. Stepek retains the title of pastor, but he is not allowed to participate in the ministry, cannot wear a priest's collar and is required to live in a supervised setting away from the parish.
DENVER (CO)
Rocky Mountain News
By Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News
December 6, 2006
DENVER - A total of 35 sex-abuse lawsuits have been filed against the Archdiocese of Denver, four more than when Archbishop Charles Chaput first offered a mediation alternative in May.
Chaput outlined the status of the cases, all involving incidents that occurred between 25 and 52 years ago, in this week's Denver Catholic Register.
Six of those cases have been settled for "substantial" sums, Chaput said.
As previously reported, the settlements have varied between $100,000 and $150,000 each, according to attorneys for the plaintiffs.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
By Manya A. Brachear
Tribune staff reporter
Published December 6, 2006
A Sister of Mercy who taught in Chicago-area Catholic schools for more than three decades has been indicted in Wisconsin over allegations that she abused pupils at a Milwaukee school nearly 40 years ago.
Sister Norma Giannini is accused of having sexual intercourse with two boys--ages 12 and 13--when they were students at St. Patrick Elementary School in the 1960s. According to a criminal complaint, more than 100 sexual encounters took place in the church's convent, school office and one victim's home.
Charges are allowable against Giannini, 78, because in Wisconsin the statute of limitations halts if the alleged offender leaves the state. Giannini, who was serving as an 8th-grade teacher and principal at St. Patrick's at the time of the alleged assaults, moved to Illinois in 1969.
The Sisters of Mercy removed Giannini from service in December 1992 when the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee notified them of allegations against her, according to Sister Betty
TEXAS
WFAA
08:34 PM CST on Monday, December 4, 2006
By DAVID SCHECHTER / WFAA-TV
FORT WORTH — After hundreds of pages of secret files were released in relation to seven Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth priests accused of sexually abusing children, a national support group is demanding justice.
Two members of SNAP, which stands for Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, say they want Tarrant County District Attorney Tim Curry to prosecute anyone in the church who committed a crime.
Kris Galland, of Dallas, and Mary Grant, from California, both say they were sexually abused by clergy when they were young.
While both say their incidents did not happen in Tarrant County, in a show of support, the two walked a letter over to Curry's office.
"We believe it can be very tempting for the DA to sit back passively waiting for the phone to ring," Grant said.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
December 5, 2006
Gotta love spokespersons for a diocese. They have to make their bosses look good, no matter the situation or scandal. Good public relations, you see.
So it is with Maurice Healy, a spokesman for the San Francisco archdiocese. Healy didn't appreciate my Dec. 1, 2006 column, "Abuse survivor furious at San Francisco archdiocese."
He sent me an e-mail, dated Dec. 4, 2006, saying: "There are many errors of fact in the column regarding claims about what the Archdiocese of San Francisco said, did or didn't do. It would have been good if you had contacted the archdiocese for its perspective. The lack of Salesian comment contributes to an unbalanced piece."
I responded: "If you would like to respond to the column, I will gladly print your response unedited. But, being that it's my column, I will also give Mr. Piscitelli the opportunity to respond to your response."
Healy's response?
"You miss the point in the first place. You did not allow the archdiocese an opportunity to comment on accusations before printing them. This doesn't provide a recommendation for balance/fairness. At this point, I'll leave your column in its state of error."
So this was my response to his response:
"No, I didn't miss the point. I don't pretend to be an 'objective' reporter; I'm a columnist, and I don't operate on someone else's idea of 'fairness.' Also, I'm always amused when I give someone the opportunity to respond, and he or she comes up with some excuse for not wanting to do so.
NEW YORK
New York Sun
By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
December 5, 2006
Eleven current and former parishioners and a former priest at St. Thomas Church on Fifth Avenue are pursuing a complaint with the Episcopal Diocese against the church's rector.
The complaint, copies of which were distributed at the church on Sunday, alleges that the rector, the Reverend Andrew Mead, regularly used parish money to purchase cat litter for his cats and "large quantities of alcohol" for personal use, hugged a parishioner's husband for "an excessively long period of time while grabbing his buttocks," and flew first class with his wife to Paris to fire the headmaster of the church's Choir School, who was vacationing there.
The diocese's eight-member Standing Committee, which listens to allegations of clerical misconduct, is expected to take up the issue later this week for the first time.
In an unusual step, church officials passed out copies of the complaint following the 11 a.m. Mass this Sunday in order to allay gossip that had been apparently making its way among members of the prosperous 1,600-strong congregation. During the Mass, the congregation's senior lay official, William Wright II, denounced the allegations as "malicious and unfounded" and said the church's leadership continues to back Rev. Mead.
NEW JERSEY
Ashbury Park Press
BY BOB CULLINANE
STAFF WRITER
The Rev. Joseph W. Hughes, the former pastor of Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church in Rumson who admitted to funding a lavish lifestyle with money drawn from the church treasury, was released from prison last week after serving less than six months of a five-year sentence.
The former pastor's release is noted on the Web site of the state Department of Corrections, which lists Hughes' release date as Nov. 29.
The priest, who purchased cars, a boat, a home and vacations with money culled from fundraisers and charity events, began serving his sentence on June 2 at the Mid-State Correctional Facility in Wrightstown.
First Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Peter Warshaw confirmed Hughes' release Monday, adding that his parole is directed by the state Department of Corrections.
CONNECTICUT
Greenwich Time
By Donna Porstner
Staff Writer
Published December 5 2006
STAMFORD -- Officials from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport said yesterday they are trying to recoup some of the $1.4 million they claim was misspent by the former pastor of a Darien church.
Norm Walker, the chief financial officer for the diocese, said yesterday in an editorial board meeting with The Advocate and Greenwich Time that the diocese is seeking restitution from the sale of the Rev. Michael Jude Fay's luxury condominium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Whether the diocese would get any of the money if the property is sold is unclear because Fay owns it jointly with another man.
Broward County records show Fay and Clifford Fantini, a Philadelphia wedding planner who also goes by the name Cliff Martell, bought the condo for $449,100 in April 2005.
Even if the diocese gets some of the proceeds from the sale, Walker cautioned, "it's not going to cover what he took."
NEW YORK
Albany Times Union
By MARC PARRY, Staff writer
First published: Tuesday, December 5, 2006
A federal judge has denied a request by John Aretakis, a lawyer known locally for battling the Albany Catholic Diocese, that the judge remove himself from a case because of his personal ties to the church.
Aretakis' client, the Rev. Robert Hoatson, is suing the Archdiocese of New York and others. Hoatson claims he was suspended from his position as a priest because he exposed clergy sex abuse, according to court papers.
In an order dated Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Paul Crotty wrote that Aretakis' sworn statement supporting his request for the judge's removal "does not contain any facts" and similarly disparaged Hoatson's own affidavits.
"This is absolute nonsense," Crotty wrote of one particular series of allegations.
He added later, "The 'appearances' Plaintiff dredges up are based on a make-believe speculation. Adopting Plaintiff's theory would mean that whenever the fertile mind of a party or a counsel can create a fictional connection, then recusal must follow."
MILWAUKEE (WI)
TheMilwaukeeChannel.com
MILWAUKEE -- A Catholic nun who served as a principal at a Milwaukee school has been charged with sexually assaulting children as many as 200 times.
Investigators said Sister Norma Giannini, now 78 years old, assaulted two of her students in the 1960s when the boys attended St. Patrick's Elementary School at 7th and Washington in Milwaukee, often in the church's convent and school office.
Giannini was principal of that school at that time.
According to the criminal complaint obtained by 12 News, one of the victims claims Giannini instructed him to open the buttons on her habit, but he was shaking so badly that he couldn't. She opened her buttons and instructed him to feel her breasts, according to the complaint.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Jeffrey Anderson, JEFFREY ANDERSON is a staff writer at the L.A. Weekly.
December 5, 2006
THE $60-MILLION settlement announced last week between 45 molestation victims and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is a brutal reminder that moral crisis cannot be cured through legal compromise.
In those cases, and the hundreds more yet to be settled, victims want the truth to come out about abusive priests; they also want the perpetrators and those who harbored them, including Cardinal Roger Mahony and his hierarchy, to face consequences.
Mahony, for his part, wants to put the whole mess behind him and shield from public view any documents that could provide the truth — while also preserving the finances of his archdiocese.
But here's what is wrong with the mediation approach both sides agreed to: It leads to compromise but not reconciliation. No one can move beyond the past if they don't know what truly happened. No one can prevent relapse without fully understanding what, or who, led to the problem. Now Mahony and his flock of 4.3 million risk the return of a cancer that has stricken the church and eroded its leaders' moral authority.
ALABAMA
Montgomery Advertiser
By Pat Lewandowski
Montgomery Advertiser
The passage of time.
It dulls memories.
It heals wounds.
For Teresa Rivera Ward, it did neither.
More than 25 years after her abuser fondled and degraded her, Ward found justice to be little comfort.
Roberto Soto Colon, 64, pleaded guilty Monday to sexual abuse in the third-degree, admitting to touching his niece inappropriately and causing her emotional pain. The plea deal was struck as a pool of 33 jurors was asked whether they could judge the case on the testimony and facts presented more than 25 years after the incident occurred.
Many could not.
FRESNO (CA)
ABC 30
By Liz Harrison
12/04/06 - A Fresno priest, accused of sexually abusing a teen, told jurors his side of the story Monday. Army Staff Sergeant Juan Rocha claims he was molested while staying overnight with Father Eric Swearingen.
Father Eric Swearingen has been waiting four years to tell his side of this story. He is a practicing priest at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in North Fresno.
While on the stand he told of several visits Rocha made to his personal living quarters but the priest denied ever sexually abusing the former altar boy.
In October of 2002, Staff Sergeant Rocha announced in front of Fresno's Catholic Church offices that he was suing the Fresno Diocese for sexual abuse suffered at the hands of one of its priests.
TEXAS
Houston Chronicle
Members of a clergy abuse survival group are calling on the Tarrant County prosecutors to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by priests.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, delivered a letter to Tarrant County District Attorney Tim Curry on Monday. The group made the request after last week's release of unsealed Fort Worth Catholic Diocese records detailing abuse allegations.
NEW YORK
New York Daily News
A Manhattan federal judge ripped a priest's bid to knock him off a case involving the church on the grounds that the judge is an active Catholic.
Judge Paul Crotty told the Rev. Robert Hoatson he'll be sticking around to hear Hoatson's claims that he was transferred by his New Jersey diocese after airing allegations about sexual abuse involving clergy.
"What is astonishing to the court is that such a motion would be made and pursued with no factual support," Crotty wrote.
Hoatson claims Edward Cardinal Egan conspired with the heads of archdioceses in Newark and Albany to remove him from his post at a Newark parochial school.
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By DARREN BARBEE
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
North Richland Hills police are investigating an allegation of a February 1994 aggravated sexual assault of a boy younger than 14 that was forwarded to the agency by the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese. The incident is alleged to have occurred at what is now a strip shopping center in the 7000 block of Northeast Loop 820, North Richland Hills police Sgt. Ken Bounds said Monday. Other details concerning the incident -- including information about the suspect -- could not be released, Bounds said.
"We think the detective might be able to resolve the case" soon, Bounds said.
The diocese reported the information to police Nov. 8, Bounds said.
Diocese leaders have said that they forwarded an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor to a local police department within the past month.
They have declined to name the department or the priest involved. Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann, leader of the diocese, has said only that the unnamed priest was "one of the seven" previously accused. He was referring to the Revs. William Hoover, John Howlett, James Reilly, James Hanlon, Philip Magaldi, Rudolf Rentería and Joseph Tu Ngoc Nguyen.
FORT WORTH (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
04:45 PM CST on Monday, December 4, 2006
By DEBRA DENNIS / The Dallas Morning News
FORT WORTH - Members of a clergy abuse survival group are calling on the Tarrant County prosecutors to investigate allegations of sexual abuse by priests.
The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, delivered a letter to Tarrant County District Attorney Tim Curry on Monday. The group made the request following last week’s release of unsealed Fort Worth Catholic Diocese records detailing abuse allegations.
Outside pressure is the only recourse to assuring that clergy are prosecuted for their crimes, said Kristopher Galland, founder of the Grapevine chapter of SNAP during a news conference in front of the old courthouse. He wants church leaders who assisted abusive priests arrested for aiding and abetting.
David Montague, spokesman for Mr. Curry’s office, said prosecutors are downloading documents to determine if any cases fall within the statute of limitations.
The prosecutor’s office, he said, is not shy about prosecuting members of the clergy, Mr. Montague said. The statute of limitations for sexual assault of a child is 10 years after the victim has turned 18.
LODI (CA)
News-Sentinel
By Ross Farrow
News-Sentinel Staff Writer
Last updated: Monday, Dec 04, 2006 - 06:41:12 am PST
A man who says he was sexually abused by former priest Oliver O'Grady when he was a child attending Lodi's St. Anne's Catholic Church has filed suit against an archdiocese in Ireland where O'Grady attended seminary some four decades ago.
The lawsuit filed recently in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland, alleges that leaders at the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly knew that O'Grady was a sex abuser when he attended seminary there in the 1960s — before he ever came to Lodi and four other parishes in the Stockton Diocese.
Former Lodi priest Oliver O'Grady, shown being interviewed in Ireland for the recently released documentary "Deliver Us From Evil," which depicts his life as a pedophile. One of his victims, who said he was sexually abused by O'Grady in the 1970s, has sued an archdiocese in Ireland over O'Grady's conduct. (Courtesy photo)"These guys knew he was a molester," said Orange County attorney John Manly, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of his client, who is named only John Doe because he doesn't want his identity disclosed.
UNITED STATES
Freedom from Religion Foundation
By Joe McGee
My childhood and a good part of my life was stolen by a pervert masquerading as a priest.
Once, at a motivational meeting about 20 years ago, I heard the speaker make a statement that really rocked me. He said, "A friend is someone who knows everything about you and still likes you anyway." Most people there laughed, but I felt a twinge of pain. My friends, and even my wife, did not know my deepest, darkest secret.
Not too long after that, I heard someone make the profound statement: "We are as sick as our secrets." That also made my stomach do flip-flops.
I believe this article is long overdue. About eight or nine years ago, there was an article about me in the Denver Post, but I was anonymous in that one because I still was too afraid to put my name to my story. However, my story was published in the Denver Post on Dec. 18, 2005, with all the names and the facts. It took 50 years to summon up the courage to tell the truth.
CAIRO (NY)
The Daily Mail
By Andrea Macko
CAIRO — While parishioners of Sacred Heart Church in Cairo celebrated Mass Sunday morning, a small group of five protesters assembled outside in an effort to raise awareness about the pedophile priest epidemic.
HERNDON (VA)
ABC 7
Survivors of clergy abuse descended on a Northern Virginia neighborhood, warning of possible danger.
MASSACHUSETTS
gotpoetry.com
Tragedy and survival.
While the Catholic Church abuse scandal of recent years may have already faded from the memory of cable news channels and thus a vast majority of the public consciousness, it is alive and festering for a great many of the survivors of that abuse. Poet and performer Skip Shea is one of these courageous people although for him it no longer seems to boil under the surface, because he has tackled it head on.
After reading Skip Shea's descriptive book "Catholic (Surviving Abuse & Other Dead End Roads)" it is apparent that Mr. Shea has gone through the hell of abuse. The difference is at that bottom of hell he turned around and came out intact and was profoundly shaped by the experience. He has survived and emerged with a fury. He taught himself to cope and at the same time learned to maintain a sense of humor.
Whether this book of 11 poems is a product of his abuse survival or a part of his recovery process does not matter. The book and the work of the poems are an inquest into a life shaped early by evil and then further shaped by the inevitable repression of the experience. The life examination however, does not end at the realization of Mr. Shea's past abuse. It continues to his healing.
ROCKVILLE CENTRE (NY)
Newsday
BY ANN GIVENS
Newsday Staff Writer
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre is about to come face to face with its accusers in a sexual abuse case for the first time next week, as two people who were molested by an East Meadow youth minister sue him and the church for $150 million.
The two plaintiffs, whom Newsday is not naming because they were victims of sexual abuse, said in court papers that leaders at St. Raphael Roman Catholic Church and the diocese turned a blind eye for three years as Matthew Maiello, then of Lynbrook, raped and sodomized them. Maiello, who pleaded guilty to rape and sodomy of the two plaintiffs and two others in 2003, served just more than 2 years in prison for his crimes. He now lives in upstate Gilboa.
"There were reports from people in the youth groups that Maiello was kissing young girls, touching them, seeing them on a one-on-one basis," said Michael Dowd of Manhattan, a lawyer representing the victims. "There was a host of different conduct that was completely ignored."
Diocese spokesman Sean Dolan would not comment, saying it is the diocese's policy not to discuss pending lawsuits.
HERNDON (VA)
Washington Post
By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 4, 2006; Page B01
An afternoon of football watching and holiday decorating took a strange detour yesterday for some Herndon residents when they opened their doors to find strangers confronting them with troubling information: One of their neighbors is an accused pedophile.
Members of two groups representing victims of abusive Catholic priests went door-to-door in the neighborhood, distributing packets of information accusing a former Catholic priest who has lived there for 10 years.
"Community notification: Protect your children from a credibly accused serial sex offender," the packet's cover reads.
The 38-page sheaf of material contained information about Edward F. Dudzinski, 56, who last month was among 20 former priests accused by the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, Del., of sexually abusing children. He served in the priesthood in the 1970s and 1980s.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Jill Leovy and Jessica Garrison, Times Staff Writers
December 4, 2006
Joelle Casteix knew something had changed when she started to see the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal spoofed on "The Simpsons."
In one episode, the animated residents of Springfield lapsed into awkward silence in the presence of a Catholic priest. Little more was needed to get across a humorous dig at the church.
Four years after the clergy sexual abuse scandal exploded in the Boston archdiocese, the men and women who have come forward to tell their stories have shaken not just the Roman Catholic Church. They have also propelled a shift in public attitudes about childhood sexual abuse.
That was made clear again Friday, when the Los Angeles Archdiocese announced a $60-million settlement that some believe is a precursor to the nation's most costly abuse payout, with hundreds more L.A. cases to be resolved. Victims and their advocates held public news conferences and spoke about their abuse with a frankness that would have been unthinkable 10 years ago.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Cinematical
Yesterday we told you about the big new out of Los Angeles: The Los Angeles Archdiocese announced the payout of $60 million in reparations to 45 victims of clergy sexual abuse. Cardinal Roger Mahony, who heads the Archdiocese, was prominently featured in the Oscar short-listed documentary Deliver Us from Evil, for his alleged role in moving pedophile priest Father Oliver O'Grady from parish to parish, where he preyed on hundreds of young victims.
The Los Angeles Archdiocese currently has over 500 pending cases from alleged victims of clergy abuse, many of them naming Mahony in his supervisory capacity. Cinematical managed to track down Deliver Us from Evil director Amy Berg, who very graciously agreed to share with our readers her thoughts on Mahony, the payout by the Archdiocese, and the role her film may have played in helping to bring about the settlement.
Cinematical: We've reported on Cinematical about how your film stirred prosecutors' interest in Mahony and the LA Archdiocese. Do you think your film had an impact on the Archdiocese announcing today a payout of $60 million to 45 abuse victims?
Amy Berg: I think the attention garnered by the film and the negative and neglectful tone of Cardinal Mahony in my film helped to expedite the settlement. Cardinal Mahony has been fighting to delay settlement for four years now, so I think we can assume the settlement shows how negative public attention is very damaging to him.
It is my understanding that the settlement was not 100% confirmed and that the church released this to the media before it is completely done and this has upset the survivors and their advocacy group. They basically woke up to this and read about their own settlement in the newspaper. Whose news was this to break? This statement sees like it should have been the victims statement to make if forgiveness and reparation are what the church is after. The mere fact the church release the statement seems like a media play in itself.
HERNDON (VA)
The News Journal
By BETH MILLER, The News Journal
Posted Monday, December 4, 2006
HERNDON, Va. -- On the first day of the Advent season, which Catholic Diocese of Wilmington Bishop Michael A. Saltarelli has dedicated to victims of clergy sexual abuse, the allegations against one former Delaware priest came as hard news to his neighbors in northern Virginia.
A small group of abuse survivors and lay Catholics spent 90 minutes Sunday going door-to-door in Glenbrooke Woods, a community of $600,000 homes where the Rev. Edward Dudzinski lives. When Saltarelli last month released the names of 20 priests with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse against them, Dudzinski's name was on it.
Jim Money, of Herndon; Paul Steidler, of Reston, Va., and Mark Serrano of Loudoun County, Va., wanted the neighbors to know. All are members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
Serrano wears a photograph of himself as a boy, about the age when he was first abused by the same New Jersey priest who abused Steidler.
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS (TX)
Family Badge
Dec. 3, 2006
Associated Press
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas — A church pastor has apologized to his congregation for not telling police about allegations against a fellow priest.
"I regret not having done that," the Rev. Tim Thompson told his parishioners Saturday night at the St. John the Apostle Church's Mass. "I ask for forgiveness for that failure."
Minutes earlier, he had asked people passing out fliers demanding the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese be more open about sexual abuse to leave the church property.
SNAP — the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests — is upset over reports that Thompson learned in 2001 of possible "pedophilic material" on the Rev. Philip Magaldi's computer and didn't report it to police.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Desert Sun
The Associated Press
December 4, 2006
LOS ANGELES - The Archdiocese of Los Angeles could end up selling off some of its vast Southern California land holdings to help cover the cost of potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in sex abuse settlement payments.
The nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese said Friday it will pay $60 million to settle 45 abuse lawsuits. As many as 485 suits are still pending.
To make the payments, the archdiocese may unload some of its roughly 1,600 area properties, valued at $4 billion, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
While most of the properties are devoted to churches and schools, the archdiocese also owns oil wells, farm parcels, parking lots, and commercial buildings.
The debate over whether to sell the land is likely to focus on who controls parish holdings - church officials or the parishioners.
UNITED STATES
Delco Times
12/03/2006
Two stories that made headlines Friday make many people wonder if America is going to a certain place in a handbag. Maryland Rabbi David A. Kaye, 56, was sentenced Friday to 6½ years in prison for attempting to have sex with someone posing as a 13-year-old boy. The rabbi was convicted in September on federal charges of enticement and traveling across state lines to engage in illegal sexual conduct.
Kaye’s case took on national prominence after he was seen on TV’s "Dateline NBC" in a sting that was conducted in conjunction with an Internet watchdog group called Perverted Justice.
A member of Perverted Justice posing as a 13-year-old boy met Kaye in an online chat room in 2005 and Kaye solicited sex acts. When Kaye drove to what he thought was the boy’s home in Virginia, Kaye was confronted by a TV reporter and camera crew and admitted he was there for "not something good."
CHARLESTON (SC)
The Post and Courier
Sunday, December 03, 2006
BY GLENN SMITH AND NOAH HAGLUND
She was only 11. She'd been molested by a man who taught her to sing in the church choir. Her mother pleaded with a judge to lock him up. He will do it again, the mother warned.
Just two years later, the same man violated another girl. This victim was just 9. Another mother, another judge. But the message was the same: Please put this man behind bars.
Tyrone Moore did his second spell in prison - nine years, to be exact - and emerged as a passionate, self-styled preacher of the gospel.
He soon had a church in North Charleston and a family of his own. He moved into a $193,000 home, drove a Mercedes and watched his congregation grow to more than 1,000 people.
But authorities say Moore couldn't escape his demons and desires.
ELGIN (IL)
The Courier News
December 2, 2006
By NATHANIEL ZIMMER STAFF WRITER
ELGIN -- The Rev. Daryl P. Bujak moved a step closer to getting his day in court Friday, when 16th Circuit Court Judge Robert Janes set a date for a hearing on two motions made by the pastor.
Bujak, 30, was charged with a single count of misdemeanor battery in May.
Authorities allege he repeatedly spanked a then 12-year-old girl with a piece of wood molding because he and the girl's mother thought she was lying when she said she had been sexually abused by another man.
The mother has said she consented to the beatings but that she now believes her daughter was telling the truth about the sexual abuse. Matthew Resh, 33, of Ingleside, has been charged with five counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child in the case. The status of Resh's case could not be determined Friday, as the McHenry County State's Attorney's Office was closed due to the overnight snowstorm.
PINEVILLE (MO)
Neosho Daily News
By John Ford / Daily News Associate Editor
Published: Sunday, December 3, 2006 12:16 AM CST
PINEVILLE - Court dates were set last week for two McDonald County church leaders accused of child sexual abuse.
Raymond Lambert, 51, and his wife, Patty, 49, were bound over for trial on Monday. Both are to be arraigned Tuesday morning in McDonald County Circuit Court with Judge Timothy Perigo presiding.
Raymond Lambert is the pastor of Grand Valley Independent Baptist Church.
Raymond Lambert faces a total of seven felony counts: a Class C felony charge of sexual abuse; three Class C felony charges of second degree statutory sodomy, and three Class D charges of second degree child molestation. Charges allege he acted in concert with his wife, Patty Lambert, in molesting a girl who was less than 17 at the time of the alleged incident, and of acting in concert with another church member of molesting a girl under the age of 17 at the time of the alleged incident.
FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram
By Darren Barbee
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Even as the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese is under criticism for past handling of sexual abuse allegations against priests, a diocese attorney confirmed Thursday that it has told police of new allegations against a Tarrant County clergyman.
Within the past month, a person has accused the priest of sexual abuse, said the attorney, John Crumley. He would not give any other specifics, including the name of the priest or the city where he works.
Crumley said police were notified "as soon as it was reported to us."
Also Thursday, a national sex-abuse victims group called on Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann to discipline officials who didn’t tell authorities about accusations involving priests accused of sexual abuse.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Paul Pringle and Ted Rohrlich, Times Staff Writers
December 3, 2006
Hit with an initial $40-million bill for its share of 45 clergy sexual abuse settlements announced Friday, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles warned that it will have to make cutbacks. And the 485 remaining molestation lawsuits could cost hundreds of millions more.
The payouts will certainly hurt, but the archdiocese has vast wealth, most of it in land. A Times analysis has found that the archdiocese is the recorded owner of one of the biggest real estate portfolios in Southern California — at least 1,600 properties with an estimated value of about $4 billion.
What the nation's most-populous Catholic jurisdiction might be willing to sell, however, is likely to feed an ongoing debate within the church over who controls parish property — the prelates governing the institution or the parishioners.
UNITED STATES
The Dallas Morning News
12:00 AM CST on Sunday, December 3, 2006
By BROOKS EGERTON / The Dallas Morning News
For 18 years, Richard Sipe belonged to the brotherhood of Catholic priests. For the last 14, he has been helping their victims across America seek redress from men like Fort Worth Bishop Joseph Delaney – men who, as last week's unsealing of court records showed, have deceived their flocks and protected predators.
Time and again, people ask Mr. Sipe why moral leaders would do these things. The San Diego-area researcher explains with a little story, about a priest who challenged a bishop for denying knowledge of a sexual abuse case.
"Look, Father," the bishop responded, "I only lie when I have to."
He "has to," Mr. Sipe says, if he thinks it will protect the church's good name. And many shepherds equate "church" with themselves, not their sheep.
"Clerical narcissism," Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea calls it.
"They call each other 'your excellency' and 'your eminence,' and they're serious about it," says the Charlotte, N.C., psychologist, who treats sex-crime victims and has researched the Catholic hierarchy extensively. "They really are royalty. Truth is what they say it is."
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
12:00 AM CST on Sunday, December 3, 2006
By KATIE MENZER / The Dallas Morning News
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS – Minutes after asking people to leave his church property for passing out fliers demanding the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese be more open about sexual abuse, the pastor of St. John the Apostle Church apologized to his congregation for not telling police that a fellow priest might be a pedophile.
Since the diocese unsealed the personnel files of seven priests Tuesday after a prolonged court battle, Father Thompson has been criticized for telling church officials but not police of a parishioner's tip that the Rev. Philip Magaldi was trolling chat rooms for minors and had "pedophilic material" on his computer.
A couple members of an international organization known as SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, had planned to pass out fliers at Saturday's Mass, but Father Thompson asked them to leave the property.
SNAP members moved to the sidewalk off church grounds, but few parishioners who were headed to the 5 p.m. Mass stopped their cars to accept the fliers.
UNITED STATES
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By PETE ALFANO
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
Catholic and Protestant worshippers will dutifully file into churches across North Texas today as they do every Sunday.
They will listen to sermons, some of which will be tailored for the holiday season and serve as a traditional reminder of the real meaning of Christmas.
They will listen, but the question is how many will be thinking more about last week's revelations of how the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese covered up allegations of sexual abuse by priests.
Will there be more empty seats as a result? Will some look up from pews with a wary eye at the man behind the pulpit?
The Watergate-type cover-up of sexual abuse detailed in diocese documents released by a district court judge Tuesday has saddened and angered people of all faiths, locally and across the nation. There is also a strong sense of betrayal by spiritual leaders, which is devastating to worshippers, religious authorities say.
NORTH RICHLAND HILLS (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By MELISSA VARGAS
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
A neon green poster reading "Actions protect kids, not words" greeted parishioners gathering Saturday for a 5 p.m. Mass at St. John the Apostle Catholic Church in North Richland Hills.
Mary Grant and Kristopher Galland of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, stood outside the church handing out pink fliers. They were later told by the parish priest, the Rev. Tim Thompson, to leave.
The national victims' group has criticized Thompson and former leaders of the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese over their handling of information about the Rev. Philip Magaldi, who was accused of sexual abuse of a minor in the late 1990s.
Thompson "never once picked up the phone" to call police about what he knew, said Grant, SNAP's western regional director. She flew in from California to help hand out the fliers with Galland, who leads the Dallas/Fort Worth chapter.
CHICAGO (IL)
Chicago Tribune
By Manya A. Brachear
Tribune staff reporter
Published December 3, 2006
When two brothers confided to a Roman Catholic priest in May that their family priest had abused them years ago, they never intended to face the accused clergyman in court.
But after the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago removed Rev. Robert Stepek from the pulpit of St. Albert the Great in Burbank last month over the allegations, the priest decided that the best way to clear his name was to sue his accusers.
Last week, Stepek joined a handful of Catholic priests who have sought to prove in a court of law that the abuse accusations against them are false. He also appealed to the Vatican for a reversal of his removal from the ministry.
Victims advocates condemn such lawsuits as a threat that will discourage survivors of clergy sexual abuse from coming forward.
Stepek's suit is "a hardball legal tactic that is unbecoming of an alleged spiritual figure," said Barbara Blaine, president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
CALIFORNIA
LA Daily News
BY GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press
Article Last Updated:12/02/2006 09:31:31 PM PST
A former nun who says she's haunted by her memory of being molested by a pedophile priest as a young girl hopes a landmark settlement by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles will help her heal.
Mary Dispenza, 67, no longer calls herself a Catholic, no longer attends church and doubts she will be able to reconcile the abuse with her faith.
"Everything that I knew, all my identity, was wrapped up in the church in one way or another; I was just lost," said Dispenza, who lives in Bellevue, Wash. "I felt we both lost: The church lost me, and I lost the church. And we both had invested a lot in each other for all those years."
She expects to receive $1.33 million as part of the $60 million the archdiocese said Friday it would pay to settle 45 sexual abuse lawsuits, the largest church sex abuse settlement since 2004. The payments cover cases from periods when the nation's largest archdiocese had little or no sexual abuse insurance - cases before the mid-1950s and after 1987.
ALBANY (NY)
Albany Times Union
By JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST, Staff writer
First published: Saturday, December 2, 2006
ALBANY -- One of Schenectady's most notorious sex offenders, a man authorities describe as a cunning predator who victimized children in the United States and abroad without remorse, has jumped parole and an international manhunt.
Alan J. Horowitz last met with his parole officer June 7, officials say -- one day before authorities believe he hopped a plane from Newark, N.J. to Narita, Japan, not far from Tokyo. Later that month, he dispatched a letter to his parole officer postmarked from Israel, according to an arrest warrant signed this month by a federal judge in Albany.
Horowitz, 59, a trained rabbi and former adolescent psychiatrist with an Ivy League education, has dual citizenship with the Middle East country, authorities said.
In the letter, he declared his intention never to return to the United States again -- a clear violation of his parole, which lasts until 2011, court papers said.
NEW YORK
New York Post
By KIERAN CROWLEY
December 2, 2006 -- Bishop William Murphy - the spiritual leader of Long Island's Roman Catholics - has been subpoenaed to testify in a $100 million civil case against a former youth minister by two young people who were raped.
Matthew Maiello, 32, of St. Raphael's Church in East Meadow, was convicted of rape and sodomy for the molestation of the two teens, one a 16-year-old girl, the other a 15-year-old boy, from 1999 to 2002.
BARNSTABLE (MA)
Cape Cod Times
By AMANDA LEHMERT
STAFF WRITER
BARNSTABLE - A retired priest pleaded guilty yesterday to embezzling more than $500,000 from a Woods Hole church in what the prosecutor called a ''wholesale looting.''
The Rev. Bernard Kelly, 73, was sentenced in Barnstable Superior Court to seven years of probation for embezzling from St. Joseph's Church in Woods Hole and filing false tax returns.
At the plea hearing, Judge Richard Connon chided Kelly for committing the kinds of ''evils'' he was charged with ridding from the world.
''Mr. Kelly has brought shame upon himself and his family and his church,'' Connon said.
In October, Kelly paid $1.5 million to the Catholic Fall River Diocese as a settlement offer for money he stole from St. Joseph's and Our Lady of Lourdes in Wellfleet.
The criminal charges against Kelly surfaced after he was interviewed by police investigating the murder of Jonathan Wessner in 2003.
MARYLAND
Washington Times
By Matthew Barakat
ASSOCIATED PRESS
December 2, 2006
A Rockville rabbi ensnared in a nationally televised sex sting was sentenced to 61/2 years in prison yesterday for attempting to have sex with someone whom he thought to be a 13-year-old boy.
David A. Kaye, 56, was convicted in U.S. District Court in Alexandria in September of enticement and traveling across state lines to engage in illegal sexual conduct.
Most of the evidence came from a televised sting on "Dateline NBC" that was conducted in conjunction with an Internet watchdog group called Perverted Justice.
A Perverted Justice member posing as a 13-year-old boy met Kaye in an online chat room in August 2005, and Kaye solicited sex acts.
MARYLAND
ABC 7
Dec. 1 - A rabbi who was caught in a nationally televised sex sting has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison for attempting to have sex with someone posing as a 13-year-old boy.
David Kaye of Rockville, Maryland, was convicted in September on federal charges of enticement and traveling across state lines to engage in illegal sexual conduct.
Most of the evidence came from a sting on "Dateline NBC". Last year, an Internet watchdog group member posing as a 13-year-old boy met Kaye in an online chat room, and Kaye solicited sex acts.
When Kaye drove to what he thought was the boy's home in Virginia, he was instead confronted by a T-V reporter and camera crew and admitted he was there for "not something good."
CALIFORNIA
Stockton Record
By Anna Kaplan
Record Staff Writer
December 02, 2006 6:00 AM
A Southern California victim has filed suit against the Irish Catholic archdiocese for sending Oliver O'Grady, who repeatedly abused children during his tenure as a Central Valley priest, to the United States.
A recent award-winning documentary, "Deliver Us From Evil," profiles O'Grady, his crimes and the way his abuse has affected the lives of his victims. As a priest in Stockton, Lodi, Turlock and San Andreas, he sexually abused multiple children.
For victims, lawsuits like this one can be a way of coping with their own tragedies as well as trying to prevent abuse from happening again.
"There are other victims in Ireland who are still trapped in shame and suffering and should get help, and all church officials responsible for the rape of kids should be held accountable," said David Clohessy, the national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "It's not fair or healthy or just to have wrongdoers get by with crimes because of national boundaries."
LOS ANGELES (CA)
The Times
Catherine Philp, Los Angeles
The largest Roman Catholic archdiocese in the US has agreed to pay out $60 million (£30 million) to settle 45 lawsuits alleging sex abuse of children by priests.
The cases in Los Angeles were among more than 500 lawsuits pending against the Church there for its alleged failure to protect children. Sex abuse by priests has cost the Catholic Church in the US at least $1.5 billion since 1950.
UNITED STATES
Los Angeles Times
By Peter Y. Hong and John Spano, Times Staff Writers
December 2, 2006
How did the church sex abuse scandal emerge?
Media reports in January 2002 revealed that Boston's Cardinal Bernard Law had knowingly transferred priests with histories of molesting young people, moving them among numerous parishes. Law resigned in December 2002. In 2003, the Boston Archdiocese reached an $85-million settlement with 552 people who said they or their children were molested by priests.
More than a dozen prosecutors across the country convened grand juries to investigate possible crimes by priests and church officials, though no bishops have been indicted. Thousands of civil lawsuits against dioceses followed, including more than 500 pending in Los Angeles.
CHARLOTTESVILLE (VA)
Daily Progress
By Rob Seal and Matt Deegan / rseal@dailyprogress.com | 978-7265 mdeegan@dailyprogress.com | 978-7277
December 2, 2006
A Charlottesville High School teacher accused of taking indecent sexual liberties with students has been indicted on seven felony charges, authorities said Friday.
Jonathan Keith Spivey was a choir director at the school until this fall, and is a 19-year veteran of the city school system.
On Thursday, a grand jury indicted Spivey on seven counts of custodial indecent liberties or custodial sexual abuse. ...
In addition to his teaching duties, Spivey was music director at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Charlottesville, where School Board Chairman Alvin Edwards is pastor. He did not immediately return phone calls Friday.
MISSISSIPPI
Jackson Clarion Ledger
By Andrew Nelson
ajnelson@clarionledger.com
Another lawsuit alleging sexual assault has been filed against a Grenada church and its longtime pastor.
The Rev. Perry L. Montgomery of First New Hope Missionary Baptist Church is accused of rubbing against and fondling a then-17-year-old man in June 2003, according to a complaint filed Friday in Grenada County Circuit Court.
Montgomery's attorney, Robert Malouf of Jackson, denied the charges against his client.
"We deny the allegation and are suspicious about the origins," Malouf said.
Malouf would not elaborate on their suspicions. He said he had not read the complaint in detail.
AUSTRALIA
The West Australian
2nd December 2006, 8:45 WST
Disillusionment with the Catholic Church in the wake of sexual abuse scandals has contributed to a steady decline in Mass attendance, a report to the Church’s 43 bishops says.
It also cites the restricted roles of women in the Church and a feeling that its leaders are “not intelligent, not vibrant and not relevant” as reasons for the decline.
Those who have stopped going to Mass who were interviewed for the Church project Disconnected Catholics, published yesterday, complained of the silencing of prominent theologians and other Catholic thinkers, decisions being made without consultation and a Church focused on rules, not compassion.
Some said their parish priest promoted an anti-intellectual environment where “his word was law and critical thinking discouraged”.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
BBC News
The largest Roman Catholic diocese in the US has agreed to pay $60m (£30m) to settle dozens of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests.
The settlement by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles relates to 45 cases among more than 500 that are pending.
It is one of the largest settlements since the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal erupted in the US in 2002.
Archdiocese head Cardinal Roger Mahony said he hoped the money would help the victims move forward with their lives.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
The New York Times
By CINDY CHANG
Published: December 2, 2006
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 1 — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to a $60 million settlement of claims by 45 people against clergymen who had sexually abused them as children, the archdiocese announced Friday.
The average payment of about $1.3 million to each plaintiff is among the highest in a sexual abuse settlement involving clergy members. In October, the archdiocese settled seven other claims for a total of $10 million.
The archdiocese will pay $40 million of the settlement from its central operations fund with the rest coming from insurance money and the religious orders of the 25 accused clergymen. The money will not be taken from individual parishes, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, the head of the archdiocese, said in a telephone interview.
Over 500 sexual abuse lawsuits are still pending against the archdiocese, the country’s largest. Payouts in those cases would come mostly from insurance, but the archdiocese may have to sell property or reduce ministry services to make up the difference, Cardinal Mahony said.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
December 2, 2006
Steve Lopez
It must have been an oversight.
In his zeal early Friday morning to call reporters and take bows for the $60-million settlement with 45 victims of abuse by Roman Catholic priests, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony forgot to give me a ring.
Then again, it seems as though victims and their attorneys didn't get a call either. They say they hadn't fully signed off on the deal yet, so they were surprised to wake up to news that Mahony had cranked up his PR machine.
Had he called me, I surely would have congratulated His Eminence when he said, "The sexual abuse of minors is both a sin and a crime, and there is no place in the priesthood for those who have abused children."
Oh, all right, so I might not have congratulated him. But I would have had a few questions:
Are you really going to keep laying all the blame on clergy and none on church leaders who protected molesters for years?
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By John Spano, Paul Pringle and Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writers
December 2, 2006
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony said Friday that the Los Angeles Archdiocese had agreed to pay $60 million to 45 people who said they were abused by Roman Catholic priests — a payout that would be among the highest per person since the clergy sex abuse scandal exploded four years ago.
But within hours, plaintiffs' attorneys said Mahony had "jumped the gun" in announcing a settlement. Raymond P. Boucher, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, confirmed that they were "on the verge of settling" but said "there are still some issues to be ironed out."
"If we are able to put the finishing touches on this deal, then it will be a historic day," he said. "Forty-five victims have been waiting a year to get these cases resolved, and finally it looks like we are on the verge of doing so."
The payments cover just a fraction of the 570 claims filed against the nation's largest archdiocese, setting the stage for payouts in the hundreds of millions of dollars to resolve the cases still pending. The cases settled Friday resolve only allegations of abuse in years the archdiocese was either not insured or was underinsured — cases that took place prior to 1954 or after 1986.
CALIFORNIA
Los Angeles Times
By John Spano, Times Staff Writer
December 2, 2006
Mary Dispenza Esfahan was 7 when her parish priest raped her in the auditorium of the Catholic school she attended in East Los Angeles, she recalls. At the time, her mother, who worked in the parish, was chatting with kitchen workers in the next room.
Eventually, Dispenza became a nun and a teacher at her old school, St. Alphonsus, often meeting with students in the auditorium where she remembers being molested. It was 43 years before Dispenza allowed herself to release repressed memories and confront what had happened in that room. The priest was George Neville Rucker, who has been accused of molesting 38 girls.
"To face the abuse would have caused me to face the church that I loved, the work that I loved, the faith that I loved," Dispenza said in a recent interview.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By Paul Pringle and Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writers
December 2, 2006
The sexual abuse settlement announced Friday resolves all current civil claims involving molestations that occurred during Cardinal Roger M. Mahony's 20-year tenure as head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
But it leaves unanswered for now the biggest questions raised by the scandal: how the cardinal and other church officials handled molestation complaints against priests, and whether the archdiocese will bear any criminal responsibility for their actions.
Mahony has acknowledged leaving 16 priests in the ministry after parishioners complained about inappropriate behavior with children. Five of the priests went on to molest children, including Michael Baker, who was criminally charged with molestation after confiding to Mahony in 1986 that he had abused two boys.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Ventura County Star
By Tom Kisken, tkisken@VenturaCountyStar.com
December 2, 2006
Leaders of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles said Friday that $60 million will be paid to settle 45 clergy sex abuse lawsuits, including cases involving at least six priests who worked in Ventura County.
Though a lawyer representing the victims said the settlement was not finalized and accused church officials of jumping the gun, the settlement would be the fourth largest in the nation since the priest molestation crisis erupted four years ago.
Ray Boucher, liaison lawyer for plaintiffs, said the two parties have agreed in principle to a settlement that will include individual payouts ranging from $250,000 to $3.5 million but still leaves more than 600 sex abuse claims against the church. He said the final settlement barrier involves the process through which personnel records of the priests will be released. He was hopeful it would be cleared early next week but would not guarantee it.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Irish Independent
The largest Roman Catholic Archdiocese in the US is to pay out $60 million to settle sexual abuse claims made against its priests.
Forty-five of more than five hundred claims against priests in the Los Angeles area are to be settled.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
LOS ANGELES - The nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese said Friday it will pay $60 million to settle 45 sexual abuse lawsuits, marking the largest deal by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles to date and the fourth-largest in the country involving the scandal.
The cases were among more than 500 pending against the Los Angeles archdiocese.
"It's a day of healing and reconciliation as we move forward with these 45 cases," said Cardinal Roger Mahony. "This is very special for these victims in their moment of healing."
The claims settled Friday involve 22 priests and include allegations from before the mid-1950s and after 1987 - periods when the archdiocese had limited or no insurance against sexual abuse claims.
The 22 priests include Michael Baker, who was assigned to St. Paul of the Cross in La Mirada and St. Hilary Church in Pico Rivera; Richard Henry, who served at St. Joseph Church in Long Beach and St. Madeline Church in Pomona; and Michael Wempe, who had worked at St. Andrew in Pasadena.
GREENFIELD (MA)
The Republican
Saturday, December 02, 2006
By FRED CONTRADA
fcontrada@repub.com
GREENFIELD - With a few strokes of a pen, Pope Benedict XVI has severed from the priesthood two men accused of sexually molesting boys in Western Massachusetts. Resolution is not so neat for some of their alleged victims.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield was notified this week that the Vatican has defrocked Edward M. Kennedy and Alfred C. Graves. Both served as priests at various parishes in the area and both have been accused of sexually molesting minors.
"Both had a number of credible allegations of sex misconduct brought before them," said diocese spokesman Mark E. Dupont. "Both had been suspended. They were not allowed to present themselves as priests."
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
the associated press
LOS ANGELES - The nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese said Friday that it will pay $60 million to settle 45 sexual abuse lawsuits, the largest payout yet by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and among the biggest resulting from the molestation scandal plaguing the church.
The cases were among more than 500 abuse claims pending against the archdiocese.
"It's a day of healing and reconciliation as we move forward with these 45 cases," Cardinal Roger Mahony said. "This is very special for these victims in their moment of healing."
The claims settled Friday involve 22 priests and include allegations from two periods when the archdiocese had limited or no insurance against sexual abuse claims -- before the mid-1950s and after 1987.
FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram
By DARREN BARBEE
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
FORT WORTH -- In a sharp rebuke of his predecessor, Bishop Kevin Vann called the handling of sexual-abuse accusations against priests a "huge moral failure" and said he would have done things differently had he been leading the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese then.
"The challenging thing for me is, all my life, I have always tried to respect my predecessor wherever I've been," Vann said. "But I can't defend the indefensible."
In an interview with the Star-Telegram on Friday, Vann and the Rev. Michael Olson, the vicar general, listed what they called specific mistakes made by Bishop Joseph P. Delaney and other priests. But Vann said he won't discipline four priests for their roles in dealing with information about accused priests, although he will talk to them about their responsibilities.
Vann and Olson also discussed two recent accusations against priests. They said the diocese removed an Arlington priest from Vietnamese Martyrs Catholic Church in August because of what they termed "sexual harassment" accusations involving two out-of-state women. Olson said that the case "does not involve criminal activity" and that it is being looked into by a private investigator hired by the diocese's attorney.
SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Renew America
Matt C. Abbott
December 1, 2006
In July 2006, a jury "found in favor of Joey Piscitelli, a former altar boy who was abused by the Rev. Stephen Whelan, a vice principal, when he was a freshman and sophomore at the high school from 1969 to 1971," according to a story in the Contra Costa Times. Piscitelli was awarded $600,000.
More on the story can be found here.
Piscitelli is furious at the San Francisco archdiocese and the Salesian order, to which Whelan belongs, for defending Whelan.
Piscitelli recently sent the following letter to Bishop George Niederauer:
Dear Bishop Niederauer,
I have a letter from your office, written by Bishop John Wester, asking me to participate in letting your 'Investigative Review Board' reinvestigate my claim against your associate pastor at Sts. Peter and Paul, Father Stephen Whelan. Your review board found Whelan credible, and said that I was not. The letter was written before my court trial. This is the same review board that finds all of your priests credible, and the victims not.
As you know, I won the court case against Whelan and the Salesian order of San Francisco in July of this year. A civil court Jury found Whelan and the Salesians responsible for molesting me as a child. That was an unbiased jury. Not a board handpicked by Bishop Levada.
Since the court case in July, your pastor at Sts. Peter and Paul, Father Malloy, continues to bad mouth me publicly. The Salesians do also. The Salesians of San Francisco have not apologized and have not done anything remotely close to the 'Charter' concerning treatment of victims and their families after abuse has occurred.
SPRINGFIELD (MA)
Worcester Telegram & Gazette
The Associated Press
SPRINGFIELD, Mass.— The Vatican has defrocked two Roman Catholic priests who had been barred from parish work in the 1990s under the Springfield Diocese's sexual misconduct policy, the diocese said on Friday.
The diocese said Pope Benedict XVI this week permanently removed Edward M. Kennedy and Alfred C. Graves from the priesthood. Both men were accused of sexually abusing minors.
"Both had a number of credible allegations of sex misconduct brought before them," diocese spokesman Mark Dupont said. "Both had been suspended. They were not allowed to present themselves as priests."
Dupont would not give details of the accusations nor would he specify the number of children who were allegedly abused.
Graves had been out of the ministry since 1994, Dupont said. There is no Massachusetts phone listing for Graves.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Whispers in the Loggia
In the wake of the Baltimore meeting, word from inside was that the almost 570 pending abuse claims against the archdiocese of Los Angeles were a topic of intense interest among the bishops in their private conversations.
Within days of the meeting's close, a California judge lifted a three-year freeze on 100 of the cases, allowing them to proceed to the "discovery" phase, where cases are researched in advance of trial. And now, but a week after that decision, it's just been announced that 45 of the suits have been settled for $60 million.
"This is very important for us," [Cardinal Roger] Mahony said in a telephone interview this morning. "This is a major effort at healing and reconciliation."
CANADA
Ottawa Sun
Fri, December 1, 2006
By Canadian Press
CORNWALL — A former Cornwall man says he was “passed around like a gift” as a teenager in the 1960s among a group of older men he described as a “ring” of pedophiles.
Claude Marleau, 54, capped off a third day of testimony at the Cornwall Public Inquiry by telling the commission on Thursday he believes eight men — five of them area priests — who allegedly sexually abused him knew each other and knowingly shared him for their sexual gratification.
During cross-examination by Dallas Lee, an attorney representing the Victims Group at the inquiry, Marleau suggested the group of men were working together.
“If you don’t qualify the gang who abused me as a `ring’,” said Marleau, “I don’t know what (else it would be.)”
In 2001, Marleau was a complainant in the sex trials of two priests and a city musician. Both priests and the musician were acquitted, but the priest was eventually convicted of similar offences in Montreal and began serving a one-year jail term in September.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
LAVoice
How long has it been since L.A. Archdiocese priests were accused of sexually molesting children in their tutelage? The Archdiocese has been haggling with the claimants for four years now.
Cardinal Roger Mahony did a phoner with the Times to say that the L.A. Archdiocese will pay $60 million to 45 parishioners who were sexually molested by its priests over the years. Some 517 claims are still pending, involving 200 priests and laymen dating back to the 1930s, the AP says.
Finally.
While the Times reports a dozen other Catholic institutions in the U.S. have settled with sex-abuse victims, this is the first time Mahony and the Archdiocese have done so ...
Where does this money come from? How does the Archdiocese have $60 million to throw around? Give it some thought next time you pass the collection plate:
Ray Boucher, the lead plaintiff's attorney, said the settlement involved 22 priests and was the largest settlement the Los Angeles archdiocese had reached "by far." He said more than $50 million would come from the archdiocese and about $8 million from religious orders.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Los Angeles Times
By John Spano, Times Staff Writer
8:37 AM PST, December 1, 2006
Dardinal Roger M. Mahony announced this morning that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $60 million to settle 45 claims of clergy sexual abuse.
The settlement is the first by the church and represents 8% of the 562 cases brought by people who claimed the archdiocese failed to protect them from pedophile priests.
It is also the first settlement that Mahony has approved in Los Angeles. A dozen other Catholic institutions across the country have settled with victims of clergy abuse.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Houston Chronicle
By GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES — The nation's largest Roman Catholic archdiocese said Friday it has agreed to pay $60 million to settle 45 lawsuits alleging sex abuse by priests.
The deal is the most significant step to date toward resolving extensive litigation against the archdiocese that has dragged on for years.
"I pray that the settlement of the initial group of cases will help the victims involved to move forward with their lives and to build a brighter future for themselves and their families," Cardinal Roger Mahony said in a news release.
Negotiations for the settlement of the uninsured cases have been in progress for at least a year.
UNITED STATES
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sexual abuse by Roman Catholic priests has cost the U.S. church more than $1.5 billion since 1950. The following is a list of some of the largest known payouts to victims since the crisis intensified in 2002 with revelations that a molester priest was moved among parishes in the Boston Archdiocese without alerting parents or police:
- Diocese of Orange, Calif., 2004, $100 million for 90 abuse claims.
- Diocese of Covington, Ky., 2006, up to $85 million for roughly 350 people.
- Archdiocese of Boston, 2003, $85 million for 552 claims.
- Archdiocese of Los Angeles, 2006, $60 million for 45 lawsuits.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
CBC News
Last Updated: Friday, December 1, 2006 | 12:54 PM ET
CBC News
Los Angeles, the largest Roman Catholic archdiocese in the United States, said Friday it has agreed to pay $60 million US to settle 45 lawsuits alleging sex abuse by priests.
The cases were among more than 500 pending against the archdiocese.
"I pray that the settlement of the initial group of cases will help the victims involved to move forward with their lives and to build a brighter future for themselves and their families," Cardinal Roger Mahony said in a release.
Negotiations for the settlement of the cases have been in progress for at least a year.
LOS ANGELES (CA)
Reuters
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese, the largest in the United States, said on Friday it will pay $60 million to settle 45 of the more than 500 claims against it claiming sexual abuse by its priests.
"I pray that the settlement of the initial group of cases will help the victims involved to move forward with their lives and to build a brighter future for themselves and their families," Cardinal Roger Mahony said in a statement.
Although the settlement covers a relatively small portion of the total number against the archdiocese, it is the first sex abuse settlement Mahony has approved in Los Angeles.
Mahony told the Los Angeles Times it marked "a major effort at healing and reconciliation," and said he offered personal apologies to victims in meetings that took place this fall.
ALEXANDRIA (VA)
NBC 4
ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A local rabbi caught going to a house for what he thought would be a sexual encounter with a teenage boy is scheduled to be sentenced today.
The boy turned out to be a 26-year-old man working for Perverted Justice, a group that exposes adults who use the Internet to arrange sex with children.
Rabbi David Kaye, from Potomac, Md., was shown on "Dateline NBC" walking into a home in Herndon, Va.
CHICAGO (IL)
Daily Southtown
December 1, 2006
By Stephanie Gehring Staff writer
A dinner dance to honor a Burbank pastor is troubling the lawyers for two brothers who claim the priest molested them in the 1980s.
Stepek is accused of sexually abusing two brothers while he was a priest at St. Symphorosa Catholic Church in Chicago's Clearing community more than 20 years ago.
While the Archdiocese of Chicago says the event this week is not sponsored by the archdiocese, St. Albert the Great's parish bulletin publicized the dinner dance, and the rectory is taking reservations.
The Rev. Robert Stepek remains on leave from the church while the abuse allegations are under review. He retains the title of pastor.
About 350 of his supporters are expected to gather Thursday at Nikos Restaurant in his honor.
TEXAS
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
By AMAN BATHEJA
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
Local lawmakers say they will support extending the statute of limitations on child sex abuse in the next legislative session, a proposal getting renewed attention following revelations this week that Fort Worth Catholic Diocese officials misled people about sexual abuse by priests and tried to delay victims from taking legal action until time ran out.
Local lawmakers differed on how far to extend the point at which a child sex abuse accuser could file a criminal complaint or lawsuit and said the chance of such legislation passing next year in Austin would hinge on the details.
Texas law currently gives accusers 10 years after their 18th birthday to take action.
Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, said that time should be increased because of the delicate circumstances that can cause a victim to take longer to face an abuser.
"It would be appropriate to give a victim or an alleged victim more time to overcome certain mental anguishes that they may be experiencing," Veasey said. "I think we'd obviously need to debate what would be appropriate for how much more time is needed and to be fair about the situation."
SWAZILAND
The Swazi Observer
By Mbongiseni Ndzimandze
A misunderstanding between a pastor of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and a member of the Makhwane area in Mbabane has resulted in a house and shop being demolished.
Shop owner Titus Mabilisa is at the centre of the misunderstanding.
Mabilisa is said to have questioned the expulsion of one of the followers of the faith amidst allegations of attempted rape of a minor.
It is alleged that after the misunderstanding Mabilisa decided to expel members of the church from the area.
NORTH CHARLESTON (SC)
ABC News 4
Wednesday November 29, 2006 11:38pm Reporter: Courtney Ward Posted By: Courtney Ward
North Charleston, SC - The North Charleston pastor accused of criminal sexual conduct with a church member - who at the time of the alleged incident was a minor - is walking the streets.
Tyrone Moore, pastor at Full Word Ministries, was released from the Charleston County Detention Center on Monday. State Law Enforcement records show Moore has been convicted twice before of sexual misconduct with a minor under the age of 16. And under South Carolina law sometimes all it takes is two strikes to strike out.
"For the second strike rule to kick in that occurs when someone's been convicted of a crime that's considered a most serious offense. Crimes that are most serious offenses include murder, some of your rape cases, criminal sexual conduct cases, criminal sexual conduct cases with a minor," says Scarlett Wilson, Chief Deputy Solicitor for the 9th Circuit.
SOUTH AFRICA
City Vision
LLEWELLYN PRINCE
A PASTOR in the Zionist Christian Church was sentenced to life imprisonment for repeatedly stabbing a Nyanga woman, raping her and burying her nine-month-old boy alive in a rubbish heap.
Acting Justice WP Nagan said during sentence in the High Court that the 32-year-old victim had been so badly and wickedly assaulted that he was forced to conclude that Mbulelo Galimoya was guilty of attempted murder.
The woman was stabbed so many times with a knife that, had she not received medical treatment in time, she would surely have died. One stab wound just missed her heart. The level of violence of the other stab wounds in her neck, showed that there was an attempt to commit murder.
TENNESSEE
The Weakley County Press
By Sabrina Bates
Chief Staff Writer
After making an appearance in Weakley County General Sessions Court on Wednesday, a former pastor facing rape charges plead guilty to a reduced charge in court.
Bobby Robertson, 60, of Old Gardner Road in Martin, was arrested on Oct. 11 on one count of rape for alleged sexual relations with a teenager from Feb. 14, 1999 until Feb. 14, 2003 as stated in an affidavit of complaint.
Robertson, as of Oct. 12, has been out on a $2,500 bond and faced a Class B felony charge carrying a maximum sentence of eight to 12 years.
According to assistant district attorney Kevin McAlpin, all parties agreed to have the charge reduced to attempted sexual battery and Robertson offered a "best interest" guilty plea Wednesday.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
By Eddie McIlwaine
01 December 2006
Father Brian D'Arcy has a confesson to make to Gerry Kelly when they come face-to-face on UTV tonight (8pm).
"Most days I would say, 'God, why am I at this?'" reveals the cleric, who left home in Fermanagh at 17 to become a priest. Most days, he admits he wishes he'd chosen another way of life.
And then, Fr D'Arcy, 40 years on and now known as the showbusiness priest, adds: "But having said that, I've always been very happy because I've had a very varied life.
"I've kept moving round and meeting new people and challenges all the time."
He maintains that the only reason he's still a priest is that God is calling him.
He also talks to Gerry about being sexually abused.
"I've been abused twice. I don't need to talk any more about it in public because, compared to other abuse that I had dealt with in my own life with other people, it wasn't a high form of abuse, but it was real for me and you can't really compare pain and compare suffering and compare abuse."
PENNSYLVANIA
Delco Times
12/01/2006
For future generations, there is hope for justice. On Wednesday, Gov. Ed Rendell signed into law a package of bills aimed at toughening penalties for pedophiles. Included in the new legislation is a 20-year expansion of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution.
Now, alleged victims of child sexual abuse in Pennsylvania have until age 50 to file criminal charges against their suspected abusers.
Up until about three years ago, they had to file charges within two years of the alleged abuse and no later than age 18. Around 2003, the statute was expanded to age 30.
The changes in the law are consistent with recommendations made last year by a Philadelphia grand jury convened by Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham in 2002 to investigate clerical sexual abuse.
FORT WORTH (TX)
Star-Telegram
By DARREN BARBEE
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
Even as the Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese is under criticism for past handling of sexual abuse allegations against priests, a diocese attorney confirmed Thursday that it has told police of new allegations against a Tarrant County clergyman.
Within the past month, a person has accused the priest of sexual abuse, said the attorney, John Crumley. He would not give any other specifics, including the name of the priest or the city where he works.
Crumley said police were notified "as soon as it was reported to us."
MASSACHUSETTS
The Pilot
Posted: 12/1/2006
BRIGHTON -- The Archdiocese of Boston announced Nov. 27 that Father Steven Poitras has been placed on administrative leave after it received an allegation of sexual abuse of a minor. The abuse is alleged to have occurred in 1994.
Father Poitras was currently serving as parochial vicar at St. Michael Parish in Hudson. Ordained in 1994, his first assignment was at St. Michael’s in North Andover, but according to archdiocesan spokesperson Kelly Lynch, “the alleged incident did not occur at the parish to which Father Steven Poitras was assigned in 1994.”
The archdiocese notified the attorney general and the Essex County District Attorney’s Office “upon receipt of this complaint,” the archdiocese said in a statement.
TEXAS
Times Record News
By Judith K. McGinnis/Times Record News
December 1, 2006
After a months-long legal battle, the Fort Worth Catholic Diocese has made public records that shed light on abuse accusations against the Rev. Phillip A. Magaldi, the priest for four Clay and Montague county parishes from 1990-92.
The findings are included in documents concerning the cover-up of sexual abuse by priests during the tenure of Bishop Joseph P. Delaney, who headed the diocese until his death in 2005.
Not long after coming to serve the Texas parishes in 1990, Magaldi was indicted on charges of stealing $200,000 from his former parish in Providence, R.I., during the late 1980s, according to Times Record News file stories.
Magaldi pleaded guilty to the charges in 1992, was sentenced to two years in prison and stepped down from the Clay and Montague parishes. Stories in the Dallas Morning News at the time reported a judge in the embezzlement case said Magaldi used some of the money for tropical vacations with adolescent boys and once gave a teenager he met in a park enough money to buy a car.
HARRISBURG (PA)
Philadelphia Inquirer
HARRISBURG - Gov. Rendell on Wednesday signed a package of bills intended to toughen penalties for sex offenders who prey on children, including a measure that would make changes recommended by a Philadelphia grand jury that investigated abuse by Roman Catholic priests.
The legislation would give alleged victims of child-sex crimes until their 50th birthdays to file criminal complaints, 20 years longer than current law allows. Employers and supervisors could be held criminally liable if they know of alleged abuse by employees who care for children but they fail to stop it, and caregivers would have to report suspected abuse regardless of whether the victim reports it.
UNITED STATES
Philadelphia Daily News
SWATTING at giants is always in fashion. No one ever roots for the big guy; the underdog has the sympathy factor.
It's David vs. Goliath. The colonial army vs. the Redcoats. Look no further than our own Art Museum, to Rocky. Whenever a group or individual has privilege, wealth and tradition on its side, we instinctively tend to oppose it.
So it is with the Catholic Church. It's hard to argue that the church is an underdog in anything except, perhaps, the court of public opinion. It has all the accoutrements of institutional power, and its reach in both spiritual and temporal matters is enormous. No other single denomination has had more of an impact on western civilization, for good or for bad, than Catholicism. So, yes, it does have resources.
And maybe that's why it always seems to be open season on the church.
FORT WORTH (TX)
The Dallas Morning News
12:00 AM CST on Friday, December 1, 2006
By BROOKS EGERTON
An international organization of clergy abuse victims expressed outrage Thursday over the contents of unsealed Fort Worth Catholic Diocese records and urged Bishop Kevin Vann to discipline priests who "enabled or covered up for their abusive peers."
SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said one of its targets is the Rev. Tim Thompson, pastor of St. John the Apostle Church in North Richland Hills. He failed to tell police of a parishioner's tip that the Rev. Philip Magaldi was trolling chat rooms for minors and had "pedophilic material" on his computer.
"It never crossed my mind that I should report it to police," Father Thompson said Thursday.
The unsealed records, which The Dallas Morning News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram obtained this week after a 19-month court battle, show that Father Thompson did tell Bishop Joseph Delaney about the 2001 tip.
At that time, Father Magaldi was trying to transfer from Fort Worth to a Florida diocese, having been removed from ministry at least three times – once for stealing from a parish and twice because of sexual abuse complaints. He had been returned to duty twice and, on another occasion, stayed on the job despite church investigators' conclusion that he was "guilty of sexual exploitation."
WILMINGTON (DE)
The News Journal
By BETH MILLER, The News Journal
Posted Friday, December 1, 2006
After decades of silence on the problem of clergy sexual abuse, Catholic Diocese of Wilmington officials on Thursday dedicated the 2006 Advent season to abuse victims and their families.
The announcement came the same day a federal judge granted requests by the diocese and Archmere Academy to dismiss a civil suit by a graduate who said a Norbertine priest there had sexually abused him. And it came two weeks after Bishop Michael A. Saltarelli released the names of 20 priests against whom the diocese had substantiated allegations of abuse.
Saltarelli's Advent announcement urges priests to pray for victims and those affected by their abuse at every Sunday and weekday Mass during the season, which begins Sunday and ends Christmas day. He also asked each pastor to celebrate a special Advent prayer service, Mass or Eucharistic Holy Hour. The Diocese of Wilmington includes 220,000 Catholics, 57 parishes, 19 missions and 38 schools in Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland.